I like coconut in my food...

We all have silly moments that we remember many years later.

I remember during one of my master's classes we were asked to go around introducing ourselves and  mention something special about ourselves. For some reason, I could not think of anything at all that was special about me when it was my turn to introduce myself. So the professor continued on and said that she would come back to me (as I wishfully hoped she would just forget coming back to me - and didn't bother giving it much thought).

Contrary to my expectation, she caught me off guard when she came back to ask what I thought was special about myself. The person right before me mentioned that he was allergic to strawberries, so my thought process went directly to food and all I could think of was " I like coconut in my food.." Lol, I ended up feeling really silly and had my friends laugh at me about that to this day.

Well fast forward 6 years later, and not only do I still love coconut in my food, its the up and coming superfood! Yay, coconut!

From coconut water, to coconut milk to virgin coconut oil, its all good stuff! My husband isn't a fan of the aroma of coconut oil when I stir fry my veggies because it confuses him since he typically associates coconut oil with a greasy head. MMM, I love it.

Although it contains saturated fats, majority are in the form of lauric acid, a medium chain fatty acid said to reduce bad cholesterol (LDL) and increase good cholesterol (HDL). Other claimed benefits include antibacterial, antimicrobial and antiviral properties.

I like including coconut milk with its other fatty friend the avocado to make smoothies, here's one of the blends I enjoy. 

Avo-coco smoothie 

1/2 cup coconut milk (canned or whatever form you prefer)

1 avocado

1 cup crushed ice

water to blend

sweeten with honey

toss in some frozen banana chunks if you like

Blend to desired sweetness and consistency and enjoy!

For more info on coconut benefits http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

Guilty Napping

I'm exhausted!

From middle of the night wakings, to early mornings, rushing off to work and then back home again to spend as much time as I can with my little munchkin. 

Sometimes in the afternoons I do get to sneak away and take a short little nap while she's out on her late afternoon stroll. However, I end up waking up feeling absolutely guilty for falling asleep when I could be spending quality time with her outdoors. I end up counting the hours that I get to spend with her and its only really around 4 hours from the time I get home from work to her bedtime. Its hard for me to strike the right balance between getting the sleep that I feel I need and justifying napping when I could be spending time with her.

Just thought I'd share my emotional guilt.

Little Terror

What a title for my first blog entry. I have been considering blogging for some time now, made a brief attempt at it a few years ago but never ended up following through with it. I guess at the time I wasn't confident enough with my writing to have my thoughts publicised to the world wide web.

I guess a (slightly) older and wiser me is ready to share my adventures and experiences in life especially as a first time mom, recently back to work and trying to balance it all. I realize that after referencing several books and goggling different issues that I continue to face as a new mom I have to resign to the fact that the best lessons are from living through and learning from experience itself. So why not share my experiences, with others who may or may not be on the same boat as me.

So why "Little Terror"?

It's 3am and I wake up to the cries of my 4 month old daughter. Just another day in our usual routine. I've been through this several nights already and we know the drill, pick up from crib, nurse, she falls back asleep, and I put her back in her crib and creep away quietly so that I can continue my sleep before her next wake up call at 6.30am...

Except last night was different. She refused to settle. She screamed bloody murder every time I'd put her back in her crib. No amount of soothing, pacifying, patting, rocking would get her to settle in her crib (not that she's used to being rocked - I worked hard to ensure that didn't happen!). The hubby even tried bringing her into bed with us. She was content to lay down look around, babble and squeal.... only she couldn't self-entertain for too long and began crying again for attention. She was D-O-N-E with sleep for the night, and there was nothing we could do to change that.

Lucky for me, while I pretended to be asleep the hubby took care of keeping her entertained until daylight broke.

How naïve we were, to think that the "sleepless nights" that parents always complain about were an exaggeration when she was 2 months old and started sleeping longer stretches in the night with predictable wake times.

It was pretty smooth sailing until a concept that I had never heard of prior to my obsessive mama googling - the oh so casual - jaw dropping - "4 month sleep regression" . You've got to be kidding me! I thought sleep was supposed to get better not progressively worse!

I guess we have a long journey ahead of us and haven't even started with the teething, colds, fevers and whatever else there is to come yet.

Maybe it really is true that full nights sleep are a thing of the past.