I am currently baking a sweet potato. This is how I do it: Preheat oven to 375 degrees, wash potato, rub potato with butter. Stick potato on cookie sheet in oven for 20 min. Remove potato after 20 minutes and poke holes in it with a fork (I poke a lot of holes to make sure it won’t explode in my oven) and then cook it another 25 minutes or so. Voila! The baby loves to eat sweet potato this way, and it’s so easy to do!

I am cooking two — one for baby and one for me. I’ll add a salad to mine for a healthy meal. You could also eat it with warm veggie soup, which is my preference on the colder days.

Technorati Tags: Easy Recipe Sweet Potato Recipe Making Baby Food Baby Food Recipe Mommy Blog Mom Blog Parenting Toddler Baby

You can read Zooglobble’s list of Children’s Albums of 2006. Get dancin’!

Tags: Children Music – Mom Blog – Mommy Blog – Parenting – Kid Music – Punk Music for Kids – Rock Music for Kids

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I never thought I’d make it to more than a year of nursing. Now, we’ve been nursing for 14 months.

I had my baby while standing in my front hallway. I delivered her myself. Afterwards, blood started coming out of me at a fast rate. I didn’t really care at that point. I just didn’t want to slip in it while holding the baby,and I didn’t want to get the furniture messy!

Because of losing so much blood, my body put milk making down on its list of things to do. A month went by until the doctor realized the baby was not gaining very well.

During my last week of maternity leave, I had to pump 4-6 x per day in addition to nursing 8-12 x per day. Basically, I was either pumping or nursing around the clock. And when I wasn’t doing one of those activities, I was trying to eat and drink a lot, so I could make the milk my baby needed.

Unfortunately, I had to supplement with formula. Even the lactation consultant said to supplement, because the weight gain was soooo low. Thank goodness I had the help of a lactation consultant who could teach me how to supplement while proteching my milk supply.

Eventually, I had weeks in which the baby got all breast milk. I was thrilled.

=)

Of course, the fine women in my life helped me, too.

I thought I’ll just get to 6 weeks. And then I’ll get to 3 months. And then I’ll make it just to 6 months and decide. By 6 months, things were great!

At 9 months, we were having a blast.

At a year, we point to body parts while mommy names them while we nurse. We giggle. We let mommy eat our hands. We stop nursing at night. YAY!

At 14 months, we snuggle for an hour each morning and nurse before we
have breakfast. We are loving it.

I am so happy I fought to keep nursing.
Tags: Breastfeeding – Nursing a Toddler – Baby Nursing – Mom Blog – Mommy Blog

Their clothes stand out because they are stylish and the designers use a wide variety of decoration (stripes, polka dots, leopard prints) in the clothing, so you don’t get tired of dressing your child like everyone else’s child. Visit The Children’s Place!

Take 15% Off Your Entire Purchase At Childrensplace.com!

Children’s Place coupons are valid online only.

Tags: Baby Clothing Infant Clothing Baby Gifts Baby Clothing Coupons

The way it was written took me off on my own tangent. I remembered yesterday afternoon and how the Nugget, having missed part of a nap, came home and fell asleep in my arms. My cell phone rang in the other room. I could have put her down, I supposed, and answered it or called the person back. Instead, I continued to sit in the chair with her.

The land line rang, and I knew it was DH calling to say when he’d be home. I didn’t want to risk waking her by putting her down in the crib. I kept holding her. I studied her face and noticed how much it looked like the 3-D ultrasound photograph, which was the first time I saw what she might look like. I am still stunned at how well that technology captured her features.

Briefly, I regretted not having a book. However, I was practicing.

I was practicing being in the moment and not rushing to wipe up a dust bunny, empty the diaper pail, get the next snack or meal ready.

I just sat there. I enjoyed Nugget’s warmth, her trust in me, her weight against my lap, and watching her still and peaceful face.
As I sat there, I realized that this moment, this one moment I was allowing myself to enjoy in its entirety, had made my entire week.

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If you’ve ever been around a nursing baby, you know that you have two choices when they are hungry. You can nurse them and have a happy and calm baby. Or you can refuse them and have a screaming baby. Which would you prefer on your flight?

You can read about Delta airlines and breastfeeding in this article.

Below is a part of a statement from Moms Rising along with a link to a petition.

SIGN THE PETITION TO DELTA AIRLINES AND CONGRESS: Tell Delta Airlines to get a clue and be supportive of breastfeeding mothers. And tell Congress it’s time to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, which amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding mothers. Clearly this law is needed now!

Technorati Tags: Delta Airlines Breastfeeding Nursing in Public Mommy Blog Parenting

Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady’s Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep , Stay Asleep, And Wake Up Happy: This book, in conjunction with No-Cry Sleep Solution (see below for review), solved our sleepless nights. I knew that I’d not be able to let my baby cry alone, so I was intrigued when I learned of a sleep system that would not involve crying! We used her techniques. Although we had some sleepless nights at the start of this program, our baby now sleeps 12 hours! She wakes up happy and energetic and there’s no more fussing or whining at night because she’s exhausted. One of my friends told me that (after doing this program) her daughter was a whole new child, because she was finally getting the sleep she needed.

