Hold That Baby

For the last year, rather than blog about my food and parenting adventures, I've been practicing being in the moment.  I've had moments where I did this SO well.  And then I had those moments when I decided that rocking the baby while reading the Kindle was totally what I needed.  Then, I'd hate myself for reading while nursing my baby, rather than gazing at her sweet face.  Ah, parenting, you cruel mistress, haunting me with the fact that my babies will NOT. STOP. GROWING. UP.


Us mamas and daddies do not get a pause or rewind button, we are ever in the moment, cooing, laughing, cuddling, loving, getting barfed on, getting nagged for second breakfast/lunch/dinner/MORE SNACKS (you would seriously think that I do not feed these children.)etc.   So, because of this beautiful thing called parenting, this thing that I would not trade for one moment, I am wracked with excruciating guilt for the times when I am not totally present, like when I am exhausted from subsidized single parenting for 5 weeks or months straight, and just need a moment.  I hate myself for those moments.  Truly.


That said, I do my best.  I adore my family.  And I am grateful that the advice of a dear friend stuck with me for the past year- "Hold that baby.  You will not get the time back."  Sweet Charlotte will never get to say that she was not held, loved on, cuddled, or given attention.  She has gotten it in spades.


In some ways, I've mellowed a lot about food over the last year.  In others, I've become an obsessive maniac.  For instance, we now have boxed organic mac n cheese in the house, and organic hot dogs, just in case I'm just too tired to do anything other than boil water.  One child me would have been way disappointed in me, but I've learned that sometimes, stuff happens.  Big kids have activities, and at the end of the day, they'd rather have that extra 40 minutes with you to cuddle them and read stories.


Now the flipside of the coin, the obsessive maniac gives poor Kyle a look that could melt ice when he accidentally bought REGULAR milk for the baby the other day.  The poor guy had to go back to Costco to get the REAL milk.  Yes, I realized after he got home that I probably needed an intervention.  BUT IT'S MY BABY PEOPLE.  I just can't.


The point is, I'm striving to find balance in a very extreme world.  It seems like all around us, we're being told that we have to be able to spend a million hours a week crafting/cooking/sewing/cleaning, and frankly, I just don't know how!  Yes, I am admittedly a perfectionist, but there has to be a line.  Do we want our kids to walk into a work function as adults, and bring their own snacks?  Because, where I come from, that's disrespectful and rude. 


We need to teach our children about healthy habits, healthy portions, and to eat healthy, REAL, food, but we also need to teach them balance.  They need to learn how to eat reasonably well at a function full of unhealthy food, and that the world isn't going to end if they go to Five Guys now and then.  The key is now and then.


Your question now probably is, what the heck does this have to do with a food blog?  Everything.  Family is everything.  Family meals, family eating habits.  Your children are watching you.  They see how you eat, what you don't eat, what you sneak, what you throw away.  They see how you do or don't spend time on dinner.  This isn't a judgment, it's just a fundamental truth.  So what I'm trying to do, what I was trying to do for the first few years of this blog, is making it EASIER.  I didn't know what I didn't know about feeding more than 3 people for more than a holiday.  And honey, sometimes it's hard! 


So here we go.  Back in action.  Healthy, family friendly meals that don't make you nuts.  And if you need to head on over to your local burger joint, because you JUST CAN'T TODAY, I hear ya.  Do what ya need to do.

Chasing Laela

Holy moly am I beat.  Kyle's been traveling a lot, and as much as I love Laela walking, sometimes it was easier when I could throw her in the baby carrier and get things done.  Now when I clean, I've got this cute little tornado following me, tossing things out of containers and drawers, giggling all the way.  When I bake, I have to give her dough to play with- and then dunk her in the tub promptly after.  The most hilarious thing is that she's totally convinced that she wants to jump out of the stroller and run through the mall, but the second she's two feet away, she turns around, yelps "Mommy!" and runs back to me to hold my leg/arm/pinky because as much as she wants to try new things, she wants that reassurance that I'm there.  So that's where I've been lately- chasing Laela, and being chased by Laela.

