Parenting stories and tips

Did you ever have a week where you felt like everything you did was wrong?

I know I'm not a perfect parent.
And I know that I could learn a lot from other mommies.

But sometimes I find it so difficult to just smile and nod when yet another mother or nanny gives me unsolicited advice. 

It always comes about the same way.
            First, she asks The question, "How old is he?"
            I respond, "13 months."
            They seem surprised.  "Really?  But he's so small.  He only looks (insert number less than 10) months.  And he still isn't walking?"

Even though I've had this conversation several times, it always hurts like a knife to my chest.  Everyone seems to operate under the assumption that a healthy baby is big and walks around by himself.  

And then the ladies always continue with those two dreadful words, "You should..."

Stab stab.

I'm beginning to dislike those two words.  Yes, their advice comes from a good place, but sometimes I just don't want to hear it.  They don't know me and they don't know my child.

They don't know how we battled terrible eczema during his first year of life.  They don't know about all the allergy testing and sleepless nights that we went through. They don't know how we once had to change his bed crib sheets every night because he would scratch and rub until his face and head bled.  They don't know that we're doing our best to live and eat normally given (what seems like) our every-growing list of allergens:  wheat, soy, barley, nuts, and bass.   

I'm crying as I'm writing this, because it's just so frustrating.  Yes, I am a new mommy.  Yes, I have lots to learn.  Yes, I'm making lots of mistakes along the way.  But I'm sorry, sometimes I just don't want to hear your advice, well meaning or not.

Maybe my kid is small.  Maybe he should eat more.  Maybe I shouldn't carry him so much. But you know what?  Please just back off.  I'm already berating myself enough. I'm just doing the best that I can.


And lately when I've been getting like this, I always try to think back to all the parenting tips and stories that I do appreciate hearing. You know which ones I'm talking about.  They're the ones that make me laugh and remind me that all parents make mistakes, kids do crazy-funny-scary things, and we're all just trying to love our kids the best that we can.
Here's what one mommy confessed to me at the park the other day:

 

And you know what?
Her little girl looked just fine to me.

Thank you, cat food girl's mommy, for reminding me that things will be ok. 

Crapty Fridays- Make a Halloween garland out of an egg carton

Before we talk about today's crapt, let me just begin with this short poem about crapting: 

Crap is destined for the garbage
and therefore it is free.
When I use crap to make my crafts,
a-crapting I will be.

Today's crapting project is a Halloween inspired one.  Our apartment desperately needs Halloween-y decorations.  (We currently only have a pair of Day of the Dead candle holders)  So, I whipped up a super easy Halloween garland out of an egg carton and string.      

Materials:
- egg carton
- string
- craft paint
- paint brushes
- craft knife
- scissors
- newspaper/scrap paper/paper bag
- Sharpie marker


Directions:
1. I cut out all the little egg holders in my egg carton.  (Is there a name for those things?)

2. I painted the little egg holders orange and green.  

This is probably as close as I'll ever get to growing pumpkins

3.   Once my paint dried, I drew faces on my tiny pumpkins.

Doesn't this look like a school photo?  Can you spot the naughty pumpkins in the back row?

4.  I cut two slits on the top of my pumpkins.  Then I strung my pumpkins together.

Right now they're just smiling and dangling away above our table. Seeing their cute faces when I eat cereal in the morning makes me happy.

Happy crapting!

Black beans and chocolate

Yummy or yucky?

Black beans, oatmeal, cocoa powder, sugar, and maple syrup

Last Saturday morning I thought I would change things up.  Instead of making the usual mochi cake, I tried out two new recipes for wheat-free black bean brownies. 

I was super excited to try out the new recipes.  Hubby, on the other hand, was extremely skeptical of the strange black bean and chocolate pairing.  It turns out that he had good reason to be.  My first batch came out shockingly sweet and sludgy.  It was essentially inedible and we had to toss the brownies out.  My second batch turned out tasteless, pasty, and dry.  

After these two failed  attempts, I thought that hubby might be right.  Perhaps black beans and chocolate weren't meant to be friends after all?

Now that my tummy had a couple of days rest, I'm feeling re-energized and determined to tweak my previously used recipes.  Hopefully I'll figure out that perfect combination of ingredients to create a yummy dessert that's chocolatey and high in fiber. 

