Bea and Charlie

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to take more photos and while I'm not doing as well as I'd hoped it's only March (and I have definitely been taking more in the last few weeks).

I've been following Amber over at Happiness is Eva on her goal of taking pictures every day this year, what a great idea.  There's always next year....or maybe I could start now and aim for 3/4 of the year?

Anyway, here you go!

Heather

Grow Baby Grow

I've always wanted to try my hand at gardening.  In our Brooklyn apartment we were lucky enough to have outdoor space, however, we really didn't receive the amount of direct light needed to grow much.  I've dabbled with zucchini and tomatoes in pots and was able to fairly successfully grow herbs and lettuce in pots.

This year since we have a good size back yard and plenty of direct sunlight I'm hoping to grow a few veggies, fruits, herbs, and dare I say it, flowers.  Bea has enjoyed watering the few plants we have indoors so I thought this would be something fun we could share together.  Last weekend I picked up a seed starter kit from Home Depot and this weekend we planted our seeds.  We've chosen basil, parsley, rosemary, and chives and if all goes well I would like to branch out to other herbs.

Here are a few pictures from our planting day

In no way do I claim to have any sort of a green thumb so hopefully we'll have at least a little something to show!

Heather

Dinner for Bea

Each Wednesday I've been linking up to Mini Meals on Lauren's with two cats blog.  This week I'm showing a dinner that we recently served to Bea.

Lasagna has been a consistent favorite of Bea's since she moved from purees to solids.  I'm going to start playing around with my recipe and loading some veggies into the sauce, but this is just a traditional lasagna.  Along with it are garlic cheese toasts (made from leftover crescent rolls), roasted broccoli, and apples.

Heather

A Fashionista in the Making

I've been storing Bea's necklaces, bracelets, sunglasses, and crown in a Chanel bag.  This morning while I was feeding Charlie I look up and she has almost everything on and is carrying the bag around.

Coco would be proud!


Heather

Registering for Baby-Extras

As I began typing up the post for this weeks 'Registering with Baby' series I realized that I've left out a few things in both the Diapering and Feeding posts that I wanted to address.  So, I'll take care of that today and next Monday will be back with another 'Registering for Baby'.  

First, I'm not really sure how I failed to mention a diaper pail in my diapering post.  I'm going to blame it on Mommy Brain, as I do most things these days.  

I feel like I've been reading a lot about diaper pails lately and it seems that people are really for them or REALLY against them.  We actually didn't have a diaper pail with Bea.  Since we were in a small one bedroom apt we really only had one trash can (other than our bathroom) and so we emptied it (usually) once a day.  Maybe this is why I never felt the need to buy one, because we didn't have diapers lingering.  At any rate the minute we moved into our house in July I promptly went out and purchased the Diaper Genie Elite II:

Image via Amazon

We've been very happy with this system.  It holds a ton of diapers, there's no smell, and it's easy to change the bags.  

The next thing I noticed I failed to touch on is something I use every single day.  The ever so exciting nursing pad.  I've tried both disposable and washable and while the washable are fine I personally prefer the disposable ones from Lansinoh.

Image via Amazon

They are thin and have adhesive so they stick well to your bra or cami and aren't always sliding around.  I also really like their nipple cream.

Image via Amazon

This product was a lifesaver for me in the first few weeks with both babies.  You really don't know how much of a relief it is when you're sore and cracked to have something that will help.  Buy this early and make sure it's in your bag for the hospital!  

There you have it, the few things that I left out.  If there's anything else in the diaper/feeding realm that you have a question about, let me know!

Heather 

Friday Faves

Image via Etsy

The weather has been unseasonably warm this week, well, actually all winter, but yesterday we reached 70!  In March!  In NJ!!  Fist pumps all around!!!

Here are a few things I've been reading this week:

I'm definitely filing this away for when Charlie starts solids.

Love this swimsuit!  On sale through today.

Another great sale through the 11th!  Bea needs those color pop jeans!

We used to work with her all of the time during my days at O Magazine, how exciting!!!


Have a wonderful weekend!

Heather

Mini Meals-Lunch for Bea

Each Wednesday I've been linking up on Lauren's blog, with two cats, for her Mini Meals posts.  I love that she's doing this, it's given me a ton of great ideas to (hopefully) get out of our chicken nugget and pb&j rut.

The latest meal I'm posting is a lunch meal for Bea.  Here we have falafel from Trader Joe's, pita chips (I toasted pita in the oven), red pepper hummus, cherry tomatoes and celery, and strawberries.  For a child who refuses to eat her veggies Bea ate a ton of falafel.  I'm suspecting she didn't know it was full of veggies.  Whatever it takes, right?

A few other things that I've found work for us are limiting snacks and allowing Bea to help me prepare meals. It occurred to me a few weeks ago that maybe I had been offering up to much during snack time and she was filling up and that's why she wouldn't eat.  So I pretty much stopped the pretzel goldfish snacking.  Now if we have a morning snack it's something like dried apricots, and just a couple.  I've already noticed a huge difference in her during meal times.  And of course if she tells me she's hungry I offer her something to eat but for the most part she hasn't.

