So I recently joined the BaltAP (Baltimore attachment parenting) yahoo group.  I never really head the term “attachment parenting” before I had Connor and even after I heard it I was still confused about what it actually is.  I decided to join the group to find out for sure, and to meet some other local attachment mamas.  I’m positive that there is a yahoo group like this in almost every city in this country, so you can see if there is one in your area.

It turns out that this is a VERY active group, I get sometimes get 40+ e-mails a day from people in the group discussing all sorts of attachment parenting ideals.  It turns out, that based on the topics, this was the perfect group for me!  I guess whether I knew it or not, I am practice attachment parenting.  Topics range from breastfeeding to natural childbirth to home remedies to self weaning to ECing and cloth diapers.  I love reading the daily digest because I feel there is such endless knowledge from those mothers who have had their own experiences with attachment parenting.

I have and always will be an advocate for many of these topics, but I am by no means an expert.  Heck, I’m a novice…learning as I go.  I just do what feels right to me as a mother, I do, what I’m sure my mother did for me.

What experiences do you think have shaped your attachment parenting style?  Do you get overwhelmed, or just go with the flow?  I’d love to hear more from mommas out there with great insight…I love learning more each day about raising a family

Are you looking for some free family fun this summer?  Baltimore has some awesome events.   Check out the Family Fun Fair:

Come to Druid Hill Park on Saturday, June 5th from 1-4 p.m. for The Family Tree’s Keep Your Cool Family Fun Fair.  Enjoy a fun FREE afternoon  with your family – rides, games, food, entertainment, giveaways and information on how to have a safe and healthy summer as a family. For more information, go the website at www.familytreemd.org and click on events.

There are only so many mornings that Connor can handle the same oatmeal or eggs, so I have to try to be creative every so often to find him a healthy and different meal.  While this is slightly different than oatmeal, it actually uses a lot of the same ingredients.  This morning I made Whole Wheat Oatmeal pancakes.  Connor loves pancakes and I love that he can eat them himself without any help from mommy.

I wanted to share this recipe so that you to could have a delicious weekend morning brunch, but also so that I can look back to remember what I made.  I personally think that this is one of the best pancake recipes I’ve made in a long time.  My go-to place for recipes is Epicurious or my Epicurious App on my Iphone.  I just type in an ingredient or a type of food and it comes up with hundreds of recipe ideas.

Today I found this recipe for Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes and tweaked it just a little bit:

• 3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk, divided (**I used whole milk)
• 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour (**I added an extra 1/4-1/2 cup because it was too runny)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
• ** I added 1/2 cup applesauce

Connor has his pancakes plain and I added some organic maple syrup to mine…mmmm.  This healthy recipe was quick and easy and would be perfect with a side of sliced bananas.  The best part about pancakes is that the leftovers make a perfect afternoon snack for on-the-go!

Give them a try, I’m sure you’ll love them as much as I did!

Food, to me, is the most important thing in life, we need it to live!  You are what you eat!  Americans need to consciously think about each and everything that we put into our bodies and of course your children’s.  I have a hard time understanding that people are too busy to make their children food to eat.  Do you make yourself food every day?  If so, why would you choose to let some mass manufacturer cook your children’s meals?  Not only is the prepackage food full of preservatives and sodium, but they simply lack taste and proper nutritional value.

When I first began cooking for my son at 6 months or so, I didn’t hesitate to cook the food the way I would want to eat it.  In fact more often than not I cooked one meal for the family and either pureed his or put it in the food mill.  I added spices, garlic, onion and all the things I love to cook with.  I had even cooked spicy mexican food that he loved!

Now at 16 months, I haven’t changed a thing, and I still cook for him what I cook for myself and my husband, although instead of pureeing it I cut it into smaller pieces.  I have yet to buy him any jarred baby-type food.  I think so many Americans are preprogrammed to think that this is what we should be feeding our babies that they don’t even think to feed them fresh food.

Some simple meals I try to cook for him are:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with fresh apple and cinnamon, eggs with spinach and cheese, plain yogurt with banana, homemade granola cereal, homemade pumpkin pancakes

Lunch: Almond butter and banana sandwich, fresh fruit, organic string cheese,  beets and carrot steamed with honey and cinnamon, frozen peas/carrots/corn/green beans and eggs, applesauce

Snack: dried fruit including, apples, raisins, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, mango, etc…and cereal such as organic O’s, Carrot Juice (he loves carrot juice!)

