Simply Delicious - Vegg'ed Up Pizza Sauce

Like so many little kids, Mini Muffin adores pizza.  With this in mind, we found ourselves making pizza over the weekend.  It's a fun family activity that Mini Muffin loves to help with - making the whole wheat dough, spreading the sauce and sprinkling it with cheese and pepperoni.  Of course I love my pizza with lots of veggies, but in her world pizza is only pizza if it's plain pepperoni pizza.  Sigh.

So, I made my sneaky vegg'ed up pizza sauce.  This is the second time I've made it, and the second time I've forgotten to take pictures!  It's also the second time that Mini Muffin has loved it.  It's super simple and easy, and is a great way to sneak a few veggies onto plain pepperoni pizza!

Vegg'ed Up Pizza Sauce

1/3 red bell pepper
1 medium carrot
1 small zucchini
1 - 1.5 c of your favourite pasta sauce

1.  Coarsely chop all veggies, and steam until soft.
2.  Purée steamed veggies and pasta sauce.
3.  Spread on pizza and enjoy the veggie goodness!

It makes me giggle that Mini Muffin, both times, has watched me cram as many veggies as possible into the pizza sauce, yet doesn't seem to register that there are extra veggies in there!  Both times, she's watched me whirl the sauce smooth, and asked me to taste.  After giving her a dipped spoon to lick, she has decided that she needs more.  So, on both occasions she's eaten a small prep bowl of vegg'ed up pizza sauce while we prep our pizza.  I suspect she enjoys it because the texture is nice and smooth, and the red bell pepper makes it nice and sweet. 

But whatever the reason, I call it a win for Mama!

Little Smiling Man's Nemesis

We just got back from an appointment with our nurse practitioner, so I thought I would share with you Little Smiling Man's new found nemesis... unknown allergies.  Ugh.  We've been on quite a journey for the last four months with no end in sight.  So now seems as good a time as any to write about what's been going on.

We were and are very lucky with Mini Muffin's skin.  Even as a newborn she could tolerate "normal" laundry detergent; no need for special hypoallergenic baby stuff.  She rarely got diaper rashes, and to date has had maybe three viral rashes in her life.  That's it.  It's safe to say that my experience with treating skin conditions from my first born was slim.

Little Smiling Man got off to a good start too.  He was more prone to diaper rashes, but they were always manageable.  He was more prone to baby skin conditions like baby acne, but we were still able to use our regular laundry detergent with him as well.

That is, until he turned six months old.  At his six month well baby check up I learned that the rough patches on his knees and lower back (which were starting to spread across his belly) were not from rubbing against the floor as he squiggled around, but were in fact eczema.  Our family doctor suggested that he was likely developing a sensitivity to our laundry detergent, so we should switch him to hypoallergenic detergent with an extra rinse, cover him head to toe in Vaseline nightly (as a barrier), and it should resolve itself quickly. 

It did not resolve itself quickly.  I ended up switching the entire family to hypoallergenic laundry detergent to no effect.  Since I had read that eczema can be a symptom of food allergy, and we were still early in the food introduction process, I also cut out solid foods from his diet and reintroduced them one by one.  I documented everything he ate, everything I ate (because of nursing), and his symptoms.  Eczema flare ups were lasting from days to more than a week, and it was almost impossible to quantitatively say if they were better or worse after a meal.  Especially since their condition is also influenced by temperature, contact, and humidity.  I gave up after about a month since there seemed to be zero correlation between either of our diets and his skin.  At about eight months, his skin suddenly improved and we had about a month's reprieve with only occasional flare ups, despite his diet continuing to expand and not having eliminated anything from it. 

Somewhere along the way we also started trying other skin soothing tips and tricks we received from those around us.  Oatmeal baths, which my mother swore by for my sensitive skin as a baby.  Minimizing use of soaps.  A hazelwood necklace, as a friend claimed it took care of her son's eczema as well as her own skin sensitivities.  Only wearing cotton to maximize breathability.  We tried each one because, goodness knows, it wasn't going to hurt!  None has had a significant impact to date, though we continue with occasional oatmeal baths and only rarely use soap on Little Smiling Man's skin.

