Happy Thursday Hes Five Weeks Old Today

Greetings, friends!

Its been five weeks since Mr. Lovely was born, so.... I decided to take a few more pictures today.

After bathing him, I weighed him.
My scale says he 9.8 pounds.
Almost ten pounds!

We keep thinking hes smiling at us.
They usually will smile at around six weeks,
so we know that first smile could happen very soon.

But I have just been really enjoying him.
The way he smells,
The little noises he makes,
The way he stretches
The way his soft head feels against mine.

What a blessing he has been!

And, well, how do you like this photographic set-up?

Our two-year-old son, Stavesacre wanted to try it out too...

As did our four-year-old son Peach Blossom....

Around here, if some one does it, the other person has to do it too.

"Good grief, Darling Rose....you too?"

Now you know what I used as a back drop,

the back side of this blanket.

So, get this...I am the mother of count em

not one....

not two....

not three...

BUT FOUR

sons!!!

Here they are:

Eight year old Dandy Lion is the oldest.

Mr. Lovely doesnt look too sure about the two-year-olds ability to hold him.

"Whoops...there he goes!"

Ahh... Peach Blossom can look so peachy sometimes.

------------------------------------------------------

Well, I know I cant just post pictures of babies and children all the time for my diet blog, but I thought you all would enjoy them.

Thank you all for your comments about my dad,

And for you comments about my sleep.
I am working very hard to make sure I get my sleep.

Its not always easy because sometimes I want to stay awake to read a book or if baby is asleep I want to do something "fun".

"Whatever that may be. ha!"

But I am starting to feel better with just the whole me getting more sleep and also my body is feeling better as time has elapsed that has allowed my body to recuperate.

Also, I have noticed that Mr. Lovely is beginning to sleep for longer spells. With a few people that I have talked to, their babies started sleeping through the night when they were around two months old. Im hoping for that.
But in addition to that, Im thinking about revisiting my diet again and hitting the gym soon. Im still eating whatever I want at this point and remaining the same weight. If I were to estimate how many calories I was eating right now I would estimate it to be between 2,500 to 3,000 calories easily.

*pause*

I though Id give you a second to pause and let that sink in for a bit. ha, ha!

I just cant believe that Im not gaining any weight.

So, obviously the baby is taking it all in the form of breast milk because hes gained 3 and a half pounds in five weeks.

Im so proud of him!

So, if I cut any calories I want to be careful to not do it too hardcore so that I make sure he gets enough calories for his breast milk.

Well, thats it for now.

I really want to be more consistent with blogging

*sigh*.

But until I am, thank you all again for keeping up on me.
Its practically Friday.

I may hit the gym tomorrow night.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Sunshine Mama

Read More..

Happy Thursday!! Our Baby Is Two Weeks Old

Hello!

What better way to end the work week than a picture of a cute pair of tootsies?

You all know how I loves toes?

I weighed him today on our scale... you know since this is a weight loss blog...

But he was so little, he didnt register.

So, with a big sigh...I stepped on with him...

and then again without him...

Oh, what did I weigh you ask?

Nice try.

But according to my scale, our baby weighed a whopping seven pounds even.

Thats up 6/10 a pound from his birth weight of 6.44.

So, dont let this thumb sucking picture fool you.

Hes been getting milk a-plenty from me.

And as far as my diet goes, I gained back a pound this morning.

*sigh*

It was probably my husbands chips that I had last night.

Did I mention that I will often have several false starts before a diet sticks?

Hence my favorite mantra, "If at first you dont succeed...try, try, try, try... and try again."

One last day of the work week, folks!!

We can do it.

Oh, did you all read my husbands comment from yesterdays post?

Isnt he the best?

Have a good one!

Sincerely,

Sunshine Mama

Read More..

Breakfast Cookie Teaching an old dog new tricks

For HKL who pushes me to try new things; for CJR who reminds me that if I try, I can do anything; for KY for penning the book on how to practice.

