Love Child Organics

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

It’s no secret that Wes likes to eat. At 12 months, he’s just about 24 pounds and growing. We started introducing solids to him just after he turned 5 months and the boy had no problem accepting just about whatever I gave to him.

So he had the easy part- just eat the food. I, on the other hand, was a bit stress-ridden searching for products that were organic and free from crazy amounts of additives. The produce was a no brainer, but snacks and meals on the go were a bit trickier. There’s just so much out there that’s marketed for babies!

On one particular shopping trip, I happened upon the Love Child Organics brand and threw a bunch of food pouches and other snacks into my cart to see how Wes would take to them. The verdict? He was obsessed.

From then on out, I continued to keep his drawer (yep, Wes has his own drawer in the kitchen that is filled with snacks) stocked with Love Child goodies. Whenever I head out the door, I make sure to grab at least a pouch and a granola bar to have handy for those snacks (re: HANGRY) moments.

I lucked out a few months ago and won a giveaway that included this awesome tote!

If you’ve never heard of Love Child Organics, here’s an overview of the company:

Love Child was launched in 2013 by parents Leah and John-Garrod-Cole with the intention of providing children with organic foods that are as nutrient-rich as possible. There are no fillers, additives, preservatives, refined sugars or GMOs in any of their products.

In addition to creating great food, they are also very socially conscious! AND they also struck the largest deal ever on Dragon’s Den (the Canadian version of Shark Tank) allowing them to continue to grow.

While the product line already incorporates a lot of yummy flavor combinations- including a lot of quinoa and green veggies- they recently launched 4 more baby meals which come in the resealable pouches! They include: vegetarian chili, veggie casserole, pumpkin risotto, and ratatouille. YUM.

Love Child recently sent us the four new meals to try in addition to some of Wes’s other favorites: Love Ducks, Chomp Bars, and Teefies. We jumped right into them!

PS: Don’t put a ton of fun snacks in front of a food-driven baby. He was going bonkers wanting to eat everything!

The new baby meals couldn’t have come at a better time because Wes’s appetite has been a bit wishy-washy ever since his 12 month shots last week. I desperately want him to get some good nutrition in, and the vegetarian chili hit the spot! He downed the entire pouch in one sitting.

You can warm the contents either by pouring them in a bowl or dipping the pouch in warm water, but Wes has just started eating directly from the pouch and I wanted him to take part in the novelty of his new ‘trick’ so he ate it at room temp.

I’m so happy to support a Canadian business that provides healthy meal and snack options for my little guy, so we are definitely permanent customers!

**You can get 15% off your order of Love Child Organics products on Amazon.ca using code LCOMOM13.**

Don’t forget! I am giving away a Grapple Toy Tether on my Facebook page this week, too!

Grapple Toy Tether [GIVEAWAY!]

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi friends and happy Tuesday! I hope you’re all having a great week so far. It’s been pretty boring over here on our end. I’ve been working every day since Friday; I’ve been pretty sick; Tyler has been working on house stuff; and Wes has been a grump grump. The last one I attribute to a wonderful combination of teething and having his 12 month shots.

Remember a while back when I talked about the Grapple? It was an absolute God send for meal time. Wes was having all too much fun tossing his toys from his high chair to the floor and I was constantly picking them up and having to clean the mess of dog hair from them. Annoying!

I just so happened to stumble upon the Grapple when I was browsing in the children’s store and I knew I needed one. It suctioned to the tray and provided tethers for up to three toys. PERFECT.

grapple-it.small_2

As soon as we got home, I stuck the Grapple on Wes’s tray and attached three toys. That was the first meal I didn’t have to spend majority of my time playing fetch! He loved being able to constantly play with his toys without having to wait for mom to pick them up.

It’s so crazy to look at these photos now because he looks so tiny and chubby 🙂

Here’s a little backstory on the company–> The Grapple™ was invented, as many baby products are, out of sheer necessity…or desperation. After spending many meal times retrieving toys that their 9 month old son dropped on the floor, David and Amy Oh decided there had to be a better way. When they couldn’t find a solution in stores or on the internet, they decided to make their own. It wasn’t pretty but it worked! After being approached by people in restaurants wanting to know where they could buy one, the Ohs realized there was a true need for this product. They formed Boingy LLC and started off on the adventure of creating a product that was fun, easy to use and safe.

Not only is it made of food grade silicone (so it’s safe for your little ones) but it was also invented by a mom! Us moms sure have a knack for coming up with clever way to keep our babes happy, healthy and safe. Even better, the Grapple is portable so it’s a great accesory to have on hand at a restaurant. No one wants to have to hassle with cleaning tossed toys after they’ve been on a yucky restaurant floor. Ick.

I sent my praises to the company, and Amy Ho (the inventor herself!) kindly offered to giveaway ONE Grapple to a lucky reader!

–>Head on over to my Facebook page to enter :)<–

Thanks again to Amy and even more thanks to the Grapple for keeping this mama from going crazy.

Don’t forget to check out their site here

And be sure to like them on Facebook and Instagram

From The Week

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy Friday! My weekend is full of work work work, so I guess it’s like…my Monday? Eww I can’t think like that. Just popping in real quick to share stuff from our week 🙂

Monday: After breakfast we headed to the zoo! It was such a gorgeous day out that we needed to take advantage. It also made me secretly happy to see several misbehaved children there because it made me feel better about my own child! We saw just about everything there and Wes has his first taste of Grandma’s froyo before we left.

Here’s the part where I toot my own horn about how I make the best french toast. ever.

Only downside to the day was that Wes fell asleep JUST as we arrived at the zoo so he only had a couple minutes of shut eye the whole day! By the late afternoon he was overtired and it was a 2 person chore (me and my mom) to get him down for a nap. Then when he did go down, the kiddo slept until 5pm when we finally needed to get him up. His schedule has been WHACK ever since my mom got here!

We had fajitas for dinner and somehow got wrangled into watching Dancing with the Stars. That show needs to END because there are no stars left to go on!

Tuesday: The dreaded shots day. Ugh. He screamed for all 3 pokes but quickly mellowed out when he got grandma snuggles. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and then decided to stay at the house just in case the dreaded side effects should kick in.

He seemed to be fine for a while, but as soon as we tried to hang out on the patio is when he went downhill. He got super whiny and lost his appetite. It’s no fair to him though, it was an incredibly hot day and he has been teething so he was really going through the trifecta.

We had some indoor naked time then mom and grandma decided margaritas needed to happen. PS: The Vitamix does an equally fantastic job at blending as the Margaritaville machine.

True story: at the exact moment I took this picture, Elmo said- AND I QUOTE- “Ok, Elmo’s done being upside down now” BAHAHA.

We had chicken sausages for dinner (so ugly to photo) and they were tasty!

Wes seemed to be hit pretty hard by the shots and he actually woke up in the middle of the night. I had a hard time holding him to get him back to sleep, so after 2 tries, Tyler went in and finally got him back down. So Tyler, if you’re reading this you can totally put Wes to sleep all the time now. You’re obviously better at it.

Wednesday: We had plans to go shopping for some clothes for Wes, but he ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour morning nap. I was able to finish my workouts, shower and get myself ready for orientation at my new job. I felt bad leaving my mom with a really irritable baby, but there was really nothing I could do.

Before I left, I was able to get some somewhat happy baby photos in the backyard. Muscle tees for the win!

My orientation went really well. I’m so excited for this part-time gig, but I’m also pretty darn nervous. Anything new scares me, but it’s in an industry that I love (hint: BEER) so I should be good 😉

For dinner, I made Hoisin Stir Fry Bowls with Spicy Peanut Sauce. It seems like every blogger in Alberta has been making this lately, so I needed to see what the heck the fuss was all about! Plus, we had practically all the ingredients already. The verdict? Delicious!

Thursday: My favorite day from the week! It all started with breakfast. Well, I did my workout first (I am slowly getting addicted to early EARLY morning workouts) then threw together a parfait that was out of this world yummy.

I mixed greek yogurt with peanut butter, layered with sliced bananas and some homemade blueberry maple pecan granola (recipe coming soon!) You guys, this is heaven in a jar. I grabbed a spatula to get all of the goodness out.

Once we all had breakfast, we headed out for a day of fun! As soon as we got in the car, I remembered I had a phone meeting so I had to pull over and my mom needed to distract Wes while I chatted for almost 30 minutes. Whoops!

