— I’ve been terrible at keeping up with my list and book reading. Especially on the “blog more” thing. HA! I did manage to make some pizzas and enjoy time with Annette.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that making a pizza is neither difficult nor costly. In fact, each pizza only uses little of each ingredient, that the ingredients that I bought lasted for several pizzas! (Hmm, makes the $3.95 pizza seems expensive.) For this pizza here I used cabanossi, mushroom, capsicum, olives, and cheese. Love it. But I cheated and used a store-bought pizza base instead of making the dough myself. Yay for quick meals! But the store-bought pizza base is rather on the thin and crispy side, so next time I might try to make the dough myself too.

— I’ve been doing quite a bit of baking here too, especially during the cold months, it’s a great excuse to use the oven and warm up the place (not to mention the beautiful aroma that fills the whole place). Our favourite around here is the chocolate and banana cake (recipe from Cadbury). The recipe recommends sprinkling pecans on top, but as you can see I substituted that with flaked almonds. And I also used vanilla instead of the cinnamon. This cake is so yummy I made this many times already.

— I’m also still knitting and sewing, I love my crafting time. Recently I made this little apron for Annette. She’s been very keen to “help” me in the kitchen, so I thought I’d make her an apron to make her look the part. It’s made of some chocolate brown duck cloth with bias binding around it, and some cute japanese fabrics for the pocket (these ones are the Little Red Riding Hood and Little Bo Peep prints — so cute).

— My parents will be visiting soon, staying here for about 3 months. I’m quite excited, last time I saw them was over 3 years ago and I was busy with a newborn baby back then. So hopefully this time around I’ll get to spend time with them properly, and that they’ll get to spend some time with Annette too.

— Um, what else? Oh yeah, Australian Idol is on again, and I’m watching of course. Rather unenthusiastically at the moment, however. Only two weeks into the finals, and two of my favourites are already out. Harrumph. I thought Holly rocked and I like the songs that she picked, I was sorry to see her go. And I like Brianna’s style and quirkiness, and she has a gorgeous collection of vintage dresses, too bad about the bum notes. I guess she’s not mainstream enough to win the competition anyway. Ah well, I still enjoy watching the singing — although what’s up with the themes? Disco?!? Gaaah!

Ok, that’s it for my brief update for now! Hopefully it won’t be months before you hear from me on this blog again ;)

I have piles of books on my bedside table waiting to be read. This here is a pile of just the parenting books that I want to read. So many books, so little time! They’re all good books that I have got on good recommendations from people, so I really want to read them.

The problem is, sometimes reading parenting books as a parent is like reading your weapon’s user manual in the middle of a battle zone. Tee hee. Especially the toddler stage books — too early to read before you have the baby, but before you know it you’re in battleground and missiles are flying over your head (pardon the mixed metaphors! :) Just as soon as you manage to squeeze in a bit of reading, you’re back to the onslaught of disciplining-teaching-playing-cooking-feeding-cleaning-disciplining-playing- well you get the idea. Often there’s just not enough time to digest what you’re reading and properly think of a strategy, and you’re back to the default mode of just reacting to each problem instead of being proactive in preventing problems. So. I’m hoping to find ways I can do more reading. (Not to say that being a parent is all bad, of course. It has many joys!)

The books in this pile, from the top:

1 & 2. Terrific Toddlers and Terrific Toddlers 2, by Mel Hayde. I have this on loan from Juni. Mel is a Christian mum, and her books are basically about how parents can influence their children’s behaviour, character, and choices. I’m only halfway through the first book, and I like it already. It has short chapters, short sentences, and to the point (excellent features for busy/tired parents!), and has very practical and helpful tips.

3 & 4. The Secret of Happy Children and More Secrets of Happy Children by Steve Biddulph. A secular book, recommended by another Christian friend. I got these two books at the recent Book Fair for only two dollars each! Haven’t read these yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

5. Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp. A Christian book, also bought on recommendation. Haven’t read this one either.

6. On Becoming Child Wise by Ezzo & Bucknam. Another secular book. I haven’t read this one yet, but I’ve read another book, On Becoming Baby Wise, from the same authors. I found the Babywise book very helpful in guiding me through the early weeks and months of babyhood, so I’m hoping this book will be just as helpful (although the Ezzo books are not without controversies, but I like to read about various views on parenting, not just ones that are popularly endorsed at the moment, and I’ll decide for myself about what’s best for my situation). This book is for older toddlers to school aged children.

7. Parenting inc. by Terri Hardwick. This is a secular book written by a Christian mum. Lilis bought this for me for my birthday last year. She suggested it to me after reading the glowing review, and I was intrigued. I read this book halfway, but got distracted to something else for some reason, and now I think I’ll have to start over again.

Well, that’s my list so far. There are other great parenting books out there, but I’ll try to finish these first. I’m confident that I will finish these by 2014. Hopefully sooner. Maybe 2012.

