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It's Slobbery Season--For Caspian and the Rest of Portland

On Sunday as we were getting ready to leave the house Koa realized it was raining outside.  He said, "Is it slobbering?" 

Yes, yes it is.  Both indoors and out!

In addition to slobbering, Caspian is picking up some new skills--like sitting on his own.  He's not stable, yet, but he likes to try.  He got to try out a high chair for the first time one evening when we tried a Hawai'ian restaurant called the Ohana Hawai'ian Cafe.  We have been planning to try it every since before I gave birth and we just recently hooked up with Wes and Jessi and gave it a whirl.  It was nice to be surrounded by all things Hawai'ian.  But it was funny because it was L & L food with a bit higher price tag.  I will admit that the ingredients were probably a little higher quality and the ambiance was definitely nicer!

Oh, right, we were talking about Caspian, not food.  Caspian and food...now there's a topic.  This child has had more weird little quirks about eating than you would think is possible for an infant.  He had a bit of a Goldilocks complex for a while.  He didn't like the milk to come to fast, but he also didn't like it to come too slow or that would make him mad.  My breasts apparently have their own quirks and so Caspian would have to choose each time which side he would be satisfied with.  Sometimes he wanted it a little quicker with the right side, but occasionally that was just too much and so he would get mad and absolutely would refuse to eat until I switched sides.  Other times he would not be happy with the much pokier left side and would protest that side.  It really was a crap shoot as to which side would satisfy his pickiness. 

Then he went through a stage where he wouldn't eat if he had been awake for any time at all preceding the feeding.  I would basically just have to wake him up a little early from his nap and feed him right away and we would have no issues at all, but if I waited for any length of time at all or let him wake himself it was all over.  He would just refuse to eat until after the next nap--three to four hours later!

Of course I already blogged about his refusal to eat altogether for 12 hours at a time!  Look at those cheeks!  Can you even believe this child has ever refused an ounce of milk in his short little life?

Anyway, it seems that all of those little quirks are behind us.  Now he pretty much just eats.  Oh, unless someone is around or I am talking or there is any noise at all.  Now he is just easily distracted.  But I think that is a normal quirk for this age.  At the end of each feeding he looks up at me and gives me the biggest grin as if to say, "Thanks for putting up with all of my quirks, Mom.  You have no idea what you have ahead of you!"

Koa has a new fascination with food from the kitchen to the table.  He and Zak have both been helping cook more often and I think that has sparked the interest.  Now when we sit down to eat he will ask me, "What's in this?" or , "I think it tastes like graham crackers."  For a while he would say about many different things, "I can taste the pumpkin."  At any rate, I love that he is interested in his food.  I am excited to plant the garden this summer and let him see where all of this food really comes from (you can see pictures of our garden in the new Gardens at Mult-Home-Ah photo album).  We have mustard seeds growing on our table right now following a couple of Bible lessons on faith and the kingdom of God.  It's a nice little reminder of the lesson that we can keep referring to each time we talk about our plants.  Mustard really does sprout promptly, so it was a great seed to use for immediate gratification (well, almost immediate). 

Next step--chickens.  I wonder if Multnomah would allow us to have live chickens.  Now there's a great lesson in where your food comes from!

Crunchier By The Minute, My Granola And Me

Our journey to better health and better stewardship began with cloth diapers and baby food somewhere around three years ago, and has snowballed since then to include many different aspects of our lives.  Along the way I have learned much about the excessive amounts of chemicals in everything from food to cleaning products and have been on a quest to eliminate as many of them as is possible and affordable.  Today I thought I would share a couple of recipes that I thought might be useful to other people whether you are on the same journey or not.

When I started revamping how I clean and trying to make everything family (and therefore environmentally) friendly I made it my goal to use things that would be safe to have around the house for little ones and big ones alike.  Many chemicals which might seem safe have hormone altering effects which may have been damaging to my thyroid and would certainly be unhealthy for growing children. 

In this quest I have tried in vain to make my own dish washing detergent for a while now.  I usually just end up going back to purchasing something that just gets the job done.  Unfortunately a lot of the environmentally friendly versions don't really get the job done, but the other ones let off toxic fumes into our house. 

Therefore, I was very excited when last month I discovered the recipe for dish washing detergent that works for me!  It is non-toxic and inexpensive--all the better--so I thought I would share just in case someone else is interested in either of those two things! 

Dishwasher Detergent

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda  (While these are both natural and non-toxic to the earth, they still should be treated with care and not ingested)

1 Tablespoon Citric Acid (I just used a packet of unsweetened lemonade until I found the citric acid by itself)

5-10 drops of essential oil (optional--I like orange or peppermint)

Put them altogether in a container and shake it up.  Use about 1 Tablespoon per compartment in the dishwasher and adjust as you see fit.  I also use white vinegar in the rinse aid compartment which works great.  I have found that if you use too much of the detergent mixture it makes the dishes cloudy.  Also if you are wondering if this really works, you might want to know that we eat peanut butter pretty much daily and I almost never rinse my dishes before starting the dishwasher.  I just scrape and load--saves water, time and energy.

