ethan's weekly eats

It's been an interesting week over here in teething-land. I've learned that we've been pretty spoiled when it comes to Ethan's teething. In the past, he's been a little fussy or more inclined to gnaw on you when he's cutting a tooth. I thought this was absolutely horrendous until this week began and I learned what it's like to have a toddler who is cutting molars. Oh, molars, you cruel and painful little things! This week has been something else. Poor Ethan has been in absolute agony with moods to reflect it and, strangely enough, his eating habits have gone a little awry. He wasn't into trying new things this week or things that were particularly crunchy or harder to chew. He sent his dinner back the other night (by way of the floor) until I produced pasta with cheese mixed into it. Cheese has been a big factor in this week's lunch menu, mainly because it's one of the few things he's tolerated eating. Everything had to be smothered in cheese or he refused to so much as open his mouth for it. I did my best to accommodate his desire for soft, cheesy foods this week, as you'll probably notice. For the most part, his lunches were still a success!

MONDAY:

These Avocado & Sweet Potato Wraps didn't have cheese but Ethan let it slide. The soft, buttery avocado and baked sweet potato were mushy enough for him to eat without causing too much discomfort to his pesky teeth. I served him 1/2 of the wrap for lunch and cut it into smaller, bite-size pieces. He ate about half of the pieces this way and then unwrapped them to eat the avocado and sweet potato separately. I had steamed a small organic sweet potato and chopped it up into smaller chunks along with an organic Haas avocado. I had picked up some whole-wheat wraps at the deli counter at the grocery store which were quite large, so 1/2 was the perfect size.

TUESDAY:

Tuesday's lunch was fully geared towards taking his mind off of his teeth. It's also smart that I made a lot because a great deal of this ended up on the floor. This was a simple Toddler Dipping Tray because dipping is apparently all the rage when you're a toddler. It was both a sensory activity and a meal as my overachiever tried to use a fork to do his dipping (hence a great deal of food ending up on the floor as cat snacks). Eventually he gave up and went to dipping using his fingers. I steamed some carrots, broccoli and cauliflower and served them on a plate with some hummus. Sabra makes these cute little hummus containers which are perfect for such an occasion.

I also melted some organic cheddar cheese into pieces of celery and sprinkled raisins across them. Ethan loves picking up the raisins and pressing them into the cheese. I discovered this one day last week while trying to prepare him "ants on a log." It turns out he very much likes arranging the "ants" himself.

(Toddler dipping trays are not for the mess-o-phobic! If you were to see my house these days, you'd know that excludes me.)

WEDNESDAY:

I was a bit nervous about introducing mushrooms on Wednesday as Ethan had never had them before. Luckily he absolutely loved them and these Black Bean Stuffed Mushrooms were a success! I had picked up some cute little organic button mushrooms at the grocery store. I hollowed out the cap which was simple to do just by twisting off the stems. I then brushed the hollowed caps with some olive oil and set them on a baking tray while the oven preheated to 400 degrees. In the meantime, I cooked and seasoned some black beans with some freshly minced garlic, cumin and black pepper. I stirred in a tablespoon of tomato sauce and simmered for about five more minutes. Once the beans were ready, I transferred them to a small bowl and added about 1 1/2 tablespoons of whole-wheat breadcrumbs to bind the mixture which I then scooped into the hollowed mushroom caps. I then baked them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Once they were finished, I topped them with some mozzarella and parmesan cheese and served them with some avocado slices.

Ethan devoured these and I'd say they were the biggest hit of the week! Color me surprised.

THURSDAY:

Thursday was a beach day. I brought along some Rising Moon Organics spinach and feta ravioli for Ethan. I still had to top them with mozzarella cheese to capture his attention despite ravioli usually being Ethan's go-to food of choice. It's okay, he ended up deciding later on that he's still a huge fan.

FRIDAY:

On Friday, Ethan didn't want to eat anything that wasn't a chilled fruit puree pouch but then we ran out of those. I baked a tiny, itty-bitty organic sweet potato, sliced it in two, spread some tomato sauce on the top and sprinkled it with cheese. Once the cheese melted, I cut it into tiny bite-size pieces and served the Sweet Potato Pizza to Ethan. He loved it and I narrowly escaped disaster.

SATURDAY:

We had a birthday party!

SUNDAY:

These Zucchini Parmesan Bites were probably the next big hit of the week. (Can I just take a minute to celebrate that I served them with a whole bunch of strawberries and Ethan had no bad reaction? False alarm on the possible strawberry allergy like I'd been hoping! Hooray!)

