Sony Ericsson is asking pictures with the theme future... I am probably submitting one picture to them but this is what I saw today - it reminded me of the global warming... spring too early in the year... this is the future to me... SE might not appreciate the fact that I saw the future as some sort of a natural disaster waiting to happen... but someone have to face it sooner or later...
Speaking of which - who has seen the movie titled An Inconvenient Truth? Quite disturbing...
When skies are grey, and I'm stuck in some remote French village... okay not so remote... I go out shopping with my mother in law.
It was her who got all the good goodies, I'm sorta just there for the ride :-) but hey, I found this really cute book (mine is in French) with really nice monster pics and touchy-feely pages - all with nice colors and fluffy, scaly, curly materials! Vlad eyed it immediately...
I was too lazy to bring the pushchair so I let him roam free in the book section... and he picked this book up himself!
+ wonderful and colorful pics - but not the usual cutesy illustrations
- some pages have very small areas that can be touched
I found this article at babycenter - signs your baby loves you... at this is one of the "signs".
Your toddler throws wicked tantrums. Nope, those screaming fits don't mean he's stopped loving you. He wouldn't be so hurt and angry if he didn't trust you so deeply.Okay - this particular one touches me because it suddenly made me feel a bit guilty about all the disciplines that I am trying to teach him...
When you think you just got enough of your screaming and jumping baby... here's a good trick to keep him or her quite...
Saturday mornings... I really would appreciate some quite time sipping my hot tea or decaf coffee or even hot chocolate... whatever it is that I am going to drink... I would really appreciate it being still hot and sipped in a quite corner.
Of course, Vlad wakes up about an hour before I function, so here's my secret to keep him busy:
Wow, a weird morning - I could not sleep at all last night and this morning I woke up feeling groggy, wanting so much to put at least some make-up on so that I will feel a bit more 'me' - but declined because Vlad cries out as soon as he heard me moved.
How could someone looked so divine in drool-covered pajamas?? Here I am looking like a piece of forgotten dish and here he is awake and shining like a prince... okay, I am his mother, I might be biased.
I should probably marked my ramblings as the progression and confession of a goth turned mother cause even when I finally had time later during the day, I ended up softening all my dark colors because I did not want to scare my son...
And it's so grey outside... but I could not feel grey anymore... my little sunshine just gave me a slap (literally... with one of his orange colored cubes...)
This is another one of those baby meals that made Vlad thinks he is eating what we are eating... cause how do I explain to a 10 months old that what I am eating is not good yet for him?
While I was still waking up almost every hour to breastfeed Vlad, I could not wait for the time he could be on solid food so that his father could feed him instead and I will have more free time... uhmmm... wrong again!
I got all excited introducing apples and other fruits to Vlad - this was like only once a day during lunch time, but soon I have to cook 3 times a day (lunch, tea time snack and dinner) and this took more time than expected. Luckily my sis-in-law gave me her Beaba's Babycook - and this is just unbeatable.
It contains a basket for steaming fruit, vegetables, meat or fish - and on the other side, there is a place where you put water that will be used to steam the food. I usually put about 1.5 cup for fruits, 2 for vegetables and 3 for meat.
Steamed food is then tipped into the main bowl for blending, so no vitamins or minerals are lost in preparation. It can also be used for defrosting or warming meals, and comes with an invaluable recipe book (which my sis-in-law kept unfortunately).
+ Easy and fast preparation of food - steaming with 3 cups of water takes about half an hour only
- Blender has only one mode - Vlad seemed to enjoy his food very very smooth until about 8 months and the Babycook made blended meat a little bit coarse (he dealt with it though!)
I realized that I might never be that cool goth chick that I always wanted to be but a little mother desperate just like any other out there... Oh I still fit in all those sexy leather stuff... but when this morning I envisioned a mini-vacuum cleaner instead of that dark medieaval dragon head mirror for my birthday gift... I doubt that those mini leather things still reflects who I am... no dragon, just a mini vacuum please, thank you!
You know that you've been a really productive mother when there are already 6 episodes of Lost Season 3 that have been aired and you know nothing about it!
- me to Dav in seeing www.tv.com yesterday -
Just thought I will fill this in while it’s still fresh in my mind…
I could not find the same set of spoon for Vlad so I ended up buying a bunch of different ones in different shops. Don’t ask me why the whole France is having a crisis of spoon supply!
Anyway, this is just a few comparison that I made, hopefully I can get more insights from other spoon users soon enough :-P
Please note that my comments are based on ‘me feeding the baby’ cause my son is still 10 months old.
MUNCHKIN (rating 6/10)
SASSY (8/10)+ suction cup at the bottom keeps the spoon upright after washing, keeping germs away, also, my son looooves pulling the spoon off the table, making that ‘pop’ noise each time (keeps him busy while I use a second spoon to feed him)
- slightly too thin and wide to keep the food from spilling around baby’s mouth
+ the perfect size for a baby’s mouth and the perfect depth, color changes when food is too hotMOTHERCARE (2/10)
- two different materials at the tip tends to catch the smell of dishwashing liquid (rinsing a couple of more times should do it)
+ fat handle is easy for babies to hold
- very thin and shaped a bit like a square, making it almost impossible to feed a baby without making a huge mess!
