enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

merry christmas from my family to yours!

quick weekend for two.

Paul and I spent last weekend on a little downtown San Diego stay-cation. Originally when we talked about taking a weekend we had big plans. Seattle! Palm Springs! Somewhere far! And then we decided to just keep it simple and stay near home. We ended up at the Andaz in the Gaslamp and because we NEVER go to the Gaslamp, it felt like we were in a completely different location...that we could Uber to. Staycation win for sure.

As Elise and Paul vacations tend to go, this was pretty chill. Good coffee, good dinners, lots of walking (the Fitbit never sleeps), crossword puzzles and so. much. football. We didn't get to catch either of our college games, but we watched a lot anyway and saw a few good ones.

We also seriously missed our girl (who was home with Grandma and Aunt Kristen) and spent most of the time away talking about her and this new little one who's going to arrive in the next few weeks. We're at that place. That really great place where things are clicking for our family and we've got the routine DOWN. It feels insane to throw a newborn into the mix, but it also feels like exactly the right thing to do. This is our last baby. She's the final piece of our family puzzle and we are so excited to meet her (and equally excited to savor these last few weeks as three as well).

I've said this before and I'll say it again, but when given a choice, always choose to have a baby when your partner is NOT deployed to a foreign country. ;) It's amazing how different (and better) it is to have Paul home for this experience.

encouraging a young reader.

I remember when Ellerie was six months old I wrote somewhere (blog post? IG?) that we were reading to her more often and someone commented that they had been reading to their kiddo since the day they were born. Like a crazy person, who was in desperate need of a social media break, I felt inadequate. Then I remembered that I spent a long time just trying to catch my breath in the newborn days and IT'S ALL GOOD. It's never too late to start a good habit.

As parents, all we can do, every damn day is try our best. Sometimes my best is another episode of Daniel Tiger. Sometimes my best is pancakes for dinner. Sometimes my best is a giant fail. But the good news is, kids are awesome and forgiving and tomorrow we get a fresh start.

One thing that Paul and I do work on (and again, some days we do better than others) is encouraging Ellerie to love books. We didn't start day one in the hospital, but as she's grown, we have incorporated reading into our daily routine. Below are some things that have helped us emphasize books and reading.

Ask for books as gifts to grow your collection! Around holidays and birthdays when you know gifts will be given or when you're being asked for suggestions, request books! I have done this in the past and really should have done it instead of asking for "no gifts" at Ellerie's 2nd birthday party. Baby's and toddlers are of the mindset that "gifts = toys" and so books work well.

Use the library. For so long I avoided checking out kids books because I worried that Ellerie would tear the pages, but then I talked to a friend and she said to do it anyway. Our library has a great kids section and that includes toddler board books. It's worth a membership just to have some variety to read. And free! Free is great.

Store books on kiddo level. Make sure the books are accessible. When Ellerie was young this resulted in books on the floor all. the. time. Her favorite activity was throwing books from the shelves. But she's gotten used to them now and understands that they are there for reading or looking through instead. Tons of our books have torn pages but I figure that's just part of it. I encourage her to be gentle, tape where I can and move on. Something that helped was removing all the "flap" covers so there is not extra paper on the shelves.

Understand that what "reading" means will change. When Ellerie was six months, I could read her a book from start to finish and she would just sit there and "pay attention." Then we had a long period where she was not having it and I'd make it through just a few pages before she'd be on to the next book or next activity. I kept reading or at least pulling her on my lap to "try" reading anyway. Around two, something clicked and now she'll usually sit very content for five, six (or more!) books at a time. Obviously, these ages are specific to her, and might be different for your kiddo, but know that like everything else, there will be phases.

It's okay to cliffnotes or expand. We have a lot of story-length variety in our collection. Some of our books are short and some are really long. Depending on the attention span of the moment, I will cliffnotes our way through long paragraphs so the gist of the story is still told OR expand on the books that just have one word per page (like "here is a brown dog and her puppy" instead of "puppies"). There is going to come a day when Ellerie knows each book word for word and I can't skip anything, but for now, this works really great. It makes all of our books, regardless of the level, useful today.

Let them "read" to you. Sometimes Ellerie wants to hold the book and "read." At these times, I just sit back and let her do it. It takes forever but she loves it and I'm thrilled that she's engaged in the process.

Point out things on the page. Our doctor's office hands out books at her appointments and at the end of them, there are "tips" for reading. One of them that I love is the recommendation to point to things as you read them. This can mean pointing to the words or pointing to the characters or even pointing out side details in the illustrations. It's a great way to expand short books to make them take longer or get more from a small collection of books.

Ask questions about the illustrations. Another one of the tips is to ask questions. Simple things like "Do you see the mama bear?" Or "how many fish are on the page?" Or "can you point to the yellow star?" It's helped us to make the reading a bit more interactive and I think it's helped Ellerie expand her vocabulary too.