Anyway, these were simple to make. I preheated the oven to 425 degrees and lightly greased a baking sheet. I chopped an organic zucchini into thin slices and set aside. In the mean time, I poured 1/4c of organic olive oil into a small bowl. In another small bowl, I combined 1/2c Parmesan cheese and 1/2c fresh breadcrumbs (the ones I had on hand were gluten free ones I made the other day so that's what I used). I dipped each zucchini slice into the olive oil and then into the Parmesan and breadcrumb mixture and then placed them onto the baking sheet without any overlapping. You bake the coated zucchini slices for 25 minutes. I topped Ethan's with some tomato sauce and some mozzarella cheese. He loved it!

hide, you kids, while the dogs run wild

My mornings, afternoons, evenings are all consumed by this one book that Ethan requests I read at least fifty times per day. Some days I'd agree that maybe that's an embellishment but other days, well, I'm not so sure I don't mean it literally. The book in question?

Chip Wants A Dog by photographer William Wegman. My sister brought this book home from a Scholastic bookfair when she was in Kindergarten and there must be something about this book as the other day she spotted it on our end table and began recalling it fondly -- as in, the entire story, nearly word for word. Ethan has found the same magic within the pages of this book. "Dis?" He sits down on my lap and cracks the cover open, waiting for me to read the story about Chip who wants a dog, but his parents are cat people and so Chip dreams and wakes up as a dog himself. He knows which pages he likes most, like the one featuring Tilly Madison and her chihuahua, and anchors his hands to the sides of the pages, stopping me from turning the page just yet. "Nice," he will say, pointing to the dogs. (This is entirely my fault. After instructing him to "be nice" as he pets our cats, he's started to call all animals "nice".)

Much like Chip, Ethan wants a dog. It's apparent. It's blatantly obvious by the way I have to fly out of my own skin to grab him as he attempts to take off running across the street when he hears a dog bark. This is well and good, as my husband and I are total animal people and probably would be the easiest parents to convince that a dog is a total necessity -- but we have four cats. Four cats and a toddler means our house is packed to the brim with love and snuggles and cuddles and furballs. Ethan loves our cats and one out of the four actually love him back so I'm hoping that's enough to get us through this whole "dog thing."

Just in case it isn't, meet Ephraim. See, I do this thing where when my husband shoots down a baby name that I am over-the-moon in love with, I give that name to my pets. Since I maxed out our pet quota, I've moved onto Ethan's stuffed animals. If I can't have a son named Ephraim, Ethan will have a dog named Ephraim -- albeit a stuffed one. Ephraim is Ethan's makeshift dog, for the time being. He barks when you squeeze his paws and Ethan is absolutely in love with him. Our endless readings of Chip Wants A Dog? Now we're a trio: Ethan, myself and Ephraim.

After wearing myself out from reading Chip Wants A Dog so many times in a row yesterday, I decided that the three of us (myself, Ethan and Ephraim, of course) should go find some dogs. We set off for the local Petco which houses some of the dogs and cats up for adoption through our local humane society. As soon as we walked through those automatic doors, Ethan found what he was looking for.

DOGS!

I told Ethan we could pick out an item off of the dog wishlist and the cat wishlist. We picked toys for the cats and treats for the dogs, all of which were carefully selected by Ethan before he began running up and down the aisles with excitement. He was laughing so very hard as he ran here in this Dog Wonderland that he'd slip across the tile on his belly, get up and continue running -- while still laughing. It was a contagious laughter and a fellow shopper stopped to high-five him, another stopped to admire his blue eyes. He stopped only for a few seconds, catching his breath and gulping down some water, and then continued running, running, running. Eventually we brought our chosen supplies back to donate to the cats and dogs waiting for their forever home.

After an hour and a half in Petco, Ethan was worn out and so were the dogs he'd riled up. Ephraim, Ethan and I piled back into the car...

...and made one final stop for frozen yogurt before coming home.

sensory bottles

I'm usually pretty great about using a reusable water bottle throughout the day -- but I had a lapse. I dipped into our bottled water stash meant for a hurricane that would make us lose our power and have no choice but to resort to plastic water bottles. I don't know how it happened. Wait. That's not true. I know just how it happened: a slew of days running ridiculously late for Stroller Strides, fighting to get Ethan's shoes on, breakfast in his belly and realizing that I'd need a bottle of water for class. It became easier to just break into our storm stash than to bother finding my reusable bottle in the mornings. I know, I know. The silver lining is that I'm back to filling up my reusable bottle and saving the plastic for a hurricane that I surely hope doesn't come and Ethan and I had a blast turning the empty plastic bottles into a craft project instead of them solely becoming trash.

Behold -- sensory bottles!

I found a few great tutorials online but mostly I just observed the ideas and customized them by using supplies we had on hand or in our kitchen. The green bottle is water, vegetable oil and green food coloring -- our lava lamp bottle. When you shake it or flip it, you can watch the tiny oil globules float their way through the water and up to the top of the bottle. The others are a mixture of water and corn syrup mixed with food coloring and whatever bits and pieces we could find in the pantry. The corn syrup helps the items travel slower through the water like they would in a snow globe.

