Another new cousin!

On Tuesday morning , two weeks early and after a very speedy labour (which I am terribly envious of), Geekling's newest cousin arrived: introducing Baby C!

Baby C is Geekling's 13th cousin!  Its been a busy couple of years for babies in our family, but I don't think there will be any more for a little while.

Geekling's Christmas presents

Would you like a sneak peek at what Geekling is getting for Christmas from his daddy and I, and from Santa?

From his Dad and I:  This Felt World Map we picked up some months ago at ALDI for $30.  We are packaging it up with the individual cultural packages we've received so far from participating in the Chasing Cheerios Cultural Exchange - we have packages from the USA, Germany, Canada, Korea and more.  We hope Geekling enjoys playing with this and learning about the world.

From Santa: We did Geekling's Christmas shopping for Santa in one hit - its all from Bright Bugs, who sell a wonderful selection of educational and handmade toys.  My friend Kelly is a consultant - if you're in Brisbane check out her facebook page.

Every year we give Santa gives Geekling three gifts, which represents the three gifts that the wise men gave Baby Jesus - its our way of linking the religious part of the holiday with the gift-giving custom.  His gifts this year:

Melissa & Doug Wooden Clock Puzzle

Great for learning about shapes and colours, telling the time and more.  Geekling has just started to learn his colours (he knows red, blue, yellow, green, orange, black and white) and shapes (he knows stars and circles).

Melissa & Doug Magnetic Dress Up Joey

When I saw this on a fellow Montessori blogger's site, I plotted to get one for Geekling.  He is just starting to get interested in getting his own clothes and trying to put on his own shoes.

Mix & Match Animal Puzzle

(Sorry - I cannot find a picture of this one)

Hiatus

Apologies for the long gap between posts - I realised its been 3 weeks!  I am struggling to compose posts when I can only get half an hour or so of power out of my laptop at a time (of which I can only use the whole 30 minutes if Geekling is asleep :) but when we get this sorted I'll have plenty to post about!

I hope to get a few things posted before Christmas, in part because its a bit pointless posting Christmas themed activities afterwards, but also because we are heading away for a week and a half on Christmas night.

Please bear with me :)

Eating neatly with cutlery

Geekling has recently mastered eating with metal cutlery.  It seems like it suddenly 'clicked'.  He cleans out a bowl of yoghurt at light speed with a spoon and he's just gotten the hang of a metal fork.

It is a good Montessori practical life lesson each meal, plastic forks are useless!  You will also see he uses a regular ceramic bowl - Now we must stock up on some appropriate sized glassware and be rid of those plastic cups.

Chicken pen

Two reasons its been a bit quiet on this blog lately:

1. My laptop is dying

2. We've been spending our weekends building a chicken pen for our chickens.  And here it is!

The frame is made from recycled pool fencing that had been sitting around hubby's parents place for the best part of the last decade.  While it is excellent to be able to use the gate part, I wouldn't recommend it as it is SOOOO heavy.  Or at least I would not recommend situating the new chook pen at the very far uphill corner of the yard.

The frame posts are secured with recycled star pickets donated by our neighbour.  It is covered with chicken wire and recycled corregated iron from the nearby Dakabin Tip Treasure Market.  We ran bricks around the outside to stop the dog (or anything else) digging under it.

The chook house is a dog kennel I purchased recently on ebay for $10.  The lid is on a hinge so lifts for easy access to the eggs (when they start laying) and for cleaning.  The ramp is made from a bit of pine with backyard sticks glued to it.

The chooks seem happy enough with it but they haven't yet worked out how to get up into the chook house which I find odd since I thought they naturally go to the highest point.

Catching the train

Geekling LOVES the train, we catch the train every week day to his day care centre one stop away.  He walks to the station from the car park, likes to choose whether to go up the steps or up the ramp, then he enjoys pressing the buttons to call the lift to take us up to the concourse and another lift down to our platform.

