Making Tiny People Food.

I find it funny that Levi and I ate a whole pound cake covered in chocolate the other night but I will only feed Aubin organic veggies. It kinda makes you think and reevaluate your own health---if it is what I want her body to have, why wouldn't I want my own to have it too?? At least she will be healthy!!

Either way, I have been a Pinterest queen lately and found a few great pins on how to make baby food. Labor Day was a perfect weekend for me to get my Paula Dean on because Levi was out of town and I could make a mess in the kitchen and not feel bad. Aubin and I did our typical Saturday target grocery shopping but this time she picked out all the veggies she could handle.

I ended up spending $21 dollars on all organic yums like: spinach/kale, peas, butternut squash, cauliflower, peas, sweet potatoes, red and gold beets, and green beans.

The basic recipe is cut everything up, toss it in the steamer and then ninja blend it to smithereens with some water until desired consistency. Once I had all the purées made, I put them in ice cube trays and froze them. The rest of the food was put into bags and labeled for when we run low on this haul.

I was super impressed with the amount of cash flow I spent vs the amount of food I made. Each ice cube is ~2 oz of food. She will usually eat 1-2 of the at a sitting. The Organic Beechnut baby food that I was initially buying her was $1.00 for a 4oz jar---IF you get them on sale. So if you just count up the ice cube trays, I made 35.5 "jars" of food!! The quart baggies of frozen puree will give me about 40+ more jars too!!That is a saving of (rounding to 75 jars of food, and them being on sale) $54!! That is some serious cheddar!! [If the jars are full price ($1.39) it would have been a savings of $83.25]

From start to finish it took me exactly 2 hours, with most of my time being used to watch things steam. I lost my helper along the way---apparently there was just too much excitement for her.

 I can't believe my tiny girl is already eating food. It just blows my mind that she getting so old. Soon it's going to be her half birthday and you can bet your ass in going to have a party for her :)

Do Great Things

Linds

Maxwell's Journey

I did not have the honor of meeting tiny Maxwell, but his story has greatly affected me being the new mother that I am.  Maxwell was only 1 month old when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and began his fight. His parents provided updates on their page throughout his journey to keep friends and family updated.  Maxwell was 9 months old when he spent his final day on earth where he was surrounded by family and friends on June 4^th 2015.

On his first birthday, August 26, Maxwell’s parents asked that everyone do a random act of kindness to honor him and his memory. Every chance I had to look at the pictures of the RAKs on social media, I did.  So many people did so many amazing things to honor this little boy. People bought random coffees for employees, sent balloons to heaven, had birthday cake, made donations to the Ronald McDonald House, and brought flowers to their own child’s caregivers.  I was brought to tears six different times yesterday as I viewed the acts for this amazing little boy.

Please remember to be thankful for what you have and to try to make at least one person smile every day.  Maxwell, even though I have never met you, you have touched my life and make me so grateful for my family. Rest peacefully little man.

If you donate to CaringBridge in the next day, your donation will be DOUBLED, thanks to a generous St. Paul, Minnesota, couple… please visit to donate

Also, if you would like to do a Random Act of Kindness for Maxwell, please do so!! You may take a picture and post it to social media with the hashtag #Maxwellstrong

Do Great things

Lindsey

Parenting Fails

I feel like LJ and I have been doing a semi decent job at this whole parenting deal. So far our child is a relatively amazing, all around human being. She rolls, laughs, and doesn’t really cry that much, so I say we get an A for effort.

Although some days, not so much. Here are some of our parenting fails over the last 4 months.

I left for work without shoes on my feet. How does that even happen?? I realized I was homeless about halfway out of the neighborhood. It was also a Monday so that could have played a part too.

Stroller fails. This could be a blog post on its own. The thing is a death trap.  This all happened in the same week. I was rushing out of the house to meet Leigh Ann and boom the stroller busted my face so hard I thought I knocked out my tooth. It bled the whole way to the mall. The bruise on leg, was from when I tried to close the stroller and the dumb lock on it scrapped my thigh. This picture is after 1 week so imagine how awful it was earlier!

Sorry for the Lez-Be-Honest picture...
I had to hold my lip up somehow

Ever gotten really engrossed in your work only to not take a break for pumping at your normal time and then realize you forgot your pump parts and bottles?? Yeahhhh. Sorry Aubin, you cant eat anymore because my chest has exploded due to my idiotness.

