Looking Forward To Mondays?

When I was single and married without kids I hated Mondays (this should not come as a shock to anyone) and LOVED Fridays (again, no shock). The weekends were bliss. Saturdays were for sleeping in, drinking coffee on the porch, reading the Wall Street Journal cover to cover (minus the business section), maybe even reading a book, long walks with the doggie, and studying Hebrew. Sundays were farmers markets, grocery shopping, laundry, errands, and cleaning, the gym and fancy coffee... all done together as a couple.Since the nugget was born, everything changed (again, not a shocker... I know). There are things I really miss about our weekends BN (before nugget) but what I hadn't realized had changed was that I completely approach the week totally differently. It was actually shocking when I realized it. I realized I was starting to dread Fridays and cheer for Mondays. Now, this wasn't instantly and I really noticed the change when I recently lost my job and began doing freelance work from home. No longer were my weeks 60-70 hours long with a dash to get nugget to bed, eat, clean, sleep and do it all over. I had a bit more breathing room. Granted I also had a bit of a crazier schedule than most. I worked 7:30am-5:30pm (because those were the daycare hours) and then I worked at home before bed. But I digress...Now I love Mondays. I take the nugget to school, hug and kiss him, play for a little bit in his room and then dash off to actually drink a cup of coffee... (wait for it...) HOT! I drink hot coffee again, people... I can read the news and catch up on the world while working and no one is crying. I am not trying to beat the clock before someone wakes up from a nap. I can chat with friends on Facebook without miraculously disappearing suddenly for three days because I have no time for myself and who the hell can remember where they left off anyway! And I dread Fridays (a little... not a lot) because I know all weekend will be poopy butts and whiney nuggets and food thrown at/on/to the dog and tiny hands hitting my face and pulling my glasses off 850 times a day.Now, don't get me wrong... I love my son. He is the light of my life. I would never trade him for the world. But I so appreciate his daycare teachers and their patience and that it gives me a break. I have to work and I couldn't work if I had to watch nugget all day. He isn't content to ever sit and my work takes thought and focus.And so we have a new normal. Mondays are exciting and signal some me time while I have to psych myself up for Fridays and the exhaustion that comes with chasing the dog and pushing dining room chairs around the house all day. And I am ok with that. :)

This all came up, by the way, because a friend posted this on Facebook:

People without school aged kids: booooo its monday!People with school aged kids: Mondays here! lets celebrate!#truestory#Ilovemykids#butIneedsomespacesometimes#moneywellspent

The Nugget

I know many of you are wondering why I refer to our son as The Nugget (or nugs or just nugget)... It's really simple, there is no real reason.My brother started calling my little guy and his friend's little girl 'the nuggets' as they were born around the same time. And when I started writing again, it just stuck.I am not opposed to sharing his name (I do on my personal spaces like Facebook) but the internet is forever and I don't want to force him to have all of this stuff attached to his Google search. So pseudonym it is.And that's why we have The Nugget!

Pregnancy Loss and NIPT

It's possible that you don't know us (personally) or our story... unless the only people reading this are my parents and in that case, HI MOM!Our story is a common one, though, not commonly talked about. Usually when I say this part, people get really uncomfortable... We had two miscarriages prior to the birth of the nugget. If you are interested in our story, here are a few blogs that I wrote along the way:

