It's been awhile

I don't know why I keep pretending I'm a great blogger. Or that I'll blog about the same general things or on a certain schedule. I know all too well that I have a horribly short attention span and will never be able to commit to a recipe only or whatever type of blog I originally had in my head. And I think I originally intended to write this really inciteful blog full of tips, awesome recipes and methods to deal with kids but realistically I don't know shit about anything yet so I'll stop pretending. Okay, maybe that's a little harsh but I can't pretend I'm an epic baker when I made some gawdawful biscuits that tasted like nothing, or like I'm some super awesome montessori mom when my son is 8 months old and I still don't know how to get him to sleep in his own bed. I've been away from the blog so long that blogger changed the whole set up and as I'm writing this thing, I'm not entirely sure I'm typing in the right spot. This might be a big waste of my time right now.
So I figure if I'm going to actually update this blog on a regular basis, I'll just write my random ramblings and garbage.
Today's garbage will be some minor catch-ups on our life. Boston will be 8 months old in 2 days. He's still doing a funny army crawl and probably never will do a normal crawl but that's okay because his is just as effective. He also learned just a week ago how to pull himself up to standing so now that's all he wants to do. All day long, pulling up on hampers and toys and my leg. Clawing his way up, stretching out my shirts and yanking my hair. He is such a little character and I'm loving this age he's at.
Stella thought it would be cool to climb the baby gates over and over again, and the dummy tore her nail almost all the way off the quick so she had to have it removed and is now sporting a goofy cone on her head. Dogs with cones are hilarious, and even though I feel really bad for her, I can't stop laughing about it.
I also have a sewing machine and I've been doing little projects all week. Today I upcycled a shirt, I'll blog about it later. It's pretty fabulous though.
That's all today, maybe I'll get back into the writing mood and post here more often.

Half birthday!

It is my beautiful, precious baby boy's 6 month birthday. I can't believe how fast he is growing! He has been changing so much, especially over the past month and learning a ton. As of 4:34 AM my gorgeous son has been making our lives so much more fun and exciting for half a year, and causing an awful lot of trouble! Here's a little flashback of his first 6 months:

Here's what our little guy has been up to for the past 6 months:

• Rolling both ways
• Lots of babbling and even more raspberry/bubble blowing
• Sitting up unassisted
• Eating rice cereal, baby food, and the occasional banana or avocado in a mesh feeder
• Smiling and laughing
• Army crawling all over the house

As you can see, we've been busy! Boston is so smart and such a joy. I can't imagine life without him, he's just perfection. Here's our little guy at 6 months!

I am so excited for all of our upcoming milestones, but I need time to slow down! Happy 6 month Boston, we love you so much <3

Breastfeed like Beyonce

I am loving all of the positive feedback coming about Beyonce choosing to breastfeed her daughter in a restaurant. I don't know if maybe I'm just more aware now that I myself am breastfeeding, but it seems like there has been a lot of stigma and controversy lately about whether it's appropriate to breastfeed in public, and I'm so happy to see this positive coverage of a celebrity breastfeeding in public. Having the confidence to do that is hard! I feed my son in public all the time, pretty much anywhere but it is very nerve wrecking for me, even still after almost 6 months. I don't use a traditional cover but I am always covered with a receiving blanket and I usually choose as discreet of an area as I can. I feed him in the car once we've parked a lot because I feel more comfortable there knowing I won't accidentally show more then I want, and that I don't have to worry about being judged. I have been really luck so far that I've never had anyone make a comment about it and I think I've only experienced one time where I felt like someone was judging and mean mugging me about it. I won't ever be shamed into feeding my baby in the bathroom but sometimes it's tough to sit at a restaurant and feed him, knowing the waiter will walk up shortly or to feed him at the mall with tons of people walking by. Even though I make sure nothing is showing, I feel very exposed and vulnerable! And I think that has a lot to do with how other people perceive it, the backlash saying it's indecent and inappropriate.

I am ecstatic to see some celebrities being open about breastfeeding and doing so in public. They have such a huge influence on people and I'm hoping it helps remove some of the stigma. Better yet, I hope they bring it mainstream. I am not the most confident mama out there but the more support I see, the better I feel and the easier it becomes for me. I think it's so important for women to try and find that confidence because no one should feel trapped at home just because they choose to breastfeed. And I certainly don't have to worry about paparazzi! I hope I, and other breastfeeding mamas can learn to be bold like Beyonce. Mamas, find your inner diva and don't give a damn. That's what I'm going to try to do from now on. If you need some tips, here's a great article with some pointers on feeding in public: http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/06/10593546-how-to-be-like-beyonce-and-breast-feed-in-public

Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake

My ideal day out for coffee would be at the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble with my best friend, drinking a skinny vanilla chai tea and eating iced lemon loaf. I can't think of a better way to relax. I have looked around for a copycat recipe for their lemon loaf for awhile and never found one that had good reviews or looked right. Today someone pinned this recipe and I literally pinned it, went and got the ingredients and planned to make it just a few hours later. I was so excited! And it didn't let me down. I love this pound cake. It had just the right amount of lemon, the icing was perfect, and the cake itself was light, so moist and just delicious! I'll be making this time and time again. And it was so easy! Literally dump the ingredients into your mixer bowl and beat for 1 1/2 minutes. This would be a great treat for company and I'm going to attempt to freeze the second loaf (minus the icing) to have another time. 

Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake Copycat

Ingredients

1 box yellow cake mix

1 3.4 oz package lemon pudding

1/2 cup oil

4 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

8 ounces sour cream

6 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients with an electric mixer until well blended; about 1 1/2 minutes. Pour mixture into 2 well greased loaf pans. Bake 40-50 minutes until golden. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then drizzle with icing. 

Icing

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3-4 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix well until it reaches a thick consistency you can drizzle. Drizzle over the cakes and let set about 20 minutes until hardened. 

Make this cake! It's delicious! If I had my Chai tea, this would be the best night ever. I've already eaten 1/3 of the loaf and don't plan on stopping. 

Cookies & Cream cake

We went to Illinois this past weekend for my mother in laws 40th birthday. 22 hours of driving with a nearly 6 month old, who did amazing. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she just requested that it be made from scratch so I decided to do a cookies and cream cake. I had made this cake as cupcakes in the past and they were a hit so I thought I'd see about doubling the recipe and making a 9x13 cake and it worked out wonderfully. I forgot to take a picture of it once it was cut so you could see the Oreo cookie bits inside, but if you've seen any of the recipes for Oreo cupcakes floating around on Pinterest, then you have an idea of what the inside looked like. I topped the cake with cream cheese frosting and used Oreo halves and crumbs to decorate.

I am not a cake decorator and kind of did this on the fly so I'm happy with how it turned out but had I had more time to think it over, I'm sure I could have done a better job.
Cookies & Cream Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
4 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
16 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
3 1/3 cups sugar
6 large egg whites at room temp
4 tsp vanilla
2 cups milk
Roughly 1 1/2 cups Oreos, chopped
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl with mixer, combine sugar and butter and beat until light and fluffy; about 2 minutes. Blend in egg whites one at a time beating well each time. Blend in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, beat in half the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Add milk and blend just til combined, then add remaining dry mix. Gently fold in Oreo, being careful not to overmix. Pour batter into a lightly greased 9x13 cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes.
Adapted from Annie's Eats/
Frosting
12 oz cream cheese, softened
12 oz butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
About 4 cups of powdered sugar
Combine ingredients and beat with an electric mixer, adding the powdered sugar gradually until it has reached your desired consistency.

The cake was a hit! It tasted great and was just sweet enough without being overbearing. I'll definetely be making it again.

New England Aquarium

I have been neglecting my blog. We were busy for a few days and then last weekend my husband and I came down with the norovirus (which felt like certain death) over the weekend. He felt better after about 12 hours or so, it took me a solid 48 hours to get it together again. So bad we had to have family come take Boston for us for several hours. But much better now!
Last Friday, we made our first trip to the New England Aquarium with our aunts and Boston. I thought it might be a little early for Boston to enjoy it but boy was I wrong. He loved it! His eyes lit up, his little hands were reaching and touching the glass as often as possible and his little feet were kicking all over the place in excitement. I couldn't be much happier with our experience.
I enjoyed the aquarium, they had a lot of great exhibits including sea lions, a huge penguin section, giant sea turtles, a touch tank with stingrays and sharks, and of course a million kinds of fish. I think Boston's favorite were the tanks considered boring by others. One in particular was the herring exhibit, and he loved how fast the fish swam back and forth. He even got a little upset while leaving that one.
I hate to do this because I feel like I say this about everything, but I do feel like the sea life center in Alaska is better then this aquarium. But only a little! I did love the NE one, but I kept looking at exhibits like the penguin and sea lions and thinking it would be better if they showed an underwater portion so you can see them actually swim and play. Which is something they do at the sea life center in Seward, Alaska and it's amazing! There is an upper floor where you can see the tops of the tank and then a lower floor where you cans see all the seabirds and sea lions swimming around. So I wish that was a little different because as nice as their penguin and sea lion areas were, once they went into the water you couldn't see much.
If you find yourself on your way to visit the New England Aquarium, here are some things to consider:
Admission is high, currently $24.95 per adult. Plan to spend your day there if possible!
There is a cafe inside however it's typical cafeteria type food and since the aquarium is in downtown Boston, there are a ton of other options! If you want to do that, the aquarium staff will give you a hand stamp that gives you admission until closing.
They have a stroller parking area if you choose to use it. They give you a number card to get your stroller back when you're ready. This was great for us because we could park it and carry Boston around and get him much closer to the displays and not have to fight through people with a giant stroller. This is a free service too, btw.
The sea lion exhibit is outside and a little chilly in the spring/winter so bring a coat!

Here are some pictures from our trip.

Wordless Wednesday