Dinner: Chicken stir fry, sweet potato, fish, asparagus, rice, quinoa, bean chili, pasta salad pretty much anything we eat

I have found that my son wants what we are eating, so rather then make him a separate meal we share the same thing.  One morning I made myself a sandwich with egg, avocado, arugula and blue cheese and he wanted a bite.   Well, he surprised me because he ended up eating half of my sandwich.

Give it a try, I think you’ll be surprised by what your children will eat.  The food that you cook for them will actually have flavor!  You’ll also be saving money and if you need to save time cook ahead of time and freeze your meals.  Stay away from the frozen dinners, the gross baby foods and the junk snacks that are out there for children.  Just remember, the healthiest way to cook for yourself and your family it to use whole natural ingredients.  Take it one step further and buy all local and organic as well and you and your family will be on the way to a healthier lifestyle!

Here’s our Gro Baby News Segment we did a few weeks ago: Gro Baby News Segment.  Check it out!

I was so happy to get the word out there about cloth diapers.  They did put words in my mouth saying that I used the Bio Soakers, which I have never used!  I am very proud to say that I have only ever used %100 reusable diapers.

I have accumulated quite a collection of different diaper brands, and I do really like the Gro Baby diapers!

Jenny was kind enough to share her beautiful natural birth experience with us. I hope her experiences are inspiring and help those who are trying to decide what type of birth is best for them.

“My birthing experience was perfect for me. I loved it! I knew going natural was different from the way anyone else i knew had done it (besides my grandma of course) but i felt I wanted to do what was best. After much research…it was obvious that natural is best for mom and baby…esp on your first child. Since my birth experience I have had two friends decide to go natural after having already had a child or two via inducing and epidurals. They both were very nervous but after their experiences they both say that natural is 100% better. They both said that recovery was so much faster and easier and that the contractions weren’t as bad and that labor and delivery was much faster. Those were all the things i read about that convinced me to go natural. I am now pregnant and can’t wait for another wonderful natural birthing experience. This time my goals are to not have an IV in me and to push slower so the fluid can get out of the babies lungs properly. Tessa came out in one contraction and just two or three pushes. I highly recommend anyone to go natural if anything just for all the benefits for baby plus there are many for the mom as well.

After writing several drafts i thought my husbands view was best:

Baby Tessa Clark was born Fri Dec 12, 2008 @ LDS Hospital. Jenny started having bad contractions Thursday night around 9pm. We showed up to the hospital around 2:30am Fri. morning at which point Jenny was dilated to 2+ centimeters with consistent contractions every 6-10 minutes. It didn’t take long till they were ready to call the midwife. Once Diane arrived, Jenny was already at a 5 with intense contractions every 2 minutes.

Jenny and I choose to have a natural childbirth because of the many health benefits for the baby and mother. I had been massaging Jenny’s back through all the contractions and coaching her along as best as I could. I was relieved when Diane showed up and helped us through the rest of it. Apparently, laying in bed is the worst place for a natural child birth labor. Luckily our nurse hooked us up with a jacuzzi delivery room. Jenny spent most of the rest of her labor in the warm jetted jacuzzi tub. It looked like it relieved her considerably. Even so, she was still saying things like, “I can’t do it anymore…. they’re coming too fast…I need a break….I think I’m going to die!” Luckily at this point she was already a 9 and ready to push.

Honestly, I think Jenny was made to push out babys. Once she got the green light from Diane, Jenny pushed with all her might and it seemed like she pushed the baby all the way to the opening in a single contraction! Jenny told me after that the pushing part was a big relief because it stopped the contractions from hurting. This gave her lots of incentive to push hard and fast.

I was helping Jenny hold her left knee and I had a great view of the entire birth. I saw the head begin to peak out and it had hair! I told Jenny that I could see the head coming. Another pushing and the head crowned and came fully out. Diane said she needed one more small push. Jenny took a deep breath and gave it one last push. I looked down to see the baby literally shooting out into Diane’s hands! It was like she had shot out the end of a water slide head first!

Because the baby came out so fast, she still had some fluid in her lungs. I guess that is usually worked out as the baby slowly makes its way through the birth canal. So the baby began to turn very purple. They gave her oxygen and then wisked her over to the table and extracted the fluid from her lungs with some tubes and things. After a few moments of suspense, she was breathing fine and the color returned. She got to meet her mommy. It was a beautiful moment!

