Angel- I Heart Faces 'White' Photo Entry

This photo was entered in the I Heart Faces 'White' Photo Challenge for this week.

Fiesta prep

For the past few weeks I have been sorting out X-man's birthday on paper. The time has come now to actually execute some of these tasks. It is not easy at all because he has become very clingy since we stopped breast feeding and I am rarely alone for more than a minute. Even being in the same room isn't enough most of the time.

Anyway, I'm doing what I can, when I can and the next 2 nights after he goes to bed will be very busy! 

Here are a few pictures of some of the prep so far, more details post-fiesta.

Fiesta count down

X-man's first birthday party is 2 weeks away and I am both sad, excited, proud and just flabbergasted that my little man is turning 1! I really can't believe how fast this year has gone. It's been so amazing, I cannot believe that soon I will be back to work and unable to spend every day with him watching as he does brand new things and catching them the first time he does them. Anyway, I will not dwell on that, I must focus on the celebration!

We are having a medium group of family and friends coming over to celebrate at his fiesta's. I will post little sneak peeks as we approach the date and then a thorough view of how it went down, post clean-up!

Tortoise with artificial leg

How cute is this guy? I love turtles and tortoises, so couldn't help posting this picture. His leg was damaged so doctors at Washington State University attached the wheel with an epoxy and he is like new!

Source

The water dilemma

The heat is on over here and we are melting. I've discovered that X-man doesn't like splash pads, you know where they have cool sprinkler-like systems in different shapes and sizes with water spurting out everywhere. The water is freezing at all these places and I don't enjoy that myself considering I have to go in the water with him! However, it works out because he'd rather be in the 

 wading pool. Those are still cold, but bearable since the water is pretty low so it's not as cool. I get to refresh my feet and it cools me down for a bit. The one we went to was completely empty today, yet there were 2 lifeguards. Anyway, he didn't last very long since he hadn't had an afternoon nap, so after about 20 minutes he was done. 

I'm baaaccckk

Surgery went well. Only 4 days later, I am almost completely recovered. The body is an amazing thing! Without the help of my mama, I don't think I would have healed so well. We spent 2 days at my parents' place and then she came home with us for 2 days and she took care of all the baby lifting, which incidentally included about 4 poopy diaper changes a day (!), all the feedings, playing, everything really. As a result, I was able to rest, take naps and allow my body the time it needed to make a speedy and healthy recovery. I have the best mama in the world!

Now that I am on the mend, I can concentrate on bigger and better things...planning a certain someone's 1st birthday! I have 5 weeks left and haven't done anything, other than send the invites, and start discussing the menu. Tomorrow X-man and I will head out and start picking things up and making things, hopefully he will be in the mood to play independently a lot of the next few weeks! I mean, only when I need to accomplish something, otherwise, I'm all his!

P.S. Now, I don't know if it's because they took out a body part that had stones in it, or if it was my 2 day soup and jello diet, but I've lost over 5 pounds! This should be my push to continue my healthy lifestyle and give me that extra  determination. So far, it's working, I hope it lasts. I think I will incorporate jello into my daily routine because it obviously had a hand in all this!

Going under

Tomorrow is my gallbladder surgery so I may be absent for a few days. Have a great weekend!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a wonderful day! Picnic in the park, splash in the outdoor pool and to finish off, a kind neighbour came over and gave us a brand new swing for X-man!

Snack for baby and mummy

Edamame. Possibly the most loved food to date in our house by X-man. He devours it at every opportunity.  Although grapes could be a strong rival.

Edamame is a green vegetable better known as a soybean, harvested at the peak of ripening right before it reaches the "hardening" time.

It is so easy to prepare, it's filling and it definitely keeps him producing poopies, granted they tend to be full of edamame, they are still good ones (sorry, was that gross? Most mummies spend hours upon hours discussing their child's output and what it means).

You'll find edamame in the frozen section of most grocery stores. Sometimes it will come in the pod, but you don't want the pods for the baby. For you, you can buy it that way. You just boil it for a few minutes and you are good to go. For the little one,  put salt in the water its boiled in, but for me I put the salt directly on beans. 

I take containers of it with us every time we leave the house and have one container on the go at home at all times. And for myself, I use it as a snack too. It's very good for someone who is trying to watch their food intake. It's a high protein snack which is great for both of us. Try it out!

