In the meantime, I will provide you this shot of cuteness.

This morning on my drive in to work, after maneuvering through all the construction traffic and dropping the boys off at daycare, it came to me that I couldn’t remember if I had brushed my teeth. It’s usually part of my routine, and I either sleep walked through it or completely forgot to brush my teeth.

I’ve been doing this recently. Yesterday, after I unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it back up with dirty dishes, the Hubs asked me if I had run the dishwasher the day before. I said, “I believe so,” and he gave me a funny look. Really, honestly, I couldn’t remember if I had or not. Last week I brought bottles to work but no other pumping parts (luckily, I was only here for a meeting and got to go home before there were any issues).

A lot of people say that pregnancy brain is a real thing, which I totally believe it is, but what about I-have-an-infant-and-a-toddler-at-home brain?

See, this is why I stopped washing my hair. It’s not because I’m trying to cut chemicals but rather I forget to wash it.

So about the teeth. They don’t feel gross, but that could be because I’ve cut out processed foods and sugars. Whenever I eat real food (Paleo), my teeth feel cleaner. I didn’t have that gross morning breath thing going on as far as I could tell, and even if I did, the Thai curry coconut chicken soup I just ate for lunch took care of that issue. To be safe, I’ll go eat this apple that I brought for my afternoon snack.

And for the dishes….they looked clean.

Also, at 11.5 weeks, I believe he is quite advanced with all this babbling.

This post is going to be chock full of pictures because I’m catching up on the past few weeks of fun.

First up we had a visit from some kinfolk.

Lil’ bear with his great grandparents

Having a deep convo with his great aunt.

Great Pops, MeMe and Lil’ Man

Our weather has been a little weird lately. December and January were rather mild, but then March came around with quite a chill. So even though these pics were taken in the past few weeks, we’re sporting the fleece.

On another day we went to the zoo.

Hanging with dad, photo bombed by an elephant

A rare shot of the lil’ man with me (mom) and some flamingos

Lil’ man has no fear of animals. He ran right up to the goats in the animal experience pen.

Lil’ bear was enthralled.

The zoo was a big hit. Lil’ man ran everywhere. Seriously, he ran the entire time, and our zoo isn’t small. After more than three hours of running, checking out the animals and yelling “LOOK IT!” he conked out on the car ride home.

Following our zoo trip, it was time for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.

Don’t be fooled, he knew what to do.

Squat and pick up the egg…easy peasy.

He was collecting so many that the hubs would sneak eggs out of the basket and drop them back on the ground.

Yep, made them match on Easter.

So that’s about it. Since Easter, our adventures have sort of slowed down since I’ve had to go back to work. Good news is that the weather is getting nicer.

Sunshine and warmer weather = hanging out outside

While it might seem lame, we end up wrapping up a lot of our nights like this – snuggled on the couch.

Before returning to work, I figured I should do something with this crazy mess I call my hair. Several months ago I got it cut into this angled bob (longer in front, shorter in back). It looked good for awhile, but then I just never went in to get it trimmed. So everything got longer and thicker and just more. I have thick hair to begin with. Throw in pregnancy and it just got ridiculous. The front was to my shoulders and just really heavy, and the back had these layers that just did whatever they wanted. I pretty much wore my hair pulled up everyday, which is fine when on maternity leave.

Since I was going to be seen in public again, I figured the bun on top of the head would not suffice every single day. I was afraid my hairdresser would think I was crazy when I told her my cleaning routine, but she was totally cool with it. I didn’t want it chopped short, and I believe my instructions were just give it some sort of style that doesn’t require work. I’m pretty trusting with hairdressers.

After cutting the front to be more even with the back and trimming some of the weird layers, she took some thinning scissors to my hair just to get out the weight. A blow dry later, I was looking good. After a couple of days of straight hair, it was time to wash it again. Remember how I said I didn’t want to put work into my hair? Yeah, I didn’t even dry it, but since so much weight had been taken out, my locks decided to curl better.