We’re so glad that Tessa is here with us now. She’s just so adorable and we love her so much! She’s definitly daddy’s little girl.

We feel so blessed. It made us a little nervous that the baby was 12 days overdue. Jenny is a really small person and being so small, plus overdue put us at a higher risk of a c-section. We had been praying hard that the Lord would allow us to have a natural birth.

I’ve also been very impressed with my own dad’s reaction to his new granddaughter. It’s like he’s found new meaning in his life as well. There’s a new twinkle in his eye. He says that all day while he’s at work etc, he just wishes he could be here holding Tessa. He loves to hold her and sing to her. He’s become attached He can’t help it. We all are. Jenny and I are happy to welcome Tessa to our family.”

A winner has been selected:

Tracy, from Baby Blessings Natural Products was kind enough to offer to send me some of her cloth diapers to promote her site. She let me choose what type of diaper to try and since I’ve tried almost everything other than prefolds, I figured it’s time to give the prefolds a chance!

I have never used a prefold diaper, so I quickly googled “diaper folds.” I found some great pictures and easy instructions for 3 different folds. The folds are called ‘the newspaper fold’, ‘the reverse newspaper fold’ and ‘the twist fold’. I found ‘the reverse newspaper fold’ and ‘the twist fold’ to be the easiest and after several days of using the prefolds, I found that the twist worked best for me. To put the diaper on in a twist fold, you simply lay your baby on the flat diaper, twist the diaper once and fold down the front rise for the best fit and put on your snappi.

The twist fold seemed to provide the bulkiest coverage for my boy in the front, where he needs it the most. Not only does this fold provide great coverage, but it seemed to work best for the squirmy 15 month old who doesn’t have the patience for me to spend time folding and re-folding his diaper.

Along with 2 chinese prefolds, Tracy sent me 1 super brite cover and 1 snappi. The snappi was a really wonderful invention and a perfect easy alternative to diaper pins. To my surpise the snappi holds up very well to a toddler running all over the house! I think that the prefold diapers may be a bit scary at first, but onceyou give it a try they are a great, cheap alternative to a fitted or all in one diaper. The prefolds are just $3.50 a piece and the cover just $12.50, can be used for multiple changes.

Baby Blessings Natural Products also offers a wide variety of all-in-one and fitted cloth diapers as well as other natural products for breastfeeding and more.

If you’d like to have a chance to win 1 Bummis cover, 2 chinese pre-folds and 1 snappi, Baby Blessings is offering this package to one lucky winner!

To enter you must visit http://babyblessingsnp.com and leave me a comment telling me another product you like from her site.

For Extra Entries:
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Giveaway ends on March 24 at 5 PM EST. The winner will be chosen using random.org .

*US Entries Only*

I received 1 Bummis cover, 2 Chinese Prefolds, and 1 snappi for the purpose of this review. The opinions are my own.

I purchased Raw Almonds about a week ago and have been looking forward to making some homemade almond milk for a while now! Well, this past weekend, I finally got to give it a try! Talk about one of the easiest things to make at home! Other than some forethought, of soaking the almonds for a day before making the milk, there is no other preparation.

My almonds were ready Sunday morning and I was amazed to see how much water they had absorbed. I got out the

Almond Milk and remaining Almond Meal

blender, filled it with 3 cups of water and 1 cup of the almonds and blended until smooth. Next, I took used a clean cloth napkin and laid it over a glass measuring pitcher. I poured the almond milk into the napkin so that I could squeeze the milk from the cloth. The left over is called almond meal. I repeated this until all of the milk had been strained and poured into a milk jug. Finally, I used the remainder of my almonds, slightly more than a cup with 3 cups of water and repeated to fill the glass milk jug. The whole process took less than a half an hour and I had freshly made almond milk!

Almonds are packed with good cholesterol, vitamin E and protein. Whether you are lactose intolerant, vegan, or would just like to try something new, you can be reassured that Almond milk is a very healthy alternative to cow’s milk.

Next, I had been dying to make the recipe my brother-in-law’s girlfriend had given me for granola. I have tons of oatmeal in my pantry and lots of nuts and dried fruit. I tweeked the recipe a bit, to use what I had in my pantry and baked it a bit longer than she suggested, to ensure that it was extra crispy!