Wes had to do some paperwork before we left.

We finally got on the road and I stopped to get my rings cleaned while Wes napped in the car. (anything to keep a sleeping baby sleeping!) Then we headed over to one of the fabric stores and picked out some adorable prints for a top secret sewing project (HOPEFULLY more on that later 😉 ).

Next, we headed over to the farmer’s market. We had some excellent coffee and perused the aisles for a bit before grabbing some salads to snack on. Wes even got to try some fresh fruit and loved it.

Then……ICE CREAM TIME. I seriously have no idea how I’ve never been to Village Ice Cream yet, but holy wow was it amazing. I sampled a few flavors before deciding on Salted Caramel- by far one of the best ice creams I’ve had. Wes was getting a bit antsy and I’m surprised I successfully managed to eat my cone without dropping it. We headed home shortly after so the little guy could crawl around sans pants.

Per the trend of the week, he fought his nap for a long time. Once he did konk out, I got to take the dogs for a walk/jog/run. Reggie keeps fake pooping so he can take a rest. No bueno, dog. We gotta keep moving!

Again, I had to wake him up just before 5 so that bed time wasn’t absolutely ruined. According to my math, any time I wake this child from slumber, I am in for a world of hurt. He is so irritable and clingy and whiny and pooey. Oh well, it could be worse!

We had been out for a majority of the day, so I didn’t give much of a thought towards dinner. I quickly whipped up some chicken, broccoli and quinoa. Borrrrrrrring, but tasty.

Oh, and today was our 4th wedding anniversary. Well, technically it wasn’t a wedding but it was the day we got married. On top of a mountain. Legally. We had only known each other 290 days and I already moved from Boston to Calgary to be with Tyler. Best day ever. Funny story: we used crappy $10 rings for the ceremony, but later that night he actually ‘officially’ proposed to me with a real ring! Cue all the feels.

I cracked open a bottle of some of our ‘special’ wine. It’s a bottle of Chardonnay we bought while in Napa while we were dating. Because it’s really romantic when he flies from Calgary and I fly from Boston and we meet in San Francisco and drive up to wine country together. Ah, to be dating again.

And for your viewing pleasure, here’s a photo from that day–>

wedding

Which brings us to….Friday! Guess that wasn’t really a quick post, sorry!

Week + Weekender

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Whoa..talk about a wonderful and crazy week! The amazing weather hardly makes it feel like the weekend is winding down and having my mom here with us makes it even better! I didn’t get to do a recap of the week on Friday because I posted Wes’s first birthday (which I think is way more important) so let’s see what I can remember. Apologies in advance for the excessive photos 😉

Monday: From all that I can remember (eek) I got my workout done in the morning and we walked the neighborhood in the afternoon- making sure to hit the playground before returning home. Chicken caesar salads for dinner!

PS: No joke, I was doing the second week of 22 Minute Hard Corps this week and could already see the changes! My core is much stronger and my arms and butt are getting more definition! (I think I might chat about this later this week since it might also be due to some hormonal changes…man, you just never know! But these workouts feel GOOD!)

Tuesday: My mom flew in! We haven’t seen her (or my dad…but he stayed home. boo) in just over 6 months. It really is 100% no fun to live so far away from family. I crave moments where I can just have mom and dad come over for dinner or to watch Wes for an afternoon. But…it is what it is right now.

We headed straight to Costco from the airport to stock up on essentials, made homemade chicken tenders for dinner, then called it an early night. Not without a glass of wine first!

Wednesday: We considered Wednesday our ‘transition’ day. It was nice for just the three of us (me, my mom and Wes) to hang out and get into the rhythm of a slightly different weekday now that grandma was in town! We did manage to get out of the house and run a couple of errands which was nice. Lots of snacks and maybe even a couple of presents for Wes!

We had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner and hit the hay. Wes really took to grandma so fast and has been super bubbly which has been great!

Thursday: Wes has his one year appointment at 10am, but woke up so early in the morning that he was already down for a nap by 9am and I had to wake him to put him in the car to go. I hate doing that, but I knew that it was still early enough in the day that he would get a good afternoon nap in anyways.

He wasn’t too happy at the appointment and wanted me to hold him the whole time. I didn’t mind at all since I rarely get those good cuddles, but I didn’t like seeing him saddish.

