Future

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...

Where's My Monster

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

black wolf in white!! rare occassion, rare photo :-O

7th Sign

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 I said no, don't eat my favorite antique tea cup or no, don't chew on my laptop or ipod or cellphone - and then I took the objects away... he must have felt really hurt because I took the thing that he had been trying so hard to get... and on top of that, he trusted me so much that he actually showed me what he had 'stolen'... his pride prize of the day...

Oh well, this is what I hate about motherhood - why can't I just play and become his best friend? Why do I have to tell him not to tear away his father's important papers, or that he has to sleep on time...

It's not always fun being a mother, eh? :-P

Read the rest of the 7 signs at: http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/1417762.html?scid=momsbaby:20070205:3171:20262:9814 It's really a cute article.

A Box of Goodies!

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:

• Put some toys, rubber spoon, etc into an empty tissue box (choose the one with plastic coverage to avoid baby getting paper cuts).
• Show Vlad how to take it out once, shake, rattle and give it to him.
• Voila, an hour of silence (okay some grunting permitted).

PS: rubber spoons are the best since they are longer than the opening of the tissue box, requiring the baby to tilt the object - this takes longer to figure out when they are only about 10 months old!

As Goth As It Gets

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...)

Steak Tartare (10+)

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?

I love steak tartare, and so I created this baby version just for Vlad.

half a zucchini

half an eggplant

one carrot

one beetroot

1/4 cup of chopped veal

put zucchini, eggplant, carrot and beetroot in babycook - steam

fry chopped veal in non-sticky pans without any oil nor butter

once babycook is done - mixed all ingredients in blender

the result looks really like steak tartare - without any raw meat... the beetroot does the job making the meal looking bloody ;-)

Now serve your baby while eating a real steak tartare next to him!

Babycook!

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!)