18 Months update

How is it that my baby is 18 months!? I swear she was born just a few months ago, sigh. I hate that time goes so fast and they grow up so quickly. Oh well, savoring every moment.

Some stats, she is 34" tall and about 25lbs. All this according to my home measurements since we don't do "well visits" (who wants to go to the doctor when they are well!? doctors are for going to when sick). She is wearing 18-24 months clothes with some 2Ts in the mix, size 5 shoes although moving into a 6. Still mostly soft soles.
She is full of character and quite the clown, but she is also feisty. She is always on the move, always looking for trouble to get into haha. She will pull up a chair to give herself a boost when trouble is out of her reach, keeping mama on her toes!
Great eater, eats constantly pretty much, "real" food and still nursing tons. She also now uses utensils and does pretty good with them.
She is getting quite brave at the play ground and now goes down the biggest slide all by herself, craziness. Still loves the swings and can easily waste 10+minutes in them. Still likes to eat dirt and sand and sticks, yuk. She hates having her teeth brushed, but some days she doesn't fight it. She does like eating the toothpaste though, silly girl.
Still not much talking, she says mama, hi, something that means bye, "boba" which means boob sometimes while signing "milk" at the same time. She is starting to try and mimic our sounds more and more so maybe there is more words coming soon. Loves her big sister, most of the time, loves to pretend to want to listen to books but looses interest a few pages in. Kicking a soccer ball is the new cool thing around here these days.
And some pictures, because why not!

She loves smoothies!

multitasking, nursing and nose picking haha

Still rear facing, of course.

troublemaker!

Still bed sharing

Still baby wearing.

Pumpkin scones recipe!

Funny thing, I never used to like pumpkin until about a year or two ago. Now I'm pretty open to it, and it does make me feel like fall is here. Because living in California you'd never know it's fall, it's been in the high 80's most of the week. So we try to make it feel like fall, through the crazy heat and what not.
We've been all about the scones lately so I made up a recipe and have been tweaking it for abut a week, I've made a batch almost every day, and to be honest they have all been good!

Ingredients: (this makes 8 scones)
2 Cups flour (I use white unbleached organic, but I should try it with whole wheat, or at least half/half)
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (add more if you like your cinnamon, I'm sure pumpkin pie spice would work fine too)
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 C. butter (1 stick)
1/2 C. pureed pumpkin
1/4 C. heavy cream
toasted pecans and dried cranberries to taste, I do about a 2 TBSP each, eye ball it.
Preheat the oven to 400 degree F.

Combine all the dry ingredients and mix them well. Take the stick of butter straight from the fridge cut it into 1/2 inch cubes and add it to the dry ingredients. Cut into the flour mixture with a pastry knife. It will look like course crumbs when you are done.

Measure out 1/2 cup of pumping puree, I do this in a glass measuring cup and add the cream on top of it then stir together.

Add the pumpkin and cream mixture to the flour & butter mixture, stir with a spoon or fork, I like to use 2 forks and toss it together. You want to handle this dough as little as possible, it's a pretty dry dough so that's not necessarily easy. Once you've got it somewhat incorporated (it will not come together at this point, it'll still resemble course crumbs, just larger ones) add the nuts and the cranberries. Toss a few more times to mix those in.

At this point I dump the dough on the counter to finish it. Try not to knead it, I sort of fold it and squash it together until it forms a mass. Then I shape it into a circle about 1" thick.

I forgot to take a picture of it cut. But cut all the way across the circle through the middle to split it into 2, then make a cross cut to split it into 4, then cut each quarter into halves and you end up with 8 wedges. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, if your oven is an over achiever perhaps check on them after 15 minutes. Mine is rather slow so it takes the full 20, they should start to brown on top. Naturally I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, and there is non left haha. I will make them again in a day or 2 I'm sure and will add a picture. Here they are going in though:

I've been debating whether or not I should make a glaze for them. I might test drive them with a glaze next time I make some. If someone tries them with a glaze I'd love to know what kind and how you like it. Bon Appetite!

Doula on my mind.

I'm taking a doula training workshop this weekend. That's all that's on my mind lately! I'm so excited to get into the birth scene and to help empower women to achieve the birh they want and deserve.  Also extremely nervous about leaving Cora for 4 days. I'll be home in the evenings, but I've never been away from her for more than 4 hours. I hope she doesn't hate me, but I'm pretty sure she will. I'll update after the workshop.

My deodorant recipe

I haven't used commercial deodorant in over 2 years. The carcinogenic list of ingredients is just not something I'm willing to put on my body. I've used several different recipes over the past 2 years and have used some natural store bought deodorants. Those didn't' work for me. The only store bought one that worked sort of was the Crystal deodorant. Not so well during the summer though, winters it did well enough that I used it primarily. It was especially great when I was pregnant and couldn't handle smells, since it is unscented.
So here is my recipe, this makes enough to fill 3 empty deodorant containers:
0.5 oz beeswax (I plan to experiment with adding more to make the mixture even more stable in warmer temperatures now that it's hot, but so far I know this amount works for this recipe.)
1/2 Cup coconut oil
2 Tablespoons bentonite clay
6 Tablespoons each baking soda and arrowroot powder.
10-15 drops of Tea Tree oil (depending on how you like/dislike the smell, but it's a great for its anti fungal and antimacrobial properties)
20-30 drops of whatever essential oils you want to scent it. I've been doing about 10 drops of lemon, 10 drops of Sweet Orange, and 10 drops of Lavender. I'm thinking of dropping lavender form this particular blend though and just doing more citrus.

First melt the beeswax either in a double boiler or over low heat.

When the beeswax is melted turn the heat off and add the coconut oil, stir until melted. Since coconut oils has very low melting point there is no neat to heat it, the heat of the beeswax and the pan should od the job quickly. Then I start stirring in the powders, bentonite clay goes in first. Then I add the baking soda and the arrowroot powder, 1 tablespoon at a time alternating them so it's easier to keep track of how much has gone in. When stirring the powders in you want to remove the pan from the heated burner if you have an electrical that stays warm for a while, like mine. I use chop sticks to stir the mixture. It ends up being about the thickness of kefir, maybe a tiny bit thicker. Once the powders are stirred in add the essential oils and stir them in.

Then I let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes, I want it to cool just a bit before I pour it into the deodorant containers. I fill the containers and put them in the fridge to set up and usually end up leaving them there over night, till the next morning when I need them. This whole process takes me maybe 10 minutes, it's pretty easy and simple and very customizable. If someone tries this I'd love to hear if it works for you.