DIY Sensory Toy for Sofie

Man are baby toys EXPENSIVE! You can pay a pretty penny for all of those gizmos and gadgets. I was searching for some homemade toys for the baby and came across this sensory toy using hair gel, confetti, packing tape and a quart sized ziploc bag. I was able to make 2 of these for less than 10 bucks.

Checking out the new toy

Our darling Sofie Girl is in need of a lot of stimulation these days. And I mean A LOT! I haven't gone back to work full time but am building up my practice and will be moving into an office in September! Yay!!! That means a lot of costs and since I'm bringing Sofie to the office with me (triple YAY) I need toys for her. I don't want to spend an arm and a leg especially when she is in need of constant activity.

Must have stimulation!!!

The girl was literally screaming in the car the other day, testing the upper range of her voice, and the next second was completely passed out. She is the energizer bunny! Great to have such an engaged little girl but that also means she gets bored easily. My parents laugh because I was the exact same way. Payback is a... well you know :-P

I'm planning on experimenting more in the future with different textures and scenes. For now she is loving the feel of the toy and the colors. I think it would be fun to do an ocean scene with blue gel and little sea creature figurines. Let me know if you have any other great DIY toys you've done with your kids!

Easy and cheap supply list

Sensory Toy

Makes 2 quart sized bags

Time: 10 min for one bag

32 oz of colored hair gel
1 bag of confetti 0.5 oz
2 quart sized plastic bags
Clear packing tape

1. Place the  quart sized bag on a table and apply one piece of packing tape from the bottom to the top. Make sure there the tape starts on the table as it helps to secure the bag in place for the other pieces. Lay pieces of tape for one side. Cut off the excess from the top.

2. Flip the bag over and repeat on the other side.

3. Put tape wrapping around the sides and bottom, leaving the top open.

4. Spoon in approximately 5 oz of hair gel then add in 1/4 of the confetti. Repeat with another 5 oz of gel and 1/4 of the confetti. Finish with 5 oz of the gel.

5. Try and get all of the air of the bag and seal it.

6. Wrap packing tape around the top and cut off the excess.

7. Mix around the bag with your hand until the confetti is evenly spread throughout.

Gluten Free Asian Peanut Sauce

Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend! We've been trying to maximize our weekends with doing errands one day and having fun the other day. Life gets crazy during the week and I feel behind if I can't get some prep work done. I also don't want to weekends to be all about chores though. Life is about having fun and enjoying the time with loved ones :-)

Peanut sauce Yum!

So this weekend I worked on my Asian peanut sauce recipe. My hubby has been having some health stuff going on and we've had to cut high fat foods out of his diet but we love Asian food! I had gotten powdered peanut butter in the past at Costco and decided to experiment with it for a peanut sauce for a vermicelli noodle dish. The powdered peanut butter has 90% of the fat taken out so it's safe for hubby but still tasty!

Left over grilled sirloin with vermicelli noodles and veggies

This sauce would be great with satay or used in a noodle dish like I did. Who doesn't love peanut sauce? Hope you guys enjoy! Quick post today but I want to go out and enjoy the California sun with the hubby and babe :-)

Sofie the Sultan on our walk! No we did not buy her a crown

Gluten Free Asian Peanut Sauce

Makes 1 1/2 cups

Prep Time: 5 min

1 cup peanut powder
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup tamari sauce (or soy sauce if you don't need GF)
1 1/2 T chili paste
1/2 t sesame oil
2 garlic cloves
1/2 t salt

1. Whisk together the peanut powder, oil, water and tamari sauce. Make sure to work out any of the lumps from the powder.

2. Add in the chili paste and sesame oil; whisk to combine.

3. Use a microplane to grate the garlic cloves and whisk to combine.

4. Add the salt a little at a time until you're desired taste. Can also add more chili paste depending on how spicy you like it.

Nighttime Routine

Let me start this post saying we are blessed to have a great sleeper! Even her "bad" nights are better than some of my mommy friends' best nights. I agree that a lot of how your baby sleeps is due to temperament but I also believe that having a routine and sticking to it really helps babies. It helps our darling Sofie to know that it's time to start winding down and preparing for a long sleep. We started her routine and have stuck to it since she was 2 weeks old. Once we started the bedtime routine, she started to sleep 6 hours a night! We got up to 11 hours a night with 2 long naps (1.5-2 hours) during the day. Then she started to roll and it all went down hill... But more on that later :-)

The girl can sleep!

