Breastfeeding mothers always face their baby while cosleeping

except when they turn to face the larger and much more restless (and more like a purple fairy) child. And yes, I was sleeping on the gap (ow!).

Garden Update

The chickens have been banished from the main vegie beds. As you can see, one at least ignores our decrees. Actually she is looking for a place to lay. Yesterday we cut out all the weeds from around the compost bin then Paul built a new bed and spread the compost out init before moving the bin. While I was clearing the weeds I found a little nest with seven eggs in it. When I let the chickens out this morning she ran straight over and through a gap in the fence we hadn't noticed then started looking frantically around for her sheltered laying spot that was no longer. Guess she'll have to find somewhere else (maybe even in the luxurious nesting box we provided for her)

Two things

Playing and dishes. Actually, I wanted to write Dishes. I think it needed a capital. Playing and Dishes. There you are, that's better.
Robin Grille's book Heart to Heart Parenting contains an exercise to address the feeling of complete disinterest in or frustration with playfulness that involves remembering how it felt to play as a child. Specifically at the age your child is now. It goes on to give suggestions of how to deal with any negative emotions that may bring up perhaps around not being allowed to play or getting in trouble for being silly etc. Guess what? I can't remember playing. Not at all. I have plenty of early memories, some hazy, some not so. But I can't remember playing. Not until I started school. No wonder I struggle to play with Meri. Do I have emotions that come up around that? A little bit of fear perhaps, that life from ages 2 - 3.5 really sucked for me. Anger, a little.
The good news? I'm finding it easier and easier to engage with Meri's fantasy play. The fog is clearing. Now if I could just enjoy the silly splashy messy play just as much.
And Dishes? I hear you asking. Well tonight I cleaned the kitchen before Paul cooked dinner. The mess wasn't made by me and most of it wasn't even from a meal I had partaken in. Yet, I offered to clean it up. In fact, I wanted to clean it up. I wanted to give him the gift of a nice clean kitchen in which to cook. Then, after dinner I did the dishes again (I can't really say I cleaned the kitchen again because he is a rather neat cook most of the time). Without grumbling, even inwardly. I do admit though, that the second time was more motivated by me wanting everything clean. Weird stuff to write about you think? This is HUGE for me. Resentment about housework was an enourmous part of my life from age 15 until I got kicked outof "home" in first year Uni and kicked out again in second year (long story....). It continued into my future relationships including with Paul until recently. Come to think of it though, the dishes still seem to be an issue in that household. Well, they still seem to be constantly piling up around the kitchen whenever we visit despite me no longer being resident to play scape-goat. Hmmmmmm

Garden Update continues

Pea teepee

November Garden Update 1

Berries etc yet to be planted

One of two cold-frames made by Paul.

Rental rainwater harvesting

Happy chookies who have just started laying!

A boy and his placenta

Here are some of the little boy's newborn pics I haven't shared. We weren't neccessarily convinced about Lotus Birth before we tried it but now I'm so glad we did.

Chooky chooky chooky

We have chickens! Three 12 week old Australorps. Photos were taken in my excitement but I'm struggling with transferring and uploading now that we are all sharing Paul's computer (mine had a little accident), it's very time consuming for one. So no pics to share yet sadly. Be assured though, our days are being spent in a lovely chicken watching haze.