Breastfeelings

A few days ago I was laying on the lounge and Hamish lifted up my top put his mouth to my breast then grinned and wandered off. I realised it was the first time in about a month that he had shown any interest in having boob.

Im a big believer in don't offer don't refuse method. Its where you let you children wean in their own time slowly and so far both of my boys have done the same thing slowly feeding less and less.

Jack still loves my boobs, he loves to hold them kiss them talk about them and occasionally tastes some milk, it is certainly occasionally confronting but I love the healthy relationship he continues to have with my breasts. He fed regularly until he was about 3.5 and then one day announced he was getting big now and doesn't want boob anymore, other than the asking me to express a little when i was still feeding Hamish, he hasn't fed since.

So now it looks like Hamish has finished having boob, like his brother he still loves to touch them for comfort and curiosity but I tried hand expressing a little today and i got a few drops, a few months ago i could have still squirted you across the room.

So breastfeeding is over for me.

I loved breastfeeding, I breastfed for 4.5 years non stop, I tandem fed for 18 months, I never got mastitis or any issues with my breasts, I loved the ability to put my babies to sleep anywhere because boob was all they needed, even when I got tired of breastfeeding when I was pregnant, I still loved what it gave Jack and I think that the fact that I breastfed through pregnancy and tandem fed after, had a HUGE part to play in why Jack has never shown ANY jealousy or displacement.

So as much as I want to cry and mourn, I also want to give a huge thanks to my babies, my husband for his unwavering breastfeeding support .... and my glorious, although now slightly used breasts xx

Conversations with a 4.5 year Old

Me: Jack is mummy funny?
Jack: Yep, sometimes.
Me: Beautiful?
Jack: Yes, very (aww gush)
Me: Lovely?
Jack: Yep, and do you know, that even when your cross with me, you still love me?
Me: Always and forever. More than anything in the world.
Jack: And did you know that Giants live in the clouds
Me: Who told you that?
Jack: Oh, I just figured it out.

Its a Knight/Pirate/Cowboy Kinda Day

Andrew has been away this week. It was timed well as the first 3 days he was away the boys were at preschool. Thursday though found me tired and the boys looking for something extra to do.

They decided to make swords.  Jack had already made/found 1/2 a wooden sword outside preschool a few days ago and spent the morning decorating it.  I mentioned to him that some swords have jewels on the handle and inscriptions on the blade. After some explaining about what inscriptions were and browsing online at different swords and knights, he exclaimed loudly, "I know, I'll write This Is A Sword, on it!"

Then it was time to make shields and helmets. We had run out of boxes that would make good helmets so I made helmet masks for them.

Jack decided he didn't like his mask and wanted to be a Pirate, then a cowboy, then a warrior that didn't need a mask.

The fun play lasted an hour, until they both started taking the battle to seriously and we had a few casualties.  Mummy put the war games away :)

I found myself sitting here wondering about boys and they combat play.  I often feel completely unskilled at dealing with it in a non judgemental way, while still explaining that hitting your brother over the head with a cardboard sword might seem like 'the thing to do" but it really isn't.

Awkward Family Moments

A holiday pic that quiet frankly, scares the crap out of us

A while ago I posted about badgersbadgersbadgers and I mentioned that my friend Treena, pops onto the site when she needs a giggle. My site for the same thing is Awkward Family Moments. Sometimes you have to shuffle through a few to get to one that catches your sense of humour for example, people in insane poses, not really funny to me, but people with insane mullets, very funny to me. Some of the photos wouldnt be nearly as funny without the comments, like the one above. In the end, its the mullets that give me the best giggles.

Cooking with Children

See ... See... Just as I almost called a blogging hiatus I thought of something that I needed to share, damn its frustrating, but also a pretty cool emergency blogging reflex.

Last week Jack announced that he wants to be a chef, his words. We watched Masterchef and I wondered if that is where he got the idea from, but when questioned further he said that he wanted to be a chef like me *grin*

Anyhow, to try work with his interests we have cooked something together for the last few days. The best part of this new hobby is that as we are preparing food he is excitedly tasting new things.

We cooked a banana and chocolate chip cake. OK no stretch there, both he and his brother would quote bananas as being one of their favourite foods, and who doesn't love chocolate chips. But we also cooked a healthy lasagna, and today alone Jack tried raw and cooked mushroom, raw and cooked tomato, raw and cook spinach, onion, ricotta, asparagus, lettuce, and rocket.

