All kinds of news and rambling

Right.  Time for a bit of a news update.

First of all, let's get the most tiresome stuff out of the way: A's food issues.

I started writing this last week when I was feeling very low about the whole situation.  We've since been to the doctor and we've already seen some improvement.  But I'm going to leave this here as a record for myself I guess of how hard it got and how upset I was.  Why am I compelled to record this stuff???

She is off the jarred food so I guess that's one thing.  But now it means her preferred diet consists of hot chips, chicken nuggets, hash browns, cheese toasties, tater tots, yoghurt, stewed apple, McDonalds hot cakes (I know I know), crackers, and biscuits.  Like that is a conclusive list of everything she will eat.

She will occasionally try new things, but she doesn't like anything.  No pasta, no toast, no weetbix, no avocado, no vegetables, no meat, no fish, no eggs, no nothing.

As an example, I made banana cake the other day.  She tried a bite.  No good.  Cake.  The child does not like cake.  I mean.  What even is that.



I've spoken to the Plunket hotline (the equivalent of Ngala if you're in WA, or whatever your baby nurse hotline is called) and they said put her on a toddler formula to ensure that she gets a good range of nutrients, and if she doesn't eat what's for dinner, that's it.  No filling up on junk.  Which I knew already, but probably did need someone to say to me bluntly.

So now she doesn't eat and she cries her eyes out because she's so hungry, and I can't give her anything.  And now I'm crying a bit thinking about it.  It's so hard.  Denying your child food when they're hungry feels pretty shitty.  Excuse me.  But it does.

The update to this being that we've moved on to a slightly less hardcore version of the Plunket advice.  And she's eating a few new things.  So on we go and hopefully in a year these issues will be a distant memory, in the same way that J's fussiness has improved over time.



Now onto happier tales.

I have to-ed and fro-ed about toilet training J, and have documented my dithering on here.  I've tried, not very hard, then given up and we go back to nappies.  She'd been very keen to wear knickers but not so hot on the actual using of the toilet part of the deal.  That's been going on for a couple of months at least.

Anyway the other day I went to pick J up from kindy and lo and behold there she was in a pair of knickers.  Apparently she'd taken her nappy off and told the teachers that she wanted to wear knickers (sorry, she keeps correcting me - UNDIES).  And she's been wearing knickers undies ever since.  AND she's even willingly used the toilet!  She's been doing really well with it - she even held on all the way to the supermarket toilet the other day - all pretty much self-directed.



We also took the side off her cot the other day.  Big step.  Plenty of people had said to me that if she's happy in the cot, which she was, why change anything.  It just seemed like time though and with the toilet training it made sense to update the bedding arrangement since she will eventually need to be able to get up in the night.  And she is so proud of her "new" big girl bed.

I've been surprised by how emotional all these big kid changes have made me feel.  I'm so happy to leave babyhood behind and yet all these things remind me that time moves on even when you might want it to slow down.

I think it's the fact that I know, I know for sure, that when they're bigger and more difficult and complicated - but yes, more independent and easier in a lot of ways - I will look back wistfully at these days.  So you try really hard to enjoy and soak it up while they're small.  But then they wake eleventy billion times in the night or have a screaming falling-down tantrum in the middle of the shop.

I can't remember where I was heading with this.  But anyway.  Babies don't keep.  Put them in a jar.

I have no clever segue into our next topic so let's dive on in!  Where will this stream of consciousness post take us next I wonder?



Ah yes, hydrangeas.  Picked from my very own garden if you don't mind.  Which I don't because I am beyond thrilled.  But they did wilt within a day in the vase, even though I plunged the cut stems straight into cold water as I was picking them.  Why did that happen oh wise readers?

Also, you know how I'm deeply obsessed with knitting now?  Well I am.  And I made another sweater - this time for J.  Who is as deeply thrilled with it as I am.

I wish I'd made it a couple of inches longer now.  Why do these kids keep growing?  No way it's going to fit next winter.  Luckily we live in Taranaki and she'll get plenty of wear out of it this summer.

The cardigan I'm making for A is slow going but it's getting there.  The pattern is definitely a stretch for my beginner skills and it'll feel like a real accomplishment to get it finished.  

The other day I was trying to figure out what it is that I so enjoy about knitting.  I guess it's a bit like the adult colouring in trend.  It's an activity that engrosses you, and which also provides instant gratification in the creation of something tangible.  

I love to make stuff for my kids, whether it's food, growing flowers they can pick or vegetables that they can eat, or these clothes that they can wear which have (and excuse me here for some very soppy sentiment) love woven into every stitch.