This Moment: Good Mornin!

Took this picture last week after eating her breakfast of egg and blueberries. She woke with her hair all crazy and it stayed like that all day!

Valentine's Day Skirt

I made this skirt for Penelope for her Valentine's Day outfit.  It was so easy! Even easier than a pillow case dress.

It took me about 15 minutes, no joke.  And a half a yard of fabric.  I got a yard of this fabric from Joann Fabric's the day after Christmas for like $4.  I had a little fabric left over and made her a little matching head scarf.

       I made it a little long so she can wear it for awhile.

Isn't she an angel? Oh, I love her so much.

Unconditional Parenting: Chapter 5, Pushed to Succeed

Here are some of my favorite quotes from this chapter:

"As the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm once lamented, "Few parents have the courage and independence to care more for their children's happiness than for their success."

"Obviously, there's nothing wrong with being proud of our kids.  But when the bragging seems excessive-when its too intense, or too frequent, or starts up too quickly-it's possible that the parent's identity is a little too wrapped up in the child's accomplishments."

"There's a huge difference between a student whose objective is to get a good grade and a student whose objective is to solve a problem or understand a story.  What's more, the research suggests that when kids are encouraged to focus on getting better marks in school, three things tend to happen: They lose interest in the learning itself, they try to avoid tasks that are challenging, and they're less likely to think deeply and critically."

"The more we want our children to (1) be lifelong learners, genuinely excited about words and numbers and ideas, (2) avoid sticking with what's easy and safe, and (3) become sophisticated thinkers, the more we should do everything possible to help them forget about grades.  Better yet, we'd want to encourage teachers and principals to minimize (or even eliminate) the use of grades."

"Some parents don't offer money for straight A's; instead, they pay off their kids with affection and approval.  In effect, they're using their love as a lever to get their kids to succeed-to the point that their children may come to feel as though their parents' positive feelings for them rise and fall with grade point average."

"The research overwhelmingly showed that competition holds people back from working or learning their best."

"To the contrary, people who know they're loved irrespective of their accomplishments often end up accomplishing quite a lot.  Being accepted without conditions helps them to develop a healthy confidence in themselves, a sense that it's safe to take risks and try new things.  From deep contentment comes the courage to achieve."

Valentine's Day Mantel Idea's

This is what my Valentine's Day mantel looks like.  It's meh-so, so but it was fun and got my creative juicing going.  I don't have very many Valentine's Day decorations, so this is just something I threw together to have something in the house decorated for sweet Penelope.

 

I mod podged these rocks from our back porch with little heart shaped pieces of scrap fabric.  I saw the idea from this blog.

       Then I dumped some Sweetheart candy in some champagne glasses from my cabinets.

Then I made a heart shaped garland with scrapbook paper I had on hand. I just cut out hearts from a plastic template thingy I have and hole punched two holes on either side of the heart. It's a heart shaped hole punch that I got at Micheal's years ago, they still have them. And strung them together on a piece of ribbon.

Here, here and here are couple of other cute hand made Valentine's Day decoration ideas to check out.

What have you Mama's been up to?

Toddler Smoothie Recipe

I started making fruit smoothies for Penelope when she was about 8 months, maybe even a little younger, I can't remember. Note to self for next baby: write shit like that down!!

My love for smoothies has just gotten deeper over time.  They are a powerhouse and workhorse in my arsenal for making sure Penelope gets all her nutritional needs met in a given day. As she gets pickier and pickier, navigating her way through toddlerhood and loving the realization that she can say NO! To EVERYTHING!  She used to eat anything I put in front of her: pickles, salmon, green peppers, whatever. Now, she still eats well, she just eats only certain foods. And it changes every day. One day she is a freak about bananas and peanut butter and the next she acts like its poison and gives me a look of how DARE I offer such a thing to her.

She gets a full mason jar of smoothie per day.   Sometimes a little more, sometimes less. I give it to her throughout the day. As a snack or apart of her meal, depending on her mood. No mater what I put in it she loves it. She has never turned her smoothie down, Thank You Jesus and Knock On Wood.

As for the recipe, it varies from week to week. I play with the combination of fruit to give her variation, or because something was on sale, but I always have a base of strawberries and blueberries, her all time favorite fruit, and then add whatever else I feel like.

I mix a full frozen bag of organic strawberries, a full bag of blueberries, then like half a bag each of two other types of fruit. Then I add a half bag of veggies, like frozen peas and usually a banana or two. One mom I know adds a bottle or two of pureed green veggie baby food. I have another friend who puts whole kale or spinach in hers and another puts spirulina in hers.  You could probably get away with putting a tablespoon or two of a powder veggies supplement.

