Gingerbread houses the preschooler way

 



This weekend is the begining of all things Christmas in our house! It is very much my favourite time of the year, and children make it so much more fun!
Todays antics included making gingerbread houses with the kids. Considering they are only-just-three and not-quite-five, they did very well, Miss 3's responce was "this is my most funnest day I'b ebba had!" Below is the recipes we used and a few pictures of the process. Be brave and give it a go, its easier than it looks, you will be surprised at your kids skill and if it all turns to pies, you have a fantastic tasty mess to eat for dessert!
I make one every year and display it on the counter top until Christmas, when the kids are allowed to demolish it, this year they wanted their own.

For the gingerbread:

• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 190g butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup dark molasses/treacle/golden syrup - they all work, just give different colour of dough
• 1 Tbsp water 

Using an electric mixer (or by hand if you want a workout), beat on medium speed the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and well blended.
Beat in the eggs, molasses/treacle/syrup and water until well combined.
Add in the spices, salt and baking powder, if you are missing a spice, make it anyway, no one will ever know. 
Beat half of the flour into the butter mixture until well blended and smooth. Stir in the remaining flour. Knead (mix with your hands on the benchtop) until well blended. If the dough is too soft, add a little more flour, it should be a quite stiff dough.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, or pop it in a plastic bag and refrigerate at least two hours, preferably overnight. You can make it up to 3 days ahead of time. Let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before rolling out. (We skipped this bit today and it worked just fine!)

 
Cutting Out:

For a template you can either find one online or do what we did and make one up! The walls of ours are about 12cm square. You can make a template out of cardboard box to check the measurements are right. This batch of dough makes a lot, there was enough to make 3 small houses or one large house.

Preheat oven to 180C, with the oven rack in the middle. Have several flat trays ready, preferably ones that you know will not warp in the oven heat.

Divide the dough in four. Spread baking paper on a large flat surface for rolling. Dust the paper lightly with flour. Working with one portion of the dough at a time, use a rolling pin (or a glass bottle) to roll out the dough to an even thickness of about 5-8mm - about the thickness of a pencil. Add a little flour to the surface of the dough, and check for sticking as you roll it out. If it sticks to either your rolling pin or the rolling surface, dust with more flour. If the rolled out dough is very soft, you may want to freeze it for an hour before cutting out the patterns.

Rub a little flour over the surface of the dough. Place the pattern pieces on the dough, as many pattern pieces as will fit on the dough. Use a small sharp knife to cut out the pattern pieces from the dough, wiping the knife surface clean frequently. Depending on how soft the dough is, you may need to use scissors to cut the baking paper. If you are not using paper, you may need to use a large metal spatula to transfer the dough pieces to a greased tray. Space the pieces on the tray 2cm apart from each other. If dough pieces stretch during the transfer process, just push them back into shape.

We used small cookie cutters to make windows and filled with a
barley sugar which melts into a window

You can cut out a door and window(s) at this point, or you can wait until after baking, soon after the pieces have come out of the oven while the walls are still warm.

Bake in a 180°c oven until the edges are just beginning to darken, 15-18 minutes for the large pieces, 6-8 minutes for the small pieces. Rotate the trays half way through the baking for more even browning. Remove the trays to racks to cool, about 15 minutes.

While the pieces are still slightly warm, lay the pattern pieces over them and use a large straight chef's knife to trim off any parts of the pieces that have through cooking spread beyond the pattern.

Remove pieces to cool directly on racks to cool completely.

For the glue to hold it all together you use Royal Icing:

Beat 1 large egg white with 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice and 1c icing sugar for 5 minutes. Add a further 1 and 2/3c icing sugar and beat well.
Spoon this into ziplock bags and store as is in the fridge for up to a week. To use simply snip the corner off the bag and squeeze out.

Assembly:

This part is really where the adult help is important. Put a strip of icing on the left and right sides of each of the four walls. Assemble the house on a flat surface, arranging all four walls in quick sucession. These need a few minutes to start setting before you attempt to put the roof on. Don't rush this stage. I left both the houses for 10 minutes before letting the girls loose on them, it might be better to make the dough one day and mum/dad to assemble the houses once the kids are in bed then allow them to decorate them the next day, the white icing sets like concrete after about 24 hours!
 

 My preschooler's abilities to use a piping bag amazed me. Let them loose with a bag of icing, a bowl of lollies and their imagination.

