A Few things to Share

this has nothing to do with this post. just like this picture.

You probably already know how important I think natural/organic/safe products are.  Here are some quick tips I feel like sharing.


Plastics - I try to avoid buying plastics when possible, but I am not ready to live a plastic free life. If you do use plastics, pay attention to the numbers found on the bottom of the plastic item. #2, #4, and #5 are considered the safer options because they are least toxic and can be recycled easier.  Never microwave plastics and avoid storing fatty or acidic foods in plastic containers.

Food- Eat less meat and more whole grains. Obviously eat more homemade food and avoid canned food **especially canned tomato products - even organic**  they can be lined with BPA.  If you can afford to buy some organic produce, aim for celery, spinach (ALL leafy greens), ALL BERRIES, peaches, nectarines, apples, potatoes and grapes. Be careful of the fish you eat. Try to AVOID: Tuna (bigeye and Ahi), Shark, Mackerel, Orange Roughy, Tilefish and Marlin.
Look at labels!  Avoid the following ingredients: Artificial Colors - anything beginning with FD&C, Chemical Preservatives: BHA, sodium nitrate, sodium benzoate. Artificial Sweeteners: aspartame, acesulfame-k, saccharin. Added Sugars: High frustose corn syrup, dextrose, etc)

Gemetically Modified fruit and veggies are all over the place.  It is hard to avoid them these days (heck, i even read that they may be releasing GM mosquitoes in the keys soon) but here are some tips to avoid them: Buy Organic, Look for Non-GMO certified seals, Avoid at-risk ingredients including
soybeans, canola, cottonseed, corn, and sugar from sugarbeets, Get a Non-GMO shopping app on your smart phone. I have this one: Shop No GMO and The Non GMO Project.  Both are free and easy to use.

I have a lot of other tips to pass your way next week. In the meantime, watch this funny video.  I know they are a little played out, but this one - It's like they were following me. :)

I'm no Expert BUT... Part 2

Remember this post? I wrote it when Sonny was 4 months and it was very relevant then.  Well It has been 6 months since, and I have done a lot more research, purchasing, trashing and saving and this is what I have used and loved these past 6 months.

1)  Dining. My friend Corinne had this for her daughter, the Boon Catch Bowl. Whenever we would meet up for dinner or lunch she would stick it to the table and eat as though a baby wasn't at our table.  I bought one, and it is fantastic.  It makes eating so much cleaner.  Most of the time.  I used to put his food on the tray of his high chair and  hope he didn't fling it everywhere.  Now with this bowl, it is... contained.  That is nice.  We take it everywhere.  Restaurants, just stick it ot the table, throw some food in there and you get about 5 minutes of peace.  Which is 5 minutes more than what you get with out it.  Bibs.  Eh. You don't need bibs. I bought a variety of bibs, from organic cotton to silicon and we don't use any of them.   What works great is an old t-shirt.  It is long enough that it catches dropped food and easy to wash.  Whenever I tried to put a bib on the babe, he would freak out and try ripping it off, this solves that problem.  My Mom also suggested an old towel with a whole for the head cut out in the middle. This keeps their arms free and their front totally covered.

2)  Food. There are a lot of different organic baby foods out there.  Which do I think is the best?  Jar baby food? uh-uh. Frozen homemade pureed food?  Nope (takes too long). After searching shelves and websites it is obvious that the way to go is pouches.  Oh and once you learn that, then you have to learn about all the different brands!  I first tried Ella's Kitchen.  I liked it.  Pro's: A large variety of flavor, taste good, good story, available at Target and online. Con's: Consistency.  It isn't smooth.  Don't get me wrong, I like chunks but there is something off about this brand that I don't love.  Sonny will eat it, but it is not his favorite.  Then I tried Happy Baby. This is my least favorite.  Yes, Dr. Sears is involved with this brand so it sells and it is popular, but it is not good.  Pro's:  Least expensive of the "good" pouches, available everywhere, variety of flavors and options -- if you can't find the other brands in a store, chances are you will see this one.  Cons: Gross.  I bought a bunch of these at Whole Foods when we were traveling once and had to return them.  I did not care for the taste and neither did Sonny.  We gave them a chance, sampled different ones and we were not satisfied.  Call me a baby food snob, it's ok, I don't care.  I recently tried Earth's Best.  I just don't love this brand for anything. Maybe it's the logo or how they have saturated the market of organic goods, I don't know.  I just don't love them.  Pro's:  Well known brand, lot's of options, good price point.  Con's: Too many extra ingredients, too commercial (maybe?).  So what does that leave?  My favorite and my TOP pick for baby food: Plum Organics! I love these.  Pro's: Flavors!  Taste! Consistency! Branding! Con's: Price.  I guess you get what you pay for.  These are by far the smoothest, tastiest food pouches out there.  I can eat these all day long and when I need to give Sonny a little snack or meal on the go, he loves these too.  Mango Pear?!  Yummy.  Even the veggie mixed with fruit combos are good.  I've shopped around for the best price and Ecomom seems to be the best.  Sometimes Babies r Us will have then 10 for $10 and that is great.  Otherwise,  Ecomom is the way to go. You can also buy a variety pack so you aren't stuck with a bunch of one flavor your little one doesn't like.


Now, the paragraph above also goes for snacks and intro foods.  Plum wins hands down.  Their puffs are far supierior to other leading brands.  Their meal pouches are also pretty good. 

3)  Teething.  You all have seen Sonny's necklace.  Yes, it makes people assume he is a girl BUT I think it works.  Josh likes to say, "if nothing else, at least it looks cute."  It does look cute and my experiments show its success.  During a rough few days of teething, I took the necklace off and to me he was visibly worse.  More irritable, more restless and less him.  It could have been that it was just a bad day OR it could be that the necklace really does help soothe and regulate balance, pain and irritabilty. I am going with the latter.  I bought ours from Inspired by Finn.  What I learned after and am passing on to you- is that the lighter the color the more powerful the healing.
Our fail-proof go-to remedy are the Boiron Camilia Drops.  These things are great. I can't even tell you how many boxes we have gone through.  True Story - It was Sonny's first day with a new sitter and he was in teething in a bad way.  We told her about the drops and that they were in his diaper bag should he need them.  When I picked him up after work, she said he was really upset and fussy and she gave him a drop and within a minute he was a completely different baby.  Happy and smiling and back to normal.  It's true, I see that transition every time we use them. The other product I like are the Humphrey's Teething Pellets #3.  We use these at bedtime during bouts of restlessnes and fusiness caused by the teething.  They work.  Yes, I am aware that they have Belladonna and some people aren't OK giving it to their babies.  From what I learned about it and the amount in the pellets, I am fine with using them. Like I said it works.  Three pellets right before bed = sleep, which =  :) Me.

4) Brands.  One of my go-to baby brands is ZoLi.  They are a smaller company and of their 10 products (not counting variety of each product) I have 5.  Their Teething sticks are the best.  They come in a pack of two.  They are used so often and lost so often in our house that we have had to reorder them 3 times.  Josh was worried at first that Sonny would poke himself in the eye with it, but he never did.  We gave it to him when he was 4 or 5 months.  The Sumo Stack is also used daily in our house.  I love it because it really keeps all his snacks seperate.  In one simple container we can have: dry snacks, fresh fruit and veggies. Or a grain or whatever else you want to take with you.  Lastly, the sippy cup.  I thought I was mad at it for leaking once, but it turned out I just didn't close it properly that time.  I really like this.  I like the weighted straw, the handles and it's size.  It fits perfectly in Sonny's hands.
H&M. I have found the best, stylish, plain, not overly boy clothes and accessories at Baby H&M.  The prices are good and if on sale they are great.  I will warn you though that the sizes run very big. I'm still dressing Sonny in 4-6 month clothes.  Added bonus:  a lot of their staple items come in Organic cotton.

5)  Skin/Sun Care. This is a hard one.  It took me a while to find sunblock that I felt good about using regularly on the baby this summer.  One of my favorite blogs Growing a Green Family dedicated a couple posts to sun safety.  If you are interested in learning about the chemicals and free radicals that enter our bodies via ordinary sun block, that is a good place to start.  As always when buying ANY skin care item I strongly suggest you check it on Skin Deep first.  We used two sunscreens this year. For long exposure and to cover the baby head to toe, I like Loving Naturals.  It has a 1 rating on Skin Deep and their ingredient list is friendly.  When we were just out and about walking around we used the Badger Face Stick. This also has a 1 rating.
The other major summer skincare item for us is mosquito repellent. If you know me, then you know I am a magnet for any type of bug that can bite.  It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have an allergic reaction to any bite. They last forever, and bruise my skin.  Anyway, I wanted to get some products that I would be comfortable using for myself and Sonny.  Again, I found two I like. One for a good head to toe and the other for out and about last minute application.  For all-over spray on protection I opted for Alpenglow Insect Repellent.  It rated 0 on Skin Deep! All their products are hand made in Alaska and are wonderful.  I am really really happy with this spray.  For the last minute application, Badger won again, we use the Badger Anti-Bug Balm Stick. This also has a 0 rating.

6)  Shoes.  There are always two or more sides to every theory when it comes to raising and caring for kids.  When it comes to shoes, I am on the side of soft soled shoes are best for new feet.   There are plenty of articles online to read about the development of the bones in babies feet. I think this article gives a nice simple break down of baby feet development.  Long story short: baby feet bones are super soft and constintally changing and fusing together. We need to let their feet be free to grow and develop naturally without hard conforming shoes.  Ok, there are a ton of soft soled shoes on the market. I have reached out to mom groups, pediatricians and friends and I've learned which are the best and why.  My favorite (I ordered a pair- haven't received them yet, so they are just my favorite in theory- so far) are Soft Star Shoes.  These are hand made in Oregon with formaldehyde free leather and lined with sheepskin.  They are a little more expensive than other brands, but I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for.  When Sonny was just cruising and taking a few steps we used Robeez.  They are tried and true and probably your most common soft soled shoe.  I like that you can get them for a good price on Amazon, they come in all sorts of colors and styles, they are easy to get on and off and they stay on.  However, I don't think their leather is chemical free.  Some other brands you might want to consider are: See Kai Run, Pre-Schoolians, Bobux (these are made with eco-leather and are a safer alternative to Robeez),  Pedipeds and Nowali.  That will give you a good place to start.  I will say on our next kid, I will skip Robeez and do Bobux.


7) Carriers.  You can carry your baby a million different ways, in a dozen or so carriers. The most common are the Ergo, Bjorn, wraps, ring slings and Mei Tai's.  I've put Sonny in everything except the Bjorn.  My favorite hands down is the Ergo. It is easy and I feel the most secure with it. However, I will say that with more confidence I would have used the wraps more and started using my ring sling earlier.  If you are interested in carriers and live in NYC then I highly HIGHLY recommend you contact Caprice at The Art of Baby Wearing. She is a baby wearing genius and can help with all questions you might have.  Once a month she does classes here in Inwood and I think she also teaches in other locations (does house calls too).  There are other places like Slings in the City which can be helpful. I'm not going to judge you if you have a Bjorn, but I will suggest that you learn more about the development of baby hips, spine and pelvis.  When your baby is in a Bjorn, their legs are not supported and they just dangle there.  That is not ideal for their hips and spine (so some experts say).  Naturally, babies (especially newborns) should have their legs up in frog position. Later, they should be in a wrap-around-you type position.   


Phew, that is a lot of information.  I sincerely hope you get something out of it.  If you have a product you use and think I will love, please tell me about it!  I am always eager to try new things.

a couple weeks ago at the Highline

Blueberries and Basil

Mmmmm... Why are berries so good? Every kind of berry I can think of right now is so good. Except the berries that made my lip swell up that one time. If you know the story you might be laughing right now. If you don't- it's pretty funny and very Carly.

Remember last year when I was so excited about my CSA? We did it again this year, and have been lucky enough to get a ton of delicious organic blueberries and basil each week. Sonny, loves blueberries too, so it works out perfect and we almost names him Basil They are just the right size for his tiny fingers to pick up and eat. Sometimes he likes to squish them by the fist full first, but mostly he will just eat them one by one.

With all the blueberries we have been getting, I've been thinking and experimenting with ways to use them before they go bad. Aside from the obvious of putting them in salads (i love this), I have two new favorite ways to include blueberries in my cooking.

