A Family Date: Cooking Together

Okay, so you may not consider this a date, but cooking together is a great activity to do as a family. Cooking time is bonding time and really does bring families together! It's also a great way to teach early math, reading, and chemistry to youngsters. Not only do kids who cook tend to eat more fruits and vegetables, but cooking gives kids a basic and important life skill. We let Emma crack eggs (with supervision) and she is great at mixing and helping measure ingredients!

We love apple picking each year, and this year was no exception! We ended up with bags of apples, and after making applesauce, apple pie, and apple crisp, I was looking for a few new recipes to try.

The two recipes below were delicious and fairly simple to make.

Applesauce Cake with Caramel Glaze

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1-1.2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, finely ground
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1-1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce (I used homemade)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

Caramel Glaze
4 Tbsp butter, cut into chunks
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and spices. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs with both sugars until light. Mix in applesauce, oil and vanilla until smooth.
3. Fold in dry ingredients, do not over-mix. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake about 45 minutes. 
4. Cook cake for 10 minutes and turn out on to plate to let cool completely.
5. For glaze, put butter, brown sugar, cream and salt in a saucepan. Bring to full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute and then remove from heat. Let cool for 2 minutes.
6. Gradually whisk in the icing sugar until you have a thick, pourable consistency. Pour over cake, and let set before serving cake – if you have the willpower!

 

Iced Oatmeal Banana Applesauce Cookies

Ingredients
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used homemade)
1 1/2  cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 cup raisins

Glaze

1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
4-5 tablespoons pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine mashed bananas and sugars. Mix on low speed until combined.  Add applesauce, and mix until well blended, 2-3 minutes. Mix in oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.  Mix in raisins. 
2. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart.  I lined my baking sheets with parchment paper. Place baking sheet in freezer for 5 minutes. 
3. Bake cookies until golden and set, 13-15 minutes. Let cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack, and let cool completely.
4. Whisk powdered sugar, syrup, and three tablespoons milk until smooth. Drizzle over cookies, let set.

 

My 3 good things for today are:

1. Apples!
2. Apple cookies!
3. Apple cake!

What is your favorite apple recipe?

Toddler Activities: 24 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Stacking Cheerios: I saw this great idea over at Toddler Boredom Busters. All you need is some playdough (check out my recipe for Homemade Playdough!), uncooked spaghetti noodles, and a handful of cheerios. Stick the playdough to the table, then stick in a few spaghetti noodles, and stack as many cheerios as you can! This is a great opportunity to practice counting as the cheerio tower grows higher and higher!

Yes, she did eat some Cheerios!

Threading Fruit Loops: Emma has a fantastic set of threading beads that she gets to play with at her Granna's house. She loves threading the beads to make necklaces and bracelets, then enjoys taking them all apart and starting again. As soon as I can find a set on sale or at a garage sale, I'll get some for our house. Until then, threading Fruit Loops onto a length of ribbon or yarn is a good, cheap alternative. Fruit Loops work well because their hole is larger than Cheerios. Another trick that seems to help is to make a nice long "needle" on the end of your string with some packing tape. Emma was struggling at first, but when I made the needle a little longer, she mastered it quickly.

Yes, she did eat some Fruit Loops!

Scooping Ice: This is such a simple, fun activity to do on a hot day! Toddlers always seem to relish getting dirty or wet and this is also a great sensory activity. We used two buckets with water and one with ice. Emma practiced scooping the ice up and dumping it into the water. It was also a great learning opportunity to watch the ice slowly melt in the water.

Yes, she did eat some ice! And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma's current favorites are: 

• Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan
• This Little Piggy: And Other Favorite Action Rhymes by Hannah Wood
• Peek-A Who? by Nina Laden

My 3 good things for today are:

1. We had good weather for Emma's birthday celebration.
2. Bryson rolled over (tummy to back) for the first time!
3. Derek says I'm the fairest of them all ;) Let's see if he reads this post!

A Sprinkle Birthday Party

This month we celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday! We kept it simple this year, having a new baby, and had a great time with friends and family at a local park.

