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Dec 172010
 

Not so great "Milk On Lip Shot" with iPhone 4

The Boss and I are fairly read in matters of raising our children. What I mean is that before O and Jake were born we got all the popular books, we read all the parenting blogs, and the magazines were coming in the mail almost daily. My wife is in the medical field as well and I have family in Pediatrics. So, we definitely did our research when it came to the care and raising of our children. That’s not to say we have all the answers cause that would be a bad joke!

At the advice of our Pediatrician (and all those articles I told you we read) we agreed that they would not drink any juice drinks until they were three. Well what the Dr. said was to limit or not have juice until they were three. I’m thinking this has more to do with the sugars in most of those drinks than the actual fruit itself. Of course, they eat a lot of fruit but we have yet to give them juice. Well, O has had some juice drinks but we could probably count the number of them on one hand. Today marks her 32nd month of life and will be three in April. Yikes!! Wow!! Noway is she turning three!!!!

Okay focus, Josh…

So, she’s basically had milk with every meal and even in between. We’ve done a bad job of giving her more water but I think it’s just because she always asks for milk. I asked The Boss if she’d be open to mixing in more juice drinks and she relented, stating that she has the rest of her life to drink those drinks.

Note: I’m leaving Jake out of this for the most part since he’s just 15 months and is still partially breastfeeding.

Now I agree, she probably should be drinking more water but I just kind of feel like she should have something else at this point. If nothing less for the variety. However, I also can’t help but to think that too much milk must have some negative affect, no?

What do you give your Toddlers for beverages? If you have a child O’s age do you give them drinks other than milk? If you have an older child what did you do when they were 2 1/2?

I’d love to hear from some of you on this so please leave your comments!

Also, I’m guest posting today over at www.EverydayChildhood.com. Today I’m talking about the Staycation I’ve had all week with O and Jake. Please hop on over there and check it out!

Dec 152010
 

The Monterey Bay Aquarium ran a special last week with free entrance for all residents. Finding something to do with the kids that is both fun and free (or relatively inexpensive) can be a challenge but it wasn’t this time!

If you live near Monterey, California or ever find yourself visiting I highly recommend the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They have great rotating exhibits and some wonderful static ones like the Sea Otters Tank. It’s right on the ocean and they make great use of the ocean water as well as sustainable practices to maintain and run the operations.

What’s great about the Aquarium from a parents point of view are the play areas they have for the kids. They give a lot of attention to keeping the little ones happy and it shows. They have wonderful little areas for the kids to see, touch, and learn about the sea life right outside the window. However, they also have play areas for them to blow off some steam too!

O and Jake had a great time! O at 2 ½ spent most of her time running around, trying to interact with the birds, fish, and other animals there. Jake at 15 months wasn’t quite as active in that way (which is expected) but did plenty of pointing and “oooh ooooh” sounds! I think what really helps for both of them are the amazing colors on display. The kiddies love colorful things, which gave way to lots of head turning around every corner.

What I loved best about visiting the Aquarium this past weekend was watching the look on O and Jake’s faces. You know that look? The one where their eyes get all big and you begin to see the corner of the mouths go up? Just seeing their minds spinning and their excitement over seeing something new and exciting. The things we don’t notice or just take for granted and to them? It’s gold! Being able to relive those firsts with them is such a gift!

After all, the firsts only happen once and now’s the time to make sure I don’t miss any of them!