What it means to be a good mother...

First of all, thank you so much for your emails and comments about what it means to be a good mama. They really meant so much and for me, they articulated many of the thoughts swimming around in my head. I loved how it was put in this comment:

"I think that deep down, a good mother is one who makes her children feel loved completely and utterly...is their biggest fan."

Also the importance of patience, encouragement and living in the moment were mentioned. I plan to remind myself daily of all these things. For most of us, I think, parenthood is an amazing learning experience, a time when life is shaken up and changed forever. Patience, support and finding joy and peace in small things every day is so important.Looking back, some of things I really appreciated (and still do appreciate) about my mother is that she was always there for my sisters and I, to encourage us, support us and love us, no matter what. I liked that she had a life outside of parenting and a strong independence (a good example for us I think), but no matter how busy she was, or what else she had happening in her life, we knew we could count on her and that we were her first priority. She gave us so much love and such a strong foundation for us to go ahead and live happy lives. So thank you Mum and well done to all the wonderful mothers out there.

The Pebble Vest for Spring

I decided Yashar really needed a little woollen vest for Spring. I found the free pattern for the Pebble Vest at The Thrifty Knitter (via Soule Mama). I really liked this pattern. It was so quick and easy to knit up. I'm a pretty slow knitter and this was complete in less than a week -I just worked on it most evenings while watching a movie or a couple of shows.

The pattern is sized for a baby, but I just used a thicker wool and larger needle size (5mm), added two extra stitches to the front and back (so CO 84 instead of 80) and it worked out perfectly. The finished vest measures 33cm lengthwise and 30cm across.

There is something about the vest that makes Yashar's little round tummy look so cute!

Yashar weekly photo: Still loving bath time!

I'm bringing back the 'Yashar weekly photo'. Yay! So...now that the weather is warming up Yashar is enjoying his long bath times again -(remember this?). Only now he gets to control the shower head (a very important job) Oh and he can splash waaay bigger now!

On being a mother...

Sometimes I find it hard to believe - not only did I have a baby, but now he's not a baby anymore, he's a little boy! This is him at 3 weeks old. So small, so fragile. At sixteen months, he has really started to become so much more independent, running around at the park, throwing himself face first down the slide, learning new words everyday, wanting to be able to put his shoes on himself...

Something that is often in the back of my mind is whether I am doing a good job as a mother...and what on earth does that mean? I think that people are often quick to judge mothers (and fathers), to jump to the conclusion that if a child is behaving in a certain way that then the mother must being doing something wrong, that if a child is crying then the mother must be doing something wrong and so on.

I also know that mothers can be so hard on themselves. I know I can be. I often feel guilty for wanting time to myself even though part of me knows that this is important. And then there are those times when Yashar starts screaming in the supermarket, or tries to hit me in the head with a toy or snatches pencils away from other kids at playgroup and, even though I know these things are 'normal' for this age, I wonder, am I doing something wrong, could I be doing something better?

So what is a 'good' mother?? Of course there are the basics - Yashar is fed, safe and generally healthy. But then more difficult questions emerge. Am I providing him with enough opportunities to develop and learn, and is he learning the right things, does he get enough attention from me and his Baba, am I strict enough, am I too strict, does he need more structure and organisation to his days, am I too 'go with the flow', is he having enough fun!? When is enough enough? And what about me?!

Everyone has their own way of dealing with it, there own style of parenting. But it's also so valuable to learn from other people's experiences. So, for you, where is the right balance? What do you think makes a good mother? What was it about your own mother that you are thankful for?

I would love to hear from you all.

Making paper flowers for Spring

OK, so I am crazy in love (with the emphasis on crazy) with this weeks project - paper flowers in blossom branches made using the tutorial from Dozi Design. I knew that I had fallen head over heels when Senol caught me staring lovingly at it. Lol!

This little crafty project would be great to make with kids -it is so easy. It just involves drawing a swirl on some paper, cutting it out and then rolling up the swirl of paper.

Yashar is a little young to be wielding scissors just yet but he had a great time collecting the branches with us. The blossom petals were falling down on us like little snowflakes. It made my heart all tingly.

And Yashar loved being held up in the branches to give the blossom a closer inspection.
After making the flowers I just arranged them on little twiggy bits on the branches with a sneaky bit of blue tac when needed (not often). I think a long thin vase would be great for this but the jug (which I love) was all we had. I used paper that was slightly thicker than standard printer paper and that had a little bit of texture to it which I think this worked well. Once the blossom falls off I will put some smaller paper blossoms closer to the ends of the branches. Hello Spring!

The search continues...

Not so long ago I told you about the ridiculous amount of hats I have been knitting for Yashar and my search for the ultimate knitted hat.

