narrating kayoz

{This Moment} Eliane helps make ANZAC biscuits

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Baby book post: Eliane's language

Elli turned two a couple of weeks ago, so I figured it was about time I recorded some of her language development.

I still think she is possibly behind on pronunciation for her age - she's certainly behind where Liam was, though I think she might be at least equal to where Mikaela was at this age (but Mikaela was behind). But she's certainly not behind in language use or vocabulary.

She can now say Liam, rather than calling him Yiam, as she used to, and Mikaela has gone from Yaya, to tayla Mitayla. She still can't make the 'k' sound at the beginning of words (or syllables) and I don't think she does in the middle either.

I haven't counted the number of words she puts into sentences (third time mum!), but I'd say it's at least five. She still talks a lot in two-three word phrases though. And she gets little phrases or words she just loves to say. Like "I don't know" and "I don't think so" (often said one after the other). And the word (name) Tallulah is a favourite.

She also is really enjoying reading books at the moment. She was given Maisy's Bedtime for her birthday (by one of her godmothers), and after one reading, when we got to the right page (where Maisy realises Panda is missing), Elli put out her hands, palms up in the 'I don't know' or 'what could it be?' pose, and said "Where Panda?" She now says this without even needing the book for prompting, and then goes on to say, "Oh dear." "Not toybox", "Window!" with some frequency.

All in all it's a very fun age Vis-à-vis language development. And, she's still fairly patient when we don't understand her (which is often), and will repeat it over and over with a smile, only chucking a wobbly about it when she is really tired, generally, or has just woken up.

Picking wild blackberries, eating blackberry pie

Yesterday we went blackberrying.

I was unavoidably reminded of Little Sal picking blueberries and hearing them go ku plink, ku plank, ku plunk in her pail, which never filled up because she kept eating them. Especially because everybody ate a lot, especially Eliane!

The kids had a great time. Liam said "Let's put blackberrying on the calendar for February 4 as soon as we get one for next year."

We happened to know that some other children from Mikaela's kindergarten were going out to the same patch this morning, so we tried to stick to berries kindergarteners couldn't reach (Mikaela was excepted from this rule for obvious reasons!), but there were gazillions more we simply couldn't get to. One of the kindergarten parents going out today suggested bringing some planks of wood to get deeper in, and I could see why.

We picked about 2 & 1/2 litres between us. Apparently there are lots of wild blackberries around Canberra, And I've lived here most of my life, but this is the first time I've ever been berry picking. It's scandalous!

We had pancakes with blackberries for dinner last night (those of us who hadn't so stuffed ourselves while we were picking that they couldn't eat another bite), a blackberry smoothy for morning tea today, and of course, blackberry pie for dessert tonight (with ice cream and, you guessed it, blackberries).

Mmm, Yum. I don't think I've ever had blackberry pie before. Australians aren't really the big pie eaters that Americans are. Normally I guess I'd just have the fresh berries on their own, or with cream and ice cream (for a dessert). Actually we did that too - after the pancakes! But we had over two litres of berries to use, and this pie used nearly 5 cups. I don't think we could have got through that many fresh. Not on top of the other litre we ate!

We could have frozen them of course, or made berry preserves for winter. Hmm, maybe we'll have to go blackberrying again next weekend!

Sadie the Cleaning Lady

Me: I'm going to put you to work this morning scrubbing the floor.

Mikaela: You're kidding, aren't you?

Me: Yes.

Mikaela: But can I?

 

{This Moment} Putting up the Christmas Tree

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Pop over to SouleMama for more moments.

'Tis the season to be Jolly (and we are!)

I am really enjoying this Christmas season, and Christmas school holidays (so far), more than I remember doing in a while. I mean, I'm always a bit of a Christmas tragic: my birthday comes right beforehand, and there are the summer holidays as well - when you're a kid, I'm talking - so how could this time of year help but have good associations? Not to mention the simple pleasure of longer days and growing gardens.

