A Little Potty Update

 This potty thing has been so relaxed and wonderful, I find myself forgetting we ever had diapers!

 Yesterday morning, Mackynzie got up from playing, came over to me (I was in the kitchen.) and told me:

"poop potty! poooooop!"

 We hurried to the potty, and sure enough, she went! This has been happening quite a bit this past week-two weeks. She can now recognize the feeling of 'I gotta go!' and can respond before the accident happens.

 Of course, we still have accidents sometimes, but that can be expected from any new potty learner, no matter their age.

 Mackynzie is enjoying being able to pick out an ENTIRE outfit now (panties included!), and I am enjoying how darn cute she looks in her clothes without that diaper bulge. (We are almost ready to go stock up on cute underwear (if I can fin any that fit well, that small!), to get her used to wearing underwear and pants.)

I always imagined potty "training" to be this drawn out, tedious thing. Who knew it would be a wonderfully relaxing experience, and another way to bond!

Paleo Pizza

 Tonight, Mackynzie and I needed something fun to do, and I wanted something easy and delicious for dinner. I was in the mood for filling, carb-like food, so we decided to try out our first primal pizza with a more traditional crust (we have made it before using cauliflower 'rice').

 I grabbed some random ingredients from my-'I need to go to the store'- kind of stocked fridge, and made a simple, easy, yummy pizza!

PALEO PIZZA CRUST (and Pizza recipe):

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of full fat coconut milk Or approx 3/4 C of almond milk
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup coconut flour

 Mix eggs, milk, and both garlic's together gently. Add baking soda and coconut flour to egg mixture. (sift your coconut flour!) Mix until combined.

spread out into a pizza shape on your pan. (it will be more like a thick batter, not dough like.) *Remember that coconut flour recipes don't 'grow', so how thick you spread it, will be how thick your crust it!*

  Place on greased, non-stick pizza pan (or parchment paper)

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Once brown, take crust out, and carefully flip your crust.

 Spread pizza sauce on (we used tomato paste mixed with herbs, salt and pepper, and a bit of garlic powder.), and top with whatever your taste buds desire! (We had farmer sausage, tomatoes, black olives, avocado, and a tiny bit of cheese. The avocado acts as a cheese substitute, in my opinion, because it's so rich and creamy. (we only used cheese because that was the last of the block I needed to get rid of!) random toppings, but it was what was in the fridge!)

Turn oven to *broil* and place back in oven for approximately 10 minutes. *watch it though, you don't want to burn your edges!*

Take out, cut up, and ENJOY!

Banana-Chocolate Chip Paleo Muffins (Or just Banana...)

 Paleo muffins?! No way!

Don't be so shocked! Some of us on the caveman diet still love to bake! (I have quite a few baking recipes that I will be posting asap!!)

For those of you who were not shocked, and just want me to get to the dang muffins already, here we go:

Banana-Chocolate Chip Paleo Muffins (Or just Banana Muffins...):

• 2 large size eggs
• 4tbsp Melted coconut oil, or butter
• 2 1/2 tbsp maple syrup (add a bit more if you are not using chocolate chips. if you don't like sweet things all that much, don't add any. Or, add more if you like. OR you can use honey (if you don't have little ones under/around 1 year), or other natural sweeteners.)
• 2 pureed over-ripe bananas (I have a bullet, so I just popped them in there, and made them smooth. You can do this with a blender, OR you can just hand mash them. I didn't want any lumps of banana this morning, so this is just what I did!)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp crushed sea salt
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• handful of chocolate chips. (eye-ball it. You know what you like.)
• Nuts, if you like them. (we don't bake with nuts often, so we don't add them.)

Directions:

There are two ways you can do this. 

 1 - put everything in bowl and mix.

2 - (what I do.) Crack eggs into your bowl, and give a light whip so they are somewhat combined. Add your syrup and *melted* coconut oil/butter - give a little whip again to combine.

  Add your banana puree or mush (or, if you are not pureeing them, just put them in the bowl and mash them with the eggs etc in there... Or do it separately, its completely your call.)  and give a little whip to combine it all again.

 Sift in your coconut flour, then add your salt, and baking soda - mix with wooden spoon until combined.

Add your chocolate chips and/or nuts if you're adding them.

Preheat oven to 350.

use ice cream scoop, or spoon, to scoop a big dollop of batter into a **greased** muffin tin. (or use cupcake liners.)

Bake for 28-30 mins. Cool, pop out and eat them all... 

