baby bjorn Archives - Page 3 of 3

Avery has been sleeping pretty well in her crib at night lately and it’s throwing us through a loop. Despite not hearing cries at 4 a.m., Kelley has a hard time sleeping around this time since she’s waiting for “that” moment. I sleep pretty hard, but find myself waking with the expectation of having to go bring our swaddled princess to our room to feed. But, these moments have been slowly diminishing.

I fear getting too comfortable with this since the teething stage is just around the corner and who knows what that will bring. Until then, we’ll just try and make the most of it. Keyword, “try.”

Living the life of scared parents, when Avery is sleeping, we basically have adult quiet time, or at least try to. I suck at being quiet in the kitchen, and the animals suck at being quiet…..ever.

Amongst the things we do differently during quiet time is not flush the toilet. Have to pee? Sure, go right ahead, but please don’t flush, I’ll get it later. Yep, no lies, I even told my mom (G-ma) this as she stayed over for two nights. I keep thinking of her heading to the restroom and asking, “Can I flush in your bathroom?” Nope, sorry mom. I even denied her a shower and brushing her teeth at one point while ~~the mini demon was dormant~~ our daughter slept.

Too extreme? Maybe, but I don’t want to take any chances. Plus, as the title states, all of this not flushing is sure to save us some water. Avery’s helping us be eco-friendly and doesn’t even know it!

At night, not flushing isn’t too bad, but in the morning, I’m going (I am “Going” Dad, by the way) almost every 30 minutes. Not exaggerating, the several cups of coffee on top of multiple cups of green and black tea that I go through definitely keep the water works flowing. I’m a coffee lover and will drink the black stuff from our French Press like water. By the time her morning nap is over, our toilet is beaming with a vibrant yellow; unless I forgot my vitamins.

Maybe if you couldn’t hear everything through our house, I wouldn’t be so worried, but I even hold my breath as the pee splashes in the water. Too much info? Well, just speaking truth.

As a side note, G-ma confessed that she flushed several times while we were on our date night without Avery waking. So, maybe I am being a little paranoid, but I’ll stick to saving water, thank you.

Moving on, our little family of three had a nice day today. Not much happened, but I was able to get all of Going Mom’s lunches cooked for work while she cleaned a lot around the house. I’m just happy Kelley doesn’t ask for anything too fancy for her lunches. This week she’ll have brown rice with broccoli three times; two with wild salmon, and the other with chicken sausage. Then the other two meals will be something I make a lot of, quinoa with black beans and tomatoes. Such a quick, one-pot meal that’s healthy and doesn’t cost a lot. Wins all around!

We tried to enjoy a family run together in the outstanding weather we had, but Avery was not having the stroller today. When it’s just her and me, I’ll run with her at a good speed and she seems content, but we had to keep it easy as Kelley is working back up to it, and we were just too slow. So, that wasn’t the most fun 3 miles of screaming…..

I took Avery out and wore her in the Baby Bjorn for our walk with the dog and she stayed quiet, so I figure she was better. As always, we’ll miss mommy as she heads to work tomorrow, but at least Avery and I have each other to keep company until her return home in the evening.

Do you do anything different while your child sleeps to avoid a potential waking?

Will your kid only ride in a stroller if you’re walking or running?

Something I planned on doing when I started this blog was to vary my posts across several areas of interest. I want to share healthy recipes and advice, speak on exercise, eco-friendly solutions, and even rant about what I think is wrong with this world.

My main focus is and always will be about Avery and watching her learn and grow. But, I can only write so much about feeding her a bottle, waiting for poop, and how fussy or happy she was that day.

Which, by the way, bottle feeding is better, she pooped recently, and she’s happy most of the time but gets fussy at night. How’s that for cliff notes blogging?

So, every now and then I will post about other topics under the following categories:

Going Healthy – mostly healthy recipes or other thoughts on food
Going Green – eco-friendly tips and advice
Going Strong – exercise tips, thoughts, and routines
Going Reviews – from time to time I hope I will be allowed the opportunity to try and review food products and items pertaining to parenting. I don’t expect much at first since I’m just starting out, but hope this will change in the future. It would be really great to start hosting giveaways too!

This is what I’m thinking right now, so it’s subject to change. Please share your thoughts on this as I’d like to know what others think. Is this a good idea? Need to change something?

To start things off, I have a favorite healthy dessert dip recipe I make all the time. Loaded with protein and creamy goodness, it’s good just eating right from a spoon!

Chocolate Protein Dip

Here’s what you need:

-1 can of chickpeas or white beans, drained and rinsed

-2 medium ripe bananas (the more spots the better to me!)*See note below if you don’t have bananas

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-1/8 tsp baking soda

-rounded1/8 tsp salt

-3 packets of stevia or about 2 tsp; it takes a while get the right amount since so many stevia products are different, so just adjust to taste. If you’re not into stevia, you can use 2/3 cup of brown sugar or honey, but this will detract a little of the “healthy” part.

-2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

-1/4 cup rolled oats, ground flax seeds, or chia seeds (you can omit this, it just helps to make it really thick)

*If you don’t have or like bananas, try using 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, pumpkin puree, or Greek yogurt or even a combination. I have tried all of these and still like the outcome. There’s no wrong way, just what you have on hand.

This is easy, just add everything in a blender or food processor and blend until you have a smooth, creamy consistency. Blending will create heat and the dip will firm up a little more if you let it cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Or make a double batch so you can eat one right away like I do!

Please give it a shot and let me know what you think. For the stevia, I buy it from the company Bulk Supplements on Amazon. It’s the purest I’ve found and never get a bitter aftertaste. Plus it’s priced well!

Of course I can’t post without having a picture of Avery, just in case that’s all you came here to see. A nice neighbor of ours let us borrow their Ergo carrier since I’m not too thrilled with our Baby Bjorn Original, and we took it for an hour long walk yesterday.

About 20 minutes into the windy walk and I look down and see this…

Not sure how the wind didn’t bother her, but I think the Ergo passed the test. Now, guess it’s time to search for one of my own.

Do you think it’s a good idea to incorporate these categories into the blog? I feel I have a lot of thoughts on nutrition, fitness, parenting, and people running through my brain and would love to share them with you here.