Getting ready for Lent

It's Fat Tuesday! I originally planned on making merry with pączki and gołąbki since it's also Saint Casimir's feast day and being half polish I wanted to delve into my culinary heritage, but because of the forcasted snomageddon I wasn't able to head out to the grocery store and had to peapod it. I'd fault peapod for not having some of the things I needed in stock but really the amount of things that don't make it to my door is about the same as the amount I forget when I go out myself. Only I got to stay home in my toasty 72 degree apartment! I call that a win.

So instead I'm going Italian and making some sausage and linguine with zeppolis for dessert. I'm not exactly sure if zeppolis are specifically a Fat Tuesday staple but they fit the criteria: fried dough and sugar. 

Lent has been regarded as a season of penance and self depravation, but since last year and this year I'm exempt from fasting (pregnant and nursing) I've been using it as an opportunity to do something charitable as a way of thanking God for everything I've been blessed with. 

Last year I donated to locks of love. Anyone who can grow their hair long should do it at least once in their life! The feeling you get from doing something so simple is so incredible. I'll never forget when I was at the post office to drop of my package. The postman noticed the address and my short 'do and said "Aww you cut your hair, that's so sweet." Instant good feeling warm and fuzzies! 

This year I'm back to my regular crochet program, so my goal is to crochet 40 granny squares in 40 days to make a blanket to donate to one of my favorite charities Project Linus. Stash busting, charity, and the opportunity for quiet meditation as I crochet each square, I'd say that's a good recipe for Lenten reflection and soulful decluttering.

What's on Amazon

I finally watched all of Caddyshack straight through. Previously I'd only seen the beginning, end, and a couple parts in the middle. Now I'm really looking forward to the summer! Although I'd only play golf with Rodney Dangerfield. 

In The Den 

I don't know if it's like this with most babies but my daughter got her first cold, three teeth, and started sitting unsupported all within 2 weeks! It's unbelievable!

She also hasn't been able to nap anywhere but in my lap on the boppy or on my shoulder. Although I'm getting pretty good at doing things with one hand and with my iPhone ( like this post), I'm really hoping this is just a phase that'll end soon. I'm trying to keep in mind that before I know it she won't want to be less than 500 feet away from me. 

We're in the second half of her first year so I'm gearing up for her first birthday party, by which I mean getting a Pinterest board started. I've always had a jungle theme in mind, you know like Survivor. Great minds must think alike because Katy Perry stole my idea for her Roar video. 

I'm hoping I can exercise some photoshop muscles and create our own invitations to print. I feel some pressure since this sets a precedent for the rest of my child's birthday parties. It's an opportunity to show off some creativity and make some lovely memories. In other words pictures will be taken so it has to look nice! No pressure!!!

Why you should consider keeping your kid off of Facebook

Though at this point it's a ubiquitous part of everyone's life, we decided pretty early in my pregnancy that when the time came we wouldn't be posting pictures of our daughter on Facebook. My husband and I have both had profiles since our college years, so we have the typical love/hate relationship with Facebook and the influence it has on our lives.

This has been surprisingly one of the HARDEST decision we've made, especially when we see all of the other cute babies our family and friends are proudly showing off. Our baby is the cutest baby in the UNIVERSE!! It would be really easy for us to cave and I'm surprised we haven't fallen off the wagon yet. However we've also been saved from some headaches we've seen other parents have to deal with.

If you're an avid Facebook user it may not even be a question as to whether you're going to post pictures of your children, but like anything you decide to do as a parent I think it's worth taking a look at some potential repercussions. DISCLAIMER: You are not a terrible parent for posting pics of your kid on facebook.I'm just sharing some of the reasons why we decided not to do so in the hopes of creating some discussion.

1) Your Child's Privacy

60 Minutes recently did a story on how developers are able to use Facebook's database of faces (all those tagged pictures) to create facial recognition software advertisers can use to target consumers. This may sound a little conspiracy nutty but it seems to me that its only a short jump to Big Brother being able to follow us around a la Minority Report. The technology already exists, it's just a matter of who's using it. We're hoping to keep our daughter off the grid until she's old enough to make her own decisions about her identity and whether or not she wants a web presence.

2) Everyone Else's Sanity

Lets face it, there are people out there who overdo the baby on facebook thing. You know the ones: their photo albums are time lapses of their kid's first year. Considering we have over a thousand pictures of our daughter from her first month between us thanks to our iphones, I'm sure most of our friends would tire pretty quickly from the cuteness overload. And they would overload. Very quickly. She's really cute!

3) Save Yourself from Criticism

Everyone has their opinions on child rearing and I'd hate to be the source of dinner table gossip after posting a pic of something I decided to do with my daughter. When you post a picture of yourself or your family on the internet, it's there for everyone to put in their 2 cents.

4) The Future

I fully expect at some point that our kids will want to be part of whatever incarnation of social networking that is around, and most likely it will be when they are way too young (or at least what we will consider way too young). I feel that if I give my child a web presence at this point, it would be somewhat hypocritical of me to tell them"no" later on when they ask if they can have a facebook or twitter or whatever will be around. I won't be keeping them off of the internet if they're already on there.

