Preschool Rainbow Cupcake - Pt. 1 Tutorial

Liam was allowed to bring cupcakes to his school for his birthday. The only stipulation was that we bring smaller cupcakes to minimize the amount of sugar and filler before lunch. Oh boy. Making my first set of class cupcakes for the kids!!! I was really excited but for the life of me, we haven't done anything to plan for a “party” so I had no themes or anything planned. My one advice I found in the blog-o-sphere was that toddlers like sweet – plain and simple – stick to chocolate or vanilla. When I thought about the apple spice cake with panuche frosting that I made a couple of weeks ago, I recalled Liam actually barely ate the cake, but boy did he eat that frosting. Okay, simple flavors it will be...but that doesn't mean it has to be simple design.

Awhile ago, we had a friend from our junior college days post her daughter's 1st birthday party pics that included the most beautiful 6-layer rainbow cake with white frosting. Each layer was a different color of the rainbow and there was thick white frosting between all the layers too. Well, I decided to go for it in cuppy cake form. And, I have a mini-muffin tin from our Sunday Champagne Brunch days in college.

I got a basic white cake mix and made the recipe on the box:
1 box mix
1 C. water
1/3 C. veggie oil
3 eggs
Mix with electric mixer for 2 minutes.

Then separate the cake mix evenly into 6 separate small bowls. Add food coloring. I was lucky I didn't have to mix any primaries to get secondary colors. I had 1 pack of those Schilling 4-color liquid droppers with the pointy caps (you know the ones – all our moms had them when we were growing up). But in my recent forays into more talent required types of decorating (eg. Liam's 1st birthday giraffe cake with my first attempt at fondant), I've managed to acquire a few other gel colors which are great as they don't liquify your icing and have super vibrant colors.

I used Wilton gel colors in: violet, copper orange, and sunny yellow.
I used the Schilling liquid colors for: red, blue, green.

I was a little worried that the orange was too dark. I originally bought it because it was my substitute for brown since I didn't think that was appropriate for a child's giraffe cake. But as it turned out, the red was so pale, it was almost pink and that contrasted with the dark orange quite nicely.

Start adding your separate cake mix by spoon. I used a small tea spoon (note I didn't say teaspoon) and only about half of the spoon at that. The cake batter was full enough that it really didn't spread. Being that I was using mini-cupcake papers, I noticed I was already having trouble with fullness. So by the time I got to green, I realized throwing in a couple spoonfuls of water to thin it a little. The colors started to spread and I was chugging along.
Time for the oven. I was a little worried about the fact that my cupcake wrappers were so full because you normally only fill them 2/3 full to allow for rise. As I was using the mini pan, I shaved 4 minutes off so I'd have more time if the centers were liquid and wouldn't really risk burning them.

Oven at 350F degrees for 14 minutes. *

The timer went off, the toothpick went in and came out clean. They were super puffed over the top and running into each other, but they really had a great mushroom top (a la Mario Bros.) Allow to cool, and then frost with white frosting for the striking contrast. I used a new product from Pillsbury that was a pre-star-tipped, canned, pressurized icing tube. It was SO easy!!! But it unfortunately did not have enough frosting for 24 mini-cupcakes (probably would have, but I have made 2 larger cupcake in our silicon pan with the leftover colored cake batter and I frosted those first, oops). Luckily I had a regular can of Pillsbury white frosting as well.

* Tip: Don't preheat your oven until you're almost done with loading up those cupcake papers. It takes forever to load those little guys with 6 different colors and I was dying in the warming kitchen! Remember, this is August in the Sacramento Valley folks. It's hot in here!

Colin 1 month

Our little man is now 1 month old! Hooray.

We weighed him on the home scale and he was over 10 lbs (which means he's grown about a pound and a half since his 2 week appointment at the pediatrician). He's just getting out of his NB sized clothes, which meant I had to return an Easter outfit I got him because of the whole mis-calculating when Easter was thing and had to get a 3m/o size.