What have we been eating, might you ask?  Toddler food.  Edamame and peas as snacks.  Sliced up oranges and grapes.  Sun butter on whole wheat crackers.  Cinnamon toast, turkey and cheese sandwiches, vegetarian lasagne, tacos, roasted chicken, meatballs, or her absolute favorite, hummus and whole wheat pita.  When you're on the run all the time, you want to munch on the go!  I've had to learn to adjust my program.  We sit down for our meals (breakfast and dinner are the constants- that's family time and I won't allow it to change), but on days that we go to the park, or to somewhere super fun like the museum or the playhouse, we snack or have special packed lunches that we eat picnic style either on benches, or tables set up at the museum.  I think it's helping my little girl learn that healthy eating and snacking is important, regardless of where we are.  On top of that, I think it's helping her learn to ease into different situations.  Eating in different places may seem like something small to a grown up, but to a little person, it's a regular introduction to an entirely different atmosphere, thus making the eating experience totally new!

No matter what parenting style you may have, you don't want to get stuck in a situation where you can't go anywhere because your little one can't adjust to a change of scenery or a disruption of his/her schedule.  We have a difficult time getting Laela to sleep in strange places, so we've had to learn what works for her when we travel.  How did we learn this?  By having a terrible traveling experience and going to our friends' wedding feeling like miserable zombies!!  The point is, you can be a good parent and still do fun things.  If you want to go to the park, or meet up with girlfriends, do it.  The worst that could happen is that your kid flips out and your friends look at you like you're nuts (which hey, they're your friends, they probably think this anyway), and you drag your cute little demon home- where he or she will probably be a little angel the second you walk through the door and you'll want to cry.  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Sometimes a Picnic is More Than a Picnic

Yesterday was a great day.  My husband took the day off to hang out with me and Laela.  Kyle let me sleep until 9:00AM (hooray!!!), we had a nice family breakfast, played with my parents' dog Memphis, and finally had a picnic at the park since it was such a gorgeous day.

Growing up, my brother and I didn't have a whole lot.  My Dad was raising us on his own, and he had to work multiple jobs to keep us afloat, so when he wasn't working (or dead tired from working three shifts in a  row), he would take us out to play.  Let me tell you, I was one wild monkey of a little kid.  I loved to climb trees and invent games with the neighborhood kids.  We'd play "stuck in the mud" and "spaceship" (I was always captain of the ship!), and we'd build amazing forts.  All of that playtime with my friends was awesome, but nothing was better than hanging out with my Dad.  We'd throw the football around in the park, search for rocks and stones, play on the playground, and pig out on hoagies and Tastycakes..it's not necessarily what we were doing, it was just that those were the times when everything really felt like a family.  Not missing something because I didn't have a Mom, and not weird because my Dad was the one taking me to Girl Scouts.  I don't ever remember feeling sorry for myself because she wasn't there, because my Dad was always enough.

I don't think parents realize the impact of little things like going to the park will have on their children.  It's these little moments that help them form who they are.  The moments that help them learn to trust and feel safe.  I watched my daughter run down a hill for the first time yesterday.  My baby ran!  And when she started to stumble she reached up and said "Mama!"  As I grabbed her hand, I couldn't help but think that this is everything I've ever wanted.  I have the most wonderful life.  Our baby girl knows Mommy and Daddy are always there.  We're doing it right.  And that's all that matters.

Even if you don't have kids, remember that it's the little things in all of your relationships that  matter.  I feel like everyone's always forgetting the "relate" part of the word "relationship".  Get on the people in your life's level, whether they are children or people that are older than you.  The understanding you'll find may surprise you.  And remember, food is a universal language..so if you have nothing to say to one another, try a new food experience and see where the conversation takes you.

I know this was a little bit off-topic for the blog, but yesterday was just such an amazing family day that I wanted to share it, you know?  And I'll be back with your regularly scheduled delicious recipes and food tips next week, so don't worry!  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend with their family!!

Teething ISN'T Terrible..

No matter what your friends say. 

You know the drill.  You read all the baby books.  You heard the horror stories.  And then you wake up one day and you see it.  The little tiny white pearl in your baby's mouth.  "When did that happen?"  "Am I a horrible person because I didn't notice my baby was in pain?"

First of all, no, you are not terrible.  You didn't notice because not all babies make a big fuss out of teething.  Laela had two teeth before we noticed!  I was still nursing, she wasn't biting me, and she was her happy, playful self, so how was I to know?  Sure, she was a little drooly, but she was barely even five months old!  She was always drooly!  When I had thought she was teething, our doctor said she thought it was a little early and not to worry about it, so we didn't. 

Anyway, I did what any parent would do.  I went shopping!  I bought every teething ring on the planet.  The thing was, she was more interested in my wooden spoons and rubber spatulas.  So of course, I went shopping again for more teethers.  Then her cheeks got all red and I got convinced there was poison in the teethers, and that my daughter is a wild monkey chewer, so I gave up.  And then we found the keys.

