For the past year, I have been learning to deal with the added restrictions and allergies of feeding my daughter. I began on the journey of adapting recipes that were baby-friendly, and also free from 5 of the most common allergens: nuts, dairy, soy, eggs and legumes. Keeping in mind that baby-friendly also means sugar-free. If you loved the banana muffins recipe I published a few months ago, you are going to want to add this one to your try list!
There are so many emotions attached to that statement, which I have left for another post (all about my first year of motherhood) so this one can be all about Little Miss and her birthday celebrations. She welcomed her best buds over to play while the mamas caught up on things, she thouroughly enjoyed opening her gifts, and by golly did she ever stuff her face!
Even though we both chose to have a baby, to create a tiny human, there are bound to be things we don’t want to do. Things like dealing with tantrums, shitty diapers, cleaning bottles and endless laundry… So the best way with dealing with everything is to actually not deal with every single thing—divvy up the tasks and it’s like you’ve only got half the crap to deal with. Literally!
I cannot remember the last time I got to enjoy the deliciousness of a banana muffin–between the keto lifestyle I had to follow for a few years, the dairy-free for my breastfeeding child’s allergies, and the no-nuts for my mine, this really limited my opportunities. So, now that I am back on a simplified regime, I decided to adapt a handful of recipes into the perfect sugar-free, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free banana muffins. This one is pretty darn close, if I do say so myself!
Even before becoming a parent, there were always never enough hours in the day to complete everything that needed to be done and still do things that I want. Becoming a mother stretched that time out even further, but I make it work.
As a work-from-home boss, I can tell you that more often than not people assume I do all of the housework. Umm, no. I work from home, which means I have actual work to do while I happen to be home, and that does not include the laundry or the plumbing. Do I try to plan that type of thing into my schedule? Yes. Is it a priority during work hours? NOPE. Since having a baby and earning my boss mama badge, the assumptions and opinions have only gotten worse. Working from home with a baby is hella hard, and cuts into my work time like you wouldn’t believe!
This year we celebrated our first Christmas as a family of three. While it was different in so many ways, our beloved traditions lived on. Through the allergies, the nap schedule, the foiled plans because of contagious family members, and the food-poisoning (happy holidays to me!), we made it work!
Part of me knew years ago that my child’s photo albums would have mostly pictures of them alone or with their daddy, and very few with me. I didn’t plan for it, but that’s the life of a professional photographer. We are always the ones behind the camera and carriying a tripod and remote around everywhere is not exactly feasible (especially with an infant!), which means that we are often left out of the photos. So it should come as no surprise that this shoot, and many before it, did not even have one with me in it.
