The Baby Book

Contained within the 767 pages that make up this go-to baby guide, you will find virtually everything you need to know about the general health and well-being of your baby for the first two years of its life. It's ridiculous how much information is contained in this book and it's surprising, given its size, that it doesn't weigh more.

The Baby Book by William Sears, M.D., and Martha Sears, R.N. (along with Robert Sears, M.D., and James Sears, M.D.) has become my favorite baby book. Without fail, if I find an answer in this book, no amount of googling will produce a more concise solution to whatever it is that is boggling me at any given moment. It is based on the author's "experience in parenting eight children and caring for thousands of others during thirty years in pediatric practice." Yeah, I'll trust that. Boosting my confidence further is the fact that their children have gone on to become doctors and come back to contribute to the revisions of the book.

Everything is contained in one book--from prenatal care and birth plans to teething and potty training and every single thing you can imagine that comes between. The advice is not only medically sound, but so compassionate. I really do feel like the Sears' have the very best interest of the wee ones of the world in mind throughout the pages. There are no "do it this way or you will ruin your baby" attitudes. In fact, the book is incredibly positive...very encouraging in a "do what you can" sort of way.

Check your local used bookstore for an inexpensive used copy, or splurge on a new one. I'd say check it out from the library, but this is one you'll want to have nearby at all times.

And that is my very quick review of The Baby Book. It was going to be much longer, but someone is waking up in the next room...

BHG-Win a Vespa!

Better Homes and Gardens is giving away a Vespa, along with a bunch of other cool daily prizes. Enter to win here: click. Winners of the daily prizes are posted the next day (instant gratification!) Enter until September 23rd for the October 12th Vespa drawing. Oh, and the Vespa comes with $1200, too. You can use it to buy some fancy silk scarves that will whip around in the wind behind you as you zip through town looking cooler than any one else on the planet.

Vegan Blueberry Banana Bread

Adapted from The Post Punk Kitchen

Makes one loaf

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

3 very ripe bananas, mashed well

1-1/3 cups flour

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup vanilla soy milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Couple small dashes of nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries (preferably fresh, but frozen will work just fine)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat an 8x4 loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add wheat germ and gently whisk it in [note: The wheat germ doesn't have to be blended thoroughly. Just mix it enough that it isn't sitting in a pile on top of the dry ingredients.]

In a large bowl, cream together the applesauce and sugars, then add the bananas, soy milk/vinegar blend and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Gently fold in blueberries. Pour batter into pan and bake for 60-70 minutes.

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Don't let the fact that this is a vegan recipe scare you away. It's one of the most delicious banana breads I've ever had. It's hearty, dense, tasty goodness and a great way to use up both bananas and blueberries that are nearing the end of their days. If you don't like blueberries (who are you?) or don't have any on hand (that's more acceptable), just leave them out and the bread should be fine. You can add any kind of nuts you like, as well as chocolate chips (a favorite of mine), instead. I chose blueberries because A) I had some that needed to be used and B) blueberries+the Biggest Girl=BFFs, while nuts aren't yet on the guest list.

For the soy milk, you can either mix it with some Oregon Chai and enjoy your tasty beverage with your tasty bread or you can buy Soy Dream in juice boxes and not have as much left over. There's even a 75-cents off coupon at the bottom of the first page of the Soy Dream site (for now) to offer a little more encouragement.

Don't be afraid...and don't let the vegan-ness stop you from slathering this stuff with butter before you eat it. I didn't, though. It didn't seem to scream for butter the way regular banana bread does. Strange, eh?

