5 reasons why I love co-sleeping

1) I get to see my baby smile and giggle in her sleep, while she holds my hand. I appriciate every moment like this and wonder why so many parents insist on missing out on this by having their baby sleep in a different room.

2) I know exactly where she is and what she's doing, I know she's safe. I know if she's too hot or too cold before she even does and wakes up.





3) If she gets hungry or thirsty or needs some comfort, she hardly has to stir in order to help herself to some breastmilk. And I hardly need to stir either!

4) We hardly ever have any night wakings or crying. If she does wake up and doesn't instantly go back to sleep with some nursing, then she will sit between my husband and I and quietly play. Normally within the hour she's ready for sleep again.

5) There's nothing quite like seeing that gummy grin in the morning. That's what I get to wake up to every morning and I wouldn't have it any other way!


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January cupcakes!

January can be such a gloomy time of year, so I decided to raid my kitchen cupboards and make some cakes using leftover ingredients from Christmas. I used a basic fairy cake recipe and the result was lovely cheery cupcakes!

I used mixed peel and glacé cherries as extras (these ingredients were left over from my Xmas Florentines) but you could use anything really - sultanas, flaked almonds, poppy seeds, dried fruit, choc chips etc...

Recipe
200g self raising flour (or in my case 200g plain flour and 2 tbsp baking powder!)
200g caster sugar
200g butter
4 eggs - beaten
Vanilla extract
Mixed peel
Glacé cherries
Icing Sugar

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and smooth
2. Stir in the eggs and 2 cap-fuls of the vanilla extract
3. Stir in the flour until mixed in well
4. Add the mixed peel
5. Pour into individual cases or a greased muffin tray and place into pre-heated oven and bake until golden brown at 180 degrees.
6. Decorate with icing and a glacé cherry on top!

I really enjoyed making these (and my husband enjoyed eating them even more!) as they were super easy and quick to do. Just right for a busy mum with an impatient 8 month old!





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Teething biscuit recipe

This is a great recipe from www.wholesomebabyfoods.com:

Teething Biscuit Recipes - Eggless Baby Cereal Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup dry infant rice cereal with bananas (or other flavored or
unflavored infant cereal)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
ice water

Directions:
Preheat oven 425F
Mix flour and cereal.
Gradually stir in oil. Mix a little ice water at a time (start with 1/4 cup) until dough begins to form a ball and pull away from the bowl.
Roll out to the thickness of a cracker on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes.
Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 min. or until lightly brown. Cool completely.

Store in an airtight container. (you may want to try 1/2 plain and 1/2 flavored baby cereal as the taste when using full flavored baby cereal is very strong.)

For the cereal I used Organic Baby Muesli, and I also added some nutmeg and cinnamon to make the mixture a bit more flavoursome.

Mathilda loves them!

Even though I stored them in an air tight container, they started to go a bit mouldy after a week or so, so keep that in mind. Other than that, this is a great little recipe, very easy to make and it's nice to know exactly what your baby is eating, wholesome natural ingredients!