Rainy and Miserable Weather

The weather here in Melbourne is dismal.  Cold, wet and grey, with icy winds that threaten to freeze your face.  Most mornings, I like to take Tabitha for a walk (in the Ergo, wrap or pram) down to our local shopping strip to get a coffee - a nice fifteen minute walk each way.  But the weather has made this difficult, so we are suffering from a touch of cabin fever.  To make matters worse, Tabitha has had a lingering cold for nearly a week now - she's grumpy, clingy and snotty!

Since we're mostly housebound, I fiddled around and made some sweet potato chips.  They are so delicious.  I just sliced some sweet potatoes really thinly, tossed with oil and plenty of salt, and a little cumin, and baked them on a baking tray for about 15 minutes at 190 degrees, turning half way through.  Tabitha ate a few.  I ate a lot.

Here is Tabitha multi-tasking.  She is eating sweet potato chips and riding around the kitchen on her (toy library) bike:

I met my friend Amy at the Prahran Market - just for a little field trip to get out of the house.  The market is one of my favourite places, so it was a brilliant distraction.

We got a whole lot of outstanding little organic mandarins:

Some organic Australian garlic, and some shallots (which I am obsessed with eating, roasted):

From the fabulous potato stand at the market, a few kilograms of Desiree chats, one of my favourite potatoes.  We eat a lot of potatoes - with the skin on, potatoes are one of the most nutritious foods there are.  If you buy more potatoes than you will use in the next few days, you need to keep them away from light, and with a little ventilation.  I keep my potatoes in a large cotton bag, in a large, low cupboard:

I am completely obsessed with raw Jersey milk - that is, unpasteurised, unhomogenised milk from Jersey cows.  Thankfully, you can now buy it in Melbourne - a couple of places sell it, including an organic stall at the Prahran Market called Paddywheel.  They sell a couple of brands, both full-cream certified organic raw Jersey milk.  It is sold for 'cosmetic purposes', e.g. bathing, because it is illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption in Australia.  Of course, what you do with it when you get home is up to you - I drink it.  Lots of it!  Because it is unhomogenised, the fat rises to the top - Jersey milk is nearly half cream, so when you buy it, you can see all the delicious cream on the top.

It's a little more expensive than the regular organic milk I buy (normally from Elgaar Farm) but it is so, so good.  The difference, in flavour and mouthfeel, between raw Jersey full-cream unhomogenised milk, and your standard supermarket milk, is like the difference between freshly squeezed, in season orange juice compared with stuff in a prima-pack.  Supermarket organic full-cream milks sit somewhere in between, I think - maybe like a high-quality bottled orange juice?  There are plenty of benefits to consuming raw dairy - THIS website is a good place to start, if you are interested in learning more.

When I got home, I made a large pan of chocolate hedgehog.  To eat, mostly on my own.  This cheered me up immensely.  Actually, there was a small mishap - I was wearing Tabitha in a front carry (rookie mistake when cooking!) and she reached out and upended a whole bowl of crushed Marie biscuits.  All over the floor.  I could have cried - instead, I let her sit in the crumbs, happily dragging her hands through them, eating bits of biscuit off the floor.  It wasn't a high point of my parenting career, but it seemed to make her happy, and it allowed me five minutes uninterrupted to crush another bowl of biscuits!

I have mentioned several times my love of Vanilla Caster Sugar.  It's simple to make - you just chop up a couple of vanilla beans and add them to a large container of caster sugar.  I keep around 2kg on the go, and 2 vanilla beans are ample to flavour this quantity of sugar.  Every time the container gets about half-empty, I just fill it up again with new caster sugar and give it a shake.  The same vanilla beans have been flavouring my sugar for a couple of years, and are still giving off a beautiful flavour and aroma.  I use this vanilla sugar in almost every recipe requiring caster sugar (I generally still add the full required amount of vanilla extract too, if the recipe calls for it).  It is also sublime stirred into some hot milk as a before-bed treat - I use a scant teaspoon.

If you don't bake regularly, a small jar will do - I have prepared this jar, below, which contains about 3/4 cup of caster sugar and one chopped vanilla bean.  I am giving this to a woman in my mothers group who likes rice pudding - if she uses 1/4 cup or so of vanilla sugar to make the pudding, then tops it up again with caster sugar, the jar will provide her with several years' worth of vanilla sugar.

Have you noticed that Hass avocados are on special everywhere?  Great big ones, too!  My supermarket has them at 4 for $5.  Tabitha and I are really, really into avocados, so 4 of them will be gone within a few days.

My cats are cold and grouchy.  They, like me, have cabin fever, and spend their days wrestling with each other on the floor, stalking around the house looking for warm places, and sitting at the window, tails swishing angrily, watching the rain.

Clever baby Possum spends most of his days sitting high up on top of the reptile enclosure - not only is the room warm up high (of course, the heat from the heater rises) but he also gets a warm bottom from sitting on top of the massive heat lamp for the lizard.  Here he is, half-asleep and warm, peering down at the room below:

Tabitha has suddenly noticed that everyone else has plates and bowls, whereas she eats her food directly off the table.  She is most unimpressed by this, and will now not even touch her food if it is not on a plate!  But once she has the plate, all she wants to do is sit there putting the food ON the plate, then taking the food OFF the plate, ad infinitum.  And also waving her plate around, with an expression on her face of "HEY check it out!  I have a plate!  I am one of you!  Look at me with my fancy plate!"  So not much eating gets done anyway, at the moment.