 

 
 

 



 

 

How to make a no-sew tutu

 

My darling girls (3 and nearly 5) have been harping on for their own tutu skirts for a while now. Today was the day! While I has making them I put together a no-sew how to, these are super easy and quite cheap to make, perfect gifts for the little fairy-ballerina-princess in your life! I couldn't find a ruler, so chances are other mums can't either, so the measurements are nice and approximate.

For each skirt you need:
About 1 metre each of 3 colours of nylon net. It costs around $5 a metre and is 130cm wide.
About 1 metre of ribbon, I found the 20mm wide the easiest to work with.

Step one: Using a pair of pants that fit the fairy-ballerina-princess in question, measure enough ribbon to fit around her waist and allow approximately 30cm (3-4 adult palm widths) extra to tie a bow at the end.

Measuring the waist band

Step two: At the edges of the pants tie a knot on each side other ribbon.

Knots at the edge of the waistband

Step three: My nylon net is 130cm wide, but is folded in half on the roll. Lay your 3 colours of nylon net (or two or four) on top of each other with the folds all together at the top edge. Cut strips of fabric 15cm wide (or about 1 and a half palms wide) towards the fold. Then cut along the folds to make each strip into two pieces. You should then end up with 12-14 strips of fabric from each colour (or a grand total of about 36-48 if you are using 2 or 4 colours), 15cm wide and 65cm long.

It doesn't matter if they're not straight or even!

Step four: Twist the middle of one of your piece of netting (it makes the knots smaller and tighter if you do this). Loop it over the ribbon, and thread the length of the net behind the ribbon and up through the loop, creating a simple knot. Pull tight. Nylon net is quite durable, but it will tear, so don't pull too hard.

Step five: Keep doing this, keeping them tightly together, between the two knots on the ribbon. I found the first few the most difficult to do, then I found leaning on the pieces I had done against the edge of the bench helped keep the ribbon tight, which made the looping and tightening much easier.

  

Step six: Trim the edges of the ribbon on an angle to help combat fraying. I also held mine over a match to melt the ends, but please be careful if you do this!

All Done! Tie a bow around the middle of your fairy-ballerina-princess, tune into Concert FM (or similar) and let the dancing commence. I also used the scraps to make matching dresses for the girls special soft toy animals.

 

 

Living with low milk supply

 

Parenting is a guilt trap, no matter what you choose to do, or choose to believe, someone out there disagrees with you and thinks you are terrible. Unfortunately, all too often that "someone" is actually ourselves.

We get exhausted at getting up 50 times a night to feed our newborn so we pop them in bed with us, then we feel like we are worst parents ever, risking SIDS like that (when actually, done safely bed sharing reduces SIDS, but that's a post for another day).
We get overwhelmed by the constant "mum, mummy, mum, muuuuum, MMMUUUUMMY" all day and we snap "WHAT, WHAT DO YOU WANT??" Then we chase ourselves around with the guilts the rest of the afternoon for being the most horrible person in the world. It goes on and on, we are really our own worst critics and by far our worst enemy when it comes to beating ourselves up over things. So how hard is it, and how terribly guilt ridden are the mums out there that try desperately to breast feed but truly truly can't?

Breast is best, right? We get it told to us repeatedly, all the time, it's everywhere. What if some times it's not? What if, actually my breastfed baby is starving, thanks to my guilts about using formula, or heaven forbid, a bottle?

It is a common misconception, even in the midwife /infant care/ Plunket world, that everyone can in fact breastfeed fully with the "right support". I'd like to let you all in on some big news: It simply isn't true. There are some of us out there (me included) that no matter what we try, no matter how determined we are, we cannot successfully exclusively breastfeed our children.

The one cause I know about (though there are a few) is Polycycstic Ovarian Syndrome, commonly called PCOS. It is recognised as one of the most common endocrine/metabolic disorders of women. It is suggested up to 12% of the female western population may have this syndrome, though many are undiagnosed and may not have obvious symptoms. Of this group of women, many will have some degree of difficulty getting pregnant. About 1/3 of this 12% will struggle with an over supply of milk (a whole 'nother issue), 1/3 will have no problem whatsoever, and the final third have been shown to have a genuine insufficient milk supply. About 1/3 of those with poor supply (so 1 woman in 100 or there abouts) actually make very little or no milk. No matter what they do, no drugs they take will help. If this is you, its not your fault!!

For me it was the biggest kick in the guts, even though I half expected it (my mother also struggled).  After I found out that I was finally pregnant after 2 1/2 years of trying, I thought "Yay, my body wasn't totally broken!" But after she was born I kept saying to the midwifes, "I don't think shes getting anything, I don't think shes swallowing." They were very reassuring, and helped me with the correct latch, but no one ever said, "You know what, she's not swallowing." Not surprisingly, 3 Days later she was back in hospital, very very jaundiced and very very dehydrated.

