Navigating the Mothership

New Blog is Live!

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 13:58:00 +0000

This blog will soon redirect to the new site but in the meantime, please head over to the new blog to take a look around and enter a gift-card-of-your-choice giveaway!

www.navigatingthemothershipblog.com

I'm moving tomorrow!

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 11:49:00 +0000

To a new blog :)

Hopefully most of you will simply come right along with me as I will be redirecting traffic from the old blog to the new blog and also informing Bloglovin' of the switch. However,it is possible that those who follow on other readers may need to manually update their subscription if new posts are not showing up in your reader. My new blog home will be:

www.navigatingthemothershipblog.com

I will see you there tomorrow!

Major MuTu Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 12:02:00 +0000

Popping in quickly to share the news that MuTu is on sale for 44% off tomorrow (July 6) only. This is a once-a-year super sale that Wendy, the program creator, holds to celebrate her birthday.

I have talked about following the MuTu System to repair my diastasis recti a few times now. Read here to learn what the MuTu System is all about and read this post of mine to learn more about my experience with the program. In a nutshell: it's a high quality program that will strengthen your core and will repair your diastasis recti. Actually, I think it is a solid program for anyone looking to increase core strength, not just those with diastasis recti. The banner below is clickable if you are ready to make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions!

(Please note: links for MuTu System are all affiliate links.)

Blogging from my phone and not happy about it

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 13:31:00 +0000

Phone blogging is some sad clown business. So more than normal typos plz to be forgiven, yes?

My computer went wacky on me again so I have another appointment at the genius bar today. Blah, blah, blogging lite excuse #52.

I am reallllly hoping to launch the new blog early next week, just waiting on one last element. In the meantime I am reluctant to post things on this blog as I won't be able to transfer these newer posts & their embedded links over and comments will be lost. (Boring technical aside-I am switching to wordpress.org and have transferred all posts & links & comments already but there will be about 10 posts that are stuck in limbo-land, like this one. Those will be c&p manually.) so blogging lite excuse #1.

My cutie patootie turned four yesterday!! i want to write a separate post about him and his bday but here is a little collage of our day

Oh that worked to insert the pic! Ok, maybe phone blogging isn't THE WORST.

Day in the life heads up!! Check out Julia's blog for full details: http://julia-transition.blogspot.com/2015/06/day-in-life-heads-up-for-summer-2015.html?m=1

I am working on sleep training myself now that Lily's sleep is finally decent. She still fusses here and there in the night but has been sleeping 7-5 more often than not!! However, umpteen months of waking 2-4 times a night has me in a bad sleep pattern and I am prone to reverting back to a pattern of pregnancy-style insomnia where I am awake from 2-5 am (this is why I am still managing to read so much). Anyway, to sleep train myself I am skipping all alcohol and getting in bed by 8:30 pm and reading for an hour - reading a REAL book - and also avoiding my phone/ipad right before bed. I am also taking a 1/2 a unisom in the short term (maybe for a week?) to really get a solid sleep pattern back. I am hoping this works and I can get some energy back. I have been feeling utterly zombified. I am also getting my thyroid and hemoglobin checked just to make sure it is not something beyond classic sleep deprivation. Oh-I am also getting my copper IUD (paraguard) removed next week. Gave it a year but the periods remain insane, like INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE insane, and it is not worth it. I can't imagine it is a healthy thing to have a week long period heavier than post childbirth bleeding each month. Sorry to share but true. Hopefully I am not anemic due to the blood loss but I wouldn't be surprised if I was. So no more IUDs now that I have tried both. No more pills or nuva rings or depo provera either as I have done all those in the past, too. Essure makes me nervous. But I want at least two forms of birth control so I think charting plus condoms plus soon-to-be-scheduled vasectomy? Blah. Why must this be so complex??

Ok, I have reached my phone typing quota so I must sign off! Here are a few more pics before I go.

Saw this on hforeste's IG and Max copied it for Ollie's bday party!

The family cake.

Party cupcakes. Idea from several pinterest examples but they all had broken links. Basically it is fruit by the foot and candy eyeballs. The mouths turned out all crazy and the cupcakes make me laugh but they are cute and recognizable and Ollie loved them so I am happy with my effort.

Bella passed a swimming test yesterday and this means she can swim in the pool without an adult in the water with her! She is so proud and so are we. She couldn't swim at all 6 months ago! But the pool with all 3 at very different levels is a handful even with two adults. Makes me sleepy!

Ruffly baby swimsuit!!

Baby pigtails!!

I do wonder if she was made extra super cute to help make the nearly nonstop whining more tolerable ;)

Ok, byeeeeeee friends!

Life Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 16:32:00 +0000

Our summer days are slowly finding a rhythm. I am loving slower mornings and being outside all day and running through sprinklers and sipping chilled white wine while the kids play in the driveway after dinner. But the current mix of ages and stages make for challenging days. Lily needs constant monitoring, Ollie needs a careful eye to make sure he doesn't impulsively run into the street or something equally dangerous and Bella is self-sufficient but also very demanding of attention and wants to show off all her new skills (biking, hula-hooping, cartwheels, etc). Plus the older two are all over the place in terms of how they get along. They are either being super loving and having a blast or they are fighting and trying to hurt each other. I think it has been hard for both of them to adjust to the change from the school year. So I feel spread thin. Or spread more thin than usual! :) When all is said and done, however, I so prefer this summer's challenges to last summer's challenges with a tiny baby. I felt really off in terms of being postpartum last summer - so sweaty and my clothes weren't fitting yet and then needing to nurse a baby spontaneously while at parks or somewhere and also dealing with unpredictable naps - it was not my fave. So I will take this year over last year and will look forward to next year being a bit easier...maybe. In theory.

We have started our "summer school" series and the kids went nuts for our space unit last week. I am going to type up a specific post with all the activities and worksheets we did in case someone else wants to do something similar. We had been meaning to go to the Science Museum forever and finally did that on Father's Day as an end to the unit and also a present to Max. Fun fact: dads get in free to special exhibits on Father's Day! We decided to buy a year's membership since we get a nice discount through Max's employer so now we will tie in some other units into Science Museum field trips (the human body and also dinosaurs). This week we are doing zoo animals.

Lily is getting to be such a full-fledged toddler. She makes a beeline for stairs whenever she gets the chance and is getting into things and climbing on things all day long.

Crawling and cruising are her go-tos for moving around and while I think walking wouldn't be a big stretch for her, she is very committed to holding on to one finger of ours while walking. We had a break between teeth and illness so I sleep trained her (wasn't too bad - at the root of things she is a good sleeper) but that 3:30-4 AM feeding is not budging. Whatever! If I get to sleep 9-3:30 AM then that is 1000% better than what I was getting before. Plus then she goes back to sleep until 7. I am pretty sure forcing a longer night stretch would earn me a 5 AM baby so status quo is good. Now I just need to get myself sleep trained as I remain a hot mess. So annoying!!

Left boob has been relieved of breastfeeding duty as of last month. Right boob continues. Right boob now double the size of left boob. Oops.

Max has had a busy two weeks. He had surgery on his parathyroid over a week ago and that went great and we are both so relieved (SO! RELIEVED!) that it is over. I think I talked about this on here? Can't remember. Anyway, he has had thyroid issues for a few years but even with meds he remained tired and unusually cold and just off. While it was easy to chalk it up to having, you know, 3 kids and a demanding job, he got a full work-up from an endocrinologist and what do you know - he has parathyroid issues in addition to the thyroid issues. For some reason some people get a benign mass on a parathyroid gland which needs to be removed surgically. So over the past few years while the mass kept growing, he kept having more symptoms and his bones were releasing calcium into his blood stream. If left untreated a person can have many serious complications. What's crazy about this surgery is that once the mass is removed, a person will feel so much better within a week or two. Max does seem more energetic. I am very excited for him to be back to full speed and then I will present him with 300 to-do lists. (WHEE! SO FUN FOR MAX!) And he will probably not be so delighted that I will share this but it was a teeny bit funny to watch him go through the massive hormonal shift that followed the parathyroid surgery. (Thyroids and parathyroids are part of the endocrine system and the endocrine system is what regulates your hormones. *The more you knowwwwww!*) Anyway, he was all, "I feel bloated. Do I look bloated?" and then later "I just feel off. Like my mood is weird." I shouldn't laugh but LOLOLOLOL. Oh! Just to make things extra crispy and spicy, Max also transitioned jobs and started a new position a few days after his surgery. This is a promotion and while the new role might have a little more travel, it should be far more predictable and won't include him needing to be tied to his phone and doing stuff on nights/weekends/vacations. YAY! Go Max. We are very proud of you. And you don't look bloated at all, promise.

I'm rolling out my new blog design very soon and I am so excited about it. All glossy and shiny and full of organization. And the recipe part of it is particularly delightful! There will be printing options built-in to the recipe posts. That makes me feel fancy fancy.

I have flopped back into being an exercise failure. I knew it would be a huge challenge to have all three with me all day while fitting in Mutu stuff and it is. Womp, womp. Walking is particularly tricky during the day. At this point I need to (1) accept and deal with doing Mutu workouts with kids bugging me and crawling on me and (2) prioritize getting to the gym or waking early and exercising while Max is still home (WHICH IS AN OPTION NOW HOORAY TIMES ONE MILLION!)

Bubby (Oliver) is having his birthday party next week (4!!) and it is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed. He has never actually seen TMNT but is still a big fan. Haha. We are keeping it super duper simple and it will be a short park playdate with TMNT-themed cupcakes. Oh - and costumes because dress-up is his favorite. I can't wait to see how excited he is going to be on the big day. I am beginning to see that the timing of Bella's and Oliver's birthday parties is going to be a little tricky each year since each kid has a birthday next to a holiday that is popular for traveling (Memorial Day and 4th of July).

Speaking of turtles! This beauty laid her eggs in our front yard last week. We let her do her thing because, well, just look at her. (Remember friends, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!) It took her about six hours and I was all, "What is taking so long? It's like she digs in the ground and then just stops and sits there" and Max was the more compassionate one saying, "Well, she is probably exhausted and feels like she can't move well with all those eggs in her." Max: he gets it now. (Heeeeeee!)

We planted a tiny garden! My mom is quite the master gardener and every time we are at her house I am in awe of all the stuff she has planted all over her yard. But that skill set and interest skipped right over me. However, we eat so many veggies and herbs that I am determined to at least give it a go this year. We finally picked up some things at the garden center and got it all planted. Right now we have two tomato plants plus basil, cilantro, dill, mint, rosemary, lemongrass, lavender and a small strawberry plant. We will visit my mom on Friday and she is going to give us several more things like kale and raspberries. I am really hoping that this is a success and we can keep it up each summer. We are also getting our deck set up to be a nicer space with some flowers and a new patio umbrella and nice lights. I will share pictures when it is done.

Time to make lunch. Today will feature curried egg salad on a bed of lettuce with a side of potato chips and a pickle. Life is good.

Book Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 15:18:00 +0000

As I play catch-up on my past year and a half of book reviews, I have decided to break these posts down into 10 book reviews or so per post. I think I'll end up with six of these posts this summer as I will review ~60 of the 100+ I read (some were duds not worth mentioning). Hopefully that will be a more manageable way to do these book reviews going forward. I will be using Amazon Affiliate links, mostly because I was going to link to Amazon anyway and I wanted to include a picture of the book; judging books by their covers in an unfair manner is my favorite. You can click on the book if you want to read summaries or reviews of the books via Amazon.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

This Gillian Flynn book by the Gone Girl author is a whole new level of dark and disturbing. There are some extremely brutal scenes. It is my least favorite of Flynn's three books and it left me feeling icky because I am a delicate fleur. However, Flynn is a very talented writer with a knack for leaving you wanting to race to the end to figure it out. Will still pick up future books by her in a heartbeat.