The first question I get about her nighttime routine is when do we start it. Well they say babies do the best going to bed between 6-8pm. We've always started the routine between 7:15-7:45. It used to always be 7:30 but now we look for her to give us some cues that she's had enough like tugging on her ear, getting fussy and rubbing her eyes. Some of my mommy friends don't want to start the routine this early because their partners don't come home until late. My hubby also works late sometimes but bath time is his time with Sofie. He might not get a ton of quantity with her but its all quality time. They both value this time together and Sofie really looks forward to it.

She loves soft blankets to sleep on

So once she has started to show that she's getting ready for bed, my hubby holds her and walks around the house quietly showing her around. We turn off all the lights except for one that is behind her head once she is in the bath. I get the bath ready in the kitchen and the warm water flowing. My hubby then washes her up all while talking to her and explaining what he's doing. When I say she loves this time with her dad, I mean it! When I've had to do it if my hubby was gone on business she just stares at me with a look on her face like "what are you doing here? I requested my male attendant for my bath!". Our Sultan gets her towel placed on a big pillow and that's where she gets dried off.

I swear she loves it! I need to get a more recent pic!

When she's done with her bath, we get into her room which is already dark and I have Turkish music playing that my hubby found a scientific article about saying babies relaxed to it the most. I put her on her changing table and put on her diaper. I then proceed to give her a massage where I start at the legs and work my way up. I'm an anatomy nerd so I tell her all the muscles I'm working on. She now knows the order in which I do everything and will give a protesting retort if I either skip a section or don't say the muscles. Do I see a future physical therapist??? Next, I put on her jammies and I feed her. I always make sure to put her drowsy but still awake. She is so relaxed by the time I put her down that she is really good at getting herself to sleep. This is how we do it, every single night. Even when we travel we try to keep the same schedule and routine.

Sofie's Bedtime Soundtrack

Then enter the 4 month sleep regression... For us it was more of a 3 month sleep regression. Sofie learned how to roll from her back to her tummy but not the opposite. She also became much more aware of her surroundings and needed much more stimulation during the day. We went from a beautiful sleeping baby a terror at night! What the heck happened?!?! We didn't find any magic cures. We did find sticking to our routine was the best. We tried to move her bedtime up, thinking she was too tired, but that backfired like no other! She needs her routine and now we're on the other side of the sleep regression and life is getting back to normal. We're not quite back to the 11 hours a night but getting close!

I'm ready for my massage!

As a side note, my mom actually found that one of the things waking up Sofie at night was gas. Since she was rolling onto her belly she couldn't get the gas out by bringing her knees to her chest. We started to up the gripe water and performed a belly massage a couple times a day. So if baby is waking up in the middle of the night on their belly, try this!

Snuggles also helped during the sleep regression

Gluten Free Spaghetti and Eggs: A Homage to my Mother

This is a special dish for me. Is it a fancy dish? Difficult? Complex in flavors? No. No. No but it's a dish my mom used to make us when I was growing up. My mom was not a great cook (She is rather good now and actually enjoys it!). We used to joke that she was trying to poison us when she prepared dinner. Her repertoire included nachos, cube steaks, spaghetti and she could mix together a mean Boost Shake. Despite us making fun of her, she would cook dinner for us without complaint as most mothers do.

My mom holding me as a baby

Since I've become a mother, I've finally realized how much my mother did for me. She is an amazing woman who would take care of us during the day and work nights as a pediatric trauma nurse when we were young. As we got older and moved to Colorado, she gave up nursing and worked in myriad of different jobs: ski lift operator, uniform worker, benefits manager and software developer to name a few. There were periods of time during these years where my dad was traveling every single week for work, only returning for the weekends. She proceeded to work a full time job and raise two kids all without making us feel like she was too busy or tired for us. I can't imagine how exhausting it was!

Snuggling with Sofie so I could sleep 

My mother was and still is a Wonder Woman! Being a mom in general makes you a wonder woman. Kids require so much attention and time with mom usually stepping up to the plate to put everyone else ahead of herself. It is a selfless job that usually goes without acknowledgement except for one day a year. Did my mom require a "thank you" everyday? No and honestly she barely ever got one but she loves being a mom and would do it all again in a heartbeat! I try and make up for it now showing my gratitude for all she sacrificed for us.

