Life update {4.26.2018}

It's been quite a while since I last posted anything on here. If you don't know by now, I had my beautiful baby boy back in September. Eventually I'll share his birth story! Hopefully I can do that before his first birthday... Which is actually less than five months away. Oh my! 

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you all the things going on with me and my family. Life with two tiny people has been interesting. Having a three year old and a seven month old keeps me busy that's for sure! Life is unpredictable but wonderful. 

Lydia has been diaper free since October. We took her diapers away when Silas was just one month old. It took a little while to get used to going on the potty but once she understood the concept she began to tell me when she needed to go. She goes through good streaks of not having accidents and then sometimes there's days they happen more frequently. This week has been accidents galore and I was feeling lots of mama guilt. I couldn't help myself and at the time I felt like I was doing something wrong. I know it's normal to go through this but I found myself so frustrated and overwhelmed by the situation. I felt so guilty for getting impatient. I needed to stop myself and pray. I prayed to be slow to anger and more compassionate. She is still learning and things will get better. 

However she is sleeping in her own room (without any fight!) which is a huge milestone. She actually LOVES sleeping in her room and looks forward to her bedtime routine. Let me tell you, I feel so at peace knowing she's happy in her own room. For months and months she would put up a big fight every night, and her bed time was always so late. She would always wind up in our bedroom in the middle of the night. As much as we miss her cuddles, we are proud of her and excited for this milestone. Silas will eventually join her. But for now, we are indulging in his baby cuddles for as long as possible!

Silas, our big guy, he is becoming such a little person with a big personality. He is a true sweetheart, loves listening to music, dancing, and eating! We started giving him food around six months but he wasn't into it until a couple weeks ago. Again we skipped the purees and dove right into the baby-led weaning approach. I think his favorite thing to eat lately is roasted apples with cinnamon, spoonfuls of plain full-fat Greek yogurt and banana pancakes. He still loves to nurse though. I think that's his favorite food of them all. :)

I am excited and slightly nervous because he is starting to get onto all fours now. He scoots and tends to move backwards but hasn't quite mastered forward crawling. Lydia started crawling at seven months and Silas is getting closer to becoming more mobile each day! Fortunately for us our house is already baby-proofed. Just need to put the dreaded baby gate back up in our living room. I can see Lydia getting frustrated at it already or better yet trying to climb over it!

As for me and Michael, I have been busy with the kids and tending to our home. Michael's been hardworking between work, church, and us. I love that man.

I am happy I was able to give you all a little update. It only took me four months!! I will be sure to post more things in the future. I forgot how nice and therapeutic it is to write.

Until next time,

Lydia Lately 5.23.2016

Lydia is 14 months old.  I’m trying my best to cherish every moment, even the not so fun moments. If you’re a mom, you know exactly which moments I’m referring to! The demands from a little person who wants to be carried all day long even though they’re getting heavier, that creates tornado style messes every day, and constantly putting up a fight each and every diaper change. My patience, which I always thought was solid, gets tested every day and now I totally get what it means to be slow to anger. I try my hardest not to raise my voice because it almost always makes the situation worse. Instead of reacting negatively, I’ve been singing more and sometimes it helps calm us both us down. If God uses marriage to sanctify us, He absolutely uses parenthood too, and I’m learning more and more that I need to be slower to anger, more patient and calm even when I’m exhausted. But those moments quickly get better. I could go on and on about how much Lydia is a blessing and that she truly makes it all worth it!

She’s currently fluent in full-blown gibberish, no real words yet other than “no no” and mama, da-da. She has been trying to mimic our words and when she pets Zoe she goes “naaanaaa” which is in the same tone as us telling her to be “niiiice.” While we do encourage her to talk by telling her what things are and play narrative of what we’re doing, we’re not worried nor in any rush. I try not to compare her milestones with other kids because everyone learns things on their own time. She did learn how to walk at 10 ½ months so maybe she will talk a little later. Only time will tell!

Her favorite things to do are dancing, exploring outside (thank God the weather is finally warming up), playing with Zoe, and eating. She is especially fond of “If You’re happy and You Know It” and knows all the moves too! We recently stayed a week at my parent’s house and she got to spend lots of time with her cousin DJ. There were a few fights over toys/attention and Lydia discovered how to bite! I know I already covered the negative sides of raising a toddler, but Lydia sometimes bites us when she doesn’t get her way, please tell me this is just a phase?! 

Lydia is also at the age where she’s creating her own fun with her toys and stuffed animals. I am always so curious to know what’s going on in her little head and what she is gabbing about. It reminds me of how vivid my imagination was when I was little and how much fun I could have on my own. It makes me excited for her to have little siblings and watch them all interact. My sister and I are five years apart in age so we didn’t have many years of playing because she was too cool for playing pretend. This is kind of a side note but I remember the day Aria declared she was done taking baths together and the dreaded day she told me this was her last day playing pretend with me. I was devastated! I consider her one of my best friends now that we’re older but I think it would be better for Michael and I to have kids closer in age, and hopefully we’ll be able to expand our family soon. 

hardcore snacking!

I mentioned one of Lydia’s favorite things is to eat. Girlfriend is so passionate about food! She is so enthusiastic and literally sings when she eats. Her favorite foods are blueberries, yogurt, beans, tortilla chips and applesauce. She isn’t 100% weaned, she nurses at night and in the morning, I don’t really have a specific day when to stop. I am still giving her homemade chocolate milk and have been adding a little chia seeds, and spinach for a little heft which she loves. I’ll definitely have to do a separate post about toddler-friendly meals and snacks! 