Mastering the Art of French Eating: From Paris Bistros to Farmhouse Kitchens, Lesson in Food and Love by Ann Mah

I love the concept of this book and the foodie travel memoir is always a favorite genre but this one was a miss. Based on the title, cover and description I thought this would give me yet another chance to live vicariously through someone eating their way through France...that wasn't the case. This was less a tale of culinary adventure and more of a memoir of someone struggling with being apart from her husband for a year due to his job. I felt annoyed as she talked far more about not coping well with life than about eating French food. I wanted to be compassionate for her [entirely first world problem] situation but she is just so whiny! Eating toast for 3 months and ignoring everything France has to offer because of feeling sad and lonely is really hard to take in a food-based travel memoir. It made me feel so frustrated. Mah also managed to hit another nerve for me by making a point to mention things like how she doesn't often eat dessert at lunch or that her pants were going to be too tight after a larger meal. Blegh. These things are not what a true lover of food would say and again, completely inappropriate in a food memoir! Skip it.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

What a crazy little delight this book turned out to be. Almost like a thriller about middle-aged and elderly bibliophiles, which makes no sense until you dive into the book. It makes you think about the differences between real books and digital books and also brings the past and the future together in a unique and somewhat unexpected way. It's a thinker but I still blew through it in a day. Try it...you'll like it!

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I added this after Kate mentioned it and she was spot on. LOVED this weird and extremely nostalgic book and it keeps popping into my brain even well after finishing it. It's set in a depressing and stark future where everyone pretty much lives online as avatars in a virtual utopia. Such an interesting concept. Just as an example - consider the idea of getting teased in a virtual high school for not being able to afford to trick out your avatar - it's easily imaginable! When the creator of the utopia dies he initiates an elaborate virtual game, essentially a real-life video game, where the winner will inherit his fortune. Smart, clever, interesting, LOVE! This book may end up being my favorite read of the year. Trying to get Max to read it so we can talk about it.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Exactly the kind of mystery I like to read. A twisty, turny psychological thriller (Who to trust? What is the truth?) but not so dark and twisted that you are left feeling completely disturbed. Some might argue the ending is a tad too neatly wrapped up in a bow but vague endings are not my fave so give me prettily-wrapped-up presents any day. Bonus points for being set in Europe.

Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

A big hit for me. It was a fast and fun read. The story unfolded just slow enough to keep you wondering but fast enough to keep you hooked. Great characters and I loved the dark humor. Plus I loved the Seattle setting. Full recommend!

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

I found this during a middle of the night search for a new book and I'm glad I landed on it. A New Yorker goes to Singapore with her boyfriend to attend a wedding and meet his family. Turns out her boyfriend is from an extremely wealthy family and suddenly she is dealing with a slew of cultural differences - most notably the culture of high society. Fun, glamorous and full of interesting characters.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Morton has earned herself a place among my top authors - maybe even top 10. She combines historical fiction with excellent writing and mysteries and does it beautifully. Once again, Morton dances between the past and modern day and is an expert and keeping you fully hooked. It's the kind of book that you will want to read incessantly until the last page. Awesome twist at the end leaving you going, "Wait. WHAT!?"

Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman

Started this one as I was watching the first season so I could compare. This Piper seems both more and less sympathetic than the Piper on screen. Certainly there was less drama in the real life story, but there is still far more drama than most of us have in our lives. In the end, though, I found this memoir a tick boring.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

This is the story of a brilliant woman who develops early-onset Alzheimer's. I was reluctant to read this for fear of it being too depressing, but my sitter who lent it to me assured me it was a manageably-sad story. I agree, although seeing the movie remains iffy, seems like it would be too vivid and depressing. The story is melancholy for sure but maintains levity in the face of the situation. Makes you think about end of life decisions and also how we should be living our lives.

Kindergarten Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 17:21:00 +0000

My little Bella just finished kindergarten.

The school and all of the procedures and policies that were once overwhelming and confusing now seem routine and easy. We made it! So by reader request, here are my thoughts on kindergarten. I'm doing it bullet point style because that is how my brain is thinking right now.

In the days before school started last year, Bella seemed so old and big to me - especially when compared with her younger siblings. However, as she left me and headed into school and merged with a crowd of K-5 kids, I was struck by the image of my baby - my tiny, little baby - walking into school with a backpack that was much too big for her. So you might want to prepare your heart for that sight.

The first time the school nurse called me in the middle of the day was surprisingly panic-inducing. I think the nurse knew to expect this reaction as the first thing she said was,"Everything is okay! I just needed to tell you Bella bumped her head on the playground." I have since saved that number into my phone as "School Nurse" because any unknown number with our area code was having giving me palpitations.

I have filled an entire file box and then some with papers (art, worksheets, etc) that Bella has brought home. Most can be trashed (i.e. recycled) but right now they still feel very important to her so I will hang on to them for a bit.

The curriculum was very intense and surprisingly high level. This worked really well for a kid like Bella who thinks worksheets are the best. I am not sure Oliver or Lily will feel the same. I know some of Bella's friends struggled with the highly disciplined lesson plans. Thankfully there was a good bit of recess and running around built into the day along with free time to do art projects and creative play. There was also a rest time where kids would lay down for 20 minutes but somehow my very charming girl managed to get out of that and do quiet activities at a desk. Her tenacity to avoid napping or rest time remains strong as always and she was not a fan of rest time. "Mom. We can't talk! I don't like it." Color me not one bit surprised she managed to weasel out of laying on a towel quietly for 20 minutes each day :)

I would encourage parents to help their kids learn to open containers and do shoe laces and snaps and zippers before school starts. There are only so many adult hands to go around and you want your kid to feel confident and prepared as they go about their day, especially when it comes to using the bathroom.

The idea of Bella taking the bus FREAKED ME OUT and I initially wasn't going to have her ride it. But duh, I needed to calm down because was I really going to deal with the enormous hassle of lugging kids in and out of car seats twice a day every day when it could be avoided? Yeah - it took me only two weeks to change my tune. So I adjusted to the bus and it has been just fine. I will say that you might want to prep your little one to remember to pay attention to when to get off the bus. I am forever grateful to a neighbor dad who chased down the bus on the first day she rode. He thought much faster than I did when his son was the only kid to get off at our stop. Bella was still sitting on the bus waiting for someone to tell her to get off! That was never a problem again but I do continue to have to remind Bella about bus safety things such as not running to the bus when it approaches and looking both ways before she crosses the street to me after getting off the bus.

Packing lunches are a PITA but I do like these divided containers and these fun slim penguin ice packs and this thermos and this water bottle. I set myself up for a lifetime of writing cute lunch notes for my children but I am okay with that. I used these half-size colored index cards and would stick a sticker on one side and write a note on the other side. I forgot a couple times and she most certainly did mention that later! Ha. Having the option for B to eat hot lunch at school was fairly awesome and I certainly took advantage of that at least weekly. (Side note: No, as a food asshole I'm not in love with the foods they offer but I am a fan of being practical and as a dietitian who did intern stints in school food service I understand that it can be very hard to make changes to what school lunch looks like. Bella will have a life of choosing her own foods so I am perfectly fine with her starting to practice that now by getting to have some fun school lunches each week.) As far as packing lunches - here are my standbys:

Sandwiches: turkey, ham, jelly & cream cheese. Try putting the sandwich on english muffins, tortillas, pancakes, making shapes on occasion with cookie cut outs...
Snacky lunch: little bits of cheese, meat, veggies, fruit, pretzels or crackers
Egg salad or tuna salad in a small separate container with the other usual suspects: fruit, veg, carb choice like crackers, pretzels or bread.
Leftovers, soups, or pastas in a thermos.
Our school allows peanut butter so I send that on Fridays when the cafeteria also serves PBJs.

I was worried that I would really miss Bella during the day and that I would feel her absence in a painful way. But as it turns out, the adjustment for both of us went smoothly. I don't feel like she is gone ALL day as we still have mornings together and late afternoons & evenings together and all weekend long.

I am very glad that I scheduled no outside activities for the first half of the year and no activities during the weekdays during the second half. So this meant no dance classes, no sports, no music lessons - zippo. She did start swimming lessons on the weekend in February. Other kids might be more adaptable and could handle additional activities, but I feel it would have been too much for Bella. She does really really well at school but tends to fall apart a bit at home given that is where she feels more comfortable. I didn't want to have a rough experience (in terms of managing moods and tantrums) getting her to a class each week, even if she did enjoy the actual class. I believe I will do the same for the start of first grade in terms of no weekday activities.

Things that have changed with how Bella talks. This was a bit alarming, really. Her tone has changed and became much older sounding and at times it's almost a sassy Valleygirl way of speaking. We will see if that disappears over the summer and possibly reappears as the next school year starts. I think I remember trying on different ways of speaking, too.

Pulling out little treasures from Bella's backpack at the end of the day is a delight. Lots of love letters from classmates and she often makes little loving pictures for the family during her free time.

The long days of being "on" do take a toll (see the no outside activities bullet point above!) so I try to keep things really low key after school. Time alone in her room after school is good when I can get her to do that (it is not her M.O to be alone - this might work better with the other kids). A long hug and a lot of affection can often help her transition. I feed her a snack and get her a drink STAT and avoid needing to run an errand at that time if possible. Getting us outside and moving is ideal. But expect more sibling fighting, talking back, tantrums, crying, etc after school. This went on all year for us but I expected that would probably happen. Other kids might internalize this more but it's good to be aware that the change from school to home isn't always easy...nor is it easy for adults either!

OMG the birthday parties. PREPARE YOURSELF. There are so many parties and often the entire class is invited and given the young age of kindergartners, many are still not drop off. Or if they are drop-off - your level of comfort might vary since you don't know the parents and the situation. Buy a bunch of generic gifts off Amazon to stash in the closet for when you inevitably forget to buy a present (think craft-type, building, puzzles, etc as those can appeal to a range of kids). Another mom gave me the tip of buying craft sets from Michael's whenever they have a 40% off coupon. The number of birthday parties was another reason I felt fine about not doing outside activities - the parties were enough!

Those character backpacks will fall apart in two weeks, as will the character shoes. I sewed up the backpack up with some dental floss (upholstery thread would be the normal choice) and it has held up but it is still pretty much trashed with holes at this point. Pretty sure I would buy Bella the same Frozen backpack again for her K year as she loved picking it out so much. However, next year I am going to splurge for something higher quality that will hopefully last for at least a few years!

The opportunities to volunteer in the classroom have been endless and I have found that a nice way to get to know the parents (along with all 3,000 birthday parties!). It has also let me feel very connected to what is going on in the classroom. I ate lunch with Bella on two occasions and read books to the class a couple times and also came to most of the class parties. I will note that it can be annoying to have to get a sitter for other kids in order to volunteer - I can see already that Lily will probably get the most mama-presence in her preschool and K classrooms!

It can be challenging to know just what to say when your kid mentions something about another kid that is different from them (such as a kid meeting with a special teacher each day) or perhaps even concerning (such as a kid missing many days of school). It's not easy talk to your kids about other kids and their personal needs or challenges in a way that respects the other childrens' privacy but encourages empathy and kindness in your own child. I try to emphasize kindness always and encourage her to remember that everyone is different and we all find different things easier or harder and maybe she will need to work one-on-one with a teacher another year (B felt quite jealous of the kids getting special one-on-one time with paras - this is probably the only reason she even took note in the first place). I didn't want to draw a lot of attention to these observations with a long conversation but I also didn't want to dismiss her comment. Would love feedback on this topic from other parents who have navigated similar conversations. Similarly, this year also brought a lot more comparisons about things like, "Well, X is getting to have a birthday party at fancy place and his parents said he can have 20 friends come!" or "Y gets to wear lip gloss sometimes!" so that brings up the conversation about how parents do things differently and we will just focus on our family, etc etc. Obviously this will get exponentially more challenging in future years. On the flip side, a lot of differences between B and her peers exist without thought or comment, which is refreshing. Bella has never once mentioned things like the fact that some kids sit in rocking chairs rather than the standard chairs in her classroom or that a friend wears a hijab. I only came to know these things when I visited her school myself.

As far as playdates with parents and kids we don't know - we are still getting used to it. I will confess to not having Bella do one on her own yet but this will probably come up this summer once there is more free time. I have exchanged numbers with several other moms and have done some playdates at parks, though we haven't done houses yet. This does make me nervous, especially the idea of other families having guns. I know gun ownership can be a very common thing in some parts of the country but to me it feels very strange and alarming. I don't want my kids in house where guns are not locked in a gun safe. I am also very uncomfortable with the idea of sleepovers. I imagine this will be a challenge for me again and again over the years but in the meantime I talk to Bella and Oliver regularly about trusting their gut and that it is okay to say no to a grown-up or to find another grown-up if something feels wrong or uncomfortable and I also talk about their bodies being their own. Hard and scary stuff. I would welcome any additional resources in this area if you have them!

