Cradle Cap

My little 2 year old had a terrible case of cradle cap this weekend, and after plan A of the special shampoo did not work, everything I knew said to use olive oil for a massage, let it sit, and then comb her hair. I was at a loss as to how I was going to apply olive oil to Baby's scalp then let it sit and not have it all over the house now that she is an active girl. It was a mystery.

Until I discovered plan B...er....C?

Coconut oil, which is a solid at room temperature but softens at skin temperature and is excellent for dry skin.

So I began slowly massaging it in, and the cradle cap started coming off just as I was massaging the oil in, that has never happened before!

And it ALL came off Sunday night. I just did a thorough inspection (Tuesday afternoon) to see if we had to apply again to take care of what developed afterwards, and there is nothing but a beautiful, healthy scalp.

It is wonderful! And I have a new secret weapon for cradle cap I hope to never use again!

Baby Update: The Next Day

Well, except for the fact that she is talking more than ever, you would never know that Baby had her cyst removed yesterday. She is happy and playing, eating well, and having fun. We even made Christmas cake today.

She does have a small red mark on her cheek, and red circles from where the sensors were on her chest, but that is it!

Such a blessing!

I did forget to tell you one story yesterday. When the anesthesiologist came to take Baby I just looked at him and said that no, I had changed my mind and we would be going home now. He smiled at me and said I should give her extra hugs and kisses and then he had to take her. I was only partially kidding....

Baby Update

Good Morning,

I just wanted to let you know that Baby did great this morning at the procedure to remove the cyst from her mouth.

She woke up on her own, but did not fuss to be nursed or to eat (could be the one and a half cinnamon buns and mandarin orange she ate for supper!)

She did good while they were taking her vitals and we were getting her ready, mostly because there was all that new stuff to see. Once we gave her the medicine to make her nice and drowsy she got very docile and was a sweet little dead weight. When the anesthesiologist came for her, he carried her in a nice snuggle, she lolled her head way back and gave him a suspicious “do I know you” look but did not cry or fuss. We only waited about 15 minutes in the waiting room before being called back to the recovery room and she was already awake and protesting. (strange room and strange drugs that make everything spin) Her vitals were all perfect so we were able to unhook her from almost everything except the sensor on her toe and cuddle and nurse her. It ended up that mommy held her in a mostly reclined position while daddy entertained her. She quickly bounced back to her old self.

She was scheduled at 8:00AM and we were home at 9:30.

Baby had very little medication to sedate her because it was such a quick procedure, so by mid afternoon she should be back to normal, just lots of soft cool food today (once she realizes that means canned peaches and pears with a side of ice cream she will be thrilled!)

The way God so carefully took care of her, us and all the details is amazing. The words that come to mind are"...give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever."

Thank you so much for praying for Baby during this, it was very clear to us that God loves her very much.

Who needs the gym...

...I spent the day chasing after a new walker who is not as steady on her feet as she would like to think.

It might just be easier to wrap everything in the house in bubble wrap.

Of course, no way would I trade today for a quiet day, it was great! (Except for when she fell and gave her noggin a floggin', I could pass on that part.)

Big Night...

...Baby started walking at 14 months 1 day...just in time to welcome Daddy home.

Baby Update

Baby is scheduled for her outpatient surgery on Monday November 23, first thing in the morning.

God has blessed us with a friend who works at the surgery center who gave us a whole run down on the place, so even though she will not be there that day, she has been an enormous encouragement. She also confirmed that taking the cyst out will be simple, and Baby will probably only be away from us for about 10-20 minutes. We will get to hold her while she takes the sleepy medicine that will ensure she forgets it all and is calm, it is once she is a bit...ummm...loopy that they take her.

I just keep reminding myself that God has a good plan and He loves our girls more than we could ever understand. Actually, I am holding on to that truth with 2 fists at the moment!

Overwhelmed...again? still?

We took Baby to the ENT doctor today to have the cyst in her mouth looked at, and he said it will not go away on its own, it needs to be removed. And because children will not sit there happily and let you do it, it is outpatient surgery...I have to call tomorrow to schedule it.

It really is too much.

How do people who don't know the Lord handle life in general without Him?

Baby's Thank-You Notes

After making the invitations, the decorations, the cakes (and here) and the goodie bag cookies it seemed silly to buy thank you notes, so I made those too.

I used the same red paper and ribbon as in the the invitations (as well as a different designer paper from the same package) in addition to a nice matching orange paper. I also used the same stamp for the lady bug as was used for the decorations.

Here is the front of the card - the lady bug is actually peaking out from the inside of the card.


And here is the inside view...


Our company just left on Saturday morning, so writing the thank you notes is a top priority this week!

The Goodie Bag

I never know what to put in goodie bags that find that balance between fun and not breaking the bank. So this time I opted to bake sugar cookies and decorate them like ladybugs. I used made enough icing from the first cake to also decorate the cookies.

Here are the cookies all wrapped up to be handed out - adults too, of course!