Happy Birthday, my dearest, sweetest, little Annette. Love, Mummy.

(Magazine cover generated via fd’s Flickr Toys.)

This is a sheep that Annette and I made yesterday, inspired by this week’s Farm issue at Kids Craft Weekly. It was very easy to make, just using a toilet paper roll, cotton wool, and some bottle caps. The original uses cotton buds as legs, but we’re short of cotton buds around here, so instead we used some bottle caps left over from a certain soft drink that Stephen is particularly fond of, of which we have ample supply. And we didn’t have pipe cleaners at hand, so this sheep has no horns. Oh well, I guess this sheep is not a ram, she’s a ewe. Hello, Ewe! :)

“What are you doing, Annette?”
“I’m driving Mummy to the limit.”
“Uh huh. And where is the limit?”
“Over there.”

In addition to these, I have also enjoyed the following:

• Kids Craft Weekly — A free newsletter full of great craft ideas and fun activities to do with kids, delivered to your inbox weekly. Or you can just browse the archives for some inspiration. Each week the craft ideas follow a certain theme, such as dinosaurs, gardens, music, transport, etc, and they include activities for various age groups and abilities. Brought to you by Amber Carvan, a stay at home mum from Sydney.
• Parent Hacks — I often say that day-to-day parenting is about knowing what to try, as what works for one kid might not work for another. If one thing doesn’t work for your kid, try the next thing, and so on. Parent Hacks is “a collaborative weblog of practical parenting wisdom”. It’s full of parenting tips and ideas submitted by parents for parents. Just little everyday things, but useful things. Things like, how to keep a toddler walking without wanting to be carried (heheh, I needed that), to rewards system, to tips on cooking with kids. What’s more, the discussions in the comments are very helpful as well, as different parents give their inputs on the problem at hand, or their take on another solution, etc.

In other news, one of my favourite websites, Kiddley, is now sadly discontinued. It will be greatly missed, but good on Claire and Phil for prioritising spending time with their children. Kiddley had been a great source of tips and ideas. Here are some of my favourite posts from Kiddley:

• Dressing your child on a budget, part 1, part 2, part 3.
• Lunch box ideas, part 1 and part 2.
• Introducing your kids to digital photography
• Pecan + pretzel + chocolate = delicious
• No-sew tutu
• Making a pompom garland
• Dress-up paper doll — Annette and I had a blast colouring these.

And if you’re into crafts, may I recommend the following. (Warning: May lead to lots of time wasting. Ask me how I know.)

• Whip Up
• Craftzine

Read more books. As a child I used to be a ferocious reader, chomping through books faster than my parents can get me new ones. The habit continued well into my teenage years, although when uni started it kind of dropped off, probably replaced by reading on the Internet. Last year I started reading more books again, and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m hoping I’ll get to read even more books this year.

Plant some herbs. Wouldn’t it be nice, if I can just grab some herbs when I need them, and just the quantity that I need them? Instead of buying a bunch from the vegs shop only to have half of them rotting before I get to use them all.

Make a pizza. I’ve heard that home made pizza can be SO good, and I had just got this book on kids cooking (that’s for kids who’d like to cook — just about right for me I think) which has a recipe that seems easy and looks yummy.

Blog more. Yeah, yeah, I know, nobody is waiting with bated breath for my next blog entry, but I’d still like to blog more. Even if for no other reason than me wanting to be able to still remember these things in the future.

Make a doll. Just got this nice toy sewing book that has a simple doll pattern in it. I think I’ll give it a go and make one for Annette.

Enjoy time with Annette more. That goes without saying. Being a parent, most of the time there are so many things you want to get through in the day — get the kid to eat, get her to nap, go to toilet, change clothes, keep her occupied, etc etc etc — that you don’t get to ‘enjoy the moment’ of being together and spend quality time. I’d like to enjoy the time more. Next year she might be going to preschool — before I know it she’d be all grown up and want to borrow the car.

Get a driver’s license. I don’t think I would be driving much even if I had a license, as most of the places I go to are within walking distance. Petrol is expensive anyway. But I guess it’s handy as an ID.

Get a passport. Ditto, I don’t think I would be going overseas anytime soon (if ever), but it’s handy for ID.

Organise the home better. Oh well, okay, now that’s just wishful thinking.

Jayne is the orange/gold one, and Mal is the red and white one. We got them a couple of weeks ago. They’re special because they’re the first fish that I actually own, having had several babysitting (’fish sitting’??) gigs for other people’s fish in the past. They’re also our first pet, so to speak, although they don’t interact much apart from feeding time. Annette had taken to saying good morning and good night to them every day. In the beginning she wanted to take them out of the fish tank to give them cuddles (awww…) but now she’s content with just giving them food in the mornings.

*) We I named them after Jayne Cobb and Malcolm Reynolds, two of the characters in Firefly TV series that we had been watching on DVDs.