Evie the Extraordinary and Her Mommy: The Journey As We Go

I started motherhood determined not to let Evie have too much screen time.  I would say that still applies for TV, but I am now convinced that the iPad is a great tool for Evie's learning.  She is, after all, a child of the future!   As technology gets used more and more, especially with assisted learning, I see it as an advantage for Evie to already know how to use an iPad. Here are our favorite apps! Peekaboo Farm: When Evie first started looking at this app, she didn't understand that she should hit the screen to see the animals.  Now she understands Cause and Effect, and gets rewarded by a cow appearing and mooing at her.  This is not to be confused with Peekaboo Kids (instead of Farm), which isn't bad, but shows certain animals answering nature's call and then cackling, if you're offended by that. Peekaboo Fridge:  A variant of Peekaboo Farm, but just as good.  If we are teaching her about food, then why not?  They also have Peekaboo...

We got the go-ahead from our GI doc to cut down the amount of formula by g-tube to try to make Evie a little hungrier.  There is a whole world out there about different philosophies of weaning kids off g-tubes, and I won't go into it here, but it's truly making my head spin.  I am just going to give this plan a chance (of reducing 20%*) and give Evie a few weeks to figure out that food is even more fun than she thought.  We expect she will lose a few ounces here and there, and our goal is to use some food strategies to keep her from losing too much weight while she expands her food horizons. The most important lesson for the summer is: FOOD IS FUN, EVIE! So you need your kid to gain weight. She doesn't even eat food with too much texture yet. She can eat purees and yogurt, and that's about it.  How do you expand her palette and avoid food aversions at the same time? I haven't come across a comprehensive list of food tips, so I'm going to write down what...