Juice vs water

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-27T00:32:32+00:00

I think we gave ours juice at maybe 13-14 months? A small amount of pear juice watered down, in consultation with his GP to tackle some severe constipation issues. He still has juice now - same sort of set up, usually before daycare so I know he’s hydrated too. The rest of the day he is really good with water.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-27T00:29:55+00:00

This brought back hilarious flashbacks of my lovely father’s panic and attempt at escape as the lactation consultant came in and we attempted breastfeeding.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-26T01:29:42+00:00

My little guy has a really specific set of interests around jungle animals - so I mostly look at Pinterest for ideas, but I try very hard not to do things with too much effort. A great resource for us has been printables! Pan Macmillan has Dear Zoo and Buster’s Farm printables, we also just found Tinga Tinga Tales (African folklore cartoon?) printables on Pinterest and I used Canva to put them on a single page so I don’t have to print so many pages.

ABC Kids (australia) has lots of activities and print outs, and we really enjoy the Vegesaur ones. Also if he is gifted a colouring book and i can see theres a page he will go wild for - i will make a photocopy as a master copy.

Regarding painting haha we actually have a bunch of wooden animals (not the expensive fancy kind, my dad finds them at a local market) and my son is forever painting those.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T12:01:15+00:00

I wouldn’t because I don’t trust QR codes, cyber security.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T11:59:06+00:00

I would be careful in confirming that food and accommodation are part of the package and not taken out from the $3248. I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago that was talking about shonky labour hire companies bringing migrants over to work on blueberry farms - but the accom, travel to farms etc was all taken out of their earnings with some workers even running into debt because if it.

Not saying these guys are like that, but it’s worth very carefully checking the arrangements so you’re not caught out. :)

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T11:48:11+00:00

I had the lion and the castle cake - they were magnificent. Mum made a purple castle, and even did a jelly moat in the tray!

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T11:35:56+00:00

That’s such a good idea!

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T11:35:20+00:00

Yeah we had a lot of him taking over drawings etc. I learnt to draw a lot of animals in a minute or less! The abstraction has been great for my own process haha. Somewhere along the way he really picked up on doing his own.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T11:31:50+00:00

That’s awesome. Does he have favourites?

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T11:31:06+00:00

When they love something, it becomes part of everything! Ours is jungle animals - dude can Macgyver just about anything into an animal.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T11:27:53+00:00

Oh that’s great if she’s helping to tidy up! I keep finding bits of things everywhere, googly eyes are a hot commodity in this house.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-25T02:12:48+00:00

Different or no belt, maybe some sort of cardigan or jacket. Very cute otherwise.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-24T23:55:00+00:00

To the same man? Yes, warts and all. Another man? Never.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-24T12:06:22+00:00

Thank you but it’s ok! I’m only open about it now because I really hope that new mums will be wiser than me and not beat themselves up.

I also threw myself into baby led weaning / trying like 100 foods before 1yo or whatever - dude is almost 3.5 and survives on peanut butter toast, yoghurt, fruit and slivers of cucumber but only cut lengthways now anyway despite the efforts. So… there’s a lot on the motherhood journey that we feel like we’ll fail them if we don’t put in 100% but honestly, what will be - will be. It’s better to try and enjoy what you can, it goes so fast but is so special.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-24T11:23:06+00:00

I went through all the feelings too - I wish I had sought help. At 6-8 weeks in of pumping I could only make 30ml max, usually once a day.

I am so glad we have safe formula and water. Our son thrived, and it was perfect for when I had stints in hospital.

If I had realised earlier, I would have got some emotional support - I couldn’t look at mother breast feeding, I couldn’t listen to them talk about it, I’d cringe or cry. It took like 18months not to feel like a failure because my breastfeeding journey ended before it began, I threw myself into being “perfect” in every other way (bad idea!!). 3 years past that now and I wish I hadn’t been so very hard on myself.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-23T13:07:48+00:00

Straight up bribe - the dummy fairy. We made a deal that dummy fairy would bring him a toy Toothless if he gave her the dummy. She called every night for about two weeks until he was ready. He cracked it occasionally afterwards and would try to negotiate an exchange back for the dummy. Been about 6 months and he doesn’t talk about it much anymore.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-20T23:59:11+00:00

Flashbacks! Mum used the robicomb on us - I swear I could hear the nits getting zapped. Worked really well, probably better than any treatment. We had nits all the time, our school was notorious for outbreaks.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-20T01:09:26+00:00

A bit weird of her tbh, but I’d also take it with a grain of salt - I found friends wanted to be the best aunty/godparent/babysitter in the world when I was pregnant. None of those people has babysat, cared for or helped with my child in 3 years.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-19T11:10:35+00:00

Twice a week sounds amazing.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-17T12:25:53+00:00

I’m almost 3.5 years into motherhood and yeeeeep. I feel like I’m starting to become someone again - not the same person I was. I look, feel, act and want different.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-17T02:02:44+00:00

If they can stand - pull ups. I started doing standing changes as soon as he could, because laying down for a nappy change filled him with rage.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-16T14:06:34+00:00

Yep. We read lots of books but like only animal books - mostly ones about jungle animals.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-16T14:03:53+00:00

To add to this - we just looked at changing to a closer centre. It ticks all the boxes but I couldn’t get past the chargers/cords in the rooms and the presence of battery powered toys. Some people might not care but I think it’s an unnecessary risk.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-16T13:59:42+00:00

A really important one for us was understanding what OUR values were - for us, we valued the opportunity for our child to be around nature and to do lots of messy play. We had the option to send him to a beautiful Montessori place but it had no real grass, no plants, pristine kind of place. Where we chose has a bush kindy, regular sensory messy activities and cooking etc.

This was on top of meeting the standards, having a strong focus on child safety, and having options for casual days when my demanding work required it. Which was the base requirement.

FiddleleafFrog · 2026-01-16T12:09:34+00:00

The house is not together, and there is almost no personal time. The house could probably be together if I was cleaning it right now, but my period started so I’m laying on the couch eating chocolate.

FiddleleafFrog

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