Holiday Small Style

The holidays have meant a bit of a blogging hiatus as we've been here and there and everywhere and just generally being festive...

Christmas with an almost-one year old was a pretty magical. Wesley's too young to understand what it all means but he knew it sure was FUN (pretty lights, big boxes, shiny ribbon!)... and he's a little social butterfly so he loved being around family and friends. I loved snuggling in our bed on Christmas morning in our cozy pjs watching the delight on his face as he pulled little trinkets out of his stocking. It doesn't get much better than that!

Here's a little Christmas Eve small style...

Polo & cords: Children's Place

Santa hat: Carter's

Shoes: Little Soles
Socks: Carter's

 

Soup's On!

My perfect meal is a steaming bowl of hearty, homemade soup and fresh bread. Nothing seems more nourishing to both body and mind on a chilly fall or winter day. I've been doing soup a lot lately because it's a fairly simple and light meal and you can pack in lots of nutrition. I can usually serve it to Wesley too which is a bonus (preparing a separate meal for him is not always easy during the 5 o'clock rush!). PLUS, hello... leftovers! So great for freezing and then pulling out for lunch or a quick dinner!

 

Tonight's dinner - Moroccan Beef Stew



I made this Moroccan Beef Stew tonight and it was delicious! Hearty and filling but not heavy, and the combination of the cumin and cinnamon is so tasty! The recipe calls for 6 cups of chicken or beef stock; I used 'no salt added' chicken stock (since I was serving it to Wesley as well). I also used only a few pinches of sea salt when browning the beef instead of the 2 tsp the recipe calls for and then salted a little more before serving after I had removed Wesley's portion. Oh, and it's called a 'stew' but I would say it definitely is more soup-like!

Another favourite soup in our house right now is this Curried Carrot Soup.  Brian actually makes this one most of the time; it's sort of become his 'specialty'. The curry and ginger flavours are fantastic together and the coconut milk makes it so rich and creamy. We make this in a big batch because it freezes really well and just gets better each time you heat it up! This one is a little on the lighter side so is great for lunch with a grilled cheese sandwich or some crusty bread.

Bon appetit!

For Little Readers

I posted a few days ago about my love for reading, and since most of what I read these days includes pictures and rhymes, I thought I'd tell you about a few of Wesley's (and my!) favourite kids' books. Some of these are classics that you may already know, and perhaps some will be new to you. Enjoy!

*Click on book titles for links

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? - Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle

This is probably Wesley's absolute fav. It has a really gentle and lulling rhyme that totally calms him down; it's wonderful for naptime! He can be restless and squirming and I'll start to read this and he completely settles down! It's so great for toddlers because the pattern is repeated over and over again so they can come to predict the next rhyme and feel like they're reading along with you. The pictures are gorgeous too - they're tissue paper collages! So cool! There's a whole series of these - Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear, etc.

Snuggle Puppy! (a love song) - Sandra Boynton

I might actually love this book more than Wesley! One of his nicknames has quickly become "snuggle puppy"! It's an adorable love song from parent to child that really engages both of you in the rhyming verse with whispers and snuggles and kisses. 

Sandra Boynton books are so fabulously silly and fun! We also love Perfect Piggies, The Belly Button Book, Barnyard Dance...

Time for Bed - Mem Fox

It's coming up on 365 times that I've read this book now! I've read this to Wesley every night before bed since the say he was born. It's almost like a lullaby as you say goodnight to all the baby animals and finally tuck your own little one in. Very soothing and relaxing with lovely watercolour illustrations.

On the Night You Were Born - Nancy Tillman

This is a beautiful book as it celebrates "the one and only ever you" and tells your baby just how special and unique he/she is. I often recite the last line to Wesley, "Heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn, on the marvelous, wonderful night you were born." Sob!

Perfect Pets Peek-a-boo

We've been reading this book non-stop around here lately. There's nothing very earth-shattering about it, but it's a flap book and baby pulls back the flap to reveal a different animal when you say the annoyingly catchy line, "Play the game, what's my name?" It illicits lots of smiles and giggles around here!

