I'm still here

It's been a while since I've updated, and there's a few good reasons for that. First, Ollie went down to one nap a day, this severely limited my computer time. Second, I have been sleeping during that nap time and letting everything slide (this blog, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc.) because I'M PREGNANT!!  Do you remember that unending tiredness of the first trimester? I do! We are three months along and expecting our second arrival sometime in April/May. We chose our midwives and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat at our first appointment last week. That little thumping noise is just the best sound in the whole world :)

I will try to update this blog more often than every three months, but I can't make promises. We're going to be parents to two under two, ahhhh! Freak out moment!! OK, deep breaths, we have six months to prepare. Wish us luck!

pictures from OG's first birthday weekend

This is what he looks like in most pictures because he never stops moving!

Checking for cavities.

One last picture with his long hair. We gave him his first hair cut later that day.

His new favorite toy- the dog door.

Splashing in the pool, our favorite past time.

"Buy me! Your kids will never knock me over or break me" lied the frog

staying cool

We run a humidifier in our house at night. I got this cute little froggie one for OG's room and loved it, until yesterday. First thing in the morning I saw that the thing had run all night into the curtain which ended up in a big soaking puddle all around it. Things happen, so I cleaned up all the water. Later, when I was in the shower, my little angel decided it would be fun to knock the entire thing off the stand it was on and I found him standing in the empty bottom part of it, crying because he couldn't figure out how to get out. I should have taken a picture but the whole wet, dripping with water thing was more important. So, I cleaned up all the water for the second time. Later that evening, I was plugging in my husband's phone charger (trying to be nice) when I saw OG reaching for the humidifier. I said "no", he started pushing it towards the end of the stand. I said "NO", then "NOOOOO!" as it fell off the edge and broke and water went everywhere! I was pissed off and literally told him as he toddled off "you'd better not come back until you're ready to apologize to mommy!" Hmmm... never got that apology but I sure got to clean up all the water again!

weird things happen to me

Last week, I went with one of my mommy friends to the local mall to let our kids play in the play place. Not everyone has these in their area, so let me explain. It's a like a large indoor playground for small kids where the parents sit around the outside and watch all the kids go buck crazy wild on the inside. Great for kids of multiple ages and a complete cesspool of germs. Since I'm a new mommy, I'm one of the hover- moms. Keeping a close eye on my youngster even venturing into the mayhem in the middle, sure this will change with time. Anyway, sometime during the play date my little one signed that he wanted milk. We made our way to the edge of the seating area, found an obscure spot and began feeding. Now, our little guy is very social and loves other kids. He makes friends easily, sometimes these new friends become very attached to him. During our little nursing session one of his new "friends" a girl about six years old comes over and watches us. She asked me "is the baby sleeping?" I said "no, he's eating, could you please go away?" Mind you, I had never even seen this girl before and we weren't using a cover so she could see everything from the 3 centimeter distance that she had plonked herself.  She left, good girl. About 10 minutes later, after my youngin' was finished, i was covered up and he was off playing again, the girl returned. She reached out and touched my boob (yes, you read it right), she pointed at the baby and said "baby eat". Then the weird part happened. She pointed at my boob and pointed at her mouth and said "I eat". 

A little random girl asked me if she could breastfeed off me. Weird things happen to me.

the good stuff

You know that I went through and purged my beauty products for all things toxins. And truthfully I took two things out of the bad pile to keep (mousse and conditioner). Now I'd like to share the good natural bathroom products that we use every day and I'd love to hear what your favorite natural products are.

I have to apologize in advance to those readers who do not have access to a Trader Joe's, you may just want to quit reading right now. We buy many of our products from them, they are so good about making their own cheaper brand. If you do have a TJ's in your area go there, check out the prices and thank me! I'm sure there are many amazing products out there to spend your money on. But I try to do everything on the cheap since I stay at home and we live on one income.

