Last weekend at the Meridian Township Farmers Market, I met up with my cousins Brian and Rion for brunch at the Purple Carrot. While we were waiting, we saw our friend Josh Holliday, who told us that he just had the best popsicle of his life. Okay, tell us more, Josh! It turns out he bought a mango popsicle from a cute little cart across the bridge.
We could see the colorful umbrella pop through the trees and other vendor tents. After bringing our brunch over to a picnic table on that side of the farmers market, our little popsicle queen Stella asked if she could get one.
We walked over to the cart and met Dave of DavePops. All of Dave’s specialty popsicles are handmade and feature all natural ingredients, but one thing they don’t include is dairy! For anyone with a dairy intolerance, these would be a great treat. Continue reading “Check out DavePops”
A few days ago, a Facebook memory popped up from 2014 that showed Stella walking unassisted in our family room. At 14 months, our little gal was finally independently mobile.
It was a reminder of a big milestone that Margot hasn’t accomplished yet. At nearly 17 months, her favorite method of getting around is still crawling. She has been cruising on furniture and window sills and walls for several months, but hasn’t taken the leap into independence. Continue reading “You have to crawl before you walk, but for how long?”
As the days are warming up, it’s finally feeling like the perfect time to get a scoop of ice cream. In our area, there are a ton of delicious options (hello, MSU Dairy Store and Tasty Twist), but many of those spots aren’t very close to our house.
While I still have a great love for my Instant Pot, there’s a special place in my heart for my Crock Pot. There’s something to be said for being able to throw ingredients into my Crock Pot and letting a meal cook throughout the day, filling the house with the yummy smell of the dinner to come. It’s a little more fool-proof than my Instant Pot, too. I still get anxiety about the quick release steam.
I have some standbys when it comes to the Crock Pot, but I have to say my favorite is one that I learned to make from my mom: sausage and lentil soup. This delicious soup only requires four ingredients. FOUR. It’s also incredibly easy to make, but that is thanks in large part to a beautiful little place I like to call TJ’s… Trader Joe’s. Cue the angels singing. Continue reading “Crock Pot Classic: Sausage and lentil soup”
When it comes to footwear, I think I’ve always been a creature of habit and comfort. At 5’10, I haven’t felt the need to be even taller (I’ve been in the back row of group photos for years). And I don’t like anything about wearing high heels, so at some point I decided to avoid them — and any other uncomfortable shoes — entirely. My wedding shoes were ballet flat jelly shoes with crystals from Stuart Weitzman, and I danced in them for hours. My feet were as happy as my heart.
As a creature of habit, I’ve learned that there is something pretty great about finding a brand and/or style I like and running with it. In general, my shoe rotation includes a variety of TOMS classics that I usually replace after literally wearing them into the ground, and a couple of versions of the Birkenstock Gizeh sandal. These are my staples.
I planned to wear my rubber Birkenstock Gizeh sandals around Disney World last month because they’re lighter than the regular version, and also in case it was rainy on any of the days. But in my Disney trip planning frenzy, I started to look at blogs about the sandals that were most recommended for travels.
Before Stella was born, we registered for a Boppy nursing pillow. It seemed like a must-have item and I certainly saw the value in having one, as I hoped and planned to breastfeed her. I didn’t realize until shortly after she was born that I would become so attached to this object, out of love and appreciation, but also necessity.
Stella at three weeks old
We even ended up buying a second one to keep in our family room, because I found myself trying to carry the Boppy pillow along with holding Stella, up and down the stairs, depending on where we were settling in for a feeding. The Boppy pillows were a mainstay in the nursery and family room until Stella weaned herself completely, around 15 months old.
At that point, we tucked the Boppy pillows away in a closet upstairs. After months of time together, they were no longer necessary for me to survive. That is, until Margot was born. That time, I wised up and brought a Boppy with me to the hospital. My arms thanked me.
The Boppy pillows were once again a constant presence in our family room and our bedroom, before it moved on to Margot’s nursery. Because Margot never really took a bottle, I was even more tethered to her and subsequently the Boppy pillow. I only wish I could have worn it around myself like an inner tube.
But in the last month, we have put the Boppy in the family room away. The one that sits on the ottoman of the glider chair in the nursery is mostly in the way now. At 16 months old, Margot barely cares about nursing anymore. After struggling with bottles, Margot took to sippy cups and cow’s milk like a pro. Suddenly, the lack of independence I felt in her first year of life completely shifted to her not really caring about or needing me (in that way) much at all. It feels strange.
I feel proud and amazed that I was able to nurse my girls for this long, about 30 months of my life between the two of them. Recently, I was curious if someone has ever tracked or quantified the amount of time a mother spends nursing her baby.
