My Picky Eater

The end of day 1 lunch--demolished and largely uneaten

I'm a natural mama trying to make healthy food choices for me and my family by eating more raw foods, lots of vegetables, cutting gluten, cutting sugar and limiting dairy for me and the hubby. However, what's a natural mama to do with a picky eater?! This has been my dilemma since day one with this boy. We had a hard time getting going with breastfeeding, transitioning to baby food, and now, he barely eats any table food. He's TWO now, so this had to stop. Many kids his age are eating most of the stuff their parents and siblings are eating, but not my son! Until now...

What's growing in your garden?

I have a huge area in my front yard that gets full sun most or all day. Plus, it gets hot here, so we wanted drought-tolerant plants. And, I'm an amateur gardener, so I wanted plants that were easy to care for; all I do is pull weeds and clip or pull off dead leaves and flowers. Within the last few months I've planted several new plants that are looking beautiful now!! Here are my current favorites:

Verbascum chaixii

One of those moments I wish I hadn't chose cloth diapers

Friday morning we went for a walk, as usual. I thought I smelled something as I was strapping little man into the stroller, but I choose to wait to deal with it later. Lately, I've been changing his diaper too early and gotten "surprises" in two diapers, instead of just one. When we got home, i took him back to his room to be changed before naptime, like always. And, oh man, what I found: an explosion. If you know anything about cloth diapering, you know that explosions are extremely rare; I can recall less than five in little man's 14 months of life thus far. This one was, by far, the worst yet.

I pulled off his pants and found poo caked inside about half of one pant leg, and that's when I knew it was going to be bad. Since explosions are rare with cloth, you know it's a bad, bad, bad diaper when it does happen. I used five wipes, and there were still flecks left on his poor little cheeks. Regardles of the sheer volume of poo in this diaper, it was also the worst type of poo: sticky. It's been this way lately, as little man refuses to eat anything real solid. The most solid things he eats are cheeses and rice cakes, which isn't enough to create solid poo, apprently. Oh, how I wish he'd eat chicken again!

I got little man down for his nap and headed to the bathroom with all the clothes he'd been wearing. I started with his pants. The upside to using cloth at this moment was that I had a nice diaper sprayer to get the poo off his pants easily. Unfortunately I also had to get it off his diaper, which was filled with sticky goo from front to back, and the diaper cover, both the outside and inside. When I was finally finished, the toilet needed to be wiped down as well as the area surrounding it. The downside to a diaper sprayer is that it's incredibly powerful, so you can imagine what it does to explosive diapers. I'm glad I was already planning to wash his diapers then because it meant no stain on his pants. I was also planning a shower during little man's nap this morning, but I felt like I nedded and deserved it after that escapade.

Yes, these moments are terrible with cloth diapers, but, overall, it's a worthwile decision. I wouldn't do it differently.

We moved!

We have been in the Central Valley of California for a week now. It's hot. Pros, so far:

• Costco here has a great organic selection of produce and other items
• Amazing Farmer's Market that included a chef making an easy recipe with items that could all be purchased at the Farmer's Market (post on this recipe to come)
• Produce of your choice, organic chicken, eggs and milk can be delivered to your door, and it's all locally grown
• My plants seem to actually be enjoying the warm morning sunshine
• Most importantly, a short drive to the grandparents' house

I have a new sunscreen in the works using carrot seed essential oil. I'll let you know how it goes after we try it out a few times.