No Poo cont.

Almost a month in and still going strong albeit with some bumps along the way.

The coconut oil hair mask almost did me in, I should have known better my hair has always been a super sponge and true to form sucked up all that oil and would not let it go. I washed with my diluted castile soap  mixture 3 times the first day and 3 times the next and my hair still was so oily it looked wet. So I found a "low poo''" shampoo to use and it did the job. And if you are looking to cut out chemicals but arent into no shampoo at all I highly recommend it! The same company also makes a great lotion that has been the only thing that helped C's dry skin during this very cold and very long winter.

After dealing with that I resumed my one a week diluted castile soap wash and ACV rinse with a nightly finger brush and boars hair brush. My hair was super dry so I decided to try a different moisturizer - egg whites. Well either I didn't dilute them enough or the water was too hot or something because I came out with scrambled egg in my hair and the feeling of serious gunky build up - GROSS!

I have ridden out the worst of it and things are looking better, the gunk went away after a few days and I have finally found a moisturizer that works with my hair, argon oil. Its a little pricey but a little goes a long way, I just run a small pump through my hair every couple days and its really helping.

I dont have any pictures to prove that I am not a walking grease ball so yall will just have to take my word for it and enjoy some adorable pictures of Charlotte :)

xoxo
Ashlea

Indian baby

C proved her ethnic genes the other night by scarfing down some aloo palek daal (potatoes, spinach and lentil stew) that had a little kick to it thanks to Grandma Linas homemade garma masla we used

Watch out Bollywood this little Indian lady is coming for you!

xoxo
Ashlea

DIY fun

The weather kept us inside AGAIN the other day so I decided to whip up some projects I had sitting on the back burner for the littlest one.

The first is something I have done in all my classrooms and have been waiting to do with C until she was a bit older. She has had some sensory boxes before but I wanted to do something small so she could work on her fine motor - you know outside of picking up every tiny crumb and furball on the floor ;)

I have been doing a color a week for the past few weeks and using a basket in her playroom to hold a bunch of the same color toys, this week is yellow so I decided to dye the rice yellow and add a lemon scent with some essential oil

She was pretty interested in it and I had to say "not for the mouth" 23528782342 times but she got the hang of it. Her favorite was hiding toys in the rice then finding them. It is definitely a close supervision activity but she loved using her pincer to grab a single grain of rice and we ever put her feet in it which she thought was HILARIOUS

Next up we made a DIY light table, once again this is a staple in all of my classrooms and is great in exploring light/dark, shadows, colors and as she gets older adding another element to her artwork. As usual pinterst didnt let me down with a easy cheap DIY version of what is usually a very expensive piece. 

Ready? grab some Christmas lights, grab a large long rubbermaid container, tape some tracing paper to the underside of the lid and BOOM - DONE!

Charlotte decided the best way to use the table was to sit on top of it :)

She has crawled right to the table every time we go in the playroom so I would say its a hit!


xoxo
Ashlea

A day in the life

 I have been wanting to do a post like this for awhile, just to document a typical day in our life. I know its these little moments and details that will overtime slip from my memory.......

6:30-7:00 am - you wake up, I love that you wake up and babble and talk to yourself these days until I come in and get you. You raise your little arms for me to pick you up and we sit in the rocker and nurse. This is the calmest and sweetest part of our day, you are such an active little girl so I treasure these quiet, still moments.

7:15 am - we say good bye to Daddy and head upstairs. You play while I pump and usually you climb all over Penelope.

7:45 am - time to get dressed :) this is definitely not your favorite part of the day but it must get done

8:00 am - breakfast time! You usually have a scrambled egg yolk or yogurt with almond flour pancake and some fruit, sometimes you eat like a little piggy other times just a tiny bit. We wash it down with some water (you are starting to get the hang of your sippy cup)

please notice our "helper" ready to catch any crumb that might fall

8:30-9:30 am - playtime! we go into the playroom and play, play, play. This week our basket has RED items (for Valentines Day of course), your favorites are the red balls, the heart shaped measuring spoons and the red heart tin - its perfect for making loud banging noises! We also have a basket for exploring IN/OUT and a group of different textured squares.