TIPS AND EXTRA INFO:

• If you have baked plaeo-style before, you will notice that I only use two eggs. This may confuse you, as paleo baking usually requires 6+ eggs. Worry not, this is not a typo. I have been playing around and making dozens of muffins to find the right consistency. I think I found it. (don't hold me to this yet, as I need to try and do a recipe without chocolate chips first, to see if what I did was right!)
• If you have baked with coconut flour before, you will noticed the muffins tend to come out mushy. This one is not mushy. (see above bullet.)
• These muffins don't rise, So fill your tins appropriately.
• The bake time is quite long for muffins, but they are mushy if you don't wait it out. Some ovens may be done in 17 mins, but I have a hot oven, and I leave mine in for 30 mins, or else i find my centers are just too moist.
• These freeze well, so make some, and freeze them!
• Paleo muffin batter doesn't make as many muffins as you may be used to, with wheat flour. Don't be fooled, these are FILLING because they are packed with so much goodness. Just 2 of these bad boys with my tea or green smoothie, and I am stuffed for breakfast! 
• Some people may be going "whoa, Rainbow. Chocolate chips are NOT paleo." -This is true. But, a little dark chocolate is A-okay in most paleo eyes, and you can get vegan/gluten free chocolate chips. (these in particular, are just normal chips. We don't always sweat the small stuff, and we are not crazy strict, so this is okay for us. It;s not like it's all the time ;) )

Eat, and enjoy! 

Please feel free to ask any questions (I may have let something out, you never know!) and be sure to keep an eye out for more muffin recipes! 

16 Months Old

 Wow... That was a crazy week!

 First, lets start out with my amazing girl. She turned 16 months old on the 9th!
 
 I just cant get over how much she learns and grows with each passing month. It's such a surreal and beautiful experience.

 I am learning things I never could have imagined I would learn. Like how as she gets older, and grows into her own, independent person, we grow closer. Our bond gets deeper. Our relationship becomes stronger then ever before.

 Words to describe this experience do not exist; not ones that do these feelings and moments justice, anyway.

Every touch of her tiny hand, every look  that needs no words, every mid-afternoon snuggle under the blankets, for no reason other than wanting to be near each other.

  These things, are what life is all about.

 I can only look forward to the time that has yet to come, because I am assured that so long as I follow my heart, and be true to my empathy, we will be able to create more moments and memories, then I could ever dream.

 My love for this beautiful little person, is so overwhelmingly powerful. It coats my mind, and flows over my every thought. It makes me better - She makes me better- in every single way, every single day.

  I find myself amazed by her personality. By the way she views things. By the ways she differs from me so greatly, yet is so much like myself.

 Maybe, more than anything, I love this feeling of guiding her, and letting her learn this world in her own special way, and feeling more connected with her than I ever thought possible. Its like she is flying above me, but there is the world's strongest tether connecting our hearts and souls; and although she is flying above, we are somehow beside each other, seeing everything together.

 She has taught me so much in just 16 months; I can only imagine what she will teach me in her lifetime.

 I am so incredibly fortunate to know this love. To know this life. To know her.

Happy 16 months to my little girl, who words will never be able to describe, so lets just use 'love'.

Home Made Chicken-Vegetable Soup, with Home Made Bone Broth

**I have updated how I do these recipes slightly, now that i'm further down my holistic eating path. Please check that out for adjustments to make these as optimally nutritious as possible. click HERE**

 Nothing can compare to home made soup. If you have ever had it, you know this, and you probably discovered this by trying to find something that would be the same, because you didn't know how to make your own.

 I avoided making my own soup (never mind my own broth) for a long time, because I thought it would be hard and complicated. When I finally did it, I realized its one of the easiest things to make!

I keep broth and/or soup in my freezer constantly. It really comes in handy. I will talk more about how I freeze it, and what I do with it in a minute.


 The gist- Soup is good. Homemade soup is EPIC. Keeps you healthy, keeps you full, and is PACKED with nutrients. Here is my recipe (paleo of course!):

*this recipe is for a chicken approx 6-7 lbs. Use water/vegetable amount to match the size of your chicken.*

Home Made Bone Broth:

Buy a whole chicken, cook it, and eat it as an awesome meal, however you like.

 When you are done, you are left with the bones, and the left over meat. (that should be still on the chicken.)

Strip the meat off the bones of your chicken (that you didn't eat for dinner. I have enough for dinner, lunch the next day, and enough for the soup.), and set aside in a bowl/container. This will be the meat you use for your soup. You have to really get in there and pull apart that chicken. *Don't throw anything away! (unless you still have some 'bits' left inside the cavity of the chicken (heart or something.), and you don't wish to use those. They are full of flavor, but I choose to chuck them. Little past my comfort zone.) there usually wont be anything to throw away.*
  Lift up the chicken, and be sure to get underneath, and in all the nooks. You don't need a giant bowl, it goes a long way. You will learn how much you like in your soup.
 Wrap up your chicken that you have set aside, and put it in the fridge. You deal with that much later.

