Sit Properly On Your Chair

Sitting at the dining room table this morning was an absolute hilarious riot.

The Monkey reminded me of something funny that happened a few months ago.

The Monkey, holding up her hand and pointing to her pinky finger: Mom! Mom! Do you remember when I hurt my pinky and you put peas on it?

Me: Um...which time?

The Monkey: When I fell off my chair.

Me: Oh, yeah...that time when we were eating dinner and I looked up from my plate and you were on the floor?

Now you have to know something. She falls off her chair on a regular basis.

And I mean probably once a week or so. Mostly it's on accident because she's at the height where a booster is just too tall but sitting on her butt isn't exactly high enough to shovel food into her mouth without bumping the table with her arm and getting food all over. That's an eyebrow-raiser in itself to watch...a preschooler shoveling food into their mouth...

We have to talk about sitting properly on a dining room chair on a daily basis because if I don't then, well, she falls off. And this is what I see from my seat at the table:

A child is seemingly sitting "properly" at the dining room table shoveling eating food. A hand flies up into the air. The other hand flies out the opposite way. A fork or a spoon is suddenly spewed from a hand (complete with food, so really whatever plain carbs we're having for part of our meal) and in slow motion I realize that I'm going to be cleaning food from the walls, table, floor, and probably hair (not always the child's, but mine too).

Then there's a thump. A clatter of silverware. And there's no longer a child sitting at the table. But there sure is a plate full of food. And a drink with a silly straw.

And me. With a full on face palm. Seriously.

I actually said, "AGAIN?!?" out loud the last time this happened. Because I realized The Monkey was SQUATTING on the chair. Her toes couldn't hold her balance anymore and BAM. Over she went. Like a freaking domino.

So yeah, this morning I was laughing so hard because I know...she'll probably fall off her chair at lunch and will end up holding a bag of frozen corn on some appendage of her body.

Happy Tuesday. And sit properly on your chair.

Fabulous Children's Books

Children's books can be terrible. I'm going to be brutally honest. There's nothing worse than being stuck reading your child's "favorite" book ten to fifteen times per day and the book just being horrendous. For example, any board book that only has a few words on each page. Or just descriptions of objects. Or any Disney Channel tv show easy-to-read book. They're all terrible.

But there's a few books that I would totally recommend - buy these for new parents. They'll be so happily surprised.

Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey - classic book. Girl gets lost from mother. Eventually mother finds girl. Illustrations are AMAZING for being a book published in the 1940's.

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt - you have to read this in silly, angry voices. It makes way more sense. Plus from a parent's perspective I definitely agree with the crayons. And the poor Beige crayon. I get it, I totally get it. The Monkey loves this book - it makes her want to color for days!

Waiting by Kevin Henkes - patience. SO MUCH PATIENCE. And the illustrations are beautiful. The book is super easy and fast to read. It makes me want to look out a window all day long after reading this and take the time to just... wait.

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires - holy shit. BUY THIS BOOK. Not only does it teach a kid to keep trying and to take a time out when you're frustrated but it's so freaking awesome, especially for girls! Instead of having a boy the main character doing the building, it's a girl, and I think it's great.


So there you go. Next time you go to a birthday party or a baby shower...buy one of these books!

CSA Recipe Ideas

YAY!! CSA season is upon us!

June - tis the season for so many greens, it's pretty ridiculous. I've been over and done with pesto for at least a year - but I still made two different batches of it this year - one with arugula and another with kale (mer, I make it and then I don't want it on pasta so I have to figure out different ways to use it).

So here's what I've made so far:

Salads - LOTS AND LOTS of them.

Pesto - made with either kale or arugula and then mixed with olive oil, garlic scapes, romano cheese (from our CSA too!), salt, and pepper.

Tacos - chicken tacos with the meat simmered with garlic scapes, young onions, and then put together with arugula, kale, and other simple salad greens.

Sauteed greens - any greens sauteed with coconut oil, salt, and pepper is amazing. Switch it up with olive oil, sesame oil, or sunflower oil.

Lettuce Wrap Tacos - Butter lettuce makes great taco shells!

Simple snacks - french bread or crackers with quark cheese (from the CSA) topped with blueberries or french radishes. Sliced raw turnips with hummus.

Scrambled eggs with arugula or kale

Basically, eggs any way with sauteed kale or arugula with sliced tomatoes or peppers on the side.



I hope that's a few options for you! It's hard to come up with meal ideas day after day after day with a whole bunch of greens. They get pretty old after awhile although I wish garlic scapes were year round! SO DELISH.

Let's Do A Little Update

Well, let's do a little update since it's been a VERY LONG TIME since I've updated this thing.

Has my blog been on the forefront of my mind? Well, no. 

Chewie was born in early May. He's over 5 weeks old. I'm sleeping, don't worry about that. He wakes 2x per night unless he's going through a growth spurt and then it seems like he's up every hour. 

We've been through almost all the freezer meals. 

Our first CSA box was delivered yesterday (today for lunch it's going to be Lettuce Wrap Tacos!).

I'm close to being fully recovered from a C-section. This time my recovery has been AMAZING. I was approved to ride a bike before 2 full weeks (which was nuts BTW, and it didn't hurt too much, but I didn't go very far!). Still can't lift more than the baby with the baby carrier - and I can tell I can lift a little more weight, however, with major abdominal surgery you can tell if you're doing too much so no twisting or turning (it HURTS when you do and trust me, you DO NOT WANT TO POP AN INTERIOR STITCH). The Monkey is super excited that I can bend over to give her a hug too.

I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, which I didn't think would happen for another two months or so but apparently involuntarily skipping meals and drinking lots of water, La Croix water, and tea will definitely help aide in weight loss. 

In any case, we're alive. We're well. So happy June!!