This pic is after a few hours of air drying and a couple hand scrunches. No product, no brush…nothing. It might be a little wild, but I don’t think it’s too bad. No work and presentable = sold!

Also, remember why we celebrate…

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. – John 11:25-26

He may look all cute and innocent, but this kid is a stinker. A real stinker that goes four days without pooping, making me become obsessed with bowel movements.

Since I went Paleo, his movements have decreased to once every three or four days.

This morning, day three of the current count brought a good diaper with a good-sized poop. I thought, “We’re good for several days now.”

Oh, this boy had something else in mind. During one of his afternoon feedings he released the usual gas. I did say he was a stinker, but one had some substance behind it. Not thinking much of it, I undid his onesie and lifted up his legs one with hand, wipe ready in the other. The poop just kept going. Not only was it all down there, but it had escaped the back of the diaper.

“Hey, it happens,” I said.

But it just kept going. There was poop all the way up to this kids underarms. Seriously.

This was definitely more than wipes could handle, but I think he might be good for more than a week now.

And the counting starts anew.

Last night I had a ham roast defrosted, but I didn’t know what to do with it. I decided to cook it osso bucco style.

Normally, osso bucco is made with a veal shank or lamb an it is a certain cut that contains a bone with all the good for you bone marrow. My ham roast had a bone in it, so I figured why not? Let’s give it a shot.

To make it Paleo I left off the flour that some will put on the meat to sear it. I did find a Paleo version of the recipe online at Bi-Polar Paleo, so I pretty much followed it.

One thing I didn’t have was dry white wine, so that was left out. I also only used one onion because onion does bad things to Hubs. Actually, it’s more bad for me, so I tend to chop up onion real small and cook it way down.

Now this recipe called for a slow cooker, but I didn’t have time for that. I also wasn’t using the tougher cut of meat that osso bucco usually uses so I just got everything ready on the stovetop than put my ham with veggie mixture and tomatoey sauce in the oven. Because it wasn’t getting slow cooked, I left out the beef stock because I had plenty of liquid with the tomatoes.

Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the result, but I thought it was pretty tasty. The tomato, carrot, celery mixture was actually my favorite part, and I might just make that for a side dish (actually, I had plenty of it left over so it’s stored away in my fridge for lunch today). The ham had good flavor and it was cooked well.

For my side, I decided to cook some collard greens. First, I needed something to cook it in…bacon fat!

That, my friends, is some serious bacon. The red plate in the background is a normal, adult-sized plate (not some small dessert plate). Have I told you how much I love the Farmer’s Market? One reason…I get bacon like this.

Collards cooked in the fat from just one slice of this thick bacon, plus some red pepper flakes, are quite tasty. Of course, I didn’t waste the bacon and crumbled it on top.

So while my meal wasn’t crazy fancy or some work of art, it was different for us. A couple weeks ago I made a Thai Curry Chicken Soup with spinach and carrots and later this week I plan on making a butternut squash, carrot soup with bacon (of course).

Time to go down some bone broth for my mid-morning snack.

I’m more than a month into this shampoo-less thing I’ve got going. The picture above is my hair from this morning. I don’t think it looks too bad…it’s not greasy and it’s not stinky. If I’m going to be completely honest, I washed my hair on Monday with the baking soda and apple cider vinegar regime. I worked out Wednesday, didn’t wash it. Then I worked out again yesterday (Thursday), and I was too lazy to “wash” it so I just wet it down in the shower and dried it when I got out. So really this hair, the hair pictured above, has not been washed in four sleeps and gone through two workouts.

Overall, I’m happy with it other than I need to get a haircut. I am growing it out, but the back has these wonky layers and the front just has way too much weight, so I am going to make an appointment next week to get some sort of style going before I have to go back to work.

I met a new hair stylist yesterday at the CrossFit gym, and when I explained to her about my no poo method, she wasn’t weirded or grossed out by it. So we’re going to go see her for my new do. I’ll post pictures after I get my trim.