• Thanking G-d
• What's In A Name
• It's Been A While
• 3/3/15

During the third (and ultimately successful) pregnancy, one thing I knew we would be doing was NIPT - Non-Invasive Pregnancy Testing. This simple blood test most often removes the need for other, more dangerous testing, like Amniocentesis. At 10 weeks I had blood drawn and by my 12 week appointment we had our answers, no chromosomal abnormalities. After having at least one miscarriage due to chromosomal abnormalities, this was incredibly reassuring. Granted, I didn't stop worrying that the pregnancy might not end with a healthy baby but it really gave us some peace of mind.The company that made our test, Illumina, did a little video about our experience and how wonderful NIPT was for us.I think it came out beautifully and gave us some amazing footage of the nugget at five months old. I am sharing it here and I hope it can inspire and give some hope.I do want to say one thing, there are some negative emotions around NIPT. There has been controversy (and misconception) that it is used to terminate Down's Syndrome babies and some couples think it's just a fun way to find out your baby's sex super early. This was not my experience. We utilized this test as a way to ensure this baby (my third pregnancy) was healthy and though if it showed the same abnormality as our second child, a daughter, we couldn't/wouldn't have done anything differently, it would have given us an opportunity to prepare for that outcome. An even broader version of these tests benefit loss moms, especially when there is emotional trauma around pregnancy and loss. Each woman's pregnancy is unique and so our choices are unique as well. The loss of a child in any stage is devastating and I admire moms who have had to make intensely harder decisions than I.https://youtu.be/sZg0Yajgajk

Homemade Turkey Meatballs For Baby

Our food journey has been really challenging with the nugget. He's struggled with prolonged vomiting and now has some trauma around eating. Except carbs. He loves his carbs.This summer he was pounding yogurt and milk and eating his weight in puffs, crackers, and all manner of bread products. He was refusing anything else I offered him in the fruit and veg families, with the notable exception of bananas... the great binder of the fruit family.I think you know where this is going... We had so many mornings of horrible crying and so much pain and pushing because now... we were constipated. That poor guy! He just can't get it together. Everyone had suggestions but with a toddler attitude and the traumatic memory around eating (three weeks of vomiting when you eat will do that to you... anyone remember tequila and college? Or Captain Morgan's... omg just thinking of that makes me a little queasy...) we were getting nowhere. He was open to prune pouches but they weren't totally doing the job. A friend and I were talking about sneaking veg into meatballs so I decided... it was time.I looked up a number of recipes and decided on this one as our base recipe with some modifications from other recipes I saw online. Honestly, you can use any summer squash you are growing or find at the grocery store. Pattypan, calabacita, zucchini, yellow squash. You will find zucchini and yellow squash nearly year round at your grocery store... I recommend buying it frozen if it is not in season (aka not in the summer). Frozen veggies are amazing in that they are picked at the peak of freshness and flash frozen. I prefer buying them if something is out of season. Plus they are SO cheap!Nugs Homemade Turkey and Secret Veggie Meatballs -

• 16oz of lean ground turkey
• 1 carrot (peeled and grated... or just washed and grated...)
• 1 small zucchini (peeled and grated)
• 1 small yellow squash (peeled and grated)
• 1/2 cup Wheat Germ
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons garlic salt (or split it up, garlic and salt)
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder (if you want)
• 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper (if you want)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees (F, of course). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper... if you don't have parchment paper (which I didn't), you can use foil but for the love of all that is holy OIL THE FOIL! (haha... oil the foil...) These guys stick to the pan.Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together with your hands. The recipe I linked to had a really good instruction for this part... don't over mix it, it will make the meatballs tough).Form your meatball and place on the tray. If you are a 'rule follower' you can use a tablespoon scoop or you can make them your own size. I did a bunch of small ones for nugs and some bigger ones for our dinner. The original recipe says you will get 48 but I got less.Put them on the baking sheet (NOT TOUCHING) and bake for 20 minutes.---These were delicious and even my husband enjoyed eating them. It's a great way to sneak in veggies and they freeze/defrost really well.Share your comments, pictures, and variations below! 

