Veggie Way

2009-06-11T12:35:00.003Z

Lovely spaghetti sauce.
I used Jamie's simple pasta recipe,here,replacing tinned tomatoes with fresh ones.
I am loving tomatoes and basil these days.What do you enjoy?

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-03T14:31:00.003Z

I like that she is lost exploring under this old tree at Kew Gardens.
Visit WW HQ here.

2009-05-28T10:32:00.003Z

I compiled this week's menu from The Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. We are trying new recipes this week and really enjoying them. Yesterday we had this ridiculously easy lentil soup.It was very cold here so was a very good choice.
For today I will prepare this eggplant and tofu in spicy garlic sauce.Sounds yummy!

Making Bubbles With A Sponge

2009-05-21T16:20:00.003Z

There are some amazing blogs which feature interesting activities to do with the kidlets. As much as I enjoy reading them,I do feel overwhelmed by them.Simply because I am not that organised and I am not a crafty girl.
If you are anything like me,then pop on over to The Wonder Years.I like her style: Everything is neat and tidy and most of the materials she uses can be found at any home.
Today we made bubbles with a sponge and Defne enjoyed it.When she began to lose her interest,she wanted a spoon and stirred and then she transfereed the bubbles on the sponge with the spoon.So much to play and learn!

2009-05-20T19:10:00.005Z

Defne has given up her naps and this leaves me with very little time to blog during the day.When she goes to bed around 7 o'clock I am totally knackered and just want some silence,grab a tea and watch a movie or read a book.
****
A few months ago I was in our local health food store with afriend of mine and she asked me if I have ever tried red quinoa.I hadn't so I thought I would give it a try and bingo! I like it so much,I prefer it to "yellow" quinoa now.It has a more nutty flavour in my opinion.It is very easy to prepare and very nutritious.

Photo from Wikipedia

I use this recipe from 101 Cookbooks and it goes down very well indeed.

Raw sweet potato crisps

2009-05-11T13:55:00.005Z

I bought Shazzie's beautiful book Evie's Kitchen a few months ago and have tried only one or two of the recipes. This weekend I decided to try another recipe and chose the sweet potato crisps.
I decreased the quantity in the original recipe and when they were done,I understood that the sesame oil was not enough.They turned too crispy for our liking but they go well with a bean dip or hummus :)

Evie's Kitchen is a beautiful book full of colorful pictures.

The book is divided into two sections.
In the first section, you can read about Shazzie's personal path to parenting and her thoughts and experiences on pregnancy,breastfeeding and natural parenting.The second section is full of kid friendly raw recipes.
Some require a dehydrator but some are really simple to make.
She also uses a fair bit of superfoods like maca powder,purple corn extract but I guess these can be omitted or replaced with something else.
Hope you have a nice week!

2009-05-10T09:38:00.000Z

Finally time to write a few words about our holiday.
We flew from Gatwick to Izmir where Soner's family lives.There was a big family reunion where Defne enjoyed playing with her cousins.She is the 10th and youngest grandchild on daddy's side so she had lots of fun there.
One day we visited the newly opened Izmir Wildlife Park.

Then we flew to Antalya to visit my side of the family. My sister also came so we got to have so many baby cuddles.Defne enjoyed playing with Ela -she is 6 months now- and she was so gentle with her.

It was nice getting to see everyone again,despite some family members having health problems.
Defne was great on the plane trips and during the holiday.However towards the end,she was having meltdowns at the drop of a hat. I find this the most difficult aspect of a holiday with a child. Since our routine changes,she sometimes skips naps or prefers not to sleep. Having too many people around makes her more tired and all these conntributions can make her very difficult at times.Overall though,she had a great time with the extended family.
And did I mention that the weather was so nice and warm :)

2009-05-06T11:55:00.002Z

Days are flying by and I didn't have a chance to sit and write a blog post.
It has been a bit hectic here. I have yet to download our holiday pics.
Today we are homebound as we are expecting a parcel to arrive.
I hope to come back and write a proper post soon...

