Mommy and Me Pamper Day

Yesterday, Ava and I went to my hair salon for some pampering! We both got manicures and she got a haircut. The best part is that we went on a Monday morning so we had the whole place to ourselves.

Our manicures! Ava loves hers!

Getting her hair washed. She loved the animal drape.

Hair is done and styled and she's getting her mani.

On the way to the salon, told her that we'd be with Rhonda and Danielle and she practiced saying their names. She got her haircut by Rhonda, the salon owner that does my hair. She asked to grow her hair longer so Rhonda just cleaned up her hair to give it some style. We're growing our her bangs too, which is a long process. Her hair is growing in thicker rather than longer it seems.

The girls at the salon enjoyed having Ava there. She acted like a little lady, sitting tall in her chair for her haircut.

She asked Rhonda is she would get a prize at the end, just like her doctor's appointments. That cracked us up. Sure enough, Rhonda gave her a little bag with lots of fun stuff in it like a ball, swim goggles, play money, a play ring, and little nail polishes. She was so excited and even carried it around like a purse.

Just before we left, she found the candy dish in the waiting area. She served us each a peppermint on a silver coaster like a plate. The girls loved that too!

Ava was so excited that when Aaron got home, she showed him her new manicure right away. And she showed her girlfriends at school this morning when I dropped her off. She loved it!

Having a daughter who's so feminine is really fun. I wonder if this phase is temporary, but I'll enjoy it while it's here. Maybe we'll make it a tradition to go around Christmas time to the salon together. That was fun!

Showing off our nails!

This might be a fun annual tradition!

She asked for a "prize" like at the doctor's office.

Loving her fish-globe ball.

Who Am I?

I can't even tell you how many times this week alone a kid or teacher called me "Ava's Mom" as if it were my actual name. I answer to it without hesitation just like if they called me Amanda. After Ava was first born, I wrote a post called "I'm Ava Mom" about kids and grown-ups calling me that instead of my name. It was only a few months ago that Ava wondered about my actual name.

When I was a little girl my family called me Mandi. Now only a few people call me Mandi. After graduating college, I built a professional identity as Amanda Volarvich. Then 7 1/2 years ago, Aaron and I got married and changed my identity to Amanda Berkey. The Volarvich name showed up surprisingly in January when we signed our mortgage refinance paperwork. I couldn't believe after all this time, I signed my name as Amanda Volarvich.

The day I became a Berkey.

Then Ava was born in March 2010. Hearing myself referred to as a mother was surreal. Now, Ava prefers to call me mama or mom. And in sweet moments, she calls us Baby Mama and Baby Daddy. And then if we have another child, I'm sure it will be so cool to hear his/her friends call me by their name too.

First family photo in March 2010.

Here I am 36-years old, and I remember those days in my 20's when I identified with being a feminist focusing my power on advancing a career and being independent. Then after marrying Aaron, we merged our independent lives and identities into a unit. We had to become more reliant on one another. We've adopted a mix of traditional roles in the context of a modern family. I still feel like a feminist, but now inside of marriage and motherhood. I handle the cooking, cleaning (ok, outsourced a bit!), and the bulk of child care duties. That's not because he's unwilling, but naturally with mothering/breastfeeding in Ava's first years she wanted me. Aaron handles all the outdoors work, which is a lot since we have a lot of land for city-standards. But, we adopted these roles by our personal interests. I love to cook and he loves to be outdoors. Now with being a mother, I want to do meaningful and challenging work but not at the expense of my family. So that means, I've put the brakes on surging to higher levels for now while we have a young family.

It makes me look forward to more transformations in the future when Ava grows up or even my 40th birthday, which is not too distant in the future. I want to live my life to honor those important milestones and transitions in life to shape me into the person that I have become. It makes me appreciate my age and where I am in my life. I don't want to hide my age because it's a marker for what I've been through, the good and the bad and in between!

Ava is an energetic and empathetic 3-year old.

A Budding Chef

Whisking salad dressing.

Excited to help!