Even with the experience of having one kindergartner go through an entire year, I think I will still feel nearly as torn about Oliver going (and eventually Lily) because he is a different kid and thus his experience will be different. How will he handle a full 7 hours away from me? What if he needs help with something like a button on his pants? What if he feels sick? Will he cry? Will the long day be too much for him? (I am the best at coming up with things to be anxious about, even a full year and a half in advance! A real skill set, I tell ya.) But the fact that I will already know the school, the bus system, how the cafeteria works, etc - that helps. Plus he will have his big sister around to help. It's simply a transition that he and I will have to go through together and eventually we will be on the other side of the newness of it all, just like what happened this past year with Bella.

Would love for others to chime in on their own perspectives on any or all of these points!

Hodge Podge

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 00:47:00 +0000

1. MacBook Pro Woes
My laptop has been going slower and slooooower and sloooooooooooooower for over a year and I have handled that by complaining about it to Max at night and/or by not using it at all because it was annoying. V. effective! So Genius bar, diagnosis for its maladies, etc etc. ANYHOODLES! I will be dropping it off tomorrow and it will get some fixing and wiping of the entire hard drive and a new battery and then I will have to bring back photos and documents and music et. al. one by one (versus letting Time machine or Carbonite do that automatically) to prevent the mystery glitch from returning. I see now I haven't arrived properly to my anyhoodles yet. ANYHOODLES AGAIN, I will be taking next week (this week? I am always so confused about how to phrase that on a Sunday) off blogging since I won't have my computer, not that such a thing is anything new. Just being official. I am looking forward to a computer that has more pep in its step and will allow me to work on the the kids' birthday videos without wanting to poke my eyes out with a spoon.

2. Goodbye All Baby Things! Take 2.
Take 1 happened in the Spring of 2012. Lily was born in the Spring of 2014. Ahem.

Something about the daily blogging in April, along with getting my exercise going, along with spring happening, along with reading the oh-so-popular The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up when it popped up on my library e-book list (mini-est review: some interesting ideas! Except, whoa, this seems rather extreme and a little weird. I am hoping she prefers to live without pets or kids or is prepared to have to change quite a bit because I worry that wouldn't work out for her and her relentless tidying ways...) has me in a major organize-and-purge mode. I have been on a donating, consigning, and passing-on spree.

This means goodbye to all the baby things...again...but I am feeling good about that. (Consider that a spoiler alert for that "More babies?" future post.) For local Twin Cities readers - I have learned about a wonderful organization where you can donate baby and kid things that other donation locations often do not accept - things like car seats (less than 5 years old) and breastfeeding pillows. It's called Tapestry and it's a pregnancy & family resource center located in South Minneapolis. It was super easy to drop stuff off to them. Feels really good to think of other parents and babies using all those things rather than having them take up space in our basement.

3. More Organizing
I did take Marie Kondo's advice to pull out all my clothes and look at them and try to pare my wardrobe down to those items that fit well and make me happy. Since I am an anti-shopper and a regular donator/purger this was a fairly quick task and but I did finally take the plunge and donate things like old J Crew business suits that have been unworn for 6+ years and strapless dresses from my honeymoon and workout clothes that are ill-fitting or have holes. I did keep my first date gray pants from Express after consulting with Max. He is rather fond of those pants, era-2004 though they may be. However, the majority of the clothing that remains doesn't necessarily make me happy but I would be naked otherwise since I have so few things to wear. I'm going to need to go shopping at some point this summer. I do have some fall/winter items I bought before I got pregnant with Lily but those won't work for several months. (And no Stitchfix for me. I don't think they could handle my uber extra triple long torso. NO ONE CAN HANDLE MY TORSO. #dramaticTorsoTalk)

We are also doing a small remodeling project in our bedroom where we'll reconfigure the closet and move it to the opposite wall so that had us clearing out some other random things that had been living in my (not really used) closet. In the meantime, I tackled our arts & crafts closet last weekend on a rainy afternoon.

I labeled like crazy until I ran out of label tape (quelle horreur!) so it's bugging me a little but I will get that done once I place an order for new tapes. For the record this is my labeler. I previously owned a Brother P-Touch one but it broke and this one is much cheaper (both the machine and the labeling tape) and it also doesn't waste so much tape with enormous margins like the Brother one did. I have a major beef with Brother labelers and printers and I guess that company in general - they design so much waste in their products so you have to buy more (like our printer would simply stop working entirely if any ink ran out - there was never an option to print in blue when you ran out of black, for example). And actually, my Brother sewing machine has been acting a fool ever since I got in in 1996. NOT OKAY! (That certainly went down an unexpected road.)

My wonderful and extremely organized sitter is helping me out with a major toy organizing spree in the basement because that has gotten away from me with all the shuffling of playrooms when we got water in our basement in the spring of 2014. I have also cleared away everything but books from the kids rooms and relegated those toys and crafts back to where they belong in their various parts of the house. Once again my kids do so much better playing on their own when they only have a few toys available at any given time and/or when things are very tidy and organized. I knew this all along but it took me a year to undo all the chaos from last year. That's okay. See: Lily Jade, my lovely baby.

4. Prepping for Summer
I will admit that I am feeling rather petrified about facing this summer ahead. Bella is wonderful and delightful but she is also very demanding (VERY! DEMANDING!) when it comes to interaction and also just requesting a lot of tasks and projects. School has been wonderful for her in this regard (and wonderful for me because it meant it wasn't mostly on me to provide 90% of her social and educational interaction) but summer is a rather wide expanse of time. I didn't sign up for any camps (yet) because it seemed like those would only be particularly handy if I could sign up both older kids and their ages right now make that problematic (it's all split by school age or preschool age for the most part). Plus "camps" (read: 2 hours once or twice a week) are awfully expensive for just one kid - our sitter is the cheaper and more effective option this summer. 7 hours/week booked: WHEEEEEEEE!!!!

I'll schedule lots of playdates and plan for tons of outside time, but I need some structure built into the down times of the day that will occur while Lily is napping. I have no issues against TV for that time but Bella isn't really one to want to watch shows every day. She would rather be doing something or interacting with me. Anyway, I am taking the idea Kate of Kate Tells Stories presented and doing theme weeks. My sitter and I and the kids are coming up with theme weeks and then from there we will build activities, worksheets, art projects, field trips, etc around the theme. I will probably have my sitter do a little (paid) work from home to come up with a more fleshed out curriculum (mostly for Bella's sake but Oliver does like some of that type of work) and then I can easily pull out something novel each day. I am also going to work with my sitter to get some rest time activities for Bella and Oliver pre-prepped each week so I can hand those to the kids and send them off to their rooms for at least 30 minutes. (Kids who are willing to play quietly for hours on their own are like an exotic species to me, although Oliver is much better about it than Bella.) I love having a sitter who is basically like a bonus pre-school teacher. I am really dreading when our sitter will leave for grad school mid-August :( She is much more than a sitter for our family as she fills in where family would otherwise - like for the kids' birthdays and when schedules get crazy or when someone is sick. We got incredibly and enormously lucky with her and I know we will be in each others lives forever.

In fact, this post is all because she is with the kids right now. They are having a candle light dinner per the picture she sent us. Please note that the candlelight is via the iPad.

Bella apparently said "Happy candlelight day!"

5. Chatbooks
I don't think I have ever mentioned these but Chatbooks are delightful if you have an Instagram account.

I continue to never get around to printing up annual family photo books but Chatbooks are so manageable and really very inexpensive at $6/book. It's fun to get them in the mail and look at them together. They are bigger than you might expect at 6x6 inches. I am playing catch up and getting five books at a time until I am up to speed and then I will just get one each month. You can edit the captions, by the way (needed with my little reader!) Here is the Chatbooks website and here is a coupon code if you wanted to get your first book free (and I think I get $1 off if you use that code).

6.. Exercise Update
I was doing so so well with my diastasis repair/fitness program MuTu for about four weeks. I was getting the core stuff in each day plus the more heart-rate-raising intensives a few times a week. I was walking daily or at least for a few hours per week when it was all added up. My bum was heading up where it belonged and away from the back of my hamstrings where it had rested happily for many a moon. But then this past month has been ridiculous in terms of Max's travel & work hours plus Lily not sleeping/being grumptastic so off the wagon I did fall. Not totally, and I would say I have been at 50% of doing all the things I need to do, but my little engine has slowed way down. Also the daily check-in group I was finding super helpful on Facebook went off the rails a bit. I am starting up again tomorrow with another check-in group. I kind of feel like a check-in group floozy. Or maybe more like a player. Anyway, plugging away as always at fitness.

7. Lily's Sleep
Oh, so so not good. My eye twitching is better but I am still dangerously sleep deprived which generally means super klutzy. I got a second degree burn on my arm the other day taking a baking sheet out of the oven. I think I might have broken my toe or at least seriously strained something when I tripped in the garage. I am the haggard-est and I am having all sort of other inflammatory issues at the moment (joint pain, IBS issues) - which is probably mostly diet related. But major sleep deprivation makes keeping my FODMAP restricted diet that much harder and it's easier to be painfully bloated in some ways if it means I can just eat whatever. BLAHHHHH! I am at the point where I am dreading sleep because it's just never good. Or at least, even if Lily sleeps okay and only wakes once, I am just broken right now with how I am constantly anticipating her crying. Her sleep is so irregular and unpredictable and my 2-5 AM insomnia problem (that only became a thing during my first pregnancy but has stuck around since then when sleep troubles arise) is through the roof. I don't dare take anything to help me sleep (even if it is breastfeeding approved) since I feel like I would feel that much more groggy with the wake-ups + sleep medication. Some nights she goes several hours in a row and wakes only once and falls back to sleep quickly after nursing. Other nights she wakes up every two hours and is inconsolable and won't get back to to sleep. The wide range makes me feel like sleep training would be a major uphill battle and I have a gut feeling it won't work right now. I'm hoping she settles into a pattern somewhat and then I can get a game plan going. (Quick reminder: I have done sleep training with the other two and also with Lily last summer. I have read nearly every sleep book and even re-read some but after three kids I can see that the varying degrees of effectiveness has a lot to do with the kid. Lily did awesome when I trained her last summer - it was barely even a sleep training thing! - but then came teeth. So I am okay with sleep training because I get to a point where I am broken and parenting through extreme exhaustion and it's better for all of us. But I am also okay not sleep training when it seems like it would not be helpful for any one. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Defensive much, self? Moving on!) It's teething for sure right now (molars this time...yay) but it's also a sudden spree of milestones, both physical and verbal. I'm beat. Totally and completely beat. But Lily has been shifting away from insisting on me and only me to insisting on Max and only Max so that might work out reallllly well in my favor. Sorry Max. ENJOY! (And Max has been helping out at night. It's just there is a lot of wake-ups and not a lot of us.)

8. My Bottom
I ran into the house to get something before we left yesterday and Bella apparently said to Max, "Mom's bottom shimmies in those jeans." So there's that.

9. Key Fail
Our new minivan has remote key fobs and thus the ability to drive WITHOUT your keys as long as you started it with the keys. I shall explain. Last weekend we all drove to the park with Max driving. Max & the older two got out and I moved from the passenger seat to the driver seat and took Lily with me to grab some groceries for dinner. But as I went to lock the car and head inside the store, I realized that I did not have my keys. It's like magic! I drove without keys! Except now I had Lily at the grocery store and Max and the kids were at a park a few miles away and our house with my keys was over two miles away. THANKFULLY (!!) I was wearing comfortable-enough shoes and had the BOB stroller so Lily and I took an unplanned 4 mile round trip walk on a really pleasant day weather-wise. I am also thankful I realized the situation before buying new groceries.

It was less ideal that I had already worked out for 1.5 hours that day and was not looking for any additional activity, but it really was just fine. Except for dinner. By the time I got back to the van and went to pick up the others I had declared it a Chipotle night. INDEEDY!