Because she sometimes drops her plate, I give her a cute Melamine one instead of a china plate.  I suspect it will only be a few days before she realises that this is an inferior substitute, and starts demanding a proper plate.  We'll see...  

Before we had a baby, our fruit bowl normally consisted of a couple of lemons, a bit of garlic, an avocado and maybe a banana.  I wasn't really a big fruit-eater.  But since becoming pregnant, I have developed more of a taste for fruit and, of course, I need to offer it to Tabitha each day, and eat it myself to set a good example.  So now our fruit bowl generally looks like this - garlic, mandarins, tangelos, lime, lemons, apples, avocados, bananas.  Often also a pear.  And in the fridge, melon and berries.  I feel quite virtuous!

Last night for dinner, we had a friend over, and I made slow roasted lamb shoulder.  Our friend is studying to be a vet, living in the country, and is home at the moment on holidays.  The cats loved him - they wouldn't leave him alone!

We had buttered parsley potatoes (boil chats until tender, drain and then cut in half, shake around in the pot to roughen them up a little, then add a good amount of melted butter, salt and freshly chopped parsley):

Also green beans (buttered of course!) which I always think go well with lamb:

With this meal, I make a mint and caper gravy - just the right amount of piquancy to go with the deliciously fatty lamb!

Here is the lamb - the shoulder is easily my favourite cut!  Slow-cooked, it is texturally more like a shank than a leg.  The meat melts and falls apart - you don't need a knife to carve the roast, you can pull it apart with a couple of forks, leaving you with a completely clean bone.  The shoulder is also an incredibly cheap cut.  This piece of lamb, 2kg of shoulder (bone-in) cost around $20.  It had enough meat for 4 (really big) serves.  With the potatoes, garlic, beans, and herbs from the garden (mint, parsley and rosemary) the entire meal feeds 4 hungry people, at around $8 a serve.

Here is my recipe, adapted from one of Jamie Oliver's:

Slow roasted lamb shoulder with caper gravy, parsley potatoes and green beans

2kg lamb shoulder, with a few deep slashes in the skin side

4 – 5 large sprigs of rosemary

A whole head of garlic, broken up but cloves unpeeled

Salt, pepper, oil

2 large shallots

400ml chicken stock

2 tablespoons of plain flour

1 tablespoon of capers, rinsed, drained and finely chopped

2 tablespoons of mint, finely chopped

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar

1kg chat potatoes

40ml butter, melted

Salt, a few tablespoons of chopped parsley

A couple of handfuls of green beans, rinsed and ends trimmed

Melted butter and salt.

To make the lamb:

Preheat oven to to 250 degrees, or as high as it will go.

Slash the skin a few times, quite deeply, then rub the lamb with olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper.  Poke a few cloves of peeled garlic into the deep slashes on the skin.

Put in a roasting tray, with a few large sprigs of rosemary, and a few cloves of garlic (skin on) underneath it.  Lay a couple more sprigs of rosemary and a few more cloves of garlic (skin on) on top of the lamb.  In the roasting tin, add a couple of shallots, peeled and cut in half.

Cover the roasting tray tightly with tinfoil, then put in the oven.  Turn the oven down to 170 degrees straight away, and leave for 4 hours.

The lamb is done when the meat easily falls apart when probed with a fork.

Remove the lamb, sit on a warm plate, covered with foil and a tea towel - leave to rest for around 15 minutes.  When ready to serve, shred the lamb with a couple of forks, and pile the meat up on a plate - if you do this at the table, people will say 'oooooh!  Look at that!' because the meat is so tender.

For the gravy:

To make the gravy, discard the rosemary, garlic and shallots from the roasting tray, and pour off most of the fat.  Sit the roasting tray on the stove, sprinkle over a couple of tablespoons of flour, stir in, then add 400ml hot stock, a little at a time, stirring over medium heat, scraping at the bottom of the tray.  Once the gravy is thickened nicely, stir in the chopped capers (rinsed and dried), the finely chopped mint, and a tablespoon of red wine vinegar.

For the parsley potatoes:

Boil 1kg of chat potatoes (such as Desiree chats) until a knife can easily pierce them.  Drain them, and shake them around in the pot to rough them up a little.  Cut them in half, and toss them with 40g melted butter, a teaspoon of nice textured salt, and a few tablespoons of chopped parsley.

Along with the caper gravy and the parsley potatoes, and the green beans, I serve this with some excellent bread and butter - you need it to mop up the gravy! 

For dessert, I made golden syrup dumplings.  I didn't manage to snap a photo - they were gone too quickly!  But here is the recipe.  I thoroughly recommend making it, and promise that a serve of these will make the dismal weather seem a little more bearable...

Golden Syrup Dumplings

Dumplings:

1 1/4 cups self raising flour
30g butter
1/3 cup golden syrup
1/3 cup milk

Sauce:
30g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup golden syrup
1 2/3 cup water

Rub butter into flour, gradually stir in syrup and milk. It doesn't have to be perfect or smooth.

Combine sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan, stir over heat, without boiling, until the sugar is dissolved.

Bring to the boil, without stirring, then reduce to a simmer.