Little hands

I'm sure you're not surprised that Ava has taken an interest in cooking with me in the kitchen. Since she was about 18-months old, she has been standing on the step-stool helping with stirring, measuring, and learning cooking basics. Last night, Ava and I went to our garden to get fresh parsley for my tomato and cucumber salad. For salad dressing, I gave her a mixing bowl and a kid-sized whisk and she whisked like a pro! She asked to smell the vinegar and olive oil. I could tell she really liked the nutty smell of the olive oil.

I cook and bake with Ava as my sous chef. She really likes to whisk eggs too. She knows to put in salt and pepper in the eggs. It's really fun to have her in the kitchen.

I got her some kid-sized kitchen equipment and the set included an apron. She loves to put it on when she's on the stool. Ava really likes making Mommy and Daddy's salads. She likes to tear the lettuce and place the ingredients carefully on the salad like shredded carrots, cheese, and small spoonfuls of pumpkin seeds.

Play kitchen

Ava's grandparents got her a play kitchen for her 2nd birthday and she really loves it! We keep it in the basement and since then we also got her a Melissa and Doug wooden pizza set. Since we made pizza nights our Friday night family tradition, Ava loves to make pizza in her own kitchen. She puts a slice covered in toppings in a bowl and tell us that it's hot and advises us to let it cool off. Then we pretend to eat it. It's really fun!

I'm so excited that Ava is learning to enjoy cooking so much. She feels empowered helping me in the kitchen and I'm amazed by how much I get done with her participating. At meals, she'll proudly say "I made that, Daddy," which really warms my heart!

My Big Girl, 2 Going on 5

"I never get to go in this cabinet, don't make me close the door"

Happy girl

First time pushing the kid's cart at Trader Joe's

Ava is getting more independent each day. It's so fun to see how much she can do by herself now like put on her shoes, take off her clothes, or brush her hair. I'm amazed by how much she can carry while going up or down the stairs! Whenever we go around the house, she wants to bring her toys with her. She'll say "stroller coming?" Or mostly "stroller coming, mama" in a very determined voice. This morning she carried a big box with her crayons up the stairs by herself. The conversations that we have are so different than just a few months ago. Sometimes when she's looking for a specific toy she'll say "baby doll, where go?" Then I'll tell her that it's in her bedroom and she'll go upstairs to get her.

A couple weeks ago, we shopped at Trader Joe's, which is her favorite store! She saw a couple kids pushing the kids carts and asked me if she could use it too. We shopped through the store and she enjoyed picking out things at her level and things on our list. On our shopping trips,  Ava searches for the green monkey hidden in the store. She asks to give the plush monkey a hug and then she gets a treat from the bowl. The workers stock it with suckers, fresh fruit, and cereal bars. She loves to pick a cereal bar to snack on in the store!

Little girl pig tails

The morning we shopped, I asked her to pick from the different dresses to wear. She also likes to pick out her shoes. And I put pigtails in her hair then she picked out the yellow flower barrette for her hair. I like to offer her a couple of choices to empower her to make decisions. Aaron gives her less choices, but his parenting style is more "go with the flow" so that works too.

I'm also amazed by how much Ava understands about how the world works. Tonight, she noticed the sun was setting and she knew that meant that the moon would come out since it was turning into nighttime. We talk about things all the time as she's trying to figure it all out.

My mother-in-law reminded us last weekend that the parenting you do at age 2 is going to pay off when our children turn into teenagers. I loved hearing that because my greatest fear in parenting wasn't babyhood, it was the teen years! I think it's because of how my brothers were in their teen years. I want Ava to be a confident lady! But for right now, I'm going to love mothering a two-year old!

Mother's Day Garden Planting

 What better way to spend Mother's Day than starting a new garden! Aaron surprised me on Mother's Day with a trip to a nursery to pick out shrubs and an herb and veggie garden. Back in our condo in Chicago, Aaron and I lived across the street from a garden center. We were inspired by the urban gardening and had a potted garden for herbs. After several years, we tried lettuce and bell peppers. Now with a yard, I'm excited for our first in-ground garden! We have a deer population and living on their trail presents challenges with our bulb plants. They feast on our lilies and tulips. Aaron fortified our garden with a tall wire fence to keep the deer away.