Put all the bones etc in a soup pot, and fill your pot with filtered water. (enough to cover approx 2-3 inches above your bones.)

Add veggies to your bones. a big carrot, or two medium ones, an onion, 3-4 cloves of garlic, and 2 celery stalks. (these are very roughly chopped. Big pieces, and you don't even need to take stems/ends off, or peel if you don't want to. Except your onion and garlic. peel your onion, and cut in large chunks. peel your garlic, and give slight smash with the side of your knife.) Don't worry about these veggies. You won't be using them for anything besides flavor. they get left aside with the bones.

Add spices. I just eye-ball it to my taste. I add a bit of thyme, 2 bay leaves, sea salt, pepper, and oregano. (probably about 1/2 a tsp of oregano and thyme..)

Set your burner on med-high heat (on the higher side. 7 or 8, if your stove does the number thing.) Once it starts to boil turn it down to med-low heat (about 3.).

Simmer for about 4-5 ish hours. This is really up to you. You could simmer it all day on low if you want, but i prefer about 4-5 hours. You can tell its done, when the bones have separated from the rest of the chicken, and your veggies are super mushy (onions are clear, garlic is mushy.) Taste it! If it tastes like chicken broth, and its been an hour or two, you could pull it off then. Add what you think is missing, and keep simmering if you like.

Extra step: After its done, turn off element, and leave on stove to cool. when its cool enough to touch, place pot in fridge-with a lid- over night. This allows everything to combine more, and the flavor is better. (still fine if you skip this though.)

Strain your broth into a container, and store, or use in soup right away.


Home Made Chicken-Vegetable Soup:

Pour the broth that you just made (the day before...or not), into your soup pot. add equal amounts of filtered water. ( I just pour with a big ol' measuring cup that holds 4 cups. I usually have about 2 1/2 measuring cups of both broth and water. i usually add about an extra cup of water.)

Chop and add vegetables. 3 carrots, 4-5 celery stalks, onion if you like it-the amount is up to you-, 2 cloves of garlic (hit them with the knife again like mentioned in the broth recipe.), zucchini if you like it **Don't add zucchini until the last 10-15 mins! it dissolves if you put it in too early.**

Shred and add your chicken you put aside from your bones.

Add spices. (less then you added in the broth.) 1 bay leaf, oregano, tiny bit of thyme, sea salt and pepper to taste.

Heat on med-high (again, on the higher side.). When it starts to boil, you can do one of two things: If you have time, and will be home, turn down to med-low, like you did the broth (3 or 4) and simmer (stirring very occasionally.) until veggies are your preference of softness, and tastes as desired. I leave this for 2, even 3 hours. Or, you can cook on medium heat (5-5 1/2) for approximately an hour, until your veggies are desired softness.
* It's always better to go a bit slower, to let the flavors incorporate a little more, but you don't always have time!

Enjoy a bowl of your 100% from-scratch soup! (It really is that simple.)

**this recipe is paleo, because we are paleo (obviously..). If you eat noodles, you can add 1/2- 1 cup egg noodles to your soup for chicken noodle.(you really don't need them though! Its fantastic and hearty without!)**

To Freeze:

I freeze mine like this:

 Ladle soup into muffin tins. Make sure there is a good ratio of veggies and meat,  to broth. Place muffin tins in freezer over night, or for a few hours. Once frozen, pop out soup 'pucks' and put into a container.
 Take extra soup broth you have left over, and either place in muffin tins, or put it in ice cube trays. (place in freezer, and then put in container and put back in freezer, like you did the soup.)

Heat a couple soup pucks over medium heat when desired, and serve. (This is AWESOME for toddlers!)

Add your extra broth cubes/pucks if you want more broth, or, use them to flavor other recipes.

(I pop 2-3 cubes of soup broth in with peas and ham/bacon, for a quick, yummy lunch for my little one!)

*great to use if someone is sick too.*

Extra Tips:

If your bones from your broth still have a good amount of stuff on them, and your veggies are still whole etc, add a few more spices and celery, and do another broth with it! Then, freeze your broth in cubes or pucks, so you have pure bone broth at hand for future soups/recipes/sickness.

If you don't like to eat mushy vegetables, take your soup off the burner while they are still a bit firm. They will soften up when they cook a second time after you freeze them. If you want to eat a bowl then (for dinner/lunch or whatever), set aside the amount you want to keep cooking a bit more.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

When iPhone Meets Potty...