Lately he has taken to sitting on "seats".  Anything that can be sat on is a seat, and he simply must try sitting on whatever he sees other people sitting on, and takes particular delight in sitting on the train seats - it brought a tear to my eye as he looks so big and grown up.

Geekling's new cousin

Introducing Geekling's latest cousin: Baby-G!

Baby-G is the first-born of my little brother (who we nickname 'G' in real life).  Just like Geekling, Baby-G's name begins with G - he inherited his 'G' name from his dad, who inherited it from his dad, who inherited it from his dad (my late Pop, who passed away only a few months ago).  It is a family tradition for first born boys.

The arrival of Baby-G made me an aunt for the 12th time (and we have another nephew due in January!).  I hope Geekling and Baby-G will be great buddies as they grow up.

Op shop Montessori bargains

Purchasing Montessori materials can be expensive if you shop at Montessori stores and sites, but if you keep an eye out you can find similar items at markets and op shops.  Here is my haul from a local op shop last weekend that cost a total of $14 (and that included some shorts and a tshirt for Geekling also!).



I plan to use the metal trays to present tasks and activities, the scoop, funnel and seive in sensory tubs, the ceramic jugs for pouring activities and the egg cups are for our weekend breakfasts but may paint or polish the two unfinished ones.

Ditching the stroller

In keeping with our decision to implement the Montessori method, we are making great progress with 'weaning off the stroller'.  To be honest, its more about weaning hubby and I off it than weaning Geekling off it.  Most of the time he would much rather get from A to B under his own steam.  We've been guilty of using it for our own convenience (and in some cases, sanity), particularly in getting him to and from daycare.  But no more.  Now we will only use the stroller if we are planning a big, long day out somewhere (such as a show or festival).  It is an exercise in patience for mummy and daddy many times, walking at a child's pace (even though Geekling seldom walks, but runs as fast as his chubby legs will carry him) and stopping many times as his attention is caught by something other than the path ahead.  It would be so easy to say "don't stop, we must hurry" or to scoop him up and carry him, but we truly want to encourage his interest in the world around him and natural curiosity.

Why does the Montessori method shun the use of prams and strollers?

Aside from the general principle of allowing a child to interact freely with their environment, Montessori methods prefer not to use strollers because a child does not learn skills like walking by being strapped into prams and carriers and high chairs most their day.  They learn by being given the chance to attempt and practice these skills through being allowed to safely move freely.  Yes, Geekling already knows how to walk, and run, but these skills are still stepping stones to further skills that he must be able to practice at every possible opportunity.  Every day he is perfecting his balance, soon he will learn to jump, skip, hop and more.  We do not want to hold him back for the sake of our convenience.

This does make shopping with him more difficult, with the exception of shopping at Bunnings where he can push a baby trolley around the store.  He's getting quite good at steering them!

Chickens!

Geekling's daycare recently had a hired chicken hatching, and when the chicks reached 2 weeks old they offered them up to parents to take home for free.  We were told that Geekling LOVED the chicks and had been meaning to invest in some chooks for some time so we took 3 home.  And here they are:

We're still deciding on names.  I'm leaning towards "K", "F" and "C" but we might wait to see how many are roosters (which we'll have to get rid of) before we try themed names!

Geekling does indeed love the chickens.  Here he is reading one of his books on chicks with his Daddy.

They're still in a (bigger) box in the house and will stay inside with us for a couple more weeks.  When they are about 6 weeks old they will venture out into the back yard.  In the meantime we are going to fence off part of the yard away from the dog and build a coop :)

Reducing waste in the home

I'm a bit of a greenie at heart and fairly frugal, so my motivation for reducing waste and converting to reuseable products where possible is two-fold: save the environment and save money.  It is also very satisfying to glide by all the products you no longer need in the supermarket - our fortnightly shops are usually $120 - $140 which I understand is pretty good for a small family.  Here are examples of reuseable products or other ways that we reduce waste:

