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I just got through grocery shopping for my family and awarded myself with three bite-sized chocolate cream pies from Whole Foods because the whole pie seemed too indulgent.

While I was at the Berkeley Bowl, I ran into Superhero Andrea as I was choosing my organic applesauce and she asked me for some good suggestions for picky toddler eaters. In fact, she asked me if I had anything on my blog about it already… which made me think I should write a little something and mine the Internets for their good ideas as well.

When she asked me, I totally drew a blank and thought of all the food Milo routinely dumps on the floor. I thought about his pattern was so erratic that just when I thought he was finished with his meal (because he’d tossed half of it on the floor and started asking for either “dow(n)” or “nigh(t) nigh(t),” he’d actually begin eating his meal again with gusto. Hmmm, but then as we did the dance among aisles, I’d have a new suggestion each time I saw her.

So, friends out there, I’ll share with you my go-to toddler meals and snacks for my 17-month old and ask for yours in exchange. Help a mama out, please!

When the cupboards, fridge, and freezer are bare, these are the things I grab for Milo:

Breakfast

• Frozen waffles (I get the whole wheat, some big, some little with no accoutrements)
• Scrambled eggs (currently on the outs)
• French toast (Sunny makes a whole loaf at a time and freezes it)
• Puffins (regular flavor or cinnamon)
• Raisins
• Banana (little dude eats one every day)

Lunch

• Almond butter and jelly sandwiches on hearty bread, cut small (we still fear the peanut)
• Cheese sticks
• Hard boiled eggs
• Mixed berries: blackberries, blueberries, strawberries
• Other fruit chopped up when time permits
• Firm tofu, usually teriyaki flavor or “savory” whatever that means
• Applesauce (organic, any flavor) mixed with baby cereal to improve scoopability

Snack

• Just Peas, Just Corn, or Just Mixed Fruit from Just Tomatoes (freeze dried fruits and veggies with no added gunk — they can go stale quickly, so just open one package at a time until you go through it)
• Veggie booty
• Goldfish crackers and their Annie’s bunny equivalents
• Whole wheat pita and hummus
• Crispy Italian style breadsticks (more hummus for dipping)
• Half a Puffet from Peas of Mind

Dinner

• Taquitos from Whole Foods (the reason for going to TWO grocery stores and why I deserved my chocolate cream treat)
• Frozen organic peas (I don’t even cook them)
• Plain yogurt
• Aidell’s teriyaki and pineapple meatballs (they last for about a week in the fridge, so once I open the package, you know what lunch is until they’re gone)
• Whatever we’re eating
• Black bean quesadillas
• Small pieces of chicken or fish (sometimes he likes, sometimes he chucks on the floor)
• Homemade guac (made by me and Holden, who likes food better if he makes it)
• Crispy kale chips or cooked zucchini (whatever vegetable we’re having, he’ll usually try one or more before throwing on the floor
• Amy’s frozen pizza bites with spinach (I heat them for Milo in the microwave and for myself in the toaster oven; Holden tries to eat them frozen because I think it’s strange. Go figure.

More inspiration for lunches from Laptop Lunches (the best lunchbox for little ones, I hope to write about soon!), Kiddley lunchbox ideas, Vegan Lunchbox, 5 favorite convenience foods from ParentHacks, and VegCooking.com.

If you’re already packing a mean lunchbox, check out the contest at Vegan Lunchbox and win a copy of Jennifer’s new book: Vegan Lunch Box: 130 Amazing, Animal-Free Lunches Kids and Grown-Ups Will Love!.

I told you mine, now you tell me yours!

I was never into dolls, so I didn’t ask for or receive the Cabbage Patch Doll when they were HOT HOT HOT. I didn’t want the creepy but cute Teddy Ruxpin. But I didn’t completely avoid toy-induced mania either.

Don’t get me wrong. As a kid, I was plenty greedy. I used to sit with a Sears catalog and circle what I wanted on every page. And then every catalog. I was tireless in wanting new stuff. Having divorced parents, it paid to play the odds — so a big, random list was a kind of mother’s helper.

I learned this the hard way.

One Christmas, I told everyone in my family that I really wanted an Easy Bake Oven. And I got double-lucky. One side of the family got me the shiny new Easy Bake Oven and my other set of grandparents got me an old-fashioned (but still brand new and functional) Holly Hobbie Oven. I was a very happy 5 year old and my mom was a very irritated 28 year old. From then on, I had to make fully distinct Christmas lists so I wouldn’t get overlapping gifts again.

Ultimately, I sacrificed the olde timey sweetness of HH for the slick modern stylings of the the Easy Bake Oven (c’mon, it looked like a new-fangled microwave and not a wood burning stove!); I’m happy to say I had years of baking miniature cherry and apple pies with a 60 watt lightbulb.

