Chai Tea - Yummmmmm

When I lived in Saskatoon I used to take the odd cooking class at Wild Serendipity.  One of them was a night of East Indian cooking, and what is a meal of East Indian without a cup of authentic homemade Chai Tea!!  This is so easy to make, and so wonderful to have the aroma of the spices in the kitchen.  When I made some Chai for Nathan's parent's last night, Joanne (Nathan's Mom) asked for the recipe.  Well, I don't have a real specific recipe, but I do have some guidelines, so here they are!

Chai Tea

Cinnamon sticks
green cardamom pods
whole cloves
pepper corns
star anise
Fresh ginger

water
Red Rose tea bags
Homo Milk
sugar


General Instructions:
Boil some water in a pot and add all the spices.  Let simmer for 20 minutes or longer.  It doesn't matter if the water level boils down, quantity is not important here.
Add the tea bags and let steep.  (5 minutes according to my British Gramma for a good cup of tea!)
Add the milk, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly so as not to burn the milk.  Letting it simmer for a few more minutes will give a nice consistency to the milk. 
Then add sugar to taste.  I find the sugar enhances the flavor of the spices, and I've heard the Indo-Canadians like it quite sweet!!  (Just checked my notes and the cooking teacher said about 1/3 cup sugar to 8 cups of milk).

Pour through a strainer to remove the spices, then into mugs and add a sprinkle of nutmeg or cinnamon or any desired sprinkle!

Serve and enjoy!!

But what about quantities you say?  Well this is where you go by trial and error.  For a guideline, I'll give you the rough quantities I used the other night...

Water: just enough to simmer the spices.  (I like more milk than water in my chai).

Spices:
2 1/2 cinnamon sticks  (the extra half because my cinnamon is old and not as fragrant as it used to be)
15 peppercorns
10 cloves
10 green cardamom pods. (Squish and crack before throwing them in)
2 star anise
an inch of ginger, chopped
(When I'm making this for just myself, I'll use half the amount of spices and let it simmer longer to get the most out of them).

Milk: Enough to serve as many people as I want to serve.  (I eyeballed it to make enough for 3 people in large mugs).
Tea bags: Initially I put 3 tea bags (one per person) but then when I thought I'd added too much sugar, I added another tea bag to add a fuller flavour.
Sugar: I put in a quarter cup, and initially it seemed to sweet to me but once I added another tea bag and let the spices simmer a bit more, the flavour turned out perfect!!!

More Christmas Presents!!

Making Chai Tea

Grandma and Grandpa watching Brenna

AP Ramblings - Co-Sleeping... Let's Talk!!

Brenna doesn't sleep well on her own.  At night, she sleeps with me in the bed, and sleeps well as long as I'm beside her, but most often once I leave the room she wakes up quite quickly and quite distressed.  So I take my laptop or a book to bed at night once she goes down if I'm not ready to sleep yet.  The upside of this is that she will usually sleep for as long I want to in the morning, waking up when I wake up! 

I found this so weird at first, that she'd sleep as long as I wanted to, but be up within minutes of me getting up.  (Of course there are exceptions to this with days where she'll sleep much longer than me in the morning, especially if I get up earlier than usual).  But on the topic of sleep, I've read some research lately that talks about how babies will actually sinc their systems minute by minute with their caregiver's when sleeping in close proximity.  This includes their heart rate, their breathing rhythms, and perhaps more importantly, their sleep cycles.  The latter is considered to be a protective factor against SIDS.  The premise being that by moving in and out of deep sleep cycles along with the adult, the babies are protected against falling into a deep sleep that their immature systems might neglect to come out of, leading to increased risk of SIDS.  I personally find this very fascinating and quite comforting.  So yes, (I'll say the bad word out loud), I co-sleep with my baby.

I never intended to co-sleep at first.  There's so much anti co-sleeping teaching, from the prenatal classes, to nurses, to the doctors... they'll all tell you how dangerous co-sleeping is.  And yes, I admit I have quite a lot of nervousness about it myself.  I won't let Nathan co-sleep alone with her.  And I take many precautions in doing so myself, sometimes wondering if I'll live to regret this.  But isn't it true that the nickname for SIDS is crib-death?  Babies die in cribs all the time.  So it's not like putting her in the crib is the fail-safe answer anyway.

Dr Sears, in his book The Attachment Parenting Book, notes that many parents bring their babies to bed with them at some point, but deny it since it's such a taboo issue.  The result is that since co-sleeping is not talked about, people do not know how to engage in it safely.  Wouldn't it make more sense to educate parents with information, rather than having people doing this secretly and having accidents that might have been prevented with appropriate precautions?  Personally, I found the section on how to safely co-sleep to be very helpful and empowering, and I recommend it as a read for any parent, whether you actually choose to co-sleep or not.

The truth is that babies are notoriously hard to get to sleep well.  There are many books on the shelves at Chapters dealing with tricks to get your baby to sleep.  I haven't read any of them... I just don't have to as long as I'm okay with Brenna sleeping with me! 

A month or so ago, as I sat nursing Brenna at the health unit, I watched another Mom with a baby Brenna's age get some advice from the nurse.  The mother confessed that she'd been letting her son sleep with her, and when chastised about this, she defended herself saying that although she knew it was wrong, she was just so tired she couldn't help herself.  Her son simply couldn't sleep well, and even when he did get to sleep after a feeding, she was unable to wind down quickly enough to sleep much before he woke up again.  (This was very familiar to me!!)  But when she brought him into the bed with her, they both slept soundly, and she just couldn't resist the good night's sleep.  The nurse's answer was that she should ignore her baby's cries and leave him in the crib all night regardless of whether he slept or not.  That eventually he would learn to deal with it and become independent.  The young Mom worried about this answer but desperately wanted to do what was best, and especially didn't want to harm her baby with the dangers of co-sleeping, so promised to ignore her baby's crying for the next week.

I actually cried that night as I thought of this poor baby being ignored by his mother.  Babies are completely dependent... they can't get up, they can't go anywhere, do anything for themselves, their only form of communication is to cry, and the only person they have to count on is their primary caregiver.  All of us dread getting old and losing our ability to care for ourselves.  Babies are living the very nightmare we all dread.  It's considered elder abuse to ignore the pleas of an elderly patient and to deny them the basic common courtesy of human dignity.  Yet it's okay to dismiss a baby's cry, claiming it will teach him to be independent?... when he's not even physically capable of being independent???  I fail to see the logic.

