Are you sure? Pediasure? That time when I disagreed with my kids' pediatrician...

I had an interesting experience at the pediatrician's office last week with my 1-year old.  Watch the video to find out what happened and what we plan on doing about it.

Have you ever disagreed with advice given to you for your child by his/her doc?  What did you say or do?

***Please note: I respect our pediatrician, her experience, her knowledge, and her kindness a great deal.  She's an amazing professional and mother, from what I can tell.  This in no way means that I have not or do not take other advice she gives.  However, I am very comfortable with the level of knowledge I hold in the field of nutrition.  I am also very aware of the alarmingly low amount of nutrition education given to doctors as they are coming up.  I hope that changes very soon.  Regardless, here I am trying to do my part - as a coach to my clients AND as a mother to my kiddos.  

When you know better, you do better.  Let's do better.

In good health,

Tara

A letter to my kiddos on Mother's Day...

A letter to my kiddos on Mother's Day...

Dear Mags and Jags,

Tomorrow will be my fourth year as a mother on Mother's Day.  I want you to know that I waited (im)patiently for you for a long time!  I dreamed that you'd join us, Earthside, during so many long nights and even more days than I can recall.  

My life no longer resembles the life I had prior to 3.5 years ago.  I signed up for that. My career has drastically shifted, I have bags under my eyes, and my coffee is always cold by the time it reaches my lips.  It's hard to feel like a bada$$ - in business, in life - with various bodily fluids gripping onto my shirt threads.  There's 40,789 daily toddler questions and mysterious scratches on my face (didn't I just cut your nails?!)  Date night now consists of squeezing in 10 minutes of Shark Tank on the DVR before the first nighttime feeding.  That's right - hot dates over here in the Allen household.  ;-)

Then….THEN….the sleepless nights!

Sleepless on Long Island.

Sleepless in Love.

I signed up for this.

Ugh.  You know what?  The sleepless nights are HARD, but they're also WONDERFUL.  There, I said it.  This does not mean I can't use this against you in the future, by the way.  Certainly I should be able to squeeze an extra chore or 2 out of you both in the future, right?  Here's the truth.  I kinda, sorta cherish the sleepless nights.  (Shh - don't tell Daddy!)  There's something about the blanket of darkness and silence that calms my hyperactive monkey brain.  As I nourish your body with mine, my soul is overflowing with joy.  You see, I'm not counting the loads of laundry I didn't get to the day before or worrying about completing a client email in a few hours. I'm present.  I breathe you in.  There's this bond that's so overwhelmingly beautiful, it's bone-shattering (the other mamas will understand what I mean).

I signed up for this.

I literally signed up for all of this.

That first appointment I had with the fertility doc happened to fall on a hot summer day.  This was helpful as my tears were camouflaged by the beads of sweat.

I signed the consent forms - all of them - for every procedure, test, poke & prod.  I'd do it all again. Times a million.

I signed up to be your mama.  I'm a lucky, lucky mama.

Now that we're all here, I promise to keep my feet on the ground and my eyes on the stars - thanking them for the dream-come-true.  I'm not perfect (truly, I'm not!), but I promise to do my best - as humans do.  I promise to love you AND YOUR MOTHER.  You see, this business, the food I cook to nourish our family, the active lifestyle we lead…it's for you.  It's for us.  You deserve a mama that's here for you; a leading lady in your life ready to spring into action when needed or help support you through your childhood and adult challenges - changing careers, parenthood, filing for AARP.  Did I mention that I plan on being here for a while?  ;-)

M & J, tomorrow is Mother's Day.  You are 1 & 3 years old.  There may be a card for me, a brunch to celebrate me and the other special grand-mothers in your life, even a period of time in which you see me sit back for a few to take it all in.  Let me tell you a secret… I won't be celebrating me.  I'll be celebrating you.  I'll be thanking my lucky stars and wondering what I did to deserve the best.

Magnolia and Jagger, though I prefer "mama", it ain't so bad being your "mother" on Mother's Day.  Thanks for the title.  Thanks for the moments.  Thanks for the memories and laughter and hugs.  I definitely signed up for this.

In Joy,

Mama

Sleep-deprived and Staying Healthy

It's no secret that sleep has been a scarcity around here for….well, quite some time!  As a breastfeeding mama, I'm "on call" every night - and that usually ends up being at least 5 or 10 night-time wakings (and feedings).  :-O  Yup, that wasn't a typo.  

My daughter was the same way, so I'm sort of immune to how ridiculous this actually sounds.  It's a path I'm more than happy to continue on until things happen to change organically.  I'm not looking to sleep-train, cut him off from night feedings, ask my husband to give him a bottle in the middle of the night, or anything else really.  No judgement to anyone else - this is just our choice.  It's actually quite a sweet set-up - Jagger sleeps in our room and he has this adorable way of simultaneously kicking and punching me when he's ready to nurse.  I swear it's much cuter than it sounds!  There's usually no crying involved, just a gentle "Mom, I need you now please" type of nudge.  At 9 months in, we've definitely gotten into a groove.

Magnolia is now almost 3 years old and those early co-sleeping and breastfeeding days with her are just beautiful memories now.  I know all-too-well how quickly the weeks slip by, even as each night may seem to last forever.  

With our days totally filled with Magnolia's stories, songs, activities, and boisterousness, I'm a-okay letting the wee hours of the night be reserved for one-on-one time with Jagger.  The snuggles and sweet baby breath will be gone before I can say, "Sleep, child!".  ;-)

So where does that leave me with my health and productivity?  There's this whole work thing, house thing, wife thing….Well, I have my moments of dragging and clawing my way through each hour, for sure!  However, I do like to think that a few of my good habits are responsible for keeping me as healthy and energetic as possible during this extended period of barely-any-sleep (and REM?  Do I ever get into REM?!).  I am typically rather fast-moving (that type A curse), happy, and feeling good and strong.

I started to record this video, as usual, without Jagger at first.  But, my storage space ran out on my phone about 30 seconds in and after taking time to make more space on this device, Little Man was ready to join me.  Perfecto!  After all, the lack of sleep is just a liiiiiiiittle bit about him anyway.

'Til next time...

In health,

Tara