Often the best practices of teaching find their way into my parenting.  Ive been thinking about how to really encourage Daughters in the things that I ask them to do, because there are links that are not obvious to them.  How come mommy can play the piano so well?  Shes been playing more than 30 years, which is why.  How come you drive so well?  20 plus years behind the wheel will do that.  Multiplication tables?  Telling time?  Reading a book?  Cooking?  All these things Ive had practice.

One important thing that teachers can do for their students is MODEL.  Show the model of what you want them to produce.  Give them the model of what it looks like to work on the tiniest segment of what it is that you want.  Model the behavior that you want, the words that you want; whatever you want from your students, your best bet at getting it is modeling it.  You want high standards?  Model what that looks like.  And then after you model it, give tons of time for practice in order to master.  The road to mastery of anything is not glamorous or easy, but practice is the absolute cornerstone of it.

So for the sake of Daughters piano practice and overall perception of practice and grunt work, Ive also decided to model how long it takes to learn an instrument and how much work it takes.  A couple of years back I tried learning the drums, only practicing the drums in the house late at night was counter productive.  Even with headphones on practice just didnt seem to quite work.  Then began the quest for the next instrument to learn, and it was in conversation with friend CJR who said, "You should learn to play the bass guitar.  You know how to hear it, you feel the rhythms of it, and you essentially copy it when youre playing the piano."  Only we dont own a bass guitar.  We do however own a guitar which is what Husband has been trying to learn to play for many years, only he doesnt put in the practice time.  Ive commandeered it and have taken it over.

Ive committed to myself daily practice.  I watch online videos and study chord charts and have just been getting comfortable holding an instrument.  To learn something new I will tell you is not easy.  In frustration I told CJR, "Im missing the gene that allows me to play this!" to which she responded "There is no gene that you are missing that will prevent you from playing it."  The answer, of course, is that I have to practice a lot more.  The skill that I have at playing piano doesnt automatically transfer over to the guitar, as much as I wish it would.  The 30 plus years invested in the piano doesnt mean that the guitar will come easy at all.  I am essentially an old dog, learning new tricks.

After three days of practice, I pulled the guitar out to show Children how far I had come.  I had figured out how to really hold the guitar comfortably, how to play a chromatic scale up all the strings, and how to strum an "A" chord, the only chord that I successfully deciphered off of the chord chart.  Daughters response to my playing was "THATS ALL YOU CAN DO?" while Sons response was, "Let me strum the guitar."  Im hoping that in a few more weeks, I might have actually mastered five chords (Im on the schedule of mastering one chord a week) and that Ill be able to strum some sort of song.  Maybe.  But in the meanwhile, I showed Children how hard it is for me to learn the guitar, but how Im not giving up, and every single night (after I post this blog post) Ill be sitting and practicing until my fingertips are numb.

Along with trying to get this guitar thing under order, Ive been trying to rework and teach Children new breakfast habits.  Sugary cereals, empty calories, and empty nutrition foods are normally what many eat for breakfast; Im trying a new standard at home.  Friend HKL challenged me to make a "breakfast cookie" or "brookie" that took out all the normal breakfasty type ingredients - sugar, flour, eggs, and oil, and just really pared down the cookie into really good, nutrition packed ingredients.  This is what I came up with.  Its almost like a granola bar, but far less sweet, but the texture is chewy and crunchy at the same time.  You can definitely take out the ingredients you dont like and add what you like, but I really liked the addition of toasted sesame seeds to give it a nutty flavor.

Its not too late to learn new tricks, as long as you give it a good solid practice.  (this was my 3rd attempt at this cookie.)