When I blend it together, I add a tiny bit of fresh juice that I juice myself. Before I had a juicer, I bought the best organic juice I could get. I put in just enough to help with the blending and to give a little sweetness to the smoothie to make sure she eats it. One of  friends puts raw honey to add sweetness.

Then I pour the big batch of smoothie into individual jam sized mason jars. I label the top with the date and put them in the freezer.  As I go through the week I pull them out and defrost it the fridge.


Now comes the really nutritious part of the smoothie!

Once the mason jar has defrosted, I pour half of the smoothie into another clean mason jar. So I have two mason jars half full of the pure fruit smoothie.

Then I add one raw egg yolk, yes I said raw.  When she is older, I will probably start adding two egg yolks.

Then I add fresh, raw yogurt, that I make myself. When I first started making her smoothies, I added coconut milk keifer and then later I used raw cow milk kiefer. And only in the last month, I have been doing yogurt instead of keifer. I think she prefers the taste of yogurt.

Then I add more fresh juice, usually spinach-apple. This juice has very little apple, and mostly spinach.

By the time I add the egg yolk, the yogurt, and spinach juice the mason jar is filled back up again.

Adding the raw egg yolk and the yogurt add lots of protein to balance out the sugar of the fruit, so her blood sugar doesn't spike after drinking it. With the egg yolk and yogurt and spinach, you couldn't ask for a more perfect snack or accompaniment to a meal.  And by not freezing the egg yolk, yogurt and spinach, she is getting tons of raw, fresh ingredients chock full of important enzymes, good bacteria and nutrients.

Now, go make your tot a smoothie!  Oh, and I drink some too!  This is a perfect snack for any mom, especially a trying-to-conceive, pregnant, nursing mom.

My Craft Space

This is what my little craft nook looks like. It's in a corner of Peter's office, where he spends his time on important things like reading ESPN. And across from Penelope's playroom, our old dining room. Not that I can sit and sew while she plays in there happily by herself, but at least its an option for when she is older.
Peter got the desk for me at IKEA, after we sold our dinning room table on Craigs's List.

As for the top shelf, I tried to come up with a visually pleasing way to organize some of my craft supplies and scrap fabric. It gets a so-so in my book, but I can't think of anything else right now. It's a work in progress. I was thinking of maybe getting some those wooden hoop thingys that people use for embroidering and putting some pretty fabric in them...like this craft room, on the wall behind the desk.

Any other ideas would be appreciated!

No Sew Baby Cowl

This winter Penelope has worn a scarf or cowl pretty much every day.  I am a little nutty when it comes to keeping her warm, but its only for her health's sake.


Your body actually perceives cold as stress.  And when you are cold, your body spends energy keeping your organs warm and functioning and it diverts energy away from your extremities and immune system and other things.  There is also a bit of Traditional Chinese Medicine and even Aruvedic medicine that puts emphasis on keeping your neck warm to stay healthy. In China, they actually have pregnant women wear scarves in the summertime to keep them healthy...or so I have heard, I've never actually been to China.


And then there's the cutest factor.  Penelope always looks so adorable in her little cowls. Another added bonus: Penelope can't rip the cowl off, like a regular scarf, because its looped around twice. 


I have to give credit, where credit is due, I did not come up with this awesome idea.  A woman named Tara did.  You've heard of her before, she came up with this recipe that was a big hit. And I quoted her in yesterday's raw egg yolk post.  She made all of these for Penelope for her birthday and Christmas.

                                                 

I bought the dress I am using to make the cowl from a thrift store for 5 bucks!  I want to use the majority of it to make a pillow case dress, so I took one of Penelope's dresses and used it as a pattern to see how much I needed to save for the dress portion and how much I could use for the cowl portion.

This is so easy, it almost seems silly explaining it! All you do is take a big shirt, or dress in this case, and cut a piece off as wide as you want the cowl. That's it. Really.

Then put it on baby and loop it around twice and Ta Da!  No Sew Baby Cowl!
Don't you just want to eat her?!?


Here she is modeling a few of her favorite outfits and coordinating cowls:

Her ear warmer in the picture above was also made by Tara. She cut off the sleeve of an old sweater dress and sewed it together. Where she sewed it together she gathered it a bit and tied a bow around it for added cuteness.  I can't even describe how much I love this thing. Penelope HATES wearing hats, but she will wear her ear warmer. She never lets me put a bow in her hair anymore, but I can get away with one on her ear warmer!