Little Miss not quite 2 years old.

I love her

I really really really do

But sometimes, lately 90% of the time, 

she does my head in

Actually, I think she does her own head in

One day, we'll laugh about it

My Place and Yours: Cookbooks

Here they are, my proud collection of cookbooks. There are a lot of Australian Women's Weekly, some Jaime Oliver, Bill Granger, Cookery the Australian Way and Stephanie Alexander. There are a bunch of others too that are cool, like my 1960's Encyclopaedia of Cooking and a couple of great vegetarian cookbooks that I collected in my vego days and still get a lot of use from.

The books are in the kitchen next to the pantry cupboard so that I can use them. I still have spaces there from short cookbooks, but you know what? I still end up getting  a lot of recipes online because I can't find *quite* what I'm looking for. Ridiculous really!

Go to Kate & Michael +3 to see more collections of cookery books.

Learning

Playing with my new camera Fujifilm Finepix S3300 from Target
and a new program Flare from the Apple App Store. I used an effect called bleach, but my reason for sharing is the soft, bright, innocent and wonderful look on my big girl's face.

The Three Days of Potty Training

So the twenty minute method was given up. It didn't suit us and Addie was getting annoyed at the constant pottying. After a week's break we tried a different method.

The three day potty training method is fairly popular in internet  land. The people who have tried it promise 3 awful days, but a potty trained kid by the end. The author of the particular ebook that I bought firmly believes that any child from the age of 22 months can be toilet trained.

It it pretty straightforward, once you take your child's nappy off on the first day, it never goes back on again. Not for naps, not for shopping trips, never. They wear big kid [not training] undies. You watch for their wee/poo signs and shove a potty under them as they start.  The idea is that they learn to associate the "wee is coming" feeling with the potty, and do their business there.

Day 1 - Addie was great at holding her wee and we caught the poo in the nick of time. The wee never made it in the potty but there were lots of encouraging start stickers to go around. A very exhausting day, but no pain no gain.

Day 2. Lots of catching Addie and putting her in the potty and it resulted in a poo and wee at the same time. Lots of star stickers and telling anyone we could about it. The rest of the day resulted in long wee holding sessions, and big wets on the floor.

Day 3. Not so much wee holding today, and poos in undies. Ewh. The stress is starting to really wear me down and there are tears.

Day 4. Still bravely persisting, but not getting anywhere. Feeling like I'm going insane by staying at home ad watching Addie's bum for 4 days. Lots of wee. Lots of tears [mine still].

Day 5. Make a command decision that this is not going to continue in this manner.

Make no mistake, potty training has not ended, but has morphed. More on that next time.

I think the 3 day method has some wonderful strengths. Addie is showing some great improvement now and I'm sure that the intensive start has helped, but given the combination of our personality types it wasn't fully working for us, despite our best efforts.  Addie was at the front door the past two days crying and saying "Car, shoes, pram, shops". We couldn't go anywhere because it would wreck the program. That just doesn't gel for us. She missed her friends, I missed my friends. Tiny was missing out because I was spending every second on Addie and nothing NOTHING was getting done in the house for fear of missing a wee. Its not all doom and gloom and I reckon its a great method for heaps of people, and I learned so much about potty training from it. Stay tuned for part 3!

Read about our first attempt The Trials of Potty Training here.

Doing Dinner

 Andrew works most nights from around 4:30 - midnight or later as a pizza delivery guy. This leaves us girls  at home for dinner and here's how it goes.

Tiny in her Bebe Pod

Clementine won't eat mush on a spoon. Nup not having it, and despite the child health nurse telling me to give it to her until she does [force feeding?] I'm not going to make her. What she does is grab anything she can and gum it. So, we give her big fingerfood sizes of softish food and she picks it up and turns it into mush herself.  Its funny seeing big chunks of food come out the other end an hour or two later.

Nearly Nakie Addie's Dinner

What Tiny eats comes out of my bowl or plate. Addie doesn't do well eating out of her own bowl at this time of night, so she sits on my lap and we share our meal. We usually sit on the living room floor because its easy and warm. As they get older we'll make more use of the table, but while they're babies this works and we enjoy our shared meal.

My Place and Yours: Show me your backyard

Here is our backyard.

Taken from the left corner of the yard here. The clothes line has a fence around it so that next year we can plant vegies in there out of the way of free range chooks and babies.  The drums are fire buckets that Dad had fun burning prickles in when he was down, and I think Andrew likes playing around with them too. The plastic playpen is to keep Tiny safe from chooks who would see her and think "I'm going to eat that enormous juicy bug" and her sister. Under the big trees is an area covered completely in leaf litter - this is where the chook pen is - and where the chooks are confined to when not ranging about conducting border controls. Up the very back is a diseased lemon tree - must find out whats wrong with it and maybe next year I'll be a lemon mogul.

