lovely lazy day

Well, its 1pm and I'm about to have a nap. We did make it out of pajamas, but the front door is still bolted, the kitchen has stack of dirty dishes. We've watched a dvd, and played with Daniel (blowing bubbles), and have no real plans apart from returning the dvd to the library. It is overcast outside (it was raining earlier), so not to appealing, but it's relaxing to have no plans at all for the day!

PS, Daniel now has tooth #3 (his top left).

Something New

Latest News:
I (Mareesa) have decided to become a consultant for Usborne books, which is very exciting. I'll be doing some homeshows, showing off Usborne's fantastic books and making some commission to help out our family budget. Daniel got quite a few Usborne books for his baby shower, and he loves them, especially the touchy-feely books. He's actually quite a good mascot =) If you've never heard of Usborne books, you can check them out here, or talk to me about them!

Night #3

Night #3 lasted all of 30 minutes. A peaceful, sleeping baby :) (And peaceful parents)

Looking ahead to Summer Holidays

We have just booked tickets to fly to Edmonton in June! We leave on June 10, and get back June 18. Looking forward to seeing the Rockies, and catching up with friends :)

There is some sleep happening at my house

Last night was night #2 of sleep training. Originally we considered training for naps too -and started to implement but we found it waaaay too much - but since Daniel hadn't slept by lunch time, I was starting to feel a little guilty. Tera rang about lunch time, and it was great to talk to someone. I also called my mum (it was 6am in Brisbane), and chatted to my parents for a while, cried a little, and they prayed for us. But I have to say, children are so resilient! I'm finding it hard, but Daniel is doing great, and he doesn't appear to hate us at all. Anyway, last night was Nathan's turn. At 7pm I caught a bus to buy nappies at London Drugs cos they were on special and we were about to run out. I arrived home at 8.30pm, and Daniel had 'passed out' as phrased by Nathan, about 8.15 (from a sitting position). Nathan didn't seem stressed which was great, he fared better than me. I went up to check on Daniel about 9pm. I think his guardian angel stopped him from hitting his head, because he landed so close to the corner of his crib. Right on top of his blanket, which must have cushioned his fall. He woke twice, which I can definitely deal with, although he was awake at 6am again. He just must be a morning person!

Daniel's babbling is so cute, here is a video of him reading his favourite book, Touchy Feely Farm, which is an Usborne book, as well as babbling at the camera. Click here to view it.

4 hours plus

Was how long it took...and still not sleeping. I played computer games most of the nights because they involve just enough brain power to distract me, but not as much required as reading a book. I gave him (and I) a break after 2 hours, but by 11 I decided the poor kid was pretty hoarse and gave him a drink. He was exhausted and I was tickling his feet to keep him awake enough to drink. So we're all pretty tired today. But he did not seem to disturbed by the event thankfully. So take 2 tonight, Nathan's go I think.

This is the day

Well, this is the day. (No, I'm not referring to the song/bible verse, or St Patrick's Day, or my Mum-in-law's birthday.) Tonight I am starting sleep training with Daniel. Conveniently, Nathan is out tonight at a dinner/Hebrew translation party. However - and I see this as a small piece of God's grace, not coincidence - Nathan also felt awake and energetic enough to get up at 5.30am this morning when it was clear that Daniel thought it was 'morning time', and let me sleep in until 8am.

We've been talking about sleep training for a week or two, and thought we'd put it off until school was out. But last night, Daniel went to sleep at 7.15, and woke at 8, 11, 12.40, 2.20, 3.45, and of course 5.30. And, as of the last few days, he won't go back to sleep without nursing :-S We thought it might be because of teething, but he is not grumpy during the day, actually he is pretty cheery.

So, as they say, enough is enough!

