{Book review} 'New Baby' book series

In trying to help Umar adjust to soon not being the centre of the universe (ours anyway), we've been talking to him about the new baby and taking him to all the doctor's appointments and scans. He loves listening to the baby's heartbeat, not so much feeling the baby move in my belly though, 'that's freaky', he says. I've also bought books from the 'New Baby' series which are illustrated by Rachel Fuller. There are four in the series but I bought the first three as I thought they were the most relevant at the moment.

 

These books are simply worded, with short sentences and are meant to foster discussion between the parent and child.

1. Waiting for baby - the first book chronicles a young child's anticipation in acquiring a new member of the family. Umar has been quoting lines from this one, especially when we're out shopping, he asks 'should we get this for baby?'. This one is definitely his favourite of the three, maybe because he's undergoing the same situation.
   
2. My new baby - next, the baby has come! What does/can he do? How do we react to him? Let's welcome him to the family!
   
3. You and me - baby has grown a bit and can join in and play! But sometimes he does things you don't like... A look at the interaction between older and younger siblings.
4. Look at me! - we don't have this one but I intend to get it later on. I think this book will probably talk about how attention gets divided between siblings.

I think that these books are great in transitioning an only child into an older sibling but of course I will update this review when we're actually facing the real deal.

If you have these books, let me know if they've helped or if you have other recommendations.

Thank you for stopping by!

{Recipe} Basic pancakes

Apologies for the quietness, time just flew by! I hope it's not too late to wish a happy new year to everyone!

This is our go-to recipe every weekend (and some weekdays). I think I saw it on a Jamie Oliver cooking show but I have tweaked it to suit our needs. I've used different kinds of flours and they pretty much turned out great every time. And of course, the kiddies can join in too as it's a fairly easy recipe to prepare the ingredients ahead for them. Umar loves the pouring and mixing involved.

Basic pancakes recipe (makes about 12 good-sized pancakes)

Ingredients:

1 cup self raising flour*
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

*I have substituted with plain flour/wholemeal flour plus 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder. I have also tried different brands of flour. The fluffiest pancakes I've made so far were using Lighthouse self-raising flour.

Simply multiply recipe for bigger serves.

1. Place flour in a medium bowl. Crack the egg in the middle and whisk.
   
2. Gradually add in milk and essence and whisk until thoroughly mixed.
   
   
   
    
3. Leave for 5-10 minutes for the raising agents to work their magic.
4. In the meantime, heat up your pans (I usually put a few on so I can cook through a few pancakes at once.)
5. Start cooking! (I put the pancake mix in a condiment bottle with the opening widened (cut) a tad more to get nice round pancakes)
   
6. When the top bubbles, it's time to flip and a minute more and your pancakes are ready!
   
7. Serve with fresh fruit/berries, butter and plenty of maple syrup, yum!

 

 Thank you for stopping by!