10. Magic Timer App
Have any of you guys tried this for your kids? It's a Crest tooth brushing app, although I don't think you need to actually purchase a Crest product to use it. Or maybe you do. But v. likely you have something Crest with a cartoon on it in your house if you have young children. It has my kids happily and excitedly brushing their teeth for two minutes two times each day. They get to pick a character to go with their name and they earn "stickers" for a sticker book for each brushing and they get to watch a picture unfold over the two minutes while brushing. You can watch different character-themed pictures by scanning your Crest product that features whatever character: Rapunzel, Lightening McQueen, what have you. But MAYBE you can pull up a picture of, say, Frozen-themed toothpaste, on a second smart phone and then scan the picture using the app on the first smartphone or tablet and MAYBE that works really well and thus let's you skip trying to seek out Elsa or Yoda toothpaste. But even if you MAYBE did such a thing, you still fully support Crest with your 27 princess and Marvel comics and Cars toothbrushes and toothpastes. Anyway, give it a whirl for your little chomper-brushing children.

11. Kids
Bella is almost done with school. She just turned six and had a blast on her birthday and at her craft party (post to come). I feel like it's been too busy for this but I want to watch all her birthday videos in a row one night starting from the very first one I made the week she was born and have a big old happy cry about the passage of time and about my girl. She is a handful for us (though apparently the most angelic of angels at school) but that strong personality will serve her so well in life.

Oliver is almost done with his 3-year-old year of preschool. He is really into Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles and Star Wars yet has never seen either of them outside of them being on his BFFs t-shirt. Haha! He is so sweet and his threenager behavior barely registered on the radar compared to other threenagers I have known and loved. Perhaps four will be the challenge year? Or maybe our Bubby is going to take it easy on us and just be a sweetheart for many a year to come.

Lily is popping out milestones left and right. Stairs, suddenly crawling instead of that scoot, cruising faster and faster, attempting to stand, walks quickly when holding one of our hands and she also keeps repeating new words every day. I find myself back in that stage where I do things like have a foot holding the toilet closed while I wash my hands to prevent her from attempting to have some splash pad fun. Of course, all this means she REALLY REALLY doesn't sleep but I was prepared for this kind of a (non-sleeping) kid all along so it's (mostly) all good. We will all sleep again in 2016. In the meantime, she has been cracking us all up with her antics lately.

They are pretty great, these three.

And that concludes this session of hodge podge-ing. Seacrest out!

Roasted Green Beans with Sriracha Rémoulade

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Mon, 25 May 2015 15:37:00 +0000

So simple but it seems so fancy. This was a hit with our kids, too! Leftover Sriracha Rémoulade is awesome on burgers or sandwiches.

Roasted Green Beans
1 lb fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt, divided
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Put green beans in a bowl with enough olive oil to lightly coat. Add 1/4 tsp salt & pepper. Toss.
Spread green beans in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, turning/moving them in the pan every 10 minutes. The green beans will be done when they begin to look caramelized (brown-ish color). You want them to be a bit crispy.
Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp salt.

Sriracha Rémoulade
1/2 cup mayonnaise (Hellmann's is my go-to)
1 tsp Sriracha hot sauce*
1 tsp fresh lime juice

Mix ingredients. You can let the flavors meld in the fridge for a bit if you are feeling smug and/or are waiting on your green beans.

*For a low FODMAP alternative, try Tabasco sauce - I love the green jalapeno pepper sauce. However, since Sriracha has garlic but no onions, I find it doesn't bother my system too much.

Kids' Meals

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Sun, 24 May 2015 14:16:00 +0000

Congrats to Jodi for winning the Tractor Book & Toy Giveaway!

I have fallen off the wagon a bit from photographing and sharing hese meals given how busy things have been at home, but I plan to continue this series in some format. I also want to show pictures of what our adults meals look like. But for now, here is a quick round-up of meals from a couple weeks ago. All these meals were on solo parenting days while my husband was traveling or working crazy long hours so I certainly kept it simple and easy.

Grilled cheese & Roasted Tomato & Pepper Soup

Hot tip: Costco sells pre-sliced organic cheese and boxes of organic tomato & pepper soup - they are staples for us so I can do these quick meals.

Snacky Dinner...now in an ice cube tray!

Notes: My kids will reject the cheese stick in stick-form but think it's the best if I cut it up and call it "cheese sample" a la grocery store cheese samples. I get these organic cheese sticks from Costco. I get the Applegate smoked turkey from either Super Target, Whole Foods or Lund's/Byerly's. The packaged stuff at Trader Joe's works in a pinch but the texture icks me out. I much prefer getting it sliced super thin at the deli. To elevate the delight of snacky dinner in an ice cube tray even further - eat it on a blanket. WILD AND CRAZY TIMEZ.

Italian Ravioli (store-bought) with Homemade Tomato Sauce, Veggies with Homemade Ranch

I get cravings for D'Amico & Sons but that place is $$$ so I tried out this fancy-seeming ravioli from the refrigerator section hoping it would fill in that void. Meh. The kids and I weren't fans but Max loved it (then again, he was wolfing down food at 9 pm after a long day so perhaps anything would have been the best). To make a quick ranch dressing, simply whisk some mayo with a bit of lemon juice and water or milk to thin it to desired consistency. Add salt, pepper & herbs such as dill.

Pizza Night!

Breakfast For Dinner

Iowa Girl Eats Crock Pot BBQ Chicken with baked beans, corn, cukes.

Notes: The kids did not like this chicken which took me by surprise. Max and I liked it quite a bit and it was super handy to have for lunch for the next few days. I want to play around with creating my own low FODMAP BBQ sauce recipe this summer. Also: I don't do the crock pot chicken quite the same as IGE. I simply put the thawed chicken breasts in the crockpot and cook it on low for 4+ hours. If I do 3-4 lbs of chicken breasts at once then I find 7 hours is good, less chicken = less time. I never bother to do the step of shredding the chicken in the last hour and then giving it extra cooking time.

Hodge Podge: Whine O'Clock Version

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Tue, 19 May 2015 11:28:00 +0000

It's whine o'clock.

So my eye has been twitching for the past few weeks thanks to Lily's sleep habits. She did sleep through the night one night (!) but I, of course, had a bad night of sleep that night and since then it has been more of her usual multiple wake-ups. She was so much easier as a newborn before all this teething business began. I thought Oliver was a tough teether. Turns out Lily wins that prize for the kids. But maybe I am just misremembering. I do recall seeing allll the sunrises the summer Ollie turned one and also holding his diaper-clad self nearly all hours of the day. Thankfully Lily still has lots of cute and sweet and fun moments, but I would love to watch those cute moments through a non-twitchy eye :)

In the midst of this, Husband has been working around the clock. Back to back business trips the past two weeks (one of them last minute), having to go in on the weekends, heading into work before 6 AM, working from home from 7 PM to past midnight at night, etc etc. Every May is rough like this but this May has been exceptionally bad. He was able to be home on Mother's Day so I got some time off but he also had to work several hours that day from home - mostly in the evening after the kids were asleep.

It is hard and sad to not have family to turn to during these times. If I were having a true emergency I am sure family would step in and I could and would certainly turn to local friends if things were really bad but this isn't an emergency. This is just run-of-the-mill twitchy eye tiredness. But oh, I could really use an extra hand with the kids and some coddling of my own. Our babysitter is above and beyond the best ever, but she has had finals plus graduation so she wasn't in the position to give us many extra hours this month (though I am thinking of texting her today now that graduation is over just to see if I might get out of a bedtime this week).

This post is so so grumpy and I know I will perk back up when I can get at least a four-hours-in-a-row stretch of sleep and get this annoying eye twitch back under control but in the meantime I am in a parenting pit where I keep losing my foothold as I try to scramble out. L'chaim. L'chaim. Could be so very much worse.

Random Other Happenings:

On Saturday I brought the kids outside to run in the sprinkler around 4 pm. A man in running clothes came lurching down the street yelling, "Help!" I went to him and he was disoriented and seemed weak so I guided him into our driveway and called 911. (Please note: this is the SECOND time I have called 911 from my front yard. The first time was when an elderly neighbor across the street collapsed in her yard.) He could tell me his name but couldn't tell me more than that. I kept trying to get him to sit down and he would start to sit in a chair or on the ground but would then pop back up. So then instead I had to try to keep him from falling as he kept lurching around the yard and the driveway where the footing is far from even. Eeeeeeee! Bella was very helpful and ran in the house to get water as I asked and she also carefully crossed the street at my request to see if a neighbor was home (she wasn't). It was probably only about 10 minutes before the police and ambulance arrived but WOW that was a rather stressful and intense and completely unexpected 10 minutes. I asked the man if he had diabetes and he looked surprised and said that he did think that he had diabetes. So I am thinking perhaps that was what was behind everything (i.e. low blood sugar)? Anyway, the cop arrived and he was rather an ass and made me feel like I was an interfering old biddy who had brought this situation upon myself. He walked up to us and as I started to explain what I knew he held up his hand to silence me as he placed a call to the dispatch people. Then he started asking the man questions and the man wasn't able to answer them so I tried to explain once again what I knew (such as the seemingly extremely relevant diabetes information!) and I got the hand. Then the ambulance arrived and that was that for my involvement. They all hung out in the driveway for the next half hour ("Mom? Can we still do the sprinkler?") and then drove away. It was all really weird and jarring and I have no closure about whether this man is okay and - oh yeah - I was wrangling 3 kids the whole time. (At one point the man said: Look out! There is a baby there! Don't step on the baby!" Haha. Yes, I was aware of the baby. And the preschooler. And the kindergartner. And the near-collapsed man on my arm. And the 911 lady on the phone. And the fact that my usually busy neighborhood was suddenly absent of any other neighbors to help me out.] What was possibly the weirdest thing about the whole situation was that at one point the man stopped moving and he turned and looked intensely at me and said, "Oh! It's you!" and just stared at me and I quite honestly looked around and wondered if this was an elaborate punk moment. Ashton? Were you behind this?

And there were other random happenings but Lily is done with me having anything to do with something that isn't her (oh, the whining and crying and fussing....SOS!) so I will only have that one random happening. But I think it's enough, yes?

Likely won't be back here until Friday which is babysitter day and approx 20 years from now but I am so so soooooooooo looking forward to it. Also looking forward to the last Mad Men episode but that will have to wait until I can watch that with Max so in the meantime I am avoiding Twitter and Facebook. Shhhhh - no spoilers!

"Big Tractors" Book & Tractor Toy Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Thu, 14 May 2015 18:31:00 +0000

Oliver has been a truck and tractor fan from early on so I was excited for the opportunity to review a new children's book called "Big Tractors with Casey & Friends" which is written by Holly Dufek and illustrated by Paul E. Nunn.

When I read that the illustrator previously worked on Pixar's Cars, I was even more excited for Ollie as Cars is his favorite. And the fact that they were sending a miniature Case tractor replica along with the book? Excitement level 10 and Oliver began asking every day if the book and toy had come in the mail.

The big day arrived!

The book and tractor toy were an immediate hit.

Randomly, the card that came with it was an equally big deal to Oliver so I made sure to get that laminated right away. :)

"Big Red" the tractor

The book gives an overview of the large tractors you would find at a farm. You learn about how these big tractors are the "muscles" that help carry other equipment and how their design features such as their large double wheels allow them to do their job effectively (i.e. - they will not sink into the soil because double wheels spread the tractor's weight over a larger area. Hooray for sneaky physics lessons!)

Here is what I like about this book:

It manages to appeal to a range of ages (it is targeted towards ages 4-8) by including both the main text in addition to informational sidebars and a glossary. For Oliver I keep it focused on the main text but Bella likes reading the additional information. As an adult, I also enjoy learning new things during reading time and this book proved to be quite educational!
I like the mix of real pictures along with the cartoons. Oliver's favorite page shows the inside of a tractor.
The personification of the tractors is fun. I pointed out a Case tractor the other day and said it was like his new toy tractor. Oliver responded, "No. Dat tractor not like Big Red. Dat a different tractor." He's paying attention!
I like that Casey the farmer is a girl.

Here is what I am not so crazy about:

Tillus the worm.
I have worm issues and a worm mascot seems like a weird choice but that's probably just me :) The kids found nothing amiss with a worm spokesperson. I just found him ever so...wormy. And beige. And long. And I worried if he got cut in half there would be two worms. Worm fear is real.

