For All You Dwell Magazine Crazies.

(Not that we'd know anything about that.)
Check it. HI-larious.

3 Months.

(Oops -- I meant to post these photos a couple of weeks ago!)

This here is 3 months:

Current hobbies: chewing her fat little hands, talking and squawking really loudly, kicking her legs with excitement when she sees her brother or sister come in the room, napping in my arms, being outside. Oh, and she has the brightest, shiniest eyes I've ever seen. Just sayin'.

Belly Shots, Continued.....

Inspired by an image on Leigh's new Tumblr page....be sure to check it out! A true visual feast.

Eggs for Dinner.

While the rest of you are doing your January cleanses and diets and juicing vegetables, blah, blah, blah, I have been eating whatever strikes my fancy. Salt and vinegar potato chips, dark chocolate covered caramels, chocolate cupcakes, freshly baked scones. But, it hasn't left me feeling all that hot. I hardly ever eat this way and I don't know what's going on. That's why last night I decided to take things into my own hands and prepare something a bit, er, healthier. B had come up with a bunch of fresh eggs (the chickens are laying more eggs finally!) and we had a bunch of asparagus from the farmers. A quick search on epicurious led me to this recipe and we were in business. Served it with a green salad topped with sliced carrots from the garden, avocado, green onion and pine nuts. Now if I can just stay away from the potato chips today......

photo by romulo yanes

Overheard.

C-Man has been having growing pains at night lately. Remember those? Poor baby.

C-Man: Mama, my leg is hurting again!

Me: Baby, it's just those darn growing pains again.

C-Man: But could I sit on your lap? My leg doesn't hurt when you hold me.

MELT.

Movie Time for Kids.

I almost always feel guilty turning on a movie for the kids. It's partly my own hippie upbringing, partly the Waldorf School indoctrination, partly plain old garden variety mom guilt. Oh, and there aren't a lot of super great options out there. This does not keep me from popping in a DVD from time to time (as B says, it's one of our "tools") -- hey, it keeps the kids out of my hair when I need to make dinner! Or take a shower! We have several (OK, many) nice ones to choose from. No violence, of course, pretty to look at, hopefully not laden with licensed characters. There are only two, however, that I actually feel good about showing my kids. And here they are.

The Little Travelers series. We have just the British Isles DVD, but I would like to get the other three. This is such a sweet little documentary film about two sisters (maybe 4 and 6 years old) who travel with their parents to the British Isles. It is slow-paced and refreshingly innocent. (Check out the girls' mom's blog too!)
The other DVD we've been letting the kids watch lately is new to us: the Beatrix Potter series by BBC. (I picked it up at Costco awhile back.) C-Man is mildly obsessed with all things Beatrix Potter. ("Mama, I love Peter Rabbit because he's into mischief!") There are about 9 stories (30 minutes each). The animation is simple and sweet and I just love the music.

What about you? Do your kids watch TV or movies? Any good suggestions?

Nap Mats.

C-Man doesn't stay for naptime at school very often. Once he figured out there isn't any playtime involved, he wasn't interested anymore. But it's his loss as far as I'm concerned. His teachers light candles, give them foot massages (with lavender oil no less) and sing them lullabies. Heck, I wish I could go take a nap at his school right now! Maybe getting him one of these cute nap mats would convince him to try it again?

Salad Rut.

I am a huge salad fan. I could eat one every night. I can eat the same basic combination for weeks or months, but then I'll hit a wall and want something different. With a bazillion recipes at my fingertips (cookbooks and the Internet), why can't I come up with more ideas? I am going to try this particular recipe (pictured above) tonight because I have the ingredients on hand (including some beautiful curly leaf spinach -- my favorite), but I need more ideas. Help?

In a spirit of reciprocity, I give you a favorite salad recipe of mine. It was the last one we were eating until I finally burned out. I made it for the first time a few nights after Little E was born. It's very good, just don't eat it 37 nights in a row!

Little E's Autumn Salad

Mixed greens
2 small gala apples, roughly chopped
1/4 c. candied pecans (I used the ones in a bag from Trader Joe's)
1/4 c. raisins
Crumbled goat cheese
Rice wine vinegar to taste
Canola oil to taste (I almost always use olive oil on salads, but for this one, I wanted a really light, clean taste)

Salt and pepper

What are your favorite salad combinations?

photo credit romulo yanes