Weaning Party

I didn't set out to do extended nursing. In fact, I only planned to nurse for a year because "once they can ask for it, it is weird." Of course, I didn't know anything about breastfeeding when I made that comment. Once I learned more about the benefits of extended breastfeeding and child-led weaning, it just made sense. Still, I never expected that he'd nurse this long.

Ian's weaning was not completely child-led. He nursed a lot until he was almost 2 and then suddenly dropped down to twice a day due to my pregnancy. He stopped completely about 6 weeks before my daughter was born, but then wanted to start again. I let him, but only twice a day: before nap and before bed. Even those sessions were short. As he got closer to 3, I started talking to him about weaning. I thought I'd do it when he turned 3, but he just wasn't ready. By 3.5, he started all-day preschool and stopped taking a nap so he was down to once a day. A few months later, he stopped asking to nurse every day. When he did, I would say,"How about we just cuddle?" If he accepted that, we cuddled and did not nurse. If he didn't we nursed. When we traveled this past summer, he went two weeks without asking. Then, he asked again.

He turned 4 in September and for the past several months he has had many periods of going a week or two without nursing. I felt he was ready and chose New Year's Eve as his last day. We talked about it all week and counted down the days. I let him nurse a lot longer than I usually did.

The last time, I let him nurse as long as he wanted to and when he was done I thanked him for being my first nursling and told him I was happy that he was growing up.

Today, we had his weaning party. We made a cake and gave him a few presents: a new movie and two boxes of big kid Legos that Curt wanted to give him for Christmas. I held them back because I wanted to see how he played with the first set of big kid Legos. He did great, so we felt he was ready.




We sang,"Happy Weaning Day to You" and he blew out the candles, one for every year he nursed. Then, he opened his presents and put on his movie.



Eva, on the other hand, is no where NEAR weaning. Right now we are working on limits because she's nurse 24-7 if I let her!

Mountain Buggy Post: Resolutions

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Mountain Buggy Post: Snow Day

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Quadrilla

Curt got this Quadrilla set for Ian last year. It has been in my closet for most of the year for frequent "failure to put away" violations. Eva kept putting the marbles in her mouth and Ian kept leaving marbles around the house.

We just got it back out and they are playing with it much better this year. Eva still put the marbles in her mouth, but after being removed from play, she realized I mean business and now is playing nicely.

Curt loves Quadrilla and I had to talk him down from buying lots of additional sets last year. I think this set will be fine until Ian's birthday when we can add to it.


Eva in her new dress:

No Bottles in This House

"I nurse!"

Fly Lady Step 1: Shine Your Sink

Habit 1 for Fly Lady: Shine your sink.
Before:


After:

Christmas 2010

Eva was the first up. She is holding her pants up because they are too big and she has a thermometer because she is not supposed to have it.

Curt woke Ian up because he couldn't wait any longer. He probably would have sleot until 9am, but was happy to get up at 7am for presents.

Ian's big present was big kid Legos.

Eva had an Olivia Christmas with Olivia dolls, books and dvds.

Ian is still very happy to open any present even if it is clothes or wild rice (I put wild rice in their stockings). That is nice. Since we don't have commercials, he doesn't ask for much. Both of them have too many toys already, so we kept Christmas small. They still had fun, though.

Eva's favorite present was a pink dress with matching hoodie. As soon as she opened it, she starting ripping off her pjs and demanded to wear it.


Group picture.


Merry Christmas!

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Traveling with Baby Pictures and tips from my travels.

Good Housekeeping Parker House Rolls (Susan, Our Beginning Cook, Learns to Make...)

My mom makes this recipe at the holidays. Susan Flick, the wife of an Army Captain shared this recipe with my mom while my dad and her husband were attending German language classes in Monterrey, California in the fall of 1975. The rolls are awesome and even I can make them. I couldn't find the recipe and was searching for it online. Seems that others were looking for it. It is from an article titles,"Susan, Our Beginning Cook Learns to Make..." It is not on the Good Housekeeping website so I will put it up here.

6 to 6 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 packages dry active yeast
1 cup butter softened
1 egg

About 3 1/2 hours before serving:

1. In a large bowl,combine 2 1/4 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast; add 1/2 cup butter. With mixer at low speed, gradually pour 2 cups hot water (120' to 130'F) into dry ingredients. Add egg. Increase speed to medium. Beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Beat in 3/4 cup flour or enough to make a thick batter. Continue beating 2 minutes, occasionally scraping the bowl. With a spoon stir in enough additional flour (about 2 1/2 cups) to make a soft dough.

2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Shape dough into a ball and place in greased large bowl, turning over so that the top of dough is greased. Cover with a towel. Let rise in a warm place (8-0' to 85'F) until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

3. Punch down dough by pushing down the center of the dough with fist, then pushing the edges of dough into center. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead lightly to make a smooth ball. Cover with bowl for 15 minutes and let dough rest.

4. In a 17 1/4" by 11 1/2" roasting pan, over low heat, melt the remaining 1/2 cup butter. Tilt the pan to grease bottom.

5. On lightly floured surface with floured rolling pin, roll dough 1/2 inch thick. With floured 2 2/4 inch round cutter, cut dough into circles. Holding dough circle by the edge, dip both sides into melted butter in pan. Fold in half. Arrange folded dough in rows in pan, each nearly touching the other. Knead trimmings together, re-roll and cut more rolls. Cover pan with towel. Let dough rise in warm place until doubled, about 40 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, preheat over to 425'F. Bake rolls 18-20 minutes until browned. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

No, not low calorie, but delicious. They get eaten every time and are still good a few days later, especially if you heat them up again.

Defining Normal Birth for the Next Generation

A client of mine posted the pictures from her birth that I took on her Facebook. I was looking through them and Ian said,"Oh is that a baby right after it came out?"

Me: Yes, if we have another baby maybe we can do it here and you can see the baby come out.

Ian: Cool! But we need a pool, right?"

The Tree is Up

We are usually traveling at Christmas but since we were in the States for a month in August, we decided to stay home this year. Our first Christmas as a married couple was spent living in Egypt. One of the best things to buy in Egypt is glass Christmas ornaments. So we bought a ton and most of our ornaments are glass. With little ones this doesn't work out too well. I still put a few on the tree for sparkle, but try to use less fragile ornaments near the bottom for the kids. They still managed to break an ornament yesterday but it is still usable.

Curt made hot cocoa and Eva loved it. "My coke! More coke!"




They had fun decorating. I rearranged some of the ornaments because they clustered them.

Ian have extra Christmas stockings and the kids put them all on and danced around to the music.

Peace.

Koreans love to make the peace sign in photos. Since Ian has started at Korean preschool, he makes the peace sign in most photos. When he turned 4, he started showing 4 fingers in photos.


Sometimes, he likes to really mix it up and show 10 fingers. Eva is trying to copy him here as well.