One Smiley Monkey website

If you are not familiar with this site, you HAVE to check it out! Angela over at One Smiley Monkey is a fellow Canadian mum who is constantly reviewing baby products and sharing tons of info about each product.

And, as we all know, everyone loves to win stuff, and Angela loves to give it away! There are lots of great giveaways of all kinds of products so I definitely recommend you head over there and maybe you'll snag something yourself!

I've just entered the giveaway for the Tino PEPPA Bonding Doll from Le Petit Bébé, a Canadian company with the cutest little dolls ever. I'm hoping to win it so X-man can hold on to something other than me to fall asleep with!

Waving dad

If you haven't seen the antics of this father on the news yet, then you are missing out. As embarrassing as it may have been for the first few days, I'm sure the kids looked forward to it every morning. 

This father dressed up every day of the school year and stood outside his house to wave his 15 year old son off. There were so many costumes, the creativity was fantastic. The mom took pictures of every costume on a daily basis and blogged about it here.

Here are a few of my favourites:

Lady Gaga!!!

Vato

Zorro

Spring into Shape: All done

Although Spring into Shape was a 2 week activity organised by a fellow blogger, it has given me a certain amount of focus which I needed. I am going to work hard to continue this healthier lifestyle I have tried to create. It's not perfect, but it's much better than before. 

I will continue to post recipes I enjoy because that also keeps it more interesting for me to have to find new meal ideas.

I don't actually own a scale so I don't know how much I've lost. I've been considering buying one, but I'm not convinced that I need one. I've always just used my clothes to gauge a weight loss or gain.

Thanks to all the others who participated! I hope that these past 2 weeks were a healthy journey for all of you.

Prom 2011

I completely forgot to mention that I went to chaperon the prom on Friday night. It was actually my first night "out" without baby or husband! Granted there were over 200 students that I was technically babysitting, the fact that I didn't have to make my own dinner and that I spent all night on the dance floor, makes up for it. 

And when I say that I spent all night on the dance floor, I'm not kidding. I let the kids have the first song to themselves and then I took up my post and shook what my mommy gave me until the last song. By the end I was jumping up and down, fist pumping with all the Grade 12s. I always chaperon the prom. I love it. I really like to see my students all dressed up and dancing the night away. It was definitely a workout too, so in line with my Spring in to Shape 2 week blitz, it was perfect timing. I danced non-stop for 3 hours and worked it hard to make it worthwhile. Ok, ok, I only go because I want to dance to good music, but it is definitely a workout. . The truth is out! I really enjoy dancing and as we have gotten older, it seems that nobody wants to go dancing anymore. I'm lucky if I can get anyone to go out to a club once a year, so this is my one guaranteed night of dancing. Pathetic, I know, but I love it.

Spring into Shape Day 12: Walking the dog

Today I got my walk in at Woofstock. It's an amazing day full of doggies of all kinds and all things related to dogs. I have never seen so many dogs being pushed around in strollers! I saw a dog with a pink mohawk and leather vest and sunglasses matching his owner completely. I saw a dog in a wedding dress and her two companions in suits. I saw dogs in summer dresses. I saw dogs wearing socks or booties, not quite sure. I loved it! And X-man loved it too. He got licked in the face a few times, but he didn't complain. 
As I said, we got a nice long walk in, and actually, there was a lot of bending down to pet a lot of small dogs, so that is technically exercise as well!
Here are a few shots of the day.

Getting some love from the therapy dogs.

Sounds yummy

Straw hat flying off!

Clearly somebody is comfortable!

They're practically dreadlocks.

Seriously?!

Must please my husband

Is it bad that my husband is trying to be sweet and brought me one of my favourite chocolates from the store? I mean, he made the effort, thought of me, sought out the chocolate...how can I just NOT eat them...I will spring back into shape tomorrow. I don't want him to feel bad if I don't eat them...

Talk about interesting art

Have you ever tried to carve something out of a roll of toilet paper (or it could be a paper towel roll, am not sure)? I mean from the inside of the roll? Well, Anastassia Elias aka Chadou Yama has, and it is fascinating! I can't imagine the patience you'd have to have to get in there and work on the inside of the roll. 

