March for Babies

On Saturday, March 27th, I will be participating in the March of Dimes' March for Babies. I am doing this in honor of two special babies - my daughter and my friend's newborn son, who was born 11 weeks premature. My team goal is $1000 and my personal goal is $250. There are badges on this page where you can click to donate online and help support this cause.

Imagine if you had a baby who was born prematurely or with major birth defects. Wouldn't you want research to have provided medicine to help save and improve your baby's life? Do it for all the babies out there that are depending on us to give them a healthy start in life.

If you're in the Gainesville, FL area, come join me on this walk. It will be wonderful. Strollers and leashed dogs are welcome. There will be tents along the way with food and drinks and children's entertainment at the finish line. Let's March for Babies!!

Help me reach my goal!Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

Pantry Perfect........Cupboard Cuisine

I do not particuarly love to cook.

I like to try new recipes and do new things but on an everyday basis, I am uninspired and not really that interested in planning, cooking, and cleaning up for dinner, all the while listening to two screaming children (and that's no exaggeration, they usually are both screaming).

Enter what I like to call "Pantry Perfect" or "Cupboard Cuisine". These are quick and simple recipes made with things that I already have lying around. Recipe varies each time I make them, using whatever ingredients I have. Good last-minute things to whip up. I will start posting some of the ones that are good (or at least edible).

First on the list is Black Bean Enchiladas.



Black Bean Enchiladas

1 can black beans
Soft flour tortillas
Cheese
1 can corn
Onions
Cooked rice
Green Peppers (if desired)
Salsa
Sour Cream

Chop up onions and peppers. Put tortillas in 13x9 dish sprayed with cooking spray. Spoon black beans, corn, rice, onions, peppers, and cheese on one side and roll up. Top with salsa (can also add cheese and corn to the outside for extra yumminess). Bake in oven at 375 for about 30 minutes. Serve with sour cream and a side of tortilla chips, a salad, or choose to make the rice as a side dish.

*Meal tastes best when accompanied by a cold beer or margarita ;)

Green Product Find: Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Fair Trade Hair Creme

Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Fair Trade Hair Creme

I am always looking for a good styling product for my hair. It's hard to find something that helps smooth the frizziness and style it nicely. I decided to try Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Fair Trade Hair Creme and I really like it. It makes my hair smooth and supple and manageable. It also smells like peppermint so it has a great invigorating scent. I would recommend this product to anyone with thick hair. Just don't use too much at one time or else it might leave your hair looking a little limp. Buy it at Beauty.com. You earn money back at any of the Beauty.com partners so it's well worth it.

Happy Styling!

Fishy Fun

Yesterday we went on a family day trip to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

We were meeting family and thought this would be a great place to entertain the kids so we could visit but WOW, we were ALL entertained. The grown-ups probably liked it just as much as the kids did. They had some great exhibits and shows too. Olive's favorite was the Penguin Promenade, which was pretty neat. The little penguins were so cute waddling around! They also had a shark show, a dive show, and a Wetlands show that we saw. There were so many fascinating aquatic animals. My favorites were the sea dragons - a creature related to the seahorse that looks like floating seaweed and lives off the coast of Australia. (see picture below) They also had a bunch of very pregnant seahorses - and did you know that the males are the ones that bear the children? How great!

There were also some "Touch Tanks" where you could touch sting rays, sharks, starfish, and sea anemone. Otters, alligators, and more were swimming around the Wetlands exhibit. One of Olive's other favorites was the outdoor playground. (go figure!) They do have a water playground in the warmer months.

The aquarium is located in downtown Tampa, right next to the cruise ship terminals. We saw two massive ships in the port, which was almost as exciting as the creatures inside.

Prices were fairly reasonable. You do get a $3 discount per ticket if you purchase online. Parking is $6 per car. They do have food there in cafes and the food was pretty decent and not terribly overpriced. (Tip: The kids meals are bigger than adult meals at half the price). Enormous gift shop that is fully stocked with everything (both cute and tacky). Olive came home with a stuffed striped pink fish and Buttons got a mermaid book (both very tasteful and adorable).

All in all, a great outing. So next time you're in the Tampa area, check it out!

Adventures in Baby Food (the healthy way)

When Olive was a baby and first started eating table foods, I played it safe and simple and bought lots of Gerber foods, with a few Beech-Nut thrown in for good measure.

