When I heard the news I just had to see my girl. She was sleeping and had no idea that our country had just changed. Her peers were playing without a care in the world and it showed me that kids are in many ways more resilient than adults.  I was also thankful that my daughter is too young and I didn’t need to explain why Mommy was crying when she gave her such big hugs.  I pray for those parents that cannot hug their babies and hope they find comfort in each other.

As a mother I needed to write something about Sandy Hook.  This is sadly probably just my first experience of something like this as a mother and it has been pretty tough to process. Each person is entitled to their own feelings, reactions and thoughts on where we go from here.

The first of which being, it is cheaper! Yes, we run a tight budget ship around here and baby food can quickly become a budget buster.  Instead we decided to give the whole make-your-own baby food a try. And you know what? It is easy!

All you need is an oven, food processor, ice trays and your babies soon-to-be favorite fruits and vegetables.  No, you don’t have to buy any special baby product, although I imagine these products might make storage easier.

I made several months worth of baby food in just a few hours:

• First, I went Costco and picked up apples, carrots and pears.
• When I got home I set the oven to preheat at 375.
• While I waited for the oven to come to temp. I roughly peeled (my little one is old enough to digest some skin) and cubed the apples and pears and placed each in their own foil bags.Then I sliced a few handfuls of carrots and put that in a foil bag too.
• Once the oven hit 375 they all jumped in to bake/steam for about 30 minutes (until tender).  I also threw in a large sweet potato (fork to vent first) to cook that I had from an earlier shopping trip (takes 30-45 minutes).
• One foil bag at a time I poured the pears, apple, carrots and peeled sweet potato into the food processor and pureed.
• Once everything was mixed to my little one’s liking I separated it into several ice trays and off they went to freeze.

Yes, that is it. An hour or so later and my little girl has food for months! And bonus, I know EXACTLY what is in it!

What you choose to feed your child is solely a parent decision but give making your own baby food a try, you might be surprised by how easy it is.  Even if you (or your baby) hate it you are only out a little bit of time and a couple of bucks.

Mommy tip: Every baby is different, talk to your pediatrician to make sure your baby is ready for food. There are a lot of great websites out there with age appropriate at home baby food recipes, my favorite is: Wholesome Baby Food.

I don’t talk about this often but not every girl is as lucky to have a Daddy that understands she comes first.  I came across a video with kids talking about why Daddy’s are so awesome and I loved it! Not only does “our” daddy meet the mommy qualifications he is kid approved.   According to the little ones in the videos a good daddy is:

1) Hairy…check! And little girl already takes advantage of this, quickly learning it is something very easy to hold on to.

2) Funny, period. I’d say so. Hopefully little one is witty like Daddy.

3) Loves me. I love that the little kids already get that Daddy’s say and mean “I love you.”

So cute!

Now, I want her to be an independent self-thinker but I just didn’t think it would happen so fast! First, it was sleeping in her crib, then it was deciding that she didn’t need to be rocked to sleep anymore and could instead fall asleep on her own, and now comes not needing Mom for her nutrition.

It is a bittersweet moment. On one hand I feel like I’ve failed my child [the worst feeling in the world] because I can’t pump enough to meet her needs. It is important to me that she always knows she comes first and this pesky thought that I am somehow choosing work over her by not pumping three plus times a day keeps weighing on me. On the other hand, she can’t nurse forever so by supplementing with formula she is getting the nutrition she needs and learning to be less reliable on me. Plus, I wont feel as overwhelmed with the need to pump.

Yet another example of decisions they don’t emotionally prepare you for in those pesky parenting classes! From what I’ve learned so far these little milestones are much harder on me than baby girl.

Luckily my girl is a champ! She did amazing at daycare and as an added perk is way more excited to see mommy these days. One thing that slipped by the way side as I adjusted to being a working mom was taking time for me.

Between coordinating bringing a baby with me to an overnight business trip in Los Angeles, figuring out how to run home because baby girl has pinkeye and still meet the days deadlines and billiable goals, and then making dinner, prepping bottles and lunches for the next day and trying to keep my house somewhat clean, there really hasn’t been a moment for me.

What I’ve realized is that while I can do it all, I need to figure out a way to get it done and take a little time to myself.  I am sure all those in the mom club can agree that there is no one-size fits all solution.

Some people try to make it sound so easy; Enjoy a cup of coffee alone, get a book and read one chapter a day, take a bubble, go for a walk bath, blah blah.  Well, the reality is that to enjoy a cup of coffee I have to go buy the coffee, to read a book, I have to take the time to select a book that will keep me interested, to take a bubble bath I have to clean the tub, to go on a walk I will feel guilty if the dog isn’t with me so then it becomes another chore – see how none of these sound awesome to me?

Not to mention that I love spending time with my girl so if I have a few minutes where I am not multitasking she gets 100 percent of my attention.  My solution is turning back to writing this blog.  I write for work all the time but writing for me is different, there is no review process, no angle, no perfect headline it is pure and simple and it can be done in a pretty short amount of time after the little ones bedtime. So here is to getting back to my Millennial (a term I typically hate) mom roots, turning to technology for comfort LOL.

