Another drink?

At a birthday party recently I had the following conversation with someone.

THEM: What are you drinking?
ME: Flavoured mineral water.
THEM: So do you think you'll have another?
ME: Err.. yeah I guess so.
THEM: So you're enjoying it then?
ME: Err.. yes
THEM: When do you think you'll have another?
ME: I dunno?
THEM: Yeah I guess Maya is still very young.

At which point it dawned on me.  They had switched the conversation from my drink to babies.  As in "So do you think you'll have another baby?", "So you're enjoying motherhood?" and "When do you think you'll have another baby?"

I thought it was odd to be so interested in what I was drinking.

Steps to independence.

For each new skill Maya attempts to master, there is a period of frustration, and it is hard for me not to step in and do it for her.  I hate seeing her frustrated and upset and my instinct is to solve the problem for her.  But I know that if I step in and do it for her she will never learn to do it for herself.  Besides she tends to get frustrated with me if I do it for her, which makes perfect sense as her goal was to master the skill by herself.

Park etiquette.

Maya loves going to the park.  She loves the swings and the slides.  She loves running up and down ramps.  Climbing things.  Riding on things.

But there are times when we are at the park and some child will punch, push or kick Maya for no reason.

Recently while at a park I watched some older children running around with plastic cups throwing sand at each other.  Then one boy threw a cup of sand directly into the face of a much smaller, toddling, little boy, who was playing nearby. The toddler began howling while the older children laughed and continued with their game.  The toddler's mother tried talking to the older children about how dangerous it is to throw sand at people, but they took no notice.

Now what I want to know is.. where were these boy's carers and why were they letting them thrown sand at each other and other people?  I've been in a situation where I ended up with sand in my eye.  And it hurt!  A lot. I ended up in hospital because I couldn't open my eye from the pain the sand was causing.  Having sand thrown in your face is highly unpleasant.

Of course, it's not always the case that a carer isn't around to help deal with situations and thankfully those situations are rare. But it does surprise me how often I will witness a child being punched, kicked or pushed by another child and there is no carer in sight.

Tell 'em they're dreamin.

It is frustrating being on a diet restriction that is hardly catered for by manufacturers and is not catered for at all by restaurants, Cafes or take away places.  Now there are vegetarian, low fat, gluten free and low carbohydrate meals, but no low salt options when eating out.  Manufactures occasionally bring out low salt products, but usually their products disappear after a time.  Often I will find something low in salt that actually tastes great, but after a while I can no longer purchase it any where.  When contacting the manufacturers directly they all give the same reason - not enough people buy the low salt options.

People are so used to their high salt intake that food low in salt doesn't taste as good or even tastes awful.  I know this because I went through a period of about two months, once I began my low salt diet, where nearly everything tasted horrible.

Now what I miss are options.  I miss being able to stop at a cafe and have a bite to eat.  I miss going out to a restaurant and being able to choose from a selection of meals (to be honest I don't actually like fish and my first meal out at a restaurant (as discussed in my previous post) wasn't enjoyable for me, except for the fact that I was 'eating out').  I miss getting take out and having a night off cooking.  I miss having easy options for making meals at home.

There are many health problems that salt contributes to - stroke, heart disease, Meniere's disease, PMS, etc.  Yet there doesn't seem to be that many people on a low salt diet.  Not enough to justify manufacturers or restaurants catering to the diet.

Even "health" foods are a joke to me now because they are usually very high in salt.  I think more salt is added to try and boost the taste and make up for the lack of sugar and fat.

I would love to see more low salt options on the shelves in supermarkets and in restaurants.  But whenever I have this thought a quote from "The Castle" always enters my mind - "Tell 'em they're dreamin".

Eating out.

My low salt diet fills me with anguish about eating out.  Salt is such an integral part of cooking that I wonder how I can explain my diet in such a way that salt doesn't happen to sneak its way on to my plate.  I have to trust that the cook will know enough about salt and how much of it is actually hidden within practically everything to be able to avoid it altogether.