The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night: Again and again, I hear from desperate parents who can’t get their children to sleep through the night. Author Elizabeth Pantley offers a gentle way to help your child sleep longer. The most useful part was selecting and establishing a routine. Once we choose a routine and stuck to it, our daughter transformed into knowing that night is for sleeping. We’ve been using these techniques for several months and sometimes the baby is snoring even before we can put her in bed. One possible drawback is how well the “Pantley Pull Off” technique works. Often, mothers nurse their baby to sleep. Pantley suggests that when a baby goes to sleep nursing, they will want to nurse during their brief awakenings at night. If they can’t nurse because they mother isn’t there, they will then wake up. Pantley suggests allowing the baby to get right to the edge of sleep and then remove the breast so that the baby sleeps on her own. I’ve heard rave (and a few mediocre) reviews of Pantley Pull Off, which is just one small part of her otherwise great (and proven) sleep program.

The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer The author shares his technique of using 5 special techniques to soothe and calm your baby to sleep. When our baby cried and we couldn’t figure out what to do (her diaper was dry, she’d just eaten) we’d turn to these gentle and soothing techniques, and they worked like a charm! These techniques restored calm to our baby — and to us!

You can also read about how I got my baby to sleep through the night.

Tags: Sleeping Through the Night Mothering Toddlers Motherhood Parenting Mommy Blog Mommy Blogging Baby Toddler

My niece was blessed this past weekend in a Mormon church, and I attended the service.

My first experience with this religion was in high school when the one Mormon boy claimed he had to go to church every day or once a week and be late to school. All of us were slightly envious and slightly suspicious that he was just sleeping in.

This boy had hair that didn’t move an inch, a J. Crew wardrobe, and a shiny, clean face at all times. That was my impression of Mormons. It was the only impression I had besides the gigantic Mormon temple, which no one but Mormons are allowed to enter. One time, someone wrote “Surrender Dorothy” on an overpass you see from the highway just as the temple comes into view.

“Surrender Dorothy” was voted best graffiti for several years in a row.

I also knew that Marriot (as in the hotel) was Mormon, yet he sold alcohol in his hotels.

But, I digress.

The Nugget is fascinated by music. Someone was playing a harp at the front of the church, and the Nugget walked up there and sat down and was rapt. I’d never seen her sit still like that. I could hardly tear my eyes away because the sight was so strange to me.

DH said to take a picture, so I got the camera out and quickly snapped one before she could move. Then, I saw my niece and she looked beautiful in her gold and white dress. I started to take a photo when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“We ask that you not take photos.” A small gentleman was tugging at my sleeve.

I was astonished.

“Okay,” I said.

Then, he walked a few rows on and said hi to my family, and I heard a relative say, “Hi, Bishop!”

So, I’d been in Mormon church 5 minutes and was already in trouble.

Then, I got introduced to the bishop and received a sort of disapproving smile from him.

Nugget got hungry so I took her out to the “Mother’s Room” (what about the Father’s room??) and gave her a snack. I just wondered where men were supposed to change diapers?

When I came back, I didn’t want to create more trouble, so I asked a guy in the hallway when I could re-enter. Should I wait for loud music or a break in the service? He said it didn’t matter, that this was barely controlled chaos.

Indeed it was.

Children ran to and fro. They squawked.

No one minded the children making noise. That was refreshing.

Just: Don’t Take a Picture!

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And then…

My neighbor shocked me…

I took the Nugget outside to play. She has one of those Little Tykes cars with the yellow roof and orange body, and she’s nuts about it. First, I pushed her all around and then SHE wanted to push it all around. It has a busted left front tire, becauase we got it used, so it sticks sometimes and then I feel a little bad.

My neighbor waved to Nugget and then we said hello to each other. I overheard him ask one of our city employees if today was leaf day.

Of course, it was.

Had we raked any leaves up? No.

I raked as fast as I could while keeping one eye on the roving toddler. At one point, I turned my back for one very small second and found her climbing the cement stairs. And then I was surprised to see how good she was at getting up them without knocking herself in the head or otherwise damaging herself or letting out howls of outrage.

The leaf machine truck entered the street, and I still had half the yard to do. At the same time, Nugget decided that the truck was loud and scary and she had to hug my legs. I picked her up and kept raking with one arm, which is NOT easy to do.

As an experiment to see if I could stop holding her and get the raking done faster, I put her down and told her all about the truck in a happy voice.

Behind me, a voice asked, “Do you want some help?”

My neighbor had walked over with his rake, and he started raking my leaves with me.

I was stunned at the kindness. Maybe I’m a cynnical city girl, but I’ve never lived in a neighborhood (since I was little) where the people were this nice.

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