Saturday, 30 April 2011

Washing day

There's something very satisfying about seeing all the nappies out in the sunshine!

Friday, 29 April 2011

Crunchy topped spiced Apple cake

Tastes better than it looks!
The nice man from Riverford delivered some more fruit and veg today so I had a lot of apples to use up.

3oz Butter/margarine
6oz Self Raising flour
2oz caster sugar
1 egg
5 tbsp Water
3 eating (dessert) apples peeled, cored and cut into thin wedges.
For the crunchy topping
3oz Brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 oz butter

Rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the caster sugar and then mix in the egg and water to make a soft dough. Add a little more water if the mixture is too dry.
Spread into a 8" cake tin and press the apple slices into the dough.
Sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon and dot with the butter.
Bake at 180 for 30 mins until golden brown and firm to the touch.

As with all my favourite recipes.... enjoy with a good strong cup of tea!
.

Thursday, 28 April 2011

My nappy stash

I've now organised the stash (unfortunately I'm in the process of a nappy wash so there will be more to add) so that my poor put upon husband can work out what's what.
Fitteds in two piles to the left and pockets on the right. The wraps and night time Bumbles are on a different shelf out of shot. Nappy addiction or OCD?

New nappies and wraps

Esme is growing out of some of her smaller cloth nappies and wraps (any excuse to feed my cloth nappy habit)

My Issy bears have arrived from Cheeks and Cherries and also 3 GEN-Y wraps from Fill Your Pants.



I'm not sure about the Issy Bears. I love the prints and attention to detail (the edging on the boosters and cute logo stitched in) but it was a bit of a faff to get the booster into the nappy. The pocket is quite narrow so a lot of wiggling was required.  There was also some wicking through with the cotton nappy, which hasn't happened before on any of Esme's other pocket nappies or the minky Issy Bear.  The nappy comes with two boosters, a day and a night, which are made of bamboo and microfibre. I'm hoping I'll see better results the more I use the Issy Bears as it will probably take a few more washes before they reach their full absorbency.
Issy Bear boosters
The nappy is a "one size fits most" with snaps to adjust the rise of the nappy. However, it did look quite large on Esme with her skinny legs. I'm looking forward to trying these again as Esme does look really cute in the ladybirds.

The GEN-Y classic covers are designed to provide a waterproof layer over flat, fitted and prefold nappies and come in wide variety of prints. The inner waterproof layer is PUL and the outer is made from either minky fabric or cotton jersey. The wrap has side snaps to fasten it, which means you can get a really good fit around the legs and waist. So far the performance of these has been good, but we've yet to use them during a preweaned poo explosion!

Thomas the Tank Engine & Chicken Pox

It seems like its been a while since I last posted. Things here have been a little hectic with Thomas recovering from his asthma attack, then it was Easter weekend and now chicken pox has struck.


On Good Friday we visited the Watercress Line for a day out with Thomas the tank engine. What a fantastic family day out! Our Thomas thoroughly enjoyed chugging up and down the line between Alresford and Alton on various steam and diesel trains. They also had little rides at each station on Thomas and Toad and lots of the other trains from the popular childrens' program.
Here comes Thomas
Riding on Diesel

Esme and big sister Fenella
Picnic
We spent Saturday visiting my family up in Bracknell for a picnic at South Hill Park, before heading over to Pizza Hut for my nephew's birthday bash.

Big Boy slide
When i woke Thomas up on Sunday the poor little mite was covered in spots and feeling very sorry for himself. Lots of mummy cuddles were required!
showing off the spots

Feeling poorly

I think we're over the worst of it, although I'm now on spot watch with Esme - so far she's been spot free!

Monday, 18 April 2011

Back to 3 eggs a day!

Evangeline has started laying!

size difference!
Her eggs are tiny compared to Deirdre's. Mabel has also started laying again after her egg strike through the winter. Her eggs are quite a weird shape at the moment, but hopefully they should go back to normal soon.

We've also fully integrated the girls now. There is still quite a bit of pecking going on and poor Evangeline does get bullied by the other two, but a few squirts of the water pistol puts an end to any squabbling!
Our weird and wonderful variety of eggs.

Asthma....

... is an ongoing issue in this household!
My dad and brother are both asthmatic and I was diagnosed with mild asthma last year. It looks as though Thomas is going the same way.

