Crochet blanket progress

I think I will need around 75 blocks to make a single blanket.
15 blocks completed. 60 to go!

Weekend walks

Now that it's warmer, we started taking more walks on the weekend. Rather than walking in the afternoons, we set off earlier (at 10am) last weekend to avoid the heat, but it was still warm. We stopped at a park first this time, Lara and Sam both enjoyed the swings, they can sit on it forever! On our walk this Sunday we also checked out houses, plants and gardens while we walked and bumped into a film crew shooting in one of the streets, but we didn't recognised anyone 'famous'. We had coffee and returned books to the library after the walk. A nice and relaxing Sunday, just how we liked it.

Pumpkin and sultana scone

Made these scones the other day, only have two table spoons of sugar per batch.

Potato & garlic bread

I've made a lot of bread in the last 2 months. Most of the loaves (8 or 9 loaves) were the "Soft American-style white bread" (page 204 in 'Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day'). The first 2-3 loaves I used the exact recipe. I forgot butter in the next lot of dough, the difference was less rich and more sandwitch-like. I omit butter altoghter from the recipe after that.

I decided to try a differnt bread last week - 'Roasted garlic potato bread' (page 118). I mixed the dough on Saturday morning, baked it that night. Next door had their daughter's 21st party, the music was too loud to sleep so I was forced to stay up late and ate some bread. It was very nice warm from the oven. We had more bread the following day for lunch with sausages, meat balls and salad. I think the potato somehow gave the bread a very nice texture and made it surprisingly soft. It'll be interesting to see if the bread taste the same after the dough is refrigerated.

Ear trouble

I postponed and cancelled Sam's specialist appointments twice because he seemed to be fine after stopping daycare. Once or twice though, I thought I smelt something sweet coming from his ears. To make myself at ease and think maybe we should try daycare again, I decided to keep this Wednesday's appointment. Am I glad that I did.

Wednesday was a busy day - I enrolled Lara at the 'big school' in the morning and I had to work that night (from 9pm for 4-5 hours). The appointment didn't worry me as I thought it would be a walk-in-walk-out, confirm-everything's-fine sort of thing, but I was totally wrong.

Firstly, the appointment was not made at the best time - it was booked 3 months ago at a time I thought Sam would most likely to be up, but 2pm now fell in the middle of Sam's only day sleep. Secondly, my plan of letting Sam have a short sleep in the pram beforehand didn't work, so he was very tired at 2pm. Then the doctor was running late, so Sam was over-tired by the time we saw the doctor at 2.45pm (so was Lara after she played 'jump from the cushions' in the playroom with her friend who happened to be seeing another doctor at the same surgery). I was tired too from stopping Sam break anything in the surgery, sucking on door stops, opening drawers and bumping his head on glass doors that I was very glad when Sam's name was called. I went through the motions of explaning Sam's past recurrent ear infections and how he was fine after no daycare for nearly 3 months and answered routine questions "Do you have any conecerns about his hearing?" "No" "Does he sleep alright at night?" "Yes he sleeps through every night" and so on. So I was shocked when the doctor told me Sam has glue ear, and that he probably can't hear me very well!

The short story is Sam is on bactrim (antibiotics) and Prednefrin Forte eye drops (on Sam's nose as it has the same ingredient as the nose drop without the sting) for a month then we will see if the condition improves. If not then surgery might be required (ie grommets). The 'glue' in his ear needs to be cleared or drained so it doesn't hinder his speech ability in the future.

I've been reading information about glue ear apparently it's very common, 1 in 3 Australian primary aged kids have it. The risk factors are : being with lots of kids (tick when Sam was in daycare), allergy (tick, Sam has eczema, quite bad sometimes) and being a boy (tick). Luckily Sam doesn't seem to be bothered by his glue ear so far and is generally very active and happy. Hope his condition improves in the next few weeks.

Happiest outdoors

We spent more and more time in the garden now that it is warmer. The retaining wall is done but not finished. The last bit of work (pipe behind the wall has no where to go) always takes the longest. Work is progressing but quite slowly. We will be planting a few more bushes and plants in the garden in particularly near the retaining wall. Looking forward to plant-hunting next weekend!

Tiger mother

I just finished an interesting book called 'Battle hymn of the tiger mother' by Amy Chua. I reserved this book for $2 from our local libray about 2 months ago and got it last Tuesday but only had two weeks to read it because there were other people waiting to read the book. I wasted no time and started straight away, and as it turned out, I finished the book in 3 days.

This book was supposed to be about how a "Chinese" mother(also a Yale law professor) raised her kids, the main focus being her daughters' music education (piano & violin). The are a lot of stereotypes in the book, which I found hilirious. Maybe I can relate to the stories because I remembered growing up wishing I had a 'tiger mum' sometimes (Mum used to tell me not to study too hard!). I admire Chua's perseverance towards her daughter's music learnings even if I wouldn't do what she did under the same circumstances.

Education theories of today advocate freedom and let kids be kids. To a large extent, this is also what I adopt. But does that mean the parents should do nothing and let their kids decide and do whatever they want? Parents are so scared of discipline their kids these days(me too) for various reasons - worried they'll hurt their kids feelings, kill their imaginations or cause some sort of psychological damages. I feel the kids of today are not as strong and can't take as much as the kids of yesterday. This book challenged me to think more about what I do as a parent, not just follow the latest theories or what everyone else is doing.

The 'birthday card' incident in the book resonated with me the most. As a parent, I do want my kids to try their best whatever they do. Let's face it all kids (us included) have the tendency to do less if you let them(or yourself). I had a first-hand experience about this. Lara used to get very frustrated when she couldn't draw something and I told her the drawings didn't have to be perfect. Now the pefect came back to bit me. She showed me some half-attempted scribbles she called 'rainbows' and said 'but you said it didnt' have to be perfect'! when I questioned her. I agree with Chua that kids need to know you expect better of them and sometimes you have to push them a little just beyond their current abilities so they can improve. What people can't agree on is how much is too much. I was looking at Chua's eldest daughter, Sophia's blog the other day and thought she had not done too badly with her daughter-Sophia seems to be a well-adjusted kid who is accepted to go to Harvard. She had no problem with her upbringing, so why should anyone else?

"...one of the worst things you can do for your child's self-esteem is to let them give up. On the flip side, there's nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn't.." page 62

Monday night dinner

I work on Mondays now so Simon's in charge of the cooking on Monday nights. He made a nice stew last week. I came home earlier last night so this dinner was a joint efforts - grilled chicken wingettes, fried potatoes, stir-fried garlic baby spinach and crispy fennel.

I got a fennel in my vege bag and was wondered what to do with it, then I found a nice fennel recipes that both Simon and Lara liked (well ... Lara ate it).

This is how I do it. Trim fennel bulbs and remove outer hard layers. Cut fennel into half then cut each halves into threes or quarters. Boil for a couple of minutes until just tender. Dip fennel segments into an egg/milk mixture then a bread crumb/parmasen mixture. Shallow fry until crispy. Yum!

This post was written on 12/07, I didn't process the photos until a couple of days ago.

Sam is one!

I remembered vividly the day I went into hospital to be induced and how fast everything happened at the end. I still remembered holding Sam straight after his brith, feeling his naked, sticky bottom and thinking how bony it felt (compared to Lara's). I also remembered falling asleep with him lying on top of me the day after. Now Samuel's walking and babbling and a whopping 11 kg! We had a small family birthday celebration for him the Sunday before his birthday. Lara helped me decorate his birhday cupcakes.

Sam learned to shake his head in response to a question. He would wait for me to finish the question, he would pause for a minute as if he was thinking, then he would shake his head like crazy. Sometimes he shook his head so hard that he fell over. It was hilirious to watch. The more we laughted, the more Same did it.

Sam wants to be in the midst of everything. Mum and I were pointing to a crochet block and discussing the colours. What did Samuel do? He walked over and pointed to the block and started "babbling". He also likes to watch 'Ninja Warrior' and 'Unbeatable benzuki' (SBS from around 7:30pm on Sunday) with Lara and us. He clapped and made all the right nosies when we did.

Sam was fored to stand in a corner for the first time the other night because he would not stop hitting Lara! We joked that we should have a corner reservered for him becuase at this stage it looks like he'll be spending a lot of time there!

Sam loves his food and always wants to try our food. Typical meals in a day for him would be :weetbix with fruit in the morning, bread with vegemite and avocardo for lunch, rice (congee) with veges or meat/fish for dinner. He also has what we have sometimes. He still has 3 formula feeds a day. More and more, Sam only has one sleep in the middle of the day, usually from around 12:30pm to 3pm.

