:: this is spring ::

winter warmers

pasta a la Jamie

 

what we wore

it was a blustery day.

five months old

my little girl is five months old

she is getting so big. five is nearly six and six means solids which is REALLY big baby stuff.
It's been a blast.

This month she

• learned to rock herself in the bouncer
• started to blow raspberries in conversation. ie when I blow one she blows one back and so on.
• had her first boo boo :(
• graduated from some-time evening church baby to full time morning church baby. The nights are just way too hard.
• is wearing 00 size clothes really well.
• sits up for a few seconds at a time.

 5 months! Worth a vote?

lemon-meringue

I love lemon-meringue pie.
It's always been one of those things that I thought was too tricky and fiddly to make but I got a new cookbook called puddings and pies and decided to give it a go with some shortcrust pastry I had in the freezer.

It's actually a great recipe in that there are only a few moments that you actually need to be cooking. It took me longer than a day to finish these which was really convenient.

Makes 12


pastry
Cut circles out of shortcrust pastry and stick them in a muffin tray.
Put it in the fridge. I left mine in overnight but 30 mins is fine.
lemon
Put 1/2 cup cornflour, 1 cup caster sugar in a saucepan.
Add 1/2 cup lemon juice till it becomes smooth.
Stir and boil till the mixture thickens. This will happen pretty quickly so keep an eye on it.
When thick, take it off the heat.
Add to this 60g butter, 3 egg yolks and the rind of your lemons.
Cool the mix for 10 mins.
Spread the mix into the pastry cases and leave for 2 hrs. I left it overnight again.
meringue
whip up the egg whites till soft peaks form (I never knew what this was till I made these. It's really obvious when you do it.)
Add 1/2 cup of sugar gradually till it dissolves.
Spoon onto your tarts and bake in a HOT 240' oven for 2 mins.

Off to Nana's house

 

Source: notsohumblepie.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

There's this story in our family about how my older sister tasted her first solids.
A sweet little babe of a few weeks old was given rum and rasin ice cream by her adoring Nana as a disapproving daughter-in law looked on.

So, when visiting my nana with my own sweet babe and hearing her almost five month self offered cake, I was more than a little concerned.

A pinky finger of sweetened, whipped cream was offered and then thrust into her untainted mouth. She licked her lips, smiled and tasted with joy.

Another pinky was offered but a disapproving granddaughter was at the ready to block all sweet substance to mouth contact.

A whimper and a cry was heard from both Nana and the babe.

The lone napper

Source: homesickpipe.deviantart.com via findwildness on Pinterest

Source: funsies.com via Michelle on Pinterest

She's doing it.
I'm not sure why, I'm not sure how,
but my baby girl is napping all by her little lonesome.

It started on Friday when I was visiting my nana. (A tale I shall have to tell another day)
I put her down on a rug on the floor.
She was tired.
She wouldn't go to sleep in my arms.
She kicked around.
Smiled,
sung
and fell asleep.

She stayed asleep for about two hours.
AMAZING.

And then on Sunday she did it again.
And then on Monday afternoon again!

She is sleeping longer than when she is in my arms.
(Probably because I usually get up to go to the bathroom/do laundry/make lunch and she wakes up.)
My little girl is getting so big.

I guess it's all really good because she is getting less able to fall asleep in my arms. Especially when there are other more interesting people around.
All she needs is a little bit of shhh, some darkness and some sleepy sleepy eyes.

I feel glad because she is really starting to struggle with going out and getting tired but at the same time it is a little sad to see that she doesn't need me in this way anymore.

Looks like I can start doing some nap-time craft projects.

things i love - songs of worship

I'm a Christian.
My favourite songs to sing are to God. There are so many beautiful and wonderful ones.
Some of my favourites are on this album I stumbled upon.

It's by Chelsea Moon and is called "Hymn Project: Volume One"
You can listen to the whole shebang on myspace music. Click here

Not only are the songs beautiful but the music is so lovely. Acoustic guitars, strings - Heaven.

orange + poppyseed muffins

 Here are some muffins I baked using this recipe.

I changed it a little by using butter instead of oil, raw sugar instead of brown and instead of cream cheese icing I used a bit of brown sugar mixed with oats for a crumble topping.

The recipe says it makes six but I got 18 muffins out of it.

Pretty tasty and extra good heated up in the microwave after they have gone cold.