My own personal worm issues aside, I can give the book an enthusiastic two thumbs up.

THE BOOK & TRACTOR TOY GIVEAWAY

If you would like to try to win your own "Big Tractors with Casey & Friends" book and tractor toy for a little one in your life, please leave a comment. Anonymous comments are fine as long as you leave a nickname or name and a way to contact you! US residents only. Contest will close on Wednesday, May 20 at 11:59 PM CST.

This post and giveaway is sponsored by Octane Press and they provided me with one book (Big Tractors with Casey & Friends) and one tractor toy in exchange for this review.

Last Week's Kids' Meals & Meal Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Wed, 13 May 2015 00:42:00 +0000

I am having apostrophe issues:

Last Week's Kids Meals

-or-

Last Week's Kid's Meals

-or-

Last Week's Kids' Meals

Help, wise ones!

Now onto last week. I did five out of seven dinners on my own as Max was out of town so I took it pretty easy on myself and just did what I needed to do.

Monday: Veggies with Ranch Dressing & Pizza

Notes: There was a pizza thing at school and I was all over that for dinner that night since it meant no messy floor to clean or dishes to wash and it would make the time pass faster. Plus, I like pizza :) I served them veggies as their afternoon snack that day since I knew they wouldn't get any later on.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday

Notes: The taco meat + rice + peppers were heated up from the freezer. I also keep my tortillas in the freezer and just heat one or two as needed for the kids meals.

Wednesday: Chicken Enchiladas with salad w/salsa dressing, avocados, sour cream

Notes: This is my standby chicken enchilada recipe that I have used for years (it's Max's favorite!) but I should post my tweaked version (basically I skip the water, use enchilada sauce on top vs. taco sauce, and use a full bell pepper). I always split the recipe right off the bat and put it into 2-3 smaller glass pans and then freeze 1-2 portions for future dinners. I used shredded chicken that I had prepped in the crock pot on Tuesday.

Thursday: Quick Chicken Tikka Masala with spicy sauteed spinach and cucumbers with lime juice & salt

Notes: I don't normally do shredded chicken dishes two days in a row but whatever works! This quick chicken tikka masala recipe is eventually coming to the blog but basically it is as follows: cook up 1-2 chopped cloves of garlic and 1/2-1 finely diced jalapeno (no seeds) in 1 T butter in a saucepan over medium heat for one minute, taking care not to burn the garlic. Add in 2 tsp paprika and 2 tsp cumin and 1/4 tsp salt, mix briefly. Add in 8 oz tomato sauce and an equal amount of half-n-half or whole milk (i.e. 1 cup). Simmer on low heat for 10-20 minutes until sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally. Add in one lb of shredded chicken (2-3 breasts). Full chicken tikka masala recipe is here and it's a FAVE for all of us.

Friday: Breakfast for dinner: Banana-berry smoothies, eggs, mini blueberry muffins

This smoothie was 2 bananas, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup whole milk yogurt, some milk to thin it out (would have preferred OJ but I don't keep that around very often), and a squeeze of honey. Smoothie leftovers become "breakfast popsicles".

This type of smoothie is the kind you can easily add spinach to - throw in some blueberries to mask the green color!

Saturday: Chipotle

Notes - I got them one taco kit and split it between the two older kids and figured I could give them more of my burrito bowl if they were still hungry. And it wasn't our intention to get take-out this night but I ended up not having my keys to the van (Max drove us all to the park and he and the older two got out and I kept driving without realizing I didn't have my own set of keys) and it turned into a debacle so the grocery store didn't happen while I spent 1.5 hours walking with Lily...anyway, god bless Chipotle.

Sunday: Indian Take-Out (no pic!) - This was my mother's day choice :) I was not going to cook or do any dishes on this day. Unfortunately this also means I didn't get around to any meal prep this weekend. Womp, womp. Luckily there are a few meals ready to go in the freezer so it shouldn't be too challenging.

Meal Planning

More easy meals as once again I will have the bulk of dinners (and the bedtimes...sigh...) this week. Definitely a few too many take-out meals in a row which I will have to watch. Oh well, life happens!

Meal Planning:
Monday - Jimmy Johns (sub restaurant)
Tuesday - Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
Wednesday - Breakfast for Dinner or maybe Pasta & Sauce
Thursday - Taco Salads
Friday - Shrimp Pad Thai
Saturday - Fish Tacos or maybe BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad
Sunday - Chicken Enchiladas with Salad

Party Pooper

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Sun, 10 May 2015 21:51:00 +0000

On a day that can be complex and heavy - a fact of life that I only realized with age and maturity (relative maturity, obviously) - I am going to keep it light. But for the record, I am having a delicious day that includes so much lounging in bed and dipping in and out of family life which is a dream come true at this stage of my life. Thank you, Max! Wishing everyone a good day and sending positive and peaceful thoughts to those who might be more than ready for Monday.

* * * *

Bella checked out a book from the library last week. She beamed as she read the title aloud and explained to me why she was inspired to check it out.

I felt so proud because I realized it means she has been really taking in our educational YouTube watching. I love the way the internet and old-school books come together to further knowledge in the next generation.

#soproud #soblessed #jennifer #PoopAtTheParty #PeoplesKnow #DisSerious #MakeObservation

How I "To-Do" These Days

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Fri, 08 May 2015 15:50:00 +0000

This goes out to all my organizing lovers of the world...

I love organizers and calendars and planners and to-do lists. Always have and always will. I have saved all my planners since Junior High school and I am not even a huge saver of things!

But the problem with staying at home with young kids is that most traditional planners and to-do lists just do not work with the flow of our lives. I imagine this will improve with time, especially once all the kids are in school. At that point I will have more freedom over my daytime hours and I will need something that divides the day up by hours so I can keep track of everyone and where they need to be outside of school hours. But for now I need something fairly loose in terms of time management but at the same time I need to keep track of several things. I need a place to download the scattered thoughts in my brain and to keep myself on track for achieving goals and simply staying on top of life.

I have tried to find a good method for this for years. I tried doing it all online but that wasn't a good fit for me and how my brain works. I still use Google calendar religiously and Max and I send each other calendar events often. Google calendar then acts as a great reminder system by texting or emailing me before events. My other key piece of online organization is using my email like a to-do list - as in I regularly try to zero out my emails and only the things that need to be dealt with get to remain in my inbox. I also email myself "to-do" items when they pop into my head that I will later transfer to a master to-do list. But that is the extent on my online organizing because I need that full to-do list to be on one paper. I need to cross items off and see the big picture at once.

But what about all those daily tasks beyond the to-do list? I am talking trying to keep up with daily house cleaning and exercising and water drinking and hobbies and hair washing. I tried having a meal planning list, an exercise checklist, and a cleaning checklist all on the fridge. I didn't like it - it left me feeling scattered and it looked cluttered and I soon just ignored it.

I got fancy for awhile after Bella was born when I read an organization book by Julie Morgenstern that encouraged making time maps. Here is what that looked like:

It seemed good in theory and sort of worked since I just had one baby at the time but the reality is that I still felt like I was forgetting to do many things. The whole thing got scrapped once Oliver entered the picture because it was months before reliable free-time windows even appeared.

Shortly after Oliver turned one and we had moved, I tried again to figure out a system that worked for me. I also wanted to figure out what it was that I wanted to accomplish in my life. I am semi-embarrassed to share this but whatevs, I have shared worse :) Basically I brainstormed using thought bubbles to sketch out what kept me sane and happy. I was trying to pinpoint what made me feel functional and satisfied. That looked like this:

I totally remember making this as the kids played around me and I remember that feeling of "WHY CAN'T I GET ON TOP OF SHIT!?!?!" Arg, such a frustrated place I was in then before I realized and accepted that my shit will be mostly half done most days...and half done is a good day :) I never really did anything with this piece of paper besides hang on to it but it did help me identify what seemed most important to me:

meal planning/grocery shopping/cooking given my dietary issues
regular exercise
taking care of myself (baths, coloring hair, etc.)
time with Max without the kids
time for writing and planning and connecting online
a clean house

This list is incomplete as I also need time with friends and vacations/breaks and things, but it was a start. However, I didn't know how to go from the thought bubbles to a functional to-do list or planner. I continued to try a few different things - printing up fancy to-do lists that I found on Pinterest or writing out a new to-do list each day in a journal. Those fizzled out quickly. Then I tried going the mobile phone route again using various task-related apps or to-do list apps. Didn't work. I scoured Amazon's many planners and looked on Etsy and pondered trying an expensive planner that other bloggers recommended but none of them had everything I wanted. And then shortly after Lily was born and I was once again feeling particularly scattered, I came up with something that actually works for me.

Here it is: my weekly to-do list.

It doesn't look like much but it actually represents so many areas of my life - I even have it saved it as my "Life To-Do List". This one piece of paper has all those extra items from the time-map and thought-bubble brainstorming session incorporated into a functional check list. Some checklist items are aspirational, some are no-brainers that would happen even without a checklist, many are somewhere in between. If you wondered why I have time to cook so much...well, it's because washing my hair more than twice a week is aspirational for me! We all have our things.

Breaking it down...

Under "To Do List" I write out just a few items at the start of each week that I pull from a master to-do list (I will get to that in a bit). Since little things might come up in the course of the week I can add those in there. I also have plenty of room to write notes and jot down ideas. When life is getting really busy I will throw a post-it note on there with the four HAVE TOs for that day (e.g. mutu, walk, put chicken in crockpot, dishes.)

On the right side are all the checklists. First we have the household cleaning and management one.

I want dishes done daily and I need to do laundry nearly daily and "floors" just means sweeping and spot cleaning as needed. I also include my weekly cleaning items underneath the table that I can cross off as I get them done. I will be honest with you - I don't do a lot of those weekly items. We have house cleaners that come once a month and they are the ones scrubbing showers and vacuuming. Meal planning & grocery shopping & cooking is automatic and pretty easy for me so I didn't give that its own special daily checklist but that might be something to prioritize as a daily item if that is something you want to try to get yourself to do more. Conversely some of you might not dream of skipping a day of sweeping so you wouldn't need to call that out for yourself.

Next my exercise and health checklist.

Track refers to writing down what I eat so that I can track what foods seem to give me stomach problems. I can see now I need to add in another line for doing the "intensive" workouts with Mutu so I will have to update my list.

The next are the things that makes my brain feel happier and calmer.

I like to get a to-do list item done each day and try to clean out my emails daily. I feel more accomplished and mentally much calmer when I write regularly so blogging gets its own line. For you it might be practicing an instrument or learning a language or doing a sport or knitting or scrapbooking or whatever. It's that hobby that makes you uniquely you. It might seem strange to put anything about blog comments on there but those are challenging for me to remember to do or to prioritize because they require me getting out my computer and that is something I only do during rest time or after the kids are asleep. I don't intend for the final three items to have a daily check but it helps to show me at a glance what needs to be done or perhaps prioritized when I do have a chunk of free time.

Finally we have a checklist so I remember to not let myself turn into PigPen.

This part of the list needs updating now that I am out of the newborn/fourth trimester baby fog, but it was actually so helpful in those early days to just remember to get the basics done. Sometimes getting to check off that you brushed your teeth can feel like an accomplishment :) But since I do forget when I last washed my hair or took my vitamins and need to step up my flossing and face washing game, those items will remain on this list. Maybe if I decide I want to focus more on primping I will add in a "get dressed in real clothes" or "do hair" category. Again - we all have our strengths - primping is not mine :)

Below those checklists I leave a spot for meal planning, blog post planning and a weekend chore to accomplish. The weekend chores are things like hanging pictures or deep cleaning something or a yard project.

So that is the to-do list! You can download your own to personalize from this Google Doc link.

I print up a bunch at a time, three-hole punch them and place them in a fun binder from Target.

I stuck my master to do list in the front left pocket.

The master to-do list includes all those tasks that need to be done in the more immediate future, but not necessarily this week. Basically things I want on my radar. Items on that list at the moment include: Bella b-day preparation, some minor household tasks like changing air filters, scheduling a doctor's appointment for Lily, car maintenance...You get the idea.

Then all of my weekly to-do lists are on the right with the newest one on top. This allows me to look back at previous weeks to see recent meals or see how I am doing with various goals like exercising or flossing.

