Lennox & Me

This sentence really irks me! Lennox is almost 14 months old and yes I'm breastfeeding him. I didn't think i would breastfeed this long; i was breastfed till about 7 months and many of my nephews and nieces were also breastfed till around the same time (below 1 year). So I never imagined that i would go past 1 year. I am a proponent of breastfeeding, but also a proponent of feeding your baby, whatever way that might be (formula, or breastmilk). What i notice here in Europe is that people stop breastfeeding much, much earlier. I usually get these 'when are you going to stop' questions from people here. Back in Asia it's quite a norm to still be breastfeeding around age 1 and nobody really thinks of it as 'taboo' even if you go past 1. I guess this post came up because recently i went to a party here in Holland with some of my husband's family, and when it came up that i was breastfeeding, a certain 'Aunt' was like, "ooooooh, Lennox still ge...

Today's blog is about sleeping times. And how I'm still amazed at the fact that many of my Dutch friends have their kids in bed by 7pm!! Having moved to the Netherlands 8 years ago, you would think that i would already have adapted to the Dutch way of living/sleeping. Although we are surrounded by Dutchies, my husband is Dutch-Surinamese and not "Dutch-dutch". So while we enjoy certain Dutch treats like kibbeling, stroopwaffles, dutch pancakes and cheese, we are pretty much still asian/south american in many ways as well. The majority of dutch people have dinner early. And when i say early i mean EARLY like 530 or 6pm! This means that by 7 or 730pm, the kid/s are probably washed up and ready for bed. It's actually pretty awesome that parents can come home from work on time probably around 5 or 530pm to have dinner with the family. The Dutch enjoy family time and that's the main reason most shops are closed by 6pm every day, and in the weekends as well...

As some of you may know, we are currently in my home town Singapore on vacation! We are here to celebrate Eid (Suikerfeest in Dutch) and we have been having a blast so far! Vacation and celebrations always means family, food, food and more food ;) Being on vacation also means that our workout schedules get haywire!! So while we do enjoy our time here, i do try to squeeze in some sort of physical activity, even if it's just a swim, a walk or a jog. Just 5 mins from my family home where we are staying there is a small park/playground with some exercise equipment. My husband needed some pull up bars for his workout so we headed there. For me, before heading there i just googled 'crossfit workout without equipment' and got a whole list of suggestions on what to do. Here's a workout i came up with! 2 Rounds, each for time of 50 Air Squats 25 Bench dips 25 Burpees Rest 3 min in between Warm up  was a slow 5 min jog from home to the playground Do you even squ...

From my previous post about Introducing Solids , I mentioned that I would also document Lennox's journey with BLW. He started when he was 24 weeks old (5 and a half months). By the time he could sit up on his own and was already holding items and putting them into his mouth. Here are some tips i learnt when starting BLW, suggested first foods and basically photos of him looking terribly cute while eating! :P Food prep for BLW Babies do not need teeth to chew! Their gums are strong enough to bite stuff off (just check with moms who breastfeed babies without teeth - the gummy bite can still be painful! :P) Babies around 6 months would be able to pick up objects, but using their whole fists. So one tip i learnt was to cut food into strips that are a little longer that their fists, so that even when they grabbed the food, one part would be sticking out for them to eat. I have here a few examples of Nox holding pieces of carrot, beans and cooked plaintain with his whole fist. ...

For me it's somewhere in the middle. I did not bother about organic products at all even when i started cooking daily after i moved to the netherlands in 2008. I have a few friends who ONLY buy organic products and i never really understood why they would want to pay extra for their groceries. BUT, somehow after Lennox was born and was starting solids, i started reading more about organic products and in general about what we put into our bodies. Especially when that body is a small baby's body! Read this TIME article which succinctly puts it: "Organic food is a healthy choice for all of us but especially for kids. Infants and children are particularly vulnerable to chemicals, in part because their immune systems are still developing and in part because, pound for pound, they’re exposed to more chemical residues than adults. Another reason is that children and babies tend to eat a lot more of certain foods than adults — think bananas or apples." I won't g...

I love Ella's Kitchen products. From the smoothie packs to the little puffit snacks to the spelt cookies, it's so handy for Lennox to eat, especially on the go! I was actually introduced to it from a free 'pregnancy package' kit that we receive here in the Netherlands once I got pregnant. I tried it for myself and i loved their packaging and how clean the items were. Best part is that Nox loves it too! He's been using them since he was 6 months, especially when we were out of the house. I was happy to also find it in Singapore when i was there in February this year. Seems like it's a pretty well known brand. Since i'm breastfeeding and it's always not convenient to breastfeed Nox (let's say we are rushing and he's in his stroller), I give him a smoothie pack instead to keep him quiet... haha. I always make sure there's 2 of it in the diaper bag at all times! Anyway these smoothie packs cost anywhere from €0,99 to €1,99 each. So the past ...

When Nox was reaching the 5 month mark, it was an exciting time as i knew he could start solids soon around 6 months. Finally this kid can eat more than my breastmilk! Haha. I figured I would have to do the 'usual' thing of making purees and spoon feed him until he can feed himself. I was even gifted a hand blender for making purees from a family member to do this! Spoon-fed weaning  is something most of us have been exposed to (i'm sure everyone knows how you pretend that the spoon is a plane flying around wanting to land in the baby's mouth. haha). Basically the food is mashed or pureed and as the baby gets older, the puree gets chunkier and chunkier until they eat 'regular' food. For those in a time crunch there are also ready-made jars of purees sold in supermarkets. Then a friend of mine told me about how she does the Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) method with her kids. Here in the Netherlands they call it the Rapley methode which is basically after Gil Raple...