1st- Sautéed with Veggies. I used fresh green beans from our farm share one day and zucchini from the farm share the next. Although they were both good, I think the zucchini was a little bit better, The moisture from the zucchinis helped to make the blueberries super soft and syrupy. It was almost like eating blueberry pie guts.
If you want to try it this is roughly what I did:

2- small zucchini (sliced)
salt and pepper (to your taste)
a lot of basil leaves (sliced or chopped)
2- tbsp of pine nuts
enough olive oil to thinly coat the bottom of your pan
handful of blueberries

Heat olive oil and throw in the zucchini (when the oil is hot enough to sizzle when a drop of water is introduced). Sautee the zucchinis for about 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly to make sure both sides of each have had a chance to get olive oiled and hot. Add the pine nuts, basil and salt and pepper. Sautee another 2-3 minutes (on lower flame), make sure you keep stirring, otherwise the nuts will burn. When the zucchini looks soft and tasty, add the blueberries. For the next minute or two, gently mix it all together (on low heat). Voila! All done. I added some golden quinoa and it made it perfect.



That is fresh corn with basil butter and sprinkled with black caraway seeds

 2nd - Grilled Mozzarella Cheese, Basil, Blueberry Sandwich

The title says it all. This was so good. We were eating grilled cheese and basil sandwiches with blueberries on the side and josh said : "I bet blueberries in the sandwich would be really good." The next day I followed that suggestion and it was NOT a disappointment. If I had a sandwich shop, I would 100% sell this sandwich. If you want to try it, this is what I did:


Mozzarella Cheese (sliced) I used this.
Fresh basil leaves
Blueberries
Organic multi-grain bread
Butter (I used this)

If you don't know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, I'm sorry.
Just in case- here you go:

Butter one side of each slice of bread you are using. Put the bread butter side down on the frying pan that has been on a medium/high flame. Let it warm up for about 30 seconds. Layer your cheese slices on the bread (according to your taste- do you like it super cheesy or thin? your call). Lower fire to medium. Don't touch it for about a minute and a half (depending on how much cheese you put on). Let the cheese get a little melty- not too melty, just glossy looking. Add basil leaves, and scatter a few blueberries on top. Wait about 30-45 seconds, add the other piece of bread on top (butter side up). Flip the sandwich over. Watch the cheese between the bread and when it gets nice and melted looking, you are done!

When you have your sandwich and you are going to cut it in half, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - make sure you cut it diagonally. Grilled Cheese MUST ALWAYS be cut on a diagonal.

Oh!  and look at this pretty bell pepper we got with our farm share.  I'd never seen a purple one!

Eat, Play, Love

So far the boy loves fruit and vegetables and the only thing he gagged on (litterally gagged) was hard boiled egg yolk.  I will not be feeding him that again anytime soon.  He'll try and eat just about anything, but what he loves are figs, avocado, berries, beets and raw zucchini sticks.  I've also been giving him toast with yogurt or other mild spreadables and he likes that too.  It's easy to feed him now that he is older and can digest better. We just keep things super simple, natural and organic.  He makes such a mess and that is so fun to watch.

i think it is so funny how he sits with his one leg up. Straight chillin

I bought him this little walker wagon and was so excited when it came in the mail.  The first time we tried it wasn't very successful so I assumed that it would have to wait a few weeks. I was wrong two days later the boy is zipping all around the house.  He's just learned what to do when he crashes into something.  In the beginning he would just scream out of frustration, but now he will back it up and try to turn it - before screaming out of frustration.   Watch:

This is another cute video (if you aren't sick of seeing my two boys) I love these two:

All Red, no white or blue..maybe black and blue later

Happy Independence Day Weekend! 235 years ago we as a nation adopted the Declaration of Independence and declared our independence from Great Brittan. Hooray!

Four hours ago, while trying to declare his independence from holding on to the coffee table, the boy fell down and smashed his tongue against his teeth- 90% sure it went all the way through in one spot.  A WHOLE LOT OF BLOOD.  I didn't know the extent of the damage until about an hour ago, he fell asleep and we peeked under his tongue. Not a pretty sight.  It is bad.  A lot of blood and it's starting to turn white and purple which according to my mothering via Google searches says is exactly what to expect.  Nothing a Dr. can do, nothing worth rushing to the hospital for.  Just let it heal and give him cold things to eat.  Poor guy.  BUT soon after the incident he was in high spirits and acted like nothing happened.  A good meal and a trip to the swings can do that for you.  He sure is a messy eater.

p.s.  Look at those lashes!