Now that Buttons is eating real food, I am approaching things much differently. I have been making a lot of her food myself. I didn't do this the first time because I was intimidated and, well, lazy. I thought it would be much harder than it is so I didn't bother. I know now that I can simply make some extra of whatever we're eating (sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, peas, etc etc.) and pop it in the blender with some water, pour it in an ice cube tray, and voila!! Meals for days!! How easy is that?! So I've been trying to make some foods for Buttons so as much as possible, she can eat what we're eating, especially since that's what she'll be eating when she can tolerate chunkier foods and the peas that we eat taste nothing at all like the peas that Gerber sells. A friend recently recommended a website with lots of guidelines, recipes etc on it for making your own baby food. I haven't really explored it yet but the site is called Wholesome Baby Food and looks to be very promising.

As satisfying as it is to make your own baby food, there are times when you need a little help. Enter Sprout baby food (it's like takeout for babies!) Sprout food is organic, tasty, and different. I like that it's organic - that's phenomenal. But on top of that, there are so many other good attributes. The recipes are different and unusual combinations that leave baby begging for more. The roasted bananas and brown rice is a bit hit at my house (even with Olive and me too!) as well as the oatmeal with roasted cinnamon applesauce. The green beans and peas are interesting as they are mixed with mint (who'd have thunk it?) We are still fairly new to Sprout and still trying out the various flavors. Another neat thing about Sprout is that they are packaged in resealable pouches instead of cans or plastic containers. This makes them the perfect meal to throw in your diaper bag for lunch on the go. It is also an eco-conscious idea because it reduces the space it takes for shipping, therefore reducing the number of boxes needed to ship a certain amount. Another thing I am thrilled about with Sprout is that they offer a monthly subscription on their website where you can tailor your order to your baby's tastes (and change it monthly) and have it delivered right to your house!!! How great is that?! Genius, I tell you. Pure genius. I will certainly do this after the sale on Sprout at my local Publix grocery store is over ;-)

So there you have it...simple ways to feed your baby nutritious and wholesome meals while still making life easy on you. Nourishing your baby and watching him enjoy new foods should be fun and stress-free. Now it is. :)

A New Direction

I miss blogging.

I love to write. It gives me a feeling of peace and serenity. I also feel like I have so much I want to say that sometimes I feel like I might burst. I always have ideas, just not enough time to pursue them all or share them all. Upon reflecting on how much I have been neglecting this blog, I have decided to take it in a new direction.

For those of you that have been following, I will still occasionally put some updates about my adorable kids (Olive and Buttons) so you can continue to see what kinds of shenanigans we get into around here. Plus, they are just plain comic relief sometimes. Who can resist cute kids getting into mischief?? But I want to focus on some other aspects as well. I do still want to continue to point out the little things in life that make me happy and that I must savor because the moments flee so quickly and are soon forgotten. I want to bring you tips on things that make life easier and simpler so you can also take some time to enjoy the little moments. I will bring you product reviews (the good, the bad, and the ugly - but mostly the good), money-saving deals, quick and easy recipes, and general humor and fun. I am also making a concerted effort to be more "green" in my everyday life so will share with you my journey on that. This blog will be directed towards anyone and everyone who feels that their life is just a little too busy and hectic and could use some moments of zen sprinkled in. I don't want to be another one of those "mom blogs" because although they are useful, there are so many of them, and I want to appeal to more than just moms. I will always be looking for new products to review, new deals to be had, and all sorts of input from others so please please please contact me with any ideas or if you have a product you'd like reviewed (or if you want to advertise on the site).

I'm always open for comments and suggestions so please give me ideas of what you'd like to see. I will also return to doing some giveaways too.

Happy reading!!

Lindsey

New Year

It seems that I just can't keep up with this blog these days... I am hoping to do b etter in the new year.

A quick update on us...

Olive and Buttons (the new nickname for Baby Girl) are doing great and had a wonderful Christmas. Toys R Us probably had a great fourth quarter, thanks in large part to our family ;)

Buttons is now 6 months old and very close to sitting up. She's starting to eat some solid foods, which she loves. She's definitely a Mama's Girl and does suffer from a little bit of separation anxiety :(

Olive is doing great. Went back to school today after the break. I think she thrives on routine as much as I do. She had a lot of fun with friends and family during the holidays.

Hope you and yours have a great 2010. Ours is off to a wonderful start!

Olive is 3

Wow, how time flies....

Olive turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. I'm still in disbelief that my little bitty baby could already be three years old but I'll say, so far so good. We had a family brunch on her actual birthday, which was a lot of fun. Then this past weekend, we did a party with a bunch of her little friends from school. What an amazing group of 3 year olds!! We also had a couple of other friends join us and it was great. I couldn't have asked for anything better!