Along the way I made a hat using this pattern from SouleMama. This hat is really cute and quick to knit but I just couldn't seem to get it to fit right. :( I first made one that was too small and then made this blue one but it always seems to slip off. It kind of looked a little girlish too I think - and we can't have that! If I made it again I would use a thinner wool and it would probably be suited better to someone that didn't want to pull their hat off all the time!

Then I really thought I had found the one. I used the Thorpe/Topper pattern and it was so promising - a hat and scarf in one with lots of ear cover but... I am going to make it again with some modifications. Next time I will make the split for the scarf at the back of the neck a little lower, will make the ear flap parts come in closer around the face, will make the ribbed band around the top of the face a little longer and I think I will make the scarf parts longer. This one is a kind of weird length that means we usually end up tying it in a knot at the back. I will also try to find a nicer yarn next time -definitely something a bit thicker.

Then my mother in law made this and blew all of my hats out of the water! You might have seen this one in a few other photos I have posted here- I especially love the photo of Yashar wearing it in this post. I think this hat is so cute, the cream really suits Yashar and she also made a matching scarf with pompoms on each end.

But I am still continuing the search! Maybe by next winter I will find the ultimate hat??

Exactly!

I discovered this idea on Maya*made and all the instructions are here. Maya has a gorgeous blog with so many ideas ...I'm sure I will be making more of her projects soon! Some flowers were just what we needed - hello Spring! They didn't have any bulbs at our local nursery (wrong time of year I think) so we just grabbed some that had already started to grow and I used some linen I had in my stash to cover the tin and plastic containers we used.


Yashar had so much fun getting some extra dirt for these from the garden today - can't wait for the weather to really warm up. He is going to have so much fun!

And I think he is going to like watching them grow.

Finito!

Making Mondays: His little hand

I love this - it was so quick and easy, looks gorgeous framed and is a special little Yashar keepsake. I came up with the idea when Yashar and I were drawing and I was tracing around our hands.

All you need to do is trace the little one's hand on the back of some wrapping paper (some nice fabric would also look great). Ok, this was actually a little harder than it sounds - Yashar does not keep still for more than 2 seconds!

Then cut the hand shape out and glue it on some nice textured paper (I used some thick water colour paper). I also wrote Yashar's name and the date underneath.

I put it in a plain box frame from Ikea and put it on some shelves where we keep some of Yashar's books and toys. I think it would be so nice to do one with a few hands lined up in it - either as he grows or with 'paper hands' from his cousins. Yashar is growing so quickly, it will be so good to have this record of his little hands. I hope you make this one too!

p.s. thanks for the new name!

pps. I have now moved to a new blog address: www.thelightgarden.blogspot.com
I hope you come over for a visit!

Come and spend a morning with Yashar!

Now that Yashar is walking our daily outings are so much fun! I thought I would share what we did on Friday morning with you, which is pretty much a typical weekday morning for us.

This morning, knowing our usual routine, Yashar got his shoes and sat down by the door trying to put them on - so cute! Then he carried my scarf over to me and then tried to put his shoes on me. He loves to go out for a walk!

We got rugged up and quickly headed out the door and walked down the steep hills with me holding his hand very tightly and making lots of stops along the way to say hello to neighbours. The area we are in mostly low rise apartments (3 or 4 floors) - many have a different generation of the same family living on each level. Others are rented by professionals and students. Most of the gardens are full of fruit trees, especially mulberry, pomegranate and cherry trees. One of our neighbours even has beehives in their front yard:
I love the faded pink paint on this place.

And Yashar found the beehives mesmerising!

Then it was on to the park.
With a stop to look at all the birds and dogs around.

Then over to the local cafe to warm up and to have my essential coffee for the day. Lots of the customers stop to chat to Yashar and one lady helps him to pat her gorgeous and friendly dog. The staff there all know Yashar well and play with him while I relax. Love it!

Then the walk home, today through our Friday market. I stopped to do a little fruit and veggie shopping while one of the stall holders, a beautiful older lady that brings in produce from her village, gave Yashar a cuddle (like she does every week!) and then she showed him some sheep in a yard next to the market. Yashar was so excited!

By then Yashar was pretty worn out so I carried him up the last few steep hills and he fell asleep in my arms not long before we got to the front door. A perfect morning!

Crafty Monday

Yashar and I have been getting so crafty lately - as in making stuff, not using sly moves and Yashar's cute smiles to get me free coffee (although that also works well for us!) So I toyed with various ideas - 'make it yourself monday, 'take a bedazzler to it Tuesday', and finally decided on Crafty Monday! (I'm taking submissions for a new name as this one kinda sucks!)

I am hoping to share a little project with you every Monday and I hope you join in with us now and then and get all crafty too!

This week we made some cards for all of Yashar's cute little playgroup friends. These were for Valentines Day, but I could also imagine using them for birthdays, fathers day, any day!