I felt really bad about this one…Poor tiny was screaming for quite a long time during a storm because I turned the monitor on mute accidentally. Once I realized what was going on, I raced into her room and scooped her up and she was red from yelling, and so sweaty L All her little duck tail hairs were matted on her head.  I crieeeeddd, oh I cried.

Obviously NOT from that same day,
but a picture of my burrito babydoll

Levi didn't check her diaper before school and noticed when he took her out of the car seat that she had a blowout at home. It got on the Bumbo, car seat and on his arm---which he didn’t realize until he was driving to work.

Little miss rollie-pollie, rolled right off my legs as I was sitting on the couch and almost ate it hard on the floor. Good thing I had just enough time to grab her and not spill hot shells and cheese on her pretty face.

I know there will be many many more parenting fails along the way :) Hopefully, we dont screw our kid up too badly!!

Do Great Things

Linds

Organization and Planning with a Tiny Person

First three weeks back to work have been rather uneventful. We are starting to get in somewhat of a morning routine. We get up, get ourselves ready, pray to God she doesn’t wake up early, make breakfast and then get her ready for the day at 6:30. If all goes well, we are out the door by 7:06. I will tell you one thing, having to coordinate all the nonsense in the morning has taught me how to be the queen of organization and planning. 

It all starts on Sundays-our meal prep days. I make our breakfasts for the week (eggs, turkey sausage, cottage cheese, and spinach) and put them in little Tupperware so they are ready to throw in the pan  and cook on their own as I let the dog out/make sure he is fed and put work bags in my car. This alone has save us about 10 minutes every morning. My lunch is always ready the night before as well. When I don’t make it ahead, then I just end up saying Eff it and going to eat crappy food somewhere and then im pissed at the calories and the money that I spent.  Lose-Lose I tell ya. All of my clothes for work and my workouts are laid out the night before. If I don’t do this, I am rummaging through the dirty laundry searching for the least nasty sports bra. No one wants that. Empty bottles and pump parts are set out to be thrown in their cooler and all my pills are laid out so I don’t forget. Lord help us if I forget those!!!!

Breakfasts for the week, partial lunches, and Aubs bottles for a day.

I also make her bottles as soon as I come home from work. They are in her lunch box and are ready to grab as we are heading out the door. All of her clothes and headbands are ready to roll once she gets her sleepy face up. She has to be a snazzy babydoll always!!

Good Morning Smootches

Once we get to daycare all my worries actually go away. The first few days were hard. Yes, I cried outside of the daycare, and yes Levi laughed at me. Now its almost a race to see how fast you can drop her off. I figure if I am paying them a mortgage payment, they should watch my kid and I shouldn’t feel guilty. And now I don’t. Her teachers freaking love her. Every time we bring her in, they sing “This girl is on fiiirrreeee” to her because she is always so fancy, and they argue over who gets to love on her first. I will say that picking her has to be the best every because she just lights up when you come into the room!! Hi babydoll!! Mama is here!!

Our lives have become controlled chaos for sure. I definitely would not change it for the world! And of course, you cant leave the house unless you have a little puke on your shoulder!!

Do Great things

Linds

I'm Just Not Ready

I’m not ready. Plain and simple, I’m just not ready. The mere thought of leaving Aubin just makes me sick to my stomach. I never really thought that I would be one of those moms who would actually consider staying home. Too bad that is not in the cards for us right now.

Corporate America and their maternity leave is basically a joke. I was fortunate enough to receive 44.5% of my pay over the course of my 12 week absence—for which I am SUPER grateful. However, some women are not that lucky. This infographic shows how the US stacks up to the rest of the world.

Take a minute to let that sink in to your brain. At least companies like Johnson and Johnson and Google are taking steps to mitigate the short maternity leave that women receive…Don’t even get me started on paternity leave. I’m obviously upset because, I am NOT ready.

Now the time has come and I have to go back to work to help support our family. I have to leave my baby at this place that I will call “school” to make myself feel better. She will have fun, learn, and have little tiny people friends. All things that are awesome for her, but super sad for this mommy. I want to teach her things, and see her roll over for the first time. I want to take naps with her and go on walks with her and Murphy. I am not ready to let someone else spend 40+ hours with my baby.

For the next two days we will just do all of our favorite things. We will go to target and spend at least $50, accessorize to our little hearts are content, do some swimming at the pool, paint our nails, take a shushy on the couch together, hang out in the bumbo and bake, and enjoy some nice long walks around the neighborhood. 

I will go to work on Wednesday, puffy-eyed and stuffied nosed. I will choke back my tears when people ask how she is and if I am getting sleep. I will quickly get my work completed  so I can go home and spend uninterrupted time with her and her dad. Here is to being a working mom!

