Inspiration Needed....

I have hit a wall and have lost all creativity with Riley's food. Each week I think to myself I need to get him some more food, more variety, but every time I'm doing the groceries I don't buy much different. In fact, I think I am buying less and hes actually eating more.

I have lost count the number of times he has had baked beans this month. I know I tell myself at least it counts as a vegetable but once he has had it for dinner 2+ nights in a row I think its time to rethink that. Oh and for the record hes having it again tonight. . . I might mix in some left over fried rice tonight, which he actually had last night for a change, shock horror!

I know I need to make him some more food to store in my freezer stock pile, but laziness has come to visit and each time I pull some mince out I don't get around to use it for him and instead cook it up for dinner, because ironically enough I have forgotten to get something out for dinner.

Don't even get me started on the number of mini muffins he has had this week too. In my defence I did make them and I have a heap out of the freezer that NEED eating, and a heap in the freezer waiting. But I guess when your other "fillers" are rice cakes and corn crispibreads its nice to get something that actually has a nice taste.

Things aren't all bad though in our joint. He still eats a lot of fruit. I have even had to start getting the tins out of the cupboard because I'm running out of fresh each week. This week hes decided he doesn't like the grapes I bought him and all the bananas are gone. Blueberries were expensive so I bought some frozen that haven't left the freezer yet (Freezer at work doesn't actually keep things frozen, so I keep leaving them home). I got sick of buying avocados because I went through a stage of getting all crap ones. He ate all the paw paw Grandma had brought over for him, but none of the cherry tomatoes because I don't know what to do with them and feel funny about giving them to him whole (Tomato hater here! - me).

On a plus, for breakfast each morning hes also been having cereal . . . Honey O's or Coco Bombs! Not the healthiest but again at least its something different, or so I keep telling myself. He is still having the token prune which he eagerly eats 1st, although he doesn't have to because its just in the bowl with his cereal and sultanas (which he has decided he doesn't want to eat either this week). So I guess things aren't all bad but when you get to the end of the week and feeding your child sugary cereal, tinned fruit, mini muffin after mini muffin, plain rice cakes and crispibread (which I have now taken homemade jam (thanks again Grandma) up to the shop to put on them) followed buy a nice healthy bowl of baked beans things are starting to look a little dire. Ah some days I just wish to be able to give him a Vegemite sandwich, a chunk of cheese, an apple or - wait for it - some take away, anything where I don't have to think about whats in it 1st.

Do you know these people?

Do you know these people? or can you help find these people?
This picture is one of many found on a memory card in a hotel room and it has photos of the birth of their son on it. Precious memories that the finder would like to return to the owner. So they are using the power of facebook and 6 degrees of separation in hope of finding them.

Click here, take a look, join, and invite everyone!

Mummy Not So Proud!

What better way to follow "Mummy Is So Proud" than with "Mummy Not So Proud!".

Really this post should of been writen on Tuesday afternoon but I had decided against it. Well I have had a repeat of Tuesday's efforts, so decided it now deservs a post.

Riley,
Mummy is so cross with you right now! It has taken all my effort to not smack you and if I thought it would actually do any good (as in make you learn, not just for my own anger release) then I probably would of. Seriously, why must you put poo EVERYWHERE! Please mate, I don't want a repeat, again.
Mum. >:-|

Well as you can guess, he has decided its great fun to take his nappy off (during rest time) and smear it's contents everywhere. Tuesday's efforts were the worse. I had to close the shop up for 1 hour while I scrubbed his toys, plastic fort and trampoline. The trampoline was beyond a wipe down and I had to load it into my car to take it home and hose it. For the rest of the day all I could smell was poo, GROSS!

Today, it only took half an hour to clean up but instead it required stripping him down and giving him a bath in the kitchenette sink. Luckily I had some bubble bath (which we use in the summer, on a weekend  outside, in the empty carpark). I also had to use a cloth nappy to dry him off. ARGH, I really hope he doesn't do it again. I guess it serves me right for putting him in his room for quiet time when I know too darn well he wont sleep, its just so he doesn't bother me for awhile. . .

Mummy is so proud!

Dear Riley,
Mummy is so proud you went to sleep tonight without your bottle, and most importantly without crying. Not even a peep. Love you so much my little man. Please keep it up.
Love always Mummy. 

