Breastfeeding to Sleep

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A concern has been raised to us that our son does not self-settle. Why it’s a concern is beyond us, but apparently we are going to have a tough job ahead of us.

It yet again comes back to the same old thing, we should be letting him cry! What is particularly upsetting isn’t that they think that’s what you do with children, I understand that’s what a lot of parents both part and present misguidedly believe, it’s that we have explained why we don’t so many times and they think so little of our opinion that they totally ignore it. It’s a lot easier to go on fooling yourself than it is to see another opinion or admit you might have been misguided, that goes for many walks of life, not just parenting, you only have to look at the many people who follow a religion because that’s what their parents did to see that in practice.

I digress. Our child is being given the chance to self-wean, which means he will choose when he stops having Mummy milk, not me or his Dad and certainly not anyone outside that circle. And when he does, he will also be ready to go to sleep without the warm comfort of his beloved milk.

Sharing your bed with a toddler

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Is beautiful. We hug all night, often all three of us bundled up in a family hug in our sleep.

Anyone who wants to start their family life off with love should consider bedsharing. I wish I’d have known all I know about natural parenting when I was pregnant, those early weeks would have been so much easier.

Our boy is 16 months old today, quite unbelievably, thankfully still very keen on breastfeeding, not sure I’d be ready for him to wean just yet, though I want him to self-wean so I’d just have to be ready, like it or not. The average for children who are allowed to self-wean is 2.5-3 years old.

He still feeds fairly regularly through the night but neither of us really wake.

Gift wrapping with a toddler

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Finding the time to wrap gifts when you have a toddler is difficult, so I decided (one evening when LO was avoiding sleep) to include him in wrapping our Christmas presents. How hard could it be?

Scissors are clearly not a toddler toy so they stay firmly a “Mummy’s” object, so when he did get hold of them, which he did, they were the only “not for Arthur” of the exercise.

So, we got our scissors, our sellotape, wrapping paper and ribbons and bows. Something was missing…oh yeah, the presents! It’s worth noting here that presents can be very exciting, so we wrapped one thing at a time leaving the others out of reach/view.

You get to wrapping as you normally would, but this time you have a fake present or a present for Grandma at hand on which your toddler can stick his sticky tape!

Toddler helping wrap gifts

Toddler helping wrap gifts

Cut your paper to size and wrap the gift, ask your toddler to help by holding the paper closed while you get some tape to stick it down, you’ll be surprised at how much help a 15 month old can actually be. Don’t bank on this being a neat package though, and don’t bank on said toddler keeping his hands on the parcel while you get the tape, but it let’s them help, which they love, and also gives you a second to at least get some tape cut.

You might not want to show your toddler you breaking the sellotape with your teeth, depending on your toddler, ours is pretty good about what goes in his mouth and if he does and it isn’t food, he’s also pretty good at taking it out again. The tape did go to his mouth but it was deemed not food :)

Next up, the tape. This is the fun part. Break off two pieces for every piece you need and give one of them to your toddler for sticking either on to the parcel your wrapping (consider it decoration) or onto their own present, or even just a scrap of the paper you’re wrapping with.

You might fund yourself rushing a bit here but make a game of it and let him play with the roll between use.

Then comes the ribbon, which if you have cats like we do, can make this double fun. Again, have two rolls and make sure your toddler (and cat) is under constant supervision with the ribbon, especially as they seem to live putting it round themselves. Chill out if you can and let them run around trailing the ribbon, it gives you time to finish the wrapping and they will love it.

Labels are tricky because I’d your toddler is anything like mine then Mummy having a pen is not allowed, all pens now belong to one person, your toddler. But that’s ok, get a sheet of paper, give them their own pen and get them to make you some custom labels for the next round of wrapping! Let them scribble away with festive colours then cut festive shapes out of the page, hole punch a hole, et voila, custom labels made with love and guaranteed to make the recipient smile. Meanwhile, rush writing onto the label you need.

Then on to the next present!

I didn’t say this would be quick, did I? Fun though, and a lovely activity for you both for these dark evenings.

Thursday soup: Carrot and turnip soup with cumin and walnut sprinkles

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Ingredients
Good strong stock
Carrots
Turnip (or Swede if you’re a Southerner)
1tsp cumin seeds
Couple of walnuts

Method
Make your stock from whatever you have (we used mutton bones and leeks mostly this week), don’t forget bay leaves and pepper.
Chop your carrot and turnip into 1cm ish pieces and boil in the stock for about an hour.
Pinch of my good friend smoked paprika might be nice added here, but I didn’t because I over use the stuff.
Give it a quick whiz, I aim for the parsley and get whatever gets in the way at the same time.
Meanwhile, or while the kids portion is cooling, dry fry some cumin seeds for sprinkling over the top with the walnuts.

Family verdict?

Homemade Christmas : List

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This year is to be a homemade Christmas, I’m hoping to actually buy as little as possible, other than materials, and where possible I would like to reuse or recycle what we already have.

Where better to start than with a good old list?