While at the nursery that Sunday morning, Ava had so much fun when she discovered their stock of outdoor toys. We got her a garden toy set, which she loves! She had so much fun using her tools and especially shoveling dirt right into her garden tool bag! Kids are supposed to get dirty from playing in the yard so I thought it was fun to see her dig in, literally!

We planted a small garden with tomatoes (sugar baby yellow and full size red), bell peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers, cilantro, basil, parsley, and mint.





Aaron also planted some bushes that attract butterflies for under our pine trees near our bird feeder. Last summer he built the retaining wall and we put pine mulch to accent the fallen pine needles. It looks really good! He also picked out a lilac bush that will bloom again later in the season. I've been wanting a lilac in our yard since we moved in. They're so fragrant.


Ava enjoyed helping us plant with her garden set. She liked to dig the dirt with her shovel and started to put it in her bag. She loves the outdoors! It was a very special day!

Got Cloth Diaper Stink? Time to Strip!

Check out the clean diapers! I stripped the cloth prefolds and my all-in-one diapers.

Last week, I had enough of the diaper funk! One of Ava's caregivers has mentioned recently that Ava's diaper is very foul after it's wet. And last week she had a diaper rash, though probably unrelated, but who knows! After doing some reading on the cloth diaper websites, I felt it was time to strip the diapers of the build-up. Cloth diapers get build-up from a number of factors such as diaper creams/oils touching it directly or residue from detergent. In our case, we have a HE washing machine and hard well water. I suspect that our diapers have a build-up from the hard water more than anything. We struggle with residue in our coffee maker and kitchen. Recently, I bought cloth diaper fleece liners in case Ava needed barrier cream for a diaper rash to help protect the absorbancy of the cloth. Usually when we're home and Ava has a sensitive bottom, I add baking soda to her bath water and it really helps. Going diaper free for awhile helps too!

We do the basic fold (in thirds) inside the Bummis diaper covers.

The stuffed diaper. I send them like this to daycare.

We switched over to cloth diapers when Ava was about a year old and it's been awesome! We've saved so much money and it's really cool to save the environment's resources. The laundry duties isn't bad since we have a brand new appliances and the laundry room is on the second floor. Ava likes to help too!

I've never had to strip them until now. Some people strip them as often as every week or once a month. I plan to wait until they get build-up again.

I asked my Facebook Land for some suggestions. Lots of moms jumped in with advice of the methods that worked for them. I found a couple of sources that said the same thing that really seemed to work for my friends. So last night after daycare, I did a marathon of diaper washing! This morning, I finished with one more cycle of rinsing and drying. They smell great! Right out of the wash, the cloth diapers never smelled dirty. It was just after the first pee that the diaper smelled funky.



Diaper Stripping Method (cloth inserts and all-in-ones):

• Step 1: Wash diapers normally (cold rinse, then detergent wash with extra rinse). On my machine, we use the whitest whites cycle. I removed my diaper pail liner, cloth wipes, and covers from the wash to dry at this stage.
• Step 2: Optional to remove oil residue. Wash diapers with some dish detergent (Dawn). For HE machines, use 1 tsp. I did this on my whitest whites cycle.
• Step 3: Bleach on whitest whites (hot wash + extra cold rinse). Yep! Bleach. It's old fashioned, but it works and you do lots of extra rinses afterwards.
• Step 4: Rinse 3-4 times until there are no more suds. I used the Rinse Drain and Spin setting.
• Step 5: Dry diapers.

Drying diapers in the sun will also help disinfect funk, but I live in Indiana and it's winter. Ok, and I need to install a clothing line! :) I think Aaron would call us Amish if we did. He grew up in the Amish country and they line dry their laundry all year long.

It would be easier to do this on the weekend or a day that you're at home. But, I spread it out over Friday night and Saturday morning because I worked in the office yesterday. While we had the cloth diapers in the wash, we used a few disposable diapers left over from our trip to Portland. When we travel by plane, we switch to disposables. But if we're visiting my in-laws or traveling by car, we launder the diapers before/after the weekend or ask nicely to use their washer and dryer.

