If spanking really works, why do you have to do it so often?

Aquanatal and Operation: Popeye

Aquanatal is simply wonderful.  I went to my second class last night.  The regular instructor-midwife was out last week because her sister was in labor, but she was back this week and worked us a bit harder than her substitute.  Plus, the regular instructor-midwife's accent was softer and easier for me to understand, so I was able to keep up with the routine and conversation better.

Even though I'm not the slimmest mum in the class, I seem to be the most fit.  I attribute this to keeping up after my son.  For the arm strength exercises, I wasn't having any issues while my exercise partners were wincing.  My years in competitive swimming has also been showing through in exercises that require just arm strokes or leg cycles, or in relaxation floating.  A bit of a compliment too-- the instructor was asking if I'd still be swimming competitively if I wasn't pregnant.  "Oh hell no... I haven't swum competitively for years and years, but it just sticks with you.  I hope all my babies are water babies."

And then my age showed when we were asked who were first time mums and who were already mums.  Most of the class raised their hands to first time mums.  "Who has one or more?"  Only mine and one other hand was up.  "Who has two or more?" That question left only my hand up.  "Boy or girl?  How old are they?"  I grinned nervously and answered that one's a girl and she's off to college (its usually quicker and easier to just say that since we're supposed to disclose all completed pregnancies to midwives)... the next is a boy and he's 16 months old.  And this next one is a girl.  The stares from the other mums are all shock: what an age gap!

The class is very enjoyable-- I'm getting a lot out of it and feeling good about myself.  I'm meeting other mums and sharing stories.  I think once both kids are at nursery, I'll look into a water aerobics class-- it's just been that good.  And its just a great break from having Arthur to myself for the full day, at the end of it.  If I have any frustration from our day, I can work it off then and come back home feeling refreshed mentally and physically.

The biggest frustration lately:  I'm embroiled in that age old parent versus child war on veggies.  Arthur used to be great with vegetables.  I was so proud when he got excited and even grunted for his broccoli.  Since he had that stomach bug weeks ago, however, and I gave him whatever he could keep down, he's decided he doesn't want his veg anymore and its been difficult to even get him excited about fruit now.  Its been bread.  Bread. Bread. Bread.  Crackers, breadsticks, toast, muffins... that's about all he'll take with the same enthusiastic gusto that he used to have for fruit and veg.  It breaks my heart and sometimes I can't even bear to watch him eat all that 'junk' while dumping all the 'good stuff' onto the floor.

Meanwhile, hubby says, "He's just being a typical toddlers.  He's still thriving.  He's still slender and active.  He'll outgrow it.  Just relax."  Well, maybe.  But I still have this overwhelming urge to ensure that Arthur's getting the most nutritious diet possible.  There is so much conflicting information out there on the subject.

A lot of parents have resorted to offering nothing but vegetables, or else sending their kids to bed hungry.  I just can't bring myself to do that.  I think its cruel and there are too many kids in the world who doesn't have a choice in going to bed hungry.  What a terrible luxury it is to have that as an option!  Most wouldn't do that to an adult, why do it to a child?

I wrote an article about Picky Toddler Eaters a while back, but it seems like the rules have changed.  I've research and referenced Dr. Sear's Feeding the Picky Eater: 17 Tips.  It is reassuring to read about toddler food binges.  We've tried the nibbler tray, but again, Arthur's reaching for only breaded items from the tray.  I've tried dips, but so far they just make Arthur gag.  Spreading and topping have similar results.  So, I'm giving 'Drink it' a go.  Today, I've added a new tool to my arsenal.  I now own a hand blender.

Besides bread, I can get Arthur to take drinkable yogurt in his sippy cups.  So, I have devised a plan for hiding veg in his eats... we're making smoothies and I'm adding spinach to them.  Plus, if I'm serving food with a sauce, that sauce gets treated as well.  I got three sippy cups ready to go.

Here's the quick recipe, if there's any interest...