Sam started showing stranger/separate anxiety. He's weary of people he didn't know well and took some time to get used to Mum. Sam loves his Grand-dad the best.

New door

Father-in-law working on the door frame.

When Simon organised a guy to come and cut a great big hole in our family room, we didn't know we would get pouring terrential rain for days afterwards, thus delay in starting work. The timing wasn't great either with this work started the day after Mum arrived and with Sam's birthday celebration(families coming) in the midst of it. Father-in-law worked hard to get the door in after the rain stopped (he's a perfectionist so work wa not fast-going). It's almost finished now.

Reading eggs

Since one of us is home with Sam for the moment, I decided to reduce Lara's daycare days from 3 to 2 days. Lara's going to school next year, I'd like her to have one more leisured mornings, I want to spend more time with her especially if I'm at home anyway. We will also save some money.

Lara first started showing interest in 'spelling' words a couple of months ago. I thought it was very clever when she said "p-ra-m, pram... pram starts with p and r" (not sure where she learned that from?). I let her try the reading eggs online program for 2 weeks and decided to subscribe at the end of the trial period. I don't care if Lara is able to read before school, I'm sure she'll learn that from school. I care more about her "attitude towards learning". Lara had shown enthusiam about the game so I thought it would be a good idea to monitor her attitude while she learns in the home environment. I am careful about how much time she stays on the computer. I let her do it once or twice a week, around 30 minutes each time.

Lara got frustrated earlier on with one of the 'stamping' game, not because she didn't know the answers but the letters came out too quickly and she couldn't click the mouse fast enough. She cried and exclaimed "I don't want to do computer games ever again!". I directed her away and told her she didn't have to do it if she didn't want to. After she calmed down, she wanted to have another go. After a few tries, she's now, in her own words, "very good at the stamping game".

She anticipats which picture contains the correct answer now and puts the mouse near that area and is pleased with herself if she gets it right. She also starts to try the wrong answers just to see what the animations do. Lara has the tendancy to rush through the lessons so she can advance to the next lesson. She didn't want to repeat any lesson when I suggested it. Lara learned to buy "stuff" with the eggs she collected after the lessons. She bought the first object she liked rather than looking at all her options. I observe her, but try to leave her alone and not tell her what to do, it's all playing to her at this stage.

There's uncertainty around work and daycare at the moment. We can only take one day at a time. In the meantime, I have more time to think about what I can do to help Lara and Sam enjoy their childhood and my parenthood more.

New project

I'm learning to crochet. I want to make Lara and Sam a granny square blanket (each). Here are a couple of my practice squares. I have a few teachers (a friend, mother-in-law and a book), but each told me slight differnt stitches (I'm sure there are many ways to do grannty squares) and I struggled to understand the book (it was a very lovely book called 200 crochet blocks by Jan Eaton from the library). My fingers are sore from holding the wool and needle and my squares are a little too 'loose' but I'm gettint there. I can now "see the stitches" so I can tell if I'm doing it right.

This new hobby provides a nice distraction, a goal to focus on. I'm very excited thinking about the colour combinations of the blanket. There are so many nice blocks I want to do when I'm better, but I need to understand the book first (and finish my first blanket!)

Sunday baking

There were lemons in my vege bag two weeks in a row. To use them up, I made a couple of "lemon-styled" cakes. I didn't bake much in June as there were some sort of illness in the family almost every weekend. Now that the rain has stopped and the sun is out, it feels more like cake-eating weather!

Last week's lemon and poppy seeds cake.


This week's lemon and chocolate cake.

Birthday dinner

Simon's birthday dinner at home last week. His favorite pizza!

Lara's artwork

Lara uses a lot of colours in her drawings. Pictured above are roller coasters. Teachers and parents in daycare all liked and commented on her artwork. Lara sometimes gets frustrated though. She was colouring the sky blue the other day and exclaimed "Mum my arms hurt and I'll never finish the sky!". I suggested she draw a 'smaller' sky so she could finish it without aching hands.



Lara is also very interested in drawing birds. She has been doing aboriginal painting in daycare and this is Lara's interpretation of aborigianl parrots. She enjoys drawing/painting a lot and can sit down for longer periods of time doing it.

