Categories
nest things to do

sleeping through the night

10/33

hahahaha.

oh, you want to know why i’m laughing? i’m laughing because i’ve been duped, we all have! we think that there’s a time when kids start sleeping through the night, and then always do!

oh, your kids always do sleep through the night? ok then i’m not talking to you…go have fun with your unicorn 😉

for everyone else, what the heck right? i mean that is THE number one question i have gotten since my daughter was 2 weeks old, is she sleeping through the night yet? not the question i expected. i expected the when do you want more kids question but no, this is by far the most asked question.

i seriously still don’t know how to answer that question. ye…well, i mean, kind of. i mean she can, and she does, but not all the time. i know everyone in our parents’ generation has forgotten history and thinks we were all sleeping through the night since 6 weeks old and that was that. so then when people asked when she was little there was all this pressure to give excuses as to why she wasn’t all the time. it’s so silly! who cares if your kid isn’t sleeping through the night all the time but when everyone and their mom is asking you, you start to get paranoid that there’s something wrong with your situation…should i be letting her cry more, should i give her more food, should i make her warmer, colder, but she’s teething and i can’t do anything about that and and and what should i do to get my kid to sleep?

luckily all my friends are going through this right now and none of their kids sleep through the night all the time. so that made me feel, well, normal! no need to be paranoid but seriously why is that THE question?

i think the next time someone asks, i’ll just send them to this website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claire-zulkey/baby-acting-crazy-its-probably-a-case-of-jbbb_b_4337821.html

JBBB it will set you free…

Categories
celebrate eat things to do

good food takes time

9/33

i was peeling a clementine for the babe the other day and she was getting whiny. she’s 1 so she gets whiny a lot, growing into a toddler is hard work! off the top of my head i told her to be patient because real food takes time. i’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. real food does take time! it’s a lesson i really want to teach my kids. there’s a place for fast food but i really want to stay in good habits and make fast food for unique occasions. i want them to learn how to cook and enjoy it, like i’m only beginning to do now in my 30s. today making the thanksgiving meal was awesome and everything was from scratch. i actually enjoyed it and a big reason is that i just felt good about how healthy it was, no shortcuts, no junk. it was a meal i could feel good about feeding my family, including the baby!

oh and my pomegranates all went rips so i spent the good portion of nap time seeding these. see, real food takes time!

Categories
africa places to go

It’s Your Turn

8/33

i came across this photo recently and kind of chuckled a little bit because this was my first time baby wearing, 11 years before having a baby of my own, or even knowing what baby wearing is.

it makes me laugh because baby wearing is such a thing now but in africa it’s so different! they strapped this baby on me and said, ‘your turn’ and then got back to work. honestly this was the only time i felt useful when i was hanging out with the african ladies. they are so hardcore! when it was my turn to stir the pot for dinner, i could barely move it, but i could hold a baby, and if that helped them get dinner done, then great!

i asked if the babies ever fell out. they said ‘sometimes’. so different. so so different.

Categories
nest things to do

living cleanly

7/33

oh my gosh, i can’t believe i just discovered this!!

after cleaning up our eating habits, we started looking into lots of other things in our life that could be toxifying our life. we just went through all the cupboards and just got rid of a ton of lotions, shampoos, cleansers, etc… because they are full of terrible chemicals. some of the chemicals are known carcinogens, there is food coloring, formaldehyde, and chemicals that change your hormones! these ingredients are in so many items, ones that are even advertised as ‘natural’. but why am i surprised, all the food is falsely advertised…

so i was googling to find what are good ingredients in soap and i came across this website, goodguide. you can search any product, and if you have the app, you can even scan products, and they rate them based on health, environment, and social and you can see how it measures up! i ended up looking up everything we owned, threw 95% of it out, and searched for products that rated 10 for health. we were able to find a lot of products at target and amazon, some i’m still on the hunt for but i’m so happy to say that my cupboards are cleaned out and simplified.

i feel safer with less toxins for our bodies and less risk if kids ever get their hands on cleaning products. as with everything healthy, the ones we went with are a bit more expensive, but it’s worth it…it’s worth it…it’s worth it!!! ask me and i will tell you how clean eating and clean living is worth it!!

Categories
oceania places to go

The in-betweens, NZ ’10

6/33

one of our favorite things about travel is finding things that are otherwise unnoticed. of course there are travel books and things you MUST VISIT when you go somewhere, but some of our favorite memories have been during the in-betweens, the times we have just pulled over because we had to see what was down this little alleyway or take a photo of a ridiculous sign. that’s why our recommended mode of travel is rental car!

here are our favorites from our NZ trip.

here’s our little vehicle!

this was the coolest calmest body of water ever, so incredible!

honey tastings?? are you kidding me? we saw this sign and had to check it out. then shortly after we found a blueberry wine sign and HAD to stop there. i guess we didn’t take any photos but oh my what an experience! we were the only ones there and this lady let us try all these different wines and liquors she’d made. we’d never tried so many different types of tasty drinks before, and also some not so tasty! some were so sweet! we chatted with the lady for a while and she told us that she just loved experimenting with wines. so she’s made wine out of every fruit imaginable. she said some she couldn’t sell because after tasting them she would wake up on the floor the next day. it was hilarious! and yet another fun random find only because we were wandering off the beaten path.

mt. doom from lord of the rings…wow this scene was breathtaking!

ok this was freaking random. we stopped in this field and all these cows just started mooing and coming toward us. really freaky!

and this may not have been the first time i’ve trespassed…don’t judge me!

worth it, see!

don really aimed high in life…

couldn’t understand this sign!

and i guess the only down side of renting a car is the potential of getting a ticket. whoops! this is the only time we’ve ever gotten a ticket while traveling, not our first run in with a cop though. ah well, adventures adventures…

Categories
eat things to do

you are what you eat – costco run

 

5/33

remember when i used to blog about healthy eating? well as i said in one of the posts, where i shop changes all the time because of prices and selection. so here’s my latest costco stash! they are getting more and more organic and all natural products and that’s exciting!

organic apple chips

organic fruit snacks (seriously like candy these are so amazing!)

organic sugar

chocolate chips (ethically sourced)

organic squeeze pouches (i try to use these more for when we’re out and i really need something on the go, otherwise i think it’s better for kids to eat whole fruits and veggies)

organic chickens (the best deal around! 25 for 2!! see my chicken post on how to cook a whole chicken – put one in the fridge and freeze the other)

organic string cheese

organic uncooked tortillas (2 pack which is great because you can freeze one)

kerrygold butter and cheese – see below

organic eggs (not pictured, they didn’t have any this time wah)

organic mac and cheese (annie’s brand)

ok so this brand is amazing! super affordable and grass fed cheese and butter!!! no need to be organic if it’s grass fed 🙂

obvi this is the best thing to get at costco though…you really can’t tell how big these are with this angle, i think you really need to go check them out for yourself. and then buy a u-haul to bring the thing home and then snuggle forever and forget all your responsibilities like making whole chickens and eating healthy…