Felt Paper Dolls

I made the girls this set of felt paper dolls.  Madeline loves dressing and undressing her dolls, so these are perfect for her.   

I drew out my own patterns, traced them on to felt, embroidered their faces, and used my sewing machine to piece them together.  The dresses are made out of various scrap fabrics I had in the house, backed with felt and a circle of Velcro to help keep them in place.  The girls can pick the dolls up to play with them without their clothes falling off.  

There's a Madeline doll:  

Complete with Olaf Bear.  Obviously.  

Then I made her some friends:

And a whole mess of clothes:

Funny story about these dolls.  They were a long time in the making.  The summer I was pregnant with Vivienne (nearly two years ago), Madeline spotted some fabric paper dolls at a craft fair.  I felt that I could easily make her some using materials we already had at home, so I busily got to work that very same afternoon.  They came together over the next few days, and Madeline loved them, but I neglected to finish them.  The dolls were mostly complete, but there were little things like a missing piece of Velcro and unlined dresses that I just never got around to.   

This is why it's almost always a better idea to just buy something somebody else already made.  Cause sure, I could make my own, but will I ever finish it?   Iffy.  

Madeline recently dug the dolls out from the bottom of her toy box and asked me to finish their dresses.  I figured it was about time those poor dolls had some decent clothes, so last month I finally made it a priority to get them done.   

Now that Vivi is older, she really likes playing with them too, so I've got a Vivi doll waiting to be finished.  Hopefully it doesn't take me another year to get around to it.

We Got 99 Inches and a Bitch Ain't One

There's been quite a bit of snow here in sunny Massachusetts over the past month.  The city of Lowell, where we lived when Maddie was born, is currently the snowiest city in America at 111.3".  That's a lot of snow, dammit.

In our neck of the woods, we've got 99.2", which is still a lot of snow, dammit.  

A month ago we were starting to think we had missed having a terrible winter.  We had a storm on Thanksgiving, but it was relatively warm throughout December and January.  What fools we were!  The end of January brought a blizzard, and it pretty much hasn't stopped snowing since.

The winter after Madeline was born was a snowy one too.  If you've been reading the blog for a long time, you might remember this chart from 2011:  

So, since the winter of 2015 has turned out to be even worse than 2011, I thought I'd make a new chart:

We have enough snow on the ground to equal 3.5 Viviennes and 2.4 Madelines.  In case you're interested, that's also 1.5 Mummas and 1.3 Dadas.  

This is why we're trapped indoors.  If I sent the girls out to play, we wouldn't see them again till April.  We maybe wouldn't find Vivi till May or June... 

Time to play another board game and watch another DVD.  Hopefully something other than Frozen...

Vivi Eats: Life with Food Allergies 2

When it rains, it pours.  Or in our case, when it snows, it blizzards.  It's been a hell of a week with even higher snow banks, sub-zero temperatures, a stomach bug, and a frozen dishwasher.  Thankfully, Eric is on winter break this week just in time to save me from running through the streets stark raving mad.  Mad, I tell you.  Maaad.

But crazy Mumma or no, baby's gotta eat!  Just like last week, I'm sharing what we feed Vivi on a typical day.  I plan on doing this once a week for a month to provide an overview of what it's like feeding a toddler with food allergies.  

Again, Vivi is allergic to eggs, dairy, and peanuts.  Also, in the effort of keeping things real, I'm purposely not gussying up her meals.  If you want pictures of gourmet, perfectly-plated baby food, then I suggest browsing Pinterest.  The place is dirty with them.  There's a shocking lack of protein in Vivi's diet again this week, so feel free to silently judge me from behind the glow of your electronic devices. I'm working on it, I swear.  

Pre-Breakfast:

Dry Cheerios

Juice/ Water 

Breakfast:

Blueberry pancakes

Sliced banana

Almond milk (Almond Breeze) 

I use Bisquick (which is vegan) to make pancakes for the girls.  Instead of cow's milk, I substitute almond milk, and I use two mashed bananas in place of the eggs.  They turn out slightly more banana-y in taste and are much thicker than the original recipe.  The girls don't mind.  Maddie, a pancake connoisseur, doesn't even notice.  We're usually left with enough pancakes for two days of leftovers, which makes breakfast easy a few times a week.   

