It must be the G

I gave up Gluten for a few weeks now.   Right away I felt really good!  I thought that it might just be one of those 'diet rushes' that you get when you start a new way of eating and feel awesome for the first part and then get into habit and don't feel that initial 'high' again.  I tested this when I ate rice with orzo in it (how harmful could a little tiny bit of gluten be to my tummy?).  About an hour later my stomach started to really hurt and I couldn't figure out why until I remembered the orzo.  Could it really be that little bit of orzo that hurt it?

I heard from other people who are gluten sensitive that do not have celiac that they have the same reaction when gluten is taken out of the diet.  It never hurt my stomach in that way before, but now that I don't eat it, the reaction is much stronger.  On Sunday I did it again because they had coney dogs and bumpy cake at our Purim party since it was all Kosher and delish.  I knew that I would probably get a stomach and thought I didn't care until after I ate it.  Ugh.  I guess the answer is no more gluten for me.  Boo..

Raising a Bilingual Child {2 years 5 months}

raising a bilingual child who is developing a language preference

Baby Bear is starting to develop a language preference. I speak only Hebrew with Baby Bear.  Sometimes when I am speaking to Mr. BBH we start to speak in English.  I think this is where we start to get in trouble.  Baby Bear knows that we also speak both languages because she hears everyone speak to us in English.  Lately she has been speaking to us in English at home even if we are speaking Hebrew to her.  I will answer her English with the sentence repeated in Hebrew as a question to which to will answer us in Hebrew with yes and switch to Hebrew.  

She loves to also repeat what we say to her in Hebrew slowly digesting and enjoying each new word as she repeats it.  I wish that I knew a way to get her to answer to us always in Hebrew.  I have many friends who understand but cannot speak a language because their parents did not follow through with making them speak.  Any advise out there?

30 Second Hamentashen Cookies Recipe

30 Second Hamentashen Cookies Recipe

I wanted to make Hamentashen with Baby Bear but I needed something easy that she could do almost totally herself since she is in a 'me' phase. I used an easy 'recipe' that my aunt gave me to do it.

Cheap light and fluffy *Bread (white works the best)

Jam, Chocolate Chips, Nutella, or other fun filling

Cup or round cookie cutter

rolling pin 

*The key to this recipe is to get really cheap light and fluffy bread so it will mush like dough.

First take your bread and put the round cup on the bread to easily remove the circle shape. Little hands can easily pick off the rest of the bread.

Next roll it.  If you want it to be a sweeter cookie, sprinkle some sugar over the bread before rolling it.

Place a dollop of the filling in the middle

Add a tiny dab of water in the corners that are forming the shape and pinch it together and you are done!  You can either eat and enjoy like this or toast in the toaster before eating. 

Finished Mishloach Manot for Purim!

Baby Bear and I finished our Mishloach Manot!

We made our tags on the silhouette cameo and put contact paper on the back. 

Baby Bear helped to sprinkle the sparkles. 

Here are the backpacks with our labels that Baby Bear and I made.  I used a basting gun to put the tags on the backpacks.

We made a few different kinds of baskets to give out.  

We also made some butterflies with lollipops for Baby Bear's friends. "פרפר פורים" She loved to put stickers on them and it would be super easy to do on your own. 

Toddler Crafting~Writing with a Quill

Toddler Crafting~Writing with a Quill

We were at a friends Bar Mitzvah this week and they had a great craft to try with kids- writing with a quill.  The activity was to show kids how a scribe writes the prayer for Tefillin.  

Supplies

Large Feather with the tip cut on an angle

Small cup with ink

Thick Paper

Start by showing your child how to dip the quill in the ink and then write on the paper.

Baby Bear loves to do crafts, so this was so fun for her to do and she didn't need very much instruction. She loved the big white feather.  We talked about the quill coming from a bird.  We have Mute Swans in our pond {a pair we named Roberta & Ernie}, so it looked like a feather that might come from them. 

Mishloach Manot for Purim

I love Purim, it has always been my favorite holiday.  Put very very simply; Purim is the story of the deliverance of the Jewish People in the 4th century BCE. It involves a King and a Queen {who was Jewish} and an evil man that plots to kill the Jews. All of the makings of an incredible story.  It is not just your  traditional meal with family, but rather a time that you can dress  up and party  {read more here} .  One of the traditions is making Mishloach Manot- baskets with food to give to friends. The foods are given on Purim and have at least 2 different types of food in them.  Since Purim is so close to Valentine's day, I pilfered Target and Michael's for some good quality items to use in my basket and make it a part of the basket theme. 

This is what I found to use.  I originally found some great pink and red striped acrylic baskets, but on the way to the check-out, I spotted these stuffed animal backpacks! Much cuter and then I didn't have to worry about packaging it up with ribbons.

The butterfly lollipop kit we will use to make for Baby Bear's little friends and to add in some of the baskets.  Baby Bear had fun with the stickers but wanted to eat all the lollipops!