Just after his nine month check up, a new rash developed.  It got worse over three days until it was raised, rough, angry, covered his trunk, and resulted in our Christmas Day visit to the emergency department for what we learned were hives.  We were told there was nothing that could be done, to keep them moisturised and give Tylenol for the discomfort.  They also suggested logging what he was eating and exposed to in order to try and figure out the trigger.  Argh!  The outbreak lasted a full week with nothing seeming to make it better or worse.  We had a two day reprieve, then another (slightly less severe) outbreak.  I'm so grateful that his allergy or allergies are not life threatening, that is an absolute blessing.  I do though find it is so frustrating that one outbreak lasts so long that it's nearly impossible to figure out the cause!

So, today, we went to see our nurse practitioner for help.  She was fantastic.  She gave me practical advice on caring for his rashes, and explained what's been going on.  Essentially, his immune system is maturing, and as it does it reacts to certain triggers.  They may include physical contact (e.g. detergents, soaps, etc), medications, foods, and so on.  Each reaction is complex, as its severity is impacted by the allergen itself, as well as his clothing, the weather, and so on.  She explained that it's not surprising I haven't gotten to the bottom of it, dermatology is a complex subject.  She also said that his sensitivities will change over time, and while both the eczema and hives are definitely related to allergies at this point, he will likely outgrow them.  As a result, there's no benefit to seeing an allergist at this time, as we're working with a moving target.  Comforting and incredibly frustrating at the same time - I just want my baby to feel better!

Perhaps the best part of our visit, in my opinion, was when she left to do a bit of research, and came back to tell me that contrary to what we'd previously been told, there are in fact antihistamines available to babies from six months of age!  She prescribed us one that is non-drowsy and lasts 24h!  It's to be used on an as needed basis, but should shorted the duration of hives from a week to a day, thus making him more comfortable and diagnosis of his triggers much easier. 

She suggested I keep a look out for high histamine foods, as well as suspected histamine triggers.  So, tomatoes, strawberries, citrus fruits, etc.  Now that we won't have to wait a miserable week of itchy skin between diagnosis opportunities, I'm feeling like this might actually be manageable!

So, at nearly ten months old and four months into Little Smiling Man's skin conditions, I can honestly say I have no idea what is going on or how to stop it.  I know a bit more about how to keep him comfortable, what to look out for, and now have tools to shorten the duration.  I also know that it's quite likely that as soon as I figure it out, his allergies will disappear and/or change, and it's just part of the process.  I'm blessed that he's such a happy baby; even when he's miserable he's calm and relatively happy.  So, we'll keep working on it and hopefully either his immune system will sort itself out, or we'll learn how to keep his immune system from going into overdrive. 

Wish us luck... We need it.

Baby Clothes Organization

In light of my 2016 organisational resolution I posted here, I thought I'd share an organisation project I did back in the fall - baby clothes!

When Mini Muffin was born, I had good intentions and a plan to keep all of her baby clothes organised and well stored for future use. As she outgrew each size I folded and bagged them, labelled and put them in a large storage bin. Easy! Until nine months that is, when her bigger clothes no longer fit in a single bag. I ended up just stuffing them into a storage bin, and the sizes started to be intermixed. Then the bins got full, and I resorted to a clear plastic yard waste bag. The clothes were definitely in a state of loosely organised chaos. And that's not to mention the outdoor gear, shoes and socks!

Fast forward to Little Smiling Man's arrival. At that point, I realised the problem with my original organisational scheme. The beautiful gender neutral clothes that I'd received at my baby shower were now mixed in with girl clothes.... in neatly labelled bags by size. Digging through it all was a pain, I missed a few items, and that was before I reached the nine-month-stuff-it-in-a-bin 'organizational scheme'. And now there were boy clothes being added to the mix that also needed to be stored in case a third baby should need them.  The baby clothes situation was quickly getting out of hand!

