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: