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)

Crawling!

Yes, little Daniel is fully mobile, and getting quicker everyday. We need to look into getting a safety gate for the top of the stairs. Daniel is quite proud of himself, and is loving this freedom. Mostly he loves crawling to the doorstops (sprung wire, which makes a great noise), or crawling to find mum for a cuddle.