Ashley's Green Life

My "Green" Medicine Cabinet: Baby Teething Relief

2012-02-10T17:03:00.002-06:00

So last time we peeked into my "green" medicine cabinet, we talked about pink eye, now we're on to teeth...baby teeth that is. As I said before, I love to find green alternatives to traditional medicine that are free of yucky chemicals, additives, and other odd ingredients.

"Let's talk about teeth!"

Now teething is one of those things that can drive a new mom or dad crazy. Here you're going along, feeling like you finally got your baby figured out then...WHAM! In come the teeth. That routine you thought you had- gone. That sweet little happy baby-gone. Those peaceful nights-gone. In come the screaming, the chewing, and the drooling.

Okay, I'm probably making it more dramatic than it actually is, but to a new parent, it can be quite a challenge. I spent many hours Googling teething tips, alternative teething remedies, and other ways that I could make the process more bearable for Avery and myself. In the end I discovered...Hyland's Homeopathic Baby Teething Tablets and as a result our teething issues became much better.

My favorite teething tablets!

Let's take a look at Avery's teething journey...

The first two teeth that poked through around 5 months old.

The top two followed next around 8 months old.

Once again, my disclaimer- I am not a medical doctor or a pharmacist. So while I can share what has worked with me, it may not work for you. I would say to talk with your "health care provider" but they will probably just tell you to take the traditional over-the-counter or prescription medication. Instead you could do your own research or talk with someone at a natural health food store.

So let's just right in to my "green" medicine cabinet pick for baby teething relief.

Symptoms I observed my baby experiencing:
-more crying than usual
-chewing, chewing, and more chewing. She'd chew anything she could get her hands on, and I knew she was really desperate if she was chewing on her fingers.
-sometimes a runny nose (especially when she got her top teeth)
-sometimes a slight diaper rash (it's often debatable if this is connected to teething, occasionally I did see it though)
-red cheeks
-seeing an actual tooth beginning to stick out (or just feeling the razor sharp beginnings)
-other symptoms your baby may have...click here.

Case in point....the chewing girl.

When she started the chewing around 3 months.

Still at 6 months.

Fingers aside, toys are one of her favorites to chew on too.

Traditional medicine:

I suppose a traditional route would be to give acetaminophen or ibuprofeun, or possibly a teething gel that will numb the gums. Here are two common baby teething remedies that I looked closer into when I was searching for green alternatives (shocker: these did not turn out to be very green):

Probably one of the most common alternatives: Baby Orajel Teething Pain Medicine. According to their website: "Relieve teething pain safely, effectively, and instantly with Baby Orajel® Teething Pain Medicine. Baby Orajel is the #1 teething brand used by pediatricians, recommended by pharmacists and trusted by more parents than all other brands combined.* Don’t trust your child’s teething pain to anything else."

That's all nice and fine, but I'm all about the ingredients, so let's see how this one stacks up...
Active Ingredients: Benzocaine 7.5%
Inactive Ingredients: Ammonium Glycyrrhizate, FD&C red no. 40, Flavor, Glycerin, Polyethylene Glycol, Purified Water, Sodium Saccharin, Sorbic Acid, Sorbitol

WTF? Red dye? Saccharin? Ammonium Glycyrrhizate...say what? Nothing green here folks. How about their more "natural" teething gel?

Baby Orajel Naturals Teething Gel. According to their website: "New Baby Orajel® Naturals offers the power of safe and effective eugenol. It’s also dye-free, paraben-free, alcohol-free and benzocaine-free. It’s soothing relief. Pure and simple."

I'm glad they're trying to go green with it and at least it's a more natural option, but still, I don't know if the ingredient list will pass the test, let's see....

Active Ingredients: Eugenol 1.2%
Inactive Ingredients: flavor, glycerin, polyethylene glycol, sorbic acid, sorbitol, sucralose, water.

Definitely sounds better than the first, but I just don't know if I'd want all those ingredients to be going into my baby. This lead me to find the holy grail of all green teething remedies...

"Green Medicine Cabinet" alternative: Hyland's Baby Homeopathic Teething Tablets

According to their website: "It temporarily relieves the symptoms of simple restlessness and wakeful irritability due to cutting teeth. Helps reduce redness and inflammation of gums."

Free of benzocaine, parabens, artificial dyes & flavors
No numbing effect
Easy to administer
Soft tablets dissolve instantly upon contact with saliva, and can also be dissolved in teaspoon of water
Fast, natural relief for the trials of teething

How I used it: I gave (and continue to give her) 2 tablets in the morning after she wakes up and 2 tablets before bed. On a day that I can tell she is in more pain or is extra fussy, I'll give her 2 more after lunchtime. The bottle states that you can give 2-3 tablets under the tongue 4 times per day."

Avery's usual dose...2 tablets in the morning, and before bed.

Like they say, these tablets do dissolve instantly. I've never had a close call where it seems like Avery is choking. I put these in and just like that...they're gone.

How it's greener: Let's take a look at the formula/ingredients:
Calcarea Phosphorica 6X HPUS For teething, dentition
Chamomilla 6X HPUS For irritability
Coffea Cruda 6X HPUS For sleeplessness
Belladonna 12X HPUS (0.0000000000003% Alkaloids) For redness and inflammation
All in a base of Lactose, N.F.

Sounds much greener to me! On top of that it's homeopathic (a medical philosophy based on the idea that the body is capable of healing itself). According to WebMD:" Homeopathy is based on the idea that "like cures like." That is, if a substance causes a symptom in a healthy person, giving the person a very small amount of the same substance may cure the illness. In theory, a homeopathic dose enhances the body's normal healing and self-regulatory processes."

As I've said before, a lot of medications in my "green medicine cabinet" are homeopathic. I enjoy using homeopathic alternatives because they do not have other additives, dyes, flavorings, or chemicals. They're safe to take when pregnant, nursing, or even on babies . I took them throughout my pregnancy and I currently give them to Avery, as I'm writing about in this post.

Just a head's up: An odd side effect, your baby may fall asleep quickly after taking these...never quite saw this effect with Avery but this is posted on the bottle: "Please note: if your baby has been crying or upset, your baby may fall asleep after using this product because the pain has been relieved and your child can rest."

Other funny effect: You're baby will become conditioned very quickly to this bottle. All I have to do is show her the bottle and shake it several times and she will start smiling, laughing, or sometimes happily screaming! She loves these things and I can bet your baby will too. ( :

Where to find it: Whole Foods, local health food store, or online for about $7-9.

Another tip: The teething tablet bottle is also a great entertainer for babies during diaper changes! Who knew? Double duty! Obviously you want to make sure the bottle is completely closed before handing it to your baby so they don't end up with a face full of teething tablets. But really, Avery has a blast with the bottle because she can shake it, chew on the outside of it, or just hold onto it. Kind of strange I know, but you do what you got a do.

"I'll just be taking this."

Just a little splits action after the diaper change.

"Hmmm...Hyland's Teething Tablets. Seems like a green
choice to me!"

Now I've tried a few other natural alternatives when it comes to teething, one main one is an an amber teething necklace that I first blogged about here.

Amber teething necklace at 4 months.

These necklaces aren't for chewing, instead they are thought to help ease the pain that comes along with teething (read more here). They contain amber (which is a rock that used to be resin from a tree) and when the amber gets heated up by being next to a baby's skin, it releases trace amounts of healing oils that can help relieve the inflammation and pain that accompany teething. Avery started wearing her teething necklace back when she was 3 1/2 months old, and although it hasn't been our "cure-all" (since I'm blogging about teething tablets), it has helped in some ways. If I go a day or night without it on her, she will drool more and sometimes seems more irritable, so in those ways, I truly believe the teething necklace has helped and continues to help. Anyone else try these or have success with them?

"Apples help my teeth!"

Another thing that's helped is my approach to baby food, called baby-led solids or baby-led weaning which I first blogged about here. It's basically the idea that you let your baby wean themselves onto solid food by offering them "adult food" to eat at meals while still continuing to breastfeed when the baby wants to. A specific feature of this method is that you skip the "baby food stage" of the mushes, mashes, and other mixtures. I know that for some people these work, but for others (like Avery) giving her real food has really worked out great. I think it's helped her teething because it gives her more items to chew on that could help cope with her need to "chew" and alleviate pain. Some foods that helped were apple sticks (just cut into finger-like shapes), carrot sticks, and even gluten-free toast.

"Toast too!"

So there you have it, some of my favorite natural alternatives to baby teething, more specifically: Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets. Anyone else have favorite tips or tricks that worked for your babies? Post below!

See you next time to see what else is in my "Green" Medicine Cabinet.

What I Ate Wednesday

2012-02-08T16:29:00.004-06:00

Well it's Wednesday, and it's time to talk about food. Jenn over at Peas & Crayons has fun new challenge for our WIAW posts of how we can try to "veg-ify" our weekly posts for the month of February. We will do this by sharing some of our favorite veggies, how we prepare them, or anything else veggie related. I feel like being vegan naturally helps me get more veggies, but still there's always room improvement. With that in mind, let's jump right in to my gluten-free, vegan eats (and veggies) for the day...

5:00 AM Just woke up snack: Food for Life Gluten-Free English Muffin,
with honey and Earth Balance butter.

Workout: 1 hour of yoga with Shiva Rea Yoga Shakti DVD. I feel like I go on vacation when I do this video because of the awesome beach scene in the background. It's a great workout too. I usually feel pretty "blissed out" after doing this one.

7:30 AM Breakfast: "Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie"
Pretty pictures aside, I almost always eat this smoothie
on the go as I'm getting Avery ready or driving to work,
so I use this rockin' mega mug.

Guess who else is hooked on "Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothies"
for breakfast? Avery! I'll usually put some in her Lollacup
to take and drink when she's at the sitter.

9:20 AM Snack: Peanut Butter & Jelly Larabar

10:30 AM Morning snack: Gluten-free, vegan pancakes
from Cinnamon Quill with Maple Agave Nectar as my syrup,
and a "shot" of orange juice to drink.

12:30 PM Lunch: Potato, Corn, and Black Bean Stew (speaking of veggies!)
This stew is also great with organic corn tortilla chips...yum!

2:15 Afternoon snack #1: orangic pear

3:30 Afternoon snack #2: small portion of gluten-free pasta
with spaghetti sauce.

Perhaps it's the frugal side of me that likes to use every bit of the leftovers up, but sometimes if I have a portion that is not big enough to be used as a lunch, but too big that I feel bad about throwing away, I'll use it instead as an afternoon snack. A benefit of this is that I feel like these "mini-meal leftovers" help keep me full for much longer than my usual afternoon snacks of crackers, a piece of fruit, and another Larabar. On top of that who doesn't like spaghetti at 3:00 in the afternoon? Okay, only me I guess. ( : Anyone else use leftovers like this?

After work I headed home and this is who greeted me at the door...doing the splits. She's one flexible girl.

Just doing a little stretching as I wait for mom to come home.

Then she saw me.

"Is that my mom? I know her! I know her!"

Let the fun begin!

Since the weather was unusually nice, we decided to go for a
wagon ride in the driveway.

The wagon ride turned into a dance session...as most things do
with Avery!

