Potty training & Elimination Communication

Rachel is EC’ed since she is 2 months. I have always been very relaxed about it. It has been a way for me to respond to another of her needs, to save (cloth) nappies and to keep her bottom nice and clean.

We have been quite successful at night (she has always been dry 9 times out of 10). During the day, I carry a Potette or I use the public loo (I hold her). I use cloth nappies as a back up and she is never bare bottomed.

But recently our Elimination Communication has been going downhill. Rachel has a lot of misses. She is big now (2 years and 3 months) so I cannot use a prefold with a Snappi anymore as it is too tight on her (round) belly. I have a few EC store training pants which are fab but she uses the 5 of them in one morning!

Today at the supermarket, I had one box of disposable training pants in my hands. I hesitated but finally put them back. I would be too guilty about using disposable nappies made of wood pulp and plastic, costing our earth so much and decomposing in more than 500 years. So washing machine it is! I have read that development milestones often occured after a regression… we’ll see!

I love the waterproof training pants from The EC Store

Matter of fact

When Rachel falls, I try to stay matter of fact: ”You fell. I will help you get back up.” No drama, no big emotional ”of my poor little thing, it hurts so bad, poor baby”. As a result, she doesn’t cry 8 times out of 10.

I had to make the effort not to over react when she started walking, running and of course falling, but now it becomes natural. I hope this will help Rachel to be strong in her life. I am always there to give hugs and kisses but I’d like to show her that small bumps can be found on the road: the essential is to carry on. Do I sound harsh or is it something you do as well?

Rachel is dressing up with my mother’s coat

Not giving up on Sleepy Nico baby carrier

Rachel is not giving up. She really really wants to carry her animals and dolls in our Broderie Noire baby carrier. The problem is that the waist is too big for her so even when she manages to get Titi into it, it just slips. I have suggested to the lovely mothers who invented Sleepy Nico that it would be great to get a child version of the Sleepy nico baby carrier. What do you think? Do you think your toddler would like to carry teddies and dolls in a mini soft baby carrier as well?

Titi in Broderie Noire Baby Carrier

Say hello to Grandma and Grandpa

Rachel was delighted to get her Mamy and Papy from Paris visiting us. They didn’t stay long (only a few days) but it was very nice to see my parents. I haven’t been back to Paris for more than a year. I only miss the restaurants (the Tartare de Saumon at Japanese Sushi Zen, the Pates at Del Papa Restaurant and the ice creams at Amorino) and relaxing at my parents’.

I am protecting Rachel’s head, ears and neck from the wind with a LanaCare organic merino wool balaclava

Culture

A very angry lady at the Post Office told the desk lady and me that we weren’t speaking English properly and were taking too much time (I had 2 parcels to send). She was complaining about what the English culture had become. Well, I pity her: it must be hard living in the most cosmopolitan city of the world when you hate non-England born people!

I have two books to suggest to her: The Inheritance of Loss and The Belly of the Atlantic. Maybe it will help her opening up from her boring life…

Rachel loves London and having friends from all over the world

As if she was looking over my shoulder

I was chatting with my friend Hannah about discipline. I told her a lot about all the books I have reviewed in this blogs and how they helped me to better understand what good discipline meant for me and how to achieve positive results while respecting the child.

I also told her that I was taking care of Rachel and teaching her boundaries by thinking of how she would react as a grown-up child if she was giving me her opinion. I try to imagine Rachel at 30 years old looking over my shoulder and what she would think.

Indian/Scottish Wedding

When we walked past the Indian temple, there were big black and white boots in the front yard. We were asking ourselves what they were doing there while Rachel was listening to the sound of drum coming from inside. Then, a woman told us to come and have a look inside the temple.

I kept Rachel on my back in our baby carrier to avoid her running around. This was a very special moment as I never set foot in an Indian temple before. It was so beautiful inside, with lots of colours and the women were all sitting together in the most gorgeous saris. But what was truly striking was to see a Scottish drumer band playing in the centre of the temple.

We left very quickly as Rachel was overjoyed and making a bit of noise (which was getting noticed when the drums stop). The same woman gave us a bag of spicy biscuits when we left (they were delicious and Rachel ate a lot of them despite all the spices).

We were still wondering how Sctottish men could be in this temple when I thought it must have been a marriage. A marriage between an Indian woman and a Scottish guy or a Scottish woman and an Indian guy. What do you think?

My easy peasy Risotto

A delicious dish that Rachel and Bruno love. I do it when I don’t feel like cooking a lot (like on Sunday nights) yet want to eat healthy. The added bonus is that mushrooms are a source of vegetable protein. It is also nice served with eggs.

I basically invented it one night when we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare food and when only plain rice would have been too boring.

To make your easy risotto, you need:

• any kind of mushrooms, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 5/6 tomatoes, peeled and diced in 8
• 1 bunch of coriander (when I am in a hurry I don’t separate all the leaves form the stems, I just cut it all thinly)
• your favourite rice (we love basmati), rinsed
• olive oil, as always

To prepare your easy risotto:

1. cook the onion in a bit of oil until transparent
2. add the rice
3. add some water to cook the rice (cooking the rice usually takes less than 10 minutes)
4. add the mushrooms and tomatoes and cook for 2/3 more minutes
5. remove from heat and add coriander
6. add a bit of olive oil and salt before serving