Then we could eat chocolate all the time and  be healthy too. 

Do you know of a good black bean brownie recipe?    

Central Park

Can I just say how happy I am that it's no longer raining here on the east coast?!?  Can I get a "whoop whoop?"  (Whoop whoop!)  Baby Chuck and I are loving the bright and warm days.  We're doing our best to soak up every last bit of sunny goodness before winter comes. 

I think last Saturday definitely marked a turning point in the weather.  Hubby, Baby Chuck, and I seized the day by meeting up with some friends and walking through Central Park.  I loved seeing the swarms of tourists and natives out enjoying the good weather.

Even though we live just across the river, we really don't visit the city as often as we'd like.  Whenever our car crosses the river, I always begin "oohing" and "ahhing" over all the sights. 

I really love New York City and it's just so beautiful in the fall. 

This must have been wedding photo day because we saw a total of three brides walking around!

I so want to make this bubble man's special wand.

DIY Faux Stained glass

I love stained glass. There's something so beautiful about seeing sunlight shine through all those brightly colored panels.  I think my dream house would have a room filled with tons and tons of stained glass windows. (A girl can dream, right?)  

Since we're still living in a small apartment, I'm putting my dreams for that stained glass room on hold.  But what can I say?  The heart wants what it wants.  So this gal is going to craft some stained glass while she waits. 

Armed with this awesome faux stained glass tutorial, I brought forth my inner glass artisan.

Materials:
- full bottle of glue
- clear glue
- pencil and paper
- Sharpie marker
- thin, blunt paintbrushes
- craft paint in various colors
- mini muffin tin/ mini cups (to hold paint)
- craft knife
- picture frame
- skewer

Steps:
Step 1:  I took the glass panel out of my picture frame and cleaned it. 

Step 2:  I pulled out the white sheet of paper inside of my frame and used that to draw my stained glass design on.  (If you're missing that sheet, you could also just tape several pieces of paper together and draw on those.)

I really wanted a groovy and tasty pattern.

Step 3:  I created the "lead."  To do this, I emptied out a bit of glue from my bottle.  Then, I added several drops of black craft paint into the bottle.  I used my skewer to stir the paint and glue together.  (Note:  It didn't take very much black paint to turn the glue black.  I tried not to put too much paint into the glue bottle because I didn't want my  "lead" to get very watery and not dry nicely.)

Step 4:  I put the lid back onto my glue bottle and did some practice strokes.  When I had a good feeling for how quickly the glue flowed, I started tracing my design onto the glass panel.  (Note:  I still had some problems with the glue spreading.  But I took care of that in step 5...)

See how the seeds on the left ended up black?  It's ok... I fixed that in step 5.

Step 5:  I let the "lead" dry overnight.  Then, I used my craft knife to carve and peel away any the messy bits.

See? The seeds are fixed!

Step 6:  I poured clear glue into my mini muffin tin container.  Then, I put drops of craft paint into each of my containers to create different colored "glass paint." (Again it didn't take very much paint to color my clear glue.)  I used this paint to paint my glass.  (Note:  Make sure your paint fills in every nook and cranny.  Otherwise you'll end up with clear glass bits.)

Step 7:  After my paint dried overnight, I noticed that I had painted over my "lead."  No worries, I used my trusty Sharpie marker to re-color my "lead."   Then, I placed my glass back into my frame.   Tada!

 
Happy crafting!

Bunny Halloween Coloring page 2

So my poor bunny still doesn't know what to wear for Halloween.  Perhaps he should wear one of these costumes?

(To see the previous coloring page, click here)
Halloween bunny coloring page 2

Crapty Fridays- Day of the Dead candle holders out of baby food jars

Last year hubby, Baby Chuck, and I went to our first Day of the Dead Celebration (click here to see photos).  Feeling inspired by the colors and festive atmosphere of the holiday, I made two skull candle holders out of saved baby food jars.

Missing smiles

For the past couple of days Baby Chuck has been pretty sick.  He's consistently had a fever and suffered from some tummy problems.  Our poor boy was fussy, tired, and warm as a toasty loaf of bread.  Hubby and I were really worried and we felt helpless.

Last night we finally got the fever down. 

Right now he's napping and I'm crossing my fingers that his temperature stays down this time...
Oh how I missed seeing his smile.