Mommy's Best Kisses - Margaret Anastas

This is such a sweet book and is interactive for mom and baby to read together. It goes through all the body parts and you kiss each one as you read the lines. Wesley will hold up his hands or turn his face now for the kiss since he knows what to expect.  

One Fish, Two Fish, Three, Four, Five Fish - Dr. Suess Nursery Collection

This board book has five fish beads on a slider that you can move across the top of the book as you count... and of course it's Dr. Suess so the rhymes and pictures are so silly and fun!

Small Style Jammie Edition

Is there anything better than footed pajamas?? I seriously wish I had a pair of these for these chilly winter nights. Wesley's been sporting his Christmas jammies lately and they are so comfy and cozy and cuddly. He's actually been sleeping in lately (that's right folks, 7:30 am in now considered sleeping in!!)... conincidence??

Here are two different 'looks'...

Striped pjs: Joe

Penguin pjs: Carter's



A Literary Autobiography

My grade 4 teacher taught me to be a reader. This is something very different than just knowing how to read I think. Readers love, appreciate and respect books. They read because they want to; to learn, to experience new worlds and ideas. Mrs. Botting was deeply passionate about literature and always read aloud to us in class with voices and sound effects and props. She encouraged us to read for pleasure, not because we had to. Thanks to her, I became a ferocious reader. My parents actually had to coax me to stop reading and come out of my room. It didn't hurt that we would get free pizza for reading something like 10 books a month... remember the 'Book It' program?? My dad and I always shared a passion for books and he would provide me with a steady stream of reading material. We still love to talk about what we're reading and recommend books to each other... as long as it's not a "women's book"!

I loved English class in high school. I always felt so clueless in math and science but then I would come to English class and suddenly I felt at ease and confident in my abilities. It was in high school that I first developed a love for Canadian literature, something which I had previously thought to be very dull. My grade 11 English teacher introduced me to Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields and many other literary greats whom our country has produced. Anne of Green Gables changed my whole world when I first read it as an adolescent (it remains my most favourite book!), and as I delved into other Canadian authors I began to see how - like in Montgomery’s Anne - identity and a sense of place, or landscape, are so interconnected in Canadian fiction. This is an area that I love to explore in my reading today.

I'm an English teacher, and when I talk to my new students on the first day of class, they often tell me, "I hate reading"... it's almost like a disclaimer... "I won't like this class and I won't do well because I hate to read!" Some kids really struggle with reading and so I get it - no one really wants to do something they find difficult. But I love the challenge of trying to change some of their minds about books! I remember reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time with my grade 10 class last year and after a few days of reading the book aloud, one of my most notorious non-readers (and not to mention trouble-makers!) declared that this was the "sickest" he'd ever read. That's good right?? He asked if there were any other books like this one that he could read, and I think by the end of the year, a kid who'd never read an entire novel in his life had read 10 books! All because he found a book that spoke his language.

When I finished reading the book Theories of Relativity with a grade 11 class, one of my students remarked that they were sad we were done the book. To me, that was such an accurate statement of what makes a good book. The best books are the ones that leave you almost in a state of mourning when you're done, because you're sad to leave the people and the world that you are so invested in.

One of my biggest goals as a parent is to provide my kids with an appreciation for reading. They don't have to love it as much as I do (my husband is a total non-reader; he's just not into it!) but I don't want them to grow up afraid of it or with a 'books suck' mentality. I really want them to LIKE reading! I've read to Wesley since he was first born and it's something we love doing together! He'll sit quietly working on his soother as we read before naptime or bed and he definitely already has his favourites (more on that in another post...). In the past week or so he's actually starting picking up books and bringing them over to me! I almost cried the first time this happened! Reading to your baby is the best thing you can do for them in terms of encouraging language development and listening and memory skills.

