H is for

Photo 52: ABCs - A, B, C, D, E, F, G

SNOW DAY!

Lame-o that I am though, I keep my daycare open even when school closes, so we had a full, busy day with two extra little munchkins running around.  Oh well, extra money.  :)  At least Daddy got to come home at noon and help Everett build a fort/igloo.

The extras

The neighbor girls helped out in the afternoon

Limiting Screen Time

Recently, I got very annoyed at the amount of screen time Everett has been having and the amount of whining that went along with it.  It seemed like a constant every day that he would be begging for a show on t.v. or his iPod or my phone, and it was a whiny begging to boot.  I would try to tell him, "not right now," or "wait until the babies are sleeping" and nothing seemed to help.  He would whine so much that I would eventually give in for the sake of my sanity and then he'd zone out for 30-60 minutes.  I hate the way I could tell that his brain absolutely shut OFF while watching a show.  It was the exact same look I remember seeing on Brian when we were in high school and you could tell his ADHD kicked in.  I fear that Everett will have ADHD too and I know that screen time would contribute to that, so I was really upset that he was watching so much.  Plus I felt like a terrible mom because I should be teaching him during those times that he's bored.
Well, this week, we implemented a "no screen time during daycare hours" rule.  He's questioned it a few times and asked for a show or tried to nab his iPod, but he is doing amazingly well.  I think having such a clear rule that he knows (if there is an extra baby in the house, there's no tv or iPod) helps him to cut down on the whining too.  I'm not going to say "not right now" or "maybe later;" it's just going to be a "no.  Not until daycare is over for the day."  It is absolutely amazing the immediate turn-around in behavior/boredom in just one and a half days.  He's playing independently; he made us pretend egg salad and soup this morning and has a whole city of cars hiding behind the couch in his secret hiding space.  He's more willing to sit and read a book or color or work on learning letters.  He's playing with the babies and helping me.  I love it!  This is just further support that cancelling cable would be good for us.  I think I'd like to keep the basic channels but just getting rid of the constant availability of kid's shows on Nick Jr and Sprout might be nice.
Anyway.  Everett's decided that naps are for babies and he wants to play his Diego board game with me, so I'm off to be a good mama!

Meals for 2/27

I'm trying to get back into it because it makes life happier.

Monday 2/27 - Cheeseburgers with avocado, frozen butternut squash
Tuesday 2/28 -  Chicken stir fry(I have yoga)
Wednesday 2/29 - Mini mexican pizzas
Thursday 3/1 - Something from the cache of Indian food Megan gave us, plus naan
Friday 3/2 - pizza or going out or leftovers
Saturday 3/3 - Lentil soup
Sunday 3/4 - steak and baked potatoes

Happy Birthday, Callum!!!

Today my baby turned 1 year old.  Here's a link to the facebook album of pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.654859783985.2105810.40401675&type=1&l=7cb1ca4436

Natural Red Velvet Cake

So I decided that I wanted a red velvet cake for Callum's first birthday.  Besides it fitting perfectly with a sock monkey theme, red cake will show up great on his face for pictures!  Well, there's no way I was feeding my baby a bottle of red dye #40 (A BOTTLE!), so I started researching natural options.  The consensus?  Beets.  So I looked at a bunch of recipes for red velvet cakes made with beets and ended up squashing them all together and making my own.
Here's the result.

3 organic beets, boiled for 40 minutes, and then cooled, peeled, and chopped coarsely
1/4 cup organic applesauce
1/4 cup organic butter, softened
3/4 cups organic sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. organic vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tb. lemon juice
1/2 cup organic plain yogurt
1 ½- 2 Tb. organic cocoa powder or organic raw chocolate powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cups all purpose flour or cake flour, sifted
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Trim greens and roots off beets, slice in half, put in saucepan and cover with water.  Boil for 40 minutes until you can poke with a fork.  Let cool and peel skin off beets.

Puree beets and applesauce until smooth.

In a large mixing bowl in an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and beat. Add vanilla, and then add the beet mixture, mixing well. Add the lemon juice and yogurt and mix well again.

In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa, baking powder, flour, and salt together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until well blended.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing from pans and allowing to cool completely. 

I made Callum's in a small Pampered Chef batter bowl and baked for 45 minutes at 350.  I should have added all the batter to the bowl, but oh well.  The taste result- not horrible.  :)  It has a really zingy after-taste from the beets which could probably be helped with a little extra sweetener, but since it's for a baby 1 year old, I don't think he'll mind too much.  I hope.
For the sake of party guests, I also made a boxed devil's food cake in cake balls and mini cupcakes.
Will update this weekend on the partay!

