Vegan Goodness:
Today we ate . . .
- Breakfast: Green smoothies for Mom and LP, followed by a special New Year’s treat – cinnamon rolls
- Lunch: Leftover pasta and eggplant caccitore for Mom and LP and a quesadilla for the G-man
- Mom had another cinnamon roll while the kids napped. The G-man choose the healthier option – almonds.
- Dinner:Peanutty Pasta with califlower, carrots and cabbage (the three C’s!)
Money Matters:
Today we cooked, organized and played in the snow. No money spent!
Tuesday Toddler Update:
LP got a lot of stuff for Christmas (shocking, I know). He is really enjoying all the new toys, but he has been having an especially good time with the puzzles he received. He got a large fire truck puzzle, a very long train puzzle and a set of four puzzles: a boat, a train, a plane and a dump truck. (Do you note the vehicle trend! Our kiddo likes things that go!)
It is really awesome to watch LP work on these puzzles. First of all, he does it by himself. All by himself. Sometimes he wants me or his dad to hang out and watch him do a puzzle, or maybe to put a different puzzle together next to him, but he is very invested in doing this puzzle stuff on his own. Also, the way he works on the pieces is fascinating. When he started doing puzzles he figured out to look for matching colors to get a clue about which pieces go together. Then he moved on to looking for more of a matching pattern (like a object such as a ladder or window that appeared in multiple pieces). Now, after doing these same puzzles over and over again he is starting to try and put pieces together based on how they fit. He can stay focused on these puzzles for quite a long time and he still gets great satisfaction out of finishing them – and then taking them apart to do it again!
I think what I am enjoying most about these puzzles is how they are a little window into his brain. It is so fun to watch him figure things out, make mistakes, learn from them, find patterns, learn from those, etc. It has really made me thinking about what it means to “learn” something for real. Watching LP try different systems, figure out new patterns and feel pride at figuring something out reminds me of the process of learning that I value – and how different that can be from what happens in some schools. I hope we can always help him hold on to this desire to play around and “figure” something out just for fun. It is truly a joy to watch.
