Some time ago I wrote about my desires for the year ahead.  I said I wanted peace, and mindfulness and to be present in my days. I’m struggling with that. I’m working hard on it, don’t get me wrong, but I’m struggling.  Mindfulness is hard work.

Day 129/365 – Yum

There hasn’t been a lot going on the last two days, but I’ve been doing some baking and making some healthy versions of favourite recipes. I’ve also been trying to convert recipes to Thermomix recipes.   I’ve been having so much fun, I’m actually doing so much baking and cooking I don’t have time to blog it all, but I’m trying! (Check out a Keeper of the Kitchen, please!)

Day 130/365 – Mama Time

I love Starbucks. Man, their coffee is good. I really enjoyed my Friday mornings at Starbucks, but now Aviya walks around it’s… less than relaxing! Someday soon again – then I’ll miss the toddler days of go,go,go!

Day 131/365 – Sitz Bath Herbs

I work most evenings. In fact, I go from mama to work to bed and I don’t get much sleep. A local mama is due to have her baby soon, so I spent this particular evening making her Sitz Bath Herbs. I really enjoyed just having an evening ‘off’, even though I did end up blogging it

132/365 – An Odd Choice

An odd choice of snuggle toy! But she takes it to bed and I have to prise it out her fingers. It’s kind of cute. Like she is.

133/365 – Day Out

Since going to and returning from Australia, things have chnaged in my friendship groups. It’s a bit sad. Actually a lot sad, but a lot of things have changed.  On the up side, I’ve become a lot closer to people who were on the fringes of the group I was in previously. I’m really enjoying my deeper friendships, and enjoying getting to know them better with trips out and about.

134/365 – Night Out

One of the benefits of the new friendships? A weekly girls night out. It’s just a cup of coffee with the ladies, but it’s excellent. We actually get to finish conversations without interruptions  I’d forgotten what that was like!

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

On Sunday we had a spectacularly rare event: a family day out. It’s normally one of us, going out with the children to give the other some time off. It’s rare that we all go out together, so this was blissful. We also often go to Legoland Windsor, because it’s pretty close to us, so with annual passes and a parking permit, it’s essentially a ‘free’ day out.

However, because we only have one ‘guardian’ pass, only one of us gets to go with Ameli at a time – being under 3, Aviya goes free anyway.

On Sunday we were invited to the grand opening of Legoland Windsor’s Duplo Valley. We arrived nice and early: 9am, and received a goody bag with the Lego Duplo Zoo set for each child – we already have it at home, but now we have enough animals to fill an ark. We received some colouring books, a height chart and similar Lego Duplo themed goodies, and Lego ‘loot’ – £30 vouchers that we could spend on anything we liked at Legoland Windsor.

That was a real treat for us, because we never buy stuff at Legoland, and we never do any of the paid extras, like the Gold Wash, but this time, we did.

We walked down to the new Duplo Valley area, and were met with life sized Duplo animals. There were so many oohs and aaahs from Ameli, she looked awestruck. The water was switched on after a countdown and the play area filled with toddlers, children and a few brave mothers.

My children really surprised me: Ameli, the confident and outgoing one didn’t fancy the water, so she went to the newly renovated play area, while Aviya, shy and clingy was off and into the water, despite shivering and turning slightly blue. She just loved it.

We didn’t stay too long, as she was really cold, so having her dressed we explored the top play area, with it’s huge bucket of drenching water – you have to be in a costume to spend any time in this area, and for good reason – we went to join Ameli and her daddy in the play area.

This section has also been awesomely redone. Ameli loved the pink castle, with it’s brilliant little touches like the ‘mirror mirror on the wall’. Personally I thought the police station was the best. There’s a photo wall for criminal style photos – although somewhat inaccessible, but it worked out ok. There’s also a ‘wanted’ spot, perfect for photos. Down by the jurasic dinosaur jungle play area there were spider wires for (slightly older) children to climb. Ameli struggled with it a little, but the ‘grass’ in that area is awesome. It’s so springy! I loved it.

