I've got plenty of muffins, and muffins are plenty for me...

So today I'm having a "high achievement in the home" day... It's 9am and I've fed the baby, ate breakfast, put baby back down for nap, done a load of dishes or two, and made a batch of pumpkin muffins, which are cooking in the oven and smell devine. I only just changed out of my nighty, but that's beside the point!

Being a mostly at home gal these days, it makes good economic sense to bake a bit more instead of buying snacks. C-chan needs snacks to maintain swimming 3 times a week to keep his back strong, and I need snacks to fuel my 10,000+ steps a day habit and the fact that I'm a part time human milk machine*. On top of that, most store bought snacks are full of sugar, ingredients you can't pronounce, and unnecessary packaging. The downside is that you just have to eat a bit when they are fresh out of the oven. And possibly a bit more.

Backtrack a paragraph or two... did I write pumpkin muffins? Oh yes! Anyone who's had a North American make Pumpkin Pie for them will understand what I mean... Pumpkin is a nice sweet flavouring and goes great with cinnamon and cloves. My local icecreamery used to make a pumpkin pie flavour, but stopped probably because C-chan, Angel and I were the only ones who ever bought it. Also, when in Tokyo a few years ago, C-chan and I went out for dinner on our wedding anniversary to a modern Japanese/French fusion restaurant highly recommended by My Brother the Expat. For dessert, we were served a few slithers of sweet pumpkin sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Sure, we could have made that at home, but we probably wouldn't have thought of it.

But I digress. Muffins rock I have decided. Blueberry, pumpkin, date & oatbran... Mmmm. I used to use my dear old departed Granny's recipe, but I have recently converted to the Woomen's Weakly recipe book style, which uses a secret ingredient guaranteed to make your muffins moist for days**: buttermilk! Who would have thought this humble*** old-fashioned ingredient would make such a difference?!


* did I ever update you on the fact that E-chan finally got his breastfeeding attachment sorted out? about a week after deciding to wean, he decided he was into this breastfeeding thing. I now supply 1/3-1/2 of his dietary needs, with the rest being provided by formula. I figure it saves us a bit in formula costs, and gives him some of my immunity to colds etc., so might as well keep it up for a bit longer.

** that almost sounds rude!

*** actually, modern buttermilk doesn't seem to be the liquid squeezed out during the butter churning process as demonstrated during my childhood visits to Ye Olde Worlde Village... just checked the carton and ingredients seem to be: skim milk, milk, concentrated skim milk, culture. What the culture is I don't know, but assume it is more along the lines of yoghurt culture rather than forcing the milk to listen to Mozart and Beethoven style of culture

Pedorama!

I am referring to my newfound enthusiasm for my new toy... a PEDOMETER! Never again will I need to wonder "have I walked as much as I thought I did today?" or "am I making my 10,000 step daily quota regularly?". The answer to both questions is "yes!". In addition, I am often carrying a nearly 8kg baby or pushing him in a pram! Go me!

Oooh thanks for the pointer...

...Betty Sue! I have now turned off my comment moderator (a wanting-to-delete-a-comment-I-accidentally-posted-twice experiment that went wrong... didn't realise I would then have to log on to decide which comments get posted!!)

So it's just you and me, kiddo...

Tonight E-chan and I are having our first evening home alone together. Dad's out having some well earned R'n'R.

Just as I was about to give E-chan his "dinner", a beautiful sunset started, not unlike the one below (but more cloud in the sky tonight). I took E-chan out on the balcony and showed it to him - never too young to appreciate a good sunset, I say. He was all quiet and snuggly in his pyjamas, little eyes looking over my shoulder at the view, warm little fluffy head pressed against my cheek.

Then during his feed as I sat in the rocking chair in his room with the blinds open, the window perfectly framed the sunset, which by now had taken over the whole sky and was a rich orange colour. It was one of those moments.... Beautiful baby quietly feeding on my lap, darkening room, gently rocking back and forth in the chair. Staring at a breathtaking sunset that seemed to be static. But every now and again I'd look down to E-chan, and when I looked up again, the sky would have changed to a deeper, more fiery orange... the concentration of colour would have moved closer to the horizon... the grey of the clouds would be encroaching downwards from above... the light would be hitting different surfaces in the near distance. Stare for a bit and everything seems to be static again. Look down at baby, look up again, and the sunset had changed again. Again and again until baby is almost asleep, eyes half closed with a contented half smile, his breaths slowing to a sleepy rate, and there is only a small smudge of red light left in the sky radiating from a point on the horizon in the west...