How do you even come up with the idea to do this? It amazes me (in a good way), the things people come up with these days. Our world is a very fascinating place. These scenes are just so cute. From animal scenes, to night scenes, to sports scenes...just crazy cute!

Below are some photos from her Flickr album where she displays all of her artwork. 

Spring into Shape Day 11: Fresh recipe

With the heat doing it's hot thing, I thought we'd go for a bit of a refreshing recipe this evening. I headed over to the Chatelaine website to see if anything would catch my eye and other than the fact that I spent way too much time on the site and bookmarked about 50 recipes, I did end up picking one for tonight. 

I chose to to with a taco salad. Light, yet filling. At least, I hope it will be. Here is the link to Chatelaine's taco salad.

From the Chatelaine website: Taco salad

Spring into Shape Day 10: How can you not love stroller fit?

1) my son

2) friends

3) heat

4) the thought of shedding some weight

5) knowing that there will be watermelon and frozen grapes to be eaten at the end 

What more could I ask for?

This idea to run our own stroller fit sessions has been an amazing idea. We all suggest things, we interact non-stop with our babies...it's wonderful. I feel really good after we do it. Although during some of the exercises I really feel the burn and I curse a bit, at the end I'm not dreading coming back for the next one. This has to be a good sign.

I definitely suggest that if you are trying to get moving and shaking to shed some of that baby weight, that you should really consider trying to do your own stroller fit class. Ideally with friends, or you can do it alone and be that weird person doing funny moves in the park. Look up some videos or just do things spur of the moment, as long as you're moving, that's what matters at the end of the day. 

TAKE YOUR BABY AND GET MOVING!

Skinny Cow coupon

On light of out attempt at some sort of skinniness...well not really, I'll just take a healthy weight at this point.

If you like the Skinny Cow Facebook page, you can print off a coupon for one single serving. It expires June 19th, so hurry and get yours. It's only one per person, it prints your name at the top!

Spring into Shape Day 9: Sweating to...

THE HEAT!!!! I love it, but I hate!

I'm sweating off the pounds, sweating out the toxins, getting a tan and it's making me venture outside on a daily basis.

I've stuffed my face with fruit today. Sweet, juicy, cold fruit. So yummy! OK, so I had a bagel for breakfast and some pasta for dinner, but lunch and everything in between was fruit. 

I'm telling you, it's the way to go. 

Spring into Shape Day 8: Great start to a great week

X-man and I decided to start the week off right, by taking a long morning walk. We said goodbye to Papi and off we went to the lake, popping a Cheerio into our mouths here and there. We walked at a nice leisurely pace on the way out and on the way back we picked up the pace a bit. Little did I know how warm it was outside and because of my wardrobe choices I was sweating buckets. To finish off we sat by the lake and munched on cherries, this gave X-man a chance to stretch his legs by cruising along the benches.

One of the best things about the walk was seeing all the ducks swimming, sleeping and playing with their babies. The little guy really liked watching them, as well as all the birds flying by. 

It felt really good to get out in the morning and not have to get in the car to go somewhere and run some errand first. We will attempt to do this tomorrow morning as well.

Mama duck with 7 babies.

Spring into Shape Day 7: Heat decreasing my appetite

One good thing about hot days is that I'm not as tempted to eat food as I am to drink water or sink my teeth into juicy fruits. Although, ice cream does constantly creep into my head, but I dutifully did not buy any in an effort to not eat it! 

Today was a good day on that front. I ate lots of fruit, including my new love, the frozen grape. We set up X-man's inflatable pool and he used it for the first time. He loved it and splashed around, it was adorable. We spent a big part of the day outside which I love because the little guy just soaks everything up. He's at the stage where he points to every thing and wants us to say what it is. At least that what I think he wants, he seems satisfied when I tell him what each item is.

For dinner, we had barbecue teriyaki steak with a nice simple salad. I did make us a little fried treat of vegetable fritters so that we'd feel a bit more full.

In conclusion, one of my best ways to stay healthy on hot days is to fill up on water, keep refreshing snacks on hand, such as chopped up veggies and eat lots of fruit.

