Breastfeeding and Medicine

Does that look like the face of a happy, healthy boy to you? Poor guy has a fever... and so does mommy!

In our house, when fevers strike, the first reaction is to treat it with tylenol or motrin. Easy enough, right?

In order to make the correct decision I had to call the doctor. Can I give motrin to Zachary and take motrin myself? Would the baby get too much medicine from his dose, plus what he gets from my milk?

Her answer: Its fine for both of us to take the same medicine, just don't give him more than he should have.

Hopefully this will be useful to you one day or even more hopefully, you'll never be in this situation.

I'm sure you'll want to double check with your doctor if you ever find yourself in this scenario. :)

February update

I'm not sure why life doesn't stop for a while on occasion, in order for me to catch up with everything, but it doesn't. Here is a peek into the last few weeks of our lives.

 Seth and his friend with their boat.

One of the big highlights of 2nd grade at our kids' school is the boat regatta! They learn about boats. Then, using fake money, they buy supplies to build their own. Parents come in for the race to see which team build the fastest boat.

Seth and his friend did great with their boat "Skylander".

(don't mind Seth's hair, that day also happened to be crazy hair/hat day!)

 Patricia turned six! We went to a restaurant to celebrate, then came home for cake.

I will not show you a close up picture of my cookie monster cupcakes, because it is already an established fact that I cannot decorate food. But here is the original picture if you want to give it a go.

 We took a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium in order to study coral.

Science projects are quickly coming up and coral is the topic that Tabitha picked.

Multicultural day is also coming up at school. The kids had to decorate paper dolls showing one of their nationalities.

Patricia and Tabitha chose India and Seth, Ireland.

The school Valentine's parties came and went. I had big plans of the kids making homemade Valentines, but that never happened. So, they went in with store bought cards... they also received a lot of store bought cards and candy!

This is Tabitha's monster. This was also an idea from Pinterest, but alas, it falls far short of its model.

 

For Valentine's supper, I made heart shaped hamburgers. Sorry I don't have an after cooked picture, but you'll have to trust me that they still looked like hearts. :)

I also made heart shaped carrots like from this Pinterest idea, but would you believe they didn't come out as pretty as the picture??!! Yeah, I don't believe it either. :)

 

Patricia had her 100th day of school! Yippee! The teacher gave each child a visor to decorate with 100 items. I picked up some spiral confetti for Patricia. I liked one of her classmate's, which had 100 random things attached including part of a broken necklace, a key and a used stamp.

This was a nice easy activity for the kids. When Tabitha was in kindergarten she was able to do anything she wanted. So for that she tried on 100 outfits... you can read about it here.

So, that's what's been going on in our household. How about you?

A Mother's Love

You know that strong feeling of love that you experience when you first have a baby? Sometimes its hard to remember that feeling, especially when that baby grows older and always seems to get in trouble.

Sometimes you go to bed feeling guilty that you weren't able to express your love as much as you would've liked to.

Sometimes you wonder if maybe you don't love your child(ren) enough. Well, at least that's how I feel on occasion.

The other night I was asleep when I woke up to these words, "Mommy can you turn that off?" I heard every single word Ian said, even though he was still lying in his bed.

What struck me as so odd, was the alarm clock. He was asking me to turn it off and I realized it had been buzzing for over a half an hour.

Why didn't I wake up to the sound of the alarm? Why did Ian's voice rouse me from my sleep so easily?

It immediately made me think of that bond I experienced with my newborns. The sense that I knew I would be willing to die for this child.

The feelings aren't always as strong, but the love is.

Its the close of Valentine's day right now. A day when everyone celebrates their love for each other. A day of sharing feelings. Loving feelings are nice, but I'm so thankful that they are not what love consists of.

Love is an action word. It is a daily giving of yourself for another.

Thinking of it in this light helps me appreciate the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for me. He loved me unto death. And He did that for me despite all my sin!

These thoughts encourage me on in giving and receiving of love.