Drop tablespoonsful of the mixture into the sauce (about 8, which should serve 4 people)

Simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until the dumplings are cooked through.

Serve with a little of the sauce,  and some cream or ice cream.

Sunday Sleep In

Tabitha has another molar coming through at the moment - her fourth - and it is giving her, and consequently me, a little grief.  She has a runny nose, and so with that and the tooth pain, she was up looking for milk and cuddles for most of last night.  I think I managed to snatch a few hours of sleep in there, albeit broken into 20-minute blocks!

So when I woke up very tired this morning, The Daddy kindly took Tabitha out for a two-hour walk around the neighbourhood, by the river, parks, to get a coffee and home again, which allowed me to snatch another two hours of uninterrupted sleep.  I felt much better by the time I woke at 10am!

When I awoke, they had returned and were making me pancakes and bacon, so I got to eat breakfast in bed, with a nice cup of tea, in peace while they had their breakfast in the living room.  It was a lovely start to a Sunday.

The Daddy is the pancake chef in our house, and he uses a Nigella Lawson recipe, which makes deliciously fluffy, American-style pancakes.  I had five, that's right, five, each as large as a plate, with a pile of free range bacon and plenty of maple syrup.

The Nigella recipe uses a blender, so it's very easy to whip up a batch and start pouring:

The syrup was a real treat - our good friend Sarah recently visited from Canada, and brought us some Canadian maple syrup in a pretty tin:

Speaking of lovely gifts - I went out to dinner last night with a couple of girlfriends, and my friend Shalini brought over a birthday gift for Tabitha.  It is something I had mentioned to her ages ago, that I had heard about and wanted, and she tracked this down.  It is a traditional babies' anklet with little bells!  So you can hear where they are in the house, as they crawl and walk around!  So cute.  The sound the bells make is exquisite, a delicate little tinkling noise.  This one is Cambodian.  As she gets older, it will fit her to wear as a bracelet:

Tabitha has quite a bit of hair now!  I managed to scrape some into a cute little fountain ponytail:

Her spooning skills are increasing rapidly. One of the frequent concerns I hear from people about trying Baby Led Weaning is the fear that 'they will never learn to use cutlery if they eat with their hands'.  It's nonsense, I assure you.  We have practiced BLW since day one, and at 12 months, she is quite a proficient spooner - more so than many non-BLW babies I know.  I think that BLW gives them a good awareness of the textures and feel of food, and it also increases their fine motor skills, as they have to maneuver their own food from 6 months of age.  She can happily spoon a whole bowl of yoghurt, rice pudding or porridge, if I help her a little with loading the spoon.

In fact, the messiest food she eats seems to be cream cheese on corn thins - she likes to lick all the cream cheese off, discarding the 'empty' cracker part.  This results in a fair amount of cream cheese on the face:

When she eats she plays a game where she lays her head down on the table, then I do the same, then we both jerk them upright at the same time and laugh:

Remember my pretty tulip gift from last weekend?  The tulips are still looking so stunning and cheery on my kitchen windowsill:

Collingwood Children's Farm

Yesterday was a glorious day - the kind of Winter day when you become thoroughly convinced that Spring is just around the corner (until you check the weather forecast and see a week full of rain and frost ahead).

Our mothers' group ventured out to the Collingwood Children's Farm, one of my favourite places in Melbourne.  As with last time, and the time before, I forgot my camera (actually, my memory card this time).  There seems to be some kind of farm/camera curse upon me.  Never mind, one of the other mothers in our group kindly emailed me a few snaps of Tabitha enjoying the farm.

Here is Tabitha peering over the fence at the lovely, kind, gentle goats.  Their ears are so silky:

One of my favourite parts of the Children's Farm is the guinea pig room - Tabby adores them too!  They are calm and nice to hold and stroke.  At long last, Tabby is learning to be gentle with animals, and can actually pat one, with supervision.  This guinea pig is called Possum, just like one of our cats!  Possum the guinea pig is a Grey Agouti, with gorgeous, thick, tufty fur:

In honour of our trip to see the animals, Tabitha wore a sweet top with a navy blue bunny on the front, with a pink ribbon and real bell around its neck. She also wore her bangle with the little baby fawn.

I wore my Marc Jacobs 'mousie' shoes, and a leopard print scarf.  Many people would think that wearing black and white spotty shoes, with a leopard print scarf, and a blue-and-white pinstripe jacket is a grave crime against fashion.  Not me!  I do love my prints, and never shy away from wearing them all at once.  Plus, as a mother, I have realised that prints really come into their own around babies and children - Vegemite smears do not show up nearly as much on leopard print as they do on plain colours, and bits of egg seem to camouflage well against a cheerful floral background!

Tabitha was in quite a funny mood today - she didn't want to be in her pram, didn't want to be carried (unless she was pushing the pram - without mummy's help thank you!).  She wanted to walk along, holding the pram, which is very slow.  Plus, every few steps, she wanted to stop and eat dried grass and dirt.  Hmm.  So, as you can see below, we got into a couple of battles of will - here, she wants to push the pram, and I cannot seem to prise her away from it!  It looks like she is hanging from the pram.  I think this is all just part of becoming a toddler - suddenly she knows exactly what she wants, but lacks the communication skills to tell me.  So if things don't go her way, she gets quite cross and upset.  I completely understand!

