Thankful Tuesdays: Each morning...

... the boy's mood varies.  Some days he wakes up all sunshine and smiles, some days he refuses to get up and throws a tantrum.  Whatever the case, we try to read a little bit of the Bible and say a little prayer before we head for breakfast.  Part of the prayer includes thanking God for various things, and the boy always has an interesting list.  Thus far, he's thanked God for:

:: Squares, triangles and various shapes
:: Books, and the Bible
:: Animals
:: Pillows and his stuffed animal friends
:: Mama and Papa, baby, and various friends and family
:: Rain
:: Waterlilies
:: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
:: Birds
:: His blanket

I love the things he thinks up, since they are so simple, yet make such a difference in our lives!  And here's mine for the week:

:: God's patience and love for me, in times when I am likely to impatient and unloving.

:: Nature and beauty in the world around us, from flowers, to the buzzing of busy bees.

:: Help from the in-laws, who are visiting for the week (hubby is going to be away for almost half a month this round).

:: Smiles and laughter from the little boy, which help to make all the tantrums better.

This week, the boy has been acting up quite abit.  But these cheerful moments help to bring a smile to my face!

:: The strong arms of Papa, that are always willing to carry the little boy.  We do miss him alot, and are glad he had a safe flight.

Petting stingrays at the Underwater World

What are you thankful for this week?

PS: Thank you for all your suggestions to how to make the little boy's constipation better... its still bothering him, but I'm hoping we'll sort it out soon...

Weekend wonderings: Constipation's complicated

It has been one crazy weekend.  Wedding anniversary dinner (this was months overdue!) and playdate with a church friend.  The hubby's parents coming down for a visit (they are now staying with us for a week).  Packing for the hubby's overseas trip and settling all those last minute things before the trip.  And to top it all off, the boy's constipation decided to flare up again.

Its been something that has been bothering the boy for the past 2 months or so.  (Warning, gross talk ahead.)  The boy has a habit of pooping once every 2 days, and this has been continuing as the norm and doesn't seem to bother him much, as the poop is pretty soft.  However, recently we've noticed that he's been having some difficulty pooping, and would have many "false alarms" before he actually poops.  On days that the poop is "due", we sometimes have to stay at home the whole day, simply because we'd have to run to the toilet about 10-20 times, and the boy seems to have a phobia of pooping in public toilets.  Most of these trips would see us sitting there hopefully, while he sits there, swings his legs, and tells you "no poo poo", while the "successful" trips see the poop being passed out in bits (hence it takes about 3-4 trips before he can clear his bowels).  It can get rather frustrating, especially if these "false alarms" come when I'm in the midst of cooking (once, it took me ages to get porridge prepared, since I was running to and fro from kitchen and toilet, while trying to peel and chop veggies in 1 minute intervals)... On some rare occasions, the poop never comes and he ends up waking up in the middle of the night, tired, but really uncomfortable and needing to poop.

It got pretty bad on Sunday.  The boy refused to go down for his afternoon nap (I admit I got rather frustrated with him, but in retrospect he might have been really uncomfortable and unable to sleep.), then refused to eat dinner because he was really exhausted.  We had to make numerous trips (at about every 5 minutes!) to the toilet.  No poopoo in sight, just a whole bunch of stained underpants piling up.  This goes on and on for what seems to be forever.  Little boy is tired but can't sleep, starts throwing tantrums and the toilet trips continue.  Finally he manages to poop around 9 pm and all the offending stuff comes out (you can always know when that happens, from the loud cheering in the toilet from us, and a "I will get a sticker!" from the little boy...).

I must admit its been driving us rather nuts.  We suspect that he has the tendency to try to hold in the poop for some strange reason (some days we can see him uncomfortable, but refusing to go to the toilet).  So we've been implementing all the usual remedies: Probiotics, prunes, prune juice, fruits like pear and papaya and other fibre-rich foods, lots of water and even a dose of flax oil every morning.  While he used to love fruits, getting him to eat more fruits now sometimes proves to be a problem as he isn't eating too well in general these days, but usually we manage to get in a decent amount of fibre into his diet (along with veggies and some brown rice).  We've even resorted to lactulose as prescribed by our PD, and have been trying to explain to him the need to push all the stuff out.  He seems to be trying at times (and sometimes it breaks my heart to hear him tell me "I will get stickers when I poopoo", followed by him counting on his fingers how many he will get!)... so hopefully it'll get better!  Meanwhile, any advice, or your experiences battling this would be welcome...

Saturday scrapping: Another tag...

So its the Presidential elections today, and there has been alot of talk about which Tan to vote for.  Here's a tag for another Tan (one of Junior J's lovely doctors, who has nothing to do with who we're going to vote for!)...

... using happy, yellow, Prima flowers and AC brads:

... loads of distress inks, mists and distress stains:

Made the "accidental" discovery that distress stains (love the one in vintage photo colour)
colour chipboard pieces really nicely... :)

I liked how this one turned out, though its pretty simple!  Again, its made using a CD-Rom as a base (just like this and this one):

Have a blessed weekend!

Foodie Fridays: Yummy cheesy mushrooms

We had a chance to eat these really yummy mushrooms over at a birthday party sometime ago.  Our friend A was nice enough to share with me her recipe for them, and I recently tried making them for our mushroom-loving little boy, and they were certainly a hit!  They are really simple to prepare, but pretty nutritious, and make for great finger food especially for toddlers. :)

Cheesy Mushrooms

Ingredients:

:: Portobello mushrooms

:: Mozzarella cheese

:: Garlic (I used 2 cloves to cook 5 mushrooms as I love the garlicky taste!)