I have no idea who made those suckers, but they were the best.  They had a stop light on them that she could push buttons and make lights, and gave her the option of hard and soft chewing.  We didn't give her teething tablets, and when she seemed like she had a low grade fever before bed, we gave her some infant tylenol.  Don't waste your money on teething tablets, herbal teething medicine, or gum numbing gel, none of it works, and if it does, it's not in the way you want it to.  Your baby might get a numb throat and mouth from the gum numbing stuff, and that can be dangerous.  Of course, now that my friends' babies are starting to teethe, I can't find those amazing teething keys anywhere!  Argh.  I guess I'll just buy them some spatulas and wooden spoons.

Laela with her keys:

When Laela's back teeth started to come in, she was gnawing on everything like a dog, so I decided to get some Sassy Teething Feeders with mesh bags, freeze up some sweet potatoe puree in ice cube trays, some bananas (I just peeled some bananas, cut them up, and popped them into freezer bags until I was ready for them), strawberries, blueberries, and yogurt, and filled the teething feeders whenever Laela seemed like she needed something cold to gnaw on.  She really loved them, and when she seems like she's teething again (drooly, a little rashy around the chin, maybe a little more sleepy than usual- kind of like a growth spurt), I make these for her and she goes to town.  (This is also a great way to get them to learn to eat on their own, and to get them to eat when they're sleepy/fussy/not feeling well.)

At the end of the day, teething is a natural process, and like anything else, if you freak out, your kid will freak out too.  It's parental instinct to want to soothe every pain and discomfort, but the reality is that sometimes even little people have to figure out a way to deal with it...because in a few years all those little teeth are going to fall out and new ones are going to shove their way through.

Moral of the story?  Make lots of comforting food for your little one (if they're old enough), pour yourself a glass of wine, offer up a lot of cuddling, distract them by playing and reading some fun stories, and just roll with it.  Oh, and get a crib guard.  They are chewing on it when you aren't looking.  Yes, even your little angel will chew on the walls if you let her/him.

For other tips on how to deal with teething, I highly recommend Baby and Toddler 411 by Dr. Ari Brown and Denise Fields.  Their books offer great advice on pretty much all things baby and toddler (and are especially awesome when you have a fact checker like my husband!)

She's ONE!!!

One.  A little over a year ago, I gave birth to the most perfect little girl in the world.  Well, maybe I can't speak for the whole world, so I'll just say in my world.  And Kyle's world..and our parents, and I'm pretty sure that list goes on a little bit, but I digress..  I gave birth to this perfect, smiling (so what if it was gas?  New parents don't care, it's their baby and she's smiling!!  Whooo!), chubby cheeked little creature that filled me with so much love and emotion that I thought I was going to burst.  Thankfully, I didn't burst and I got to see her grow into this adorable little toddler who loves to jump in the waves at the beach, zoom around the yard while carrying one of her little purses, pat and hug her baby dolls, and pig out on pretty much anything and everything in front of her.  It's amazing how three months ago she was cruising furniture and crawling, still sticking everything in her mouth, and now, she eats off a plate like a little lady (we're still on frisbee watch, don't worry!), drinks with a straw, and likes to eat her food on her own.  As I write this, she's sitting at her little table, playing with her wooden Montessori peg toy, pushing the beads up and down the wires.  It's firsts like this that tug at my heart strings with both pride and sadness as I watch my beautiful little girl become an independent little person.  She amazes me everyday and I just can't believe how quickly the time goes.

Anyway, now that I've totally mushed out, I'm ready to get back to business.  I had big plans for Laela's first birthday, and while I didn't get to do everything I'd planned because of time constraints, visitors, and Kyle leaving on a business trip for a few days following our vacation, I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out.

Ms. Laela had a yummy pumpkin birthday cake with buttercream icing.

I think she enjoyed it, don't you?

I made some basic chocolate and vanilla buttercream cupcakes for the partygoers.

I also made some lemon sugar cookies with royal icing.  I was a bit rushed, so they didn't come out as exciting looking as I'd planned, but everyone seemed to think they were pretty good.

For the favors I made chocolate covered pretzels.

I really tried to keep the decorations more fun and whimsical instead of pink thrown up.  We had butterflies, dragonflies, bees and ladybugs hanging from the trees and plants in our yard.

We even decorated the gift table...

It was a great party.  We had a wonderful time, and it was really fun to see Laela smash her cake and toddle around with her little buddies and our family and friends.

See you Wednesday for Laela and my next foodie adventure!