Snip

 

Farewell, ECIS!

 

ECIS Christmas BBQ

This was Beanie's last year at ECIS. He has been attending since he was 20 months old. What a huge difference it has made! A big thank you to all the wonderful teachers and TAs. 

Snip, Snip

Yesterday Beanie insisted that he wanted his hair as short as Loo Bear's. This morning he felt the same way and was desperate for it to be done. So...

 

I do need to go back and trim a little though... I draw the line at a rat tail. 

Life is a Blur

These tiny feet are hardly ever still anymore. Baby Bear started walking 3 weeks ago, a week after his first birthday... my earliest walker.

There's no stopping him now. He's still tiny (on the 3rd percentile line of the growth charts) but he's happy, healthy, growing, climbing higher every day, learning new things all the time, and just as gorgeous as ever.

1st Haircut

Loo has been asking for another haircut for months now so I finally got organised today and got the clippers out (gave him a #3 - should last him a while!). As usual, I asked the other 2 if they wanted a haircut too and, for the first time, Beanie said yes, he'd like a 'little' haircut. I did Loo first, giving Beanie a chance to change his mind but he didn't. I took about 20cm off his hair... it was down around his waist and now sits at the bottom of his shoulder blades.

Beanie did really well during his haircut but it wiped him out for the rest of the day. He spent the evening in total meltdown mode - screaming and crying over everything and nothing and unable to communicate, unable to eat his dinner. The OH had to lie down and hold him until he fell asleep. Poor Beanie was so exhausted, he still looked really pale and out of it as he slept. Hopefully he'll wake up feeling better tomorrow.

Full Circle

He was born at exactly 40 weeks gestation and today he is exactly 40 weeks old.

Look how far he's come...

  

TOOTH!

7 months on the dot and Baby Bear woke up this morning with his very first tooth coming through! :) (For the last 3 months he's been occasionally grazing me when gnawing hard on my finger but the elusive tooth had stubbornly remained out of sight until now).

He also finally started rolling from front to back at 6.5 months and just before 7 months started rolling from back to front as well. Yay, he's catching up on all those milestones!

Solids

 

 

Baby Bear started on solids recently... a suck on an apple here, gumming on a broccoli stem there. Last night he enjoyed sucking sweet potato off carrot and broccoli sticks. 

Six

Happy birthday, Loo Bear! :)

Big Boy Beanie

My little Bean is growing up :) :(

For about 6-8 weeks now we've been down to one breastfeed a day, the pre-bedtime feed. It's a token feed, most days just half a minute each side. And we're both okay with that. A couple of months ago I encouraged him to to drop the very early morning feed. It was just one of those weird pregnancy things, I couldn't stand the feeling of him breastfeeding and that morning feed was more than I could take. We had some extra cuddle time and after a week or so he forgot to even ask for boobies. Who knows what will happen after Baby Bear is born, either way it's okay.

And tonight is Beanie's second night sharing a room with his brothers. They're all coping fine with the move. Beanie's been sleeping through the night consistently for about 6 months now and able to settle himself to sleep for about 4 months, only needing to sleep in our bed when sick or early in the morning when The OH and I were trying to have a sleep in. I think I'm finding it harder to adjust than he is (Beanie is absolutely thrilled to be in with his brothers and keeps telling me that he's a big boy now). Me, on the other hand, I'm so used to having a baby next to me, whether snuggled up next to me in bed or in a cot pushed up against our bed. And there's actually less bed-space with Beanie gone. With the cot right up against our bed, I had a doona and pillows packed into the space in between with a sheet firmly tucked over everything so there were no gaps. It added a good extra 20-odd cm to our queen sized bed and without the cot there I now find myself nearly rolling off the edge of the mattress in the middle of the night!

But now I have space in our bedroom to get the bassinette set up; to get the newborn clothes and nappies washed and put away; to put together my box of homebirth supplies. And I'm really excited. Crazy as it may be, I'm looking forward to experiencing labour again, looking forward to welcoming and embracing the contractions that will bring our little boy earthside. I am sad/happy/grateful because pregnancy #11 will be our last one. And I can't wait to be able to cuddle my little Baby Bear and to breathe in deep his sweet newborn baby smell. :x

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Thank you once again for what I'm sure will be some wonderful stocking-fillers for the kids. I know we can always count on you to avoid the plastic, battery-operated toys. ;)

I know we usually leave a plate of biscuits as a snack for you but things have been a little busy this year so we whipped up a quick chocolate cake this afternoon. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself, so I hope you enjoy the big slice we've left out for you. The chocolate butter icing got rave reviews from the kids and The OH. The OH says it tastes like Lindt chocolate. It's made from fresh homemade butter, the cream lovingly churned, none of that store-bought stuff. Okay, okay, I'll admit, it was meant to be chocolate whipped cream but I was trying to make dinner at the same time and somehow cream turned into butter. Oops. But it's pretty tasty, don't you think?

