Hair and Dough

I found a place in Northeast Portland to get my hair done and I went there a few weeks back. I got two-stranded twists; for those of you not familiar, it's basically like braids, except instead of three strands of hair, you use two strands. I kept them in for three weeks and took them out, which is another hair style called a twist-out shown here (along with my new glasses. Also, ignore the broom/mop handles in the background; I'm in the half-bath downstairs):



Two-stranded twists aren't complicated and despite the salon also offering straightening services (i.e. relaxers, press n' curls) the stylist did a good job. I have to say though, after washing and detangling my hair, when she was about to start twisting it, I got a hot comb flashback and my heart started beating all fast…actually felt heat on my neck…I guess it's Post Traumatic Press n' Curl Disorder!

So the only thing I didn't like were the products she used. They're called Miss Jessie's. A lot of naturals use their stuff and are happy with it, but many don't like them because it has mineral oil in it that can coat the hair and scalp, which in term might prevent moisture from getting in and cause dryness. This happens over time, so I haven't experienced this. But when I washed my twists a week after I got my hair done, it felt like ALL this goop came out. Didn't feel very nice. So I'll probably go back at some point; it's time and effort I don't have to use twisting my hair myself and using those products every now and again probably won't hurt long term, but definitely don't want that stuff in my hair on a regular basis so I won't be trying those products myself.

Some hair products I'd LOVE to try are called Qhemet Biologics. All good ingredients and almost all naturals who have tried them rave about it. My hair is starting to get longer, so it's really important I protect my ends to retain length.

A long post wouldn't be complete without a Gabe pic (although, I'm pretty sure I've prattled on before in a post without adding a photo of Gabe. Sorry, lol.). Here is a picture of Gabe playing with his blue dough. We bought this colored and scented dough from Lakeshore Learning for his birthday. Today he seemed really interested in the containers, versus the actual dough.

Pretend Eating

Here are a few pics of Gabe "eating". His faux diet is pretty awesome!

Teeth, pumpkin butter and parks

Sorry for the delay in posts. Time just got away from me.

This past week, Gabe had a dental appointment that went well. His two bad teeth are remaining stable, meaning they are not getting worse. He got his usual treatment done, with some crying, but it wasn't too bad. Dr. Hsu wants to do a cleaning and filling on them when he is old enough, like around three. I still have reservations about it because they don't seem to bother him and the teeth in question can fall out as early as five years. So, I don't know yet.

Here is a pic of Gabe the day of his appointment. I think he has food in his mouth:



Last Saturday, we went to the Beaverton Farmer's Market. Craig and I got these really delicious pot pies: beef and mushroom, chicken thai green curry. We each got to taste both. Then we bought some pumpkin seed butter from a local place; they are not selling in any health food stores yet because of demand. But boy, is it good with crackers and has a high protein content.



Then Sunday, we went to Peninsula Park where Gabe had fun strolling all over the place. For some reason, Gabe has never been into climbing stuff, so he can take or leave playgrounds (except for the swings, he loves that). Even as a crawler, I'd always watch him near the stairs but he was never interested. So at parks, he is usually more into exploring things he can run on or just looking at trees, grass, dirt, etc.





For Father's Day, Craig wants to go back to Grandma Leeth's for dinner (we went there for Mother's Day). So we're going there tomorrow evening! Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Gabe 2nd Birthday

Gabe turned 2 years old last Thursday, yay!

He got a lot of birthday wishes from my Facebook friends, family and a call from Uncle Will and Grandma Claire. Friday, we went to the Portland Children's Museum. It was very crowded, but I think Gabe had a lot of fun.









Then we went home for his nap. We picked up his banana cream cake from the Beaverton Bakery on the way home, and I got pizza from Pizza Shmizza (it was our first time trying them and it was pretty good) later on.


The cake looks kind of plain, but it was delicious.

We didn't have a big party. We had Grandma Deb and a family friend, David, over to share in opening presents and cake. Gabe got a lot of nice gifts, mostly books and educational toys. I took some videos of him opening gifts, which I will post shortly.

We also took a trip to Olympia, Wa to visit our friends, Brian and Eunice this past weekend. Olympia is a little over a 2 hour drive from Portland. We drove down there on Saturday and came back Monday. On the way there, Gabe slept the entire drive (yes!) and on the way back he slept for about half the time, but remained fine relaxing in his car seat for the rest of the drive.

Here is a pick of Gabe with Brian and Eunice's three children, Jaiden, Angel and Toby.

Much improved eating!

Gabe has really shocked me the last few days. Last week, he ate fish sticks for the first time and liked it. And he has always liked spaghetti, but he usually only ate the noodles. I made said dish with meat sauce last night and he ate ALL of it up, meat and veggies included (sauce was courtesy of 1 jar each of garden vegetable and garlic herb Prego, meat courtesy of me).

Then today, he eats pesto and walnut ravioli (walnuts are VERY small and easy to chew). I'm like, whaaaaat??






I am really happy he is starting to try and like things more. He has been getting better and better over the last six months or so. He favorite foods are now:

Bagels or toast w/ cream cheese
Chocolate Chip flax seed muffins
Peanut butter (by itself)
Spaghetti w/ meat sauce
Ravioli
Grapes (quartered)
Bananas
Pizza (plain cheese)
Cheddar cheese
Smoothies
French Fries
Fish sticks
Couscous
Lentils
Guacamole with chips

Dancing video

I promised a video or picture of Gabe dancing in his last dance class today, but I forgot the camera/video. So, I took this video of him getting down at home.

Successful green smoothie

For several weeks now, I've been drinking what I call my "iron-packed" smoothies for breakfast. This started after I found out my iron was rather low. Gabe drinks this for breakfast, too.

I've used mostly fruit (both frozen and dried) and nut milks, but lately I've realized that I need to incorporate some vegetables into it. So yesterday I bought some kale! This morning I added it to my smoothie and it was really good.


The color is a lovely, natural green.



And Gabe liked it too, despite the look on his face!

Here is what I put in it:

1 banana
1 tbs. molasses
3 prunes
handful of frozen mangoes
handful of kale
2 cups of hazelnut milk (or any nut milk of choice)

Blend until smooth and voila!