The entire play area is fabulous. Seriously. I would love to have that in my back garden. Although to fit it all in, I’d need to demolish the neighbour’s house. I’m not sure they’d be as thrilled.

We also went on the Fairytale Brook boat ride. This is my almost favourite ride in Legoland, because it’s the very first one we ever took Ameli on, and it’s always held a special place in my heart. We went on it again this time, and they’ve redone many of the models and it just looks fantastic now. Aviya was wide eyed with wonder. I’m not sure what her 14 month old mind made of it all, but it was wonderful, and calm and relaxing. We thoroughly enjoyed it!

We spent the rest of the day in the other areas of Legoland, before returning to Duplo Valley again in the afternoon to see a show at the Theatre. The girls loved it and even Aviya got involved. Her understanding of what’s going on around her both surprises and excites me.

We also went to the 4D cinema again to watch The Legend of Chima again. I adore 3D/4D cinema, and this one is specifically awesome. I’ve been to the one in Drayton Manor, and while that had gorgeous seats and this is just concrete flooring and nothing fancy, the effects here are way better. They’re incredible, with live fire, ‘snow’, rain, wind and beautiful 3D. I love love love it.

Other highlights of the day, aside from the obvious Duplo Valley experience, were panning for ‘gold’, and having Q-bot access. When we turned in our gold findings, Ameli received a metal ‘gold’ medal for her efforts. I was so impressed that it wasn’t cheap plastic. She’s worn it every day since.

We never go to Legoland during busy times, but having done so this time, I know for certain I’d always get Q-bot if we did. It takes you to the front of the queue and means you rarely wait for a ride. Even on rides that had a 45min wait, we went straight to the front of the line. I did feel a bit bad, but only for a moment or too, then was too distracted by the ride to worry further! I would always go for Q-bot if we went at busy times.

We also went on another favourite ride: Submarine Atlantis, which takes you through a large fish tank in a glass bottomed ‘submarine’. It’s a brilliant ride and the girls get so excited by it!

The only negatives for the day were our food choices. Having never eaten at Legoland Windsor before, we were led by our hunger and just ordered wherever we were. I wasn’t overly impressed by the Hilltop Cafe’s £7.95 breakfast – although they were really kind and replaced it for me when it came out with beans, a food I cannot even look at without gagging! There were much better food options at the Castle and by the Pirate Show, but by then we’d eaten and used our food vouchers. I do think the food is generally well priced in other areas though, and some of the food places did look fantastic. We just made a bad choice.

If you are going to go for the day, I recommend ending your day with Duplo Valley, so you can get wet, and dry off and go home, so you’re not carrying wet stuff around with you all day. Also, do yourself a favour and make sure your children are the right height for a ride BEFORE you queue up for it. Ameli is over 100cm, so she can go on everything with one of us, but Aviya can’t yet, so with two adults that’s fine, but with one adult we just skip loads of the rides.

The changing areas in Duplo Valley’s Animal Safari Water Park are lovely, new, bright and clean. I just hope they stay that way.

Would we go again? Well, the girls were at Legoland with their daddy on Thursday, and we all went on Sunday, and they’ve gone back again today – Tuesday, so I’m guessing the answer is yes!

There were a bunch of other bloggers at Legoland over the weekend, and people tweeted and Instragrammed using the hashtag #loveDUPLOvalley, so you can see more images there, or read some of these reviews:

• Being A Mummy – Legoland Windsor
• Mari’s World – Legoland
• Edspire – Duplo Valley at Legoland: A review

Before each of my daughters births I put together herbs for a sitz bath, which after the birth, I was able to bath myself and help with the post birth healing.

The term sitz bath comes from the German word Sitzbad,meaning a bath (Bad) in which one sits (sitzen). A sitz bath is technically a hip-bath, that is, a bath in which a person sits covered with water up to the hips, but I just had a proper bath!

After birth there’s a period of healing required for the perineum, and one of the recommendations is to keep a squeeze-bottle of water by the toilet to spray on when you need to urinate, which can burn somewhat whether you have stitches or not.