In the very back of the binder, I stick my more fun, completely non-urgent and longer term to-do list. That list includes things like making family albums, WITL books, and optional house projects.

Then I added a few two-pocket dividers (happiness is those two-pocket dividers, methinks) and each one contains a subject that deals with my daily life: a basic to-do folder for little bits of paper that need dealing with in the short term (examples: party invites, a form that needs ot be filled out), then there is a meal planning/grocery shopping one, and also a blogging one.

I keep the bulk of our household items in a separate binder - that binder gets all the kids activity calendars and school calendars, coupons and take-out menus, and home-related info (recycling calendars, business cards). I keep that stuff separate because I want this binder to really just be about me and my daily life.

Let me know if you have any questions (or concerns - haha! Fair play if you are worried about me not flossing or washing my face...) And let me know if you have a planner that you find helpful because I love looking at those to get ideas on how to further tweak my own system.

Lily's First Birthday & One Year Old Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Thu, 07 May 2015 20:47:00 +0000

First I must insist you watch this video of Lily eating her cake. She is my first kid to actually eat the cake and she did it with such flair. The other two were more interested in the texture of the frosting and cake so there was a lot of squishing it in their hands but not a lot of putting it in their mouths. Lily went on to eat a full piece (well, baby-sized full piece) and I am sure she would have had more if I had offered it.

SHE IS SO CUTE. You could tell she liked being the center of attention, although she wasn't quite sure what to think. I'm so excited to see her full personality unfold over the next few years.

Her party was teeny-tiny, just my parents, but I was happy to keep it simple and small. She was able to spend part of her own party napping, which was much needed for my teething girl :)

I made a banner with a picture from every month and I love how it turned out. I love it so much that I am going to hang it up in her room.

It took about 20 minutes to put together once I had the materials. I printed up square-sized photos at Walgreens and bought the following at Micheal's: 12x12 sequin paper, ribbon, and stick-on roses. To assemble I cut each piece of sequin paper into quarters, glued a picture in the middle (used a hot glue gun just to really get it to stick), and added the flower. Then I used a regular old 3-hole punch on the top of each square to get two holes punch in the top. After that I just had to thread the pictures onto the ribbon and hang it up with command hooks.

Lily's reaction to the pictures and the banner was really fun. She studied the pictures and also loved batting them - ha!

I am going to make a banner for both Bella and Oliver this year for their birthday where I do one picture from every year of their lives. Then each year I will only have to add one additional picture and we can enjoy hanging it up every year. I might also print up their birthday interview to stick on the back of the corresponding year.

Bella really wanted a game for the party so we came up with Pin the Hairbow on the Lily. I made this poster enlargement at Walgreens (found a coupon code online so it was inexpensive) using a picture that our family photogrpaher and friend JP of JP Ramler Photography took and then I used double sided tape to stick it to a spare piece of foam board.

Here is where I point out that I spelled "the" wrong and had to cover that up with paper. Life is tricky, man.

That was pretty much it for her party! Well, she did open her presents, of course, but many of them were perhaps originally big brother and big sister's toys that we wrapped up. Haha! Poor third baby. Promise she will not end up with recycled toys for all Christmases and birthdays from here on out but at this point we have more toys and board books than we need and it's all new to her!

Now some of my favorites from her first year photoshoot with JP Ramler Photography.

This baby! She was not into this session but you can't tell from the pictures.
JP is really enjoying working with pre-walking babies (i.e. those who can't escape very quickly!) so she is offering some specific mini-sessions called "Let Them Be Little Baby Mini-Sessions" In JP's words:

This session is meant for babies who can sit unassisted up to babies who can stand and creep but aren’t yet fully walking on their own. Sessions run from 15-20 minutes and include 10 enhanced images. Session fee is $125.00

To see examples of JP's work you can visit her Facebook page or her website.

Thank you, JP! Love your work as always!

Last Week's Kids Meals + Meal Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Tue, 05 May 2015 01:50:00 +0000

Last week's kids' meals

Monday: "Brasa" (a favorite Minneapolis restaurant) Inspired Dinner of Shredded Pork with Citrus Mojo, Corn, Spicy Sauteed Spinach, Curly Sweet Potato Oven Fries, Sriracha-Cilantro Mayo (for fry dipping)

Notes: YUM. The pork took a lot of forethought and oven time over the weekend but it was delicious. I probably won't attempt sweet potato curly fries again unless I get crazy and try to fry them at home. Bella and I were obsessed with that mayo (mayo + cilantro + sriracha + bit of lime juice + water to thin in blender).

Tuesday: GF noodles with Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Vodka Sauce, Green beans, and the toppings for the pasta - goat cheese, bacon, and fresh basil

Notes: The recipe was a combo of this roasted red pepper pasta from Pioneer Woman and this Vodka Sauce recipe from Eating Well. I probably won't attempt to combo them again, but it turned out good enough. Turns out Oliver is a huge goat cheese fan. Bella was skeptical.

Wednesday: Classic "Taco Roll-Ups" using the pre-portioned taco meat + rice & sauteed veggies from the freezer. Served with salsa and tomatoes

Thursday: Cheddar Bunny Chicken Strips with Tator tots and broccoli

Notes: There are tons of recipes for these kinds of chicken strips online and mine is just a simple 3-step crusted-chicken strip recipe. Take chicken tender, dip in flour, then dip in egg wash (lightly whisked eggs), and finally dip in crushed cheddar bunnies. Bake for 20-25 min at 350. To prep them for the freezer, place the breaded strips on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the freezer for one hour and then transfer to a freezer bag. I like to keep these on hand and have started making them as freezer meal for those who already have kids. I should write this up as a recipe, eh?

Friday: We ate a larger-than-usual afternoon snack and then spent 5:30-8 PM at a neighbor's house where the kids had more carb-based snacks. An off night in terms of a balanced meal but we had fun :) In lieu of Friday's dinner I will share Saturday's lunch: Tuna salad with pickles, GF toast with butter, veggies.

Saturday: grilled BBQ chicken, salad with ranch, corn, broccoli, watermelon

Notes: Tried the TJ All Natural Barbeque Sauce for the first time and Max and I really liked it.

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner: Mini banana muffins, eggs, peach yogurt, watermelon

Notes: My babysitter makes muffins with Oliver every week and it's the awesomest because then I have those to use as breakfasts, snacks or even dinners during the rest of the week.

Next Week:
Monday - Pizza at Preschool Function with veggies beforehand
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday
Wednesday - Trader's Joe's Lasagna w/ salad
Thursday - Chicken Tikka Masala
Friday - Take Out/Freezer Meal
Saturday - Shrimp Pad Thai
Sunday - Chicken Enchiladas

Toddler's Lullabye

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Fri, 01 May 2015 01:39:00 +0000

A diaper, pajamas, a jacket that zips
I hold her, so solid, my baby, soft lips

She plucks at my bra strap, a thwap to the skin
I look down at sweetness, the plumpest of chin

A dipe-muffled toot then lands in my palm
How is it that flatulence brings me such calm?

While holding her, big doe eyes gaze back me
I look back and hold true, she's all that I see.

A finger then slowly pokes into my nose
I pull out that finger and tickle her toes

She's rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand
How crazy to think that this wasn't the plan

She droops and she sighs and she folds into me
The sleep is now coming, still the world, let it be

And I rock and I rock and her breathing it slows
She is heavy, so small, and I know that she knows

That I love and we love, as we rock in this chair
The tears prick my eyes, she's beyond what is fair

A kiss to the forehead, so sweaty, so sweet
This baby has made both our lives feel complete

I lay her in bed, roll to tummy, make no peep
A toddler you'll wake but as baby you'll sleep

HALO SleepSack Winner & A Few Random Thoughts on 30 Days of Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 19:34:00 +0000

The winner of the HALO SleepSack is Lisa! Congrats!

As for me, this marks my final day of 30 days of blogging. I can't believe I did it and I can't believe how motivated I have felt to blog so much and get some old drafts published. I really don't know where this energy was hiding but I do know that I've missed the practice of regular writing tremendously. It felt really good to be spending time typing up my thoughts.

Unsurprisingly and semi-annoyingly, I became much more disciplined and motivated in the rest of my life in order to make time for blogging. To be fair, housework has lagged a bit and I feel like I haven't had as much time to chat with Max at the end of the day so every day blogging is a little too much. But blogging more often is feasible right now and it clears the mental cobwebs and makes me happier in general.

Oh yeah. Hobbies! They are a thing!

I still have several half-finished drafts that I hope to chug out soon and I am going to use babysitter time almost exclusively for blogging. Oh! And the really exciting news (to me at least) is that I am finally going to move over to wordpress.org with my own domain and host and all that which should hopefully make commenting a much easier and smoother thing. No more Blogger deleting comments and being weird. I will be doing a blog refresh at the same time since we are getting family photos at the end of the month and I want to use those as my header & profile picture.

Hey, want to see my color scheme? It's mostly based around the fact that I don't have many clothes & I don't want to go shopping. It's pretty much that coral dress or old yoga pants.

So sort of a coral, blue, gray theme. I am going to have Lily wear her gray dress and then Oliver will wear plaid shorts (not the ones pictured here though) with this shirt since he loves ties so much.

He will be so adorable! I might pick him up some cheap boat shoes from Old Navy, too.Then I am liking one of these dresses for Bella, probably with her jean jacket and gold saltwater sandals...

I am leaning towards the white one because she looks so sweet in white, especially with a jean jacket, and the texture of the fabric seems similar to my dress and somewhat similar to the eyelet look on Lily's dress, too.

Max will do gray pants and a light blue shirt I think...

Was that interesting to no one? Ha! Max seems very confused by me thinking about it so much.

Okay, back to the blog refresh! So I have transferred everything over to Wordpress already and then Stephanie from How Sweet Designs will do the rest. I imported allll my blogs so if someone wants to start from 2005 and read all the way through, they could. Only 1,400 posts or so. (!!) Getting all my stuff in one place and getting it to Wordpress.org ticks off two very old to do list items. WOO HOO!

While I am talking blogging, any requests for posts? I have the following half-finished in my draft folder with the intention to post in the next month:

How I define healthy eating for me and my family
Our Kindergarten Experience
More Kids Activities
Recipes: Chicken Noodles Soup, Low FODMAP spaghetti & meatballs
The details of Lily's birthday
Sharing my to-do list that is adapted to a SAHM lifestyle
Books reviews (from all of 2014 and into 2015 - 50 or so books)
Freezer meals
All About the Low FODMAP diet
Sharing the Snowy House Shadow boxes I made for my Grandma, Mom & Aunt for Xmas

Let me know if there is something else you would like to me to blog about! I am going to take the weekend off but I will be back here on Monday. Have a faboo weekend! XOXO

It's Bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 16:38:00 +0000

I have a call to action for my fellow bloggers. Friends, here is your assignment: Chiquita Bananas has committed to donating a box of bananas to a food pantry of your choice if you post your entry into their Chiquita Sing Off Contest.

I did the easy-peasy banana-gram option that took a couple minutes. Like so:

And while I think Max's video is hilarious, we also did one for each of the rest of us at Bella and Oliver's insistence :)

The kids love these and want to watch them every day. We've come to memorize the old-school Chiquita song and we are well aware that you should never put banaaaaanaaaaas, in the refrigerator....cha cha cha!

Bloggers, do you see how easy and fun it is to make that video? You just upload a picture to make a banana-gram and in turn you are helping feed people in your community! WIN WIN! (And speaking of winning...your entry might actually win you some money. Or you can go for the big bucks and get really creative and style your own Chiquita Banana video - check the site for info on all that. Everyone can enter into the contest - no need to have a blog for that!)

My banana donation will be going to Second Harvest, a place that I have personally volunteered at in the past. 1 in 10 households in Minnesota are affected by hunger. This US map shows the problem at a county and state level so you can have a better understanding of the current situation in your home town.

This is just a small way to help the battle against hunger in our communities but it's something. So bloggers big and small - would you consider joining me in this effort?

If you post your own Chiquita video, please send an email to Brittany Gibson (brittany.gibson@phase3mc.com) with the link to your video and a link to your blog so that they can donate a box of bananas to a food pantry near you. And let me know, too, so I can see your video!