4 am

I woke up the other morning and it was 7:15. There was no screaming. No crying. No dog nudging me with her nose. No husband snoring or blowing his nose or brushing his teeth with the loudest electric toothbrush on the face of the planet.I just woke up. It was magical.I never thought I would say that about 7am. I was the kid (adult) who, given the opportunity, could sleep until noon or 1:00. I used to bemoan the loss of the day while feeling super rested. I've forgotten what 'super rested' feels like.Since the nugget was born, we have had a love/hate relationship with sleep. He slept great in the hospital then tortured us the first night home (he screamed all night... thank you Happiest Baby On The Block DVD for saving our lives). Then he would sleep five hours at a time at night and then for about a month and a half, he woke up every. 30. minutes. all. night. long. It was at that point that we hired a sleep therapist to come help us. She made a world of difference and his sleep has been a lot more normal since then.But there are still nights... usually when he is teething... that we struggle. He will wake up at 4am and it's just the perfect, exact time that you don't know what to do with him. Bottle? Advil? Will he go back to sleep? Probably not... Especially not if I bring him into our bed... then it's such an awesome adventure, forget sleep! Ok, what if mom crawls into the crib with you? Now will you sleep? 50/50 shot on that one.I totally get that this is part of babyhood. But every morning that I open my eyes and the clock says 7am (and not 4am) and the nugget isn't crying, I say thank you. Not to G-d (though I'm sure he had a big part in it), but to the nugget. Thanks, baby, for letting mommy sleep until a normal time.

Homemade Beans & Rice

My little guy is about as brand loyal as one year olds get! When it comes to food, he's pretty much obsessed with the Plum Organics pouches. And of these pouches, his absolute favorite is the Plum World Baby Mexico pouch. The ingredients are beans and rice with sweet corn, red bell pepper, cilantro and lime. Pretty fancy for baby food, eh?Well at $1.30+ per pouch I thought, maybe I can make a close approximation for the nugget for less per serving. I found these recipes online and thought I could use the ingredients from the Plum pouch and the quantities from the recipe to make something that nugget enjoys. I really just tossed things in and we got a pretty good end result. No great pictures of nugs eating it but here's my guesstimate recipe and some pictures of the mixture.Nugs Homemade Beans and Rice pouch -

• 1 cup organic brown rice
• 1/2 a red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup of frozen sweet corn
• 1 can organic black beans
• Handful of fresh cilantro
• 1/2 a lime, juiced
• Water (as needed)

Prep the rice as you normally would (and if you are as hopeless as I am at cooking rice, here are some tips).Saute or bake the bell pepper until soft and defrost the corn.Combine it all (rice, pepper, corn, beans, cilantro, lime) and puree. Slowly add water as needed to smooth it out. You could also use chicken or vegetable stock, formula, breast milk... whatever liquid you want.The liquid is where I went wrong on the first attempt. I didn't add enough and it was still a bit too thick for nugs. The other recommendation I have is TASTE IT! Try it and see what it needs. Maybe more or less lime, cilantro... maybe toss some salt in. With nugget, he has reflux and so he actually need salt and seasoning to make food taste good to him. Between the burning acid and the medicine that dulls the tastebuds, he prefers seasoned foods but more on that another time!Post below with pics and stories after you try the recipe! I would love to hear it! Does your nugget love a particular brand of food?