If you couldn't guess from the title, my phone suffered the same fate as many who have lived with toddlers...

...It plunged into the depths of the toilet. (yesterday)

Sigh, whatever though, it's just a phone.

Don't get me wrong, I am bummed that I had to buy a new phone (and spend that much money unexpectedly!), but things happen. And now I get an iPhone 4S.

Haha... It was like a cheesy slow motion clip. I could see it happen, and I was like "NOOoooooooooo....", but I was too late. kerplunk.

 Mackynzie Just looked at me confused as furiously wiped it off, and then set it upright on top of a towel in hopes to drain some water. I thought it was fine for a second, because the screen was still on, and buttons were  working, but all of a sudden it started glitching like crazy and went black.

 (Mackynzie was still staring from me, to the potty, to the phone.) I got down, and told her that it was okay, and that accidents happen. But we cant put things in the potty, except for poop and pee, or they break, and we get sad. She said "Ohhh... potty?" and my response was, "yes... fell in the potty.". I just left it then, because in all honesty, I wasn't too concerned about it. It's a phone.

 Cody was shopping at the time, so I was very curious to see what his reaction would be. Our conversation went something like:

Him- "Hey, So I got -insert this and that about his trip to the grocery store, while mackynzie unloaded the bags.- How are you?"

Me: "umm... I'm okay..." (in my uh-oh, something happened voice.)

Him- "what happened? What broke?" (He is good! haha)

Me: "well.."

Him: "did something happen to my computer? Did Mackynzie stick something in it? Did it explode?" (with a smirk on his face.)

Me: "No, not your computer..."

Him: "what!?"

Me: "Mackynzie put my iPhone in the potty..." (kind of laughing, because what else do you do?)

Him: "AWWwww... Oh man... REALLY??... Your phone is so done. It's done. Hahahahaha.... Oh man..."

Him: "You put the groceries away, I will go buy a new phone. Sigh... (while still kind of laughing.)

That's something I really love about the way we are together, and the way he is. So relaxed about everything. Because really, whats done is done. No point in being upset about it, it was an accident by a 15 month old.

  I am one of those people who will keep a phone in great condition forever, and just keep using it. (Cody, on the other hand, likes to update as often as he can.) So maybe this needed to happen, or I would have had it forever! Hahaha.

The only thing I was sort of upset about, was all my pictures on it. But Cody was able to revive it for enough time to get them onto the computer. Whew. (he is GOOD!)

 Moral of my story: Don't leave your phone within reach/or in the hands of a curious toddler, when in the bathroom.

When Teeth Hurt, Go to the Park, and Have Girls Night!

**old post, sorry for lack of pics**

 I have been waking up earlier to do my yoga, make a good, big breakfast for Mackynzie and I, and (try) to see Cody off to work in the morning. As you can see, Fynn is having trouble accepting the new wake up time.

We had a bit of a rough day today. Mackynzie is teething, and she fell and put her tooth into her lip a bit...

My poor girl.

I hosted our baby group this morning, and she hardly enjoyed herself... which means there must be something up!

To help her have a better day, we went for a nice walk with Fynn, and played at the park. She didn't like swings for a little while, but apparently, they are fun again!

On a side note, the fact that we can play at the park in February is INSANE. It's usually minus 30 with a huge amount of snow. Instead, today was plus 7 and sunny. (we didn't even need gloves!)

  We had a really good potty day today! She held it the entire time we were out. No accidents. We did have an accident during play group, but it was completely my fault. I didn't take her to the potty as soon as my timer went off. (lesson learned!)

We ended our day with girls night. Not really watching a random movie (Sydney White-lol), drinking green smoothies, eating baked chips, and cuddling. We both needed it after a long day!

 I need to organize my brain, so I can share all the plans exploding from my head, for the next few months. I'm so excited about so much. I hope this weather isn't playing games with us!

Bye-bye Diapers! - Going Diaper-Free

** Old post. sorry for no pics!**
 We are officially diaper-free in our house.

 I washed my last load of diapers ever on Sunday, and once I organize them, we are putting them away...Forever...

 Mackynzie is showing great interest and knowledge in the potty, and since we have done part time EC with her (since 4 months old.), we have made the commitment to go diaper-free, to help guide her in learning to potty independently.

So, Sunday morning was our very last diaper change, and the beginning of our diaper-free journey.

 It's really bitter sweet for me. Not even because she is done with diapers, but that we are done cloth diapering. I really loved cloth!

 It has been so exciting though! Cody went and bought a potty that goes on top of the big toilet, to go along with her little becco potty, and Mackynzie and I were jumping up and down with excitement. We made a pretty big deal about the new addition to the porcelain throne.