• Watering down products - You'll be amazed the number of products you can water down or use less of.  A plumber friend told me it is actually better for your dishwasher to use half measures of powder!  Try using half as much powder in your dishwasher, clothes washing and using less shampoo and conditioner.  I also tend to water down my liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner and moisturisers with about 1/3 water.  Lastly, once your white vinegar gets half-empty, top it up with water and leave it in a sunny spot for a couple of days and it will reach full-strength again.  You can continue doing this 3 or 4 times with the same bottle.  Vinegar has a myriad of uses around the home - try using it in your house cleaning.
• Make your own - we make our own bread, pizza bases, yoghurt, muffins, meatballs, pikelets and more.  We save the end-pieces of bread and any imperfect slices, blitz them in the food processor for home-made breadcrumbs.
• Grow your own - herbs are the easiest way to get started and save so much money by not buying fresh herbs by the bunch.  The best bit is the more you harvest, the better and faster they grow!  Vegies and fruit trees are also a fantastic way to grow your own but I must admit we've had mixed success with those.
• Use less meat - In stir-fries, curries and other dishes we generally use 1/3 - 1/2 of the meat a recipe requests.  For dishes in which a fillet is the main component we try to stick to the 150 - 180g serving size per adult, halving one fillet between us if necessary.  As meat is often the most expensive ingredient in a meal, this can save a lot of money!
• Find uses for kitchen scraps and leftovers - use leftovers as pizza toppings or sandwich fillers, or freeze unused portions of wine and sauces in ice cube trays or zip-lock bags and meals in single or kid-sized portions.  Use stray vegies at the end of the fortnight to make stocks and freeze.  Feed scraps to chickens if you have them (or someone elses' if you know anyone with chooks) or start a compost or worm farm.
• Tea towels, handkerchiefs and terry towel nappies - We generally don't buy tissues or paper towel, but use reuseable cloth options and simply wash them and reuse.
• Feminine Hygeine - I use a Femmecup, which is basically a small latex cup that is inserted much like a tampon, emptied, rinsed and reused over and over.  I haven't purchased pads or tampons in a long time, and it paid for itself in a matter of months but has an expected lifespan of 10 years.  There are many other brands available or other options such as cloth pads.
• Nappies - we use modern cloth nappies full time.  They are just as easy to use as disposeables, and so cute!  Almost all of our nappies are "one size fits most" and have been used since Geekling was 2 weeks old through to now (almost 20 months and counting).  Here's a couple of photos of Geekling in the same nappy at 5 weeks and again at 1 year - the same nappy still gets used but I don't have a more recent photo.

Free family day out - Southbank

A couple of weeks ago during the Brisbane Festival we took a lovely family trip to the city and South Bank.  Aside from dinner, all our activities were free!

We parked at my work in the CBD and walked over the Victoria Bridge to South Bank.

... where visited the museum...

 The touch parts had seen better days but Geekling still loved them

One Cute-a-sauras and Daddy-rex

Geekling loved the ocean room, and the taxidermied animals.  There was a possum at the enquiries counter that the attendant even took out of the perspex box to let him pet until he tried to pull its tail!  He declared it was a "cat" and was thoroughly delighted to touch it.

We then had another look at the Liquid Interactive Light Scope, before taking a Citycat back over the river.

We went to dinner at Little Singapore, where Geekling enjoyed eating noodles from chopsticks and more or less inhaled my roti.

Then it was back over the river to South Bank for gelato followed by the Santos City of Lights show.  Geekling was absolutely enthralled at the start of the light show but had lost interest by the end.

Sadly, the Liquid Interactive Light Scope and Santos Light Show are both over (I just hadn't gotten around to posting this earlier as I had to find my camera cable to upload the photos), but I am sure there will be another festival or cultural celebration soon that we can make a day or an evening of.

Vegies are tasty!