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terrible

Source: fromupnorth.com via Tifaine @ on Pinterest

I didn't know whether to post this or not but in the interests of not coming across as the "perfect" parent, here it is...

My baby fell off the change table.

You know that cute leg kick she was doing in the video I posted?
She does that on the change table.

We were about to take a bath, I put her there like I always do
she kicked
I went to turn the bath on
I heard a thud
silence
a scream.

I ran and picked up that little girl lying on her tummy on the floor.
Oh no I felt terrible.
I held her
fed her
cuddled and kissed her.
I was shaking and crying.
She was calming down.

I rang Myl,
my mum.
They calmed me down.
I stopped shaking.
We stopped crying.

We cuddled all day.

Oh yes I remembered the bath... only just.

Incidentally it looked like this.

Not what a bath should look like. Hmm..
Better call the real estate agent.

Little Lu is ok. She was back to smiling and giggling in no time. She has a little red nose and forehead but is all ok.
Thank God I moved her bath seat. It was sitting right where she fell.

I've learnt some valuable parenting lessons. After talking to mum on the phone I realised how common it is for babies to fall off tables, get baths dropped on them (thanks nana), knock heads on heaters etc and still live to fight another day in style.
I also learnt that now I need to watch my little girl at all times.
This kid is mobile.

things i like - magazines

 

 

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watching the door...

get it? she's a bouncer....

You can tell I'm a mama because that was a lame mum joke.

This little one sure knows how to keep herself happy. We couldn't even teach her this if we tried.

oh hallo

this is the face I get when I try to take a photo of Lucy.

The little orange light in the camera freaks her out.


Vote for the cuteness?

aint life beootiful

went out for a hot date sans baby
Monday night 10:30pm

Ended up at maccas...

linky love

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winter warmers - easy roast

As I write this I'm wearing a summer dress. It's probably not quite warm enough but it's cclose. It doesn't feel much like winter today but it did last week. Here's what I made for dinner with a little help from Jamie Oliver.

Faux Roast chicken + veg

Get a whole bunch of vegetables. I used potato, sweet potato, carrot + zuchini.
Cut them up any which-way.
I pre steamed the potato + sweet potato in the microwave.
Put them in a tray with a few cloves of garlic, rosemary, thyme, olive oil and saltnpepper.
Pop in the oven at 200'C.

Make a little bag out of foil. 2 sheets with three corners folded over.
Add a chicken breast, mushrooms, bit o' white wine and the rest of your herbs with a spoonful of butter.
Close up the other end of the foil bag and put in the oven in a tray for 30 mins.

After 30 mins rip open that bag and salivate over the tasty steam and juices pouring outta that baby.
Plate up your chicken n veg and pour over the tasty bag juice.

I like it because there are  no bones. I've never liked bones in my meat.

four months old

my little girl is four months old.

She is growing and changing every day.

She loves moving around, holding things and putting everything in her mouth.
She likes to be thrown up in the air (just a little)
She likes pulling dada's beard and mamas hair.
She wriggles and bounces and has rolled over a few times.
She likes to be held up on her feet and can sit up by herself in my lap.

Her sleeping patterns are a changin'.
Sleeping and waking is getting earlier.
Just in the last week she has been getting very tired round seven and then sleeping for a few hours.
Going to bed early means waking up early too. She wakes at about 3am for a feed and then goes back to sleep.
I put her in bed on night around eight and she woke up at 1am excited and ready to go! Oh no!

She had a night with dada this week. I went out to bible study. It was nice not to have a giggly chatty baby around but I missed her. I kept wondering where she was. She had a really good time which makes me think we could go out alone sometime for a date!?

She had her four month needles on Monday and since has had patches of very sad baby.
But, for the most part she is a smiley chatty, chirpy little fella.
I love her very much.

dear Lucy

It's been a while since I've written you a letter.
Yesterday I was watching you sleep beside me.
You had just eaten and had fallen asleep in pure bliss.
I feasted my eyes on your sweet full cheeks
your lip crumpled up,
your dimpled chin,
your little whisps of blonde hair.
I listened to you breathing.
Every now and then you would take a big deep breath
your face would change but then back into a
happy dream you would go.
I love you my little girl.
I love feeding you and cuddling you
and watching you grow.
You are such a funny happy little one.
It makes me think you love me too.
You bring new joy into my life every day.
You are getting so much bigger and now you
chatter away to me and sing with me.

I can tell that we are going to be good friends.
But I'll always be your mama.