Nap: 

 8 oz Nutramigen formula 

Lunch:

Avocado

SunButter and jelly roll-up (using Joseph's Lavish Bread) 

Coconut yogurt (So Delicious) 

Almond milk

I forgot to take a picture, but I think we all know what an avocado looks like, right? Although I once bought what I thought was a mango only to find out it was a giant avocado, so be careful in that produce aisle, folks.  Things can get weird.  Luckily, Vivi LOVES avocado, so giant ones wouldn't go to waste in our house.  

Snack:

Frozen Blueberries

Crackers (Westminster Bakers Co. Multigrain Snack Crackers) 

Juice/ Water

Dinner:

Frozen peas

Bagel pizza (with vegan Daiya "cheese" on a Thomas' plain bagel) 

Clementines for dessert
Almond milk 

We were supposed to eat Shepherd's Pie for dinner, in which case I would have set aside some beef, corn, and potatoes for Vivi before adding any dairy products for the rest of us.  But, as I mentioned above, we're living in a frozen hell scape, and our dishwasher froze.  I was worried about bursting pipes and floods and dirty dishes I would have to wash by hand, so dinner was kept fast and easy instead.  

My mom sent me a link to an article from Babyccino Kids last week with tips on getting kids to eat.  One suggestion was to serve kids frozen peas instead of cooking them.  I dished some up for Vivi as a snack that afternoon and watched her scarf them down like I go at a bag of potato chips.  Then Madeline dove in, and before I knew what was happening, they had eaten two bowls full. 

Frozen peas are the answer, friends.  First they soothe your swollen, postpartum lady bits, then they nourish your children.  

Bedtime: 

8 oz Nutramigen formula 

And that's that!  Have any suggestions? I'd love to hear from you!  

Vivi Eats: Life with Food Allergies

At a year old, Vivi is beginning to eat more like a real human being and less like a kooky celebrity on a faux-milk cleanse. 

She's taking a bottle much less frequently. (Twice a day.) The purees have been replaced with solids. She can even feed herself.  Only about half of the food on her tray makes it to her mouth, and half of that gets spit back out.  Still, I call that good odds.  

But since Vivi is allergic to peanuts, eggs, and dairy, we're still figuring out what to feed her.  As a typical toddler,  she also has strong opinions about what she will and won't eat. She loves fruit and carbs, but not much else.  

I will say that avoiding her allergens has been easier than I anticipated.  It's surprising how many common foods contain these ingredients (especially eggs and dairy), but it's been just as surprising to discover how many other options we have.

Below, I'm sharing what a typical day's worth of meals looks like for Vivienne. 

Note: I did not go out of my way to feed her anything special or out of the ordinary to make it look like we're culinary wizards.  Nor did I style the food to make it look pretty.  Some of it looks kinda gross, actually, for which I apologize.  The meals I'm showing aren't perfectly nutritionally balanced either.  I struggle to get protein in this girl for example. Tomorrow she may have more vegetables or grains or meat, and I like to think that her needs are met over the course of a week. This is just a sample of one single day, and I wanted it to be a realistic depiction of what she eats.    

Pre-Breakfast:

Cheerios (dry)

Apple Juice/ Water mix

The girls wake up slowly as Maddie watches cartoons.  They snack on Cheerios every morning until we sit down for a real breakfast around 8 am.  

Breakfast:

Whole wheat toast with blueberry preserves.

I use this recipe from King Arthur Flour in my bread machine.  It's dairy free.  The loaf lasts about three hours before my family eats it up.  Most of the bread I find in the grocery store has milk and/or eggs in it.  I find it easier just to make our own.  Although Thomas' Plain Mini Bagels are vegan, and Vivi loves them.  