He had his first "episode" in early Dec 2009, just after his 1st birthday. He'd been ill all over his birthday with a bad a cold, and then a few days later he didn't want to eat or drink anything and was a bit wheezy. We ended up in hospital, where he was monitored on the paediatric ward. We were also given inhalers although at the time it was still being referred to as a "viral induced wheeze".

He is currently taking Beclometasone (brown inhaler) as a preventer: 4 puffs using a spacer morning and night, and Salbutamol (blue)  up to 10 puffs 4 hourly as and when he needs it as a reliever.
Paediatric ward Nov 2010

Since July 2010 Thomas has had another 6 episodes, 3 of which we've ended up in A&E, and then onto paediatrics for monitoring The other 3 episodes have all been in the last 3 weeks, which makes me wonder if there is something triggering it.


His latest "episode" started last Wednesday night. He had a dry sounding cough which woke us up several times in the night. By Thursday morning he had started wheezing so we gave him his blue inhaler to take. Things did improve a little, but by Thursday afternoon we were getting a bit concerned as the inhaler wasn't being as effective as it should be.
Paul managed to get an emergency appointment with our GP who put Thomas on a nebuliser. His breathing soon returned to normal.

We have now have a nebuliser on loan for Thomas to use over the next two weeks until he is clear of this episode. His breathing is OK most of the time, but he does get out of breath and wheezy if he has been doing a lot of running around. He is such a good boy with it and as long as he can watch Fireman Sam on the TV he is happy!
Nebuliser time
fast recovery!

We have an appointment at the asthma clinic in a couple of weeks time to review his medication. In the meantime I'm trying to source some local honey as a friend of mine suggested that it could help if his asthma is triggered by hay fever. Hopefully things will improve for our little chap soon.

Friday, 15 April 2011

skinny muffins?? Chocolate and Cranberry

Low fat muffins? really?
Well yes - these muffins don't have as much oil as most muffin recipes.
This recipe is from the http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/  I'm going to have a go at these for the bumps and babes group.
  • 250g self-raising flour
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinammon
  • 85g light muscovado sugar
  • 85g dried cranberries
  • 25g dark chocolate , chopped
  • 125g tub low-fat yogurt
  • 125ml skimmed milk
  • 3 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 1 egg , lightly beaten
oven at 180.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and cranberries. Microwave the chocolate on Medium for 1-1½ mins, stir, then set aside.
Mix the yogurt and milk with the oil and egg. Make a well in centre of the dry mix and gently stir in the liquid. Drizzle half the chocolate over the mix, gently fold in until swirled, then repeat with the remaining chocolate. Take care not to over-mix.
Spoon the mix into the muffin cases and bake for 15-20 mins until risen and firm to the touch.

Monday, 11 April 2011

Eggs-traordinary!

Found a two-tone egg in the nesting box this morning!


Sunday, 10 April 2011

what a weekend!

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been looking forward to today. It's the first Sunday in months where we've not had anything on...bliss!
Taking it easy
Stanley Cat enjoying the sunshine














Today is also the day after the concert.
I play the oboe in the City of Southampton Orchestra and last night we played at Southampton Guildhall.  We played....

Portsmouth Point - Walton
The Sea - Bridge
Symphonie Fantastique - Berlioz

...... a challenging programme,  technically, mentally and physically!

So today is all about family time and relaxing, and where better to do that than in the garden in the sunshine. We're all just pottering about doing little jobs. The nappies are in the washing machine about to be hung on the line. Paul is doing some bike maintenance on his "road" bike with Thomas' help. He's planning on getting a good ride in this afternoon, maybe 25 miles.


pumping up tyres
Bike Maintenance
Paul has also promised Thomas that he'll take him out on the mountain bike later. Thomas LOVES going out on the back of Paul's bike.

SLIDE!
Esme and I are going to take it easy today. My mum came to look after her and Thomas yesterday while I was rehearsing for the concert. Esme was a bit of a pickle. She bluntly refused to take any of the milk I'd spent the week expressing for her, so subsequently spent all night feeding. At least I didn't have to keep getting out of bed to her as we co-sleep.   

Thomas is now playing cars in the flowerbeds and Esme is asleep in the sling, so I'm going to settle down with a good book and a cup of tea in the garden.......aah!

Esme and Grandad Jurd

Friday, 8 April 2011

Friday Fun in the Sun

What a glorious day again!
The washing was out on the line by 8.30am and the back door has been left open so that Thomas can thunder in and out as he chooses.

