my-speck

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

christmas preparation – the advent calendar December 17, 2011

we have been doing a lot of preparation for Christmas around our house for the past few weeks…

Lots of making decorations (two-year old fashion).. With pipe cleaners and coloured popsicle sticks. Gorgeous.

And putting them on the tree.

(which suddenly grew a lot more ‘bling’ the weekend I went away when only daddy and little O were home)…

the advent calendar being enjoyed

The simplest and one of the best things we did was make a ‘leaf’ advent calendar (with thanks to the inspiration from little eco footprints. O loves pulling a new leaf off each day, it was fun and easy to make, and it looks good. :)

the advent calendar

What have you been doing?

 

camping – yay! October 31, 2011

We had a lovely weekend away at Lake Cootharaba – camping at Boreen Point.

Oscar ran wild through the bush around the campsite with the other two year old

Bush play - camping at Boreen Point

sparklers at dusk

and the two babes slept like the proverbial babes.

sleeping like babes in the bush

I enjoyed a swim and an unplug.  Mmmmm.

 

Business at the front …. Party in the back!!! October 6, 2011

I’m in love with the little curls at the back of my little boy’s head.

 

curls...

curls at two years

And his dad has a limited amount of hair, which seems to be decreasing in volume just ever so slightly over time (..ahem..).  So we figured, let him grow it, it will be one of the only times in his life he can have nice long hair and not have a care / worry about it.

 

He has asked quite a few times when seeing me do my hair in the morning, if he could “please have a hair clip too?”.  Which of course, I’m happy to oblige with.  Issue is, he most definitely wants to be able to see it in the mirror when he inspects it, so it ends up front and centre.  Which he doesn’t mind at all.  But perhaps won’t go down too well when he is a little older.

 

wearing a hairclip

And it is getting towards summer, which here in Brisvegas, Australia, can be a pretty hot and sticky affair.

 

So we decided on a cut.  Which was yesterday.  We went as a family to the salon for the big affair.  He sat in the chair and watched while his dad had his hair cut, drank his apple juice (special treat from the lady at the salon), and waited patiently.  Then sat as still as a statue while she cut his, moving only his mouth to ask, “Mum, what she doing??” repeatedly.

 

the 'before' shot

I like the hairdresser. they have juice!

getting ready. this is serious business, you know.

"what she doing?"

cutting

I couldn’t bear to see too much cut off, so we opted for a trim to keep it out of the eyes at the front and just a little off at the back.

 

The result: a lovely Mullet.  As my sister said, “Business at the front…. Party in the back!!”.

the 'after shot'

 

 

 

 

apple poppyseed cinnamon muffins September 28, 2011

The muffins we made on Saturday are a staple around our house – simple, sugar-free (just honey), take about 5 minutes + cooking time, and can be done with pretty much any fruit you have about.  The original recipe calls for blueberries, but we usually do apple.  They are so simple, kids can help measure, mix, spoon and they are ready in a jiffy.

cupcakes! AKA apple cinnamon poppyseed muffins

apple poppyseed cinnamon muffins

1 banana, mashed

¼ cup vegetable oil

⅓ cup honey

¾ cup milk

1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour

1 cup white self-raising flour

½ cup poppyseeds

big dash ground cinnamon

finely grated zest 1 lemon

2 medium-large granny smith apples, diced 1cm or smaller cubes

method

  1. Mix together banana, oil, honey and milk.
  2. Add the flours, poppyseeds, cinnamon and zest and mix very lightly (remember that muffin batter should only be just mixed).
  3. Stir in the apple.
  4. Spoon into 12 lightly greased muffin pans. Bake in a preheated moderate (180°C) oven for about 20 minutes.

notes

  • serve warm! they don’t need butter that way
  • they freeze well
  • works fine with frozen/defrosted bananas (i always put my oops forgot about those bananas in the freezer for cooking.  Just skinned and in a freezer bag/container.
  • you can substitute pretty much any fruit, or a combination, or put more or less to your tastes.

variations

blueberry

substitute 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen) for the apple, and omit the poppyseeds, cinnamon and lemon zest.

source

the original blueberry recipe from: Creber, Ann. (1988) The Almost Healthy Cookbook p13

 

 

P.S.  Always looking for new muffin recipes – let me know if you have a favourite!

 

Saturday morning breakfast… September 24, 2011

“Mum, can we make cupcakes?”

Mmmm..  I don’t think he’ll know the difference between cupcakes and sugar-free apple and cinnamon and poppyseed muffins….

Let’s cook!

eating the spoon

can I lick the spoon now??

We mixed the batter, licked the spoon and baked.

They turned out well:

cupcakes! AKA apple cinnamon poppyseed muffins


off to the garden for breakfast:

Eating the end result!

 

and she was listening…sleep… September 23, 2011

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!

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

Follow-up: out and about with the new mountain buggy freerider scooter / pram combo August 5, 2011

Hello,

Yes, playing with the scooter (mountain buggy freerider) and mountain buggy (mountain buggy urban jungle) combo has been fun so far. A few people have written asking how I found it overall, so a quick review:

the freerider - currently in use at our house to the tune of a lot of 'bloody hell' from the toddler learning to use it: oops

  • I love that the older one can attach and see out as we walk along – works really well with the baby cot/cocoon attached, though my little one is a bit short so when the normal stroller seat is attached he can only see out the sides at the moment, though that will change as he gets taller.
  • I found the scooter hard to attach/detach from the pram in the beginning. Now I’ve worked out a method that works, but it requires a little bit of getting down on the ground and pulling/pushing the clips.
  • Yes, the scooter does get in the way of walking a little. But only a little: you can attach it anywhere along the base of the pram, so I’ve got it to one side.  Which means I just push on one side of the pram and it works ok – not as comfortable to push as without it, but not bad.
  • Steering/pushing the pram with the scooter and child attached is a bit harder / different than normal, you need two hands rather than the one I often use when there is no-one riding an attached scooter.  It feels a bit like driving a car with a trailer and trying to turn corners.  Just a bit heavier and more cumbersome.
  • The scooter works well when it isn’t attached to the pram, however the handle doesn’t turn to steer: you have to lean into it the same as a skateboard.  So it’s a bit harder for Oscar to steer than other scooters he has tried.
  • Oscar loves being on the scooter and being able to see the baby in the pram.

Overall:

It’s a fun toy / scooter, I think it will get better and more convenient the older O gets (he is only just two, so it is still a bit hard for him to use)…
It feels really securely attached to the pram i.e. safe. I like that!
It is super convenient to be able to detach it for ‘freeriding’, attach it when a toddler is standing on it, and flip it up out of the way when it’s not in-use. Which is why we bought it: ie. it works as it says it does!

We’ve decided to buy a double pram anyway as we do go on a lot of long walks etc and when little legs get tired and my back gets sore after baby-wearing for a few hours it will be nice to have a break and be able to use a pram for both of them together.

 

yay.

 

-r

 

Monday morning tea July 18, 2011

Morning tea on the deck overlooking the river at the state library after a play.

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We are all going to need a nap today: exhausting for me, but fun!

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