Today I took Olive to the pediatrician for her three year checkup. Did I mention that I LOVE my new ped?? She is great. She too is a mother, which means so much to me. She is very caring but also very matter-of-fact. She gives it to me straight, tells me what I need to hear and how to do it without being condescending or judgmental about the way I do things. Sometimes I know what I need to do (a little extra "tough love") but she tells me WHY I should do it and how important it is. For me, it is validation for being what sometimes feels like a "mean mommy". So after seeing her today, I must say I feel really empowered. In control. Ready to tackle the next toddler tantrum. (well, ok, I am not exactly looking forward to the last one but I know it will happen sooner or later...)

So we started right away...I limited Olive's milk intake to 2 cups today and gave her unlimited water. I fed her dinner with no extra options and she could eat what she wanted and when dinner was over, I put the food away. I put her to bed a little earlier. I fed her a full-sized vitamin. Tomorrow we will tackle our 1-2 hour nap/quiet time (she's been "resting" in her room for about 20-30 minutes, if I'm lucky). The list continues...

I think I even feel empowered enough to take her advice on Baby Bit too and move her upstairs tonight to her own room. Maybe. But she did sleep all night last night (9-6:45) in the Pack n Play in our room, all nice and swaddled. But tonight she fell asleep early so I will have to wake her to feed her again...maybe I will wait until another night... maybe tomorrow.... this is becoming a stream of conciousness...I should probably go to bed myself. Night night!!!

Change is Hard

We've had a lot of change this summer. A LOT.

It's been mostly good stuff with some that's not so good. But it's been hard on all of us. We are finally settling in a little to our new house and new routine, including school and ballet for Olive. We're getting by but there have been a lot of tears (from all of us) of sadness, anger, frustration, and overall exhaustion. I'm finally starting to feel like a little bit of progress is being made and my head is clearing just a little. I can breathe again, if only for now.

So as I always promise, I'll try to be better about blogging. I have lots of great recommendations for children's books that we've discovered (my mom is a big fan of taking Olive to the library).

Now...I'm off to make princess lollipops for Olive's 3rd birthday (which was actually last weekend but her party with her little friends is on Sunday). Until later...

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Back to School with Food Allergies

For those of us whose children have food allergies, going to school can be a scary prospect.

Olive's new school is not nut-free (as her last one was) which has caused me a lot of anxiety. However, the staff has been phenomenal in their support of children's special needs. Apparently in this (much larger) school, there are only 3 kiddos with nut allergies. This is so strange to me as in her previous school, I think there were 3 kids in her class of 10 with nut allergies. Anyhow, the principal and teachers sat down with the parents and we reviewed action plans for possible reactions and what to do in case of emergency as well as what things are and are not safe for our children to eat (if you haven't been following my posts, you may not realize that there are SO many more things besides just peanuts and peanut butter that aren't safe for Olive). In another very positive step, the school sent a great letter to the parents in our classrooms and I thought I would share it here in the hopes that another FA (Food Allergy) family could use this as a method of communication within their schools. Also, at Olive's school, they provide the snacks for the children. Since she is not able to eat all the same foods as the other kids, they give her the ones that are safe for her (fruit, cheese, etc.) and I keep a stockpile of other non-perishables (pretzels, cheese crackers, fruit snacks) in her classroom to use as a substitute for the others.

Here's the letter:

Dear Fellow Parent/Guardians,

Occasionally a health concern arises in a school setting that requires enlisting the support of parent/guardians and the classmates to help make the classroom a safe and healthy place for all. This letter is to inform you that a sutdent in your child's classroom has a severe allergy to peanuts/tree nuts. For this child, strict avoidance of these allergens is the only way to prevent a life-threatening allergic reaction.

We are asking for your assistance in providing our students with a safe learning environment. Even touching a small amount of a product or acidental ingestion containing peanuts/tree nuts could result in a life-threatening situation that requires emergency medical treatment. To reduce the risk of exposure in the classroom, we are asking that you consider not sending any products containing nuts for your child to eat during snack or lunchtime and for birthday treats as well. Some examples include: peanut butter, peanuts, or snacks specifically containing peanuts. Products produced on shared equipment are also a concern for these children, but we understand that avoiding this altogether would be difficult. Please read ingredient labels carefully, but understand we may still double check since they are often confusing. If your child has eaten peanuts or tree nuts prior to coming to school, please b e sure their hands ahve been thoroughly washed prior to entering the school.

Parents of two children with this condition have offered their contact information should anyone have questions about the allergy or how to respond.