+ the perfect size for a baby’s mouth and the perfect depth, color changes when food is too hot
- no complains here!
+ pretty design and fun feeding for babies (it helps my son sometime when I do
choo choo train is coming… open the tunnel!)
- a bit too fat for babies mouth and handle is a bit too short
I finally found some time to finish creating our wedding + Vlad's baptism album. It was a small effort on my part to fins something to do that has nothing to do with butt-wiping my son (basically, something that is a bit for me, not for anyone else).
I started musing just after I did it though... I am not sure why I even bother with the album because all my friends have seen it on my web-album - and I could just as well look at them anytime I wanted to on my laptop.
Why do we keep creating photo album in this digital ages?
To have something solid to hold?
To feel that we have somehow managed to freeze some good memories into something more real?
To give these memories a life of their own?
Are we using photo albums because they serve as cage to memories - preventing them to fly away?
I thought about this for a moment... and found my own answer... I did it cause my mother would love to skim through it whenever she's around :-P
It finally snowed today and it's Vlad's first snow! He woke up around 1.25 this morning... I dunno why, he usually slept all night... but he was mighty excited to see all the falling snow and all the whiteness around our apartment. Thankfully, after that, he went back to sleep.
I am rummaging about as usual, thinking that I needed more boxes to hide all the mess that we got around the house (everything seemed to be so messy each time my parents came to visit...) and just as well, Vlad tried to go down off the bed on his own (being over-confident due to his recent successes...) and he slipped!
Dav tried to catch him and while effectively slowing the fall down (Vlad still fell nevertheless...) he pulled a muscle and now is helplessly adding to my list of 'babies' to take care of today. Poor daddy!
Vlad is definitely more elastic that his father... but who could let their son fall down the bed without an effort of saving them!
My son got this book from his grandmother for Christmas but it was me who got excited about it!
I found this book really well done for very young children – it repeats the same simple words a couple of times in different situations – for example, a picture of mommy in a car, then a couple of pages later, a picture of mommy close-up.
Each picture has some texture to it – my son loves the fluffy cloud and the hairy cat!
I also love how the book actually cut in the middle, so the kids can open the top page, while keeping the bottom page in the same place, thereby creating different scenes.
+ Colorful, full of texture, repeating words
- Bottom page has an edge that’s a bit sharp, I cut it with a nail clipper…
A pot of spinach ready made for babies or three handfuls of spinach leaves
One sweet potato
One potato
Add some ham or veal (my son prefers ham) - half a strip will do
Note: make sure the ham is unsalted and have been stripped from all fat
Put everything in a steamer (I use Babycook - review on this machine coming soon)
Mix
Voila!
Every three months, for some reason... I usual got this one day that just made me feel like I wanna do nothing. I used to think that I can only do so much... that I am only
Today is one of those days... but we just came back from our vacation, so it just mean that I have 'things' to do!
I started my morning not being able to see much cause I have left my contact lenses and glasses somewhere in the mess of luggages... so I sort of whined my husband out of bed to take care of our son - thank you, thank you, thank you! Though I am still a bit moody, I couldn't have gone through this day without his help this morning...
I got so many things to say this morning about 'not wanting to do anything' including 'chasing my son all over the house' and I really wanted to rant on this blog so I could just let the frustration out... but hey, by the time I'm done chasing my son all over the house, I have nothing much to say... except this:
human... I was wrong... I am no longer human, I am a MOTHER.
I just had to shout about it, there's really something about Sassy! I bought this cool horsie for my son when he turned 6 months and he absolutely loved it (he's 10 months old now and still playing with it).
The tugging horsie made 3 different horsie noises (neigh, brrr and gallop) when you pressed on its saddle, and it's so easy for my son to press the saddle himself, making him very proud of himself each time he heard the sounds.
The hair and tail of the horse keeps him occupied with hours of happy chewing, while the big hooves provided great relief for his teething.
Violet might be weird for a horsie but kids love it...
An absolute must!
+ Easy operated sound bytes, also teething toy.
- Can't find a way to change the
batteries!
Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.
-Bill Cosby -
These are the ramblings of Wulfette, one goth-gadget soul who decided to create Cité des Enfants Gaté because she has found herself "suddenly-mother"... and that not only she now needed her "already-mother" friends to advice her, but she's also now being asked for advices.
This is not a situation she had ever imagined before... though so far, to her surprise (and probably to her husband and son) she was slipping into her new role quite smoothly (okay, not everyday!)
Cité des Enfants Gaté will not only be some kind of a mother's diary, it will be posted regularly with ideas, indulgences, advices, reviews (including toys) and probably even recipes (let's not push this new motherhood thing too far ahead of time).
Wulfette hopes that her friends and any reader will contribute as the blog goes along, making it a special place for all women who now found themselves in that new role called "mother".
Be seeing you!