1. Christmas chocolate truffles
2. Fleece scarf and hat set
3. Fleece poncho with hood
4. Beetroot chutney
5. Cookie dough in a jar (for recipient to make their own)
6. Lavender shortbread

To be added to…

Bias binding

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Who’s clever idea was it to do bias binding?

Pah, it won’t beat me but for tonight it has because not only have I sewn the entire 145cm length of the tie for Art’s dressing gown with black thread in the bobbin (on turquoise binding), but it then ran out halfway down the other side of said length without me noticing.

Numpty novice, time for bed.

Note to self: don’t try new techniques at midnight on no sleep.

Mother’s Guilt

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Our little man has been a bit out of sorts today and in the night, he was waking roughly every 2-3 hours and chomped and scratched me several times, and has had a little violent streak about him all day, so I was wondering what I wasn’t providing for him to make him behave like this.

Was my milk dipping in the night so that he was waking instead of feasting then dropping off? Am I pregnant? Is he not getting enough stimulus, either mental or physical? What am I doing wrong?

I hope the answer is nothing because I found a few little ridges of his second molar coming through on the top above his first wchich is also still coming through.

I’m ignoring the behaviour and just hope it goes away as the teeth come through, though I’ve already been advised to bite him back so he knows it hurts! I politely said that that was the worst thing you could do ad it teaches them it’s ok to bite, though if it were to continue I can are how you would ne tempted, OUCH!

Gluten-free Puff Pastry

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We have a friend round for dinner tonight who has a wheat allergy so I decided in my infinite wisdom to make gluten free puff pastry topped Venison and Mushroom Pie. I’ve made a venison casserole following several recipes (as is my way), mostly the recipe by Riverford Organic for Venison and Red Wine Casserole and will be using that as pie filling. I slow cooked in the slow-cooker overnight, it was on low in there for a total of 9 hours in the end, filling the house with delicious aroma.

Now, the puff pastry top. Not sure what I’m thinking, I’ve never even made regular wheat puff, but here we go. I’m writing this as I go so that I have it for future reference as all the sites I’ve found are in US weights, so I’m translating into my language as I go too.

Ingredients

  • 250g Doves Farm Gluten & Wheat Free White flour (contains xanthum gum)
  • 1/4tsp salt
  • 175ml cold water
  • 170g butter (cut off what you don’t need rather than cutting it into bits as you need the block to be whole ideally)
  • 1tbsp gluten free flour

Method

  1.  You are making two packages (there are fancy French names for these, but I’m ignoring those for the time being and just getting on with it.
  2. Make the dough package first. Combine the flour and the salt then make a well in the centre, add the water and gently fold the flour in to the water with your hands until it’s all mixed and you have yourself a dough ball.
  3. Wrap the ball of dough tightly in cling film (not getting air to the dough is important apparently) and put it in the fridge for an hour.
  4. Meanwhile, make some almond biscotti for after dinner…ok, you don’t need to do that, but I am!
  5. The butter package. Sprinkle a sheet of greaseproof paper with flour, then lay the butter on, sprinkle with the tablespoon of flour, then put another sheet of greaseproof on top so you have a greaseproof, flour and butter sarnie.
  6. Bash the butter to soften it, the end aim is for a square about 4″ (10cm) and about 1″ (2.5cm) thick. Bash it down to about half an inch, then fold it over and bash it down to about 1″, repeat until it’s nice and pliable then shape into a square, don’t work it so much that it’s all soft and squidgy, just nice and pliable.
  7. Wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
  8. Hang this recipe, it was suppposed to be for the measurements/weights only for my future reference, head over to Tartelette, which is one of the two recipes I was reading, seems like the best one to me

\Meanwhile my dough is in the fridge for the last time, extreme faff this puff pastry making, but I hope it works out worth it. If not, I’m positive our wheat-intolerent dinner guest will appreciate the thought!

Something of note is that the dough is VERY white! Bit disconcerting actually.

 
Edit: The pies were delicious and although the pastry did puff, it was nice and crisp on top, the pastry top I’d made separate to the pie for my son puffed a lot more so in future, if I ever feel the need to make gluten free puff pastry again (doubtful), I will bake the pastry separate to the pie.

It’s made me think about making my own wheat flour puff pastry though, something I’ve always ran away screaming from!

Oh, and our guests were indeed pleased.

Thursday Soup Recipe : Leek and Potato

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Ingredients:

2 leeks, sliced
4 or 5 potatoes, washed and chopped into chunks
Few sticks of celery, chopped
Mixed veg for stock : we had a bag of chard, a carrot, some pak choi and fennel top
Bay leaf
Handful of peppercorns

Put the mixed veg, bay leaf and peppercorns into a muslin bag and tie.
In a stockpot or large saucepan, fry the leek and celery in butter or oil until softened.
Add the potatoes, stir and fry for a few minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the water and the bag of veggies, bring to the boil then lower the heat, cover and simmer until the tatties are soft.
Removed the muslin bag to a colander over a pan, squeeze gently to release any juices, let it drip.
Meanwhile, blitz the soup with a stick blender until smooth.
Add the juices from the dripped veg bag, stir and bubble away for a few minutes.
Adjust seasoning to taste and serve with croutons.