And surprise, someone did not want to sit down in the wagon.

After our fun was done, we headed inside for a green chocolate smoothie...one of my favorite ways to get veggies.

5:30 Just-got-home snack: "Chocolate Vanilla Smoothie": vanilla
coconut milk, Chocolate Sun Warrior Rice Protein Powder,
Spinach, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, 3 frozen strawberries.

Avery enjoyed her second smoothie of the day.

Later on she munched on a kale leaf as she crawled around
in the kitchen...her choice, not mine!

7:15 Dinner: Pizza (Rudi's Gluten-free pizza crust, Daiya
vegan mozzarella cheese, organic spaghetti sauce, mushrooms)
with steamed broccoli and Daiya vegan cheddar cheese.

Let's see if Avery liked the pizza...

I think it's "yes"!

Dessert: "Chocolate Mousse Frosting" from Chocolate-Covered Katie

So there you have it, my food and my veggies...oh and a little Avery too. We'll see you next week.

I Co-Sleep with My Baby...Part-Time

2012-02-04T12:35:00.000-06:00

Our typical co-sleeping arrangement.

So I haven't really blogged much about our sleeping arrangement in the past nine months since Avery's been born mainly because I don't feel "good at it" yet. Leave it to little ol' perfectionist me to wish I could I tell you, "Oh we do this and it works great every time, every night, just like the book said." But it's not like that.

It changes all the time and just when I think we've got it figured out, Avery up and changes again and we come up with a new strategy. Welcome to life with a baby...so I've learned. It's all good though. I figured I could post a little about how we're sleeping these days so that other moms out there might be able to relate...or maybe I'm just the weird one-who knows?

As of right now, we co-sleep with Avery half of the night and the other half of the night she sleeps in her crib which is in our room. That probably sounds like a funny arrangement, but like you'll hear me say many times in this post: it works for us!

The basic routine we've set up for sleep is that Brandon will rock her to sleep, put her in her crib, and then she'll sleep for 3-4 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Rockin' to sleep with Daddy...usually the lights are off
(but I had them make an exception for this photo!)

Our favorite thing to help Avery fall asleep: a light-up,
butterfly that plays music, nature sounds, and
lights stars up onto the ceiling. Love this thing!

Then when she wakes up, I will get her and bring her to bed to nurse her and then we fall asleep. Throughout the night she will nurse off and on at various times for only a few minutes at a time then she's back asleep. Then around 5 AM when Brandon and I get up to start the day, we pick her up and put her back in her crib where she sleeps for about 2-3 more hours.

This will probably tick off my crunchy-granola moms because I'm not a true co-sleeper, and the "stay in your crib all night" moms will probably scoff at me bringing her to bed, but just like life...things aren't always black and white. You may do a little of this and a little of that, and if it works for you, great! For me this arrangement works because it feels so easy. I don't have to get up, walk down the hallway, rock in the rocking chair while I feed her. I half-asleep pick her up, and go back to bed. Half of the time, I can never remember actually when it was that I got her out of her bed because I was practically asleep myself.

Why I Co-Sleep...

Now while I was pregnant, I was pretty certain that I would not co-sleep with Avery. I would have her sleep next to my bed, with the co-sleeper I got below, but that was it. Now I was down with all the things that come with natural parenting like breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and baby wearing, but having her sleep in the same bed as me...no thank you. She needs to learn how to sleep on her own...I thought.

Getting my Arm's Reach Mini-Co-Sleeper back at my shower when
I was pregnant. This really helped us to keep Avery close,
but not too close in those early months.

Well, all that changed in the blink of an eye on the night she was born. When we went to go to bed just a few hours after she was born, I couldn't even stand to have her in the co-sleeper next to our bed, let alone in her crib in down the hall...that girl was right next to me in bed.

Aside from always having a feeling of knowing Avery is okay, I also chose to co-sleep with Avery because it made breastfeeding during the night so much easier. I can credit my amazing midwife, Lisa for this because the day after Avery was born she taught me how to nurse her while comfortably laying down and it forever changed my nursing with Avery. Nursing in bed meant that I didn't have to sit in an uncomfortable chair at 2 AM, I could be lying in bed, nearly half-asleep- that's what I'm talking about. This is probably one of the top reasons Avery is as chunky as she is, that girl gets milk when she wants it at night because it's so easy for me.

Here's the side-lying nursing position I use each night...
and that apparently Avery is pretty conditioned to because
she thought it was time to nurse here!

See my support pillows in that pic? I stick one between my legs, which helps with my hips, and one behind my back to give me some extra support. These really help make the side-lying position much more comfortable.

Breastfeeding at night also seems to have super powers to me because Avery will start to fuss or wake up and all I have to do is "get the milk ready" (aka adjust my shirt or tank top), nurse her for a few minutes and then: POOF...sleeping baby! No rocking, no singing, no swaying. Just boob, then sleep. Sweetness. Thank you for your super powers breast milk and co-sleeping!

"Oh yeah, I get milk anytime I want...ha ha!"

A second reason I like co-sleeping with Avery is that it's a chance for us to bond. With me working all day long, it's nice to know I can spend some time with her at night...even though I'm half-asleep. Some nights I'm more ready to "cuddle" with her, such as at the end of the work week where I feel like I haven't seen her as much. But other nights, like during a growth spurt or after a really long day, I kind of wish she was in her crib and sleeping through the night. Then I remind myself this is only temporary, and she'll eventually grow out of this stage so I'll enjoy it while I can.

I have no idea how long we will continue to co-sleep, probably as long as I am breastfeeding Avery, which I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. So we'll see. I can see her transitioning eventually to all night in her crib, in our room. Then all night, in her crib, in her room. Who knows...we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. ( :

On top of reasons I mentioned above, co-sleeping has been found to have a number of other benefits for mom and baby according to Dr. Sears (read more here or here), such as:

babies sleep better and stay asleep longer
mothers sleep better
breastfeeding is easier (I can attest to that one!)
fits with today's busy lifestyle
babies thrive better
parents and infants are more connected
reduces the risk of SIDS
infants develop healthy sleep habits

Is co-sleeping safe? I totally get your concern as to whether co-sleeping is safe for the baby, because I worried about it as well, but with common sense practices it can be completely safe. Most recommendations for safe co-sleeping, again according to Dr. Sears, include:

Do's:

take precautions to keep baby from rolling out of the bed
place baby next to the mother and the edge of the bed/wall/guardrail as opposed to next to dad (occasionally Avery will be on the side with Brandon, just so she is able to nurse on both sides, but since we have a king size bed there still is plenty of room between him and her).
use a king size bed so there is plenty of room to move around

Don'ts:

don't sleep with your baby if you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs
don't sleep with your baby if you are extremely obese
don't sleep with your baby on a couch or water bed
do not allow older siblings to sleep with a baby under 9 months
do not overheat a baby, be cautious with blankets

Specific ways that I make sure Avery is safe is with the addition of a guardrail alongside our bed, and I always try to keep her above my blankets and a distance away from my pillows.

Our guardrail that goes along the side of the bed I sleep on...
also in the picture: my support pillows. One for behind my back,
one for between my legs when I'm on my side.

As for how I keep from rolling over on her, I don't know what to tell you other than that I just don't. Call it mother's intuition or maybe I'm just a light sleeper, either way, it's never happened for me. Not even close. I think I just always have a sense of where she is and I get close enough to feed her, but not too close. Granted nowadays she's a pretty big girl, so she's more likely to roll into me, but even back when she was just born, I never really had to worry about it.

Why I crib-sleep...
Now all that co-sleeping may sound nice and dandy, but for the other half of the night, Avery sleeps in her crib. My main reason for this is safety. Not that I don't think co-sleeping is safe, I just know I'm not right there to keep an eye on her throughout the whole night since I go to bed later than her and usually get up before her. I also have an Angelcare Baby Movement & Sound Monitor connected to the crib so that I can keep an eye and ear on her at all times. She is pretty mobile nowadays, so leaving her alone in our king size bed was not something I was willing to try. She has a way of crawling right to the edge of the bed and the guardrails must just be begging to be climbed.

"Don't mind me guys, just climbing on the
guardrail here."

When she was younger, the co-sleeper I mentioned above served as her crib and as our guardrail. We wedged 2 pillows between our bed and the co-sleeper to keep her from rolling out of the bed during co-sleeping time, and when she was sleeping by herself or for naps she did so in the co-sleeper. I also connected the Angelcare Monitor to this bed. But by 6-7 months it was time to "graduate" to her crib, mainly because she was starting to climb around in her co-sleeper like this...

Just exploring in the co-sleeper.

She was also starting to get pretty big in it.

Filling it out at 7 months.

Quite a change from how she looked back at 1 week old.

Unfortunately, by the time we were ready for her crib, she was also ready to climb out of that one. On top of that, I knew there was no way I was ready to transition her to her room down the hallway, so we took the best of both worlds and moved her crib into our room and lowered it a few notches...sorry little climber!

"Hmm...this is nice and high, I think I'll climb right out."

She's adjusted pretty well to the change, and so have we. The first couple of nights felt a little different for me because she was sleeping further away from me (I know...just so far-lol!), but now it's working out great. I appreciate my space a little bit (and freedom to get things done before I come to bed) without having to worry about her in our big bed or crawling out of that "now-tiny" co-sleeper.

"This crib in Mom and Dad's room isn't too bad."

Just make sure to get her out when she's done with her nap...or she will not be too happy with you!

"Oh just get me out, I don't want to be here anymore!"

Nap times aside, I love knowing that the first thing I see in the morning is her cute little smiling face...okay your's too Brandon. Granted sometimes I wake up to her tapping my arm, scratching at the guardrail, or saying her favorite word: "Dada!", but still, waking up to her always makes the morning much more enjoyable.

"Time to wake up mom!"

Here's some of my favorite pictures from the past of our co-sleeping little baby!

In the one-armed swaddle around 4 months...I tried to
wean her off the swaddle one arm at a time.

One of the reasons why she did not nap in our bed often...
she was always able to rotate herself around as she did in this
picture...silly girl!

Around 2 1/2 months..."I'm ready to get out of this swaddle!"

One of my favorite parts of the swaddle: getting her out in the morning!

Pop goes one arm!

Now she's free! Love that smile first thing in the morning.

In case you're curious, I stopped swaddling Avery around 5 months or so, and I did it gradually as I said before, one arm at a time. Read more about why I started in the first place here. I mainly stopped swaddling her because she had started to roll over onto her stomach (the place she loves to sleep the most) and I was worried she would roll over and suffocate with her arms tied to her side. I was nervous about leaving the swaddle behind, but this is where the rocking and "light up butterfly" I mentioned earlier came in handy. Two other tricks? A pacifier and white noise machine.

So that wraps up our interesting sleeping style and how I co-sleep with my baby...part-time. Anybody do the same? Share what worked for you below. I'm open to all styles because it doesn't matter what the books say, what the experts say, or even what your family says you should do...you do what works for you and that's all that matters.

Happy Sleeping!

