Fits fer Supper – Roasted Sweet Potato, Chicken and Bulgar Wheat Salad

Tonight we had such a lovely, last minute, scrambler of a meal. I roasted some chicken breasts in the oven with balsamic vinegar and no name roasted garlic paste (the best stuff ever, my mama is obsessed with it), I also chopped up cubes of sweet potato and roasted those with the garlic paste too. So, while all that is roasting up good in the oven I cooked some bulgar wheat, super healthy and much more texture than cous cous, I always just cook it like the bag says, don’t stray. I don’t cook with any salt ever, just to make sure little Ollie can have what we have. Once all the cooking stuff is cooked I chop up the chicken and toss it all in a huge bowl with green onions (spring onions), cherry tomatoes, avocado, chives and add Balsamic Fig vinaigrette (lazy pre made stuff) Dave and I live off of this combo more or less, sometimes we use shrimp, and switch Bulgar for cous cous or quinoa.

The whole point of Fits fer Supper is to try and let Olive eat what we eat. There are a few things I try and avoid like salt, sugar, nuts and honey, but for the most part she eats it all!

Tonight we took the roasted sweet potato and mashed it up and mushed in the bulgar wheat and chives and then rolled it into fun balls, think golf ball size. I also gave her sliced avocado, chicken and tomatoes on the side. She loved it! You will come to find out, we roll everything into balls so she can feed herself, and we are total dorks and call them Ollie Balls. Nice.

Oh my Blog, She’s back Again!

Yes, yes I know, a lazy Blogger is  bad Blogger. Sorry peeps, I have been up the walls, as my friend Julia would have said. We sold our house (finally), packed up our whole life (paid someone to do that part) and shipped over to the homeland!

On the Plane

We arrived in Canada and wasted no time, we bought a house, a car and I have already been picking out the paint chips! Let the OCD begin!

Now what has little Missy been up to you may be wondering? We are all back to normal now, but somewhere over the Atlantic Olive got the flu, started teething, went through a growth spurt and decided she never had to sleep again. It was hellish on every level. Another post,for another day!

I have a few ideas I am toying with about upcoming posts;
- The Darkside of Crying it Out, and the Light at the End of the Tunnel
- Fits fer Supper, a post for my husband who asks me every single night the same question. These posts will also include the variations we do for Olive.
- Olive’s New Room, our new house has a playroom and a nice big bedroom for Ollie, I have a few ideas up my sleeve for (obsessively) decorating it.

So in closing, stay tuned folks, I won’t leave you hanging this time.

x

The Closet Co-Sleeper

My name is Hailey and I co-sleep. I after finally admitting to being a closet co-sleeper, it got me thinking about the pressures we face as mom’s raising babies. I love sleeping with my babe, and I have always felt that I shouldn’t be, and I have never really understood why. “They have to learn to sleep in their own beds” or “You are going to spoil her” do any of these ring true?

I wonder what would happen if we burned all the parenting books, turned off the main power supply to Google and stopped listening to old people – What would happen? Could it be possible we’d raise our babies in a way that feels natural, be it co-sleeping or not. And why is it that British people can remain successfully reserved in every situation except child rearing? Everyone thinks they know best, I have had a complete stranger tell me to sneak baby rice into my 10 week old’s bottle, whom had never even had a bottle – excuse me and you are Doctor….

With a nation or two obsessed with getting babies to sleep through the night, it becomes the only topic of conversation at every baby yoga, swimming lesson, playgroup and Jo Jingles. “How’s she doing?” Translation, does she sleep all night? My question is – Do babies really sleep through the night if you’re not sneaking baby rice into their milk?

I am guilty of having read many How to get your, still warm from your womb, baby to sleep through the night books. I was definitely under the impression that they just did it with a little gentle persuasion. I am frightened to even speak of the one who’s name shall not be mentioned, as she has already sued Mumsnet for slander….or something. She made babies sleeping sound like those annoying instructions from Ikea, where all the bits are meant to just *CLICK* into place, only she is not only the end of a 0800 number waiting to help you at 4:00.

Anyway, my point is, do what feels natural, throw away the books and if sleeping with your baby is what works for you and your family, then do it! If wearing your baby is better for you than using a buggy, do it! If letting your sweet little babe cry sounds awful to you, then don’t. Screw old people, what makes them so smart anyway?