I can’t help but wonder which toys my boys will really beg for. Will it be the now forty year old EBO or something equally retro like Transformers, Legos, or matchbox cars?

[Toy links and images go to Retroland.com and the mini-histories are good fun to read -- thanks!]

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What lengths would you go to in pursuit of the elusive “It” toy for your own child? Or did your parents go to great lengths when you were little? Share your stories as part of this weekend’s Blog Blast from Hasbro and Parent Bloggers.

Julie, of A Little Pregnant, had her first son when I had mine, about 3.5 years ago after much hot action on the infertility front. She had multiple miscarriages and other challenges which she shared with humor and honesty in her blog. Her son came prematurely and breastfeeding did not go as she hoped, and again, she shared everything with the Internets.

I thank her for doing this because it was her blog that let me know that I was not alone in my struggles to conceive. It was her blog that answered the question for me of “who wants to read someone else’s journal?” Every step of the way in motherhood, this has become more obvious to me as we can all accompany each other and share in the (not as natural as you thought it would be) transition to motherhood. Yay for mom bloggers. You keep me sane.

And now, Julie is expecting her second boy. She’s fully aware that you can plan plan plan, but in parenting, you cannot control control control. Read her “birth plan” to get a taste of her brand of wit.

Here’s a little taste of her detailed fantasy labor description to get you started:

Oh, sure, some women might think it hurts to have your entire body seize up in the grip of a spasmodic contraction. But I experience it more as, oh, kind of like a sneeze. That’s it, a delicate kitten’s sneeze. The pre-pregnancy kind, with no appalling stress incontinence to speak of.

Angie, from BabyCheapskate and Freepeats is now Angie of BlogCoach. And when she does something, she really does it! Just looking at the home page of BlogCoach.org (let alone all the invariable clicking and reading), I feel like I really learned some good stuff. I tell you this because its a great new resource for bloggers, young and old new and experienced.

At BlogCoach, you’ll find helpful, informative articles about blogging, blogging resources, and a friendly community full of plain-talking bloggers and web publishers eager to help you grow your blog.

I was honored that Angie wanted to interview me for this new project. We “talked” about the ins and outs of working with a blog partner and turning blog topics into a book (among other things). Stop over and check out the interview with me about rookie moms. Tell her I said hi.

And I dare you not to learn something new.

Cool topics:
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If you have preschoolers or pre-preschoolers, you probably already know about SavvySource as the best place to do some research and find preschool reviews. Well, now it’s also one of the best places to find out what to do with your 2-6 year old when they’re not in school.

SavvySource just launched the Being Savvy City Sites as an amazing reference for parents in 20 different metro areas. We have been furtively and feverishly writing for Being Savvy: East Bay at eastbay.savvysource.com. Please have a read or just stop by when you need fresh ideas for fun stuff to do.

Here are some of our favorite recent posts, but there’s already more than a dozen to list, so go see for yourself. Have a click, get comfortable, and make an action plan:

99 things you must do in the East Bay before your child grows up
Discovering the wilderness of the urban jungle
How to cultivate the tiniest green thumb in Berkeley

… and many many (many!) more. If you don’t live in the East Bay, there are 19 other blogger city experts covering other areas around the country.

Click over to Mama Knows Breast to enter to win our book!

Angela White of A Nice Cup of Lizard has tagged me to join in the “8 Random Facts About Me” meme. I asked her for an extension immediately since I have a tiny baby to take care of, but since both my kids are asleep right now, it turns out I have time to write.

First, the Rules:

1) Post these rules before you give your facts

2) List 8 random facts about yourself

3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) people and list their names, linking to them

4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

And now… my facts:

1) My parents have been divorced since before I can remember. My dad remarried when I was four years old. Everyone is amicable and my mom is quite friendly with both my stepmother’s parents and with my half-sister (on my dad’s side, no relation to my mother).

2) I am co-writing a book, due out in April 2008. Writing with a partner has been surprisingly easy.

3) In 2000, I did the California AIDS ride, traveling by bicycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles in seven days. This was somewhat of a victory trip for me as I attempted the same trip in 1991 but fell off my bike and broke my elbow within the first hour of the journey.

4) In 1999, my boyfriend, now husband, and I took six weeks off from work and drove my Volvo station wagon around the country in a loop, just for fun. We kept a website documenting our travels, which required us to get our pictures developed along the way and bring a scanner and laptop on the trip.

5) I love mangoes.

6) I went to junior high with Leonardo DiCaprio.

7) I had my first baby via cesarean section and my second via la vagina. For those of you who landed on this web page for the wrong reasons, this event (achievement?) is known as VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).

Number Eight: I can walk on my hands and do cartwheels on both sides.

And I tag you:

Emily from Geeky Girl Sees
Megan from Jumping Monkeys
Karen from MailboxTees
Ainslie from SharonandDoug.com
Alma from Marketing Mommy