My Whole Heart

At the Oakland Zoo Lights

Activity Advent: December 2 | Make Salted Dough Ornaments

Activity Advent: December 1 | Make Chex Mix with Pau Pau

The unofficial taste tester, caught in the act.

Lashes & Drool

Gorgeous long lashes and buckets of drool, that's what this little girl is made of.

April Photo Challenge. Day 22: The Last Thing You Bought

To be honest, the last thing I bought was manure. I thought I'd spare you those photos. You're welcome.

Slightly cuter, we unveiled the last thing we bought for Lana tonight. My dad heads home in the morning, so I figure I'm going to need something extra special to entertain her. She's going to be one unhappy camper without Grandpa and MOOSE! to keep her company, and I've got tons of laundry and packing to do before we head for Colorado, so I need all the distraction I can get.

Lana's been OBSESSED with buckles for the last couple months. All she wants to do is lock buckles. Which is awesome, except she's super fast and she needs you to undo the buckles for her. Listening to her scream until you walk across the house to her high chair to help is not awesome. I'd seen the Buckley Boo featured as a house favorite on the styleberry blog ages ago, so with this latest fascination, I figured it would be pretty popular around here too.

So far, so good! I'll let you know if it saves us any meltdowns tomorrow.

( I think she likes it.)

April Photo Challenge. Day 18: Hair

What is there to say about the hair, really? She's nearly 19 months old and it's still barely there. She's still mistaken for a boy more often than not. And it's still coming in blonde. What are you gunna do?

I'll tell you what I'm gunna do: enjoy that I don't have to clean food out of the long hair of my MESSY eater 3 times a day!

In other news, yes, that's her fork in the shared salsa bowl. Because evidently sucking the salsa off your tortilla chip then re-dipping over and over again isn't getting the job done. I suppose it is the healthier delivery method for salsa consumption. And if you've ever tried Raf's salsa, you probably wanted to eat it with a fork too. Just admit it.

That Kid

 As it turns out, I have that kid. 

The kid with dried black bean soup all over her face.
 
The kid with dirt in her nails. (And all over my floors.)

The kid who thinks that the half-full "BOONS" the neighbor dropped off are THE GREATEST GIFT EVER RECEIVED.

Yep, I have that kid. I am so stinking lucky.

April Photo Challenge. Day 17: Something you don't like

Weeds. Though, it's not so bad when the whole fam is out pulling them. If only we'd started before they were dwarfing our veggies. 

Don't get too excited. I make no promises on a blogging comeback. But I decided at the very least I need some motivation to start picking up my camera. Too much time sorting photos on my computer and not enough time taking new ones makes me one grumpy mama.  So, why not try another little photo challenge. I hope you don't mind that I'm starting mid-month? Didn't think so.

The Reluctant Meal Maker: Meal Planning

I know this is kindergarten stuff for many of you, but meal planning was truly a foreign concept to me. Once I learned a bit about it, I spent the second half of last year giving it a shot, and flailing at best. I wasn't detailed enough. I didn't consider snacks or breakfasts. I'd forget a couple ingredients from most recipes and either find myself at the grocery store more often than I'd prefer, or resorting to whatever backup box I could dig out of the cupboard.

I'm still not a pro, but it's definitely getting better. The tricks for me have been DETAILS and FLEXIBILITY.

Details. I have to get super detailed with my meal plan. I have to consider breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and beverages. For a while, I was trying to just come up with 5 dinners, then I'd decide that day what we'd have. Fail. Didn't work for me. What is working for me is sitting down with the calendar and really considering our week when I plan the meals. Will Raf be home late? (Don't try something complicated when you don't have help distracting the kidlet.) Are we planning to be out most of the day? (Keep dinner simple, or use a slow cooker meal.)

Flexibility. As much as being detailed has helped, I also have to be flexible. Sometimes plans change. Then the meals change too. Sometimes I get home and have zero energy left in my tank, or Lana can't handle flying solo. Leftovers, it is! Sometimes I still forget to add things to the grocery list. Time to substitute! (This doesn't always work out well, but I'm glad that I'm at least getting comfortable enough in the kitchen to give it a go!)

While my days are going much more smoothly because of meal planning, I still have my challenges...

Time. Meal planning is time consuming! It takes time to scour Pinterest and cookbooks for healthy, whole foods-based, seasonal, TASTY meals! It takes time to go through each ingredient list line by line and check the cupboards and fridge. It takes time to shop at 3 or more stores.

I just have to keep reminding myself that it's less time consuming to do this once a week than to do it every day of the week. And I'm assuming that like everything else in life, with experience, the process will become second nature and it won't feel like it takes any time at all.

Eating on the Go. I've always had a hard time planning food for myself when I'm out and about. And I really do hate having to hit the closest drive thru in order to avoid yet another intense hangry episode! I'm better about planning for Lana. I pretty much always grab one of her covered snack cups and at least a couple levels of her Zoli on the go feeder before I head out the door. But I still can't seem to pack a snack for myself. Or water. And now that Lana's down to one nap a day, it's gotten much worse. We're out on playdates during lunchtime at least a couple days a week now, and I never know what to bring for lunch. Lana's happy with a bunch of snacks, but I'd prefer getting something more substantial in her so that we have more success with her afternoon nap. And I need to eat too, darn it! I just don't have that many recipes up my sleeve that don't require reheating or reliable refrigeration. I need to come up with some, quick! Any (toddler friendly) ideas out there??

Bitty Update

Curious what the little one has been up to lately? A little of this, a little of that...

 ...adopting cloth napkins as the BEST.TOY.EVER!

...making early fashion statements. Stylish? Maybe. But not nearly as cute as when she was running around naked after her bath last night and brought me her boots to put on!

...checking out Christmas photos while mama sews. The dogs were especially popular. (She climbed into the chair on her own, btw.)

...dragging around her favorite quilt.

...exploring sunlight and shadows.

...and wedging herself into really tight spaces!