Silent Sunday

Friday treats

Made some flapjacks for Hubby.

Then felt bad and made nutty apple&banana muffins for Captain. Sugarfree and delicious!

Makes 12 muffins
Heat oven to 160C (fan)
Oil muffin tin

Mix in a bowl
* 210g self raising flour
* 1,5 tsp baking powder
* pinch of cinnamon
* 1 grated apple
* 1 banana chopped (or mashed, whatever floats your boat)
* handful of chopped nuts (optional)

Whisk together
* 1 egg
* 130 ml milk

Add to flour mixture, spoon into muffin tin, bake in the middle of the oven for 12-15 min.

Yummy!
What is your little one's weekend treat?

Nips and picnics

Yesterday I cried before breakfast.
Today I made it until noon.

I had a lovely morning with my crazy little pal. I was meant to be drinking coffee, but ended up colouring and then assisting Captain in a completely bonkers jumping dance, complete with a very dramatic swoon all the way to the floor after each set of bounces. I found this hilarious, and she knew it.

We also did the most un-subtle NIP to date. She started off laying on my lap, but slowly squirmed her way down to the floor. In the end she was doing a little jig, while still latched on. If this wasn't enough, the server came over to ask if a juice box belonged to us. "No thanks, it's not mine", said I, politely. "It's mine!", said the Captain loudly, while still miraculously boobing away. This send me into a fit of giggles. The people who say mamas should cover up while nursing obviously haven't encountered The Captain... Dancing, chatting and devising a juice-box scam while having milk, that's my girl!

Then my friend came in. Another one joined in after a while. We chatted. Unsurprisingly, friend 1 had more to say about my parenting. At this point Captain was running around, making a game of going out of the children's area. I kept getting up and getting her. We were fine. Then came the "Oooooh, she's being naughty today!" To which I replied; "No, she's full of beans, running off steam before naptime and doing no harm!"

This little cloud of negativity upset me just enough for me to open up to the friend who came in later, after F1 left. I told her about how stressed out I've been and how lost I feel with the house business hanging over me constantly. I had a little cry, right there in public. Then I picked myself up again, Captain gave me sleepy wrap snuggle therapy and we had a picnic in the park when she woke up.

Another good day, I learned a lot.

1) A "dance-dance" makes everything better.
2) Talk more to the people who want to organise play dates with you even after you cry at them.
3) Have a picnic whenever you think of it, because two minutes later there could be hailstones.

Silent Sunday

Terrible teeth in her terrible jaws

The Captain is growing her fangs and has been in quite a bit of pain with them the past few days.

She has been pretty much perma-latched at night, rolling off to snuggle Daddy, only to cry out in pain and get back to Mama and the all-curing boob again. I'm glad I can offer her some comfort.

Daytime happiness is shadowed by horrible teething poos. And when you cloth diaper, you remember exactly how many of them the poor little darling has to deal with. We deal with this by nappy free time and extra playtime in the shower. That, and breastmilk lotion. That stuff is better than magic.

Hubby came to today's sling meet with us, to keep Captain entertained in the play area. But sometimes even slides and football with Daddy don't cut it. Especially if mama is wrapping demo babies and trying slings without you. So Captain came to find me and told me she wanted milk.

Sometimes you wrap your toddler and continue doing what you're doing.

Sometimes they just need you to sit down and hold them, without any rush or care about anyone else's needs. Today Captain needed me more than anyone.

So I sat, nursed and held her until the pain eased and her little limbs relaxed in my arms.

Those are the moments full of contentment.

Silent Sunday

Tricks and treats

Captain has started to sign "cookie", while saying "nacks" (aka snack).
For her this means organic toddler finger food snack packet, which is an occasional treat for her.
For a few days I was just praising her for signing and saying the word, while trying to trick her into thinking her packed lunch was just as exciting. Today I told her we were going to get a Friday treat, so off to the shop we went.
Toddlers are great at navigating shops, especially when they want something....

While we were visiting the strange, not usually seen land of The Baby Aisle, I glanced at the shelves of formula. Sure enough; bright, colourful strips with promises of vitamins, minerals and all sorts directly under stage 1 formula. Underneath them were some shelf talkers, promoting this new product. Although they mentioned only stage 2, they too were directly under stage 1, just in case the first ad didn't draw the attention enough.

After Captain picked her selection of nacks, off we went to find an employee.
She was very helpful and came over to see the offending materials, promising to talk to the manager. The she said thanks, without even thinking I was a member of some international formula spy agency.
(Can you tell my first code violation spot in a certain pharmacy didn't go down as well as this one?)

For more reading on the code
Breastfeeding.ie summary on the code here
IBFAN Ireland here