A Big Brother Update and Smoothie Popsicles

This post was written in partnership with Microban. All tips, tricks, recipes and awesome parenting anecdotes are 100% mine

Without a doubt, the number one questions I’m asked these days is 

“How is Gray handling all of this??”

My big boy. He certainly has seen a lot of change in his little life over the past few months. We moved him into an apartment and then into the new house, had a baby, Daddy was home all of the time for a few weeks and then suddenly Daddy went back to work (we all felt the sting of that one). To top it off, he has a little sister who is, to put it nicely, a tad on the fussy side. I would be lying if I said I didn’t lay awake and worry that I didn’t spend enough one on one time with him that day – or if he’s feeling left out or, basically, if he hates us for bringing this pink, screaming little lady into his life. 

 I was recently introduced to the Microban Live On campaign, which is all about worrying a little less and living a lot more, and was inspired to really re-evaluate how Gray and I were spending our time together. And thanks to years of dealing with over thinking things, I know that worrying won’t actually change how either of us feels so I decided it was time to get creative and carve out chunks of our day for just the two of us.

Yesterday, we hit the trampoline park – and while baby sister was asleep in her stroller a few feet away, it was just Mommy and Gray time in the foam pit. I dove in, tossed a few foam blocks directly at my preschooler’s head (what? don’t judge, it was awesome) and secretly showed him how to double bounce when the park monitors weren’t looking. Earlier this week, things were a little more aggressive in acid reflux land and we needed an activity we could do at home, so I came up with a little something I like to call Smoothie Popsicle. 

Gray loves to help me in the kitchen and I love to feel like a good mom who gives her kids fruits and veggies so smoothies are always a hit for us, but I honestly had never considered tossing them into a Popsicle mold and freezing them for later. Gray and I decided to give it a whirl and what do you know, this mama might just be Pinterest worthy after all.

Because I had a helper who is known to wipe his boogers on things, I’m grateful we had our Neoflam cutting boards infused with Microban on hand to reduce the risk of all us catching whatever our little preschooler might be carrying around with him. Microban helps fight the growth of stain and odor- causing bacteria and helps keep our cutting boards cleaner for longer – and it’s built in during manufacturing so it isn’t going anywhere. As a bonus, the boards have the cutest little pictures on the edges and on each side to remind you what food item to cut per board – no mixing a board that is meant for produce with one that is meant for meats. 

We pulled out our Microban cutting board with the blue edge for fruits and got to work making our smoothie Popsicles. Gray is crazy into colors right now and he requested that we make a red smoothie on our blue cutting board. OK, kid, you got it.

Here’s what we tossed in our blender 

(yields: one smoothie to drink ASAP and three Popsicle)

 1/2 cup Raspberries

1 cup Strawberries

1/2 cup Naked Green Juice

1/4 cup Naked Orange Juice

1 tablespoon Blueberry yogurt 

I did the cutting and Gray did all of the loading into the blender business. Of course, he had no desire to wait for Popsicles to actually freeze so we had a smoothie on the spot and then poured what was left into the Popsicle molds.

 Honestly, that really worked in my favor because he was into the smoothie and didn’t stress about the Popsicles taking their time in the freezer. The next day, I reminded him that we had smoothie Popsicles and he was thrilled to make a mess with one all over my kitchen. 

 We’re all adjusting to being a family of four but I know, without a doubt, that our sweet boy is rising to the challenge of being an excellent big brother. He is caring and patient with her (and only occasionally covers his ears when she cries) and we couldn’t be more proud of him.