To end this post, I want to say how much I'm looking forward to the weather warming up and starting summer traditions as a family. Possibly trips down the shore when visiting my parents in Jersey, going to the pool in town, watching the parades, going to Pittsburgh, and hosting a BBQ or two! Gotta love the summer:)

Lydia Renee's Food Adventures

Hi everybody! I thought it would be fun to share a little bit of what Lydia’s been eating these days. We started her on solids a couple weeks before she turned 6-months-old, and boy has she eaten a lot of food since then!

In the beginning we started her on homemade pureed kabocha squash, sweet potato, carrots and the like which were all successful. Then as the weeks went by she was onto more mixed purees and my beef stew. Before having Lydia, I had done research on baby-led weaning and liked the idea of feeding her foods that we were eating. It seemed like a great way for her to explore her food, play with it a little and experience mealtime as a family. 

So starting her on purees wasn't my initial plan but I'm glad I did them. It was a good introduction for her and it helped me see if any allergies were present, and fortunately there has been none so far! We do however avoid certain foods like honey, processed food, and conventional dairy products. She was eager to be fed at 6-7 moths and during that time she hadn't quite mastered using her fingers to feed herself, a.k.a. the pincer grasp which is developed at around 8-12 months old.

She was about 8 months old when she began to use her pincer grasp and that's when I knew we could successfully commit to the baby-led weaning process. Once she started to feed herself there really was no turning back! As someone who is passionate about eating and being married to someone who is also passionate about eating, we were blessed with a little human who, you guessed it, is passionate about eating! Letting Lydia feed herself is a little messy and there are certain foods that require a little assistance from us, like soup! But her enjoyment, little "mmm's" make it all worth it. 

People are always surprised to see Lydia eating because there isn't much she won't eat and she still has no teeth. My mom was shocked because on Thanksgiving Lydia was going to town gumming her dad's spicy chicken wings and guacamole! Lydia can handle the heat and likes things that pack on the flavor, a real epicurean in the making. I love it!

For the past couple of months I have been consistent with feeding Lydia breakfast, lunch and dinner, and that seems to work well for the both of us. Because she is only 10 months old, I'm still nursing her in between meals and she finds comfort in nursing periodically throughout the night. Once she turns one, I don't want to rush her into weaning but rather have her gradually rely more on solid food for nutrients than me. The comfort nurses are something I do cherish and I will part with when she feels prepared to do so.  On that note, here’s a little break down of what she's been eating!

//Breakfast// 

Depending on her last feeding in the morning, I don’t typically nurse her as soon as she wakes up for the day. 

she doesn't typically eat off of the floor but every now and then she eats breakfast in our room while I make my bed... it's all about multitasking guys!! :x

In the early stages I was feeding Lydia oatmeal that I grounded in the food processor and cooked it with fresh apple cider or organic applesauce, and a little ground cinnamon and cardamom or sometimes mashed banana mixed in. Initially she seemed to enjoy this but now that she's more independent her breakfast varies from homemade waffles cut into bite size pieces with fruit (chunks of ripe pear or roasted cinnamon apple), cheerios/rice chex, or fruit and yogurt smoothies in her reusable squeeze packs. She is currently in a cheerio kick! I give her about two ounces of apple or cranberry juice diluted with water to drink with breakfast. 

She typically wants to nurse 2-3 hours after breakfast time. 

//Lunch//

little peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; so cute!

a little sandwich in hand

cut up omelette with sliced avocado 

1 falafel and roasted carrots seasoned with turmeric + smoked paprika

avocado smiles are the best 

Lydia usually will take a nap prior to lunchtime so this gives me a little time to prepare our meals. She loves to share what I'm eating or have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, avocado toast, leftover soup/stew in her reusable squeeze packs, roasted veggies with leftover chicken or salmon, and occasionally nitrite-free deli meat when we're in a pinch.

She gets a little annoyed when I have to feed her so putting soups in the squeeze packs makes my life a little easier! Plus it's an easy way to blend spinach and kale into her soups which are otherwise a choking hazard. 

//Snack-time// 

blueberries! she likes to inspect her food before eating...

having her applesauce

she really likes her applesauce 

When she first started feeding herself, I would just give her organic puffs and her juice but lately I have been trying to give her more whole foods. Ie: blueberries cut in half, organic apple juice in her reusable squeeze pack, fresh fruit or a favorite of ours: blended frozen banana and berries with chia seeds. 

//Dinner//

here lydia is gumming down a tostone, embracing her puerto rican roots

sundried tomato pesto on pasta with  a little chicken for protein

This varies from week to week since, I like trying new recipes every week and she typically eats whatever we're eating for dinner. She seems to be keen on pasta dishes, chicken pot pie, and actually really liked the stuffed eggplant with lamb and tahini yogurt sauce that I made last month. There are some nights when Michael has to start feeding her before I'm even done serving us our dinner because she gets a little impatient and hangry. For the most part dinnertime is really nice, enjoyable, and I would definitely say my favorite time of the day because I'm with my two favorite people!

Having written this post, I had a lot of fun with it. I hope it can be somewhat resourceful and inspiring to you. I definitely would love to share more of Lydia's meals and actually put effort into the pictures. As you can see most of the pictures are quick snaps from my phone and that's usually the case because I have a little child wishing I'd hurry up and let her eat already. ;)

Until next time,