When Little Smiling Man was growing out of his six month clothes, and Mini Muffin's 2T clothes also needed to be packed away, I decided to take action. I'd been thinking about how to best organise them all, and had a plan that I thought would take an afternoon to complete. It took a few afternoons, but I'm really happy with the result!

Before I began, there were four large storage bins that were stuffed to the brim, two stuffed diaper boxes, and two yard waste bags. As you can see in the picture below, it was pretty out of control.

Before... Everything overflowing and disorganised

Conveniently, the week I started this project vacuum storage bags went on sale at Costco. Perfect! So, I started with the smallest clothes and worked my way up. First, I put all boys and girls newborn pjs together, since I'd want both options to be washed and ready to go prior to a new baby's arrival. I then sorted newborn girl and boy clothes into separate bags, since these I'd pull out and wash for use after the baby was born (and thus after gender was known). Next, I pulled out all gender neutral clothes and pjs, and stored them together; one bag for up to six months, and one bag for larger sizes. From there, each size got an appropriately sized vacuum bag for each boys and girls clothes. And, since I'll want to reuse these bags, I tucked a card with gender and size inside before vacuuming them closed; this way everything is labelled without the bags being marked. Also, as I worked I weeded out the clothing that was still in good condition, but that I hadn't really liked and so would unlikely use again. These were separated out for donation to charity.

Since outerwear is something we'll be digging into seasonally regardless, I put boys and girls outerwear together in a single vacuum bag. Baby Hallowe'en costumes also went together in a single vacuum bag. And finally, I sorted shoes and socks by size and gender in labelled kitchen freezer bags. 

And that was that! I packed away the sealed vacuum bags, and the end result is shown below. Two diaper boxes for donation, and four large storage bins containing newborn to 2T girl clothes, newborn to six month boy clothes, outerwear, shoes, costumes, and an 'on the go' bag for each gender of sizes in the process of being grown out of. Much more manageable and sustainable moving forward!

After - boxes for donation, bins for storage

To summarise my tips -

• Store gender neutral clothes separately for easy access regardless of gender.
• Just because it's in good condition, you don't have to keep it. Donate what isn't functional for you.
• Good quality vacuum storage bags significantly reduce overall storage space.
• Having a variety of vacuum storage bag sizes is a bonus; toddler clothes take up much more room than newborn clothes!
• Experiment with filling the vacuum bags before getting too far into the process.  How you fill them impacts their shape after being vacuumed shut, so you need to make sure that the final dimensions of the bags will work with your storage space (bins, closet, etc).
• One well labelled bag for each size and gender will make it easy to find what you need later.
• Store shoes separately from clothing as they don't compress, so will make everything take up more room.  One bulky bag of shoes is much more convenient than shoes interspersed amongst clothing.

All in all, it was a pretty fun organisational project.  It was certainly nice to be able to take some time to turn my learnings from Baby #1 into a smarter set up for Baby #2 and any subsequent siblings.  It even helped me rediscovered some larger size gender neutral pjs that Little Smiling Man will soon grow in to.  And of course, I am thrilled for the more efficient use of closet space now that the yard waste bags have been eliminated! 

Planning an Organised New Year

Happy 2016!  I truly hope that this year brings health, happiness and peace to one and all.

We spent a lovely New Year's Eve together, as a family.  We had a nice dinner with a set table, candles, and some of our leftover Christmas crackers.  Dinner is always more fun when wearing silly paper crowns!  After dinner, we played by the Christmas tree for a while, and did a countdown at 7pm.  Then, off to bed!  I'm glad we called it an early night since Little Smiling Man had a rough night, so every minute of sleep was precious!

Looking back, 2015 has been a very busy and fantastic year.  On the family front, of course the biggest change was the addition of Little Smiling Man to our family in March.  We are so blessed.  2015 also saw Mini Muffin turn two, and really grow into her own little person.  It saw me begin my maternity leave, and grow into being a mother of two.  We had three family getaways; a trip to Vancouver to visit my in-laws, some cottage time in the summer, and finally our trip  to Niagara and a water park just before Christmas.  2015 was also the year that my sister got engaged, and my cousin got married.  On the home front, we started and finished a basement renovation (which straddled Little Smiling Man's arrival).  It was a full and fulfilling year to be sure.

