You can air-pop real popcorn in the microwave

Oh my goodness, I think I've been living under a rock. I have just discovered you can actually microwave popcorn! I kid you not. Whenever I've heard people talk about microwaving popcorn I have just assumed they mean the stuff in a bag, which I don't trust as I'm sure it has lots of other random ingredients. And it's a bit pricey compared with the plain kernels. So for the last few years I've been coating my popcorn in oil and vigorously shaking a heavy pan to get it to pop, all the while wondering if I should invest in a popcorn maker as surely air-popped is healthier. 

Turns out though that you can actually air-pop pure unadulterated popping corn in the microwave. I had a play around with it this afternoon and this is how you do it. 

1. Place popcorn in a microwaveable container with lid. Choose the smallest you can get away with and cover the base with kernels. 
2. Microwave on high for 2 minutes.
3. Remove and sprinkle with salt, melted butter, olive oil, whatever you want really.
4. Rinse dish. 

It's that simple.

Next time I'm going to sprinkle the salt over the kernels and give the dish a bit of a shake before I microwave it as it was a bit bland. I am ridiculously excited about this discovery. No more nasty gunky oily pans to clean and it's quicker too.

And only 4g carbs per cup, for all you carb counters out there. 

Bad points: I think there were possibly a few more unpopped kernels than usual and my serve was a bit chewy but that was from the first batch, which I'd done in a larger dish. Dish size is important as clearly the kernels need to be touching one another to generate enough energy to pop. I won't try to explain it in sciencitific terms at the risk of getting it wrong but suffice to say not covering the base of the dish with kernels resulted in poor popping performance. Clearly more testing needs to be done. Can't see the kids complaining about that. 

Tip: most parents would find this a useful tip but particularly those with T1 kids. When going to the cinema take a plastic cup - one for each child - that holds 250ml and use it to dish out popcorn. Then you can a) monitor how much your kids are eating (and count carbs for the T1s) and b) keep the box for yourself. I was rather impressed with myself for coming up with this one. 

Sick Boy and Cake Girl

Well, we survived five days without Toby. Sort of. Toby's mum came to help us for a few days. And we survived that too. JOKE. Obviously. She barely survived though, poor woman. The first morning she was here Phoebe woke up at 4.30am. I settled her back down and got back into bed. Then Ash woke up so I got up to feed him and then Phoebe woke up again. So Toby's poor mother ended up taking Phoebe into her bed and of course she didn't go back to sleep. Things didn't improve much after that.

Anyway, there is many a story from those few days and not all of them suitable for my blog I'm afraid. But I got a night out with a girl friend. Which was fab. Had a beautiful eye fillet, medium rare. Felt tipsy after a glass of bubbly and 3/4 glass of red. And I also got to spend my pamper voucher from work which I used on the most gorgeous wonderful facial, after which I should not have been allowed to drive.

After Toby's mum left, Phoebe went for a sleepover with her cousins and I had a lovely evening in. Made myself a curry, drank beer, watched Wire In The Blood in a quiet house. Lovely.

Ash is poorly, poor sweet boy. He has a stuffy nose. And a horrible cough. He's been checked by a doctor twice in the last ten days when we've been in for other things. Both times his chest has been clear which is a relief. But it has got markedly worse in the last couple of days. Sometimes he coughs uncontrollably. Two days in a row now, when I've sat him up after a feed he's coughed so much his entire feed has come back up and all over the both of us. He must have regurgitated 150-200ml of milk each time. I had to fully change both of us and have a shower. It was quite something. His eyes are gunky too. I really should be online looking up remedies instead of blogging. Actually I should be in bed. After a few really good nights' sleep, which I needed because I didn't get much whilst Toby was away and was run into the ground, we've had a couple of shockers. I'll put him back in his cot after a feed and he'll start to cough and then that's it. Wide awake. For two hours. Ug! He still manages to be the loveliest, smiliest, happiest little baby though. Here's a (crappy iPhone 3G) photo of him yesterday, not quite as poorly as he was today but right when he was due a sleep nonetheless. 