For those that don't know. . . we started to have some issues with Riley sleeping. He was no longer going down for the night (or day) with his bottle. He would just drink it and want to play. So we decided it was time to get tough on him and teach him how to sleep without it. We had agreed that would only do it while it was working but stop as soon as its not. I never intended to give my baby a bottle to go to sleep with and it was never something I was particularly comfortable with, but when you have a bubba like Riley you will do anything for a bit of sleep.

For a bit of previous history. Riley had/has pretty bad reflux, not so much now days but still at times. He was a very unsettled baby that didn't sleep during the day from VERY EARLY ON!!!! He would scream and scream and scream. It was horrible. We even went to sleep clinic at 3 months old. This is a place where you go with your baby and you have around the clock care to teach you how to get your baby to sleep. The success rate of these style of clinics is high. . . Unfortunately for us, Ri didn't understand this. We officially failed sleep clinic. The nurses wished me luck and said he one tough cookie. That's about the only thing they got right. So for the next 9 months it was struggle street. He would throw in the odd day nap but they were just cat naps and to make it worse he wasn't sleeping to well at night either. Lets just say it was doing my head in. The best way to get him to sleep was to give him a feed.

At around 1yo we made the decision that putting him down with a bottle would be so much easier then trying to hold him and then try and lie him down in his cot without waking him. It was brilliant. I finally got some me time. It worked a charm. He was having 2 day sleeps, 2 good day sleeps, which eventually worked its way to 1 really good day sleep. He was still waking overnight but not always as often (mostly due to his reflux though). I know I know, its not recommend because it could rot their teeth but by this stage I would rather a toothless baby then what I had. But Chris and I made a pack that as soon as it wasn't working or we could make him loose interest then we would take the bottles away.

We had managed at one point to wean him to just a bottle of water to go down with for his day sleep and the night. Then we had a spanner thrown in the works when he got sick and we had to do an overnight stay in hospital. We went back to milk in a bottle because it was the only way we could get him to drink anything. From there he went back to wanting it for sleeps. I tried to not but with the shop I just needed that break and to not have the screaming.

Which brings us to the last week or so. He started not having day sleeps but demanding a bed/bottle but only drinking the bottle and getting back up. Then it started at night too. Enough, it was time to go. The first night we took him for a drive at 9:40 on our 3rd year wedding anniversary just to get him to sleep. There was no way I was doing that the following night when he decided not to sleep. I tried to settle him in his bed a couple of times but it was becoming obvious it was just making things worse, so instead we deployed CIO (Cry It Out). I lied him down and told him enough was enough its bed time and mummy wont be coming back in. He was a little upset (emotional) when I first walked out the door but it quickly changed to just protesting. . . after 30mins he was a sleep.

The second night of CIO, was 30mins again but a lot less crying and not as loud. 3rd night we had a sleepover and we went to bed late so I gave him a sipper cup of milk which he drank half of before going into bed, but he was so tired and demanding bed that he dragged me there and lied himself down. I didn't have the heart to take is cup away (non-spill) and left him with it. Not a peep out of him. Then we come to tonight. I can't believe he actually did it. I'm shocked and so proud. We (Chris and I) went to have peek-a-boo (where we go in and look at him sleeping) it was so wonderful to see him happily a sleep, It brought a tear to my eyes. All the hard work, crap days and nights, they were all worth it. I was so PROUD!!!

And for a side achievement he hasn't had milk in a bottle for 3 days, only in a sipper cup. :)

Daycare!

We have made the decision to withdraw Riley from daycare. It really was needed. We are happy that its the right decision for us, but gosh I'm nervous. The impact of pulling Ri out lies solely on me, ok well maybe not solely Because I will have my mums, mother-in-laws (aka MIL) and SILs help at different times, but it wont be like my 2 days a week of bliss that daycare was providing. In saying that though, by not having daycare I'm hoping we are able to get into a much better groove at the shop. I wont be having Daycare "interrupt" our week and routine.