Before the birth, I recommend from my own experience that you make up two ‘portions’ of herbs. One you can tie up in a muslin for your bath, and the other you pop directly into a two liter soft drink bottle or similar. You also need a squeeze bottle so that you can pour from the large bottle into the smaller one after each trip to the loo, ready for the next one.

The idea of the herbs are to be soothing and healing, but also to be antibacterial and anti-inflammatory.

Make up the ingredients below, and keep a clove of garlic with it. I don’t add the garlic before hand as garlic can go off and you don’t want old garlic in your sitz bath. (My second daughter was born at 42+5, so my garlic would have been quite rotten, having been prepared from 35 weeks!)

The ingredients are quite flexible. Everything you add will have benefits, but if you don’t have it, can’t find it or don’t like it, you don’t have to use it.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs Rosemary- Heals perineal tears, soothing, relieves muscle pain and exhaustion
• 2 tbs Yarrow – Heals perineal tears, soothing. Yarrow intensifies the medicinal action of other herbs taken with it, and helps with pain, bleeding/clotting and inflammation.
• 2 tbs Marigold/Calendula – Cooling, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory
• 2 tbs Chamomile - cooling, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial. Chamomile contains spiroether, a very strong antispasmodic agent that relaxes aching, tense muscles
• 2 tbs Lavender - soothes swollen vaginal tissue, reduces pain, smells amazing, helps with relaxation.
• 2 tbs Rose petals -Rose petals are astringent and can be used as a skin wash to staunch bleeding from scrapes and cuts. Rose petals a sitz bath into a luxurious spa treatment for the body and spirit as the smell of rose petals creates a feeling of well being and mild euphoria.
• 2 tbs SEA Salt – antiseptic, helps keep perineum clean and germ free
• 2 cloves Garlic – antiseptic, helps keep perineum clean and germ free.

Mix together, everything except the garlic. Split into two piles. Place the first in a muslin, and tie off with a string. This will go into the bath after the birth.

The second can go into a container. This will go straight into your perineum mix.

After baby is born, add some garlic to your bottle, and top off with boiling water. Leave to draw, and leave as is for up to three days. Pour water from the big bottle to the small squirty bottle. The garlic smell will become stronger and the liquid may become darker as the herbs infuse.

Squirt onto the perineum while urinating to soothe the burn.

*p.s if you had stitches, don’t soak in the bath more than once a day.

*p.p.s if you purchase from any of those links, I will earn 5% on your purchase price, but you wont pay any more.

Please note I am NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL or HERBALIST. This is the recipe I followed and the way I used the herbs with my two daughters.

I’ve been toying with putting Ameli in dance classes for a while now. She’s always asking for it, and she loved dancing around the living room.  I did ballet for a while myself, as a child, and I think it’s a great form of exercise, perfect for little girls (and boys). A few days ago Amanda offered to write a post for me on the benefits of ballet for children, and it seemed like great timing, so here, for both our benefits, are some of the benefits of dance for kidlets:

Children can benefit from ballet lessons in many different ways, and it goes much further than just improving their physical health. Learning ballet serves as a very good foundation for other styles of dance that they may wish to focus on later, and it improves their understanding of music. Ballet is a great starting point if your child strives to be the next Billy Elliot.

Beginning ballet

Many pupils will be nervous ahead of their first lesson, but this is completely normal. Pushing them a little out of their comfort zone is one thing that ballet is great for, and it will ultimately improve their confidence as they realize that they can cope with difficult situations. Younger children may also find it initially tough to listen carefully and follow all of the instructions, but it won’t take long for them to get used to it, and having to pay such close attention will further their brain development massively.

Physical Benefits of Ballet

Ballet can teach even the clumsiest and ungainly child balance, coordination, agility and flexibility. Achieving ballet positions takes concentration and perseverance, and also provides an excellent workout for the whole body. It works most muscles and also helps heart health, increases endurance and overall stamina. Ballet will push the body to its limits and this will increase a child’s all-over physical fitness, and with it, their mental wellbeing. Dancers are often in better shape than sports stars.