But in many of the past ten years I've either been pregnant, or had a baby, or recently had a miscarriage or - something! Well not this year. This year my youngest child is old enough that she is currently playing outside in a bit of sand with minimal supervision (not that that will last long, but still...), I'm well and not pregnant, and also not working!

Of course, it helps that I've had my fabulous sister-in-law Grace here for the past week (she left this morning, boohoo), who is just a pleasure to have as a house guest. She's both lovely and interesting in herself, and she loves and is loved by the children, making the transition from school to boring old home very easy for them (and for me). But honestly, even without Grace, I am so glad Liam & Mikaela finished school last week. Most of the schools in Canberra only finished yesterday, and while I get that that's great for working parents, it doesn't leave a lot of time to get into the Christmas spirit.

Not that we've done half the creative, fun, Christmassy projects I had planned for this week. Homemade presents for the rellies anyone? The kids were too busy having fun with Auntie Grace, and who could blame them? But we did make jam (okay, I did, but Mikaela helped a little), last week, and the kids made some christmas decorations out of playdough, which we baked and painted. We'll probably use them to decorate their presents for the grandparents, but they are a bit too lame to be the presents. But there's still tomorrow right?

Oh, and we have half-way made a gingerbread house, which I promised Liam we would do this year.  So far it looks like this:

We made the dough yesterday (based loosely on this recipe, but with lots of changes which I may document sometime), refrigerated it over night, then rolled out and baked today. Now it has to sit overnight again to harden up, so the plan is to put it together and decorate tomorrow. But I think I'm looking after four extra kids tomorrow (all between 3 and 9), so it may have to wait until Saturday. Well at least it will be fresh to eat on Christmas Day!

There would have been a whole lot more extra dough to make stars and so on, but the girls were 'helping', so there wasn't that much left! Actually, Eliane wasn't even trying to help, I just gave her dough to play with at the table to keep her out of our hair, and replaced it every time she ate it! But don't worry, Mikaela got her share too :)

I must say, the decision in my family to skip presents for grown-ups has really made Christmas a lot less stress. I was probably one of the hold-outs for presents - I am one of those weird people who's always loved Christmas shopping - but with three kids, time is at a bit more of a premium! So we buy presents for the kids (my three, my sister's one, and my brother's one - though he's only new this year!), and my kids make presents for the grown-ups (with a little help, admittedly), because I don't want them receiving without giving, but that's just fun really. I'm not going to say what they're giving this year though because my Mum read's my blog, and besides, they still have some work ahead of them!

The Gorgeousness of Toddlerhood

Twenty-one months is a wonderful age. I am so enjoying parenting Eliane right now, that I *almost* could consider going for just one more. Actually, if Chris and I were both 5 years younger I would probably consider it quite seriously. Despite the too-small house, too-small car, and not enough hours in the day. As it is, I'm not considering it at all, but - I do love this age.

 

The Girls Pose at Golden Gate Park

We're back in Australia now, after seven+ weeks overseas, but I will be posting a few photo-moments from the trip over the coming days. This is near the end, when we went up to the City (SF) to visit Golden Gate Park, which we have never done before.

The trip consisted of roughly a week in Barcelona, a week in a village called Pyles, on Greek Island, Karpathos, a week in New York City and the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania combined, then three weeks in California with a side trip up to Portland Oregon. Except somehow all that added up to seven weeks, not six, plus travel time (32+ hours from here to Barcelona and 24+ hours from Berkeley to here).

I made notes and wrote whole posts on my iPhone as we went, which I will be gradually posting at narrating kayoz goes travelling over the next few weeks (I think I managed to get all of two up during the trip).

{This Moment} Daddy & Elli at Golden Gate Park

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Pop over to SouleMama for more moments.

Career Change?

Not exactly. Though there have been moments in the past year when I've considered not going back to my Public Service job when my maternity leave ends, but I'm over that now. But...

