Toy Library

We have only just recently become members of our local toy library, and I am already in love. What a fabulous idea!

Membership costs $10, and that lasts you a lifetime. Then every month that you borrow items, it is another $10. So this week, we borrowed, a big car (that makes lots of noises!), a wheely bug, and 3 puzzles. You can borrow items for 2 weeks, but I am thinking about swapping ours this week (would have only had it for a week).

After umming and ahhing about joining it, I am so glad I did, and I wish I had earlier. They have sooo many toys, and after already putting away so many toys of Lily's, I could have saved so much money (and cupboard space) if I had just borrowed it from the Toy Library.

If you are in Ballina, the details for the toy library are:

Ballina Toy Library

Regatta Ave (behind the library), Ballina

Tel: Anne on 6686 0275 or Mob: 0411 719074 for further information

   Opened:

   Saturday - 10am to 1pm

   Tues, Wed, Fri - 11am to 1pm

Life Membership $10 plus $10 per month for hire.

Community run service providing toys and games for babies and children aged 0 to 6 years.

Toy hire up to 3 items per fortnight.

*After hours toy hire by appointment only Tues, Wed & Friday

NEW: Party hire, pickup Friday drop back Tuesday ($1 per item)

If you aren't in Ballina, you can try to find a list of toy libraries here:

http://www.hotfrog.com.au/Products/Toy-Library

http://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting-directory/directory-search.asp?c=90&scs=138&l=

And for children with special needs, try looking up Noah Ark's Toy Library.

Here is a link for people in Sydney:

http://www.toys4specialneeds.org.au/

Snot and coughs

We've had an invasion of germs in the tubbles household this week. Starting with Chris and his man flu last weekend, me wrapped up in a blanket and comfiest trackies the following weekend, and while I thought Lily might have escaped it with just some grumpiness and runny noses, it seems the worst was yet to come.

Last night with the vaporiser pumping eucalyptus, peppermint and lavender oil, and administering some panadol and some mucous breakdown type syrup (called "Cough Combat"), we still had a sleepless night. I ended up getting upset at 1:30am after I hadn't slept because Lily kept pulling my hair (her comforter) so woke up Chris to let her play with his hair instead. This did not go down well with Lily, which resulted in a grumpy Chris too. So I ended up with Lily laying on my chest, as this was the only way to calm her down, and as she slowly shuffled around to rest on my shoulder, she fell asleep, and eventually I did too.

Our vaporiser has usually done wonders, and I am wondering if it is because we have it set up differently that it may not be achieving the same results. I have tried to google where the most effective position for a vaporiser is, but I haven't found any answers yet. I'm waiting for Chris to take down the cot next to my side of the bed (in our failed attempt to try to get Lily to use her cot) so that I can have my bedside table back, and put the vaporiser back there when need be (among all the other items I would like to have on my bedside table). Until then, I guess I can't test my theory that it may be because we have changed the position of the vaporiser.

I still stand by that the vaporiser has been the best thing we have bought for Lily to have while sick. While breastfeeding, you could definitely tell the difference. Without it Lily would "do the freestyle" at the boob, trying to create a balance between breastmilk and oxygen. And the amount of snot that would end up on your boob, and all the noises that would make you grimace at the thought of all that snot being swallowed. Yes, there was definitely improvement when we used it before. It beats the "nose sucker" any day. The battle we would have to try and use it on Lily, and the relief was only temporary, as we all know how many times we can blow our nose, and have thought "will this snot ever end?!" or even "where the hell does all this shit come from?!!?!?!"

I am also wondering if I should cut back on Lily's dairy milk. She usually has 2 - 3 bottles of milk a day, and from memory, I remember being told that you should avoid dairy as it can help increase mucous production. But if I'm not to give Lily dairy milk, what am I meant to give? I have figured that it is probably better for her than it is worse, even if that does mean more snot. It will still finish one day, right?!

One additional thing I need to make mention of, when I started getting signs of the flu coming (sore throat), I threw on my amber necklace, and within 12 hours my throat was no longer sore! YAY! Chris is still complaining of a sore throat, so I am pretty stoked about that.

(Me in all my sick-homey goodness! Unbrushed hair, trackies, and Lily snot stained clothes ahaha, but also a shot of my amber necklace)

Weaning and Sleeping

Ok, so our daughter has been weaned now for a month, or there about, does that mean her sleep is meant to have improved since we ceased breastfeeding at night? I don't feel like it has :( We have the odd night with only one or two wake ups, but more often than not, we have LOTS of wake up stills. I wonder if this is because we also changed her from co-sleeping to her own bed. She has no problem with her bed per say, she will go jump in her bed when she is tired, and when we say its bed time, she'll run in to there. But I think she still has issues with sleeping alone.

We do a bed time story, bottle, and cuddles to sleep. I know this is probably the wrong thing to do, but it means we do not have any tears, and Lily loves going to bed. The problem, as I see it, is that she wakes up and we aren't there so is sad. Lately, I can't be bothered getting out of bed, so on her second wake, I bring her in to bed with us again, and she sleeps pretty much through, except with a whinge at about 4:30 (at the moment, used to be 5:30, but I think this should change back in daylight savings) cos she is hungry, and depending on the whinge, she either gets a small bottle, or we try to cuddle and pat her to sleep. So now I am wondering, should we even worry about putting her in her bed? I get more sleep when she is in with us, and she is obviously not ready to sleep on her own. But I also think that she won't get used to sleeping by herself if she doesn't get the chance to. *sigh* Parenting is definitely filled with so many decisions, which really does suck for someone as indecisive as me :P

While we are on the topic of sleep associations, Lily loves to pull hair. So much so that I have now got a "lion's mane" from her pulling and breaking my hair. I have NO idea how she developed it, but it is seeming to get worse as she gets older, or maybe its just because she can pull harder. She is now also doing it to other people. She has a little friend, and when she is a bit tired and he gives her cuddles she pulls his hair. I'm not sure if it is because Lily is still a baldy that she has this pulling hair fascination, but its sending me insane. I'm hoping once she has some hair she might just pull her own hair, but I think it is a thing where she pulls it so she knows you are close/can't get away.

Sometimes I feel like I would like to go to a sleep school, but I am also not sure. I do not want to do controlled crying. I know it works for other parents, but it is not for me, and I do not want to be forced in to it by a sleep school. I have heard of some sleep schools who have a "gentle" approach, but I am not sure if there are any in my area, so I am scared of asking in case they try and convince me to attend a controlled crying one instead (as the MCHNs here have tried to tell me to limit breastfeeds, not to co-sleep, and that I couldn't do baby-led-weaning, etc. So, you could say we have different ideas, and I dislike that they want everyone to fit in to one mould). You'd think being near Byron Bay there would be somewhere I could go for some help though?

Birthday!

Well, its almost been a week since my birthday, but I have only just had the time to sit down and write about it.

I had a terrific birthday, one of the best ones perhaps!

The "start" was not so great though. Lily probably had one of her worst sleeps in recent times, and woke up extra early too. Great! Just how mummies like to wake up on their birthday - overtired!

Starting the day early though, meant that we had more time to do things, so we cycled over to my mum's house using the new WeeRide that I got for my birthday (which I have to say is bloody brilliant! I will write more about this soon), and then heading out for breakfast/coffee at Shelly's by Shelley Beach - which seems to have become a birthday ritual now. No whales this year, but the weather was perfect, so perfect we went for a little play on the sand (and waves so it seemed) before heading home.

I wish everyday could be like this! (This is a photo of Lily leading mum to the water to wash her rocks, and subsequently falling in, and then having to spend the rest of her time at the beach in the nude)

I then picked up one of my friends and her son, and headed over to another friends house (who shares my birthday! Double the fun!!!) to wait for her daughter to wake up before heading to the House with No Steps (also known as Summerland House) in Alstonville. We ordered take away and sat in their fenced playground on a picnic rug eating our food, and watching the kids run around and return to eat something and then run away again. The bit that had them most intriuged was the "water park" which while it was on, they would watch in amazement, but while it was off (but still had some of the fountains trickling) they would splash around and try to catch the water, and other fun and wet activities. I wish I had gotten some photos of us, as well as the drenched little kiddies.

We finished the day there, with a coffee at the cafe, when another mum came to meet up with us with her son also. I think all the kiddies fell asleep in the car ride home!

Dinner was awesome! Mum cooked me my childhood favourite, mmmm... Chicken Corn! This is chicken breasts stuffed with bacon, shallots, garlic and creamed corn. I can't really imagine anything else you would use creamed corn for, but man this dish is YUM! Along with my childhood favourites, came along some of my oldest friends, who happened to have moved up this way too! <3

One of the good things about having weaned my daughter is that I can now have a couple of drinks. Woohoo! So we got in some bubbly, and some vodka, and I got to have a few drinks with my old friends too. Something I definitely have missed, but not so much the next morning!!! I don't think I remember getting so hungover with so little to drink before. Maybe I am just getting old :P

The votes are in!!

It has come the time to announce which one of the beautiful babies received the most votes, and I have only just realised that all the babies are BOYS!

Please also remember, that all the boys who have entered are beautiful, whether they got the most votes or not <3

Drum roll please??
....

It was VERY close between two of the boys, so much so that I had to triple check my triple check, to make sure that they were indeed that close, and were correct.

.... *insert drum roll here* ....


So, the tally looks like this:
Aaron - 2 votes
Ashton - 51 votes
Elijah - 48 votes
Jack - 16 votes
Zack - 12 votes

A BIG congratulations to Ashton!!

And a huge thank you to all of the participants, and everyone who voted.

I have listed all votes, and the counting under each participant's blog entry, if people are interested.