We headed to the Tim Horton’s drive through on the way home for a couple of coffees and picked up a timbit for Wes since it was his birthday eve. No shocker- he gobbled it in two bites!

He was still pretty clingy the rest of the day and snuggled with grandma throughout the afternoon. Heart=melted.

Tyler picked up a pizza on the way home from work for him and my mom and I was out the door by 5:30 to attend a winemaker’s dinner at Pampas Brazilian Steakhouse (more on that later this week!)

Friday: My baby turned ONE! We celebrated just as the sun came up with balloons in his crib and he LOVED them. Poor Tyler’s alarm still hadn’t gone off yet and we were making so much noise. Whoops!

We had pancakes for his birthday breakfast (my idea, obviously) and Wes hung out with grandma to play. They even facetimed grandpa for the Happy Birthday song!

I think we walked over to the shopping center to pick up a couple of things too. It must’ve happened, because there’s photo evidence!

After his morning nap, I attempted to take his one year photos and was so excited for him to wear some new garb! Luckily, I have come across so many great small shops lately that I was able to assemble something rather last minute. I absolutely loved each piece 🙂

wesleyarlo12months

The leggings are from Baby H Designs (she made the leggings/hat Wes wore when he came home from the hospital), moccs from Posh Panda, and bow tie from Will & Co

After a somewhat successful photo session, all clothing was removed so he could enjoy his very first cupcake! I would have preferred it to be something I made myself (I am anti-any-baked-good-from-a-store-since-homemade-is-better) but I thought this was too cute to pass up when I stopped by Crave.

IMG_4688 from Jen Linton on Vimeo.

We had to take a quick bath after that because it was a bit messy and Reggie was losing his mind over all the potential frosting to lick. We opted to all stay shirtless after the fact (plus, it was warm out) and I whipped up these amazingly delicious baked chimichangas for dinner. Best part? We had leftovers which were easily wrapped up and thrown in the freezer! Edited to add: I just remembered that Wes ZONKED for nearly three hours after noshing on the cupcake. It was a great little break for me and my mom, but it made for a less fun night of trying to get him to bed…almost 9pm!

Saturday: Even though Wes went to bed so late on Friday night, he was up at 6am on Saturday. No fun for this mama because my eyes just felt heavy as bricks! I made sure to get both our breakfasts ready before getting him from his room and we hung out in the living room for a while. On one hand, early mornings are no fun because who wants to get out of bed, but on the other hand, I absolutely love those quiet morning hours with Wes when it’s just me and him….and maybe one or two of the doggies who make it out of the bedroom.

The little guy is getting more adventurous in his eating and was asking for a lot of my mom’s cereal. So cereal he got! Afterwards, he was back to sleep for almost another 3 hours! Although I didn’t want him to miss out on the gorgeous weather, I knew he needed the sleep and it was nice for us all to be able to do our own thing for a little bit.

After his nap, we spent a long time hanging out on the patio! When it’s this nice out, it’s a sin not to sit outside and enjoy it! He really loved the fresh air and looking out 🙂

Once Tyler got to a point in his renovations where he could take a break, we had cake! Well, technically only Wes had the cake. No party this year for the birthday boy (1. Because he won’t remember it, 2. Because we have no family around to come and my girlfriends all live so FAR AWAY, and 3. Because umm…isn’t cake enough??!) I sort of feel bad about it, but so long as he’s happy that’s all that matters. He really enjoyed the cake even though he really didn’t understand the concept 😉

Also, I really need to dress nice for some photos, but can’t see the point when we’re just in the house! Besides, DOG. HAIR.

Timing worked in our favor this time and he was in bed at a relatively normal time! We had lasagna for dinner and watched Ride Along 2 before getting in bed.

Sunday: I heard Wes stirring in his crib at 6am and of course he went back to sleep but I couldn’t. I laid in bed for a few minutes before getting up to start coffee, make waffles for everyone, and fix my BAE breakfast.

At 8:30 I decided to put Wes in the stroller and walk to the library to return some books and maybe stroll around the neighborhood for a bit. I was walking one of our usual loops and just before we got back to the house, he had fallen asleep. Since Layla is a barking beast when we get to the front door, I opted to keep walking throughout the neighborhood until Wes woke up. Cut to one hour later and I finally decided to just throw in the towel because my fitbit died haha.