Vegetable fritters

- 2 carrots

- 2 zuchinnis

- 1 celery

- 1 onion

- 1/4 cup flour

- salt to taste

- 1 egg

- canola oil for frying

Grate the carrots, celery and zuchinnis. Chop the onion. Place all veggies into a bowl. Add flour, egg and salt. Mix together. Heat oil in pan. Make patti-like shapes, it's fun to make different sizes for the little ones. Place in pan when oil is very hot. Flip when one side done. 

Serve and enjoy!

Mix thoroughly in bowl.

                              

Use canola oil as a healthier option.

Fried goodness.

Looking for work? Gwyneth Paltrow is hiring

LUKE MACGREGOR/REUTERS

Toronto Star article by Greg Quill
Entertainment Reporter

Movie star, recording artist and good-living maven Gwyneth Paltrow is looking for a tutor for her two children.
The pay is spectacular, reports Britain’s Telegraph newspaper — $100,000 (or 62,000 pounds) annually for four hours work a day, and the deal includes accommodation, nine weeks of vacation, plus all kinds of travel, health care and medical perks.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, if you don’t have her prerequisite set of qualifications, don’t even bother applying.
Paltrow recently posted a “private tutor wanted” ad on a specialist website seeking the services of someone who possesses an almost impossible combination of skills and qualifications — a classical education — including Greek and Latin — fluency in at least three languages (preferably including Mandarin or Japanese), musical fluency with two instruments, and “passion” for sailing and tennis, art history or martial arts.
Contenders must also be “familiar with such elements as the history of thought from a philosophical perspective” — particularly useful to disengage Apple, 8, and Moses, 6, from their X-Box games and Transformer movies.
The lineup starts here.

---

Ok, let's see if I qualify:

1) Classical education including Greek and Latin- I studied Latin for 2 years in Grade 9 and 10. My favourite line and probably one of the only ones that I remember is: Cornelis est puella in pictura. (Cornelia is the girl in the picture) Ah, Mr. Bales would be proud!

2) Fluency in at least 3 languages (preferably Mandarin or Japanese)- Other than English, I speak French, Spanish and Romanian, I can understand a lot of Italian, I took a semester of Russian @ the London School of Economics, but had a horrible teacher who taught as if we already spoke the language and I struggled a lot, I also took a few classes of Mandarin with my Year 7 students while I was teaching in London, ah yes, and I took German for 7 years and graduated with a credit in it.

3) Musical fluency with 2 instruments-  I love to listen to music...my 2 favourite instruments are the drums and the guitar...in other words, no, I am fluent in nothing related to music!

4) Passion for sailing and tennis, art history or martial arts- Sailing...have never 

been and am not super fond of boats, I have played tennis all my life, art history I stopped taking as soon as I could in Grade 11 and although I can enjoy going to art galleries, I go through them pretty quickly, and as for martial arts, I've seen all the Karate Kid movies.

5) Familiar with such elements as the history of thought from a philosophical perspective- Ummm....I'm not quite sure what to say...

Therefore, in conclusion, although I have many outstanding qualities, I understand that at this time, I am unsuited for the position, however, I do hope that they will keep my CV on file for the next 6 months in case another position should arise.

Spring into Shape Day 6: How to avoid eating badly

Not that I recommend it, but hanging around a sick baby has kept me so preoccupied that I haven't eaten almost a thing. I had a quick sandwich this morning and some frozen grapes and that's it. I don't even feel hungry and that's probably because I'm so busy fussing over X-man.

Spring into Shape Day 5: All hope is not lost...yet

Ok, so we went out for buffet dinner...is it bad that I started with dessert?

Back on track tomorrow. This is hard.

Bonus Week Long Summer Boy ideas

Even though I don't sew, in my vivid imagination, I will one day. At the beginning of my mat leave I made a list of things I'd like to do while off for the year. Again, I must have gotten lost in my active imagination! I don't think I've accomplished anything, other than the most important one, which is raising my lovable baby boy.

Anyhow, once again, the MADE and Made by Rae are hosting a week long special on summer boys' items. How exciting, even if I don't actually end up making any of it. I just love to look at all the items and imagine about making them one day.

Spring into Shape Day 4: Slowly but surely

Not a very busy day today. Grandma came over so X-man and I took advantage and took Grandma on a nice long walk around the lake. Weather was very sunny and still very windy, but we couldn't miss the opportunity to get outside so that was our exercise for the day.

Dinner was soft tacos with lots of veggies to make up for the lack of rice, which we would normally have had.