Also, a few weeks ago I had her help me make chocolate zucchini bread and since then every time I walk near the kitchen she comes running from the other room screaming 'I help mommy'.  She has a little step stool from Ikea and we pull it over next to me and she watches as I cut things, she assists in throwing things in the trash, and she loves to stir and pour.  As a bonus I've also noticed that she's started trying things while we're cooking that she wouldn't touch before.  Like salmon cakes, mushrooms, and peppers.

Fingers crossed this isn't just a phase!

Heather

What We Wore Wednesday

I absolutely love this little look Bea had on, I think she was channeling Flashdance.

She's wearing a Genuine Kids from OshKosh sweater, a Gap thermal tee, Old Navy black leggings, pink Converse sneakers, and those fab cable knit legwarmers were a gift from our friend Elsa (who can knit anything!).

The sweater and tee were both from previous seasons but everything else is current.

Heather

What's For Dinner

One of my New Year's resolutions every year involves cooking.  I always decide that I'm going to do something different, whether it's bake more (which I'm really not good at), go meat free at least one day, or try new cuisines I want to push myself to get outside of my comfort zone.

This year I decide to make at least one new recipe a week.  For the most part I've been able to stick to my resolution and this week I chose to make stuffed peppers.  I started by looking up a few recipes online and then decided to just come up with my own, so here it is:

3 whole peppers (I used red, orange, and yellow)
1/2 pound garlic and herb sausage
handful of chopped white button mushrooms
chopped red pepper (about 1/2 cup)
about 2 handfuls of baby spinach
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 small can tomato sauce
1 recipe Dressed Up Rice
a few slices white cheddar cheese

I started off by making the Dressed Up Rice.  While this was cooking I sauteed the mushrooms for a few minutes before adding the cut up red pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  Once the mushrooms have browned I add the sausage and brown it.  Then in goes the spinach and cook until wilted.  Combine all of this with your Dressed Up Rice and pour into your peppers (which have been cut in half and hollowed out).  Place peppers in a shallow baking dish and pour the tomato sauce around them and top with cheese.

Cover with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Heather

Registering for Baby-Part 2, Feeding Your Newborn

Baby Charlie

Feeding and diapering are probably two of the most important things you'll need to know about when caring for a newborn.  In Part 1 of my "registering for baby" I covered the diaper basics and this week I'm going to cover feeding.  

One of the most used items when feeding has to be the chair you choose.  You don't need a special rocker or glider for this, but what you do need is someplace that's comfortable and has good back support.  If you're like me then you'll do most of your day feedings on the couch or in your main living space.  Night time is, of course, an entirely different story.  When we had Bea we would both get up in the night (however many times that was) and take her out to our living room and watch TV while we fed her.  Then a good friend happened to mention that you don't want to do this because around 6 weeks the baby will start to notice the TV and will completely wake up, which makes total sense when you think about it.  If you wake in the middle of the night and had a TV blaring you'd be less likely to fall back asleep as well.  So, from that point on we fed Bea in an over sized chair that was in our room (side note, we shared a room with her for the first year because we were in a one bedroom apartment).  With Charlie we've handled night time feedings in our bed.  We are now in a house, but even though Charlie has his own room I still prefer to feed him in our bed at night and then take him back to his crib.  

There are a hundred different rockers and gliders on the market and you could even skip those altogether and just buy a chair that will grow with your baby (use it for story time down the road, etc).  I'm not going to recommend one specific chair, but I will tell you to make sure that if you use some sort of feeding support pillow (which I'll touch on in a minute) that it fits in the chair.  You'd be surprised how many chairs do not accommodate these and what a pain that is!  

Now, onto those pillows.  I adore the Boppy.  

Image via Boppy

I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but we currently have three of these pillows.  One for downstairs, one for upstairs, and one for the grandparents house.  This is something that you'll use every single day, multiple times a day.  A must have!  

Since I predominately breastfeed I don't have a ton of experience using bottles but when we do use bottles we've been very happy with Dr. Brown's.

  Image via Amazon

Right now we're using the glass bottles.  We used the same set with Bea and not a single one has broken (and we didn't even have the protective covers).  

Next up, burp cloths.  If you have a spitter you'll go through a TON of these each and every day.  My favorites for both the shape and absorbency are Aden & Anais burpy bibs.

Image via Amazon 

And finally, for breastfeeding mamas, the breast pump.  If you're not sure you'll breastfeed then you might want to rent a pump until you're ready to make the investment, because they are an investment.  I use the Medela Freestyle Breast Pump.

Image via Diapers.com

And to save time (and be hands free) I also use the Simple Wishes Hands Free Pumping Bustier.  It's comfortable and allows me to do other things while pumping, like read a magazine (I wish!) or tend to our toddler (more likely!).  

These are just a few of my favorites to get you started.  Next week I'll focus on feeding baby once they've moved onto the next stage. 

Heather  

Friday Faves

A new set of board books that parents will enjoy as well

Such a cozy reading space for little ones

Love this new fabric from Rifle

Gorgeous little girls room

Have a great weekend!

Heather

Book Mobile

The Madeline books were on my list to buy for Bea and then she was given two for her birthday!  She absolutely loves the original Madeline and I think we've read it for every nap and bedtime for the past two weeks.  And I think the illustrations are so beautiful, I'm considering buying another copy and framing some of them.  

Heather