I just gave my seven and a half month pregnant friend a massage, and rediscovered how much I like doing it. I used to massage professionally, many years ago (nearly ten now!), and I used to mostly do remedial massage, which was good and satisfying and all, but there is also something very satisfying about simply helping someone to really relax and to feel nurtured. Especially when that someone is heavily pregnant and you know they probably aren't sleeping well and never get really comfortable anymore.

Plus, taking off the pressure to fix things is pretty nice actually. 

In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I'm thinking of going back to doing it professionally. Only very part-time, not as a substitute did my day job (which I am due to return to in January), but maybe just a few sessions a month for friends & family or past clients. I'll have to think on it some.

In other news, Eliane has developed a definite tendre for my friend's ten year old son, Jacob, and was extremely excited to see him yesterday, when we arrived back in Berkeley. She's also taken to calling out "Jacob! Jacob! Jacob!" just the way Liam used to do, the last time we came. Although, when Liam said it it was far more understandable than Eliane's, which sounds more like "jaja" than Jacob, and that's probably being kind. Half the time it is almost indistinguishable from Dada.

Elli's talking

Elli's language is finally progressing. Some new words she's been using over the trip so far

Ball
La (or Ya?), which has now become Yaya - Mikaela
Bish - brush
Miam or Iam - Liam
This (dis)
That (da)
Two, too (Do)

These too, but not all pronounced this clearly:
Cat
Those
Cheese
Bath
Yes
No

C25K; Eliane @ 17 months; New travel blog; Solar panels

This is one of those posts you write when you haven't been blogging much and you have too many different things to talk about to not use dot points.

- I have just committed to the couch to 5K program. Not much more to say about this right now as I have literally just started, or rather haven't started - I am going shopping today for my first ever proper pair of joggers, and also a sports bra, and then tonight I will begin with the first 30 minute training session. It's something I've been meaning to look at for months/years, but now I've found out that I supposedly just need to commit 30 minutes 3 times per week for 9 weeks... How hard can that be? Famous last words? We'll see...

- Eliane is still not using many words, but she has the cutest yes ever. I'll go to get her up in the morning and she'll be standing there in her cot making the sign for milk. So I'll say 'do you want some mummy milk?' and she'll say 'Yay! Yay, yay, yay'

She doesn't actually mean 'yay', she means yes, cause she'll use it in other situations too, even when she's half crying, but it is very cute even then. And when she says it happily, it sounds just like a celebration.

- I've finally decided to do something with my kayoz.com domain. It's been pointing to this blog (in all it's various incarnations) for many years, but I've never set it up properly. Well, in a few months we are going on an o/s trip. We've got a lot to organise before then, from house & pet sitters, to passports for the kids, to suitcases, but we have booked tickets. So I'm going to start a separate travel blog.

Why, you might wonder, would I make it a separate blog. Can't I just blog here? Full disclosure: I am going to put ads on this travel blog. You probably won't see them if you click over from here - I'll set them up so they only show up to search traffic. Y'see, if I can set it up so that I make a little bit of money from it - because I do already make some money from writing online content - I can claim my part of our trip expenses (and maybe for one of the kids too, if I'm writing about travel with kids, though I'd have to be more careful with  that) as a business expense. Which could save us quite a bit of money.

So for this travel blog, I'm probably going to have a 'personal blog' category, and that's the only category that will show on the front page. But I will probably also write some posts specifically directed to search engine traffic ('Top 10 things to do in San Francisco with kids'). Those posts won't show up on the front page and won't be in the personal blog category, but they will show up in the archives.

I haven't actually set this up yet, obviously. At the moment www.kayoz.com still just points here. But soon, I expect, that link will go to 'narrating kayoz goes traveling (with 3 kids!)'.

So when are we going and where? Well, you'll have to read the travel blog to find that out I guess ;) but suffice to say for the moment, it is going to be for almost two months, and we have round-the-world tickets. Actually, that makes it sound more glamorous than it will really be. We have the minimum number of stops on the tickets (or perhaps, the maximum number for the minimum price), and we'll be spending most of the time in one country. Still, I have to say, I am feeling pretty excited about it.

