Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Busy little person

One year olds are busy. Especially this one. He is constantly on the move, exploring everything, wanting everything and touching whatever is within reach. It's a fascinating world out there and he just wants to be a part of it all.

Needless to say, the house constantly resembles a bomb site, he is covered in bumps and bruises and has meltdowns every so often as his frustrations get the better of him. I've had to baby proof to the next level as he begins to waddle around on his unsteady feet.

Watching a child discover their ability to walk is pretty fantastic to be honest. He has the proudest look on his face, grinning with his gappy little teeth, arms stretched out wide, taking timid little steps towards us. I can't get enough of it! The iphone is fast filling up with walking videos.


The boys eating corn puffs off the floor. 

 Just hanging with his car. Loves anything with wheels.

Taking a moment to do some puzzle.

Climbing. Planning his escape? I love his little 'sleepy' hair patch. 

Into toys involving 'threading' skills

Threading AND wheels... pretty much the ultimate toy right now. 

Time for bed. 




Monday, September 23, 2013

Tell Mummy what you want

I know I’ve been quiet around here, and my posts have been mostly about food. I guess I always try to share things that I think others may benefit from or take something from. It’s more of a practical blogging angle rather than a ‘dear diary’ approach.  In saying that, it does feel good to sometimes share parts of this journey with you, to say things out loud and to get them in writing so I remember them too in years to come so my next post will be a little more daily insight stuff.

In the meantime, I wanted to touch on something which I think others may be interested in. 
Baby Signing.

The first I saw and heard of baby signing was in that movie ‘Meet the Fockers’ which I LOVE and there’s that crazy Grandad who teaches his Grandson baby sign and everyone thinks it’s nuts. I secretly thought it was really clever, but actually thought they’d made it up for the movie. Turns out it actually exists and parents have been doing this for many years. Who knew? Not me.

I then saw baby signing for a second time, watching my friend with her baby girl. We traveled overseas with them, and her baby just seemed so content all the time, even in 35 degree heat… I had to know… what’s the key to this contentment? It’s a combination of things of course, but the main, most obvious one, was the way they communicated. She so clearly (at 10 months) could signal what she wanted, she never had to cry or complain. I want water. I want milk. I want food.

When she would start to get unsettled, my friend would simply say “show me what the problem is, what do you want?”
I want food (hand to mouth sign).
OK, well we will eat shortly OK? There’s no food here (backstreets of Bali), but we will get some very soon.
And with that, content baby returned. Even though she didn’t immediately get the food, she knew she had communicated the issue and her mum had understood and had responded. I was gob smacked.

I was sure I would be using it with Arthur… but as time went on, I kept forgetting to use it. When he started being cared for one day a week by my above mentioned friend, she introduced it to him… First word. Dog. Within a week he was patting his leg every time he saw a dog, or heard the word. So I started doing more words with him at home. I’ve only chosen a few that will help us to communicate while he learns to talk. 

It takes a few weeks for the signing to start, and you keep doing it and doing it and they don’t respond… so you’re not sure it’s working… but you keep doing it, and sure enough… one day they get it!

We gave him a small piece of bacon to try one morning as he’d never had it. He turned around to his Dad and clearly signed “MORE!” We looked at each other… surely not? So we did it again. Gave him some bacon, and as soon as it disappeared, he signed “MORE!” (very enthusiastically). It’s an exciting moment when you see their brain working like that. Needless to say he was VERY pleased with his new skill.

So far we have a few words/actions which he loves. He sees a dog and signs to me DOG! And his little face is all lit up with excitement when I say “Yes Arthur, It’s a dog! Clever boy”.   He has since learnt cat. He signs cat and looks around? As if to say, where’s that cat? I want to schmooze it and pull its fur and poke the cat's eyes….or sees a cat in a book and subconsciously starts doing the sign. 

It’s amazing how quickly new words are learnt. We just do one a week, and choose ones that really help us in day to day life. Eat/Hungry, milk, more, finished (stops him throwing food!), and his latest one, book. He does book when he wants to read, so we go and get books and do our reading. Next on the list is please… never too young to learn manners. 

So even though it makes us those slightly nutty parents. I’ve seen firsthand that it works, and just how happy it makes Art. He is so pleased with himself that he can tell me things, and he is trying to verbalise the words at the same time. He says bah bah noises while signing book, and mo mo noises when signing for more. So those theories about baby sign delaying speech? I don’t buy into that. This doesn't replace speech development, it simply gives them another way of communicating until their vocal language develops. It's no different from them learning to clap, or learning to nod their head or wave goodbye. It's all communication. 

Like all baby theories, there are numerous studies and opinions on the matter. I haven’t read them and don’t care to. I’m not doing baby sign to improve his language or boost his IQ . We aren't signing up for intensive baby signing courses or following any particular technique. I do it because we can communicate with each other. Overall we have a less frustrated child, and he is absolutely loving it and is almost desperate for more words to learn... I'm just forgetful with incorporating them into our daily conversations... and repetition is key. 

It’s maybe not for everyone, but I’m going out on a limb and ignoring the baby sign jokes and cynicism. This is working for us, so I’m going to keep doing it. We’ve just kept it to a few words, but that’s enough for us. 



Art at dinner - signing more...

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Easy dinners

Easy dinners are a life saver. I find that if I can whip something up in record time that's also nutritious, I'm winning.

The child is fed, I suffer no "I just fed my child crap" guilt, and there are minimal dishes to clean up.
Win win win.

Art eats this often. He doesn't complain (enjoying that while it lasts!), so I keep feeding it to him.
It may come in handy one night when you've got no time to lovingly bake a pumpkin in the oven for thirty minutes, or stir a risotto for twenty or create a stupidly fancy masterpiece that your child will thrown on the ground anyway.

Here it is. Nothing magic or amazing but totally edible.


Here's what's involved. 

Fill a pot with water and get it on the boil. 
Place your steamer on top and get the steam going. 

Add pasta to the boiling water in the pot. I mix rice and vegetable organic pasta spirals with regular wheat pasta 'springs'. Both easy finger food pastas. 

After about 5 minutes. Throw some broccoli, sliced courgette and frozen peas into your steamer. 

After 3-5 minutes (depends how crunchy your child likes it), take everything off the stove, throw it into a bowl and let it cool a bit. 

Add some cracked fresh pepper, a tiny bit of salt (not really needed) and grate some parmesan cheese over the top. If I have a lemon handy I'll squeeze a little bit of lemon juice over the dish too. 

That's it. 

Take the rest and put it in their lunch box for the next day, it's still yummy cold. The steamer is honestly your best friend. The juice from the vegetables as they steam falls down into the cooking pasta, so maybe in some roundabout way, the lost nutrients are found again? Or maybe not... but anyway, dinner will be done in about 10 minutes. 







Lunch time

I've been a little bit quiet around here... trying to find life balance, and blogging time is limited. I have a lot of photos to share, lunches, dinners, life, thoughts and ideas... but just lack the time! I need to duplicate myself somehow.

Here's a little lunch post, and I'll post something more meaningful tomorrow night... maybe.

This lunch was a little lighter than others. He might have been a bit hungry this day.. sorry Art!

1. Yoghurt Suckies for the afternoon.
2. Marmite and cheese sammies (cut with a tupperware 'fish' sammy cutter).
3. Craisins
4. Rice wheels and cheese
5. Vegetable & Rice pasta swirls with parmesan cheese and lemon juice.

I find even on our days at home, I follow this same segmented smorgasbord style lunch. He seems to like choosing what to eat first, and most of all, loves feeding himself.

Happy lunchboxing!