Running for Lillian

Since getting pregnant with Blondie Boy I have made some amazing friends online. There is a group of us who bonded and their help and support have been invaluable to me the last year. I'm going to meet up with a lot of them this summer and I can't wait!


Two of these ladies, Vanessa & Beth, are running the Marine Core Marathon 10K in honor of another one of my friend's daughter, the beautiful Miss Lillian who has Prader-Willi Syndrome. Lillian's flourishing and growing so well with the help of her amazingly dedicated parents, but there is no cure.

If you have the cash, please donate to this more than worthy cause by clicking on the button above, which can also be found on my sidebar to the right. If you'd like to learn more about Prader-Willi, click here.

Keeps the Doctor Away

So now we've moved on to apples. You cook them basically the same as the carrots; peel/core, chop, cover with water and boil until tender (only takes about 5 minutes).

Then put in a food processor, blend until smooth adding reserved cooking water as necessary. You can keep the leftover cooking water in the fridge and add a few drops to your baby's water or use it to thin out the apples later.

Again I stuck them in an ice-cube tray when it was cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap and froze. Once they were frozen I popped them out into a labelled ziplock.

This is the first time I haven't mixed a solid with formula, but while he sometimes makes a somewhat sour face (which is HILARIOUS) he seems to like them.

We've also started giving him rice cereal after his first bottle of the day as well. He looooves his rice cereal and hopefully the "schedule" will help him adjust to the time zone changes when we go to the States.

Wordless Wednesday

First time swinging (part 1) from Transatlantic Blonde on Vimeo.

Swinging (Part 2) from Transatlantic Blonde on Vimeo.

C'est Moi

The Gallery: Week 12

This week's prompt is "Self-Portrait." Some of my favorite photos ever are the ones taken at arm's length. While I have some cute ones of Blondie Boy and myself I've taken that way, I'm going to be a purist here and post one of just myself and no one else.

I like that I'm wearing a Bengals jersey, because even though I live in Scotland and before that lived in DC, being a Cincinnati girl is part of what defines me. I can not wait to go home and for Blondie Boy to visit the Nasty 'Nati :)

What's up Doc?

After sweet potatoes didn't go down so well (he stuck out his tongue and screamed), we decided to try carrots. I bought two large carrots (for 19p/27¢-SCORE!), washed, peeled and chopped them and put them in a pot with just enough water to cover and boiled until soft, about 10 minutes.

Almost all of the cooking water will boil away, but put what's left aside. Throw the carrots into a food processor and pulse with the leftover water until blended. You can add a little bit of the cooking water at a time if you like, but I ended up using it all.

It will come out thickish, but don't worry, you'll thin it later. I put some aside for Blondie Boy's dinner tonight and put the rest into an clean ice-cube tray. Once they cooled I wrapped in plastic wrap and put in the freezer. Once they're frozen I'll pop the frozen cubes out of the tray and into a labelled freezer zip-lock bag.

When it was time for Blondie Boy's dinner I mixed the carrot puree with half a scoop of formula and water until it was the right consistency. The amount looked as though it had doubled in size and went from bright orange to a more muted coral.

He didn't gobble it down like he does with the cereal, but he certainly tolerated it more than he did the sweet potato. Although judging by this photo I think he might have preferred take-out to Mom's home cooking :)

...and just in case you were wondering I most certainly did not give my son a Chinese take-away menu to play with so I could watch Grey's Anatomy. What kind of Mother would do such a thing?

Sans Fards

So "sans fards" seems to be another trend that's all the rage. Jessica Simpson did it in Marie Claire (well, maybe not) and a blogger in Australia has come up with bloggers without makeup day.

When I first saw Emma at Me, the Man & the Baby, blog about this I thought "hell no, not me." The more I thought about it though, I thought what was I so afraid of? I love makeup, don't get me wrong, but even when I go out pretty much all I wear is eye-makeup.

So here I am, in all my translucent eyelash glory; no Touche Éclat, nothing. I took the plunge, so what about the rest of you? Will you go sans fards, too?

Vlog Interview

You may have noticed that vlogs seem to be all the rage on blogs right now. I thought I would take the plunge, but I had no idea what to say! My friend Stacia was in the same boat so we decided to "interview" each other; since we are 8 time zones apart, we sent each other the questions, so I guess it's more of a survey than an interview, but I digress.

NotBlondeHusband says my accent is all over the place, but I refuse to watch it because then I might not post it. Here it is in all it's glory; please go easy on me!

Untitled from Transatlantic Blonde on Vimeo.