Kiwi and Mint

This is an awesome recipe that I've created.  It's also so easy because there's no cooking involved.  All you need is kiwi and mint and it turned out surprisingly awesome.  The seeds didn't bother Lukas at all which made me proud of him.

Kiwi and Mint

1 cup of chopped Kiwi (peeled)
1-tsp of mint roughly chooped
1/2 cup of water  


Place all the ingredients into a food processor and puree.  I poured water while processor is running to kind of "juice" it a little bit (skip the water part if you prefer)

I like to mix this "juice" with good baby cereal or if it's too tart you can also mash up fresh bananas and mix it in.  Like I've mentioned before, you can always freeze the left over for longer shelf life.  So easy huh?!

POOPY ALERT!!
You will see the seeds on the dirty diaper (sorry I had to mention it but you're a mom, you get why!)

Date Day Anxiety

Hubby:  Don't worry hon, we will get you tea then you will feel better.
Me: What do you mean tea? I need alcohol at this point.

Yes, those were the words uttered as soon as I hopped in our car and left Lukas at my mom's house.  I had major separation anxiety. All the what if's ran rapidly in my brain as we drove off.  I have to say that I'm a proud 100% hands on mom that gets 0 help from anyone other than my husband.  I love being with my baby all the time even though i'm exhausted at the end of the day.  Mostly because I know the window of time that I get ALL of him is very short so I treasure every second with him.  And I don't know about you, but do you ever feel that every one else who would take care of him will get it wrong and that as a mom you are the only one who knows the best way to take care of him?  Part of me also thinks that Lukas will feel abandoned if I leave him with someone else.   But this past few months, I know that my whole world is centered around my son and I realized that my husband needs some time for us too, not only for our marriage but to also remind me that there's us in this life.   So, I pulled my big girl pants on and brave it through the morning while secretly counting the time that passed...

We were planning to go catch the first showing at the theatre but we decided that we need to do something more to feel connected so we ended up going to our favorite breakfast spot Cafe Borrone  and went for a walk downtown after.  I ended up having a good time!  We looked at cute little shops and ran into an awesome farmers market.  We bought a few things at the market and even though we were on a date we can't help but to go to a toy store and get Lukas something.

I bought this cards made from the moms of the little girls who sold it. All proceeds will help the victims of the recent tsunami tragedy in Japan.  

My husband bought me a bunch of lavender that I carried and smelled through out the day. Lavender always reminds me of our vacations in France.

 Most beautiful butter lettuce that I got for my mom as a thank you gift for taking care of Lukas

Cute little bracelet made by our local high school students.  Proceeds will help build a high school building in Uganda.

At the end of the day, I was happy we took the time for ourselves.  Lukas had a hard time at my mom's and looked for us the entire time but I now realized that giving him space and teaching him to be independent is essential to his growth.  I don't want him to be crying while were away and the only way I could make sure that it doesn't happen again is to get him used to the idea that although mommy and daddy are away, it will only be for a little bit and that we will come back.  I now know that not teaching him this type of independence and confidence is selfish and will impact him negatively. 

Although the date day was fun, I was excited to have him in my arms and read him the new book I got for him.  

Left over veggies

I was looking through my vegetable crisper and realized that I have few left over vegetables from previous meals I made over the week.  And for the sake of seeing them go to waste, I decided to make something out of it for Lukas.  I was really surprise on how it turned out because I was actually skeptical as I was making it because I haven't used this veggie combination before.  I am not a big fan of boiling things so instead of boiling the veggies before pureeing I decided to roast it to turn up the volume of the veggie flavor.  I call this Roasted sweet licorice because I used sweet potato and fennel that has that licorice taste and smell to it.  Here's the recipe..

Roasted "Sweet Licorice"

1 Head of Fennel cored and sliced into quarters
3 Yellow squash chopped in about 1/2 inch thickness
2 Medium size sweet potato peeled and chopped in 1/2 inch thickness
2 cups of water
1 tbsp or so of good olive oil
pinch of kosher salt (optional)


Preheat oven at 375 degrees


Place all veggies into a sheet tray, drizzle olive oil to coat all veggies and sprinkle a pinch of salt (you can skip this part). Place sheet tray in the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Once veggies are tender, transfer it to a food processor and puree. While the food processor is going, pour in water little by little until you get to the right consistency you prefer.  


The taste is really surprising and I was really happy that Lukas liked it too.  Try it, you'll be surprised.  

