yay bedtime

Olive has been a gem the past few days going to sleep during the day! Look at this face, just before she went down this afternoon...

i like this a lot, 6 words to say today

Sheesh I am running the risk of being preachy this week... Must be all that time gained by sending Ada to daycare... Anywho...

A new found blogger Joanna Goddard at Cup of Jo recently posted about a blog post they read at Hands Free Mama, (ahh it made me tear up) she had read that they couldn't get out of their heads. I read both posts and found the same thing. Read it read it!

The 6 words are so simple, "I love to watch you play. I've heard about and I try to give specific and descriptive praise to Ada rather than a generic 'good girl', the idea being that they build a big full picture of what is 'good'. But the phrase"I love to watch you play" lets the kids know they have your attention in a way that just doesn't matter how 'good' they are. It seems to me that kids won't always want to be good, or smart or talented or patient for you, but they desperately want your attention.

I love the freedom given by just enjoying someone. I tried to rephrase this thought, but this Joanna at Cup of Jo is a real writer so listen to her put it succinctly here:
"imagine if someone said it to you—for example, think of the difference between "You're a great karaoke singer" and "I love to watch you sing karaoke." Doesn't the latter make you feel much more confident and free to goof around and not be perfect? All you have to do is sing karaoke, you don't have to be a genius at it. It's remarkable how much those words take the pressure off. It's funny how even well-meaning praise can shut someone down and make them feel critiqued."

rainy day = sugary fun

redefining success

Going on with my good enough parenting theme I seem to be on, a wise friend recently talked to me about the need at times to redefine success. It's so important to realize you don't have to be super mum every day. What each day requires from you and the context of your health, the wee ones health and what else is happening impacts on you! To do lists and baby activities are well and good but not the point of us. Am I right?

A successful day at the moment is remembering to enjoy Olive and being patient with Ada. Olive is a joy, she doesn't always feed well or settle easily and sometimes we are covered in milk and sometimes the nights just aren't the best but her smiles and coos and new found giggles make it all worth it. Ada is treading a tightrope between that strong toddler independence and wanting as much of our time as possible. After not much sleep her way of wanting to do things can be very tiring at best.  A successful day is not grumping at her... 

Hard to believe right? Butter wouldn't melt...

daycare dilemma

Decision making sure is hard! I ummed and ahhed for about 6 weeks whether to send Ada along for two mornings a week to daycare. There was the cost and the time spent to factor against my gained. There was the baby room with the ratio of adults to kids about 1:3 versus the toddler room with the ratio 1:6 or even 7. The babies looked boring and the toddlers looked huge! There was the thought of Ada being too busy as we go to Playcentre too and me frittering away some new found freedom on boring tasks like the groceries. First I thought we could get a subsidy and then we realised we don't qualify if Olive stays home, was it too much money? Finally I made up my mind, I'm worth it I thought, let's try this. Then Ada got sick and all I wanted was for her to stay home all the time so I could keep her healthy and safe. That was last week. By last night I was enjoying planning what I would do with my precious hours with one infant and today she had her first day!

I have always been sure of where I wanted her to go, the teachers are fantastic, the facilities are varied and immaculate, even the other kids are lovely. Ada hugged me goodbye and when I actually left the room she didn't look up from her playing. I came back and we ate some lunch together, Ada had made an impressive butter sandwich that she enjoyed, although she did say her pulled apart crust looked like a snake. In the car on the way home she sung "jack in the box" like they do at each mat time and when asked if she needed a new nappy she said that aunty changed it (the ladies who work there are called aunties). Ada was so pumped on her morning she took an hour to wind down to sleep and is having a mammoth nap.

Success.

read a book

We are in a full blown infatuation with reading books at our place at the moment. First thing in the morning and last thing at night, after a nap, anytime! One of the signs that Ada still uses is the sign for book, the other that has stuck is the sign for again. Still now at the end of a book (open pressed palms together) she points one finger into the palm of the other hand and says again. It is lovely. How can you say no? This past week has been a Thomas week. The week before was a Kiwi Kids alphabet. The week before that was Two Little Monkeys. These books get read over and over and slowly Ada starts to read them out herself. Hairy Maclary has been on high rotation for a while and suddenly the dog names are popping out of Ada's mouth. "Find Scarface claw" (this is the least intelligible thing Ada says coincidentally) and "find Muffin McLay". 