The breast feeding thing has been totally worked out. I don't think I make much milk, but obviously he's eating well. He gets about 4oz of formula a day, in the evenings when I'm running a little low. I have not had mastitis and only a little trouble with engorgement if he decides to skip a feeding at night (but I'm grateful for the extra uninterrupted sleep when he does skip). He's had tons of trouble with not pooping though. We're lucky if we get 1-2 actual messy poops in a day; most days are just shi-farts. He's currently very constipated and bloated with gas. He's been farting like a little beany-Brussels sprout. His farts stink. He's definitely bloated. (Yes, I love you my smelly guy)
His eyes are definitely getting lighter and bluer every day. He looks more and more like Liam did at that age, every day. We're starting tummy-time now. I make him do about a minute for every week old he is; his neck is already so strong.

The cats are very cool with hanging out with him. Although, I'm sure Poppy is trying to show her dominance and annoy the hell out of me. She sleeps in his crib whether or not he's in it and she insists on being right next to him when I'm nursing at night.

The best . . . we're starting to get smiles and coos. They're still a little random and not really intentional. But I'll take 'em. :)

32 weeks

So here we are with 2 months left. I don't know which seems shorter or freaks me out more in terms of leaving my classroom unprepared. 8 weeks? 2 months? Either way, I'm still hoping to work up until I go into labor or my doctors refuse to let me work. And either way, it freaks me out because I'm so busy and focused just trying to get my lessons for the next month all squared away and pull off our school's first medieval festival that I haven't had time to put a schedule of lessons for long-term (and as yet undetermined) substitute. Things were so much easier when I knew I was having my baby in the summer. This not knowing thing is awful in the middle of the school year. I go to the doc on Wednesday.

So here's some updates:
Baby B still has no potential names.

He is now the size of a squash, but what does that mean? I know he's definitely bigger than any summer variety squash (like zucchini or crook neck). But does it mean he weighs the same as a squash or that he's the length of a squash? Acorn squash are small but dense. Is he a spaghetti squash? a butternut? (I love butternut squash). All this talk of squash is making me nostalgic - acorn squash puree was Liam's very first solid food!

Home scale says I'm only slightly up from my pre-preggo weight. Only about 1-2 lbs on avg. I made a specific point to ask my high-risk clinic nurse when she called a couple weeks ago for my blood sugar report. My doctor hasn't said anything about the weight. The nurse said that if I'm eating right (following my diabetic diet), snacking frequently, and not feeling hungry or deprived then it's okay to not gain weight. She said I was overweight to begin with (I know) and that the doctor would probably only want a 15lb gain overall. She also reminded me the fastest gain will be in the last 2 months, when I'll probably gain 1lb. week.

Speaking of diet . . . I've been bad lately. I've been sneaking in sugary snacks here and there and everywhere. So this last week I decided I needed to monitor my sugars more than my required 3x week. The worst thing is that my fasting glucose levels have been sneaking up. They're supposed to be <100 and preferably <90. Well, this week I've had several levels higher than 90 and the last two days were just over 100. I'm gonna get in trouble. I MUST have a late night snack of only protein!!!

Aches? The sciatica is easing. A lot in fact. At the beginning of last week it was so bad that I could barely stand. But I think I've finally gotten used to the new mattress (which is heavenly by the way). Since about Wednesday, the pain has just gone away. Ahhhh! I did get some stretching ideas from a coworker who is seeing a PT for his sciatica. They help when I do feel some twinging.

Weirdest moment this week was watching B spin somersaults around my belly. Jon got one of those weird-cool kicks out of it. I just liked watching him go-go-go. He's very active. Doctor said last time that this one might be our athlete...great.

Cravings? Many, but all things I really shouldn't have. Ice cream. Candy. The best was my idea was lays potato chips dipped in See's chocolate.

popeye

Yesterday I did really poorly in terms of my diabetic diet. I was supposed to be monitoring my sugars (Tues, Thurs, Sunday) but completely forgot to take my fasting glucose and then started my day off right with a giant chocolate chip cookie made by Jon the night before. I spent the rest of the day maintaining a diet of higher carb:protein ration than I'm supposed to. I also spent the day napping which was probably an effect of too many carbs.