It is so fascinating, watching as Tabitha learns more about the world, and starts to express her own preferences and desires.  Although this can be frustrating for her (and me) if I don't understand exactly what she wants, it is so exciting to see her start to communicate much more.  She points to shoes and says 'zzzoezzz' or 'ooozz'.  If anyone says 'no', she shakes her head wildly from side to side - such as 'no biting', 'no touching' but even if I say no in another context (such as telling my husband, on the phone, that we have no milk), she will start to shake her head!  Cute.

Overseas Trip Thoughts - Part One

I promised to write up some of my thoughts about travelling overseas with Tabitha.  Of course, I am no expert, and each baby and family is different - what works well for us will not necessarily work for another family, and vice versa.  That said, I think that sharing our experiences is useful!

First up, let me say this:  the holiday was fantastic!!!  The Daddy and I both agree, wholeheartedly, that we absolutely recommend travelling with a baby of Tabitha's age.  We would do it again in a heartbeat.  Many people tried to tell us we were 'crazy, mad or just naive' when we mentioned that we were taking our 11 month old daughter on a month-long trip to the US.  But honestly, it was far easier, and more enjoyable, than we'd hoped.  We tried not to rush or cram too much into our days - we generally went for a morning walk, grabbing breakfast and a coffee, and giving Tabitha some play time in a park or garden, then came home for her morning nap.  We then went out for lunch and an afternoon of activity.  We either stayed out and had an early dinner, getting her home by 7:30 for bed, or else came home for a little rest before setting out for dinner (sometimes getting home a little late, but almost always by 8pm).  So the pace was quite relaxed, and while she had her morning naps, we had time to tidy up, plan our day, or even lie back and read a book.  Overall, the holiday felt more relaxed than other overseas trips we've taken, not less.

With regard to hotels, I recommend staying at full-service type hotels.  We've always loved little boutique places and bed-and-breakfasts, in the past, however these are not ideal with a baby or toddler.  Too many knickknacks (vases, old books, pretty ornaments, exposed electrical cables, non-secured televisions and furniture, curtains which can be pulled down etc), and sometimes unsafe features such as staircases, opening windows on high stories etc.  We stayed at an apartment in the West Village (not a traditional, hotel-style serviced apartment, but more like a bed-and-breakfast type setup), and a bed-and-breakfast in Lancaster County.  While we completely adored the B&B in LC, falling in love with the property, its hosts and their amazing breakfasts, it was tiring being in our cottage - we had a flight of stairs (which Tabby can climb, but not get back down safely), as well as about a billion little delicate decorator touches and knickknacks.

For most of our trip, we stayed in traditional, full-service hotels.  With room service, pillow options, spare blankets and sheets, toiletries supplied, laundry services and the like.  The rooms were spotlessly clean, there were minimal delicate items.  Everything was in good working order.  There were small fridges.  Ahhhh this made life easy!  I have never appreciated good hotels like I do now!  Being able to call downstairs for a meal if Tabitha crashed out asleep early.  Being able to call downstairs for extra towels when Tabby had a bout of stomach flu. And plenty of space with soft carpet for our little monkey to play.  Having a concierge was also most useful with a baby - calling ahead to check the availability of high chairs, advise on good local parks, directions to a 24-hour chemist.

When travelling, it is useful to take a mini-child-proofing kit with you.  Some outlet covers for electrical points, and possibly some blackout fabric and tape, for windows in case the curtains aren't sufficient.  I also recommend taking a big role of masking tape and gaffer tape!  It's amazing how useful these tapes can me - for keeping draws and cupboards closed, for keeping toilet lids closed, for securing furniture.  Good gaffer tape is nice and strong, and not easily peeled back by a baby or toddler!

When we arrived at each hotel (we spent about a week at each), we made the effort to properly unpack.  Everything went into draws, cupboards or in neat piles on desks.  Rummaging through suitcases for clean baby singlets, bibs or spare wipes is not efficient.  Taking half an hour to unpack properly saves time overall, and means that everything remains neat and folded, making re-packing a breeze.  At each hotel, I set up a little 'nappy changing station' with nappies, wipes, change mat, disposal bags, barrier cream and spare PJs on the desk, so all the bits and pieces were handy.

Most hotels offer laundry service, however it is generally ridiculously overpriced - $12 for a top, $20 for a pair of pants?  No thanks.  Before we arrived, I checked in advance to find laundromats near each of our hotels, and we did one or two trips to the laundry each week.  Doing two loads of laundry at once (darks and lights) and then a load of drying (on low heat to avoid shrinkage) didn't take more than an hour and a half, and we took it in turns to sit and read, while the other took Tabitha for a walk, play or lunch.  The lovely AKA serviced apartments we stayed at in Upper Midtown, NY, had free laundry facilities in the basement for guests.  This is a brilliant feature if you are travelling with children - well worth seeking out when booking accommodation.

Most American hotels offer free WiFi, which is brilliant - we took our laptop and used it a lot for planning our days, email, google maps and the like.