The recipe I made was:

2 c. oatmeal
1/3 c. ground flaxseed
1/2 c. walnuts
1/2 c. sunflower seeds
1/2 c. raisins (or any dried fruit)
1 tsp cinammon
1/3 c. honey
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. organge juice
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp canola oil

To make, mix the dry ingredients, excluding fruit. In a saucepan over low heat, mix honey, sugar, and OJ until sugar dissolves, then remove from heat and add vanilla and oil. Pour mixture over dry ingredients, spread the granola on a cookie sheet, bake for 10 minutes on 300 degrees and then mix/respread on cookie sheet and bake for another 15, repeat, add extra honey to top and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven toss with dried fruit and allow to cool completely.

Once the granola was finished, I shared it with Connor, who loved it, and made myself a bowl of granola with almond milk for breakfast. The almond milk adds an extra nutty flavor and really goes well with the granola. The large bowl of granola was so popular in my house, it was gone in 2 days. I think next time around I will have to make a double batch! I was suprised how super easy it was, especially when they charge like $8/bag from the market for the same stuff!

Bowl of Granola with Almond Milk

The almond milk has also been a big hit for Connor, who has been chugging it down. I was surprised to see how it settles when it sits in the jar, so it must be shaken before you pour it into a glass.

Today was a very exciting day for Connor and I.  This morning Fox 45 news came to our house to do an interview about me using Gro Baby cloth diapers.  I was contacted via facebook because Gro Baby was looking for a Baltimore mom who used their diapers.  I was contacted early this week and they quickly set up the interview to happen today!  They asked me if I was comfortable on the camera and I said, “I can’t say I’ve ever done it before, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Fox 45’s reporter, Megan Gilliland and a camera man came to my house at 10 am this morning.  We went straight to Connors room to do the interview and check out the diapers.  I think the interview went well, it was very easy for me to talk about something that I really believe in.  Connor was a hit as well, his big blue eyes always seem to win people over.  We filmed a short interview with me talking, a diaper change, me reading Connor a book and Connor playing in his diaper.  We’ll see how much actually gets aired, but it was fun!

I can also say that Kim and Lauren from Gro Baby were more than kind to have me represent their brand for the Baltimore area.  Kim sent me a box of goodies including 1 vanilla Gro baby diaper, some detergent, the bio soakers, a large wet bag and a small wet bag.  There is nothing I love more than to have new diapers, but I think one of the best things that she sent me was the large wet bag.  My previous wet bag didn’t quite fit correctly in my diaper pail, but this one is great!  Thanks Gro Baby.

For those moms who have not tried Gro Baby diapers, check them out!  If you visit http://www.thenaturalbabyco.com they sell Gro Baby diapers and tons of diapering accessories.

For the new mom, The Natural Baby Company has everything you need to get started.

First, you can buy the Live Gro Baby package for $375, which will be all of the diapers that you need to keep your baby in cloth diapers for birth through toddler age.  Next you will need detergent to wash your diapers and you’ll need the residue-free type of detergent.  The Natural Baby Company offers Tiny Bubbles, their all natural detergent, perfect for washing diapers at $12.95 for 60 loads.

Next, you will need a liner for your diaper pail, and a waterproof bag for on the go.  The pail liner is $15.75 and the wet bag for on the go is $6.75.  They also offer a pack of 12 organic cloth wipes for $13.25.  The natural baby company also makes biosoakers and biowipes.  A package of biosoakers is $19.99 for a box of 50 and the wipes are $5.99 for a package of 80.  These can be composted or flushed, but I recommend going completely cloth, it will save your wallet big time and save the planet too!

Finally, for the ocasional diaper rash, you will need an ointment that is okay to use with cloth diapers.  The Gro Baby magic stick, is the perfect, mess-free solution for $13.95.

So, for about $450, you will have your cloth diapering needs met at a one-stop shop!  Do you know that you’ll spend close to $2000 diapering your child for only 2 years?  Gro Baby can be used for a lifetime, for only $450.  Also, one thing I really like about the Natural Baby company is that for $3.50/diaper you can have your diapers converted to snaps if the velcro gets worn beyond use, or if you prefer snaps.

Check out Gro Baby and I’ll post my interview once it is aired.  Oh, and if you are in the Baltimore area and want to give Gro Baby a try, check out www.SoftandCozyBaby.com.  She has an online shop and is opening a store front at 3610 Falls Road in Hampden as we speak!