Student of Awesomeness

A refresher course of important life lessons have recently been brought to my attention by my 5.5 month old:  

• Be soft.

• Try not to pee in your own eye.

• Sing everything, every day.

• If you roll over, you can surely roll back again.

• Rocking chairs make everything better.

• Those we love are easily trained with kisses.

• “No” is not supposed to be funny. 

At the same time, so has a crash course in surprises on how it is that:

• A being so small can generate such strength, such pee, and such joy.

• His fingernails are like claws regardless of how often I trim them, and mine look about like they did when I was working as a field biologist

• He can make me laugh so much and shower so little.

• He has the ability to get jokes and humor at such a young age, and I have become the World's biggest, silliest clown.

• He emulates actions immediately after seeing them, and I pretty much never swear anymore as a result. Yes, that includes while driving!

Life lessons and surprises, as is usually the case, have led me to one of my many happy places: the kitchen. Deciding to make my own baby food was easy for the following reasons:

• I love food.

• I love to cook. The exceptions to this are I am sick, I am pregnant, or I am in someone else's kitchen, in which case I like to drink wine and watch them cook :)

• It's easy.

• It's cheap.

• It's not as time-consuming as people think, if you already cook for yourself anyways. 

• I'm a control freak when it comes to knowing what my kid is putting in his mouth.

• In order to have a shelf-life of 2 years, processed baby food has to be boiled twice. It's pretty much a filler and a great thing to have on-hand for camping trips and emergencies.

Have you recently had any refresher or crash courses in life? Where do they lead you? In any case, I hope it is somewhere warm and delicious and full of good energy :) 

Fuel with Chocolate

I don't do this every morning, but sometimes chocolate is a joyous way to welcome the day, whether you are training for a race, a walk with your dog, or you've had strep throat, are totally wiped out from your antibiotic regime, and you just want to take a trip to the mailbox. In addition, every Harry Potter nerd out there knows that chocolate is the best possible medicine after a run-in with Dementors :)

Oatmeal is an amazing superfood. It is good for your skin, inside and out. It lowers cholesterol and helps the body to eliminate uric acid. Recently, I read that it is also good for breastfeeding mothers because it helps keep up your milk supply. It is full of B vitamins (natures stress/anxiety medicine), and internally soothing for those of us with IBS. Finally, it is loaded with delightful carbohydrates, which your brain needs to function and your body uses to burn fat. 

Oatmeal + chocolate is just a result of keeping my bag of chocolate chips next to the raisins and almonds in the cupboard. Chocolate by association.

Chocolate Trail Mix Oatmeal
1/2 c whole oats
1 c water
1/4 c raisins
1/4 c whole unsalted almonds
1/8 c chocolate chips or chunks
Bring water to boil. Add oats and reduce heat to medium. Cook to desired consistency & texture. Remove from heat. Put in bowl. Add raisins, almonds, and chocolate chips.

Some people like to make their oats with milk, which is very tasty and hearty. I've always made mine with water as old habits die hard. Of course, chopped, lightly toasted almonds are delicious in this if you have the time. I am not a huge coconut person, but I imagine that would also be delicious in this. The truth is, a lot of things would probably be good in this, but I have this weirdness with mixing too many foods together at once, especially for breakfast.          

Another breakfast favorite is chocolate banana yogurt. Banana with chocolate is a habit I picked up while pregnant and have not been able to shake. I'll admit, this one is better as a post-workout breakfast just because it's basically a glycemic injection without a complex carbohydrate source.

Chocolate Banana Yogurt
1/2 c plain yogurt (I like the soury taste of plain but vanilla is yummy too)
1/2 banana, sliced
1/8 c chocolate chips or a tsp of baking powder
Mix all delicious ingredients together! Yum.

Perhaps your fuel of choice does not include chocolate? Maybe you are sweet enough already? In any case, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so whether you inhale it in the car on your way to work or nibble at it over the morning paper, fuel wisely, and have a great Easter week!