I started this post with the intention of writing about some books I've enjoyed lately, but it's turned more into a story about my love affair with reading... so I'll post again about that soon, along with some of our favourite kids books!

Delicious Italy

My husband and I went to Italy two summers ago. It was my dream trip and after lots of saving and planning we finally did it... and it was amazing! We were there for two glorious, very, very hot weeks and during that time we toured around Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Tuscany, Umbria and Rome. So much about Italy is beautiful... the landscape, the architecture, the history... but the FOOD is a whole other thing! Once you've eaten true, authentic, Italian food you're pretty much ruined for everything else. Everything tastes better there! We brought home a couple bottles of olive oil and when we finally ran out, I cried. Really. I often have dreams about Italian pizza and try as I might, I've never found anything comparable here. I think the beauty of Italian food is often in it's simplicity. It's all about using a few, really good quality ingredients, rather than having tons of flavours competing against each other. Sometimes a dinner of pasta, lemon juice and parmesan is just the right thing.

I just finished reading Bella Italia by Frances Mayes (the sequel to Under the Tuscan Sun which inspired part of our journey to Italy) and it totally brought back all the sights and sounds and smells of Tuscany. What I would give for some pizza margherita and gelato for dessert!

Brian with his beloved pizza margherita in Venice

A glass of wine at sunset in Cinque Terre

Small Style Bargains

One of the many joys of having a baby was a new reason to go shopping!! I L-O-V-E to shop! And although some* would see shopping for baby clothes as an added expense, I actually see it as a savings!!!... because I spend less time shopping for me and more time shopping for Wesley, and his clothes are cheaper... therefore... SAVINGS! Right??!

Here's my little monster in his cute new sweater which was a steal for only $5 at H&M.

*some = Brian!

Sweater: H&M

Cords: Children's Place

Onesie: Carter's

Shoes: Little Soles Squeaky Shoes (these are adorable but actually really are "squeaky", meaning when he steps, they squeak! cute at first, but now... not so much! i should have taken the name literally!)

Small Style Take 2

We've been doing multiple outfit changes lately because Wesley is really into feeding himself and the food ends up EVERYWHERE! I had him all decked out in cute little vest ensemble this morning but it was a right-off after lunch... so here he is in his not-so-fancy, but perhaps more play-appropriate wear, enjoying the trains at Play to Learn. I guess I'll learn for next time to get the camera out right away!

Bodysuit: Carter's

Cords: Children's Place

Shoes: Tip Toey Joey

Little Moments

Wesley is going through a bit of a seperation anxiety phase right now. Some days are worse than others. Yesterday was a leg-clinging, can't-be-out-of-his-sight day - and since I had things I needed/wanted to get done, I found this annoying. And today when I woke up, I felt really convicted for my annoyance with my 10 month old son and his desire to be with me. Because some days, for whatever reason, we just need what Wesley did yesterday - comfort, reassurance, encouragement. I have days like this; I think we all do.

Obviously I can't spend all day, every day with a baby on my hip. Things DO need to get done, but today, I decided to just be whatever my son needed. After breakfast we went downstairs and my little shadow followed me into the laundry room, over to the computer... He was only content to play if I  was sitting right there with him. He didn't need me to engage in the play, but just to be there.

So I sat and watched him play for 45 minutes and I was amazed and awed and overcome by him, and the One who created him, all over again. What a perfect design! His soft, oh-so-kissable skin, the precision of his tiny fingers picking up a cheerio, the beginnings of language in his babbles and coos, the growing awareness of cause and effect (if I clap my hands together, they make a sound!)... and the security he feels in looking over his shoulder to see that mommy is still there.

I'm grateful for my son everyday, and so humbled by the gift I've been entrusted with, but sometimes I need to slow down and take time to savour him. And not let the things I "need" to get done take precedence over his need for me to be fully present.

Here's my little marvel after waking up from his nap this afternoon... LOVE!