Looking forward, 2016 is shaping up to be pretty amazing too.  My sister's bridal shower and wedding are coming up.  I was honoured to be asked to be Matron of Honour, and look forward to helping make her special day perfect.  Mini Muffin will be Flower Girl, and Little Smiling Man will be the Ring Bearer.  It promises to be a wonderful occasion.  2016 will also see Little Smiling Man learn to walk, turn one, and develop some language skills.  Mini Muffin will turn three, and continue to be awesome.  We're undecided on family getaways, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.  And, I'm sure there's more exciting stuff coming in 2016, so stay tuned!

As part of looking forward, so many of us think about resolutions.  My resolution is to continue the organisational progress I made in 2015.  When our renovation suddenly started in late February (mere weeks before Little Smiling Man was due to join us), the house got turned upside down.  The large, messy, 'stick it in the basement' storage area needed to be fully emptied.  Most of our 'storage' (e.g. junk) space was lost, and everything needed to find a new home either in our home, the recycling center, the dump, or an appropriate charity.  It was a major undertaking!  I developed an overall vision of what would be stored where, and began the jigsaw puzzle of making it happen.  One closet needed to be cleared out to make room for another item, which in turn made space for something else, and so on.  In the weeks leading up to our new arrival, I made a point of cleaning out and organizing one thing a day - a closet, dresser, cabinet, etc.  A couple of months after Little Smiling Man joined us, I finally finished.  I can happily say that in 2015 I went through and organised every single storage space in our house.  It was very rewarding; clutter was reduced, we realised we had things we'd forgotten about and could make use of them, and I learned about more local charities to help me rehome quality goods.

Therefore, for 2016 (and each year going forward), my goal is to clear out and organise every storage space in the house at least annually.  One of the great things is that the more clutter I get rid of, the easier the task becomes!  In order to make my goal realistic, I decided to spread out my organisational endeavours over the course of the year.  This, led me to... organise my organisational plans!

So, in preparation for the New Year, I set about getting organised.  I started by listing every storage space in the house.  Then, clarified how many times I wanted to go through it.  The vast majority of spaces I plan to go through once a year, but there are exceptions.  For example, the front hall closet and bedroom closets need to be gone through twice a year as part of the seasonal clothing switchover.  And, I've committed to clean out my pantry once every three months to help minimize food wastage. 

With these details included, I defined which spaces would be small, medium, or large jobs.  And, finally started assigning them each a month during which to be completed.  I also front end loaded 'the plan', since I expect the fall will be a busy time for us.

My last step, was to transfer my plans onto the family calendar.  Rather than assigning a day or even week to the task, I listed them by month to give myself maximum flexibility.  I also added monthly tasks of catching up on filing (something I am so woefully behind on at the moment that I'm afraid to start), and cleaning out the snack containers, art projects, mittens and toys that seem to accumulate in my van at an alarming rate.

"The Plan"

And with that, my resolution was set.  I feel ready to tackle the New Year in an organised fashion, and hope to be able to report back on my progress! 

Pepper and Feta Mini Quiches

I recently tried a recipe from a fun baby food site I came across - Baby FoodE (http://www.babyfoode.com). I expected to find a nice easy recipe for Little Smiling Man. Instead, I found a nice easy recipe for the whole family!

Pepper and Feta Mini Quiches 

Pepper and Feta Mini Quiches

1/4 c each diced red, yellow and green peppers
4 eggs
1/4 c plain yogurt
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp crumbled feta

1. Preheat oven to 350F, and grease muffin tin (or mini muffin tin)
2. Whisk first five ingredients together.
3. Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full.
4. Sprinkle with feta.
5. Bake 20-25 minutes until set and browned around edges.

(The original recipe is here.)

I wanted to share this recipe as I've made it twice in as many weeks! Little Smiling Man enjoys them, Mini Muffin doesn't know what she's missing since she refuses to taste them, and my mom asked me for the recipe after we all enjoyed them for our Boxing Day breakfast. Not a bad wrap sheet!