Do great things

Linds

Shopping with a Tiny Person

As my maternity leave is winding down, I find myself more and more upset that I have to go back to work. It seems that the only think that helps is going to the mall to buy new work clothes that I totally don't need.

Oddly enough, clothes actually fit me better now after Aubin. Schwing!! I think it is because I used my pregnancy as a 9 month bulk to eat all the things and still lift heavy as f (while still within reason). This resulted in nicer legs and a rounder tush for me. That makes shopping so much more fun...especially that I am in a smaller size than I was pre-pregnancy!! My belly still resembles pizza dough so, don’t worry, I’m not totally one of those asshole moms. Nicer butt = pizza belly, Ill take what I can get I guess.  

Lift your weights Ladies!!!

However, the most annoying thing is shopping in stores that are not accommodating for strollers. I had to Baha over boxes and racks here at Black House White Market and I totally knocked over a whole rack of shorts at target.

How the hell do I get through this tiny space??

With that being said, the absolute WORST stores for strollers are the damn baby stores!! Hanna Andersson, Gymboree, and The Children’s Place are terrible. You would think they would make lanes big enough to accommodate all of us mothers with our giant ass strollers and screaming babies. Maybe our kids wouldn’t be so pissed if they weren’t constantly getting rammed into racks and tables.

I ended up getting some awesome tops from the "Scandal Collection" at the Limited and then some other pieces at target---Hooray for not looking homeless when I go back to work!! Aubs got some new 4th of July bows, more clothes and bathing suits that she didn't need. I think she ended up getting more swag than I did. Go figure. 

She looks totally happy that I
just spent some mad cheddar on her.

The mall does have a pimped out mothers room so it makes it easier to feed her and get back to shopping. Other than that, shopping is the only thing that makes me semi forget that I have to leave this adorable-chubby-mushy-perfect face in 6 days. UGHH

Do Great Things

Linds

The Milk Boob Chronicles

I  have a two month old that is 100% alive because of me. It is so weird that I have been able to produce enough food to keep this kid full, happy, and growing.

Breastfeeding has had its highs and lows for me. I feed Aubin "on demand" so whenever she seems hungry or fussy, she gets some boob. This can be good and bad. It can calm her down, but at the same time she is attached to me all the time and Levi doesn’t get the joy of waking up with her at 3 am!!

Here are some things I have learned in this adventure of feeding my daughter:

People will stare. Whether you have a cover or not, people stare and they are idiots. I never really realized how grown-ups have completely sexualized breastfeeding. Listen fools, I’m just feeding my kid, back off. There is so much shaming on women who feed in public it is ridiculous and it needs to stop. I mean I look SOOOO inappropriate feeding her at the pool right?? If she was screaming and interrupting your precious tanning because she was hungry, I am sure you would be even more pissed off. #normalizebreastfeeding

Working out is hard. I have to time her eating about an hour before my workout, then I need to pump after to make sure I am empty. By the end of my workout, the boobies start to get full and activity gets hard. Lord knows I would not be able to run anywhere or I would poke an eyeball out.

Padding your bra is no longer looked down upon, but greatly encouraged. 

I am always sticky. Al-ways. As much as a God send a warm shower is, you get out and immediately you are dripping like an old faucet. There is also the puke factor…I will let these images do the talking (Notice the towel on my head...I had JUST gotten out of the shower when boom puke all on my shoulder, back, arm and floor.)

I know latching is not supposed to hurt, but I still feel like I am in a state of constantly getting "purple nurple"

No one has time to pump. There are two settings stimulation and let down. The stim phase is fast and 2 minutes. I'm lazy and only like to do the fast, two minute pump. (I was going to insert a sex joke here but I thought it would be inappropriate lol)

Looking at Aubin and knowing that she is alive, thriving, and gaining tons of weight because of JUST ME, is so awesome. It makes me feel like superwoman. Homegirl has rolls on rolls and is topping the scales at 13lbs (85%)!!!  She is really the coolest kid ever and we are so thankful that she is ours!!

Clayman feeding tiny girl

Sidenote: I would like to say that I do believe that formula is awesome as well. We have a stock pile of it right now that if the time comes and she needs it, she will have it. Bottle feeding is just as beautiful people. We actually keep some pre-made supplementing Enfamil bottles in our diaper bag just in case something happens and she needs food. There is no judgement on how you decide to feed your tiny person.

Do great things
Linds