Other Benefits of Ballet

One of the key attributes of ballet is strength in posture. Have you ever noticed how women who do ballet are always the most elegant? Kids with a better posture will have reduced risk of injury and backache in later life because they know how to sit and stand correctly. Good posture also enhances attention span*, so a ballet pupil is more likely not to be the pupil squirming in his/her school chair or slouching over his/her desk.

Parents who haven’t considered ballet as an excellent activity for their children because they think there are other sports that will accomplish the same and/or more, might like to consider the other benefits ballet affords.

It doesn’t have to be a team sport to deliver team sport benefits. When pupils go beyond the basics and begin to learn lifts and hold positions, ballet is teaching them trust and teamwork. It teaches them how to work together to achieve a goal and in a performance situation, shows them the importance of timing, communication and individual contribution in a team effort. This will increase confidence and promote ease in social situations and in later life, their work and career.

Having a fit and healthy body also means ballet pupils are likely to have a positive body image, which is especially important at a time where young people are under a lot of pressure from the media and society to have the ‘perfect’ body. Ballet will teach both boys and girls that strength and fitness are what to strive for, not thinness.

Getting inspired

Children are more likely to take their ballet lessons seriously if they are inspired by the professionals. Take them to ballet recitals, West End shows and a range of performances as often as possible, so they know what they could achieve if they work at it. You should also choose a ballet school that has regular (at least yearly) recitals, so your children can perform for friends and family, giving them a confidence boost and allowing them to feel the thrill of performing for an audience.

There are so many benefits of ballet that it’s definitely worth your children trying, especially if they’ve always wanted a go. Just remember that boys can do it too, and that all children regardless of gender, race, age, ability or even special needs will enjoy the benefits of ballet.

Well, I’m about convinced. Are you?

* according to this rather interesting study

Baby massage is a hugely beneficial tool for parents and carers to use as a natural and instinctive way of relieving tension, pain or discomfort.  Have you ever sat with someone crying, and rubbed their back? This is natural and instinctive comforting. Have you ever had a child in pain from constipation and rubbed their back or belly? That’s instinctively trying to provide pain relief.

In a typical baby massage course, we follow a pattern or sequence which flows nicely, but isn’t compulsory. It is, however, the most natural way of working through the body.

We start by connecting with the baby through hands on contact and a few deep breaths and full body strokes.

We then focus on the chest area, performing various ‘moves’ in clockwise and anticlockwise directions and pitter pattering on the chest to loosen mucous and help with congestion in lungs.

We move down to the stomach and with a series of nine clockwise strokes, help move the wind along the digestive tract. I particularly love this part of the session, especially when parents have signed up specifically for problems with colic or constipation. Sometimes a baby will actually have a great big bowel movement in the session. Other times they’ll be really farty – which at that age is very cute!

A series of leg massages are wonderful, especially for newborns who still need to unfold from the fetal position, as well as toddlers experiencing growing pains. The leg massage movements encourage circulation in the legs, which also encourages muscle development.  They can also help increase general strength and elasticity of muscle fibres as well as proving deeply relaxing for babies.

The foot massage is a simplified form of reflexology, which stimulates all the internal organs. Depending on which parts of the foot are worked on, the massage is calming and settling, especially in an overtired or over stimulated baby. Other strokes are used for helping with feeding discomforts, as well as head, sinus and teething issues. This image has made its way around Pinterest and Facebook a few times, and I have no idea where it originated, but it’s pretty good for giving you a basic overview of what works where on feet.

Massaging the arms and hands in newborn babies encourages the opening of the arms, and increases circulation and blood flow. It also introduces babies to the concept of rolling and stretching and in newborns, encourages the opening of their hands.

Back massage is as useful in the treatment of colic and constipation as belly massage is. Not only does the act of resting their weight on the belly help shift trapped wind, and strengthening the neck muscles if they raise their heads, but it also stimulates the muscles on either side of the spine, encouraging vitalnerve development.

The final body part to be massaged, the face and scalp, is again a relaxing and sleep inducing treatment. It is also useful during times of teething which can also lead little ones to being highly congested.