A few notes -

1. I have used both regular and mini muffin tins for this recipe. It made 18 mini muffins or 8 regular sized muffins. We all agreed that the texture was much nicer for the regular muffin size, so while convenient for Little Smiling Man, I will stick with my regular muffin tin from here on.
2. I love the texture that the yogurt gives these quiches, and it couldn't be easier to add a creamy component. Why did I not think of this?
3. These quiches are super quick and easy. The longest part (aside from baking) was chopping the peppers. Easy peasy!
4. I really enjoy these warm, or even straight out of the fridge. When I'm chasing a toddler and a very active baby who loves to explore, they make a great snack to keep me going. They also transport well for an on the go finger food for littles.

And there you have it. I hope you enjoy these tasty gems; we certainly do!

Indoor Energy Buster - Sleeping Bunnies

After a wonderful, albeit green, Christmas, winter is upon us!  At last!  For the last couple of days we've been having such a great time playing in the snow, and enjoying the winter scenery.  Of course the parts like cars getting stuck in the street and needing to shovel our way out were not aspects of winter that we missed, but they seem a small price to pay for the little kid's joy at finally having snow!

Backing up a little, we had a fantastic family Christmas.  We spent it quietly at home, enjoying each other.  Mini Muffin was very excited for Santa's visit, and enjoyed reading each book, or playing with each toy as they were opened.  She also seemed to get as much joy out of delivering presents to others to open, as she did opening presents for herself.  Grandma (my mom) was up for the week, so we continued to enjoy her company (and appreciate her help!) through Christmas itself.  We had a wonderful family dinner, during which Little Smiling Man discovered a love for orange glazed carrots, turkey and stuffing! 

Our Christmas day ended rather strangely; with our first ever trip to the emergency room for either of our children.  Little Smiling Man had developed a rash on his trunk two days prior.  On Christmas Eve is was worse, and looked kind of like a viral rash.  Christmas Eve was spent holding little man (all night) as he came in and out of sleep and seemed to writhe with discomfort.  On Christmas Day it was a bit worse again, so we creamed him up and went with it.  He was pretty happy and crawling everywhere during the day.  When I took his onesie off Christmas night before bed, he completely freaked out.  His skin was raised, raw and angry.  It was very difficult to comfort him, so we decided to get him checked out.  We must have timed our visit perfectly, as we were in and out within an hour!  We learnt that his rash was actually hives.  Ouch!  There are no antihistamines for babies, so we were told to keep it moisturised, and keep giving Advil for pain.  Poor monkey.  Today, a week after it started, it's pretty much healed and is now itchy because it's peeling.  As for causes, infant hives can be caused by a drug or food allergy, or be a reaction to a virus.  Based on duration, we're guessing it was viral, though it could possibly be related to his flu shot.  I guess we'll know for sure when he gets his second flu shot dose in a month.  In the end, it all worked out fine, and it was very comforting to know that we had been doing all the right things for our poor Little Smiling Man.

And, now that we're through all of that, and are enjoying true winter weather, I thought I'd share another one of our favourite indoor energy busters - Sleeping Bunnies!  It's a very simple song (the tune can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHcFQ9gaMF4), and is one of Mini Muffin's favourite indoor ways to get moving.

Sleeping Bunnies

(child lays on the floor pretending to sleep)

See the sleeping bunnies,
Sleeping until noon.
Come let us wake them with a merry tune.
Oh how still,
Are they ill?

(wait and build expectation in the child)

Wake up sleeping bunnies!

(child jumps up)

Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies, hop, and stop!

Mini Muffin loves jumping all over the place as she pretends to be a little bunny.  We also change it up as many times as our imaginations will let us.  There are sleeping dinosaurs that stomp around, sleeping kangaroos that jump, and even sleeping airplanes that fly.  We also had sleeping foxes (after much discussion we decided that our foxes would hop), roaring lions, stomping bears, and crawling puppies.  It's a very fun way to get moving, bust some energy, and enjoy song time together.  Even Little Smiling Man gets in on the action as I bounce him like a little bunny in my arms! I think Sleeping Bunnies will be a favourite in our home for some time to come.