2009-04-29T09:26:00.002Z

Just a quick word to say we arrived home last night.
We had a lovely time with family and friends in Turkey.
Hope you are all well.Off to town for grocery shopping now.

2009-04-08T15:14:00.003Z

We are off to Turkey for a holiday tomorrow.
Hoping to be here 3 weeks later,wishing you a lovely spring!

Sleeping through the night

2009-04-06T18:30:00.000Z

My latest post for API Speaks

Back in November I had written about night-time parenting. I had asked how the situation is in other AP homes.
Well, things have changed quite a lot since and I thought it would be nice to give feedback.
Between October and December my daughter had a major sleep regression where she would wake up in the middle of the night and wanted to play for endless hours. Very tough days.. I tried giving up naps,moving her bed time, but nothing seemed to help.
In January we went to a short holiday and when we returned back,things began to change slowly. She was not fighting against sleep any more. When I told her, it was bed time, instead of running away from me, she began to choose the books she wanted me to read to her.
Gradually, she started sleeping for longer stretches,like 3-4 hours.
In the last 3-4 weeks, she has even technically slept through the night. (That is five or more hours without waking up for a feed) Once she slept from 9pm to 5am which was just unbelievable for me!
I have always nursed her to sleep,for many months in our Ergo,but one day she said she wanted to sleep on my lap.This shortened the time I had to spend every evening trying to put her to sleep.
Since a week or so, I nurse her until she gets very sleepy and then lie next to her,and say "close your eyes, it's sleepy time" and it works wonderfully. Last night she told me that she wanted to "look at me",so sweet! I gave her a big hug and she was happy to close her eyes.
I am so glad that our daughter came to this stage with no pushing from us. She does not sleep through every night yet, but I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
If you are a sleep-deprived mama, just hang in there. It does get better.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-04-01T20:47:00.001Z

Wearing mama's boots are such fun!

To see more WW visit here

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-03-30T21:12:00.002Z

I can't remember when I first read about serving a nibble tray for the little ones is a great way to encourage them to eat something while they are on the go.
Defne loves this.Sometimes she can't get enough of a particular food and asks for more,some days she won't touch most of it,some days everything is eaten ;)
Cucumber sticks,apple slices,grapes,spelt puffs,cashew nuts and goji berries.

Introducing a second language

2009-03-26T17:17:00.005Z

Because both myself and Soner are non-native English speakers,we didn't want to teach English to Defne. Now that we are living here,she has lots of exposure to the language and given that young children learn a language so quickly,it wouldn't be a problem. But then I was also feeling a bit anxious that she would feel like a stranger when the time is ripe and she starts to nursery or school.
Then I came across this article, Giving the gift of a language by Annalisa Barbieri:

The thing about learning languages very young is that, just as they learn their mother tongue easily by being surrounded by it, they can pick up another in the same way: it becomes almost like one big language to them. It's not the difficult process it becomes after about the age of 10 or 12. Research has shown that after this age the brain handles language differently because until then it is constantly making neurological connections - after this age the hard-wiring slows down.

We decided to go for it. We ordered the BBC language course Muzzy that Barbieri mentions in her article and she just loves it.
It has been about 2 months now. She is learning English now,obviously in a very different way than we adults learn it and it is amazing. It came with a cuddly toy of Muzzy so she quickly bonded with it.
I observe that she is listening more attentively now when I speak to someone in English and sometimes repeats some of the words or remembers some words from Muzzy and keeps saying them.

A lovely book

2009-03-19T19:41:00.004Z

Look what arrived yesterday!
This is one of the most fantastic books I have ever seen!
I came across this through Pixie,thank you my dear! Pixie was mentioning Disposable Aardvarks' list of recommendations for vegetarian kids. Another thank you to you dear Veganf!
When I browsed it, I fell in love with this book:Food for Thought by Saxton Freymann & Joost Elfers.

