Category: Recipes

Leftover gnocchi with aubergine and courgette

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Mark and I went to the opera last night (Falstaff, you should see it, best fun Lorina, you were AMAZING!), so I made gnocchi for the Squish and his gorgeous Tia Nani (Aunty Jane who very kindly babysat for us).

This morning I decided to sling the leftovers into the big dipper to try it out as a main meal container for wet foods.  We’ll see how it goes – I have ordered another big dipper so I can also use one for fruit.  Today I sent his fruit in a glass container, but I anticipate that won’t wash for long.  Why does it have to be so hard to find leakproof containers?  Even the big dipper leaks a bit, but not nearly as bad as plastic.

Thank you everyone for your kind and supportive comments about yesterdays post.  It feels really nice to be able to be honest about my insecurities and not be judged.

I do trust the school and his teacher is terrific, it’s just really hard to let go of the day to day management of Inigo’s learning.  It’s hard to hand him over to someone who hasn’t yet had time to work out that he can read a lot of simple stuff and is learning new words every day.

Of course the tiny compartmentalised rational part of my brain knows that the teacher has an awful lot on her plate and I wouldn’t do her job for quids!   Maybe I just had too high expectations of the best start assessment. And hopefully I will learn how to be a mum of a school kid in time, without too many people writing me off as crazy.

All too soon he’s going to be telling me about how his home made particle accelerator works – I can take a deep breath and know with certainty that he is going to be fine.

Worries

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Week three of school.  He’s stopped talking about how much he loves school, what he’s looking forward to, who his friends are…

Last week there was a kid in his class following him around and getting in his face saying “I don’t like you”.  Then she hit him in the face and knocked his hat off his head.

I had a meeting with Mrs D, and yesterday he told me that the kid had been nice to him.  Crisis averted.

Except despite having loads of kids in his class that like him, he is apparently wandering around the school on his own most recess and lunch times.

And he hates school work.

Every other kid in the class finishes their work on time, but Inigo stares off in to space and dawdles.  We’ve worked out that he thinks it is boring and just can’t be bothered, but the problem is he can’t be given more interesting work unless he can prove that he can do the easy stuff.

Yesterday he had his first home reader.  He asked for more books for today, a bit more of a challenge.  But there is a system,  Later on, when the teacher has time to spend with each kid and assess their reading level he will be given books that will challenge him a bit more. I get that every kid in the class is just as important as my Squishy, that they all need to have their needs met too.  And I so don’t want to be that awful whinging parent that thinks everything their child does is perfect and beyond reproach.  I am not that parent, though I am sure I look like it to Mrs D right now 😉

So I just have to be patient.  And encouraging, and support what the teacher needs. And try not to freak out that he will end up hating school.  Because that is my baggage, and projecting it on him isn’t helpful.

 

Friday casual day

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Well, not really, but Squish wanted leftover risotto for lunch today, and I haven’t refined my system enough to use the planetbox for wet foods. So my $2.80 Daiso store bento box came to the rescue.

He has mushroom risotto in the sealed section, carrot, grapes, the last of the sweet mini tomatoes and a cheese bunny as sides, and orange and nectarine for crunch and sip.

I can see a spare planetbox big dipper in our future, and I might experiment with crumbling and frying the risotto leftovers to make yummy and lunchbox friendly risotto balls.