Wednesday 4 June 2014

We're in solitary confinement again here because of impetigo. Sausages is very unhappy with it, so I let him choose the lunch today:


Some friends of mine were chatting recently about baby-led weaning, and how they feel it has supported their children in making good food choices (or not, as the case may be!). We loved baby-led weaning with Sausages. He is a big eater, and has never eaten "children's food." Once, we were at a wedding where he swapped his child's meal of chicken nuggets, chips and beans with an adult for their duck breast and samphire. Despite being born prematurely, a combination of extended breastfeeding and baby-led weaning has helped him to grow into a strapping lad. He tells me he's going to be "all the way big like daddy" one day. We have put him in charge of Bob's weaning journey, which will start after he is six months old in July, so watch this space for some interesting meal times! Anyway, when asked to choose a special treaty lunch to cheer him up, my preschooler chooses corn on the cob. It's a boost to the parenting reserves, I can tell you!


I spread out his Adventurer's vest to take a WIP photo and he asked me if it was ready to wear yet. No, but soon! I've got the pockets and arm bands left to do before making up. There's lots of yarn left, so I might even make a smaller one for Bob. Just as with the bootees I made for Bob's christening, I find Debbie Bliss' patterns a little over-written, although the finished garments are fabulous. Do pop along to Tami's and Ginny's to have a look at what everyone else is working on.


This week's reading is David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, but I'm right at the beginning so I don't have much to say about it. The part I'm on is written as short diary entries, which perfectly suits my brief opportunities to read these days. I'm also reading constantly with Sausages. Our themes at the moment seem to be mostly dinosaurs.


My latest effort from the Hummingbird book is the Brooklyn Blackout Cake. It's a plain chocolate cake, sandwiched and covered with a chocolate custard, then coated with crumbs.


All I can say is that the water-and-cornflour custard takes me right back to school dinners at my convent school. It's probably lovely for everyone else, but the associations are pretty strong for me. While eating my slice I was looking over my shoulder, waiting for Sr. Immaculata to come and check that I had cleared my plate. Husband requested the cake, so I'm hoping he'll manage it himself.


Bob, my sweet little boy, does not like to go to sleep. Because of his tongue and lip ties he doesn't feed to sleep, and at the moment he wails if I just rock-and-ssshhhh, so it's slinging to sleep twice a day at the moment. I am mastering the art of transferring to the pram once he's asleep. He loves to be close, this boy; to put his head on my shoulder or his hand in my mouth while he's watching the world. He goes to sleep smiling and he wakes up smiling, crawling onto my face and snogging my nose in the middle of the night, waking me up for a chat while the big boys are asleep. So different from his solemn brother, but they adore each other, spending time cuddled up reading together. I am so blessed.


What are you crafting and reading this week? Were your babies different from each other, or did the familiar dominate? I'd love to hear from you

E

3 comments:

  1. My two boys were and still are like that. Our first is very melancholic, our second is a firecracker who never likes to sleep either.

    In fact, we've had a heck of a time getting #2 to sleep over the last year because he, too, is a smuggler and needs someone (specifically me) to lay down with him to clutch to every nap and bedtime. I'm desperate to figure something else out but he literally destroys a room if you just lay him and leave him...

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    1. Snuggler, not smuggler! I wish we had trained him to fall asleep on his own LONG before he was able (read: his brother taught him) to get out of his crib. I know a lot of people have a problem with letting the baby "cry it out" but I really wish we did it for our second too.

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  2. My five children were very different babies. My first (a boy) hardly slept at all. He would nurse for forty minutes and sleep for twenty all through the night. (At 21 years, he still doesn't sleep much!). My second baby (a boy) was a great sleeper, and sweet snuggler. (At 19, he still sleeps a lot.) Baby number three (a girl) was my easiest baby, and my fourth (another girl) was the fussiest. My fifth baby (a boy) was my biggest and a voracious nursling. I practiced baby-led, extended breastfeeding with all of them. My first nursed until he was two, my second and third each nursed for three years, my fourth nursed until she was five, and (I am a little nervous to admit) that my last baby nursed until he was, ahem, almost six years old. I suppose we're a little extreme. We never had a crib (our babies shared our bed) and we homeschool. It takes all kinds, right? : )

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