This post ties in well with my recent guest posts over at  Brisbane Kids - creative food play and my favourite pizza base recipe.  Brisbane Kids is also on Facebook and are a great way to keep up with cheap and fun activities around Brisbane such as expos, fetes, festivals and other celebrations.

We're having a little trouble convincing Geekling to eat vegetables at the moment.  The frustrating thing is that he will eat the same vegies in one form (on a pizza, pureed, mashed or in another dish) but then not in another (whole or chopped).  We don't want to take the developmental step back into purees all the time so here are a few of the things we've been trying to overcome this:

Muffin Tin Meals

We try to give Geekling a muffin tin meal once a week, and challenge ourselves to include one food he hasn't eaten before.  He will usually try something from each of the six compartments but we must admit he doesn't often go back for a second mouthful of vegies.

Dip-Dip

We tried lightly steaming some carrots and broccoli, and adding some yellow capsicum and cherry tomatoes, then serving with a home made cheesy dip (recipe below).  He loved this but tended to just dip the vegies, suck the dip off and dip again.

Our floor cleaner (dog) Mr L waiting patiently in the background for any dropped vegies or drips of dip

Cheesy dip: simply mix and microwave lightly to warm

2 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 cup cream
1 - 2 heaped tbsp grated cheese
1/2 tsp french onion soup mix

I threw this together using leftovers, but you could also use store-bought cream cheese spread or combine corn relish, gherkin relish or even tuna to cream cheese.

Vegie Tempura

Since Geekling is a fiend for fried potato chips we thought we'd try tempura.  He had a little bit, but it wasn't the success we'd hoped for.  He'd had a big afternoon of grazing at a birthday party and had some fresh bread while I was frying up so we might try again soon.

 Geekling gets started while Mumma continues frying

We used calamari and prawns, sweet potato, spring onion, green beans, red capsicum, broccoli, mushroom ans zucchini.

We wound up with two full plates of tempura left over after hubby, Geekling and I had finished and had to call in reinforcements to help eat it!

On our list of things to try is baked vegie "chips" and American-style pumpkin pie or muffins (both of which I LOVE).  Geekling loves vegie pizzas and fritters, so we do have some back up plans, and we tend to sneak grated veg into lots of other meals like meatballs, pasta sauces etc so we're sure he's well enough.

Hello from Thailand

This will be another quiet week on the blog as I am in Thailand for a friend's wedding while hubby is home with Geekling.  I have my camera and the cable to transfer data so if the  stars align and I have net access and I have a few spare moments I may put a post together, otherwise expect to see something from me next Tuesday.

Guest post for Brisbanekids.com.au!

Some weeks ago I responded to a request looking for craft, cooking and parenting bloggers, and the lovely Ngaire at Brisbane Kids thought highly enough of my fledgling blog to have me do a guest blog for them - check it out at http://brisbanekids.com.au/2011/09/5-favourite-home-made-toys/.  If you like what you see at Brisbane Kids, I'd encourage you to follow them on facebook.  I also recommend a read of their fabulous run down on the playgrounds of Brisbane.

And a big welcome to any visitors that have found their way here from Brisbane Kids :)

IKEA Hacks

Hello, my name is Simone and I'm an IKEA addict.  I will go to buy just ONE thing and come out having spent three times as much on smaller items I came across instore.  And we love their meatballs!

I'm no stranger to IKEA Hackers, but I came across this link of 20 IKEA Hacks to try (some are also featured on IKEA Hackers) and simply had to share!

On the menu leading up to Christmas and Geekling's birthday is to adapt an old LACK side table into a lightbox table for Geekling, add some BEKVAM spice racks as book display shelves to his room and make a play kitchen.

Water Beads

After being inspired by Play At Home Mom, I purchased a heap of these cool water beads on ebay.  They are made of non-toxic polymer gel and start off a little smaller than mustard seeds but when immersed in water will swell to the size of large marbles.  They feel jelly like and last forever - if they start to shrink I just immerse them in some more water for a couple of hours.

