Read This, Not That!

I like to read. I usually read non-fiction books about health, nutrition, parenting or something biblical or based in christianity... although I love to read fiction, I have a hard time finding books I like.

My two most recent reads would fall into the parenting category.

We are "attachment parents" through and through... I'm not sure what would possess me to read a book that even mentions crying it out! But I did! The book started out with some great information about sleep patterns and nap timing... but once you get into the actual advice it was junk! The idea of letting Gabriel cry for an hour at nap time and then indefinitely at night makes me sick to my stomach.

The book I'm referring to is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Weissbluth.
I do not recommend it at all! Not that anyone asked my opinion... but just in case you wondered!

The book I DO like is called Night Time Parenting by Dr. Sears. We love Dr. Sears anyways... so it is no surprise that we liked this book. Dr. Sears books are what introduced us to attachment parenting in the first place and from them we learned to trust our intuition as parents rather than follow schedules or allow our babies to cry.
This book is much more aligned with our thinking. I truly believe that a child cries to communicate and not manipulate and as the parent it is our job to keep our babies feeling comfortable and give them a general feeling of "rightness"

I know this is a touchy subject... but these are just my thoughts!
Peace,
Nikki

Monday Is Library Day!

September 1st marked the first day of our preschool year! Each Day has a theme and Monday is library day!

Here we are at the Henrico Library!

Bastian reading on the floor!

He really does like the library... he just likes being grumpy more!

Gman LOVES the library! He loves to crawl around and pull books off of the shelves!

Every time we walk in the library Bastian takes a little pencil and a tiny sheet of paper and he writes a "text message" for daddy. Daddy loves to get his messages when he gets home from work.

We love library day!

Peace!

Nikki

Gabriel is 8 months old!

Madness! I cannot believe our baby dude is 8 months old today!

He is roughly 19 lbs and like a billion inches long. Actually, we had a sick baby visit last week and the doctor weighed him but did not measure length... So I have no idea how long he is. More than 29 inches but less than 100.

He crawled for the first time about 3 days ago. But he still just manages to work his way places, but nobody is sure how. We look and he'll be in one place and a few minutes later he'll be across the room... nobody knows how, but he does it!

He is becoming more and more amazed by Bastian. Bastian knows and loves this! He loves to sit and watch his big brother and Bastian loves to make him crack up. Their favorite thing to do right now is scream back and forth at each other during breakfast... awesome right?

He still LOVES O'Reilly! I'm pretty sure that if he didn't need me to feed him that he  would just cling to O'Reilly all day. He loves the stinking dog more than he loves us... we are pretty sure of that. The good thing is that O'Reilly loves him back!

Happy 8 Months G-man!!

Peace,
Nikki

GratiTuesday- 3 Loads of Dishes!!

Today was spent in the kitchen! It was a cooking fest to end all cooking fests! 

We were running low on baby food, so I had to whip up a batch of Gman's tried and true favorites that don't upset his little system. As well as some new foods that we are venturing into. So far we have been stuck in  the rut of Plums, Prunes, Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans.  This time we are trying Acorn Squash, Eggplant and Peaches! Exciting world out there!  

After the baby fooding was done I had to make breakfast for Tony for the week. Which was just a simple Breakfast Casserole. I cook one before each work week and he has a yummy & hot  breakfast all week long. 

Next was the seeds from the Acorn Squash! When I was making the baby food it occurred to me that I could roast the seeds! I love seeds of pretty much any kind and I hate to waste, so this was an awesome discovery!  

Next was (and is) the most exciting part! Fruit Leather! I have no idea how it will turn out because it takes 12-18 hours to make in the oven.  The recipes that I found were for one fruit. But I'm not one to follow directions.. so I am trying sweet potato- apple leather. I'm excited to give it a try in the morning!

Somewhere in there I made a mediocre dinner. For real.. it was boring.

The madness resulted in 3 full loads of dishes in the dishwasher! While I am not a huge fan of loading/ unloading the dishwasher... the fact that I did today means that we have plenty of food on the table. We have the means to prepare our own nourishing foods and that the Lord is keeping watch over our family.  For that I am grateful.

Peace,

Nikki

World's Largest Marshmallows & Belle Isle

Blah blah blah health food smealthfood!

 The other day while shopping  for organic something or other at Martins I ran across the biggest marshmallows in the world! So I pretty much had to buy them and then we had to make s'mores with them.

We had our friends Andy and Danielle over for a late Birthday Shindig for Andy... being the rockstars that we are we bought him a meat thermometer.  Cool right?

They were too big to fit on a graham cracker! They were insanely messy... it was so dumb.

