Hmmm, salad or cake?

I know y'all will absolutely hate me for this post, but I honestly put this out with good intent.
Okay, so I have a daughter who is addicted to salad, and can live on it. I also have a son who could live on cake and lollies and would be right at home in Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory.
How does one raise two entirely different taste buds? I'm sure many parents would identify with this.
I'm big on health, if u haven't already noticed, i read labels all the time. I censor everything that comes in the door. Basically, i try to make sure that if i don't want the kids to eat it, its simply NOT available at home. Generally, you won't find much in this house made of white flour, preservative and food coloring.
Personally, I absolutely LOVE fruits and green veges, and crave them, and gag on overly sweet things. Hubby on the other hand craves the sweets and has a very glum look on his face when presented with the 'must eat veges'. So what's the effect on the kiddos? Genetically, I believe they've received different tendencies towards foods. That really can't be helped. But as for training, I think exposure and conditioning have had some impact. They both eat what we eat at meal times, they both love all fruits and enjoy them, and they both eat most vegetables. So the bottom line is - even if your kids are born with 'chocolate genes', what we DO (not say) and eat plays a big part, and limiting choices can be quite helpful.

Around the house these days

 - when nobody else will do it, just get on with it.... and don't mess with a chainsaw wielding mama!
-Danny's room in a rare state of orderliness, a virtue that is SO HARD to practice, and makes me the resident dragon!
- Amy's room contains all the kids books. Hmmm we love our books.... will post more later on some favourites.
-Amy having visitors. Not as peaceful as it looks in 2D.

DIY toothpaste

This is taking DIY to a new extreme but bear with me. What do you do with a kid who still loves the taste of toothpaste and would happily snack on it, can't quite rinse and spit after brushing, and knowing that phosphates and fluoride in toothpaste can be quite harmful when ingested? And said child has been known to squirt out most of a tube in one 'experiment' or take it into the bathtub, (mummy, the toothpaste has bubbles coming out, doesn't work anymore:(
Make your own!
Active ingredient is baking soda and a little salt. Add enough glycerin to make a paste, and then flavouring of choice. I used spearmint essential oil the first time and strawberry essence the next. A combination would probably be best. Experiment!

Life's a game, just play along

As part of a montessori activity we did a while back with Amy, she got to identify the right terms for the male and female of a few common animals. For example lion, lioness and cub. So at the moment, she's going through this phase where she calls family members animal names, and of course she's the baby of the animal. After reading Bambi the other day, she announced that she's now baby fawn, so mama doe and daddy buck MUST call her baby fawn for the rest of the day. No I'm not Amy, I'm Baby Fawn. So we try hard to remember our new titles..... Now along comes my dad, and he's greeted with a very enthusiastic, 'hello Baba dog!' . His face darkens a little and he ignores the comment. Then he tells me, 'you better tell her its not right to talk like this.'
Then she calls out to her dad, 'Come in daddy pig, mama sow says its time for dinner!'. Hmmm. Daddy pig not liking this one.
So tonight as Mama Dragon put Baby Dragon to bed, she thought about 'correcting' Baby Dragon, but then thought, nahh, this is tooo much fun!!! The cross-cultural linguistic mish mash in the face of very innocent learning was just too hilarious to put a stop to. what say you?