While planning our trip, I made note of the closest supermarkets to each hotel.  Wholefoods is by far my preferred US supermarket - in fact, I will admit that I get quite sad and grumpy that we don't have a similar supermarket in Australia.  I could happily spend hours in Wholefoods!  In Boston, Shaw's is an excellent supermarket too.  As soon as we arrived, I went and bought oatmeal, organic milk, some fresh fruit and vegetables, some wholegrain bread and some snacks (dried fruit, organic dry cereal such as puffed corn and rice etc).  This meant we always had the ability to whip up a meal for Tabitha, even without a kitchen (for example, mashed banana or avocado sandwich, porridge, cut up fruit and vegetable sticks).

When out and about, it was useful to take some snack foods - dry cereal, dried fruit, as well as cut up fresh fruit and vegetables.  Often, I would get a snack of a bagel or hot dog, and I didn't want Tabitha snacking on endless white carbs or hot dogs (hypocritical, I agree!).  So it was good to always have something nutritious to give her to munch on.  Also, if there was a wait at a restaurant for our meals, having snacks was good distraction.  If you get caught in a restaurant without a snack, most are more than happy to bring your baby some oyster crackers or bread.

The Wholefoods hot food and salad buffets were excellent - babies like to eat lots of little bits and pieces, so grabbing a container to fill with a piece of capsicum, some stewed chicken, some pasta, a bit of tuna, some cucumber and a little naan bread was perfect, if we wanted to sit and have a picnic in the park, or if we were tired and wanted to sit in our room and give her lunch.

Eating out - I am pleased to report that, after a full month in America, Tabby has still never tried a chip or french fry.  When eating out, it was generally fairly easy to find food for Tabitha to eat.  Most restaurants offer sides of vegetables (Americans tend to add butter and oil to steamed veggies, so if you'd prefer them plain, it's worth specifying).  Some veggies, a little bread, some steak or other meat from our meals and there is a complete meal for Tabitha.  She really loves seafood, and throughout the East Coast, the famous lobster rolls are everywhere.  I love them too, so I often ordered a lobster roll and gave Tabitha plenty of lobster meat, along with some steamed veggies.

Even if you are eating somewhere which may initially seem challenging, such as a burrito chain (delicious!), you can generally manage to come up with something.  For example, while we ate burritos, I picked out little pieces of steak and Carnitas, smeared some guacamole on some tortilla for her, and gave her a little pile of beans to eat - which was not only nutritious, but kept her occupied for a while, picking up the individual beans.

If you are stuck in a not-so-nutritious restaurant (for example, Denny's or IHOP or another chain, on the road), it's always easy to order something like a children's cheeseburger (meat, bread and cheese!) or chicken strips with a side of fruit or veggies.  Hey, it's not ideal, but it will certainly suffice for a single meal.  Remember - nutritionists always advise looking at someone's diet over a week, never just based on a single meal or even day.  So if you have a day full of less-than-perfect food, don't worry too much.  One thing I was impressed with was that many of the US chains (for example, Denny's) serve fruit as a side by default for all children's meals - if you want fries, you need to request them.  I hope that Aussie restaurants follow suit in the future.

In places like Boston and DC, in fact, most of America, high chairs are readily available in all sorts of restaurants - even bakery chains such as Au Bon Pain have high chairs.  However, in New York City, where space is a premium commodity (even square foot is another potential paying customer), high chairs are far less common.  Generally, you can use your pram as a high chair - we did this a lot.  Just sit the pram upright at the table, and try to make sure that the handles aren't sticking out into the pathways of waiters or patrons.  High chairs that DO exist are often inadequate for a climbing, wriggling baby or toddler - many, many US restaurants seem to have a sort of boxy high chair without a harness, and sometimes without even a waist strap!  Within seconds, Tabitha is up and out of these high chairs, climbing onto the table.  We learnt quickly, and started taking a couple of long scarves out with us, to fashion a little harness or waist belt for her, keeping her in the high chair.

Some restaurants, despite not having high chairs, also do not allow prams!  Serendipity 3, I'm looking at YOU!  In these cases, it is worth getting creative.  You can use a wrap, such as my Vatanai, to strap the baby to a regular chair, wrapping it gently but firmly around their legs and torso, in a sort of harness, and tying it to the seat and back of a chair!  This is even better if you have a booster seat (which some non-high-chair places do have) to work with, which will elevate the baby to table-height.

Now, we do have a travel high-chair.  It's the HandySitt, and we love it.  We use it a lot in Australia, but decided it was too bulky to take overseas, and to lug around with the pram.  Having our time again, we would probably take it with us - or another similar type of thing.

Other restaurants (such as my beloved Bubby's) offer high chairs, but do not allow prams.  You are expected to leave your pram outside on the street.  If you know this in advance (call ahead and check), you can take the baby in a carrier and leave the pram at home, however it is generally seen as quite safe to leave a pram (with nothing in it) outside.  In theory, I suppose you could take a bicycle chain and secure it to something!

Streamlined the 'nappy bag' for each day - even if we were going to be out all day, all that we needed was 2 bibs, wipes, a couple of nappies, snackball with some dried fruit and snacks, drink bottle (luckily, Tabby can drink from a regular bottle, or her mummy, if we didn't bring the drink bottle).  Everything we needed, including the camera and my phone/wallet, could easily fit in my Longchamp totes (which I used instead of a handbags overseas) or in the Ergo / pram.