So by dinner time, I was feeling icky and Jon made me a dinner of asian-flavored chicken breast and a spinach & tomato salad. Liam got plain seasoned chicken breast and nothing else as he doesn't normally eat any veggies and is very particular about his carbs (my kid doesn't eat noodles - what toddler doesn't eat buttered noodles?!!!). But he came over to my bowl of salad while I was eating it and reached right in and grabbed a spinach leaf. Wuh?! I don't use dressing; this was a plain boring spinach flavored spinach leaf. He gobbled it down. Then he grabbed more. Liam spent more time eating my salad (he had a couple of tomato slices too) than he ate his chicken. Too funny. The only other time we've seen this is when we went out to Black Angus just before meeting Santa Claus and he was eating ice berg lettuce off of Jon's and my mom's salads. Those were covered in dressing so we figured it was the dressing he liked. But no, maybe it's the crunch of the leaves. Can't say I'm complaining about a toddler who'll eat his leafy greens.

long day at work

It's my fault it was a long day. I left on Friday telling myself that I would get into work one day over the weekend to check on my exam and make sure it was congruent with what I taught. Well, of course I didn't do that.

There's was no way I could have done so on Saturday because the power went out all over the county. That also threw my plan of doing skads of laundry out the window too. We ended up going to my Granny's and visiting with her and my mom while we did about 3 loads (my poor widdle guy had no more clean warm jammers left and of course he was filthy when we went down). Best part of the day . . . my son ate a whole chicken soft taco from Taco Bell (picked at it of course) and then he ate chow-mein at dinner! This is the kid who only eats protein! He NEVER EVER EVAH eats noodles (seriously, whose kid won't eat buttered noodles or mac-n-cheese?) but he had his fill of my Granny's dinner. :)

Yesterday we ended up getting a babysitter while Jon and I looked at some real estate available in town. It was a bit of a let down considering there's nothing decent in the price point we're still stuck at. Everything is tiny, 2 bedroom 1 bath less than 1,000 sq. feet kinds of places. Then you add that they all are suffering some kind of major structural malfunction like mold, or non-permit extensions. Ugh. We apologized to the new realtor for wasting her time on us. Then we hit WalMart and got the little things we've been needing. It was nice to go without the boy since it was so crowded, being Sunday afternoon and just weeks before Christmas. Forgot to get a battery for the scale; I still have no idea what my current weight gain is, but I am 24 weeks today :)

So I got up early and went in and got my test all ready. Then I found myself staying until 4:30. Somewhere along the drive home I realized I forgot to eat lunch today and have been surviving the last 5 hours on a diet coke, 100 cal pack of pretzels, and a big handful of almonds. Oops, bad me - not good for either diabetics or pregnant ladies to go that long without eating. Had to bring home work too since I'm trying to get their work graded as quickly as possible (new notebook thing I'm trying) as the quarter ends in 7 school days!!! Ack! So a lot of them turned in their notebooks today and the rest are due tomorrow. Plus the tests have essay questions that need to be graded before I can run the test through the scanner. I posted on my facebook today that if teachers got paid for all the overtime hours and work we take home, then we'd make as much as physicians. Ain't that the truth.

Jon dashed off to pay the rent (oops - it's the 6th) and get us some hamburger at the carniceria. I had to change my very stinky boy's diaper and he gabbed the whole time at me. Let me tell you, this blue kool-aid (berry blast?) has made for interesting diapers in the turquoise spectrum. I fed the cats and came back out to find my boy had done a fabulous job stacking his cars/trucks in a fine balancing act. What's more amazing is that I got him to leave it alone long enough to let me photo it before he tossed them all to the floor in his Godzilla-like glee.
Now I'm super excited because my Hubster is making burgers with onion, garlic, and crumbled bacon mixed IN THE MEAT!!! Should be SOOOO tasty.

morton salt (when it rains . . .)

Today my day began at 4:15. . .