Well, Belief in the Language of Your Baby's Cry is one of the 7 attachment parenting tools, but not the one I'm discussing in this post so I'll leave that topic alone for now.  But back to the co-sleeping, yes I have to say, once I became informed about the pros and cons of co-sleeping, and more importantly once educated about SAFE co-sleeping, I could no longer see the sense in trying to get Brenna to sleep in her crib.  Doing so is just such a hassle.  Up and down to comfort her... having to get right up to lift her out of the crib and then move to another room to feed her, then getting her back to sleep, then getting myself back to sleep... how exhausting!!  With her in bed, I simply feed her in bed, we both hardly wake up, and we definitely both get back to sleep right away.  I wake up feeling well-rested most mornings, and can't believe how lucky I am that I still get to sleep in!! :)

Before closing, let me make the disclaimer... I'm not saying everyone should co-sleep.  It's not a good arrangement for everyone.  And according to the AP teaching, it's only a "tool" to be used when or if needed.  I especially would NOT recommend co-sleeping prior to doing some research on how to co-sleep safely.

What I am saying, is that I would like to see co-sleeping become a topic that is talked about openly.  Take the taboo off and provide education for parents on SAFE co-sleeping so that they can be empowered to make sound informed decisions that work best for them, in as safe a manner as possible.

 

Theme of the Week - Moving FORWARD, Singing, Christmas

This week Brenna has managed to reverse the direction of her travels.  Previously moving backwards and getting very frustrated with things, she now moves FORWARD!!  And this makes her quite happy indeed!!!  And progressing at this very quickly... the video was filmed yesterday, and already today she moves much more fluidly.  I think she'll be crawling very very soon!!!



Moving Forward from Cara Broughton on Vimeo.

Another nice thing she's doing, is that she's singing.  And not just the usual baby singing noises, well they are the same noises, but she sings along with music!  Be it a CD, or Nathan playing his guitar, or me doing patty-cake with her, she now quite often launches into her own little sing-song to go along.  It's really very sweet.

Of course, another big theme this week is Christmas, but I'll do a separate post on that.

And I can't resist but tell a cute story... the other morning she woke up way too early.  There she was looking at me bright eyed in bed next to me... I protested and shut my eyes.  Well I heard some shuffling and when I looked again, she was propped up on one arm with a big grin, looking at me.  I had to giggle at her, and then she laid her head down on my shoulder and snuggled in!!  And, went back to sleep in that position for another two hours!!  Oh melt my heart... she's so very sweet!!! :)

Christmas Shortbread Cookies :)

Nathan, Little Miss and I made some Christmas Shortbread cookies the other night.  We whipped up 4 batches, and then put them on little gift plates to give away.  Some for the neighbors, some for Nathan's boss and co-workers.  Some to take to his parent's on Christmas day, and of course some for us!!  Okay I'll fess up, some for me!  Nathan is allergic to the ingredients, and of course Brenna isn't eating yet.

Anyway, I've been meaning to take pictures of some of the things we make in the kitchen, and since shortbread only gets done once a year, I decided I better get the camera out and take some pictures.

Would you believe, I ate only ONE cookie during this entire photo shoot?!!!  (Yes it was VERY difficult!!!!!)

 

 

 

This is my Grandma Broughton's recipe and they are absolutely the best ever Shortbread!!!  I think the only thing better might be to use all butter instead of the called-for white crisco, but I haven't tried that yet.

Here's the recipe for anyone interested:

Gramma's Shortbread

1/2 c. soft butter
1/2 c. white crisco     cream(mix) both together until smooth


1/2 corn starch
1 3/4 c. flour(all purpose)
1/2 c. icing sugar                     Sift these 3 together until well blended

Mix both parts together well (can knead).  Might want to chill in frig for an hour if you want to make balls and press flat.  Place on parchment paper on cookie sheet.  These do not spread much so it’s best to form into the desired shape before baking.  Do not grease cookie sheet.

Bake at 325F, in middle of oven, for about 15 min. (Calgary altitude adjustment: 18 to 19 minutes). (Until just golden).  Cool.  Eat. Yummy!

Tooth Update

There has been some relief but the crankiness and sleeplessness continues, so tonight I subjected Little Miss to terrible things!  I held her down, very much against her will, held her head in place, and took a look inside her mouth to assess the tooth situation!!!  Oh dear she was so mad!!  (Though not nearly as furious as she was the day she was born!!!  We haven't seen her match that anger yet!!)

The answer is, the one tooth is fully through the skin, while the second tooth is only halfway through.  This explains it all... and poor little girl, she was quite quick to forgive me!!  She cried for a bit but snuggled in for hugs and cuddles right away, even though I quite expected her to hold a grudge for at least a few minutes!  What a sweet Little Miss we have!!!

Here's to hoping we sleep tonight!!

We have a TOOTH!!!!!

Yes, we have a tooth!!!  Actually, I think we might 2 teeth but she won't let me get close enough to see!!  I did the metal spoon trick and yes I get tapping noises, I just can't tell if I'm hitting both or only one.  And she won't let me peak, but I have to say, she's a lot less fussy today so I suspect we might have both teeth through the skin!!!!

Awww, my little baby is growing up!!!!  Now that's she's got teeth she's going to want to be travelling around the world sampling fine cuisine!!!!  Oh right, that's what I'd like to do!!! :)

Theme of the Week - TEETHING!!!!

Oh the poor girl!!!!  We started the week with vaccinations, so initially I just thought she was having a hard time from those.  But overall, she handles vaccines really well, especially compared to the first time when she was 2 months!!! (That was a terrible cry fest that was only soothed with my discovery of children's tylenol!)

Then, a day or two later, it seemed to me that she was just so very frustrated with her limited abilities.  She didn't want to just sit and play, but kept flopping onto her tummy and getting very mad when she couldn't go where she wanted.  But looking back, I think this was the beginning of her teething!  Her fuse was so short and it just wasn't like her.  As the week went on, she was getting more and more clingy.  While hanging out with her on the bed, if I bent down to pick something up off the floor, she'd burst into tears!!!  Well, finally, when her fussing got just completely out of hand, this new out-of-it, or as I call it, clumsy mommy, clued in that she's due for some teeth!  I took a peak, and sure enough, there are two tiny teeth just waiting to burst through the skin on her lower gum!!!  Oh the poor little girl!!!