(Amounts will have to be adjusted by your preference and the number of people you want to prepare for!)

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Chop garlic and fry in olive oil.

2. Wash mushrooms, line in a tray with bottoms facing upwards, and drench mushrooms in oil and garlic.

3.  Sprinkle mushrooms with cheese (ensure entire surface is covered).  Bake for approximately 7-10 minutes and serve!

Simple, yes?  These can be done in a toaster too, if you don't want to have the hassle of using the oven, and are perfect for picnics too... Let me know if you do try making them!

~~~~~~~

Do you have any tried and tested recipes for meals suitable for the whole family?  If you have some easy-to-prepare, healthy recipes, do drop me an email at john(dot)jus(at)gmail(dot)com, with the ingredients, steps, and if possible, a photo of the food!  We'll post the recipes on Fridays, with a link back to your blog if you have one... :)

Blessed weekend!

Thinking Thursdays: Using natural materials for play

One aspect I really love about Waldorf education is the use of natural materials for play.  Kids these days have a tendency to play with quite a lot of artificial materials like plastic (especially since most toys are made from plastic), and I think its nice to provide them with other alternative materials/textures, especially those that come from nature.  

With that in mind, I just started by leaving a basket of pebbles (of an assortment of sizes, textures and colours) in the hall where the boy usually plays:

And the boy really loved them!  He would carry them around (in fact, he named one his "favourite pebble" and would bring it to bed along with him!) and would bring them to the table for meals.  They got incorporated into building projects:

And got carted around on various "shopping trips"...

Thus encouraged, I've been leaving out other natural materials, such as shells (picked during a Pangkor trip), corals and casuarina fruit.  I love how varied the textures, colours and shapes are, and how these are less likely to contain harmful chemicals compared to synthetic materials (of course, do give them a good wash with soap first!).

Do you let your kids play with natural materials?  How do you incorporate them into their playtime?

Messy Mittwoch: More recyling ideas

We've had a tiring day thus far (with a trip to the National Museum in the morning, where the boy walked alot, and still had to walk all the way to the MRT station after that) and I gotta go and peel a whole bunch of potatoes, so its gonna be a short post today.  

Anyway, after reading the great ideas shared by all of you in the previous post on using recyclables for play (thank you for sharing!), I realized there have been quite a few more ideas stashed away in the archives, so here they are:

:: Making music instruments like rattles ...

:: Making other instruments like drums ...

:: Treasure bottle activity (also pictured above.  Now they have become part of Junior J's kitchen, and he pretends he's cooking the rice, or uses these as salt and pepper shakers!)

I realize these bottles are gems in the play department.  Do you use these too for your child's playtime?

Thankful Tuesdays: Giving thanks for the ordinary

"This is brachiosaurus' city!"

We went for one of my regular pregnancy checkups yesterday.  Baby has been growing well, and aside from the usual aches, exhaustion and very frequent trips to the bathroom, I'm glad to say the pregnancy has been smooth sailing.  There was the initial worries due to spotting in the first trimester, followed by a period where the placenta seemed to be rather low-lying, but thankfully both issues have sorted themselves out.  Baby J (yes, its going to be another J, for a family of Js... :p) is proving to be alot more active than his brother.  While Junior J used to be content with some squirms and kicks, this fellow sometimes gives me violent drumming sessions (that last for 5-10 minutes) with his hands and feet, usually timed when I'm trying to sleep at night!

When all of us were peering at the ultrasound screen yesterday (Junior J was excited to see Baby J again), we spotted the little one sucking his thumb.  Just seeing that ordinary, comforting little gesture made my heart smile.  So today, I'm just thankful to God for the little ordinary things of life, that are signs that everything is A-Ok:

:: The priviledge to pray and know that He listens.

:: The battered bible that holds encouragement and promise each morning.

:: The everyday messes that show that play has been taking place and stories have been created.

:: Bits of greenery and the surprise of flowers... along with little helping hands that always want to "help mama water the plants":

:: Grocery shopping and grocery lists, that go towards filling hungry tummies.

:: Afternoon naps that give respite from a day's activities.

:: Clothes pegs waiting to be clipped on a new load of clean clothes, before the little one wakes up:

:: Hugs that make hurts and pains go away, and help one to feel "all better now!".

:: Imaginary "grape cream" that can be applied to knocks, and would "take away your pain".

:: A warm cup of Milo just before bedtime to fill a hungry tummy...

So what are the little ordinary things that you are thankful for this week?

Monday made: Saying thank you

The hubby has been asking me to make a lil something for some of the doctors we see (such as Junior J's PD), as a small token of thankfulness for all their care and help for the past few years.  I've been putting it off for the longest of time, having not much inspiration on what to make for them... But this weekend, with us being stuck at home (as both boys were sick), I decided to get cracking on the gifts, and ended up making tags, similar to the one I just made for Layla.

So here's one that I've managed to complete (the other 2 are still in progress):

Handmade roses, misted in blue.  I love how these blooms can dress up jars, or even layouts! :)
You can view the tutorial for making the roses here. 

Little chipboard birdie on a branch.  The bird was painted blue, and outlined with stickles, while the branch was coloured using distressed stains and inks.

I really love Pink Paislee's ink resist papers!  These have been misted in blue and green, and then distressed using brown inks to let the patterns show up.  

Again, I used a CD Rom for a base for the tag.  :)  Have loads of these lying around the study!

Well, I hope you had a blessed weekend... I've just realized that we have less than 10 weeks to get ready for number 2 (starts running around and panicking), so I'm off to finish the other tags and declutter and pack!