Snack Time - Banana treats

For an afternoon snack one day I served this to the kids:

It was based on this pin I saw on Pinterest. Of course, mine doesn't look as good as the original, but the kids still enjoyed it (and so did I!).

I didn't have mandarin oranges for the sand, so instead I used more slices of bananas. Then, a yummy idea hit me. I sprinkled the bottom bananas with graham cracker crumbs!

Bananas will never be the same again! Its now a sweet indulgence at our house. Just this morning I brought bananas and graham cracker crumbs to a Bible study. (I totally forgot I was supposed to bring fruit, so I'm glad I had this on hand).

A few last thoughts:

• This treat does not travel well. Its better to cut the banana on premises and sprinkle the crumbs afterwards.
• I have lots of post ideas running through my head, I simply haven't had the time to type them up.
• Don't forget to tell your loved ones that you love them!

Snack Time - Halved eggs with mayo

I love this simple and delicious snack.  I hear egg yolks have some vitamin D in them. Since I've been lacking that vitamin, I have been trying to get it in any way I can (besides the sun, which has been hiding!).

Here's the "recipe" if you will... Cut a hard boiled egg in half lengthwise. Slather that baby with mayo. Top with tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and some optional dill. (The tomatoes are also optional if you're kiddos don't care for them.)

It looks elegant and tastes fantastic. A hearty little snack or a nice addition to a main meal.

Bon apetit.

Sunday Italian Dinner

Today we had a family over for lunch/dinner. Its been a long time since we've hosted a family. It really was nice to have the chance to do so again.

One thing that made me nervous was the dietary needs of everyone. Seth and I are gluten free, I'm also dairy/lactose free and one of our guests is a vegetarian. 

I really didn't want a rice dish, but I couldn't think of anything else. Then while I was reading, "Back to School with Healthy Food", the author spoke about all the courses in an Italian meal. I started researching and picking recipes. Here's what I served...

Antipasto Platter

We started off with lots of choices for everyone.

• Olives
• Pickled peppers - so yummy (those are the orange/red cherry tomato looking things to the right of the cheese)
• 2 salami tube thingies
• provolone and mozzarella chunks
• mini bella mushrooms
• black grapes
• pickles
• artichoke hearts
• avocado slices topped with red wine vinegar, salt and pepper

First Course (Primo)

Next up was an Escarole and Bean soup.

I couldn't find escarole, so I used collard greens. Also instead of the bullion cubes I used vegetable broth.

This is the one thing that everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy.


Second Course (Secondo)

For the main dish I went with a pasta primavera and a caesar salad.

By now the kids were all getting full, so they had a hard time getting this down the chute. I'm pretty sure they don't like squash or zucchini, so that didn't help either.

I loved the taste of the roasted veggies in this dish.


Dessert Round (Dolce)

Is there any choice when doing an Italian dessert? My kids love Tiramisu, so tiramisu it was.

I used gluten free lady fingers. As a liquid I used coffee only (no rum).

I really wish I could've had some, but I can't imagine this tasting good if it was dairy free. 

Thankfully, I was still able to eat....

the football strawberries! I am NOT good at food presentation, but I did want to have something there to represent the Superbowl.

I used Enjoy Life chocolate chips, just so that I could enjoy life. :)

Snowman Letters

Last year Patricia was having some trouble with her letters. After doing some research I found some cute snowmen that I could print off and create a matching game.

The only problem is, we don't have a printer (yet we still survive!). So, instead, I made snowman and hat templates... not the best ones, but sufficient. Then I set to cutting and writing and drawing cute faces. :)

This game isn't used very often any more, but every once in a while it gives someone something to do.

The body of the snowman has CAPITAL letters and the hats have lowercase.  For the hats, I put the letters on both sides of the hat to make things a little easier during the searching phase.

Patricia loved that I made this just for her. I had her say the letters she was matching up to make sure she remembered them. A few times of playing and they get really good at them.