First of all we used the idea for 'Jell-O Fingerpaint' that Tanya gave us. We used Raspberry flavoured jelly for that sweet-heart colour and just slowly added hot water to it until it was a nice thick consistency. I let it cool, put Yashar in a tracksuit that I detest, spread some newspaper down and let the finger painting begin!

Yashar had so much fun doing this! I would drop the fingerpaint all over the place and he went crazy smudging it all over the paper (and himself!)

I let the masterpieces dry over night and prepared small cards from some thick watercolour paper I already had. Then I cut little hearts out from Yashar's artworks and stuck them on the front of each card using a glue stick. I wrote each of Yashar's friends names on the front and a little message inside.

I think they are pretty cute! We have one that we made for his Baba hanging up and I love it!

Oh, and can we pretend it is Monday today...

In search of the ultimate knitted hat

I have been knitting a ridiculous amount of hats for Yashar lately. This is attempt number 2. I saw this wool at the local Pazar (our local Friday market) and suddenly I had the impulse to make something bright and colourful for him, instead of in the pale blues and greys that I would normally choose.

This one is pretty simple - I just knitted from the bottom up in a rib pattern on circular knitting needles. Once it got to be about 15cm long I started decreasing by knitting two together at the start of each rib on alternate rounds. I had wanted to it to fold up at the bottom but it isn't quite long enough (although it is long enough to keep his ears nice and warm). I think it looks like a little tea cosy!

I have knitted two more hats for him that I will take photos of as soon as we get some light enough weather. Despite all these hats, I need to make more! None of these have been quite right. So I had a good look on ravelry.com - a website I had known about for a while but only just got into. There are some really gorgeous patterns to be found on there (after a bit of searching). I especially love this owls jumper.

I think/hope I have found the ultimate hat for Yashar. It is on the needles at the moment. To be continued...

Yashar Update: Playdough!

Yesterday we finally made playdough! I had been wanting to make this with Yashar for a little while but hadn't been able to find food dye or cream of tartar which most of the recipes use. Five supermarkets later I decided to improvise!

I diluted some powder for a flavoured bright red drink and it ended up making a pinkish dough. Now I just have to find some more colours! The recipe I used was:

1. Put 1 cup of flour, half a cup of salt, 4 dessert spoons of oil and a third of a cup of water (mine had the red drink powder in it) in a large bowl and mix (Yashar did the mixing).

2. Knead until it forms a nice dough adding more oil if it is too crumbly.

3. Play time!

Yashar loved it and I am glad I didn't just buy the playdough ready made - making it was definitely half the fun for Yashar (and me!). We were also lucky that there was the perfect play surface already in the house that made clean up easy. It was a big board left here by the owners that's used for rolling out the large pastry sheets used for making desserts like Baklava and savoury 'borek'.

Does anyone have a different recipe? I would love to know what it is.

I feel an emotional post coming on - about being a mother and how much Yashar has grown - but I will leave that for another day when I have time to contemplate it all.

Some favourites

My favourite photo from the trip:My second favourite restaurant from the trip (am planning to post about my favourite very soon): Libertine - French dining in North Melbourne. Mmmm, the lavender creme brulee - so delicious.


Favourite new recipe: This delicious watermelon and marinated fetta salad my Mum made on Christmas day. The mint makes it taste so fresh.

Was there a dressing on it Mum?

I will definitely be making this one in Summer here. Watermelons are sold from the back of huge trucks here in Summer, and of course there is no problem getting fetta here!

Just when I had given up hoping...

(and had thought that the Turkish postal system had struck again!)...a heavy package arrived from Canada.



A little while back I asked for help finding a birthday present for Yashar on etsy and, after getting some great ideas, I ordered some wooden toys from Diamond Isle Treasures.

In her book, The Creative Family (on my reading list at the moment - I'm halfway through reading it), Amanda Soule encourages choosing toys that are beautiful, simple (to evoke imagination and creativity), and that are made of natural materials. And she says that "Finding toys that will hold up to lots of use and play - versus poorly made toys that will break easily - will encourage your children to value human work and experience over consumption." These toys fit so well with this approach.

The look and feel of the timber is gorgeous...so much more satisfying than a lot of plastic toys (although some of the plastic toys we have, especially the better quality ones, are lots of fun). Yashar has already spent hours stacking and unstacking the blocks, pulling the wagon around, giving me the blocks one by one with a huge smile on his face. I hope these toys will be around us for a long time.

Hello! Remember me?

Just dropping in quickly to let you know that we are back after a gorgeous three weeks in Australia. Here are a few photos to give you a taste of what it was like (although it was actually a little cold some days - Melbourne weather is like that!). I am just getting settled back in around here but will be back with more news and photos very soon. And yes, things didn't quite go as planned with the posting while I was away... but I am excited to be back (and sad to have left Australia again). I have missed this whole blogging world and am looking forward to catching up on all my favourite blogs and to hearing from you all again!