30/03/2007

Technically, Sanjay gets back tonight.....

....but since he won't get back til after Asher goes to bed tonight I'm considering it an 'away' day and I'm making sure I post now while Asher is having his afternoon sleep not later (just in case the lack of having anything meaningful to say overwhelms me). Anyhow, I'm not as tired today as I was yesterday, but I'm feeling like I might be getting a little cold which would explain yesterday's exhaustion.
So in lieu of meaningful commentary* I'll just post a pic of Asher at the park today, wearing a t-shirt given to him by the lovely Acechick:




* what are you doing reading this blog if you are looking for meaningfull commentary! Ha! quick, go somewhere like Shannon's blog

29/03/2007

so..... tired.....

Ok, so I've decided that I'm not that keen on this Sanjay-less existance! I've been managing ok, but today I'm just exhausted and vague (I went out today and forgot to wear shoes!) so I'll keep this short.

Today, being Thursday we had baby club and V very kindly offered up her lovely home and a stack of canvasses for 'art-jam' for the babies. There was some limited finger painting, plenty of foot prints and a fair amount of mess but it was all terrific fun. I hope Sanjay doesn't read this because it will be giving away what his birthday present is - I think I'm pretty safe!

Ok, it's 9pm and I'm going to creep off to bed pretty soon - I'm really ready for Sanjay to come home now!

28/03/2007

I'm so lucky to have good friends

If I was a fairy from a story and got to bestow gifts on little babies that I love I would always wish for them to have really good friends around. I do, and I regularly feel so blessed, but it's kind of awkward to say without sounding soppy, and if I mention specific people I always leave out good friends who have been wonderful to me. Anyhow, I'm sending a silent prayer of thanks to the universe for my good friends.

Elvira came over last night and helped me get the kidlet ready for bed and then had dinner with me. It was just lovely to see her, and Asher was so tired he curled up and went to sleep really easily (not that it's hard the rest of the time, but there is usually some whinging when he gets put in his cot).

Today I'm meeting my inlaws for coffee when Asher wakes up and then we are going to try out Jumping Jacks before coming home for a sleep. Tonight I think mum and Clare will be coming over to help bathe the little guy and they will stay for dinner. I had better think about what I'm going to feed them and then raid the freezer.

The other thing that's happening today is that the lovely Bindy is having her baby! I look forward to hearing how the whole thing goes, and later in the week meeting the new little person.

27/03/2007

So far so good


Miles and Asher
Originally uploaded by karmakeda.
Day one went really well. Asher slept, we went to playgroup and while I didn't run into any of my friends there Asher had a great time, which is the point, I guess. We had lunch at home and then he slept and we took a walk in the afternoon before M and her son M (!) came over for dinner. The boys ate dinner, had a bath and a play and went to sleep pretty easily. M and chatted over a glass of wine and had dinner - all very grown-up and civilized.

I had nothing planned for today but one of the Baby Club mummies sent me a text this morning convincing me to go to playgroup again. Asher will just love it so it wasn't really a hard sell. I just hope I get an appointment at the ECHC so I can get his height and weight done and get the normal ticks in all the correct boxes. I'm perfectly comfortable with how Asher is developing but I want to get confirmation that he is putting on enough weight (maybe 300g-400g this year).

Not only have Asher and I been ok, but my plan to update the blog every day while Sanjay is away is going ok so far!

26/03/2007

Home Alone

It's 6:3 Monday morning and Sanjay is just about to leave for a weeks in Melbourne. Well, it's not really a week, it's just the working week and he'll be back on Friday night but four nights of reaching the end of the day, feeding the kid, dealing with pint sizes tantrums, bathing the kid and gettting him into bed will be wearing enough. Let's hope that this phase of sleeping through lasts another week at least. I know I should be ok though, and I have a few people lined up to come and help me if I need it. As long as I don't get any large frisky hutsman spiders in the house I actually should be ok.

Now, on a completely different note, I took photos of a really nice dish we cooked the other night with the intent to post the recipe here so I'll try to get to that soon. I will also post a 9 month developmental update (Asher is nine months today) after visitning the ECHC for his 9 month check.

I can hear the babay calling me caus he can hear Sanjay moving around quietly - I had better go and start the breakfast routine....

