Investment

Invest in your children. Take the time to be with them. You only have ONE life with them- you will never get the past back. Slow your social life down and be with your kids. 

It hurts me to see your child suffering from your lack of existence. BE PRESENT in his/her life. As corny as it is, children ARE our future. 

Put the technology down and PLAY. I get you wanting to snap pictures of memories being made and that's ok. But enough is enough. LIVE IN THE MOMENT. Live in your kids world. BE their world! 

I am his and he is mine.

Thoughts of an attached mom

Sometimes, I'd give A LOT to be able to lay Jax down without having to nurse/rock him. It lasts at least an hour, usually 2 EVERY night! One day, ill look back and wish that I could still rock him and that's why I choose to embrace this child and his sleeping habits. Xo

Going GREEN

GREEN SMOOTHIES have been the rage for awhile now and we decided to jump on the bandwagon of goodness. I'm a HUGE fan of smoothies; fruity, delicious ones:) And so I was a little hesitant to try my first green smoothie BUT I needed more nutrients in my life and thought a good green smoothie would help with my lack of cooking many vegetables. One of the MANY benefits to making a smoothie is that you can add anything you'd like to it! Here's one of my simple recipes that taste great!

Handful of Kale
Handful of Spinach
1/2 Banana
1 CUP Blueberries
2 TBS Maple Syrup or Honey (to sweeten it up)
Splash of liquid for blending - this can be: Milk, Coconut Milk, Almond Milk

*Makes 4 popsicle molds, may need to double depending on how much you'd like to make

YOU can tweak this however you'd like. Don't like an ingredient? Change it out for something you do like. Don't drink milk? Try yogurt or even coconut water. Add anything to this recipe that you think would taste good and/or benefit YOU! There are endless possibilities!

I made the above recipe and froze them into popsicle molds. My son LOVES popsicles. Making them has been more beneficial than buying ones with junk in them! After playing outside in Florida's hot sun, these are the perfect way to cool down.

 

Hopefully, your kids will be saying "mama more"

Just One of Those Days

Today was one of "THOSE DAYS". 

Let's rewind. Big J had yesterday (Saturday) off which NEVER happens and so naturally, he went golfing with his buds. Naturally, they visited a local bar, and naturally, I was home with the littlest love of my life- my 2 year old. Apparently, it was a ten hour adventure for Big J;) When he got home I asked him if he would hang with Jax this morning because I needed "me time". 

Of course, our day began with goose (jaxton) waking up VERY early so J, being true to his word, took Jax into living room so I could snooze a little and he could go back to sleep on the couch (I don't blame him) all while jax could play. Kids definitely know when their parents need more sleep...that's the exact moment they are bright-eyed and ready to go. 

I decided "me time" would be a pedicure. J decided it would be a family outting to fancy Walmart. Ok. I'm cool with it; I'll have "me time" in the pedicure chair and boys will have "boy time" in the toy aisle. He hands me $20 for the pedi (thanks babe) and carries Jax away. Jax lost it, wanted his mommy, and it resulted in this...

AND...

 I embraced EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of this moment! First mommy/son pedicure;) my little boy will only be little for a short amount of time. If we don't embrace the moments our children want to "just be with us", it will slip out from underneath us. Sometimes we all need one of "those days" to embrace moments like this! XO

Nursing My Toddler

My son is 2, 25 months to be exact and I breastfeed him. I'm often asked "When are you going to stop that?". Usually, I smile politely and say "I meant to stop at 1". It tends to throw some people off a bit, as they then get that "huh?" look on their face.

From day one, Jaxton has been a GREAT "latcher". He latched on within an hour of his birth and has since never broken his latch:) In the hospital, he cried A LOT - and I was told to throw him on the boob - that he was probably hungry as they need to nurse often when they are young and get your milk flowing. He wouldn't settle down with a pacifier or on his own. He wanted to be held A LOT and so I did what any mother would do - HOLD HIM, NURSE HIM, COMFORT HIM, MEET HIS NEEDS.

I became his "human pacifier" as he wouldn't take a pacifier, nor his thumb. The middle of the night Google searches led me to dead ends. The trips to the libraries and bookstores reading books on how to get my son to sleep with out nursing to sleep were endless and also dead ends:) I documented it - see picture:)

 

There are endless articles on the benefits of breastfeeding and co-sleeping. My mom sent me this one http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-who-were-breastfed-longer-have-higher-iqs-new-study-6C10787012 this morning and that is what sparked my blog post. I am not sure how long I will breastfeed. I've been saying I intend on stopping for over a year now:) Whenever it is, its MY choice. I believe in what I am doing for my son. He's HEALTHY and HAPPY...VERY HAPPY:)

 

XO







 

 

 

 

Banana with 1/2 Blueberry Muffins

I have tried making a lot of "healthy" muffin recipes and they're usually bland. I end up throwing them away after 2 bites. My son (who eats anything) wouldn't even eat them. Thankfully, my search ended after last nights batch. I took Martha Stewarts recipe for "Healthy Banana-Blueberry Muffins" and adapted it just a little bit to make it my own. I took out the word "healthy" (BUT, they are still healthy) and I added 1/2 in front of the blueberry because my son, who I previously said eats anything actually doesn't and he prefers raw blueberries:)

