Dear Sophia.

Dear Sophia, Never lose your smile. 

People skills of a 3 month old. Smile. Eye contact. Infatuated with people who talk to her. 

4.5 months. Excited when someone walks into the room. Quick to hug. People are still the only thing she cares about. She shuts her mouth and listens when someone sings to her or plays a song from pandora.  Smiled even through her first sickness and throwing up seven times.  When I hold her in front of a mirror, she is mostly looking at me,

not herself. 

I was talking with my doctor, Nicole Harvey yesterday and she commented on how great Sophia's eye contact is.  She looks you in the eye and doesn't let go. Chris, another friend of mine the other day said, "Look at those eyes. She's looking into my soul."  

Back to the conversation with Dr. Harvey. I responded with mentioning something I've oft wondered lately while observing my daughter. In public speaking courses and musical stage presence training professors teach you to have great eye contact with your audience.  It's a powerful people skill and yet many babies do this instinctively. Dr. Harvey responded with a phrase that struck a chord with me. "I wonder when people lose that!"  

Eye contact, smiling at people and being genuinely interested in others is something many babies are experts at and yet not very many adults reach adulthood with these skills intact.  

I know I didn't. I had to relearn them from a great book called How to Win Friends and Influence People.  When I read the principles in that book, I kid you not I started getting raises in the workplace, found getting along with coworkers to be extremely easy and went quickly from making minimum wage (with my two degrees) to making $18.00 an hour and then even higher  in the worst economy since the Great Depression.  

My challenge to myself is to practice being more like a baby.  It turns out that simple things like eye contact, a smile, a hug and genuinely being excited to see someone and more interested in others than self are more important in life than my two degrees. 

Homemade baby wipes and other celebrations of a new mom.

Easiest thing ever!  So cheap! I ran out of baby wipes for the first time since my baby gifts ran out. A quick google search gave a plethora of recipes to make my own. It took about 30 seconds of hard labor and I used stuff I had around the house. Here is the recipe I came up with.  

Ingredients:

Napkins (a couple inches tall)

Water 1 cup

Baby shampoo 1 tbsp (any mild liquid soap would work as long as you know it is gentle enough for baby skin)

Olive oil 1 tblsp (I imagine any natural oil would work such as coconut)

Directions: Mix wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Soak napkins in mixture for ten minutes. Turn napkins over and soak the other side for an additional ten minutes.  Most of my mixture was already absorbed by the time I turned the napkins over but it gave the solution a chance to evenly distribute. Store baby wipes by recycling a store bought baby wipes container or use a zip lock storage bag or tupperware container. 

I found these wipes to be the best I've ever used!  They are much gentler and smell amazing!  I found that they clean better. 

I am the type of person who would rather use a wash cloth then to waste money on paper products (it's not really about the environment for me I just would rather spend my money on other things) and washing a cloth that has been used to clean a baby bottom is really not that bad since the invention of washing machines.  I just happened to have a vast amount of napkins lying around forever being unused because someone left them here.  I think the only time someone thought to use them was when my dear husband was working on the car. 

We are in the habit of using cloth napkins around the house and just throwing them in the wash. It makes me feel special to use cloth napkins and it is cheaper. If you like me hate to buy most paper products (ahem ... I can't see this household going so far as to use reusable toilet paper though I have some hippy friends who are all about it...no judgement) the solution can be put in a spray bottle and used to aid when you are cleaning baby's bottom with a cloth.  Truthfully cloth is usually gentler if your baby has extra sensitive skin like my sweet little nieces. 

I hope you find this recipe helpful. Let me know if you try it and if you find any helpful modifications. 

If you want to know how I learned to organize my life (to where I actually feel like a semi responsible adult) check out flylady.net and the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Also the chapter on priorities in A Woman After God's Own Heart. 

I've been loving the Youversion Bible app because of its plans that seem to help this busy mama hold onto the rope.  For personal growth lately I've been reading and loving John Maxwell's 15 Laws of Invaluable Growth. 

For a daily dose of marriage strengthening check out The Generous Wife. 

All natural, sugar free, blueberry soda pop

My husband chuckles at me on a daily basis because I am addicted to yummy beverages and often double fist it. Why only tonight with our evening meal I enjoyed this homemade concoction of sugar free blueberry soda and yet downed my vitamins with a glass of chocolate almond milk. 

This sugar free natural beverage was not only easy to make it also helped me get rid of blueberries that had started to wilt.

You cannot mess this recipe up!  Assume everything is "add to taste"

Ingredients (eyeballed)

2 handfuls blueberries per serving

that have seen better days

Your favorite sweetener to taste (I used stevia and honey. Agave, maple syrup or table sugar will work (no judgement)

A tiny amount of water

Club soda

Directions:  Mix blueberries and sweetener in a sauce pan.  Add enough sweetener so that it is a little sweeter than you prefer since the soda water you are going to add later will diminish the sweetness by a considerable amount. Add a tiny amount of water and cook over medium heat to reduce the blueberries into a simple syrup. Voila!  Let cool and add to club soda or sparkling water. Add a couple of the berries to your glass for flourish. If you like, serve over ice!  A healthy alternative to store bought soda and way more delicious!