Baby Bistro

For all you baby food chefs out there this book is a must! I make Sawyer's food from scratch on a daily or weekly basis. Not because I am worried about fillers or preservatives in canned baby food, the truth is I'm appalled at what those cute miniature baby food jars cost! Sawyer would easily eat 4-5 jars a day and at close to $1 a pop, that's more than I'm willing to spend.

My mother in law Carol has her doctorate and teaches nutrition at USC. One of her students went on to create books called The Baby Bistro and The Toddler Bistro. Carol got me signed copies of them and I can't even begin to tell you how much I LOVE these books!  They have excellent nutrition advice on what to feed your baby at specific ages, recipes galore (that are super easy) and store recommendations on where you can buy all the ingredients. Each recipe tells you how many baby size servings it makes and whether you can freeze the leftovers. I was overwhelmed at what and when and how much to feed little S. when it came time for him to eat solids. Luckily these books came to my rescue!

When Sawyer was only eating purees I would just whip up some sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, peas, spinach, etc. and then freeze them in ice cube trays. Once they were frozen I'd empty the cubes into freezer bags, label them with the date, and viola! he was set on food for a month. Each ice cube is about 1 oz. so he usually eats about 3 cubes at each meal. When I mention to other moms that I make his food, some think it sounds too time consuming, but honestly it's not at all. And the money we've saved on buying jarred food is an insane amount, mostly because I make his food out of what I normally buy for us each week anyway.

So there you have it. Hope this book helps other moms out there as much as it's helped me. You can tell my copy is well loved because some of the pages stick together and it's gotten more then a few spatters of food on the cover. One he hits a year, we are moving onto the Toddler Bistro, which is sitting on my bookshelf all new and shiny just waiting to get food smeared all over it!

Fast forward 50 years

Saturday night we went to our friend Kyle's 30th birthday bash. The theme of course was old folks since 30 is the new 80. 

For not having a clue as to what we should wear until a few hours before, I think we pulled it off pretty well. 

$2.99 for baby powder to use to gray my hair

$1.00 for brown eye liner for creating wrinkles

A sneak peek of what we could potentially look like in 50 years? Priceless!

Sawyer even got in on the fun and dressed up as Benjamin Button. 

The newly engaged couple Holly and Steve. Tying the knot for the first time at age 90. Their honeymoon may only consist of giving each other sponge baths and going to bed by 7 pm. 

Birthday boy Kyle and his lovely wife Jackie who I might add had a very realistic sagging bosom. (Water balloons I was told). 

And one of my favorite costumes of the night, Victoria and Erik. They looked like a couple out of a Al Pacino movie. 

Here's a close up of Matt's head in case you didn't notice the HUGE bald spot in the photo before. Yep, that was all his idea. A nice finishing touch to complement the whole ensemble. I kept doing a double take of him the whole night because he looked so real as an oldie.  Too real! 

Benjamin Button won first prize for best costume, but unfortunately for him the prize was a spray painted gold pair of depends and while he still wears diapers, those suckers would have been just a little big.

The whole night was a blast and everyone looked hilarious in their costumes. We snacked on "aged" cheeses, played Bingo, and ate pudding and apple pie for dessert. Best birthday party I've ever been to! Matt turns 30 in August now. I gotta get to planning! 

It's A Rainy Day

So we can't go out and play. 

Kung Fu Pandas

I forgot the zoo took a green screen photo of us before we went to see the baby panda. Turned out pretty cute even though Sawyer didn't get the memo that a picture was being taken. Best of all: it was free!

Weekend Getaway

Lots of Photos of our weekend trip to San Diego to celebrate our 4 year anniversary on May 20th. 

Where to begin?! 

Saturday afternoon

The HOTEL arrival 

Showing Sawyer San Diego's gas lamp district from our balcony. 

Exploring our ginormous hotel room that was most definitely bigger than our first apartment! 

Walking around Seaward Village looking in all the shops, the same place Matt took me when we were dating in 2005 and I came down to visit. 

Family photo at a park by the ocean.

Sunday Morning

The San Diego Zoo!

Pointing out the baby panda who is just a few months older than Sawyer. 

The quizzical look he had on his face the whole day as he saw all sorts of crazy animals.