9:30- ??? am- naptime. Your naps are still really variable, some days you nap for 30 minutes others for over an hour. Our nap routine is fresh diaper, read a few books, sing a song, turn on our noise machine, say night night to the lamp and then I pat your back until you fall asleep. While you nap I typically shower and if there is time get some house stuff done. On this day I made some applesauce (you LOVE applesauce) in the crock pot and did some dinner/grocery planning.

yummmmmmmmmy

10:30 am - We get our bags packed and head out to run errands/ go to class or have a playdate or on occasion stay home and play around the house.

Your BFF Griffin

11:00 am - nursing session

12:30 pm - lunch time. One this day you had, half an avocado, a bowl of carrots, 1 quinoa patty and some frozen peaches in your teether. And as always Penelope was there to help clean the high chair after you were done :)

1:00 - 3:00 pm - enjoy our playdate/ run back out to do some errands or play around the house and when the weather cooperates talk Penelope on a walk.

cruising in your walker

box of goodies to play with while I clean the bathroom

snuggles!!!

Penelope visiting you in baby jail

3:00 - 4:00 pm - you nurse down for your afternoon nap and typically sleep 45 minutes to an hour

4:00 pm - Daddy comes home!! We start dinner and play with him until we are ready to eat

5:00 pm - dinner time! This day you had salmon, quinoa patty, pureed peas, coconut braised zucchini and carrots and pear/blueberry puree. YUM!

6:00 pm - bath time. You love bath time! banging the cups together and sucking on the washcloth are your favorites

 

7:00 pm - bedtime. Daddy gives you a bottle then we play in the crib, read books and sing songs then I nurse you down to sleep, if you dont fall asleep then I put you down and let you fall asleep on your own, we have been working on this for a couple weeks now and last night you went right to sleep no fussing at all <3

xoxo
Ashlea

How I feed my baby

  Charlotte has been exclusively breastfed since she was born - we have had some small bumps along the way- but overall we have been blessed with a great breastfeeding experience.

   When she was about 5 months old she started to show signs of readiness for solids, she was sitting up with little assistance, watching us eat and grabbing our food (like the day I turned my head and when I looked back she was gumming away at my apple:) ) So we decided to begin solids. I was really drawn to Baby Led Weaning (which needs a different name in my opinion because there is no real "weaning" involved but whatevs), I like anything that gives the child the most independence and opportunity to have their own successes.

   So C's first experience with food was chunks of avocado on her highchair which she happily smashed, wiped and grabbed at and even got some in her mouth - success! She loved it!

We continued on with sweet potatoes and butternut squash......

    Everything was going smoothly until this little girl got a big appetite and the small amount of food that she was able to get in her mouth just wasnt cutting it for her. She would get so frustrated and upset because she wasnt getting enough of the food. So enter our hybrid of traditional baby purees and BLW. One of my favorite saying in terms of parenting is "Something works until it doesnt and doesnt until it does" This was a perfect example. 

   So I made purees for her and she was a MUCH happier little piggy :) Plus this was I was able to fed her things that she couldn't eat yet due to lack of teeth like spinach, kale and blueberries.

 

Spoon thief :)

 We continued to offer finger foods as much as possible - cantaloupe, orange slices, sweet potato wedges and carrots have always been favorites.

  And now (8 months) that she has her pincer grasp we have really been giving her a wide variety of foods to try and she LOVES feeding herself. I love the independence she has and her little proud face and the claps that she gives herself when she gets food in her mouth is priceless. Sure its messy but I hope that I am setting her up for being an adventurous and independent eater.  I also want us all eating the same thing together as a family and so feeding her the appropriate foods from our dinner will hopefully help  that transition. 

The balance is now shifting from mostly purees with a little finger food to a 50/50 mix. Her plate last night was carrot/cilantro quinoa patties, rosemary roasted sweet potato, carrots and cauliflower. She devoured it along with a bowl of pureed peas, pear/blueberry puree and 2 orange slices for dessert!

