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Another week! Make sure you check out all my posts below about Asher's school lunches! This is our first year having to pack lunches so I'm learning and it's been fun! I'm sure my ideas will get more creative as we go, and as Asher grows, but for now we've been keeping it simple!

Enjoy!

We've been trying out the Ergo Baby Carrier with the Infant Insert while daddy works and we are all loving it! The little man loves to be snuggled up all the time so this has been awesome!

This was the first day packing a lunch for Asher. I have never had to pack him a lunch and send him off without me before! Scroll to the bottom of this post to see my big lunchbox fail too!

I kept it easy, hoping for success with avocado oil chips (we find them at Whole Foods or occasionally Costco!), an Applegate grass-fed all-beef hot dog, apples, carrots, and celery. And he got a nut-free Real Deal Chocolate Chip Cookie 2.0 as a treat on top if he finishes everything (which didn't go so well haha). Yes, 1 piece of celery is all I can get him to eat. Jussstt one. 

Here's another lunch from this week. He doesn't have much time to eat and recess is directly afterwards so it's a little distracting so I haven't been sending a huge lunch until he gets the hang of it. Plus he's a s-l-o-w eater. 
This time he had 3 pieces of Applegate ham (he likes it rolled up), grapes, carrots, a mango Fruit-By-The-Foot, and a nut-free Chocolate Zucchini Muffin. 
Find the recipes for the muffins and fruit rollups on my app Cookery!

Follow along at #aaglunches on instagram to see his other lunchbox ideas!

This is baby E at 10 days old! He's my little snuggle bug.

This right here is one of my favorite views. All 3 boys enjoying the day! Asher has been loving swimming this summer so we spent our super hot Labor Day poolside.

I had a successful trip to Target with both boys thanks to the Solly Baby Wrap!! Easton likes to be close to my chest and Asher loves that he can still hold my hand. I'm still getting the hang of wrapping it correctly… especially when it's 90+ degrees outside!!

Easton and I have been loving our walks lately! It feels so good to get in some light exercise and some fresh air! He always dozes when I put him in the Bugaboo Bassinet! We had this stroller with Asher (I got it used on Craigslist for super cheap!), but I got rid of it during one of my baby stuff purges after we lost Aila. Thank you to Bugaboo for sending us a new one!

Massage time. 
Love the versatility of good old coconut oil. It can be used for skin irritations, diaper rash, cradle cap, makeup remover, and so much more. And according to my not-so-shy Instagram fans, it's good in the bedroom too haha! 🙂

What do you use it for?

See everyone else's recommendations on Facebook here! I loved reading through them!

And after only 10 days, I've already begun to miss creating in the kitchen. Me and E are attempting to get in some work on book 3 pretty soon because we have 25 pounds of Almond Flour to test with! I love WellBees almond flour for how finely ground it is, plus they're a small NYC business that I have been supporting since my SCD days and I love to see their continued growth!

I store half of that in the freezer (6-8 months), a few bags in the fridge (3-6 months), and about 2 pounds at room temperature for testing.

Asher is the best big brother there ever was. He says, “I want to take care of Easton.” Then he kissed him on the head and looked at me and said, “I don't ever want Easton to leave. I want him to stay with us forever.”

His heart has been permanently scarred but this little one has already brought so much healing to him. It's been amazing to see how he has processed the loss of his sister over the last year. It's like a new layer gets peeled back with every couple of months that he ages and matures.

Now with Easton here, we're seeing it manifest in a different way but it's very tender. It seemed like he was unsure if Easton would be able to stay for the first week or so, but I think he's figured out that he's here safe with us and will not being going straight to Heaven like his sister. Children's brains, hearts, and the way they process grief and loss is fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time. It's surely been a learning process for Ryan and I.

This is my all-time favorite festive Summer dessert. It is almost too pretty to eat! This was our last attempt at getting in berries before the apple and pumpkin season starts! Find the recipe for this Berry Tart with Dairy-Free Vanilla Custard on the blog or Cookery!

Guys! I absolutely love seeing everyone's creations! It makes my heart happy and so humbled to see so many people loving this food! Please keep posting your photos to my Facebook wall or tagging @againstallgrain and #againstallgrain so I can see what you've been enjoying!

I can't believe just 2 weeks ago, our little bug was still in my belly. I never thought I'd be one to say I missed being pregnant. Each of my 4 pregnancies were traumatic in their own way (loosing the first to a partial molar, being worried with Asher and having a preterm heart rate drop scare at 26 weeks, Aila's diagnosis, and then the emotional ride of a rainbow pregnancy with Easton), so I am always pretty ready to skip the pregnancy part and just have a healthy baby here. I also never really cared for what it did to my body!

For more on our story see these past articles:

Aila's Story

Faith Instead of Fear : My Rainbow Pregnancy Journey

Here was another of Asher's lunches this week. This time his lunch was a little bit more fun. I gave him seaweed, raspberries, mini meatballs with marinara sauce to dip in, lego jello (get the mold here!) and some veggies!

Unfortunately, this lunch was an epic fail. It got turned on its side and the raspberries got all mushy, the seaweed got soggy from the meatball juice, the jello got meat juice on it and the meatballs were covered in raspberries. Bummer.  Poor little man wouldn't eat it! He came home and told me “he almost cried, but stayed strong.” Broke my momma heart to imagine him sitting there without a lunch! Luckily he's out at 1:40 so we fixed him a new lunch right away and learned our lesson! I posted on Instagram to get advice, and you all blew me away with over 600 helpful comments! I'm looking to all you veteran lunch-packing moms to get the hang of this, and will be investing in a couple of different leak-proof lunch boxes you recommended.

See the comment thread here for some SUPER helpful tips!