Liam woke up in a crazy mood and Jon went in to calm him but didn't stay in there long. Consequently, Liam woke up shouting for us. This time Jon was angry so he went in and scolded our son who then screamed for 20 minutes. So at 4:45 I got up with him. After rocking and going out to the living room couch, he finally calmed down enough and I was frankly shocked that he went to sleep again. I actually heard the alarm in my room when I put Liam down, so I just stayed up and made sure to have an extra cup of coffee.

I look like crap. I felt so unattractive today (not that I'm trying to impress the 12 year old boys). My belly really popped last week and it's getting so much colder. But none of my sweaters are long enough to cover my belly. My work maternity shirts are all hotter weather shirts. I felt too casual and frankly I thought I looked worn out and frumpish. If I hadn't been taking my zoloft regularly, I might have dissolved into a puddle of tears when I had to change my pants last minute because I wasn't wearing a belly-panel pair and my naked belly kept peaking out. Alas, there is no money for buying maternity sweaters or blouses or slacks. And Christmas is too far away (in my whirlpool of sorrow). I actually had to wear a dress shirt of Jon's and looked like I was wearing a white tent.

I planned to take my popcorn popper because I had 4 classes who had earned some free time for scoring well on the 100 Facts Quiz. I took the whole she-bang. Popper, oil, salt, mortar & pestle. When I got to school, I realized I forgot the actual popcorn!!! MF! I also rode in the carpool today so I didn't have a car to run to the grocery before school started.

My students are so lucky they didn't try my patience because some heads would have rolled. As it was, they were pretty good today.

I got home and my hubby made some comfort food for me, but Liam (who had not napped all day) chose 10 minutes after I got home to throw his first tantrum of the whole damn day. Bless Jon's heart, he made tollhouse cookies and even made me a half-dozen without chocolate chips.

I took Liam into the shower which was a great chance to try to wash this awful day away. Liam threw a fit getting out.

When I was reading a book to Liam tonight, he was yawning so much we only got through one book (he chose Cinderella and said "pwincess" when I asked him who she was). But rocking wasn't getting him to sleep; Jon came in to ask him if it was time for going to bed. One second he was playing with his blanket, I hugged him closer and got a kiss, he said "nye nye" to me. I tried to get an "Ifuffyou" [i love you] out of him but that next moment he was passed out. Seriously, we were both shocked. Jon put him in the crib, we snuck out, and

. . . that (+ a cookie) made my day better.
:)

Thoughts on Thanksgiving food

This is my 100th post on Blogger. *throws confetti* One of these days I'll find a way to move all my old Livejournal posts over and you can see what fun college was for me ;)

While reading my facebook posts this morning, a comment on an old friend's post was intriguing. Her post yesterday was about brining turkeys. I got pulled into a little mini-discussion on the comments about which brine is best to use. (We use Alton's brine recipe btw) Her mother commented that my friend is so much more adventurous in the kitchen that she had been. Then another older relative of hers commented that she herself had never brined and that [my friend] was truly more adventurous. But I don't see her as adventurous because, well, that's the same way I cook. Which got me thinking . . .

Has our generation really taken leaps and bounds away from our grandmas' cooking?
So here's some things my husband and I couldn't be caught dead without:

• smoked paprika and Worcestershire sauce in my green bean casserole
• brine for my turkey
• a roasting bag for the turkey (or most long term roasting operations)
• bourbon in my pecan pie
• Chinese 5 spice in my apple pie
• bacon for lardon
• ponzu (citrus soy sauce)
• beef stock
• roux
• shallots
• savory sweet potato dishes (instead of candied casseroles)
  

So, my Granny has always been a wonderful cook and did far more things from scratch than my mother. But you must also remember that she was a housewife in the days the TV dinner and the casserole too. She would follow recipes to the letter and they were the kind that pretty much came printed on the side of the can of condensed soup. My mom added a few innovations, mainly the addition of the roasting bag for the turkey (which came out when I was in grade school I think). My grandmother had never used one and was of the basting every 20 minutes generation. The bag, IMO, creates a far superior juicy bird with crispy skin (and it's a heck of a lot easier to clean up the carcass too).