I love Fridays. Paul has most Fridays off so we get to spend "family" time together. He's already been out to cut the grass so we can spend the rest of the day in the garden out in the sunshine.


Bear Bear is ready for the sunshine.

Thomas is also having a good day...so far (it's still only 10am) He's had two weetabix, has read some books and played "picnics" with his favourite teddy, the not very imaginatively named Bear Bear.

We've also been playing races up and down the driveway, which seems to be his favourite game at the moment.

nose kisses with Bear Bear



Thomas can't quite work out how put his shades on!

Almost got it right!



Ready....steady....

.........GO!


While mooching around the garden we also spotted that one of our chooks has laid an egg in the flowerbed while free-ranging. I thought it was a bit strange that there were no eggs yesterday. I'm going to have to keep an eye on that!

That's not the nesting box!


Tulips in the sunshine


Thursday, 7 April 2011

Friends at last?

I think we may have turned a corner in trying to integrate the girls. Look what I spotted!
Deirdre and Evangeline looked deep in conversation and Mabel wanted to get in on the action as well.

The girls having a friendly chat



conversation over!

Mabel chasing Evangeline away from her favourite  flower bed
So a couple of days ago we let the girls all free-range together. Evangeline loved being out in the sunshine and started digging around for some nice, tasty insects to eat. Deirdre and Mabel did chase her around for a while and would give her a bit of a peck when she got to close to any food they were eating. But eventually things settled down.
Dustbath

We've let them all out together a couple of times. Poor Evangeline does still get chased a little and is definitely at the bottom of the pecking order, but so far, so good.

Maybe next week I'll be brave enough to take the bamboo cane divide out of their run and integrate them fully (Gulp!)

Apple muffins

Another recipe that I've experimented on. These muffins disappeared very quickly at our bumps and babies group last week.

225g / 8oz plain flour
100g / 4oz caster sugar
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg, lightly beaten
250ml / 8fl oz milk
120ml / 4 fl oz oil
2 eating apples, peeled, cored and chopped
Handful of raisins.

pre-heat oven to 200c
Line a muffin tray with muffin cases.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Blend together all the other ingredients (except the apple). Once blended stir in the apple and raisins.
Pour the mixture into the muffin cases and bake in the oven for 25-30 mins.

Favourite wrap front carries

When I started using the wrap slings I was daunted by all the different carries there were. I was determined not to be put off and spent hours trawling through youtube to try to work out what I was doing. I also went to my local sling meet and was given lots of advice as to which carries to try.

Here is my rough guide to front carries and also some links to youtube clips showing how to tie them.

FCC = Front Cross Carry
I mainly use this carry as a "pre-tied" when I'm going out in the car, so that I can just pop Esme in and out without having to mess about trying to tie the wrap in the car park.
Instructions:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WrapYourBaby#p/u/15/aRLK36ix-3E
Can also be pre-tied:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WrapYourBaby#p/u/12/-ekpqs0b6KA

Kangaroo Carry
This is my carry of choice when going out for a walk as it spreads the load evenly across my back. I can then chuck a rucksack on my back and away we go.
Instructions: http://www.youtube.com/user/WrapYourBaby#p/u/20/m2XT9GbJrWk
Kangaroo
FWCC = Front Wrap Cross Carry
I use this one around the house. You can either cross the tails over the baby (useful when they drop off to sleep) or push to each side so that there is only one layer of fabric across the baby (good for hot days)
With a newborn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-VHUEM6K0Q
with an older baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2RnoqVlyno

FWCC - single layer across baby
Wrapsody Bali Breeze in FWCC














When I'm in a hurry I usually just grab the mei tai or the Ergo, but I do find the wraps by far the most comfortable.
Mei tai

There are loads of other videos on you tube with variations on these carries.

I've managed a couple of hip carries and also one back carry. Once I get to grips with these then I may even post about them, but for now I need a lot more practice!

Monday, 4 April 2011

Ain't nobody here but us chickens

Deirdre and Mabel having a dustbath.
 We've kept chickens since June 2009, when Thomas was about 8 months old. I'd always wanted chickens. In my head I have this romanticised image of having a small-holding with chickens, ducks and goats. Living in a semi-detached house in Southampton hasn't really lived up to my dream and I thought keeping chickens wasn't going to be possible. That was until I saw the Omlet people at the BBC Gardener's world show in June 2009. The Eglu is designed to fit into a small garden allowing people who live in cities to keep "urban" chickens. That was it! I couldn't wait to tell Paul, who was somewhat less enthusiastic about the idea, having just reduced the number of pets down to 4. (we used to have 16 guinea pigs). Anyway, I persuaded him and on July 15th 2009 our Eglu arrived with our three chickens; Maggie and Mabel (Gingernut Rangers) and Deirdre (a Miss Pepperpot).