So, overall, there are a number of areas that can be massaged in specific strokes and actions to bring relief to your baby  in some of the most common infant discomforts.

I don’t know what’s hit our home, but we’ve become the house of the diseased, quite frankly! It’s been a nightmare, with us all passing runny noses, coughing, physical aches and pains and general death-warmed-up around between us. It started with Aviya, who was fine and playing all Thursday morning, and by Thursday afternoon had a fever and wouldn’t move off of me. By Friday we were all man down. What fun. We did manage to keep to some of our commitments though, fortunately.

Day 121/365 – Foraging

It’s amazing really. Teach a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it? Pretty true. I’ve taken Aviya foraging a hand full of times, and now she can’t see a dandelion without picking it and bringing it to me for lunch! We make dandelion fritters regularly enough, but the season -around here at least – hasn’t produced enough for jam or pesto which is rather sad!

Day 122/365 – Who Am I?

After a fantastic morning of playing outside, Aviya suddenly developed a mean cough and temperature. It was so quick! But never so sick that there’s no time for fancy dress – she’s either a jazz singer, or a (pink) firefighter! I think she’s awesome, and changing and growing so much.

Day 123/365 – Sickness Befalls Us

Oh dear! things have gone downhill around here. Look at that little poorly face.

Day 124/365 – Long Weekend Of Blergh

I know she doesn’t look sick here, but heavens above, how much gunk can come out of a nose that cute? The last bank holiday was Easter and we spent that sick too. Long weekend of blergh!

Day 125/365 – Nana Checks In

I’m so grateful for the technology we have available to us. Here’s Nana doing a tele-diagnosis on Aviya to make sure she doesn’t have anything serious.

Day 126/365 – Land of Kids

I dragged my sick family out to London for the day. It was good, but set our getting better back by at least a week! Land of Kids was good though. We enjoyed it!

Day 127/365 – Little Girl

I’m always so surprised by how she’s grown. I see her every day, yet, some days it just jumps out at me, like I’m seeing her for the first time.

Welcome to the June Festival of Food Carnival, hosted by Diary of a First Child and Hybrid Rasta Mama. This monthly carnival will aim to bring together seasonal recipes, healthy food, and a diversity of flavours and techniques.

Here are the submission details for June 2013

Theme: Summer Smoothies and Mocktails

It’s summer time, and we all need to increase our liquid intake. What better excuse to mix up a glorious and refreshing smoothie or a mocktail (alcohol free cocktail).

We prefer recipes with low sugar or natural sweeteners and as few processed ingredients as possible. However, we understand that healthy differs for every family, so please share your favourite.

There are two ways you can participate:

EITHER: Link up your old post on the carnival day, or submit a new post for the carnival!

**Please note, by participating or linking up you are agreeing to visit and comment on at least two other submissions**

Deadline: 07 June 2013: Fill out the  web form below and email your submission to us by 11:59 p.m. GMT at festivaloffoodcarnival [at] gmail.com

Carnival date: 13 June 2013 . Before you post, we will send you an email with a little blurb in html to paste into your submission that will introduce the carnival. You will publish your post on 06 June 2013. We’ll include full instructions in the email we send before the posting date.

Please submit your details into our  web form. This will help us as we compile the links list prior to the carnival.

Please do: Write well. Write on topic. If you’re using very uncommon ingredients, write something about them so your readers learn something new, or at least link to some information of them.

Please don’t: Please don’t use profanity of the sort that might be offensive to more sensitive readers or their children. Please don’t submit irrelevant posts.

Editors’ rights: We reserve the right to edit your piece or suggest edits to you. We reserve the right to courteously reject any submissions that are inappropriate for the carnival. Please also note that since there are two co-hosts on different schedules and conferring over email, our personal response to your submission might seem delayed. Don’t be alarmed. We also reserve the right to impose consequences if the responsibilities of the carnival are not fulfilled by the participants.