• 1 small cup of yogurt
• 1 small banana
• 2 tablespoon scoops of blueberries (wonderful superfood)
• Eyeballed equal portion of fresh spinach leaves with their stems removed
• Splash of milk to consistency

And blend it with the hand blender.  Quick clean up.  Small footprint for storage and counter space too.  If I had known about this hand blender before getting the food processor-- because it does come with attachments for chopping-- I wouldn't have bothered with the food processor.  Since its smaller, its just perfect for preparing quick, fresh, single sized children meals.  It's going to get a lot of use after Victoria starts on solids.


Hopefully, I'll have some good news to report on Operation: Popeye.

50 Pre-Schooler Fine Motor Skills Activies

Here's a list of pre-schooler activities that involve the children learning how to use fine motor skills:

1. Writing
2. Drawing
3. Painting
4. Coloring
5. Chalks
6. Lego Play
7. Playing with Cards
8. Handling Scissors
9. Stringing Beads onto Pipecleaners
10. Play Dough
11. Puzzle Boards
12. Jigsaw Puzzles
13. Shape Sorting Toys
14. Finger Foods
15. Tissue Paper Mosaics
16. Food Preparation
17. Hanging Items on a Clothesline
18. Playing with Clothespins and the edges of boxes
19. Using a Spoon to pick up beads
20. Sewing and Lacing Cards
21. Gluing Beans onto Colored Paper
22. Sand Art
23. Pouring something from one container to another
24. Mixing Colors
25. Finger Puppets
26. Playing with Musical Instruments
27. Peg Boards
28. Zippers
29. Buttons
30. Velcro Strips
31. Tying Shoelaces
32. Snaps
33. Turning Pages
34. Playing with Pom poms and a muffin pan
35. Pipe Cleaners and Colanders
36. Screwing Nuts and Bolts
37. Playing with Stickers
38. Hole Puncher Crafts
39. Playing with Syringes and Turkey Basters
40. Playing with Kitchen Tongs
41. Stacking Blocks
42. Mr. Potato Head
43. Dropping Coins into a Piggy Bank
44. Making a Pine Cone Bird Feeder
45. Playing with Squirt Guns
46. Playing Tea Party
47. Squeezing Water out of Sponges
48. Sand and/or Water Tables
49. Turning Door Knobs
50. Folding Paper

Preparing Children for their First Day of School

This is mostly a transcript of my notes with my thoughts thrown in based on a class that I'm currently taking.

How to Prepare Your Child for Their First Day of School

Be positive, confident and enthusiastic about school.  Children are intuitive and pick up on what mom is feeling very easily, so its doubly important to remain upbeat about this important transition in their lives.  A number of activities can help both you and your child feel happier about this change.

• Buy uniform and school supplies together
• Talk about what they can anticipate out of their school day
• Walk by the school that they'll be attending frequently and talk it up
• Point out children your child already knows who goes to that school
• Read books together about the first day at school

If you have any fears, do a few things to help alleviate those fears.

• Meet the staff and ask about how the child's daily routine is going to be so that you can share this information with your child
• Ask about how long drop offs are and take that time to engage your child in activities going on at the school or nursery.  Some schools will have as much as a half hour for parents to visit with their children before they actually start their classes

Even before the first day of school, you can get a sense for how your child will take to being separated from mom at home.

• Go to a 'taster' day... a time when children can be dropped off at the school for about an hour to see how they adjust on their own
• Join community classes such as these that also utilize a 'creche' (hourly on-site child care) so that your child can experience being left with a play group while mom is in the next room

Skyrim, Drop In And Play, Aquanatal, and Baby Prep

Yes, I know I've been quiet here.  I took some time off to play Skyrim a bit.  I used to game a lot and now just do small quick spurts when it strikes me and I'll likely have less and less time to game at all in the upcoming months.

I've also been keeping busy with a few additions to our weekly routine.  Thursdays with Arthur at Drop in and Play has been enjoyable and helpful for both of us.  I'm so proud that he's the only toddler who pitches in at clean up time, though he won't take the fruit snack that they provide.  And I caught him singing, "The Wheels on the Bus" on his own this past week, which is usually the first song we sing after snacks.

