The Park: saving my sanity

So, I finally have a toddler that wants to walk everywhere by himself. Yep. He made this decision in the middle of Trader Joe's on a Saturday (boy was he pissed when I wouldn't let him run around the gazillion shoppers).

My saving grace is the park. Oh, yours too?? Good to know.

We have a small park in our neighborhood and this one photoed below is about ten minutes away. The last week we've taken Reef to the park everyday. He loves it. We love it. AND it helps get all of his crazy new found energy out! The kids a maniac but what toddler isn't?!

The weather has also started to cool down so its not a death wish being at the park... 103* doesn't really make a slide comfortable on the butt.

Are you a park addict??? 

Because I totally am.

Xo,

J

If you resent it, change it.

Mrs. Sears may be the best friend I have.

Yes, this is Dr. Sears' wife and I love her.

No, I don't know her but she makes sense. Perfect, non-judgemental, "mom sense".

The most simply profound thing I've ever read is "If you resent it, change it." I read this somewhere in The Fusy Baby Book by Dr Sears and his lovely wife Martha.

Guys, I resent it.  A lot of it.

Work, momlife, wifelife, being exhausted all the time. Yep, I'm a bucket of whiny resentment and that does no one any good.

So. I'm changing it.

And here's how.

A 21 Day Challenge (because I'm SO good at sticking with something).

21 Days of:

Meditation
Yoga
Veganism
Going to bed before 10pm
No negative speak (aka no bitching)
Being Thankful
Living through Love
No alcohol (not even my beloved wine)


Yep, this is how I'm going to change the things I resent. Will I stick to it? I can only hope. But, my son and husband deserve a happy mommy/wife, a rested mommy/wife, a healthy mommy/wife, and a loving positive mommy/wife.

Here's to change!

Xo
J

ps because these two are worth EVERYTHING to me.

Sick boys.

I'd like to pat myself on the back...I know, that's obnoxious. BUT not only have I been working non stop to revamp the swim team program for the said nonprofit I work for, doing admin work in the wee hours for my mom's team, and, you know, doing the whole mama/wifey/daughter in law thing...I've managed to finish all admin work for these jobs while my Reef and Husband have been sick. PHEW. Done and Done.

Anywho, are you like me and you feel like I'm clearly a momfail since my son has a cold...A COOOLD. The last time I took him to the Doctor for a cold she was really gracious and made me feel way better then she needed to (love her!). So, for now, we are doing aromatherapy galore, taking homeopathic cold tabs, and advil. Voila.

Poor hubs, seriously...I think this is the first time he's been sick when I really just had barely any time or energy to make him feel better. I did try to stay quiet and play outside with Reef so he could sleep off whatever nasty bug is in him. Sigh, can't win them all right? RIGHT?! (wrong, I'm obviously supposed to be able to do everything just like superwifemom).

Anyone have any tried and true cold busters??? I would LOVE to know your secret! Anything to get these guys back to 110%

Xo
J

Making finger paint & a mess

Holy cow. I had no idea making finger paint was so easy! Seriously, I just love Pinterest and all the awesomeness it holds.

I found this recipe from pinterest via Easie Peasie
and it rocks!

I hope you have fun like we did!
Happy Sunday.
Xo
J

 

No Bake Energy Bites for Toddlers. YUMMMM







 

 

These are seriously the easiest healthy snack I've ever made for Reef. Seriously. All you need is one bowl, a handful of ingredients, and BOOM energizing peanut buttery goodness!

 

I adapted this recipe from HERE

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1/2 Cup Organic Peanut Butter (sometimes I use 1/4 cup peanut butter and 1/4 cup almond butter BUT they are definitely more dry and a little harder to shape when you do it this way)

 

1/3 Cup Organic Honey (of course I ran out of this stuff and used this bear honey my in laws had and it worked great)

 

1/2 Cup Organic Rolled Oats

 

1/2 Cup Organic Brown Rice Cereal (My MIL got this for Reef but I never feed it to him so I tend to use it as a filler in random things)

 

1/4 Cup ground Flax & Chia Seeds

 

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

 

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

 

Directions:

 

Add peanute butter, honey, vanilla, and cinnamon to a large bowl and stir until combined.

 

Dump in the brown rice cereal, rolled outs, and ground flax & chia seeds. Stir and stir until it creates one big ball.

 

Seperate and roll into bite size toddler balls.

 

Place them in a ziploc bag or reusable container and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before letting your toddler chomp on them. (this 30 minutes is really important as it will be a little too gooey for a toddler to handle)



 

 

 As you can see Reef kind of loves these things like crazy. I won't lie to you, so do I.

Xo

J

oh and yes, i'm pretending like it hasn't been months since I've blogged.

My sister is a Special FX Makeup goddess

Seriously.

The girls a makeup rock star and is completely humble about it. While I, on the other hand, tell everyone I know about just how amazing she is.

And, guys, I'm so so so so proud of her. Films she has worked on have made it into all kinds of festivals and have probably been on at 2am on the SCIFI channel. She's also worked with famous musicians who I'm not allowed to name and yadda yadda yadda.

By the way, this bitch can make one hell of a zombie.

Anyways. She gave up this crazy artistic awesome lifestyle in LA to come live with Zach and I the last few months of my pregnancy. Seriously. She dropped everything and came home for her big sister. She didn't want to miss Reef's birth and I had a less than ideal pregnancy so she came to help. I still get all choked up thinking about how much she gave up for us.

She's been living on Oahu since we moved and has been freelancing with MAC Makeup and...for all of you LA residing beauties, she will be returning to LA in the fall.

She recently got to work on a fun music video shoot with Nicki Minaj. I'm proud of her for getting to work on such a big thing. So cool.

Check out the video. And have an awesome Saturday.

XO

J

ps this was all filmed out on the North Shore of Oahu...and will make you feel like your on drugs.



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Elimination Communication

I hate diapers.

Disposables are terrible for mama earth and I'm guilt stricken every time I use them. I use our gDiapers as much as possible but they still need washing and tender lovin care. Plus, I really don't like cleaning the poo out of them. It's not terrible, it's just one more step in my already chaotic day (yep, first world problems here people).

Anyways, I saw two posts from Mommyland411 about EC and totally went google crazy trying to figure out how to do it.

Guys, Elimination Communication makes complete and total sense. Well, at least it does to me. I first had negative thoughts about early potty training but was really misinformed. At the very basics EC trains YOU to learn what your baby's signals are for when they need to pee or doo then you hold them over a toilet, sink, baby potty, grass (I know, I know), etc so they can relieve themselves.

Babies are born not wanting to sit in their own mess and mamas have the intuition of when they need to go.

So, I'm getting back to the intuitive and doing EC with Reef. So far?? It's been GREAT. We've gone the last two days without having to wash 1 gDiaper...not one! Right now Reef pees in the bathroom sink and doos (yes, doos) in the toilet.

When I'm at work my Mother-in-law uses disposables with him BUT she's epic and is going to learn the basics of EC so she can try to do it with him too. I'm very lucky to have family so willing to help raise Reef and so accepting and open to our parenting style.

If you're thinking about trying EC or are curious to learn more I used the info from ECSimplified. Andrea really makes EC easy and doable. Whether you want to do it full time or part time, this site will help you through all the way!

Plus, Reef gets more naked time so he's stoked!

Xo

J