09/03/2007

Playgroup punchup

Well, not really, but a kid at playgroup yesterday really pressed my buttons and I didn't handle it at all well. Asher was playing on a gym mat outside with a little tunnel thing for kids to crawl through. There was a little girl of maybe three sitting in the tunnel and when Asher crawled over she pushed his hand away. I don't really know playgroup etiquette for dealing with these situations so I was really friendly, saying something like 'hey, he's just a baby and he doesn't want to come in there with you, so it's not nice to push him' but she reached further out of the tunnel and pushed his face away. He wasn't at all hurt or even made uncomfortable by this but I was starting to get pissed off with this kids so I said, in a more serious, less friendly tone 'hey, if there is a problem talk to me, don't push him' while very gently taking her hand away from my kid. She of course stared at me and pushed Asher again so I very gently took her hand, moved a little closer to her, looked into her eyes and said in a really slow quiet threatening tone 'don't push him' and at that moment her mother appeared and hassled her about playing with the baby toys and took her away. I felt bad about it because I feel like I handled the situation really badly - I (kinda) disciplined another person's kid, I told her 'don't' rather than give her an alternative and the worst part was that I basically got into a power struggle with a toddler, and I know from bitter experience that those power struggles are pretty much unwinnable. I guess I should have just picked Asher up and taken him to play with something else, but I hadn't had my coffee and I got all mother-bear protective of my kid.

Unfortunately (heh, it gets worse) this all happened just minutes after I had been (mentally) criticising another mother for the way she was disciplining her child (who was also pushing Asher - does my kid wear a 'push me!' sign that I can't see?). She had been telling her just barely two year old to 'stop' (not being specific) and vaguely threatening him with going home. We had been half chatting and she had been bitching to me about the fact her son has started pushing other kids (yep, loud enough for him to hear) while I, sitting atop my very high horse, had been thinking of Moxie's advice and that she should try diversion or gently getting between her kid and my kid if she was upset about it rather than vague whiny threats about going home. Everybody has bad days and when they are tired and harrased and the best way of dealing with toddler stroppiness isn't always obvious so I would like to unreservedly retract my judgemental and narky thoughts.

06/03/2007

Cooking Carrots


cooking carrots
Originally uploaded by karmakeda.

I'm forgetting a lot these days, so before I forget this, I wanted to make a note of my tips for making babyfood, and how we feed him now, at eight months.

Asher eats mostly food we cook, supplemented with commercially prepared jars when we are out and I'm not organised enough to bring food from home. We started with just rice cereal at around 24 weeks but quickly moved on to pureed pear and apple, then carrot, pumpkin and sweet potato. He now eats pretty much anything that we can puree, mush up or break into tiny pieces.

When I cook food specially for him, as opposed to when I feed him food that we have cooked for ourselves, I have learnt to cut it up much smaller than I would cut up food for me. This is because fruit and vegetables need to be pureed or mashed (the stick blender is my saviour!) and this is easier when they are cooked right through. So cut up small the whole piece gets cooked but the outside doesn't get too overcooked, which keeps the colour and texture good and minimises the loss of nutrients.

When Asher eats our food we try to make sure we reduce the amount of salt and spices we put in our food, but otherwise we just cook it as normal. Tonight we had roast chook and veggies for dinner and tomorrow Asher will probably get some of the roast carrot, potato and beetroot fork-mashed with some water and yoghurt with a bit of very finely diced chicken.

Most of what we cook for him is organic produce, which means it's mostly seasonal (organic fruit and veg is expensive enough when it's in season, out-of-season it's exorbitant), but we have stopped worrying about the allergy stuff. I know a lot of people are very careful about introducing new foods but I talked to my dad about it and he had a conversation with one of his colleagues about it and they believe that there isn't much evidence to suggest that early exposure increases the risk of allergy. We have put our money where our mouth is, so to speak, and he has had egg (in the form of frittata), prawns, wheat, dairy and probably something containing nuts or blended vegetable oil (which always contains peanut oil). We haven't given him sushi yet, but I would feel completely comfortable doing so (except it would mean less for me!).

I actually quite enjoy cooking for him, and I don't mind the process of feeding him now that we are both a bit better at it, although I miss the convenience of a totally breastfed baby (if the baby was with me I knew I had enough food for him!). I'm looking forward to trying new foods and, now that he has a tooth, increasing the textures we try.

Edited to add: when I puree food or have more mashed foood than he can eat in about two sittings I freeze it in a lidded ice cube tray. I then pop the frozen food cubes out inot a ziplock bag or a plastic take-away container and label carefully.

02/03/2007

Google Calendar

As well as using Google calendar with my family to try to keep us a bit organised I've created a calendar with public happenings in my area. Because I'm so focussed on my little family at the moment it's mostly stuff that could interest other parents of small kids around the lower North Shore, but I hope that I stay organised and keep it growing. Here it is, for those who want to check it out:

Please let me know of any relevant events so that I can include them.