One Lovely Blog Award

Weeeeeeeee! I got another award. I’m going to need to find a new way to react but seriously, I just get so excited by these awards. It thrills me to the core and makes my damn day. The only dud thing about them is that you can’t go on and nominate the person that gave it to you as I totally would nominate the lovely Tara over at Working Mother Assistant if I could. Thank you so much for nominating me Tara. I am eternally grateful.

As you should all know by now, there be rules and stuff so here they are:  

Help! My kid is waking through the night again.

All parents say: once you have children you will never sleep again. And it pains me to say it but they are right. So. damn. right. Know it alls.

Once babies learn how to sleep through the night they apparently don’t stay sleeping through the night forever. Who knew?  I didn’t. I thought we did all that work teaching the little critter how to sleep so that this sort of crap wouldn’t happen but apparently it is a fool’s game. They do not stay sleeping through

My favourite fantasy

I have to say that, mostly, this solo parenting gig actually isn’t too bad. What? You’re surprised? Well it’s not. We have our little routine and the way we go about doing things; I don’t have to factor someone else’s decisions or preferences into choices I make at home; and if I don’t pick the toys up off the floor at the end of the day or we have toast for dinner then no one moans at me about it. Don’t get me wrong. Some days it is also really hard and I particularly notice this when I actually have someone around to help for a bit. It’s then that I have an aha moment and think “ooooohhhhh this is what it could be like with help. Wow!”. But for the most part we plod along ok. Sure I have my meltdowns but I don’t think they are exclusive to solo parenting. It’s more of a parenting in general thing.

Every now and then though when my house is trashed and I am doggone tired I plonk myself on the couch and allow myself to indulge in one of my favourite little fantasies:

The One Time You Don’t Want Your Kids To Be Quiet -Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning!

Important info about drowning that everyone should have.

Sunny Sleevez

In many child drownings, adults are nearby but have no idea the victim is dying. Here’s what to look for.

Children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect. Many of us have learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you know what to look for whenever people enter the water. Usually a child will drown without making a sound. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life.

The Instinctive Drowning Response—so named by Francesco A. Pie, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or…

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Dear Santa, I’d like a tape recorder for my brain please.

Why is it that I can write whole posts in my head that are PERFECT but then I sit down to put them on paper (well type them on the screen but that doesn’t sound so good) and it is a scramble of convoluted rubbish? I want a tape recorder for my brain. Everything comes out so perfect in there. I have about 6 draft posts waiting to go at the moment and I can’t get the words out right for even one of them so I thought I might just sit down and write about how hard it is to write sometimes.  Let you have a bit of my convoluted rubbish this smashing Sunday. It’s a numbers game right. Like dating. Just have to keep getting those fellas through the turnstyle and eventually you’ll get the right one (provided you aren’t too busy slapping then on the arse as they swish on through – it’s important to pause or you might miss the right one). Anyway my point is that it is the same for writing. Sometimes you just have to write and write and write and get all the dead rubbishy words out of your system so the things that you actually want to say can march on through again.  As Margaret Atwood said “If I waited for perfection,

Snacks without dairy your kids will love

Hey I’m back with more dairy free goodies to make your day. Woooot!  I wish I’d found something like this when Monkey was young. It would have made things soooooo much easier.  This is another of those blogs I’ve posted over at You & Baby. I’ve posted a bunch of our favourite recipes  and also some store bought dairy free snack ideas. Enjoy!

Just click on the (laughable) pic below to zoom you direct to the blog. And yes, I created this myself in paint. Laugh away. I know I’m no graphic designer…don’t even show hints of talent.

Mediation with the ex

Sleep completely evades me tonight. I have honestly never felt so awake in the middle of the night. So here I am blogging at stupid o’clock (3:30am in case you are wondering).

Well this is hardly a topic that warms the cockles of your heart, I know. It is an event that seems to make many people really nervous though so I wanted to give you a bit of a  run down on the off chance that someone out there is feeling nervous right now and needs it. Knowledge is power. Even though you can’t know the outcome of your mediation or what might be said on the day (unfortunately those pesky exes don’t run to script) you can at least have a pretty decent idea on the process and believe me, that alone is pretty powerful.

So I should mention first of all that my experience with mediation was in NSW, Australia so the process I describe here is specific to they way they do it. However, I have spoken to someone undergoing mediation in QLD and it sounds pretty similar. I think you will find that to be the case no matter where you go. After all, the intent is to achieve the same goal.

In some cases mediation will be court ordered but in our situation I elected to go. It makes no difference. Your process will be the same regardless.  

Dairy free vege muffins

You know I love a dairy free snack for Monkey. Found this recipe today and whipped it up in no time. Some tips from this end:

• Next time I would add ham for some extra protein and flavour. If I was going to skip the ham then I’d add mixed herbs and maybe seeds…something with more protein. I thought the end result was a little bland. Monkey however thought no such thing and scoffed them down.
• I used SR wholemeal flour and skipped the baking powder
• I used oat milk for our non dairy milk
• I only had frozen corn and peas so I grated carrot and cut up some beans nice and small. Grated zucchini would also be awesome (we didn’t have any to try)
• The mixture will seem very very dense. I was tempted to add more milk but held back and was glad I did. It didn’t need the extra liquid.   

Two easy toddler activities. No crafting degree required!

I am no creative crafting genius.  I suck at that stuff. I know I’m going to have to learn to be better as monkey gets older but anyway, for the moment I still suck at it. It turns out it doesn’t matter so much. I think I was over-complicating things.  Little kiddies have still growing minds remember so they can be occupied by the smallest of things (no disrespect to your genius child of course). I finally got the message one day when I picked my son up from daycare and they had pictures of them all playing with different pasta shapes. They had this write up about how it was a great sensory exercise and that the kids enjoyed it for ages blah blah blah and it just kinda clicked in my head all of a sudden: I can do that sort of stuff too. And all the tools I need are in my cupboard and don’t require some complicated activity preparation. Woah. That’s a wee bit awesome.

Super Sweet Blogging Award

*Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeal* I got another blogging award! I almost want to put on a fabulous party dress and pop the bottle of champers in the cupboard.

I really love these awards created by the wonderful blogging community that I am only now discovering. The blogger (that’s me!) gets to feel a bit excited that not only is someone actually reading their blog but they also thought it was good enough to admit to it and show your link on their awesome blog. I think that’s pretty freaking marvelous. PLUS it is a great way for others to get recommendations on blogs to check out. I figure if I like someone’s writing style and enjoy their blog then there is a good chance I will also like the things they have recommended. WINNING!

So my award today comes from the lovely Gabriel over at Shape Your Life 101.