I love lists of popular kids books and blog posts recommending books for babies or toddlers. We are slowly building a library of classics. My favorites I have mentioned before, I love the rhythm of Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle and We're Going on a bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. I'm on the look out for what to get next!

What are the favorites at your house? 

our third daughter

pat pat baby

Ada loves her baby, a lot! When she was away for the day last week, one of the most restful things was that I wasn't continually on the look out for her baby. We have to help Ada change, dress and wrap her baby. Yes Cam and I have three different bottoms to change. I am trying to teach Ada how to wrap her own baby, but she just prefers not to.

rock baby, shh shh

All day we hear "baby baby" when looking for baby. Baby pram. Walk baby. Wrap baby. Rock baby. Baby bath. Night night baby. Baby medicine. Baby button. Baby car seat. Baby nappy, baby nappy, baby nappy. It is so sweet, but rather relentless.

tummy time baby

Don't forget to enter the competition for a $50 Westfield voucher here. Open to non mothers and non laundry doers too!

on the up and up

Last week I visited a Plunket Family Centre, I think I have been embarrassed to post about it here because then I am admitting that I don't feed Olive on demand any more, that I want Olive to have a routine and to learn to sleep in her bed. I assume rightly or wrongly that I may be judged for this? This is rather silly for me to be embarrassed about! Firstly, people don't need to spend much time with me to know I like to have a plan. I love to have a plan! I am typically OK if the plan gets changed, but I really love having a plan A and a plan B for that matter. Secondly, I feed Olive when she is hungry, I mean of course I do, a routine would never change that. Plus, I'm the Mama! My call right? 

The advice from Patsy at Plunket was so simple and I had heard it before. All of Olive's early tears and wind and unsettledness had made me feel a tad unconfident, could you tell? People had said time and time again the second baby is easier, well, um no, not if the first was the easier one. Here was the revelation, for a baby Olives age, feed when she wakes, give her all of her feed and don't take more than half an hour with it. Then she can play for half an hour, after which, remove any distractions and place baby on the floor and look for her to show some tired signs, then put baby to bed. That is simple genius right there and I hadn't seen it, I needed Patsy to walk me through some basic baby steps. I had been feeding Olive then taking time over her nappy, having a few cuddles, then she would look hungry again after being awake for about 50 minutes so I would feed her more. When she had finished she would be tired plus have wind and then all of a sudden she would be overtired and frustrated and very hard to settle. 

Patsy advised feeding more often than most set routines, every 2 - 3 hours, hopefully enabling babies to get their calorie intake during the day and not need to feed all through the night. She rightly points out how often we eat and babies are smaller than us and so need to eat more frequently. Simple, yes? So a baby Olives age may be awake an hour and then in their beds an hour if feeding every two hours. The thought of feeding every two hours all day does my head in but knowing that just an hour in their bed is enough has been rather freeing for me. Trying to resettle a tiny baby after they have woken is hard work, basically you are convinced they must be hungry and go about the resettling halfheartedly anyhow. Olive often wakes naturally after 3 hours since the last feed but less sleep is not as big a deal to me now. Also now that teo hourly feeds is an option when a growth spurt hits all that extra feeding isn't such a shock.

Lastly Patsy from Plunket encouraged me to teach Olive to like her bed. This involves some rocking, patting and shushing to calm baby but leaving baby in bed, for an hour at least. Many babies protest strongly at first and then learn to self settle in a few days. We have not had the miracle of a self settling baby after a few days but this is SO much easier than rocking her to sleep in our arms and then trying to put her in bed without waking. Stress city. Currently Olive takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes to settle to sleep with very little protesting and loud crying almost certainly is wind. We still rock and shush but it is slowly becoming less. Phoowee, having the guesswork removed even a little at bedtime is sooooo good. Her better day sleeps have not revolutionised her night sleeps, yet, but that is the hope! Good sleep in the day leads to good sleep at night so they say. 

So with all this time taken back from feeding and burping and crying we have a lovely chunk of time to play with Olive before she goes to bed. Please don't mistake me and think I am preaching this method for you, at our house we just needed to do things differently, I was going a bit crazy. Olive is so much happier. I am so much happier. Phewf, that is a relief. Thanks Patsy! 