Tired

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 00:40:00 +0000

When I am sleep deprived I like to tell myself really funny sleep deprivation jokes. Things like:

Sleep deprivation provides you with all the hangover after having none of the alcohol.

Um. That's all I got for you at this moment and this is maybe stealing from my first trimester set but there are other HIGH-LARIOUS ones, lemme tell you. I like how I was optimistic that I could list off a bunch of them, hence the bullet pointing. Alas, one bullet point is all you get.

I also like to pull my toenails off by accidentally jamming my foot under doors while very sleep deprived. I say that in the plural because it has happened in the plural.

Walls jump out to meet me. Counters also rudely step into my path.

Fridge and freezer contents are generally mixed up. I will hold something like cheddar cheese in my hand and stare at it, mentally chanting, "Fridge? Freezer? Freezer. No. Wait. Fridge?"

Last night Lily only woke up 3 times ("only") but Bella had a stuffy-nose-related wake up one hour after Lily's last wake up and then Oliver had a bad dream one hour after that and somehow I ended up being the ones who heard/intercepted the older two (usually I let Max handle all older kid night stuff since I am plenty busy with the baby)...and this is now officially a run-on sentence but basically:

TIRED.

And a random picture I just stumbled upon but it works so very well.

This is poor 2008 Laura who was tired after a weekend of doing household chores and only watching like 6 hours of HGTV instead of 10.

2015 Laura says, "Hey, 2008 Laura! Tell me more about those bangs that are happening." 2015 Laura then adds begrudgingly, "Your eyebrows look nice, though."

Kids Meals + Meal Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 01:03:00 +0000

Last week I fed the kids (and us)...

MONDAY
Leftover Chicken Curry over Basmati Rice with Spicy Sauteed Greens with Cucumber Dressed in Lemon Juice & Salt

TUESDAY
Meatballs (my FODMAP-modified version that I hope to post this week) in marinara sauce over zoodles (zucchini noodles) with buttered GF toast, Caesar salads and parmesan.

Notes: I have been buying the Marzetti "Simply Dressed" Caesar and ranch dressings as a decent middle-of-the-road option between making my own and buying something highly processed. Toast is Udi's white bread - the only GF option I seem to like. Both kids cleaned their plates - this meal is a consistent family hit. The zoodles are still a newer concept and Bella is never quite sure about them, but Oliver really likes them and also loves making them with me. The kids almost always eat the Parmesan separate.

WEDNESDAY
Dry-Fried Tofu Marinated in a Soy-Ginger Marinade, Peanut Noodles, assorted veggies stir-fried in coconut oil over rice, and salad with soy-ginger dressing

Notes: I can't have coconut oil due to an allergy (which is so sad because I love the flavor) so that was my reasoning behind both stir-fry w/rice AND peanut noodles. Oliver loved the tofu but needed a lot of prompting for the rest of the meal. Does anyone have a good recipe for peanut noodles? Every time I make them I am left disappointed - they get all gloopy. I make my own ginger-soy dressing using this recipe - it has been a favorite for years! My tofu marinade was just a hodge podge of tamari, a little rice vinegar, lemon juice, and water to thin it out.

THURSDAY
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup with a biscuit, Fruity Spinach Salad w/a Citrus Dressing

Notes: This meal was actually a little bit of an oops. It was supposed to be chicken & biscuits but it wasn't working out. The biscuits were made using the GF Bisquick. Bella loved the spinach salad, Oliver was not impressed.

FRIDAY
Crudites with ranch before dinner...

and some good old Papa Johns pizza for the main event.

Notes: Just dial 1-800-PAPA.

SATURDAY
Fish tacos with a avocado-mango pico, a few chips & guac, pineapple

Notes: I was inspired by the recipe Annie's Eats posted last week for fish tacos with similar flavors but I simplified it by simply dicing up mango and avocado and then gently mixing it with some lime juice, tabasco, cilantro and salt.

SUNDAY
Shrimp Spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce, chicken satay, Asian salad with ginger-soy dressing, rice noodles

Notes: The kids were totally disturbed by the spring rolls (though I swear they liked them before? and they still ate the shrimp and raved about that even though I know they refused shrimp last time I made it? I dunnoz). Oh - but I do know that boiling your shrimp for a minute or two in soy sauce/tamari seasoned water is such a flavor enhancer - I got that from the Alton Brown spring roll recipe, although I am more 2.5/4 stars about the rest of the recipe. I loved the peanut sauce (melted 1/2 cup pb in microwave and added 2 T lime juice, 2 T soy sauce, a bit of sriracha sauce and some water to thin it out to desired consistency) for I love all things sauce-y but I was alone in that. .

I also took a few dessert photos but mostly forgot:

For the most part the kids get something after dinner provided they do a decent job of eating. We do more fresh fruit as dessert when there are more fun fresh fruits in season but the kids predictably scoff at that. Other examples of what equals one dessert for us would be a small cookie, a pack of Annie's gummies (a dessert that I can buy in bulk at Costco because I don't eat them...), a lollipop, a piece of candy if it's post-holiday, tonight we let them each have half of a blizzard... It varies! I probably *should* dial back the dessert a little bit or at least not have it be such a built-in expectation but I can't say I care all that much given how generally balanced their eating is at meals. Also - I certainly really like dessert so what to do? Conundrum city.

And for next week...

Monday - Fake "Brasa" (local restaurant): pulled pork with citrus mojo, sweet potato fries with spicy cilantro mayo (mayo blended with cilantro, bit of lime juice, and dash of sriracha), sauteed spicy greens, corn

Tuesday - Sandwiches & picnic stuff at the park

Wednesday - Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Vodka Sauce over GF noodles w/broccoli

Thursday - Sweet Potato Waffles, Eggs, Fruit

Friday - Take out/leftovers/ grill-out at neighbors?

Saturday - Cheddar-Bunny Chicken strips w/sides

Sunday - Soft Shell Ground Beef Tacos w/sides

What is fabulous is that this week's meals are mostly prepared and ready to go after a power cooking session last weekend. I got annoyed with prepping food on Tuesday & Wednesday during the kids' witching hour so I am working hard to avoid having to do that again!

Weekend Review

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 01:30:00 +0000

This weekend just blew by, even more so than usual.

On Friday it was cold and rainy and Lily did some teething while we waited for our pizza to be delivered.

(This picture has prompted me to get a hair appointment scheduled to address that there root sitch.)

After our poor teething baby went to bed we played a round of The Cupcake Game with the big kids. I love how they always pile on each other a little bit.

Saturday morning was my day to sleep in (WHEEE!) but I still was up with Lily 3-4 times in the night and from 5:45 AM - 6:15 AM I tried unsuccessfully to get her back to sleep. But 6:15 - 9 AM was sleeping which is THE BEST. GIVE ME MORE SLEEP.

Bella had some moments with my labeler while I slept.

Then B went to swimming with Max and I took Lily and Oliver to Target and power shopped. Oliver was over it by check out time. Random aside: is it just me or have Target employees gotten increasingly putsy when it comes to checking out? It takes at least 20 minutes. And why do I continue to feel surprised about it time after time, year after year?

Home for lunch and then after a brief rest I took Bella to Whole Foods to finish our shopping. It's nice to have one on one time.

Saturday evening had Bella going over to my sister-in-law's house for a movie and dinner. Max drove her over and brought Oliver and Lily along for the ride while I cooked up a storm in a kid-free kitchen: chili, pasta sauce, pork roast marinating, steamed some sweet potatoes for waffles and made fish tacos with mango-avocado pico for dinner. We quickly ate once they got back from dropping Bella and then it was already time for Lily to go to bed. Oliver loved the extra attention he got after Lily was in bed.

Sunday morning was my day to wake up with the kids and I need to note that Lily only woke up ONE TIME! Once! At 1 AM!!!! Oh please please please let this be the direction she goes with her sleep.

I made the sweet potato waffles and the kids insisted on being right next to me while I cooked. We need to get some decent bar stools so I can have the kids sit there while I cook and do dishes.

The rest of Sunday passed in a zippy blur: park playdate (super nice day!), lunch, a nap, chores, a walk, dinner, baths and then bedtime.

Now it is bedtime for me, too. Hope you guys had good weekends!

Mocktail O'Clock

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 00:42:00 +0000

Max and I are on a health kick and are trying to keep our alcohol drinking to a minimum these days - only one night a week or so. It's as WOMP WOMP as it sounds. Grown-upping. The worst.

But! We have mocktails and I wanted to share how I like to mocktail it up.

First you have to make simple syrup which seems sort of scary and labor intensive and that "simple" business seems like a lie. But it is simple! You do 1:1 sugar and water and heat it just enough so that the sugar dissolves and then let it cool a bit and store it in the fridge in a mason jar or container of your choosing. I ususally make 1 cup water + 1 cup sugar or 2 cups water + 2 cups sugar at a time. Simple syrup is also super handy for adding to iced coffee and ice tea.

For the mocktail you need the following things:

Ice
Simple Syrup
Flavored sparkling Water (I am a La Croix girl through and through)
Flair: fresh mint, fresh basil, fresh rosemary, fresh lemons or limes, fresh fruit...

Today's version is my Quick and Minty Mockito. Put a good bit of ice in a festive glass and add 2 Tbsp simple syrup and ~6 oz of lime-flavored sparkling water. Then crush a few mint leaves gently in your hand and stir it into the drink.

Et voila!

And the kids like it, too!

You can get fancy with making flavored simple syrups but that makes me sleepy. Sometimes I put it all in a shaker to mix to feel fancy. You can also put the cock in mocktails with some gin/vodka/tequila/raspberry-cordial-shout-out-to-Anne-Shirley but that would be your own personal business.

BYE!

Why I Recommend Hypnobabies Over Hypnobirthing

noreply@blogger.com (Navigating the Mothership) — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 01:38:00 +0000

Short Version
Try Hypnobabies! Awesome med-free birthing prep option! It's the clear winner between the two methods in my opinion.

Medium Version
For the medium version I will break it down with pros and cons for Hypnobirthing and Hypnobabies.

Hypnobirthing (attended a class - full review from 2009 here)

Pros

A great concept. Kudos to Marie Mongan for being the first to package it as a product and for making hypnosis for birth accessible to the pregnant ladies of the world.

Cons

Not cheap. My particular class was $350 for five weeks of classes (2.5 hours/class), one book and two self-hypnosis track. My class was in 2009 so it might cost more these days. You need to take the class in order for the book to make sense.

Vague, vague and more vague. It was never clear exactly what I was supposed to be doing for homework, just that I was supposed to devote daily time to practicing. This drove me crazy as a type-A person. On the flip-side, maybe this would appeal to a very laid back person...but I am guessing a very laid back person would be unlikely to seek out childbirth prep in the first place!

Hypnobirthing is anti-medical to the point where I found it problematic. I don't care for Mongan's antagonistic attitude towards the medical profession. This was a big turn-off for me from the start to finish of the book. I have a background with the medical world as the child of a doctor and as a dietitian so I feel that the medical world can offer some great things. At the same time, I am also one who might avoid or question medical interventions for myself more than most (such as the fact that I turn down antibiotics more often than not for our family) but Mongan's anti-medical stance is just so extreme that it is off-putting. I feel extreme anything is not a good idea with birth.
Hypnobirthing is so focused on an ideal birth that it ignores pretty much any possibility that anything might go less than perfect. As a concept, I can see what they are going for with that message. As a reality, I think it does a disservice to women. If you only took a Hypnobirthing class and did no other prenatal anything, you might be in for a shock of your life should things veer off from ideal. And it concerns me that this might set up a lot of women for future bad feelings about their birth (or worse) should their birthing experience require additional interventions or medication. It's a fine line to walk when it comes to keeping your mind in a positive place. I agree that negative birth stories should be skipped during the prenatal time but the fact that c-sections are sometimes the best option (or medications, etc.) cannot be ignored.

Marie Mongan did the narration on the tracks and her voice was very bothersome to me to the point where I could not listen to the tracks.

Hypnobabies (Home-Study Course)
Pros

Thorough, structured, and filled in the gaps that I felt Hypnobirthing was missing. I knew what I needed to do to prepare for a self-hypnosis managed birth and I was in a great mental place.

I felt especially connected to the baby inside me from the regular visualization work.