One mother did, and according to her calculations, she spent 35,000 minutes (or over 580 hours) providing breast milk to her son, between nursing and pumping, in one year.
Multiplying that by my two girls, and adding months on top of their first year, it seems by those calculations that I easily spent over 1,000 hours of my life breastfeeding. Wow.
While overwhelming and difficult at so many times, breastfeeding was something I wanted to do and feel fortunate I could do. In the first few days and weeks with Stella, I couldn’t imagine the light at the end of the tunnel. It was painful (at first) and exhausting, and many times, it felt as isolating as it was rewarding. I made milestone goals at three and six months, and by then, nursing became easier and less demanding. Before I knew it, a year had gone by in a flash.
With Margot, I knew what to expect from those early weeks in the trenches, and the transition back to a human milk truck was less jarring and emotional. Still, what I learned from the first time around didn’t prepare me for a baby who wouldn’t take to a bottle. With Stella, it had been deceivingly easy.
I learned pretty quickly that I needed to be flexible, and also way less modest about nursing. I distinctly remember going to special events and nursing Stella in a chair in the ladies room. Worst yet, I remember nursing her while standing inside a STALL one time during a birthday event. I look back at that early mom version of myself and think why, why, why?
The second time around, I had Stella to motivate me to get us out of the house and do activities instead of holing up inside the house. I became much more comfortable nursing in public in any scenario (thanks in large part to my Milk Snob nursing cover, which didn’t exist with Stella), from Margot’s baptism to a trip to Meijer Gardens:
And even though there were some tough times and it felt like I’d be in this phase of life forever, here we are. Margot is 16 months. I’ve been able to wear normal bras and shirts and dresses that don’t require a stretchy neckline or buttons for the last several months. I’m researching if non-profits in the area will take used Boppy pillows.
Those Boppy pillows. What is it about getting rid of the pillows that gives me a sense of sadness? I think it is because the pillows are a physical representation of a big part of my life for the last several years. They have always been around, but now they’ve served their purpose.
I’m saying goodbye to this phase of motherhood, this emotional and exhausting and amazing period of time that felt so long when I was in the thick of it, but is actually such a relatively brief time in their lives. There are things I definitely won’t miss about it. After growing two babies inside my body and then being their sole sustenance for many months of their early lives, my body is back to being my own. It took a couple of years after Stella was born to feel back to myself, so it might not be until next year that I will feel that way once again.
I will say that I will miss the connection, and the feeling of empowerment, and the way this particular part of motherhood especially taught me to look beyond my needs and myself for the sake of my daughters.
And I will miss views like this:
A baby girl in my lap, fingers intertwined, nursing to sleep. Relaxed. Content. Safe.
Bye bye, Boppy. Bye bye, Babyland. We’re on the fast train to Toddlertown.
I’ll never forget all of the wonderful things our friends and family did for us after we had Stella five years ago. One gesture that has stayed with me is when my friend Danielle came to visit our house and brought us homemade breakfast burritos. We warmed them up the next morning, after a long and sleepless night, and they were the most perfect and delicious thing.
For the last five years, I’ve continued to pay it forward by bringing breakfast burritos to other friends who have just had babies.
The genius of the breakfast burritos is that more often than not, friends and family bring over casseroles, Crock Pot meals, and sweets when they come visit. These are all amazing things and so helpful and necessary during the craziness of those early weeks of parenthood. But a good breakfast is so important to help fuel up and stay energized, particularly after a tough night.
I also love that the breakfast burritos are individually portioned, easy to freeze and then heat up, and can be eaten one-handed. No utensils necessary!
My friend Kristin and her husband Josh just got home after having their fourth son, and with it being Cinco de Mayo, it especially seemed like the perfect opportunity to whip up some breakfast burritos for their family.
One of the things that impresses me most about so many of my friends, family, and former colleagues is how darn creative they are. It inspires me to think of ways that I can help support and bring attention to their art.
The blog seems like a great place to do just that, and hopefully this is the start of many Etsy shop celebrations to come.
I will start with Green Thirteen Co., a shop that specializes in custom invitations, logos, prints, wood signs, and even tattoo designs! The art of hand lettering is becoming a popular medium and for good reason; as someone with not-so-great handwriting, I admire what can be done with a skilled hand.
I first met shop owner Rachelle Welling (then Rachelle Boudry) when I was working at FOX 47. Rachelle was the producer for the radio program Michigan’s Big Show, which was filmed and aired on our station in the mornings. Rachelle and I have kept in touch via social media, and it has been such fun to watch her on Instagram as her business grows. Continue reading “Etsy spotlight: Green Thirteen Co.”
Julia Child once said, “A party without cake is just a meeting.” I love me some good cake, and thankfully, my friends and family feel the same way. We’re pretty lucky in mid-Michigan to have a variety of delicious bakeries around the area.