Well come Monday our family world will be rocked – Mommy goes back to the office.  In PR speak my objective is simple: Save at least $50 a week by eating at home four times a week. Here are three ways I hope to accomplish this goal when I go back to my real world:

1) Meal plan. Do you ever find yourself at the store checkout and realizing that while you spent a lot you didn’t get what you need to make one complete meal?  No? Well good for you.  But this happens to me all the time. Suddenly my cart will be full of snack food (because that is all they ever put on sale!) and no protein to make a meal. I am going to try and rope in this bad habit by making a general plan for what we are going to eat before I do the shopping.

2) Cook a lot at once.  I’ve set the DVR to always record Rachel Ray’s Week in a Day” and while the initial grocery store investment for a weeks worth of ingredients can be a little bit shocking, it is a lot cheaper than eating out. Think about it, when we go out to eat we spend about $50 so spending $100 for a weeks worth of meals for two people is significantly less!  This helps a lot with my dishes issue since I am forced to do the dishes because in the end everything in my kitchen is dirty!

3) One pot meals.  A friend let me borrow her slow-cooker cookbook and the recipes are pretty easy and quick! What is nice about crock pot meals is that typically you only dirty up a knife, cutting board and the crock pot so dish work is a breeze, plus it makes the house smell terrific!

4) Leverage prepackaged items like soup and biscuits. I have never been a huge fan of store bought items but after giving a few meals a try it is SO much easier and you really don’t loose out on flavor if you combine the store bought with something fresh. It is kinda like having an assistant My favorite meal is chicken pot pie, use a cream based soup, add chicken, add cheese, season and bake with a biscuit on top and you are in the money! TIp here is to spend a little extra for the name brand (Pillsbury) because it really is better.

5) Make lunch the night before. My guilty pleasure is eating lunch out. It gets me out of my office and sometimes a worker-bee needs a change in scenery. My plan is to spend a little extra on good rolls and cheese and make sandwiches that taste like I got it at the local deli. 

We will see how this goes!  Now, if these tactics (gotta get back in the PR lingo) are realistic for my family is yet to been seen! As an added bonus I think having meals planned will allow for more “fun” time with my daughter so that is one heck of an incentive! 

We have a very large backyard by San Diego standards. While I love all the space I loathe the endless options.  Not ready to commit we started small. Being preggars ever since we lived here also put a little damper on our landscaping. Let’s just say me and swinging a pickaxe wasn’t happening twice! (It happened once because I needed to get by roses planted.)

Our journey started a few months ago by cutting down the massive pepper tree and then by getting about 15 stumps ground down (credit to my husband for getting a few out himself too).  Now, we are kicking it into high-gear! Thanks to handy resources like DIY.com we are planning to do most of the landscape work ourselves. The exception being leveling the yard. We are leaving that to a local guy with the tractor.

Tractor work will hopefully happen this week (if the weather cooperates – I know, weird we live in sunny San Diego) creating a nice leveled yard so we no longer get several lakes during the random rainstorm.

After that we get going on our flagstone patio, fire pit and pergola. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we will have a nice patio where we can celebrate our little girls first half birthday. Let the fun begin!

Before photos:

1) I started with a shadow box that previously contained memories from a trip to Europe.

2) After taking out the contents I covered the back with a polkadot blanket that I glued with fabric glue and then cut to fit the area.

3) Then I pinned the onesie to the center with the pins from my wedding bouquet.

4) Over that I pinned her little tutu.

5) Once everything was in place I added the glass cover and we were done!

Since I was able to do this with things I already had around the house this little project cost me $0. So fun!

However, I also believe that part of being good parents is to take time for our relationship too.  Happy mom and dad make for happy baby. I am sure this theory will evolve but for now this is what I believe.

We are lucky to have family nearby that doesn’t mind waking up for a 4 a.m. feeding so we can sneak away for a night.  I planned a quick trip to Idyllwild last weekend and it was perfect! Close enough where I could relax and enjoy my time with my husband and far enough where it felt like a getaway.

We spent the day hiking, enjoying the sights and just spending time with each other without constantly looking over to see what Ry is doing. If you are in San Diego and haven’t been up to Idyllwild, and are looking for a nice mountain getaway without the LA vibe of Big Bear I highly recommend it (and if you want to stay the Quiet Creek Inn was perfect). Just check out some of the views:

I am very much looking forward to making this a quarterly thing!  I may have rushed home to see my girl Sunday morning but it was a good first step and maybe next time we can do two nights

Well the dreaded decision has been made – Rylee is now enrolled in daycare. I am experiencing a mix of emotions.

On one hand I am happy that she will have a place to go, giving me one less thing to worry about. On the other hand my heart aches.

I hate that I will miss anything, a smile, coo, tear, boo boo, milestone, a moment that I will never get back. I didn’t know it was possible to love like this.

I love what I do and ultimately I believe working will make for a happier family but it is hard. How do I make sure she knows that she comes first when I spend the majority of the day at the office? Will she understand when Mommy isn’t home to put her to bed? When Mommy can’t kiss her boo boo?

I am proud that she will see Mommy in suits and creating a better life for her – but it sucks that she probably wont get it until she is blogging from her smartphone while her baby sleeps on her chest. Ultimately, as a parent the best thing I can give her is a good life and working is a big part of that for me.

So, here is to staying strong and enjoying every moment we have together.