More about lunch/Cousins visit

I received my Bento tiffin today, as well as some silicone cups for dividing my food. I really like it.

And here is my lunch for tomorrow. No longer boring-looking, plain old midday meal. There is a salmon-bean-arugula toss, and for snacks, I have yogurt, blueberries, grapefruit and a hard-boiled egg. It all fits and looks fun.

And for dinner, I've got some simple garlic spinach with chicken and sweet potato. Yum!

I think I'm getting hang of clean eating. The challenge will be to maintain it. Making lunch-packing a creative outlet sure helps.
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Tonight we also had some great company. Hubby's cousins came over for a little while to meet Jack. It was so nice to see them all.

It's nice to see them all together. We were missing a couple more, but it was still nice and rowdy.

The art of packing lunch

I continue to see blogs talking about Bento lunch packing for little ones. While it's a departure from the traditional Japanese Bento, it is still a fun concept - packing lunches in a creative and compact way. As someone who needs a creative outlet, I find this idea appealing. I hate packing my lunches so this is the motivation I needed to stick to my diet and save money in the process. While there is nothing really creative about my lunch and snacks, having the right containers, baggies, dividers, and lunch bags forces me to put more thought into the art of packing my lunch.

Cottage cheese, fruit, nuts, black bean soup, corn tortilla turkey breast wraps

I ordered a nifty Bento container from Amazon, but in the meanwhile I found some awesome containers at Target. They are the right sizes and snap into one another for a very compact lunch bag. I also found some fun-colored sandwich Ziploc bags (not pictured) that will come in handy.

Lunch & snacks - and they all fit into a small lunch bag

In addition, I scored a $3 lunch bag for Jack on clearance. It is only big enough to hold Jack's three daily bottles for daycare. So cute!

Fooood

Mr. Jackers has started eating pureed fruit. He definitely has his favorites (pears). But if the fruit is even a tiny bit tangy, baby boy will initially get over-dramatic in his disdain.

Waaa... sweet potato is way too sour!

But once it settles in his mouth, he usually approves and continues to eat.

Hmm... I suppose it's not that bad.

As for mom and dad, we decided to cook more at home. Obtaining over-processed fast food had gotten way too easy and cheap, so we got to make a concerted effort in planning and preparing our meals ahead. Tonight we made coconut curried lamb (for him)/chicken (for me). It was served on lime/lemongrass rice and a side of minty-fresh raita (cucumber salad). It was super-delicious.

The rest of the meals for the week have been planned out and I spent 2 hours at the grocery store trying to find some obscure ingredients. I decided to follow a meal plan in the Clean Eating magazine, which always introduces me to some new foods (bok choy? haddock?).  We'll see how it goes.

Shopping for baby

I was feeling a little stir-crazy on Saturday morning, so I packed my babe and we headed to the mall. He was so good and patient the entire time. I think he enjoyed all the stimuli.

Strollin' at the mall

Younkers had a yellow dot sale (70% off retail price), so I found some cute summer outfits for Jack - under $5 each!

Hungry baby showing off his finds

Saturday was also Bastille's Day, so my Francophile sisters brought over some yummy pastries from the local French style bakery. They helped me clean up a little and played with Jack. We listened to some old school hip hop and watched parts of a Alfonso Cuarón movie before they left for a birthday party.

Overall, a fun day. Sunday was a little more low key. Not looking forward to going back to work. Weekends just aren't long enough. :(

4 months

My sweet baby is 4 months old already! He is just a joy. He laughs, is smiley most of the time, and fusses only when tired or hungry. He prefers to roll over and sleep on his tummy. 

14.4 lbs and 26 inches of pure happiness

His teacher at daycare told me today that he is the easiest baby she has. He's grabbing toys and putting them into his mouth. We've started feeding him some pureed fruit, but he is still exclusively breastfed.
We love this little guy! He is a lot of work, but worth every bit of it.

Happy birthday to my dear dad!

It's my dad's birthday, and we are sad we are not with him on his special day. He is on a vacation across the Atlantic. But we'll be thinking of him and sending him love and happy wishes on this day.

Smiles for grandpa

Dragi dide, sretan ti rodjendan - sve najbolje ti zele tvoja kcerka, zet, i tvoj prvi unuk Jack. Volimo te puno i mislimo o tebi! Saljemo ti kisses i hugs. Enjoy your day!

Stripes and treats and a jumping Jack

Today we visited my family. Baby boy had a lot of fun cooing and laughing at everyone, and even showed off his almost crawling skills. His outfit coincidentally matched that of his majka and did. So cute!

Jackers and his grandpa - fishermen in nautical stripes

Crawling with grandma - more matching stripes

While grandparents swooned over baby boy, his aunties and cousin S baked some delicious treats.

Auntie Am mixing cookie batter

Aunti Az and cousin S working on "cupavci"

Melting chocolate

Final product

These treats were spongy and covered in chocolate and fluffy and coconut-hairy. I LOVE it!
Later, at home, while hubby and I prepared dinner, baby boy jumped around until he tuckered out and fell asleep.

So tired

We woke him up for a feeding and a bath and then we put him in his crib. Now mama needs to get ready for Monday madness - put away clean laundry, pack lunch and baby's stuff for day care. Wish weekends were longer.