Dec 31, 2010
A year in the life: 2010
I love New Year’s Eve. Not from the party point-of-view – God knows we don’t get much of a chance to go out! But from the point-of-view of reflecting on the year gone by and remembering all that has happened. Looking back on the months from last year, I find most of my thoughts are sleep-related. There’s some other stuff in there too, but in the end, it all comes back to... read more
Dec 30, 2010
Once he learned to walk, Little Man suddenly seemed to be lacking a place to sit! He’d run around the room and wear himself out and then suddenly plonk himself down onto the ground. Or he’d try to clamber up on the couch but it’s a little too big for him just yet.
We took Little Man to Smyths one day and tried out several chairs for him, but the kids chairs all seem to be for bigger...
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Thomas the Tank Engine inflatable chair
Dec 30, 2010
How time flies
A year ago today, my brother married his beautiful girlfriend, and one of my favourite people in the whole world. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year already. So I just wanted to say “Happy Anniversary guys!” Hope you had a wonderful first year of married life! read more
Dec 29, 2010
A trip to the doctor
Poor Little Man still isn’t better. His appetite is still barely there. And he is sleeping loads. We took him to the doctor today because I wanted the doctor to listen to his chest to make sure it was okay. His cough sounds worse to me. But thankfully the doctor confirmed that Little Man just has a virus. And his chest is still clear. You could tell how sick the poor little guy is though – he... read more
Dec 28, 2010
Remember my first attempt at starting a new Christmas tradition a few weeks ago – I made a Christmas pudding. We didn’t get to sample it on Christmas Day because Little Man was so sick.
Well today, my parents came to visit so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to cook the pudding and test it out. Of course we had to test it thoroughly, so we sampled it with cream and with custard. It...
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Mmmmm Pudding
Dec 27, 2010
Let it rain!
Never thought I’d be so happy to see the rain! We woke up this morning to the sound of raindrops. The snow was gone and the roads were clear. Even better than that, Little Man woke without a temperature and he didn’t need Calpol all day. His appetite still hasn’t returned but he is definitely on the mend. Fingers crossed this means that he will soon go back to sleeping through the night... read more
Dec 26, 2010
One of the things I love most about Christmas is the baking – mince pies, cookies, puddings, desserts. Yummy!
Normally I use this recipe to make my mince pie pastry:
Ingredients
8oz Odlums Cream Flour
2oz icing sugar
4 oz butter
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons ice cold water
Dash of lemon juice
Steps
1. Sieve the flour and icing sugar together.
2. Rub in the butter until it has a breadcrumb...
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Christmas baking
Dec 25, 2010
Sometimes it doesn’t matter how well you think you’ve planned something – there’s always one or two little things you didn’t allow for. Like Little Man getting sick for Christmas. The poor little guy had a sick tummy all day yesterday, and then a high fever last night, and several times today. So we spent the night administering Baby Neurofen and Calpol, and the day trying to...
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The best laid plans
Dec 24, 2010
Santa’s on his way!
It’s official. The Six-One News reported that Santa has left the North Pole. It was the most bizarre Christmas Eve report I’ve ever seen, with lots of theories about how Santa gets around. Everything from nanotechnology to parallel universes was proposed. I’ll be honest – I don’t really understand the need for these theories. Everyone already knows how Santa gets to all the... read more
Dec 23, 2010
When I turned 30, hubbie and I decided to stop trying to avoid getting pregnant. We weren’t going to actively try to get pregnant you see. We were just going to wait and see what happened. I had spoken to my GP and he warned me that it is quite common for it to take up to a year to get pregnant after coming off the pill.
So we had a 6-12 month timeline in mind. The first month went by. My period was...
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Remembering
Dec 23, 2010
Roll on Christmas!
Just a quick post to say, the fridge has arrived, the baking is done, the presents are wrapped, and there’s snow on the ground outside. Looks like we are all set for Christmas! Sorry for the short post, but the present wrapping took a long time. It’s difficult to wrap presents when one hand is constantly reaching for a mince pie! Now off to bed to dream of Santa and his... read more
Dec 21, 2010
Parenting Ages and Stages is a great free iPhone app from Parenting magazine. To use the app, you enter your child’s details. The app then provides you with relevant articles and information for your child’s age and developmental stage.
I downloaded this app a couple of months ago, and although I don’t use it all the time, I find it really interesting to dip in and out of it every couple...
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App of the week:Parenting Ages and Stages
Dec 20, 2010
Ho Harvey Ho!
Normally I love Mondays. Monday is my parental leave day. It belongs to me and Little Man. It’s a day we spend playing, meeting our mammy and baby group friends, and going to the playground. Today was a little different because I had to wait for a delivery. Our fridge spluttered and died on Thursday night so we went shopping on Friday for a new one. The saleswoman in Harvey Normans guaranteed it... read more
Dec 19, 2010
In the last post on my breastfeeding story, I wrote about the first couple of weeks after coming home from the hospital (Part 3). Today I’m going to write about my local breastfeeding support group. This group played a huge part in my motivation to continue breastfeeding, even when things were difficult.
