Sharing

When people talk about sharing and toddlers/children it never ends well. There are some who believe that forcing your child to share isn't really sharing at all but glorified snatching and there are others who think you should encourage children to share. I'm going to get splinters here and announce I'm on the fence. I do think you should encourage taking turns, which sometimes can fall under sharing. However,  we have always encouraged Nate to share by sharing with him. Sounds strange but we share most things with him, if we are eating we don't make an issue of him having some off our plate but welcome it. On the whole he is good with sharing things, he has started to call things "mine" but isn't as possessive as some children with "mine" objects. They are simply his, but mummy, daddy or Joe Bloggs can play with them but remember they are his.

Recently we have started to realise he is insistent that everyone has something. Nate wanted a biscuit so we offered him one and he picked three up (one at a time) we said "only one" his reply was: one for him, one for daddy and one for mummy. Very sweet. Even sweeter he'd finished his biscuit and wanted another so I offered him my one. He started to cry because he didn't want me to not have a biscuit. I love it so much that Nate likes to share with us.

App review- Endless Alphabet

Their is one app that Nate loves and he constantly asks for it. It's called Endless Alphabet, or as Nate calls it: letters (it used to be numbers).

The app is designed for slightly older children than Nate (who's just turned two) it displays a word, says it out loud and then the letters scatter around leaving the letter outline there. When you touch the letter it makes it's phonetic sound and when placed in the right place it says the letter. Once you place all the letters in the right place it says the word again and what it means along with a little sketch.

The menu

Letters getting knocked out of place

It's got an American slant so some of the words are spelt in the American way (ie odor). However, Nate loves this app and he has learnt the phonetical sounds of most of the letters. He sat on the train identifying the letters we were making with play dough quicker than we could make them.

Matching the letters

The little sketch giving the definition

The app is £2.99 on the App Store and has had about 6 words added to it since Nate started using it in June. 

Sea Life Brighton

We were at a lose end over the weekend and we have previously visited Sea Life while visiting a friend in Bonn back in December we thought it'd be a good time to visit another Sea Life. I've been looking at the Sea Life in Brighton for some time due to the glass bottom boat and they've recently added the octopus garden.

We visited just as the Pride parade we passing, so it was pretty deserted inside no queue to get in either. We booked in for the glass bottom boat and started to wander round, with our dive books. (a book designed for children to collect the stamps around the various tanks) 

Nate loved looking at the fish, he got very excited. The only thing he didn't really like was when the rays show their underside to the tank glass. It looks a bit like an odd face and he got a bit scared of that. 

It was soon time to go on our boat ride, so we went to where the glass bottom boat lives and the first thing I saw was this:

You probably can't tell from the picture but this turtle is pretty big, it is probably about a metre and a half in length. We got on the glass bottom boat and it was only us, it meant Nate got to wander around and see everything that was pointed out to us.

Nate on top of the turtle

There is one thing Nate keeps talking about from this trip and it is the Jellyfish and them changing colour. He was absolutely taken with it. 

Blue Jellyfish

Red Jellyfish

We must have arrived at the Octopus garden at nap time because all of the Octopuses were asleep/hiding. That means we will have to visit again soon. We spent two hours here and Nate could happily have spent a lot longer. 

Dairy Free Eton Mess

Earlier this week I had a huge punnet of strawberries, I had decided I wanted to try oven dried strawberries and then thought it would be nice to have an Eton Mess, Nate is dairy free so we hit a bit of a wall. So I got thinking what would be a good alternative.

Eton Mess Nate style
Handful of strawberries - chopped
Meringue Nest - crumbled
Tablespoon of Oven dried strawberries
2 Tablespoons of Coconut Cream - tinned version

Make sure you get the coconut cream and not milk, you also don't want to shake it up as you want the thick bit at the top of the can. Add more or less coconut cream to your taste.

Scatter the dry strawberries on top after you have mixed the strawberries, meringue and coconut cream. Eat immediately.

If you want the taste of cream it hasn't quite got it but for someone who hasn't had cream for a while it is a worthy substitute. Nate finished his bowl and then came and helped both of us finish our Eton Mess the finest compliment I think.

To make the over dried strawberries, you need to wash the strawberries, dry them and then chop them into quarters. Lay them on to a baking sheet that has been covered with baking paper or greaseproof paper, make sure they aren't touching.

Strawberries laid out not touching ready for oven drying.

Cook on low (100C) for about an hour and a half and then turn them over and continue cooking for another hour and half. If you like them slightly chewy you will need to adjust the times.

Dried strawberries

Chocolate steam buns

I have quite a few things to write up. The nice weather has really got my creative juices going. We love Char Sui Bao here and I wanted to make something using the bread outer as I wasn't confident that I could make the Char Sui the same. I decided on Salmon, so I cooked the Salmon in the oven and filled the Bao with a mixture of tomato, cucumber and cooked courgette. The outcome was lovely however, I wanted something sweet.

Salmon Bao

I had an idea, we always have chocolate and I had coconut cream. So I melted a tablespoon of chocolate chunks and added two tablespoons of coconut cream to the melted chocolate and used this mixture to fill the Bao dough. Steamed the bao for 10 minutes and they were ready.

Over flowing chocolate Bao.

Recipe

I used this recipe for the Bao dough. For the chocolate filling:
3 tablespoons of chocolate
6 tablespoons of coconut cream

Melt the chocolate however you would normally, I used the microwave method 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir etc until melted. Then stir in half of the coconut cream, once it has been stirred in add the rest of the coconut cream. Divide the dough up into 24 balls. Take one ball and make a big hole add a teaspoon of chocolate/cream mixture and then pinch together carefully. Try not to let the mixture touch where you are going to pinch the sides up as it won't close properly. Steam for 10 minutes, I only have a little steamer so steamed them in batches of two. Let them cool down slightly and eat.

None of these buns made it to the next day or to dinner for that matter, they should have a slightly coconutty taste but it shouldn't be overpowering. I'm sure the coconut cream could be swapped out for normal cream for those who aren't dairy free.

Yummy!