Last year when Emma had her smash cake, she spent most of the time picking sprinkles off and eating them each individually, and sprinkles still number as one of her favorite things. So we had a sprinkle theme for her 2nd birthday party.

We had a cute verse on her invitation, reading:

Meet us at the park,
We'll slide, swing and play.

You're invited to join us for 
Emma's 2nd Birthday!

We invite you to sprinkle her with love!
It would be the icing on the cake if you came! 

I got a lot of inspiration from this party and all of the food followed the sprinkle theme:

• grilled hot dogs and brats with ketchup, mustard, relish, and onions so guests could sprinkle their hot dogs with toppings, 
• some of "nature's sprinkles" like cherry tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, and cucumbers, 
• water bottles with flavor mix-ins so guests could sprinkle their water with flavor, 
• and a cupcake decorating station with a variety of frosting and sprinkles.

Decorations and activities included these adorable pom-pom balloons (I couldn't believe they worked!), and stations with crayons and colored pencils where guests could sprinkle some paper with color. The kids played at the park of course, as well as with bubbles and chalk.

We had so much fun, and I thank God for the good weather!

My 3 good things for today are:

1. Emma's sweet smile!
2. Her infectious laugh!
3. All the wonderful memories she's given us over the past two years!

Potty Training Success!

So it's been over a month, and I'm proud to say that our little Emma is potty trained! I waited a while to write this one because it's a personal pet peeve when I read a post about someone potty training (or any number of subjects) in 3 days, and they're writing the post on day 3 - I personally would like to know about day 4 and maybe even day 17 because life goes on after day 3. This pet peeve also applies to product reviews when people say, "This just came in the mail today, and I love it!" I'd much rather know how you feel about it a month from now, thank you very much. But... I digress.

We did do the 3 day potty training method with Emma in which we stayed home for three full consecutive days and focused solely on potty training, although I must admit that we began preparing a while back. We got her a potty chair for Christmas, and it's been sitting in the bathroom for the past 7 months. I showed her, using her favorite doll and some big girl training panties, how you would pull down your panties, sit on the potty and go, and wipe, and pull your panties and pants back up. She would sit on her little potty (fully clothed and in her diaper) occasionally when one or the other of us was using the bathroom, just to get used to it. We also read a couple different books about learning to go in the potty, including:

• Potty by Leslie Patricelli
• Potty Time With Elmo by Sesame Street Publications
• My Big Girl Potty by Joanna Cole
• Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel

After Bryson was born in May, we had a few conversations with her about how diapers were for babies (like Bryson) and she was growing up to be a big girl who could go in the potty, and that her diapers would be going away soon. We encouraged her to tell us if she needed to go, and if we could tell she needed to go (think pooping face - you know the face I'm talking about) we'd take her to sit on the potty.

On those occasions when she did tell us, or when we caught her in time to go in the potty, she would get a jelly bean along with lots of praise and tons of high-fives. We also promised her that we would take a trip to the zoo when she learned to use the potty because (here comes the shameful lie) you are not allowed to wear diapers to the zoo.

We went on like this from May to July, with Emma occasionally using the potty and getting a reward but generally going in her diaper and us not really pushing her. In July the blow fell. Derek came home from work and told me that this year his company picnic was being held at the Minnesota Zoo. So, we could either skip the picnic, or go and somehow explain to Emma why she could suddenly go to the zoo in diapers, or we could potty train.

The next week, I started an impromptu potty training marathon. Honestly, I got home from grocery shopping with the kids on a Wednesday morning and thought, "We have food in the house, and no plans for Thursday or Friday. Why not just stay home and try potty training?" I am type-A to the core, so this was very unusual for me, but I think it helped that we just started spur of the moment and didn't have time to psych myself out. So, after I'd put the groceries away, I told Emma that we were done with diapers and took her diaper off. We use cloth diapers, so I potty trained with Emma naked from the waist down because I was concerned that she wouldn't feel a big difference between wearing a cloth diaper and wearing cloth underwear. It also allowed us to get her onto the potty very quickly.

