I spend a lot of my days on the floor with Alex and thought I’d share an action shot of him getting ready to take the living room by storm (he is so ready to crawl!).  His striped outfit is from Polarn O. Pyret, a incredibly chic Swedish children’s clothing brand that has just started selling in the United States. The folks at Polarn O. Pyret were kind enough to send some clothes for me (or really, Alex) to review. Our thoughts: This is a great brand. The designs are classic, not precious, the cotton is delicious and thick, and the sizing is spot on, unlike many European brands that run really small (I’m talking to you Petite Bateau!).  They have also worn well in the wash (not too much shrinkage).

The striped leggings ($35) are Alex’s favorite pants —  He likes them because they are comfortable and I like them because they are easy to put on, and are designed beautifully to accommodate a bulky diaper (you’d be surprised how many brands somehow don’t design pants for baby plus a full diaper).  He always gets comments from our neighbors in the elevator when he’s sporting these (which is more often than I might like to admit). The long sleeve onesie ($32) is perfect for the colder weather.  I’ve also bought these mittens ($6.50) and jeans ($32) and been pleased.

PS: Alex’s baby gym is from Ikea ($25).

Cheeky, beautiful food blog Happy Lady Eats is a new daily read, and the photography is helping me feel a tiny bit better about the demise of Gourmet.

Clogs are de rigueur for UWS moms.  What about these clog boots? From Jumelle, $390

What can I say but this week blurred by, mostly due to a higher than normal level of sleep deprivation. Lack of sleep makes me a) tired and b) do crazy shit.  As in, this week I managed to throw out my keys.  As the mothers who read this blog with undoubtedly understand, when you have a baby, your daily routine hangs in a very delicate balance.  Doing something like throwing out your keys is like throwing dynamite into said schedule.  It took me the better part of a week to get replacement keys, which I have so far managed not to throw out.

I should invent some sort of gizmo for new mothers, like one of those rave glow sticks, that indicates how little sleep they’d had.  That way anyone they interacted with, say, husbands,  best friends or mothers, would instantaneously understand what they were dealing with (and do things like check the recycling for their wives house keys).  Yes, I recycled my keys.

Yet, as in my favorite column in the magazine The Week, “It wasn’t all bad.” I did manage to bake some good oatmeal cranberry cookies.  I do my best to eat a low glycemic diet, which means that I swapped the sugar in this recipe with agave syrup and I highly recommend the results.  I adapted this from an excellent Smitten Kitchen Oatmeal Raisin recipe.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies (makes 18 medium cookies).

1 stick butter, softened (the softened part is really important — if you use cold butter, it makes your cookies flat…)
Slightly less than 1/2 cup agave
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 400 °F.

In a food processor (I use a Cuisinart), cream together the butter, agave, egg and almond extract until smooth.  This is usually between 8-10 “pulses” on my Cuisinart.  In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.  Combine this into the butter/sugar mixture (I usually break it up into four parts and pulse each into the Cuisinart mixture). I then pour this mixture out of the Cuisnart and into a bowl. Stir in the oats and cranberries.

Deb at Smitten Kitchen says “At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them. You could also bake them right away, if you’re impatient, but I do find that they end up slightly less thick.”  And I found that chilling them does makes the cookies thicker.

Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top.

This tale of removing red sharpie marker from a couch is impressive. The first thing I thought when I saw all those scribbles is “I bet that was fun.”  Found via the good folks at Ohdeedoh.

The latest bag from Alphabetbags is making me smile.

I’ve been waiting months to share an amazing resource with you.   My superb acupuncturist, Nancy Park, has finally expanded her practice and is taking new patients.  She singlehandedly helped me through a difficult and high-risk pregnancy.   Name a pregnancy symptom (hormone swings, swelling, fatigue, nausea) or any aliment really, and she can help alleviate it. Her massages are out of this world and any visit to her is both healing and relaxing.   She is also incredibly gentle and wise. Truly one of best acupuncturists in New York City.

For those of you who’ve never been to an acupuncturist, you really don’t feel the needles, they are TINY. Nancy specializes in treating pregnant women, women struggling with infertility and anyone who has chronic pain.

Nancy Park
145 West 57th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues)
New York, NY 10019
212 974-7240
nancy AT parkhealingarts.com

PS: She treats my husband too (so she’s not just for women!).

Sweet cartwheel photo from here.