Last night was especially tough... waking and crying every 40 minutes, and then finally settling into a deeper sleep that still had her flinging her head around and crying out every so often.

Luckily, I had already picked up some teething gel.  A homeopathic remedy that I got from Bo BeBe, and it works like a charm, thankfully!!!  She doesn't seem to know what to do with teething toys.  She puts them in her mouth, but keeps her tongue in the way of her gums.  She has been biting on her thumb and fingers, so is getting some pressure on her gums from that.  And I did try (as my Mom suggested) putting ice in this little net thingy, but still, she sucked on it using her tongue and then wasn't really interested after a minute or so.

So, as it stands, it's Saturday night, half past midnight, and so far her teeth haven't cut through yet.  Here's hoping she can cut them tomorrow!!!  And hoping the teething gel will give her more sleep tonight than last night!!

6 month visit to the Health Nurse

Brenna had her 6 month visit for measurements and vaccines today.  She is bang on average for all her measurements... that includes height, weight, height vs weight ratio, and head circumference.  Not bad for a baby who was underweight to start and heavily pressured to be formula fed!!  Her current weight is 15lbs 7.5ounces.  (sorry I forgot to email that to you Mom but here it is now!)

As for the vaccinations, well I got a surprise!  I like to stagger the shots so she was only up for one today, and we had her first flu shot done on Friday.  At the flu clinic, she had smiled brightly at everyone, and was making friends with a nurse to her right when the nurse on her left quickly snuck the needle in on her.  I hadn't even seen the needle being prepared and was pretty sure Brenna hadn't seen it either.  But today when the nurse pulled out the needle, the moment Brenna saw it she started to cry!  Poor little girl!!  But was I ever surprised at her ability to recognize what was going on!  She's no longer a little baby who is oblivious to much of the world going on around her.  She is on the ball and taking things in that I don't even realize she sees!!!  I'm so proud of her... she just amazes me all the time!!!

As for the nurse... boo on her.  She didn't even take the time to smile at Brenna or reassure her after the needle.  Brenna would have likely settled down quickly had the nurse just given her a smile and a bit of sympathy.

Food Allergies

As you all know, Nathan has terrible food allergies.  It's been this way since the start for him, and in the last 7 months he's had a particularly terrible time with an all over body eczema and hives.  He's lost many a night's sleep because the itching and burning is so bad, poor guy.  Frustratingly, we can't seem to figure out what the cause is.  He's restricted various food items, seen several doctors and a specialist, been on meds and other weird "pickling" treatments, and no one seems to be able to do anything for him.  He's even seeing a Naturopath and is receiving Acupuncture... no results yet. 

So we've been doing a lot of research.  Of course a big concern is that Brenna is genetically at risk for similar problems.  So far she is a healthier baby than Nathan was, but starting foods will reveal whether she'll have many of these problems or not.  And that journey is supposed to start tomorrow according to Alberta Health.

So in preparation we bought a high chair off Kijiji, and have let her play with a few food items (the carrot, a bun, a grain of rice).  But with the research I've been doing, we've decided to delay her going on foods for a while.  I'll share what I've found and why we've made that decision, but first I'd like to rant about how frustrating our medical system is!  Well, I suppose really that's a topic for another blog, but whhhhyyyyyyyy the refusal to talk preventative rather than simply treating a crisis!?!?

Well it turns out, after painstakingly searching and digging under many rocks (why can't the doctors just have a straight conversation with me?) there are some things we can do to help prevent food allergies. 

First, my understanding of how they work:  When the body is faced with an allergen that it perceives as a problem, the immune system kicks into gear and produces antibodies.  With each repeated exposure to that allergen, more antibodies are produced until eventually you experience the symptoms of your body's immune system in overdrive.  A person can develop an allergy at any point in life, particularly if they are overexposed to an allergen over a short period of time.  For this reason, some doctors advise to eat a variety of foods, taking care not to eat the same foods too many times in a row.

For infants:  Pediatrician Dr Sears explains it well on his website.  Basically, newborns have immature intestines that allow proteins to pass directly through them into the bloodstream.  This is by design for breastfed babies since this is how the mother passes her immunity on to her baby.  The intestine starts to close up around 6 to 7 months but doesn't completely close until 5 or 6 years of age.  When a baby is given solids before the intestine matures, the allergens from the food pass directly into the bloodstream and the body may or may not see this as a threat.  So holding off on giving food for as long as possible is the best prevention, and after food is introduced, it's advised to limit foods that are known as being high allergens until 5 or 6 years old.  And of course eating a variety of foods for the above mentioned reasons. 

Dr Sears advises to watch your child instead of the calendar in deciding when to introduce solids.  They can safely go up to around 9 months of age if being breastfed.  When your child starts acting like she's hungry and can't get satisfied, and it lasts long enough that you know it's not a growth spurt, then she's ready for food.

So why does Alberta Health say 6 months?  My guess is that it's a safe middle of the road number.  While breastfed babies can go up to 9 months, formula fed babies are often starving by 4 to 5 months and need to get onto solids sooner.  So why can't Alberta Health simply give us this information and let parents make individual choices that are best for their individual child?  Instead it's a blind number that keeps a hungry formula fed baby off food (thus unhappy, stressed and fussing), while putting someone like my daughter at further risk for allergies.... right, that rant belongs in the other blog.

So we will NOT be starting Brenna on solids tomorrow.  Instead, we'll let her tell us when she needs more food than just breastmilk. 

PS Nathan thinks I have a strangely pronounced distrust of medical personnel... wonder where he got that from??? 

PPS (or is it PSS) I don't distrust all medical personnel.  Just those who won't engage me in conversation and/or who discourage me from taking proactive measures in caring for my body and for my baby's body. 

AP Ramblings - The more I give, the less demanding she becomes.

AP = Attachment Parenting
Ramblings = my rambling thoughts on the issue!

I've been meaning to post some ramblings on this issue for a while now... It's a big issue and somehow it seems in order to do it justice that I ought to provide background on my journey into this way of thinking.  But I haven't done that yet and I'm missing opportunities to just share the little ramblings and discoveries I make as I go, so, without further ado, (a-do, adue, adoo, hmmm i've never seen that written!), I'll share the backgroung later and just ramble for now!