A very crafty Christmas

I've been 'decking the halls' the last couple of days - which has proven to be a bit of a challenge with an almost-walking 10 month old, ensuring that everything is out of reach!

I love decorating for the holidays but really dislike spending lots of money doing it, so I'm always thinking of and looking for easy, DIY decorating ideas. I made something yesterday that was super simple and that turned out really well (I thought!).

I just clipped some red twig dogwood from out backyard, put some pebbles in a glass vase, added a few glass balls and... volia! Easy, attractive Christmas centrepiece!

Cooking up some creativity!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I started doing some Christmas baking this week.Yum! When I have some free time (aka naptime, bedtime) I turn on the Christmas tunes, make a cup of tea and measure, mix and bake away. I love to cook. I find it very relaxing. It's right up there with reading and a hot bath for me. There's something about busying the hands that allows your mind to relax and let go of stress.  It can be cathartic to let your mind go on autopilot and just follow the steps laid out for you. And as long as you follow those steps, you (usually!) end up with a great result.

There's a quote by Julia Child in one of my favourite movies Julie & Julia... "Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative or imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music."As I've become more comfortable in the kitchen though, I've found myself straying from the recipe a bit and becoming more creative. Cooking for Wesley has also spurred this creativity as well. Thinking about what flavours to combine or how to make certain foods appealing to him. 

A recipe is safe, but there's the potential for something amazing when you launch out on your own! I didn't mean for this to be a cheesy analogy for life, but that really does extend beyond the kitchen as well. It's so easy to get stuck in a rut of the same-old, same-old and to stay in our comfort zone. Life is busy, it's complicated, it's so much easier to just stick with what's safe and comfortable - our friends, our routines and habits etc. Now that I'm a stay-at-home mom, I think the potential for living in that comfort zone is even greater (for me anyway!) so I've been challenging myself to do one new thing every week. Whether it's checking out a new play group, or starting up a conversation with another mom at the mall. You never know what might come out of it - it could be something delicous like the sweet potato soup we had for dinner last night!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

Only... 39 days, 1 hour, 52 min until Christmas!!

I L-O-V-E the holidays. There's just nothing better than Christmas music playing, lights twinkling, fire roaring, cider sipping, gift wrapping... it's the most wonderful time of the year!

Today I went through all my cookbooks and made a list of all the Christmas baking I want to do this year. I  started tonight with gingerbread. I'm trying some new recipes this year (spiced coconut balls, salted caramel nut brittle) but the gingerbread is one of my holidays classics that I always make because it's sooo yummy and so fun. Brian and I will spend an evening decorating (we do traditional gingerbread men, stars, trees etc)... although don't tell him I said that! I found this recipe a few years ago and I always go back to it. So simple and tasty; moist with a bit of crunch and the perfect amount of spice.

Here it is...

Gingerbread

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 butter, softened

3/4 brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 molasses

Combine the flour, spices and salt in a bowl. Beat the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and beat well. Slowly add the dry ingredients and beat until well combined. Shape dough into a thick flat disc and wrap with plastic wrap. Refridgerate for 4 hours or overnight. Unwrap dough and roll on floured board to about 1/4 thick. Use cookie cutters to make shapes and place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 8-10 min or until edges just start to brown. Allow to cool and decorate!

 

A little dose of perspective

My husband works with someone who - when you tell him about a problem you're having at work, or in life - will say in his well-meaning, jovial way, "Well, I guess there are worse things!" Not exactly the sympathetic, supportive response you're looking for; rather annoying actually... but I've been thinking about this comment a lot lately as I've struggled to gain some perspective in certain areas of my life.

It's very, very easy to be consumed by your own life; the busy-ness, the worries, the planning. You can end up spending most of your time looking inward. That's why perspective is so important. The things that I get hung up on sometimes and that I waste time and energy thinking or worrying about are often so silly and petty. That's not to say that our concerns and problems are insignificant or that they don't matter (to God, or others) but just that we can spend too much time dwelling on them and lose sight of all the goodness and blessing in our lives. I know I definitely have a tendancy to fixate on an issue. Case in point: Before my son was sleeping through the night I would spend all this energy thinking and reading and researching what I could do to get him to sleep better. I drove my husband crazy talking about it. Yah, I was tired and it sucked sometimes getting up at 4am, but I wish I'd had the perspective to see that it was just a season, and that eventually he and I would both be sleeping better. And there were, as I'm sure my husband's co-worker would have told me, worse things. I have a beautiful, healthy son and if my only "problem" was getting up for a 4am feeding, than man, I'm pretty blessed!

All you have to do is turn on the news or open the newspaper and you're confronted by all the really big problems the world is facing - drought in Africa, political instability in Libya, solidiers and civilians being killed in Afghanistan. The mother of a good friend of ours is dying of cancer right now. I don't say that to be depressing or to make anyone feel guilty because the things we struggle with are certainly valid, but I think we really do need to gain some perspective at times and instead of focusing on the negative, be reminded of the many blessings we have that we so often take for granted. Clean water to drink, democracy, health, safety and security...

So my husband and I have started borrowing that oh-so-true phrase. When Wesley gets up too early for our tastes - "I guess there are worse things." Or when someone cuts us off in traffic - "I guess there are worse things." Because there are bigger issues that people are facing all over the world  and that little dose of perspective is enough to make you count your blessings and thank the Lord for the richness in your life.

Leaf-tastic Small Style

Yesterday we did some much overdue leaf-raking. I think I must have said some variation of "Wesley, don't eat that!" about a trillion times in the span of half an hour! How is it that I can't get him to pick up a piece of banana and put it in his mouth (he loves the taste but hates the 'slimy' texture), but he'll happily shove a dirty, dry leaf in there??

Anyway, here he is in all his leaf-munchin' glory!

Hoodie: Roots

Overalls: Children's Place

Hat: Winners, no label

shoes: Tip Toey Joey

Got milk?

I've been doing lots of reading lately on milk. Wesley is quickly approaching 12 months; I won't be returning to work fulltime so I plan to continue breastfeeding for a while... but, that said, I would like to perhaps drop one nursing session or at least be able to leave a cup of milk for him if I go out. I've been trying to decide whether we want to go straight to cow's milk once he reaches a year, or start him on goat's milk first. Cow's milk is hard to digest, which is why it's not recommended for babies under a year. And apparently the longer you wait to introduce it, the less likely children are to develop sensitivities/allergies to it. My family has a history of lactose intolerance - myself, my brother and my sister have all suffered from it - so I would like to do whatever I can to help Wesley avoid this.

I've never given goat's milk much thought before - North America is definitely a "cow culture" - but I've been finding out lots of interesting things!

Did you know...

• more people consume goat's milk worldwide than cow's milk
• goat's milk contains 13% more calcium and 134% more potassium than cow's milk
• goat's milk protein contains a softer curd which makes it more easily and rapidly digestible
• goat's milk contains only slightly lower amounts of lactose than cow's milk (4.1% vs 4.7%) but this still might be advantageous for those with a lactose intolerance

• goat's milk contains less than 10% of the folic acid found in cow's milk so it must be supplemented with folic acid for babies/toddlers (or some brands of goat's milk offer folic acid fortified varieties)

You can read the full article here.

I checked out the price of a 4L bag of goat's milk at my local grocery store and it is more pricey than cow's milk which is something to consider. However, I have heard that you can get fresh goat's milk at the farmer's market which is reasonably priced.  

For Wesley, with the family history of lactose intolerance, I think goat's milk might be a good choice for us. He already eats yogurt and cheese made from cow's milk and hasn't experienced any problem, but once he moves to actually drinking milk a few times a day, it may become an issue.

So... we may be putting the poor cow out to pasture for awhile!

