Mommy Yoga: Baby Squat

Useful for: Loading the dishwasher while holding the baby. Picking up dropped objects while holding the baby.

Strengthens: Upper thighs, balance, core muscles

Method: While holding the baby in one arm, slowly squat down, keeping the torso straight, until you can reach whatever you are going for. Use your free arm to perform task. Stand back up, still keeping torso straight so as not to crush the baby.
Alternatively, put baby in ring sling or Moby wrap in front of chest. Use one arm to steady baby while performing Squat.

For the first post in the new series, I would like to present the Baby Squat. This move is useful for reaching anything lower than your knees while holding a small baby. The idea is that, while bringing one hand low enough to perform the task at hand, you cannot bend your waist at all lest you crush the baby. I most often found myself using this particular handy pose when loading or unloading the dishwasher with a small baby asleep in a ring sling. Oh, you also can't move too quickly or the baby wakes up.

Mommy Yoga - Living gracefully in the chaos.

Every once in a while I realize I'm hyperventilating. Not a lot. Just a little.
The baby woke up early, the husband had to go to work and I didn't have a plan for breakfast and the coffee took just a little longer than I thought it would and the baby is crying and the kitchen is dirty and I need to do twenty things in the next five minutes.
And I panic. Just a little.

Sometimes the idea of peace and quiet and grace seems so far removed from my present toddler-saturated reality that I think I will never be able to breathe deeply again.

I see my chubby got-pregnant-before-recovering-from-the-last-baby tummy and my face devoid of makeup because, really, who has time for that? and I'm juggling a toddler who insists on being held RIGHT NOW and a whisk and something that is about to burn and I feel the farthest possible thing from graceful or lovely.

I think of the days when I took 45 minutes in the morning to drink a cup of tea and do yoga to soft piano music, and I just want to laugh. Or cry. Or possibly both. Because THAT me thought I was busy and overwhelmed. Ha. Silly past me with the gobs of time and silence and peace.

And yet... is that peace and grace truly lost to me? Or am I merely blinded to the new form that it has taken in my life? Will the me of 20 years from now look back on this time and laugh because I didn't realize how good I had it?

I was chopping apples on the countertop for a pie. My son was inventing new ways to wrap himself thoroughly around my feet while whining incessantly at an ear-hurting pitch. I grabbed a piece of apple and offered it to him, twisting around backwards and bending over to get it within his reach. When I stood back up, my husband was laughing, and when I asked him what was so funny, he told me that it looked like I was inventing a new yoga pose: "hand-the-baby-an-apple."

I laughed too, but as I finished chopping the apples, I was thinking -- that is what I am doing. Every day: inventing the new way that grace and peace looks in my current life. Mommy yoga. It is still graceful, and even peaceful, in it's own way. But I have to take the time and effort to search those moments out.  I have to be willing to recognize and accept the moments when they come -- whether or not they look like I think they should, or prefer they would.

I am still lovely and graceful even in my new, squishier, curvier, busier form.

So, as I contemplated this idea, I decided to do a new series of posts called "mommy yoga," in which I outline a "yoga pose" that I have found myself using in my role as a mommy, and under what circumstances such a pose might be useful. Come back next week for the first one! And I hope you find the idea of "mommy yoga" both as humorous and inspiring as I do.

Broccoli-Peanut Pesto and Simple Button Noodles

A while back I found a recipe for pesto that used broccoli. I actually am not a huge fan of pesto, normally, because I find the taste of basil and pine nuts overwhelming, but I like the idea of simple green stuff on my noodles. So, I loved the idea of broccoli pesto. I tweaked it and put in my own ingredients, and came up with this Broccoli-Peanut Pesto. My camera was dying during this recipe, hence the somewhat fuzzy quality of the pictures.

Chop up broccoli, peanuts, salt, olive oil, and a handful of oregano!

Now, making homemade noodles seems to be regarded as one of those things that is extremely difficult and time-consuming and really not worth the time and effort. And in some cases, I wholeheartedly agree. I have made egg noodles, and non-egg-noodles, fettuccine, spaghetti, ravioli, lasagna, even tortellini, and I agree that in many cases homemade noodles are very time-consuming and not all that worth it. Especially spaghetti noodles. Those are small and ridiculous to try to make.

BUT these noodles are very worth it. They are simple and quick to make, and very hearty and filling. Together, the pesto and noodles make a very refreshing, filling meal.

Simple Button Noodles (printable recipe)
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
water

Mix together flours and salt. Add water a tablespoon at a time, mixing as you go, until you have reached a stiff dough.

Knead until smooth and elastic.

Bring a pot of water to boil.
Divide dough into quarters, and roll out into a rope about 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut noodles to desired thickness (about 1/4 inch is good).

Place noodles in boiling water until they float. Drain water.

Broccoli - Peanut Pesto (printable recipe)
1/2 head broccoli
1 c peanuts
handful of oregano (optional)
1 tsp salt
1/2 c olive oil

Place broccoli, peanuts, oregano, and salt into food processor. Chop to very small. Add olive oil. Blend until pesto consistency.

Whole Wheat Goldfish Crackers

The  other day, I was browsing through Babies R Us because I had nothing better to do to kill time. I ended up in the food and formula section... really? Tiny little individual bottles of "toddler" apple juice? How is this any different from plain old apple juice I can buy for about a quarter of the price at the grocery store? Little adorable packages of "Baby Puffs"? How is this different from cheerios? Now, while I do make my own baby food for a fraction of the price of store-bought packaged baby food, I do understand the convenience of a sealed jar of baby food for, say, traveling. But "Baby Puffs"???
Anyways, while at Babies R Us I used up the last of the money I had on a gift card from baby showers many moons ago, and got a sippy cup with HANDLES so that The Squirt can actually hold it himself. It was a hit. I also got one of those snazzy snack cups with lids that Baby can stick his hand into and pull out snacks without spilling said snack all over the place. You know the ones I mean? The theory is brilliant. The execution... well, lets just say there are cheerios all over my floor. Granted, far fewer cheerios than there would have been had I just given my child a cup of cheerios without a fancy lid on it. But still... messy.

Well, after acquiring said snack cup, my next step was to find something to fill it with. Cheerios are the obvious choice. But I just had to come up with something that I MADE. MYSELF. Because I'm stubborn like that. So, I poked around on the Pinterest for a while and found this recipe for homemade goldfish crackers. A couple of tweaks later, I present to you: Homemade Whole Wheat Goldfish Crackers of Awesomeness.

Whole Wheat Goldfish Crackers (printable recipe)
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
4 Tb butter
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs cold water

Place cheese, butter, flours, and salt into food processor. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse sand. Add water, and pulse until dough forms. Wrap dough in saran wrap and chill for 10 min or so.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Roll out dough ... thinner dough makes crispier crackers, thicker dough makes puffier crackers. Puffier is easier on baby, FYI.
Cut out shapes -- I made myself a goldfish cookie cutter out of a strip of soda can, and I also made some square cheese-it shapes by just cutting squares with a pizza cutter.
Bake for about 15 min.

Now, if The Squirt could just figure out which end of the cup the snacks come out of...

Watermelon Limeade

 I had leftover watermelon.

It is hot outside and cold drinks are wonderful things.

Hence, watermelon limeade.

In other, totally unrelated news:
My 8-month-old isn't so big on limes.

Watermelon Limeade (print recipe)
 8 c cubed watermelon
1 c water
juice of 6 key limes
1/2 c sugar

Blend all ingredients together until smooth. Chill and serve.