Resources:

• Great blog post with instructions from myfirstbaby.com. 
• I loved this video from the Mama Natural Blog. Her husband, Mike, runs through a tutorial of how they strip their diapers, which is the same method from myfirstbaby.com.

PS... I love that Mike is doing the diaper wash in the video. I need to show this video to Mr. Berkey to see if he's inspired to do diaper laundry! 

Daycare Stories

Ava painting her lion's face.

 Last August, we moved Ava to hear new daycare to give her some more learning opportunities. I'm so thrilled with the transition. She loves her new daycare because of the activities they have for the kids. They have many art projects based on a weekly theme, which keeps their day interesting. The caregivers are very sweet and the other toddlers in her classroom interact well together.

Ava goes to daycare when I work from home for a half day two days a week. Those days are harder than when I drop her off early on the days when she's there all day while I'm at the office. She's very attached and when we have the morning together, it's hard. But when I'm back to pick her up, she's very happy and tells me or shows me what she's done while she's there.

Ava loves the tunnel at daycare!

When I arrive to pick her up, she says "Hi, mama" and runs to me so we can nurse in the rocking chair. Then I gather up her daily paper that shows what she's done all day. My favorite part of the daily paper is her note from one of her teachers. They tell a story about Ava's day about an activity that she enjoyed. She really enjoys her time at daycare so it helps make me feel relaxed while I'm working. As a working mom, I'm relieved to leave her in a place that she's growing and having fun all at the same time!

Here's a peek into some recent daycare stories from Ava's teachers:

"Ava had a good afternoon. She enjoyed listening to Christmas stories and dancing to music."

"Ava had fun playing with gift boxes, wrapping paper, and bows. They liked hiding toys inside."

"Ava had fun talking to herself in the mirror today and seemed to be rehearsing a wide range of emotions (A budding actress?)"

Hi, Mommy!

"Ava had fun learning to laugh like Santa Claus today 'Ho, Ho, Ho'." --She had fun saying Ho, Ho, Ho during Christmas with her grandparents, too!

"Ava ate pretty well at lunch. I haven't seen her eat that well before."  -- Yah! She ate ziti, applesauce and bread and butter.

"Ava is eating better and was full of energy"

"We went outside briefly today to try out our coats"

"Ava was entertaining us. She had a book and was singing and moving her around. It was funny."

"Ava had fun making a snow man out of paper shapes today. "We're talking about sizes (small, medium, large circles)."

"Having lots of fun shaking our jingle bells to the holiday songs lately. Also lots of painting projects."

"Ava likes to climb up on chairs and help whenever I try to decorate the bulletin boards" --She is a big helper at home too!

"Ava loves listening to the Nutcracker. She likes to conduct the orchestra."

"Ava thought it was exciting to stand on the window sill until she couldn't get down by herself."

"Ava had a good time copying her friend today. She wanted to do everything he did today."

"Ava has been determined to walk sideways on the window sill every chance she can get. At first she was scared." --I'm glad to see her be more daring!

"Ava had enjoyed painting and drawing. She sticks with it longer than the boys did."


I love these short vignettes and insights into Ava's day. It's fun to capture these to watch her grow!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving weekend was so much fun and relaxing at the same time. I took Tuesday and Wednesday off from work leading up the holiday so it was great to have time at home to take care of errands, household chores, and organizing. I took Ava to daycare those days for half days so that I could focus on my projects, while she followed her routine. We were looking forward to spending four days with the Berkey family and friends.