Sigh!

Oh what a suprise!!

Suddenly Newscrap Inc are interested in buying a 7.5% stake in Fairfax! Poised to own 15% (pretty much a controlling interest) as soon as the new media laws take effect. Soon all of Australia will be like South Australia, where the daily National, regional and weekly local papers (perhaps with Rural Press being the exception) are all owned by Newscrap!

PLEASE* vote this government out next election - they are doing dodgy dodgy things now that they hold the balance of power (not like we didn't see this coming).

*I realise I am most probably pleading to the converted

What big eyes you have!

My baby boy has big blue eyes - I know this not only from looking, but because I am told it at least once a day... (Excuse the dribble to the right of his mouth - he can't help it, as he isn't likely to work out that he needs to swallow saliva for a year or so yet...)

One nice thing is that the other day, I got at least 5 similar comments from YOUNG MEN! Usually it's the grandparents, women of childbearing age or fathers who acknowledge babies. I was tempted to reply "What, getting clucky!?", but didn't want to freak their girlfriends out.

Also interesting is that yesterday I saw the lead singer/keyboard player of a well known band pushing a pram (with baby in it) into a hi fi store.

Also, found this show on Thursday fascinating. Food for thought anyway.

What's my point? I dunno. Do I need one? I think today I prefer to have a theme.

visit from folks and the joys of Japlish

My folks visited last week on their way back from visiting the Tokyo Meri's, bearing gifts and tales of their two grandsons over there.

Mum & Dad spent 3 weeks looking after nephew #1 (3.5 y/o) while Brother, Sister-in-law and nephew #2 (8 weeks old and still in hospital but almost better) coped with new jobs and commute-to-hospital-to-breastfeed schedules. Brother's new job has much more family-friendly hours so yahoo for him! Mum apparently refined her Advanced Toddler Reasoning and Bribing skills (you know - "you can have another chip once you've had a mouthful of chicken and broccoli").

Gifts include little clips and gizmos for attaching things to prams, attaching hats and dummies to babies, small cases for storing rolled up damp flannels with a little cartoon character on the front called "Wanco". Bags with mutated South Park characters all over it, and words of wisdom such as "Happy Day We are good friends! A breath of fresh air! Love begets love Tast (sic) the goody Fresh and crispy Strawberry A sound mind in a sound lody (sic)" (all on one bag). And some pretty groovy t-shirts that miraculously fit me despite vastly different Japanese sizing system.

all thumbs

The last few days has been like a slapstick Laurel and Hardy skit. Or Laurel, without Hardy. E.g. hang up the towell after shower. Towell falls to ground immediately. Pick towell up and put it back, towell falls down AGAIN!! Pick towell up, put it back and hold it there... hold... hold... and it finally stays. Put something in bin, swinging bin top swings straight back and pushes rubbish back out.

Does anyone else feel like a bit of a clutz when they get their periods? (This is, I might add, my first one in over a year, and I have not missed them one bit).

Cryin'

Two little babies in their prams at the chemists, with tear stains down their cheeks, and the quiet, shy and snuggly stare that seems to follow a baby's howl. Not wanting to go outside and was perfectly fine inside thankyou? Resisting sleep? Cries of frustration from not being able to say what they want?

Small park in the back streets just off the main road. Woman on a bench, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, while a friend sits beside her with her arm around her shoulder, consoling, listening. Too much going on in her life and finding it hard to cope? Did someone die in an unexpected way? Debrief after a difficult end to a relationship? Disappointing news or a disappointing person?

Late at night, all is silent. Then, through the concrete brick walls we hear the faint sound of muffled sobbing. We hold our breaths and listen. In fact, it is someone crying really hard... the type of cry where you have to take massive inward breaths between sobs because you are crying so hard. The sort of cry that must be expressing the deepest disappointment, grief, or loneliness, and the only way to let it out is to have a big cry when you are somewhere safe and alone, or with people who you can let see you like this...

Q: How do three mums with 4 month olds go swimming?

A: Like this...

We arrive at the pool at a pre-arranged time and take turns, taking into account the following factors that pop up randomly throughout the morning. Well, not completely random, as each baby has it's own cycle of things it does, but throw 3 babies together and you do have the potential for mahem... One by one we take turns to swim or shower. Do a few laps as fast as you can, then look towards the other mums for a thumbs up to let you know that everything is OK with Bub...

The Babies
Ethan, Lachlan and Phoebe: all born within a week of each other*. I wouldn't exactly call them friends yet - they barely even look at each other. Babies at this age "parallel play" so I'm told, and evidence as I see it suggests that apart from accidentally knocking each other as they flail around on rugs, there isn't a lot of interaction going on.

Feeding...
Phoebe is the model baby feeder. Never a problem with latching on or her mother's supply. Comfortable feeding wherever she is. Lachie is also breastfed but going through "a bit of a difficult phase"... won't feed away from his special chair at home. Mum has to feed him before departing her house, and tries to feed him while out, but he won't and cries his little lungs out. And Ethan. Well he's always been a difficult feeder... his latest trick is to get halfway through his bottle and start to look around. Neck craning every direction, looking out to see what he can see, with Mum's hand and the bottle trying to follow his mouth around. There tend to be a few tantrums, and he seems to be making the mental transition to wanting to be fed sitting up, which doesn't quite work with a bottle.

Sleeping...
Phoebe also seems to be well adjusted to being out and about in her pram. [The rest of the mothers actually don't actually believe she is capable of being grizzly, but I can confirm that she does actually grizzle on occasion.] Lachie hates his pram, so his mother has to cart arount a baby carrier as well as a pram in case of emergency. Ethan can be difficult to settle, but just zonks if he's tired.

Separation anxiety?
Phoebe & Ethan: none apparent at this age - willing to cuddle anyone so long as Mum's in the vicinity. Lachie seems a little less at ease, but could be due to not having been fed for a while.

Coffee and chats afterwards....
Kiddies settled somewhat now that Mums have all swum and showered, we grabbed a substandard coffee at the pool afterwards. We realised that all our kids are Geminis, and got into a great big in depth discussion about intra-familial star sign relationships. Parents vs babies, us vs our parents and friends. Wondering how our babes are going to grow up. Thinking it would be cool if they went to the Newtown High School for the Performing Arts and dyed their hair pink.

So gradually, I'm getting fitter again back in the pool. It's great hanging out with other Mums, sharing the trials and joys of parenthood, seeing how other babies are, and being reassured that your baby fits somewhere in the many spectrums of normality.

*their mothers said they could be sister and brother... but sadly no one called Deborah (Pulp reference for those who know the song)

Hello back again did you miss me?

The last week has been a bit of a blur. C-chan's back is getting better (thank goodness). Things were getting quite panicky for me last Sunday... I suppose I was beginning to look ahead into the coming weeks and wonder how we were going to cope if things didn't show signs of improving. Having to run around doing everything for 2 people was taking its toll. In addition my socia life was almost entirely with the ladies from the pharmacy as I ducked down to fill prescriptions for C-chan's pain relief. On the up side, C-chan has caught up with a lot of reading which he hasn't had time for in the past few months.

Some friends were lovely and offered help or even brought over food - thanks. C-chan's parents flew over (even though we didn't make it to C-chan's graduation ceremony) and gave the place a once over with the duster and vacuum cleaner (it really needed it) and even brought frozen pasta sauce and quiche for us to stash in the freezer. I think I might explore internet grocery shopping in the coming weeks - for the large heavy items that I can't pick up easily down the road.

We had dinner at home instead on Monday night and celebrated the end of C-chan's neverending law degree with orange juice in our champagne glasses. E-chan wore the little mortar board hat I'd made for him and it actually turned out to be a surprise for C-chan (I could have sworn he'd seen it as it was being made).

As it is now, we got C-chan out of the house to have an ice-cream with Angel on Friday and to the Osteopath yesterday. And he can do lots of little things around the house which makes a huge difference. Now all I have to do is all of the lifting and carrying around of our little bundle of joy. Not suprisingly, I am being ULTRA CAREFUL that I don't do my back in also. That would be a disaster. I think we've learned our lesson that our health cannot take a back seat even though E-chan keeps us busy. We were doing a lot of walking, but it seems walking is not enough - C-chan's getting a gym membership for xmas, and back in the pool I go...