"Look Ma, No Hands!": Babywearing and Strolling on the Farm and in the Tiny House.

I'm in bumper crop go-time mode here in Chez Tiny House and even though the Little Bean is a few months from solid food, we're putting up all sorts of nomalicious seasonal eats for her when the Big Day comes. The apple and pear trees are creaking under the weight of fruit this year and I'm in a constant state of stickiness trying to pick and puree and freeze this stuff before the window of opportunity is gone. The garden, on the other hand, is SUPER LAME this year, seeing as I only planted about half the space, figuring this is going to be a tough season what with the lil babe and all.  I put off planting some things and didn't do as many plantings as I should have but the real kicker was my stupid, free range gourmand chickens ate EVERY SINGLE LITTLE BRASSICA seedling in the whole field. It first started with the winterbor kale, then they moved on to the red russian, then the broccolis were toast and down and down and down hill it went until there was nothing standing from that family of plant save some sad little stalks of leaf-gobbled kales. It was like a glutton chicken free for all! I basically got some mizuna out of the deal and, of course, never replanted it. Ey yi yi. Bad farmer! Put some fences up, woman!

Peaceful between the pear trees. 

Next year will be a different story, obviously-- we actually would like to scrape a living from growing and making food and generally that takes more than one hand. And look at this sweet little thing? I'm lucky that the little one really loves to be outside. We kind of just cruise around in the stroller and I put her under whatever tree is least likely to drop fruit on her. Brilliant! Blackberries are in full-force in Washington, too, so we've done a few rounds of picking those puppies, which I used during a farm-to-table catering gig last weekend. The babe hung around on me and her playmat but mostly wanted to just chill outside with my mom and whichever yogi felt like holding her at the time. I felt very official and had business cards printed this time around so fingers crossed that I truly can expand the catering side of Operation Homestead like I mentioned in a previous post. Ideally we'll be feeding ourselves while also making some bucks. Financially, it's feasible, especially if we start in the shallow end of the schemey pool and ease our way into it. Really the biggest thing for us is just starting rather than continuing to have these dreams and plans. So in that spirit: Next year is our year, peeps!

Super smiley blackberry help and farmer-in-training. Thank you, BOB Stroller!

Down to business with the ring sling at the yoga retreat.

To take Operation Homestead to the next level for next season I have to keep rolling with the punches as far as getting shit done with a baby goes. I'm a super pro at sitting on the couch, cruising the internet while she moves in and out of sleeping and eating but alas, it truly is so much nicer to write a blog entry with the use of both my hands (the previous one was definitely a single-finger peck-at-the-keyboard job, by the way). Multi-tasking with the Bean has been one of my struggles and triumphs, though the trouble with it is that once I think there is a new normal and I figure out how to cook/write/garden/clean the house/sleep/ read with her, she goes and mixes it up with some new developmental achievement (jeeze). At the yoga retreat cooking gig, she learned to roll for the first time and has been floor-shimmying ever since. But dude, I just bought a playmat thing since you also just started wanting to hold toys! I finally figured out how to transfer you to the bed to nap, leaving me free to do whatever my little heart desired in the wee house! It's cool, it's cool. 

I love playing with her here but she also gets a nice dose of alone-play while I cook or clean around her. Nice thing about the tiny house is she can watch me doing a lot of things and we're never too far from each other, even if in our "own" space.

Baby wearing allows me to get things done around the house and while running errands (see the above pic of me working at the yoga retreat with my squashy little assistant) but I thought I would be a maestro of "Look Ma! No Hands!" by this point and that's not exactly the case. I use the ring sling for cooking and errands and would love to use my soft sided carrier, an ONYA BABY that is similar to an Ergo around the farm, but Stella gets a heat rash every time I put her in the thing for longer than 30 minutes. We're right around the corner from her sitting up by herself, though, which means I can lose the heat-trapping infant insert and try, try again. Once that milestone hits we can actually wear her on our backs in the ONYA or in our super sweet, yet to be used Deuter kiddie frame backpack. This means I can hoe the garden without bopping her and bend and squat a little easier (plus she can check out what's going on better). Oh! And knife skills? Definitely a better situation is ahead when I don't have to look over my babe's head to see where I'm cutting. 

