Kitchen (Mis)Adventure - The Gourmet Snag

Last week I had lunch at the swish new food court at the Westfield Sydney CBD where everything gives a gourmet vibe with matching gourmet price. I settled for a place which sells what looked like New York style sausages. After several minutes of deliberation, I decided  on the simplest item on the menu, an Australian fare with a beef sausage, tomato sauce and cheddar cheese on a brioche bun,  because I simply couldn't decide. As I watch it cook in the open fire grill, I had high hopes that my gourmet snag with the gourmet price will be so juicy and delicious that it will rock my world. Well, it didn't. It wasn't dry but it tasted as gourmet as a school fundraising sausage sizzle not even as tasty. Don't get me wrong, I'm no snag snob. I love a good sausage sizzle but I don't pay $7+ for it. The best part of my snag was the brioche bun. I'm glad I didn't pay more for a fancier item on the menu. My friend who had the chorizo said hers was really salty. I could have done with a bit of salt on mine.

I was so disappointed and underwhelmed that I decided to make my own gourmet snag. I rocked up to my local Woolies where they have just renovated their deli section and filled it with lots of gourmet delights. I bought a couple of Wagyu beef sausages, pickle relish, shredded mixed Italian cheese and crusty rolls. I already had whole egg mayonnaise (a staple in my fridge), Dijon mustard and home brand tomato sauce at home. The result was this:

It doesn't look all that pretty because let's face it, a snag ain't ever gonna look pretty but it tasted GOOD. My just under $2 sausage was so juicy and bursting with flavour even without the condiments it would have been good on its own. The chips looked a tad bit overcooked but I always give hubby the best ones. Next time I will try it with American style mustard and gourmet buns from the Becasse bakery. Hubby's verdict - it's pretty good which is a 4/5 (that's because he didn't have the mustard and had bbq sauce instead of tomato sauce. He seriously doesn't know what he's missing out on ). My verdict - it rocked my world!

Sleepy Cuddles

I haven't been able to post during the AM feeds because the WiFi connection in Bubby's room keeps dropping out.

Things have not been so good lately, yesterday being the worst. Bubby woke up every two hours in the night but didn't sleep during the day. At times like that you really have to dig deep in your psyche to keep your sanity. I look at the 1000+ photos of Bubby in all his cute and adorable glory.

The other thing that keeps me sane and one that I only ever get during the overnight feeds is the sleepy cuddle. Bubby doesn't fall asleep in his mummy's arms like most babies do. I trained him to put himself to sleep very early on and that's pretty much the only and quickest way he'd fall asleep. However, he usually feeds in the middle of the night while fast asleep. So once he's done I get to cuddle. Even stupid o'clock feeds have their silver lining.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

This is what happens when Bubby is left alone (in the middle of a big room) for a few minutes and I forget to surround his mat with pillows.

He's not even crawling yet.

I always hoped that my son will go places.

Babies are Prohibitively Expensive

Who knew that something that weighs very little and takes up so little space could cost you so much money. Not only are baby things already expensive but it makes you want to buy the most expensive of all. Take the nursery, for example. There are cheap cots at Target or Big W but I fell in love with the Boori Sleigh Royale (which is, of course, even dearer than the standard Boori Sleigh). It costs more than our Queen sized bed which is also a sleigh bed. Then, naturally, the rest of the nursery furniture has to match. No, I didn't get the Royale Sleigh range. The total of all of Bubby's nursery furniture cost less than price of the Royale Sleigh cot alone.

Photo source: Boori website

The pram was much the same. I fell in love with the Bugaboo Cameleon, Peg Perego Skate and the Stokke Xplory. Mainly because they come in the most delicious colours and designs. They are all too big and too expensive for me so I settled for the Bugaboo Bee in the limited edition off white canopy and sand base. I bought it on sale, of course. I knew I made the right decision when I found out that, apparently, the streets of Paris are swarmed with them. Get it? Swarmed. Bees. Anyway. I didn't just buy it because it's cute. It also ticked all the boxes - light, compact, easy to manoeuvre, under $1K (on sale, anyway) and, well, cute.

Stokke Xplory. Photo source: unknown

Bugaboo Cameleon. Photo source: unknown

Peg Perego Skate. Photo source: unknown

Bugaboo Bee limited edition colours. Photo source: which.co.uk

They're just some of the big purchases, there's also the hundreds of little purchases that just keep adding up.

Right now I'm researching car seats and I really want to get the Safe n Sound Meridian because it has the highest safety rating. Again. it's on the top end of the scale. I won't bother posting a pic as it doesn't come in exciting colours. If it did I probably would have bought it already.