Breakfast Cookie (Vegan)
Makes 16 to 18 cookies

Ingredients
2 cups old-fashioned oats (you can make this gluten free by buying gluten free oats)
1 cup dried cranberries (or dried blueberries, dried cherries, raisins)
¼ cup toasted sesame seeds
¼ cup sliced almonds (optional - add flax seeds, chia seeds, or any other seed or nut you’d like to add)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt

3 ripe bananas, mashed really well
¼ cup coconut oil. heated and melted so that it is liquid
1 tablespoon of honey
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Method
Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix together oats, cranberries, sesame seeds, almonds, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well to make sure fruit is well distributed throughout mixture.

In a separate bowl, mix together mashed bananas, warm coconut oil, honey and vanilla extract. Mix until uniform in texture. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients, mixing together well.

To help make a nice shape for the cookie, use a ¼ cup measuring cup, filling it halfway. Press to slightly compress mixture together and then flip cup over onto parchment lined baking sheet and slightly reshape if necessary.

Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool and set on pan for 5 minutes. Serve warm (or at room temperature for a breakfast on the run.)

Printable recipe

If you have any interest in reading about how to make practice better - this book hasnt been published yet, but the writers (including my awesome friend) have studied the way to make practice more effective and more powerful.  These are super smart teachers and I am thinking of ways to convince them to come to the west coast to spark change and reform.

Read More..

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies New friends in old places

For SN - and our budding friendship

It takes a long time for me to build a friendship.  Im mostly friendly to a lot of people but I dont open myself up to a lot of friends.  Im incredibly slow to warm up and it takes me a while to be ready to get to know new faces.  But when I do open up, the excitement I feel from opening my life up to another person to have fun with, share my life with and grow old with makes me giddy. Its similar to that feeling that you have when romance first begins - the excitement of seeing that persons face and wondering what he or she will say next.   (Husband - of course you still have my romantic spark and adoration, but this is different.)

In the last few weeks Ive gotten to know another mom from school and it turns out that although we have very little in common (except for a bit of that tiger mom roar) we totally get each other.  Shes skinny but Im not.  Im funny - and she might be a little funny.  (Im funnier for sure.)  She loves to eat more than she loves to cook and I definitely like to do both.  Im more relaxed that she is, which is very hard to believe and on any given day, youll find her volunteering at school while youll find me doing something at the gym.

But its nice, the building of new friendships.  I often forget how nice it is to open myself up to new relationships as my general shyness and fear of people overtakes me on most days.  But having a new relationship means new chances at finding someone else who is like you in your nuttiness and understands that youre not perfect, even on the best day.  I think thats what I like best about building a new relationship; the goal isnt about showing how perfect you are, but rather allowing all your imperfections to show and have the other person accept you anyways.

I made this cookie and it reminded me of new friendships.  It has a richness, a wholesomeness and a tart sweetness which pretty much epitomizes the best of friendships, dont you think?  There is a mix of whole wheat and regular flours, a hefty amount of oats and the special addition of ground flaxseed as well.  These cookies end up not being overly sweet because of the bulk of oats, flax and flour.  The texture has a bit of softness but still structurally chewy.  I love the brown butter back notes, but you can certainly NOT do it as brown butter, and simply just make them with room temperature butter.

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter cut into pieces - either melt and turned into brown butter or room temperature butter
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups dried cranberries
¼ cup ground flax seeds (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 350.

Make brown butter if desired.  Heat a heavy pot or skillet over medium heat and add butter pieces.  Whisk frequently to ensure even melting of the butter. After about 5 to 6 minutes of melting, the butter will foam up and subside.  At this point, watch the butter carefully to see if the bottom of the pan is becoming covered in brown specks and the color of the butter has turned from yellow to warm brown.  The difference between brown butter and burnt butter (which is used in other recipes) is about 15 seconds.  Set aside and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Whisk both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon in another bowl set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat brown butter (or regular butter) and brown and white sugars until light and creamy.  Add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl and beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla extract and beat again.

Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, carefully so that flour gets mixed into dough.  When flour is just mixed, oats, cranberries, and flax seeds.

Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough, separating them 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Press down balls of cookie dough to help spreading process.  Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown.  Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

Printable recipe

Read More..