We drove up to Aaron's parents lake house on Thursday morning since we had a small gathering and our larger traditional Thanksgiving on Friday with my mother-in-law's side of the family. Our friend, Mathew drove in from Northwest Indiana with his young daughter. The first hurdle is always the two and half hour drive. Ava does not like long car rides and rarely falls asleep in the car. She is much better with air travel than car rides because she is stuck in the carseat. Flights are so much easier because she likes being on my lap. We just got a new portable DVD player to help keep her entertained on long drives. It really helps! She doesn't watch much TV so she totally zones out watching Elmo or any other kid DVD we borrow from the library. It buys us sometime, then she gets really antsy. So we try giving her snacks, water to drink, books, puzzles, an iPhone with baby games to play. And just as she was starting to lose it just south of Fort Wayne, Grandma called and she entertained her by talking on the phone. It really helped! We were planning to stop in Fort Wayne (2 hours into the drive) for a quick nursing session and refueling the car. Nursing helps because she get a break from the carseat and give her some snuggle time. When Grandma had to go to finish baking her pies, she recruited Grandpa to help, but that's when she had enough so we stopped. It was fun to see Ava talking on the phone. She was mostly listening and heavy breathing, but she laughed and sang. It was really cute!

About to lose it in the drive to Grandma and Grandpa

Talking to Grandma. Laughing, singing, and heavy breathing. Grandma loved it!

Homemade cranberry sauce is simmering.

Fun on the piano.

When we arrived at the house, I made homemade cranberry sauce for the turkey on Friday. I looked up my favorite recipe from Cooking Light that I have made for several years and I was so excited that they featured my recipe review in their Reader Favorites section for the cranberry sauce. It's really easy and tastes so fresh and delicious. I got some fresh cranberries from my weekly produce bin and I added to it with another pint that I froze last year. You simmer the sauce with orange juice, brown sugar, cinnamon stick, and allspice. It naturally thickens. I like to make it the day before to chill in the refrigerator and let the flavor deepen.

Ava had a blast visiting with her friends and playing with Grandma and Grandpa Berkey. Aaron's grandmother and aunt and uncle came over on Thursday afternoon for a steak and baked potatoes meal. Some years we do both Berkey and Parmenter family gatherings with turkey, but this year, they opted for steak. Aaron and I had chili beans on our baked potatoes instead of the meat. I was excited that Ava enjoyed Great Grandma Berkey's fresh cranberry salad with oranges, celery and walnuts. It's really tasty! She also loved the pumpkin pie! She ate a thin sliver all by herself.

Later that evening, we visited with Aaron's best friend and his family. Ava loves playing with Zac and Christy's 3-year old son, Colt! They're going to grow up like cousins because the Bollingers are close friends of the Berkey family, which is great because Aaron and Zac are the brothers that they never had, being in a family with two sisters each.

Early Friday morning, Aaron's sister Megan and her family came over. Ava had fun playing on a push cart with her cousin, Colin! They did a great job sharing and taking turns doing the ride, letting Grandma push them around in the cart. Ava and Colin are only 4 and 1/2 months apart, which is fun that they're in the same stages together. The Parmenter family started to arrive for the Thanksgiving meal and we had so much fun visiting and catching up. My mother-in-law is one of 8 siblings so we're used to very large gatherings. But this year it was very quiet with only a handful of the family in town, but it was really nice that you could talk to everyone longer. You can tell the grandparents loved having both their grandkids in the house together that day!

Being silly with Grandma Berkey.

Cousins sharing Grandpa's lap.

Later Friday night, we headed over to visit the Black family. Chris and Betsy have 3 kids and their youngest is only 5 days older than Ava. They're the same height, but he has 6 pounds on Ava! We had fun visiting them and Aaron's friend, who was in town from Turkey to get his Visa and spend the holiday with his family in Indiana. Ava didn't sleep a wink on the late drive home and thanks again to Dora the Explorer for saving us from a complete toddler meltdown at 10pm for a 20 minute drive! She fell asleep instantly when we got back to the Lake.

Reading old school story books with Daddy.

What I love about the Lake house is that we have our bed there so we always have a place to sleep. We keep our things there so it's easier to pack on our regular visits. And our room faces the back of the house with the trees. Bill and Michele have a huge bookshelf with the books that Aaron and his sisters enjoyed as children. Before Ava's nap one day, Aaron read her a story and I enjoyed the sweet moment. She's really interested in keeping tabs on Mommy and Daddy is all the time, especially with all the family and friends in the house. This trip, Mom B. gave Ava her Daddy's baby quilt! We put it in her bedroom for her to snuggle.