Former belief:  The more you respond to a crying baby (aka coddle), the more demanding they become.
Now, I can only speak for up to 6 months of age, and only for my own baby.  So maybe this statement is true for older ages, but right now, I can say without a doubt:
The more attention I give Brenna, the LESS demanding she becomes.  And vice versa too.

It's been a long week... I've completed a month now of being sick, and the length of this illness is getting to me.  My ear infection is weird... half my head is completely plugged, the other half is half plugged.  Sounds are all garbled, I can't think straight, I am low on energy, and sick and tired of being sick!!  This means poor Brenna has a less than optimal mommy to deal with.  We are not getting out of the house because I'm just too tired and have no where to go anyway, and I think she gets just as stir crazy as anyone!  Well the end result is that this week has been the pits in terms of me giving consistent time and energy to Brenna.  I've spent more time with the TV on than usual, have had trouble paying attention to her (and Nathan too), and even when I do get on the floor to play with her, I just don't have an attention span so I space out anyway!!!  Well she doesn't like this one bit, and as the week has gone by, she's actually gotten more demanding than usual.  Like she's having to be loud in order to get my attention!  Today, happily, being saturday, Nathan was home to play with her and then I was able to be more focused for the shorter times I had to spend with her.  She had a really good day, and by the end of it was very happy, docile, and played for a good half an hour on her own without needing us at all!!

This isn't the first time I've noticed this trend.  In the first few weeks of her life, I noticed the more time I spent meeting her needs, the more relaxed she became.  Initially, she'd cry frantically over dropping the soother out of her mouth.  But over a period of just 20 minutes, if I sat with her, popping it back into her mouth right away, by the end of the 20 minutes she no longer cried but simply made a talkative vocal sound.  Within a couple of weeks, she no longer cried at all for her soother.  The more i gave, the less demanding she became!!  On a similar note in those first few weeks, night time feedings often sparked distress when I tried to put her back to sleep.  Taking a cue from a nurse in the hospital and then from a couple of books, I started making sure I spent as many hours as I could during the day giving her cuddle time, skin to skin when possible.  The more cuddle time she got, the easier she slept at night.  Again, the more I gave, the less demanding she became!

One of the 7 attachment tools of attachment parenting (called the 7 baby B's), is the Belief in the language value of your baby's cry.  "A baby's cry is a signal designed for the survival of the baby and the development of the parents. Responding sensitively to your baby's cries builds trust. Babies trust that their caregivers will be responsive to their needs. Parents gradually learn to trust in their ability to appropriately meet their baby's needs. This raises the parent-child communication level up a notch. Tiny babies cry to communicate, not to manipulate. (See Crying and Cry it Out)" Excerpt taken from www.askdrsears.com/.

Nathan and I took this one to heart right from the start.  Although I can tell you, on Day 2 in the hospital, I could swear Brenna was manipulating me and I was teaching her to be a screamer... but when I expressed this to the doctor, she assured me newborn babies are not neurologically capable of manipulating and so I calmed down and proceeded to respond to her every little sound.  And so glad I am!!

One of the phrases in one of the attachment parenting books resonates with me deeply: 
A woman said:  "My baby doesn't cry because she doesn't need to".  That is exactly how I feel about Brenna.  She doesn't cry because Nathan and I put a lot of effort and energy into making sure that she doesn't have to!

The more I give to my baby, the happier, calmer, more independent, and less demanding she is.  And thankfully, she responds quickly and easily, bouncing back effortlessly over the course of a single day from a lousy week!  Now if I can just get my ears to drain so I too can bounce back to normal!!! :P

Theme of the Week - Movin Movin Movin

Wow, although she technically has the better part of another week of still being called an "infant", I think officially, she's not an infant anymore!!  Gone are the days of quiet, calm baby who smiles, keeps her hands to herself, and sleeps most of the time anyway!  We now have a boisterous, eager, mostly cheerful, little girl who can't wait to explore EVERYTHING, and in the process I can't tell you how many times a day I get kicked, hit, bumped, scratched, pinched, grabbed, pulled, squealed at, pulled and kicked at the same time, and then sometimes with both hands she grabs both sides of my face/hair and pulls me in for a big sloppy kiss!!!!  Oh she's cute!!

And moving... I still keep the floor blankets down that Aunty Dot made, but I'm not sure why anymore since she spends very little time on them.  She's moving so fast and ferociously, just in all the wrong directions which makes her very frustrated, so I've actually taken to putting toys around the room behind her so that when she can no longer reach the one she was playing with because she moved backwards, she has another to find very soon!  (I have yet to catch any of this on video tape... I'll get to that soon!).  And she's so funny, when she gets herself caught in or under something, she's quick to call me with an urgent tone and a very worried look on her face!!!

Other than that, we're gearing up for real food!  I've let her play with a couple of items that I knew were harmless... a bun to suck on one day and a carrot to put in her mouth as she watched me eat my carrot.  I think we'll have a lot of fun when we start foods next week.  The carrot one we did get on video, so here it is, enjoy! :)

... and as usual this site is giving me grief with uploading videos so here is a link to view it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kASA_dHXDGQ

First Time Swimming

Oh yes I almost forgot to say here that Brenna went to the pool for her first time on Sunday evening.  Unfortunately it was just too difficult to coordinate getting it on camera, but she had a lovely time!  It's great that she doesn't really exhibit fear yet.  But as we walked from the change room into the pool area, she held on very tightly and was extremely wide-eyed and poker faced!!!  So funny... I walked her into the pool and we went deep enough for me to float her around in the water.  She maintained no expression, but did seem to enjoy, though within 5 minutes she went purple!  So then I took her into the toddler wading section with has much warmer water.  We sat there another five minutes with her looking very wide-eyed and poker faced, and then she finally started to loosen up and did her splash-splashing that she does in the tub at home.  And then did she ever splash!!  Splash splash and splash some more, and she didn't even bat an eye when water unexpectedly shot on top of our heads (part of the amusement factor at the pool is that you get splashed in random and unexpected ways).  Her head and face got wet and she didn't seem to mind at all.

I spoke with a woman on our way out and she claimed she let her kids go under water as soon as they initiated it.  Her granddaughter was swimming with head underwater at 6 months old!  I can't really picture that although I've heard of people just throwing their babies into the water and apparently they do just fine.  Brenna did seem like she was going to go under water on her own while we were in the big pool but I didn't let her do it.  I'll have to find out a bit more about babies and swimming!

