Home-made Playdoh

Alicia fell sick over the weekend so she had to miss school today. To cheer her up, I decided to try something different with her and we made playdoh! I was really quite apprehensive as even though I've been reading quite a bit about making playdoh, it was a different thing trying to put the act together.

Nevertheless, I'm very glad that the recipe I worked with worked well, with some impromptu alterations as I made the playdoh:

I've received some queries about the playdoh recipe I used on my Facebook page, so here it is!:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• up to 2 cups boiling water 
• food colouring (I worked with only red, blue and yellow)
• glycerin (optional, for extra shine - I didn't use it this time)

Directions:

• Mix the ingredients together (except water and food colouring)
• Pour in the boiling water. Don't pour 2 cups in immediately. Adjust as you go along.
• Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky dough.
• Let it cool down a bit then knead it vigorously for a few minutes until the texture is that of playdoh. 
• If it's still sticky, add a bit more flour and knead again. Adjust accordingly. (I personally had to add more flour using this recipe)
• Separate the dough into as many balls (I made 8) as you wish to colour using the food colouring.
• Add the food colouring to individual balls then knead in the colour till the dough is of a solid colour.
• Play!!!!

Invitation to play: playdoh and coloured craft sticks

Welcome to Alicia's little ice-cream shop!

Even lil Alex (9mths) had a go at it! Well, he tried to have a bite of it too! But I guess it tasted very bad as he didn't try to eat it again. :P

Note: I didn't scent or add glitter etc. to the dough this time as it's my first attempt at making playdough and I wanted Alex to play with it too. I'm too paranoid that he'd eat the glitter etc. but I may try to add these the next time round! 

The end of tandem breastfeeding

*This is an overdue post*

Yes, you are reading right. I have finally weaned Alicia off my breasts. She was three weeks to four years old.

Despite the fact that I have mentioned that I will wait for her to self-wean, it didn't feel so right that she should still be reliant on my boobs at the grand old age of 4.

During June this year, we made several major changes to our lives: we moved, I weaned her and she started school, finally. During the busy moving days, we entrusted her to my mum who cared for her for the whole day, picking her up only in the evenings. After we shifted, she stayed over at my mum's with her cousin for two nights - and that was what really prompted the weaning. I took the opportunity to wean her. When she came home and asked for milk from me, I told her that mummy was going to stop giving her mummy's milk, but I'd accommodate this as the last request for mummy's milk. She continued to ask for milk for a few days but when I reminded her that she already had her last time at mummy's boobs, she just laughed it off and went about to do her own thing.

Her staying at my mum's helped greatly in the weaning process as she started to drink formula milk together with her cousin (read: peer pressure) so the transition to drinking FM twice a day was made smoother. Nevertheless, she still doesn't quite like FM but she'd drink it - with lots of nagging and threats coercing.

My tandem breastfeeding journey has ended. Do I miss breastfeeding her since we've kept up with it for so long? Nope. Breastfeeding her through almost 4 years has been quite a journey but at some point, I acknowledge that my little girl has grown up. I love her all the same, but weaning her at this point in time makes her transition to a school-attending preschooler even more pronounced. I weaned her not because people feel that she should be weaned but because we both know that she's starting a new phase in life, and mummy's little baby is now mummy's little girl :)