So much of this baby’s second year didn’t look like we’d expected. 2020 has thrown curveball after curveball to us us all, but one thing that has been certain has been the laughter and joy that this sweet baby boy has brought into our lives. Despite the craziness in the world around us, he fills our home with glee.
This post was brought to you in partnership with Johnson & Johnson®, but all thoughts are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make LoveRavayna possible.
As parents, we are very flexible about a lot of things but one of the things I’m a stickler about is bedtime routines- I’m strict about making sure that Asher is well rested. While sleep training, we learned the importance of a consistent nighttime routine, so we’ve really tried to create one that doesn’t take all night but brings him some comfort and familiarity. Thanks to JOHNSON’S® 3-Step Bedtime® routine and JOHNSON’S® Bedtime® Collection, we’ve got it down!
Since we are still sheltering at home, and will be for the foreseeable future, we’ve been working hard on making our home space as enjoyable and functional as possible. We started this dining area project before the lockdown began, and I’m so excited to share it with you guys, finally.
All of the details are in the video above but I wanted to go ahead and put some notes and links here for reference.
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the things I always wanted to do with my future child(ren) was raise them to be readers. So we shopped for and were generously gifted loads of books when I was pregnant, have frequented the library, and make sure to have plenty of reading time every single day. I’m thrilled that it seems to have taken root! Asher carries books all over the house, whether he’s climbing onto my lap to read one, flipping through it solo, or demanding to take it to bed with him for ‘night-night.’ It’s the cutest!
We’ve been in quarantine for nearly two months, and this time feels so strange that I’m not even gonna touch on that because I don’t have the words yet. But I was raised in a family where food is love, and one thing I do know is that feeding my boys brings normalcy and routine to these surreal days, even when I can’t remember the last time I went to a store. (I’m asthmatic, so David makes our limited store trips.)
We’ve been getting grocery deliveries too, grateful that community supported agriculture is continuing to help feed our family despite how much I miss shopping at our weekly farmers market. And I’ve been posting our daily kitchen antics on instastories but wanted to put them all in one place for easier reference.
Man, oh man. Toddler time, all the time, indoors in a small space is not for the faint of heart. Asher normally only spends one or two afternoons a week at his baby school, but if we’re not taking him to school it’s because we are having a play date, going on a family adventure, or attending an event- this kid is BUSY and accustomed to being out and about. So with our family being sheltered in place for over a month now, I’ve been on my hustle to come up with activities that are stimulating and engaging for Asher with what we’ve got on hand.
If you’ve been around here a minute, you know I was born in Trinidad and my family and I emigrated to the United States when I was four. All things Trini still make my heart sing, and we’re so disappointed that our first trip home to Trinidad with Asher won’t be happening this spring like we’d planned. I’m determined that Ashe will grow up knowing where his roots trace, even if we’re far away, so I’ve been making more Trinidadan food lately.
This chicken and channa curry is total comfort food for me- the version I make is just a little different than my mom’s, which is scrawled in the margins amending the version in the Naparima Girls High School Cookbook (like the Trinidadian Joy of Cooking) but that roundabout recipe is typically Trini. It’s easy and flexible to modify for what you have on hand, and super savory and delicious. You can make it thicker like a stew, or serve it with rice, roti, naan- whatever you’d like!
Sometimes the most obvious things are the most uncomfortable to address- that was certainly the case for me and my eyes. Right on the middle of my face, yet I broke into hives discussing them.
Last month, right before hospitals started to cancel non-essential procedures as Covid spread, I had strabismus surgery to correct the longtime vision and aesthetic issues it caused. There’s a highlight on my Instagram, and we documented the entire process for YouTube… see for yourself!
I could be more modest as I say this, but the fact remains- I make some killer chocolate chip cookies.
Most frequently, I use Sally’s baking addiction’s recipe– it’s speedy (because it uses melted butter) and consistently delicious. It makes huge cookies- I prefer them slightly smaller, about 2 tablespoons each. If you are loyal to specific chocolate chip cookie recipe, do you, by all means, but keep reading for my tips for the yummiest chewy chocolate chip cookies!
David and I have been quietly preparing ourselves for an emergency situation since last summer’s earthquakes reminded us just how unprepared our family was for that, or any emergency situation. Nerds that we are, we have done lots of research on what would be useful or necessary in a variety of situations that could affect our little family.
In light of the coronavirus Covid-19 that has rampaged Asia, Italy, and likely taken hold here in the United States, and how much hysteria and inaccuracy I’ve heard, I wanted to share the info we’ve learned as well as some resources. (I’ll be updating this post as new verifiable information develops, of course- most recently at 9 am, PST, 3/16.)