Showing various stages of growth/absorption

Water bead sensory tub and sorting into ice mould 

Water beads in the bath - trying to 'catch' them with slotted spoons and a seive

On our recent trip to our local market I saw many stalls selling these water beads for a couple of dollars a packet (which makes about 1 cup of beads) - I bought ours for $2 for 10 packs including postage, and they're the same brand!

I am saving the packs of clear beads to do an upcoming experiment by colouring the water they grow in to see if they take on the colour.

Brisbane Festival Liquid Interactive Light Scope Tunnel

As part of the Brisbane Festival running at the moment, a psychadelic liquid interactive light scope tunnel has been set up at South Bank near the Cultural Centre and QPAC.  It uses a number of xbox Kinect devices, mirrored roof and floor and is rather like being inside a kalidescope!  Geekling and his friend Lumpy visited recently during a play-date at South Bank and absolutely loved it!

Special thank you to Lumpy's mum for allowing me to use her photographs - they are a refreshing change from the phone camera photos I usually post!

Its free to visit but if you want to catch it you had better hurry - its last day is this Sunday 24 September 2011!  It is open from 9am - 9:30pm.

Update: Lumpy's mum has started her own blog - visit her at http://mylumpydays.blogspot.com/ for fun and frugal toddler activities

52 acts of creativity and kindness

I stumbled upon this gorgeous post giving ideas for 52 acts of creativity and kindness with the idea of doing one per week.  I am going to have a think about it and plan some of these to do with Geekling - he might be too young to 'get it' but it is setting a good example and you would be surprised what our little ones absorb!

Our version of the Pink Tower

I would dearly love to purchase some more Montessori materials for Geekling but just can't justify the investment given that he parties at daycare 5 days a week and is home with us only 2.  His old daycare was a Montessori centre and had their own Pink Tower, but he is now in a different centre.

For anyone who doesn't know what a Montessori Pink Tower is, it looks like this:

There is a lot more information around on the method behind the material for anyone who is interested.  I recently purchased the poor-man's version, being a set of very sturdy alphabet cardboard stacking/nesting boxes by Melissa & Doug, and would you believe they arrived at 8:30am roughly two weeks ago on a day Geekling was home sick - they really cheered the little guy up and they are a current favourite.  Here they are stacked up, and I promise an update with an action shot soon!

Re-bonding with my little man

After a couple of weekends of neglecting Geekling due to rabid studying, this past weekend I got to revel in his presence and catch up with my little guy in a way that I simply cannot during the hour or two I see him of a week-day evening while preparing for bath time and bed time.  I somehow thought I'd taken a lot more photos, but on review have only taken a few - its not as easy to take photos when you're the only set of eyes on a VERY active toddler, I guess!

Hubby had kindly taken him out of the house much of the last two weekends so I had only myself for company while preparing for exams, so I thought I'd return the favour and whisked Geekling off to Underwater World.  I must admit that I love the place, so it was for my benefit just as much as Geekling's.

He loved the starfish, but was not game to touch them when offered one!

He also LOVED the crocodile, and kept running back to it - from anywhere in the place he would find his way back there!  And he liked the otters, but according to Geekling they were "cats".

We stopped for a swing at the park by the wharf.  That swing lasted over half an hour!  Geekling LOVES to swing!

I finally had the time to sort some of Geekling's old clothes for my brother and hubby's brother who are both expecting their first babies (and our 13th and 14th nephews/nieces!) so Geekling's wardrobe got a clean out, which means there is now plenty of room on the floor of the inside for him!  He loves to play peek-a-boo in his wardrobe, and has been the butt of a few 'in the closet' jokes.

After a big day we enjoyed a family dinner around Geekling's table that we dragged into the loungeroom.  It was a dinner of grilled steaks, prawns, egg rolls and capsicum with 3 japanese dipping sauces, salad and rice.  YUM!

Gee, its quiet in here!

Sorry for not posting this week - I am studying furiously for five exams I am sitting over the course of four days starting tomorrow.

