DIY mark II - it seems everyone is doing it

It seems there was a rush of DIY posts on my facebook feed yesterday, or was it just a case of 'yellow car syndrome'? I don't know, either way though there are some very crafty mums out there.

I just love Latte Mum's awesome 'stained glass window', I only wish I had a window low enough to do this as well.

By the way, her reasoning behind doing this was heart warming:

"He has made me see the world differently, so I figured it was time to repay the favour"

Aww, how beautiful is that? :)

Then there were these great fairy wings made by Hatchings Cloth Nappies and this clever game made by Oz Baby Trends - there are two sides, here is the other one.

The Oz Baby Trends one is one my to do list for sure!

Not to be out done, this is our latest creation - Stepping stones made simply from flour, salt and water - made into a dough. We then put Matilda's foot or hand in, took an 'impression' and baked for about three hours on a low oven.

I wouldn't say I am entirely happy with the results as yet - the instructions from the fantastic blog The Imagination Tree (discovered through Pinterest of course) said to put on greaseproof paper but I think the one I used has been pre-greased as so they are a little soft and oily on the bottom.

Next time I will use the baking paper that isn't pre-greased and see if that makes a difference.

I also plan to paint at least the hand one and see how that comes out. Will post photos once we are done :)

Kicking it DIY

Right from the start my girl has been a second hand rose, so much of our things we given to us by fantastic family members and friends. Even now one of my favourite sites is a local buy and sell site. All this reuse is a great way to teach Matilda about recycling but it got me thinking - what about reusing items within our own home?

When my friends little girl Mia was only little we had made her a shaker using rice and a drink bottle. Mia found it the other day when visiting and asked why we hadn't made one for Matilda - good point, why hadn't we?

After that we went off to our 'Pre-toddler' mothers group at the baby health clinic and discovered the fun of the simple box.

As an aside, we are so lucky to have this service! Seriously its fantastic - they run three lots of Mothers Groups - an early one when the bubs are only a few weeks old, then one when they are about four months old and then another at eight-ish months old. The first one goes for about six weeks, the second for four and the last one is just a once off. How great is that? On top of that they have a great drop in service once a week, plus a breastfeeding drop in service and an immunisation clinic. And its all free.

Anyway, the clinic had a whole bunch of boxes of all different sizes out for the kids to play with. The boxes were covered in various pictures of babies, artwork with hands and feet etc. The kids loved them, they spent all morning climbing over them, banging on them and building with them.

Well that's how Matilda and I have got a little lost in DIY toys - so far we have made shakers with coloured rice and recycled drink bottles and boxes covered in paintings done by little Mia.

We took photos so we could share them with you :)

This is our first attempt at colouring rice - its pretty simple, just a drop or two of food colouring into a small bowl with a little rice in it then spread it out onto some baking paper to dry:

Then all you have to do is add it to your chosen bottle. We were clearly not going to be happy with just one so we asked Matilda's Aunty to bring over some other food colours - she did one better, check out her coloured rice stash!

Turns out Matilda's Aunty had been using colured rice to make flags in her classroom - score for us as this was the left overs ;)

Matilda had so much fun, even if Daddy is still vacuuming orange rice out of the carpet...

 So now we have plenty of shakers, of all sizes and colours - we even have multicoloured ones

We then moved onto the covered boxes - so far we only have two complete as we gave all the big ones away to a friend moving house, but we will add to the collection as we come across more boxes. The first one is extra special as Matilda's little friend Mia painted the picture especially for this task and even supplied the box. Too sweet xoxo

Unsolicited advice - sure, please, go ahead...

There are two types of unsolicited advice that I seem to get and both drive me bonkers!

The first is one I am sure we have all experienced - it's the advice we get from the stranger on the street, in the supermarket or at the park about parenting that we (at least I think) clearly don't need.

I experienced this for the first time the other day in my local supermarket. Matilda was quite happily sitting in the trolley munching away on some bread. Once that was done I pulled out a few fresh blueberries and offered her one. Now we were pulled "off to the side" of the aisle so we weren't in the way and I was quite lost in my conversation with her "Ta Mummy, now go slow with that" etc etc, when a stranger pulls her trolley up, across the front of mine, and proceeds to lecture me on the way I am feeding my child!

"Does he chew them up?"

"Cause if he doesn't he'll choke you know"

Gee thanks! I would have never known my child needs to chew her food...

Now, when I tell this story it involves a raspy, I-smoke-a-pack-of-cigarettes-a-day, old lady's voice. It may, or may not, have sounded like that but it emphasizes my point. So feel free to re-read her delightful advice with that in mind ;)

I still cannot decide if I am more insulted by the lecture or the fact that despite Matilda being clad in a pink trolley cover and a sparkly pink top she continued to refer to her as 'he'.