To the side [yes, our yard is so big I couldn't fit it in one shot. Sorry Kate] are the swings and Addie's slide that she loves. The green blob near the swings is that sandpit, and finally the milkcrates on the bench there are filled with glass jars that I've hoarded in the hope that they might be useful one day.

Oh yeah, and with all this space and grass... we have a human powered push-along mower - no motor, no power, just blades and our brawn. Go us!

Kate would like to see your backyard too.

The trials of potty training!

 I've been dreading potty training since December 2008 when I found out we were expecting a child. Ok, so perhaps it wasn't forefront in my mind when I saw those little pink lines, but it really has lurked ominously in the distance for us.

I've heard many things bout potty training. Some say train 'em young when they're not so set in their ways. Others say train them old so you can have a proper conversation with them [I personally think that 26 is to old to be potty training].  I hear use incentives, don't use incentives. Use nappies for going out, going to bed, use pullups, don't use nappies use training pants, use "proper" undies.  Train in summer, train whenever. Use a timer, make them sit - never use a timer, no way should you let them 'try'. Even if you've never attempted potty training a human, I'm sure you can see why this might be a little daunting.

Our first attempt at potty training was a couple of weeks back when my parents visited. We bought a timer,  little kid undies and sat Addie on the potty every 20 min (20 minute timer method). We soon found out that she liked her "panties".  She also had good bladder control, able to hold for 4 hours at a go. She liked her potty and thought sitting on it was fun, but she would not pee in it.  I gave her some demos, and she cheered me when she saw wee, but it didn't help.  I made a doll go wee by hiding a syringe and she cheered the doll, and next time we said potty time, she put the doll on and called her a good girl. She thought her potty books were great and enjoyed reading them, and pressing the button on the noisy one.

It ended up that we had accident upon accident - in fact nothing that wasn't an accident so I was happy after 4 days to have a break and leave the nappies in place. She was sick of the potty and didn't want to sit on it and no further progress had ensued.  I decided to try again in a little bit, using the 3-day method which a number of people recommended.

Stay tuned to find out about how potty training version 2 went.

The Three Days of Potty Training

Clementine's Semi Birthday.

The lovely baby Clementine was 6 months old on Saturday the 9th July. Its a case of how on earth did 6 months disappear so quickly?

Just like I did for Addie's 6 month birthday, we had Macdonalds for breakfast, and Tiny munched on a little piece of hotcake, while her sister made a big mess of hotcakes, I ate mine properly and Andrew paid a stupid amount of money for a teeny little bagel, and went hungry.  My parents, Grandma and Grandpa to the girls, and Aunty Tori were with us as well so it was a lovely breakfast.

Tiny at 6 months can finally roll in all directions, and is close to sitting unassisted. She'd prefer to be sitting than lying down and loves being in her Bebe Pod. While her sister is a whiner, Tiny is a sooker, and can be most upset it it suits her but what she doesn't know is that it is pretty funny from where we stand.

She still cosleeps and breast feeds. She sleeps in her hammock during the day, and loves it still, even though her feet touch the end. She won't eat mushy food at all, but she'll happily gum anything she can hold in her hand, so we're looking at baby led solids - its messy but not as messy as a baby not interested in mush.

Tiny loves Dad, thinks mum is her personal property [as does Addie, hence a few of our daily struggles] and adores Adelaide, despite the fact Addie sits on her every 10 min on average, her hugs are really chokeholds and when Addie feels powerless she takes it out on the baby.  All things that we're trying to modify. Addie also seems to be taking an active role in Tiny's nutrition, always sharing food and drinks with her despite our protestations. On Sunday I found she'd even shared an old teabag from my cup with her. Mmmm. Tiny loves when Addie talks with her, tickles, sings to her [today Addie was playing "row row your boat" with Tiny and making her do the actions, hilarious].


She is adorable, lovely, beautiful, kissable, chubby, cheerful and our very special very loved Clementine.

Healthy Tab - What does she do?

Recently I asked myself a series of questions - to be answered over the next little while.

What does Healthy Tab do?

Healthy Tab is busy, as far as she isn't stressed by that activity. It is purposeful and thoughtful. Healthy Tab spends time at home as well as out, and does the mundane tasks of keeping the house safe and liveable [note, not perfect] as well as the fun things.