For carrying the baby, we took both the pram (our Bugaboo Cameleon) and a couple of carriers (our Ergo and my Vatanai woven wrap).  The Daddy wasn't keen to take the pram, initially - he thought we could manage just fine with the Ergo, and thought that taking the pram, in its massive Travel Case, was overkill.  Indeed, it is bulky to take - the pram in its case needs to be checked in at the 'oversized luggage' section at the airport.  But the travel case has room to stuff HEAPS of stuff in, around the pram - we fitted in a month's worth of disposable nappies, a few pairs of shoes, and other random bits and pieces.  Plus, airlines generally do not weigh the pram case, so it's a good place to sneak in heavy items.  But ultimately, we were really glad we took the pram - when you are out all day, it is nice to have a break from carrying the baby, and Tabitha enjoyed sitting in her pram, waving at everyone who passed by (Americans, being ga-ga for children, all obligingly wave back - even harried businessmen).  Many places do not have highchairs, so the pram was useful for feeding her in.  And if we were out shopping, being able to stow packages under the pram is helpful.  In theory, you could buy a cheaper umbrella-style stroller when you arrive on your trip.  But it won't be as comfortable for your child as a regular pram, and isn't as useful for shopping.  But it's certainly an option.

While we used the pram a fair amount, at least ever couple of days, the Ergo got a real workout.  For quick trips, for morning walks, or for longer trips where she might get fussy (such as museums and galleries), the Ergo was perfect.  It's easy to put her in and out (great when you have a mobile, crawling or walking baby who frequently needs to get down and let off some steam), and great for crowds when you don't want your baby face-to-bottom with strangers.  I also used the Vatanai woven wrap, though not as much as the Ergo.  In DC and Lancaster County, where the weather was hot, the Vatanai was good.  But it's certainly not as useful for getting your baby in and out - better if you are going for a walk or something, and are not likely to need to stop for a meal.

When out and about, we found that changing nappies was straightforward.  Because we had chosen to use disposable nappies for our trip (laundry facilities were not always available, we didn't have access to good drying space, and they are bulky to pack), nappy changes were a little more flexible - with cloth, you generally need to change every 3 or so hours, however you can get away with stretching this out a little with good quality disposables.  So, if we were out, we could normally wait until we got home OR until we were somewhere with a change-table (department stores, some restaurants, most Starbucks, hotel lobbies).  To compensate for being in her nappies a little longer, we used plenty of barrier cream at each change, to protect her skin.

We took enough nappies to last us for nearly the entire trip.  We ran out during the last week - so we went to Target in Lancaster County to buy some Huggies.  Interestingly, there were several kinds of Huggies - sensitive skin Huggies, active baby Huggies, and others I can't remember.  We bought the only one which came in a 32-pack in Tabitha's size (I think the active ones) and actually found them to be pretty ordinary.  They leaked more easily than the Huggies I have from Australia, and were not differentiated between boys' and girls'.  Based on my experience, I would recommend taking your own nappies with you - if you know what works, best to stick with it.  There were, however, nice sensitive skin wipes available in the US - lots of types, and much cheaper than in Australia.  Same for disposable breastpads.

If you need to buy commercial babyfood (unlikely if you are doing Baby-Led Weaning), there is plenty of variety in the US - lots of good organic ranges, with all the normal flavours and varieties.  The one thing I didn't seem to see was the instant baby cereals we have here - Bellamy's and the like, for example banana rice cereal.  There was plain rice cereal, but not organic and not of the quality we have in Australia.

Drug stores (chemists) in the US are really brilliant.  Not only do they have all the regular pharmacy items (and then some!) such as painkillers, first aid, baby care etc., but also incredibly extensive aisles of beauty products, haircare, household cleaning products (including my beloved Method products), magazines, food (cereal, biscuits, snacks, frozen foods, milk, fruit etc) and things like CDs, stationary and the like.  Most large drug stores are more like mini supermarkets.  Go have a wander in one for fun!

Over the coming week, I will write another post - focusing on evaluating our packing list (what worked, what didn't), our choice of airline and experiences with air travel, discussing breastfeeding in America (Americans overall are slightly more conservative than Aussies), and the pros and cons of taking your own car seat (we did not).

I hope that some of this might be useful to someone, one day...

Pork Belly, Rice Pudding and Presents

The Cozy Coupe toy car needs to go back to the toy library, sadly.  Tabitha will miss it dreadfully.  As much as it is taking up SO much room in our house (room which we do not have), I think we will have to buy one for her.  The new ones, though, are kind of ugly.  I prefer the older style.  So I am trying to find one on eBay!

Tabby likes to put things in the car and push them for 'rides' around the house, such as a toy lamb.  Yesterday, while I was unpacking groceries, I found her pushing around a whole head of broccoli in the car.  After that, she carried around the broccoli and took bites out of it, raw.  She is a funny little girl!

She is helpful when I am unpacking groceries.  More helpful than the cats, who try and climb inside the bags and steal my meat.  She passes me the items:

I am of the opinion that, no matter how simple or small the gift, beautiful wrapping is essential.  Even a tiny token, such as a small chocolate block to say Thank You, is elevated to another level when wrapped with pretty paper and ribbon.

We have a couple of first birthday parties in the coming weeks.  I can't tell you what's in the gifts, but I can show you the nice bows:

And look at this gorgeous little gift tag - a circus pony with glitter feathers and bridle:

To make a fancy bow like these, you need 3 or 4 (or more) types of ribbon, preferably including a medium-to-wide sheer organza type, a medium-to-wide satin ribbon, and a couple of others (a metallic or textured or grosgrain looks nice).  You pick just a couple to wrap around the present, then tie firmly in a double knot.  You then just loop and knot the ribbons one by one, layering them up (you get a giant fat knot in the middle).  Cut the ends in forks.  Basically, it's not hard but you need to really take your time and be quite careful.  The clever people at Card and Caboodle taught me.  To be honest, it's a little fiddly and often I choose my paper and ribbons then let them do the wrapping for me.  But it is nice to know how to do a fancy bow!

For dinner last night, I made roasted pork belly with rice and stir-fried Gai Lan.

For the gai lan, I just wash two bunches, then cut each piece in half (separating the leafy bits from the stalky bits).  I then heat some oil in a wok or stainless steel frypan, and add a few cloves of sliced garlic and about a teaspoon of finely chopped fresh ginger.  Take care not to burn.  I then add the stalks, plus half a cup of chicken stock and a good glug of rice wine, and stir fry until starting to soften a little.  I add about 1/4 cup oyster sauce, then add the green leafy parts, and toss over the heat until all combined.  I drizzle with a tiny amount of roasted sesame oil:

Always lots of rice.  The Daddy and I eat massive amounts - we buy it by the 20kg bag.

The pork was delicous, I must say.  I always find it a little stressful cooking anything vaguely complex for the first time, and this was no exception, but I will certainly cook it again (and again) and I imagine it will be quite a simple meal once I've done it a couple of times.

My dear friend Amy, who was over for dinner, declared, "This is THE BEST thing I have ever eaten.  In the world."  Amy is a frequent restaurant-goer, and has travelled quite a bit, so I was flattered beyond belief.  Sure, this is not fancy, pretty food, but gosh it did taste good.  Sorry, it doesn't photograph well.  Trust me that it looked great in real life:

Crackling glorious crackling:

To make the pork, you will need a 1.5kg piece of pork belly.  Score the skin really well (as much as possible) and poke a whole lot of 1/2cm holes in the flesh side with a sharp skewer.

Sit the pork on a rack in a tray, skin-side up, and pour about a litre of boiling water over the skin.  Straight away, wash the pork in a bowl of ice and water, to cool it down.

Then, sit the pork on the rack, skin-side up, and use a blow drier to completely dry the skin (yes, you read correctly).

Prepare the marinade in a bowl - note, these quantities are very rough.  Mix and match as you wish.

• 2 tablespoons Chinese five spice powder
• ½ tablespoon white pepper
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons rice wine (mirin would do)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 6 tablespoons soy sauce

Sit the pork, flesh-side down, in a flat dish (like a large baking dish) in the marinade.  You don't want the marinade to come up high so that it touches the skin.  The skin must be DRY!  Rub the skin well with salt, and leave, sitting in the marinade, overnight.  Uncovered - the fridge will help dry out the skin.

Take the pork out of the fridge a couple of hours before you start cooking it.

Now, this is the way I cooked it, with much advice.  But below, I have written the way I will cook it next time.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.  Sit the pork on a rack, skin-side up, in a roasting tin.  Add water to the roasting tin, about 2cm or as much as you reasonably can without it touching the pork.  Brush the skin with a little oil, and roast at 220 degrees for half an hour.

Turn the heat down to 160 degrees, and roast for a further hour.  At the end, brush the skin with white vinegar, turn the grill on (or the heat RIGHT up) and leave for 15 minutes or until the skin is blistered and crackly.

Now.  This didn't work brilliantly for me.  The pork was actually cooked in much less time than the above - I took it out after only 40 minutes, including the initial 30 minute blast.  And the skin wouldn't crisp with the high oven heat - as the pork sat resting under foil and cloths, I put the skin under a grill to crackle it up.  Worked brilliantly, everything was delicious, but it was a bit fiddly and stressful, changing tactics.  So next time, I will make like Thomas Keller and separate the skin before cooking.  I will cook the pork at around 150 degrees for an hour or so, covered in foil, until cooked, letting the fat render down into the flesh.  While the pork is resting, I will then put the skin under a grill to crackle it up.

Anyway.  It worked out fine and it was great!

While the pork is cooking, cook your rice, cook your gai lan, and put the marinade into a small saucepan, bring to the boil, and boil for a few minutes.  Add a little cornflour if you'd like to thicken it up.

To serve, I sliced the pork, poured the thickened marinade over it, and then cut up the crackling and sat it on top.  Writing about it now is making my mouth water.  I think this will be on the menu again next week!

After dinner, we had rice pudding.  I made two enormous dishes of it - one for us, one for my parents and sister (my father is recovering from surgery and so I'm dropping off as much food as I can - he scored the pork leftovers today, lucky man!).

Rice pudding is incredibly easy.  Grease a shallow 4-cup ovenproof dish, rinse 1/2 cup rice well under cold water and drain. Put rice in the dish, with 2 1/2 cups milk, 1/4 cup caster sugar, 2 tablespoons sultanas and a teaspoon of vanilla. Stir gently with a fork, then drop little pieces of butter across the top (a couple of teaspoons) and some nutmeg or cinnamon. Bake at around 150 degrees for around 2 hours. I stir the 'skin' on the top back into the pudding a couple of times (around 40 minute mark and 1.5 hour mark) because I think it makes it creamier and nicer - you still get a crisp skin, but not so thick and tough.  If you have a larger dish, it is easy to double the mixture or do 1.5 times.

 

Today, the sun is shining.  It feels like Spring is coming (though I know it is not, sadly, for quite a while).  This afternoon, our mothers' group is meeting at the Collingwood Children's Farm for lunch, then to have a peer at the animals.  Lovely day for it - I know the babies will have a great time.

Snippets

My aunt and two little cousins came to visit Tabitha on Saturday - they had been unable to make her party, so dropped in to wish her a happy birthday.  Tabitha is much smaller than my young cousin, who is years older than her, however she still tried to boss her and climb into her lap in the little car (which sadly has to go back to the toy library.  Tabitha will miss it a lot!).  Can you sense the alarm in poor cousin G's little face?  She is afraid she will be squashed by 9kg of baby!

The cousins brought gifts for Tabitha - including a cute pink corduroy cat - and some beautiful yellow tulips for me.  They are sitting, in their pot, on my windowsil, adding cheer to the kitchen:

Look at all of Tabitha's lovely birthday cards!  She is such a lucky girl, and loves her cards - in fact, I am having to work to stop her climbing up the bookshelf to pluck down some cards to play with.

When Tabitha was born, we recieved more cards than you can imagine - well over 100.  I bundled them up with some ribbon, and they sit on her shelves.  I hope that one day she will enjoy looking at them.  I have done the same with her Christening cards, her first Christmas cards, and will also with her birthday cards.  I can't bear to throw them out - people have written such nice, kind things.

Here are her birthday cards, and behind them in a frame, a gorgeous postcard of a young ballerina sent from Paris from her honorary great-aunt Penelope (who I used to call Pelepone, and the name has stuck):

For her birthday, Tabitha recieved lots of beautiful, special gifts, including some of her very own jewellery - a pearl bracelet from The Daddy and I, a silver 'Little Lamb' fawn bangle from my parents, and a divine little ladybird charm for her Pandora bracelet, given to her by her Godmother Sophie.  She also received beautiful soft toys, fun games and puzzles, lovely books, pretty dresses and shoes and even a song, written - music and lyrics - and recorded for her by her talented 14 year old Godfather Noah!

Here are some of her new toys - at the back, a gorgeous wooden cart with the nicest little handmade animal 'bowling pins' and a wooden bowling ball, as well as several handmade felt and wooden farm animals for playing with:

She received two pairs of shoes for her birthday - some stunning metallic pink ballet shoes (in the box) and some super-cute Marc Jacobs 'mousie' shoes, back right, with pale pink leather 'ears' and little spiky whiskers.  With over ten pairs of shoes, Tabby has more nice pairs than her mummy!

My favorite shoe brand for baby shoes is Bobux.  They are designed in New Zealand, and the quality is superb.

You are not supposed to put MCNs (modern cloth nappies) such as our Itti Bitti nappies in the dryer - the heat degrades the waterproof fabric and the elastic.  You are allowed to dry them on 'low heat' however I generally line-dry them to save power.  But since our cats destroyed our indoor clothes airer (naughty cats!) I put her nappies into the dryer (on low).  WOW!  They are so, so soft!  I don't know if I can go back to line drying...  I will, I know I will, but I will be sure to give them a turn in the dryer every now and again to soften them up.

In Tabitha's nursery, she has a large wall unit of shelves - the top shelves house books, the middle shelves house delicate things (such as porcelain money box, jewellery, small toys, photos and the like), and the bottom shelves house basket storage, and also toys she enjoys playing with.  Often, I hear her go into her bedroom on her own, and start playing her little xylophones!  I snuck in a took a couple of photos - here she is enjoying making some music:

In feel-good news, I received a package in the mail today.  A woman who I had donated breastmilk to had posted back my containers, and had so generously included brilliant Peter Rabbit 'buggy book' and a kind card.  What a lovely surprise!  But - why oh why does the postman always press the buzzer (for about a minute!) when Tabitha is asleep?!

Well, it seems that Tabitha has officially transitioned to one nap per day.  She hasn't yet decided exactly what time she would like to sleep - she has been going down between 10:30am and 3pm, depending on the day - but overall, we are trending towards a nap from roughly 12pm - 1:30pm or 2pm.

She has also really stepped up a level with her monkey climbing skills - not only can she now climb up onto the sofa, bookshelf and our bed (dragging something like a tissue box or a boot to stand on, if required), she can now climb up her high chair and onto the dining table!  Goodness!  Dangerous and alarming.  I cannot take my eyes off her anymore!  Apparently at the same age, my mother caught me half way up a ladder against the side of the house.  I cannot imagine what a fright that must have given her.

Today is a lovely day.  Sun is shining, house is clean, baby is giggly.  I have been laying on the sofa reflecting on how much I adore being a full time mother - I can honestly say that I am completely fulfilled by our days together.  At so many moments through the day, I find myself getting almost teary with the complete love and adoration I feel for my sweet, funny girl.  The overwhelming 'motherly love' is almost like a drug, rushing through my entire body.  I know that things will get harder, no doubt, when more children come along, but being a mother is simply the most wonderful thing I could have imagined.  Not a day passes when I don't feel this way, even when I am tired.  I cannot tell you how lucky I feel.