Saturday, January 7, 2012

It's whatever you want to call it


Hayden loves to have fun with food, whether it's real (like when we make recipes together), imaginary (she enjoys pretending that almost any empty container is actually full of her culinary specialties, especially hot chocolate) or a toy set. Some of the favorite sets are made by Melissa & Doug (can you believe we haven't purchased the cupcake set yet? And no, the company has nothing to do with this post, except for the fact that we are big fans), which she hinted for at Christmas time.

Her aunt Karen answered her request with a couple of toy food sets, including this wooden stir-fry kit. It contains a bunch of veggies, which are segmented and velcroed together. Then, there's a wooden knife (don't worry; it's not sharp at all) that can be used to chop the velcroed segments into pieces, and chopsticks with more velcro on the ends to help pick up the sliced play food.

The funny thing about this set is that, although it is not really vegetarian, Hayden thinks it is. She immediately gravitated toward the wooden shrimp, excitedly telling me they were "clementines." I wasn't about to correct her (as I preferred her description), so we continued to treat those pieces as citrus (besides, I really like clementines in raw vegan stir-not-fry.

Both her and her brother were confused by the mock beef pieces, so I let them call those blocks whatever they wanted. To my surprise, they went with chocolate. I'm not sure chocolate goes well with stir fry, but I'd definitely have some for dessert.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that silly story with you. As I know many of you are cleansing at the moment, I thought it was a fun way to still post something "food-related."

*****

On another note, Hayden had been potty-training when she first turned 2 back in August. Unfortunately, she never fully made the transition, as she lacked consistency.

Her resolution for 2012 is to be fully potty-trained, so she can start preschool in the fall (she'll be attending Jacob's old preschool in the 3-year-old class). So far, she's doing quite well. She's been wearing her "big girl underwear" proudly, and her pretty painted nails (her incentive).


I'd never post a pic of her in her underwear on the site, so we'll show off her painted nails instead. I bought her polish from Zoya, a company that makes vegan nail polish that's formaldehyde, toluene, camphor, dibutyl phthalate and paraben free.

I follow Zoya on Twitter and have gotten some amazing deals that way (although they did not send me anything in exchange for this post). For instance, I took advantage of a code yesterday (it had to be used that day only) that got me two colors absolutely free (except for the reasonable shipping). I picked out Minka (a warm, creamy, metallic nude shade) and Jo (a cool, metallic blue).


I love how the polishes have actual names. Today, Hayden is wearing "Hayden," of course. And, I just had to get her "Clara" (Hayden's middle name is Claire) at the same time.

Now, if only Zoya made Shannon, Marie or Shannonmarie. I tend to like classic colors, but I think the company should make a Shannon or Shannonmarie with a creamy cupcake frosting like base and colorful sprinkles. Hint, hint :-)

*****

In case you missed it, here are some past posts and related links:
Posted by at