The other type of advice is the one that fascinates me more than anything. Don't get me wrong it it still annoys me but mostly I just find it fascinating what people will say and their response when you challenge them (in a nice way).

Have any other mums ever had these types of comments?

"Don't let her suffer"
"Don't let her get sunburnt"

Ummm... Like I would! I know the people saying this don't actually think I would do these things, they are kind of something that is said without thinking. Well that's all well and good for the person saying it but it gets to us mums!

I would never knowingly let Matilda get sunburnt, let her suffer or do or eat anything that would be dangerous for her so please don't suggest I would. And if you do, be prepared for me to challenge you on it.

I have done this once before and the look on the persons face was pure shock - she had no idea how insulting what she said was. She hadn't meant anything by it, she was just trying to show she cared. But that's not how it felt for me.

Please people, when you speak to a new mum understand that what you say as a offhand comment may actually feel like intense criticism or be quite insulting - even if that's not how you meant it. Stating the obvious is common in everyday conversation but when you mix hormones, sleep deprivation and the insecurity of being a new parent it can become a personal criticism.

As for those strangers in the shopping centre - if my child chokes on the blueberry feel free to stop and lecture me but until then back off. It would be much nicer if you just stopped to say hello to her.

The 'other' Mummy guilt

We all know about Mummy guilt, there a thousands of blog posts out there about it and everyone has experienced it. You know that guilty feeling you had when you first left bubba, when you had to go back to work before you wanted to or when you discovered that you hadn't done up points 498 and 499 on the 500 point harness... Well that's not what this post is about.

I've been thinking about the other type of Mummy guilt I have come across since being a mum - I like to call it "Your not doing it the way I did and I feel threatened by that so I will attack your choices" guilt - or 'past Mummy guilt' for short!

Has anyone else experienced it? It usually goes something like this:

"I've decided to do X" (this could be cloth nappies, baby led weaning, not using sun screen - or the exact opposite!)

"Really, well here's a hundred reasons why what you are doing is ...... (insert wrong, dangerous, stupid, unethical etc etc)"

Well ok it's not quite that bad but it can be quiet confronting and honestly I don't understand it. By choosing to parent my child my way I am in no way suggesting that the way you do it is wrong, it's simply the right way for me. Is that really that offensive?

What I find fascinating is that this reaction isn't just from mothers of bubs the same age as Matilda it can come from anywhere - Mums of toddlers or older children to mums of teenagers, adults and grandmothers!

It really makes you wonder how those mums who are feeling a little sensitive put up with it, no wonder we all get overwhelmed at times. I can't count the amount of times I have felt like I have had to defend my parenting choices to someone who simply did it differently.

The thing is, usually the topics that create the most reaction are not those 'hot' topics we expect. Things like smacking, drinking alcohol during pregnancy / breastfeeding etc can be highly emotive but are rarely discussed and challenged. Yet breastfeeding on demand, giving them finger foods rather than purées or using cloth nappies are fair game? Really?

So here's my promise - I will happily share my parenting techniques and philosophy with you. I will even defend my beliefs about those important topics. But I will never judge you just because you do it differently. I may ask you lots of questions about the way you do things so that I understand your methods, I may even give it a try myself. I also may not. Please do not be offended if I do things differently, just as you choose / chose to parent your children your way I choose to parent my way.

While ever we have our children's best interests at heart we all have the right to do it our way.

Simple as that.

A tip from Evie-Rose's mum

When I first started this blog I said that one day, maybe, if they were interested, I would have other Mums as guest bloggers, well we aren't quite there yet but... I thought I would share a fabulous tip from my friend Evie-Rose's Mum.

The other day I had a Mummy brain moment, lost in the wonders of vacuum packs (yes I am new to these) and I thought to myself Gee its funny how stewing pears and vacuum packs smell like fairy floss.

They don't. Only stewing pears smell like fair floss, but that smell quickly turns to burning and smoke if you leave the pears on the stove and get lost in vacuum packs.

So I was complaining to Evie-Rose's Mum that I had to scrub the pan for days to get it clean and she shared this gem.

Put water, bicarb and a dash of dish washing liquid into the pot. Return to the heat and cook off the burnt bits.

It works a treat! Matilda's Dad had a similar Daddy brain moment the other night with dinner and we got to give Evie-Rose's Mum's hint a try. Not only do we now have a sparkling clean pot but we had fun watching it all react and bubble up like a science experiment.

Which reminds me - if you are going to give this a go don't add too much water and do not walk away from the stove (do it when the kids are in bed!) as you will have a much bigger mess to clean up if you do!