Ghouls and Zombies and Worms, Oh My!

Halloween is on Thursday! I am so excited for Alexa's first Halloween. Her costume is ready to go and so is her treat bag.

In the spirit of this ghoulish holiday, I decided to look up some little kid safe snacks. I found TONS of options online. After combing the internet for some super cool (read: inexpensive and easy) snacks to make, here are my three favorites...

Ghost Toast - I plan on using raisins instead of currants.

Apple Pie Salsa - I mean seriously, this just looks delicious.

Bowl of Worms - there are so many options with this one and the sensory stimulation is awesome!

I also had to include Monster Paws because let's face it, they are so cool and who doesn't love a good popcorn hand, but please be aware that popcorn is not safe for kids under 3 years old.  

Pumpkin Painting

With Halloween coming up, we decided to let Alexa paint her pumpkin since she is still too small to carve her own jack o'lantern. Painting pumpkins was so much fun! I set her high chair up with saran wrap (for an easy clean up), a towel on the back (because we stained the high chair cover last time when I missed some paint) and finger paints (with a drop of baby wash in each blob of paint). After it was all set up I stuck a naked baby in the chair and let her go crazy. She had a blast!

 Ready, Set...Paint your pumpkin!

                                                                  Look who's so big!

Painting pumpkins is so much fun!













What kind of Halloween activities do you like to do with your little ones?

Mommy Makeover - Week 16...Getting Shredded

This is a whole new week my friends! I have officially upped the ante and I have added the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred to my work out plan. It's hard. It's brutal. I don't think I've ever sweat this much before after only TWENTY MINUTES of working out. LET'S GET SHREDDED!

I actually just finished Day 4 of the Shred. I am wiped out! I am pretty sure that it is getting harder every day even though it is still the same level 1 video (unless the evil Jillian is sneaking into my TV and amping up the intensity. - I wouldn't put it past her). UGH! I'm dying!

After this morning's weigh in, I am officially down another .50kg (1.1lb). I am finally off the evil 84 kilo mark! I've been stuck here for weeks. WEEKS! How depressing. Well, moving on. Here we go!

Before signing off, I have an awesome recipe to share with all of you. I found it on the 100 Days of Real Food website. (They have seriously amazing recipes!) It's a whole wheat carrot and applesauce muffin and it's delicious! No added sugar!! Give it a try.

Happy Monday!

8 Activities to Keep Your 8 Month Old Busy

Alexa gets into EVERYTHING these days. She also seems to be getting bored with many of her toys. I'm not ready to buy her a whole bunch of new toys with the holidays right around the corner, so I've come up with some new old ideas to keep my little bean happy, busy and out of trouble.

1. Laundry. Every time I fold laundry Alexa likes to "help", unfortunately her idea of helping means twice as much work for me. Here's how I make it productive for me and fun for her...

Dump all the clean, dry clothes on top of the baby. I keep the laundry basket on the couch so that as I fold things they stay folded, but Alexa has fun playing peekaboo and hiding under the clothes. Sometimes she'll even hand me something to fold!

2. Build a fort. Use a fitted sheet, big bath towels or any blanket and build a fort in the living room. Tuck the sheet around couch cushions or the coffee table to secure your fort. Bring a bunch of toys into the fort and play as long as your little one is interested. You can also play hide and seek or peekaboo in the fort.


3. Get a change of scenery. Something so simple that I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner! Moving into the kitchen, the baby's room or even your bedroom can do wonders to cure boredom and keep a very nosy baby occupied. I keep a few toys under Alexa's high chair to play with while I'm cooking meals, now I let her play on the kitchen floor instead of cooped up in her high chair and she finds these same exact toys 10x more entertaining! I also have a small canvas box in her bedroom with stuffed animals and a puzzle that she doesn't play with very often. When we break that box out she'll play for 20 minutes or more. Take baby into your bedroom and have snuggle time, read a book, play the radio and have a dance party or even bounce her on your bed.

4. Sandbox. If you don't have your own backyard or your own personal sandbox, take baby to a local park or playground to explore in the sandbox. It's a little late to find sand toys now, but a few plastic containers and a scoop or spoon of some kind is all you need! Don't stress if baby eats a little sand either, after all, it's just dirt!

5. Get a cardboard box. Seriously, I don't know why we as parents have not learned that the greatest toy is pretty much free. Babies LOVE cardboard boxes. I don't know what's so great about a cube of cardboard, but it is all the rage with little ones. As soon as your little one can sit up you can sit them in a cardboard box (or laundry basket). Add a couple of small rattles and it's a party! When your little one gets older (12-18 months) replace the toys with some crayons and let them get creative!