Meanwhile, Phoebe's cake making skills are improving considerably. On rainy days I help her make a chocolate cake in a mug. It's cheap, super easy and almost small enough for her to eat it all herself. Basically I don't care how it turns out (and neither it seems does she) so it's far less stressful than letting her help me bake. Today was the second time we'd done it and last time I drew the recipe for her. Today she helped me identify some of the ingredients - except she thought butter was cheese. Interesting. And she did most of the measuring, putting the tablespoon into the flour jar and counting out four spoons of flour. She even sliced it up herself using her new knife. Clever little girl. Here she is with her first mug cake a couple of months ago.

Toby's favourite parenting moment (so far) came when Phoebe took him a slice of her cake and said, "Here is some cake for you, Daddy." The first bit of cake she had ever baked and then sliced for him. It melted his heart and he said it is the best cake he's ever had.

Just a little bit

Tonight at the dinner table, with a full plate of untouched food in front of her, Phoebe requested a treat.

"No, Phoebe," I told her. "You only get treats when you're really really good. And even then not necessarily every time. And certainly not when you haven't finished your dinner. Haven't even touched it."

Phoebe: No chocolate tonight, Mammy.
Me: No. Not tonight.
Phoebe: No chocolate....[pause]... Just Fudge.
Me: No Phoebe. Fudge is classed as chocolate. [We're talking Cadbury's Fudge here.]
Phoebe: Just a little bit, Mammy. Just a little bit. Please.
Me: No, Phoebe.
Phoebe. Please, Mammy. Just a little bit. PLEASE!
Me: No.
Phoebe: Please.
Me: No
Please.
No.
Please.
No.
[This continues for quite some time.]
Me: It doesn't matter how many times you ask me, or how loudly, the answer is still No.
Phoebe: PURLEASE!!!
Ash: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! [Loosely translated as "What the crap was that? Man, it was loud. And I really didn't like it. Make it stop. Oh my god. I'm so hungry. I'm being ignored. Where's my bath? I want my bath. I want my bath, boob and bed. And I'm not going to shut up until I get it.]
Exit Me and Ash side stage.

Later, whilst I'm finishing Ash's bath I overhear a conversation between Phoebe and Toby. As he's leaving the room I hear Toby saying, " ... and if you eat all of your cottage cheese on toast then maybe you can have just a little bit of fudge."

So, let me get this straight. She decides she doesn't like her dinner so she gets something else AND a treat?

I say in passing, "I still think No."

Phoebe hears me but Toby doesn't.

Phoebe: Mammy says no.
Toby: What's that, honey?
Phoebe, in her best sad voice: Mammy says no. No chocolate tonight.
Toby: Oh! But you can have a little bit of fudge. [Fudge IS chocolate. Why can't anyone see that?] If you eat your toast quickly and don't mess about then Phoebe and Daddy can share a little bit of fudge.

Hang on! So I'm the only one who doesn't get fudge? Hmmm... this doesn't seem fair. Try and instill a little bit of discipline and you become the bad guy and then you're punished by not getting fudge. And I ate all my dinner!

Me: But she didn't eat her dinner.
Toby: She's eating her cottage cheese. And she's being a good girl.
Me: She is now.

Now that she knows she's getting fudge. I surrender graciously.

But now there's a half eaten Cadbury's Fudge on the bench and I really want to have a nibble. That's English Cadbury's by the way. I'm so tormented.

UPDATE: There's a showdown going on between Toby and Phoebe. Not sure what's happening but he just shut her bedroom door which is generally what we do when she won't go to sleep, and she's in there crying "No. No," and screaming.

Kind of why I didn't want to give her Fudge.

But I won't say I told you so. I'll just think it.

And smugly publish it in this post.

Eating bogies with a spoon

Phoebe loves to pick her nose. It's a disgusting habit that I've been told helps her to develop her fine motor skills. Seems more like a gross motor skill to me. Her table manners also leave much to be desired. When she's bored or full or just not interested in what she has on her plate, she throws food on the floor, or over her shoulder, or spreads it across the table, or pushes her dish away with gusto. But she has always impressed me with her ability to use a spoon since a young age.

Last night, however, she went one step further and combined her love of nose-picking with her spoon skills. She stuck the spoon up her nose. Brings eating bogies to a whole new level. It might be a disgusting habit but at least she uses a spoon.