The good news is that I have lots of new and borrowed ideas to get cracking on when I have finished this course - I can't wait for next weekend!

Calendar Puzzles

These are some calendar puzzles that I have had for a while but haven't shared yet.  I am pretty sure I got this idea from Chasing Cheerios although I can't find the post to link.  I bought a couple of calendars in May when 2011 calendars were reduced to $1.  I got one of cats and one of dogs, took a picture from each and glued them back to back with spray adhesive.

Cat puzzles showing the different shaped pieces 

On the other side, dog puzzles showing the pieces connected

I covered one in clear contact film, but it wasn't as neat as I'd like and the ones I didn't cover have held up well enough to a toddler's rough hands.  I will probably make some more when Geekling tires of the same three or when I think he is ready to move on to four-piece puzzles.

Updated photo

I just realised the photo I have been using as my blogger profile picture is now just over a year old! I don't have many photos of me with Geekling, because I'm usually the one taking the pictures. The one below was taken on a family picnic at nearby Pine Rivers Dam for our wedding anniversary last year.

I guess its time to update it now I have another lovely photo with Geekling taken at a friend's wedding last weekend.

And I can't resist showing off another photo of Geekling looking so dapper :)

Toddler activity bags

We're currently enjoying a well-deserved, long-awaited family holiday in tropical Far-North Queensland to attend a friend's wedding. It is only the second family trip away we've taken, and I'm still finding travel with a toddler to be challenging and hard work but absolutely amazing and I am sure we'll forge some wonderful family memories in this trip.

So, in order to entertain a 1.5 year old on a 2.5 hour plane trip (plus the waiting at airports and check in etc), I made up a number of activity bags inspired by this post from Chasing Cheerios, as well as packing a few things that didn't fit in the little zip lock bags:

Top row: Travel size Magna-doodle (almost bought the mini one, but they were the same price and the cheapskate in me could not allow me to buy a smaller product for the same cost), Geekling's Button Snake, a gold tiny gift box with a hole cut in the top and a pack of plastic coin-size counters to slot through it, a blank notepad (thank you Thynne & Macartney) and a couple of bingo markers.

Middle row: Finger puppets (mostly sea animals and some animals that are featured in Dear Zoo, one of Geekling's favourite books which we also packed), Mini pack of plasticine with cutters, 4 stackable storage containers filled with different coloured counters and a silly putty (makes faltulent noises when squashed).

Bottom row: Bob the Builder magnetic background and magnets, Animal funny face re-useable sticker book, magic colouring book and pen, Geekling's matchsticks and toothpick container.

Of course, since we were so prepared, we didn't actually need any of them! Geekling slept the entire flight! One of the families near us had a baby around Geekling's age who wasn't as happy to be flying so I offered them the magic colouring book which entertained him briefly (then his older sister much longer) - I don't think Geekling will mind if it is a little pre-used :)

Making bread

One of the many grocery items that hasn't graced our shopping list in a while is bread - we make our own!  We cheat and use a breadmaker that was gifted to us, and even though bread is quite cheap at the shops (sometimes as low as $1 per loaf) I still believe we save money making our own.  Besides, nothing beats the fresh stuff, slathered in butter and spread thinly with vegemite!

Geekling loves helping around the house at the moment, including making bread.  Hubby often measures out the ingredients for him to tip in to the tin.

Here is the recipe we use and love:

1 1/4 cup water (room temperature - approx 15 - 20 degrees)

3 and 1/4 cups plain flour 

2 tbsp butter

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 tsp bread improver (optional)

1 and 1/2 tsp dried yeast

Throw it all in the machine and turn it on!

The recipe can be adapted to baking in the oven - you just have to mix, knead and prove yourself.

You can also use 00 flour or breadmaker's flour if you want to get fancy, but plain flour works just fine!

We've been meaning to experiment with cheese and herbs and all manner of delicious add-ins but have been too busy enjoying it as is!