Secrets to a Perfect Jogging Stroller Run

Number of hours spent at Baby H's first Padres game: 1.5. Number of hotdogs consumed: One. Number of beers consumed: None. Number of kisses given: at least 12 per inning. 

It may be a few years before he is the ideal baseball game companion, but this baby boy is turning out to be a pretty good jogging partner. 

Upon finally figuring out the secrets to a perfect jogging stroller run, my elated brain decided it would be a good idea to sign up for my first post-baby 15K in July. As the days passed, I found that I could run for 30-minute stretches without my hamstrings and hips burning (and eventually tuckering out), and my confidence grew. Thing is, so did my desire to run it without Baby H. I think his current jogging stroller limit is up to just over 60 minutes. He loves being outside, and I am sure by July, could hang for the full 80 million hours it is actually going to take me to run the thing. But why? BAH is going to be here. Brother #3 and LTG are going to be here (and are running as well). More realistic is a 5K option for Baby H's first race, so this Momma has decided to leave her chubbo baby behind for this one and focus on having fun with him while training. I can't wait to see him and his Daddy at the finish line this year!

What are the secrets to the perfect jogging stroller run? 

The truth is that there is no secret. You will figure out what works for your stroller on the terrain and climate you are dealt. But here is what Baby H and I have figured out for running on a flat course in the perfect climate (yeay, San Diego!):

1. Treat your jogging stroller like a bicycle. Check tires, hand brakes (if applicable), straps, foot brakes, and baby harness prior to your run. Probably not a bad idea to carry a tire patch kit, if applicable (it is on the Jeep Overland Limited model).
2. Bring water, even for a 20 minute run, especially if you have taken a very long preggo-post-baby hiatus. It's basically like beginning running all over again with a totally different body, especially if you're breastfeeding.
3. When running one-handed, keep your stroller hand in the center of the bar. Don't leave it on whatever side it would be on if you were using two hands. Why would anyone do that? I don't know, but I did it for a while, and it made steering really hard :)
4. Keep your elbows and arms extremely loose! Make sure they are bent, and you are leaning over your stroller. You won't trip on it, I promise. This saves a ton of energy. 
5. Carry some old towels with you in the car in case you want to wipe it off or put it next to something you don't want to get grimy or muddy (if there is mud).    

Just remember, the more you do it, the more you will figure out that often times, the real accomplishment is just getting out the door :)

The Forecast Calls for a Generation of Overly-Protected Children

Getting ready to brave a walk with the possibility of rain AND wind in the forecast. At 4.5 months, Baby H sees the Bjiorn and waves his arms and legs, laughing in excitement.

“Don't even think about going on a hike if your baby is under 1 month. Babies this age are just too young to be exposed to the sun, the possibility of bad weather, and the jostling that comes from walking on rough terrain…An infant [described in this article as “1-5 month olds”], especially one not used to the confinement of a front carrier, will last no more than 20 minutes. Older babies may make it up to an hour before the cranky, hungry, and wet diaper factors set in.” (source: Babycenter.com)

I have recently heard that it is either “too cold, too hot, or too sunny to walk with a baby”, and then I come across this garbage. How sad and disappointed I feel knowing that there are so many people out there subscribing to this information.

What is jostling, exactly? Does that encompass any movement? Does walking “jostle” an infant? Where is the proof, in the existence of our species, that we should not be “exposed to the sun” until we are one month old? What is “bad weather”? Would that also include the stagnant, cesspool air of a daycare center? And what does this author mean, "the confinement of a front carrier"? Versus the confinement of being locked in the house all day or worse, in a stroller?? 

Maybe Baby H is unique, but he's been taking jostling, confining walks in bad weather since he was 5 days old. These types of articles are designed, whether intentional or not, to get new moms and dads to abandon their amazingly wonderful instincts for fear and anxiety. It makes me sick knowing that so many kids will not feel the sun on a warm day or the feel the nip of a cold wind or smell the rain until they are probably well into school-age.