So what does help? Regular expressing, a great latch technique, demand feeding and skin to skin cuddles all help get your natural hormones going, for sure. There are some medications that can help, I took Domperidone 4 times a day (doctors prescription) and fenergreek and blessed thistle from the health food shop. It sort of helped, I did end up with some kind of supply after 4 weeks. Increasing the quality fats in your diet helps too, eating coconut oil several times a day and eating real eggs, butter and full fat dairy help: 1) they increase the fat quality and quantity in your milk and 2) contain important base chemicals/fats to help your body make the hormones it needs to function well. They also contain Omega 3 which helps keep post natal depression away!

The best invention ever is the Supplemental Nursing System (SNS) which acts like a straw in a bottle. Baby can get all the amazing benefits of breastfeeding, being close, skin to skin cuddles while also ingesting donor milk or infant formula along side what ever mummy is managing to make on her own.

So dear mummy out there, feel empowered, all is not lost. Do not beat yourself up, you are amazing. You are the best mummy for your baby that there could be. Give your baby cuddles, and lots of them. Let go of the guilt. If your baby is warm, loved, safe, growing and happy, what cause do you have to feel bad? If baby needs formula, then give it to them. If you can source donor milk, all the better, lucky you. But above all else, if baby is hungry, feed it. Life will be much calmer and happier that way.

For more information I suggest you read Dr Jack Newman's website, specifically the parts about increasing supply. He is an amazing man, and he is a Kiwi living in Canada. I emailed him and he graciously gave me a suggested program to follow.

Natural Nit Buster

Head lice AKA nits, ewww it gives me the heebyjeebys and head scratchings just thinking about them! They are infamously difficult to get rid of, and are known to become immune to many of the (stinky) chemical preparations on the market.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered something so simple and natural can remove them! (Yes, I know, small things...). The magical solution? Coconut oil and apple cider vinegar, and then as a preventative Tea Tree oil. So easy!

Rub the head of the poor lice victim with ample lashings of coconut oil - it melts at 35 degrees, perfect to melt on to skin. Massage in well and leave for at least an hour, some places suggest putting on a shower cap and marinating in it for 12 hours. The oil breaks down and dissolves the nit's (the egg) protective shell while smothering the lice (the adults). Wash the oil out with shampoo (it may take two tries) and rinse well with a good slosh of apple cider vinegar. Then simply comb the hair thoroughly to remove the dead bugs and eggs. It would be a good idea to repeat this whole routine in 7 days to ensure you 'get' any survivor eggs that will have by now hatched.
A great preventative is to simply put 10 drops of Tea Tree oil into your normal bottle of shampoo or conditioner and shake well. Well conditioned hair is difficult for the eggs to latch on to, and wearing hair up seems to lessen the chances of catching them in the first place. Good luck :-)

Now my head is itchy...

Swaddling your baby - are you doing it right?

Prince George - Image from Getty

When the world met baby Prince George there began a spark of controversy about the safety of swaddling in the UK papers. There were some that suggested swaddling can cause SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and others that said it causes hip dysplasia (clickey hips). What can you do to minimise these risks? Are they really risks at all?

Choose your blankets wisely

Overheating is known to contribute to SIDS, babies have very poor temperature control and rely on us to monitor them closely. According to the World Health Organisation a room to sleep in should be between 18-20 degrees Celsius. If you need a heater in the baby's room to keep it at this temperature, choose a safe one with a thermostat and one that will not cause a fire if knocked down - I know it sounds simple, but you would be amazed what silly things we do in a sleep deprived state. If baby's room is heated by heat pump, either directly or indirectly, please have it set on 18-20 and leave it on this, the room will warm up, albeit slowly, there has been at least one tragic incident where a baby died from being left sleeping in a room with a heat pump set to 30 degrees. In a room that is 18-20 degrees you will find a baby probably doesn't really need much in way of blankets if they are swaddled and wearing clothing as well (probably you won't need much if you are sleeping in the same room either).

For baby bedding, clothing and swaddles choose natural, breathable fibres - cotton, bamboo, wool and merino are great choices. Merino and bamboo in particular are amazing at absorbing moisture and wicking it away from the baby while maintaining a good temperature. Natural fibres will be warm in the cooler temperatures but stay cool if baby gets hot.

What you should avoid

Synthetic materials like polar fleece make terrible swaddles, they do not breathe and baby is at real risk of overheating. Yes they are cheap, yes they are everywhere, just please don't use them for swaddles! Keep them for lying on on the lounge floor and as knee blankets in the pushchair.

If baby is swaddled please do not put them in under your bed blankets as well, keep them on top of the blankets and keep duvets well away from their face. In their own bed a swaddled baby often needs nothing else, or just a light additional blanket may be all that is required. Ensure any blankets are tucked in well at the bottom of the bed and that baby can't slip under them, or flick anything up on to their face.

It is a good idea to check baby's temperature while they sleep - pop two fingers down the back of baby's neck and check for warmth, if it is hot and clammy remove some blankets or clothing, if it is cool take measures to warm baby up. Baby hands, feet and noses are poor temperature gauges. For peace of mind I always used to do a sneaky check of their neck as I was heading to bed, and adjust blankets are required.

Sleep Baby on their Back

A swaddled baby cannot move themselves well enough to keep their airways clear if they are placed on their tummy. Although a swaddled baby will find it very difficult to roll from their back to their stomach, but it is possible. Because of this it is suggested that once a baby can roll, you should leave one or both arms out of the swaddle just in case they do roll then they can lift their heads. In my experience a baby with its arms out are actually more likely to roll, but nothing is fool proof, so go with what you think is best for your situation.

Many parents worry about baby choking if they are lying on their back rather than on their side or tummy. It is reassuring to know that when a baby (or adult for that matter) is lying on their back, their windpipe actually sits above the oesophagus (food pipe). This means that if baby vomits it will be more likely to go straight back down into their stomach and avoid the windpipe if they are on their backs. Babies also have very acute sensors on their larynx (back of throat), as soon as anything is detected on these sensors the baby epiglottis (flappy valve thing) closes the route to the lungs, leaving the dribble/spew/other moisture to flow back to the belly where it belongs.

Careful wrapping/swaddling technique

Babies hips are soft, and still forming at birth and beyond. To ensure they form properly the muscles of the pelvis naturally flex a baby's legs and rotate the knees outwards somewhat. This ensures the ball of the hip joint stay firmly in the socket of the pelvis as it continues to form.

Pulling baby's legs down straight and keeping them there, especially for long periods, can cause them to slip out of the socket and form poorly. It is crucial that when you wrap or swaddle a baby that you allow enough room in the swaddle for them to both straighten their legs in a stretch and have it loose enough that their legs can sit naturally in a bent and relaxed outward direction - see below:

Source

 In practicality it means that all the tucking in and wrapping firmly needs to be above the hips. Swaddling is most effective when it stops baby's arms from flicking when they startle and gives a firm pressure on their belly - both of which can be done while allowing baby to have a natural hip position.

Can swaddling be dangerous? When it is done poorly, with inappropriate blankets; in a hot and stuffy bedroom; with loose bedding or swaddles near a baby's face or when a swaddle is overly restrictive on leg movement; the answer is yes, it can be dangerous. However when it is done properly, swaddling is truly a wonderful skill for parents to have in their tool box and despite what some may say, I believe it to have saved my sleep many many times.

Keeping pre-schoolers busy

 

Keeping littlies busy can be a hard task, especially when they are tired from a busy morning at kindy. A big hit in our household is always baking.
Here is my delicious chocolate chippie recipe - modified from my own Grandma's, she was an awesome baker!

The girls help measure and pour the ingredients, push the buttons on the microwave and roll and flatten the cookies.

Dana's Chocolate Chip Cookies

225g Soft Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup White Sugar
1 Egg
1t Vanilla
1t Salt
2t Baking Powder
2 1/2 Cups of Flour
250g Chocolate chips/drops

Preheat your oven to 180 Celsius.

Cream together butter and sugars. Add egg, vanilla and salt and beat a little longer.
Mix in baking powder, flour and chocolate chips.
Roll into balls about the size of a golf ball, place on a lined tray. Flatten lightly with a fork.
Bake for 13 - 20 minutes. 13 minutes gives you a soft chewy cookie, 20 minutes gives you a dark golden crispy one.

For super-duper amazing-ness add 2T of cocoa with the flour. AAAMMMMAAAZZING!

Makes aprox. 28 cookies (minus the dough you eat first...)

Settling an upset infant

My baby number two was a terrible sleeper, in the midst of it all I turned to my dear mother. Her loving, motherly advice was a simple "hahaha you were just like that too". Thanks mum. Getting a baby to sleep can be one of the most difficult and frustrating pastimes. If you have an easy sleeper, count yourself very lucky! Many parents struggle with sleepless children. From my personal experience, while you are in the middle of getting up to a crying baby for the 8th time that night please do try to relax, it will eventually work itself out, it really really will. In the mean time here are some tricks that may help.