I do hope you have a smooth run tonight and that you get some R&R before next Christmas.

xx

PS. There's heaps of cake left in the fridge so feel free to take some home for Mrs. C. Shmoo also poured a glass of milk for you but there's some very yummy apple and apple & raspberry water kefir in the fridge if you'd prefer.

PPS. If you see the Tooth Fairy while doing your rounds, could you please thank her for us for working Christmas Eve. We hope that she gets a nice Christmas bonus... I know we've certainly kept her busy over the last few weeks. Shmoo was most grateful for the surprise pre-bedtime tooth exchange and loves the Japanese-style doll keyring that she left him. He hopes that she finds a good use for his tooth.

Pretty Flowers

The boys and I ducked into Coles (we don't shop there often) while we were in town today and were delighted to see a colourful display of cauliflower. We often get the white variety; have had the green 'broccoflower' on a few occasions; the purple cauliflower once or twice; but this was the first time we'd come across the orange variety. It was very interesting to discover that "This trait came from a natural mutant found in a cauliflower field in Canada."

Monitoring Visit

We had our homeschool monitoring visit this afternoon so this morning Shmoo made a yummy gluten free, vegan coconut lemon slice to share for afternoon tea. He managed to do most of it by himself (just needing a little assistance with the stove and oven) and even helped with the cleaning up... by giving the bowl a good licking :)

 

The monitoring visit went really well . The THEAC rep was lovely, so supportive of natural learning and very encouraging and positive about what, and the way in which, Shmoo is learning. She didn't see any reason why the council wouldn't approve our 'programme' and said that we probably won't have another monitoring visit for 2 years.

It was so great to be able to talk to someone 'official' who is supportive of homeschooling. It gets a little discouraging when I have paeds, psych, therapists etc pushing to integrate him into the mainstream schooling system in some way. And you know what? It's never about the 'education', all they're concerned about is the 'socialisation'. Yep, I really want to drop my super sensitive, anxious, not-fully-toilet-trained 7 year old into an environment where there is rampant bullying and principals who turn a blind eye; overwhelmingly large classes that he'd get lost in; where he mixes with kids only the same age as him; where he has to get permission to speak, walk around or go to the toilet; where he can only eat or drink at designated times... 8-| Yeah, great socialisation.

Anyway, it's always good to get some whole-hearted support and encouragement. I am so grateful that we have such a good homeschooling system here in Tasmania.

Seven

 

We recently celebrated our gorgeous Shmoo Bear's 7th birthday. It wasn't too hard coming up with gift ideas that would appeal to his interests and, sure enough, he couldn't have been more thrilled with the presents we gave him (except maybe if we'd bought him a vacuum ;) ). We gave him a pack of oil pastels (a medium he hasn't worked with before) and a toolbox with a spanner, calipers, measuring tape and compass. He has been having so much fun exploring the tools, figuring out how they work and measuring all manner of things. And learning all kinds of fascinating things along the way!

Ice Blocks

The boys love ice cream but, as they've had dairy allergies and intolerances in the past, I make them a coconut cream based ice cream. They also don't mind an avocado/pear/banana 'ice cream' that I make. A little while ago I thought we'd give ice blocks a go. Except, with winter approaching, it was impossible to find any molds in the local shops. I found some really great looking ones online that were on sale so I got those and the boys have been enjoying ice blocks ever since.

I've been gradually working through the boys' list of flavour suggestions, depending on what's on sale and in season. Shmoo has been asking for orange ice blocks and it just so happened that the fruit and veg shop had big bags of oranges on sale during the week.

This morning we set about juicing the oranges. The kids eagerly hovered around, having their first taste of toffee (I got distracted and cooked some sugar syrup a little too long). Shmoo enjoyed examining the plump, shiny orange juice vesicles (he's remembered what they're called ever since nagging me to find out when he was 3.5). He watched the juice drip down into the jug, keeping track of how many millilitres we'd squeezed out. He managed to work out that if we'd gotten about 500ml from 6 oranges, we then needed to juice another 6 oranges to get to our target of 1000ml/1L. We even manged to do some skip counting with oranges and Shmoo got in a bit more practise with odds and evens.

I then sent the kids out of the room on the pretext of getting them to see how The OH was going with building a worm house (compost bin), and quickly stirred some carrot juice into the orange juice. :-$ Yeah, sneaky, I know. We tend to hide veg wherever we can here so that if the kids don't eat the undisguised veg on their plate (as often happens), we know that they're still getting a decent range of vegetables. I saved the carrot juice from last night when I finely processed a whole bunch of veg. We made a mega batch of wontons, 240 of them, for wonton soup (I often cook in bulk and freeze in small portions for quick and easy future meals). Whenever I used to make the soup the boys would pick out the wontons and leave the veg. So I told them I wouldn't put veg in the stock anymore and they were happy. Instead, I put it all into the wontons themselves :-"

Science - Introduction to Chemical Reactions

 The OH and I love garlic. I've cooked with it a lot over the past 12+ years, used it in all kinds of recipes. Today, however, was the first time I've had garlic turn a vivid blue-green colour during the cooking process.