Then later on Thursdays, I also go to Aquanatal, which is kind of like gentle water aerobics for pregnant moms.  I think this first round of Aquanatal has shifted things in my gut a bit.  I'm suddenly not able to eat as much at meals.  My pregnancy is much more pronounced, and I can feel Victoria's movements much higher, as high as two inches above my navel.  But I enjoy the class and a couple of the moms there are familiar to me, so I'm looking forward to making some friends.

We've also been doing some baby prep.  English mums have what's called 'V-day', meaning 'Viable Day' ... 24 weeks gestation when parents can expect that their babies will survive early labor with a strong likelihood of a normal outcome.  My v-day is this Thursday.  Therefore, its the time to be sure to have car seats bought, bassinet set up, newborn clothes ready to go, and the hospital bag packed.  We're about £60 short of having all of the basic essentials ready.  Infant bath and baby swing still needs to be unboxed, but her moses basket is ready.  She has loads of clothes to start out in.  I need to pick up a few travel sized toiletries and then I'm set.

I also managed to get my husband on board with being a more active birth partner this time around.  When I went to deliver Arthur, I took for granted that my husband knew everything he needed to know about how to support me.  He didn't know, and I think that contributed to my c-section.  He didn't feel empowered, especially what with being a foreigner in the US, to counter what the doctor told us.  Now that he's learned so much about how things outside of the US goes, he believes the doctor outright lied to us.  He's very adamant and committed towards seeing me through Victoria's delivery safely while honoring my wishes.

Beef Yakitori

Who knew Japanese could be so easy-peasy?!?!  Inspired by AllRecipes.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced (I can't mince well, so I thinly sliced and chopped mine)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 pound cubed steak

Method

Stir all of the ingredients together (except for the cubed steak) into a nice marinade.

Let the beef cubes sit in the marinade for four hours.  I stirred mine about every half hour to make sure each cube was well covered.  It was a torturous wait as the marinade smells that good!

I ended up doing the marinade overnight this time around because some other dinner plans came up.  I do not recommend doing this, unless you like your beef yakitori to come out a bit more like beef jerky-- which isn't terrible but I would have liked my meat to have come out more succulent.

Skewer the cubes and set the marinade aside.

Grill the skewered beef for 10-15 minutes.  I did mine in the oven, on broil, turning them every few minutes until I was satisfied with how the beef cooked.

Serve with vegetables stir fried with the remaining marinade sauce and a nice side of rice.

Hubby recommends doing this one as a steak (and that would likely call for overnight marinade).

Things my son teaches me about himself

My son taught me something about himself this morning.

He knows how to walk.  He chooses not to.

This was demonstrated to me after he crawled to me carrying his bib (he has a strange obsession with wanting to wear his bibs all of the time now), standing up to take his bib and then walking half way across the kitchen before stooping down to crawl again.  His walk was perfect—not the hastened run that most first time walkers do where they rush ahead and barely manage to keep their feet under themselves.

His walk was poised, purposeful, balanced, deliberate and controlled.  His walk was experienced.

Chris and I were eating cereal at the table when this happened and Chris just about dropped his bowl in astonishment.  I remarked to Chris, “He did the same thing with his crawling—he knew how to crawl, but insisted on scooting.  He knew how to do it, but chose not to.”  Back then, I was honestly beginning to believe he’d never crawl but go straight to walking, like his older half sister did.

I glanced over at Chris, “I hope he doesn’t do that with his academics.” (knowing how to, but then not applying himself) And then I smiled, realizing, “That reminds me of someone else’s academic career…” and I eyed Chris with playful accusation.

Chris muttered under his breath, jokingly, “F--- you.”  To rub it in harder, I gave Chris another knowing look after a few moments of quiet.  We laughed.

At least if he does, I told Chris, because you’ve been there and done that, you can help me steer our son towards doing well anyways.  This is something I’ll need to keep in mind for the future—in how our little boy decides he wants to be.