The last week of babyhood

While I am still in denial that my little Cally-bug will be a whole year old this weekend, I won't let that keep me from updating on his last few days of babyhood.  As I previously mentioned, the boys got a nasty cold last week; though there was a silver lining to it.  Being sick convinced my wild little boy that he needed snuggles and nursing.  He's all better now, but he apparently remembered that nursing isn't all bad, and he hasn't refused once since.  This means that I don't have to feel guilty about refusing to pump all day once he turns one because he'll just nurse instead.  I'm a big proponent of "extended breastfeeding" because it has proven benefits for mom and baby.  I loved that Everett was able to self-wean at his own pace and I want Callum to be able to do the same.
Right now, Callum can:
-walk
-run
-wrestle with his brother and nearly win
-use his 2.5 teeth to eat anything you put in front of him
-use sippy cups
-say bye-bye, dada, uh oh, all done
-show his enthusiasm when you ask if he wants food, a diaper change, a bath, or bed by panting and shaking his arms
-open the one not-child-proofed drawer in the kitchen and steal the mixer pieces and funnels before you even notice he's gone
-find any open bathroom and make a mess
-chase cats with great speed
-show his frustration with his brother my smacking him in the head (oops)
-climb on chairs, boxes, toys, etc.
-absolutely destroy mini-blinds that are left within his reach
-imitate blowing raspberries whenever his brother does so on his belly
-go up and down the stairs
-snuggle like a pro
-mess up any folded laundry
-smile for the camera
-bang on any glass he finds (fish tank, windows, doors)
-steal items from the dishwasher (think he likes getting into things and making messes???)
-work all toys that make noise
-look at board books
-dance to any music that so moves him
-help you dress him
-identify the exact moment that his diaper is off and bum is clean and take off like a shot across the room
-give hugs to his mama, dada, and brother
-sit in the seat of a shopping cart, turn himself sideways to better observe everything, and stay perfectly happy and well-behaved the entire trip
-use a stick or spoon to stir things (grass, snow, toys)
-be put into his crib and immediately snuggle up into his pillow and wait patiently for his blanket and stuffed giraffe

G is for

girly knitting!  For our buddy Sawyer who had her first birthday party today!

Photo 52: ABCs - A, B, C, D, E, F

Knitting

I finally got two ongoing projects finished today.
First is a hat I made for Brian last month.  It ended up being about two sizes too big.  Oops.  So I had to make a fleece liner to try and get it to fit right.  We'll see at lunchtime if it actually worked.  But here's just the hat!

And here's the ravelry link.

Next.  I got annoyed that I never get to knit girly stuff.   Well, it just so happens that Callum has a little buddy who turns one year old today.  We were invited to her birthday party and I decided, gosh darn it, I'm going to knit her something girly.
So today, I finished this (the party's tomorrow!):

it's a cute little spring sweater from a book I recently bought myself.  

I'm still working on a mohair/silk blend wrap for newborn photography for a friend and Callum's sock monkey longies.  PHEW!

Bye bye Valentines

I know.  What kind of mom blogger doesn't have a bunch of cutesy posed pictures of their adorable kids posted on Valentine's Day?  Me.  That would be me.  But I have an excuse.  My boys have not been picture-ready since last week.  Saturday, they got a cold.  A cold that turned into a hacking, sneezing, snot-dripping, whining, falling-down tired illness.  And they're still coughing and and I'm still wiping/sucking out/commanding blowing for noses about every 20 minutes.  Poor Everett is missing handing out valentines at playgroup today and he was SO excited for the holiday.  We did get to make daddy a valentine yesterday and make some wrapping paper for his fancy dark chocolate bars (no, not even pictures.  These boys are exhausting right now.).  Daddy came through too and over lunch, brought me some fair trade roses, chocolate and a cherry ale.
We went out to dinner last night at the chinese buffet/sushi bar and as a result, dishes from yesterday's lunch are....we just won't talk about that.  Hmm...I should probably plan some dinner...
Anywho.  That's pretty much it.  Just didn't want you to think we were wallowing in a pit of drool and snot or anything.  Oh wait.  We are.

F is for

FISH!

Photo 52: ABCs - A, B, C, D, E

Breastfeeding an 11 month old

Breastfeeding Callum has been such a completely opposite experience from nursing Everett.  Let's compare.

In the early newborn days:
Everett had a terrible latch, lost weight, milk didn't come in, cracked/bleeding/general ouchiness prevailed.  Had to nurse/pump/supplement for the first month or so.
Callum latched right away, nursed like a pro, never had a problem.

About 2 months - 9 months:
This was actually a pretty similar stage.  Both boys loved nursing and did so frequently.  Everett always took longer to finish a session than the piggy Callum.

9 months:
Nursing strikes for both.  Everett's lasted a couple weeks and he was just distracted.  I could usually get him to nurse anyway.  Callum was uber distracted.  There was very little sitting down and nursing at all.

10-11 months:
Everett's back to happy nursing.  He was nursing in the morning, during lunch break, after work, and before bed.
Callum.  Oh Callum.  I guess since his newborn days were so easy, he had to make it difficult later on, right?  While he will still happily nurse before bed, once during the night, and upon waking, daytime nursings are almost always a struggle.  He's just TOO busy.  He absolutely doesn't have time to be cuddled and nursed.  So I pump.  Usually twice/day I'll pump him a 3-4 oz bottle and he gleefully takes it and downs it in minutes.  I'm not going to get into an argument about whether babies ever self-wean before 12 months because he does still nurse, just not during the day.  And there are occasions that I can get him to nurse during the day.
As a result of this annoyance (who likes pumps!?!), I've come to a decision.  As of February 25, I will no longer pump any milk for Callum to have during the day.  If he chooses to breastfeed during the day, fine.  If not?  I will be giving him whole cow's milk from a local dairy.  I plan to continue breastfeeding at night and offering during the day as long as I have milk and he wants it, but I'm not going to pump anymore.  I know his body could handle cow milk now (3 weeks shy of a year), but husband and I agree that if I introduce it now, he may choose it entirely and I want the boy getting that nutritious breastmilk until he's a full 12 months old.

12-18 months:
Everett happily nursed.  He started self-weaning around 15 months when his intake of cow milk increased.  (He had really refused any large quantity of cow milk until then.)  The day I found out I was pregnant with Callum, I had forgotten to nurse Everett upon waking (his only nursing of the day by that point) and he didn't ask.  He was done.
Callum?  Who knows!  I hope he'll continue nursing until closer to 18-24 months, but if he self-weans, I'll go with it.

E is for Everett

Photo 52: ABCs - A, B, C, D