-By the way, did I mention our new solar array? We're pretty pleased with it :)

{this moment} Dinner play (two moments really)

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words (that's the idea anyway!) - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

This was after dinner just tonight. Eliane is eating the quark I made earlier in the week (much easier for her to eat than normal yoghurt, since she rarely lets anyone else feed her).

Eliane's first step

Eliane took her first step on Tuesday night. Chris and I were there sitting next to each other and she was just free standing in front of us, then she took a single step towards us. It was cool to both see it. Then she was close enough to reach out and grab my jeans and step closer. 

The interesting thing is that we'd just taken her to see the pediatric osteopath that morning, and he said she was quite jammed up under the occipital ridge (back of the skull just above the next), which he suspected was why she hadn't walked yet. He wants to see her again in a few weeks, which is only maybe the second time he's said to come back in under a year, in all the time we've been seeing him (since Liam was a newborn). So that first step could have been a coincidence or maybe it was related. It'll be interesting to see if she takes any more. 

Also, today's she's been babbling - dadda, trying to say duck - getting those consonants in - more than usual. I wonder if that could be related too?

The problem with baby sign language, and, Eliane's language development at 15 months (and Mikaela's at almost five years)

The problem with baby sign language, or in this case toddler sign language, is that a toddler's signs don't tend to be all that much clearer than her spoken words. 

Eliane now has at least 11 signs:
Goodbye/good night
Hello (same as goodbye)
Thank you
Eat
Drink
Sleep/nap
Yes
No
Elephant
Fish
Duck/quack
Mummy-milk

Plus she blows kisses as part of her goodbye/goodnight routine. 

But. Fish, for instance, is surprisingly similar to elephant, and remarkably dissimilar to my version of fish. I can't imagine anyone but me and *maybe* Chris would have a hope of recognising it. 

Drink, thank you, and sleep are all quite similar, although sleep *can* be more to the side of her head than the other two and drink is starting to differentiate itself too. 

Sometimes she does something a lot like quack that I'm sure means something else but I'm not sure what. 

Anyway, she's picking them up about as quickly as we add them, which is a lot more quickly than she's picking up recognisable spoken words. 

Actually I think all our kids have been a bit slow with spoken words, maybe because they were also so slow to take to eating solid foods. In Liam's case, once he really got going, from about 20 months, his speech was very clear and developed quickly. In Mikaela's case though, her speech was less clear and she's ended up with a slight delay with a lot if her consonants and blends. For instance, right up until almost the end of last year, at four and a half, she would say Mitaela for Mikaela, take for cake and poon for spoon. She has all those sounds down now, but I think there are still a few blends she struggles with. Anything with 'r' in it for instance. 

Meanwhile Eliane barely says any consonants at all. She can say mamam, numnum, nay (as in a horse), and occasionally says dadad, but that's about it. For meow (probably her favourite word) she says eeow or ow; for woof she says oof, etc. She hasn't said 'b' yet at all I don't think, which is usually a very early sound. 

I'm really not sure what Liam was saying at this age, except that I know one of his first regular words was flower and it came out more like booer or even oower. I think I'm much more conscious of it now because of Mikaela's delay.  However, I am a bit concerned, so I am planning on taking both girls to have their hearing checked by the MACH nurses soon (once we're all over the nasty cold/chest infection we've been wrestling for the past two weeks!), and see what they say. 

In the meantime, I'm very glad that we have been doing sign language with Elli, however incomprehensible her signs might be to others. At least she can communicate her basic needs to us. 

Gratuitous Autumn Kid Pics at Weston Park

Posing at Weston Park a couple-few weeks ago.

The colours were fantastic, I really wished I had a better camera and the know-how to use it well.  These were taken on my phone.

And Elli was wearing some red too:

Eliane cruises walls

Eliane will be fifteen months old on Thursday. She's not walking yet but she is the cutest cruiser. She doesn't just cruise furniture, she cruises walls. She's just started doing that this week really, so I think it's probably an indication that she is pretty keen to walk. She loves to walk behind a wooden trolley too, but she's not very skillful at it yet.