Well can you believe I'm writing this at 4am... so if the writing is a disjointed, that's my excuse!  And I'm not going to bother saving and re-editing later since the next time I'll have to edit will likely be 4am again... okay I'm off to bed!

Did I mention we now do co-sleeping?  (I had always planned NOT to do this!)  This was quite accidental and is a topic for another post... I've meaning to get around to posting some of my thoughts on attachment parenting.  Soon. :)

First microstock sale!!!

I've very pleased to say I've made my first sale on microstock!!!  Yes, I can start paying for the lights... I made a whole 0.18 credits!!!  What does that mean?  I have no idea but I'm pretty sure it means I'm not getting rich anytime soon!!!

Anyway, here's the photo that sold:

Theme of the Week - Moving around, BACKWARDS!!! (updated)

I haven't managed to get this on video yet... she seems to stay still as long as I'm watching her, but the second I turn around, she's crossed the room and is halfway stuck under the couch or the playpen or the side table!!  This girl is getting around and is very eager to explore everything!  So this weekend, we'll be doing another childproof blitz... we've been doing this a bit at a time as needed, but I can see a lot more is going to be needed very very soon!  Yikes!!!

I actually had two other things to write down here but do you think I can remember them???  Well, I'll go ahead and post this and maybe update later...

*Dec 4*
...Ah yes!  I've remembered one of them...  Initiating games!!  I read that this would happen at this stage, but man did it ever tickle us pink when she actually started initiating silly games!!  Just simple things so far.  She'll do a funny heh heh heh noise to get my attention, and laugh her head off when I look.  So I say it back to her and it's just the best thing in the world!!  Or this morning, I was just waking up and took at look at her beside me in bed to find her already smiling at me with a twinkle in her eye.  I said hello and turned back on my side facing away from her for a few minutes to try to wake up... well I felt a little kick, and when I turned to see her again, she was on her tummy and burst out laughing at me!!!  She seems to know that I don't let her spend time on her tummy moving around in the bed, and I swear, she knew she was up to mischief and getting my goat!!!  She is definitely getting funner by the day!!

Video Collage - Learning to Sit

Turn up the volume!!

Okay so no squishy heads this time, but very bad quality video!  I'm having trouble with this site!!

For a better quality view, you can see it on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N8xkZZn43

 

 

Studio Lights

We've been talking about getting some studio lights for quite a while now.  We even ordered some back in July, but alas there is such a demand on them that we're still waiting.  Well when I found out they were going to be at least mid december before chance of shipping, I decided I couldn't wait anymore.  Brenna is starting to sit and is at prime photo-taking stage, and I just don't want to miss it so we went down to the camera store on the weekend to try out some lights.  This set is not as good of a deal as what we'd ordered, but they're pretty close in price.  If we love them, we'll keep them and cancel the other order.

So here's what we've gotten out of them with a preliminary try...

Wow, how easy was that?!!!  All the effort we always put into getting crisp images, and this is far crisper than anything we've done yet!!  This will bode us well for stock photography too!

And don't you just love the catch lights in her eyes?  Beautiful!! :)








Hehe, the tongue is in place!!  At least with the tongue, she doesn't drool much anymore!

Cutie Pie!

Nice skin tones, no harsh shadowing.  Not even glare in Nathan's glasses!!

So that was yesterday.  Today we put up the white backdrop, and though I had some trouble with exposure which I had to fix with the RAW files, here are the results.

 

Not too sure what all this is about...

...but I got my ball and I'm sitting all by myself!!!

I need to look into different styled white backdrops.  Notice in the picture above, the cloth that Brenna is on is shifting and wrinkling... that was difficult to work with.  I'll need something more solid to put her on.

Wondering how we pulled this off in the condo?  Yes it was pretty tight!!!

Theme of the Week - Soother and Babywearing

Brenna has made huge improvements this past week in working with her soother!  Just last weekend, we watched as she would try very hard to put her soother in her mouth... she'd hold it out at arm's length and look intently at it.  Then, with keen concentration, she'd sway her arms slowly from one side to the other all the while fixating on the soother in her hands.  Then oh so slowly, she'd bring her hands to her mouth, and every time, she'd get the soother into her mouth sideways or backwards!!   Or, the other scenario, she'd have soother in one hand, bring it quickly to her mouth, but poke her eyes, her nose, her cheek, and finally into the mouth, backwards!

Well, today, Brenna is able to reach to where ever her soother is (nearby of course), pick it up and get it into her mouth the right way!!!  In fact it was the first thing she did upon waking up this morning, was to reach above her head to where the soother was laying, get it and into her mouth!!  It's been a big week of accomplishment in the soother department!!!

She was 8 weeks old here.

Babywearing - most of you have seen the sling that Freya made for me.  I just love this item and am very lucky she made it since you just can't buy one that looks this nice!  Well, I've used it plenty while going for walks, and originally had intended on wearing baby around the house too.  But with a late start to using it due to slow healing from the C-section, I just got used to carrying Brenna in my arms, and thought it was too late to start her on being in it in the house since she isn't tiny newborn anymore.  Well this week I was reading in an attachment parenting book (The Attachment Parenting Book by William Sears, M.D., and Martha Sears, R.N.) and found many more benefits to babywearing around the house, even starting at her age.  And since both Brenna and I have been fighting a cold, she's feeling extra clingy and I don't have the energy to multitask a whole bunch of things.  So I put her in the sling and proceeded to make some dough for bread.  Well she loved it!  I'd say she liked it more than when we go for walks, and it was so much easier since she's getting quite heavy to hold!!  So we made an apple crisp too! :)

After a walk in the woods with Grampa and cousins.

One of my favs!

One of the things the book said babywearing helps with is that it promotes baby spending more time in the quiet alert state, which is the state in which they learn the most and are very content.  Well it worked!  Brenna was so happy and sat quietly watching everything I was doing.  And she stayed happy later in the day too since she'd had so much holding time.  (She always does better with more holding time!)  I find that the days when I do things in the kitchen and leave her to play by herself, I usually end up feeling disconnected from her and also find she is a little more antsy and a bit harder to manage.  So we used the sling a lot this week and it was just the perfect thing for a Little Miss who is feeling a little under the weather!
(I'll have to get a more recent pic to post!)

