Sauce Season

I love November. It still feels like I'm getting some cozy fall remnants, and the mornings that get frosty are novel. Thanksgiving is on the horizon (YES to food holidays), and it's fun to get excited about Christmas and prepare for it, but without feeling stressed about last-minute Christmas stuff yet. This year is especially wonderful with 2-month-old Baby Al. We're starting to get into a good routine! We're back to usually only 2 night wakings, and last night she only woke up once. She's had some extremely fussy, seemingly painful days in the past, but lately, some combo of probiotics, reflux meds, and limiting my dairy intake has her mostly very happy and calm! 

Some favorites from this week. 

-Postpartum clothes thrifting! Thrifted clothes are way more expensive in Washington than they were in Wyoming so this is my first time really diving into the clothes section. When I realized I'd need to buy myself some new pants I started with Walmart. I didn't find much that sparked joy for me at the price point I was looking for (cheapskate price point), so a few days later I took myself on an evening thrift date. Definitely my happy place. I'll have to do a post with some of the outfits I found and some of my thrift tricks!

-Homemade applesauce. I think I mentioned last week that Jared's mom brought us a big box of apples and a big box of pears. I needed the easiest possible way to use them up so I opted for slow-cooker applesauce. I had about 25 apples and thought I'd end up freezing half of it to pull out later. NOPE. It came out so insanely delicious that I put the full batch in the fridge and now, 4 days later, it's almost completely gone. Here is the recipe. I added a few grinds of sea salt to bring out the flavor and maybe a Tablespoon or two of brown sugar:

https://strengthandsunshine.com/slow-cooker-applesauce/#tasty-recipes-20453-jump-target

-Homemade pear sauce. When the slow cooker applesauce came out so good, I decided to make pear sauce with the pears that are already ripe, and then make pear jelly when the rest ripen. It was a good life choice. The smell of apples and pears slow cooking with cinnamon is the VIBE. I decided to add a few grinds of sea salt and a dash of brown sugar to this sauce, too. I left the applesauce mashed/chunky, but ended up pureeing the pear sauce:

https://theupcycledfamily.com/easy-crockpot-pear-sauce-recipe/

-Bonus: French Onion Soup. I made french onion soup for the first time this week and it was a hit. The only bummer is that Alice was REAL fussy the next day--pained sounding cries, red eyebrows, the whole fussy baby thing. It occurred to me that maybe eating a bowl full of onions topped with cheese could be PrObLeMaTiC for my potentially tender-tummied breastfed baby. So I'll share the recipe with you so you can enjoy it while I'm abstaining for the next year (be aware that you need to slice and throw the onions in a pan to start caramelizing around 3 or 4 in the afternoon so they can be ready in time for dinner):

https://www.budgetbytes.com/french-onion-soup/

Least favorites from this week:

-Postpartum hair loss has begun and it is EVERYWHERE. Every time I run a hand through my hair there's a good handful of loose strands. Good thing I've got a thick head of hair, but I don't love finding loose hairs between my toes and in my pants and tangled in Alice's fingers and somehow just everywhere.

 

-Postpartum dry everything has begun. At first it was just dry skin and I was like, "Huh, I guess this is because winter is coming?" But we live in a pretty humid area, and then everything else started to dry out. Dry scalp, dry mouth, dry eyes. And I'm remembering the postpartum dry phase and trying to really up my water intake and see if that helps a bit. 

Ok that's all. Here's some cute pics of a cute bb:

 ^^Front Pack Lyfe. In the past, Alice has spent most of her waking hours in the front pack. She wakes up, eats, and then she'd be happy chilling or sitting in a swing for about 10 minutes before she'd start crying until she was put upright in the front pack until her next nap. This last week she's been lasting a lot longer. I wish I'd tried probiotics and cutting out dairy with baby Jack, just to see if it would've helped him a little, because it does seem to be helping Alice. (We put baby Jack on reflux meds and that did help a bit, but he was still impossibly colicky for the better part of his first year of life.) I'm so grateful I'm feeling basically 100% recovered from childbirth so I can properly enjoy all these sweet front-pack snuggles <3

^^Since Jared's birthday is in November and he's usually the one who starts begging to put up the Christmas tree first, I give him full say over when we start decorating for Christmas. Happy birthday. He pulled out the tree yesterday and it brought so many cozy vibes that Alice fell asleep right on my lap (this is something my babies do not do). Coziness level 100. 

^^Jack loves hanging out with Alice so much and it is so sweet. I'm pleasantly surprised that he's already finding ways to "play" with her. My favorite times are when he's in her room with me while I'm feeding her. After I've fed her and set her down, I find an excuse to leave the room, and EVERY time, I come back to find Jack talking to and playing with her. Honestly, pre-Alice I was kinda bracing myself for the worst with Jack's transition to having a sibling. We talked about what it might be like to have a baby sister a lot while I was pregnant, and it for sure helps that he's 4 and getting less needy and more understanding. But I think the major key with Jack, and I can't believe I didn't make this connection until, well, today, is that Jack is a big-time PEOPLE PERSON. More is more when it comes to people in Jack's life. So any disappointment he may be experiencing with less attention being given to him is offset by "yay there's another person in our house to love and play with!" And now that Alice is saving nearly alllll her smiles for big brother (she really does--I'm kinda jealous), that helps too.