Hi! I have pandas and a smile on!

competition for you!

I'm so excited to host my first giveaway!! A free milk tasting was not quite as generous as this: The nice folks at Vanish Napisan Oxi Action have offered one of the readers of my blog a $50 Westfield voucher!

I have trialled Vanish powder over the past few weeks and have been rather pleased with the results.

To enter please leave a comment below with a poo story so we can all have a good laugh or leave a handy stain removal hint for our housewife or househusband improvement. Maybe you will combine the two and we will be amazed at your life and laundry skills! Check out the Vanish website for ideas if you are stuck.

Couldn't be easier to enter and you will have a good chance of winning, so get to it!

Competition open to New Zealand residents only. Entries close midnight Monday and a winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday 17 September. Ooh, good luck!

Clean and bright and that's alright!

to cut or not to cut

A few weeks ago = perfect curls upon waking

Ada will be saying something clever here like 'ear'. 

I can hear her wee deep voice, 'Ada photo'. 

This gals hair is amazing! It is often the talk of the town. Perhaps my family gives it the very blond and Cameron's the very curly. You comb it and it curls back. It has only just got long enough that it knots every night and is in Ada's eyes a lot of the time. Trouble is that she doesn't like putting it up or clipping it back. We will be be trying to get Ada used to that in the meantime. The question still looms, to cut or not to cut?!

vanishing act and a poo post

Firstly, I am a laundry scrubber and I take a lot of time getting things out before putting clothes in the wash. Ada regularly has dirt and marmite and spaghetti sauce on her clothes. I am planning on Olive wearing those so I want them clean, proper clean. I have been experimenting with Vanish Oxi Action and just adding some to the wash rather than clothes getting a scrub before. Lo and behold the knees that were in the dirt at the playground are spot free! The other item that got thrown in without attention was a light pink hoody that Ada had been painting and snacking in. The sleeves were dirty and rubbed through the paint and marmite. This came out looking fantastic! No red or purple or marmite left. Hoorah! Time saved and clean clothes. 

The next challenge was newborn poo. Olive is down to one poo a day mostly, so that means it is likely to be a doozy. Murphy's law states that when you put a baby in the new outfit she will quickly deposit 24 hours worth of waste into a tiny newborn nappy. This happened just a few days ago and yesterday too. I wouldn't just throw that scary yellow poop in the wash with a little extra powder. Even a soak doesn't really fit the bill as the poo needs removing right?! So I mixed some of the Vanish powder with water and made a paste and scrubbed this onto the onesies. It washed out before my eyes! This is washing confidence, the stain disappearing, wait vanishing, before it goes in the wash. I didn't take a photo before. I forgot (remember the 9 week old baby) and who wants to see poop really? But look at the after photo!

*Disclosure: Some of the products mentioned here were provided to me in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

little miss Olive is 2 months/9 weeks old!

Two months already! I've been trying to snap a photo of Olive today to commemorate the milestone but she hasn't been cooperating. First she mega pooped in her new cute onesie and then she mega spewed on the next cute sweater and tights combo. Olive sure does know how to celebrate. 

Clean at last!

Not the best photo op. 

Better. 

Sheesh this time 9 weeks ago... Time flies when you are having fun and even when you're not! Babies just change so fast! 

smile and coo

My wee miss serious is now a little grinning chatterbox. 

Olive has the loveliest smile and the most beautiful voice. 

Ada's first love triangle

Simon loves Jo. 

Jo loves Ada. 

Ada loves Simon. 

Ada is off at aunties place today but aunty can't get a look in. Ada is all about 'Simey'! A few days ago I asked if she missed Simon when she mentioned his name in the morning. Later that afternoon with a sad tone she said 'miss Simey'. The girl has a real crush. I'm glad she managed to pull herself away for a goodbye kiss last night. 

do they look alike?

I get asked this a lot. Not really? Yes? Time will tell...
These are photos from as near to the day as possible!
Hello my babies!

Brand new baby, brand new mama

round two

1 week

1 week

 

3 weeks

5 weeks

5 weeks

7 weeks

7 weeks