SEALy Sawyer

Wore my giraffe bobbypin, Sawyer had his favorite giraffe hand puppet Freckles and wouldn't you know, we forgot to see the giraffes! So this giraffe piece of art behind us had to do. 

Monkeying around. 

Mesmerized by the sea turtles. 

Why there was a helicopter near the polar bears, we'll never know, but it made for a fun photo!

On the sky tram. 

My men. Boy am I lucky. 

Our San Diego Zoo anniversary celebration in years. 

2008

2009

2010

Being awake at 3:34 am is not okay

Can't quite figure out why sleep is evading me, but I'm not liking it one bit. Sawyer and Matt are both zonked out next to each other in bed.  Yes, I take little s. into our bed most nights. It doesn't start out that way. He goes to sleep in his own crib, but usually in the early morning any time between 3 and 5 am he wakes up and I bring him back to bed with me. At first I felt like I would be judged by other moms if they knew, so it was like a dirty little secret that I kept. And let's face it I probably will be. I too once thought it was weird when moms would say their kid slept in their bed. I'd think, oh they are those kind of parents. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones who will have that same kid still sleeping in the middle of their bed at age three. But then my friend Ashley send me  this article that said

 "...infant responses to maternal smells, movements and touch altogether reduce infant crying while positively regulating infant breathing, body temperature, absorption of calories, stress hormone levels, immune status, and oxygenation. In short, and as mentioned above, cosleeping (whether on the same surface or not) facilitates positive clinical changes including more infant sleep and seems to make, well, babies happy. In other words, unless practiced dangerously, sleeping next to mother is good for infants. The reason why it occurs is because… it is supposed to." 

 I also read in my "What Smart Mothers Know" book (that I got in my swag bag at the Babies movie screening) that is doesn't matter where your kid sleeps just as long as they are getting enough of it! Ah. Nothing better than a big heaping dose of vindication even if it's just so I feel better about my parenting skills.  I can think of a lot of more important things to worry about than having a warm baby cuddled up next to me in bed. And it's true that he sleeps so much sounder with me, but of course he does because after all (like the Cornershop song says)

 "everybody need a bosom for a pillow." 

Well now that I've admitted that perhaps sleep will kindly grant me at least a few beautiful REM cycles tonight. In any case if I can't count sheep, I could always count toys on the landing. There are enough of them that before I were to add them all up I'm sure I'd be snoozing. 

Mixed Pix

These are the BEST teething toy I've ever seen! Sawyer is constantly grabbing for my keys to chew on, and he wasn't fooled into thinking those thick plastic teething keys were the real deal. Then I discovered  these ones at Target made by B. toys that actually resemble a real set of keys with the key fob and everything that makes noises just like mine (horn honking, door unlocking, the 'door ajar' sound). Definitely worth the $7.99 if it means my own set of keys remain free from slobber.

Found Sawyer in Moxie's crate yesterday inspecting her living quarters. Couldn't find the camera fast enough though before he was on his way out. 

Helping me box up his 'baby' clothes. He's in the 9 month clothing now, so it was time to get put away of all the smaller ones. 

New Blog

Check out my new running blog HERE

Can't wait to go unto further detail about the race in October! I'm so excited!

Michelle Marie a.k.a. mom, this one's for you.

Once upon a time there was a girl named Michelle

In a town called Idaho Falls is where she did dwell.

She loved to ride her bike and read lots of books

And had lots of boys eyeing her really good looks.

One in particular was a obnoxious kid Dave

In her seminary class he did rarely behave.

But then he straightened up and on a mission he went

She decided she liked him, but to what extent?

Her letters she wrote him ended just with sincerely,

they were only friends he could see very clearly.

However when he got back things began to progress,

And it wasn’t too long ‘til she wore a white dress.

Then they wondered what kind of child they’d create,

Blue eyes? blonde hair? they just couldn’t wait!

On September 12th they welcomed little boy Ben

A baby was so fun, they wanted to try it again!

And 22 months later they had Kristen Marie.

I’m so glad they did, because that is me!

Now you may wonder why I am telling their tale,

that very reason I’m about to unveil.

You see seven months ago I became a mom too

And saw I owed my mom a huge “THANK YOU!”

She made it look easy caring for four,

what I realize now is it’s kind of a chore.

To change dirty diapers and vomit and spit,

Waking up at all hours is sooooo not legit!