Our favorite was the blue one which contained quinoa. The quinoa slowly floated through the corn syrup and water mixture and almost seemed to glow amongst the dark blue hue of the liquid. The grains looked like little stars twinkling around in the bottle. We filled the other bottles with pasta, brown rice and sprinkles. The sprinkle bottle -- the purple one -- was a fun one to watch as soon the sugar dissolved and the entire bottle was sparkly. This was probably Ethan's second favorite, especially when we held it up to the light and watched the glitter sparkle as it fell through the water.

firmoo eyewear review

I was really excited when I got an e-mail from Firmoo asking me to review a pair of their glasses for quite a few reasons. I've written a few times lately about trying to find that balance between being super mom and simply being Lindsay. For me, this has meant a promise to at least run a brush through my hair on a daily basis, and applying my loose mineral powder and mascara before I start my day at the very least. It's also meant that sometimes it's okay to buy myself a new pair of jeans if I need them rather than racking myself with guilt that the money I'd spend on jeans would be better off going towards something Ethan needs. (You don't want to know how long I was walking around in jeans that were two sizes too big for this reason. My husband practically forced me to go shopping. How times have changed!)

I've never owned sunglasses unless they came from a clearance rack. $3.00 glasses that would inevitably snap after a week or so of use or flimsy lenses that didn't even try to protect my eyes from the sun. Firmoo's e-mail popped up in my inbox after the peak of my internal struggle about balance and after driving with my mother and listening to her ream me for not wearing sunglasses, for squinting and didn't I know I was going to ruin my eyes that way?! As I checked out Firmoo's supply of fun sunglasses, I found a couple of pairs that I was drawn to immediately. (Fun fact: I've always, always wanted actual glasses but each year my eye doctor informs me I still have 20/20 vision. I was thisclose to considering prescription-less frames but decided to go the sensible route and try out some glasses I really did need!)

I ended up selecting a pair of full frame wrap around sunglasses. I wasn't sure if they were a little too hip at first but I really liked them and so I took the plunge. I was really happy with the glasses once they arrived. They came in a cute case with some lens cleaning cloths that I keep in my car because, let's face it, having a toddler means lots of fingerprints adorning your lenses often. The lenses are dark and do an excellent job at shielding my eyes from the hot, bright Florida sun. No more squinting in the car for me! (This also makes driving a whole lot less stressful.)

All in all, I really love these glasses. They're tough, high-quality frames, they're cute (halt your Dwight Schrute jokes, they are so totally cute) and they provide excellent protection against the sun. I was really impressed with Firmoo as a company and for their excellent customer service. (Did you know that all first time customers can get a pair of FREE GLASSES? Really! It's true!)

Visit Firmoo on Facebook for more fun news and updates, too!

it all went to my heart, some rainbows in the dark

This past Saturday was my little sister's Sweet 16 celebration. She was adamant that she didn't want a typical Sweet 16 party so we opted for a girl's night in. In my eyes -- you know, the eyes of a total emotional train wreck introvert sixteen year old -- it was just not just a party but a complete celebration of youth and being sixteen. We hired my amazing wedding make-up artist, Christie, to do an in-home spa day for my sister and seven of her closest friends. They had facials, manicures or pedicures and full make-up done and finished the evening with a photoshoot by me. All the girls are sporting some stylish Facebook default pictures this week! (I hear my sister's voice in my head, annoyed and reminding me how old and out of touch I sound saying that and to please never say it again.)

I spent hours -- about seven, actually -- setting up for this party. I think hot pink and zebra print were seared into my retinas by the end of the night. The splitting headache I ended the evening with? I'm torn between blaming the hot pink and zebra print or the music my sister listens to that I'm not quite sure how she stands listening to. Have I mentioned how different we are? It blows my mind, too. Ten years ago, I had a Sweet 16 that took place the same night as a huge last-minute local show and so all of my friends, my boyfriend (oh, hi dear husband of mine!) and the band we'd hired to play all ditched my party. I spent the entire night sobbing in my plaid pants and Shirley Manson-esque make-up while my cousin made some phone calls and hired some band last-minute who could have passed as Sex Pistols impersonators. My great-grandfather, one of the few guests in attendance? Oh. Yeah. He just loved them, as I'm sure you can imagine. Each time my sister corrected me with an eyeroll that this wasn't a party, I laughed and remembered my own disastrous Sweet 16, or the chaotic mess that it became. This was a party -- and it was an awesome one at that!

Ethan dropped by for a bit with my husband as the party got started and he had such a blast that he didn't want to go home and go to sleep. I don't know if I can say the same for my husband!

I built the girls a photobooth with alternating shower curtain backdrops. My mom stocked up on silly photobooth props at a dollar store!

My little sister is sixteen and as nostalgic and weepy as that very thought makes me -- I'll be good if I never see so much hot pink again!

I hope you had a great sixteenth, Megan!