Stock Photos

I've decided to try my hand at selling stock photography.  Basically, I submit photos (both mine and Nathan's) to companies that act as a middle person for others to buy the rights to publish the photos in whatever form they want.  Usually it's advertising, so the type of photo they are looking for is something that will appeal from a marketing standpoint.  Well, I don't really know anything about marketing, so it's definitely a different approach to photography than what I'm used to.  And not one that I'm particularly passionate about either, but, well I figure, if they will take some of the photos that I do have, and if it can create a bit of a passive income, then that's something I'm interested in!  I was reading in a book about how a guy posted a picture of a Christmas tree a few years ago, and it has since brought in $12,000!!  Oh if I could be so lucky!!

Well, it turns out that it's much harder to get photos accepted onto these sites than I thought.  I've applied to be accepted as a photography contributor to istockphoto - pretty much the largest company of its kind and most lucrative.  I haven't heard back from them yet, but in the meantime I've submitted photos to other sites.  Pretty much 80% of what I've submitted has been rejected, BUT, I'm happy to say, I have had 4 photos approved!!!  No sales yet, but hopefully that will come!  (fingers crossed!) 

And can you guess who's in those photos???  (Drumroll as I wait for you to guess....)

The Chievious of course!!!  (Who else!!) 

Here are the photos that are up for sale...

Theme of the Week - GIGGLES at 2AM!!!, sitting, and hugs

YES, 2AM!!!  After last week's crankiness, I'm happy to say she's been so much more pleasant this week!  Late last sunday, I realized I'd been forgetting to offer her soother to her recently, and also forgetting to have comfort blankets around.  So I focused on those and this week went so well that I can't help but wonder how much last week's crankiness was her asking for comfort items and poor baby having to deal with first time clumsy mommy!!! :P  Anyway, it was so nice to reconnect with my cheerful sweetheart, and, I have to confess I got a kick out of her 2AM giggle spurts she had FOUR times this week!!!  Actually, one of them was a 4am, and she was laughing so hard that I couldn't resist sneaking her in to where Daddy was sleeping and letting her giggle at him for a few minutes! (teehee)

Her other two themes for this week, sitting and hugging... oh boy.  The sitting, well I have mixed feelings about that.  On one hand, I can't wait for her to sit all by herself, because she's going to look so cute, and I'll be able to sit her in all kinds of cute places to take pictures!  But on the other hand, it kind of moves her from little baby category to bigger baby category, and since I love the little baby so much, I don't really want to her to get bigger just yet!!  But I know these things have to happen... I do wish the baby phase would last much longer though.  So yes, this week, the first time, while she was propped up on pillows on the bed, hanging out with me while I was sorting through some clothes, I handed her a toy and couldn't believe it when she leaned forward and straightened right up into a sitting position all by herself!  She didn't even know what she was doing, and a minutes later she just as casually leaned back onto the pillow again!  Later in the day, I decided I might as well encourage her where she's at, so I put her on the floor in a sitting position, and steadied her to see how she would handle it.  I expected her to take over sitting, but she really didn't have a concept of it at all as she proceeded to kick her feet in different directions which then sent her body in opposite angles, so I eventually let her down for some tummy time, which she really likes these days.  She has continued though over the week to have similar moments of sitting on her own when she's on our laps, but again doesn't seem to know she can and thus isn't trying.  That's okay by me! :)

And Hugs... oh it's cute!!  (really what else did you expect me to say?)  It's a melt your heart... she has been turning her body toward us and reaching up when she wants a hug, and then actively hugging us!!  And more kisses too!!  But even when there are no kisses, she's coming for lots of hugs these days.  So sweet!!!  Here's a pic of her hanging on to Daddy...

Oh yes, the tongue!  That's her new look now!  I'll get a better pic of it up soon, but yes the tongue is always sticking out these days... I think maybe her gums are feeling weird to her?  Well I just say she's just like Loco!! :)

Oh, and, she's 5 whole months old now!!!  The last month of technically being an 'infant'.

Theme of the Week - CRANKY PANTS, Chapters, & 360 turns

Oh it's been a cranky week!!  It all started when I woke her up a little early on Hallowe'en day because I was excited about getting her dressed up.  We messed with the schedule, and there has been no peace since.  The whole week was a mix of one thing or another:  Brenna and I both fighting a cold, Little Miss running a low grade fever, then vaccinations on Thursday!  Then Nathan getting the cold, and the whole while, Little Miss just beside herself with crankiness.
Probably the most cranky week of her entire life!!  I wonder if she might be starting the teething thing... today she pulled at her ears a couple of times and apparently that could be related to teething.  Of course it could be an ear infection too so I'll have to keep an eye on it.  Poor little girl.


So, how do we deal with cranky pants?  We get outa town (the condo) and go to Chapters!!  Yes, the three of us spent several evenings (her worst time of day) at Chapters this week, enjoying browsing and having our decaf lattes from Starbucks.  Brenna loves being held and wandering around the store.

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And as attentive as she is, her eyes light up that much more when we enter the kids section with its bright lights and bright colours everywhere!  So yes, we've come home with a few new baby books this week... a couple of Dr Seuss and a Curious George counting book.

Other than all this, her main developmental theme this week is moving around on her own, on her tummy!  She is doing full 360 degree turns on her tummy, and reaching around for the toys.  She inches her way to the toy container, tips it over and has a great time moving everything around.  I can't believe how fast she is increasing her mobility!!  Yes she's even doing multiple rollovers, and getting herself wedged into strange corners, so she definitely has to be watched!!

Despite all the crankiness, we got this sweet video that is too cute not to post...

Theme of the Week (Part 2) - Letting Go...

Yes, part 2, because she's growing soooo fast and doesn't do just one new thing at a time very often!  I have the cutest video of this that I'll upload later, but I noticed her other theme this week is a continuation of mastering her hands.

She's good at reaching and grabbing for things, and batting her toys around, but is really having to work when it comes to fine motor skills.  We got her some little shaped blocks to play with for when she's in her bumbo chair, and that's where you really see her struggle with picking them up.  But more, once she has them picked up, she has a hard time opening her fingers to let them go again!  I just find it so remarkable to watch her working on this... to think even the most proficient Olympic athletes in the world once started out not being able to control their hands and fingers!!  Well, enjoy the video... (arghhh more squishy head... how do I stop that???)

Theme of the Week - WORDS!!!!