I moved her little potty chair into the nursery, spread a large sheet out over the floor (we have carpet throughout the house), and shut the door. It really helped me to have a "base camp" where we spent the next few days so all accidents were confined to that space and it was easier to keep an eye on Emma.

She had an accident within the first 20 minutes, and I took her to the potty before she had finished and encouraged her to go on the potty. She went a little and was happy to get a jelly bean and a hug. I put the jelly beans in a clear plastic jar next to the potty so they were a visible reminder to try to sit on the potty and go. I also let Emma have juice, which she NEVER gets, and pushed salty snacks like pretzels and goldfish crackers, to  encourage her to keep drinking.

The first day went better than I'd anticipated. After her first initial accident, she went pee successfully on the potty 4 times in a row. She even stayed dry during her nap in the afternoon! Then tragedy struck. A poop accident! Thankfully the sheet on the floor caught everything and there was no major disaster. She did well the rest of the day and only had two additional accidents in the evening right before bed.

She was wet when she woke up in the morning and continues to wear a cloth diaper overnight, although she does stay dry during naps. We do believe that night time dryness will come in time and aren't stressing about it too much right now.

Days 2 and 3 went very well, with three accidents on Day 2 and two accidents on Day 3. She continued to have about one accident per day sporadically for the next week. After that first week, she really stopped having accidents and now accidents are rare. She tells me every time she needs to go and I help her to the potty. She is even getting better about being able to pull her panties and shorts down by herself and sit on the potty, although she does need help with wiping and generally with getting her pants back up.

I think a big part of our success was that Emma was really ready to be potty trained. When Emma was about 19 months old, before Bryson was born, I decided to potty train her, but only made it about halfway through Day 2. It was a horrible time full of tears, and accident after accident with no discernible progress, but I think the answer can be found in the last sentence. I decided. I thought it would be easier to potty train a 19 month old before the new baby came. But I discovered it was easier to train a 23 month old - even with a newborn baby in the house - because she was physically and emotionally ready. Some signs of readiness are:

• You are changing fewer diapers because your child is staying dry for longer periods of time.
• Your child communicates (whether verbally or non-verbally) when they are peeing or pooping.
• Your child asks to be changed or fusses when a diaper is dirty.
• Your child is able to perform simple undressing.
• Your child is interested in the potty chair or interested in you going potty.

I think nowadays too much emphasis is put on potty training early, and if your child is ready to potty train at 16 or 18 months that's great! But if they are not ready until 24 or 36 months, there's no shame in that. Every child develops differently. And I'm going to let you in on a little secret that others might not tell you: having a potty trained toddler will not solve all your problems.

From now on every trip out of the house will begin with a trip to the potty. On top of that, you'll probably want to visit the potty as soon as you reach your destination. Even if you do that, there will still be the inevitable announcements of "needing to go to the potty" when you're about to check out at the grocery store or right as you buckle your child into their carseat, or sit down to nurse your baby. Not that any of these instances have happened to me personally, ahem.

Even through all the ups and downs, it was a good growth and learning experience for Emma as well as for me. God has shown me new depths of patience that I didn't know I had, and I'm so proud of Emma as she is growing up into a big girl! Our story had a happy ending, and we got to enjoy an accident free day celebrating at the zoo as a family!

What potty training tricks worked for you?

Toddler Activities: 23 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Bubbles: Emma loves chasing bubbles, and it is so easy to make your own! Whip up a batch and let the fun begin!

Homemade Bubbles Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of water

2 Tablespoons Light Karo Syrup

4 Tablespoons Dish Washing Liquid

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients together.

2. PLAY!

Since it's summer, we have been spending a lot of time outside at the beach and the park. But every once in a while, we get a rainy day and it's nice to have an indoor activity to keep Emma occupied.

Sorting Pom Poms: This is a great quiet activity rainy day activity! Usually I start Emma off with one color in each cup, and let her sort the pile into the appropriate cups. We do have various sizes in our pom pom collection so - although it is more challenging - sometimes I have Emma sort them by small, medium, and large sizes.

