Found this while wasting time on youtube, it resonates a lot with my believes on birth and parenting, hope the pregnant women out there appreciate it. Just makes me want to be pregnant all over again…
know it’s not cool and a little embarrassing but yes I have to admit that I was a little too excited when I saw that Mothercare was opening a shop on Huaihai lu a few months ago. Mothercare has in fact started a joint venture with Goodbaby who already manufactures many of the nursery products sold through Mothercare world wide and is opening 2 stores in Shanghai and another in Beijing. Anyhow the Huaihai branch is now open, just by the intersection of Ruijing lu and I went to check it out with a couple of friends last week. We weren’t all that impressed to be honest, especially with the fact that they don’t even have a ramp!! It felt quite expensive especially since we were coming straight from Puan lu and it isn’t as big as I expected. That said it is really handy and does have things that aren’t available in other places, such as splash mats, maternity bras, on the go potty, nice muslins, and environmentally friendlier (not sure how) disposable nappies, washable swimming nappies, stroller, stroller bags, maternity clothes, and a lot more I can’t remember. I think it surely will make life easier to mamas to be and mamas in town.
I remember doing an online test on a natural birthing forum I was/am a member of when I was pregnant, the test was to decide how crunchy granola you are… turned out I didn’t breast feed enough children at once, didn’t grow my own veg and shaved my arm pits too often to qualify.. 
Anyhow maybe not crunchy granola enough.. but hey I’m feeling pretty good about my crunchy muesli credentials recently after finding this awesome recipe online, I must admit that I felt like a bit of a kitchen goddess baking my muesli in my mini oven til one o’clock in the morning while my boys were fast asleep. We are all big fans and now that the jar is almost empty, I’m getting ready to make another batch in the next few days. I’m adding the recipe below for those you are keen to try it out.
Apologies to the original creator of the recipe as I can’t find the url anymore, thanks for putting this recipe online anyhow I love it!
CRUNCHY MUESLI
Ingredients:
1Kg Oats (from Tesco’s)
200g slivered Almonds (I didn’t have any of these and it was great anyways)
250g Sunflower Seeds (from Helekang)
250g Pumpkin Seed ( I didn’t have any of these either..)
1tbs Cinnamon
Finely grated rind of 2 oranges
1cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
100ml Canola Oil (from City)
2 tsp vanilla Extract (I didn’t bother and I don’t think it really needs it but try it if you have some nice vanilla extract in the house)
200ml water
I also added half a cup of flax seeds
Preheat oven to 160C
Combine, oats, almonds, seeds, cinnamon, rind, sugar plus half tsp of salt in a bowl. Whisk together oil, vanilla and water and drizzle over the oat mixture, then suing your hands mix until well combined. Spread over 2 large oiled baking trays. Bake for 1 hour or until golden, stirring occasionally and swapping trays half way through.
You can add all kinds of seeds and after it’s baked any dried fruit you have. I didn’t bother adding that part of the recipe as I find that dried fruit in Shanghai is extremely expensive.
After the mixture comes out of the oven let it cool down completely and store it in an air tight container, it’s delicious served with yogurt!
I’ve been on a mostly veg diet for about 5 years, I do sometimes have a little fish but eat not meat at all. Same with my husband so we’re bringing up Theo meat free. Some of you who might have read my blog before might know about my attempts at Baby lead weaning, not an absolute failure but not a success either. Theo preferred breast milk to most things and just spent his time on the high chair throwing food about. That got vvvvvery boring and frustrating and out came the spoon. So I did a bit of a mix of spoon feeding and letting him feed himself. It took a while but I think that in the past month we have turned a corner and Theo finally seems to be enjoying his food and is into trying to things too. At the wknd he just couldn’t get enough egg fried rice while we were having lunch in Suzhou!
Now that I know that food is not going to be wasted I am trying to commit more time for cooking yummy nutritious meal for him. I should add that I was getting a little worried about his protein intake as he was having quite a bit of pasta and veg but really not into eggs or pulses or tofu until my friend Clara sent me this veg burger recipe which he really loved and it’s super easy.
This is a great one because is great for everyone in the family and you can make a load and freeze them.