What she is good at now is standing. She gets up from the floor with no support with (seemingly) minimal effort, and can stand quite comfortably and even do something like wave goodbye without losing her balance. She takes great pleasure in it too However, the moment she does start to lose her balance she just sinks down onto her bottom. I have not seen her take even one step to try to maintain balance.

In the meantime Elli is the fastest little crawler around. I hadn't really noticed this, I suppose because Liam was similar, but people have started to comment on it.

The girl in question: first trip to the beach

Eliane playing in the sand on her first trip to the beach the weekend before last.

For the baby book: Eliane at 14 months - not yet toddling, but not quite a baby anymore either

Eliane stood up without anything to pull or push up on for the first time two days ago. And she's done it a few more times since. It's not easy, and she can only stay up for a second or so with grabbing hold of something, but it's definitely a milestone. 

Also she's (finally) making some almost recognisable sounds other than 'Uh'. I mean, she's been saying "nang nang nang" and "mum mum mum" and very occasionally "dadad" but that's about it. Oh, and a few weeks ago she was saying "ooooo" for a cow sound (probably should have put that in the baby book). 

Buy now she's also saying "eeooo" for meow, in this cute, sing-songy voice. And today she said a definite "oof" for a dog. But the moment when I looked at her and thought "you're really not a baby anymore", was when she lifted up her trunk/arm in imitation of us doing an elephant's trumpet. 

That's not her first sign. She waves goodbye, hello and goodnight. She started blowing kisses (in a manner of speaking) a week of two ago, she points down at the floor to say she wants to get out of the high chair, shakes her thumb (though actually it's hard to distinguish this one from a wave) to say she's finished eating, recognises the sign for drink, although if she does it *I* haven't recognised it yet, and is just starting to narrow down from shaking her whole body to just her head for 'no'. 

I still nurse her to sleep most times, and when she's asleep in my arms in the rocking chair (as she is right now as I type this on my iPhone) she's still my baby. I wouldn't trade these moments for all the sleep filled nights in the world. I know I will look back on them and not regret for a minute that I took so long to teach my babies to go to sleep on their own. Because this child here in my arms? She is my last baby. And while I am discovering - again - how much fun it is to have a toddler, I know I'm going to miss having a baby too. 

Eliane's sense of humour, and other eleven month old behaviour

(Okay, so she's nearly 12 months, but not yet. Not quite yet.)

Eliane is developing quite a sense of play. Yesterday she initiated a game of chasies with me, crawling a little away from me, then turning around and waving an arm at me as if to beckon me on. Then as soon as I started towards her she'd turn around a crawl helter skelter (though not always in exactly the right direction to escape), giggling madly.

She also likes to play pass the spoon - or maybe not. She takes the spoon from me while I'm feeding her* and then offers it back, but giggles and pulls it back away as soon as I reach for it. That one is learned - I do the same thing with her sometimes, not with the spoon particularly, but with something else (a toy I suppose), offering it and then retracting it at the last minute a few times until she is really laughing. Then I give it to her (Elli doesn't seem to have cottoned on to that last bit though!). But the game of chasies she seems to have come up with all on her own.

I remember Liam playing chasies with another little toddler at our original mother's group once, when they were even a bit younger than this I think - they were both early crawlers. They had the whole mothers group (the mothers that is) in fits of laughter, watching them. From memory Liam was in front, and we weren't quite sure that the little girl who was chasing him was in on the joke. Liam would crawl away then stop, turn around and wait for her to almost catch up, and then crawl off again, giggling. It was very cute.

My baby - my last baby - is nearly all growed up into a toddler. Lots of people said that with the third child, you just survive that first year, you just have to get through it. And I do see what they mean - things are getting easier now, in some ways: Elli's cutting down to one nap a day, she's often spending most of that nap asleep alone, and she spends lots of time crawling around entertaining herself so that I can, for instance, write this blog entry. But on the other hand I feel like the really easy part is over, as far as parenting goes. The part where you just have to love them and cuddle them, nurse them and make the sacrifice of letting them sleep on your lap while you read and book and the lucky Daddy gets to look after the big kids and do the housework. The part where they don't get cross, can't stick forks in power outlets and are so happy to be outside with the wind on their little face that they'll just sit in the pram and let you hang out the clothes or plant out the basil, without complaining about not being allowed to eat the mud.