Fun Fact! Apparently My first word as a wee precocious babe was "Wow!", exclaimed from my position in the frame backpack while looking over my mom's shoulder into the Kitchen Aid mixer while she was baking. Appropriate much? 

The ONYA BABY at Sol Duc. Look how tiny she is!!

The surprise from left field has been the BOB Stroller. I use that thing EVERY FREAKING DAY. Pre-babe arrival I assumed I would solely babywear and James would use the stroller if he wanted but no, it's a Stapleton staple, that's for sure. Seeing as Stella loves being outside, she loves being in the stroller and I have the bonus of accomplishing something in my day. I don't use it for grocery shopping or cruising around town-- I barely even use it on trails; nope, that puppy comes out for exercising, which I talked about in the last post, and to simply wheel her to wherever I'm working outside. She stares at the trees for awhile, watches me work and maybe watches the chickens a bit, and then usually nods off pretty fast. Millions of Scandinavian moms can't be wrong! Babes thrive from sleeping outside!

So we've come a long way from the tangly mess that was the MOBY wrap, and yes, I can see myself having a "problem" acquiring kid carriers if left to my own devices, but I'm sure I have enough tools at hand and it's really just building up experience with the babe-juggling, especially as Stella gets more and more mobile. Right now she is delightfully portable and observes her surroundings on an almost creep level (seriously, she didn't blink for 30 seconds while staring me down yesterday... I counted) but this practice season that seems to be all about adjusting and experimenting gives me hope that next year when we're trying to rock this farm for real, I'll have a toolbox of experiences along with a tiny house full of carriers.

"Look Ma, No Hands!": Babywearing and Strolling on the Farm and in the Tiny House.

I'm in bumper crop go-time mode here in Chez Tiny House and even though the Little Bean is a few months from solid food, we're putting up all sorts of nomalicious seasonal eats for her when the Big Day comes. The apple and pear trees are creaking under the weight of fruit this year and I'm in a constant state of stickiness trying to pick and puree and freeze this stuff before the window of opportunity is gone. The garden, on the other hand, is SUPER LAME this year, seeing as I only planted about half the space, figuring this is going to be a tough season what with the lil babe and all.  I put off planting some things and didn't do as many plantings as I should have but the real kicker was my stupid, free range gourmand chickens ate EVERY SINGLE LITTLE BRASSICA seedling in the whole field. It first started with the winterbor kale, then they moved on to the red russian, then the broccolis were toast and down and down and down hill it went until there was nothing standing from that family of plant save some sad little stalks of leaf-gobbled kales. It was like a glutton chicken free for all! I basically got some mizuna out of the deal and, of course, never replanted it. Ey yi yi. Bad farmer! Put some fences up, woman!

Peaceful between the pear trees. 

Next year will be a different story, obviously-- we actually would like to scrape a living from growing and making food and generally that takes more than one hand. And look at this sweet little thing? I'm lucky that the little one really loves to be outside. We kind of just cruise around in the stroller and I put her under whatever tree is least likely to drop fruit on her. Brilliant! Blackberries are in full-force in Washington, too, so we've done a few rounds of picking those puppies, which I used during a farm-to-table catering gig last weekend. The babe hung around on me and her playmat but mostly wanted to just chill outside with my mom and whichever yogi felt like holding her at the time. I felt very official and had business cards printed this time around so fingers crossed that I truly can expand the catering side of Operation Homestead like I mentioned in a previous post. Ideally we'll be feeding ourselves while also making some bucks. Financially, it's feasible, especially if we start in the shallow end of the schemey pool and ease our way into it. Really the biggest thing for us is just starting rather than continuing to have these dreams and plans. So in that spirit: Next year is our year, peeps!

Super smiley blackberry help and farmer-in-training. Thank you, BOB Stroller!

Down to business with the ring sling at the yoga retreat.