Homemade Mobile

You can spend as little or as much as you'd like on a mobile for your teeny one. We had a fancy mobile that hung above the crib--it played a lullaby and was very sweet, until Feats of Strength made quick work of it, snapping it in two as soon as her tiny, freakishly strong arms could reach that high. This mobile is one I made to hang (out of reach) above the changing table:

It's super easy. Here's what you need:

A one-inch dowel (about 30-36" long)

Two cup hooks big enough to hold the dowel

Several shiny baubles

Fishing line

Center the dowel over the changing table (or wherever you're going to hang it) and mark the spots where the cup hooks will go--they'll need to be about 4" in from the ends. Screw in the cup hooks. Slide the dowel into the cup hooks. Using the fishing line, hang your baubles at varying heights over the length of the dowel.

That's it. You're done now. Stand back and admire your work.

This is the ceiling part of the diaper changing corner.

When she was tiny, we could distract her simply by gently bumping the baubles, thereby making them slowly spin. Mesmerizing. If you're motivated to do so, you could also paint the dowel and hooks to match the ceiling. I intended to do this, but, alas, have not made it that far. The Starlightz Lantern in the corner casts a great glow on the room after the sun goes down. I like using it for middle of the night diaper changes, too. The light is much less harsh than a lamp.

My favorite bauble.

Christmas is a great time to add to your bauble collection. A lot of ornaments can easily double as hanging decorations and they're often quite shiny.

More of the corner.

The baubles used to hang much lower than they do now. As the reach of those tiny arms grows, the strings get shorter. The moment she could grab something, we hiked it up a bit.

The whole darn corner

We've still got a few more things to put up, but it's coming along nicely.

In the opposite corner of the room, we hung a beautiful cross-stitch we got at an antique store. Someone spent an awful lot of time on this and it's held up quite well through the years. We go through the list of animals from time to time, trying to make the corresponding sounds. I'm sure a kangaroo doesn't say "boing!", but I have yet to hear a kangaroo sound, so "boing!" will have to do for now. I can never remember what the "V" animal is, though. It looks a lot like a llama, but it's not. Any ideas?

Let go of the wheel

While it is impossible for me to put a finger on the most difficult part of being a mother, I will say that surrendering control is near the very top of the list. Before I had a baby, I was a methodical, routine-driven neat freak whose behavior teetered on obsessive-compulsive. If I had left the house one morning and come home blind that night, I would have known exactly where everything was because everything was in its place. The sheets on the bed were perfectly symmetrical, the mustard was in its spot (label facing forward, of course) and any dishes that were used were promptly washed and, in most cases, put away. After years of peeling myself off the bathroom floor the morning after a ruckus night, that bathroom floor was so clean you could eat off it, though no one ever took me up on that challenge.

Things are different now. The bathroom floor is still clean, but the refrigerator is not as organized. The milk stays in the same spot, but everything else is somewhat transient. The laundry is not always taken immediately from the dryer, folded, and put away while its still warm. The living room is an obstacle course of books, squeaky toys, and sharp little blocks that, when I step on them, test my resolve not to swear in front of the baby. I do my very best to make the bed every day.

This is not an easy shift for me to swallow. I do not like relinquishing control. I do not like to apologize for the state of my home when someone stops by. I feel like, since I am a stay-at-home mom, I should be able to stay on top of the housework. I watched my friends' homes dissolve into a slightly chaotic state when they had kids and I swore I would never let that happen. And I didn't let it happen. For months, I worked myself into the ground, compromising my health and emotional well-being while struggling to uphold an ideal that required at least two of me to accomplish. With no employee reviews, no pay raises based on performance, no promotions to speak of, I became the worst boss I've ever had. I cried over wrinkled t-shirts. I barked at my husband when the pillows on the couch weren't properly fluffed. Keeping house, after all, is my job and I want so badly to excel at everything I do. I stayed up too late and got up too early because I thought it was important.

It's not.

What's important (for me, anyway) is having a happy baby and a husband who will help me make the bed without fear of being chastised. Dishes can wait, laundry can wait, even showers can wait. It genuinely pains me to say that, but it's true. Letting go of my lofty expectations is so difficult, but so necessary if I want to remain sane. A shrieking baby in a clean house does me no good. A happy baby in a cluttered house is much more bearable.

