Enjoying the simple things.

One of the things I love about being a parent is watching Maya learn and discover the world around her.  She finds delight in such simple things - digging in the dirt, picking flowers, hearing a plane fly overhead, watching bubbles blowing in the wind... And I gain enjoyment from her enjoyment.

The Hokey Pokey.

I was watching Maya silently dancing the Hokey Pokey when Greg asked "What is she doing?".

"The Hokey Pokey", I replied.

He started singing.  Maya kept dancing.  And I grabbed the camera.



I love watching this video. It makes me smile every time. :)

In our new home.

Last Monday we moved into our new house.  It's been an exhausting few weeks, getting everything packed and organised and then moving. 

It's also harder moving with a toddler underfoot.  Especially when said toddler has a nasty cold. 

I know people will want to see pictures but I won't be taking pictures of our box ridden premises.  So pictures will have to wait until we are unpacked and settled.

If you play with fire, you will get burned.

Watching my mother go through the devastating process of being diagnosed with cancer made me wonder whether she expected to ever get cancer from smoking? 

And the answer is she didn't expect it.  Which I find very odd given the statistics

I realise not everyone who smokes gets cancer.  And there always seems to be some story about someone who lived till the age of 99, smoked ten packs a day and was never ill

But the fact is smoking causes a large range of illnesses and conditions.

I don't know what it is like to have a chemical addiction.  And people from my mother's generation did not know the affects of cigarettes.  But sadly cigarette smoking is still being picked up today by teenagers at an alarming rate.

And I don't understand why anyone would start smoking knowing the facts about cigarettes.

Is there anything good about smoking at all? 

Is smoking a pleasurable experience before you become addicted? 

Is smoking really worth the risk?

The dreaded C.

My mother is a smoker.  Since the age of 18.  She's now 66.  That's 48 years of smoking.

My mother now has cancer.

When I was a teenager and learnt about cigarettes and all the associated health risks,  I tired everything to convince her to quit smoking.  Scare tactics.  Giving her the facts. Ultimatums.

Of course nothing worked because she has to want to quit.  It doesn't matter how much I want her to.

I know that you cannot make another person do something they don't want to do.  But that hasn't stopped me from trying.  Because I love her.  Because I love her very much and I can't imagine a world without her in it.  Because I don't want to lose her before her time.  Because I don't want to lose her to a long, drawn out,  horrible illness.

She has tried to quit many times.  Mostly she's managed for a few weeks at a time. One time she did give up for a couple of years.  Then the news that my father had passed away reached her and the first thing she did was head to the shops to buy a pack of cigarettes.

The good news is that it looks like the cancer has been caught early and will be easy to remove.  Though she hasn't seen a specialist yet, so I will wait to hear what s/he has to say before I totally relax.

Won't baby choke?

Following on from my previous post about Baby Led Weaning, a few people have commented that giving solid foods to babies has or will make them choke.  Recently the topic of choking was covered in the ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) magazine where it was stated that:

"Provided that baby is in control of any food that goes into his mouth and he is sitting upright, BLW doesn't make choking any more likely than spoon feeding - and may even make it less likely."

According to Gill Rapley:

"Babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have developed the ability to chew."

 The ABA magazine futher states:

"Often people confuse choking with gagging on food.  Gagging is a retching movement that pushes food away for the airway if it is too big to be swallowed."

I wanted to discuss BLW, as it seems like the majority of parents don't even know about it as an alternative to pureeds and spoon feeding. 

I like to learn about everything I do and discover all the different options available and the pros and cons of those options.  That's how I discovered BLW and to me it sounded like a better approach to introducing solids.

Obviously as a parent you have to be comfortable with whatever you do for your baby and BLW might not suit you.

Baby Led Weaning

I followed Baby Led Weaning (also known as Baby Led Solids) with Maya.  Baby Led Weaning (BLW) commences from six months of age when babies are able to sit up, grab food and feed themselves.  There are no purées and no spoon feeding involved.  Babies use their fingers to begin with and later move on to cutlery.  Though I did use a spoon for foods such as yoghurt or soup but I started by placing food on the spoon and putting the spoon in front of Maya for her to pick up.

Instead of feeding your baby you place food in front of him/her so that he/she can choose what to eat and how much to eat.  I started by offering a variety of foods and allowed Maya to choose what, and if, she wanted to eat.   Sticks of vegetables or fruits, such as carrots, zucchini, cucumber, broccoli, banana and pear are easier for a baby to pick up to begin with.  I steamed harder fruits and vegetables.

Until a baby is one breast milk or formula is still their main source of food and solids are for play and learning.  I found with BLW Maya didn't eat as much as other babies to start with, but that's the point. Until a baby is one food is for exploring.  Over time, however, the difference between Maya's level of independent eating and the range of foods she could eat was obvious over the babies who had been spoon fed.

BLW is a lot messier than spoon feeding.  Maya squashed her food, threw it on the floor, got it all over herself, her chair and the floor.  But Maya's level of independent eating grew quickly and soon I found I was able to serve her a meal and eat a meal at the same time.

Maya is a very good eater.  I get comments all the time from her child care about how much she eats, so I think that shows that she does eat well.  She expertly uses a fork and spoon and eats a wide range of foods.

If interested in BLW I recommend the website Baby-led Weaning and there is also an introductory brochure.

6 months - Maya's first solid food - a piece of apple.

She sucked on that piece of apple for a very long time then bit some off and spat it out.

6 months - almost 7 months - Eating a Cruskit biscuit with avocado and grated carrot.

Already an independent eater.

9 months - Spaghetti Bolognaise.
The happy look on her face says it all. :)

Back on the merry-go-round.

A few weeks ago the vertigo returned.  I thought I had this disease (Meniere's Disease) under control and it has been so disappointing to be spinning again.  It's another reminder that with this disease I don't have full control of my body and that it is a lifelong illness always with me.

People have asked me what  has triggered this recent spate of vertigo and I suspect it is because I was reducing some medication I have been using.  However, I upped the dosage and was still having attacks.  I have since upped the dosage again and my last vertigo attack was one week ago, so I am hoping that this new dosage is helping.

The good thing is that this recent spate of vertigo has been mostly milder than before and at times I have even been able to 'soldier' on through it.  In the past I would not be able to do anything other than drop to the ground and wait for it to go away.  It also used to last an hour, but at times I've found myself back to normal within half an hour.  Though there have been occasions where it has lasted a few hours recently.

So while the attacks seem to be milder, it is still a highly unpleasant experience and one which I want to avoid altogether.  But I am hoping the milder vertigo is a sign that things are settling.  Or perhaps it's a sign of the damage done.  It's sad but true, many Meniere's suffers pray for the day when there is so much damage done to the balance system that the vertigo stops altogether.

On the other hand I have talked to other sufferers who have said their vertigo became milder and then went back to full strength after some time.  If there's nothing else I've learnt about this disease, it's that each sufferer experiences it differently from everyone else.  Probably why a cure or cause is so elusive.

Maya's first hair cut.

I looked at Maya this morning and decided finally that she needed a haircut.  I was loathe to cut it till now because I wanted her to have long hair I could create styles with.  But her hair has only been growing at the back for a long time now and it was starting to look like a mullet.

I decided to tackle her hair myself and while it's not perfect and there are some bits I wish I could do over, I think it looks pretty good.  Thicker and even than before.  And it beats forking out $25 for a hairdresser.

Here's the before and after pictures:

Settled.

So yesterday our house settled and we now own our first home.

Well.. right now we probably own the letter box and the bank owns the rest.