Happy Baby

Bath + baby massage + breast milk = relaxed, happy baby

Keeping It Real

Here's what we're doing and what we're not doing



By my third baby I learned to sleep when the baby sleeps, and to pretty much ignore everything that doesn't involve holding the baby while he's still tiny. I found out with my other kids that you don't win any awards for having all your laundry done with a newborn in the house, and that these first few weeks go by way too fast.

Here's what happens on days like today, when Sophia has school and Amelia stays home - the two little ones and I just lay around in bed until 9:30, with our pajamas on and our hair all wild and crazylike



Amelia has an ear infection (her first) and Henry has a cold. We very rarely get sick around here, so I'm bummed - having a sick newborn is no fun. He's so sad and pitiful trying to breathe, and I'm so sad and pitiful staying up all night sucking out his nose and watching him breathe. I found out this week that I'm anemic, which is actually great because it explains a LOT (like why I'm freeeeezing cold all of the time, even when the heater is set on 80 and I'm under the down comforter in my flannel pajamas!)

We all seem to be on our way to getting better, though, so hopefully by this weekend we'll be all better!

Chicken Peas

Guess what this is? It's a new Vegetable of the Week post! It's only been 32 weeks since my last one ha ha ha!!

Chickpeas are also known as garbanzo beans, or at our house - chicken peas. They're so versatile and healthy. You can buy them dried or canned, I prefer canned just because I'm lazy. They're a good source of non-meat protein, and have high levels of folate, fiber and iron. I tend to cook with a lot of beans in the winter, when fresh vegetables are harder to come by.

There are some great Indian dishes containing chick peas, as well as one of our very favorite recipes - Chickpea Burgers with Tahini Sauce. Humus is easy to make with chickpeas, if you have a good food processor. But my vegetable of the week recipes have to be non-recipes containing pretty much just my vegetable, so for that, I have a super easy way to make chickpeas. I just saute canned, drained chickpeas in butter until they start to get a little brown and crispy on the outside, then squirt a little lime juice on them and sprinkle with cumin = side dish :)

I Think He Knows He's Cute

He should... all day long he hears

"Oh Henry, you're so cute!"



and "I wove baby Heh-ree"



By the way, that bouncy seat? He's been in it a grand total of TWO TIMES. The rest of the time, he's been in someone's arms - always!

Naptime With Lima Beans

Check it out - two posts in two days, I might be on a roll!

One day last week while Amelia did this



and Henry did this



and a pretty little cardinal watched us through the window



Sophia and I did this



I got the idea from here, to write letters on lima beans.



Sophia matched lower case letters to upper case letters





and wrote out words, like "hat."

Henry Is Two Weeks Old Today

And this is what makes him happy













...makes me happy too!

What We've Been Up To

Two of my five weeks of just being a stay at home mom are already past. March 15th I go back to work, though I'm lucky that I'll be able to work from home at least some of the time until the end of May. I've been trying hard to live in the moment and not think about this time coming to an end.

So what have we been up to?

Mostly... baby snuggles









And napping, where I wake up next to this









and well-supervised diaper changes



family dinners with a new family member



pumping



story time





But we've also done some fun stuff - after six weeks of bed rest, it's been awesome to get up and DO things!! Yesterday was beautiful and warm, so I took the kids to the zoo. I think the animals were excited about a warm day too, because they were all out and active - it was great!









My favorite - the otters! They're SO cute and playful. And check out this little guy, who was checking out the girls







We've been watching lots of Olympics. The girls made flags for the opening ceremonies and we ate brownies and watched the festivities (except Amelia, who passed out right at 7 pm - her normal bedtime). I got out an old atlas (from my middle school days - lets just say MANY of the countries in the Olympics didn't exist at the time of my atlas!) which had several pages of flags, and the girls made random ones - like Jamaica and Lebanon and St. Vincent (the tiny Caribbean island, which did not - shockingly - have anyone competing in the winter games ha!)





On Fat Tuesday, Davis took the girls to a parade and party at church (it was a little too much activity, too cold, and too many people for baby Henry and mommy)





The girls and I made homemade play doh (I have a plastic shower curtain that I use to cover our dining room table whenever we do any art or other messy projects)





On a morning that Sophia had school, Amelia had fun playing with rice (some of which I colored with food coloring) spread out on another shower curtain, while I tried to catch up on some laundry





Good times! Now, if I can get back in the habit of blogging regularly, I won't have to post 500 pictures per post.