Small milestone

This blog is about to turn 20,000 ... hits that is. I know, I know. Small potatoes. It's an average of 22 hits per day and an average of 150 hits per week. But it's a milestone nevertheless. And — would you believe it — far and away my most popular post of all time is THIS! (Responsible for at least 20 hits a week) ... Believe it!

Happy Day

For the third week in a row, weather and circumstance has kept me from hiking Byers Peak. But Sailda Dara and I took advantage of this soupy-sky day to hike to Columbine Lake. It was a beautiful climb up a mountain valley alongside a gushing stream. Wildflowers abounded — Indian paintbrush, aster, arnica, parrot's peak, elephant's head ... yellow, purple, orange, fuchsia, red, white, green. As we neared treeline, rock cliffs jutted into the low clouds along the valley's edges, leaving us to imagine what the peaks looked like. Definitely have to go back and find out.

We had a huge egg and potato breakfast for lunch and, later, we took the kids for a quick hike up in Rocky Mountain National Park. Twas a perfect day as far as I'm concerned.

Recipes for Picky Eaters No. 1

I'm going to start a regular series on this blog called, "The Domestically Challenged Mom: Recipes For Your Picky Eaters." (Basically Jessica Seinfeld without the time or talent.)

All around me, I see kids the same ages as my kids eating all kinds of healthy, interesting foods — deli sandwiches with mayo and lettuce, vegetables of all varieties, dishes with several ingredients mixed in together — gasp. Not my kids. They are strictly no-food-touching-any-other-kind-of-food purists. Between 18 months and 3 years, Sawyer's entire diet consisted of dairy and white-colored carbohydrates. He just this year added apples and oranges to his fruit repertoire and I about fell over when he asked for broccoli. He's finally trying exotic new things — like meat and chicken.

Arden's no less picky, but she's likes the opposite things. I can actually get her to eat an entire bowl of broccoli (as long as there's a vat of melted butter nearby) but she won't eat a single piece of chicken. Ask me tomorrow and they will have both flip-flopped their preferences. I can't keep up.

So, I have come up with a few interesting meals to improve the variety in their lives, which I will share from time to time here. I'd like to dedicate this to my mom who taught me everything I know about melted butter and who invented many of these Domestically Challenged recipes for me — the original picky eater.

RECIPE NO. 1: CHICKEN ON A STICK


The first lesson for any chef trying to please a picky eater — it's all about the packaging. The big wigs in the food industry figured that out a long time ago. I mean, look at the Sarah Lee Sandwich Bread with the Toy Story wrapping. My kids are convinced that the bread was hand-kneaded by Woody himself. Pleeease can we get the Toy Story bread? Who cares that it's a full dollar more than the generic brand. And, just try to get them through the soup aisle without cans covered with Cars and Princesses magically ending up in the basket — who cares what's inside — they don't even like soup.

So, Armstrong family legend also has it that one of my early favorite foods on Guam was Chicken Yakatori — aka chicken on a stick. A perfect example of how it's all about the packaging. My kids won't eat plain cubed up chicken, but put it on a stick and watch out. It's oh-so-fun.

I make up my own sauce, which involves melting a big scoop of creamy peanut butter in a sauce pan and adding drizzles of soy sauce and drops sesame oil until it tastes good. My kids think its chocolate sauce. The grocery store also carries Thai peanut sauce in a jar, but it tends to be too spicy for my kids.

I soak the sticks in water, coat the raw cubed chicken with the sauce and then skewer it. (Cut off sharp tip for little kids.) I bake it on a tin-foil lined cookie sheet at 350-400 degrees until it's done (white and flaky).

For the side dishes this time, I made plain jasmine rice and edaname — something green that the kids actually seem to like in small doses as long as it's doused in soy sauce.

Don't forget an extra bowl of sauce for dipping!

Funny things 2

"Skunkus" = Arden's word for skunk

Sawyer: Mommy, do you remember when we were at the beach and Mimi and Pop Pop were watching Arden and there were fireworks? (An exact memory of our rather uneventful Fourth of July last year — which I had forgotten.)

Sawyer: I had a dream that Pop Pop had a really long 'munstache.'

Sawyer: I really liked our "babysister" today. (babysitter)

"Paydo" = Arden's favorite thing in the world (playdough)

Sawyer: "Mom, I've got to go poop. Can you get me a magazine?"

You know how kids call their preschool teachers Miss Molly, Miss Jamie, Miss M.J.? Well now Arden calls me Miss Mommy.

Having just given Sawyer pajamas out of the laundry he says: Mommy, if you was my pajamas a lot I'll give you a big heart cookie. (perhaps he hasn't noticed — I actually do his laundry ALL THE TIME.)

Skittles

Skittles from Reid Armstrong on Vimeo.

Justin leaves Monday after seven wonderful weeks. It was pure summer for him this year. I had intended to enroll him in camp, but after a week hanging out at the skate park across the street from Scott's office in Winter Park, he was hooked. He was at that park from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. almost every single day. He would come home at night, take the dog on a long bike ride, eat a refrigerator full of food, help put the kids to bed, soak his wounds in the bathtub and pass out on the couch by 9 p.m. And ... repeat.

As Scott describes it, the whole Hideaway Park skate scene reminds him a lot of his own surfing days. Justin made buddies with a bunch of other kids at the skate park and several times a day they would walk over to the skate shop to play with the tools, tweak their boards and pick up some stickers. Scott said the guys at the shop took Justin under their wing, like he was a little sponsored gromit or something. They gave him pro deals on gear, stenciled his skateboard and all shouted his nickname whenever he walked in. The culture at the skate park was also interesting, Scott said. It was a super athletic, positive group of kids. Everyone supported each other, and a lot of the older skaters gave Justin tips along the way. I witnessed this when I took this video today — the support, the positive vibes, and the tips from more experienced skaters.

So, Justin went from barely being able to ride his board down the street to what you see here in this video. A huge accomplishment in seven weeks. It took him the better part of that time for him to get up the nerve to drop into the pool, (he's always been one to watch and listen quietly and to take only carefully calculated risks when he's good and ready) but once he made the plunge — he advanced quickly. We're both super proud of him (Understatement — Scott is beaming), and Justin's rightfully proud of himself too. We can't wait to see how much this helps his snowboarding.