I want this high chair.

Bloom Fresco Loft. Photo source: Baby Bunting.

This cool piece of baby furniture retails for $699. It's a freaking high chair not a designer handbag! For that amount of money I could buy two LV mini pochettes, or an Hermes clic-clac bracelet, or a Tiffany & Co key pendant and still have enough spare change to buy at least four high chairs from Ikea. And this is how I put things into perspective.

Bubby woke up at 1.30 am. Oh well.

ETA, woke again at 3.50 am. The blog is living up to its name.

Developmental Milestones

This morning (or rather yesterday morning), while his nappy was being changed, Bubby pulled his feet up to his face and started sucking on his toes. He's been working up to it for a while but yesterday was the first time he actually managed it. This got me thinking about developmental milestones. Not that toe-sucking is an actual milestone. First there's the smiling. I love the smiles and I will never get sick of it. I especially like the random smiles where he'd look at me intently and then smile for no reason. I wonder what goes through his head then. Or when he pushes himself off the floor and beams with pride. There's also the baby babble. I love this too but not so much at 5 am when I'm desperate for a little bit more sleep. On the other hand, it is nice to wake up to at say, 7 am. Then there's the laughing. Smile, Babble, Laugh. That's the golden trifecta.

Then there's the rolling. I worked hard at training him how to roll from back to tummy and was super excited when he finally did it on his own. That's really when my nightmare started. It wasn't long before I would wake up to this.

Worried about the SIDS risk I got rid of the sleep positioner. He went from sleeping from 8.30 pm to 7 or 8 am to waking several times a night because he'd roll but would need someone to turn him over only for him to roll again immediately. So I end up feeding him back to sleep. Milk is the drug of choice in this house. I was back to the newborn zombie stage. He goes back to sleep, I emerge in the real morning looking like a junkie fallen on hard times.

The crawling. Oh the crawling. He can't even crawl yet but it doesn't stop him from trying. In fact, that's just all the more reason to try, all hours of the bloody night. For a while he got used to sleeping on his tummy and I got a couple of weeks of okay sleep. He'd only occasionally wake up. I attributed it to sleep regression or growth spurt, although I saw little evidence of this. Then he started to learn to crawl. I would wake up to thuds in the middle of the night because he's managed to get close to the head or side or corner of the cot and he'd bang his head. Bubby is the Thing that goes bump in the night. And so The 3 AM Feed is born. I used to be in utter despair from sleep deprivation and would cry and hit my own head in frustration but I've accepted my new situation, embraced it and started this blog. Hopefully, I might be able to change the name of the blog soon.

There are other milestones, like when learns to reach and grab things deliberately (not just the instinctive grab on to everything). It's fun to watch him play with his crinkly Lamaze toys (and not just stuff it in his mouth which is a developmental thing too. He will inevitably stuff it in his mouth though). One thing I don't like him doing is grabbing my hair. I'm already going bald from the post pregnancy moulting and he's just speeding things along. I do like it when he reaches up to cup my face in his little hands but not so much when he digs his sharp little claws into my cheeks and pull.

Speaking of milestones, I have one of my own. I can fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans again! The one that is figure hugging and makes me feel like I look Hot in it (Disclaimer: I cannot vouch for whether the Hotness is real or imagined). Say what you will about me, but I have a healthy dose of self esteem/ body image delusion. There is the slight problem of the muffin top. Hey, I only said I fit into it not that it made me look Hot once again.

Note the time people. Bubby didn't wake for a feed until 5.30 this morning!

Outfit Post

I like fashion blogs. I'm still not sure what I want this blog to be but who says I can't have a bit of baby fashion in it. This is what Bubby wore today.

Carter's onesie, Kmart shorts and socks.

I think he looks good in green. Usually, I like to match our outfits (yes, I am one of those mums) but I can't pull off green.

The maiden entry

I have started this blog to share the musings of a first time mum and mainly what goes through my head at 3 (or 1 or 2 or 4 or 5) am when the baby demands a feed (because he doesn't like to eat much during the day as he prefers to burn all his energy kicking, rolling and trying to crawl). A lot of the time though he wakes up not because he's hungry but because he managed to get himself stuck in the corner of the cot. He's clever enough to roll/crawl there but he can't get himself out and must wake up the whole house instead. Actually he has managed to work out how to get himself out of that predicament by waking up the whole house. Why do it yourself when someone else can do it for you and you get cuddles to boot? Clever, really.

Please forgive the rather generic layout. It is 3 am after all.