My Baby Turned One

I have been dragging my heels for weeks to write this blog... First, I'm having a pretty hard time believing my baby is one. Like how in the WORLD did that happen?! Just yesterday he was a dream in our minds, a squiggly baby in my tummy, a tiny floppy newborn... how is it possible that he is now a cruising, squirmy, tantruming, babbling big boy toddler?!This year has flown by but I thought I would write a little letter to the nugget and share some pictures here. Maybe one day his wife would enjoy reading it. :)My sweet DMH -You are ONE! I can't believe it's been one year since you came into our lives. It has been a challenging year but also the most amazing year of our lives. Before you were born, your Papa had not held many babies and never one as tiny as you. He wouldn't even hold you right when you were born. He waited a few hours until we were in our room. Then he had a very special first minute alone with you. He fell in love very quickly. I think I fell in love with you while you were squirming in my tummy but you still didn't seem real until I met you on your birth day. You used to have hiccups and rub your heels along my belly. Towards the end, you liked to poke me in the hips. I was SO impatient to meet you.Your birth was hard. Your heart rate dropped along with my blood pressure. We got an infection and both got antibiotics. And there was a whole respiratory team in the room when you were born because (ewww) you pooped before you were born! You have always been a good pooper! :) But from the minute you were born, Papa and I were so full of joy. When we got to bring you home, we were so proud of ourselves... you slept the whole day and we thought we had this parenting thing nailed. We put you down to sleep and then you screamed the whole night long. We laid awake trying to soothe you. We lost our minds trying to soothe you. Papa drove to King Soopers at 3am to get gas drops while Mama frantically googled, trying to soothe you. The next morning we took you to Dr. Noah and watched The Happiest Baby On The Block. WOW! What a difference! That started our journey of learning how to be a Mama and a Papa.Over the next few months you grew and grew. You learned how to smile and coo. You had lunch dates with your JBU friends, you started school with your true love, Ms. Gina. You could hold your head up, sit up, roll over, scootch, army crawl, real crawl, pull up, and now you are cruising all over the room. You've slept in 30 minute increments and 12 hours at a time. You've seen a sleep therapist, craniosacral therapist, ER doctor, GI doctor, lactation consultant, had a chest x-ray, ultrasound, IV and visited Children's Hospital. You've nursed, drank formula, water, chicken soup, pedialyte, and now milk. You love food. You've violently thrown up food. You are picky and skeptical about new foods. You hate slimy things. You think sweets are eh but love carbs.The one enduring thing has been Soba. She never fails to make you laugh. She licks your hands and feet and face. You steal her toys and try to stick your fingers up her nose. If I let her, she would lick your hands clean when you are in your highchair and you love it. Now I have to remind you to be gentle because you want to 'pet' her so bad that you smack her and pull her hair. She's your big sister. It's just a dog and her boy.DMH - You've brought such joy (and struggles, exhaustion, and challenges) into our lives. The past year was not easy (nor cheap, by the way) but it has been the most amazing year of our lives. I cannot imagine our lives without you, our sweet firstborn son. Mazal tov on your first birthday. Papa and I will toast with some cider to 119 more!LOVE,Mama

The Value of Mom Friends

I didn't get the concept of 'mom friends' until we started trying to have a baby. I joined the "You are having a baby due in December 2014" group immediately. We all obsessed about the same stuff and it felt like a pretty safe space to talk about all the things I really wanted to talk about but my husband was uninterested in. And then we lost our first baby. And the moms who had been there before guided me through my grief. Then I joined the "You are having a baby due in March 2015" group and it was the same deal only here I found some very close friends. Women who I have actually met in person now and consider some of my closest friends. It was the same deal. They held me and walked me through the difficult moments when we lost our little girl. Several of the women in the smaller group born out of the larger group, had lost their March babies as well or babies previous to that one. Finally, I joined the "You are having a baby due in June 2015" group. Thank G-d it was the final 'birth month' group I had to join. These women, also, became very close friends. I thought that was what I needed. Until I found local mom friends.Here in Denver we have an amazing program for first time parents called JBU - Jewish Baby University - through the JCC. Again, you are tossed together with other couples expecting their first baby within a three month window but now you have a few more things in common. First off, you live in the same city and second, you are all (at varying levels) Jewish. This really adds an interesting dimension.I am so thankful for my JBU mom friends. We literally guide each other through each step. Breastfeeding, bottle feeding, recovery, rolling over, sleeping (or lack thereof), crawling, walking, first birthdays... but beyond the baby connected topics, these women have become some of my closest friends. We have girls' nights out, I've asked for fashion advice, these are couples that I see staying close with for a long time.While I value my variety of friends, in all stages in their lives, I really appreciate having other mommas who get what I am going through. Who called me up a few weeks after having Nugget and told me to get out of the house and meet them at Nordstrom's, just for lunch, who initiated a weekly mom's lunch during maternity leave...I think there is a real value in mommy friends and I'm super thankful for my mommy friends, both the online ones that I can chat with all day long and my local ones who I can rely on for an awesome night out!