The Parenting Pursuit

I had a dry-mouth, heart-stopping, breath-taking moment of panic yesterday as Wesley crept over to the fireplace for about the zillionth time in an hour, glanced over his shoulder at me, heard my "ah ah ah", grinned and proceeded to reach out for the hot glass... I thought, "This is where the actual parenting starts!"... PANIC!

Of course, I became a parent 10 months ago (10 months ago this very day actually!) but up until now my duties have been mostly feeding machine, diaper changer, lullaby singer, entertainer... I feel like now we're getting down to the nitty-gritty of being a parent... the teaching right from wrong part, the discipline part, the "I'm-shaping-the-person-you-will-become" part... gulp!

I don't mean to say Wesley has any real concept of right and wrong at this point, or safety, or even has the long term memory capactity to remember I just told him 5 minutes ago not to touch the fireplace... but he's becoming less of a baby and more of a toddler and all these issues are going to be become very real, very soon. It's forcing Brian and I to think about what kind of discipline we want to practice in our home, how we'll handle temper tantrums and disobedience, and how we can steer this small, impressionable life in the right direction. Thankfully, and so wonderfully, we are not alone in this journey of parenthood... and all the parenting books in the world, while they have their place, will do very little if we're not going to the Lord for his direction in raising our kids. I'm always amazed by the fact that God loves my baby even more than I do (it seems impossible because I love him sooo much!) and he wants nothing but the best for him... so he's on my side, he wants me get this right. And when I make mistakes He'll be there to help me work them out and do better next time. The responsibility is daunting, and overwhelming at times, but I'm so honoured it's one I have been entrusted with!

Stay tuned...

Small Style Heartbreaker

This morning we went to the Play to Learn drop-in in our neighbourhood so Wesley is dressed mostly for comfort (with a little bit of style too of course!).

Play to Learn is an awesome program run by the Ontario Early Years Centre which operates out of different "hubs" around the city. Pretty much on any given day you can stop by one of the hubs for as little or as much time as you like and your kids can play, interact with other children, do crafts, participate in 'circle time' (stories, sing-a-longs etc). We've been a few times and Wesley loves crawling around and checking out the new toys, the singing and watching the other kids. It's also a great way to connect with other moms.

I had a real "mommy moment" today, my heart aching for my son as he experienced his first feelings of rejection. At 10 months I know he didn't really understand what was going on, but I could tell by the look on his sweet little face that it didn't feel good. He was so interested in what the other kids were doing and he kept crawling up to see what was going on, smiling and reaching out to them, but of course, when you're 3, who wants a pesky baby interrupting your fun? The bigger kids would turn their backs to him, push him away, grab their toys back and poor Wesley just kept trying until finally he headed back for mommy to have a good little cry. I wanted to cry too! I know it will be the first of many rejections he experiences in his life, but you wish you could just protect them from hurt forever. I just pray in 5, 10, or 20 years, he still comes back to mom for a cry whenever he needs it!

So here's Wesley's rather dejected small style for today...

Vintage Mickey Mouse t-shirt: Old Navy

Grey bodysuit: Carter's

Pants: Roots

The Lovely Pumpkin

Pumpkin epitomizes fall. The taste, the smell, that gorgeous orange colour.

I have pumpkin on the brain lately. Mostly because it's Halloween today and we carved our jack-o-lantern the other night (love doing that!) but also because I've been trying out some new pumpkin recipes. Last week I bought a bunch of canned pumpkin at our local health food store because it was on sale... what to do with 6 cans of pumpkin?? Well actually, there's A LOT you can do with it and it's so good for you; it has TONS of Vitamin A and potassium! I've been hunting down recipes and have found some really yummy ones - pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, mix it with oatmeal (sooo good!) and today for lunch I made Wesley and I a super easy, super healthy 'Autumn Smoothie' which he loved!

Our spook-tacular jack-o-lantern!

Here is the smoothie recipe. Give it a try!

Autumn Smoothie

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup canned pumpkin

1 banana

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

dash of ginger

Blend together and serve.

Dear Diary...