But we just find that the addition of some flavor profiles that my ancestors never would have used regularly are what get me the most praise in my holiday cooking. Like Chinese 5 Spice or ponzu . . . my Granny would never have dared step foot into an Asian grocer to get these ingredients. White housewives just didn't do that way back in the day, even if there had been an Asian grocer in her mid-western world. And yes, now I understand that you can grab these ingredients at your closest mega-supermarket these days, but even 10 years ago I couldn't find them. They just bring our fuller, more rounded flavors. The same with smoked paprika and Worcestershire sauce in my green bean casserole. And woah, let me tell you about my discovery of the savory sweet potato dish about 4 years ago (it was a side for Christmas dinner at my moms, which btw, I always insist on roast beef instead of ham - yeah, I'm a pain in the putoot). I have never had a more requested dish for pot-lucks and holiday dinners (well, other than my bourbon pecan pie). Most people forgo regular mashed spuds in favor of the sweets, and in all honesty, we know it's because they're not candied.

We like to thank Food Network around our house for getting us to try out new ingredients. Imagine if our grandmothers or even our mothers had had access to this channel when we were young and impressionable and picky eaters. On a side note, my hubby's favorite food at Thanksgiving has always been the green bean casserole. But his mother always made the boring recipe from the side of the can. Now, he can't imagine eating any other than my recipe :)

Happy eatings everyone.

DnD widow

Today I got a chance to sleep in a little. Woke up about 2 whole minutes before I heard the little guy yelling to be let outta his crib. My fasting blood sugars have been a little high, but I know it's because I haven't been having my snacks in the evening. But I'm getting used to protein shakes for breakfast.

My mom called today to let me know she was going Christmas shopping and check on the size of appliances we'd like for our gifts. There was a small holiday get together going on down the street complete with firetruck and 15 y/o's death metal band. Then my hubster left me for his DnD game. I'm a widow once again.

So Liam had a protein heavy lunch and then went down for his nap. I don't exactly know when since he was doing gymnastics in his crib. I spent the time doing more searching for Christmas and holiday related crafts appropriate for toddlers. I have come to a couple of decisions: I do not care about glue or glitter, but I do feel uncomfortably about paint projects; we also don't have much money for craft projects :( Also, managed to get 4 loads of laundry done to help keep the scourge of pestilence from spreading. Hot water and bleach on the sheets, blankets, pillow cases, and the bath robes. Liam was so happy when I gave him his Green Ghost all clean and fresh smelling (green ghost is his lovie blanket and we do wash it regularly as he still has leakage problems with his diapers during nights and naps).

We went to the grocery store. I got a freezer lasagna for our dinner (of course Liam ate about 3 bites of it - he still doesn't like noodles very much). He got a bath. I read him Guess How Much I Love You and half of Jack and the Beanstalk. He went down easily. I never got around to finishing the line work for my art project for school. Oh well, I'm pretty beat.

Uneventful day and yet I'm exhausted - go figure. Oh well, Baby B is getting a little stronger and moving more. I'm 22 weeks today and have not a thing to wear. Forgot to weigh myself this morning, so I'll check that tomorrow. Wish I didn't have to work this week (even if it is only 2 days). Won't be getting a shower tonight since the hot water's pretty much been used up. Time for my snack. Then into fresh clean bedding for the night. Ahhhhhhh.

adventures with yeast

...and without.

I've recently gotten into my brain to create my own sourdough. Let's ignore the fact that I also recently swore to reduce my carbohydrate intake. (tee-hee) So I've been combing the web and trying to find some recipes for making sourdough bread, but they all ask for this one important thing . . . a "starter." If you're from Northern California like I, then you understand that there ain't nothing like a San Francisco sourdough bread. In fact, there truly isn't. The SF Bay Area has its own particular kind of lactobaccillus (that's the bacteria that helps make food twang) called L. sanfranciscansis (I didn't even have to look that up. . . I saw it on a History Channel show once) that is only found in the Bay air and once you move the starter away from the Bay it picks up the local flora and loses its San Francisco taste.