Baby Gear

I get totally overwhelmed when picking out baby gear. I have, on several occasions, been researching products and looking at different ones, gotten overwhelmed and bought whatever I had seen first. There are so many options out there!I do love my some BabyGuyNYC and Lucie's List for recommendations (OMG I love BabyGuy boxes and he's why we got the UppaBaby system) but it can all be SO overwhelming!One resource that I have found that I cannot live without is Diapers.com (and Soap.com). Seriously. It's like Amazon but it's baby focused and I feel like I can find and compare products easier there. Then, if you spend the whatever it is... I think $39, you get free shipping. I save all my items in the cart until I hit that number and then it's two day shipping. The super nice part is that it's across their affiliates. So you can buy dish washer soap and baby food in the same order, with free shipping (true story... the box is in my kitchen).Not to mention that they have awesome sales. Like this one - right now Britax convertable car seats are 25%! Check it out! Also, if you've never ordered with them - try the widget on the right of this page for 15% off!What's your secret mom shortcut? I order everything I can from Amazon Prime, Diapers.com or Soap.com, and Costco.com. Saves my behind!

Haykin Family Cider

Because we didn't have enough going on in our lives...If you don't know us or haven't spent much time with us recently you may not know that Dan (my loving and wonderful and slightly obsessive husband) has become more than slightly obsessed with making his own hard apple cider.Yes, I assist... I did a lot of cutting, grinding and pressing before the baby came. I do less now... more wrangling the nugget while he works but I do press and remove stickers on occasion but my role has matured to consulting on yeasts, taste testing and helping to refine carbonation and flavor.We started this adventure October 31, 2013... and this year it has really paid off. Not only is he making incredibly tasty cider for me to drink to my heart's content... he has won some awards this year. Like big awards.First up was the Washington State Mead and Cider Cup. He won first and second place in the Standard Cider/Perry category -

C1: Standard Cider & Perry

1st Place: Daniel Haykin with Leftovers – New World Cider2nd Place: Daniel Haykin with Dandee Red/Kinderkrisp Blend Cider – New World Cider

AND he won Best Cider in the competition and was just shy of Overall Best of Show!

BEST CIDER: Daniel Haykin with Dandee Red/Kinderkrisp Blend Cider – New World Cider

Then he entered his 'holy grail' of cider competitions - what they call GLINTCAP - Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition. This has both a commercial and non-commercial division. He was in the competition with major producers (think Angry Orchard and Woodchuck along with local guys Glider Cider and Stem Ciders among others). Granted, they were not in the same division but you get that this is a big competition. The non-commercial division awarded 14 Gold, 47 Silver, 83 Bronze. Daniel won, in the New World Cider - Modern area, one Gold, four Silvers, and one Bronze! Everything he entered in the competition medaled!!

New World Cider — Modern

GOLDDaniel Haykin – Redfree/Dandy Red/Ginger Gold/Akane/Kinderkrisp

SILVERDaniel Haykin – Jonathan/Ruby Jon/Gala/Golden SupremeDaniel Haykin – LeftoversDaniel Haykin – Macintosh/Diva/Red DeliciousDaniel Haykin – Sweet Red Delicious/Opal/Jonagold

BRONZEDaniel Haykin – Cripps Pink/Red Delicious/Pink Lady/Gala

That's a pretty big deal for us, especially for our first round of competitions. We are still waiting to hear about the third competition. I will add to this post when we do.I made a little website for our 'cidery' (aka our basement). Maybe one day it will be something more. Check it out here - Haykin Family CideryOh and at our new house, we have planted apple trees... and they are beginning to bud. If any of you thought this was a passing hobby... think again! :)