If you have questions: Please leave a comment or contact us at diaryofafirstchild [at] gmail.com and hybridrastamama [at] Hotmail.com

Links to tutorials: Lauren, Dionna, and Dionna’s husband, Tom, from the Natural Parents Network have written several tutorials about how to schedule posts in advance, how to determine post URLs in advance, how to edit HTML — all for both WordPress and Blogger users. For these tutorials and more, please see this handy summary post at LaurenWayne.com.

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When people say ‘emergency planning’ we all tend to think about natural disasters and catastrophes but there are more emergencies in life than those. Not to downplay the effects of an earthquake, flood or tsunami, which affect the lives of the many, but sometime emergencies are small, affecting only a few, but those are no less debilitating or stressful to the few. In fact, in a huge tragedy, there’s often more help available, because there’s more attention drawn to it, but in a small tragedy, people are often alone, frightened and helpless.

Welcome to the May 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Emergency Preparedness

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared their plans to keep their families safe. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

***

What are these ‘small’ tragedies?

How about the sudden and unexpected death of a spouse? The main breadwinner? A loved one? Or the unexpected loss of a job? Or a house fire? Or a malicious burglary? (i.e. where they don’t just take the TV and computer, but destroy all important documents and so on?) These are smaller scale emergencies, but huge to affected none the less.

My mother was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness - as it happens she’s defied all medicine and doctors are confounded as to why she’s still alive, but at the time of diagnosis when they gave her four weeks to four months, we didn’t know that was going to happen.

I’ve learned a fair bit from this experience.

For one thing, my mother was the higher wage earner at the time she was diagnosed. She suddenly had to stop working, and if her life insurance hadn’t covered the cost of their house, they would have stood a very good chance of losing it to medical bills. Having the correct insurance in place saved huge amounts of stress, and potential financial ruin. She’s not rich for having her life insurance paid out, but it’s given them private treatment options which is probably why she’s still alive.

Having a savings account with a few months worth of salary in it is essential. Don’t get excited though – I have a few months salary worth of debt, rather than savings, but I’m working on it. I went to Australia to be with my mother for six months, and wasn’t allowed to work. Savings would have helped us all out. Dave Ramsey recommends starting with a three month buffer, and working towards six months.

Have backups of important documents. Seriously. We have traveled a lot and one of the best tips I ever received was to scan and email all your important documents to yourself – at an easy to retrieve address, like Gmail. It’s no good if you can only access it from the home computer that was just stolen!  Scan your passports, visas, bank card numbers (but don’t put passwords and pin codes with it!), insurance information, birth certificate and all that information and email it to yourself. Our children’s godparents have copies of their passports, birth certificates and ours in case they ever need it for information pertaining to legal guardianship.

One of the hardest topics of conversation in mothers groups comes from the question: where do your children go if something happens to you. I’ve rarely met a parent who emphatically knows without doubt or concern who their children will go to if they died. It’s a horrible conversation. It’s also a really important one and a will is necessary to make sure that your wishes have a voice. I’ve had to think long and hard on this, and for me the decision is partially to do with which country I’d prefer my children raised in, since our family is split over three continents.

Also, in cases where one person is the primary financial managers for the family, it’s valuable to have an ‘in case of… ‘ file or folder somewhere – again, not locked behind a passworded computer! – that a spouse/partner can find important information, like life insurance policies, medical aid information and other important information at the drop of a hat. As I say that, I realise that I don’t even know some of the companies my self-employed husband works for. He is also password king, so I’d never crack his codes, and he would literally just drop off the grid! (Which in the grand scheme of things doesn’t matter, but it’s still polite to let people know the work they’re expecting isn’t coming!)

And finally, and I feel so strongly about this one, is contracts and agreements. No one gets married to get divorced. No one falls in love to simmer in hate, no one falls pregnant to be bound by a lousy partner. No one goes into a relationship, baring your vulnerabilities, weaknesses and heart to another person, expecting them to use those very things against you.

Unfortunately, just in this year, I have seen three cases where this has happened and one parent has used choices made with regards to child raising against the other person in custody cases.  Especially in the case of mothers, but not exclusively, I might add, we tend to make most of the day to day choices for our children. Of course we take our partners views into consideration, but often it is the mother that drives how things happen. I have seen court cases and custody battles involve breastfeeding, or a couples decision not to vaccinate being used against the mother, or a desire to homeschool manipulated by  lawyers into something it was never meant to be.