Elli's just transitioning into that phase where she gets cross when I don't pick her up instead of just grizzly. Where she's as likely to yell in anger, when dragged around in the car for too long, as to cry in misery. And not that I liked listening to her cry in misery either, but somehow the yelling in anger is a more challenging behaviour to respond to. It's not that it makes me angry back - I know from experience that it's when they hit the magic age of three that my buttons start to get pushed that way. It's more just that it starts to require a different response from me.

I think we messed up a little with Mikaela by treating her baby tantrums (which started at age 6 months!) differently to toddler tantrums. Meaning, we just gave in, far too often. She was only a baby, after all. But that sent the wrong message right from the word go, one we are still working on reversing. So with Eliane, I am making a concerted effort not to give in to anger. I am working on the distract theory instead, which is fine (though not much use when she's trapped in a car seat she doesn't like), but not as easy nor as satisfying parentally as picking her up and comforting her was when she would get sad rather than cross.

Anyway, I know I'm romantising the first 12 months, but I did love them, and now they are (almost) over. When Liam was this age he was much closer to walking than Elli is (he'd been taking a few steps at a time since 10&1/2 months and was fully walking by a few days past 12 months), but I still hung on to thinking of him as a baby rather than a toddler. Somehow with Eliane she's almost made that transition in my mind already, even though she's only been crawling for about three or four weeks. Maybe it's because after having three of them, I am finally able to remember - sort of - what a young baby is really like. And she's so far past that now.

Luckily though, she's still awfully, awfully cute.

__________

* Eliane eats quite a lot now, probably more than either Mikaela or Liam did at this age - in fact way more than Liam did - and we mix it up between finger food, spoon food, feeding her exactly what we're eating or giving her bought baby food. The only thing I don't do is puree any of my own food. When she was younger I would mash it up or maybe cook it a bit longer, but make food especially for her? No. That I don't have time for.

The no-cry nap solution works!

I have spent January haphazardly following my plans from the No Cry Nap Solution and (along the same lines really) the No-Cry Sleep Solution. Which actually translates mostly to doing the Pantley Pull-off most of the time, and lying down with her to go to sleep (as opposed to sitting in the rocking chair, where I inevitably end up rocking even if I mean not to) occasionally.

I planned to lie down with her more, the idea being that I could then get up and leave her, but it's actually not all that comfortable, and beside, then I can't read a book. ;-/

Anyway, for the past few days I have been succeeding in putting her down once she's asleep, and - more than half the time - having her stay asleep for a while. Most times she's woken up between 20 and 50 minutes later, but all but one time I've been able to get her straight back to sleep for the other half of her nap. And then this afternoon she slept for 2 hours without stirring!

Of course, that was 2 hours that started around the time her nap usually ends, so now at 8pm she is wide awake.* But hey, I went down and tried to gently wake her in the middle and she just rolled onto her back and kept sleeping, so what are you going to do? I didn't want to ruin her record setting effort.

_________

*Of course, this is not what Elizabeth Pantley recommends, she would suggest a regular nap time and regular bedtime, but we do usually do that, I swear.

Moving up and on: Eliane crawls

Two days ago Eliane pulled herself up to standing all by herself for the first time. She's pushed herself up before, meaning leaning over on my leg or something, but not pulled herself up on something that was higher than her waist or there abouts. She's not cruising yet, but she did pull herself up several times to day. She'll take a few little steps while she's up, but they're more sort of leaning towards something and falling along than deliberately walking along the edge of the couch (which is what she's been pulling herself up on, mostly).