 So far -day 4 is now ending- she is doing great! Of course, we have had accidents, but we have had great success as well.

 We call what we are doing potty 'learning' rather than 'training', because we are not forcing anything, whatsoever. This is completely on her time, following her cues, and at her request.

 We decided we needed to get rid of the diapers completely, because we found we were using them more as a crutch, and it was becoming confusing for Mackynzie. (When life got busy, or we had to go out, we would put a diaper on her.) The feeling of toileting in her pants, is very different than toileting in her diaper obviously; with the diaper absorbing all the wet, it was hard for her to make the connection/remember that toileting in your pants isn't very comfortable, thus reminding her to go to the potty.

 Our day (and night) actually runs smoother then before we were diaper free, believe it or not.
 
  We use a timer all day long. We set it for 30 minutes, and go to the potty every time it goes off. (if she toilets in her pants, we reset the timer, clean her up, and go about our day again. so we set the timer to be 30 minutes after each time she actually goes to the bathroom, or after each time she is on the potty, whether she goes or not.) The timer is to remind me to take her, because I get busy and distracted, or time passes quickly. It really helps her too, since she is usually engaged in whatever she is doing.

 We are also making sure that every time she toilets in her pants, we don't make a big deal about it (we are very casual, after all, it is what it is, and she is just learning.Also, we find things like 'oops' and 'uh-oh' to be confusing and unhelpful.) and we take her to the bathroom to clean her up. That way, she associates all the toileting business with the bathroom. (this particular idea I got from a mama friend, when i asked her about her experience with toilet learning in this 'method'. Her daughter now uses the potty full-time (It took them two weeks, if i'm not mistaken.). She told me she always changed her diapers in the bathroom, to keep the association. I didn't even think of that, but it's genius!) So we clean up every single accident in the bathroom now.

 When she has an accident, we say something like "I see you have went to the bathroom in your pants, Mackynzie. Let's go get cleaned up, and get a fresh pair of pants." Then, we clean up, reset our timer, and go back to what we were doing.

 It's really not as excessive as it sounds. The timer has made me more productive in my day though, that's for sure. I just keep thinking:

 "okay, how much can I get done before the timer goes off?!"

It's actually awesome. My house is so clean. (haha)

 The only thing I was really 'scared' about in going diaper-free, was night time. Again, the same mama as mentioned above, told me she puts a very thin piece of pull fabric (the stuff on the inside of a cloth diaper shell) under her bum in the car seat, to protect the seat. This reminded me of the giant piece of fleece I bought a while back, that I was going to make diaper covers with, but never did. (which also reminded me I have a couple fleece blankets kicking around.) So, I use the fleece blankets (one at a time.) on her part of the bed, so that if she has an accident, its not going to get everywhere. (Fleece is awesome, because it repels liquid. You can just wipe it up with a towel and it's dry.)

This is what our bed looks like:

Mackynzie sleeps on the twin against the wall, so nobody else gets wet. (although, this has been our bed set up long before diaper-free time.)

 Night time works much like the day does (no timers! haha). The *minute* she wakes up to nurse, I take her straight to the potty. She will either do her business, or tell me she doesn't need to, and we go nurse to sleep. She only wakes up twice per night, and she does not potty while she is sleeping. (we have only had one accident, and it was because I didn't take her to the potty fast enough.)


 She Is already figuring everything out. She is starting to hold her bladder until we get to the potty, and today, she even sat on her little floor potty because the big toilet was occupied (mama's gotta pee too!). She forgot about her pants, and left them on, but she actually came in from playing, sat on her potty and went, so i'm impressed!

 It is so wonderful to see her get so happy about her new independence (even at 3am she wakes up enough to clap for herself when she goes.).
   She grabbed a diaper that was still in the drawer, and has been putting it on her baby doll. It's so cute. She looks at me and says "that baby." (pointing/signing diaper and showing me her baby.) Then looks at me again and says "none!" while shaking her head. (as in, none for me.)

  I know this journey will be a short one, but it's exciting none the less.

 It's  a huge learning experience for me, as well. Or maybe more validation that I am on the right track in guiding her. Maybe it's both.
  I really love that we don't need rewards/bribes etc, and so long as we treat her like a normal person (since these steps are just natural development in my opinion), she will pick them up like a champ if we follow her cues! Parenting is really teaching me to trust myself, and even more so, trust my daughter and what she tells/shows me.

 I will be sure to keep updated about our diaper-free potty learning!

 I can't believe by the end of next week, I will most likely have a fully potty learned big girl!