One for inspiration

Here is one video off youtube you can use for stroller fit ideas.

Spring into Shape Day 3: A Different Kind of Fit

Today I participated in a stroller fit session run mainly by one of my mummy friends. She watched a lot of youtube videos for her research! It was great! It involved a lot of movement, a lot of interacting with our babies and lots of different exercises. I even had to draw out a hopscotch with chalk! We finished off with stretches in the shade while the babies played on a bunch of blankets in the middle. I felt really good, not tired like I usually do after exercising. Does that mean I didn't get as much out of it? I don't think so. I really felt the workout as I was doing, and I'm sure I will feel it more tomorrow.

For any new mummies out there, if you can't afford or don't have the time to join a stroller fit class, get a few friends together and create your own, it's lots of fun. Or do it on your own even if it's just 20 minutes around the block. Throw in some lunges as you walk, stop and do some squats, count of jumping jacks to entertain your baby, don't hold back. Get fit with stroller fit!

P.S. Don't forget the sunscreen, not just for the baby, but for you too.

Spring into Shape Day 2: It's too hot to write

The laptop is emitting a lot of heat, it's 9L00pm and 27 degrees Celcius and I am sweating. Do I really have to turn the AC on already?

Let's rewind to the beginning of the day. We had a get together in the park with about 20 mummies and we came prepared with lots of yummy healthy treats to eat. For instance, the frozen grapes. I'm addicted! I can't believe that I've never tried those before. And talk about a good treat. Forget needing to go for ice cream everyday. Wait- maybe not that good, but super duper good. We ate a lot of fruit, and had a big salad. Very refreshing.

As I predicted with all the sweat that came off of me today, I must have lost at least 1 pound! Or could it be 2? Nonetheless, getting all the toxins out through sweat is good for the body, right? Enough talk about sweat though!

X-man and I took a walk after the park which only enhanced the burning feeling in my legs from yesterday's stroller fit. We also spent time in the backyard playing around. Not a super active day, but realistically, I am not about to exercise everyday.

Dinner was barbecue 'mititei'. This is a Romanian combo meat of pork and beef. Doesn't sound good? But it is, especially done on the barbecue and with sides of coleslaw and potato salad. And for dessert, plain yogurt with frozen berries. Ok, I admit, I threw in some chocolate chips...hey, a girl can't deprive herself of everything!

On to stroller fit tomorrow. Can't say I'm looking forward to it with the heat, but I will give it a go. 

How do you keep cool when exercising on super hot days?

1st day of Spring into Shape: Stroller Fit

Today I attended a Stroller Fit class run by a fellow mummy who is actually a fitness trainer. 

Prior to signing up to this class, a friend and I had already decided to set-up our own. It came about one day when she was asking a bunch of us if we'd like to sign-up for some stroller fit classes. I said that I'd rather not pay for something like that and why don't we set-up our own. She agreed whole heartedly and I haven't done a thing for it since then, however, she has dedicated time to looking up some youtube videos for ideas and even typed up a list of exercises we can work our way through. How awesome is she for doing this?!

Back to today though. Mummies and babies met by the lake, ready to become fit. Let's talk about how hot it was for a second. It was pretty darn hot! I was already sweating from the walk to our exercise spot! How pathetic is that? X-man was pretty co-operative for the most part. I did take him out and put him on the mat and he entertained himself with Cheerios and my water bottle. As for the exercise, there were a lot of squats involved! We also did lunges, pushing and pulling the stroller or holding the babies. A few push ups were attempted, I mean real ones, not girly on your knee ones. I actually managed to complete a few, and by a few, I think I mean 4. These bicep muscles must be from carrying around the baby all the time! Then we were instructed to do the plank. Well my friends, I am not friends with the plank. Lets leave it at that. All in all, it was a good experience. Tiring because of the heat, and it makes it harder having to attend to a baby the entire time, but I'm glad I went out and did it, and it will all help in the long run. Next Spring into Shape activity is a picnic in the park tomorrow. You may be asking yourself, how is a picnic equivalent to exercise? My answer to you is that I have a 9.5 month old who is very active. Although not walking yet, he goes anywhere and everywhere and wants to see and touch everything. Not that at any age he sat still anywhere, but now he is mobile. So tomorrow, in the predicted 41 degree Celcius heat, I will be sweating off the pounds while chasing my baby in the park. Wednesday will be another stroller fit class, but this one will be lead by my friend and I who have no experience whatsoever!
As for my food regimen today...it was touch and go. Had a good breakfast, no lunch, went to the Romanian store and bought Cremsnit. I know, I know, I shouldn't have. For those who don't know what Cremsnit is, it's a pastry made of flour, powder sugar, milk, yolks, vanilla and butter. It's basically a custard filling inside of phyllo dough. Here's a picture of it before I ate it. I'm drooling just looking at it.