Christmas Cards from a Toddler

Mini Muffin and I decided that yesterday was the perfect day for Christmas crafts. There are also a couple of people in her life that we wanted to recognize with cards, so our craft was decided!

I started by prepping while she was at the park with my mom (who's staying with us for the holidays), and Little Smiling Man was napping. I made plain, cream coloured cards, and drew a handful of Christmas trees on green card stock.  Mini Muffin has been working very hard lately on learning to cut with scissors; she's getting quite proficient and is nearly ready to try cutting along lines. So, my vision was that she'd try to cut out the trees, then we'd glue them to the cards and decorate them. Rather ambitious for a little girl of only two and a half!

When she got home, she saw the card stock and her scissors on the table and was super excited to get started! I explained and demonstrated cutting along lines, and she gave it a pretty good try. But, the fun of reducing a piece of paper to many tiny pieces with her scissors soon took over. I decided to let her have her fun (and use easier cutting shapes next time we work on this skill!). By the time she was done, we had dozens of odd shaped pieces of green card stock, with fragments of Christmas trees drawn on them.

Since this project had decidedly not gone to plan, we just started winging it! We tried our hand at cubism with me piecing together tree-like images and Mini Muffin gluing them. Mini Muffin then cut up some of grandma's spare yarn and glued it to some of the cards as decorations for the tree. And, finally she told me what she wanted to say inside, with great quotes like "Merry Holidays for Christmas!" and "Friends!".

All in all, it was a pretty fun project. I think the cards turned out great; to me they look like a two and a half year old loving her craft time!

• 

Parcel for the Food Bank

This morning, for whatever reason I found myself thinking back to an interaction I had at the food bank years ago.  I was chair for a local professional organization, and in preparation for our annual conference I decided to set up charitable donations for our speakers instead of giving out the usual dust gathering trinkets.  The morning of the conference, I headed to the local food bank to drop off the cheque, arriving shortly before they opened.  I ended up in a waiting room with a few folks who were either registering for or waiting to pick up food parcels.  On a table near by was a bag of perishables someone had left that were... perished to say the least.

A gentleman came in, perused the bag, knocked a baguette against the table (hard as a rock), smiled, tucked it under his arm, sat down next to me and started chatting.  He was very open with me, telling me that he was a recovering alcoholic on the straight and narrow, had a job that barely paid the rent, and walked everywhere since the bus was too expensive.  He told me that he was very happy to find the baguette because he hoped to be able to make chili soon.  He had been saving what he could from his food bank parcels, and if his next one had some tomato sauce he'd finally have enough to make chili.  You could tell how much he was looking forward to it, and the baguette would just take it to the next level.  Shortly thereafter we said goodbye, and that was that.

Later that day, and periodically through the years, I've found myself thinking back to that man.  He gave me a glimpse into a world I am blessed to not have experienced first hand.  The concept of having to save up to be able to make something as basic as chili is so far away from my reality.  And, I am so grateful for that.  The concept of being thrilled to find a stale baguette worth $1.50 when it's fresh, is also thankfully not part of my reality.  I truly hope that he has found his since found his feet.

Today, I was thinking about people in his situation and how difficult this time of year must be.  With everyone else preparing for the holidays, buying special foods for their family meal and rushing around to finish their Christmas shopping.  For people that have to save up to make chili, I realised that there would most likely not be anything special on their table for Christmas dinner.  That Christmas Day would be a struggle like any other day. 

With that in mind, I decided that in addition to our usual financial donation to the food bank, I would also give a donation of items that will hopefully help make someone's Christmas table a little more special.  I set a budget of $50 and had some fun finding great deals!  My budget ended up filling four shopping bags and I happily left with five cake mixes, five cans of frosting, eight packages of cookies, two packages of chocolates, five boxes of stuffing, and two boxes of apple cider mix. 

