Week(end) With Grandma Z

What a crazy week it was last week. My daycare lady took Tuesday thru Friday off to visit her daughter so Grandma Z had Brody duty. She came to our house on Tuesday and Wednesday and then Brody went home with her Wednesday night so he could spend the other two days at Grandma's house. As much as I missed the little man, I so desperately needed a few "catch up on life" days.

Before Brody headed back to Muskegon with Grandma Z on Wednesday, we had another appointment with Mary Free Bed to get a rescan done. The helmet is currently on order and he'll officially have it on Tuesday, May 28th.

Thursday, Clay and I went car shopping. I'd like to drive a vehicle where Zora and Brody don't have to co-exist on the same seat. Transporting the two of them gets tricky. I'm afraid Zora's going to get over excited about something and trample over Brody in his car seat and I definitely don't like making Zora sit in the front seat. Too dangerous.

I was looking for a smaller SUV, but it just so happens that my top 3 are a bit on the larger side. Having only focused on the layout and space, my faves are the Ford Explorer, Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Durango. Any thoughts folks?

Anyways, back to Brody. He had a lot of little firsts this week as well.... started holding his bottle on his own, ate his first fruits, consistently rolls from his back to his belly and rolled to his right side finally. We also got him hooked on making noises while we tap on his mouth... what funny noises!

Boo loves her Brody. Sometimes I think she gets confused and really believes Brody is her puppy. She's also another huge reason Brody is (or will be) immune from all potential germs. Dogs are super awesome, but dear Lord... sometimes they need to keep their tongues out of Brody's mouth.

(Relax all you germaphobe mamas out there...)

Soooo... my parents are super awesome. Besides the fact that my mom watched Brody (and Zora) for 4 days last week and cleaned my whole house, they also created this super cool ramp for Miss Nutters. Her one and only eye has seen better days, so now she has a lit runway/ramp to help her up the stairs at night. How adorable are my parents?

Friday night was girls night with Mama Z and Ash. Drinks and binge eating at Logans, followed by hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Neiser, then cards back at the house.

Such a busy week, but I got a lot accomplished and don't feel quite so overwhelmed. Big thanks to Mama Z for taking such good care of Lil Man. xoxo

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Banana Chocolate Chip Doughnut Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1 C. mashed ripe banana (roughly 2 small bananas)
• 1/2 C. raw cane sugar
• 1/2 C. fat free greek yogurt
• 1/4 C. unsalted butter (melted)
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 C. spelt white flour (you can also use AP flour)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 C. chocolate chips 

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Using your electric mixer with the whisk attachment, add the mashed banana, sugar and greek yogurt. Mix until incorporated.

Add melted butter, eggs and vanilla extra and mix. Then add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the batter and mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix!

Using a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips.

If you don't have a piping bag, scoop the batter into a ziplock bag and seal shut. Using scissors, snip the bottom corner of one side of the bag to create your homemade piping bag.

Grease your doughnut baking pan and pipe 3/4 full the batter into each doughnut mold.

Optional: Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture on top of each doughnut batter before baking or you can dip the doughnuts once baked in the cinnamon sugar mixture. You may need to paint melted butter on top of each doughnut before dipping the doughnuts in the sugar mixture to allow them to stick. Both options work perfectly.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to cool before eating.

I'm no whiz in the kitchen... so I don't know a lot about any of this witchcraft. All I know is I used regular sugar, flour and salted butter and it tastes just fine. Probably not as healthy as they could be, but squishy mama doesn't care.

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Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you momma's out there! Last year at this time, I was a mere 7 weeks pregnant with Lil Man. We had just told our families that we were expecting, but were still keeping it a secret from the rest of the world. I definitely enjoyed spending my day with my happy little ball of sunshine rather than heartburn and a full bladder.

I heart my kids. My messy, slobbery little poop machines. xoxo

Saturday night, we attended church with my parents and then went to Grandma's house to celebrate with the rest of the family. It was a nice evening of conversation and binge eating.

This morning started out beautifully. Lil Man woke up at his usual time of 5 AM, jabbered for a bit and decided he was going to let mommy sleep in until 7. Glorious. After breakfast, Clay took Brody and Zora downstairs for cartoons or hunting shows or whatever they do down there and I had the morning to myself. Drank some coffee, caught up on life and had the bathroom all alone. Honestly, it felt a little lonely not having two sets of needy eyes staring me down when I stepped out of the shower.

In addition to my uninterrupted morning, Brody and Zora bought me a new coffee thermos covered in pictures of Brody's adorable face. Makes coffee taste even better.

We wrapped up Mother's Day weekend with another trip into Muskegon to spend time with Clay's family. More binge eating and napping in the middle of the living room floor.

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Mother's Day... especially to my mommy and all my fellow first time mamas.

Brachycephaly + Helmet Consultation

We finally had Brody's appointment with Mary Free Bed to discuss the back of his head. Being trapped in the birth canal and the use of forceps initially created the flat spot, but when he started out sleeping 10-12 hours straight on his back every night and didn't move... at all... he was destined to have a flat head.

Note to self... baby #2 is going to start out sleeping on alternating sides.

Anyways, he did super well and had a successful scan on the first try. Thankfully the blinky toy they used to distract him worked like a cat following a laser pointer. Brody is also now officially a blood... or a crip... whatever. They had to put this little nylon doo rag on him and now he's super awesome like his momma.

