I Am So Thankful For Thursdays

My transition to motherhood was a bit more challenging than I expected.  Hard to adjust to all of the changes in my life.  Things have certainly smoothed out now, but not without many, many thanks to my dear friend Hilary.  For seven months now Hilary has been coming over almost every Thursday to play with me, Elliot and our friend Max.  Weather permitting, we pack everyone up and walk Mt. Tabor, all the while talking, laughing and playing.  She is truly a wonderful friend.  So dedicated, smart, funny, spirited.  She's just wonderful.  And now, with the sale of our house and our move into an apartment, today marked the last Thursday for us to walk Mt. Tabor together.  She'll still be joining us for fun times, but we will have to say goodbye to all of our favorite Tabor routes and Babytown fun.

Thank you so much, Hilary.  I am blessed to have such a good friend.  Here's to a lifetime "Thursdays" together.  xoxo.

Guess What...

Did you catch that?  Here, let me give you a closer look.

That's right.  Sale pending.  We've sailed through inspection and appraisal and now it's on to closing, which should be in the next week or so (even earlier than expected since everything is moving along so quickly).  And the most amazing part... it only took one day.  That's right, competing offers on the first day.  Oh wow, we are so lucky!

Here's a link to our realtor's posting of the house on her company's blog when it first went on the market.  It gives you a quick peek inside of the house, too.  Pretty, pretty.

Neighborhood Playground

At this point, there are a few things that it seems like we waited a long time to finally do with Elliot.  Like his first time on a park swing last week.  And this recent trip to the playground at our neighborhood school.  He might not looked that thrilled at either of the new experiences, but for the most part he was engaged and interested and it seemed like a good fit developmentally.  And, if you scroll down, you'll see that it wasn't all about Elliot having fun.  Andrea had herself some good, wholesome fun, too.  Such beauties, these two.                          

Zoo Day

Elliot's first trip to the zoo!  I loved showing him the giraffe.  It took him a minute, but he did find it.  However, the oh-so-exotic crow in the tree next to us captured most of his attention.

He definitely saw the monkeys.  Elliot and his Monkey, looking at the monkey.  So cute.

And some underwater time with his Mama.  Elliot loved it down here.  So quiet and cool.

He also had some special time getting to know a dear little friend of mine.  Elliot liked watching the elephants a little bit, but he spent most of his time watching and playing with his new friend.  He is such a people person!

I would say, all in all, this little animal had a great first trip to the zoo.

As a side-note, I thought it was so awesome that I found a spot that was posted with the international breastfeeding symbol.  It was set off to the side near a quiet area with a bench overlooking the elephant enclosure.  Way to go, Oregon Zoo!

I Like Friday

A while back I posted about I Like Lists.  Did you know that every Friday I change my and Elliot's I LIke Lists on the sidebar of this page?  His is usually updated with four new foods that he is especially liking that week.  And mine is four blogs that I especially like and want to share with your readers.  So don't forget to check out the I Like Lists on Fridays for new Mixed Baby Greens tidbits.  


Today's I Like List, in pictures.

(Trips to the neighborhood Asian markets with Elliot; Elliot's new sweet ride--thanks for lending it to us Chifumi, Chris and Noah!; beautiful spring tulips that we pass on our way up Mt. Tabor; Elliot's first time on a swing; when Elliot falls asleep while the sun is still up; Fun Friday homemade pizza tradition)

Now here's what I'm thinking, dear readers.  Number one, I am especially curious who you all are.  In the blogging-world, those of us who look at other people's blogs but don't leave comments are called lurkers, a terrible name, I know.  I like to think of you more as admirers.  So, dear admirers, I love that you take time out of your day to check out the updates on Mixed Baby Greens and I would love even more to know a bit about you.  Which brings me to my second point... I'm curious about what would be on your I Like List.  So, sweet Mixed Baby Greens admirers, tell me what's on your I Like List.  Leave a love note below with your list and next Friday I'll put them all together and make one big Mixed Baby Greens I Like List.  It will be a snapshot of all of us and what we like.


Okay, click on the Love Note link below and leave your I Like List.  I'll go first....

Healthy Baby Cakes

I've been doing some more healthy baking for Elliot.  I modified a Joy of Cooking zucchini bread recipe to make him some yummy, healthy zucchini mini muffins, aka: healthy baby cakes.  And Elliot isn't the only one who enjoys them.  They make great breasfast bites for me and Andrea, too. 

And don't forget, as MamaCakies always says, you must listen to this song whenever making your cakes.  And oh, I couldn't agree more!

Healthy Zucchini Baby Cakes (modified from Joy of Cooking)

In a stand mixer, beat together:
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 a banana, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
Beat into that:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Then beat in:
2 cups shredded zucchini
If you'd like:
add walnuts, raisins, chocolate chips (those are for us, not Elliot!), or any other yummy


Fill a greased mini-muffin tin.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Refrigerate or freeze when cooled, and enjoy!

Some for Me, And Some For You

I love so much when little ones start pretending to feed you whatever it is that they're eating.  Elliot has just started.  It's such a wonderful, universal sign of engaging with another person--to offer them what you're eating.  This cute little bunny was sharing his Easter eggs with Annika yesterday.  Some for him... then some for her.  He's learning so much every day.  It's just amazing to watch, and even better to be a part of!