Pre-Nap:

8 oz bottle of Nutramigen formula

Lunch:

Sliced banana topped with SunButter 

Raisins

Blueberries 

Almond Milk (Which she didn't drink.)

SunButter is amazing stuff.  It looks and tastes a lot like peanut butter, but it's made from sunflower seeds.  

Snack:

Whole Grain Wheat Thins (vegan) 

Almond Milk (Which she barely drank.) 

Dinner:

Pasta with tomato sauce

Peas (which she didn't eat)

Almond Milk (which she didn't drink)

I've found that most brands of pasta are egg free but will include warnings that they share equpiment that processes eggs. (Those darn egg noodles.)  I buy Market Basket brand pasta.  There is no warning stating that they share equipment, but manufactors are not required to include that information on their labels at this time, so I'm not 100% sure that they don't.  We've had success with this brand, but if you're dealing with severe, life-threatening allergies, obviously don't take my word for it.  Just sayin'.  Same goes for the tomato sauce.  Even traditional, plain tomato sauce often contains milk.  Market Basket's does not, but I always read the labels.  Always.  

Bedtime:

8 oz bottle of Nutramigen formula

M & V Winter, 2015

                            Madeline at 4 years, 5 months            Vivi at thirteen months 

                               Wearing

 Purple Uggs/ Brown Bearpaws 

(both courtesy of Mimi)

                               Reading

Welcome to Mamoko/ If You Give a Pig a Party...obviously

                                Snacking On

Gummy Fruits/ Wheat Thins with Sunbutter 

                      Playing With

Art Supplies/ Art Supplies 

                                Watching

 

 Angelina Ballerina on the iPad/ Videos of herself on my phone

You Rock! Monster Valentines

Sometimes I get random crafty urges that need to be taken care of immediately.  When we collected these beach rocks weeks ago, (before it started snowing forever and always) I just had to draw monster faces on them.  A few paint pens and half-an-hour later, voila!  Rock monsters.

Whenever I feel like there are not enough hours in the day to get the dishes and laundry done, I remind myself that there would be if I were not too busy doing stupid things like painting rocks.  Oh well, priorities.  

Those little rock monsters turned out cute, but then the problem becomes what to do them.  They sat in a bowl on our table for a month.  Maddie played with them.  Occasionally Vivi would try to eat one.  Don't eat rocks, Vivi.  You only have four teeth.  

So I decided to turn them into Valentines for Maddie's classmates.  I realize that this makes me that mom who gave out rocks for Valentine's Day, but at least it's not candy, right?  Maybe?  

I wrote, "You Rock!" on some neon pink index cards we already had, and taped the monsters in place.  

Madeline signed the backs and added some stickers.  

I put them in little 3 x 4 plastic bags, and they're good to go. 

If you have any extra rocks lying around, you too could give out rocks for Valentine's Day.  Cause nothing says, "I love you," like a rock.  And it doesn't have to be a rock monster.  Rock bunnies? Rock bugs? Rock lobsters?  The possibilities are endless.  

Happy Valentine's Day!  

Cabin Fever

Here at Casa de Redhead, we've been couped up indoors too long.  I wouldn't even call it cabin fever.  Cabin fever means you get a little antsy and start reorganizing your sock drawers for fun.  We're beyond that.

We've played all the games, stacked all the blocks, undressed all the dolls, and painted all the surfaces.

This morning Madeline ran around the house naked for twenty minutes.  The floor is paved with Cheerios, but I never stop vacuuming. I've done laundry, organized cabinets, and picked up toys, which we all know is a big waste of time.  And that pig who likes parties.  Oh that pig.  Vivi has a cold with conjunctivitis, which she was kind enough to pass along to her dear ole mum. 

Have you ever had to administer eye drops to a four-year-old child?  Torture!  Don't mind the screams, neighbors.  That's just the sound of me keeping my daughter healthy against her will.  

Madeline had to miss pajama day at school today due to our disgusting condition and will probably be out tomorrow too.  Meanwhile, there's more snow (if that's even possible) headed our way.  We're all going to go mad before spring arrives.  Mad, I tell you!