Yes, now that I can't rock a pony, I throw a bandana on my head the second I come home from work. I'm cool like that.

We're so street. Yeah, I kept the little hat. I think it's hilarious.

Anyways, I thought Plagiocephaly covered any cranial flat spots, but apparently Brody has Brachycephaly which is a flat spot on the back of the head. Plagiocephaly is flat spots on the sides. A normal cephalic ratio is less than 0.91 and Brody measured at 0.966.

The red line is the shape of Brody's head (viewed from the top of his head, facing upward.) The sketch is where his head should be. Without the helmet, Brody's head will continue to expand widthwise instead of filling out the flat spot in the back.

The orthotist said we could wait a little longer and continue to sleep him on his side and stomach (keeping him off his back), but chances of things rounding out on their own are slim. Plus the younger the child is, the faster the healing time and the less fazed they are by having to wear it all the time.

So our next step is to get an unnecessary head xray (thanks Priority Health) and get rescanned and fitted for a helmet. I so wish he didn't have to wear one... especially in the summer... but I don't want to regret not getting this taken care of.

So yeah. Here we go.

Roly Poly, Bean-Spitting, Happy Lil Man

I should get Brody certified as a therapy dog child so I can cart him around with me all day to improve my mental health. I mean, how does your mood not instantly improve when a baby laughs? Or makes sour faces from eating green beans?


Yeah, he should definitely come to work with me.

Apparently I didn't make Brody's green beans mushy enough. He has texture issues like his momma... wonderful. Guess it's store boughten baby food beans from now on. We had bean particles in his hair, all over his seat, embedded in the blanket, stuck in his chubby neck rolls, inside his pant... he was a hot mess.

We also had a wonderful Skype date with Moose and Emmalyn. She needs to move back to Michigan... badly. :(

We celebrated Clay's cousin's wedding over the weekend. Brody was a champ and got to meet a lot of new relatives. However, we discovered he's NOT a fan of loud speaker systems. The reception was cut really short for him and I after he started crying whenever the DJ would talk into the mic. 

Grandma Z and all her grandkids... Tank, Terror and Boo. What a trio.

So little man started rolling over the weekend. On the first day, it was only rolling belly to back... but just yesterday, he rolled from back to belly. Where the hell did my little boy go? He's just shy of 20 lbs, wearing 18-month clothing, eating solids, grabbing things, rolling over, very close to sitting steady on his own... my god. 

I've discovered that sometimes clothing choices for Brody make me super sad. Going from sleepers to pants to collared shirts just makes him look so much older! Now he's wearing shorts and tshirts with his little buddha belly hanging out... it's just too much. I'm gonna shove all of his squishiness back into a sleeper and pretend he's a tiny baby again.

Sleepy kids. xoxo

Daily Dose of Vitamin D

Thank God for the nice weather we had most of this week! West Michigan took forever to be done with winter, leaped right into flood season and then summer just randomly appeared. Anyways, Clay, Brody, Zora and I immediately ran outside after work to soak up as much Vitamin D as possible. It was super glorious. Lil Man is fascinated with the grass between his toes and loves any opportunity to sit around in his undies.

Kid's still obsessed with his piggies. The fewer the layers of clothing, the closer he can get them to his mouth.

"I will eat yo arm! ... and then look pissy!"

So we have had this woodpile behind our shed for a future fire pit. Over the course of winter, Zora has taken almost every single log out of the pile... drug it into the middle of the yard... and chewed all the bark off of it. Now we have this stick boneyard going on. What a crazy girl.

As you can tell by the last two photos, my kids are scavengers. Anything within reach will go into their mouths. Oh boy.

DIY: Circle Punch Paper Mache Bowl

So, I hoard paper circles.

They're kinda like pogs for crafty people. I bought a 1" and 2" circle punch last year and now any and all scrap paper, birthday/Christmas cards, magazine ads, etc. could possibly end up looking like swiss cheese.

A couple of weekends ago, the weather sucked and Brody had slipped into a coma, so I decided to use a handful of the circles to make a paper mache bowl.

This paper mache recipe makes a lot of goop. Store in a tupperware and you can basically use it forever.

• Combine ½ C. flour and 2 C. cold water in a bowl
• Boil 2 C. of water in a sauce pan and add the flour and cold water mixture
• Bring to a boil again
• Remove from heat and add 3 Tbsp. of sugar
• Let cool (paste will thicken as it cools)

Find a bowl of some sorts and cover in saran wrap. Be mindful of the shape of the bowl around the base. If you're using thicker cardstock and and the bowl doesn't have a gradual curve, you'll have some issues.

I used a paintbrush and just started layering on the circles. I screwed up the first bowl by using black circles with lighter colored ones. Depending on the kinda of paper, dark colors may bleed. Beware.

Drying time is a bit tricky. If you let the paper dry completely while it's still on the actual bowl, sometimes the saran wrap will stick to the bowl and you have to carefully, but aggressively chisel away at the adhesive in between layers. If you slide your creation off the bowl too early, sometimes it warps a bit while it finishes drying. I guess find your happy medium.

Once you peel the plastic wrap off, you can either be done, or create another layer of circles on the inside. I opted to use all one color for the inside of the bowl. Once completely dry, you're good to go!

Are you a circle punch junkie too? Here are some other DIY projects to do with your circles.

Paper Ornament Ball + Paper Starburst Garland