Topic Tuesday: Milk and your baby - cows milk, goats milk, alternative milk and why

My 19 month old drinks coconut, almond, or hemp generally. I started him out on alternative milk after noticing that his tummy got upset when I fed him other dairy products. I'm lactose intolerant so I figure he probably is a little bit too.

My two have always just done regular cows milk. My youngest (who is 13 months) has just started drinking milk and has been doing just fine with it so we have opted not to try other milk since it is more expensive. I drink soy milk though (because I like the taste much better!) and so that is a treat my older daughter gets sometimes.

My 13 month old still nurses which we plan to do until he is two. He does however, drink coconut milk or almond milk as well. We pretty much nurse on demand and have a sippy cup lying around if he wants it. My plan was to pump a sippy cup for him and do just breast milk but haven't had much luck pumping after I stoped 7 months ago.

Non-messy sensory play {pom-poms}

Ok so this idea is definitely not new... but it is so simple and super entertaining! You can search pinterest and come up with all kinds of activities to do with pom poms (use tongs, make magnetic pom poms, use for color matching, patterning, etc.) but we kept it very simple today and just used a few plastic containers for some free play. I also used these Rubbermaid water bottles for the girls and they were a huge hit! Both of them loved putting pushing the pom poms through the little opening. In fact it entertained my youngest (almost 13 months) for a good 20 minutes... an incredibly long time for her :). My oldest daughter (4 years) loved it just as much and had fun sorting  out all of her favorite colors.

Are there any super simple sensory activities you have done with your littles lately??

Decorating pumpkins and zucchini {mr potato head style}

Still want to decorate some pumpkins with your kids this fall? I finally tried out this idea I saw in a magazine a few years ago and my daughter loved it! We grew the pumpkins in our garden this year and also grabbed some way too big zucchini that was growing in there as well. We have a ton of Mr. Potato Head accessories so this worked out great. The project is pretty straight forward so I will let the pictures do the talking. As far as where to drill the holes... we just guessed. They are funky and kind of off but you can't really tell and the kids don't care :)

 

Last year we tried melting crayons on our pumpkins... it didn't go too well for us though (crayon wax splattered everywhere/burned!). But this post here makes it look easy and hers turned out super cute. What are some other ways you have decorated pumpkins with your littles? 

Weekly Meals

Here's whats on for this week!

• Meatloaf muffins with Mashed cauliflower. For my mashed cauliflower I cut one head of cauliflower into florets and steam until fork tender. While the cauliflower is steaming I saute some onion (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup) and a couple of cloves of garlic. When everything is done combine onion and garlic mixture with cauliflower in a food processor or blender along with chicken broth/coconut milk/regular milk and some salt & pepper to taste (chives also make a delicious addition). Blend until smooth!
• Breakfast skillet - I used up the leftover pork from our previous meal of pulled pork sliders for this one. Simply boil/roast some little potatoes then combine with pork and some onion in a skillet. You can either add eggs and do a scramble or just crack the eggs on top and bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes until the whites & yolks are set
• 7 vegetable soup - I skipped the nutritional yeast in this recipe and didn't find that it was really lacking in anything. Next time I might add it in to experience some of the cheesy flavor