Okay, bird walk about the SF dough aside, apparently it is possible to start your own starter without a "mother" or a kit. So I started yesterday morning hoping to do it right. The reason you make a sourdough starter is not only to get the twangy flavor, but to make your bread rise without keeping little yeasty beasties alive (since they're already alive and kickin' it in their "sponge" starter). It takes equal part by weight of water and flour, a clean bowl, a moderate room temperature, a loose cover, and a couple days. I started with 8 oz. tap water and 8 oz. regular ol' white flour. Here was my starter after a couple hours. It was barely bubbly and smelled like paste. Boring.

This morning I checked on it. It had gotten a little dried out and a little dark colored on the top. I decided I didn't need a whole ton of starter so I discarded half and then added another 4 oz. water and flour and stirred it all up. Then I stuck it in the oven with the light on (not the oven on) because we had so much wind drafting through the house this morning that my starter was down in the low end of the growth range (60-80 degrees F). I got the air in the oven up to 93 degrees in 2 hours with the heat from the light and from the heat from the outgassing. He was starting to smell a little like gym socks. Then I sat him on the counter. Here he is after about 36 hours total. He's pretty bubbly on the top and definitely smelling like yogurt. I wish I could say it was unpleasant, but in my reading I learned the only way to make sour dough is to get the starter sour smelling. Go figure :) And if you couldn't tell by now, we've taken to calling the startr "he" and "him". He's like another little baby right?








On a side note, here's a little loaf of french bread I made yesterday afternoon. I wish I could take all the credit for it, but I definitely let the bread machine do the kneading. I don't have the guts to try mixing or kneading by hand yet. But I seem to get the loaves to come out write. It was delish.

birthday bash

Fun weekend was had. It was Jon's 35th birthday on Sunday so I took it easy on my diet change. Saturday I let him sleep in as late as he wanted, but alas he got up early to go visit his dad in Fair Oaks. There he found his passport (phew! our trip is in 2 months and we're going into Canada). Then we spent the day enjoying bad television and eating fried food. One of my favorite things in the whole world is a deep fried pickle!!! Have you ever had one? They're the bestest. Then I had ice cream and several glasses of wine (only 2, but I was using our large tumblers which are about 10oz).

Sunday I also wanted to let him sleep in late but, silly man, he got up at 10am. We had ice cream cake (per request) for breakfast. When Liam got up from his lunch, we drove into Davis and dined outside on sushi and teriyaki. Then we strolled around a little arboretum and Liam had a blast grabbing and crushing plants. More ice cream cake in the evening.

So my diet detour caught up with me this morning. Oops. I gained about 1 1/2 lbs. Back to whole grains and protein and water this week (well maybe one more slice of ice cream cake). One of the best things from this weekend . . . Jon gave me the go ahead to call my doctor and set up an appointment to remove my Mirena. We're are officially going in "pre-heat the oven" mode. :)

hop on pop

Daddy's 35th birthday.
A cuddly-wuddly guy who gave Dada lots of love.
Didn't care for maki rolls. Scraped knees.
Spent 20 minutes bouncing on Dada's belly. It ended in tickle fight.

Get Younger - Day 1

So today is the day I began. I'm trying to get "younger" based on the things I posted previously in my list of advice from Real Age. Would be happy to have 6 years added and to be my own age, but if I can add a couple more years in the process, why not.

Here's the skinny...
206 lbs.
28.7 BMI
42" waist
size 16 pants

So I was watching Dr. Oz the other day (this is why I hate Spring Break, I watch crappy ass daytime TV) and he had a show about diet based on your genetics. I thought this was kinda cool. The one thing I learned is . . . I should be on a low-carb diet. No I didn't have any genetic screening done, I just base this assumption on the "typical dinner" that he showed for each diet and the one my body went zOMG-shproing!!! for was the low-carbohydrate dinner. So I looked into it and thought about it and read up on it online and decided that I need to do a "lower" carbohydrate diet. So I'm cutting back on white foods, processed carbs, and too much sugar in general. I'll be adding more brown grains, lean meat, and fruit/veg into my daily intake. I wasn't about to do a diet like Atkins or South Beach because I don't think I could put my body/mind through that kind of strain of depleting it of its major energy source. I'm just gonna reduce the energy as I change of. Think of it as my body's conversion to bio-diesel.