9 Months Old

2012-01-29T18:20:00.002-06:00

So the time has come for my little miss to turn 9 months old. It's kind of crazy looking at the pack of monthly stickers and only seeing a few left. Each month that goes by gives me a chance to reflect back on how much she's changed in such a short amount of time. From tipping over in the chair at one month, chewing on her hands the second month, and trying to crawl out of the chair last month, to all the fun and silly things she did this month. Time flies when you have a baby. Seriously....it does. So without further ado, let's talk about this little "nine monther".

Let's see how she's grown over the past nine months!

She used to be so tiny compared to that stripe pillow, but now she uses it as a climbing block.

Highlight of the photo shoot this month? Climbing, anywhere and everywhere. Whereas last month she was just interested in crawling out of the chair, this month she wanted to go over the side, up the back, and down the front of course. Check out all the action:

"Aren't you supposed to be sitting little girl?"

She's starting sticking her tongue out like this...too funny.

"I'll just climb up this wall okay?"

Good thing Grandma Karen was there to assist with
the photo shoot...I don't think I could have "wrangled"
the girl in all by myself!

Cracking herself up.

"Yeah for monthly photo shoots!"

Face plant...sure I'll try.

A standing view of the chair.

Fun with Mom at the end.

A funny thing she's been doing this month is using her pointer finger. She points at people, at the dogs, at buttons, and especially at noses. Sometimes I like to call her "Inspector Avery" when she whips out that pointer finger. Naturally the pointer finger came out during the photo shoot...

Pointing at buttons.

Pointing with her silly mean face.

Pointing at the pretend kitchen.

Stats for this month: As you can see her stats for this month are: 30 inches long (up one inch from last month), and 21 lbs (down one pound from last month). I think she's lost a pound because she's been so active this past month, from climbing stairs, walking in her walker, and just playing...the girl doesn't stop! She still in the upper 90th percentile on her height and weight so I'm not too worried about it.

9 month stats

Speaking of weight...the girl sure knows how to "make big thighs look good!" (Thanks for the funny shirt Grandma Cheryl!).

Wanna see those cute thighs in action? Here she is playing at my parent's house in a onesie with socks and shoes. She got up too quick and I didn't have time to get her pants on yet. I don't think she minded one bit.

"Yeah! Yeah! No pants!" ( :

Hair: It seems like over the past month or two her hair has really started to grow. It's gotten to that stage where some of it sticks out over her headbands, which amazingly she still doesn't mind wearing (knock on wood!). My favorite thing about the hair is seeing her "bed head" in the morning...which you can see later in this post. I'm kind of clueless when it comes to doing little girl hair, so luckily we have a little bit until I have to start worrying about braids, pigtails, and ponytails. A headband and a bow? I got that covered!

Here comes the hair!

Skateboard Time: Something fun we did this past month was to go visit Brandon's skateboard shop, Dairdevil Boards. You may recall we went there back when Avery was 4 months old, and she seemed to really like it with all the different colors, graphics, and well of course...Dad. So it was no surprise that it was even more of a hit the second time around. Here's the fun we had....

Talking business with Dad.

Back on the board.

"Are you sure I should be standing on this?"

What a difference from when she was 4 months old!

She always has lots to say.

Time for some tricks.

I think she's a natural.

Family pic time.

Yeah! Clapping for the picture.

Food: We're still going strong with baby-led weaning, or baby-led solids as I like to call it. We started this approach to giving Avery solid foods back when she was 6 months old and it's still working out great. Messy...but great. Don't believe me? Check out what she did with some vegan chili and celery sticks!

"Uhh what did you expect mom?!"

Some of her favorite foods are bananas, which she often has for breakfast. I slice them up into quarters and leave the skin on (I make sure to wash it before giving it to her). This gives her something to hold onto while she eats the banana.

Banana slices that I give Avery for breakfast.

An aerial view of the breakfast fun...she even had some
pancakes with her bananas this morning.

Another favorite: toast...gluten-free that is. While I don't know if Avery will be sensitive to gluten like I am, I'm not taking my chances. So until she's a few years older, she'll be a gluten-free girl like her mama. Mainly because it's easier for me, since that's what I eat. Here she is having some "toast squares". I just cut the toast into bite-size squares for her to nibble on while driving around in her Combi Walker (the steering wheel portion of the car comes off and this eating tray is underneath. Avery loves to "eat and drive"!).

"Mmmm toast."

Something else to mention about her food is that in the past month or so I've started sending a lunch with Avery, to go along with the milk I've pumped. Usually it's just a small portion of leftovers from the night before that she'll eat at lunch or at some point in the day to supplement her bottles. We were finding that she was getting very frustrated when everyone else was eating and she wasn't...now we know, the girl wants her own food!

A typical leftover lunch for Avery.

Usually a small portion like this is more than enough.

Aside from sending a lunch, I also now send her with a breakfast. Sometimes it's the banana slices I mentioned above, but recently it's been a "Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie". If you follow my "What I Ate Wednesday" posts, you know I have one of these yummy green smoothies each morning, and one day I gave Avery a sip and she went crazy for it... see below! These things have hemp seeds, chia seeds, rice milk, raw cacao powder, frozen strawberries, frozen bananas, and of course...spinach!

I've never seen her suck so hard on that straw!

Now she's hooked. I have one each morning and so does she. Usually I'll make mine, and pour a little portion into her Lollacup (which I must say is an awesome cup for giving babies a smoothie in...I couldn't live without mine!). I then pack up the Lollacup with her diaper bag and save it for her to have when she gets to the sitter. Let's just say there are two of us hooked on these things now!

"I love my chocolate ice cream smoothie too!"

Now for just some fun pictures from the month. To start off with here she is when I came in after she had just woken up from a nap...one of my favorite times of the day. Babies are so cute when they've just woken up and have sleepy eyes.

Remember that "bed head" I was telling you about earlier?
Love it!

Happy to tell me all about it and show off her teeth.
We're now at 7!

I usually walk in to find her standing,
banging on her crib.

"Oh sure I'll give you a smile Mom."

"But you can get me out of here now ya know?!"

Bath time: Long gone are the days of giving Avery a bath in the Tummy Tub like I posted about back in this post. After she started to fill that thing up, we knew it was time for something bigger so we moved to the kitchen sink. This was fun for awhile until she learned out to splash the water and after a few times of water nearly flooding the kitchen floor we moved her to the "big bathtub". I was worried that she would bump her head, or that she needed some type of baby support seat while in there...boy was I wrong. The first time we put her in there she was crawling around, splashing the water, and sitting like she'd been doing it for years.

Just playing away. Her favorite thing is usually to crawl
from one end of the tub to the other.

Loving the "big girl bathtub".

Also this past month, she really came to love the door to our porch. It's right in our dining room and with the blinds rolled up, she can see out to the backyard. She seems to often look for the dogs, and when she sees one, she gets very excited and starts saying, "Do do". Sometimes she'll even wave at them. Other words she's saying right now: anything with a "D"...dad, dada, do do, and other "B" sounds too. No "mama" yet...that's okay though, it'll come! ( :

Speaking of the porch, we took her walker out there one day for a little spin since our winter here in Missouri has been unusually mild, and Avery had quite the fun time. We quickly learned that someone must be blocking the steps off the porch at all times since Avery sure knows how to "drive" fast in her car.

Now just as more and more of her personality has been coming out in these past couple of months, her moods have become stronger. So when she's happy, she's really happy! She's smiling, laughing, and often snorting-he he! But on the flip side when she's upset, she's really upset. Crying, screaming, the quivering lip, and sometimes even throwing her head back. See example below:

The good thing about these upsets is that it lets us know what she needs. Clearly when she looks like she does above, she's DONE with what she was currently doing and she wants to go do something else. Heck, if the girl had words I'm sure she'd say, "Okay Mommy, I've been in this walker for 15 minutes now. I'm hungry and want to get out, can you please pick me up?" But she doesn't so instead that's what I get.

It's all good though. Usually what she needs is just a quick cuddle, nursing session, change in activity, or change in diapers and then she's back to being her happy, silly self.

"Okay, this is much better now!"

New Year's Resolutions: Now I'm not one to make tons of New Year's Resolutions, but this year I had two I wanted to do: complete one craft from Pinterest each month and have a "date night" Brandon once a month as well. My motivation for both of these resolutions came from one of my favorite books, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. In this book the author goes on a quest to become, well... happier by completing a variety of resolutions each month related to various areas of her life. The resolutions from the book that applied to my resolutions: "Make time for projects" and "Give proofs of love." Both of these resolutions are things that tend to go by the wayside once you have a baby. You just get so focused on the day-to-day that it's hard to make time for your significant other, let alone creative projects. But hopefully my two resolutions will help me make more time for both of these. So let's get going with my first resolution:

Pinterest Craft of the Month: "Framed Love Mirror" for above our bed.

My motivation:

source

How I got it done: Bought an open frame at Hobby Lobby, as well as the "Love" mirror word. I already had the canvas squares from Target from several years ago.

Unfortunately I could only find a dark brown open-frame at Hobby Lobby, so I had to do a little extra step of painting the frame a cream/light tan color. But once that was done, we were ready to get hanging!

Luckily my parents were over to help out. My dad was the babysitter and my mom was my crafting-partner-in-crime.

Babysitting Grandpa Frank

Anyone else not a fan of hanging things? Thank goodness
I have my mom to help me out!

And we're done! Cross Pinterest Craft of the Month #1
off the list.

All done, time for one of Avery's favorite games:
Laundry Basket Rides!

Here we come!

All done!

Here's the finished product up on the wall in our bedroom.

Guardrail on the side of the bed...well that's a blog post
for another day. ( ;

Speaking of love...Date Night of the Month: This month Brandon and I made it out on our "date" as my parents watched Avery. We kept it pretty simple and went out to eat and then did some shopping...minus the baby. We tried out a local pizza restaurant that has a gluten-free crust and vegan cheese called Next Door Pizza & Pub.

The pizza was called "Hippie Chick"...sorry for the girlie
name Brandon! But it was good! Artichoke hearts,
onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and red peppers...yum!

The gf crust was pretty thin, but still very good.

Our date night spot.

After the date, getting ready to pick up
baby girl. Feels funny to take a pic
without her.

See you guys next month as we move into double digits...10 months old!

WIAW and the Skateboarding Baby

2012-01-25T20:58:00.002-06:00

Well this What I Ate Wednesday was extra fun since Brandon was home to enjoy it with Avery and I. So aside from some yummy vegan food that night, you can bet some skateboarding definitely took place. For those of you new to my blog, my husband owns a skateboard shop, so skateboarding is a pretty big part of our lives. In case you're wondering- no, I do not skate...it's all him...and maybe in the future, Avery. LOL. I'll talk more about this "skateboarding baby" later. Until then, let's get right to this nursing-mama's gluten-free, vegan eats for the day:

Just woke up: 2 slices of Rudi's Multigrain bread with
Earth Balance butter and organic strawberry jelly.

Workout: 1 hour of pilates with 10 Minute Solutions Pilates Perfect Body DVD. Just added this one to my "Exercise DVD Library" and it rocks. I was sore for a few days after I tried it for the first time. I'd highly recommend it.

Breakfast: Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie.
It may not look mean and green, but this
thing is packed full of greens and awesome
nutrients. Did I mention it tastes like
chocolate ice cream?( :

Morning snack...that I'm getting in the habit of having on
nearly a daily basis...Gluten-free, vegan pancakes from
Cinnamon Quill with Maple Agave Nectar as my syrup,
and a "shot" of orange juice to drink.