To think they’re all yours until birthday eighteen,

Equates to loads of time with the washing machine.

My eyes were opened to what being a mom means.

It’s a lot of dirty work done behind the scenes.

So now that I know what really goes on,

I’d like to thank my mom for those years foregone.

For the nights, when as a baby, all I did was scream

You’re a saint for not sending me in a basket downstream.

Same goes for as a kid when I caught every germ,

no matter the season, semester or term.

Then as a teenager when I liked to skip class,

I apologize for being such a pain in the....butt.

Really what I’m trying to say with this rhyme

Is thanks for being my mother full time.

Thanks for marrying my dad and starting a fam,

Without you doing that there'd be no “I am”

And it’s just not myself thanking you for all this,

Sawyer's glad too, because of you he exists.

Since I wasn’t able to send you a big flower bouquet

I hope this counts for wishing you “Happy Mothers Day!”

Babies Extravaganza

Like I said previously, last night was a really great night spent with the hubs and Sawyer and here's why:

We went to the screening of Babies in Hollywood! It was presented by the Pump Station, which is a store I have yet to visit, but I check their blog frequently. It's the breastfeeding blog on my sidebar for any other moms who are interested. 

First we went to dinner at a place called Uwink. It's a restaurant in the mall on Hollywood boulevard and is not your average kind of place. You order your entire meal off a touch screen at your table that you can also play free games on while you wait. 

Sawyer thought the whole concept was so entertaining, 

he was doubled over with laughter.

He also thought swiping sweet potato fries off my plate when I wasn't paying attention was hilarious too. I'm not sure what's worse, having a kid that's gonna amount to only being a fry cook, or one that's already a fry crook. 

After dinner we headed to the movie where the first 50 moms wearing their babies in slings scored a swag bag. Originally we were going to have Matt's mom babysit little S. for us so we could go to the movie sans baby, but when we heard about the giveaway we took a raincheck on the babysitting since we needed the little guy to win us some goodies! There was a drawing too where 6 moms also won HUGE  gift baskets. 

The movie was great. I highly recommend it. We were laughing through the whole thing. I think the 30+ babies in the audience thoroughly enjoyed it as well since we didn't so much as hear a peep out of them during the whole thing! It's not everyday you can take your seven month old to the movies so it was a fun experience. And being in Hollywood with all the sights to see, most of which were weird people walking around, made for one very sleepy Sawyer. He fell asleep during the middle of the movie and didn't wake up til' morning. Now that's a happy ending. 

This Too Shall Pass

I was so frustrated last night about not being able to take the class that sleep was out of the question. Which is really a bummer since Sawyer actually slept the whole night through so I could have gotten 8 hours of sleep for the second time in the last seven months. Instead I kept mulling over and over again in my head what was I going to do about school. The real dilemma behind not being able to take the particular class is now that it's a requirement to get into the nursing program I needed to take it before I could apply in September. Without it I won't be able to apply until February. I feel as though just being able to apply keeps evading me. I get closer and closer, but it's like a mirage that keeps moving further away from me. I may be going to school forever just to be able to apply to a two year nursing program that takes two years to get in to! Sigh.

The good news is that in the light of day, or as the OK-GO song says when the morning comes, nothing looks as grim as it did at night. So this random music video of that song is dedicated to you brother Ben. Hope it makes you laugh, chuckle, smile, or at least brighten up today for you. It did for me.

No Such Luck

So tonight was a great night. Had a ton of fun with the hubs and Sawyer, but I can't go into detail now because all my hopes were dashed when we got home and saw the math class I NEED, the ONLY one I can take, is FULL. Even the wait list is full. Even if it weren't, I can't even register until it's technically May 6th which isn't for another hour. I'm so mad I could spit. I think that's something my mom used to say, and after tonight I've realized it's true when you're really steaming mad.

Koprowski Zoo

We are preparing Sawyer for our trip to the zoo in a few weeks. So far he climbs up Moxie's cage, sticks his fingers in to let her lick them and tries to pull her hair. I don't think that would go over too well if that were a tiger in there.

This is Matt as a baby. Check out that crazy rooster tail! Sawyer has the exact same one. You can kind of see it in the first pic of Sawyer, but in the video it's displayed in all it's spiky glory.