Maple Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Or Pancake Sugar Cookies :)

Juju helped me make these yesterday (we ate them all last night before I took any pictures, sorry!).  I was in the mood to make cookies, but as I don’t bake often I only had ingredients for sugar cookies.  I think sugar cookies are super boring (sorry) so I wanted to add something to them.  Again…not many ingredients to choose from, so I decided on maple syrup and cinnamon.   

It’s a pretty basic recipe so there’s a lot of room to experiment :D

Ingredients (Makes a little more than a dozen cookies depending on your cookie cutter shapes)

1 egg

½ cup melted butter

1 1/8 cup flour

¼ cup sugar

pinch of salt

2 tablespoons maple syrup (approximately)

2 tablespoons cinnamon (approximately)

powdered sugar

Blend the egg, butter, sugar, and salt.  Gradually stir in flour, maple syrup, and cinnamon.  For regular sugar cookies omit the maple syrup and cinnamon and add a bit more sugar (otherwise it’ll taste too floury).  You can also substitute the maple syrup and cinnamon with other yummy things like brown sugar, ginger, lemon juice, craisins, or I don’t know, use your imagination. 

Mix until it’s a nice consistent dough, then wrap up in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours. (At least 1 hour but no more than a day)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Sprinkle cookie sheets and working surfaces with powdered sugar.  Roll out dough—do not make cookies thick or they will not cook well!  Less than half an inch should do.  Cut out your shapes with whatever cookie cutters you have.

Place on cookie sheet.  For added flavor/décor sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, raw sugar, or colourful sugar (I just didn’t have any T_T).   Cook for about 10 minutes.  Cookies should be pale in color, soft, but set in their shape.

Let cool and enjoy!  Juju, Terrance, and I sure did.

Some other ideas:

Since sugar cookies are so plain looking they could be a lot of fun for kids to decorate with candies and coloured sugar before baking and pipe frosting after baking.  You can also experiment with food colouring to make colourful cookies.

Fun shaped cookie cutters make sugar cookies way more interesting.  For half of our cookies we used a star shaped cookie cutter.  It's my favorite one. :)

If you don't have cookie cutters you can use the top of a cup to cut out perfect circles.  Juju and I actually used a shot glass to cut out perfect Juju-sized cookies lol.

Melt chocolate chips in a bowl and dip half your baked cookies in it.  SO YUMMY!!!  You can use regular chocolate or white chocolate.  If you use white chocolate you can mix in some food colouring for more rainbow fun :)

"How to Tell Your Parents You Got a Bad Report Card"

All parents hope their kids excel in everything they do, but the truth is--that isn't always the case.  I recently wrote an article, targeted towards youth, on how to confront parents about low marks.  In the article I emphasize the importance of being honest.  I also state that parents will appreciate a mature and responsible approach from their children. 

Read the article here.

Additionally, I'd like to say to the parents, try and be patient with your children.  It's really easy to get angry with them over things like low grades, but if you yell or do not give them a chance to explain themselves, you cut off communication.  The consequences of burning the bridge of communication far exceeds the consequences of bad grades.  If your child does not feel safe or comfortable confiding in you they may start to feel isolated, without help or hope, and may turn to other individuals for guidance--people you may not want advising your kids. 

Try and have discussions with your children.  Allowing them to open up to you may help them gain the confidence and skills needed to avoid having to talk to you about poor report cards and lead to more conversations about their personal successes.

Best of luck!

Fisher Price Fun

Goodness me!  Haven't been posting much because I've been so anxious over Julian's birthday party this weekend. It was a modest success and Julian had a great time so I'm super happy.  Anyway, now that that's done with I can focus on other things.

I thought I'd write today about the Fisher-Price website and all the cool (and more importantly, FREE) features they have for parents.  I don't know about you, but I was definitely a Fisher-Price kid growing up--so naturally it's a brand I trust for Julian.

I started going on the website a few months ago to play some of the online games they have for babies when Juju first started mashing my laptop keys.  On a recent visit though, I found they have A LOT of really cool stuff for parents!

You can check out the site yourself to see all they have to offer, but I'm going to list my favorite sections here:

Online Games
Here you'll find a bunch of cool games for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.  I really like these because I do a lot of work on my computer and when I'm home alone with Julian he often wants to get on the computer and do things with me.  I haven't tried out the toddler or preschooler games yet, but the infant ones are perfect for babies who want to be just like Mommy and Daddy!  Watch out though, because if they hit certain commands on your keyboard they can shut out of the game and start messing with other things.  Try and make sure the babes are just playing with the main keys.

Julian's favorite games are the Hide and Seek games and any of the animal games--the noisier the better!