Does anyone else eat the same foods at the same time day after day like this? Or am I just crazy? ( :

2nd morning snack: 1 banana

Lunch: "Pressure Cooker Vegan Stoup (stew +soup)" from
Brittany @ A Healthy Sliced of Life.

Full of sweet potatoes, green beans, lentils, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and celery, this "stoup" was delicious, warming, and filling! Plus it made leftovers for days- score!

Dessert: "Chocolate Mousse Frosting" from Chocolate-Covered Katie.

Wondering what those little "crumbs" are in the mousse? I tried to melt a tablespoon or two of chocolate chips into the mix, but they didn't quite melt. No biggie...I like the little crumbs of chocolate!

Afternoon snack #1: organic orange

Afternoon snack #2: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Larabar

Afternoon snack #3: Move over Beanito chips...
my new favorite are: "Simply Sprouted
Way Better Snacks: Simply So Sweet Chili Tortilla Chips"

These chips rock! They remind me of Doritos from back in the day...only now they taste better and are better for you! These chips have sprouted whole grains and seeds in them like sprouted broccoli seeds, sprouted quinoa, and even sprouted daikon radish seeds. Whoa baby...and they taste like Doritos? Yeah, let's just say I buy 2 bags a week of these yummy things!

Now usually it's just Avery and I hanging out in the evening before dinner, but tonight Brandon was home. This meant she had someone to play with while I got stuff done!

Avery and Daddy time.

It also meant that Avery got to play with her favorite toy...Dad's skateboard!

They went for many rides around the kitchen and living room.

That's one serious, sitting, skater girl.

"This skateboard is way better than my pink walker (seen to left)!"

Riding on the carpet? You bet.

I think she knows that the way to Daddy's heart is through
his skateboard. ( :

With all this skateboarding fun, I was left to do one thing...cook dinner. I didn't mind one bit. It was great to have his help and Avery sure loved it. Cooking without stopping is kind of a nice thing too!

Getting dinner ready.

Dinner: "Naughty & Nice Vegan Enchilada Casserole" from
Angela @ Oh She Glows

Black beans, peppers, onions and a homemade enchilada sauce come together in this yummy casserole. Now despite having a bit of a kick, this is one of Avery's favorite meals! She eats up those noodles faster than we can get them to her!

"This enchilada casserole rocks you guys!"

"I just can't get enough of it!"

Curious about some of Avery's dinnerware? Cup: Lollacup, Placemat: Kiddopotamus Tinydiner Placemat, Bib: Koala Baby EZ Wipe Bib.

Now Avery sure has a blast making a mess at dinner, but cleaning up...well that's definitely not the highlight of my evening! The worst part is that she hates to have her hands and face cleaned. She will fuss, and scream, and fight you every bit of the way.

My solution: hold her over the sink and let her watch the water while you clean her. This works every time! She's so mesmerized by the water that she doesn't seem to mind me scrubbing away at her hands, arms, and face. Well, she probably knows what I'm doing, but at least she tolerates it more.

"What? I'm getting cleaned? Who knew?"

Now to cap off the night...dessert: "Chocolate Pudding" from Angela,
@ Oh She Glows. It's surprisingly good from being made with avocados!

So there you have it, a skateboarding baby and my "What I Ate Wednesday" food. See you next week!

WIAW and Spaghetti with Meatless Meat Sauce Recipe

2012-01-18T23:39:00.002-06:00

Happy WIAW! How's everyone doing this week? Well, today I'm going to share some of my favorite quick, simple, and cheap gluten-free, vegan foods to show that you don't have to break the bank or eat all kinds of crazy, fancy, hard-to-find ingredients to follow a plant-based diet. On top of that, usually by the middle of the week, I'm not in the mood to cook for hours on end when I get home from work, so I'm all about finding quicky and easy meals that are still healthy and delicious. So let's get my food for today going, followed by one of my favorite "quick, easy, and cheap" recipes: "Spaghetti with Meatless Meat Sauce".

Just woke up snack: Rudi's Multigrain gluten-free toast
with Earth Balance butter and organic strawberry jelly.

Workout: 1 hour on the treadmill, my favorite kind of intervals: run 2 minutes, walk 1 min.

Breakfast: Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie Get your fill
of spinach in this smoothie, guilt-free and full of raw
chocolate goodness!

Mid-morning snack: Gluten-free, vegan pancakes from
Cinnamon Quill with Maple Agave Nectar as my syrup,
and a "shot" of orange juice to drink.

Lunch: "Cleaning out the pantry nachos": organic
corn tortilla chips, black beans, roasted corn, salsa,
Dayia cheddar cheese. So simple, quick, easy...
and of course, delicious!

Afternoon snack: 1 organic orange

Afternoon Snack #2: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Larabar
(aka a "Snickers Bar:" as I call it!).

Just got home/Playing with Avery Snack: "Peachy Kale Smoothie"

Avery joined me for this smoothie as she played and climbed the stars. Here's some of the fun we had...

Fueling up on her green smoothie before playing.

"Oh but this smoothie tastes so much better in your glass straw
Mom!"

"Wait! Take a break...time for a snack!"

"Okay sure, one picture I suppose."

One of my new favorite things she does right now: go
from crawling to sitting. She'll crawl, crawl,
crawl...and then sit herself up super straight like this.
Love it!

Dinner: Spaghetti with Meat-less Meat Sauce (see recipe below)

Let's find out what Avery thought of the spaghetti...

Don't let that skeptical face fool you...

Avery loves spaghetti!

Oh, and her Dad, who she loves to eat with.

Other fun new thing she's doing: sticking her tongue out
when she smiles. He he!

One minor downside to baby-led solids: the clean-up!
Good thing we're on the tile! Too bad it was my night to clean
the kitchen while Brandon gave Avery a bath!

This is who I called in to help with the spaghetti on the floor.
Now although she's was very intrigued by the carrot, seen here,
she did eat all the spaghetti that was on the floor!
Thank you Jilly!

Dessert: 2 Gluten-free, vegan cookies from Cinnamon Quill.

Okay so now that you know what I ate today, let me share one of my favorite quick, easy, cheap, and healthy vegan dinners: Spaghetti with Meatless Meat Sauce.

First up, let's talk about it's main ingredient: TVP (or it's real name: Textured Vegetable Protein). Sounds kind of strange right? Don't worry, it's just "defatted soy flour" that has been cooked under pressure and then dried. Still confusing...bear with me! It comes in a granule-type form that looks a bit like oatmeal and when liquid is added to it, the granules "re-hydrate" and take on a texture similar to ground beef.

TVP granules (aka my gluten-free vegan "ground beef")

Ever tried a meat-replacement like a Boca Burger or Morningstar Farms hot dog? Well, you can pretty much bet that one of the main ingredients in those "meats" was TVP. With that in mind, one benefit of using plain TVP is that we're cutting straight to the source!

Instead of pretend "meat crumbles" with a long ingredient list (that usually includes wheat- a "no no" for me) I stick with plain ol' TVP to give me that reminesencet ground beef texture, minus all the extra sodium and preservatives.

Health benefits of TVP: high in protein, virtually no fat, high in fiber, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus.

Other benefits of TVP: it's cheap! A 10 oz. pkg online costs about $3 here or you could find it at your local health food store for pretty close to that price as well. I've even seen it at Wal-Mart! Now by using a 1/2 cup per meal (the amount called for in this recipe) you could get about 6 meals out of that one cheap little bag! That's 50 cents per meal...quite a savings since 1 lb of ground beef or turkey would probably cost you about $1.75 or more. Sweet!

So now that you know what TVP is, why it rocks, and where you can get it, let me tell you how you can cook with it in my recipe for:

Spaghetti with Meatless Meat Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pkg. pasta (I used Tinkyada gluten-free brown rice spaghetti pasta)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (any brand or flavor, I was feeling a classic Prego this time around)
½ cup TVP (textured vegetable protein)
½ cup boiling water (from spaghetti water)

All you need:
TVP, Spaghetti Sauce, Spaghetti

1. Measure out 1/2 cup TVP into a bowl.

2. Bring water to boil in a large stockpot for spaghetti noodles.
When the water starts boiling add the noodles and then
measure out 1/2 cup of the boiling water.

3. Pour this boiling water onto the TVP. *Now although the
TVP package gives measurements on how much water
to add to the TVP, I've found it works fine to just do equal
portions of water to TVP (just like you're cooking rice, so
1/2 cup TVP, 1/2 cup water).

4. Next pour your spaghetti sauce into a medium sauce pan
and turn onto Low.

5. To remove excess water from your TVP press a cloth napkin
or paper towel over the TVP until no extra water remains.

6. Now add the TVP to the sauce that has been warming, and
stir it in. I like to put the lid on the sauce to really help the
TVP absorb the flavor.

7. Wash out that glass spaghetti jar and get it ready to be
recycled! Don't throw it away...did you know glass never
breaks down in the landfill?! Never!
Read more about how to recycle it here.

8. Now once your pasta is done cooking, drain it, and rinse it
if necessary.

9. When you're ready to eat, take the lid off the sauce and
prepare to serve it right onto the noodles.

9. Now assembly-line style, get yourself some noodles...

Followed by some sauce...

Then eat it up!

Enjoy your meatless meat sauce that is full of nutrients,
easy to prepare, and lighter on your wallet.

Anyone else ever cook with TVP? What do you think of it? Share below!

What I Ate Wednesday

2012-01-11T22:34:00.002-06:00

Happy WIAW to everyone! Gotta love Wednesdays. My students and I were buzzing all day today about the possibility of getting our first snow of the season tonight. Hard to believe that here in Missouri, we've yet to have an actual big snow storm, but we haven't. This makes teaching preschoolers about snowmen and snowflakes (my typical activities and themes for January) a bit difficult. I think some of them seriously thought I was making "snow" up.

We'll have to wait until morning to see how much snow we will actually get. I think they are only predicting 1-3 inches, but who knows, maybe we'll get a snow day!

Enough talk, let's get to the food.

Here's this nursing mama's gluten-free, vegan eats for the day:

Pre-workout snack: Rice Chex cereal with SO Sugar-Free
Vanilla Coconut Milk.

Workout: 1 hour of yoga: 10 Minute Solutions Yoga DVD. I tried this out over Christmas break, and loved it. I was sore for a few days from all the chaturangas (yoga push ups), but overall an awesome workout.

Breakfast: Surprise, surprise my favorite green smoothie...
a "Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie"

1st snack of the day: organic apple

Mid-morning snack: Gluten-free, vegan pancakes from
Cinnamon Quill with Maple Agave Nectar as my syrup.

Lunch: Gluten-free Tinkyada pasta with "Sneaky Sauce"
(organic Marinara spaghetti sauce, cooked lentils,
and spinach all blended in the mixer).

Dessert: 2 Gluten-free, vegan cookies from Cinnamon Quill.

Afternoon snack: Instead of 2-3 small snacks (as I normally have),
I had one big snack: 2 corn tortillas with black beans,
Cheddar Daiya cheese, and Trader Joe's fresh salsa.