So today is Riley's last day of daycare. That's it we are all done, but not without its own issues. Grrr that place is so annoying. Firstly, I got asked why I specifically said to Ri's group leader that I didn't want Ri to move up to the next room at all this week and if they were thinking about it to call me and I will get him picked up. I just answered because I didn't see the need of changing what he knows before he was to leave. Then the director tried to tell me I hadn't paid a deposit for the security chip to get into the centre, which I had and she was quite surprised to hear I had the deposit slip in the car for it. So glad I kept that for a year and a half. I think she might have thought I was bluffing, and asked if I could go get it, sucks be her when I have proof. On top of that for some stupid reason our CCB hadn't been estimated this week so she was having "trouble" working out how much we were to be refunded. She even tried to tell me we owed money, YEAH RIGHT!! wow trying to weasel out of paying much? Geez! Then she told me she has to ring the owner to get him to look at it. OMG! So although today was his last day and I was meant to be picking everything up and finalising it all this morning, I now have to go back in tomorrow morning on my way to work and just hope she has finally written the check that should have already been written. ARGH!

Sorry rant over :/

Ahhh what to do?

Why is it so hard to make a decision? Why must I procrastinate? Time to pull on my big girl panties and make a move.

So my delima is that Ri is due to be moving up rooms at daycare, and this week I witnessed some unsavoury behaviour from what will be his new group leader. It has shocked me, and upset me. This is following my recent feelings towards the centre director as being inadequate and untrustworthy, but thats a whole other story of a bitchy personal attack, lets just say shes not the kind of person you would like to have a confrontation with. Now I have to decide weather or not I should pull him out of daycare.

You would think the answer is quite obvious, and really it is. My heart is telling me to pull him out. He doesn't need to deal with that, but then the other side of me says "tough love could do him some good, and stop babying him". But is it really babying him if I felt sad and intimidate by what will be his new carer? I can only imagine how that would make a little person feel. Then I think about the logistics of him not being in care, am I really prepared to have him 5/6 days a week with me at the shop and no "break day" for me? Could I handle that? I know I have done it a couple of weeks in a row before, but I was always glad to off load him to daycare whe he was well enough again. I do also have his nanny (my MIL) available to take him every now and again to give me a break and give Ri a break from me, as well as some social interaction with his younger cousin and baby cousin. There wll also be grandma (my Mum) ever 2nd week, that will hopefully come up and take him for a walk and some fresh air. So really it hopefully wont be as bad as I think it could be.

Now all I have to do is tell the director and give our notice. . . really not looking forward to that!

Holidays!!!

Who would of thought! Chris has 3 weeks off from his fulltime job which means I get a bit of a break from the shop. YEAH!
I'm already into week 2 of his break and already I feel so much better. Today is the 2nd, that's right SECOND, day I have decided not to get changed out of my PJs, ahhh bliss. Note: I have put on a bra though. lol.
Apart from catching up on much needed sleep, I have been trying to do things I wouldn't normally be able to or fit in my days. Not only have I caught up on washing, I have been baking new/different things for Riley.
Today I plan on making some cookie dough, of course gluten and dairy free. I also made carbonara from scratch for lunch, but my eyes were too big for my stomach, so Chris has some lunch tomorrow now.
Last week, I had lunch with the girls from the cafe near work.  We went to the sports club, meanwhile I left Chris at the shop with Riley. It was great. We took our time eating lunch and enjoyed chatting about various things, followed by a little flutter on the pokies. Time flew, before we knew it we had been there for 4hrs, :o and only 1 phonecall from Chris, and that was just asking if I could bring him back some lunch.
I tried to organise a meet with the mother's group I was active with before we opened up the shop, they still meet weekly and so many new little siblings, however couldn't attend because Ri had a stomach bug. Bugger! Maybe another week.
We have done quite a bit of colouring in, with actual textas. Yeah for Riley! and we have also done painting. Wow did we make a mess. So glad we have a large tiled area because about 2sq metres was covered in paint. But I did manage to get some lovely hand and foot prints I would like to frame and hang with the ones I did when he was 2 months old.
This week I would love to catch up with one of my closest mates. She has been very supportive of me, with the shop and Riley and just life in general. She has spent many hours keeping me company up at the shop and also taking Riley for many walks to give me a break. So I would love to get out and up the coast on her day off and enjoy spending a day with her, just the 2 of us.
One thing I wont be able to do this break is take a road trip to visit my mate. I was really looking forward to being able to catch up with her but unfortunately I wont be able to make the 9hr drive. :( However she might be this way in the next couple of weeks so hopefully we can get a chance to catch up still.
So far my break has been relaxing, I'm not looking forward to it ending and having to slog it out again till the next lot of holidays. . .