The book explores colours,shapes,letters,numbers and opposites with the help of vegetable and fruit characters.
Defne enjoyed it,too.

Here are a few sample pages for your pleasure:

Defne's favorite books

2009-03-13T14:12:00.007Z

Dear Pixie inspired me to write a post about Defne's favourite books.

Now, first of all I have to write about The Bear series from Barefoot Books. We bought 2 of these when Defne was around 14 months old.She loved these,a few months later we bought the other ones. The books are beautifully illustrated. At 27 months,they are still read every other day if not every day!

Poppy Cat (Pisi Kedi in Turkish) was also bought when she was one year old during our holiday in Turkey. It has lift the flap and feel and touch pages.She still likes these.

Miffy is quite an old character,first published in the 60s. So Miffy's father is always wearing a tie :)Defne loves this rabiit very much. The book is written in a rhyming text which is great for language development.We have a few in Turkish.

This is a classic and I now know why.Eric Carle's books are just beautiful.
ETA:Eric Carle on Guardian today(14.03.2009)

In our local library there is a Maisy corner where all the Maisy books are displayed. I have introduced Defne to Maisy a few months ago and since then we literally live with Maisy and her gang ;)

After watching How to Catch A Star at the theatre,we also bought the book.This is one of the most beautifully illustrated books I have ever seen.

My Cat just sleeps is devoted to all cat lovers out there. It was in our Bookstart package which Defne was given on her 2nd birthday.

Piglet and Mama was borrowed from the library. It is a beautiffuly told story about a piglet who lost his mother in the farm and their reunion.We read this book many times cuddling each other.

Backpack Baby is great for all babies and toddlers who love their slings/wraps.It is a small book,very handy to pop in your bag so that the little ones don't get bored on short trips.

Now it is time to write about our books in Turkish for my Turkish readers. We had bought a few books last year after having read about them on dear Yasemin's blog. Limon Agacinin Sarkisi, Butun Gun Esneyen Prenses and Cikolata (all of these books are from Redhouse Kidz) are very much loved here. We are looking forward to buy more books in Turkish on our next trip.

Which books do your children love?

Update from us

2009-03-11T08:35:00.004Z

Defne has been sleeping really well at nights. This major development started after we came from Belgium and it is still going on. I can't believe it! She sleeps for longer stretches,like 3-4 hours. She even slept from about 12-5am 2 nights.Having said that for the last 2 weeks, she takes 30 minute naps in the afternoon (it takes me about 40 min. to put her to sleep and in return I get a half an hour break,not fair huh?) I think she still needs these naps however short they are,otherwise she can get grumpy.
We have started potty learning very slowly. Only problem she wants to sit on the potty with her pants. (rolls her eyes) It is still a development though,a few weeks ago she was rejecting to sit on the potty at all.
We started to Kindermusik 2 weeks ago.Defne enjoys it.
Spring is just around the corner but it is still quite chilly here.Next month we are flying to Turkey.It is lovely in April,not too hot,not cold,really lovely.My sister and my niece will be coming from Belgium,too so it will be a family reunion.

Love it or hate it

2009-03-06T00:17:00.004Z

Remember my post about vegan yeast exact? I had asked for help about to love this stuff.Thanks for all your suggestions at the time.
My sister is a huge fan of vegetarian yeast extract and thanks to her,she taught me to love it when I was visiting her a few months ago.
She told me never to forget that "I am a beginner", and I spread, maybe 1/8 of a teaspoon of yeast on half of a slice of bread and topped it with vegan cheddar cheese.It was tasty this way.
As I was preparing to write this post,I read about the history of it on Wikipedia:

Today, the main ingredients of Marmite manufactured in the UK are glutamic acid-rich yeast extract, with lesser quantities of sodium chloride (table salt), vegetable extract, niacin, thiamine, spice extracts, riboflavin, folic acid, and celery extracts, although the precise composition is a trade secret.[4] By 1912, the discovery of vitamins was a boost for Marmite, as the spread is a rich source of the vitamin B complex; vitamin B12 is not naturally found in yeast extract, but is added to Marmite during manufacture. With the vitamin B1 deficiency beri-beri being common during the First World War, the spread became more popular.