Banana with 1/2 Blueberry Muffins

1 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ (I didn't have any so I made it without this)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas
1/3 cup low-fat milk (can use any milk you'd like)
1/2 tsp honey
1tsp vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries - It's one cup if you put blueberries in all of the batter.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. (This batch actually made more so I put extra batter in a mini-muffin tin)
2. Whisk together flours, wheat germ, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars together with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each egg. In another bowl, mash bananas with a fork; stir in milk, vanilla, and honey.
4. With mixer on low, alternately add flour mix and banana mix to the butter mixture; starting and ending with the flour.
5. If you want to do half with blueberries and half without, pour half of the batter into the paper liners before you fold in the blueberries to the rest of the batter.
6. Cook 20-30 minutes.

YUM!

Nostalgia

When I was a little girl, my mom and I created goodnight kiss routines. For example, It would be something like a kiss on the right cheek, kiss on the left, kiss on the forehead, kiss on lips, goodnight. I remember looking forward to our little routines. When I was older I thought about it and told myself they were silly. Until 2 nights ago, I asked my son for kisses. He gave me a "nose" (Eskimo) kiss and then a kiss on the lips. He did the same tonight and it melts my heart. Enjoy every moment!! Xo

"Diaper Dump" Baby Shower

My friend Monica was pregnant with boy #2 so we wanted to throw her a small baby shower. One of my other friends came up with the theme "Diaper Dump" and we went with it! We bought black plastic table cloths and cut yellow duck tape in small strips to look like a road, used buckets for food, and dump trucks as decor. We had the party at a nearby park so the toddlers could play. Here are a few pictures.

The table with the food

 

 

 

 The Cake - from Publix (baby didn't yet have a name) :)

 



Diaper Cake - we rolled diapers and put rubber bands around them. I found the caution tape on sale at Michael's Craft Store. For the confetti, i took colored paper and put it in my paper shredder. (Never know when you're gonna need a paper shredder). The truck on top is from Target!

 

 

 

This is Monica, the new mom of 2:)

 

 

 

 

 

"Little Man" 1st Birthday

As my son is about to turn 2 (a week from tomorrow), i thought now would be a good time to post about his 1st birthday party we threw him last year:)

I started planning Jaxton's birthday around the same time Pinterest became popular. Like many, i had quickly become a Pinterest junkie and i was going to use it for my advantage. I knew i wanted to have a "Little Man" party and although i had many ideas of what i wanted to incorporate into his party - i just needed a little guidance.

I took my vision to my older bro (who is my Photoshop master) and together, we created the invititation. And because i am HUGE on THANK YOU notes, we created those too!

 

 Jaxton wasn't feeling well on his birthday and you can tell in his pictures but we managed to get a few smiles from the kiddo. (Turns out, it was Roseola Fever).






Some decor we made...

 

We had a photo booth area with "Little Man" Props

 

When it was time for the Smash Cake, we traveled outside where Jaxton's highchair was already set up. I made the "ONE" banner thats on his highchair and also a "Happy Birthday Jaxton" Banner that is in a picture above. I don't give Jax too many sweets so i found a recipe i wanted to try for his cake made out bananas, blueberries, and applesauce.

Starting to get happy...

 

 

After all was said and done, it was a good day. I had a hard time seeing my baby



in a funky mood and at the time we didnt know what was going on with him:( A lot of other details weren't photographed but the details aren't important. To me, getting through that first year was a victory! XO






YES

I'm Back!

I havent kept up with this as much as i first intended. But, i do feel it is time to write again. I felt like i was best at writing about my son and our accomplishments. I guess i will start again with that and more of my personal life. This blog is on the internet which means anything and everything i write will never go away (sorry to myself and to jax for that:) Recently, I have read a lot of other blogs and many of them go into serious detail about ones life and i have always thought i dont want to get that personal - HOWEVER - its time to go there. It's time to let it all go and throw out what my first intentions were. Occasionally, i will think of something i'd like to put on facebook but frankly, not many people on my friends list would really care about most of those thoughts. If you are reading this you may or may not care and it is up to you to choose to read so i will do what i wish on here:)

Let's start with my choice of parenting and random rants on the subject: I have fallen into "attachment parenting". Now, i really had not heard of this until WAY after we reached the 6 month mark but with so many google searches i had done- i soon realized what the parenting style i was practicing was. Follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_parenting to read up on it if you'd like!

I have always been in tune with people's feelings and am extremely sensitive by nature. Applying this to my child - i am in tune to his feelings - i almost always know what every gesture he makes stand for. It's more than mothers intuition - HE IS PART OF ME AND I AM PART OF HIM. I pride myself in really understanding my son. I see the benefits to the way we parent him EVERY SINGLE DAY! I don't knock other parenting styles and will not enter myself in the "mommy wars" BUT i will throw down anytime anyday on educating someone about my choice if they question it.

To my son - YOU are the reason i live! You brought LIFE back into me - one that i so desperately needed.

(more on this to come)

xoxo