Just got home/playing with Avery snack:
"Green Orange Julius Smoothie": Orange Juice,

1 scoop Vanilla Sun Warrior Rice Protein Powder,

1 handful of spinach,1 1/2 frozen bananas,
handful of ice cubes.

Lately I've been giving my smoothies to Avery in her Lollacup (a brilliant creation that merges a sippy cup with a straw cup). Here she is downin' her "Green Orange Julius" while driving in her pink walker car!

Drinking her green smoothie.

Gotta love some green smoothie drool.

After the smoothie is was time for a stairs workout...in the
skinny jeans.

Then some "bonding time" with Jilly.

Then it was one of her favorite parts of the whole day...when Dad gets home!

Dad's home!

She is quite the Daddy's girl! ( :

She got a little "air time" as well.

Then it was time for dinner:

Dinner: Bun-less "Cheese Stuffed Bean Burgers" from Mama Pea
with steamed broccoli and melted cheddar Daiya cheese.
Love these burgers!

Now usually I've got cute food pictures to show you of our happy little vegan family eating our delicious dinner in peace and with smiles all around...but not tonight.

Not always butterflies and rainbows when it comes to feeding
an 8 month old.

Avery was not in the mood. Poor girl was just tired. I'm trying to ease out her late-afternoon nap because half of the time she doesn't even want to take it, but today was one of those days she probably just could have taken it. At least she was able to go to bed early and is sleeping peacefully as we speak.

But dinner on the other hand, did not go so well. She was not in the mood to sit in her high chair and be strapped in. So everytime we would put food out in front of her she would swipe it away and onto the floor.

She did perk up for some Udi's Gluten-free bread that I toasted for her. I think the crust felt good on her "teething gums".

"I guess this will work you guys."

Well that wraps up my food and events for this Wednesday. Happy WIAW to you all and I'll see you next week!

My "Green" Medicine Cabinet: Pink Eye

2012-01-08T11:51:00.001-06:00

Time to green the medicine cabinet!

So aside from going green with my house, food, cleaning products, and cosmetics I also try to go green with my medicine. I'm a very "anti-medicine' person and I've been known to go to great lengths to avoid taking an Advil or especially an antibiotic. Heck I even blogged about how I tried to clear out all my old prescriptions and medications in this post.

I grew up my whole life taking several prescription medications for allergies and stomach issues, and aside from costing me an arm and a leg, they also had side effects that weren't always pleasant. To make matters worse, they were never getting to the root of the problem, they were simply masking the symptoms. But thanks to some research and tests, I discovered I had some food sensitivities (which you can read more about here), and since removing my "trouble foods" I've been feeling much better. I've gone from 3 allergy medicines to 0 and my stomach issues have been resolved (I think my vegan diet has helped with this too).

Goodbye allergy medications!

Anyways, enough back story...all that sounds nice and peachy, but to tell you the truth, I still get sick from time to time. I teach 3-5 year olds, and I have a baby so I think it's safe to say that germs are all around me on a daily basis. But given my experiences with traditional medicine, and the past year I spent pregnant, I have been very driven to find natural, greener alternatives to the medicines I was used to taking. This leads me to a new series I'm starting on my blog called:

My "Green" Medicine Cabinet

This will be posts where I can share my favorite green alternatives to traditional medicines that I've used and had success with, or that you would be able to find in my "green medicine cabinet." From pink eye to Neosporin, I'll tell you about the alternatives I've found, how they're greener, as well as where you can find them.

Now although it's probably unlikely that you'll have the exact ailment when I post about it, I hope for this series of posts to be used as a directory for you to bookmark and come back to when you need it. Say you're starting to come down with something, you may think, "What were those drops Ashley's Green Life talked about? Let me find that post." Then you can find the green medicine I used, and go get it, then get feeling better. You can even pin it in a board on Pinterest!

Not that I want you to think of me whenever you're sick, but it sure beats Googling "alternative remedies for _____". and ending up with tons of solutions and no clue where to start or if something even works.
Disclaimer- I am not a medical doctor or a pharmacist. So while I can share what has worked with me, it may not work for you. I would say to talk with your "health care provider" but they will probably just tell you to take the traditional over-the-counter or prescription medication. Instead you could do your own research or talk with someone at a natural health food store.

On top of that I understand that some people need to take traditional medication for things like asthma, diabetes, heart disease, etc. in that case pharmaceuticals have their place and should be used. By all means, if you need them...use them. I just don't think that every ailment for everyone needs to be treated with traditional medications, especially if natural alternatives exist.

So let's jump right on in with my first green medicine for pink eye. Ahh, pink eye. What a joy. I've only had it two times in my life, but the last time was a few weeks ago and it was not so fun.

My no-longer-pink eyes...thanks to Similasan.

Symptoms I experienced:
-really red eyes
-watery eyes
-itchy feeling...I just wanted to scratch them
-a slight amount of drainage that was white
-feeling like I had something stuck in my eye (the first symptom I experienced)
-all these symptoms started in one eye, then were in the other eye by the next day
-other symptoms you may have...click here.

Traditional medicine:
Depends if you're pink eye is from a virus or bacteria. If it comes from a virus, it basically has to run it's course and so you treat the symptoms until it passes. If it comes from a bacteria, an antibiotic is given to kill the bacteria. I don't know about you, but every time I've ever had an antibiotic, I've gotten a yeast infection. Sorry for TMI, but antibiotics kill off all bacteria, both good and bad, so it makes it really easy for imbalances occur. Just a note, if you do have to take an antibiotic with this or ever, try to take a probiotic with it (actually several hours away from it) to put some good bacteria back in your body.

Similasan Pink Eye Relief eye drops.

"Green Medicine Cabinet" alternative: Similsan Pink Eye Relief Homeopathic Eye Drops or as it's listed on the product website: "Irritated Eye Relief drops"

According to their website:
"Irritated Eye Relief stimulates the body’s natural ability to relieve redness, watery discharge, burning, grittiness, dryness, and stinging due to environmental pollutants."

How I used it: I did 2-3 drops per eye several times a day, or as I felt I needed it. Probably 6-7 times per day. I continued using the drops for about a week from when I first noticed symptoms. The worst symptoms subsided after a day or two with the drops. Most symptoms were completely gone by a week later.

How it's greener: -It can be used on children, ages 2 and up.
-No antibiotic needed.
-It doesn't hurt or burn when you apply it.
-No known side effects.
-It's homeopathic (a medical philosophy based on the idea that the body is capable of healing itself)
According to WebMD:" Homeopathy is based on the idea that "like cures like." That is, if a substance causes a symptom in a healthy person, giving the person a very small amount of the same substance may cure the illness. In theory, a homeopathic dose enhances the body's normal healing and self-regulatory processes."

You'll find that a lot of medications in my "green medicine cabinet" are homeopathic. I enjoy using homeopathic alternatives because they do not have other additives, dyes, flavorings, or chemicals. They're safe to take when pregnant, nursing, or even on babies . I took them throughout my pregnancy and I currently give them to Avery.

Directions to apply: 2-3 drops per eye as needed.

Just a head's up: each person that uses the eye drops should have their very own bottle of Similasan, to avoid contaminating each other's eyes or the bottle.
-Also, I found it was safe to use with contacts. I made sure to throw away the contacts I was wearing the first day I noticed the symptoms and I went contact-free and wore glasses for probably 2-3 days to give my eyes a break during the "treatment" time. But after those days I was right back in my contacts.

Where to find it: Whole Foods, local health food store, or online for about $7-9. (I even saw it at Wal-Mart the other weekend!)

My Green Medicine Cabinet pick for pink eye relief.

There you have it, a green alternative to traditional pink eye treatment. Anyone ever used it before? Did it help? Know any other green alternatives? I've heard of applying breast milk for babies, anyone ever try that? I'm pretty sure that breast milk has super powers so I wouldn't doubt it. ( :

See you next time when we see what else is in my "green medicine cabinet."

What I Ate Wednesday

2012-01-04T21:42:00.002-06:00

Happy WIAW to all my fellow greenies out there. It's a special edition of "What I Ate Wednesday" as it's the 50th round of link ups. Want to join the party? Check out Peas & Crayons and join in the fun each Wednesday.

Aside from the "niftty fifty fun", it's also the first WIAW for 2012, which means my Christmas Break is over and I'm back to school teaching. Wah wah wah. Although I'll miss sleeping in, working on projects, and enjoying late-morning photo shoots like the one below with this little cutie...

How can I leave this sweet face?!

Mama's got to work! Besides, I love my job teaching 3-5 year olds, so it's been fun to catch up with them and be back in my normal routine. Oh and a little break from this "fit face" doesn't hurt too much either...

Watch out, it's Avery's new "fit face"!

If anything, going back to work just reminds me to appreciate the time I have with Avery even more.

So without further ado, let's get my food recap started. Here's this nursing mama's gluten-free, vegan food for the day...

Just woke up snack: Food For Life Gluten-free English Muffin
with organic strawberry spread.

Workout: 1 hour yoga with Bethenny's Skinny Girl Workout DVD. I'm such a fan of Bethenny's other workout DVD, Body by Bethenny, so when I saw this new one on Amazon I knew I had to buy it and I'm glad I did. It's a great workout, and although it's a little harder than the first DVD, I enjoy the challenge.

Are you curious when I get up to do this workout? 4:45 AM. I know that seems early, and it is, but that's what time Brandon gets up for work too, so it helps that he's up as well. On a good day, I'm up, had a snack (see above) and I'm downstairs and working out by about 5:30 AM. Do I seem crazy for getting up this early? Probably, but I have my reasons:

1. Avery is asleep...and she usually stays asleep until about 7:30 AM so I can workout alone and not be interrupted (doesn't always happen though).

2. I love to workout in the morning so that I can have it done and crossed off my list. I can't imagine going to work all day and then have to go workout, I would skip it every time. That's just me though. I know for some people, getting up early isn't an option or maybe they have more energy in the evening. Whatever floats your boat. For me, it's first thing in the morning. Don't get me wrong though, by Friday getting up at this time is not so fun. Thank goodness for the weekends.

Breakfast: a snowman-approved...
"Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie"

Mid-morning snack: Gluten-free, vegan pancakes from
Cinnamon Quill. Tried this new recipe over break and it
rocks! Reminds me of "normal pancakes".

Like my "shot" of orange juice? I'm not a juice person, but I love orange juice with pancakes, so this tiny little glass gives me just the right amount.

2nd mid-morning snack: an organic Valencia orange.

Lunch: "15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta" from Angela at
Oh She Glows with Tinkyada gluten-free spaghetti noodles.
Didn't think I'd like this one, with the avocado as the "cream"
but it was surprisingly delicious. Loved the garlic flavor!

Mid-afternoon snack: a "Bloomin' Apple" (organic Gala)

Mid-afternoon snack #2: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Larabar

Just-got-home snack: "Chocolate & Vanilla Smoothie":
SO Sugar-free Vanilla Coconut Milk, 1 scoop Chocolate
Sun Warrior Rice Protein Powder, 1 handful of spinach,
1 1/2 frozen bananas, 3 frozen strawberries.