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma's current favorites are:

• Trixie Ten by Sarah Massini
• Perfect Soup by Lisa Moser
• I Will Not Read This Book by Cece Meng

My 3 good things for today are:

1. Emma is eating in a big girl booster seat at the table, and not a highchair anymore!
   
2. Emma is going potty in a big girl potty! No more diapers! (Potty training post coming soon!)
3. Derek and I just celebrated our 5th Anniversary! I've been so thankful to be his wife each and every day of the past five years. I respect him more and more each day as he shows his love for me in a million tiny ways and continually lays down his life and sacrifices for our family.

 

Toddler Activities: 22 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Shapes Jump: This is similar to the Letter Jump we've done indoors in the past. But now that it's officially summer, we get to play outside! I drew a circle, square, triangle, heart, hexagon, oval, rectangle, and plus sign on our driveway in chalk. I talked to Emma about each shape as I was drawing it. When I was finished, I had her stand in the middle and as I called out a shape, Emma went and jumped onto the shape. Bonus Points: Draw your shapes with a variety of colored chalk. Then, in addition to shapes, you can jump on all the colors. "Run to the shape that is BLUE!"

Homemade Playdough: Emma loves to help me in the kitchen, and playing with playdough is a great way for her to play pretend with her cookie cutters when we're not making a real meal, as well as a great motor development activity. Here is our recipe for Homemade Playdough. Whip up a batch and let the imagining and sculptures begin!

Homemade Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

2 tsp. cream of tarter

1/3 cup salt

1 TBS vegetable oil

1-2 drops food coloring

1-2 drops essential oils or vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Mix together all the ingredients, except the food coloring, in a medium saucepan.

2. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring. Once it begins to thicken, add the food coloring and essential oils.

3. Continue stirring until the mixture is much thicker and begins to gather around the spoon.

4. Once the dough is not wet, remove and put onto wax paper or a plate to cool.

5. After cooling (30 minutes) knead playdough for a few seconds.

6. PLAY!

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma's current favorites are:

• But not the hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton
• What the ladybug heard by Julia Donaldson
• Little Quack loves colors by Lauren Thompson

My 3 good things for today are:

1. Although sleeping has been a challenge, nursing is going great!
2. We have 3 brown, mushy bananas on the counter, which means... BANANA BREAD!
3. Bryson has been doing some great tummy time!

 

Bryson: A Birth Story

It's over a month late (I can't believe six weeks have passed already). But when you're a mother of two under the age of two, time seems to pass a little differently. So, without much further ado, this is my birth story (starring Bryson Allen).

After what seemed to be an eternally long pregnancy, my body finally began to labor two days after my due date. To begin, I had awakened in the wee hours of that morning feeling just a little bit wet. My water had broken during the middle of the night in my pregnancy with Emma, but then I was certain that my water had broken. This time, I wasn't sure. There was such a small amount and at 40 weeks pregnant, the bladder is compressed between the baby's head and the pubic bones, I honestly thought perhaps I'd just wet myself slightly. So I got up and cleaned up and went back to sleep. 

 

I repeated this process when I woke two hours later.  At that point, I was fairly certain that my water had broken, but I wanted to rest for as long as I could since it was still night and I wasn't feeling contractions. I had checked the fluid, which was clear, didn't have a bad odor and was only a small amount. Laying back down, I decided to count kicks to be sure the baby was moving normally. If everything seemed fine, I was going to wait to wake Derek until the morning. I laid back down, put my hands on my belly and had a massive contraction that I was forced to breathe through. As soon as it was over, I woke Derek.

I called my mom, who would be staying with Emma while we were in the hospital. Since she lives 45 minutes away, we decided to rest until she arrived. After laying in the dark for about 15 minutes, Derek whispered, "Are you sleeping?" I admitted that I was just staring at the dark ceiling. My mind was too preoccupied to shut down enough to sleep. He said the same, so we got up. He double checked the car seat, and we loaded up the hospital bag and tidied the house. I called our hospital midwife as soon as my mom reached our house and described my labor up to that point. I had begun having contractions but they were about 10 minutes apart and not strong. She recommended that I continue to labor at home until I'd progressed.