Then yesterday, more significantly I think, she started to crawl. She hasn't really mastered it yet. She shuffles her back legs a bit, and I don't think she's quite figured out the freedom it is about to give her. Mostly today she was still just sitting moreorless in one place, crawling a 'step' or two to retrieve something, but then sitting up again (or belly flopping in order to have hands free to pick up whatever toy had escaped her). But when coaxed she has crawled a couple of metres at a time, so she can do it. I imagine in another couple of days there'll be no stopping her.

 
(Action shot by Mikaela plus cuter shot below)

 

First Steps (Assisted)

Eliane's starting to take little steps while she's standing up holding hands or leaning on something. Not steps like she's going to be walking soon - she's no where near that strong - but steps that say she might cruise furniture before she crawls (like Liam did) if she doesn't get a move on with the crawling.

This was December 23, but she's progressed quite a bit since then.

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Pop over to SouleMama for more moments.

Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year!

I was not planning to stay up to see the new year in, but it's only 19 minutes to go now, so if I keep faffing about on this computer for much longer I will... Anyway, Happy New Years to all, and may 2011 be blessed for you.

And here's a gratuitous Eliane pic, just because it's a good way to begin the new year.

The no-cry nap solution revisited (or, Wine Makes Mummy Rambly)

By the way, have I mentioned that Eliane is still a fabulous night time sleeper, but still takes about 2 hours to get down at the beginning of the (otherwise fabulous) night, and still only sleeps on me during the day? And will barely sleep in the sling any more unless she's really tired, so often only gets one nap if we're out for half the day (or she sleeps in the sling but only for twenty minutes)?

On the one hand I don't mind that much because I love nursing a sleeping baby, and she is my last one (sniff), but on the other hand I am really finding it hard to find time to do anything. Even on the rare days when I don't have Mikaela with me, if I want to get out of the house (say, to do Christmas shopping), if I also want Elli to get proper naps I have about 2-3 hours between naps to get out, and that time has to include getting organised to get out as well, because the naps are on my lap.

And, let's suppose my Mum looks after Mikaela for basically a whole day (and Liam's at school). That still means Elli's awake morning time will be taken up with breakfast and getting the kids off - maybe Chris drops them on the way to work, if I'm lucky, but more often lately I've been dropping them. By 9:30 Eliane is almost always ready - or past ready - for her first nap. Sometimes by 8:30. So most often, by the time I've got the big kids off my hands it's nap time, or maybe I've got time to make a cup of tea and get dressed.

Then Elli naps on my lap until say 11/11:30.

That gives me about 2-3 hours before I need to get her down for her afternoon nap, which is usually about 2-4 ideally. It could probably go till 4:30 without significantly effecting her bedtime routine, but Liam gets home from school (by bus) at about 3:50, so I don't like to be hidden away in her room past about 4pm.

And you can assume it takes me at least 30 minutes to get out the door after she wakes up, and that's on the days when she doesn't suddenly have a nappy blow out when we were just about to leave. And, she now needs to be fed - actual food, not just breast-milk - during the day, so allow another half an hour for that.

And then in the afternoon life is all about afternoon tea for the big kids, get dinner, eat dinner (at 5:30 or 6) PJs, teeth clean, advent calendar & candles, read to a big kid if Elli isn't waaay to tired by that time, otherwise take her to bed and leave Chris to read to both of the others. Usually I'm ensconced with Elli by 7pm, give or take 15 minutes, and there I stay for another two hours. Or tonight it was three hours...

Can you see why I don't get much done at the moment? And that's on the days when I don't have the big kids. which is at best on day/week, and not any days for the next eight weeks, because school holidays started today (although that's okay, the trade off of lazy mornings is well worth it, we are all ready for the summer holidays!)