A lot of these foods are ones that he has tried before, some he used to eat often, but recently I have had trouble getting Jack interested in being brave and trying things that he feels uninspired by so all of this is great stuff.

I know it is a stage, a lot of kids go up and down with their willingness to eat foods, especially ones that are challenging like mushrooms, and generally Jack has a good range of foods that he eats regularly and I mostly feel like he has quiet good nutrition but it is still fairly limited, and within those limits my culinary skills have been stretched.

So lets hope that this new interest in food and cooking is a healthy and inspired move forward.

Plus then I can make more Swedish Chef posts, and gosh that Swedish Chef makes me giggle check out this little clip

Writers Writing

I love my blog, but I am guilty of ignoring it at times, and recently more so than ever before. The problem is that at the moment, I am trying to write more fiction and that seems to be taking me away from my general musings.

Now don't get me wrong, it's my choice and I am enjoying the effort I am putting into my fictional writing very much but I am also feeling guilty and neglecting my poor blog and the 2 people who read it *wink*

You see my blog is such a triumph for me, it is the first thing that I really put myself into after having children and it has given me a place for my brain to release a lot of ideas and day to day thoughts that otherwise would have had to run around in my head.

I also love the fact that it helped me connect with the part of me that loves to write, it has pushed me to think about things like grammar punctuation that had been forgotten a long time ago. There is of course a direct link between my blog and the other stuff I am writing today.

So although some days I think gosh, should I just write a post that says I'm on hiatus, the next day something will hit my brain and I'll think , god there has got to be a blog post in that :)

So if you are still reading, thank - you, my blog alone gives my soul a little something, but it helps if I think a few people might actually be reading as well xx

Conversations with a 4.5 year old

As I was putting Jack to bed last night completely out of the blue we had this conversation.

Jack: Mummy, when are you going to have a baby girl?
Me: Would you like a sister?
Jack: Hmm well you can't, you don't have another baby?
Me: No (wondering if he thinks that I had a bottle of babies that was now empty) No baby I don't have another baby, but Daddy and I could make one, the same way as we made you and Hamish
Jack: How?
Me: (suddenly realising we were having 'that' talk again and also realising that I still hadn't figured out the best way of explaining where babies come from) Well remember I told you that the same way as we plant a seed in the earth and it grows, well daddy plants a seed in mummy and very slowly a baby grows in my tummy
Jack: (seeming satisfied with my plant analogy) Well can you make one then
Me: Would you like another brother or a sister?
Jack: A sister
Me: And what would you call a sister?
Jack: It would be ok if there were two Maalis, there are two Scarletts
Me: Yes, you wouldn't mind if mummy and daddy had another child in the house, you would have to share us and your things,
Jack: Oh no mummy I wouldn't mind, I like sharing

And you know what, I bet he truly wouldn't xx

And to finish off here is another photo of the birthday boy. Taken today, in our back yard eating an icy pole.  Gawd he's such a cutiepie :)

Hamish 3rd Birthday Party

(Hamish 3 days old)

My head is spinning at how fast my little men are growing up. Tomorrow is Hamishs' 3rd birthday, and on the weekend we had his little birthday party.

He is truly a beautiful soul, every mad intense sweet little part of him. He endears himself to people in a way that is amazing to watch. Yesterday he started trying to write his name, working so hard on the letter 'H' his face screwed in total concentration, and while I watched him it really solidified the fact that my baby, is no longer a baby

As it stands today, his favourite things include;

Climbing

Running

Tormenting his brother

Reading

Dora

Dancing, singing and playing music

All in all he is an enigma, as I think all children should be, and everyday day/week/year is constantly full of surprises, with us often asking what will he do next.

In true Hamish style, he wanted a flower birthday cake, made of bananas and chocolate. In true mummy style I made it from scratch, but was unable to make it look anything like a flower, luckily he thought it looked and tasted great, so it was a success .... a very ugly success.

And so tomorrow, we wish him his real Happy Birthday, after the joy of his party I don't think he will even notice, but still I will spend the day remembering that this time 3 years ago we went to bed a family of 3 and by the next night we were a family of 4.