New picture

Five hours of drinking later....

I love my kids. Christmas is the best time for being a Mama. I love creeping down the stairs with the armload of presents I have spent three months getting ready. I love the way my 4 year old looked in the sky and said "I think I can hear Santa". I love my two year old snuggling up to me and telling me that a snowman drank his apple juice. I love the drunk friends that come round at stupid O'Clock and have drinks from out well-stocked drinks cabernet. It's all so bloody Christmasy around here I can hardly think!
Have you found Asda cookie dough in the cold cabernet next to the butter...don't make it into cookies, eat it raw...yum!
This post is done whilst I am very pissed at 3 in the morning on Christmas day.
Can you tell???

Oh it's YULE!!

Yey cool Yule!
I had a fab time, how was yours? I had a few friends over for yule dinner which went well. I made a vegan struddle which was quite yummy.
I have two very excited children running around the house and getting ready for the big Christmas toy bananza. I would like to write a long post about how great this time of year is but I think Solomon has discovered the present pile so I must rush off...
Have a good Christmas.
Love erika
xxx

'Happy babies'

Since when is the definition of a happy baby one that is completely zonked out and quiet for ages? Oh yeah, when we started to glorify detached parenting.
"I've given him a bottle of formula and he's so much happier now"
What do you say to that? "Try gin next time, it will knock him out for longer"?
A happy baby is one who was comforted through those traumatic first few weeks of life by his mother's nipple.
He says "It's tough, it's cold, I'm scared, I'm no longer part of you anymore, I'm hungry"
Mummy cuddles him and says "I will make you feel like you are part of me still" She gives a nipple and says"Here is food, here is comfort, here is your mummy, I will be here every time you call, I will not forget you, you are safe"
A happy baby is one who at the age of (insert random point at which a particular child feels like this; they are all different) know that mummy IS there for him and feels safe enough to explore the world. You only get there by going through the bit at the beginning that lots of people seem to want to avoid. Interfering with natures delicate system is not a good idea.
"He's such a good baby...he'll go to anybody, he doesn't mind who feeds him his bottle, sleeps all night without a sound" .... makes me shudder.

Happy Birthday Solomon

He's cute
He's cute
He's in his birthday suit
He's Solomondoooooo

He's 2! Can you believe it?

Learn to love fat!

great pic from here

"Solid" food

So I was talking to a mum in a baby group recently about weaning babies. My little bundle of lovely-ness, Solomon, had the benefit of the wisdom of my peers and so we did Baby Led Weaning (thanks Maia and Clare for the wisdom!) and now I don't ever stress about food as I trust my children to know what they need to eat and how much. I've become somewhat of a local expert on these things and people regularly talk to me about BLW. A lovely woman was asking me how it worked and I explained about how gut maturity went hand in hand with the ability to get food to the back of the mouth and swallow. She said that her Health Visitor was telling her to try BLW (wonders will never cease!) and so she wanted to give it a go.
"What happens if he can eat it before 6 months? I've been told not to give him solids before 6 months...so I've been giving him jars of baby food and baby rice because that's not solid, is it?"
Hmmmmm.......No, I suppose it isn't 'solid' if it is mushed up!
This made me realize that we have to be careful with our language, 'solid food' means different things to different people and maybe we need to use words like 'food that is going to replace baby's milk feeds' or something like that!
I wonder what words I am using and do not know they could be misinterpreted? The trouble is I don't know until it happens. Back to that 'unconscious incompetence' stage again!