My husband and I have agreed, in writing, the decisions that we have made with regards to our children. We don’t plan to divorce, but should that ever happen, neither of us will be in a position to use our choices now against each other, even if we wanted to, because we’ve agreed it.

(It goes something like ‘I… and I… have jointly agreed to babywear, co-sleep, practice baby led weaning, etc etc [all stipulated] and jointly commit to raising our children present and future this way based on our individual and joint research into the varying styles and options available to us. We both feel that these choices meet the needs of all members of our family, as pertains to parenting and child rearing.)

We hope to never need to use this document, but I certainly never want to be fighting for custody of my children because of something we agreed on together – like co-sleeping. And sadly, as deeply as we love, so deeply we can hate, and the future is unknown.

So, despite this grim and downer post, remember that every moment is precious, and that life is in fact, very, very short.

***

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be updated by afternoon May 14 with all the carnival links.)

• Be Prepared for Emergencies — Becky at Crafty Garden Mama is reviewing Angela England’s new ebook, The Untrained Housewife’s Guide to Getting Prepared. See what measures she is learning to adopt in her family.
• Prepare to Expect a Safe and Beautiful Natural Birth — What do you need to have prepared so that you can have a nice and relaxing birth at home? Lisa at The Squishable Baby shares her list in a guest post at Natural Parents Network.
• Fire Boxes for Emergency Preparedness — Jana of Jananas tells why she bought a fire box to store important documents and what is stored in the box.
• Firefighter Training Homeschool Curriculum — Kellie at Our Mindful Life helped her homeschooled kids prepare for emergencies through a Firefighter Training unit.
• 3 Secrets to a Royal Emergency — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep tells the secret to living like kings during a storm-induced power outage.
• Is Your Family Prepared for an Emergency? — Chrystal at Happy Mothering shares an overview of what her family has done to become more prepared for emergencies.
• What to Do in an Earthquake — Julia at A Little Bit of All of It gives instructions for staying safe in the event of an earthquake as well as tips for teaching your children to keep safe and where to find information online after an earthquake.
• Spring Cleaning & Preparing, Part 2 — Justine at The Lone Home Ranger organizes and replenishes her emergency supply every spring and is learning to add to the food stockpile by preserving year-round.
• 15 Must-Haves For The Natural Minded Family When Disaster or Emergency Strikes — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares how she prepares for disaster or an emergency as a natural minded mama. Learn what 15 natural items you should consider having on hand!
• Emergency Preparedness: Cosleeping, Cheezits, Chocolate — Kristine at All the Things in the World was happy to have cosleeping in her emergency tool kit during Hurricane Sandy.
• Being Prepared For Personal Disasters — Luschka at Diary of a First Child draws on her own recent experiences and considers five things every parent should have in place to ease the burden when sudden disaster strikes.
• The Natural Emergency Kit That I Always Carry in My Diaper Bag — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares the four green and natural items in her emergency kit that she can’t do without when she’s out and about with her little ones.
• Prepared… or not? — Is it dangerous to not prepare? Jorje of Momma Jorje shares whether her family prepares…or not.
• Pack a car safety kit — Whether you’re out for a leisurely drive or fleeing a disaster, Lauren at Hobo Mama offers tips on stocking your car with emergency supplies that will tide you over if you’re stranded.
• Teaching My Children About Tornados — Destany at They Are All of Me writes about preparing her children for tornado season.
• Preparing our children for emergencies — Preparing for emergencies means preparing your children, and Robbie at Going Green Mama shares ways on how to empower kids when it comes to emergencies.
• Emergency Preparedness in Sub-Saharan Africa — After living in Sub-Saharan Africa for 7 years, emergency preparedness is not just a concept any more to Laura from Authentic Parenting.
• Five Ideas to Keep Babies and Toddlers Safe from Choking — Do you have a baby or toddler who likes to put everything (and I mean *everything*) in her mouth? Dionna at Code Name: Mama does, and today she’s sharing a story and some tips on how to keep your little ones safe from choking.