Pick up a few "double duty" books. Anything with a lift-the-flap or something tactile that can be touched has been great for us and encouraged interaction. We love the Spot books for lift-the-flaps and Pat the Zoo is popular around here too. (Beautiful Oops! and Press Here are both gorgeous though a bit more advanced.)

Say yes to books. At our house, official "reading" time is before naps and bedtime. I generally take the nap shift and Paul takes the night shift. We have a routine and pick out five to six books of varying lengths and read through them all while Ellerie drinks some milk and then she lays down to sleep. But throughout the day, if Ellerie brings me a book or asks for a book I try to always say yes and make a point to sit down and read with her...even if it's for the 600th time.

Any other tips? I'd love to hear how you've encouraged reading, especially if your children are older.

ps. more books we love & a book you can make yourself for little hands.

some favorites from the big camera.

 

I'm working on documenting our week for Week in the Life. I forgot how intense this project is! Instead of capturing every little thing each day, I'm just trying to capture something. In the evenings, I'm jotting down what happened and throughout the day, I'm making a point to have my big camera out to grab some photos. Early next week, I'll combine them (plus some iPhone shots) into my album (I ordered this kit from Ali). Above are some favorites from Monday and Tuesday.

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This week on ELISE GETS CRAFTY, I'm chatting with Caroline Burkle about re-building (or re-finding) a routine. Subscribe or stream here.

whole30 halfway point.

Yesterday was day 15 of Whole30. If you are unfamiliar with the program, you can read more here.

The quick gist is, no grains, no beans, no rice, no dairy, no sugar of any kind, no artificial sugar, no alcohol. It's sort of like Paleo but there are a few differences. There are other guidelines worked into it too like no (or minimal) snacking, no "cheats," and no weighing yourself for 30 days.

We decided to try it without much research. Basically, I had seen a lot of folks (both real life friends and social media friends) talk about it and I was interested. Last pregnancy, I had gestational diabetes (which usually presents around 28 weeks) and controlled it easily by monitoring what sorts of food I ate (basically a low carb diet). I figured this would just be a bit stricter GD diet AND there was a chance that the clean eating would help prevent GD this time around (I'll let you know if that turns out to be true).

Overall, I wanted a reason to feel motivated in the kitchen again. I wanted to refocus our meal prep and stop defaulting to the same (less healthy) meals. I'm not trying to lose weight (I'm pregnant) but Paul said he wouldn't mind dropping a few pounds.

So that's the introduction.

How are we doing 15 days in?

I'd say like a 7 on a scale of 1-10. Dinners are a 10. We are eating more veggies and finding some really fun recipes. The photos at the top of this post are of some dinners these past few weeks. Clockwise from top right : coconut chicken (we are using almond flour) and broccoli sauteed with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, salad with a homemade olive oil and vinegar dressing with steak, Trader Joe's turkey burger (no bun) with mustard, tomato, avocado, caramelized onions and mushrooms & sweet potato fries, sweet potato "nachos" similar to this.

Breakfasts are a 5. Taste wise, I'm so over eggs. I want to wake up and eat oatmeal. Energy wise though, eggs just can't be beat. I am consistently making it until 11:30 before I am hungry again - something I am not sure I have ever said in my life. I'm eating scrambled eggs with avocado and some meat (usually leftover from the night before) and fruit. It's filling but getting boring.

Lunches are fine. Generally, we just eat leftovers (Paul brings them to work and I eat them here).

In the beginning I was snacking a ton. Mostly on fruit, nut butters and Larabars. Now though (actually just in the past few days) I am finding those snacks less necessary. It appears I am adjusting to the new routine. Increasing my weight gradually is important while pregnant though, so I am monitoring that and making sure to get enough food (and obviously, eating whenever I'm hungry).

I feel great energy wise. No headaches, no hunger, no physical cravings, no afternoon crashes. All good news. I am struggling to drink enough water though (just need to commit to it). I've done some reading and while veggies are more fibrous than whole grains, they take a lot more water to process through your system. Good to know. Working on it.

One of the big pros of the program is supposed to be better sleep and a clearer mind. I was getting decent sleep and felt "clear headed" before starting though so I can't say that's improved.

Paul says he feels pretty much the same physically, but better mentally about the choices we are making. So there's that. We also learned Ellerie loves cooked broccoli! So that was a bizarre and unexpected side effect.

In sum: not a lot to report. It's an intense way of eating, but it's 30 days. 30 days. You can do anything for 30 days. If you want a jump start, it could be a great fit. Hopefully I'll have a more exciting update when we complete the program on August 5!

this post is not sponsored or affiliated in anyway. just sharing an update. be sure to check with your doctor before starting a new food routine!

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Fun episode of ELISE GETS CRAFTY this week! I'm chatting with Erin of Cotton and Flax about creative burnout. Subscribe through iTunes or stream here.