Urban Homesteading Marathon Weekend!

Well, we did SO much work in the garden this weekend (when I say we, I mean Dave, a bit of Smash, while Snail, Lolly and I were out enjoying the garden sunshine and lending moral support!). D finished the rails and supports on the wheelchair ramp (yay for him, it's a friggin masterpiece!). On Sunday he built a garden bed and got the chicken coop ready. Here are some shots - getting the wood ready - next to the existing vege patch which we planted out a couple of weeks ago:


Here is the finished product. Well, almost, it needs dirt obviously!



Here is the chicken house inside the coop, Dave installed a new, improved ramp (ironically with offcuts from the wheelchair ramp), and a door that latches for collecting eggs.


Here is Smash breaking into the coop...


And finally, after all that, we got four chickens!!!




Here is Smash and Snail "helping" - Smash is transporting chicken feed down the stairs on his skateboard (as you do), while Snail "wants whatever that is RIGHT NOW!" :-)


And where is bub during all this? In the Ergo of course!

Lolly update!

Well, all of a sudden it's like Lolly is huge! She seems like such a big baby now! It has snuck up on us, and now she seems enormous, all legs and arms. She is still without any teeth, though. We went to the paediatrician last Friday – not that there is anything wrong, just that Dave and I wanted a good check for any signs of Cerebral Palsy, given Snail's disability. Nothing, he was confident she was fine, but we're going back at one year for a last “let's be sure” check up. It's strange, I am confident she is developing normally, but with he appointment looming, I got a bit nervous that there was something we're not seeing. And occasionally the way she holds her arms back (normal for babies!) reminds Dave and I of Snail.

Anyway, I was relieved to get an “official” there are no signs, even though I felt this myself. I guess there are times when you want an expert, even if you have doubts about medical models in other aspects of early childhood.

So, he weighed and measured her, which I hadn't done in ages (not being terribly fond of child health centres). She is 7.6 kilos and 68cms. So there you go, baby quantified!

Lolly had some sweet potato yesterday at lunch at M's place - it was mashed up a little and we gave her a spoon to play with it. She loved it! Some went in, evidence in today's nappy!

I get a little unsure with baby-led solids - it seems so counter-intuitive to give a baby a big chunk of stuff to eat. I know intellectually that it is fine, she's not going to choke and die, but the adreneline has still been pumping a little high. So mashing things and giving her the spoon to experiment with is a compromise to my adrenal system at this early stage of her eating career. That and pieces of fruit, and wheat-free rusks and rice cakes. She is just getting tastes at the moment, which is all I want for her. She is still 100% breastfed, and this is how it should be. Food is about exploring the world of taste, not for getting nutrients at this early age.

She is becoming very aware of her surroundings, and has just started to indicate when she doesn't want to do something, in the sense of a preference rather than a need. She can cry out when I change her shirts now, she doesn't enjoy it, but rather only tolerates it. Same with the car seat when putting her in. She seems to be letting me know that she would rather not do this thing now, but is easily soothed with an explanation and persistance in the activity!

Smash and Snail back tomorrow!

School Concert

On Wednesday night we had Snail's school concert, which was extemely cute! Dave got a great video of them all singing their song. Snail was in her walker, dancing away.

Here's a shot of why I love baby carriers, you can carry your bub and feed sausage sizzle to your Snail at the same time! Yum!

6 months!

Lolly is 6 months old today!



She has been very interested in food so has had a couple of peices of actual food (!!) this week. We are doing baby-led solids, for more on this see this site, and this decent forum for ideas. Kellysmom has some good articles on baby-led solids too, and the importance of delaying solids to at least 6 months in favour of breastfeeding, and of continuing to breastfeed as "solids" are introduced.

Baby-led solids is about listening to your baby, and letting them lead. Lolly is not really eating yet, just very interested in what we are doing when we are eating. Simple food that she can play and experiment with, as well as plain water from a cup, and utensils to play with and learn are good starts. Lolly has been totally breastfed until 6 months, and we aren't planning on weaning her! Just letting her take her own pace with food, and the social activities of eating. Her first thing to 'eat' was a rusk, and here she is, chowing down!

I ordered some wheat-free rusks online, hopefully they will be here soon! Here she is 'drinking' from a cup. She has also tried a piece of watermelon, which turned up in her nappy the next day (very alarming!), and 2 nights ago she has some banana. Last night before dinner she sucked on some celery, but wasn't that interested. Here she is at dinner drinking water. She only had a couple of sips, but had fun with the cup!










We have also been busy in the garden again, and here are some pictures. First, here is the wheelchair ramp Dave is building! It just needs railings and the support logs trimmed off a bit.




And here is our "front" yard, where we are going to plant the orchard. You can see Smash, bub and Dave to one side.

...on breastfeeding and foolish shirts

I've had a lot of time surfing, but not much typing, and was exploring the fabulous Joyous Birth breastfeeding threads and found a great article, you can read it here!

It explores the normalisation of language around nursing in an accessible way. Makes me even more aware of both language and social construction patterns around parenting and "choice".

On a more banal note, but still on the heaps of time surfing thang, I've been doing the Great Down Under Nappy Hunt, which is mildly addictive for those times when I just can't read anything more that's either useful or intelligent. The GDUNH satisfies those consumer urges in a vaguely PC way. Oh, and there are prizes!

Lolly is absolutely delightful, she develops so fast and is now very keen to sit up, even if her urges are thwarted by not being able to balance as well as she'd like. She enjoyed all the other babies at the great sewing day we went to yesterday. Here is her latest shirt! Buy one here if this describes your family!

I couldn't resist this one from the hilarious Torsopants, myself...

Seedlings

Planted our seedlings today, we planted mixed orientals, silverbeet, eggplant, shallots and butternut pumpkin. Everyone here is in a crap mood, my neck is out, Dave has a cold, and the kids are back at their mother's for the week. Lolly is fine! Pip, our labrador, escaped down the road again despite her back problem and is limping again.

Lolly is sitting up really straight today, she balanced for ages on Dave's lap, and right now is propped up next to me in the corner of the lounge chair, sitting up! Extremely pleased with herself.

Mucking around with this blog

I am trying (and Dave is helping) to work out blogging, mostly pictures and formatting stuff.

It is 2 weeks since we got the new car....Dave's weapon.

We had a good week with the kiddles. Lolly is getting very big! She is 5 and a half months now, and enjoys putting her toes in her mouth, chatting, and giggling. Everything that goes near her, she puts in her mouth. She is very interested in the pets now, and watches them as they move around. She enjoys the brother and sister very much, there is a lot of laughing and smiling at them both now. She loves it when Dave comes home from work, busts out of her skin! We had a visit from Nanna this week, as well as M and Riley on Tuesday afternoon. Lots of fun!

I made her a "sitting up" box that she's in right now! She is not sitting up unsupported yet, but likes being propped up and playing with toys. Here is a video from today as an experiment.