No. I mean yes. I mean no. I mean ...whatever

Phoebe's latest thing is shaking her head. I'm not really sure why but now I remember noticing her little friend Ruby doing it a few months ago.

Sometimes I offer her food and she shakes her head. It means "no". If I continue to offer her the food she pushes it away, shakes her head again and then turns away from the food. It clearly means "no". Which makes sense. A shake of the head always means "no".

In most people.

Other times I offer her food and she shakes her head. Then opens her mouth and lunges towards said food. She heartily eats it. Clearly, the head shake did not mean "no". Did it mean "yes"? Did it mean "no, oh alright then, you've twisted my arm"? Or did it mean "I don't really know. But as it's there I may as well"? I really have no idea.

A colleague told me a story about his two year old son who will have a tantrum at the dinner table demanding a biscuit but when one is offered to him he pushes it away and yells "no biscuit".

Children are very confusing

Sometimes Phoebe shakes her head and there is no food anywhere to be seen. She smiles and seems to be doing it just for the fun of it. Perhaps she just likes the sensation. Maybe it's "just a phase".

.

Weaning, daycare and the trip

This post is a bit of a mish-mash because I have so much going on in my head, and in my life, that I just need to get it out before it gets forgotten.

Firstly, weaning.

Phoebe has had a cold this week plus I'm now back into my mum's group and it's really hard not to compare her to the other babies who are all being fed pureed food; she doesn't seem to eat as much as they do. Two of them are now doing proper solid poo and they all polish off their little tubs of food quite neatly without much mess. Baby led weaning is actually quite difficult, not in itself but because it goes against conventional thinking. As such, it's actually quite difficult to get good advice or reassurance. My friend thinks I should try some puree along with finger foods; a child health nurse at a workshop the other day told us our babies should now be filling up on food during the day and not waking at night; the midwife from my health fund seemed to think it was great that I was still breastfeeding and Phoebe was able to feed herself and that I shouldn't worry about her not getting enough nutrients until she's 9 months old. So many different opinions.

She still loves her boobie and often doesn't eat a lot of food at all. I keep reminding myself that it's all about experimentation, fun and familiarisation with food but it's hard when everyone around you has gone down a different track, and of course one of the dominant hormones that you start to produce as soon as you're pregnant is the one that makes you worry. I worry that she isn't eating enough and I question my choice to try BLW. I worry that her poo isn't solid enough. I go from being uber-excited about finding chunks of carrot in her poo to being worried that the carrot isn't being digested and wonder if that's because she can't chew it and should I be spoon-feeding her puree instead. I worry that she is going to want breast milk (from the breast) forever and how that is going to work when I return to work. I worry that she's waking in the night when she shouldn't be. Deep down I know that BLW is the right way for us; I only wish I had more support and knowledge around me. It's no wonder that most mums go for the old Spoon-Puree method when there is so much more encouragement and help for it than BLW. The internet is my only BLW friend.

Later: Scratch that. I think I was just having a moment. We had a really nice lunch together and I fed her a few spoons of mush (steamed carrot and corgette minced together and a bit of my bolognese sauce also minced) then let her feed herself said mush with soldiers (that's toast fingers as if anyone doesn't know that). One of the best things about BLW is the fact that you can eat together. Once she got hold of the toast she chewed and sucked it to pieces and lost all interest in the spoon. I fed her similar mush tonight and she'd already been snacking on snow peas from the garden, which she loved. She would only take a couple of spoons of mush though. She indicated that she was done (she flaps her hands around then bangs them on her tray, splattering any food that might be there) but was then happy to continue munching on another snow pea when that was offered. I then placed the left-over mush in one of those food net things and she sucked the life out of it, and actually tried to bite through the net. I removed the dry mush remains from the bag and offered it to her. She played with it a bit then slapped the tray. She is slowly starting to eat more (getting over her cold I suspect) but still doesn't eat much. No matter; we'll get there.

Now, daycare.