This is kind of similar to my "Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie" from breakfast, but smaller and with a different flavor from the rice protein powder.

Dinner: Mexican Casserole with corn,
millet, quinoa, pinto beans, tomatoes, salsa, Daiya cheese,
onions and some spices...and of course corn tortilla chips.

Dessert: Silk Vanilla Yogurt, with one crumbled
Jo-Sef's Sandwich Chocolate O's (aka gluten-free vegan Oreo).
Love this combo!

Happy WIAW! See you next week.

8 Months Old

2012-01-01T22:31:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year everyone! I figured I'd better post about Avery's 8 month birthday before it gets too far into 2012! This past month has been a lot of fun for all of us, and sure seemed like each week Avery doing something new (which I hinted to in this post about her first Christmas). The past 2 weeks have been especially fun for me since I've been on Christmas break from my teaching job. Needless to say we've had lots of "Ash & Avery Time" as we slept in, played, and made lots of green smoothies.

Now to sum up this past month, I'd say Avery has been BUSY! She is not satisfied to just sit and play with something, she has to be up, moving around, climbing, and exploring, as you'll see more in this post.

Let's watch her grow over the past 8 months..

Here's her stats this month: weight: 22 lbs, up 2 lbs from last month, and 29 inches the same as last month. Or as Mac from one of our favorite shows, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia would say, "I'm cultivating mass!" ( :

Want to see that chunk in action? Check out these cute thighs...

Now onto the highlights of this month's photo shoot. The first is that my parents, Avery's grandparents, were there to assist me. Avery was pretty excited about this, and so was I because it's always nice to have an extra set of hands (or two) around when I'm trying to take her picture.

With Grandpa Frank.

Second highlight of the photo shoot: realizing she could climb out of the chair! I remember back in the first month when I could hardly get her to sit up without tipping over, but now I've got to work to keep her in the chair! Watch the series of photos to see what I'm talking about...

Time to sit.

"What's up guys?"

"That edge looks cool, I think I'll check it out."

Whoa! Luckily Grandma Karen was there to catch her every time!

She made sure to have some moments of rest as well.

Here are a few more highlights from the photo shoot:

Silly girl!

All smiles for Grandma Karen/

Cracking herself up.

Trying to climb.

Showing off a monkey hat she got.

Hair: In the past month it seems like her hair is really starting to come in. It's a dark blonde or light brown color and it's gotten to the point where a tiny bit hangs over her ears, so cute. Here's a profile shot of her...

Check out that hair...I call it the "Baby Bob"

"Yep guys, that's my hair."

Standing and Climbing: As I said before, this girl has become quite the climber/stander this month. Sometimes she'll be really fussy when I'm holding her and then once I put her down and let her crawl and climb around, she's all smiles. It's as if she feels more independent when she can get up and go where she wants, when she wants. Here she is being an "independent woman" at her great-grandparent's house as she climbs on her portable high chair seat.

"Come watch me..."

"I can stand."

"I can chew."

"Oh yeah, I can giggle too."

As you may have seen in this post, one of her favorite places to stand and climb is in the fridge. Usually I'm trying to quickly make a smoothie and on accident one time I left the fridge open and she squealed with excitement as she explored the bottom shelf. Nowadays she's standing, climbing, and exploring the fridge like a champ! Who knew it could be so fun?

Back in the fridge, this time with PJs.

One other fun thing we did this month was go to a Gender Reveal Party for Brandon's sister, Meghann, who is due in May. She and her husband Dan cut into a cake to reveal the gender of their baby... a GIRL! You can watch the video here...Avery has a cameo at the end! Now Avery will have another girl cousin, and although this will be girl #3 on Brandon's side of the family, Meghann's baby will be the closest to Avery's age. Hooray for cousin buddies! Going to the party brought me back to the day we cut into our gender reveal cake and found out that we were having a girl...Avery! Feel free to reminisce with me by watching the video one more time.

Here's Meg and Dan cutting into their cake.

Meghann and Dan seeing the pink icing!

Avery had fun playing with Grandpa Jerry.

Avery and I with the mama-to-be!

So that wraps up month 8 for us. We're excited to see what month 9 has in store for us.

Avery's First Christmas

2011-12-27T21:22:00.000-06:00

"I sure like Christmas!"

Happy Holidays everyone! We had a great Christmas here with Avery. That girl sure knows how to get you in the Christmas spirit. Now although she's too young to understand or even care for things like presents, Santa, or other holiday traditions, it didn't stop us from having some Christmas fun with her. Also, Christmas turned out to be the marker for many milestones for her as you'll see later in the post.

Now before Christmas came, I got an itch to do some decorating. We have always decorated in the past with a tree in the living room, garland on the stairs, and stockings on the mantle, but this year I felt like turning it up a notch. It reminded me of the nesting instinct I got when I was pregnant with Avery, only this time I didn't want to clean and organize (okay well I still did), but what I really wanted to do was fill the house with fun Christmas decor. Why? I have no idea. Maybe it's my love of Pinterest or the fact that Avery's here now so I want some stuff for her to look at (as if she cares at this age). Either way, this "holiday nesting instinct" had me hitting the stores in search of some festive decor for our house.

Here's some fun things I found:

Cute and funky Christmas trees from Pier 1.

Ornament candle-holders from Kohls.

I've got a small obsession with advent calendars, and this one is
my favorite! I don't know what to put in it yet...anyone have
good "advent" ideas for next year?

Christmas tree decor is one of my favorites!

A friend at school even helped me decorate
some more with this "green" snowman!
Thanks Chris, you know me well!

Aside from all the new decorations, I also made sure to trim the tree with our favorite ornaments from years past:

Love ornaments from The Office.

One of many skater-style ornaments for you know who.

And my favorite type of ornament: picture frames! I have
one each year that Brandon and I have been together. Here
is the one from our first Christmas together back in 2003!

The holiday decorating didn't stop there, I even made a wreath off of Pinterest! Granted it took me 3 weeks to make, but nonetheless I made wreath. Watch out now...

Avery even got in on the decorating spirit as I had her make a "hand print reindeer frame". A craft that I had my students at school make for their parents. Usually finger painting with 3-5 year olds isn't exactly my favorite activity, but I think I would take doing that over painting with an 8 month old any day! Things got a bit messy, but it was worth it as I'm sure we'll have fun looking back on how tiny (and pudgy) her little fingers were on her first Christmas.

The paint was applied.

I attempted to stamp her hand, but she wouldn't open her fingers!

She didn't mind though.

But then she was done! I knew I could make the prints
work somehow.

Then I forgot to keep a wet cloth close by to clean her up
afterwards, so I walked away for a second and this happened!

The finished product that hangs on our fridge of
Little Reindeer Avery.

Once Christmas finally rolled around we were all in the mood for some holiday gatherings with our family and friends, here are some pictures of the fun we had starting with Christmas Eve.

By the Disney Christmas tree.

Spending time with her buddy, cousin Sydney.

One of her favorite places: on Grandma
Cheryl's lap.

Playing with a pop-up toy she got.

Who knew she would be such a pool shark!

Later that afternoon while I was cooking up a storm to get ready for our holiday dinners, Avery did one of her first milestones of the holiday season: drinking from a straw! Hooray! Ever since I started baby-led solids two months ago, I've been giving her drinks of water from a small shot glass, and while it worked for the time being, it was pretty messy and all she wanted to do was control the glass and play in the water. Enter Lollacup Infant and Toddler Straw Cup...my savior! I found out about this cup online ($18) and I couldn't wait to try it with Avery. But when it finally arrived, I gave it to her and all she did was chew on the straw.

Can you tell she likes this cup?!

Darn it. I knew she was capable of drinking from a straw since she had taken a few sips from my green smoothies when I used my glass straw, but for some reason it wasn't clicking with her. Hello, new mama, maybe she needs to get used to it first. So I took a step back and just let her explore it, hold it, and play with it. Every now and then I would step in and tilt it up for her so a little water would come down, then she'd go back to playing with it.

But on Christmas Eve, I looked over and there she was drinking from the straw! Woo hoo! She got it. Ever since then, she gets very excited when I bring the cup out at meals and I've even tried putting some smoothies in the cup for her to drink. So there you have it, Avery can drink from a straw, no more shot glass of water.

I can drink all by myself.

Later that night we spent some time with my family. Here we are at dinner where Avery got to use my grandmother's highchair! Talk about going green with this family heirloom. Love it.

Her shirt came off for this meal. It was just a bit too messy!

"Put your hands up...it's Christmas time!"

Spending some time with my cousins, Matthew and Sarah.

Then it was time to open some presents.

Surprise, surprise...paper in the mouth.

Time to rip it.

2nd milestone of the holidays: clapping! After each present
we would say, "Yeah!" and she would start clapping.

Then it was time to go to sleep so that "Santa" could come.

As I'm sure most families experienced, just because it's the biggest holiday of the year, doesn't mean that babies were going to wake up happy and stay that way all day long. Avery proved this to us on Christmas morning. I woke up expecting smiles and giggles as we joyfully opened presents, but instead I got this...

"I hate Christmas!"

Not to worry...the smiles came out after a quick nursing session.

"Okay wait, I like Christmas!"

But then she was off...

And ready to climb in her Christmas outfit:
(tights here, tutu here) from Grandma Cheryl.

My cloth-wrapped presents under the Christmas tree.

Notice anything different about the presents under my tree? Well they're all wrapped in fabric, not wrapping paper. This is the first Christmas that I didn't use any wrapping paper for any of my gifts. Instead I did two things: used some drawstring fabric bags that I got off of Etsy, that were very nice and ready to go. It was about $22 for four bags in varying sizes. And I also used holiday fabric that I got from JoAnn Fabrics and just cut to various sizes to wrap around the gifts (just like I did back when it was Brandon's birthday in this post).

The cloth wrapping worked out great for the most part, the only downside was that Avery couldn't "rip and tear" like she loved to do when opening other presents. We basically pulled things out of the bags for her...a little anticlimactic. So where as the cloth wrap is perfect for adults, it wasn't so fun for kids. Perhaps next year I'll do a bit of both.

Does your family do any type of green wrapping for Christmas presents? Share below.

I also tried going green with my gift tags this year by using these cool recycled chalkboard tags also from Etsy. I got a set of 10 for $5. They are such a unique idea and I had fun using them, but the only downside is that the names come off fairly easy...obviously, since it's chalk. I think the problem might be that they're tied to cloth bags, as opposed to boxes, and as a result they move around a lot more...thus equaling more chances for smudging. But still, they were a fun alternative to traditional gift tags.

Chalkboard gift tag from Etsy.

Now back to the Christmas festivities....

Here she is mesmerized by the tissue paper.

"This pretend fridge is amazing!"

After all those presents, she was wore out! Time for a nap on
Grandma.

Next up was Christmas at my parent's house...

Clapping for her new Melissa & Doug farm puzzle. Love it!

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Let me get this open...

She worked so hard to tear that paper!

Pigs are quite possibly my favorite animal, so I was pretty
excited when my parents got Avery these adorable pig pajamas!

Reading a new book with Grandma Karen.

Playing catch with Uncle Austin.

Tights and a tutu won't hold this girl back.

More clapping with Dad.