The first time I attended the support group was when Little Man was just six days old. That...
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My breastfeeding story Part 4: The Breastfeeding Support Group
Dec 18, 2010
Check out the Christmas Jumpers competition on the One4All Ireland Facebook page. They’ve teamed up with Barnardos to launch Ireland’s first official Christmas Jumper Day, on 22nd December! One4All are donating €1 to Barnardos for every photo they receive of people in Christmas Jumpers. The best photo each day wins a €25 One4All Gift Card, and the best overall photo will win a €250...
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Christmas Jumpers and Barnardos
Dec 17, 2010
Who’s afraid of Santa Claus?
Santa Claus came to visit all the children in the crèche today. And Little Man freaked out! He hid in the corner of the room and refused to go near Santa. Santa even brought presents for all the children but Little Man didn’t care. He didn’t stop crying the whole time Santa was in the room! We’ve been really looking forward to bringing him to see Santa next week. We didn’t take... read more
Dec 16, 2010
The following post was shared by Rob, devoted Dad to a 6-month old little girl. Rob recently travelled to the Philippines with his wife and daughter, and he wanted to share some tips from their experience. Thanks Rob!
I wanted to share my recent experiences of flying long haul with our 6-month old daughter. My wife is from the Philippines, and we’ve been going home to her family every year for the last 4...
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Guest Post: Long Haul Adventures
Dec 15, 2010
This week I’ve been recalling my breastfeeding story, starting with the first hour after Little Man was born (Part 1), and then recalling our hospital stay (Part 2).
I felt a real sense of relief when we left the hospital and came home. It was so nice to get set up in our own surroundings. That first night that hubbie, Little Man, and I spent alone in our house was very special. Of course, it was...
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My breastfeeding story Part 3: Coming home
Dec 14, 2010
Earlier this week, I was reading Proper Fud, one of my favourite Baby-Led Weaning blogs. Jill gave a yummy recipe for Banana Pancakes, which are pancakes made with yogurt and banana. We didn’t have any plain yogurt, so I tweaked the recipe slightly, and made it with the following ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 Glenisk Banana Yogurt for...
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BLW: Banana Pancakes
Dec 14, 2010
Yesterday I started recounting my breastfeeding story in “The First Hour.” Today, I’m going to write about getting started with breastfeeding over the course of the four days that we spent in hospital.
As I explained yesterday, Little Man was very sleepy after his birth much to my surprise. I hadn’t expected that to happen if I had a drug-free birth. He was still very sleepy when we...
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My breastfeeding story Part 2: Our hospital stay
Dec 13, 2010
I’ve been writing a lot about breastfeeding recently, so I think it’s about time I told my story about feeding Little Man. Breastfeeding was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It wasn’t easy – God knows, I considered quitting at least once a day for the first two months! I’ve tried to write this story before, but I’ve never quite known how to tackle it....
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My breastfeeding story Part 1: The first hour
Dec 12, 2010
Remember my complaints recently about our upstairs stairgate coming away from the wall, and leaving a big hole in its place? Well the hole is still there, but we’ve finally managed to rehang the stairgate! Hubbie had to attach a couple of blocks of wood to the banister of the stairs and hang the gate from that so that its hinge is on the banister instead of on the wall. The locks for the gate are now...
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This house of straw: update
Dec 10, 2010
Today Little Man rediscovered I Hear Ewe, an iPhone and iPad app that I downloaded a few months back. This is a great little app. It features lovely drawings of animals. When you tap one of the pictures, such as the cow, the voiceover says “This is the sound a cow makes…” And then it plays a lifelike sound of a cow mooing.
When he’s played with it before, Little Man didn’t...
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App of the week: I hear ewe – animal sounds for toddlers
Dec 10, 2010
At the time I got pregnant, only one of my friend’s had had a baby. And she lives several hours from me. So I knew that maternity leave would quickly turn into a very lonely time if I didn’t make an effort to get out and meet people. Luckily the town that I live in has a fantastic Breastfeeding Support Group. And every Wednesday morning, starting when Little Man was just 6 days old, I made my...
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From coffees to cocktails
Dec 9, 2010
Jack Black gave an interview this week to Parade magazine, where he shared some parenting insights. Top of his list – sleep. He said
“The more sleep I get, the better dad I am. Parenting is 90% energy; if you don’t have it, then there tend to be some lazy TV-watching days with the kids, and that ain’t gettin’ it done.”
Lots of people are talking about it online, mostly in a “well duh!...
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Jack Black and the key to good parenting