It covers all aspects of birth including possible interventions that might be needed but does so in a thoughtful and non-scary way. I feel it leaves mothers better prepared for possible realities that might transpire during their birth. And there are even cesarean birth preparation self-hypnosis materials available because - DUH - sometimes a c-section is going to be the safest and best option.

Less expensive at $160 for a coursebook and multiple hypnosis tracks. The coursebook includes information that would be covered in a general childbirth preparation course, such as nutrition information. The multiple tracks keep boredom down and feel more thorough. There is also a Yahoo group with fellow Hypnobabies mothers to provide additional support which I appreciated.

Kerry Tuschhoff, the creator of Hynobabies, narrates the tracks and has a very pleasant voice.

Cons

Written in an overly wordy and sometimes cutesy manner. The text needed editing, especially when it came to length and cohesiveness. There were some weird grammar issues in the hypnosis tracks that became quite glaring as I listened to tracks over and over. However, all these problems were minor to me and didn't really bug me all that much. Also - I am reviewing the version from years ago so these problems may have been addressed.

I had trouble with the fingerdrop technique as it was explained on the tracks and I was very frustrated by that. Eventually I modified it slightly in a way that made sense to me and that solved the problems for me.

Long Version for the detail lovers of the world.

Let's start with the backstory. Back in my college days, I used to think yoga was the most boring thing on the planet and the thought of meditation seriously creeped me out. And then my boyfriend-now-husband introduced me to Bikram yoga and that was enough to flip a switch in me to keep an open mind as to what benefits yoga/meditation and other similar practices might offer. It's funny to me now that I used to find savasana (the last few minutes of yoga where you lay quietly on the floor) to be incredibly maddening and can-I-just-get-up-already-OMG-why-are-we-all-just-laying-here??!? These days I loooove Savasana even though it is challenging mentally to keep my mind clear.

But back to the backstory.

My brain underwent another expansion - or at least opened itself even more to new experiences - when I began to work in eating disorders. The holistic treatment offered at the clinics exposed the clients to a wide range of therapies - spiritual, physical, occupational, etc. - and this in turn exposed ME to a wide range of therapies. Towards the end of my stint in eating disorders, I was in a position to have more freedom about what projects I was doing with my small groups and I began to incorporate guided meditation, especially after meals. Guided meditation can include a range of concepts, but my favorites were sound tracks that had a soothing voice guiding a person to visualize themself somewhere lovely, like a garden or a beach. It felt like mini-vacations for the mind and I liked that it gave your brain some specific information to focus on rather than the extremely challenging concept of simply "being" (that is HARD). Here is an example of a favorite that I have used one and off for years: The Secret Garden. My eating disorders job also paid for continuing education and I took advantage of that by enrolling in an intensive meditation course called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Jon Kabat Zinn for the win! There was daily meditation homework and we worked up to doing 45 minutes meditation sessions in that class. The lengthy quiet meditation was not my cup of tea, but I do wonder if I'll get more into that with age, maturity, and additional time to spare. We shall see.

I firmly believe all these experiences - the yoga, the exposure to non-traditional therapies for mood regulation at work, and the meditation class, laid the groundwork for me to consider using hypnosis for an unmedicated birth. I also think this gave me a bit of an advantage when it came to being able to self-hypnotize effectively since I already had many hours of practice put in over the years.

Let's pause here and talk about what hypnosis for childbirth means. It is basically keeping your brain - and therefore your body - in a state of relaxation. It's not putting yourself into a trance and it's not the kind of performance hypnosis that you may have seen done on a stage. Some women may appear to be in a trance-like state, but they are still conscious of what is going on around them and can respond to their environment as needed. Both birth hypnosis methods incorporate the concept of self-anesthetizing to help manage the contractions ("surges" or "pressure waves" if I'm using hypno-speak), although Hypnobabies is much more specific about how to do that technique.

Why did I chose hypnosis for birth preparation and not another method? Well at the time (2008-2009) there weren't really all that many choices for unmedicated birth preparation. I think this has changed somewhat in the past six years, but I can't say for sure. I discarded the Bradley Method (a.k.a. "Husband Coached Natural Childbirth") on the basis that I knew I would be resistant to the idea of my husband - someone who has never given birth before - being the coach. He was in the middle of wrapping up his MBA while working full time and also keeping up with another smaller part-time job so I didn't want to have to be his cheerleader (i.e. nagging wife) when it came to doing the homework required of him. While it turns out that my husband is the one I turn to the most in my births, I still feel firmly that Bradley classes would have been a bad choice FOR US and would have caused resentment. However, I have heard wonderful things from many moms about the Bradley method. I think it would be a great choice for someone whose partner wants to be very involved and has the time and inclination to do the coursework.

Since the Bradley Method wasn't a good fit and Lamaze just seemed dated, that left Hypnobabies or Hynobirthing. And here is where I made a mistake - I chose purely on the names and didn't do any research. I thought Hypnobirthing sounded less cutesy. Just like I thought Boppy sounded less cutesy than My BrestFriend. And now in hindsight, I chose wrong with both of those for that first baby; Hypnobabies and the My BrestFriend are what I would recommend.

We started the Hypnobirthing course when I was in my second trimester with my first baby and I quickly felt frustrated by the program. I liked our instructor and the camaraderie of the group setting (I recall some good snack offerings, too) but the actual practicing piece seemed so unclear. I wanted some concrete information on what I needed to do to prepare. I found the paragraphs about labor and childbirth and the description of self-hypnosis techniques in the book to be quite confusing. In fact, there are Hypnobabies concepts about birthing that still confound me and I have had THREE unmedicated births. I asked the instructor to give me some specifics or perhaps additional self-hypnosis tracks I could work on at home but she said the book's guidelines and the tracks I had should be enough. I have since learned that the book is vague on purpose and you are supposed to learn the majority of the concepts in the classroom; this is to keep the teachings "pure." But if your instructor doesn't get to all the concepts in class, then you are out of luck. For example, my class never got to the "fear clearing" exercises. I have also learned since my 2009 class that many Hypnobirthing instructors add their own "homework" or create their own additional self-hypnosis tracks to practice with, which is against the "Mongan method." So I have to wonder when people rave about Hypnobirthing - was it a pure Hypnobirthing course? The other big problem I had with Hypnobirthing was the lack of general information. They intend for the course to be a stand alone course and discourage you from taking any other childbirth prep courses and yet I feel like they are missing a lot of information. As I said in the post where I reviewed Hypnobirthing, I found Hypnobirthing to be the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "LALALALA! I can't hear you!" when it came to discussing anything less than ideal that might happen with birth. In an effort to keep moms in the mindset of having a successful unmedicated birth they basically want you to keep it only very positive. You are to shut yourself off from hearing about anything less than ideal, to the point where c-sections are not even discussed. It felt so far from reality. I also found the tone of the book to be abrasive and Mongan came across as overly bossy and all-knowing and it turned me off. Since Mongan's voice drove me so crazy I didn't do her rainbow relaxation but instead did The Secret Garden guided-meditation daily. I was less bothered by her voice on the affirmations track so I did use that and appreciated having it. When the birth came for my first child I did put the tracks on in the background but don't remember them playing much of a role in the actual birth. So did Hypnobirthing work or prepare me? Eh, I don't know. Maybe?

When I became pregnant with my second baby I decided to give Hypnobabies a whirl since I had heard good things since my first birth. Interestingly (but not surprisingly) the Hypnobabies creator, Kerry Tuschhoff, was once a teacher of Hypnobirthing. She took the concept that Marie Mongan initially packaged up as a childbirth class (and she gives full credit to Marie Mongan as the initial one to come up with the concept) and she reworked it into something useful, practical and full of information.

I took my Hynobabies homework very seriously and put in hours of self-hypnosis practice, making sure to do it each day. I was in a place where I fully believed that a pain-free childbirth could be possible. That is something right there - Hypnobabies had me in a really good place mentally even though I could still recall the pain I felt during my first birth. Additionally, Hypnobabies made me feel very connected to my baby and I felt ready for his birth day. When the day finally arrived, however, I felt a little bit blown away by the speed of it all (it was a precipitous birth) and even though I had my Hypnobabies tracks playing in the background, I couldn't connect to them. I always describe it as a train roaring through my body or maybe I should say it was like my body had run away from my mind. It was very intense and yes, I did experience pain again. But on the other hand, I never panicked and even though I tentatively mentioned pain meds, I then rejected the offer for them once it seemed like it might be an actual possibility. I was able to go into a place deep inside of me to get through it and I would attribute that to self-hypnosis (or perhaps self-preservation? Ha!) The biggest piece of evidence I have about going deep within myself is that when my doula came for a follow-up visit after Oliver's (my second child) birth, she gave me a card with a picture of a beach on it and said that she thought of me and my birth when she first saw it. I thanked her, but thought it a bit strange - what did the ocean have to do with my birth? Then she went on to say that when my husband kept talking of the ocean during my birth, it had seemed like such a peaceful thing. Again, I had no idea what she was saying. As it turns out, my husband had mentioned the ocean many times during Oliver's birth. I remember NONE of that. I think I tuned him out except for him holding a cold cloth to my forehead. So was I deep in self-hypnosis considering I was still responding as needed to providers and such while tuning out the rest? I think so.

And in case you are wondering, here is what I did to prepare for baby #3: very little. I listened to tracks maybe two times total leading up to Lily's birth. I did very little partly because I was too busy, partly because I figured my birth was going to be super fast anyway and partly because I rationalized that I had already gotten my brain wired up properly for self-hypnosis with all the practice I had done in the past. I did turn my Hypnobabies tracks on once I was in labor but since I have fast labors that means I only had about two hours listening to Hypnobabies. I heard bits and pieces but mostly I was in my own world. In fact, it took some major convincing on my husband's part to get the nurses and midwives to see that I was very close to delivery simply because I seemed so calm. My third birth was the best of all three and I really felt so calm during it. I am happy to give some credit to Hypnobabies and the predecessor program Hypnobirthing for that experience.

One sticking point I have with both Hypnobabies and Hypnobirthing is the "you can achieve a pain-free birth!" message. Do I believe that some women experience pain-free childbirth. Yes, I absolutely do. Do I believe that most women can achieve a pain-free childbirth? Ehhhhh...not so sure about that. Even though I technically achieved the overall goal of an unmedicated/natural childbirth (times three), I am still left with a little bit of a feeling like I did it wrong. Or that I did hypnosis in childbirth wrong. The high-achiever and rule-follower in me does mildly question why I couldn't be the quietly-humming-with-a-serene-smile-while-gently-lifting-her-baby-from-birth-canal poster child for hypnosis in childbirth. But that thought gets followed by the thought that it just doesn't matter one little iota. I can't imagine myself quietly breathing baby down with a gentle smile on my face. It's not me, it's not my style and when I'm in that birthing moment I simply don't have control over it. My BODY doesn't birth that way even if my mind has notions about it. My body births like a lion and I roar. My brain keeps chugging along during that animal process of labor and delivery and it helpfully reminds me to keep my groans low to keep my uterus open, and it tells me to focus on the cool cloth on my forehead (this was always my husband's key job in birth) and that good old brain of mine trusts the birth process. But all those great things aside, I still felt pain and I am okay with that. In fact, it seems quite reasonable to me that it hurt! I am willing to take on pain that is productive and forward moving. So as it turns out, a pain free childbirth was not in the cards for me, but unmedicated births were possible. (And let us not forget that a good bit of luck plays a role, too.) Would I say self-hypnosis was key to my births? Well, I can't say for certain one way or the other but I will say that self-hypnosis - especially what I learned in Hypnobabies - was so very useful in letting me feel prepared for the birthing experience and THAT made the program wholly worth it.

In conclusion, if you are debating between the two programs, I would say Hypnobabies is the way to go, hands down. Ideally, if it is your first baby, I would say you should try to take a class for the group support, but the self-study program is very complete and thorough.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments. Happy to answer them and share additional parts of my experience that I may have not covered here. The page which can direct you to all my pregnancy and birth-related post scan be found here. Other relevant posts you might be interested in would be Arabella's Birth Story, Oliver's Birth Story: Part 1 and Part 2, Lily's Birth Story and my Thoughts on Achieving an Unmedicated (Natural) Childbirth.

YAY BABIES!