Hello legs!

I thought I'd show you what success I had with our faux-fudgesicles...

They're awesome. 

In other news, our life is about to change drastically as our wee woman has been working on her first steps over the course of the last couple of weeks. She is still not quite confident enough to take off running, but she probably could...

Check her out...

I'm turning 30 in two weeks. I feel like my twenties sort of blew by, but such is life...Anyway, we're in the process of planning a little dirty thirty family holiday...It looks like we are destined for a little cabin on Galiano where we can all decompress before I go back to work at the start of June. I'm really excited for our little trip...Not so pumped for going back to work. More news to come! There are so many changes coming up for us!!

DIY Mama

I grew up in a house where my mom basically did everything from scratch. Between her and my nana, they sewed a lot of our clothes and halloween costumes, baked our treats, knitted our toques and scarves, grew some of our food, pickled and preserved our garden goodies, etc. It was a lovely little life that my sisters and I had. I have very distinct memories of my mom making juice and yoghurt popsicles for us in the summer time. Yesterday was a really nice day, and my mom sent me a great recipe for healthy fudgesicles, so I thought I'd whip some up. THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!
Here is the recipe:

5 medjool dates (pitted)
1/4 cup agave
1 banana
2 avocados
5 TBSP carob powder
1/2 cup water
1 cup coconut milk

-Put the dates in your blender and cover them with 1/2 cup h20. Let them sit for 30 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into popsicle moulds, freeze and EATTTTTTT!

They're seriously so good and guilt-free. Autumn will be a faux-fudge covered baby at snack time today.

I have become kind of obsessed with searching through pinterest for crafty diy ideas and fun little recipes. I saw this and had to make it. If you have a little girl and a sewing machine, you should make one too. It took me 10 minutes and it's so cute!

I think we can safely say that spring has sprung in Vancouver. It was a lovely warm weekend and we spent lots of time outside. Let's hope it sticks!! I am SO over winter/rain/clouds, etc. Autumn has a cute new UV suit that needs wearing. Here is our girl at the park yesterday. We couldn't stay too long cause it was super sunny and squish refused to keep a hat on her head. Wish me luck this summer!

Baby Sign

I thought I would post a little update on our progress with baby sign. This was something that we started working on when Autumn was 4 months old...It took a while, but we are really reaping the benefits now. Autumn can sign for "milk", "more" and she can let us know when she is "all done" eating, bathing, playing, etc. I felt like those three were the most important signs for her to know: "milk", "more" and "all done". We are also working on "water", "drink", "hungry", "eat" and "dirty diaper".  Teddy and I are also trying to teach her some manners with the signs for "please" and "thank you" but so far we haven't had any luck with those. I think we successfully mastered "hot" the other day when squish put her fat little hand on the base board radiator. I guess that's one way to learn...My poor little bub :( yikes! Anyway, I just wanted to put it out there that baby sign has been an incredibly useful tool for communicating with a person whose verbal skills are, well...there really aren't any verbal skills to be had. haha! I shouldn't say that. Squish can say mama, dada, nose (which actually sounds more like nay) and hi. She's very smart. She has also started dancing this past week...Which is pretty much the most hilarious thing I've ever seen in my life. She's all head and is really kind of spastic in her movements. But she is definitely dancing! Haha! My graceful little squish.
Anyhew, baby sign has taught me that babies understand a whole lot more than what we give them credit for. If you are interested in learning more about baby sign, this website has a lot of useful information. I intended from the get-go to sign up for a course with Autumn but never got around to it and have managed just fine. I think a course would be beneficial if you were interested in learning more than just a few basic little signs like we have done and there is no shortage of classes in Vancouver as well as instructors who do in-home tutorials.
Good luck, mamas! Happy signing :)

As promised...

I have tested out a few different recipes for natural & homemade household cleaning and skin care products over the last few weeks and I thought I would share my favourites. Teddy and I really started rethinking what we were using to sanitize the surfaces in our home when squish recently started putting kisses on every little thing in sight. Teddy has always opposed my use of bleach to clean things and can tell immediately when he comes through the door if I have clorox'd anything in the house over the course of the day. He finds the scent nauseating and doesn't want any of us breathing that stuff in. So I broke down and hopped on the vinegar bandwagon...And let me tell you, that stuff is sure stinky but it cleans like the dickens! And baking soda...What a miraculous little powder. Anyway, here are my favourite recipes:


Laundry detergent

2 cups pure soap (ivory, sunlight, etc)
2 cups borax
2 cups laundry soda

Melt grated soap in boiling water and pour into a bucket with the borax and soda. Top up bucket to 2 gallon mark. Stir, add 40 drops of your favourite essential oil, stir again, cover and allow to set over night. It will gel. Use 1/4 cup per load of laundry.



All-purpose Cleaner

1/4 cup vinegar
2 cups water, boiled and cooled.
15 drops orange/citrus essential oil (citrus is great for killing kitchen stinkiness)

Mix it all together and pour into a spray bottle.


Air freshener (Diaper pail deoderizer)

1 cup water, boiled and cooled
15 drops tea tree oil

Pour into a spray bottle on the 'mist' setting. It works like a charm!
You could use other essential oils as alternatives, but tea tree oil is great for killing bacteria. Lavender and clove also have anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties so they could be good options also.



Facial Cleanser

Castile soap. That's it.



Baby Body Wash

Castile soap. MMhmm.


Face/Body Scrub

1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
1/4 Cup Sea Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar (white, granulated sugar is great for this)
15 drops of your favourite essential oil (I used a vanilla/lavender combo--AWESOME!)

Smash it all together and store in a sealed container. Use a quarter-sized blob on your finger in the shower and massage into your face and neck. Presto.


Facial Moisturizer/Diaper Rash Cream

1 Tbsp Coconut Oil
3 Tbsp pure shea butter
10 drops Tea Tree Oil

Smash it all together and slather on after a good wash/scrub. Your skin will feel awesome.
OR apply liberally to a red bum. This is the best diaper rash cream I've tried.




I had a lot of fun with this project. I'll post more recipes as I try out more things. Happy cleaning!

Autumn's first second holiday. hah!

We had a fantastic Easter weekend---SO MUCH GOOD FOOD!!! & Good times with family. Teddy's mom and dad came across to the mainland for the weekend and we had a blast. We couldn't decide on turkey or ham so we did both. That's right--TWO dinners. We're gluttonous. Squish didn't get to eat any chocolate, but she did enjoy some candied pecans on top of her french toast and the Easter bunny was generous with the plushies and a few little outfits. When I was a little girl, we had Italian neighbours--Melina and Dante--Every year for Easter, they would gift my sister and I an enormous chocolate egg and a pair of nylons. Random, right? Teddy has taken it upon himself to carry on their tradition and has picked me up a massive egg and some hosiery every year that we have been together. Every year, it's hilarious.

We had awesome spring weather this weekend, so we spent quite a bit of time out and about the town. Teddy's mom loves the aquarium and was inspired by the pictures from our last blog entry so we hit up Stanley Park and visited the fishies again. It was much easier to snap photos this time around with three adults and one baby. haha! We did a few big walks as well--Yesterday, with Teddy's mama and today just the wee family. Autumn has had lots of fresh air this weekend and we're all feeling great. Today's walk took us to Queen Elizabeth Park where I planned to take the squish machine into the Bloedel Conservatory to check out the flowers and birds while Teddy explored the park with Elliott. Instead, we had a little picnic and enjoyed the sunshine all together. We'll save Bloedel for another day. I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend as much as we did. I really wish we could extend the weekend for a couple more days. sigh.