Peek-a-Boo is a new favorite game as you can see here with
Grandma Karen and Grandpa Frank!

Milestone #3: Waving good-bye! Sometimes it's a bit delayed,
but it's still fun to see!

Over the holidays, somehow Brandon and I got to go out alone! Shocker! We went out to dinner at Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ with his family (minus all the nieces and nephews)and we had a great time and ate lots of great food. Avery was in good hands as my family, her grandparents were the babysitters.

A night out on the town...at Genghis Khan.

My food: rice noodles, tofu, corn, broccoli, onions, mushrooms
seasoned with some chipotle powder.

Brandon's plate...lots of veggies, noodles, and tofu.

On the day after Christmas she showed off her 4th milestone of the holidays...climbing stairs! Usually she would just hold on to the bottom two stairs and stand there, but just this week she pulled one knee up, then the other knee up and she got to the landing where our front door is. This must have motivated her because she didn't stop there, she kept climbing all the way to the top of our staircase (with us close by of course). And since then she continues to climb the stairs daily, we call it her "stair workout". Her she is in action:

"I made it to the landing."

"Better keep going."

Almost at the top...don't worry, Brandon's
right around the corner!

Another funny thing she likes to do with the stairs is to carry a "buddy toy" as I call it. She'll just pick any toy and hold on to it the entire way up to the top of the stairs. It's pretty funny.

One of her favorite buddy toys: her Winkel,
a ball-like toy that was a gift from Uncle Andrew.

Come on Winkle!

She'll often stop and take breaks on her trek to the top, and raise
her hand up in the air like this. I joke that she's "harnessing
the energy from the sun" a quote from one of my yoga DVDs.

She'll often throw the buddy toy a step or two ahead of her
and then climb to it.

Almost there!

Made it...Winkle and all!

Whoa! I climbed really high up!

Now as if I haven't shown you enough pictures, here's one last one for you of the 5th milestone of the holidays: a new front tooth. Now it's just cut through the gums, so it's pretty tiny, but this might explain why she's been so congested and had a runny nose for the past few days. From some things I've read online it seems that there might be a connection between teething and mild cold-like symptoms...especially a runny nose. Anyone else notice this when you're kiddos were teething?

See that front tooth to the left just poking through?

Take a closer look.

I wonder when the next front tooth will poke through?

Well that wraps up our holidays here at this "green house". I hope you had a good one as well. Coming up soon is a new recipe for one of my favorite, cruelty-free recipes to take to holiday gatherings.

What I Ate Wednesday

2011-12-21T22:28:00.002-06:00

Well, I am officially on Christmas break from school! I am excited to spend time with Avery, get some blog posts done, and hopefully catch up on my sleep. Since this post is coming out on Thursday instead of Wednesday, you can tell I'm trying hard to stick to that last point. Well really, after the night I had last night, I was beyond ready to go to sleep early. Let's recap:

I went to make my usual "just got home from work" smoothie, and I noticed my beloved Vitamix blender was not working right. It was making a high whirring sound, nothing was getting blended, and I smelled a burning rubber-type smell. Not cool. So I did a little Googling and discovered I have a broken "drive socket". How can I tell? Well here's the drive socket below and you see that lovely little crack down the middle? Well that means it's broken. Whammy!

The broken drive socket on my Vitamix blender.

No worries, I thought. My Vitamix came with a rocking 7 year warranty. Even better I saw online how to replace the drive socket and it looked really simple. So I called Vitamix, told them my problem, they said they would send me a new drive socket (for free). But then I heard the words that made me shutter, "You can expect to get that in about 7-10 business days."

Shut the front door! I make 2 smoothies a day, I often use it to make certain things for dinner. What in the world would I do without it for up to 2 weeks. I might lose my mind!

My response, "Is there any way I can pay you extra to ship it quicker?"

Her response, "No, we are really backed up here with everyone getting ready for Christmas."

Luckily I was still Googling while I was talking to the Vitamix rep on the phone, and I saw where you could buy drive socket replacement kits online for fairly cheap ($9). So I kept calm, said "Thank you," and hung up the phone.

This is where it gets even more fun, I knew I wanted it ASAP, but tack $40 Next-Day shipping fee onto $9 and I'm up to $50 just to get that tiny little part, but I don't know what I'd do without my blender for almost two weeks. So I clicked "purchase" and we'll see how quick it gets here.

The smoothie that never got made...so sad.

After that fiasco, things got even crazier when Brandon got home from work and handed me my dinner, spaghetti from Noodles and Company, one of my favorite restaurants that I blogged about back here. I was eagerly awaiting this meal since I hadn't had my smoothie, and didn't have time to make a home-cooked meal, but to my surprise there was CHEESE on my gluten-free rice noodles and spaghetti sauce!

Shut the front door, again!

My favorite rice-noodle spaghetti from Noodles & Company,
covered in CHEESE. ) :

I'm not sure why Noodles and Company is content to put cheese on everything, even after you don't specify that you want it, but that's what we got...cheese. Since I'm vegan and my highest food sensitivity is dairy, picking it off wasn't an option. And it was 7:45, so returning it wasn't an option. So Brandon decided to take it for leftovers the next day (occasionally he'll eat cheese when he eats out). That left me with nothing...wah wah wah.

At that point I was done....

No smoothie, no Noodles & Company...I'm done with this day.

But, this gluten-free, vegan mama had to eat something. So I shook off the bad vibes and got creative (sometimes this is when I come up with the best meals!) and whipped up my own noodle dish...I call it "Pepperjack Pasta".

My crafty dinner: Tinkyada spaghetti noodles, Pepperjack Daiya
Cheese, fire-roasted frozen corn from Trader Joe's, and black
beans.

Well, that was quite a night. And instead of getting, well...pissed off, I tried to just laugh at it. Ha ha ha! Truly, to have one crazy thing happen after another like that was quite hilarious. And since I knew I didn't have school the next day, it was all good.

So here we are Thursday morning...I'm rested, Avery's rested, there's no Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie to start my day with, but life is going on. Let's get on with the food, which was all set and ready to go from Tuesday, but here it is for you now on Thursday. My gluten-free, vegan eats for the day...

Just woke up snack: Rice Chex cereal, Trader Joe's Vanilla
Coconut Milk.

Workout: 1 hour of pilates to the DVD: 10 Minute Solutions: Pilates

Breakfast: "Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie"
Who would have thought there was
spinach in this amazing smoothie?

Mid-morning snack: 1 Food for Life Gluten-Free English Muffin,
with organic strawberry jelly and Earth Balance butter.

2nd Mid-Morning snack: 1 banana

Lunch: "Lentil Quinoa Soup" from The Clean Eating Mama,
with 2 slices of Rudi's Multigrain Gluten-Free bread. Although
this isn't the prettiest thing I've ever eaten, it tastes soooo good!
We love the chunks of mushrooms! Perfect for a winter day.

My gum of choice: Spry Xylitol Gum. Although I blogged about this gum
more back in this post over a year ago, this continues to be my
favorite aspartame-free, sugar-free gum. Okay, so the flavor
doesn't last nearly as long as other popular gum, but I don't have
to worry about some of the side-effects that could come from
aspartame-infused gums.

Afternoon snack #1: Guiltless Gourmet Black Bean Dip
with corn tortilla chips.

Afternoon snack #2: organic Gala apple

Almost time to head home snack: Chocolate Chip
Cookie Dough Larabar.

Just got home snack: "Green Orange Julius Smoothie" with:
orange juice, Vanilla Sun Warrior Rice Protein Powder,
spinach, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, and ice.

Dinner: Gluten-free Tinkyada pasta with spaghetti sauce
and TVP (for those of you who don't know about this,
TVP stands for Textured Vegetable Protein and it's a simple,
cheap, and quick way to add some "meat-like" crumbles
to any meal.) I'll have to post a recipe with this soon!

Dessert: The reason I go to Trader Joe's: Chocolate-covered
frozen banana slices! These babies are gluten-free and vegan.
And since you know I love bananas, they are right up my alley!

So that's my eats from Tuesday, my craziness from Wednesday and my thoughts from Thursday...maybe next week things will get a bit more back to normal. If not, it's all good, I will still be relaxing on my break.

How about you? Do you get any time off for the holidays? And more importantly...eat anything good lately? Post below!

What I Ate Wednesday

2011-12-14T07:32:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, what a Wednesday it was today! It was one of those days where I found myself remembering back to before Avery was born and wondering...what in the world did I do with all that free time? My life as a working mom has got me pretty busy these days and sometimes I wonder if I can ever get my head above water. Between keeping up with laundry, loading diaper bags, coming up with activities for school, and cooking dinner, it's hard to find some time to just chill...mentally that is. In fact, most of this blog post was written while I nursed Avery before bed, (thank you Boppy pillow and TV tray for making this happen). I bet this is a skill that other nursing, blogger mamas have perfected as well.

None the less, Avery is now asleep and it's food time...my mental break time, so let's get going with what I ate this Wednesday. Actually this is Tuesday's food, I found that trying to take pics, blog, and post all my food from a Wednesday on that same Wednesday was a difficult thing to do, so I'm trying to document what I ate on a Tuesday and post it on Wednesday, we'll see how this works out. Here's my gluten-free, vegan eats from the day:

Just woke up snack: Rice Chex cereal, SO Sugar-Free
Vanilla Coconut Milk

Workout: 1 hour of yoga, 2 episodes of Namaste Yoga like I blogged about here. This is my favorite yoga series of all time, been doing it for several years!

Breakfast: "Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie"
Ingredients: rice milk, raw cacao, spinach,
chia seeds, hemp seeds, frozen bananas,
frozen strawberries.

Mid-morning snack #1: 2 gluten-free, vegan pancakes (recipe
here), with maple agave nectar. I've been loving pancakes
lately!

2nd mid-morning snack: banana

Lunch: Broccoli Skillet (broccoli, carrots, onion, red
pepper, tomatoes, rice, curry, ginger, Braggs liquid aminos)

Afternoon snack #1: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Lara Bar,
this one tastes just like a Snickers bar (to me)! Satisfied? You bet!

2nd afternoon snack: 1 "Barbcued Black Bean and Tofu Burrito",
recipe from Vegan on the Cheap. BBQ is something I've missed
since going vegan, but this BBQ tofu hit the spot!

Then I picked up Avery and headed home. It was smoothie time and someone helped me get all the ingredients out of the fridge. Lately this has become her new play spot. I'll sit her down on the ground, open up the door and the fun begins. She will crawl to the door, start to climb up on the drawers and shelf and before I know it, she's standing!

Whatcha' need mom?

She's not satisfied with just standing in one spot, she has to
be reaching for what's close by or where she can go next.
In this case, Daddy's Blue Sky Soda. Like the splits?

Fridge door, I'm coming for you!

Snack: Avery and I then both shared a
"Green Orange Julius Smoothie":
Vanilla Sunwarrior Rice Protein Powder,
orange juice, 1 1/2 frozen bananas,
ice cubes, spinach.

Since Brandon went to go skateboarding tonight, Avery and I headed over my parent's house, her grandparents, for a night of fun...and The Biggest Loser finale!