I have a couple new recipes I am going to try out for us this week, hopefully they are a hit!!

xoxo
Ashlea

No 'Poo

   Several years ago we started working on getting rid of processed food in our home, we did it gradually and I have to say over all we eat pretty clean and at this point its second nature. We have definitely seen a bunch of the benefits - move energy, better digestion and improved overall health.

   For the last 2 years I have worked on getting rid of toxins in our home - plastics, chemical cleaners etc. and have done a pretty good job (although I still have one lone bottle of Tilex sitting in the back of the cabinet for when the enamel sink stains - I have yet to find a "natural" cleaner that can do the job.) You dont "feel" these changes but I believe we will get these benefits down the road when hopefully we dont have many of the illnesses that have been linked to all of it.

So this year I am moving on to my health and beauty stuff. I dont have a ton to start with which helps but one thing I have relied on heavily is shampoo and conditioner. I have a TON of hair and its textured which means in order for it not to be a dry frizzy ball of hay on my head I have to use A LOT of products which = $$$$. So for the past year or so I have just used whatever was on sale at Costco, squirt a handful of shampoo on my hair, lather, rinse, use half a bottle of conditioner, brush it threw (leaving a tumbleweed of hair for Tony at the bottom of the bathtub), towel dry and just wrangled it into a bun and called it a day. My hair is not in the best shape to say the least but I dont want to spend our life savings on my hair so enter..................no 'poo.

No 'poo is not using any shampoo, conditioner, styling product or heat on your hair. I know it sounds super gross and stange but people SWEAR by it and Ill try anything at this point. I found this awesome blog that outlines a how-to and pretty much any question you have. There is a pretty gnarly transition period where your hair gets super greasy because its use to having to produce so much oil since we strip our hair every day with shampoo. I figured it goes along with my 2014 word -BRAVE. Because you have to a certain level of brave in order to walk around a hot greasy mess right??

So I began -
Step 1 - clarify your hair. Rub a paste of baking soda and water into your scalp, condition with raw honey and air dry. I was skeptical for sure but my hair came out looking like it usually does.

One week in........this is with NO WASHING just a rinse with water one day this week. Definetly a little greasy on top but not as bad as I thought it would be. I finger brush it everynight and use a boars hairbrush to pull down the natural oils to the ends plus it gets any gunk.

2 weeks in and its definitely oilier than its ever been but can pretty much be masked by pulling it into a bun. I washed with very diluted castile soap on day #7 and did an apple cider vinegar rinse.

 

On day #14 I put a coconut oil mask on my hair overnight (wrapped in an old t-shirt) and did the same wash/rinse routine as last week. I didnt get all the oil out on my first wash so I am doing round 2 tonight, we shall see how it goes!!!

xoxo
Ashlea

 

8 Months

    It is that time yet again, another month has passed and Little Miss is that much closer to being a year old! yikes!!

   This month has continued the trend of every new month being my favorite, she is just so much fun!

   This month she has continued to perfect her craft of crawling - girl is all over the place and into everything......
that fuzzball in the corner -check
dog bowl - check
old crumbs - check
cabinets, drawers and shelves - check
cords and all things electric and dangerous - check

She has even mastered the pull up on the table and swipe my hand across to see what I can knock over maneuver :)

She is still wearing 6 months clothes, size 2 diapers and weighs in a petite 17 lbs 3 oz. It must be all that exercise she gets because she eats like a little piggy.

She sleeps from 7pm-7am with usually one wake up for a feeding around 3. And she naps from 9am-10am and 3pm-4pm (sometimes less if she feels like being a real stinker)

We are still going to gymnastics and will be moving up to the next class soon! She LOVES it, her favorites include the pull-up bar, climbing the stairs, bubble time, rolling on the balls and scratching at the tape on the floor :) She has been going to swim class as well as likes it just fine, we also joined a neighborhood pool for the summer so she will get plenty of water time then.

She "talks" all the time -she says Ma Ma, Ba Ba, Da Da and her latest Ni Ni. She also signs for milk and I *think* she is figuring out how to sign "more" but at the moment it looks like a clap. Which is her other favorite thing to do - clap and wave and I happen to think its the most precious thing I have ever seen.

And without further ado her 8 month pictures :)

xoxo
Ashlea