(this is where my email/phone # and another parent's are listed)

We believe all families understand a parent/guardian's concern about safety and will join us in ensuring the environment is safe for all students. If you have any questions regarding ingredient lists, safe snacks, or other questions, please feel free to contact or email us. Thank you for your help in making this a safe school yar for all!

-----
Not bad, right? Hopefully this helps the other parents understand our concerns. I know lots of parents feel inconvenienced by requests like this but I think we can all understand the parent's need to guard their children as best they can.

Happy eating and good luck at back to school!!

The Messiness of Motherhood

I'm eight weeks in to being a new mom again and I'm reminded how messy motherhood can be.

Let's start at the beginning...

First you get pregnant and sweaty and nauseous. By the end of pregnancy, many women are wearing pantiliners to feel fresh (and some do this the whole time, some even bleed during pregnancy).

The baby is born and thus we enter another phase of messiness. First off, there are the baby messes. This includes dirty diapers, wet diapers, constant spit-up, projectile spit-up, projectile urine during diaper changes, and much more. Secondly (and perhaps often overlooked) are the mommy messes. After giving birth, women bleed for several weeks (making up for all those wonderful period-free months). Breastfeeding mothers experience lots of milk leaking from their breasts. Not only are these things messy and disgusting, but they require a lot of tending to and also a lot of trash. Think of all the pads that are used during this time and with each one, you have the pad itself, the wrapper, and the strips that adhere them. For nursing moms, most will wear breast pads to help control disgusting wet spots on the front of their shirts. You either use disposable ones (lots of trash) or reusable ones (lots of laundry). For all babies, there are lots of diapers. Again, you either use disposable ones (lots of trash) or reusable ones (lots of laundry). Have you ever thought about the impact on the environment of having a baby??

As baby gets a little older, we start developing the toddler drippy noses, skinned knees, and mushy messy baby food. Later it becomes dirty sports uniforms, stomach flus, and spilled juice. I could go into a lot more detail about each stage but you get the point... No matter how neat and clean of a person you are, the job of mother is anything but glamorous and anything but clean. Inevitably you will experience spills on your favorite couch, a few crushed Cheerios in your car, and spit-up on your dry-clean only blouse. While these things are anything but pleasant, it's just part of the game, and well worth it for that beautiful smile and "I love you" that comes every now and again (but never frequently enough!) After all, it's the little things...

D is for Delirious

Ok, let's be honest here... I have not been as good about our daily letter lessons as I had intended. Call it laziness, exhaustion, being overwhelmed, whatever... but I am still doing it and that should count for something, right??

Here is our "D" list. Some letters are just easier than others. For me these days, "D" just stands for "delirious". While Baby Bit has had a couple of nights where she slept longer than 3-4 hours, I'm still getting up twice a night most nights and let's just say that I'm a bit tired. But as any of you with toddlers know, there's no sleeping in or resting when you have a toddler. Sigh... so with bags under my eyes and a forced smile, I keep chugging along, enjoying this time with my girls and doing what I can to make life a little bit more stable for them. Luckily, we move into our new house this week so after that, things should calm down. Here are a few pics of Olive on our scavenger hunt.

Learning the ABC's

I have decided to try to teach Olive her ABC's.

She seems to know her numbers fairly well so thought I'd give a shot at letters. I know she can do it, I've just never had any idea how to teach it. I came up with this little daily plan, which is easy, fun, and quick. We'll see how it goes and I will try to keep you updated. If you have any other great ideas for teaching letters and pre-reading skills, please share as I'd love to reinforce this however I can.

Here's how it works: Each day (weekday, that is) we pick a new letter. (We are going in alphabetical order or else I'd get too confused). On one piece of paper, we write both the capital and lowercase versions of the letter (ex: A a) and on another sheet of paper, I create a scavenger hunt with objects that begin with that letter. I also try to use a couple of proper nouns that require uppercase letters. I try to use words and objects that she is familiar with and will see on a regular basis, as well as the names of her favorite characters or family and friends. Then the rest of the day, we look for the featured letter in other words, signs, etc. Here are some pictures of her with her lists. Feel free to use any of this to help teach your own kiddos their letters. (and notice that on the "C" day, she is eating one of the items from her list - "cookie" - after all, it was important for her grasping the letter "C", hehe).

Olive's 1st Day of School

Today was Olive's first day of her new school here in Florida.

She is in the "butterfly" class and was so excited. When we arrived at school, she went right to the table and started painting a yellow school bus with her teacher and some other children. She hardly noticed when I left. I had to ask for a hug and a kiss. When I picked her up, she didn't want to leave and when we got home, she kept asking, "can we go back to my school?" I think it was a successful day!