Sleep training has many faces, but our plan is to do bedtime routine (dinner, bath, quiet play, story, short nursing time, song, bed), put him in his crib awake while confidently and calmly talking to him for 30secs or so, and leave the room. Daniel will cry, sit up, stand up, cry, chew on the crib rail, scream, etc. I will come back at lengthening intervals to let him know that I am still around, but not to comfort him. Books I've read say this could take 45 minutes the first night. I'm reckoning on an hour myself. And the 2nd night is supposed to be worse (the baby thinks the first night was a fluke).

Maybe you didn't really want to know all the details - but I didn't want anyone to think I was just going to leave him in the room to cry all night.

So I'm off to visit the neighbours today, to let them know what's happening. If anyone has ideas on what to do to distract myself from Daniel's crying, I'd love to hear them. So far I've thought of reading a book (maybe Cold Tangerines has a chapter on sleep?), playing computer games, and maybe ringing my mum. Smiles, humour and general encouragement are always welcome =)

raw beets and marshmallows

So what would you cook, if given the following ingredients (yes, you have to you all of them!):
yams, zucchini, avocado, raw beets, cilantro (coriander to Aussies), ginger root, marshmallows, pineapple chunks, tinned fruit salad, tinned apricot, green onions, lentils, chicken, and cranberry sauce/jelly.

Well, Ramie and I found all that quite a challenge! We were cooking for 10, with a guest who can't eat gluten, and two guests who are vegan.

So my highly experimental dishes were:

• Baked chicken breast with chilled Cranberry Cilantro salsa (cilantro, cranberry jelly, grated ginger root, diced avocado, sliced green onion). This was voted my best dish.
  
• I was going to make a lentil salad, but the lentils were too well done and got turned into lentil hummus (added some garlic and pureed the lot)
• No-name Salad: baby spinach, roasted yam and zucchini, raw diced beets, green onion with a creamy poppyseed dressing (from Ramie's fridge :) )
• Tropical rice pudding (rice, cream, eggs, marshmallows, tinned fruit, cinnamon)

Ramie made a curried lentil stew (veeeerrrrry yummy!), vegetarian stirfry, apricot chicken, and a gluten-free fruit crumble (which, despite being in a huge dish, was eaten in entirety!).
Our friend Thomas was taking pictures, so if I get some, I'll try and remember to post them up.

Prayer

Some things to pray for:

• Mareesa's younger brother Tim is headed to Afghanistan this month (he's in the army). Pray for safety and peace (for him and the family)
• Daniel is teething again (top two front teeth), and is whiny and clingy. He is, however, enjoying solid foods more (especially 'normal' food).
  
• Mareesa is wondering what kind of work to do when her maternity allowance ends at the start of July.
• Nathan is doing well in his study, and trying his best to keep a balance of work/family/rest
• Daniel is still not sleeping for long periods of time at night. Pray for wisdom as we consider multitudes of advice about sleep training.

Coming up: This weekend Mareesa and her friend Ramie are hosting an Iron Chef (think Ready, Steady, Cook) dinner for some friends for their birthdays.

An Ode to the Blue Sky

Fragmentary Blue

Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)--
Though some savants make earth include the sky;
And blue so far above us comes so high,
It only gives our wish for blue a whet.

Robert Frost

New Foods

I've had trouble getting Daniel to eat solids while we've been back in Canada. Generally eating pureed foods/cereals off a spoon has been a drama, and we have to trick him a lot of the time to get the food in his mouth. He does like trying to eat off the spoon himself, which can get pretty messy as he doesn't always put the correct end of the spoon in his mouth! Yesterday for dinner I gave him cooked diced vegies which were in Nathan and my dinner, and he really enjoyed it. I finger-fed him, and that worked. He can't pick up food himself yet, although he tries. I'm still going to perservere with cereal though.
The diced vegies were for a new product I tried, a Japanese curry (Glico). The paste comes in block form, and you stir it in after the vegies are cooked. My friend Christin, who is Korean, made me some for lunch last week and it was delicious! It's nice to have something easy and tasty to add to our menu. Nathan didn't 'love' it, but he said he'd eat it again, which is good, cos I think I could get addicted to it hehe. (I'm pretty sure it doesn't contain MSG)