I made some new tags to package the sun catchers on my silhouette cameo so they would be more special and festive. 

I have a couple more finishing touches to put on our bags and I will show you the final picture with the gift tags!

Bad Parenting or Good Learning Experiance?

I love to take Baby Bear to free places to play and run around even if the weather is bad so she can have fun and get exercise.  Around us there are a couple places that I can take her to like a McDonald's play place (even though we don't eat there) or the mall play area. 

The mall play area is always really busy with lots of kids running around.  I like to be about to walk around to, so it is a win-win for both Baby Bear, Mini and I.  Plus we are so lucky and Baby Bear does not run around like crazy in public areas.  She stays pretty close to us when we are out so it is not so hard to take her to the mall to walk around. 

There are a few reasons that I like taking her to a place like this.  The first reason is that Baby Bear will play around by herself while I chat with other moms and watch and she starts to make friends with kids that are total strangers of all shapes sizes and colors.  Since she is only 2, I think this is a great quality for her to develop.  She plays alone since that is what all the kids are doing and then eventually she ends of running around playing with someone.  Usually an older boy (I know I am already in trouble when she gets older!!) She did this even before she could speak so well. 

There are also things that I really DON'T like about the mall play grounds.  There are lots of icky snotty kids (we ain't afraid of no germs).  There are big kids that disobey the height and age rule and get a little bit crazy.  If they are really out of hand, I usually ask them their age and tell them they are too old to play.  They walk over to their parents and I usually get a dirty look as the walk out.

Even worse then the big kids are the Pushers, the little kids that go around terrorizing the other little kids while their parents just sit and watch. 

I decided that I actually think that these badly behaved kids are OK.  The kids all playing learn how to share together and how to deal with all different kinds of people, good and bad.  They also learn how to stick up for themselves and eventually make it onto the toy that they want or to the top of the slide so that they can slide down.  Hopefully they will also learn how to take turns and wait in line.

Do I need to go G-Free?

I went a homeopatic practitioner to try to fix my milk production issues.  It was partly the suggestion of a reader and partly a friend that is going to see this practitioner.  If I had endocrine issues they might be able to be fix by someone that works with alternative medicine.  

I tried so many things with Baby Bear, it was worth a shot on this one last thing.  I had to drive almost an hour to get there.  The Homeopath told me that my pancreas was not functioning properly and I need to cut out carbohydrates since my body was having trouble breaking them down. He gave me a bunch of herbs and vitamins. When I looked into  carbohydrate sensitivity, I saw a lot about gluten.  I am going to try to cut our gluten and see what happens. It is not about celiac, but rather the fact that modern wheat, rye, barley and triticale are harder for the body to digest. 

Do you have gluten issues? What are some easy things to make that are kid friendly?

Turning a corner in parenthood

It is around the 3 month mark that things suddenly start to click into place and the 'newborn fog' seems to lift.  

Mini with our dog Azit {8 weeks}

I finally feel like I know Mini now.  I know how she likes to be held, when her naps are, how to comfort her, etc.  She likes to coo and smile at me and turns when she hears my voice.  I am starting to get more then one thing done. Baby Bear is finding things that she likes about Mini.  We found our groove and it feels great!

Mini looking at her toy

{don't know what the newborn fog is? If you have never had a baby you can't really explain it.  It is the lack of sleep, sore boobies, and 1 can only do one thing a day that comes with getting to know your newborn.}

Creating a Village to Raise Your Child

Creating a Village to Raise Your Child

I fully believe that it takes a village to raise a child.  I was reminded how beautiful this is yesterday when I was at a Super Bowl party with a friend.  

My close friend has an incredible village.  At the Super Bowl party, there were 4 little kids (including mine), 2 tweens and were all so comfortable with all of the people at the party.  There were three generations of their close knit network of friends and everyone looked after the kids.  After Baby Bear got comfortable too, so grabbed hands of adults there and asked them to play with her.  The other younger kids are so comfortable in social situations since they have these large 'family' parties all the time.  The 'grandmas' get together during the week a lot during the week and will come and babysit at the drop of the hat for their adopted grandchildren. It is so beautiful! I hope that everyone is so lucky that they can create this village to help raise their children. 

The reason that we moved from Chicago {crazy awesome big city with lots to do and great friends that we made} to Detroit was for Baby Bear to grow up close to my family.  It was such a hard decision at the time, but it has paid off times a million for Baby Bear and Mini Bear.  They both have close relationships with my parents, siblings, and grandmother.  

My other village will be the staff and campers at Summer Camp.  We also will be spending the summer with the 2 Bears at a Summer Camp {My BBH on the weekends and poor Azit the dog has to stay home} where I am on staff.  I always wanted to have a childhood like that!  So many older kids to look up to and so many incredible outdoor activities.  Baby Bear will get to go in the Staff Kids camp program and Mini will be there too just hanging out.  I can't wait!

What is your village like?