Digging Grandma's pumpkin pie!

Relaxing morning.

Nursing a toddler with Bena on my lap.

 On Saturday, the house was really quiet since all the family had gone home and it was just the 5 of us left to relax. We all just relaxed and ate leftovers. Ava loved the pumpkin pie and asked for it when she caught sight of it on the kitchen counter. She got a hold of a measuring cup, one of her favorite things to play with at home too! She likes to transfer things from different bowls and cups, especially standing on a step stool to help in the kitchen. Zac's sister, Hilary, dropped in for a few minutes with her 3-year old son, Kaine, and 6-month old daughter, Kendall. Ava loved seeing the baby and gave Kaine lots of high-5's.

Last night, Chris and Betsy and the kids dropped by again for another short visit. Their baby, Sam, and Ava had fun sorting sea shells. Bena was snuggling on my lap for awhile, then Ava decided she wanted to nurse. I pulled her into my lap, then they both settled together while Ava nursed. It was really sweet! Usually Bena freaks out sharing a lap, but she wouldn't budge. I bet it was because of all the activity. And Ava didn't mind for sure. Toddler nursing is so different! She nurses often, but briefly during the day and longer for naps and in the evening. I'm happy to continue nursing since it has protected her health so well. Some kids in her daycare class have been sick for weeks. It's really comforting that she's thriving. I know that it won't last forever and she'll soon outgrow the need for nursing, but for now, we're enjoying it.

Big girl used the potty to pee 2 mornings in a row!

Another new thing is Ava is starting to use a potty! She started to get really curious about the whole bathroom experience. She is very aware of her wet and dirty diapers. Since we're using cloth, she can feel the wetness. Also, with cloth, I empty her dirty diapers in the toilet and then put them in the diaper pail by the toilet. It's all related to each other. Compared to when we used disposables, you keep the diaper pail in a bedroom and toss the whole thing away. It's kind of a mental disconnect that I never thought of until now. In general, she is very curious about the toilet. So last week, I bought her a potty. She was so excited and curious. I got a potty that has different phases that grows with the child. The seat comes off and attaches to the big toilet and it always doubles as a step stool. I love using her leg warmers and cloth diapers because the velcro closures on her diaper covers are so easy for her to remove herself and the leg warmers keep her warm now that the weather has cooled off.

I noticed that she usually pees in the morning after she wakes up. So the first morning after we got the potty, I asked her if she wanted to sit on her potty and she nodded. I sat her on it and she decided to stuff her PJ bottoms and washcloth inside. I told her that she can't put anything in there because that's where she pees. And a few minutes later, she did! I was so proud of her! She was excited, but it also seemed so natural to her. Later that day she sat on it, but didn't pee in it. But then Thursday morning, we did the same thing and she peed! I was so excited! Aaron said she was a little surprised when she peed in her potty. It's a new sensation for sure.

At the Lake on Friday morning, she stood outside the bathroom and told us that she had to go to the bathroom. Grandma noticed it so I rushed over to take her diaper off and asked her if I could hold her on the big toilet since we left hers at home. She said no, because she didn't feel comfortable that way. But she peed on clothes since I took her diaper off. But, I was SO excited that she told us and that she knew she had to go.

I'm surprised that she's interested at 20-months, but I know lots of babies that start potty training at this time. I'm trying to follow her lead and not trying to force the issue. I don't want her experience to be negative. I'm thinking that we'll offer her to use the potty in the morning as a new routine and go from there. I'm thrilled with our decision to use cloth diapers. I remember hearing that potty training is so much easier for cloth diapered babes and so far, it seems to be the case for Ava. Obviously, it's still the very beginning, but it's big first step!