I'm writing it out in this much detail because I often can't really figure it out myself, and also I feel like people will wonder what I do all day to be unable to get anything done. but really, that 3 hours or so in the middle of the day is the only time I have and usually at least half of that is spent holding Elli (who actually would still rather go down for a nap after two hours of wakefulness), and the rest is spent doing things for Mikaela, getting lunch, feeding Elli, maybe feeding me... or else I don't get that three hours because we spend the morning at playgroup/play-dates/swimming and by the time we get home Eliane is completely exhausted and it's all I can do to keep her from losing it while I get Mikaela some lunch and find her an activity to hopefully keep her from spilling red acrylic paint all over the carpet while I sit with Elli for two hours... (yes, that really did happen a couple of weeks ago).

Anyway, it took me three hours to get Elli down tonight (which admittedly was partly my fault because I got engrossed in a book while she was nursing and forgot to do the 'Pantley pull off' and missed the window to put her down earlier), and we had half a bottle of wine left over from my Birthday Dinner on the weekend, so now I am drinking it (since I can be fairly sure of not having to nurse Elli again at least until 4 or 5 am and more than likely not until 6 or 7) which is the other reason I am rambling... yes, Wine Makes Mummy Clever.

But I've just remembered that the whole point of this post was that Chris is taking three weeks off over the holidays and I plan to take one whole week to just focus on Eliane's nap routine. So that I am not rushing her to 'bed' when she is already exhausted, and am not concerned about keeping her asleep come what may because we've got something on later, and am following a routine, *and* practicing the Pantley pull-off so she's not falling asleep nursing and then nursing on and off for two hours. I'm hopeful that doing this during the day will also pay dividends for my night times.

I was supposed to be doing this when I first blogged about the no-cry nap solution back in about July, but I didn't because I ended up spending that week running to the hospital every day to visit my Dad. This time, an' it please god, there will be no interruptions!

_________

PS The photo is from September, but the only thing that's changed dramatically is she's got more hair and doesn't fit into that wrap anymore. Otherwise it's pretty accurate.

PPS I have a confession to make about the fact that I've been writing another blog! But now is not the time as that 2 & 1/2 glasses of wine have now officially gone not only to my head but to my hands, and typing is becoming increasingly difficult.

Gratuitous Eliane: putting up the Christmas tree

Watching:

Playing with Dad:

Contemplating:

Posing:

Eliane at 9 months

Just quickly while waiting for the water to boil for dinner...

• Elli's following the same weight trajectory as both her siblings, ie she was at about the 50th percentile for the first three months, now she's at the third.  I guess its genetic :)
• I reckon she'll be crawling in 2-3 weeks, though I'd love to be proved wrong and for her not to start until after Christmas day. D'you reckon I'd be a bad mother if I continued to fail to encourage her (of course, I can't really help myself, I encourage anyway)?i
• She has a great sense of humour, and I think she's probably the most ticklish of all my babies. Very ticklish, anyway.
• That's it for now the water's boiling.

I do want to write about Elli properly, but for the moment these pics will have to do.

This one was at nine months exactly.

 

 

And this one was the day before, taken on my phone:

And here's a cuter one, also from the day before, just because:

 

Gratuitous Eliane pic of the day

Here's Eliane at about eight and a half months - she's not in this pic, but shortly after this she was up almost on all fours. I'd give her at least another month before she'll be crawling though.

And here's Mikaela, who people keep insisting Elli is the spitting image of, at a few months older:

 

Finally back to using fitted cloth nappies

After spending an inordinate amount of time and money on fitted cloth nappies when Mikaela was using them, until now we haven't got back into using them with Elli. I gave myself the first three months to just get by with disposables before switching and somehow the three months stretched out...

Not that we haven't used them at all. We were using them haphazardly for a while, but then I'd forget there were some needing to be washed, and when some went moldy (yes, ick) in the nappy bucket, I drew a line. All or nothing. So for a while, it was nothing.

Finally now, we're back to all. Well, except overnight.

Most of our nappies are either bamboo or hemp, though we also have some starbunz (I think that's what they're called) pocket nappies which I love. Recently I read something about bamboo fabric manufacture in China that made bamboo seem like possibly a less good option, in terms of ethics and sustainability. But we don't need to buy any more anyway. We've got plenty, and my cousin just offered me some more, that she isn't using.