Here it comes:
2 cans of lentils (drained, rinsed) you can do any other beans cans or soaked and boiled from dry
4 free range eggs
1/2 cup diced fresh coriander
1 clove garlic, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 cup Bread crumbs (I buy the Progresso brand bread crumbs from City, it is a blue cylinder container) I make my own with some toast bread in the mixer
Saute the garlic, carrot and onion in olive oil until a little tender. In food processor or blender puree 1 1/2 cans of lentils and the 4 eggs. Add 1/2 can of lentils which were not pureed into the mixture, so you have some whole lentils in the mix. Add the sauteed carrot, onion and garlic to the mix. Add the fresh cilantro. Add the bread crumbs (can add more or less until the batter becomes a consistency you like). Form into a patty or just drop a gallop of mix into a frying pan with oil. Fry them until crispy. Delicious!
I make mini ones for Theo and he looks pretty adorable feeding himself his baby burger.
You can help built a shelter for those affected by the earthquake. It’s super easy you just need to buy a t-shirt! Go here to read more about it.
I always thought it was weird that there was no lift up to the second floor in the Shanghai Centre and then recently I was finally enlightened by a friend. It’s hidden but it’s there, right by the cash machines on the side of City Super. Finally easy access to World Link!
Theo is one and yes he still wakes up a night for a booby fix, once in the middle of the night and early morning.. more if he’s unwell or teething or whatever. I really want to keep breastfeeding him as I think it’s good for him but I’m starting to get a little tired of night feedings. Most people advocate tough love, as in letting him cry it out but I really don’t think I can do that… I just had a look online and read about babies who still wake up at 2 or 3 years old… have I created a booby monster?
Lollipop calls itself “a boutique for children in shanghai”, the word boutique says it all… they don’t accept credit cards which only means you should come with a very full wallet if you want to have some fun!
They stock yummy beautiful trendy things, one of those stores where you go “oh that’s cute” at everything, whether you really “need” any of it is irrelevant I suppose..
They sell cloth diapers (Bambino Mio and Fuzzibunz), really cool stick-unstick art for the wall, really nice cards and these great lunch boxes and plates.
It’s a great place to go to for gifts.
Come and join the cloth diaper mamas of Shanghai to learn about how to use this environment saving- money saving way to keep those baby bottoms covered. The meeting is organized by IMSG, I have pasted part of the email below.
Our next mums and babes event Puxi is on Friday 18th April from 9.30 – 12.00noon at: Green Valley Villas 999 Jian He Lu, Hong Qiao
This Friday is a special meeting as we will be holding a ’show and tell’ workshop about cloth diapers / nappies. The workshop is intended for anyone already using cloth diapers, those considering it and anyone who has an interest. (Please help us spread the word.)
All mums who already use cloth diapers can come along and share their
knowledge and experience by bringing along examples of their favourite
(and least favourite) nappies, nappy covers etc. Any information you may have on
using, buying, ordering, washing etc. (Or if you would like to find out more then join us too.)
We plan to have tables so we can
lay out the nappies and then everyone can look, chat and learn. Don’t forget to bring
along any nappies that you would like to show to other mums.
We will have Grace from LOLLIPOP boutique who will bring Bambino Mio and Fuzzibunz diapers for demo and sale. Also Yvonne Swerke will bring Swedish Imse Vimse Diapers for demo and sale. Others which I know will be shared are Tots Bots, Bumgenius, plain prefolds, bumble…….
I hope there are more of you out there who will participate.
Please let us know in advance if you are planning on bringing diaper samples to share so we can be prepared with enough tables. Thanks.
We’ve already been back in Shanghai for over a week now and after the first few jet lagged days where I felt like I was just floating around the place with a spaced out smile on my face, the reality of being back in Shanghai hit me hard and I didn’t like it at all… and on top of that the whole family caught the worst cold ever… Anyways now we are getting healthy again and after complaining a lot I think I can start again to be pro active about finding fun stuff to do with Theo who is getting more and more fun and needs a way to get rid of all that energy.
I miss the pizza, the food, the wine, the beach, the view of the mountains, my mum, my brother, bread, focaccia but apart from that Shanghai is just fine ; )
Theo loved the bread so much that he was constipated for most of his holiday (it had never happened before).
His eating is still a bit irregular and a lot of the food I offer him still goes on the floor, on his hair and pasted on the high chair. I have started feeding him with a spoon for really messy stuff such as weat-a-bix and yogurt but I’m still trying th BLW way.
I would love to hear from other mothers who are doing this.
Anyhow the sun is shining and Theo even took a nap today so all is good.