Brazenmom

I have been reading to my daughter Amelia since she was a month old. I haven’t bothered to find out what one should read to a small baby but I know that Amelia appreciates bright colours and severely exaggerated expression. The other day I read her the information appearing on a tourist brochure of Devon (where we were holidaying) and she was enthralled. I managed to make the safety rules one should adhere to when swimming sound as exciting as a Bruce Willis action film. My little jitterbug isn’t always in the mood for story time but when she is I grab the opportunity. Mostly, she stares intently at the pages of the book and other times her gaze wonders all over the place, but I just carry on. Kidshealth states that reading aloud to your baby:

• teaches a baby about communication
• introduces concepts such as stories, numbers, letters, colours, and shapes in a fun way
• builds listening, memory, and vocabulary skills
• gives babies information about the world around them

Other than the above, reading to Amelia is just so much fun. I adore books and I hope to instil the same love of reading in her. I read Amelia all sorts, from soft cover baby friendly picture books to Nursery Rhymes to the likes of Anthony Browne’s Gorilla. At the moment, Amelia (4 months) seems most receptive to Giraffes Can’t Dance, written by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees. The story has a lovely message, the writing is lyrical and the pictures are gorgeously bright and bold. I also have two smaller hard cover books, which Amelia loves to bat with her ever roving hand as I read to her, also by Giles Andreae (and David Wojtowycz) called Commotion in the Ocean and Rumble in the Jungle. Both books feature really funny poems about oceanic and jungle animals respectively and I can already see Amelia favouring certain illustrations over others: the toothy shark and pink Octopus never fail to mesmerise. I love books with a great sense of humour and Giles Andreae seems to have just that. I think that reading stories to your baby that you find entertaining is a great place to start.

New York chef and restaurateur Daniel Angerer has turned his wife’s breast milk into cheese. The Manhattan restaurant owner said that his over-stuffed home freezer and his natural cooking instincts made him think of making cheese out of mother’s milk. Angerer then posted the results on his blog: a formula for maple caramelized pumpkin encrusted cheese.

According to the Toronto Star, customers at Angerer’s restaurant Klee have been asking to try the cheese and he has prepared some amus-bouche – canapé of breast-milk cheese with figs and Hungarian pepper although he has no plans to sell it. The New York Post writes that city authorities have told the restaurant not to serve its cheese to customers, whether sold or given away.

The taste of the breast milk cheese is affected by what Angerer’s wife has had to eat: of the two batches he has made thus far, the first tasted salty-sweet and the second was slightly spicy.

The full recipe is on Angerer’s blog. Here are the ingredients:

My Spouse’s Mommy Milk Cheese Making Experiment
(basic recipe using 8 cups of any milk – yields about ½ pound cheese)

4 cups mother’s milk
1½-teaspoon yogurt (must be active cultured yogurt)
1/8-tablet rennet (buy from supermarket, usually located in pudding section)
1 teaspoon sea salt

Source: Guardian.co.uk

What to do? What to do? My daughter is due for her first vaccine imminently … this week actually. At two months old my baby is to be vaccinated against Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) Pneumococcal infection. It is common knowledge that in order to make someone immune to a disease, doctors have to inject the actual disease into a person’s body so that antibodies to fight the illness can develop. My husband and I have a problem with injecting a healthy baby, who is only two months old and very little, with diseases – even if it is to build antibodies. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s bitch about tantruming two year olds. Yesterday, when the little boy in front of me on the bus tantrumed for an entire hour I really tried not to judge. I know well that the poor mom trying to control little Mr Psycho could be me in two years. But seriously! This kid was completely wild and out of control – he threw his arms and legs around like an overturned insect, he bit his mom and he screeched like a demon being exorcised back to hell. My daughter was sleeping soundly next to Mr Psycho and when he started bashing her pram I envisioned picking the kid up by his hair and throwing him out of the bus window. Lucky for Mr Psycho his mom yanked his arm away and he listened … well, he started bashing her instead of my baby’s pram. Fine by me. Everyone on the bus watched in uncomfortable silence and those with iPods thanked God in heaven and cranked up the volume. After Mr Psycho’s mom eventually managed to strap mini-Satan into his stroller (with the help of my husband) he writhed around like a mental patient in a straight-jacket and his crazed eyes darted around in search of someone who he could direct his fury at. I have heard of the ‘terrible twos’ but have never ever seen behaviour like this. I am scarred for life.

The verdict on my Tommeee Tippee breast pump is in: it’s awesome. Why? Because it makes expressing milk as non-weird, convenient, quick and painless as possible. I decided as soon as I fell pregnant that I was going to breast feed and that my lifestyle would demand that I express milk – a thought that completely grossed me out. I am not keen on the whole idea of milking myself like. I am no bovine. I knew that expressing by hand was a big no-no and even expressing manually with some sort of device was out of the question for me. So it had to be an electric breast pump that would allow me to maintain some semblance of a social life with my newborn. I purchased a Tommee Tippee breast pump because it was the one on special when I went pump hunting. And the decision paid off. Expressing takes little concentration and effort and I usually do it in the company of BBC iPlayer to alleviate boredom. So thanks Tommee Tippee for a great device that has helped me maintain some independence as a new mom.

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Are you a user? Dummies not drugs. Pose this question to a drug addict or a sleep deprived new mom and you are likely to receive an equally violent, opinionated and emotionally charged response. Before I was a mom, if someone had told me what a big deal the whole dummy debate is amongst parents (and even those who aren’t parents) I would have retorted with “um … ever heard of AIDS, world hunger, violent deaths, war and drug addiction?”. Ashamedly, after seven short weeks as a parent, I have succumbed to the great dummy debate and formed an opinion. My philosophy as a mom is to trust my instinct – translation: if your gut tells you that using a dummy is the best option for your baby, then do it and visa versa. My own fear is that if I give my baba a dummy, it will become a crutch: an easy way for me to keep her pacified when it suits me. Basically, a gag. So I guess my stance is based on self-doubt. Irrespective, my baba is learning to self-soothe without the use of a dummy and that has made my decision not to use a dummy pretty easy. Read the rest of this entry »

My Amelia-bug was born on December 4 and it made sense to make her first story the Christmas story. In utero she was exposed to a variety of literature; Steven King’s Salem’s Lot being her primary source of entertainment on many nights. We figured that it wasn’t the words that mattered as much as the sound of mommy or daddy’s voice, so a tale of love and vampires was as good as any. This Christmas, Amelia-bug sat on daddy’s lap and I read her the story of the humble birth of a mighty King, from The Lion Illustrated Bible for Children. This bible, Amelia’s first, is not at all a practical, baby friendly book in terms of language and design but it is beautiful. I am a sucker for children’s books, particularly ones that are beautifully illustrated. And this Bible is beautifully illustrated. Read the rest of this entry »

When does a mommy rest?

Certainly not in the first six weeks of a baby’s life when baby is still trying to figure out his place in the world: when crying replaces the soft humming of the computer, the sound of mommy’s favourite TV program or the still, quiet night; when baby thinks that lumpy, hard chests are way more comfortable than a soft cot (or anywhere else for that matter); when mommy’s bed is just so much better than baby’s own; when, like all three of my children, baby has reflux – every time he lies down he ends up sleeping in his own throw-up and mommy has to change his clothes and bedding 50 times a day; when mommy spends hours washing the floor, couch, carpet and bed, or wherever else baby’s projectile vomit has landed in mommy’s once beautiful, unsoiled home. And don’t forget the constant nappy changes – I didn’t know that a human being could pooh that much! Newborn babies must pooh at least eight times a day. Man! You would never get off the toilet if that carried on into adulthood. Read the rest of this entry »

One of my most favourite things to do is dress my now six-week-old daughter in animal suits. She has two reindeer outfits (that she wears even though Christmas is over) and my favourite is a gorgeous cat suit. She also has a cow snow suit and a pink sheep suit, both of which I am dying to dress her in when she has grown to fit them. One day, my child will either thank me for adding to the cute-factor when she was a baba or she will grow up with an identity crisis and end up in a zoo. At least we will never be short of costumes come halloween. Most costumes appear in stores on special occasions and I simply cannot wait for Valentine’s Day or Easter to get my costume fix. So I consulted Mr Google who came up with a most fabulous solution: Annie’s Costumes, which boasts a range of the cutest (halloween) costumes for newborns and up. Halloween-shmalloween – what’s the point in having babies if you can’t dress them up whenever and wherever? Here are a couple of must haves: Read the rest of this entry »

What could possibly cooler for a literature enthusiast like myself than Macbeth Finger Puppets? Nothing – that’s what. The set, available online from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, includes Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, a witch, Banquo and Macduff. My fingers tingle at the thought of doing a ‘finger-play’ for my baba as an introduction to the awesomeness of Shakespeare. These finger puppets are also fabulous for those who think that Shakespeare is overdone and overrated: my husband cannot wait to bastardise Macbeth in a ‘finger play’ that will undoubtedly serve as an ode to the lameness of Shakespeare. Either way, entertainment is guaranteed. Once hubby and I have had our fun with these little felt darlings, we will pass them on to our daughter who will hopefully enact her own little plays using the puppets. Or, most likely, she will use them as proof that her parents are embarrassingly insane: justification for any ensuing psychological problems.