Besides that being great news, the head of the school and the teachers sat down with the parents of food allergy children and we had a talk about allergies and what to do in case of emergency, what foods are safe and not, and how to use an Epi-pen. It was very reassuring. A step in the right direction.

I'm excited to get back into a routine. This summer has been great with a lot of major changes (new baby, moving, still not in our own house yet, death in the family, etc...) but very chaotic. I think we all need some sense of "normalcy" again. However, Olive will be in school 3 days a week this year and I must admit I'm a little sad she'll be gone so much. But it does give me some wonderful one-on-one time with Baby Bit and I'm grateful for that. Happy School Year!

Update

Wow, it's been quite awhile since I've blogged...I promise to get back to it again soon...

Life's been a little hectic, to say the least.

Our newest addition, aka "Baby Bit" arrived on July 2nd. A beautiful, healthy little girl that we just adore. We've been having a blast with her and Olive is absolutely infatuated.

We moved to Florida. Yikes. Yes, we moved 750 miles away with a 3 week old baby. We're crazy. We're currently bunking with family until we can move into our new house next month.

We're buying a house. That, in itself, is a nightmare endeavor but add it to the other things and well, you get the idea...

Hope to be back blogging away soon.... today we re-established some sense of "normalcy" for us - we went to the pool with some friends. Wonderful and fun and now we're all tuckered out and girls are sleeping. Aahhh... guess I'd better go get working on some more stuff for the move.

Later gators!

Betting on Baby

I am less than a week away from my official due date and anxiously awaiting baby.

For kicks, we're having people guess the date of baby's arrival along with approximate weight.

Here are the only guesses thus far:

Olive - (she has two guesses): Today 6/25 or next Wed/Thursday 7/1 or 7/2

My doctor - Monday 6/29

My brother-in-law Seth - Monday 6/29

Dennis - Sunday 6/28

What do you think?

M.I.A.

WOW, it's been almost a month since I've posted. You're probably wondering what happened to me?

Life has been crazy, to say the least.

We are still on official "Baby Watch" around here - could be any day. I'm feeling exhausted and awful and ready for her to come. My mom arrives on Tuesday so would be great if she could wait to show her pretty face until then but I hope she doesn't wait too much longer after that ;) Being 9.5 months pregnant while you are chasing a 2.5 year old is not easy. Enough said.

Add to that our other great news...we are moving!!! Dennis got a fantastic job in Florida so we will be leaving the area in July and life has been crazy trying to get packed up and ready to move too. SO many major things happening at once.

On top of this, Olive and our dog Jack have both decided that sleep is unnecessary so the baby is not even here yet and nobody is sleeping in our house. Sigh...

As a total aside...I have been meaning to blog about the book, "The Kite Runner" which I finished quite awhile ago. I'll be short and sum it up and just say that I loved it. I learned so much again about Afghanistan and history and it really makes you appreciate what we've got. Khaled Hosseini is a fantastic author that really draws you in. I also watched "Slumdog Millionaire" (which I did not think was as great as everyone said) but a lot of the poverty and lifestyle images were similar and it gives me a greater understanding of the headlines in the newspaper (that I read while sipping coffee, sitting on the leather couch, and watching my flat screen TV). I realize how fortunate I really am to have unlimited choices in my life (like the opportunity to move closer to family, to stay home with my children, to live in a nice home, to eat whatever I want for dinner). It's a good reminder to be grateful for the wonderful people in our lives too - they are what really make it or break it - and it's imporant to remember how much easier our lives are than people in many parts of the world. So, next time you're tempted to complain that you can't afford the new Lexus, pick up a book or newspaper and be grateful that you have a car at all, or have a job to go to in your car. Many people are not that lucky. So while I complain about being exhausted and pregnant and moving etc., I say it knowing that it could be much, much worse.

Hope everyone is doing well and I will try to post more frequently!

A wonderful surprise

I am blessed with a wonderful husband.

He was out of town earlier this week for a work obligation and wasn't expected back until tonight. However, they decided they didn't really need him there and he knew I was having a rough week so he hopped on the plane and came home yesterday instead. It was the best gift I've been given! My spirits lifted and I felt a little better immediately. Now I'm feeling a little bit back to my normal self after spending the last couple of days lying on the couch "resting" (how boring). I'm much too much of a busybody to spend as much time lying down as my doctor recommended (plus, it's a bit hard with a busybody 2 year old too!)

THANK YOU DENNIS! ;)