Bunny Halloween coloring page

A couple of nights ago a bunny appeared magically on my piece of paper. 

He had a question and asked if I could help.

He certainly asked the right person.  I love Halloween!  So we spent the next hour doodling away....
Coloring page- Halloween bunny costumes 

Pumpkin Mochi Cake

A couple months ago I visited my cousin Esther's place and had the most delicious green tea mochi cakes and red bean mochi cakes. I loved that they were slightly sweet, very chewy, and gluten free.  Score!  She referred me to this awesome recipe and I've been making green tea mochi cakes (substituting 4 teaspoons of green tea powder for red bean paste) almost every Saturday morning ever since.

Now that it's well and truly October, our nearest grocery store finally started stocking pumpkin puree. Filled with the Halloween/October spirit, I made some pumpkin mochi cakes.  I used the original recipe and made three minor tweaks.

1. I substituted 1 C of pumpkin puree for the red bean paste.  
2. I used 1 1/2 C of sugar.  Trust me, I needed it!  (I first made one batch using only 1 C of sugar and ended up with bland chewy bars.  Ick.)
3. I greased my pan (I'm sure parchment paper would have worked too.)  You must do this.  If you don't, your mochi cake will stick to the pan and you will cry a whole lot. 

 Here's what my pumpkin mochi cake looked like once I sliced it up:

(I have no idea why I'm currently into wild west stuff.....)

The recipe makes a ton of mochi cake. Once your cake cools, just cut it up and store your tiny mochi bars in Tupperware. 

I love having my very own stash of little chewy bars to munch on throughout the day...erm... I mean throughout the week..... because I've got self-control like that.... yeah....

Jam monster

A couple weeks ago we located a bread that was gluten and soy and nut free.  

Hooray! 

It was seriously the best discovery ever.

Now he's able to enjoy bread and jam on a daily basis.  

"What is this stuff?"

"Oh my gosh, it's delicious!"

"I wonder if mum will let me have another piece?"

Crapty Fridays- DIY mustache tie clip

Hubby has a thing for tie bars and I have a thing for mustaches.
So when he asked me to make him a mustache tie clip (like the one here), I rose to the *hairy* challenge!

But how to do it?  And for that matter, how could I do it cheaply?

After brainstorming for a bit, I decided to go with the ol' plastic lid route.
Yep.  You read right.  I'm talking about a disposable plastic lid from a take-out container. 

Materials:
- paper
- pencil
- scissors
- old tie clip that you don't want
- wrench
- plastic take out lid
- Sharpie marker
- nailpolish (I used silver and a clear top coat)
- glue gun
- sandpaper

Directions:

Step 1:  Get yourself a tie clip with a relatively flat face.  We had this old tie clip that we had lying around.  It came in a bag of random doodads at a thrift store.  Hubby and I found the tie clip funny, but totally inappropriate for him to wear to work.  (Hubby's name isn't Richard, silly!)

Step 2:  Use your wrench to pull off the unwanted adornment from your tie clip.  Hubby did this step because I have the arm strength of a four-year old.

Step 3:  Trace your tie clip on a piece of paper.  This will help you figure out how big to make your new mustache adornment!  Doodle different mustache shapes that you'd like to use.  (I had three choices and opted to use the middle not too full, not too skimpy mustache.)

Step 4:  Cut out your chosen mustache.

Step 5:  Use your sharpie to trace your mustache shape onto a plastic container lid.  Cut out your mustache shape.

Ooh.  That's one crapty mustache.

Now it's time to get your hands nice and dirty.

Step 6:  Sand the back of your mustache and the front of your tie clip.  Roughing up the two surfaces will hopefully help the hot glue to stick the two items together.  (I tried this at first without sanding and the mustache easily peeled off from the metal.)

Step 7:  Paint the front of your mustache with several coats of nail polish. 

Note:  Before going the nail polish route I tried spray painting my mustache silver. It totally did not work.  The spray paint peeled right off.

Step 8: Hot glue your mustache to your tie clip.  Then, voila!

Hubby wore this clip to work and got a ton of compliments.  Phew.  The mustache stayed put the whole day and now he can wear it again.  .  

Have you crapt lately?  If so, I'd love to hear about it.
Or, would you like to give me a crapting challenge?    I'd love to crapt with your crap!