While Mom eats some spiced pear oatmeal, Sofie eats her wrist :-)

She is still coming to my rescue to this day. She has been instrumental with helping me with Sofie, She doesn't live close by and requires a plane flight to come visit but she does so whenever I need it. When Sofie was 3 weeks old I had hit a wall and called her crying my eyes out wondering if I was cut out for this job of motherhood. She flew in the very next morning! Again last week I needed her to watch Sofie while I took care of some business stuff. It was very fortuitous for us because Sofie was going on her 4th week of a sleep regression and I was losing my mind again. My mom took the monitor every night and tended to Sofie without complaint. I was able to recharge and Sofie is back to sleeping 10+ hours a night!!!! Hallelujah!

Someone wants my lunch! And I'm not talking about Sophie the Giraffe

So I made this meal for lunch today with sweet thoughts of my mother running through my head. This is a dish a friend's family, who didn't have a lot of money, made whenever she went over to their house. It's an easy dish that warms my soul every time. I cannot wait to make this for my darling Sofie and tell her stories of her wonderful grandmother. I hope you make this for someone special!

Eggs going in!

Gooey cheese adds a little something special 

Gluten Free Spaghetti and Eggs

Serving Size: 4

Cooking Time: 30 min

1 box GF spaghetti
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk (any milk, just make sure it's not flavored if it's a nut milk)
salt
pepper
1 bunch of chives, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese

1. Bring 4-5 quarts of water to a boil. Add a good helping of salt and add the spaghetti. Cook the pasta to the box instructions for al dente.

2. While the pasta cooks, whisk together eggs, milk, chives (reserving 2 T for garnish), 1/2 teaspoon pepper and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

3. Drain the pasta.

4. Hit a large skillet over medium-low and add the oil. Add the pasta and pour eggs over the pasta. Continuously move the pasta and egg mixture around to avoid getting any big pieces of egg. This takes about 10 min. (Don't rush the process)

5. Turn off the heat and add the cheese over the pasta once the eggs are cooked. Mix the pasta together until everything is incorporated.

6. Dish out into 4 bowls and garnish with the remaining chives.

Good food feeds the soul

Mexican Lasagna

Well Grandma has come to the rescue and I feel like a new mommy! It's amazing what even one night of good sleep will do for the body! I've been spoiled and have had 2 nights so far!!! And it seems like we are moving past this sleeping regression and returning to our long nights of sleep. Darling Sofie Girl slept from 8pm-4:30am and then Grandma took her out to the couch and she snuggled in close to Grandma until 6 am when she figured out she was STARVING and needed to eat.

Since she has been sleeping better, I've had more energy to cook. I feel better when I can make a good meal and have leftovers for the next day. It also helps to ensure I make smart choices with eating.

I had made this Mexican Lasagna a couple weeks ago and have improved on the recipe. The idea for this meal happened when I was trying to clean out my fridge and pantry. I am very guilty of being excited to try new recipes and buying new food without using all of it. The food sits in the freezer or pantry for a long time, sometimes months, until my hubby encourages me to use it up and use my imagination to use it up.

First part of the layer

Second part of the layer 

You can easily change things up with this recipe. I used vegetarian refried beans because I have a case of it from Costco. You could substitute any other bean. I used ground turkey but have used bison in the past. Pick your favorite flavor profiles and play around with it. I really liked the cabbage as it added a nice crunch and texture to the dish.

Mexican Lasagna

Servings: 6-8

Cooking Time: 45 min

1 1/5 lbs ground turkey
1 packet taco seasoning
3/4 cup water
1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
1 cup frozen corn
2 cans refried beans
3 packets red enchilada sauce
25 6-inch corn tortillas
3/4 cup shredded Mexican cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a 9x13 glass dish with cooking spray.

2. Brown the ground turkey in a skillet. Add the taco seasoning and water, stirring to cover all the meat. Cook on medium heat until the liquid has evaporated.

3. While the turkey is cooking, shred the cabbage and wash/dry well.

4. To assemble, pour a few tablespoons of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the pan then top to 5 tortillas, cutting one of the tortillas in half to cover the bottom. Add dollops of the beans over the bottom, using half the can. Next, scatter 1/3 of the turkey, corn and cabbage on top. Pour the rest of the packet for enchilada sauce.

5. Repeat step 4 for 2 more layers.

6. Finish the top off with refried beans, sauce and shredded cheese.

7. Bake for 20 min and let cool for 5 min before cutting and serving.

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby!