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Category: Real Living

Revisiting the book that stopped me crying
WONDER Week 37 has come complete with the return of The Diva. The fussy, crying, clingy, sleep-challenged full-on Baby Holly. Yes, move over Diana Ross.

As explained in my last post, The Wonder Weeks is a book by Hetty Vanderijt and Frans Plooij which has uncovered the eight “fussy’’ phases in the first 14 months of bub’s life and shows you how to turn them into magical leaps forward.

The problem is I thought the bittersweet Wonder Week 37 had been and gone. Sure, there was the li’l cold and the emergence of the rabbit teeth, but the little bit of cranky during that period was surely the developmental leap. It seems not. On the weekend, we hit week 39 and Baby Holly’s delayed reaction to Wonder Week 37. Kind of like Charlie Sheen’s delayed reaction to now being a nobody. And this Wonder Week’s a doozie. Again, just like Sheen.

This sixth developmental stage – and by stage I mean mega Opera House-sized stage considering the drama that’s ensued – is called The World of Categories. Baby Holly is:
- Learning about things belonging together. The example given is “a banana looks, feels, and tastes different than spinach, but they are both foods’’.
- Her language skills are also continuing to develop, picking up “Ella’’ but still not “mum’’. Hmm. Through her speech development, she’s also beginning to understand a lot more of what I say to her (except for “please, please, say mum just once’’).
- She’s understanding names and objects, so when I ask her where something is (like Ella), she looks for her.
- Is mimicking what I do. After patting her on the back the other day when she was coughing, she started patting my shoulder in response. She then laughed when I started coughing.
- She’s trying to master the art of crawling. She gets up on all fours, does a bit of a rock, tries to get her limbs to move forward and then nosedives. Cue: crying. Thanks to the WW there’s a lot of this happening, especially when it comes to settling of a night.
Here’s what we’re doing to help her development during Wonder Week 37:
- Giving her blocks in different sizes to play with
- Reading her touch and feel books and material books
- Helping her stack the rings on the pole
- Playing in and next to her tunnel toy. This helps her learn about space.
- Sitting in front of the mirror and talking together
Afterwards, babies are expected to have a greater awareness of their surroundings and can often be more independent.

I’ve already posted about Week 26, provided a copy of the Wonder Week chart, reviewed the book and had author Frans Plooij guest post. There’s more about the new expanded version of the book on the official Wonder Week site. But to learn more about the Wonder Weeks themselves, buy the book (affiliate link).

How do you cope with your children’s fussy periods?
July 4, 2011
FEATURE: First Foods I Fed My Frills ebook review

WE’VE been blessed with two girls who rarely turn up their noses to new foods. We’ve always credited three-year-old Ella’s wide and varied tastebuds to trying all manner of foods when she was starting out. She now loves olives, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes (sometimes) and eggplant (if it’s on homemade pizza). We’re hoping to strive for the same outcome with Baby Holly. (Me? Well, that’s a different story. I just cannot do olives.)

With Holly reaching eight months, sometimes I need a bit of recipe inspiration, especially when I like to cook everything myself. Holly’s already started on the finger food. Vol-au-vents and canapes, of course. Although, I’m learning again how there’s a fine line between learning to feed yourself and just throwing the food down like it’s going out of fashion. Talk about a choking hazard.

As an avid reader of the Frills In the Hills blog, I was more than a little excited to hear Liss had released the ebook First Foods I Fed My Frills. I was secretly hoping there might be an opportunity to review it and there was. Although, to be honest, at a rather affordable $5 I would have been more than happy to pay for it.

What I like is that mum-to-three Liss doesn’t preach hard and fast rules. It’s more about what’s possible at certain stages and letting parents know each child is different. This I can vouch for. There are also some wonderful resources at the end, a list of equipment (including one rather ingenious invention) and some handy snack food ideas.

Holly in her high chair ready to eat.

The most appealing part of the book for me though was the recipes for the whole family. I’m not into doing different meals for different family members, so it was here I needed the most inspiration. And I got it. The book is written in Liss’ usual conversational tone and is well worth a look for mums navigating their way through introducing their bubs to solids and the six months beyond that.

I’ve signed on as an affiliate for Liss, so you can buy the book by clicking on the picture in my sidebar there. Well worth the $5 investment.

What solids did your bub enjoy when starting out?

**DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of First Foods I Fed My Frills for review. All opinions expressed are purely my own.

June 17, 2011
FEATURE: Oh my, you have a very big… boat!

WITH all the excitement of our Melbourne trip now behind us *sigh*, we’ve already started planning the next interstate holiday *jump for joy*. But it’s not for a quite a few months yet *sigh*. But by then the weather will have picked up *jump for joy*.

Our options are to fly or go via this.

Well, the version without eyes and a mouth, anyway.

Princess Ella gets to see this out the lounge room window every day. If you haven’t figured out what it is, it’s the Spirit of Tasmania. Each time we watch it come in and out of the Mersey River, Ella remarks “there’s Uncle Rick’s boat’’. He doesn’t own it; he just sailed on it – once.

Funny story, just prior to going to Melbourne, Julian was talking to Ella’s child carer. Ella repeated her usual “yes, we’re going to Melbourne to see Uncle Rick, aren’t we Dad?’’.

“We hear so much about Uncle Rick. Apparently he has a really big boat?’’ the child carer said.

Julian then had to explain that the “big boat’’ is actually the Spirit. The child carer had more than a little chuckle at that.

Due to the boat being so visible, there’s been repeated requests we go to Melbourne on “Uncle Rick’s big boat’’ instead of the plane this time. However, there’s a huge issue with that.

As I was telling Tina Gray on her post the other day – the post where she revealed a rather green looking version of herself on the Manly Ferry – I actually suffer the same disease. This is despite being the daughter of a rather keen trout fisherman.

I might add though, there’s a big difference between fishing in a lake and fishing in the sea. Although, give me fishing from the shore and that will make me really happy.

A very young Ella fishing with her Nan.

Unless I don’t catch anything.

Ella after catching her very first fish a couple of years ago.

I NEED calm seas when I’m on vessels of any size. The last time we went to Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania, I ran out of seasick tablets, followed by having a panic attack and then ending up in the single bed WITH The Bloke in The Shed.

Let’s just say, he wasn’t impressed! It was 27 degrees, there was no ventilation and me squishing him up against the wall just made things even hotter. And no, I don’t mean in THAT way. There was nothing romantic about this scene at all.

Anyway, after all that, we’ve now debating whether to go to Sydney and Queensland too. No boats, ahhh. If anyone would like to sponsor these trips, my bank account details are…

What’s your favourite place to holiday? Is there somewhere our family should be visiting?

June 2, 2011
SHED: Did you know fish eat pumpkin?

TRUE, and I know it to be so because an underwater diver with a microphone in her face mask told me so. I’m not going to doubt her, especially as she was the one in the tank surrounded by any number of sharks as big as cars, huge stingrays and enough Snapper to send Rex Hunt into a piscatorial orgasm.

The answer came as part of a presentation in the impressive underwater auditorium at the Melbourne Aquarium. By way of qualification, the pumpkin revelation was only a small part of a longer answer to a question I posed to the aquarium diver about where they get the food they feed the fish, with the express qualification she could not reply “the ocean’’. But enough about pumpkin.

The Princesses and I had made the journey to Melbourne on the premise tickets to the footy were my Christmas present, but really Princess Kel and I just wanted to take Princess Ella to the aquarium. Staying at the sensational Medina Grand, we were only a couple of blocks away so we gathered Kel’s Melbourne-based brother Rick and shuffled off to the aquarium.

Now, we hadn’t been to the aquarium POK (post kids) so don’t fall into the trap we and several other families made and try to enter through the old entrance. The main entrance is now on Flinders St where, upon entering the facility, you are greeted by the magnificent penguin exhibition.

The temptation, being the first exhibit, is to hurry through it to the next one. Don’t. Take your time to marvel at the contrast of the penguins at rest on the ice and those putting on the most acrobatic displays in the pool. If you want to, you can actually go back to the penguins again after you’ve seen the rest.

You can follow an easy path through the different sections of the aquarium, but in hindsight I’d suggest timing your trip around the keeper/diver presentations at the different sections to get the most out of your visit. The schedule is online .

Look out for the spots at the aquarium where little kids can actually crawl underneath exhibits and poke their heads into glass spheres.

The rockpool is always a delight for the littlies and Ella showed no fear in picking up a starfish.

However the fear was there when a very brave Ella standing next to a docile crocodile in a glass exhibit was told it was actually a “real crocodile’’. We had to check her undies for stains afterwards.

Other interesting things Ella learned were stonefish are not actually stones, lionfish are not actually lions and you wouldn’t dare eat jellyfish with custard for dessert.

Ella really enjoyed it and it was a good 2-3 hour experience for a toddler, but I think she’d really appreciate the experience more as she gets older (me, I could have stayed there all day). The only negative for those with young, pram-weilding families is the one point where you need to negotiate one tight lift to get to another level.

Overall, the Melbourne Aquarium was an experience that Ella will never forget and that in itself was priceless.

Do you have any other kid-friendly suggestions for Melbourne?

Read more about our Melbourne trip at Spoilt on a grand Melbourne holiday (Medina Grand review) and Two nights in a one-bedroom Medina apartment ($1000 giveaway). The Bloke in The Shed also gives his account of footy at the ‘G and I give my take on the Melbourne Zoo.

Disclosure: We received a complimentary night at the Medina Grand and complimentary tickets to the Melbourne Aquarium. No financial payment was offered nor accepted for this post. All opinions expressed are purely my own.

May 17, 2011
FEATURE: Spoilt on a grand Melbourne holiday (Medina Grand review)
THERE was just one downside to our incredible four-day holiday in Melbourne last week. It had nothing to do with the crazy Melbourne weather – and this coming from a Tasmanian. And there was certainly little to fault with our sublime accommodation at Medina Grand or the cute waddling penguins at the Melbourne Aquarium.

A penguin at the Aquarium

No, it was watching three-year-old Princess Ella bury her head into her Dad’s shoulder as her Uncle Rick drove off for the last time during our vacation. With tears streaming down her face, she whimpered: “I miss him’’. It broke our hearts. All I can say is, thank goodness for Skype.

Aside from that one moment, this was definitely one of the more enjoyable holidays we’ve had – and it included a three-year-old, seven-month-old and lots of rain. Ella even got a lollypop from one shop assistant for “being so gorgeous’’. It could have easily gone the other way, considering five minutes into the plane flight she asks: “are we there yet?’’.

Medina Hotels gave us one night complimentary in a two-bedroom apartment at the centrally located Medina Grand on Queen St, which lived up to the cliché that first impressions count.

Hotel room before…

… and after!

We were amazed at the service, the facilities and, oh, the space. And I’m not just saying that because they spoilt us. The kids were given a toy chest full to the brim with toys.

Toys and a TV – Ella was in heaven.

While we scored a divine bottle of red and welcoming card on arrival.

Sorry, no photo – the wine was devoured by the time we thought to photograph it.

Ella had the luxury of her own Queen-sized bed, big bathroom and a TV. I think she scored the better room. It was just enough space for her and her nine “friends’’. Her bathroom also included full laundry facilities but, alas, she didn’t make use of them. The Bloke in The Shed and I had a walk-in robe, safe and full bathroom (with bath) off our room.

The apartment was extremely kid friendly – if Holly woke up and had a screaming fit, she was out of earshot from Ella who was up the other end of the hotel room. Plus the walls seemed to be so well soundproofed we didn’t hear a thing from any other room or the city below.

The girls in Ella's big bed.

Add to that a large lounge, dining and work space (ideal for parking strollers), plus a balcony overlooking the city. The full kitchen helped in preparing our own meal the first night, food for the newly solids eating Holly and breakfast each morning. Boy, did it help save some money. There was the option of a handy grocery delivery service through the hotel, but we discovered an IGA down the road instead. Not to mention there being cafe and restaurant options on every corner.

My only negative, and to be honest it’s pretty picky, was the straight-backed high chair. Holly just couldn’t sit comfortably. Thankfully we had the stroller with us.

Speaking of which, knowing we didn’t want to be carrying around a three-year-old when she got tired during shopping and touring the city, we invested in a cheap $30 stroller from Target which served our purposes well. It probably wasn’t a great look for my brother Rick when we managed to get in the background of a Herald Sun photo.

That’s Rick pushing the pink pram. While away we avoided posting, Facebooking and tweeting about the fact we were in Melbourne in fear someone ransacked the house. Then we somehow managed to make page 3 and all that went out the window. Our house is still in one piece, by the way.

Other highlights of the trip included:
- Ella’s first experience on a tram, where she learned what it felt like to be a sardine. It helped her feel greater empathy for the fish at the Aquarium.
- Shopping in the city and at Harbour Town, which wasn’t actually the plan. The plan was to go to the new DFO South Wharf, but we missed the stop. Typical tourists.
- Spending the day at the Melbourne Aquarium and seeing the sheer look of terror on Ella’s face when she realised it was a “real crocodile’’.
- Good taxi drivers – there’s slight concern when you know there’s no child restraints in taxis (which is legal) but then score a maniac taxi driver who appears colour blind at traffic lights.
- Ella witnessing Flinders Street Station and announcing to all “that place is on our computer’’. (I’d shown her a few online photos to help prepare her for the trip).
- Pancakes that made our eyes look bigger than our bellies – or our plates look bigger than our heads.
Pancakes bigger than your head!

So, what do you love about Melbourne?

Stay tuned. A review of the Melbourne Aquarium and footy at the ‘G is coming tomorrow, courtesy of The Bloke in The Shed. Read more about Medina hotels or join the MumSpace Facebook page where women share their experiences.

Make sure you enter to win two nights in a one-bedroom Medina apartment (valued at $1000).

Disclosure: We received a complimentary night at the Medina Grand and complimentary tickets to the Melbourne Aquarium. No financial payment was offered nor accepted for this post. All opinions expressed are purely my own.
May 16, 2011
RECIPE: Choccie hot cross bun and butter pudding
The “naughty'' ingredients

THE Bloke in The Shed and Princess Ella donned aprons yesterday to put together this Eastery take on the humble bread and butter pudding. Comfort food to the extreme.

If this doesn’t get you in the Easter mood, then nothing will. Except for probably Cadbury’s Roses, a cake of blackforest chocolate, Turkish Delish, oh, and maybe a few Ferreros. (*hint hint*).
- One packet of choc chip hot cross buns (Either minis or regular size. Minis allow for better serving portions).
- 30g butter, softened
- 125g roughly chopped dark chocolate
- If you want to be fancy 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped or just a few drops of vanilla essence.
- Zest of one orange
- 600mL thin cream
- 600mL thickened cream
- 4 eggs
- 170g caster sugar
- Icing sugar, to dust (after cooking).
1. Split the hot cross buns and butter each half. Lay the bases, butter side down in a baking dish, sprinkle with the chopped dark chocolate, then place the bun tops on the bases, again butter side down with the crosses to the top.
2. Place the vanilla in the saucepan with the creams and zest, and heat over low heat until just simmering. Remove from the heat.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar until just combined, then pour into the warm cream, stirring continuously. Strain the custard over the buns and set the pudding aside for 30 minutes for the buns to soak up some of the custard. (The pudding can be prepared to this stage several hours in advance and refrigerated – just bring to room temperature before baking.). I found I had too much custard, but that’s OK because I stuck it in a bowl and put it in the fridge for another yummy dessert.
4. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 170°C.
5. Place the pudding dish in a large roasting pan and pour enough boiling water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the pudding dish. Place in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the custard is set. Dust with icing sugar and serve with extra cream if desired.
Leftover custard

Hmmm, probably not a good idea to put icing sugar on before they go in the oven!

Not the prettiest picture, but oh so yummy!

What’s your favourite Easter dish?
April 23, 2011