There does seem to be an awareness day, week or month for the most obscure things these days, doesn’t there? One that I am particularly happy to support, however, is Baby Massage Week. I started practicing baby massage on Ameli when she was just six weeks old, and loved it so much I trained as a Baby Massage Instructor. I was giving classes while pregnant with Aviya, and had my first post baby class when she was just six days old, and used her as my massage doll for two or three classes a week for almost four months.

I’ve always wondered if that is why she’s such a chilled out baby!

An essential ingredient in massage is oil, and while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using any organic oil – if you’d use it on your salad, you can use it on your baby, and we recommend sunflower oil in our classes – there’s value to a beautiful oil that mama can inhale deeply while she’s massaging too.

A few years back now, I reviewed the  Hello Mellow Massage Oil from Organic Monkey, an oil I absolutely loved. You can read the full review, of course, but here are a few highlights about this lovely baby massage oil.

“I cannot find fault with this product. It contains all natural ingredients, with sunflower oil being the carrier oil, it seems. There’s apricot kernel oil, sweet almond oil, olive oil and vitamin E oil too, and then the essential oils are sweet orange, lavender and roman chamomile, all of which are calming and soothing aromas.

While I’m a huge lover of lavender, I must say that I adore the predominantly sweet orange aroma of this. It’s a nice break from the usual lavender for babies.

The next thing I love about it is how moisturising it is. I’ve even used it on myself as an after bath moisturiser a number of times and it leaves myskin feeling soft, smooth and beautifully moist. Ameli has quite a dry skin too especially as we head into winter and there’s been a marked improvement in her skin since we’ve been using this oil.”

There’s more to the review, so just follow the link if you want to know more.

So today, Organic Monkey are offering 5 readers a bottle of their lovely oil each.

The competition runs until Friday 23:59, and winners will be chosen and notified over the weekend.

Leave a comment on the blog, then click the +1 on Rafflecopter and submit your entry!
(The question is: What benefit of baby/toddler massage do you find most valuable/do you hope will make the greatest difference to your little one?)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Actually, we’re not. That’s been the worst part of having children for me: the loss of holidays. I know you’re saying ‘say WHAT!’ or something like that, because we seem to have done nothing but travel over the last three years, but we haven’t had a holiday in over two years!

Oh, how we used to travel. Did you know that’s how I started blogging? Maaaaany moons ago? Now, when we do go away, we’re pretty much reduced to local trips, weekends at the inlaws, and if we’re lucky, an overnight blogging trip. Oh, the rock and roll life.

No such thing as light travel with children

I’m seriously, seriously, seriously… SERIOUSLY hoping for a better summer than last year – I know I shouldn’t really complain after six months in Australia, but I will. I long for a decent break somewhere, just stress free peace.

If we have a good summer, we can take the children camping, at least, and as Ameli will be almost four and Aviya coming up for 18 month  it seems the perfect time to get away – in the UK July holidays .

Oh, how I long to walk through Florence again. Or cycle along lake Constance. Or drift in the waters around Dubrovnik, or Sresser, even better. One day these will be our holidays again, I know. In the meantime though, we need to find a solution because this mama is going stir crazy with no travel plans on the agenda! I guess we could always try Butlins this year. The girls are really the right age for that.

Before children the thought of a resort holiday would have been enough to send me packing – in the opposite direction! But I’ve been thinking about it and I remember various holidays as a child and teenager myself: making friends with people in surrounding chalets, joining in in holiday activities, pouring over the week’s programme. The stuff family holidays were made of. So, maybe we need to embrace family holidays and destinations after all. Some how, I don’t think the children will enhance the peace of an afternoon spent on the Somme.

I guess the time has come to embrace the change, huh?

Oh, and by the way, here’s my first ever blog post. And here are some of our adventures in Europe, much of which was written on a phone while on a train or bus, so excuse all the cringe worthy bits