Playdate invitations

Whenever my oldest son L. (3.7-yr-old) wants to invite someone over to a playdate, I make him "write" an actual invitation. I print out two pages, one black and white simple text with some spaces left for pictures and second with color pictures. L. cuts out the color pictures and glues them into the appropriate space in the text. Then he signs the letter with his name. Of course, at this stage I guide his hand on 70-80% of this task (his fine motor skills suck). Still, both he and the kid he gives the invitation to get very excited and form a closer bond just by the simple act of such a formal invitation.

On another note, after my huge cooking day, I had just a few chicken breasts left over, so I decided to experiment (I obviously don't experiment with dishes I cook in bulk). I had some apples almost rotting away, so the Braised Chicken with Apples and Sage recipe from Epicurious came in handy. My modifications: used only 3 chicken breast halves and left the same amount of all other ingredients, except brown sugar (I added just a touch less), added a bit of lemon zest and parsley, used dry sage instead of fresh, and served with wild rice. It wasn't sensational, but a great solid dish to add to the variety.

Playdate vagaries

Today we hosted a large play date (12 people) at our house, mostly kids A.'s age (around 2 years). It was a bit of a bedlam, as to be expected. As for unexpected, that happened when I was reading children stories. The first few went ahead fine, but the with last one I hit a snag: a Russian children's classic Barmalei (by Chukovskiy). I forgot that many people don't read classic fairy tales to children, because they're afraid to traumatize them (or propagate outdated stereotypes). The story talks about a pirate and brigand who lives in Africa and eats children, the children cry, he doesn't relent, a crocodile eats him, he repents (inside the crocodile), the crocodile lets him out, and Barmalei is reformed. Millions of Russian children grew up on this story with no apparent ill effects.

It was particularly ironic to get evil eye from other parents at this particular author, as Chukovskiy wrote extensively about value of fairy tales in children's development and castigated 1930s (?) movement in USSR to abolish anything fantastical in children's literature so that they receive only what is educational and pragmatical.

Note to self, then: preview whatever I'm going to read to other children.