- A reformed non-believer in attachment parenting

Reusable Diaper Challenge

After hundreds of  changed diapers, and Olive’s love of only pooing in a freshly changed diaper I have finally decided to give reusable diapers/nappies a go. I haven’t done it before as I have visions of laundry baskets full of poo, and I am bad enough at doing my own laundry in a timely fashion.

My sis has lent me three types to try, pre-folds, a cloth shaped nappy plus waterproof wrap and an all in one nappy. If all goes well I am thinking I might order a trial pack from The Real nappy Project. They send me two weeks worth, all different kinds, I would like to order some before heading back to Canada. Will be keeping everyone up to date with my Diaper Challenge.

Diary of a Quinny Caster – A Glimpse of our Lives

We have been trialling the Quinny for just about three weeks, we have been all over the place, heaps of coffee dates, swimming, baby yoga, at the hairdressers, on the bus, in the car, on the train, in the rain, (I will not eat green eggs and ham)…. There are many things I am in love with and a few things I am not in love with.

In Love Not so In Love
Fast, nippy little buggy Two part fold
Lightweight Small basket
Super gorge looking Noisy, bumpy wheels that pick up every leaf in the city
Parent Facing Hard to get up/down stairs and curbs
Reclining Not good for coffee-in-hand-steering
Very comfy for babe Not very sturdy feeling

I am keeping an open mind at the moment as the good outweighs the bad. Olive is IN LOVE with this buggy and we have a hellish time getting her to stay put for more than 20 minutes. She has even had some stellar snoozes in the Quinny, which never happens. I did also fit the Quinny into my locker at swimming, amazing!

Diary of a Quinny Caster – The Unveiling

I am a nightmare with deliveries. I live in a cottage in the back of someone’s house, post-people never ever can find my house, I have had almost every single delivery re-delivered, not the Quinny, I beg of you post-people. With a note on the door and terrified to make a sound or leave the house, I waited for my new buggy. Sure enough, I hear the faintest knocking ever and I run out to find someone, who had been knocking on my neighbour’s door, leaving the front gate. I chased after him in my sock feet shouting “My Quinny! Waiiiit!”

Anyway, after embarrassingly asking him to carry it through to my little hidden cottage…. I HAVE MY QUINNY! I was loving on Twitter everyone up and down the country anxiously waiting, we were like kids on Christmas at 3 am.

I wanted to wait so badly until my husband got home to do something super creative like Emma or Dawn , however I have am the type of person that has opened every gift ever received before  Christmas/Birthday/Anniversay. I have the knack of unwrapping and re-wrapping down to a tee. In fact, I am embarrassed to admit that very carefully unpacked the Quinny, thinking I could tape it back up before David got home. What a loser.

So, as a said, I very carefully unpacked the Quinny only to find two big bits, plus some wheels, to put together, here I was ready with my Ikea allen key collection, ready to go. Sooooo, wheels on, click, base open, click, seat on, click. Brill. Done. My kinda handy work.

The Diary of a Quinny Caster

I have recently been chosen to test out the Quinny Zapp Xtra. Things like this never happen to me, I never get chosen to do anything and I certainly never have won anything. When my dinosaur Science Fair project didn’t even get an an honourable mention when I was seven, that sealed my fate. I will never win or be chosen for anything. Until now! 3000 eager people submitted applications to try out the new Quinny and only 25 got chosen, and yes little ol’ me was one of them.

I will be testing/reviewing/showing off/bragging about the Quinny until March 2011. There will be different tasks and assignments as we head into the Spring. My big test will be the flight and big move over to Canada. My Husband and I are hoping to be there before Christmas. Can a Quinny handle a Canadian winter? Might need to release some snow tires! (Mental note: Patent that) Stay tuned!

New and Shiny!

Here it is, my new shiny Blog. I feel so much pressure defining what “type” of blog it will be. I reckon it is best to let life take it its course and let the blog grow organically. I hoping for a mix of baby related goodness, some of my never-ending quest to craft, decorating bits and pieces and I have been bookmarking a million interesting sites/stories over the years to discuss current-ish events.  Here goes it! Enjoy!