SHM Meets BLW

I don't like to follow any "type" of parenting. I don't like to read parenting books or follow parenting trends, but I do like to find information that supports and guides me on things I think make sense. Enter BLW. Baby Led Weaning. I was a little stressed about being at work and Sonny being home or with the sitter and not having enough milk. Aside from nursing on demand when I am home with Sonny, I pump 5 times a day. Ugh. I don't like it but I do it cause I know it's best.

Anyway, I ran into a doula/lactation consultant I'm friends with and talked to her about my situation and all about Sonny. She said it sounded like he would was ready to eat some food, so I bought some organic yams from Fresh Direct (remember how much I love them), pureed it with breast milk and he loved it.


Then I was talking to another Mom about something and she mentioned that she gave her baby real live adult food from the beginning. I was intrigued. It made sense. Of course I had all the standard questions: What about choking? What about digestion? She told me to check out this website and mentioned the book Baby Led Weaning, which I then bought from Amazon. Although Sonny is not yet 6 months, he showed all the basic signs of being ready. He sits up with no support, he reaches for objects and puts them perfectly in his mouth without jabbing his eye or nose on accident, reaches for the food I am eating and he is super baby. Duh (eye roll).
I was so excited to try this because I knew he would just be thrilled. He was. His delight was not disappointing. At this stage in the game you don't expect that they will actually eat a lot of it. Babies just like to experiment with touch and taste, which then leads them to better eating habits and being more open to different flavors (or so they say).
I bought some organic broccoli (best starter food due to the "handle design") steamed it and set him in his highchair for the first time to join us eating dinner (he also had a few blueberries). He wasted no time guessing what to do with the food, within seconds he had a floret in his hand and them immediately in his mouth.

BOY WAS IT MESSY! I just laughed and loved every second of it. Sonny would smile so big with food all over his face. There was broccoli and blueberry everywhere.





Those pictures are great, but this one is fantastic:
I'm sure I'll blog more about BLW as I discover new things and try different foods. I'm really excited to let Sonny learn about food this way.

Banana Worms

Warning. This is about poop. If you don't want to read about baby poop then stop. now. or when I mention to stop again.

There is a lot of back story here but I am going to try and give the quick version. Last Tuesday we thought we would try and introduce some food to Sonny. I know he isn't 6 months yet and in an ideal world I would not have had to start so early (one week shy of 5) - but in an out-of-breast milk-emergency home made baby food is going to be my back up]. I bought some organic baby yams from Fresh Direct and whipped up a tasty little concoction of pureed baked yams, breast milk and water. Sonny LOVED it (another blog post to come with pictures - and maybe video). He couldn't get it into his mouth fast enough. Ok, now fast forward to Saturday. Sonny still had not pooped. Granted it is totally normal for breastfed babies to go a few days without pooping, but not Sonny. He pooped like clockwork. So you can imagine how weird it was that it had been 4 days. He finally pooped. a tiny bit. Here is where you should stop if you don't want to see baby poop.

There were these little "things" in his poo. Weird little red/brown squiggles. Reminded me of saffron. Here is a picture:


A little alarming right? We decided to wait until the next poo to see if there were more. Fast forward again to Sunday afternoon. Still no poop. About to intervene when Sonny smiled real big and scrunchy and pooped a giant poop. In that poop there were a lot more squiggles. This is where I start to panic a little thinking Sonny has worms and how terrible that must be and how could such a thing happen?! I should never have given him those yams! Blasted Yams! I Hate you!

My friend/ one of Sonny's sitters came by to drop off some essential oils for his constipation and took at look at the "worms". She confirmed what I already knew - it wasn't yam fibers. We tried to think of everything it could be she casually mentioned that on Thursday he grabbed a piece of banana she was eating, but didn't think he even ate much.

She left. I called my parents. I called his dr.'s cell phone and explained that my son had worms. He said bring him in first thing Monday. I called josh and explained to him that our son had worms. Josh called me back and told me our son had banana.

After a little internet research and thanks to many other panicked mothers of banana fed babies, we learned two things: 1) Banana's constipate babies 2) Baby banana poop looks like worm poop. SONNY  DOES NOT HAVE WORMS. Here is a Zoomed in picture of the "worm":



Gross right?
So much for keeping this short. I could have just said:

When you feed a baby bananas don't be alarmed if their poop looks like worms. It's normal.