This morning I put a whole chook in the slow cooker; threw in some sliced onion and garlic; sprinkled on some salt and pepper; and then squeezed a lime over it all. Nothing special, just an end of the week, throw-it-together kind of meal. An hour or so later I was cleaning up after the kids had breakfast and as I wiped down the bench I glanced at the slow cooker. I was quite alarmed to see that all the garlic had turned green! It was the same kind of green that copper turns when it oxidises. Not the kind of colour you expect to see in food unless the ingredients list includes a whole bunch of numbers!

I called Shmoo and Loo in and they were fascinated by the strange colour. We couldn't figure out what was going on with it. I was worried that it might be some weird garlic disease/mould that only became apparent during cooking so I quickly Googled it. Turns out there are lots of people out there that have been freaked out by turquoise coloured garlic and lots of theories about why it occurs. The best source of info seems to be here...

"The colors occur when enzymes and amino acids present in garlic react with the sulfur compounds responsible for garlic’s pungent smell. The reaction causes different multipyrrole molecules to form. Different types of multipyrrole molecules are responsible for the different pigments. The multipyrrole molecule most familiar to us is chlorophyll, produced by plants in the presence of light; however, chlorophyll is not produced by the cooking or pickling processes that turn garlic blue."

 Interesting! We kept an eye on the garlic as it continued to cook and it slowly turned more green than blue and after a while the green colour disappeared.

Colour starting to fade

Then, tonight, I was preparing to cook some silverbeet and cabbage to go with the chicken. Usually I just saute the onion and garlic, throw in the veg, and stir through a splash of soy sauce and a little lemon or lime juice. I had everything prepped and ready to go. I cooked the onion and added the garlic. Then I noticed the lime sitting there, ready to be used later. Instead, I squeezed a little of the juice straight onto the garlic. Voila! Reaction replicated. Shmoo and Loo marvelled over the turquoise garlic. What an awesome colour (although not one I usually like to see in my food!).

We'll have to explore some more kitchen science chemical reactions :)

Santa Snacks

Choc full of choccy goodness

Today we did our traditional biscuit bake in preparation for Santa's arrival. The boys made double choc chip bikkies (a slightly altered Nigella recipe). Shmoo ended up making the most biscuits. Loo made a few of various shapes/sizes and then proceeded to lick his fingers and nibble on choc bits so Shmoo made him put the biscuits he was working on at one end of the tray to keep them separate LOL. Bean had fun squishing his dough, mouthing it and flicking bits onto the tray. We put his biscuits down the other end of the tray too ;)

I made a few for the OH and I as well. I did white choc & macadamia and milk choc & pecan... a little less kid-friendly (the boys don't like nuts) so more for us.

I hope Santa enjoys his biscuits.

Birthday Photos

Loo's 4th birthday...


Lots of pressies - clothes and battery operated toys from the rellies; puzzles and pencils from mama and daddy; and fossils and a dinosaur book from Trevor & Tina.

As per Loo's request - a strawberry dinosaur cake with 'sparkly sticks'. And it was a day for special treats... strawberry gelato. Also, jelly cups with dinosaur sweets (he's a little obsessed with dinosaurs!).

 

Then we took advantage of our first sunny day in a long time. Playing outside with the baby kitties.

Helping Daddy in the garden and building things.

Hello 2011

The goals for this year: home, health and family.

Home - Getting it organised inside and out. Get a good veg & herb garden set up.

Health - To keep my thyroid under control and to get (back) into the Primal way of eating.

Family - To gently work our way through our first year of official homeschooling. And, hopefully, see baby #4 on the way...

Oops

I have been using a curriculum guide to get an idea on what Shmoo should be learning and when. Of course, standards vary widely from state to state and country to country so I've just been using it as a general guide, not following it too strictly and we've been tailoring it to where Shmoo's at - giving him more advanced stuff to learn where he's obviously ahead and doing more work where he struggles. The problem is, this guide covers preschool, kinder and then grades 1-12. Not being a Tassie native I assumed that the kinder in the guide was the same as the kinder in the Tassie education system, and preschool was 'pre-kinder', ie the stage Shmoo is at now. Last night I finally managed to work out that in Tasmania kids do kinder, prep and then grades 1-12. So what I've been thinking of as 'kinder' would really be the guide for 'prep' LOL. According to the curriculum guide on where kids 'should' be at, Shmoo's now about a year ahead in 2/3 of the subject areas LOL. Oh well. The good thing about home schooling is that we are able to tailor our curriculum to suit the student!