And here is the sad part... they were really gross! I don't think anyone finished even one! And nobody wanted s'more! ( I'm a hoot!) They all met their doom in the fiery pit of the fire pit.  Danielle took the rest of the marshmallows home for a marshmallow fight... I think they are good for that purpose, but that's about it. 

After church today we decided that we needed to check out Belle Isle again, It has been a while since our last trip.  The weather was perfect! We walked out on the rocks for a while, Bastian and Tony tossed rocks into the water, we watched bare chested men with puppies flirt with the ladies, we watched a bunch of people try to look cool and fall in the water and then we watched a Rottweiler haul a piece of driftwood larger than himself out of the water! What a great Sunday!

Coolest Dog Ever! 

Peace!

Nikki

Happy Birthday to Me!

On August 20th I turned the big 25! That's right friends, I can now rent a car! We were in VA beach with friends and it was a great way to spend  the day! (With the exception of Bastian yakking all day long!)

When we got home there was a mysterious box on the table... When I opened it I found these!

My sweet thang noticed my ridiculous excitement over the stainless steel cups at Michie Tavern and he bought me eight 16oz cups and four 32oz cups for my birthday! I was so excited! We are one step closer to being completely plastic free! ( Our goal is by Jan 1st to be completely plastic free... I sure hope we make it!)

So anyways... whatta guy! I must say I feel like a lucky lady every day anyways... but I feel super special when my dude pays attention to my ramblings and then buys me some sweet cups!

Peace!

Nikki

America's Divine Destiny & Restoring Honor Rally & DC Fun!

Tony and I were lucky enough to get tickets to "America's Divine Destiny" at the Kennedy Center on August 27th. It was an amazing experience. We were super lucky to be a part of it. 

     We walked from our hotel on Wednesday night to see how far  it was (Tony would be leaving around 4am to try to get tickets for the event!) We got there around 6pm and the line  was around the building! Tickets wouldn't be available until 10am the next day! We decided that Gabriel and I would stay, and Tony and Bastian would walk to the hotel get the car then I would go back to the hotel room with the boys and Tony would camp out at the Kennedy Center all night in hopes of getting a ticket. While I was in line Glenn Beck came and talked, prayed, signed books, bought pizza... some people in line were going crazy over him!  I think he's an ok guy... He has some great ideas, but I could do without the waterworks! The ladies around us in line wanted to marry him or kidnap him and take him home... I'm not sure which! It was freaky either way!   The great thing about it was they gave us all tickets and let everyone go home at 9pm! The show was sold out 11hours before tickets were supposed to be available!  

In line for tickets!

The event itself was awesome! The entire purpose was to pray for an American Revival. They  had amazing speakers like Miles McPherson from The Rock Church in San Diego. His message was so motivating. I love that his message was intended to get the Christian off the couch and out in the world. Tony and I definitely feel like the Lord is guiding us out into the world so we were able to relate to him big time! Lives are not saved on your drive to and from church... It was great. 

Another great speaker was Dave Roever He has a sad story, but he was a riot. He had a great message about why we should never give up and that God has a plan for us.   I loved him!

Chuck Norris was another speaker. It cracked me up that he was there, I think he's a great guy but to be honest I was el bored-o during his speech! 

The event as a whole was awesome. Beck invited thousands of Pastors, Rabbis and other church leaders. He stated that many churches have gone soft and we need to remain diligent about keeping God in our country. It was such an amazing experience! The best part was the we had both boys with us and they both slept the entire time!

We left the Kennedy Center at 11pm  and had to walk through the pitch black woods for 2 miles through DC with 2 kids. Can you say MORONS! I was so tired, but I was able to sprint-walk the entire time. I am certain that my pupils were the size of dinner plates and that I could have fought off a bear with all of the adrenalin pumping through my body. I was horrified to say the least. 

The next day was the big "Restoring Honor'' Rally. It was the same idea with some fresh speakers.  The little men were exhausted and a little tough to wrangle... I spent a good chunk of the day sitting on our blanket rocket Gman and playing Hulk vs. Wolverine  with Bastian. I missed a fair amount of the rally so I am pretty excited that I was able to go the night before. 

Here are some photos!

Before America's Divine Destiny we were able to spend some time wandering around DC. We checked out some Monuments, fed some pigeons, had a sword fight in the park and then went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Bas had been pestering us to see dinosaurs for quite some time and we were finally able to show him! Tony and I realized that we had never seen a dinosaur before either... how crazy is that!! 

We logged about 13 miles on foot on Friday and Saturday... by the time that we got home we were SPENT! Getting out of bed on Sunday was tough for everyone! But it was definitely worth it! 

Peace!

Nikki