If you are still interested and give it a try,there are heaps of ideas on how to use the spread on the website of Marmite.

When you are feeling overwhelmed by breastfeeding

2009-03-02T09:50:00.001Z

My latest post for API Speaks

My daughter has just turned two. Breastfeeding is still going strong here and we have no plans to stop yet.
However, when your child turns two,you expect them to be more independent and breastfeed less. At least that was my expectation.
In January,we were away visiting my sister. Believe me, my daughter was feeding much more than her 3 month old cousin!
I started to feel overwhelmed but thought this was because we were away from home and she is missing daddy.
Once we returned home,to my surprise nothing changed.
I started to question whether this was normal or not.
Was it normal to breastfeed so much at this age or was she just trying to get my attention? Was she feeding just because she was bored or was I not able to meet some of her needs and was she resorting to breastfeeding?
For the first time in my breastfeeding career,I felt overwhelmed and tired about it.
Thanks to the internet,I turned to my online community.
I have learnt that while some two year olds are happy to breastfeed just a few times during the day,some increase the time they spent at mama's breast(especially around 2.5 years old as they go through a major development and they need the omega 3 in breastmilk.)
When I talked about this with our local LLL leader,she kindly brought Nursing Your Toddler to our next meeting. This book is great as it has a section about what to expect past infancy.
Kellymom also has a good article about dealing with these "velcro days".
I have recently read Veronika Robinson's book,The Drinks are On Me (She is the editor of The Mother magazine).
What she wrote,really spoke to me.

Breastfeeding in toddlerhood can make the terrible twos,the terrific twos. Breastfeeding allows the child to have comfort during the time in their life when they are discovering they are actually a seperate being to mother. They come and go,from us,the matrix,back and forward,back and forward. We provide them with so many things when we breastfeed. Security in a mother's unconditionally loving arms,drinking liquid love,is something which lives within every cell of a child's being, and journeys with them through the rest of their life.

Learning my daughter was just going through a stage; I wasn't doing anything wrong and "this too shall pass" gave a such a relief to me that I started enjoying breastfeeding again.
She went back to normal in a few weeks. This made me realise that although she doesn't look like a baby anymore, she is still my baby who may need to breastfeed quite frequently. Knowing what to expect made all the difference for me.

2009-02-27T00:45:00.004Z

Hi there,
hope you are all doing well.
The week is passing by so fast.
I did some changes on my blog,I suppose everything looks much better now.
I hope to add more links in a few days.
By the way, I am quite happy with the menu I chose for this week,except for the quiche.I don't know where I did the mistake but the base turned out to be quite thick,also the filling was not as creamy as I had expected it to be.
Any vegan quiche recipe recommendations?

Menu Plan Monday

2009-02-23T10:13:00.000Z

I am finally back to meal planning this week.I hope to try lots of new recipes as recently I have been repeating the same things over and over.

Monday:Broccoli Quiche from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook p.103
Tuesday:Kidney Beans in olive oil
Wed:Chunky Celery Soup
Thursday:Heather's Quinoa Recipe
Friday: Yotam Ottolenghi's Two potato vindaloo
Saturday:Eat out
Sunday:Fettucine Alfreda (Vegan with a vengeance p.141)

You can find other menu plans at Organizing Junkie

Book Review:The Drinks Are On Me

2009-02-20T09:05:00.002Z

I have just read a book named The Drinks are on me.
Isn't it a beautiful name for a book about breastfeeding?
The author,Veronika Robinson, whom I have written about here many times,is the editor of The Mother Magazine.