For the  first few months we recommend you go with the flow with sleep and settling, and do almost what ever it takes to get baby to sleep.  It is not recommended to expect a baby to follow a routine before 3 or 4 months of age. It's far more important in the early days that you and your baby are well rested. Being a new parent is exhausting, and you need to be able to rest when your baby is sleeping. There are some babies who will  only ever sleep for one sleep cycle (20-45minutes), regardless of what you do!

A key parenting skill is learning to recognise your baby's tired signs early. This will, in theory, help avoid your baby getting over-tired. Tired babies may yawn, get twitchy legs and arm movements or get a glazed/staring look, after two kids of my own, I still don't notice the twitchy limbs. If these cues are missed they will begin to grizzle, by this stage they are getting too tired to settle easily.

Sidenote: Newborn babies often root around and act the same as they would if they were hungry when they are tired. This can be very confusing for new parents. I really struggled with this aspect as I also had very little milk supply, so I always presumed the baby was hungry, which lead to short little snack feeds.

Babies can also make a lot of noise winding down to sleep, unless they are howling, feel free to let them be, they may well just be heading off to sleep. If they need help to get off to sleep, try one (or more) of the techniques below.
 

•  Use the Feed, Awake Time, Sleep pattern if possible. This reduces the confusion, you know baby is well fed, so it is likely he is tired rather than hungry again. Start looking for tired signs when a newborn has been awake for only 45 minutes, an hour awake is usually plenty at this age.

 

•  A baby that sleeps plenty in the day will sleep better at night. It is not recommended to limit baby's days sleeps until they are closer to two years of age. Prior to that age, limiting their sleep is counter-productive. Your baby will be over tired and very difficult to settle or keep asleep.

 
Replicating the womb environment works wonders as it triggers a powerful response inside babies’ brains that turns off their crying.
 

• Swaddling - this is simply wrapping a baby securely. This is the cornerstone to settling a newborn. Get a large, good quality wrap, at least 120x120cm (50 in) anything smaller than this is practically useless. See Swaddling Page for techniques.

 

• White noise - either 'shhhhh' very loudly, play a white noise CD on repeat, a fan, vacuum or shower. Try this YouTube track for white noise. In the womb babies are exposed to a constant noise of 80-90 decibels - equivalent to the sound of a vacuum, so turn it up loud.

 

• Swinging/jiggling - this can be achieved by a dancing/jiggling cuddle, sling carrier or hammock, a pushchair or car ride. I found the Moby Wrap a life saver when I had my second baby as I had a 20 month old to run around after as well, and this allowed me to have both hands free. The settling movement should be a gentle, repetitive movement. Never ever shake your baby.

 

• Sucking - breastfeed, thumb/finger or pacifier. This technique is very effective for colicky babies.

          See Colic page.
 

• Side/Stomach position - either in your arms, on your lap, on your chest or in their bed while being patted. Side/stomach is never for sleeping so ensure you roll them back to their back once they are calm. DO NOT PLACE SWADDLED BABY ON THEIR STOMACH LYING DOWN!

 

• Dark room - bright lights are stimulating for a babies brain, dim the lights to settle, and let them sleep in the dark, this includes for their day sleeps - most rooms when you pull the curtains you can still see quite well during the day and not well at night, baby will learn the difference. Keep the room as dark as possible during night feeds, and avoid eye contact or talking with them at this time, it will help them recognise night time is for sleeping rather than being social.

A combination of all of the above worked best for me: I would swaddle baby tightly, stick a dummy in her mouth, pop her into the Moby wrap and then proceed to vacuum the floor. Usually worked a treat, plus then the floor was clean!
 
Ensure your baby is sleeping safely for EVERY sleep. This includes each nap in your arms, in the car or when they fall asleep playing or on the couch.
 
Babies and toddlers who have a bath and a massage before bed, fall asleep faster than those
who are only read a story. So break out the baby-safe oil and rub them down using soft strokes and moderate pressure.
 
Babies who are usually good sleepers go through phases of not settling as well. This may just be a growth spurt in which they need to feed more frequently. These only last 1 - 2 days.

If the child/baby has been unwell with  a cold in the last week it might be good to get their ears and throat checked by  a doctor. As these are often more painful with the increase in pressure  when they lie down and makes babies very difficult to settle.
 
If a baby's crying is getting too much for you, put them down somewhere safe and go outside for 2-3 minutes to take a few deep breaths. Go back to the baby and try to resettle them calmly. Remember - it is just a phase!