Hermione and Evangeline
About 3 weeks after the girls arrived, we started getting our first eggs. Each chicken lays one egg every 23-30 hours (approx) so we were getting 3 eggs a day.

Sadly we lost Maggie over the winter (2010). We're not sure what happened, although we suspect she may have been egg bound. Also over the winter the other two girls stopped laying, so we made the decision to buy two more chickens, Hermione (Bluebelle) and Evangeline (Amber link).
Close up of Hermione - RIP

We knew that introducing new chickens could be traumatic as they need to establish their pecking order and work out who will be the boss lady. There are two schools of thought. The first is to chuck all the chooks together and let them sort themselves out, and the second is to keep them separate and gradually introduce them in stages.

We only have one Eglu and one run, so we went for option 1. It started out ok, with just a few squabbles and after the first day the girls seemed to be settling in quite well.


However, on the morning of day three, I noticed that Hermione and Evangeline hadn't come out of the Eglu, even though we'd opened it up at 6.30 am. When I looked in I noticed that Hermione was bleeding. Hens are magnetised to blood and will keep pecking at an injured chicken if it is bleeding, which is what I think happened to poor Hermione.  Paul took her straight to the vets to get her checked out. When he returned half an hour later empty handed I knew that Hermione wasn't coming back home.
Separating the Eglu run 

We had a decision to make about Evangeline.  Not wanting a repeat performance we had to try to come up with a way of keeping the girls separated while still allowing them to see each other. Paul constructed a grid of bamboo canes, threaded through the bars of the run to create two separate runs. We then found an old guinea pig run with a covered house area that we put into Evangeline's half so that she would have somewhere to roost at night.
Mabel and Deirdre are not impressed!



At the moment the girls are still separated. We let Mabel and Deirdre out to free range during the day, but poor Evangeline is still kept in the run. I think we will let her out next weekend, but I want to make sure that one of us is in the garden, ready to break up any unruly bullying from the old girls.

Hopefully, they will all be best of friends by the summer and we'll be back to getting our three eggs a day.
Our first egg August 2009


Sunday, 3 April 2011

Banoffee Pie

Warning! You will feel your arteries hardening after the first spoonful, but it is sooooooo worth it.

For the base
A thing of beauty
3 1/2 oz Butter
9oz digestive biscuits (crushed)
For the filling
3 1/2 oz Butter
3 1/2 oz Brown Sugar
397g tin of condensed milk
For the topping
3-4 small bananas (sliced)
300ml tub of double cream
icing sugar
drinking chocolate

8" cake tin

Melt the butter and add the crushed biscuits. Press the mixture into a cake tin.
For the filling - Melt the butter and sugar into a pan and melt over a low heat. Add the condensed milk and bring to the boil while stirring continuously. When it becomes caramel pour over the biscuit base. Leave to cool and then chill in the fridge for an hour.
For the topping - Whisk the double cream with some icing sugar until thick.Fold in the sliced banana and spoon on top of the caramel mixture.
Sprinkle a little drinking chocolate over the top.

This is very sweet, so you will need a good strong cuppa to wash it down!
For family occasions it's best to make two!

Mothering Sunday

Today is Mothers day. I've not really had a "day-off" as Paul was taking part in a cycle event - The Meon Valley Riser, a 50 mile ride over the south downs.
Thomas riding his bike, just like Daddy

So while he was out we had our usual chaotic morning. The living room has been well and truly trashed. Thomas has gone through a wide range of activities from playing with his Brio set, to sliding his cars along the laminate flooring, to colouring and finally settled on his aqua-doodle mat.
Aqua doodle
Meanwhile, the chickens are doing a lovely job of digging up the garden and the cats have decided that it  is time to take it easy.


Mabel - Spring chicken
Poppy and Stanley - having a snooze














So with all that going on, I have decided to take matters into my own hands and celebrate mothering Sunday by treating myself to a naughty nibble..... A cup of fully caffeinated coffee and TWO slices of broken biscuit cake.



yum!
To all you lovely mummies out there - 
Happy Mothers Day xxx