Here is what the cookies looked without the wrap...or right before being devoured:


And here is the basket of cookies just waiting to thank our wonderful guests!

And, of course, there is the ribbon from the invitations and the lady bug from the sandwich picks making additional appearances!

The Decorations

The decorations for Baby's party were simple because she has a big sister who REALLY wanted to help because this big sister loves her Baby.

The first part I had to sneak in during nap times: Sandwich picks to decorate the homemade rolls for the sandwich bar (at first I was going to make the sandwiches and then decided that because we had picky eaters it would be best to let everyone assemble their own!)



Then Miss Pear helped me make ladybugs to decorate the windows:



We used the foam sheets you can get at the crafting stores for about $1, and each sheet of red was good for 2 bugs with a useful remnant for another project for Christmas, (So 3 sheets of red and 1 sheet of black), some google eyes, some glue, and a sharpie marker for the line.

It was such a bright sunny day that we could not get a good picture of the lady bugs above the two windows, so you might have to squint to see them! And I somehow neglected to take a picture of the buffet to show you how cute the sandwich picks looked in action. Oh well. And the sandwich picks were in action because the children LOVED them!

Birthday Party Cake

In some ways Thursday's cake for Baby's actual birthday was a trial run, it was just for family, so if it ended up looking funny or something it was not going to be a huge embarrassment! So that gave me lots of confidence to just try some things. I was really happy with the way it looked, but I thought that the icing in the lady bug did not taste great because of all the coloring paste used to get the colors that dark. It still tasted good, but I felt that I needed to work on it a little bit more, so for Saturday's party I played it safe and just used simple chocolate and cherry icing (the cherry icing is made by using the juice from a jar of maraschino cherries to flavor and color your icing). The results looked like this:



I was THRILLED with the flavor, but liked the way the other one looked better. So next time I would make a cherry icing and then tint it red, and I would make the icing very chocolaty and then tint it black.

And the cake must have been delicious because at the end of the party we had 2 pieces left!

The baker was very happy....

Birthday Cake

This is the birthday cake I made and decorated for Baby. All things considered, I am pretty pleased with the results because I think you can actually tell it is supposed to be a ladybug...it was my first attempt at really decorating a cake and not just icing it and putting stuff on top.

The cake is a banana cake from The Cake Bible. I iced it first in a white icing and then made red icing, and chocolate icing which I then tinted black. The round shape was achieved by finding an appropriate sized bowl and placing it upside down on the cake to get a nice outline to work with.

Baby's Birthday

Baby's birthday and birthday party were wonderful! We still have company all this week so I thought I would just share some of the birthday fun with you. As always the pictures won't actually show you our family...at least no faces...but it will show you some of the fun things we did.

I thought I would start with Baby's Birthday invitations that I made.


The stamp set is Love Bug from the current Stampin' Up catalog (it is one of the hostess sets). The paper is also from there and is Real Red, Whisper White and Summer Picnic Design Paper. (The ribbon is from Michael's)

Here is a close up of the bugs.


The stamp is just the outlines and then I colored them in.

(I cannot find a link to the stamp set because you can only order it if you host a party, but you can see other examples of cards using this stamp set here.)

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is Baby Pear's first birthday!

It seems almost impossible that she could be 1 already! And then when we think about all that has happened with her it seems hard to believe she is only 1! We are so blessed by her, and so thankful for the healing the Lord has already brought into her little life!

Between her big blue eyes and her huge smile she is a real sweetie! She is curious and interested in everything, and loves her big sister very much.

We are celebrating in fine style today, just our family, and are then having a party with 2 other families on Saturday!

My Little Goalie

I was watching Baby play in the floor yesterday, and was once again marveling at her flexibility as she played. Her wide spread sitting position she developed while in her harness has not abated at all. She often plays with her bum flat on the ground and her legs in a w position.

In fact, watching her yesterday I realized that if she ever wants to play hockey she will be a phenomenal goalie as she already has the butterfly style down! In fact, it is so good that there is no 5 hole to shoot through. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, pictures are available here, and the 5 hole is the between the legs hole.)

These are the things that Canadian mommies notice.

What sports are your little ones shoo-ins for? (Besides sprinting!)

Salt and Light

Sometimes I wonder what God's purpose was in putting us where we are, and sometimes I think we catch glimpses of it. Often we feel so counter culture in Southern California that we feel like aliens (oh, wait, according the USCIS we are! Which is pretty funny because I was pretty sure I was born on earth....)

But this past two weeks we have seen clearly how different our parenting styles are from those around us. Actually, to be perfectly honest how different our family life is.

All around me I hear moms lamenting the trial of summer break and counting down the return to school, discussing daycare provider options, preschool options, and the assorted costs but how it is so worth it. That they don't have to teach their child letters and numbers, the school will do that. That they are looking forward to the fall so that they can have their time back again.

I realize that my heart, actually the very core of my being is different.

Let me see if I can explain.