When you have a baby, your house fills up with a lot of 'stuff' very quickly. Swings, and bouncy chairs, and toys, and exersaucers, and highchairs... it's never ending really. I hate clutter, it really stresses me out, so I've been trying to "dejunkify" a bit recently, get rid of some of the stuff we don't need in order to make room for all the baby paraphernalia. I was going through a box this week and came across all my old journals from adolescene. Embarrassing, like seriously embarrassing, to read the voice of my teenage self... and so funny now, at the wise old age of 27, to think back on those moments in my life which, at the time, seemed so earthshattering. But there was an endearing earnestness there too. I was reminded of the longings and desires of my heart at the age... the things I was able to articulate in writing, and even those that were too deep and too personal to express in words. But HE knew them all.  As I was reading it was like I could feel the Lord looking over my shoulder saying, "See... see how I have always been faithful, see how I have always kept my promises, see how perfect my plan has always been..." It was almost like a map of my life over the last 10 years, and being able to see so clearly how God had ordained my steps to bring me right to where I am now. If I could speak to that 17 year old version of myself, I would tell her just to trust, as simple as that... trust... because the Lord works everything out for the good of those who love Him.

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

Oh, how good that future is, and how good it will continue to be!

Fall Small Stylin'

I'll be the first to admit that I take an embarrassing number of pictures of Wesley. I'm sure there are a few people who roll their eyes everytime they see a new album pop up on Facebook... but I mean, look how adorable he is! How could you not capture that??!

I've seen weekly "Small Style" posts on lots of mommy blogs and I thought it would be the perfect excuse to take even more photos and show him off in all his cuteness! Plus I can break out some of those outfits that don't get much use since they are a little too nice for everyday rough-and-tumble play.

We recently had some family photos taken by the wonderfully talented Tracey Allison on a gorgeous fall afternoon. I thought I'd share some of them for my first Small Style post...

Cardigan: H&M

Khakis: babyGap, consigned

Onesie: Old Navy

Hat: H&M

Shoes: Tip Toey Joey

Baby Blues: fearfully and wonderfully made =) 

Yours to Discover

One of the many hats you wear as a mom is 'entertainer'. This really has become a full time job for me lately! Long gone are the days of the sleepy infant content to sit in a bouncy seat or swing; I have a wrecking crew roaming around my house on all fours right now! I'm always trying to come up with ideas to keep my little guy occupied. One of my favourites (and his!) are "Discovery Baskets". This started with me struggling to get dinner ready and having to stop every 30 seconds to pull Wesley out of a cupboard, grab a knife out of his hand (kidding!) etc... so I grabbed a basket and put some unbreakable kitchen items in it that he could play with. I stashed this in a low cupboard so he could open it himself and take the basket out whenever he wanted. It was HUGE hit and I was finally able to get something done. Every week or so I would rotate out the items with some new things in to keep him interested. Today I filled some plastic bottles with water and added a little food colouring and he loves this! Also, macaroni and rice "shakers" (in tupperware) have been big hits.

 

Kitchen Discovery Basket

I've seen this idea lots of places since then - great moms think alike - and it really does make for hours of entertainment! It's so fun to watch him discover the different items inside and see what he does (or tries to do!) with them. Why do kids love the things that aren't actually toys more than all the flashy, expensive stuff we buy them??

I read some great articles here and here and now our kitchen discovery basket has evolved into a few different baskets around the house. We now have a "nature" basket filled with pinecones, some gourds, fake leaves, rocks...

Nature

... and then sort of a "hodge-podge" basket with random items from around the house. I picked up a little set of jingle bells and a hacky sack for this today.



Hodge-podge

I've placed the baskets in accessible spots to him around the house and plan to move them around every few days so it will be a surprise when he crawls upon one! Having a bunch of different baskets that you can rotate out would also keep it fresh. One of the articles mentions a food basket and a noise basket; fun and fun!

Happy discovering!