It's happened several times over the week and even a bit before, though I only really clued in yesterday (I'm slow), but the Chievious is definitely responding in recognition to certain words!!!  I mentioned before her knowing the words "splash splash" in the tub, and when we say those words, she splashes excitedly in the water.  We've experimented with seeing if she knows her name but that one's hard since you never know if she's just responding to voice or to the name.  But, she did the other night, turn her head to Nathan more frequently when he called "Chievious" than when he called "Brenna".  (Don't worry Aunty Joanna, I'm using her name - though I confess, usually in combination it's usually "Baby, Baby Brenna", or just "Hi ba-beee!!"... no worries, you'll just have to re-teach her her name when you see her again!!).
Then there's the cue sounds for pooping that she definitely recognizes and even does now when she needs to poop, but those aren't actually words.  But I think they count since it's recognition of a sound, right??

Okay, but it really hit me last night... she was on the floor playing with her toes and I was casually commenting on her toes, and I gradually realized we were doing a kind of game.  The pattern eventually emerged as such that she'd put her feet on the floor, I'd ask her about her toes, and she'd swing her legs up with a big smile and grab her toes.  I began to experiment by saying other things and seeing if she grabbed her toes anyway.  If she did grab her toes it was more absentmindedly, but each time I said the word "toes", out came the huge smile and excited toe-grasp and even a swing of the legs toward me, oh man she's cute!!!

So then I called Nathan over, and said the word "Daddy", well would you know, she looked right up at him!  Coincidence?  We're not sure yet since we don't want to brag prematurely, but I do think she knows who "Daddy" is.

Okay so another thing... this past week, she's been crying out "mmmaaaammmmmmmm" when she's tired.  Now can I really think she's calling for me?  Or, is that why they call us moms?  Cuz the babies say mmmmaaaaaammmmm when they're tired so we just got that name?

By the way, did I mention, she's cute???!!!!

How can I NOT say anything about the Chievious???!

Okay I only lasted 15 minutes.... how can I post about acorn squash and NOT say a word about the little Chievious???   Well, I can't, that's how!!

So, :)

Here's the update on her new 'doings' today... and it's soooo cute!!

The three of us were in the car on the way to the mall tonight, and she was making a unique noise... she's done it before in the car.  It's like a humming and whine and a little fuss but not really fuss and not really whine, but not a happy hum either.  Other times when she's done this in the car, we sing her favourite celtic lullaby and she settles really quickly.  Today, we realized, she's actually asking us to sing!  So we started to sing, and she was happy!  Then we stopped singing just to experiment with her, and she made her funny noise again, until we started singing again!!

Oh she is so cute, and I can't believe she is actually deliberately communicating with us, not just by default til we figure out what she needs, but she's consciously after something specific!  I'm so impressed!!  My sweet little girl!!! :)

Classic Baked Acorn Squash

Hey now, no blog is complete without some tasty recipes!!!  So here's my first to put up here... I promise that next time the food photography will be my own, but this time I'm sad to say I was so eager to eat, I completely forgot about taking pictures until after the meal!!

I had picked up some squash from the farmer's market last week.  When I lived in Ontario, we used to get these little squashes that looked like mini green pumpkins.  All you had to do was put them in the microwave for 5 minutes, and boy did they smell and taste awesome!!  So I've been hoping to do something tasty with the squash around here but wasn't sure what.  Well, Nathan found this recipe on the web and it's oh-so-easy and really tasty!!

Acorn squash are wonderfully easy to prepare - just cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, add a little brown sugar and/or maple syrup, and bake for a little over an hour.  Choose squash that are heavy for their size and have a hard, deep-colored rind free of blemishes or moldy spots. The hard skin of a winter squash protects the flesh and allows it to be stored longer than summer squash. It does not require refrigeration and can be kept in a cool, dark place for a month or more, depending on the variety. Once the seeds are removed, winter squash can be baked, steamed or simmered. They're a good source of iron, riboflavin and vitamins A (more than summer squash) and C.

Ingredients

• 1 Acorn squash
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Maple Syrup
• Dash of Salt

Method

1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Using a strong chef's knife, and perhaps a rubber mallet to help, cut the acorn squash in half, lengthwise, from stem to end. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff in the center of each half. Score the insides of each half several times with a sharp knife. Place each half in a baking pan, cut side up. Add about a 1/4 inch of water to the bottom of the baking pan so that the skins don't burn and the squash doesn't get dried out.
3 Coat the inside of each half with 1/2 a Tbsp of butter. Add a dash of salt if you are using unsalted butter. Add a Tbsp of brown sugar to the cavity of each half. Dribble on a teaspoon of maple syrup to each half.
4 Bake in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the squash is very soft and the tops are browned. Do not undercook. When finished, remove from oven and let cool a little before serving. Spoon any buttery sugar sauce that has not already been absorbed by the squash over the exposed areas.
Serves 2 to 4, depending on how much squash you like to eat.

OMG, isn't this sweet? This was taken when she was just a month and a day old.

Other Firsts From Today

There were a few other exciting "Firsts" today besides the playdate, that I just have to brag about!


1) During the play date, Brenna gestured and communicated in a brand new way!!!  She had her soother attached to her clothes with the little clippy, and Grissom reached for it like it he wanted it.  His Mom then handed him his own soother, which he proudly put into his mouth and sucked on for a bit.  Brenna watched this, then held out her own soother, looked at us, looked at her soother and back at us again and smiled.  She was very deliberately taking part in the soother 'discussion' going on and was showing us hers.  I couldn't believe it and was so proud!  Mel agreed that it was a deliberate and concious gesture... not just a coincidental hand movement.  Wow, my little baby knows what is going on and it taking part in things!!!

2)  Tonight, for the very first time... while on her tummy having playtime, she rotated herself and then inched toward her toy basket, and reached in and pulled out some toys!!!!  Oh boy!  Watch out, she's on the move!!!!

3) Then,,, earlier, she'd had a bath.  The last bath we had, we held her in a sitting position and taught her how to splash, saying the words "splash-splash!".  Tonight, at the end of her bath, we sat her up, and didn't show her anything but simply said "splash-splash!", and she made splashes each time we said the words!!!  She really is understanding what we're saying!!  Oh, and she just loves making splashes!  I have to get a bathing suit so I have can take to the local pool!