And it's all a work in progress. I still get wound up about not being totally settled in here at our new house. I freak out about it and feel like a total asshole afterward. Today, though, I showered and made the bed. As far as I'm concerned, anything else I accomplish is gravy.

America's Test Kitchen Sweepstakes

America's Test Kitchen is giving away $5,000 worth of "recommended" kitchen equipment (small appliances, knives, and the like). If that's not enough to tempt you, they're throwing in $5,000 cash, as well.

Only one entry per person and you have to do so by September 30th.

Enter here: click

Hooray for Boobies, Part Two

Finally, a sequel to Part One...this time, it's the things that can go wrong.

I have always been rather fond of my boobs. They're kind of big, but they fit my frame and they've paid for their fair share of beers along the way. I guess that's why I feel so awful about all I've put them through lately.

Just a couple days after we brought our Biggest Girl home from the hospital, we ended up back in the hospital because she was jaundiced to the point that she needed to hang out on the Billy Bed for a bit. The hospital stay wasn't all bad--we got to stay in the room with her and the room had a jacuzzi, so that was nice. My hormones were all out of whack and I was sweating like crazy, turning the air-conditioner down more and more as the days went by. On our last day there, though, just as we were about to check out, my own health kept us there an hour or two longer. In the shower, I had noticed that my boobs looked weird. They had huge red streaks and lumps and they looked like implants gone bad. Mastitis. In both breasts. Sweet. It wasn't my hormones making me sweaty, it was a fever. And I wasn't only run down because I had just given birth, I was fighting off a pretty gnarly infection.

Mastitis is, in my case, a clogged milk duct that gets infected. It can also be caused by germs that enter through cracked nipples (isn't this fun?). I was put on antibiotics and told to nurse as often as possible to help work the infection out of the clogged ducts. I was also told to rest, but I was bad and didn't do as much of that as I should have. I took baths and draped hot washcloths over the very obvious location of the infection--that provided so much relief. It took about a week for the infection to clear and I have remained ever-vigilant since, watching closely and nursing like crazy at the first sign of a clogged duct.

The antibiotics did their job on the mastitis, but they also did a number on both the baby and me. We both got thrush. Actually, I think she got it first and then gave it to me. Her mouth and my nipples were all victims of this painful yeast infection. My nipples felt like they were on fire and I actually yelped out loud when she latched on to eat. Her poor little mouth was all bumpy and she had trouble eating. We were miserable. After two rounds of Nystatin failed to resolve the situation, we moved to Gentian Violet for her and Lotrimin for me. That knocked it out and we've been good ever since. Again, though, I am vigilant, keeping a close eye on both of us for any sign of recurrence.

Those were the two big, lame boob-related things that happened to us. Fortunately, they happened early in the game, so I learned very quickly that I need to provide my boobs with the best care available. They are, after all, responsible for sustaining life and who wouldn't want to be pampered after working so hard on a job like that? Though I haven't needed it much, I still keep a tube of Lansinoh on hand. Even the slightest bit of chafing can make feeding uncomfortable, so keep your nipples happy.

Mastitis and thrush can occur pretty much anytime. Though mastitis is most common in the earliest days of breastfeeding, it's also known for rearing its foul little head during weaning, as well. This can be troublesome--the best way to help rid the breast of the infection is to pump or nurse, but if you're trying to wean...well, that's just the opposite of what you want.

Long story short: keep an eye on your boobs. Have your husband/partner/neighbor help you if you need to, but don't neglect them. They've been so good to you and, if you're breastfeeding, so good to the baby. Drive your doctors and nurses crazy if you need to, but make sure you ask about anything that seems even remotely unusual. If I hadn't asked the nurse to take a quick look before we checked out of the hospital the second time, things would have been much worse by the time I finally realized something was really wrong.