First of all toothpaste, Trader Joe's (see, I told you you'd be mad) makes an excellent natural toothpaste. I didn't like the taste at first, but now I'm used to it.

deo- I make my own and it works better than anything I've ever tried. Mix 1/4 cup cornstarch with 1/4 cup baking soda, add coconut oil to desired consistency and a few drops of essential oil like lavendar. Take a deep breath and savor the freshness, ahhhh...

face lotion- tried Trader Joe's and not a fan, I don't want an SPF with Oxybenzone in it on my face all day. Sometimes I use Jojoba oil, sometimes I use Aveeno, sometimes I use nothing. I would love to hear what you are using. I bought an Avalon Organics lavendar scented face lotion and it was heaven, I felt like I had been to the spa every time I use it. But it's pricey- at Whole Foods it was $18 for a small jar!

body lotion- my whole family uses plain old olive oil, while your skin is still wet from the shower/bath. It's like a little massage. I'm going to put vanilla essential oil in it for a natural bug repellent during the summer.

shampoo and conditioner- from Trader Joe's again, they have an awesome line of tea tree oil products and I think they're around $3 a bottle, come on now, it's practically robbery.

soap- we use a TJ bar soap made of oatmeal and honey, it's awsome and just $2 for 2 bars.

So, what do you use? Anyone else <3ing TJ's as much as me?

BTW if you like me and my blog please become a "follower", it's super easy just enter your yahoo or gmail email address. You will not get any emails or spam - promise!

No more hives

I'm so happy to report that our little guy is feeling better. It's amazing how fast babies recover- today he woke up almost all cleared up. Our little trooper couldn't wait til 8am to tell us that he was OK, he thought 4am was a more appropriate wake up time. My wonderful husband stayed up with him so I could get some much needed sleep. I just can't be mad at him when he was so sick the last two days. He got extra cuddles and nursies all day. We're still not sure what was the cause of the reaction. It could have been some peanut sauce I ate earlier in the week in chicken lettuce wraps. But it could also have been a million other things. We'll just be happy that he's OK and be more careful about peanuts in his and my diet.  Thank you for the kind words and advice and offers for help. It's nice to know so many people care about our little family ;)

Hives!

This is what I woke up to this morning. Hives! All over my beautiful baby's body. I was so scared for him. I first put him in the bath with some oatmeal. Then took him to our pediatrition when they opened. Actually, the first person I called was my Mom, or Dr. Momma (she's not a real doctor but she may as well be with as much natural healing reading that she does!) She was so helpful and reassuring, thank you Mom. Our Dr. prescribed Benadryl for the itching and homeopathic drops for whatever was giving him the reaction. I've been racking my brain thinking about what it could be and I still don't know. The weirdest part of all of it is that when I leave him with my husband and leave the room all of the hives go away.  We don't know if it's the timing of the Benadryl or something about me that's setting him off. It's a horrible feeling that I may be causing my baby to feel like that. I tried putting breastmilk on him, by taking some I had frozen and putting it in a syringe then squirting it on his skin- it got everywhere! But he smelled so good and milky. He didn't want to eat or drink anything but he would still nurse. It made me SO thankful that we're still nursing.

I'm really giving myself a guilt trip because I've been trying to eliminate toxins from our home and use more natural products and he still had a reaction. To what?! I guess we'll find out if it happens again. I should be glad that it's not more serious and that he's strong enough to recover. I'll keep you updated on his progress.

status quo

Those of you that have seen me during the last 11 months know that I am breastfeeding. And for those of you that have asked or are wondering what we're going to do now that the baby is turning one- the answer is nothing. I'm not stopping or changing a thing. Now, I could quote organizations on the health benefits, talk about celebrities that breastfeed, or mention the amazing benefits to me that it provides. But really we're going to keep doing it because it's easy, free and the little guy loves it! He knows the sign for "milk" and he asks for it (a lot). And have you ever thought about how breastfeeding is great for the environment? Even if you only do it for a few weeks, it comes from you so there is no production cost, no packaging, and no transporting. You don't need any bottles or water to make it. No fancy equipment required! Although some fancy equipment is fun, you can buy cute nursing covers, nursing pads, special clothes and bras. Also, the almighty breast pump. A crutial decision in a new moms life. The one that I bought is manufactured by a company that also makes formula. Should it be any surprise that it doesn't work very well? Conspiracy??  I wish I had known not to buy the Evenflo pump, please spread the word to new moms.