Well a couple of months ago I made it out for breakfast for the first time since starting the diet. Porridge and fresh fruit are two options that are very low in salt.  Since then I have been out for a few breakfasts, but I have never been game to order something salty and have the chef modify it for me.

Recently I decided to try going out for dinner.  This was a huge step for me.  We picked the restaurant ahead of time and I browsed their online menu.  I found something that would be easy to modify and rang up the restaurant for assurance that they could modify their meals.

On the day I made it very clear to the waiter that my low salt diet restriction is for medical reasons and I made it extremely easy for him by ordering the fish, chips and salad.  Fish with no batter, just plain grilled.  Chips with no salt.  Salad with no dressing.  The waiter even came back after placing my order to inform me that he had made my order very clear to the chef.  After my meal he asked me if everything had been OK.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by the service and my meal came exactly as asked.  Not a hint of salt to be seen on my plate, either by the shaker or by dressings or sauces.

I used to take for granted...

..things like.. going to the toilet by myself and having a shower in peace.

Now I have a little person following me where ever I go.

Not that I mind, but having to entertain a little one in any situation does take a bit of getting used to.

Guess what?

I have big news.  No I am NOT pregnant again, which is the first guess everyone makes for some reason.

Yesterday Greg and I bought..... a house!!

We were actually looking for a unit, which of course is more affordable.  Then this house came along in our price range.  It met all our criteria.  We got our act together and finally applied for a loan.  Got our preapproval.  Went to the auction yesterday.  And next thing you know.. we're bidding and we've bought a house!

Here's some pictures of our new place!

Just after we bought the house.

Lounge room - ignore the dodgy furniture. :)

Kitchen.

Backyard.

Paapa.

'Paapa' is Maya's word for pasta and my favourite word of hers at the moment.

Over the last couple of weeks Maya has been ramping up her vocabulary.  Suddenly she seems more willing (or more able?) to repeat words she hears.  And better yet she remembers them and what they are associated with.  She uses "Mama" a lot more now too, which is lovely to hear.

Communication is still very limited but she is able to ask for a few things now, which makes it so much easier than trying to guess what she wants all the time.  Though there are still times when I don't understand, which often results in her (and I) getting frustrated.

Maya has been babbling for such a long time now.  It seems like she's always carrying on conversation with me.  She even pauses and does little laughs and sighs in between some 'sentences'.  It really does seem like she's telling me stories, or about her day, or things she's seen.  Just in a language I can't understand.

Speaking of books..

Staying on the topic of books from my previous post, I thought I'd mention my favourite baby/toddler books:

• "The Going to Bed Book" & "Hippos Go Berserk" by Sandra Boynton - Love the rhythm and rhyme.


• "Time To Sleep" & "Where's The Green Sheep" by Mem Fox - Love the rhythm and pictures.


• "Pants" by Giles Andreae & Nick Sharratt - Love the rhythm, rhyme, pictures and topic.  A silly, funny little book.


• "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle - A classic and Maya loves poking her fingers through the holes in the pages.


• "The Animal Countdown" by Frances Bacon - Love the rhythm, rhyme and pictures.


• The "When I go to" series by Jill Harker - Great pictures (something hidden on every page), good rhythm and rhyme.


• "Miffy At The Zoo" by Dick Bruna - Love the rhythm and rhyme.


• "Nighty-Night, Fox" by Nancy Parent - Great pictures, rhythm and rhyme.

Maya does like the books above too, but her favourite books tend to be those with flaps you can open (like the "Spot" books by Eric Hill), or things you can touch (like the "That's not my" series by Fiona Watt) or pictures and words/counting books (like 1 hat, 2 children, etc) or any book that has a picture of a cat in it.  And while I do enjoy reading them the first twenty times, I do tend to tire of them after the one hundredth read.

I didn't know..

.. that I would be reading the same couple of books to Maya over and over and over again, because they would become her favourites and no other book would do.

.. that those couple of books that I would read over and over again would start to drive me crazy and any attempts at reading a new book would fail.

.. that I would get so sick of reading those couple of books over and over again, that I would eventually hide them away somewhere just so I could read something new.

.. that Maya would then go and select another couple of books to become her favourites and I would have to read them over and over and over again...