Zucchini Brownies

Zucchini is a tricky vegetable in my house. Aaron doesn't like squash so I'm always thinking of ways that he will eat and enjoy it. I usually cook it as a side dish for myself, but this time I wanted to experiment. Ava won't try summer squash since I started offering it to her in the whole form. So I pulled out one of my favorite cook books last night for some inspiration. Simply in Season is based on cooking with seasonal produce. The summer section is the largest because that's when most of the produce is plentiful from your neighbor's gardens and local farmers. The authors created Simply in Season honoring their Mennonite heritage of being mindful of earth's resources and sharing with others. I like the Mennonite traditions of multicultural flavors in the cooking and this cook book is a perfect companion to my weekly seasonal produce box.


And last week, I received two local yellow zucchini in my produce box. I made Zucchini Brownies, which is a popular summer treat here in the Midwest because zucchini is plentiful. I was hoping that Ava and Aaron would enjoy the brownies. When Ava woke up from her nap, we mixed the brownies and she enjoyed sprinkling the chocolate chips on the batter before it went into the oven. And after dinner, we offered her a small piece and she loved it! This dessert is sure to please the whole family, even though it's not too sweet. The nature moisture from the zucchini gives the brownies a soft and springy texture. So if you're finding yourself overrun with zucchini, you may want to give this a try!







Zucchini Brownies - Serves 18-24



1 cup flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine in a large bowl


2-3 cups shredded zucchini
Stir in

1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
Combine in a separate bowl and beat with a whisk. Stir into zucchini mixture. Spread evenly into a greased 9x13 inch pan.

1/2 to 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Sprinkle on top of the batter. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F degrees until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (35-40) minutes. NOTE: Convection 25 minutes.

Mommy and Me Lunch

I took today off of work to have an extra day to relax after the holiday weekend since we hosted 4 friends for the Indy 500. Ava and I just had lunch with my friend, Helen, and her baby that is only 1 week younger than Ava. Helen and I met in Lamaze class when we were pregnant and in the first week's class we discovered we had very similar views. She's from the Bay Area also, which right there goes a long way since we're in Indiana! And we're both career-focused, educated and driven women. We have taken different paths since becoming mothers. She is a stay-at-home mom (for now) and I'm a working-outside-the-home mom. We love to talk about the differences because we're curious how the other side of the coin would be. She wonders about daycare and the time apart from her son and I wonder what it would be like for me to be with Ava all the time.

Between the "Mommy chat" we were surprised how different our babies are with eating. When Ava and I arrived a few minutes late, she had already put in an order for Dominic's meal. It arrived and he went crazy! He wanted to eat it so fast that she could barely cut up the fruit and sandwich fast enough for him to gobble it up! It was like a race! Ava was staring at him very quietly. I gave her some crayons. Not much of an eater herself, she started to reach for his sandwich so Helen gave Ava the crust since it was long and skinny and easy for her to hold it. Being inspired by Dominic, she put it in her mouth and tried the bread. She had a few tastes, but then started to throw things on the floor. Little toddler hands were everywhere and Helen and I had to work quickly to prevent accidents and keep our sweeties happy. When my food came, it got more interesting. I put Ava in the high chair and she got busy. Not eating, but throwing pineapple, flowers, crayons on the floor. Busy little hands were on both sides of our small table. Then she got antsy. I offered her tastes of my gazpacho and sandwich, but she didn't want any of it. Pineapple was spit back out. It was crazy!

Dominic ate cereal O's, most of a sandwich, fruit, crackers, yogurt, and drank milk. Ava ate a couple bites of bread and a handful of yogurt bites. I nursed her for a few minutes at the table before we paid the bill. I wish she would eat a bit more like Dominic. We tried to pick up the crayons and big pieces of food off the floor as best as we could.

Then outside of the restaurant, with our newly calm and sleepy babies, we made the decision to get together at one of our houses next so the busy toddlers can run around safely and we can relax more. Turns out both babies were asleep in the first few minutes in the car ride home!

Between all that action, we did enjoy a nice talk about the reality of motherhood in your 30's. I'm realizing that balancing working and mothering is just as hard as not working and just mothering and everything in between. There's so many choices for women and their families. At the end of lunch we agreed that you have to try it out to see if it works for you and if not, then change it. I'm so glad to have girlfriends that I can talk to about these things!