So, all is good in our home and all is staying good. Little guy is popping new teeth all the time and is up to 6. He's also taken a few tentative steps by himself. We're looking forward to his first birthday in a couple weeks. We can't wait to see our families and celebrate!

yee haw!

the stink face of teething

do you see my new teeth?

p.s. I made my own deoderant and it works great! Mix equal parts baking soda and cornstarch, add coconut oil to desired consistancy.

Glamour article

It looks like I'm not the only one concerned about toxins in our homes:

http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2011/04/the-new-toxic-threats-to-womens-health

today is a good day

ahhh.. nap time and all is quiet. Today is just one of those days where everything is good. We have been busy with life and family and friends and I feel like I have so much to be thankful for. We went to California two weeks ago to visit our family there. Our little guy was showered with love and affection and he just basked in all the attention. We learned how much a 10 month old doesn't like to be in his car seat for six hours :) but we stopped and got out as much as possible and we survived. My Mother-in-law took us to a farmer's market at Laguna Hills Mall and it was amazing! It was about four times larger than ours here and they had fish and seafood and all kinds of different veggies. It made me want to move there- just for the market. We also got together with my husbands' friends and their families. Little one made some new friends and had a great time playing at "playtopia", which is what we've dubbed their backyard. They had tons of cool toys like a little tykes play house, little slide, toy lawnmowers, cars to ride on, a sand table, water table, golf toys, bubble machine, little picnic table, you name it and they had it! Then we got home and I looked at our backyard- we have a kiddie pool... and it's empty. Time for Mommy to get on Craigslist!
Over the holiday weekend we got together with Tara and Jed (love you guys!) and we had friends with babies over here for a BBQ and we went to another friends house on Monday to drink beer and eat good food. We saw all of our AZ friends and enjoyed the hot weather.
As we've been hearing about all the destruction going on across the country with the tornados in Joplin and now the East Coast, it's made us appreciate our health and safety. Our hearts go out to the people who are affected, especially those with babies.
Here are some pictures of things we've been up to.

grocery store shopping

Isn't it awkward when you find yourself on the same path as someone else at the grocery store? It happened to us today with a couple people. One was a huge preggo and I just love looking at pregnant women now that I have been there. I didn't say anything or rub her belly like people did to my friend Carrie in Arkansas- weirdo at Best Buy showed her a C-sec scar. Not something a pregnant lady wants to see, thank you very much. The other people who probably felt like we were stalking them was a couple who seemed like the girl was teaching the boy how to use coupons. I felt like saying "honey, it's a lost cause, men and coupons just don't go together" but I didn't. We spent the majority of our time in there searching the entire gorcery store for one tiny item. Have you ever done this? It is so infuriating! Today it was a packet of pesto seasoning. I swear we went down every aisle twice and couldn't find the damn thing! Finally just said eff it and bought beer instead.  So, I will be enjoying a Shock Top (with an orange slice, Desirae!) with our dinner tonight made without pesto.

I've been telling some people about our "meal plan" so I thought I would include the link to e-mealz.com . For $5.00 per month you get weekly meals with an itemized shopping list. So we save money by buying exactly what we need and save time by having our dinners planned out. It's working for us :)

beauty school drop out

This week's green topic: beauty products. Boy, did I learn a lot this week. It all started with a book I got for my birthday (thank you Alicia!) called Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano. The premise of the book is that you can be green and still be stylish. I'm only on the second chapter because I had to stop and do the exercise. Here's what is it: Uliano lists the top eight dangerous ingredients in beauty products and tells you to look at the ingredients in your products and get rid of them if they contain these things. I actually put this off all week because I didn't want to know how many bad products I have. I'm a bit of a product junkie, as you will see in the pictures below. These are just the things I keep in my bathroom- not including the guest bathroom, kitchen, purse, etc. But I finally evaluated them because some of these ingrediants are linked to cancer, hormone imbalance, reproductive issues, immune system, allergies, and birth defects. And I'm slathering them all over my skin everyday?! WTF! Oh yeah, and I read in this Taste For Life buy Organic magazine that toxins I ingest are passed to my son through my breastmilk. So there's another reason for me to be aware.

First of all, these are the keepers.

There is a label to look for on beauty products that assure you it's an organic product. Don't buy them because it says natural or has a picture of a plant like I did.

This pile is use them up but don't buy them again.

And this is my trash pile.