I suppose there will be a Part Three someday: "What happens after you're done nursing". I can already tell you that your boobs will never be the same. I stand in the shower, watching my nipples as they feverishly race toward my belly button and I understand now how both WonderBra and plastic surgeons everywhere stay in business, even during tough economic times.

Adventures in FLORing

So, we have laminate hardwood flooring throughout our house. It's pretty nice. Real hardwood would have been best, engineered hardwood would have been better, but the laminate hardwood is good. We've had two problems with it, thus far: it hurts our feet and it gets all streaky when I mop.

The mopping problem will be an ongoing series of experiments that will eventually lead to a brilliant solution. For now, I'm using a spray bottle of vinegar and water and a microfiber mop. As long as I mop in the direction of the wood grain, it seems to do pretty well. The floor isn't as shiny as it was when we moved in, but it is clean and not covered in greasy little footprints.

As far as the floor hurting our feet...we're spoiled. Our apartment had wall-to-wall carpet and we got soft. The abrupt change left us kicking our feet up at the end of the day, wondering out loud what would possess a person to choose something other than superplush carpeting with extra padding underneath. I guess the third problem we've had is that we have to tiptoe down the hallway when the Biggest Girl is napping and that has wreaked some havoc on our calves (though it has also increased muscle tone, as well).

For the achy, breaky feet and calves, we found a solution: FLOR. We'd seen this carpeting on HGTV a couple times and we knew we wanted to use it. The company has a great environmental ethic and, in fact, is working to eliminate any negative impact they have on the environment by 2020. Aside from their do-good efforts, they have some fabulously funky designs with combinations that are limited only by your own design needs.

Here's what we did...First, we scoured the website, looking at designs. Once we had a good idea what we were after, we order a couple samples ($5 for three samples with free shipping). We were certain the samples were the carpet we would end up with, but things changed when we finally got into the house and attacked the walls with brightly colored paint. In light of our new colors, we headed to Eugene to visit Modern--they are the only local(ish) FLOR distributor we could find. There we were able to actually feel samples of the carpet we were leaning toward and, once we decided which direction to go, they helped us figure out how many tiles we'd need. By working with Modern, we saved 15% on the carpeting (just happened to be on sale!) and 50% on shipping (that's a great deal). We paid in full and waited patiently for our order to arrive. They said it would take two weeks, but they called less than a week later. Hooray! One last field trip to Eugene to pick up our carpet and we were good to go.

The toughest part of the process, it turns out, was deciding which carpet we liked best. Installation is a breeeeeze.

The tiles arrive in an extra large pizza box. The box will look nicer than this, but I couldn't resist the urge to tear into it the moment we got home.

Laundry room--Before

Hallway--Before

We laid the tiles out to get an idea of which direction we wanted them to go and settled on horizontal for the big pieces.

To fill in the gaps, we cut the remaining tiles to size by measuring (half a tile is 9.875")...

...and then using a metal-edged square to guide the cut. We used a burly Stanley box knife for the actual cutting part. There are no pictures of that process because I only have two hands.

Next, we filled in the gaps with the pieces we had cut. This was a little challenging. Once we got them on the ground, we realized the options are limitless. We could throw them down willy-nilly or we could create a more controlled pattern. We went for a controlled pattern of alternating stripes on the outer and inner edges of the vertical pieces (does that make any sense at all?).

Make sure the pieces are lined up straight (use the square to accomplish this, if need be), stick a FLOR dot under the corner of the adjoining pieces to hold them together and you're done!

Ta-da!

Hallway-After

Shirt Stripe in Stripe A Pose

If you click on the picture to enlarge it and look closely at the pieces, you'll see the alternating colors I tried to put into words earlier.

Laundry room-After

Between the Lines in Red

Easy as can be and so much fun. If you need a new rug, this is definitely the way to go. Make sure you either find a showroom or order samples, though. The descriptions of the carpet texture are pretty right on, but there are no words that can substitute for actually getting the samples in your grubby little paws.