To take Operation Homestead to the next level for next season I have to keep rolling with the punches as far as getting shit done with a baby goes. I'm a super pro at sitting on the couch, cruising the internet while she moves in and out of sleeping and eating but alas, it truly is so much nicer to write a blog entry with the use of both my hands (the previous one was definitely a single-finger peck-at-the-keyboard job, by the way). Multi-tasking with the Bean has been one of my struggles and triumphs, though the trouble with it is that once I think there is a new normal and I figure out how to cook/write/garden/clean the house/sleep/ read with her, she goes and mixes it up with some new developmental achievement (jeeze). At the yoga retreat cooking gig, she learned to roll for the first time and has been floor-shimmying ever since. But dude, I just bought a playmat thing since you also just started wanting to hold toys! I finally figured out how to transfer you to the bed to nap, leaving me free to do whatever my little heart desired in the wee house! It's cool, it's cool. 

I love playing with her here but she also gets a nice dose of alone-play while I cook or clean around her. Nice thing about the tiny house is she can watch me doing a lot of things and we're never too far from each other, even if in our "own" space.

Baby wearing allows me to get things done around the house and while running errands (see the above pic of me working at the yoga retreat with my squashy little assistant) but I thought I would be a maestro of "Look Ma! No Hands!" by this point and that's not exactly the case. I use the ring sling for cooking and errands and would love to use my soft sided carrier, an ONYA BABY that is similar to an Ergo around the farm, but Stella gets a heat rash every time I put her in the thing for longer than 30 minutes. We're right around the corner from her sitting up by herself, though, which means I can lose the heat-trapping infant insert and try, try again. Once that milestone hits we can actually wear her on our backs in the ONYA or in our super sweet, yet to be used Deuter kiddie frame backpack. This means I can hoe the garden without bopping her and bend and squat a little easier (plus she can check out what's going on better). Oh! And knife skills? Definitely a better situation is ahead when I don't have to look over my babe's head to see where I'm cutting. 

Fun Fact! Apparently My first word as a wee precocious babe was "Wow!", exclaimed from my position in the frame backpack while looking over my mom's shoulder into the Kitchen Aid mixer while she was baking. Appropriate much? 

The ONYA BABY at Sol Duc. Look how tiny she is!!

The surprise from left field has been the BOB Stroller. I use that thing EVERY FREAKING DAY. Pre-babe arrival I assumed I would solely babywear and James would use the stroller if he wanted but no, it's a Stapleton staple, that's for sure. Seeing as Stella loves being outside, she loves being in the stroller and I have the bonus of accomplishing something in my day. I don't use it for grocery shopping or cruising around town-- I barely even use it on trails; nope, that puppy comes out for exercising, which I talked about in the last post, and to simply wheel her to wherever I'm working outside. She stares at the trees for awhile, watches me work and maybe watches the chickens a bit, and then usually nods off pretty fast. Millions of Scandinavian moms can't be wrong! Babes thrive from sleeping outside!

So we've come a long way from the tangly mess that was the MOBY wrap, and yes, I can see myself having a "problem" acquiring kid carriers if left to my own devices, but I'm sure I have enough tools at hand and it's really just building up experience with the babe-juggling, especially as Stella gets more and more mobile. Right now she is delightfully portable and observes her surroundings on an almost creep level (seriously, she didn't blink for 30 seconds while staring me down yesterday... I counted) but this practice season that seems to be all about adjusting and experimenting gives me hope that next year when we're trying to rock this farm for real, I'll have a toolbox of experiences along with a tiny house full of carriers.

Big People, Tiny Waist

In addition to the new budget regime (still in the works... mama's gotta plan) I'm also in the waning days of new-bod adjustments. Being tall and from a long line of ladies apparently born to birth, my body didn't change too drastically after growing and hosting this 9 lb baby. At least I don't think it did... there still is a layer of mystery provided by a layer pudge. But I managed to walk away from the birth center with one wee little stretch mark on my stomach (which appeared after her due date), a manageable 20 extra pounds, and a pelvic floor that just needs a good Kegel-in' to get back to normal. So ahhhh, relaaaaaax, get to know your amazing new babe, heal up, and focus on eating good foods to optimize milk production for breastfeeding. And I did! Three months of unadulterated lounging, baby cuddling, and wolfing down "meals" while the baby slept achieved all those goals but left me with an additional 10 extra pounds over my immediate post-pregnancy weight. Lest I keep riding this post-partum wave of self-care into Stella's teens and surrender myself now to a life of berry-covered pound cakes and Mom jeans (yolo!), methinks it's high time to drop a few and get back to a healthy baseline.

