Soft as a baby's...

I have decided that one of the things I want to start adding to my blog is a newborn, birth or postpartum tip, encouragement, funny story, or resource.

I have been doing a lot of postpartum work these days, and one of the things I often help first time mom's with is learning infant care. If I meet with the family before the baby is born one of the items I always recommend parents have with them at the hospital is Burts Bee's Natural Baby Apricot Oil. Here's what its use is for: put small amounts on your newborn's bottom right after they are born and begin to pass the meconium. This is your baby's first bowel movement, but its not like normal poo, its black and sticky like tar. It clings to your baby's bottom like peanut butter sticks to the couch. BUT if you apply some baby oil to their little tush after each change then it just slides off and it makes a lot less work for those first diaper changes.


On another note while we are talking about newborn poo, if you plan to use cloth diapers, do not start using your fresh white diapers until your baby has finished passing all of the meconium because other wise it will stain your diapers.

*You can use olive oil just the same, but that apricot oil just smells so wonderful.

If You Like Eggs

This is my daughter's favorite way to eat eggs. First we cut a hole in each slice of bread. We like to use an egg shaped cookie cutter from the Easter cookie collection.

Crack your eggs into the middle of each bread cut out. If you have a toddler around you can let them eat the little pieces of bread you cut out. For some reason its a special treat. You do have to flip it at some point. And if your skillet is not non-stick use cooking spray. We also use the salt mill and crack some kosher salt on the top.

And of course you can't eat eggs without cheese and a "knowman" plate.

Babies

There is a new movie coming out some time in April, called BABIES, by Thomas Balmes. He follows 4 new babies for the first year of life.

Here is the quote from the website
The children are, respectively, in order of on-screen introduction: Ponijao, who lives with her family near Opuwo, Namibia; Bayarjargal, who resides with his family in Mongolia, near Bayanchandmani; Mari, who lives with her family in Tokyo, Japan; and Hattie, who resides with her family in the United States, in San Francisco. Re-defining the nonfiction art form, Babies joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all.

You can watch the trailer at the website. It just look too wonderful.

**Notice the biter, that one is mine!**

Hide and Seek

When you are three, Mommy is busy and you need a playmate, a Christmas sheep can fill the need. I found this little sheep counting on the couch the other day while Marin was hiding. I had to take a picture!

Great Peanut butter Cookies

Marin and I made some really wonderful peanut butter cookies last week. We got the recipe from Real Simple.

You can sign up for a cookie recipe of the day at Real Simple and get an email every day about a new cookie, some familiar and others new and interesting. Either way we loved the peanut butter cookies, and added chocolate chunks to them. I mean who's ever heard of eating peanut butter without the chocolate?!!! I am going to post the recipe here but you can also go to the website in the link above and get it there too.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/3 cup for rolling
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup salted peanuts, roughly chopped (I did not do this)
• Chocolate chips or chunks (I DID do this! I think I added like a half bag but you can never have enough chocolate)

Directions

1. Adjust rack to center of oven and heat to 350° F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, the brown sugar, and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the egg and combine, then add the peanut butter. Reduce speed to low, add the flour mixture, and beat until incorporated. Stir in the peanuts.
3. Form the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls. Roll in the remaining sugar and place on a baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Using the back of a fork, gently press the cookies to form a crisscross pattern.
4. Bake 12 to 16 minutes or until just golden. Cool on racks. (Optional, we started eating these before they were "cooled")
   
5. Make sure you have a toddler near by to lick the paddles.
   
6. Make sure you have a toddler near by to lick the sugar off the counter
7. Make sure you have milk on hand.
8. Enjoy!
   

Dye Free!

For those of you who are trying to use less food colorings in your baking don't fret that you will now have bland Christmas cookies. There are many options out there for naturally dying foods. For those of you who are wondering why food dyes are bad for you when they have no nutritional value, well they are. There are many studies (just type "food coloring and kids" into a Google search and thousands of links to articles pop up) that show that while they have no nutritional value, they do cause hyper-activity in children. Children with ADD, ADHD, and other neurological disorders benefit greatly when on a dye free diet. Here is a Time article that interesting.

Anyways for those of you who have a family member allergic to food dyes (red is gaining its allergy status to the point of pharmaceutical companies having to make their red colored drugs without that red dye any more) here are a few ways you can still decorate cookies, color frosting and never compromise on taste.


I made these pink cupcakes for my daughters birthday back in October. They are much brighter than you see in this picture. She requested pink Strawberry Shortcake cupcakes for her birthday. And these were a hit!

For the pink I used in this whip cream frosting I used frozen strawberry juice.
You could also add blackberry for dark purple, blueberry for a bright blueish-purple, tumeric for yellows, frozen raspberry's make a bright pink, avocado makes green (watch this one it will make your frosting a bit thinner, but its mild taste usually doesn't show up), beets make redish-purple.

Now if you don't want to spend a lot of time experimenting, you can purchase dyes that are usable just like the conventional food colorings. You can probably find kits at your local natural food store or there are many brands you can find online. India Tree is one such company with many colors to choose from. There is no limit to color when trying to go natural. The price may be a bit higher, but if you have a family member who cannot have food dyes this might just an alternative that makes their special day that much more special.