I had him bundled in the stroller because there was still a tiny nip in the air, but by the time we were back at the house it was practically HOT out. I changed Wes and we hung out on the patio for a couple of hours..and even managed to have a picnic lunch.

I even braved to snag a few photos in our backyard. It worked out pretty decent- the grass is (dead) nice and dry from the warm weather, and there was no dog poo! I should probably mow it sometime soon, but we’re never back there. Oops.

Layla is such a great pup with Wes. He loves her so much and is always grabbing for her and hugging her and even just laying on her and she takes it all like a champ.

We came inside for a bit because it was getting a bit too warm and I took the dogs for a long walk. After coming home, Wes went down for a nap, I worked out, and finished up the laundry.

Then it was a nice naked afternoon of crawling, climbing, babbling, and giggling.

Tyler made burgers on the BBQ for dinner and we all got to sleep pretty early after all that sun, exercise, and renovations (for Tyler).

It looks like there is still more sunny weather ahead this week, so we will be having many more outdoor adventures. I can’t wait!

Wesley Arlo- ONE YEAR

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I can hardly believe I no longer have a baby. Instead, I have a big and bubbly TODDLER. The past year has absolutely flown by and while there were several ups and several downs, I wouldn’t trade the past 12 months for the world. I am so glad I get to be this little boy’s mama and he makes me the happiest lady around. And pretty strong, too. <–from all the carrying and tossing…;)

wesleyarlo12months

He had his one year checkup yesterday and weighed in at 23.6 pounds and exactly 2 1/2 feet tall. I think he’s going to grow to be taller than both mom and dad!

bow tie from Will & Co; leggings from Baby H designs; moccs from Posh Panda

As of March 17th, he was a crawling machine. Since then, he has progressed to pulling himself up, standing, and even attempting to step up onto things. Most of the time, he’s practicing his going up and down the step from our living room, which is equal parts hilarious and a pain because he’s either REALLY happy doing it or REALLY unhappy doing it.

I’m pretty sure his legs got the majority of his growth spurt over the past month, and the crawling has thinned him out a bit. He’s wearing his size 5 Baby Dry diapers at night and size 4 Cruisers during the day. All of his clothes still fit- 18/24 months-2T. And he’s in big boy shoes! 5s or 6s depending on the make. He wears 2-4y socks but the ankle is still pretty tight on him.

He’s got 6 teeth- 4 up top and two on the bottom. He eats EVERYTHING. Chicken is finally an acceptable protein, so it’s nice to be able to give him some leftovers from our dinners. And he really loves pasta with sauce! And pickles. And olives. And all crackers and fruit and cheese…..I could go on forever in this category 😉

Still no real words. Most of the time it’s dadadada, but he has started to really imitate the dogs or even us when we clear our throats! He knows his name and will react to ‘no no’ whenever he’s about to do something he shouldn’t- like mess with the cable box or touch Reggie.

His naps are still a bit touchy. Most days it’s now only one nap and that can range anywhere form an hour to almost two hours. If he falls asleep early enough in the day, I’ll try to get him to rest again- even if it’s just quiet time in his crib. I’ll check the monitor and if he doesn’t fall asleep, he’ll usually just be sitting there with his blankie or standing up along the side and trying to pet his rocking horse. Bed time is around 7 and he will sleep for 12 hours.

Wes still loves riding in the car and I think it’s mostly because he gets a kick out of seeing himself in the mirror. He will randomly laugh at himself! He’s pretty good in the stroller for walks- mostly because the newer Bob we got has a lot better back support, and he will sit in the shopping carts whenever we’re out shopping.

Wes like to clap and pat his belly and play peekaboo with his blankie (or just recently using his hands!) He has fantastic coordination and loves to roll his balls and can put his toys together or turn them on, or basically do whatever function they’re designed for.

Again, I still can’t believe he is a whole year old already. And now that he’s hit this stage, it’s like everything is just flying by! Before we know it, he will be walking and having conversations with us! Eek.

Wes- If the internet still exists when you get older and you’re reading this, I hope you know how much of a joy you are to your daddy and I and we absolutely love you to death. xoxo