If you have trouble reading this email, view it in your browser.
Gingerbread Biscuits by Bernice Great things to keep you busy this Winter!! Well winter is upon us and many of us like to be indoors keeping warm! I am not sure with you but with my kids if we are inside for too long they can become quite restless and board so why not keep them busy with great activities? A great activity to do around a story is The Gingerbread Man why not make great Gingerbread Men as well as make some play dough where the children can rein act the story or make your own gingerbread men and story characters out of paper! Ingredients: 1/3 of a cup of golden syrup Two eggs 125 grams of butter One teaspoon of cinnamon One cup of self raising flour 1/3 of a cup of brown sugar One teaspoon of ground ginger One teaspoon of vanilla essence Two cups of plain flour Instructions: 1. Place the butter, the brown sugar and the golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat until the ingredients have melted and allow the mixture to cool. 2. Sift the ground ginger, the self raising flour, plain flour, the cinnamon and place into a large bowl, make a well in the add the eggs, the vanilla and cooled syrup mixture. 3. Mix together well. 4. Knead the ingredients to form a soft dough, then roll the dough out on a floured surface and cut out gingerbread men shapes. 5. Place the cut out gingerbread men onto greased baking trays and bake for about fifteen minutes at 160 degrees. 6. Decorate your gingerbread men with icing and chocolate buttons and whatever you like.
%%companyname%% | %%companyaddress%% | Ph: %%companyphone%% If you no longer wish to receive messages like this from The Bees Knees, you may unsubscribe at any time... but you'll miss out on lots of fabulous goodies!
Mum of the Month - Mel with Emilia Jane (below)
Mel's birth story of Emilia Jane born: 12 July, 9pd 6oz @ 5.26pm Approx 11 pm on 11 July 09 I started getting niggly pains as I was getting ready to go to bed, approx 15 mins later they were so much stronger and I was questioning if it was something starting to happen. Each time going to bathroom that day I kept leaking fluid so I knew bub was not far from wanting to make an entrance. At midnight I went to bathroom and had a light show of fresh blood, that got alarm bells going and hospital wanted me there ASAP.
We arrived at 1 am and had to sit in waiting cubicle for 2 hours as only one midwife was on duty. There were two other women were in labour at the time. I was placed on monitors which showed bub was asleep and the rate levels were not high enough which was causing concern. I ate three cups of ice and cold water and it didn't help. The doctor on duty was called at 4 am and arrived at 6 am he had to put the canula in so I could receive fluids. 7 am the specialist came in and asked why I hadn't received the fluid to begin contractions. 8.30am they began giving me the fluid for contractions. Pins kicked in at 12.30 pm and I was 3-4 cm dilated. By this stage I let a lot of nasty words fly out and wanted the baby out right there and then!
At 2.30 pm back pains kicked in and I was pulling at the toilet seat because I couldn't handle the pains in my spine. At 3.30 pm I requested to have pain relief as I was 7 cm. I received the pethidine in the leg. Within 30 minutes I was on the bed asleep. I had my husband touching my face trying to wake me up and my mum on other side with a wet washer. Nothing seemed to wake me up.
An internal was done which found bub spine rubbing on mine and her head was above the cervix and she wasn't coming down the birth canal. The specialist said action needed to be taken. So he organised pulling the bed apart and prepared the area, put my leg in stirrups and got the forceps ready. By this stage each contraction I was getting throughout the day was lasting only 5 seconds and my body didn't realise it was a contraction until it was gone.
When everything was prepped I got the numbing needles which really hurt then the specialist had to use the forceps. The forceps went in it hit a nerve which made my leg go into a spasm mode it was shaking and I was crying from that pain. All I had to do was push even with no contraction as I was bleeding so fast they just wanted Emilia out. By this stage I was wide awake but bub was asleep in there which wasn't helping. As I pushed he grabbed her. Emilia luckily landed in his arms. The specialist had to drop the forceps to catch her so she didn't fall on ground. He then looked at her and said, "Yep she's crying" and placed her on my chest, quickly cut the cord and said get that baby a blanket. The specialist said to me I have put another needle in so I can sew you up, as he said that I had a gush of blood which pretty much made me really drowsy again and many of frantic nurses and the specialist trying to work on getting the bleeding to stop. Many stitches later, and hearing the specialist talking about sending me to surgery to stop the bleeding and that really hit me emotionally. After nearly 2 hours of me laying there and now all stitched which specialist said approx 40 stitches (possibly even closer to the 80 mark) then a catheter was inserted. I was then told I was not allowed to go to maternity ward because I was not stable. I was cleaned up and spent the night there in the delivery suite. I then ended up having 2 blood transfusions because I was very pale and was taking way too long to come back to normal. The first lot of blood went through really quickly so the midwife organised for second round to arrive in the ward for me to have which ended up being the wrong blood but luckily this was noticed before given to me as I would of not survived the transfusion. My husband stayed with me until 5 am. Later that morning I was allowed to go up to maternity ward and I was tired and hungry. My specialist came and saw us he said we really gave him a fright. He actually did hit the nerve in my leg when inserting the forceps but wouldn't tell me that while in labour and also said I should have had a C-section but they did not realise until 10 cm dilated which made it too late.