Crafts
This is actually the page that got me excited about writing a post on this website because it's SO what this blog is about!  Here's a list of cool art projects and activities you can do with your kids at little or no cost (they even have a fishing activity like the one I wrote about!).  I'm so excited to try some of these out (and put my own spin on them too haha).  Any of these activities would be great for a boring weekend or rainy day. 

I tried to pick out a couple favorites to list here, but honestly I love them all!

Birthday Party Ideas
I'm a little peeved I checked this out the day after I have Julian's birthday party (especially since they have a dinosaur theme and that's what I really wanted to do grrrr), but I will know better in the future. :P 

Anyway, they have lots of great tips and tricks for parents on holding a successful and fun birthday party.  They also have several party theme ideas that include food suggestions and decorating and activity ideas.  All the party ideas function on a reasonable budget and seem to be real low-stress which, given the anxiety I went trough over Juju's birthday party, is definitely an awesome thing!

Playtime Guide
This section focuses on the importance of play and how different activities help baby develop cognitive, social & emotional, and physical skills.  They even have sections devoted to baby's specific age, from 1 month to 5+ years.  In addition to great tips on different ways to play with your baby they have a section for parents that focuses on everything from pregnancy worries to potty training.  This is great for nervous first time parents!  There's a section dedicated solely to grandparents as well.  This is a really valuable resource if you're getting tired of playing peek-a-boo and want to try something fresh and new. 


There are also coloring pages, online videos, and of course plenty of info on fisher-price's toys and stuff.  So if you're bored and trying to think of something new to do with the little ones take a look!

Re-purpose Those Jars!

Here's another highlight of an article I did over on HubPages!

10 Creative Ways to Use a Jar

I love peanut butter and jelly.  That seems like a random fact, but stay with me for a moment.  I love peanut butter and jelly--so, I find myself with a lot of used jars!  If I was wasteful (like a certain hubby I know, ahem) I would just throw them away--but I can't do that.  Throwing away glass, honestly, breaks my heart--especially since some jelly jars are really pretty!

So, I could use them for the basic things...store my spaghetti sauce, stick pens in them, use them as cups, put little odds and ends in them.  Essentially, just use them to store things other than peanut butter or jelly.  

But that wasn't good enough for me!  So I explored OTHER ways I could use jars--and came across some really fun projects:

- snowglobes

- mini gardens

- lanterns

- candles

- and more!!  Check it out!

My next mission is to find projects specifically relating to baby food jars since I have a lot of those laying around! D:

Strange & Different Ways to Pot Plants

So I'm a writer over on HubPages.  It's against the rules for me to publish things in two different places there (although I still kinda do anyway--just a little bit, the rule is really to stop plagiarism--but if I wrote it why is it so wrong? D:).  Anyway, this is something I wrote an article on that I think would be really cool for parents looking for something fun and cool to do.

Unusual Planters

In this article I highlight a few cool and different ways you can pot plants at home.

Some highlights would be:

- Planting in jars

- Using eggshells

- Using bottle caps

- Repurposing crocs 

There are a few others too and most would be really fun projects to do with kids, I'd say around 4 and up.  All of these ideas are are pretty basic too, so there are plenty of ways you can be creative and customize your projects!

Happy planting!

Flower Pot Pens

Source: Do It Yourself Gifts

Here's a really cute and cool project I came across when I went to my OB/GYN today--flower pot pens!  I never noticed, but on all the reception desks at my clinic there is a vase with fake flowers in it--these are actually PENS!  How pretty!  Little flower vases are definitely more attractive then a mug full of pens (and flower pens are probably a lot harder to swipe too haha).  My clinic is all about visual aesthetics so it's no surprise that they even try to make something as mundane as a pen to sign in look more beautiful. 

Anyway, after I left I wanted to do this on my own, so I looked up "flower vase pens" on Google and found this really helpful tutorial!  Check it out! It has picture instructions to make it easier, but the process is pretty simple.

All you need is pens, floral tape, fake flowers, and a vase or something to put them in (that's the part you can really get creative).

They do a real good job at explaining so here are some alternative/additional ideas that I had:
- Don't stop at just a few flowers, make a whole beautiful bouquet with feathers, swirly sticks, glitter twigs, or whatever florists call those things.
- Use your floral pens as a way to bring colour into a room or dress up your desk.  Use complimentary colours.  Have blue walls?  Use orange or yellow flowers.  Have white walls? Use bold colours!  Dark room?  Use bright colours!
- Try using the realistic silk flowers to make it look like you always have fresh flowers (some silk flowers look sooo real, I actually had a silk flower bouquet for my wedding so I could keep it forever <3)
- Add a fairy pen, butterfly, or some sort of bug to the mix for a secret surprise.
- Make decorating the pot, vase, or jar a fun project for the kids!
- Instead of flowers use fake leaves or leaves with berries to create a little potted pen bush.
- Or try other different types of flora to create various different types of pen plants.
- Instead of buying fake flowers make your own out of tissue paper or fabric.  (Don't know how, Google or YouTube "tissue paper flowers" or "fabric flowers,"  Maybe one day I'll do my own tutorial haha....)
- Change your pens with the seasons; roses in the summer, holly berries in the winter.
- If this is your personal desk, use other desk stuff such as a white out pen, a pencil, an eraser (a pencil taped backwards), a black pen, a blue pen, highlighters, permanent markers, color pencils, etc.