5) You're Forced to Keep in Touch

Though Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, it's also lead to something of an over-casualization of correspondence since it's super easy to just like a post or leave a comment and not add any more depth to the interaction. It takes some effort to gather all the physical and email addresses of friends and family that you'd like to stay in touch with! Our solution to sharing our daughter's milestones without Facebook is to send out a monthly email, as well as holiday cards. Everyone likes getting a card in their mail or pics of cute babies in their inbox! There's something about having something physical to open up and look at like a picture or card that satisfies our caveman brains. People become more invested in your child's progress if they only see pictures every so often and have something they can stick on their fridge. 

If you do decide to keep your kid off of Facebook it's important to go over your decidion with your family. You wouldn't want someone to ruin all your effort by posting a pic from a party. So far our family and friends have been very respectful and understanding and some have even applauded our decision.

We're also well aware that by emailing pictures Google has a copy for themselves that they can use however they like. So in the end is it an exercise in futility? Maybe, but we're trying our best to minimize any web presence our kids may have before they're old enough to make their own decisions on their web identity.

Today on the Liturgical Calendar

I hope you're all having a merry Christmas! Today is the Feast of Stephen of Christmas carol fame. I know I'm plum tuckered out from all the Christmas food and fun yesterday, so today is a day for relaxing and watching my baby play with her new toys.

What's NOT on Netflix 

I'm not sure when Netflix's license for Jim Henson studio films expired, but when it did so did some of their great Christmas specials including The Christmas Toy and one of my favorites Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. I might just have to get a hard copy for my holiday viewing. Until then you can see some of the musical numbers the Jim Henson YouTube channel.

On Postpartum Body Image

I just got back from my first shopping trip specifically for clothes since having the baby. I have to say it felt pretty good to pick out items that weren't maternity or nursing specific. When looking at the mirror however, I've still got a ways to go before getting back to my pre baby size. But I think I've done a pretty good job at being realistic with where I am and not getting too caught up with the extra flib flab here and there.

For one thing, I'm almost exclusively breast feeding (we started baby on some rice cereal for practice). Nursing is the true "eating for two", you need to consume around 500 extra calories a day to keep your supply up especially the first couple months. Along with that comes the added responsibility of eating the right things since whatever I eat my baby eats. If I ever forget to take my multivitamin I feel like I got hit by a truck so I'm sure if I started eating less nutritious food I'd feel even worse.

It's more important right now that my baby gets fed, so I don't want to take anything out of my diet that might affect my supply unless it was something that my baby was having trouble digesting. For now I'm still eating dairy and gluten, which I had previously eliminated from my diet with great but really drastic results (I lost something like 30 pounds in 2 months). Those are two of the most common foods that could cause digestive problems for babies, but we've been lucky and haven't had any issues on that front. 

I could make more time for fitness, but since I'm not working out as much as I should I'm also not lamenting that I don't have chiseled arms or abs. I'm not the 5 hours a day at the gym type, but I'll work on trying to fit in at least 30 minutes a day.

Being realistic and keeping your baby's nutrition in mind is probably the best way to filter anything you might get from entertainment news, or even a comment from a well meaning loved one (*cough* grandma *cough*). As long as baby is gaining well, it's better to keep on doing what you're doing.

I'm raising a daughter and I want her to have love and respect for her body. She won't develop that if I pick at all the flaws I see with my body.

It's important to remember that my body created a human being! That's pretty incredible! It took nine months to put together all those bones and muscles and organs and my body had to change a whole lot to make that happened. Right now it's making food for my baby to eat, so it's not going to be in default mode until she's completely weaned.

My goal is to be back to my pre baby size by my daughter's 1st birthday. It's totally doable, but I won't sweat it if I'm not exactly where I was this time a year ago.

Today on the Liturgical Calendar:

Today is the feast of Saint Lucy! It's most famous celebration is probably in the Scandinavian countries where traditionally a girl wearing a wreath of candles leads a procession.

I haven't planned any special meals for today, but the name Lucy comes from the latin for light so I'll be admiring the lights on the tree. She's also the patron saint of the blind and those with vision problems, so I'll be praying for an improvement in my prescription and saying a prayer for my niece, also named Lucy.

Jack Frost Nipping at Your Nose?

I'm working on party favors for my nephew's upcoming first birthday. Glee!

I'm making crochet nose covers. They're going to have little snow man faces. I'm still trying to figure out how to do the face part. Hopefully I still have some orange felt.

Today on the Liturgical Calendar:

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Those of you who grew up watching Wishbone might remember there was an episode that told the story.

 Wasn't Wishbone an amazing show?! 

I celebrated by making some chicken quesadillas for dinner/lunch the next day. Our Lady of Guadalupe is probably one of my favorite icons and there are some beautiful pieces of art based on the image, including this amigurumi piece by one of my favorite amigurumists Allison Hoffman.  

Such a lovely piece. A true work of art made with crochet.

So if you'd like to celebrate today is a good day for some Mexican food and a few Hail Mary's.