I eat it all up, Mama

We've officially entered the chicken finger phase at our house.

On a few occasions we've been out running around, and I've stopped to get Ellen a quick lunch - a chicken finger and fruit. Of course, she devours the chicken finger, when at home it is virtually impossible to get the girl to eat any meat.

So, I went the "home-chicken finger" route and made some of my own to stash in the freezer.

I got some chicken tenders from Whole Foods and made these Oatmeal-Crusted Chicken Tenders from Cooking Light. If you make them, read the reviews and make a few alterations. I think they are just OK as written, but Ells eats them. They were definitely super easy - I just baked them in the oven, let them cool and stashed them in the freezer. It only takes about 5 minutes in the toaster oven to heat one up for dinner - add some ketchup or BBQ sauce and she is a pretty happy girl.

Do you have any good recipes like this?

How do you get your kid to eat more protein?

Good reminders

Are you snowed in today?

We are. Maybe this is a good way to fill your time ...

While it is a scary thought, I read this post on Young House Love recently about fire safety and it was a good reminder of some things I've been meaning to do.

Read here: On A Serious Note

Particularly, I've been meaning to sign up for an online back-up service - do any of you use one that you like?

Thanks for the tip, I need it this week

I don't know about you all, but the dark circles under my eyes have become outta control since the joyous occasion of childbirth. Oh yeah, and my hair is crazy and sucks, but - hey - I've got a darling 2-year-old! :)

There is a picture of me with Ellen, just shortly after coming home from the hospital, where I am holding this tiny little baby and I'm looking up at the camera and the dark circles under my eyes are crazy. It is one of the only pictures I've seen of myself where I saw it and immediately thought I looked exactly like my father's family. Not that they all have terrible dark circles, but that our faces looked so similar and it clearly is genetic. Yes, let's blame it on that.

I've never been one to spend a lot of time on my make-up in the mornings, but I've really felt that I needed something extra in the cover-up department since becoming a mom. That is, when I have time to get to Sephora or the make-up counter, which is never. I tried a few new products, which haven't been miraculous, but make me feel a little bit better. I also just switched all my make-up to Bare Escentuals ... do any of you use it? It took a little bit of getting used to, but I do really like it.

I just saw this tip today on Ain't No Mom Jeans about highlighter ... maybe this is worth a shot?

How are you covering up the late nights that show themselves on your face?

One of those days

It's a wheezing-kid, no daycare, 7am meeting, car being towed - kind of day around here.

i.e. NO BLOGGING.

I have learned, though, that life just doesn't work as well without lots of grandparents around and a helpful spouse. Trying to see the beauty in that silver lining today!

Snow day?

How do you spend your time with your toddler on unexpected snow days? Yesterday marked the first of 5 days of togetherness and I know I will need to be pulling out the reinforcements by the time Monday rolls around.

(On a related note, to you full time stay-at-home mothers, BLESS YOU.)

I admit that I succumb to the demand of "More Livia, Mommy. More pirate. More garden. NOW!" When you can't leave the house and can't go outside, TV=sanity preserver.

My sister-in-law let me know about a website for crafty ideas the other day that is probably worth a look: Tools for Motherhood.

I think I've posted some of these before, but here are some websites for crafty inspiration:
The Artful Parent
Make and Takes
Made by Joel
Mini-Eco

Valentine's day is coming up ... maybe you can get a head start on gifts for the grandparents? (Let me know if you do, because I usually get around to that the day before).

In case you were wondering, Ells did spend a significant portion of her day imaginary painting every surface in our house with the silicone basting brush. You could try that, too. :)

Play Pin-cess, mommy?

I previously mentioned my unease with princesses.

I don't recall that I ever went through a princess phase, though admittedly my memory is crap. I think most little girls go through a dress-up / fancy dress phase, though I think when we were children the number of princesses was much smaller (i.e. Cinderella - DONE), and most certainly the Disney marketing machine was nothing like it is today.

Miss E really doesn't talk about princesses yet, but I know that day is coming. She likes to wear tiaras and jewelry, but that is the extent of the dress up so far. I want to have an appropriate response when the princess train roars through our house ...

So, to my point, do any of you get Parents magazine? There was a nice article this month (which I can't find online) called The Power of the Princess. It includes an interview with Peggy Orenstein about her new book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girly-Girl Culture.

I certainly can't summarize the book, but one of the main points is that a lot of parents try to avoid princesses at all costs, only to miss the fact that traditional fairy tales often highlight young women who are resourceful, clever, humble and who show strength of character.

Her advice?
1. Tell the fairy tales. Find a version you like and read it together. Movies aren't bad, just consider supplementing with different versions of the story.
2. Don't limit girly things. It's OK for your daughter to love Barbie and dress-up, but give your daughter tools to build a treehouse or fort or castle for her dolls. Encourage a variety of interests.
3. Give your girl choices. Instead of always saying No, figure out what you can live with (princess-wise) and let her choose from those things.

How have you addressed this?

Good reminder

A lovely sentiment today from Ashley at Under the Sycamore - reminding us to live in the moment with our children, though those moments pass so quickly.

My lips are chappy

The poor little girl has terrible chapped lips all the time now, despite the fact that she loves (LOVES) to play with chapstick. (It mostly goes on her chin, neck and belly).

"Mama, my lips are chappy." "I need da cha-stick".

We have a humidifier in her room at night, which seems to do nothing. She tends to wipe off Aquaphor or something of the like if I put it on her lips before bed. I read somewhere that using Lanolin works well - very sticky and safe, so we started trying that. And, I'm certain you all have a huge tube of that stuff leftover somewhere from when you were nursing.

She also has that typical kid chapped red skin around her mouth. What is that all about? All I can figure is that she drools in her sleep and it gets irritated? So strange.

How are you tackling these things?

Resolutions?

Do you make New Years resolutions?

My resolution is not to set myself up to fail, therefore I don't make resolutions.

Projects?
YES.

Things I would like to do?
YES.

Scary lists of goals?
HELL NO.

That being said, it seems popular to make a resolution to exercise more. Back to one of my go-to blogs, Ain't No Mom Jeans ... They had a post yesterday about At-Home Work-Out solutions that seemed very timely (read the comments, too).

Oh, and remember when I posted about how to fit in exercise? My plan lasted for all of about 2 weeks and now my yoga mat is the perfect place for Ells to have a tea party.

In other words, setting myself up to fail?
CHECK.

My, how the tides have turned

Happy New Year!

Shall we start this year talking about sleep again? Great, let's do!

Just wanted to note for posterity that Miss E has switched things all around and is now a poor school napper and a great home napper!

I never thought this day would come and, while still annoying in its own way, I much prefer the long naps to be on my watch. It does make our school days pretty dicey - who doesn't dread the screaming child on the way home from daycare? - but our home days are much more pleasant. I can count on a 2 hour nap, at least, and yesterday even had to wake her up after 3 hours which has, oh, NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. She just loves sleeping in her own crib, like the rest of us, I guess.

I'm afraid this may also signal the end of our easy nighttime transitions. We occasionally put her down in the Pack n' Play at a friends house and she generally goes right to sleep and transitions easily back to her own bed. On New Year's Eve, she went down fine, but woke up after a few hours and couldn't go back to sleep in a strange place. She was wide awake when we got home and stayed up for another hour talking to herself in bed. "Twink-a, twink-a, yittle stahr; how I wond-a what you are. Yay!! *clapping*

Cute? Definitely, yes.

Tiring? Also, yes.

Good thing we are generally too tired to have such an active social life. :)