Baby Boon

After much research and frustration not having a high chair, we finally bought one.  There's so many options out there when it comes to any baby item that it's almost an overwhelming process to pick which one is right for you.  We ended up buying the flair high chair from Boon for it's good reviews and of course design that will match to our dining room and lifestyle.  It has a cushion seating pad that Lukas seems to like and one push button seat belt that I seem to like.  But the most awesome part of this seat other than its safety feature is it's "lock" rolling system, push bottom height adjustment,  and one solid piece of chair that doesn't have cracks and crevices that helps cleaning so much easier.  We've come so far in terms of baby gadgets.  I have a photo of my husband in a swing chair that has an actual metal chain to hold up the seat, clearly not a baby friendly feature.  So shopping could be overwhelming but it's also amazing how much information we have out there that it gives us lots of options and informations.

Co-sleeping: Friend or Foe?

One night when Lukas was probably 2 months old, Mark and I were exhausted so we took Lukas out of his bassinet and placed him in our bed in between us and some 8 hours later we woke up uninterrupted and well rested and that’s when the co-sleeping started.  Many mom’s warned me to not get him used to it because it will be hard to take him out of our bed when he’s older so I started to  “wean” him off our bed and started putting him to his crib.  He was fine but would cry around midnight and just wouldn’t go back to sleep after and  a couple of tries in the next following nights after my husband and I decided to make co sleeping into a semi-permanent thing.  So the question is, is co-sleeping a friend or a foe?  For us as Lukas’ parents the results are far more positive than negative.  Lukas is a well rested baby who doesn’t wake up at all at night and this is probably because he feels protected and loved being with us when he sleeps at night (he doesn’t have any problems sleeping on his crib or alone during the day).  We feel that he feels safe and confident and it helps my husband and I sleep through the night and become more rested therefore ready to tackle the coming day.  A good night sleep for but of us also helps us become less irritable therefore we are nice to each other.   I say, do what you feel is right for you baby and for you as a parent. There shouldn’t be any blueprint to follow as a parent because no one else walks on your shoes every single minute of every single day, do what makes you happy and your baby happy, safe, and loved.  For me that’s what makes a perfect parenting and if befriending the idea of co-sleeping is part of it, well we can use any friend we can get. 

* Right now, we feel that Lukas is ready to transition and sleep on his crib so we are currently on that process*

Madamoiselle Sophie

I bought this awesome giraffe toy named sophie that I've been eyeing for awhile but couldn't get myself to buy it because its 21.99 which I thought is pretty steep for a teething toy but I figured what the heck I'll just get it anyway.  Boy oh boy was this toy a hit!  Lukas loved to bite on Sophie’s soft rubber body and he loves to hear her cute little squeaks.  It’s just a perfect little toy. Lukas had a play date with his two buddies Mathias and Luis and they loved Sophie as well.  So I think, it's worth it.  It's one of those toys that can be a keepsake.

Crawl Baby Crawl

Yesterday was a mighty big day because Lukas started to crawl.  And the pride in I and my husband's hearts is beyond comprehensible.  As soon as he started crawling he realized that this is his way to get to things so the whole day he just crawled to get to everything.  But the most endearing and rewarding thing in the world was when he crawled to me pulled himself up and stood up and hung out with mommy.  It's the best feeling in the world.  My baby can now come to me anytime he wishes.  I called my relatives to share the news and my mom and mom in law warned me after expressing their happiness "Oh now you're work is going to start" and I thought haven't I been working all along?   Just couple of hours later, I knew what they meant.  My little mover is non stop but its okay, at least for now I will cherish my proud mommy status....

Ma's Avocado Treat

When I was young my mom would make us an afternoon treat after our afternoon nap and one of the most memorable treat she gave us is her avocado shake.  Basically it's avocado with milk and blended with ice and sugar.  Simple as that.  So I thought of making a baby food version of that and give it to Lukas.  So here's what I did, it's super simple..

Ma's Avocado Treat

1 ripe avocado, pitted and diced

1 ounce of  liquid formula or breast milk (I used formula)

1 tbsp of mascarpone cheese (I used it for its delicate sweet taste to substitute sugar)

1 tsp of good pure vanilla

Mash up avocado to your preferred texture (mine has lots of texture but you can puree it too with a blender). Add mascarpone cheese mix till both ingredients combine.  Then add formula and vanilla and mix all together. Simple!!