I'll add more ideas as I think of them!  I can't wait to try this out myself!

Sickle Cell Awareness Month

FOLLOW THE STRAY: Sickle-Cell Anemia Awareness Month

I just recently learned that Julian and my husband are carriers of the sickle-cell trait.  So, in honor of them and Sickle Cell Awareness Month I am doing my part to inform others of what Sickle Cell is (and learning about it myself as I go along).

Click here to read this post and other posts I've made for Sickle Cell Awareness Month

Registry Items I Could Not Have Survived Without

When it came to making a registry for Julian when I was pregnant I did not even know where to begin!  I went to Target to set up a registry and of course they give you a pamphlet with 101 "must-have" baby items.  Me, being a first time mom, asked for EVERYTHING--and when I received some of what was on my list my reaction was, "okay GREAT, now what the heck do I do with this thing?"  I'm sad to say quite a few of the gifts I thought were ESSENTIAL, didn't even get used!

So here's a list of just my favorite things that I think no registry should go without:

DIAPERS

This is kind of obvious right?  But maybe, as a first time parent, I didn't realize HOW obvious this was.  If I could go back and do it over again I would just ask for diapers.  Think of it this way.  People have babies every day.  People's babies outgrow their clothes and toys every day.  When this happens people want to GET RID OF those toys and clothes as fast as they can.  Result?  Pregnant women are bombarded with free barely used clothes and toys all throughout their pregnancy.  Much of Julian's wardrobe for several months consisted mostly of hand-me-downs.  Many of the toys he still plays with are also secondhand.  Most of the stuff I was given was in "like new" condition when I received it.

Therefore, clothes and toys aren't exactly the most important things to ask for in a registry.  That is unless of course you're the kind of person that needs all new everything, but I'm not even going to go there.

BUT diapers cannot be handed down.  I mean, I received a few spare diapers that babies had outgrown before they could use them, and I gave away diapers Juju couldn't fit too, but those are hardly enough to cover a day let alone several months. 

I am SO GRATEFUL to the people who bought us diapers!  For the first three months we did not have to buy diapers because of the stock we had!  It was wonderful!

I think it's important to note, however, that certain sizes are more important than others.  Newborn sizes and 1s will be outgrown pretty quickly, 2s semi-quickly, 3s will last some time, and 4s will be used for quite some time.  So I would strongly suggest requesting larger packages of 3s and 4s than the smaller sizes--it'll really help out!



I didn't go the reusable diaper route, but next time around I might give it a shot.  I'll probably use disposables in the beginning since they grow so fast and once baby has reached a pretty standard size use reusables, size 3 or 4.  I'm thinking about even starting now with Julian since I'm potty training him anyway.


Nursing Pillow

I actually didn't think this was very important when I was making my registry.  Thankfully, a friend visiting us at the hospital was kind enough to pick one up for me after Julian was born.  I was very clumsy with the breastfeeding, in the beginning.  Julian was soooo small and I was so nervous.  My Boppy nursing pillow made the process so much easier and more comfortable.  I still use it to this day!  Terrance didn't use it, but I do know that some people bottle feed their babies with the Boppy too.  It's just so comfy. :)

A couple of extra covers for it is not such a bad idea either.

Swing

Julian has only very recently started sleeping in his crib.  He is the kind of baby that needs movement to sleep.  If it weren't for his swing I don't know what the heck we would have done.  Some nights that was the absolute only way he would sleep restfully.  Some people say it's a bad habit, but I'm in the parenting school of if it makes baby happy and it makes mommy happy, than what is the BFD?  Plus swings are one of the S's in The Happiest Baby on the Block so that's good enough for me.

It doesn't have to be a super expensive or luxurious swing either.  Those kinds of swings are definitely pretty cool, but ours just rocked back and forth and not much else.  That was perfectly fine!  Terrance and I were actually able to sleep at night thanks to our swing's simple ability to rock back and forth. 

Do NOT go without a swing!  Just don't do it to yourself!  This is definitely a MUST!

One recommendation though, try finding a swing that plugs in or ask for rechargeable batteries because you will go through them really fast!