 I felt really wasteful throwing these out but I want to change my

lifestyle to be more green and many of them were just old.  

And I have a humongous headache from tipping those fragrances down the drain! I didn't even look at makeup or perfume yet. The next time I'm buying beauty products I'm taking my list of harmful products and buying things with ingredients that I can pronounce. Maybe a trip to LUSH is in my future? Joanne, are you reading this? Lol.

Which organic/ natural beauty products are your favorite?

P.S. my local egg lady is upping her price to $5.00, she said it's because they're upgrading to a better feed. The eggs are really good, going to have to decide if it's worth the money, decisions...

local eggs

I found a place to buy local cage free eggs and I'm so excited that I'm sharing!! This woman is a sister-in-law of one of the women in my meetup group. She was very nice and actually I can see us being friends. She let Ollie pet her baby goat, just a week old! She sells a dozen eggs for $3.00 if you supply the container. That is a steal of a deal and cheaper than a grocery store! Her name is Bethany and her number is 480-478-9259, she lives in Gilbert close to downtown. If you live in Gilbert, you can support a local family at the same time as have delicious, healthy eggs for your family.

On a side note my mom is visiting and we're spending our first Mother's Day together tomorrow :) Today we went to the farmer's market in Gilbert. We bought some organic produce including lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, and cucumber. Cilantro, which I don't like but my Mom says she will change my mind this week. And these huge turnips pictured below.

I'm not really sure what we're going to do with them. Do you have a turnip recipe? Please leave it in the comments.

This was a real find for just $3. This man makes all kinds of wood toys in his spare time. There were cars, planes, fire trucks, dump trucks, cradles, and toys big enough to ride on.

Here's my little rock star having a particularly crazy hair day.

Have a great Mother's Day weekend :)

farmers market

This morning I went to the Gilbert Farmer's Market. It's off downtown Gilbert just behind Liberty Market. I had a great time walking around with some friends and sampling the coffee and hummus. We had such a wonderful time that we're going again next week! Some highlights:

Mamas and babies shopping.

Me looking at the produce.

The cutest little pink pig!

My produce purchase, cost $12.

Aloe Vera plant, cost $1.

Origami Crane Mobile, cost $1.

Great Harvest Bread Co. bread and Vegan Spin/Artichoke Dip. We ate it for lunch and it is delish!

My cuteness, wearing his new flip flops. Baby shoes make me :) !

Earth Day

Last Friday was Earth Day! What did you do to celebrate? Do you remember back in grade school where you had to do a project with the class, usually something like planting a tree or picking up recycling around the school? Those were the days!

For the past few years my husband has given me a rose bush on my birthday. Usually pink roses because pink is my favorite color- can you tell? And roses are so hardy and can thrive in the hot, dry climate where we live. This year was no exception and I woke up to the plant on the dining room table. Thank you sweetie! What is exceptional is that the roses that we have already planted are always in bloom on my birthday AND on our anniversary, which is in June. How does he do it?!

Our little guy got to enjoy some outside time this weekend. He LOVES being outside and when the back door opens he drops whatever is in his hands, gets this determined look on his face and crawls as fast as he can to try and make it out before the door closes.  We set up this last minute water table which turned into a new doggy drinking bowl- go figure!

I love reading your comments on the blog. Did you plant anything for Earth Day? Do your children love playing outside? What's their favorite outdoor activity? Please share.

How green are you?

I found this website with a quiz on how environmentally friendly your life is.

http://practicallygreen.com/

I scored a 7 out of 10. The lowest score was in health, ouch. I usually just shop at our local grocery store and buy what is on sale. I want to buy locally, but I put it off to the last minute then we need food and the grocery store is so easy. But, I'm making my family's health a priority. My goal is to visit a farmer's market this week. I want to buy locally grown vegetables and fruit.

Have you found a farmer's market in your area? Where do you shop?

a dirty waste

I haven't been able to write for a few days because I've been taking care of a sick baby. My little guy got sick this week for the first time with a fever, lethargy and some nasty diapers.  I'm happy to report he's feeling better now but we're still laying low so to not spread this around.