4) A little less exciting, we went shopping on our way home, and, unlike yesterday, today she reached out to touch some toys on display.  Yesterday, in the Disney Store, I took her close to touch the mini mouses, but she kept her hands to herself almost as if though it was all too overwhelming.  But today, she was right into taking the toys right off the rack!










5) Oh, and how could I forget... also for the first today, (too many firsts for one day!!), while sitting in her bumbo chair, she made the cue sounds to let me know she had to go poo!  I repeated them back to her, and quickly got her onto her potty, and she pooped in the potty!!  Not the first time she's pooped in the potty, but it is the first time she verbally let me know!! 

Playdate with Grissom

Brenna had her first playdate with another baby today. Nathan's old friend Mel, who now lives in Ottawa with her husband Olaf and son Grissom, is in town with Grissom so we had a get together. Grissom has just turned 10 months, and is quite the cutey! I first met Mel this past Easter when I was still quite pregnant, and it was interesting at the time for Nathan and I to hear about her and Olaf's experiences with a baby. We don't have any other friends in the area who have babies so this was new. I remember at the time, watching Mel and Olaf with their then 3month old, and wondering if I would ever be able to keep my energy up enough to look after my own baby. (thankfully, YES!!)

So today, Grissom impressed us with sophisticated big-baby ways!! He reached steadily and purposefully for things, and his head did not bob like Brenna's does. He smiled readily and sported his little teeth! And then proceeded to put food into his mouth and eat it (which surprised both Nathan and I!). Later, he showed Brenna how to skillfully crawl around, and even took some time to pull himself up and walk around the coffee table! (I was careful to tell Brenna that she needn't think about moving around so much just yet... we are not yet ready for such a mobile baby!!!)

Here are some pictures from our afternoon...

Theme of the Week - reaching, grabbing, and kisses!!

Before getting this blog going, I was making notes on a little winnie the pooh calendar, identifying significant dates and making notes of what little Brenna was up to in a given week.  The great thing about a blog is that I have ROOM now to write down the little stories of what she is up to!  On the calendar, at the end of each week, I'd write down a "theme of the week" that described what she was spending most of her time and attention on.  So I'm going to continue that trend here...

The Theme of this week has been using her hands in a much more deliberate and eager manner... She's REACHING for things!!  Of course, she's technically been reaching for a while, to grasp at things we offer her, or even to slowly grasp at Nathan's glasses, but this reaching is much more eager, excited and aggressive.  And she's reaching of her own initiative and with great excitement, not simply when something is offered to her.

Her very first aggressively active reaching is actually caught on video and is here on the blog titled "Trouble Posting Videos".  About halfway through, you see her reach toward the video case Nathan is holding to keep their game going!  Since then, she's started reaching for many things and is just so funny... she threw herself at and grabbed a fistful of roses that i was showing her how to smell.  she's taking hold of things we hold like my water bottle, and the funniest, when i walk into a new room, she flails her arms up and down hoping to land on something!

The other theme of the week is that she is really into kisses!!  She can't get enough of us kissing her ears, cheeks and neck.  And, I think she is actually trying to kiss us back!  She throws her wide open mouth onto our cheeks, gives a big wet sloppy one, and giggles!!  I remember my mom bringing my little sisters to our cheeks for kisses when they were babies, and they did the same thing Brenna is doing... so very cute!

Brenna's Baptism

We had our little girl baptized this Sunday.  It felt like such a grown up moment.  You know, one of those where it suddenly feels like you're just a kid playing grown-up, only to realize that this little baby really thinks I'm the parent!  It was also a bit of a time-warp moment... since I don't go to church very often these days, it's easy to get propelled into the past when I do go.  And here I was, after so many church attendances of praying quietly for a life partner and for the opportunity to have a family, suddenly here I was standing next to Nathan with our Little Miss in arms!  I was no longer asking but was instead giving thanks and taking a step toward guiding my daughter in what will become her own journey of faith.  Baptism is so important in the Christian faith, and while many an argument has been had over the issue of infant vs adult baptism, I have to say that having my baby baptized was for me, a regrounding and restatement of my own faith almost more powerful than my own adult baptism.  We renounced our sins before God and pledged not only to live in faith but to guide our little one in her own journey.  I guess for me, one of the more powerful teaching tools is modeling, thus guiding Brenna in her journey means modeling it with my own.  Maybe it's obvious, but it only really struck me as we stood before the Pastor.

Brenna and I had come rather close to missing the baptism!  Getting out of the house much earlier than normal combined with pretty dress, christening gown, and last minute poopy diaper were expected hurdles... the un-expected was having trouble finding the church!  The baptism was scheduled for 11am, and we arrived at 11:05.  But you know, I just didn't have the heart to go to stress land.  I knew that I wouldn't begrudge a mom and baby for being late to a baptism, so I determined not to worry about it with us and instead thought of a dear friend and how she handles situations.  Thankfully too, since I'm glad now I didn't trade the experience of such a special day for the confusion and tension of stress!! 

 Little Miss was a hit!!  Daddy met us at the door, and helped put the christening gown over Brenna's dress, and we went right into the baptism as they were waiting patiently for us!  Brenna had been fast asleep, so woke up with her usual curiosity and pleasant demeanor.  She wooed everyone with her big smiles, and I think was quite thrilled to have so many people smiling back at her all at once!!  Unfortunately, the church has a no camera policy during services, so we didn't get those moments, but we were able to stage some shots after the service.  A big thank you to Rochelle's dad for being our photographer!

Above picture shows Brenna being baptized by her Grandpa Steve, while wearing an heirloom gown that was made for and worn by her Grandpa Allan.  (It was also worn by me, my sister Joanna, our cousin Brodie and our Uncle Don.)  We thought this was pretty cool!

Left to right:  Grandma Joanne, me, Nathan, Uncle Ben, Aunty Rochelle, Pastor Steve holding Brenna.

Uncle Ben and Aunty Rochelle are her sponsors.  Too bad we didn't think to get a picture of the three of them!

Here we are all working at taking her gown off.  Nathan said the moment struck him like that of a bride with everyone fussing over her dress.  It's true, there's something about these sacred moments in our lives.

Brenna and Aunty Rochelle had matching sweaters over their dresses!


















Back at Gramma and Grampa's we enjoyed a lunch and then Brenna, for the first time on her own, opened some presents!!

This book is authored by Desmond Tutu!!  Sophisticated baby reading!!