More kids pictures

Lara and Sam have been getting along well. They still fight for toys (whatever toys Lara's playing with, Sam wants the same one too), and have small accidents (like the time Lara fell on Sam, or Sam hitting Lara or pulling her hair) but I think they enjoy each other's company. Lara is quite protective of Sam and is as gentle with him as a four-year-old can be and Sam's eyes light up when Lara is around.







These photos always bring a smile to my face, sometimes tears to my eyes and most definitely light up my life.

What is Samuel up to?

Books June 2010 - June 2011

Open
By Andre Agassi
Out of all the books listed here, I enjoyed this one the most. It is very well-written (J.R. Moehringer put it together). Agassi expressed his opinions and detailed events very honestly. It was surprising to learn how much agassi hated tennis and sad to learn about his childhood and the influences of his father. I read a lot of it on the train to work. I was totally immersed in the book that sitting down at work typing away on the computer afterwards felt very strange. Highly recommended.

A pressure cooker saved my life- How to Have It All, Do It All, and Keep It All Together By Juanita Phillips AND
love wisdom motherhood - conversations with inspiring women By Jessica Rowe
These two books are both written by newsreaders about motherhood. Juanita Philips wrote about her own motherhood struggles while Jessica Rowe wroute about other womens thoughts and experiences of motherhood and work. Juanita talked about her role-reversal experiment (she worked full time while hubby stayed at home and looked after kids) and how that nearly broke the marriage. And Jessica wrote about Heidi Middleton (co-owner of Sass & Bide fastion label) dealing with breast-cancer while pregnant with her second child, how tired Gail Kelly (Wespac CEO) felt when her triplets were young(she also had a older child before the triplets), Collette Dinnigan as a single parent, Quentin Bryce (Governor general) nearly had a breakdown and other stories. It's comforting to know that even all of these well-known Mums had a lot of help from familiy and outside help, they still struggle with balancing it all.

Tea time for the traditionally built
By Alexander McCall Smith

The art of racing in the rain
By Garth Stein
Sad story.

Eat pray love
By Elisabeth Gilbert
An interesting real-story and page-turner. I found myself reading it slowly as to save pages so I could enjoy the book a little longer. The movie was a little disjointed and confusing I thought.

Yum char

We had a yummy yum char lunch on Friday after Lara's ballet. We timed the outing according to Sam's sleep routine and didn't have to wait long for food. We ordered 8 dishes, incuding a plate of soy chicken, a plate of white bait and other dumpling dishes. Lara didn't stop eating during the meal and Sam sat throught the whole meal and ate more food than any 10-month old I know! We really enjoyed this simple outing after some stressful time ealier this month.

We made a swift decision at the beginning of June to take Sam away from daycare. Sam's now on his 6th course of antibiotics and has another cold. I worry about his recurrent ear infection and wanted time for his ears to recover. The decision was made quickly but not lightly. We didn't know what the consequences of this decision meant. And for the 48 hours afterwards, unexpected events made things even more uncertain for us. Now we know Simon and I will both work part time for the next couple of months so we can look after Sam between us. We will find out if this arrangement works and see how things pen out after that.

Sam sucking on a deep-fried white bait @ yum char and Lara looking very pleased with a full tummy!

My 'harvest hub' bag

I've been using "Harvest Hub" for fruit and veg in the last 4 weeks on a friend's recommendation. I like that fact that it's a community co-op that buy fresh produce in bulk and in season. The produce has been good. A couple of the mandarins last week were dry (nothing beats our own on the tree!) and some of the potatoes seemed a bit old the week before. Generally speaking, most things were nice and fresh. You don't know what'll be in the bag so it's a surprise every time. The varieties had been great. The small bag ($17) has been sufficient in covering our weekly consumption of fruit and veg. It saves a lot of money because I go to the shops less often.

The picture shown here was last weeks bag. It had silverbeet, cauiflower, sweet potato, beans, grapes and rockmelon, among other things.


In this week's bag, there are:
6 small potatos, a small head of brocolli, 1/4 purple cabbage, 2 large carrots, 2 tomatoes, 2 onions, a small turnip, a bunch of corriander, a small avocardo, 3 pears, 3 mandarins, 2 oranges, 4 kiwi fruit, 1/2 pineapple, 6 apples (red varieties). The small bag will increase in price to $20 next week but it's still good value for money I think.