This lovely beast is our compost. I requested it from our city for a small $5 deposit. It's just a trash can with the bottom cut off. The idea started with making our baby food. Making baby food creates a lot of food waste, like apple and sweet potato peel. We didn't even own a peeler beforehand because we leave the skins on everything we eat. I hated throwing these in the trash so now they go in the compost. I also put in egg shell, banana peel, carrot tops, broccoli stalks, all veggie and fruit remnants. My husband adds the grass clippings and also a couple bags of soil have gone in to help the process along. I water the compost (and feel kind of silly doing it) and turn it every week with the pitchfork. My zombie slaying skills have come a long way. Some of my friends have asked me "what are you going to do with the soil?" I didn't really stop to think about that before starting the compost. I thought it would take a long time to get to that point. But we throw away a lot of food waste! You should try collecting yours one day to see how much you actually throw away. I empty our bowl by the sink a few times a day and the compost is getting pretty full. So, this next picture is the before picture for my garden! There is no after picture yet. Hopefully posting this will get me motivated to get the supplies and begin.

Note the spout from our gutter in the right hand corner. It will be self watering, when it actually rains! The hose is pretty close to this area too.

This is an added bonus picture of my family enjoying an afternoon in the AZ sunshine.

 Can you spot the Jimmy John's cup?

earth day diaper change

This is right up my alley

http://greatclothdiaperchange.com/

I'm planning on going to the Tempe location hosted by GoGo Natural. Does anyone want to go with me?

Tissues: necessity or obsession

Those of you that know me well know my obsession with kleenex. And I quote my friend Morgan "from October through April you will find Nic on the couch with a box of tissues". It's become ridiculous how many boxes we have in our house. Kitchen, Living room, babies room, both bathrooms and bedside table, plus in the car and always an entire box when I travel! But now I'm done. We're switching to hankies. We're keeping one box for when people are over (lol) but the rest of them will not be replaced. Just one simple way to replace a disposable product with a reusable one and produce less garbage. And through example, teaching our little one to reuse as well. Ah- choo!

our diapers

Come on, you knew it was coming..
We cloth diaper and are proud of it! Our reasons are environmental, budget and to protect our baby's sensitive buns. I know many of my friends are CDers and some are not, so here are some pics of how we do it. Just a peek into our diaper world.

step 1

step 2

our set up: prefolds, covers, wipes and wash.

#1s go right into the bucket. #2s get sprayed on the dirty diaper board then into the bucket. 

 I wash and hang dry outside about twice a week. We spent $200 on the start up cost, then about another $200 on cute covers and accessories and that's it- we're good til he's toilet trained! We use disposables at night because I'd rather sleep than change a diaper at 2am and also when traveling by airplane, cloth diapers are not exactly compact.

babies and dog doodoo

So, this post has nothing to do with the earth. Well, kind of because my baby and I were outside playing on the lawn. I was scooping up some presents that our dog had left us. We have a large German Shepherd and you know what they say about large dogs... they have very large poops! There was one in particular that was very fresh and I couldn't scoop. I saw my baby eyeing it. I tried to coax him away from the mound, but I had a scooper in my hand. I hedged my bets and figured I could get over to the trash, empty the scooper and get back before he got to it. Wrong. When I turned back to my baby he was digging in with both hands! The world slowed down to slow motion as I saw his hands going towards his mouth. NOOOOOO!! Gross!! I reached him just in time to lift his arms in the air and carry him inside to the sink. As far as I could see, there was no poop in his mouth.

P.S. Later when I fed him his dinner I couldn't help but notice the color and consistency was much like his almost meal outside. Eeeewwww! No wonder he wanted to eat it!

My homemade Mei Tai

April 22nd

An Earth Day Baby- that's me! I was born on April 22nd, a day that is globally celebrated as Earth Day in over 175 countries. I've always tried to be a little environmentally conscious because of my birthday and because I was brought up that way. Since I have settled down with my husband and had our first child it has become even more important to me to leave our planet in a good condition for the next generation. I want my son and his sons to be able to play outside and breathe clean air. This blog will be about simple ways that our family is keeping the planet green and I hope to hear your stories of how you do the same. Many of our ideas are centered around baby care because that's what our life is about right now :) But we also do things like use cloth napkins instead of paper towels, compost in the yard, and reuse containers. Things that everyone can do to be an Earth Day Baby!