Play-doh!

I thought making playdough was easy, oh how wrong I was.  I printed off a recipe from the net and thought great I will just substitute plain flour with GF (gluten free) plain flour. Why did I not think to google a GF playdough recipe.

I get home and set about my way to make what I thought would be a super easy mix. I start well, I get the flour, oil, water, colour - Blue, and salt ready...a cup of salt, What the..? I thought there was meant to be cream of tartar in here somwhere...no recipe doesn't want that.

I follow the recipe and I end up with this bowl of sticky goop. Well thats not what I wanted. I add more flour, it wasn't helping. So I thought wait maybe I need xanthan gum (to replace the gluten), Quick Chris I need reforcements, come help. Out he trotts giving in to my every demand until I decided this just isn't working. My hands, bench, bowl and glass cutting board are covered in this blue goop that is meant to be playdough. At my demand he goes to the study to google "Gluten free playdough recipe". It says boiling water but mine said cold...lets microwave it. Back to the kitchen we go. "Hold the board while I scape it off" "easy don't pull it off the bench", It was like glue. finially we get a good portion of it into the bowl and in the microwave. EWW its drying out. Oh well. Chris goes back to google more. We saw slight improvements after microwaving it but really had little faith we were on a winning track. This is no longer an individual task! I decide it now needs the cream of tartar, I know it should be there, google tells me 4 table spoons. In they go....slight improvement again.... in goes more flour, last of that box. I keep trying to knead it in hope it will come together, it isn't so back in the microwave, this time for longer. Its now hot, all crusty and dried out on the top, but workable. I can knead it. I work the dry bits in and they disappear...wow this isn't too bad. We had managed to rescue what we thought was beyond hope. I did add a little more oil, which ended up everywhere too, oops. The end result is something that quite resembles playdough.

Ingredients:
As Per Recipe
2 cups plain flour
1 cup salt

1 cup cold water

1 tablespoon oil

2 drops of food colour.

Mix dry ingredients, then add wet, wella!

What else I added

~1 cup more of GF flour
4 tablespoons Cream of tartar
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 tablespoon oil.
More food colouring, 2 drops didn't give very much colour at all.

The result.
It's quite tough, I wonder if this is the xanthan gum.
It's very grainy, prehaps next time I will desolve salt in boiling hot water 1st.
Its taste is discustingly salty worse than I remember it as a kid (We all know you have to try recipes when you make them :S ), so next time I might use less salt too.
Here it is.

. . . Riley better like playdough!

Play Room Overhaul.

Time has come for the much needed overhaul of Riley's playroom at the shop. Hes getting to that stage where I think he is over it. He is driving me bonkers at the desk touching and pulling EVERYTHING down. So now the cogs are turning...what can I do? I'll try to organise before and after pics soon.
Firstly I think I will keep his plastic fort with slide and tunnel.
I am going to move the TV out of his playroom and see how it goes in the main area.
I might try and set up his car track, but I might need to look at getting a big table for that to try to get him to leave it together.
Someone has suggested these mats you can get where they "colour" in using textas, but they actually aren't ink just water. No idea how it works or what its called but sounds interesting.
I might have a google for a playdough recipe I can make...and try to make it gluten free. It will be interesting to see how that goes. Hmmm I will also have to try and convince him he needs to stay on the tiles to play with it though. I wonder how that will go.

I'm thinking I might need to draw up some kind of play "routine", to try to keep his day interesting. Maybe I will have a talk to daycare and see how they structure their days.

Oh the joys. :D

Welcome/Introduction

Welcome to my blog. I have never had one before, so here goes.

Who am I? Well that depends on who is asking. Most importantly I am Me. . .

My name is Jaz and I married to my lovely husband Chris and we have one child together, Riley, he is 2yo. In this blog I will be sharing my journey through motherhood, dealing with food intolerances, being a wife, and running a business with a toddler in tow. Yes, I am very busy and in need of some "Time Out!"