aka Baby Mama
About a month ago, Kai figured out how to take pictures with my iphone. He really likes it and gets excited when we flip the camera to support self photos. Here’s to the long arm photo!
Kai using the “long arm technique”
Kai tickled pink with his self photo
Kai being creative with the 1/2 photo
Kai and his thumb
Kai wasn’t into wearing his diaper this morning and started chanting undies, undies, undies! Okay then, I’m just the mom so off with the nappie and on with the undies. When it was time to drive to school, I somehow distracted him long enough to put a diaper on without a meltdown. I wasn’t sure if Little Orchards preschool would be keen on Kai wearing undies though? Of course they were because they’re awesome! I only needed to bring lots of extra clothes, undies and his potty chair. Out of the 15 little tykes at school today, Kai is the only one sporting tighty whiteies. I don’t blame my little buddy one bit for not wanting to wear a diaper, I wouldn’t either.
Kai striking a pose at the Whakatane, New Zealand Jazz Concert
Tags: potty training, toddler
Kai has a pretty sweet life here in New Zealand. Our typical day starts around 6:30am with some breakfast boob (yes, I am the longest “weaner” alive). Then eggs, toast and lots of water before we walk to play centre.
Kai getting his gloup on at play centre
After a 3 hour play session we race home for lunch and nap time. We either hit the beach or the pool after nap time. And, if we’re lucky some of his friends come to play in the pool and hot tub.
Kai and Ella having a soak in the hot tub
After that we might have a play upstairs in our apartment before having dinner. Last week, we even walked to the park after dinner for another play!
Kai at the playground near our apartment
Happy as a clam for the 5 min walk home after the park
Bath (shower in New Zealand), story time and beddy by. Pretty sweet day if you ask me..
Tags: new zealand, playcentre
Kai chowing on a banana and telling me he’ll be right back
I started saying to Kai “I’ll be right back” when he was just a little baby and I needed to get something. Over the past few months he’s taken to it and says it to us all the time. Sometimes he actually walks away and sometimes he just gestures with his pointer finger while saying “be right back,” with a huge grin.
Kai chowing on his second banana this morning
Toddler eating is funny. It’s messy, it’s finicky and it’s always changing. Yesterday Kai ate 4 bananas all in a row and managed to put away 2 this morning before 8am. He might refuse bananas for a month now, it’s happened before. I stocked up today just in case his banana craving continues? I’m just happy he’s eating fruit!
Bananas for the weekend
Tags: toddler eating
Lately, Kai is really into “helping” me clean our apartment. Whether it’s sweeping, vaccuming or washing dishes, he’s ready to help!
Kai vaccuming
Kai washing dishes
Wow, this is a big subject and I’m not sure there’s enough research to support either side. I know there is a lot of hub bub about working out while pregnant so I can only speak from my own experience. That being said, I wonder, “does yoga cause breech babies?” I did a ton of power vinyasa yoga while I was pregnant with Kai about 3 days a week. In addition, to the yoga classes I ran up to 32 weeks and taught spin classes right up to the end-36 hours before my c-section.
Teaching spin class while pregnant with Kai
I can name 3 women, including me who participated in a ton of yoga, (bikram and power vinyasa) while pregnant AND had breech babies. Of course, the medical community says there isn’t a connection to anything and breech babies are rare with less than 4% of all pregnancies turning or staying breech past 37 weeks in the US.
Of course, it’s rare to see a belly in a spin class or progressive yoga class so part of knowing 2 other women who had breech babies and did yoga while pregnant is because there aren’t a lot of us out there. However, if I could do it over I wouldn’t change a thing. I think working out while pregnant is like taking a prenatal vitamin, you’ve gotta do it.
We’d hired a doula and had two doctors tell me that Kai was head down so we were “planning” on a natural labor and delivery. I was quite shocked when I found out that Kai was a frank breech baby at 37 weeks. Here’s where I learned what a frank breech position was.
We tried a few natural tricks (music, pelvic tilts and moxibustion) to encourage Kai to spin around but I was avidly against the external version. Personally, I didn’t feel comfortable having my doctor forcefully push on my uterus at 37 1/2 weeks pregnant. He had weighed 7 1/2 pounds via the ultrasound at 37 weeks which usually was accurate up to 1 pound on either side. The best decision I made was letting baby Kai be how he was and NOT listening to my doula who wanted me to labor down with a frank breech baby.
How appropriate that I titled finding out about Kai being breech back in June 2010 My Yoga Baby.
As I look back nearly 2 years later, I wonder did all the yoga and working out cause Kai to get stuck in his own yoga position? I’m just sayin…
Playcentre has been an amazing part of our New Zealand experience. We show up at 9am to help set up on Tue and Thurs mornings and play until noon. There’s a huge outdoor play structure, swing sets, 2 sandboxes, water play station, carpentry shop, bike track, indoor play area with musical instruments, babydolls, art stations, books and a million other things. It’s an amazing place with awesome mamas that’s government funded and community run. So cool!
Kai and Ella filling up the kitchen sink outside in the sandbox
Kai having his way with the paints
Taking the tractor for a spin
Playdough time
Building a wood fort
Kai lining up the froggies on the mini balance beam
I’ve been passing this big, gray building in Whakatane labeled Gymnastics for awhile now. I finally stopped to check it out and enrolled Kai in gymnastics class. Yah! There are lots of poles/bars, trampolines, mats and climbing stairs. It’s a mixed age class of 2-4 year olds so it’s a workout for both of us.
Kai strutting his stuff on the trampoline
Women in Ohope Beach, New Zealand make everything from scratch. Or least, all of my friends do. Fresh, fresh, fresh. Sure I love to eat healthy but have been amazed by my mama friends who make everything from scratch.
One of my mama friends gave me an idea to make my own yumm sauce since there doesn’t seem to be anything like it in New Zealand. And we love our Yumm bowls from the USA! So off I went to the local Bin Inn (whole food store in Whakatane) to buy the special ingredients.
So far, I found that making fresh beans is much better than having them from the can. I’ve never been a fan of garbonzo beans and could take or leave hummus. Even homemade hummus was good but nothing I ever craved. Fresh beans make the difference and are easy and so tasty!
My little snick snack (corn cake with fresh garbonzo beans, avocado, salt and pepper) while making my yumm sauce
I couldn’t find the ingredients on the cafe yumm site so had to do some digging around. Here is the exact yumm sauce recipe I used, which turned out to be delicious!
My perfect yumm bowl in New Zealand. (jazmine rice, pinto beans, grated cheese, avo, fresh tomatoes, salsa and homemade yumm sauce) Delish!