After eating a light breakfast of plain oatmeal and raisins, I paced around the house, bounced and swiveled on my exercise ball, and tried to stay in motion as much as I could. Labor progressed slowly. After lunch, we strapped Emma into the jogging stroller and took a walk around our neighborhood - we even hit up two garage sales! By the time we made it back to our house, my contractions were around four minutes apart and one minute long. I called our midwife and she suggested we come to the hospital.

I was admitted into Triage, and Derek walked the halls with me as I sipped ice water and waited for our water birth suite to be prepared. When the room was ready, I got into the tub and stayed in the soothing water as my labor continued. Wow! Water really does help with pain management and relief. The environment made a big difference! The lights were turned down low, and soft music played in the background. The midwife-on-call and nurse checked in periodically, monitored the baby's heartbeat, and were very helpful with words of encouragement and guidance for changing positions and breathing. Everyone who attended the birth showed the utmost respect as I endured each contraction.

My invaluable partner through all this was my husband, Derek. He was a true blessing as moral and spiritual support during labor as well as the entire pregnancy. I cannot discount his helpfulness with physical support - lower back rubbing, a strong hand to hold (even during "rest" times), careful to aide me in finding and settling into the most comfortable positions possible. The support he was able to give me as my husband, partner, father to our children, and best friend, was a blessing beyond words. I'm pleased that I was able to labor through the births of both our children without drugs but I would not have been able to do it without him.

The birthing tub was so relaxing that my labor slowed and my contractions decreased, so I climbed out of the tub to walk the halls again for the next hour or so. Soon my contractions were again strong, to the point that I could not talk and had to concentrate on breathing until one had passed, and I began to feel a low pressure building. 

I got back in the tub, and continued to shift positions in the water. Suddenly changes started to happen rapidly. I felt the urge to push, but had to wait through two very close contractions before I could speak aloud to tell the nurse. Very soon the room was full of people and my midwife was there to check the position of the baby. She told me that I could push whenever I felt the urge, and for as long or short as I felt comfortable. 

As with my labor with Emma, the urge to push was so intense that when it came, the pushing was basically involuntary. I had torn badly with Emma and had spoken about this concern with our midwife earlier, so as I was pushing, she coached me to pause at different moments in my pushing, and worked to apply counter-pressure so that I could stretch instead of tearing. I moaned and cried out as his head crowned, and the midwife said, "Here come his shoulders!"

Bryson was born surprisingly quickly. I reached down and lifted him up onto my chest, bringing his face up to the surface but letting him remain in the warm water. After his umbilical cord stopped pulsing, it was cut and I lifted him up out of the water and held him close to my chest and neck. We were both tired, but here he was!! Beautiful and big. Bryson weighed 8 pounds and 0 ounces and was born at 11:36 p.m.

Derek stayed with Bryson as the nurses examined him and I climbed out of the tub onto a bed to expel the placenta and receive a few stitches. In the end, I did tear slightly and got three stitches that were really more cosmetic than medically necessary. But the recovery - both immediately after labor and through the last six weeks - was remarkably better than my first time. 

When Bryson and I had both been examined, Derek brought him over to nurse. We were able to get a good latch from the beginning. He breastfeeds very well and is growing rapidly (He was 10 pounds 10 ounces at his one-month checkup)! 

The next morning, we welcomed visitors at the hospital - including Emma. She brought cupcakes that we'd baked and decorated earlier in the week, and celebrated Bryson's 1-day birthday. We sang Happy Birthday and had Emma "help" Bryson open a few of the gifts brought by visitors. She also got to open her big sister gift bag we'd gotten ready, with a new BIG SISTER shirt, coloring books, stickers, bubbles, a few board books, a soft ball, and a few snacks and "quiet time" activities for her to do at the hospital. We were able to share cupcakes with all of our family and friends who visited, as well as the nurses. 

The next day, we brought Bryson home from the hospital. The past month has been filled with joy and the making of wonderful memories - as well as all the naps we can manage!!