The second (and third) recipe I wanted to share is for granola.  I have been learning more and more about preparing our food in such a way as to get the most nutrients out of them--thus making them more healthy and more frugal!  Store bought cereals are a far cry from nutritious under most circumstances (even the "healthy" ones).  So I have been making my own. 

However, my first motivation for doing this was so we would have something nutritious to carry in the car.  At Christmas time we saw a sign that gave a suggestion for things to carry in your car to share with homeless people.  Zak had found a great deal on blankets around that time so we bought about 10 of them and have been handing them out when we meet someone who needs it.  We have found that sometimes people have an adequate supply of warm items but still need daily necessities like food.  Granola is a perfect thing to pack a lot of nutrition in a small space and still be able to carry it for a long period of time (without needing a can opener!)

My two favorite recipes for granola can be found here and here.  It takes a little while to make (especially if you do the first one which is soaked) but it's worth it and you can really be creative with the ingredients.  I consider these recipes as more of a "guideline" and I use whatever I have on hand.  In most instances that turns out to be a good thing...:)

Don't worry, this was just a slight diversion from the usual.  I will be back to posting about much less practical things before you know it!

Marking Milestones!

Yesterday Caspian turned four months old and today Koa turned three years old, so we have much to record! 

At four months Caspian weighs about 16 pounds, has almost grown out of his six month old clothes and still has the most kissable cheeks imaginable!  He has been a much happier baby lately since I have been off dairy for quite a while.  It seems that it took quite a while to get it all out of our systems, but it has made a big difference for him.  Now if I have even the slightest bit of dairy it really effects him.  The other day I used part of a boxed tomato soup as an ingredient in something I made for dinner and didn't think to check the ingredients.  It turns out it had milk in it and poor Caspian immediately started spitting up and has a terrible diaper rash now!  At least now we know what causes all of his problems and as long as I can avoid dairy like the plague he seems to do really well.

He has been working on rolling a lot lately.  He has the front to back down pat and can usually do it at will.  Occasionally he looks like he knows that he can do it but has forgotten the mechanics of it and he lays there twisting and squirming and looking over his shoulder but can't quite seem to accomplish his goal.  Other times he rolls over in his sleep unintentionally and it wakes him up and makes him mad.  Now he is working on rolling from back to front but has only made it to half way.  He rolls up on his side and just lays there and plays with his hands. 

Caspian seems to be a very goal-oriented kid.  You can see the determination in his face when he finds something that he thinks he can reach/do and he will just stare in that direction and struggle and wiggle like he is willing himself to be able to accomplish the goal.  I don't remember Koa being so focused.  Koa hit all of his motor skills pretty early, but he never looked like he was trying to work on it.  Caspian is all business!

He's starting to grab at things and has discovered his hands which is always fun to see.  He will just be sitting and playing and when his hand catches his eye and he just stops and examines it on all sides for a while and acts completely fascinated.

He continues to have very tiny little smiles.  Even when he laughs his smiles are pretty small.  His little giggles are just so sweet, though.  He prefers to be upright, so he spends quite a bit of time each day in his little jumper and is really starting to bounce a lot in that and can spin himself around to look in whichever direction he wants.

He has also started to become very demanding from time to time and we have started training him to "talk in his nice voice".  One morning when I got up to feed him in the wee hours he decided the milk just was not coming fast enough and was screaming in this very high-pitched squeally voice.  I let him know that was not acceptable and then laid him down for a minute or two until he calmed down.  Then we tried again.  He did fine the next time around and he was less squeally in general after that.  It's amazing how quickly they can learn good or bad habits and how early this all starts! 

He still gets very demanding about wanting to be in his bed to sleep and will gripe at us if we try to get him to go to sleep elsewhere.  He will eventually give in with less of a fight than Koa ever would at this age.  Today we had him out in the yard and it was nice and sunny.  Zak was just sure he would want to take a nap in the sunshine (and get a little dose of vitamin D), but he was quite sure he did NOT want to sleep in the yard, so close to his cozy bed.  We eventually brought him in the house and he immediately snuggled in and went to sleep.  He's very easy to put to bed.  I've got to be thankful for that! 

We celebrated three years with Koa last night by having friends over for dinner and ice cream.  Koa adores spaghetti, so we had spaghetti with meat sauce and Caesar salad and roasted garlic bread sticks.  Koa specifically asked for an ice cream cone for his birthday, so I bought some cones and made two batches of ice cream--roasted banana (with coconut milk) and chocolate peanut butter.  

Koa called all the people he wanted to come and invited them to come celebrate his birthday.  It was pretty cute watching him act all grown up and working on his phone manners.  The only little kid he called was his friend Caleb.  When Koa asked him to come to his birthday Caleb immediately started singing "Happy Birthday." 

Dinner ended up being a lot more hectic than I had hoped it would be because Zak and I were working on our Greek assignment all morning and I didn't get things prepped as I had hoped I would.  So dinner was a little more hectic than I had hoped it would be.  It was still lots of fun because everyone just pitched in and we had fun cooking together and visiting until dinner time.   

Today he has been enjoying some of the things he got for his birthday from his friends.  We spent some time out in the yard working in our garden and riding his new little tricycle.  You can find some pictures of our fun day in his brand new three year old photo album.  After that we came inside and planted some seeds indoors in preparation for the coming season of planting!  Koa got just the right tools for helping with that!