This week is vacation Bible school at our Church, and I am thrilled for Miss Pear to be there. Our church does an excellent job of really teaching the Bible to even the youngest, and while there are crafts, they are not busy work, they are to teach (you should just see the wall of Jericho craft! I would take a picture but it is looking pretty beat up from all the re-enactments that have occurred since Sunday morning!)

So Miss Pear is at Church each morning this week.

And Baby was beside herself without her sister, she got so excited when I asked if we should go get sister. They love each other.

And as for me? Let's just say that on Monday I was 15 minutes early to pick up Miss Pear. I love having my girls with me! I delight in the blessing the Lord has given me in my family! And I really did miss my sweet daughter for the 3 hours she was away from us yesterday morning.

But today I will take her back again because she is having so much fun, and learning so much, and because for 1 week Mommy can subscribe to the "suck it up, Cupcake" school of thought.

Being counterculture is not bad, from what I can tell it is making me a whole lot happier!

Peach Baby Food

In all the peachy goodness around here it was actually kind of fun last night to cut up cherries to dry!

But we love peaches...all of us...especially Baby.

So I am making lots of peach baby food and decided to figure out how much this is costing me!

I bought about 12 dozen peaches on sale for $0.47 per pound. The only thing that stopped me from buying more was the selection....

Each bag of a dozen cost on average $2.00, so 6 peaches cost $1.

Today I pealed and pitted 6 peaches and ran them through the food processor and got 18 ice cubes of peaches, and 2 cubes is about the same as one jar of baby food in the stores.

We made the equivalent of 9 jars of peach baby food for $1, or $0.11 a jar.

Needless to say I am making lots of baby food with these peaches! This is pretty much the rock bottom price on peaches for the year, but even buying fruit and veggies at the "regular price" still results in substantial savings over buying the jars.

The Cost of Baby Food

Over the July long weekend I had some catch-up projects to complete. This worked great because it was hotter than blazes outside, and my husband wanted nothing more than a restful weekend at home.

One of my many projects was to make baby food.

Baby's favorite food is sweet potatoes. I am convinced that she would eat nothing but sweet potatoes if we let her! While I am sure that taste is the biggest issue, the fun texture and ability to get it in her eyebrows is surely a huge factor as well.

While I was making my 2 batches of sweet potatoes I started to wonder exactly how much I was saving. So I calculated how much each cube or blob of sweet potato cost. Each blob came in at just under $0.13. I ended up with 2 sizes: ice cube sized (qty 24) and #30 scoop size (slightly larger, qty 34). I would say that 2 ice cubes is about the size of a jar at the store, and for the sake of ease of calculations we are going to ignore the fact that the #30 scoops are larger). So I am getting the equivalent of one jar of baby food for $0.26.

The bonus is that I know exactly the quality of that food because I carefully cut out any soft spots or scars, and steamed them.

How much work was this?

Well, I pealed and chopped 4 sweet potatoes, popped them in the steamer (2 batches), ran each batch through the food processor adding water that was used to steam the potatoes to get the consistency I needed and to get the mixture actually going, then I filled the ice cube trays and used the scoop to drop little mounds on wax paper and popped it in the freezer. The next day I moved all the cubes into freezer bags for storage. Now I just pull out what I want and pop it in the microwave or thaw it gently in the fridge if I remember in the morning. So very little work for the savings and quality.

The Mommy Bible

...no, not the kind that is the guide to being a mommy, God is still showing me the way on that one, for which I am am thankful because we would be in trouble if I was on my own!

What I mean is that you only have to look at my Bible to know I am a mom.

If the stickers stashed in there did not give it away, some other things might....

....like the pages that Miss Pear crinkled in her little hands when she was too little to know how to flip but loved the crinkle pages.

....like the crinkled pages from when I could keep Miss Pear occupied for a long time by just letting her flip through my Bible to feel and hear the pages.

....like the page in Hebrews that sports a huge pen mark across it and part of the next page, also courtesy of Miss Pear.

....or like Baby's addition yesterday when in her excitement of discovering the crinkly pages (I don't use my study Bible to read to the girls, I use a NIrV Bible, so simpler, but still a full on Bible without the crinkly pages). Baby's addition was to almost rip out half a page of Genesis. I lovingly taped it back in while assuring her that while it is great to get excited about God's Word, when we talk about digesting God's Word we don't mean literally, so please don't pull the pages out....

All is Good

Baby's follow up with Ortho went very well. Her hip test looked great, and the x-ray showed things moving right along...this time we could even see the hip cup developing too! The sides are still mismatched as the impacted side has a some catching up to do, but the doctor is very happy.

We don't have to go back until NOVEMBER!

So our slow and steady miracle continues.

I have learned that much of life is a slow and steady miracle, and the Lord is definitely teaching me to see them, which is such a tremendous gift!

Now my little slow and steady miracle is in her crib and snoozing...another sweet miracle, she falls asleep almost immediately just about every night.