In this book she shares her own experiences as a mother who breastfed her children for 10 years (including 5 years of tandem feeding).
As she says on the foreword,in an ideal world our mothers would have tell us everything they knew about breastfeeding.Sadly we don't live in this ideal world so she tells everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding.
She mentions the common issues about breastfeeding,the latch positions,the problems you may encounter (engorgement,mastitis etc )however what I like most is that there is a huge section about breastfeeding toddlers,tandem feeding,child-led weaning and how it feels to breastfeed older children (her daughters self-weaned at 7 and 8).
Veronika says that her utopia is that children are breastfed at least two and a half years and if parent-led weaning must happen,she wishes it to be gentle rather than abrupt.
This book is a gem, so inspiring!I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!

Lots of activities this week!

2009-02-18T09:05:00.004Z

It is half term here so there are loads of activities in town.We went to Kindermusik on Monday as part of the Family Festival.It is a music class for preschool children.Defne enjoyed dancing and singing.Now that she is too old to go to Rhyme Sessions at our local library, we are considering going to Kindermusik regularly.
Then,yesterday we went to London,to the theatre for the first time.
We watched How to Catch A Star (written by Oliver Jeffers)at Polka Theatre.

I suppose it was very successful as the children sit still for 40 minutes and watched the play and really enjoyed it.We are talking about 2-5 year olds here ;)
I would love to take D. to this theatre more often,the only problem is tickets sell out months before!
Running off now as I have to get us ready for today's event:Boogie Babies.

Book Review:The Food of Love

2009-02-12T22:13:00.002Z

I have been waiting for this book since I had read Kate Evans' other book,Funny Weather.
Since my pregnancy I have read loads of books about parenting and breastfeeding,I have to say this one is extraordinary.
First of all,Kate Evans is a very talented cartoonist.
She talks about all aspects of breastfeeding(there are funky cartoons about how to latch a baby,mamasutra (advanced breastfeeding positions) and parenting with personal experience,up to date scientific information and humor.
She covers all the issues that you face from the moment you have your baby.Cosleeping,babywearing,why you should not leave your baby to cry it out.All of these,make it a perfect book in my humble opinion.
Guaranteed to make you laugh out loud!
I gave my copy to my sister who is a new mama.She also enjoyed reading it.
I wish it was given to all pregnant women for free.
You can find a few sample pages here.

Defne's new play area

2009-02-09T11:48:00.006Z

We live in a small flat so Defne does not have a room of her own or a play room.
When we moved here, she was only 5 months old and had only a few toys.
As time passed by her toys added up.We bought a toy chest, however, after a time,we found out it was no longer able to meet our needs. Some of the toys live in the depths of the chest where she can never reach. Some of the toys were never played with and there were a few clusters of toys around all the time.
Finally we decided to organize her play area according to the Montessori philosophy and we are very happy with the new situation.
According to Tim Seldin aouthor of How to raise an amazing child the Montessori way),

Left to their own devices,young children may tend to create chaos,but they also have a tremendous need and love for an orderly environment.
When everything has its set place your child can easily maintain order in her room. It is surprising what an impact this can have on their developing personality.

I would have never known this before but seeing my daughter,I definitely agree. D. always puts everything in its place.Sometimes when we are in the shops and she is browsing through the aisles,she takes something from the shelf and after having looked or played with it,she insists that we put it on its place :)
We bought a decent shelf and a few wicker baskets and voila!

We grouped some of the toys and put them in the baskets.For example all her little balls and puppets are in the first basket,the second one contains her kitchen utensils and the third one contains her musical instruments.
Her cuddly toys and dolls are in the toy chest next to the shelf and there are a few boxes on the floor.
This new organization enables her to see all of her toys (we are rotating them) and play with them as she pleases. Also, at the end of the day,everything goes to its place.
To find more info about how to organize your child's environment according to Montessori principles, check out Micheal Olaf's book, Joyful Child (available as pdf.)