When I got home, I did a well overdue clean out of our pantry.  Over time we've accumulated assorted tins of hot chocolate, preserves, relishes, teas and sweets that we just don't consume. A gift basket here, and a hostess gift there add up quickly! I am happy to say that these items filled two more shopping bags, and will hopefully be used and enjoyed instead of taking up space in my cupboards to no end.

And so, six bags full of Christmas goodies were dropped off at the food bank warehouse. My family feels good about it, and I feel that even though it won't keep anyone from going hungry, sometimes something special for the holidays is good for the spirit.  In years to come, I think this surely will be a family Christmas tradition.

Indoor Energy Buster - Balloons!

We are having an unseasonably mild winter so far.  We've had small amounts of snow on the ground twice so far this winter, but here we are on December 16 with not a snowflake to be seen... aside from the paper ones decorating our windows!  With these warm temperatures, everything has been falling as rain.  Lots and lots of heavy rain.  I can only imagine how much snow we'd have on the ground if it had been just a few degrees cooler!

With heavy rain outside, we've been spending more time inside than usual.  And, as we all know toddlers have a lot of energy which needs to be burned off - either outside or in.  Yesterday, we pulled out a tried and true classic to help us burn off our cabin fever.  Balloons!  Mini Muffin actually received it in her advent calendar, and the timing couldn't have been better!

It never ceases to amaze me how much entertainment a balloon can bring.  It was fantastic!  There were lots of smiles, laughter, red cheeks, and huffing and puffing from all the exertion. 











Mama helped make it a bit more challenging - bumping the balloon to the other end of the room, around a corner, or way up high.  Mini Muffin had fun playing "catch" with me, and crawling into corners and behind furniture to retrieve it.  And, of course since it's so light, it's harmless for things on shelves, so there was no mess (aside from the usual chaos around the house)!

Mini Muffin bounced, threw, kicked and chased this balloon for well over half an hour.  She was in constant motion.  I tried to catch the fun in a picture, but with all the motion every single one is blurry.  With hindsight, I suppose that these blurry pictures actually captured the moment perfectly.

DIY - Candy Cane Wreath

It's been a while since I posted, and has it ever been busy!  We had our extended family Christmas during which Little Smiling Man charmed one and all, and Mini Muffin ran amok and had a fantastic time.  We had our immediate family Christmas, during which we had a good catch up, exchanged a few gifts and enjoyed brunch together.  Then, we headed to Niagara and stayed at a water park!  I estimate that we spent nearly 12h in the water, despite staying for just under 48h!  We were all a bit waterlogged by the end.  When we got home Little Smiling Man wasn't himself.  He wasn't... well... smiley.  Then he broke out in a rash, so we went to the doctor where he was diagnosed with hand foot and mouth.  Poor, poor monkey.  All we could do is wait it out, and keep him comfortable with Advil.  Thankfully he's through it now!  We're all enjoying a little bit more sleep, and a lot less fussiness!

And, on the craft/DIY front, I thought I'd share a wreath I made just before heading south.  Let's just say, Pinterest is both my best friend and my worst enemy.  I was super busy with preparations for our trip and life in general, yet this gorgeous wreath just begged to be made!  Luckily, it turned out to be a quick and easy project, with a gorgeous end product!

The finished product!

Here's what you'll need:

1 box of candy canes, plus four additional candy canes*

Scotch tape

Hot glue gun (clear glue)

1.  Trim excess wrapper from the ends of each candy cane.
2.  Pair candy canes with long stems together.  Attach with tape.
3.  Lay out your wreath, joining the taped pairs so that the crooks form hearts.
4.  Along the stems, run a line of hot glue.  Add a dot of hot glue at each point the candy canes join.
5.  Allow to set, and it's ready to hang!  It won't be stiff, but will be held together well.  Hang on a hook, with ribbon, or however you choose!

* Exact quantity may vary depending on which brand of candy canes you buy.

Easy.  Peasy.

Ours adorns our stairwell window, and is held up by suction hooks.  I love this simple, festive touch to our home!