Keen on KEEN-wah

We've been lovin' quinoa around our house lately! I made a big pot up on Wednesday night (it keeps really well in the refridgerator) and have been incorporating it into dishes all week. It's great to mix in with your oatmeal, or in soup... Brian even put some in the smoothies he made for breakfast yesterday! I must have been pretty convincing with that "this is sooo good for you" speech!

I really wanted to get Wesley on to quinoa because it's such a great grain - tons of protein and vitamins like iron and magnesium. For lunch today he had my own spin on this Quinoa Mexicana Salad recipe I saw on one of my favourite sites Weelicious. I realized after the first few bites that he was finding the quinoa a little dry on it's own so I added some plain whole milk yogurt and then he gobbled it up!

Here's what I used:

a few tbsp of cooked quinoa

1/2 avocado, chopped

ripe mango, chopped
few sprigs of cilantro, finely chipped

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp of plain whole milk yogurt

Mix together and serve!

You could mash the avocado and mango if you want a smoother consistency or for a younger baby.

Pour some (natural) sugar on me!

I have a major sweet tooth. I would definitely choose sweet over salty anyday! But despite my love for sugar, I know how bad (refined) sugar is for me. In the book The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone, she talks about how sugar is basically like a drug. We get a high or sugar rush from it, only to crash later on and feel hungry again, craving more sweets! I'm proud to say my son's little body hasn't encountered any refined sugar so far, and I plan to keep it this way for as long as possible! (And just as a side note, most of the "-ose" ingredients you see on your food labels are simple sugars too! Dextrose, glucose, sucrose, maltose and the particularly nasty high fructose corn syrup!)

The Kind Diet talks about just how nasty white sugar is for our bodies and one of the more interesting examplesis that white sugar suppresses our immune system. I have a tough enough time keeping my baby healthy with all the snotty, straight-into-the-mouth toys at playgroup without adding anything else to the mix! Basically when you eat refined sugar, your body releases insulin in order to bring your blood sugar back down and then once the sugar has been metabolized, all this excess insulin remains, causing an imbalance in the hormones particularly related to your immune system.

Sometimes you just want something sweet though (and I want my son to be able to enjoy the sweet things in life too!) so lately I've been thinking alot about alternatives to refined white sugar and brown sugar.

Here are some of the options I have discovered/tried so far:

Maple syrup: 100% natural and deee-licious! It's very concentrated so you don't need much and it's great for baking (also awesome over oatmeal!). I have a wonderful recipe for amazing "healthy" cookies using maple syrup which I will post.

Agave nectar: another natural, very sweet syrup made from the agave plant - also great for desserts. I made some chocolate macaroons using this and they turned out great!

Brown rice syrup: this is made from brown rice cooked until it boils down into a liquid. It's thick and looks almost like honey (another natural sweetener!). Apparently this is wonderful in muffins, caked etc.

Stevia: way, way sweeter than sugar so you use very little of it. It's a little tricky when substituting this in recipes to know how much to use, sort of a trial and error thing. It rates a 0 on the glycemic index (GI) - the lower the rating, the healthier a food is considered to be.

Molasses: has lots of vitamins and minerals (iron, calcium etc) and I love the taste in baking, especially around the holidays.

I'm looking forward to playing around with these a bit more and trying to further limit our sugar intake.

Here is the recipe for "healthy" cookies using maple syprup...

Spelt Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup olive oil (I find the flavour a bit strong and use less)

1 cup pure maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup boiling water

1 cup spelt whole flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups oatmeal

1/4 cup flaxseeds and/or 1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Beat oil, maple syrup and vanilla with beater for 2 min until foamy.

Add boiling water and stir.

Add flour, salt, baking soda and oatmeal and stir.

Mix in flaxseeds or coconut and chocolate chips.

On slightly greased cookie sheet, flatten out small balls of dough with fork  (the dough will seem softer and runnier than traditional cookie dough).

Bake @ 325 for 18 to 25 min.

Makes three dozen.