Happy crapting! 

Making apple chips (oven method)

After last week's yummy sun-dried tomato experiment, I thought I'd give our oven another go and use it to make apple chips.  Baby Chuck and I went urban apple picking (erm... that's when we went to the grocery store and bought apples) and came back home with a bag full these lovelies.  Yum.

I peeked at several recipes online and then thought I'd try making my own apple chips.

Ingredients:
- Apples!
- optional:  sugar or cinnamon (I didn't use either, but some people sprinkle their apples before baking)

Materials:
- cutting board
- dull, round knife
- cutting board
- baking sheets
- parchment paper (which I learned the hard way is not the same as wax paper- eek smoke!)

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 275
Step 2:  Line baking sheets with parchment paper
Step 3:  Core apples (I used these awesome instructions)

Step 4:  Slice up your apples and place them on baking sheet
Note:  Try to slice equally thick circles, othewise your apples will cook at drastically different times (which I learned the hard way)

As you can see.... I kinda sucked at cutting slices.

Step 5:  Bake for 1 hour.  Then check on your slices and turn them over.  Keep an eye on them and check back every 15-20 minutes to make sure they don't burn.  Thin slices could be done as soon as 1 hour, and thicker slices may need up to 2 hours to dry.

Note:  If your chips turn dirt brown... they're overdone.  (Again, another lesson that I learned the hard way.)

The results of my oven's labor

They were slightly chewy and sweet.  I liked eating them and kept popping rings into my mouth.  Baby Chuck found them a bit too chewy and hubby (surprisingly) liked them too.

Let me know if you go urban apple picking and try making apple chips too!

Creating my own galaxy pt 2

So I couldn't wait any longer and just taped my bad boys up to the wall.  Inspired by  this D*S post, I hung them over our couch.  

Now we'll have our very own starry sky.

Creating my own galaxy

One of the things that I miss the most about living in Michigan is being able to see the stars at night.  Every night, our old dog Charlie and I would walk outside and admire God's twinkling lights.  They always reminded me of just how big the universe really is and that life is wonderful and mysterious.

Last night I got a bee in my bonnet and wanted to bring the stars to our new home.  So after Baby Chuck went to sleep I spent the night

cutting out stars from old cereal boxes

and painting them.

As you can probably guess, it took quite a bit of time.

Then I lay my new galaxy out to dry

Now where should I put  my new nighttime sky?

Chickpea Sunbutter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Some of the other mothers at the playground will often offer Baby Chuck cookies to eat.  I'm touched by their generosity and always feel bad saying no. Sadly, his numerous allergies prevent him from eating a lot of baked goods.

Last week I turned away some particularly delicious looking chocolate chip cookies. I could tell that Baby Chuck really wanted to try one.  So I found this recipe for Chickpea Chocolate chip cookies and was intrigued that the "dough" mostly consisted of chickpea and cashew butter.  With a couple of tweaks, I made these chickpea sunbutter oatmeal raisin cookies.

Ingredients:
(1) 1 can chickpeas
(2) 1/2 cup sunbutter
(3) 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
(4) 1/2 cup sugar
(5) 2 teaspoons vanilla
(6) sprinkle of salt
(7)1 cup raisins
(8)1 cup oats

Directions:
(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease baking sheets
(2) Blend chickpeas till smooth
(3) Add ingredients 2 through 6 and blend together
(4) Stir in ingredients 7 and 8
(5) Spoon the dough onto the baking sheets and pat down flat (cookies look the same going in and out of the oven because the dough doesn't rise)
(6) Bake 15 minutes

They weren't particularly sweet and they tasted like tiny nutrition bars.  I liked them and appreciated their high fiber content.  Hubby was used to eating normal cookies, so he wasn't a fan.  Baby Chuck on the other hand, really enjoyed them.  He quickly gobbled up one and then asked for another. 

I think we have a tiny cookie monster on our hands!

Little happy things

Here are four things that made me feel happy this past week:

1.  Hanging out with family and far-away friends

2.  Baby Chuck eating his first slice of gluten free pizza

3.  Feeling inspired by Hoboken's Arts and Crafts festival

4.   Seeing this artist's gorgeous hand-cut coin pendants

Hope you had  a good weekend too!