An Amazing Day

It's late at the end of the day on Sunday and Andrea and I are sitting here talking about how amazing our Easter has been.  Truly amazing.  We enjoyed a long, leisurely, rainy day with Annika and Emily.  Homemade eggs benedict and sweet potato home fries filled our brunch plates and mimosas and hot coffee overflowed from our cups. Matzo and jam were available for snacking as a nod to Passover.  Annika and Emily told and very long, detailed, and engaging story about the Old and New Testaments, Jesus, the Jews, Christianity, and Easter.  Gospel played in the background all day long.  There was some knitting and some walking in the rain.  And, most delightful of all, Elliot was extremely happy and engaged for the whole day.  Laughing, hugging, kissing, squealing, playing.  There seemed to be no end to his delight, or in how delightful he was.

It helped that he had the coolest Easter basket ever.  Eggs filled with freeze dried strawberries, bananas, and Snackimals animal cookies that were yummy snacks and made great rattles, too.  A new book called A Color of His Own, by Leo Lionni.  A horse, a polar bear and a panda and a new stuffed Bunny.  Oh my!

His three new animal friends were a gift for Elliot from his SG, Annika, but he picked them out himself.  While at Target recently we went rounds about which animals she should get for him for Easter, finally deciding to just let him pick for himself.  I walked him back down the aisle while she and Andrea lined up a row of different animals on the floor.  I put Elliot down, he crawled straight for the animals, picked up the panda and crawled away with it.  I pointed him back towards the animals two more times and each time he clearly made one choice out of all of the animals and crawled away with it.  This is how the horse, the panda, the polar bear came to be Elliot's newest friends.  

As for his Bunny, this is my newest creation for him.  I nearly pulled an all-nighter last night trying to bring what was in my mind to life.  And I am so happy that I did.  I just love the end result.  (Hilary, do you recognize those bunny legs?  Your rainbow socks live on!)  After I was done with the Bunny's photo shoot I went on to make one more accessory to complete his look:  a cape with a letter E (for Easter, of course) tied round his neck.  It was the perfect finishing touch.  

Thanks to Annika and Emily for filling Elliot's day full of love and happiness.  Thanks to Elliot's nan for his Easter raincoat and his Amuma for another pair of the cutest knitted overalls you've ever seen (more on those later).  Thanks to his Nana the Great for all of his Easterific gifts (swim trunks and shirt for the summer, bubbles, and a big bouncy ball).  And thanks to Andrea for working so hard with me to make this little baby's life so wonderful.  It's worth every minute, wouldn't you say?

Sushi Train

I don't know why we've never done it before, but we went to a place that serves sushi on a conveyor belt for the first time today.  You sit at your table and watch all of the little plates go by and pick off which ever ones you want to eat.  Then they charge you based on the number and color of plates you have.  It was so fun!

Elliot loves eating off chopsticks.  In fact, if he's being picky at home and not eating his food, often we can get him to eat if we just feed it to him from chopsticks.  Chopsticks with your sweet potatoes, anyone??  Luckily, he and I like the same kind of sushi, brown rice with avocado and cucumber, so we just shared. But today we were adventurous and also tried the sesame balls with sweet bean paste inside and they were delicious!  Both Elliot and I ate them all up. 

He and I were finished eating and he was getting a bit fussy, so I walked him over to where the cooks were preparing the sushi.  They had quite a production line set up.  They just made plate after plate of sushi and added them to the conveyor belt.  Elliot charmed them and they let me take their picture.  They even gave Elliot a cream puff, which he happily had a taste of.

Hot Pot 'n Sushi, you are our new favorite place.  So much fun!

Pine Cone Picnic

Last week Elliot and I had a Mumma-and-Baby picnic in the park.  I promise he ate a healthier dinner than just pine cones, although you couldn't tell by looking at the pictures.  The picnic menu was actually veggie cakes, stir-fried carrots and zucchini, and mango.  For entertainment, we had our own skateboarding trick show, performed by some youth right directly in front of us.  Elliot was mesmerized!  Thankfully, he's on the mend from his HFMD, but I can't wait until he's healthy enough to be out eating pine cones with me again.

                              

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes?

Nope.  Hand, Foot and Mouth... 
Disease, that is.  Yep, after 24 hours of a 101 degree fever and not being able to nurse because it was too painful to swallow, a quick trip to the doctor ended in a diagnosis of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease for Elliot.  Isn't that just the worst name?  I think made even more worse by the fact that it ends with the word Disease.  And that there's also something called Hoof and Mouth Disease that cows get, so it conjures up images of Elliot growing dirty cow hooves on his hands and feet.  But while the doctor said it "hurts like the dickens" in his mouth, it's actually just a common childhood virus that brings with it a fever and little blisters on and around his hands, feet and mouth.  And, the sad and painful part is that his mouth is full of the blisters, too.  He's starting to nurse better now, but still can't really swallow solids with out crying out in pain.  So sad.  Today is day two of the worst of it.  Our plan is to stay home, get lots of rest, nurse as much as possible, and cross our fingers that the next five or so days of the virus pass quickly and painlessly.  Here's a picture of Elliot right now.  I'd say we're off to a good start.  Send us lots of good thoughts that it stays that way.