I have a LOT of new photos to share with you guys a few at a time by the famous Cramer Photo. Look at that toothy boy! As I mentioned yesterday, we’ve been having so many ups and downs with sleep. We had a 3.5 hour nap on Wednesday that resulted in a super late bedtime, which resulted in a super early morning. Baby sleep is never what you think. Also: I will not be letting him nap that long again. Lesson learned!
Breakfast Bowls
I’ve been having breakfast bowls all week! Organic whole milk yogurt swirled with a little raspberry jam, plus raw quick oats stirred in, sunbutter drizzle, and honey roasted almonds.
Overnight oats + powdered peanut butter + blueberries (on the porch!) I am so thrilled to have a photography porch again (even though it’s FREEZING when I take my bowl outside). Our new table + chairs should be here next week!
The Face Of A Sick Child
Mazen came home complaining of a headache and tummy ache on Tuesday. 30 minutes later he seemed totally fine. Then the next morning before school he said the symptoms were back. I trusted that something was off and let him stay from school. It was not a calm sick day at home though. This was us on our afternoon walk 
He was better by 9am!
Unwrapped
I brought some packages inside that arrived from Amazon. Somebody saw the bottom box and got a little too excited – oops!!! I appreciate the minimal packaging but the kids are watching! Spoiler alert: he’s getting a golf set for Christmas.
Tuna Salad Bowl
I made Thomas and myself a curried tuna salad for lunch, amped up with lots of chopped veggies. Plus some prepare guac and chips for scooping it all up.
This orzo + shrimp salad from Plenty was DEElicious!! A great example of something that would have taken me over an hour to make myself.
And speaking of Plenty, Della is the queen of salad dressings and her herby ranch is 100% amazing. She said the recipe is top secret, but I’m going to get it!!! 🙂
Oh yeah – and I got my hair trimmed!! Holly always puts in some curls, and she does a better job than I ever could. I need a lesson!
Dinners
Plenty salmon + broc with some coconut rice I made in the rice cooker. I think I have decided you can’t make creamy coconut rice in a rice cooker – you have to do it on the stovetop. Does anyone think otherwise, and if so, can you please share your how-to?
Chicken noodle alphabet soup + half a grilled cheese. Soup nice is a winter staple!
I am headed to a workout class and excited for a week of Christmas parties to begin!! How about you? Is your schedule filling up?
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
That photo on the bike… the funniest! I love receiving new packages too… can’t wait to rip into them as soon as they arrive on the doorstep!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Jess says
Just a heads up – it is not uncommon for anxiety to manifest as vague “my tummy hurts…. my head hurts…” type complaints in kids. They don’t have the language to pinpoint what they’re feeling emotionally, so they translate it into a language that makes sense to them (“I don’t feel right – like the time I had a tummy ache. So I probably have a tummy ache”). Not saying that’s for sure what he’s dealing with! But given the timing (right before school) and the quick alleviation of symptoms, I’d maybe having some conversations with him or his teacher about how school is going (or maybe the bus ride?).
Either way, I hope it resolves quickly (and I hope the sleep thing levels out!!! Baby sleep is nuts!).
Kath Younger says
Thanks for bringing this up (someone emailed me about it too). It’s on my radar, although we’ve had two normal days since. I’ll go straight to his teacher if it happens again.
Jessica Rodriguez says
Hi Kath,
As a teacher, I recommend you go straight to Mazen first, and ask more questions. Have him draw if he doesn’t seem to want to talk about it but gives you the impression that he may be concerned about something or someone. It could have been something minuscule at school the day before, but he thought about it as the school day approached, and was worried. As a teacher and mom of a kindergartener, I’m working really hard to help my students and my own daughter build self advocacy skills, self awareness, and helping provide the skills to master self regulation. All of those come with time. But it really helps by starting to empower the child first, rather than going directly to his teacher. Put yourself in her shoes. I have 24 students. If every time one of my students felt a little anything at all about an interaction, a score, a lesson that was challenging, anything at all, and their parent came right to me….it adds up. And this routine doesn’t help children learn how to navigate their own problems or challenges. Hope you don’t mind my advice, but this is something I feel really strongly about. I teacher 3rd grade, and I often have students who clearly have zero clue how to navigate a conflict because their parents always dive straight in first to rescue the situation before allowing it to dissolve or fix itself naturally, which so many childhood problems do.
Jolene (www.everydayfoodie.ca) says
Yes! This is 100% true. I am a teacher as well, and I don’t know if parents realize how many emails I have to answer in a day from parents (and that doesn’t include phone calls and in-person meetings). It takes up an incredible amount of time, and makes it difficult to have time for prepping, marking, planning etc.
Melissa says
Great photos of Birch! He is adorable. Your hair looks great, too, I love the style!
Kath Younger says
Thank you!
Annie says
Kath – would you mind sharing how you made the tuna salad? Looks like no/very little mayo with curry powder? Or how did you do it? Thanks for always inspiring.
Kath Younger says
I went light on mayo and used a red curry powder!