AG; Year 5

Five years ago today, we ...

...got married.

 9.17.11

Four years ago, we ...

Kitchen Adventures: Toddler Smoothies

 As is tradition with many toddlers, mine refuses most green vegetables. This has required a touch of creativity on my part, as the preparer of most of his food. Seriously, though, hooray for daycare providing meals when he's there. We'd probably both lose it if I had to make him these smoothies for every meal.

For now though, he ABSOLUTELY LOVES these dang smoothies. See that grubby little toddler hand trying to get his smoothie off the counter?
He gets healthy nutrients and slurps those things down in mere minutes. I kid you not. As long as there are no chunks to clog the straw, he doesn't even take breaks. His smoothie is gone before I've made my own. I even step it up a notch and use my homemade coconut milk.

Kitchen Adventures; Coconut Milk

I rarely post on here anymore. I posted on instagram asking if you wanted to see a post on homemade coconut milk. Responses were a yes, so here it is.

I'm the worst. My goal has been to get on here more... but we all know how that's going.

ANYWAY! If you know me at all - and you probably do a little bit since not a ton of people look at my blog anymore and those that do have likely been around for a while - then you know that I'm a little bit crunchy. I'm a little into DIY and a little all natural... but I won't go all preachy or judgey on you because I'm not all gung ho crunchy mama 100% of the time either, frankly.

Currently; May 2016

It's been a super long time since I've done one of these, so I figured, what the heck!? If you're interested in what I've been upto lately and whats all goings on and such. Keep reading...

Currently I'm...

Reading...
Very slowly working my way through Room. It's pretty interesting so far, but I just don't have the quiet time I used to to actually get into a book. I'm still enjoying it though.

Watching...
We've been super into YouTube. Having talks (with my hubs) about starting a channel, but I know thats a really big time commitment and I'm not sure I want to be one of those people who just talks to themselves everywhere... oh wait, I do that anyway. :P
Shows I'm enjoying right now are Jane the Virgin, Last Week Tonight, Game of Thrones, @Midnight, aaaaand Silicon Valley. If you're not on the Jane the Virgin train, seriously, its amazing. Get into that.

Breastfeeding is hard; Part 2

(Want to read part 1 first? Click here.)

Our first full day at home is kind of a blur. As I write this, over a year later, I recall this was the day my grandparents came to visit.

Breastfeeding barely registers on my memory. Pillows stacked high. Trying all different positions in vain. I remember more how much I loved staring at my baby's face, and how much my whole body ached.

The nights though - the heat on high because of that terrible woman telling us "baby boys born in the winter were most likely to die of SIDS". My hands and feet were hot and puffy so I don't know how much I would have slept anyway.

The tiny one would fall asleep nursing. I could easily put him down, but would wake 15 minutes later without fail. I don't remember sleeping. I remember Tim telling me "he's hungry" and snapping at him because I didn't understand how the baby could be hungry.

Breastfeeding is hard; Part 1

I was around 37 weeks pregnant when I went back in for a second complete anatomy scan. The midwife was concerned that my belly was too small, which turned out to be unnecessary because baby was absofuckinglutely perfect, but before we knew that, at the end of the scan, the tech hovered the wand over his face for a few extra moments to show us our baby was already practicing suckling. We watched him there on the screen, sucking on his tongue. That image is burned into my mind. My baby was practicing eating. He was real and ready to be out on his own.

When we left the hospital on Sunday, December 14, 2014 with a 36 hour old baby in tow, he had still not properly latched. Turns out, that whole sucking on his tongue thing was actually a problem.

In the delivery room the Friday before, midnight approaching, the room was dark when I came out of my first assisted trip to the bathroom and my kick-ass no-BS labor & delivery nurse, Krystle, helped me try to breastfeed my baby for the first time. I was already in my wheelchair, ready to transfer to postnatal, and she wasn't concerned when we couldn't quite figure it out. It wasn't her specialty and she knew that the lactation consultant would come by my room in the morning to help. It was already practically morning anyway.

Kitchen Adventures; Spinach & Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Finding nutritious foods that a toddler likes has been a bit of a challenge for me. For the most part, he loves food in general, but certain green foods - broccoli, green beans, spinach, etc - he will taste and then reject. Every. Single. Time.
So, I've been finding ways to slip green food into my (as it turns out) picky todder's diet. He already downs homemade pouches every day, which is where he gets most of his green food, but I was looking for something different.

A girl from our Mommy & Me recommended a pancake recipe she makes for her son. Hers included blueberries and had no cottage cheese. It almost felt like a waste to blend blueberries up into pancakes when they're one of the few foods I can reliably count on him to eat raw every time he's handed some, so I opted for spinach only, and maybe I'd add a nut butter for flavor?

I ended up keeping it super simple. This recipe makes about 12 sand dollar size pancakes.

1/2 c. 4% milk fat cottage cheese
1/2 c. rolled oats
3 eggs
1 large handful of fresh (washed) spinach

Blend. I used a Nutribullet.
Pour a few dollops into the skillet of your choice on medium heat, wait until it starts to bubble, flip, give it another minute. Done.

The batter is on the thin side, so be careful pouring.

I ate these for breakfast too. They're pretty good. :)

Yoga Baby; 14 Months

So... remember when I used to be really good about posting these updates every month?

My kiddo is 14 months old now! I can barely handle it. He's so much fun. Such a joyful, rambunctious little boy. I kinda can't handle that he's a full on toddler now. Whoa.

A Day In The Life of a Toddler Toting Working Mom

I decided to document a Wednesday for this, which - along with with Tuesday - is one of our toughest days. Those are the days I teach yoga and then Joe comes to the office with me and I have no one to help me with him. Maybe next time I'll document one of our easier days.
Here goes...

Kitchen Adventures; Zucchini Banana Toddler Muffins

Hi there, blog! It's been a long time. My last post was after little dude turned 8 months (5 months ago), and since my last baking related post its been even longer still.

But y'all - I baked! I baked something new and it came out great and I'm excited to share it with you.