my-speck

i'm pregnant and it's going to be a rollercoaster

and she was listening…sleep… September 23, 2011

Filed under: activities for kids,baby stuff,baby's feelings,dancing,development stages,exercise,exhaustion,family,imitation,Parenting,playing,Raising a Child — rakster @ 12:49 pm
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So, after my last post where I complained about the lack of sleep…

My little darling slept right from 7pm to 3:30am last night. Woo hoo! I got more than 3 hours of sleep in a row!

Win for the weekend.

I however went to bed with another case of mild-mastitis, so not feeling 100%, so the lack of eating regularly made it slightly worse and I felt like total crap this morning :(. Have since made up for that by shoving poor little L on the boob at every available waking moment. A few panadols later, I’m feeling alright..

this is what I feel like when I wake up. thankfully there is no-one to take photos of me.

….
Spent the morning at O’s daycare, as he was feeling like he needed some more mummy time. I went in and read some books, playing in the garden with the kids, then went to his ‘body gumbo’ (or body bumbo as he says) class. A bit of a mix between dance/movement and yoga. It was fun. I think I enjoyed it more than he did. I can now do my salute to the sun with an animal impression at each different position. WIN! We will now be doing more yoga/play at home. It rocked.

….

now I am enjoying some me-time while little L sleeps and O is at daycare.

the sleeping babe - I got her cot out a week ago so she has her own space in our room.

 

sleepy-head Luna, 13 weeks old

…

Tonight I am going out with my amazing sisters, all four of us, for a drink. So perfect timing with the whole lots of sleep last night.

 

🙂 have a good weekend everyone!

 

sleep. Or lack of it. September 21, 2011

Filed under: Parenting — rakster @ 2:06 pm

this morning as I drove O to Oscar I realised I was almost wandering off the road in the car. And thought, “Gee, I wonder what the matter is?”

And then at the pool chatting with a friend, she quietly said, “you’re yelling” as I recounted the distribution of laundry-doing-tasks in our house at the moment (all me: washing, hanging, folding; clothes and everything else). Oops.

The lack of sleep for going on three months is really starting to get to me. This morning was a winner, with the little babe awake at 4am for an hour (unusual), then snorting-through-her-snot-cold for the next half-hour so I couldn’t sleep, then the 2 year old waking up at 5:30 am and declaring, “I’m awake, Mummy!” at the top of his voice. Then proceeding to get up instead of going back to bed, and whilst I didn’t get up, I heard him talking at the top of his voice till I did get up at 6:30. ..

yeah. So basically in addition to the normal night feeding, I didn’t get a wink of sleep after 4am.

Not a coherent mummy.

I am recalling that #1 slept through the night from about 8 weeks to six months. Gee I wish #2 would do the same.

My sister has suggested I just eat more chocolate. Though I bought some clothes yesterday and in the interest of not having to buy any more, I think I need to lay off that…

…

This phase of life has to be nature’s little way of ensuring there is a decent gap between siblings.

…

 

Juggling a temper with an ear infection… and cuteness.. September 15, 2011

Filed under: activities for kids,baby stuff,baby's feelings,Communication,cooking,development stages,family,healthcare,Parenting,playing,Raising a Child,speaking — rakster @ 2:12 pm

Day three of an ear-infected, cranky little boy. And a sleeping-a-lot-trying-to-fight-it-off little babe.

Mummy is going a bit stir crazy. She was seen stalking the neighbour’s cat with a squirt gun this afternoon through the back garden… By a workman who she didn’t notice in the other neighbour’s garden. Nice look. He waited until she had been down there for about 5 minutes acting like a dodgy commando-action-hero actor before he made his presence known by raucous laughter. She was a tad embarrased. But granted, she was doing it as the blasted cat was trying to eat her two new chickens. And for some light self-entertainment (she makes her own fun). The workman graciously pointed out where the chickens had gone and where the cat was hiding when his laughter subsided.

As you can see, fours days with two children at home all day, one of whom is on full whine/tantrum/attention-needing at all waking hours, with very little adult human interaction, has left her unable to speak in the first person anymore. She has reverted to full third-person child-speak. God-knows why.

The only saving grace was a few minutes last night when she was preparing dinner. Little O was very excited to be at the big table on his new grown-up big chair and was entertaining his sister with the gift she so carefully chose for him when she was born.

entertaining the little sister


cuteness.

drilling - hard work

 

A new low in Australian Politics – denying a pair to a father to attend to the birth of his child September 9, 2011

Filed under: Parenting — rakster @ 3:08 pm

Grandstanding in politics is frequent. But our current opposition leader’s position – where he is refusing to guarantee a ‘pair’ for a father about to have a child if the father is absent from parliament during a crucial vote in our no-outright-majority-parliament – has to be a new low.

Surely it’s more important for a father to be present for the birth of his child, whenever that occurs, than be present for a vote on whatever is before parliament, whenever that occurs.

I am simply appalled that there is an attempt at point-scoring and blatant media-attention-seeking focus on such an issue.

The poor child & mother.

 

Digger heaven August 30, 2011

Filed under: Parenting — rakster @ 3:58 pm

Digging up the footpath in front of our house: hours of entertainment and up-close digger observation for the digger admirer in the household..

20110830-035519.jpg

 

A beach escape… Moreton Island August 19, 2011

Filed under: family,Parenting — rakster @ 1:48 pm
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It was Ekka week this week in Brisvegas.

 

For those not in the know, Ekka is slang for the “Exhibition”, which is the Royal Queensland Show, where they judge entries in a whole heap of categories ranging from cake decorating to showjumping to wool…..  And there are sideshow rides, and showbags and….  A bunch of stuff that a 2 year old doesn’t need yet.  The petting zoo came to visit his daycare recently, so I’m thinking that avoiding the dreaded “ekka flu” by staying away is well in order for at least a few more years to come 🙂

 

And the sole public holiday in the latter half of the year is mid-week for Ekka.   So we extended it and took a few days out with some friends to venture to Moreton Island: an island right off Brisbane in the bay, but a bit more effort to get to: a 4WD adventure to get there, a bit remote (no shops at all where we were).  We stayed in the lovely house of some friends with a group of 12: 6 adults, 6 kids (7 weeks, 7 weeks, 9 weeks, 2.1 years, 2.1 years, 3 years) – so busy!  But yet: beautiful and relaxing despite the demands of a tribe of small ones.

Yay for holidays.

 

we all love the beach!

Yay for the beach.

 

all this, all just for us…

Much more relaxed mum.

beach and a baby. loving it!

🙂

love mum

P.S. Yes, the water was a bit nippy. But only a bit. I swam and stayed in quite comfortably when we were on the surf-side beach and I could get in deep enough quickly enough. It was the wind on the beach that was the killer. So lovely to swim though! Blisssssssssss

 

Portrait of a 5 week old baby August 18, 2011

Filed under: Parenting — rakster @ 10:18 am

So we got some family shots done a few weeks ago, and while I will put a few more up, here is a cute snap for the day.

Welcome to the world again little Luna.

 

Cooking Experiment – Rocky Road…. August 11, 2011

Filed under: cooking,Parenting — rakster @ 1:31 pm
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Can I rate it before I describe the process?? YES?

FAIL, total fail, on an objective how good was your rocky road quality test.

PASS, exuberant PASS on a subjective how good does it taste test.

OFF THE SCALE SUCCESS on was it a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon with your rocking little sister test.

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, on the weekend we attempted to emulate the amazing Noosa Chocolate Factory’s Rocky Road

Which was a very fun process, but not so successful in emulating their product…

 

I started by making homemade marshmallows using David Lebovitz’s recipe, which worked wonderfully.  Light, fluffy and lovely to bite into and eat.

 

homemade marshmallow

cutting up the homemade marshmallow and the finished product! Yum

It was the fruit jelly layer that was our first undoing.  We had a number of attempts, using no recipe but ones we adapted using a mix of gelatin and agar.  Then realized after attempt #5 that the Noosa chocolate factory actually use pectin.  Which we decided we didn’t want to try at 4pm after attempt #5.    We ended up with one set of jelly that we thought would hold together ok and tasted ok.  Ok, not wonderful, but worth a shot.  …

attempts at fruit jelly layer for rocky road

Then we tried to mix it all together: our roasted peanuts, coconut, marshmallow, fruit jelly and melted chocolate…..

 

My sister was all for just throwing it in together and mixing.  I decided I’d prefer to experiment with a few techniques.  Luckily we went with my advice, as guess what?  Hot melted chocolate melts marshmallows made with egg white and gelatin!  Who would have thought!

But we had a hoot: laughing, eating sticky piles of goo, and eventually ending up with a few samples that we might actually serve to friends.

 

attempts to combine ingredients to an edible rocky road

attempts to combine ingredients to an edible rocky road… note the bottom left… bit of a mess!

Overall verdict: FUN.  But still requires some tweaks.  I think we might give it a rest for a month and then have another shot…..

homemade rocky road

the finished product: sans-fruit-jelly-layer rocky road!

Love me.

P.S. and this was definitely a not-for-the-two-year-old dish. He would have bounced right into the sky with the amount of sugar in it!
P.P.S. If and when you read this when you are older, I was keeping you from it for your own good. And it wasn’t perfect, so have to perfect it before you are old enough to have it anyway!

Readers – have you ever tried homemade rocky-road? Any tips???

 

Singing to my baby sister :) – Movie Monday August 8, 2011

Filed under: activities for kids,baby stuff,baby's feelings,Communication,development stages,emotion,family,Parenting,playing,Raising a Child,speaking — rakster @ 4:39 pm
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Finally managed to get the video camera going in time to capture this attempt to pacify the smaller sister 🙂

This almost compensates for the number of times I ‘mistakenly’ attempt to jump on her head each day….

Love mum

P.S. Rocky road to follow later this week

 

I won!! I won!! I won!!! (something for once, and something good!~!) and… the start of a rocky road adventure August 6, 2011

Filed under: cooking,family,Parenting,vegetarian — rakster @ 2:34 pm
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Hello,

here I am, quietly spending my Saturday experimenting with gelatine, agar and a few different varieties of a strawberry jelly… Because my sister and I are trying to create our own version of the marvelous Noosa Chocolate Factory rocky-road that is sold at the Jan Power markets here in Brisbane.


It is totally addictive and amazing.   I’m just lucky I don’t have the energy to walk the 30 minutes to the city on a Wednesday yet when it is sold so I can buy it regularly… (though note to self: that may change. Bulge around the middle from baby-stretch: advises against incorporating this outing into the weekly routine. Taste-buds and sugar-receptor centre of brain advise: the case for – walking would burn off enough energy to eat a lot, surely that would compensate… and there is a playground, pool, etc at Southbank on the way, so it combines as a good kids outing)…

So the homemade marshmallow is done.  Thank-you to David Lebovitz for the recipe.

But the jelly layer isn’t going so well.

 

But I won!!

Frustrated, I returned to my computer to once again find some recipes for a fruit jelly and see what I could tweak after attempt #4 is not quite right… And got sidetracked reading a few blogs…..

 

AND DISCOVERED THAT I WON BABYMAC’S FABULOUS 5 YEARS BLOGIVERSARY GIVEWAY!!!!  Yes, me, I won!!

…  And the first thing I think I’ll enjoy is a glass of great champagne.  As I was just saying on facebook yesterday: “breastfeeding, bouncing and thinking, ‘oh yeah, I could go a cocktail’ while listening to the dj on jjj at the moment.. Greatest hits of my previous life as a clubber :)”.  So next DJ set I put on I can express some breastmilk in advance, pass off a feed or two, have a nice glass of champagne and bounce along myself.

 

Thank-you BabyMac!

-r

 

P.S. Notes on the rocky-road adventure to follow tomorrow.