Dinner: Vegan Chili and Pasta, inspired by
"Cincinatti Suburb Chili" from Vegan on the Cheap
by Robin Robertson (pinto beans, TVP, tomatoes,
spices with Tinkyada rice spaghetti noodles,
topped with fresh onions)

Let's find out how Avery liked the chili and pasta.... (I also gave her two carrot sticks. If the meal is pretty soft and messy, I'll give her something hard and crunchy that she can hold onto during her dinner just to mix up the textures a bit. I also think the carrot sticks feel good on her teething gums!).

Spaghetti in one hand, carrot stick in the other.

Carrot sticks must feel good on those gums.

All smiles as she showed off her eating skills for Grandma,
Grandpa, and Uncle Andrew.

Dessert: a few spoonfuls of "Brownie Batter Dessert Hummus"
from Nourishing Flourishing. Who would have thought
beans could taste so much like brownie batter?! This is one
sneaky, delcious, and healthy dessert!

Well thanks for the chance to have my little mental break and ramble about something I love: gluten-free, vegan yummy food. Did you eat anything especially good today? Share below!

Avery Meets Santa & My Favorite Grocery Cart Cover

2011-12-12T05:34:00.000-06:00

Well, we really got into the Christmas spirit this weekend as Avery got to meet someone very special for the first time...Santa! I knew I wanted that "first year Santa picture"...it's like a baby rite of passage right? But I also knew I wanted nothing to do with going to mall and standing in line for hours just for a quick picture. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just knew that would make me lose my mind a little bit if I had to do it! So when I saw my favorite local health food store was hosting a free Santa photo session, I was immediately on board! Ironically enough, it was on the day we already go there to do our weekly grocery shopping, bonus! Let's cross two things off the list!

So how did little Miss Avery do with Santa? See below!

Avery's First Picture with Santa
No smiles, but at least no tears...yet!

We got so lucky with the photo session because there was literally no line at all when we went to get her picture.

For real Mom? I don't have to wait?

As you can tell Avery was excited and ready to meet him!

Oh my gosh...Santa!

Alright, already get me up there!

Here's what happened when she got to meet him.

Admiring his soft coat.

Had to wear some special socks/shoes to match Santa!

Now her happiness with Santa lasted for a short time and then after awhile, she decided she was done.

Okay Mom, enough with the pictures! Get me off of here!

Now after our Santa fun was done, it was time to shop. Awhile back I posted about The Sleepy Wrap, and although I do still wear her in that occasionally, I have started sitting her in the seat of the grocery carts...mainly because she gets pretty heavy in the wrap from time to time. Now with all the germs and who knows what else being on the cart, you know I'm covering it up in some kind of way...enter Baby Ease Wee BE Organic Clean Shopping Cart Cover. This things rocks! It only cost about $25 and it's very green in how it's organic and instead of traditional polyfil padding, it just uses three layers of organic cotton fabric. What I like best about it, other than the cute peace sign designs, is the fact that I can just wash it and continue using it over and over for years to come (or as long as I can keep her in the cart!). Basically all you do is place the cart cover on top of the seat in the cart, sit the baby in, attach the Velcro seat belt and you're good to go.

My little shopping helper in her Wee BE Organic
Shopping Cart Cover.

Some dislikes:
- although I made it sound easy to put on above, it can be a little cumbersome at times to put on, but I'm sure it would be that way with any cover. Also, I probably never put it on 100% correct with all the pieces attached (you can Velcro various sections to each other), but as long as I have her feet in the holes and the latch around her tummy, we're good to go. I feel like it's a secure, safe fit.

-doesn't always work with other carts. The carts at my favorite health food store are a bit smaller and more narrow than traditional carts, so it's a perfect fit for Avery. But, at places like Wal-Mart and Target, Avery has way too much room in the cart, maybe because she's so young, but at those places I usually just go with the wrap instead of the cart cover. I'm sure once she gets bigger, the cart cover will work perfect!

All in all, it's a great cart cover and I love knowing that Avery's not touching any of the germs, dust, dirt, or other allergens on the cart. Enough talk, let's see that cart cover in action! Here's some of the fun Avery had in the grocery cart cover that day at the store:

She loves to try and reach for things...which I have to
watch out for sometimes.

She also likes to reach for things in the
back of the cart, and bring them
up to the front. By the way, that Udi's
gluten-free pizza crust was
really good, just had it for dinner!

There is a little hook of fabric in the front
I use it to hook some toys onto to keep
her occupied.

Once again reaching for food from the
back.

Success! Time to try and eat the bag-lol.

Well that's the fun we had when Avery met Santa...and I got some grocery shopping done. And as if one visit to Santa wasn't enough, she made another visit today with her grandma, who watches her three days a week...

Santa Take Two...

Boy, after all these visits I think she's definitely going to be on Santa's "Nice List"!

Do you have a favorite grocery cart cover or way of carrying your baby once they start to grow out of the wrap? Post below! Funny "first year Santa picture" stories are also acceptable! ( ;

What I Ate Wednesday

2011-12-07T06:55:00.001-06:00

It's that time of the week again, let's find out what I've been eating...and what Avery's been eating too, since she seems to have claimed a permanent spot on these weekly updates. So without further ado, here's my gluten-free, vegan eats for the day:

Just woke up snack: 2 slices Rudi's Multigrain Gluten-free toast,
Earth Balance butter, organic strawberry jelly.

Workout: 1 hour on the treadmill, my favorite kind of intervals: run 2 minutes, walk 1 min. Love it.

Breakfast: Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie...have you tried
this one yet? Oh so good.

Mid-morning snack: Food For Life Gluten-Free English muffin,
Earth Balance butter, and honey (not so vegan I know, but I've
been trying it as an alternative to cough medicine and I just
couldn't resist it as topping for this!)

Lunch: Sloppy Joes (made with TVP...an essential vegan
ingredient), on Rudi's Multigrain Gluten-free
bread, and with FoodShould Taste Good Sweet Potato
chips, oh and a little organic mustard on top never hurt anybody.

Afternoon snack #1: organic gala apple

Afternoon snack #2: Beanitos Black Bean Chips in "Chipotle BBQ"
flavor, oh yeah, these babies are back. Taste just like
"BBQ Krunchers" chips from back in the day, but way
healthier!

We put our Christmas tree up this week in my preschool
classroom, so I took advantage of it and got all my student's pictures
in front of it...me included. Let the holiday fun begin!

Afternoon snack #3: Chocolate Chip Larabar...jeez I eat a lot
of snacks in the afternoon. What can I say, pumping and
teaching must make me hungry!

Just-got-home smoothie: "Green Orange
Julius": Vanilla Sun Warrior
Rice Protein Powder, orange juice,
spinach, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, 3 ice
cubes.

Brandon went skateboarding (indoors) tonight, so Avery and I packed up our dinner and headed over to my parent's house to hang out for the evening.

Dinner: Lasagna, courtesy of Mama Pea...this is my all time
favorite vegan lasagna. I just trade out wheat noodles for
Tinkyada rice noodles. Also, the filling is tofu and vegan cream
cheese with some spices, and I even put TVP in the
spaghetti sauce to remind me of my "crumbled meat" days.

Just a note, usually this lasagna is only 2-3 layers, but to serve it, I stack 2 servings on top of each other to get that traditional "tall lasagna" look.

Let's find out if Avery liked it...

She couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough!

Or on her face!

Getting her little drink of water is her favorite part of the meal.

Vegan Lasagna...a new favorite for Avery.

My dessert: Chocolate Pudding by Angela, so delicious...
made with avocados.

Avery's Dessert: Playing hide-and-seek in her
Combi "Car Walker" that I mentioned in last week's WIAW.

"Hey Maverick (dog in picture) where's grandma?"

"There she is!"

Oh no, watch out Grandma!
Looks like I missed a spot of sauce, check out that eyebrow- lol.

She loved "driving" on all the hardwood
floors at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

What did you eat this Wednesday? Share below!

What I Ate Wednesday

2011-11-30T22:15:00.001-06:00

Hello my green friends, boy is Thanksgiving vacation over. It's back to real life, back to school, back to busy. So I'm taking a break from the craziness to talk about something I love: food...gluten-free, vegan food that is! Now let's get this food party started and see what I had to eat today... (keep in mind I'm still nursing and pumping, so if my portions seem a bit large, I'm one hungry mama!)

(Want to join in the "What I Ate Wednesday" fun? Check over at Peas & Crayons and get linked up!)

Pre-workout snack: Rice Chex cereal, SO Delicious
Sugar Free Vanilla Coconut Milk

Workout: 1 hour pilates with this DVD (10 Minute Solutions: Pilates)

Breakfast: Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie
once again.

Mid-morning snack #1: organic honeycrisp apple

Mid-morning snack #2: 2 slices Rudi's Gluten-Free Multigrain
Bread with Earth Balance butter and organic strawberry jelly

Lunch: a new Mexican casserole-like dish I tried with corn,
millet, quinoa, pinto beans, tomatoes, salsa, Daiya cheese,
onions and some lovely spices...and of course corn tortilla chips.
This stuff was delicious! Going to be making it again soon.

Afternoon snack #1: 1 cup organic frozen peaches (thawed
out a little bit)

Afternoon snack #2: a generous serving of my new favorite chips:
Beanitos Black Bean Chips in "Chipotle BBQ" flavor. These
chips taste amazing and come packed with a great
nutritional punch! My kids at school called them
"Chocolate Chips" because of their color -lol!

Just got home/putting something together for Avery snack:
"Green Orange Julius Smoothie" (Sunwarrior Vanilla Rice
Protein Powder, orange juice, ice, 1 1/2 frozen bananas,
spinach) What could I be putting together?

Avery offered to help with the instructions ( :

And the surprise is...a Combi All-in-One Activity Walker/Bouncer! Best part? It looks like a car! It's kid of an early Christmas present for Avery. Now die-hard greenies beware: it's made of plastic-gasp! But now that Avery has gotten this whole crawling thing down she is constantly on the go and I thought this would be a fun way for her to move around independently without me constantly having to support her or make sure she doesn't bump into this or bump into that (even though we still do that all the time).

My new car..I mean "walker".

And what did she do the first time I put her in it?
Cry of course ) : To her benefit, she was tired and cranky.

Dinner: Sunshine Burger "Southwest" flavor, with Roasted
Sweet Potatoes vegetarian baked beans.

I made really big roasted sweet potato bites for Avery, like the
size of large fries so she could hold them better.

They were also a hit with my dog Jilly who had no problem
cleaning up the dropped food.

Even in a vegan house, table scraps are table scraps!

Dessert: a small glass of this amazing
holiday drink...Westsoy's Chocolate
Peppermint Stick Soy Milk...yum!

After dinner we gave the "Walker Car" a try one more time and...

After getting Jilly's approval...

She started to warm up to it...

And have fun with it!

Surprise, surprise a Dairdevil Boards sticker
ended up on the "bumper" (in case you don't
know, that's the skateshop my husband owns!)

I'm sure I'll be posting about the "Walker Car" in next month's blog post, we'll see if it's a hit with little missy or if the tears return each time she's in it? I bet once she realizes what she can do with it, she'll be going, going, and then gone! Hope you enjoyed my eats for the day...see you next week.