Healthy Tab spend time with the girls that isn't just task focused, but that takes in who are they are and gives them the love and attention that they need.

Healthy Tab spends time creating, writing, talking and thinking. She shares her life with others but has an innerlife that she cares for too.

Healthy Tab spends meaningful time with Andrew and enjoys his company.

Healthy Tab makes sure that her brain is exercised and made good use of.

Healthy Tab knows that she doesn't have to take on every challenge that presents itself, just as she will not hide from one just because it is difficult.

Healthy Tab takes care of her spirituality and spends time with those that are likeminded and nurture that life.

Healthy Tab sleeps, eats well and takes care of her physical body.

 Healthy Tab is kind to herself.

Going to the shops.

Today Addie learned how to unlatch the gate. I discovered this in a not too pleasant way this morning. Addie was playing out the front pushing her pram around and carrying her handbag, stopping every so often to pick leaves or other things and put them in her bag. Both gates were latched and I tied a rope around the one that opens when you jiggle it, and double checked the other, then went inside to feed Tiny who was due for a feed and nap.

Having fed and settled Tiny, I was just going outside to see what Addie was up to when I heard a knock on the front of the house, where an elderly man was asking "is this your little girl?" he was pointing down the road to an indignantly bawling Addie, pushing her pram up the street to our house, accompanied by an older lady. Addie wasn't scared-crying, she was angry crying, and I was relieved, embarrassed that she'd been able to get out and definitely grateful that she was ok.

I went and picked Addie up and asked her what was wrong, and she tearfully said "bye, shops" and kept repeating shops. So from what I can gather from her rescuers, she had undone the gate latch, crossed the nature strip and was walking down the middle of the road to the shops with her pram and bag.

I was scared because I know about strangers, cars, all those dangers, but can you imagine how exciting it must have been for her to set out for the shops and get so far, I can see the look of purpose that would have been on her face, and She was probably chattering "bye mum, bye bye Tiny, see you in the morning" and the dissapointment when the lady brought her back - I heard that bit. Poor girly.

Clearly our gate needs something more secure to latch it, and somehow Addie needs to be a little less independent, while I need to be more watchful.

What does a Healthy Tab look like?

What does she do?
How does she feel?
How does she dress?
What language does she use?
What thoughts does she entertain?
Who does she spend time with?
What does she value?
What does she spend time on?
What are her 'danger zones'?
What does she avoid?

Clementine's Dedication

Sunday the 3rd July, we held Clementine's Dedication ceremony.

It wasn't as fancy or planned or attended as Addie's last year, but she is just as well loved and precious to us. The Schultz Christening Dress made it just in time, thanks to Australia post, and my parents came down to have a little holiday and see their granddaughters, which has been lovely.

The Dress and the Baby

Tiny, her parents and Godparents.

Some of my family

To add a touch of drama, Tiny had a few projectile vomits, including one after the dedication, lucky for the dress she was on such an angle that it didn't get soaked. Thank goodness for that, because it is about 84 years old and I was terrified we would somehow ruin it.

Addie doing her own thing.

Addie wasn't down with standing there looking pretty so spent the entire time running up and down the hall screaming like a kid on a fun park ride. She enjoyed the party at the end, and helped her friend Joel in providing us with some delightful mood music.

Am I enough?

This week I've been rushing and working and juggling - sort of. I feel like all the balls that a mother and wife should keep in the air have crashed to the ground. The feelings of failure and inadequacy have grown all week and I've ended up a sobbing mess more than once - over a measly small essay of all things.

When I broke it down and there was nothing left in me, it came down to one sneaking suspicion that gutted me. I'm not enough. I can't be whom  should be. I'm failing myself and everyone else. I want to cancel everything for this weekend and the rest of the year.

Have you been there and felt that? How do you recover?

Its not true though. I am enough. Maybe not in my own right, but the gospel that gives me my life says that when I'm not enough, Jesus is. Wasn't that the whole purpose of his journey to earth?

I am enough. I have been made enough and I always will be. That is the truth of the matter and anyone who says otherwise is telling a lie.

So how does that change this week and the juggling balls that are all on the ground? If the scales of life say that Tab is unequal to expectations, but my value is unalterable - then my expectations must be the variable. What is important in my life? What are my absolute responsibilities? What can I change, stop, do better?

I think this is the question always facing mothers, wives, daughters, women of all life stages. We need to keep speaking truth in love to each other - like my sister-friends have done to me this week - have each other's back, and constantly reassess our lives to weed out the rubbish that creeps in.