6. Finger painting. Alexa LOVES doing crafts and finger painting is at the top of her list. Recently, I let her finger paint her pumpkin for Halloween, but most of the time I just let her go crazy painting the tray of her high chair. This time I put a towel over the high chair and saran wrap on the tray to see if it would make clean up even easier. If you have press n seal wrap, that works likes a charm! I like to have little mementos so I usually start her off with a piece of paper on the tray, but once that is covered it's a free for all. I always add a drop of her baby wash to each blob of paint for easier clean up and we always paint in just a diaper!

7. Tupperware. Babies love Tupperware. It's so versatile. It can be banged, sucked on, chewed on, it holds things, hides things...the possibilities are endless. Set your little one up on the floor and surround them with as many plastic containers as you're willing to wash! You can stack them, hide other small toys or smaller containers under them, or create your own baby rock band.

8. Dance Party. Turn the radio on to YOUR favorite station and rock out with baby. Teach baby to bob up and down and dance alone and then pick him up and spin him around the room. Alexa and I have a daily dance party in the morning while I'm getting my coffee ready. She always enjoys a surprise dance party around the living room or bouncing up and down on our bed.

Gullible Gus and the Boob Butter

Ok, so I pretty much believe anything and everything that I read on the internet, hear on television or that people tell me. I am in fact Gullible Gus. Since moving to Austria, I have become more "aware" of holistic medicine and other at home remedies for colds and whatnot. Since becoming a mom, I have become a big believer in the magical properties of breast milk. (Seriously, it's magical.) A friend sent me a link about all these really cool things you can do with breast milk. I obviously thought it was amazing and set out to see how many cool things I could do with my boob juice, other than the traditional feeding of my child.

Two things, okay three things, jumped out at me immediately...breast milk butter (from here on out formally known as boob butter), breast milk popsicles (boob pops) and breast milk lotion. I decided that it's my mission to test these bad boys out. I started this week with the boob butter. If it's on the internet it is OBVIOUSLY possible!

I read the Breastmilk Butter Recipe and thought "I can totally do this!!" So, I set out to make my very own boob butter. I gathered my supplies...breast milk (check) and a clean glass jar with a lid (double check). I mean seriously, how hard can this be??

I poured 3 1/2 ounces of thawed breast milk into the clean glass jar and began shaking!

And shaking....

And shaking.....

And shaking.....

Are you freaking kidding me? Nothing is happening. It looks EXACTLY the same as when I first poured it in!

But I kept shaking......

And shaking.....

And shaking.....SONOFABEEP! This will never make butter! I am a total idiot.

I shook that stupid jar for an hour. AN HOUR. Do you know how many other things I could have done during that time???? The boob butter did not work. If you try it and succeed, then let me know how you did it.

Next up...boob pops and breast milk lotion. (One of them has to work, right?)

Trick or Treat Bag

Halloween is quickly approaching. It is not a very well celebrated holiday here in Austria, but I still plan on dressing Alexa up and at the very least parading her all around town in her adorable costume on October 31st. Of course, no Halloween costume is complete without a treat bag. Since these are not available here I decided to knit her one myself. I made up the pattern and design myself. About an hour after completing this project, I found an insanely easy and very cute pattern for other treat bags here.

For the Pumpkin Bag:

I used 4.5cm round needles, 3 double pointed needles, a tapestry needle, orange yarn, black yarn and olive green yarn. I started by casting on 60 stitches of orange yarn onto my round needle. I knit until I had approximately 6.5" of material. I then moved my work onto two double pointed needles (30 stitches on each) to create the bottom. I knit approximately 2-3 inches on each side. I used a 3 needle bind-off to seem the bottom together. I then used the tapestry needle and the black yarn to embroider a jack-o-lantern face onto the front of the pumpkin bag.

For the handle:

Using double pointed needles and the green yarn, I cast on 10 stitches and knit in stockinette stitch until I had 11 inches of material. (**In the future I will only knit maybe 6-7 inches of material for the handle) Bind off and then use the tapestry needle and green yarn to sew the handle onto the inside of the pumpkin bag.

My Girl is 8 Months Old!

Look at this adorable face!

Today my little bean is officially 8 months old. This past month has been a whir of sleepless nights, teeth, sitting up on her own, scooting along on her butt, learning to say "Papa", crawling and finally pulling to a stand! I cannot believe she has learned as much as she has in just one month!

We've baby proofed the apartment and Alexa has taught us that there is actually no such thing as baby proofing because she can pull all the rubber "safety corners" off without a problem. We have lowered her bed and she showed us that she doesn't mind because now she can stand up in her crib!

Babyland is now the place where her toys sleep at night, she doesn't sit still for even a minute, so there is no use thinking she will stay and play in Babyland anymore. I'm so curious to see what she will learn to do next. Every single day in the last week she has hit a major milestone. Now things are getting super exciting! (And totally exhausting as well!)

Happy 8 months my little bean!