The result is this creamy avocado treat that Lukas just loved. I don't want Lukas to be a picky eater so I make sure that I introduce different kinds of food to him with different kinds of texture. Don't be scared to try different ingredients.  My rule is that as long as it's organic, no chemicals,  no salt and no sugar and it doesn't choke him, then I'll go for it!  Try it and let me know!

Shopping Guilt

I'm sure that most of you moms can relate to what I'm going to talk about today.  Did you notice that ever since you became a mom that you shop more for your baby and give yourself a heavy guilt trip if you buy something for yourself even if you know you deserve it?  Yup I'm one of those moms now.  I don't know maybe because I still carry on the extra lbs I carried from pregnancy that I don't have any interest in trying on clothes let alone buying.  Million things goes through my head before I even purchase anything, (milk money, college money, home money, my husband haven't shopped in 2 years so I shouldn't, etc).  And with shoes, I used to wear heals like there's no tomorrow 6 inch stiletto heels? no problem!  Now what do I tell myself?  Gee, I'm just pushing a stroller all day who will I wear heels for?  Why is it that us well deserving moms who work 24/7 with no legitimate lunch or pee break makes ourselves feel this way?

Today I went to H&M one of my favorite places to shop pre-Lukas era.  I thought, well made clothes for a cheaper value, sure I'll buy something.  I look at numerous diaphanous tops flirting with me to wear for the summer 24.99, 19.99..yaicks too expensive!  I still need to loose weight plus I could use the money for something else, I convinced myself.  Then a hidden corner I have never even glanced on nor paid attention to before Lukas is voila! A BABY clothes corner!! I was in shopping heaven.  Grabbed everything that interest me. I said oooh wow 6.49 , 9.99, so cheap!  The clothes were so cute and stylish, sizes were big I would say at least for my son but generally happy, well made clothes that I purchased guilt free, I should take advantage, it made sense to me.  The guy rang me up 99. 60 total.  WHAT?!! all that convincing for myself all went down to drain when it came to my little one.  It was fun and the clothes are reasonably priced but next time, I'll make sure to get me something that would make me feel special after all - Happy mommy means Happy Baby! We deserve it right??? :)

Let them eat veggies!!!

Veggie with Pasta 

I have to admit that I was intimidated before I started making baby food but as soon as I started and found my groove I never stopped ever since. I make sure that I squeeze in every bit of veggies I can in every serving I give to Lukas.  In this picture I made a quick very easy mix veggies with whole wheat pasta.  Here's the recipe.

1/4 cup of broccoli

1/4 cup of cauliflower

1/4 cup of carrots

a handful of whole wheat pasta

1 small onion (quartered)

a handful of fresh italian parsley (pick out the leaves only)

1/2 cup of water

2 tablespoon of organic unsalted butter 

Place all veggies and pasta into a medium pot then pour the water. Place pot over high heat to boil.  Once boiling, lower heat to medium, put on a lid for about 20 minutes.  Cook the veggies till tender.  Once the veggies and pasta are soft, use an immersion blender to puree all veggies and pasta while the pot is in low heat (you may also use a blender).  Once pureed, stir in the butter until the texture is creamy. 

You can freeze the food for longer shelf life. 

You can change the measurements according to your liking.  The idea is to make fresh food that we as adults would eat if salted and not pureed.  

8 months and a day

It's been 8 months and a day since I gave birth to my sweet baby boy Lukas and I can't help but to be emotional on how fast time has passed since that day.   Now he's sitting up, got the process of standing up, eating pureed real food and knows how to object when things don't go his way.   Remember that time when you just came home from the hospital and just shook off the shock of the "wow I have a baby now" and you are exhausted to point of hysteria?   Now, the job is in a whole different ball park.  Watching over your little bundle of joy requires much more precision.  Make sure he doesn't bump his head, make sure he doesn't fall or putting things in his mouth that are either poisonous or too small that it might choke him.  All of a sudden you miss the days when all you have to do is make a bottle or put him in your boob for both nap time and feeding time.  Yup that's exactly where I am.  Did I also mention that having an 8 month old reminded me that i need to loose my pregnancy weight and stop wearing my maternity clothes?  The work of a mother doesn't stop thats what I've learned and that all the exhaustion and sleepless nights is worth that wonderful smile of recognition Lukas gives me every time he sees me.  I may feel sluggish, run down, or a horrible horrible version of all of the make over candidates from what not to wear, to Lukas' eyes I'm brand new, I'm mommy, and I'm safe....