I can't remember what I was going to say about daycare so I'll just make something up. I have seen another daycare facility which I'm reasonably happy with and will enrol Phoebe into (despite the fact there's a $50 enrollment fee). It came with a recommendation from someone who worked there, staff turnover is very low, it seems nice, has a nice vibe, children are away from babies so it's a lot quieter than some of the others, and it's on the way to work. However, I'm still not entirely happy with the idea and need to do a bit more reading on it. I have read that 30 hours or more in childcare can have negative effects on an infant and I really don't believe that babies under the age of 2 or 3 were meant to be in large social groups of other babies for long periods of time. I am also annoyed at the changes I feel I have to make just so I can return to work. Things like getting her to sleep through the night, worrying about how much food she's eating, getting her to drink milk from a cup (which I haven't even tried yet because I don't have enough milk to express because she still wakes up at midnight and 5am to feed because she doesn't eat enough during the day etc. etc.) If left to our own devices I know these issues would resolve themselves naturally over time with no anxiety required. Before I was pregnant 12 months maternity leave seemed really generous. Now it just seems ridiculous.

And finally, the trip.

How to condense five weeks and two mammoth journeys into one blog post. A brief summary would be to say that in general she was fine on both flights but on the way over I remember thinking that I was knackered, it seemed really hard, and I was glad I wasn't on my own yet wished Toby was with me.

I fed her on take-off and she fell asleep because by then it was way past her bedtime. Our flight was at 8.30pm and bedtime is usually around 7.45pm. She then slept for 6 hours in the bassinet until I had to remove her due to turbulence. This was more than she'd slept all week. She was pretty much in the sling on my lap after that and we dozed together a few times (it was surprisingly comfortable) but I really didn't sleep enough. On the second leg she was really grizzly and started crying inconsolably before we even took off. She slept a bit and was happy for a bit but in general she was quite unsettled the whole way.

We arrived in Newcastle around lunchtime and Phoebe settled in with my family really well. She was a bit overwhelmed in the airport but didn't cry. A few hours later she was playing happily with my sister and my niece, Lucy who both immediately doted on her. Lucy was so lovely with Phoebe and I get this feeling that they would be great friends if they lived near one another. Lucy was always hugging and kissing Phoebe and sharing her toys with her. We'll really miss her.

Phoebe hit a few milestones when we were over there. She mastered crawling and pulled herself up to standing for the first time. She has been getting very fast since we got home and now likes to crawl off into other rooms whilst I'm getting her dressed after her bath. She chases the cat around and tonight Zadie, rather amusingly, herded Phoebe back into the bedroom for me. Zadie, thankfully, is very tolerant with Phoebe and seems to know to just walk away when it all gets too much.

Phoebe also got her first tooth whilst we were away, which I found when we were staying with Nic and Ian in the Lake District a week. Since our return she has got a second and now has two bottom front teeth. She also seemed to grow very suddenly at the same time, about a week before she turned 6 months. She now weighs about 8.3kg.

By the end of the trip she was very comfortable with my mam and dad and definitely knew who they were. I think she misses them. They made a photo album for her which allows a message to be recorded for each picture. They filled it with photos of themselves, Clare, Alan and Lucy, and my grandparents. I show it to her every day. When she saw my mam, dad and Lucy on Skype the other day she seemed quite excited and kicked her legs about so I think she recognised them.

Phoebe slept most of the journey back. It was a less amenable time of flight for a young baby, leaving at lunchtime and arriving in the middle of the night. It was a much easier flight for me, partly because she slept so much but also because Toby was with me. She screamed most of the way home from the airport though, which took twice as long due to road works. Then when we got home we couldn't get her to sleep. We finally got to sleep around 4.30/5am. Ug! Needless to say we've all been a bit jet-lagged since.

And to end the post, some exciting news. A few days into my trip my sister announced to my parents and me that she was pregnant. I have kept it to myself for 7 weeks and finally she's had her 12 week scan, it's all looking good and the word is out. It's so exciting and it was lovely to spend her first weeks of pregnancy with her comparing notes. It was very special to be allowed to share that time with her when it was still top secret. It made me extremely sad that I will miss the rest of her pregnancy and the birth of another baby but I am uber excited by the whole thing. I don't know when I will see this little one as ideally we'll have another one in a few years (I feel like Clare and I are on some kind of baby conveyer belt, churning them out relay-style) so I don't think we'll fit another trip in before then. Who knows? Maybe the McCartneys will make it over to see us when the new one is a few months old. I can live in hope.