Other things that are definite immediate on my list...

• drive the speed limit (Even on the boring ol' interstate on my way to/from work)
• floss
• reduced alcohol to 1 drink/day
• talk with friends & family more often...actually talk (hey guess what, my dad stopped by today totally unannounced)
• take multi-vitamin
• stretch daily
• walk daily

Here's a cool fact: distilled liquor has had all the sugars evaporated out of it so therefor a rum & diet coke is a no-carb drink!!! And I thought my mom was just fooling herself when she tried to do Atkins while living in the Virgin Islands.

I'll let you know how it works out.

OMG I'm Old

So I've been thinking about trying for another baby and know there will need to be some changes in my lifestyle to get prepared. With Husbter going to the doctor for checkups this week and getting come blood tests done et al, it's more on my brain. So I logged back on to my Real Age account. My age versus my real age actually increased by a whole year and I'm now 36.6 y/o (according to my body and my lifestyle) rather than my 30.58 years. I joined an online group dedicated to lowering your age in 8 weeks (coincidentally the time between now and our cruise for my belated 30th birthday trip).

So, in the interest of full disclosure. Here's is my list of things I need to do to reduce my age:

1. get HDL cholesterol levels checked
2. talk w/ doc about depression meds/therapy classes
3. reduced speed when driving
4. don't talk on phone while driving - even hands free
5. reduced alcoholic drinks to 1/day
6. floss every day
7. talk with friends and family more often
8. take multi-vitamin/supplements: folate 700iu, vitamin E 400iu, vitamin C 1200mg
9. reduce red meant to 1-2 servings/week
10. more omega-3 fatty acids (2+ fish servings/week)
11. more potassium-rich foods 3000mg/day
12. more whole grains 6-11 servings/day
13. diversity in diet
14. eat a rainbow
15. 90 minutes of weight training/week (13 min/day)
16. 210 minutes of cardio/week (30 min/day)
17. shed extra weight (5% is a good start)
18. 30 min/week of stretching (5 min/day)
19. then add 10 more minutes/week of exercise

Easter Elmo

Today...Liam's first egg hunt courtesy of ELMO!!!
Lovely day entertaining Nana and Granny. Found 5/12 eggs without help. Marshmallows, jelly beans. Refused nap. Sugar crash tantrum. Tickles, laughing, delightful day.

20 months

Swear to God Liam hates all dinners I make. Still eats like a wolf-child.
Half ends up floorbound; can't use utensils.

What kind of nutrition is this? Protein no vegetables.

new foods need bath

Eating foods animal style, face first.
Kethcup is officially vegetable and also a face-in food.
Unfortunately for his bottom, loves chicken chili with beans.
Will definitely need a bath tonight.

iodine

I got this nagging sneaky suspicion that my family wasn't getting enough iodine because we barely eat ocean fish and we don't use iodized table salt anymore (we're a kosher salt family through and through).

So I get the bug up my butt and email my doctor (our pediatrician probably would have responded sooner but he's a little crunchy granola if ya know what I mean). She was on vacay so it took a couple days.

She responded that yeah, Americans aren't getting as much iodine as they need these days (about 50 micrograms daily for adults and a little less for children). This is leading to health concerns such as the resurgence of goiters and gout. Also, apparently low iodine can lead to lowered thyroid function (hey is this the reason I'm getting fat and slow?). She said it can possibly cause mental retardation in infants too; although I'm not concerned about my son's mental capacity, I do feel bad about "cheating him out of" more success in life.

So, we will be returning to iodized table salt shortly. Maybe not for all of our cooking but maybe back in the salt shakers. Hubster isn't all that gung-ho about it but I'd rather he have a fighting chance in the metabolism realm than a big nasty goiter on his neck or a giant painful gouty toe - a la Ben Franklin and the animated Bobby Hill.