Now disclaimer: I know that talking about losing weight is walking a thin line in this day in age (pun intended). I have a tremendous community of lady friends who pump me up for being amazing and strong and a husband who never ceases to tell me how good looking I am to him. There is really no external pressure pushing me to lose weight, for which I am grateful, but the fact is I need to, seeing as since pregnancy I tipped the big red arrow on the scale from "overweight" to "obese." I was already 20 pounds heavier than my (albeit overweight) norm at the beginning of my pregnancy, so the additional baby weight has made for not only discomfort but can turn into a real health concern if I don't do anything about it. This blog wasn't called "Lithe, Willowy People, Tiny House" for a reason! And while of course I want to have a MILF-a-licious bod, mostly I want to be fit and healthy. My overweight body had accomplished a lot of remarkable things, which often took the form of hard manual labor or really long walks or hours upon hours of dancing (again, cue up Lady GaGa's "Born This Way"), while my obese, post-partum bod is creaky, painful, and exhausting. So after three months of  sitting on the couch, and three months of "oofing" when I get off of said couch, IT IS TIME.

Just a little motivation...

Since I'm breastfeeding, my normal M.O. of cutting carbs and limiting calories is a pretty drastic no no. In fact, rather than focusing so much on what I eat like I usually would when losing weight, I'm a lot more focused on fitness. Luckily my impeccable taste means that as long as I'm eating real foods and not a horrendous amount of them I'm in the clear! Yay! On a similar note, who wants to go to Butcher and Baker this week?

Real food is real good! I prepped all the ingredients for these brown rice bowls with tahini yogurt dressing one night after Stella was asleep so I could assemble them in minutes when I need to eat when she's, you know, not asleep.

In the fitness realm, I joined a mom work out group called FIT4MOM that has been a lot more valuable and dear to me than I could have imagined. When I initially made this weight-loss plan, my goal was to work out twice per week and I felt like with a three month old baby in-tow, that was still a stretch. Then one day I was on a walk at the waterfront and saw some mompeeps I knew lounging around the grass after a workout. It was a happy mess of BOB Strollers, yoga pants, and breastfeeding.  I decided to give it a try once Stella came of age, even though it didn't seem like "my thing" (which, to this point, was basically hiking, jogging, "working outside" or, if a class, some half-assed zumba and kickboxing). Once she hit the two month mark, we started going and turns out I love it! I get a pretty decent workout, my babe is out in the fresh air, I am relearning all those childhood songs and Stella gets to gawp at other babies and kids the whole time. 

Working it with my Mompeeps! Photo from Magda Pratt. I'm the one wearing bright pink pants, obviously.

And those awesome supportive lady friends I told you about? That's the other moms, for sure! Everyone rules and since everyone else goes every day, it's easy for me to as well. I look forward to talking to grown ups and having something to get us out of the house and the fact that it has not only met but helped me super exceed my goals is the cherry on top.

Oh, and we have a bookclub. SCORE!

I  love exercising in the park and I love exercising with a group so I'm taking advantage of the last month of maternity leave and doing Fit4Mom's Body Back boot camp class, which has been kicking my ass and shaping my arms two nights each week. This one is sans stroller, so James and Stella drop me off and then have some sweet father daughter time strolling in the park together while I sweat myself blind doing burpees. I've lost about a pound and a half each week so far without negatively affecting my milk supply (I think it maybe even got better somehow...) and I've built up a lot of the strength I had lost during pregnancy. We cap off each night with a few minutes of meditation while the sun is just starting to set so it makes for a pretty pleasant experience even if I do have to peel my sweaty back off the yoga mat after.

Again with the bright pink pants! I'd try to convince you I don't wear them all the time, but then I also wouldn't have you guess what I'm wearing today either... Mom Life!

So wish me luck! I will be a much happier hiker/ farmer/ wrangler of toddler if I can manage to lose weight and get myself healthy. I don't have a number I'm aiming for and I don't have a date I want to lose weight by. I'm just going to keep eating delicious real food and workout and let my body do its thing!