And dinner was a yummy steak made on the barbecue, so no oil involved, but I added 2 spoonfuls of teriyaki sauce and a simple salad of greens, tomato, red onion, celery and cucumber, with lime juice dressing. And it looked something like this.

And this is what I popped in the freezer this evening in preparation for tomorrow's heat. This will be my first time trying frozen grapes and I have no doubt that I will enjoy them very much. And the little man will have to settle for regular non-frozen ones.

Check out the rest of the ladies involved in Spring into Shape:

My Little Review Corner

Kidsumers

Jenn's RAQ

Elegantly Said

Two Children and a Migraine

The Knit Wit by Shair

Tales of a Ranting Ginger

Happily Blended

Grandma's Guide to Life

WAHM BAHM

MoscatoMom

In light of...

my Spring into Shape Challenge, I encourage you to visit some of my previous posts where I have included a variety of recipes with healthy meals.

Spring into Shape

1,2,3,..., let's try that again.

1,2,3, GO!!!!

This marks the beginning of my 2 week Spring into Shape Challenge. Along with some other fellow bloggers, I am embarking on yet another weight loss/healthy lifestyle, however you want to call it, journey.

In the past 9 months since having X-man, I have done a few things to help myself out, but nothing lasts long. Not that 2 weeks is a long time, but at this point, I have few reasons for wanting to do this and this is the last kick in the butt motivator that I need to get going.

Check back daily to see what I am doing to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Just to remind you: I am a new mum with a 9.5 month old baby. I dislike exercising very much and love chocolate, ice cream and can sit down and eat a jar of Nutella within an hour. As you can see, I am no health nut, so everything I do and will be doing are things that I believe, the "average mum" can do.

Nothing I do is extreme and my personal expectations are very realistic. 

With that, all I can say is, off we go!

Tonight's dinner *Warning* Very bad pictures

A little while ago I started documenting what I was making for dinner in an effort to inspire myself to be creative and thus to begin a healthier lifestyle. I was doing really well for a while and then fell off the wagon. So, here we go again, by knowing that I'm going to post meals I prepare, it makes me want to change things up and try new things.

This evening's meal was good, made up of some leftovers and fresh items, but I didn't have my camera with me so I used my phone, hence the bad quality pictures and the food not looking so appetizing. 

Ingredients

- chicken breast, whole

- teriyaki sauce

Earlier in the day I placed the chicken breast in a ziploc bag and poured in the teriyaki sauce so that it would soak it in.

- 1 red pepper, sliced

- 1 zuchinni, cut lengthwise

- 3 green onions, chopped

- 1 handful of cherry tomatoes

- Macedonian feta cheese, pieces

- yellow wax beans

- 2 garlic cloves, sliced

- canola oil

Chicken

Pour very little oil in skillet and turn on. Once oil is hot, place chicken breast in skillet. Cover with lid and turn heat to low-medium so that sauce doesn't cook too fast and caramelize. After 10 minutes add the red pepper, zucchini and green onions. Cook for approximately 15 more minutes. Ensure chicken is cooked through by cutting open a little section in the thickest part of one of the breasts.

As the teriyaki sauce cooks, it gets darker and thicker.

Side dishes

Chop both ends off the beans. Wash well in strainer. Cook in boiling water for 10-15 minutes, until beans have reached your desired tenderness. Some people prefer them crunchier rather than soft, so it's up to you to make that decision. Heat up oil in a pan, add garlic. When oil ready, add beans. Toss every couple minutes to coat all the beans in garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes at high heat. 

I also added a mini salad on the side of cherry tomatoes and feta cheese.

I love feta cheese, but the best is Macedonian. It's creamy and smooth and so yummy.