Things have been hectic here since Monday,hence my absence.
D. came down with a nasty cold and needs lots of cuddles and attention.
She comes to me and says "sit on mummy's lap" (in Turkish,of course) She's back to almost exclusively nursing.The only thing she eats is raisins at the moment.
She has been waking up around 2 or 3 am for a few days in a row,plays for an hour or so and then goes to sleep again.So we wake up late,I also need to nap with her at times.As I said things are hectic :)
I try to read your blogs but cannot find time to comment at all.
D. is very interested in the keyboard and whenever I sit to read something,she comes and presses all the buttons.I lock the laptop if I'm not at the table.Are your little ones so interested with your laptops/computers?How do you cope? I'm considering to buy a toy lap top for her :)
Hopefully she'll get better soon and I'll be back,too.
Take care!

Nighttime Parenting

If anyone out there is wondering about D's sleep,of course, she didn't repeat that long stretch again.She's coughing and a bit poorly and back to lots of nursing.
Here's my latest post for API Speaks.I had written this before that lovely night(!)
and I'm keen to see other people's comments.


My daughter is almost two years old. I still nurse her to sleep in the sling.Once in the afternoon for a nap and once in the evening.This process takes at least 30 minutes if I’m very lucky,if not more than that. When she falls into deep sleep,I transfer her to the bed.

If you had told me this when I was a mom of a 3 month old,I wouldn’t believe it.Back then I didn’t know that most of the babies need some kind of parenting to sleep.
My daughter has never been an easy sleeper. She still wakes up at least 3-4 times during the night.
While she was growing, I have learned that it is perfectly normal and healthy for them to wake up during the night.
I have seen babies who easily drift off to sleep and I have seen babies who gave their parents difficult times and as a result were unfortunately sleep trained.I wholeheartedly believe that sleep training is harmful for babies.
While I don’t feel resentful for helping my daughter going to sleep, I’d like to gently encourage her to sleep on her own, if it’s possible at all? And, yes, we do have a sleep routine, bath, stories, etc. But they only seem to help her wind down and accept that it’s bed time.
I wonder how is it going at other AP practising homes? When did your little ones begin to sleep for longer periods? How do you put them to sleep? When did they stop nursing to sleep? Are they happy to roll over without breastfeeding?

and she slept through for the 2nd time

Heyooo!I'm so excited and proud of my little girl.
She slept through last night for the 2nd time. But then don't get me wrong,by this I don'T mean she slept from 7pm to 7 am. For some baby experts,they are considered to have "slept through" when they sleep 4-5 hours,since their sleeping patterns are different from us adults.
Anyhow,D. went to bed at around 11pm last night. When I woke up around 4 am,I noticed that she hadn't woke up. I just couldn't believe it but then I checked the straps of my nursing vest and they were undone, which meant I wasn't dreaming ;) But then I couldn't go back to sleep, thinking about blogging it and stirred a bit, well,she woke up. Oh the joys of being a mother and a blogger ;)I'm quite hopeful that this may be a beginning.Fingers crossed!

Have a nice weekend!

Hope you're all doing very well.
It has been rather cold here lately.Despite the cold weather we went to London on sunday.Currently there is an exhibition about Darwin in the Natural History Museum. It was very exciting to see the first edition of the book, The Origins of Species, the letters written by Darwin and all the fossils he collected through out his big journey.
Defne fall asleep just as we arrived the museum so we took our time at the exhibition.She woke up as we were finishing and was quite excited to see the butterflies and pigeons and et al.
We then walked to Wholefoods,sat at their cafe, bought a few bits and bobs and returned home.
For dinner I prepared a stir-fry with soba noodles.

As you see in the pic, I prepare lots of veggies, pak choy,sweet corn,sweet peas,carrots,onions and red pepper.I added tofu cubes which I mixed with chinese five spice and tamari.It was quite tasty.Thanks to Pixie,it's even tastier when I serve it with sweet chilli sauce ;)
Wishing a lovely week.I'm off the read my book now.Soner has surprised me by buying this book which I had been eagerly waiting for.

These vegan delights were scoffed by us last night.
Tagliatelle with dried porcini mushrooms and brussel sprouts with garlic and balsamic vinegar.

I used the tagliatelle recipe in the latest issue of Observer Food Monthly.
As for the brussel sprouts I used another cooking method this time around.I first heated my cast iron skillet for a few good minutes.Then added 3 tbs of olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic(chopped).When their colors turned, I added the sprouts. Then I turned off the heat and cooked the sprouts stirring everynow and then.Added salt and a few splashes of balsamic vinegar.A nice crust appeared on the sprouts which was something I was looking for ;)This way the sprouts were tender and crispy, instead of overdone and mushy.Just what I wanted.
And all these were served with a salad made with alfaalfa sprouts.Too many sprouts for one night ;)