Bouncer


I wouldn't say this one is as important as the swing but I did use both very frequently.  I had a little vibrating bouncer for Juju to sit in.  I'd bounce it with my foot while I was crocheting until he'd fall asleep.  Or sometimes he'd get really fussy and just want to be left alone so I'd sit him in it and let him stare at me, lol.  He didn't like being left alone in his crib and he could not be nosy in his bassinet, so his bouncer chair gave him the perfect seat to observe.  I think it was also comfortable for him because he always had a stuffy nose so being tilted instead of flat on his back made it easier to breath. 

Not an absolute must but it was definitely nice to use along with the swing so Juju wasn't spending 90% of his time swinging.


Stroller

A good stroller is definitely a must!  I am so lucky to have the mom I do because she invested in a Peg Perego skate system stroller for us.  It has a bassinet, a booster seat (which Juju now uses), and a carseat.  It also has all of these great accessories too like a grocery basket, a winter cover, a cup holder, a plastic shield, the option to have the care seat and booster seat on at the same time for two babies, adjustable handles, and just a bunch of great stuff.  A stroller like this is EXPENSIVE but it is an investment.  It is a sturdy quality stroller that will last you a really long time.  Unless you want to also buy a lightweight stroller, this will be the only stroller you will ever have to buy.  The quality is so good that it will last you not only this baby, but the next.  In my opinion, it is worth every last penny put into it.  I absolutely love my stroller!

If not the Peg Perego, which I highly recommend, I'd say convertible or all-in-one strollers are the way to go.  Some are clunkier than others, but I think they are a lot more convenient! 


Baby Carrier

I'm totally an advocate for baby wearing!  Not only is it great for baby, it is so so nice to feel your little one next to you.  Ha, I spent nine months waiting for him to pop out only to tie him back on, huh?  Lol.  The Moby wrap is my favorite and I actually received a few different carriers, since I didn't know which one would be best.  I was able to move a lot more freely and securely with the Moby wrap than I was able with the others.  Overall, I just felt safer and more comfortable in it.

However, now that Julian is older I now use an Infantino so that he can face forward and move around a bit more without tumbling out.  He is a very active and curious baby.  He needs to see what's going on around him at all times, so a forward facing carrier is very nice.  It's fun going on walks with him too and pointing out things we see.

I'm afraid I may have to stop carrying him soon.  It's making me a bit sad.  He's getting to heavy and I am kind of weak. :(  If I can find a more supportive carrier, maybe one that goes on the back, it'll probably be better.  I will do an update if I find anything useful!

Bottles

I breastfed near exclusively so bottles weren't especially important in our house.  I did like the Playtex drop-ins though.  You can push the air out of the bottle so there's less chance for excessive gassiness.  Not the most eco-friendly though.


Baby Bath

I was so so scared to bathe my baby.  I'm so serious.  I can't make this up.  I was terrified I was going to drown him or hurt him or he'd slip.  I was petrified.  I just wanted Terrance to wash him because I was so frightened.  It seems ridiculous now that I was so nervous.  I nice baby bath eased my worries.  I'd say any baby baby with a little seat type ledge or some way to position baby so s/he can't slide around is perfect.  It doesn't have to be super expensive or fancy.  You're probably not going to use it for more than a few months.  Once Julian started sitting up on his own I started taking showers with him and that's how he gets washed now; in the shower with me or his dad.  It's just more convenient that way.

Baby Kit
A kit with thermometer, bulb syringe, nail clipper, and medicine syringe is wonderful.  You could keep aquaphor or diaper rash cream,  orajel, a toothbrush, and a clean wash cloth in there as well.  Very very nice to have those things in one place.



Those are my absolute favorite things.  High chair can be added to the list of must-haves, colorful toys and teething toys too, a nice diaper bag is good--though now-a-days I just use whatever I have on hand.  Books are great and anything that makes noise or encourages investigation.  I've found that Juju is not very interested in stuffed toys just yet, but that could change in the future :)

I hope this helps anyone who is putting together a registry for the first time!   I REALLY hope this helps someone who is trying to find the perfect gift for a baby shower!  How happy will you be if several months from now you get a call from your friend or relative thanking you so much for your super amazing, useful gift? :)

Anne Taintor Favorites

While Julian was pulling books off the shelves today I came across a book a bought a few years ago, "I'm becoming my mother" from the Anne Taintor Collection.  So, while Julia crawled off to see whatever destruction he could cause I took a break and flipped through the book.

I bought this book in Italy during a time when I was first developing an interest in 50's pinup art and fashion.  It was cute, funny, and on sale, so why not.  Now that I'm married with a baby I can relate to this sooo much more than before.  In fact, I had wanted to throw a pinup style party for my 24th this year, but wasn't able--but now I'm thinking I'll probably try again for my 25th and include some Ann Taintor products as favors and decoration.

I wanted to share some of the pieces so I checked out the website to see if they had them up.  I didn't find all the ones I really like, but here are a few of my favorites.