I had to lie in one position until a nurse was free or when I had the energy or got Anthony to help me roll over. I was not able to do anything for Emilia until Tuesday lunch time. It made me upset not being able to even change her. It was very complicated to even wrap her.
Tuesday night I finally got the go ahead to get out of bed and try walk around and shower, which after an hour sitting on side of my bed trying to stop having dizzy spells, I walked very slowly to the shower. Anthony and a nurse held me up or I would have collapsed as my feet were wobbly and they felt like big platforms.
Wednesday morning a paediatrician walked in and saw Emilia had jaundice so they organised for her to go to the nursery. That sent me really insane; everything started kicking in; tired, stress and hunger. My milk wasn't coming and they said I had to feed her every 3 hrs on the dot. I had to allow them to feed her on the bottle twice to help let me body settle and relax, again Anthony didn't go home til 2.30 am on Thursday morning. He got a sleep and came back about 10 am Thursday morning.
At 10 am I was feeding Emilia and we were in nursery. They did many blood tests to see if Emilia could go back to my room for that night. At 12.30 pm results came back saying she had good 214 levels of jaundice instead of the 340 she had. We went back to the room but because she was classed as a nursery baby every 3 1/2 hrs we had to go back to the nursery for nappy change and feed.
The pathology had to do another blood test on Emilia and myself but I ended up with chest pains which they had to give me medication for and Emilia had to stay in and do another blood test on Friday morning to double check the jaundice levels again. Friday we both had to get blood tests again and Emilia came back fine but mine was on border line. They classed me as anaemic because levels were so low. They allowed us to go home but got me medications and told me not to drive or be on my own for at least the next month.
Welcome to the June edition of 'The Buzz': the newsletter of The Bees Knees Kids. We aim to assist parents in the nurture of the children in their care.
Wow we can hardly believe that it is The Bees Knees Kids 1st Birthday so much has happened in 1 year. We are so grateful about what God has done how He has grown our business and continues to do so! As The Bees Knees Kids grows so does our giving to the great organisations we partner with to release children from poverty and give them a future and a hope. This is our biggest Motivation to affect lives of babies and children after all they are our future! We want to Thank you to all of customers for your support over the past year! Features this edition include: Mum of the Month, a child friendly recipe, featured items and grabbing the latest bargain in our 1st Birthday Sale (20 to 60% off) as well as the opportunity to show off your child on our Fan Photos Wall of Fame! Check out the competition - vote for your favourite child for them to appear as our July child of the month!
Featured Items
Rufflebutt Knit Dress and Beanie Baybo 3 Warriors T-Shirt Vintage Kid Long Ruffle Pant
THE BEES KNEES KIDS 1ST BIRTHDAY SALE! It is birthday time at The Bees Knees Kids and we are celebrating with a sale with items 20 to 60% off normal retail prices. The sale runs from 1st to 14th June 2010. Hurry whilst stocks last. Until next time, keep your kids buzzing.
Kind Regards,
Bernice
The Bees Knees Kids www.thebeeskneeskids.com.au
Dear %%First Name%%, Welcome to the April edition of 'The Buzz': the newsletter of The Bees Knees Kids. We aim to assist parents in the nurture of the children in their care.
This month we will be focusing on the importance of looking after children's feet. Other features this edition include: Mum of the Month, child friendly recipes, parent helpers – videos, book recommendations and celebrating Mother's Day with 10% discount storewide as well as the opportunity to show off your child on our Fan Photos Wall of Fame! Check out the competition - vote for your favourite child for them to appear as our June child of the month!
Happy Little Feet By Bernice Greenacre BEd (Early Childhood Studies)
Over the last couple of months as well as since being a Mum I have noticed that there doesn't seem to be a huge awareness and education on developing little feet. This has an essential part to play in a child's development as we need our feet to develop so many other skills such as walking, running, balancing and so much more! It has probably been due to us focusing on commonly focused issues such as teething , feeding and sleeping. In a person's life the first year of foot development is the most important time in their entire life! This is definitely not something that should be overlooked as it can affect a person positively or negatively in the future. It is definitely always better for babies and infants to go barefoot but this is not always possible as there are many hard surfaces and we want to protect those delicate feet.(Photo courtesy of Pure Design Photography)
With my own children I have always been very careful to choose the best possible shoes when they were babies. I have always selected shoes that have been soft leather and able to stretch. The Skeanie range of footwear has always been a favourite in our household as it is preferred by the Australian Podiatry Association. Skeanie also provides a printable measuring chart to get the best fit for your child also available here. Podiatrists and Pediatricians also recommend soft soled shoes for your baby and toddler.
Here is an article that has been kindly provided to us by Natasha Barber of Skeanie.
Children's FeetDevelopment At six months of age the foot is still mostly cartilage. In fact the last bone doesn't begin to form until children are about 3 years old. By 18 years, most of the bones are fully formed. Children's feet are soft and pliable making them prone to damage from abnormal pressure, such as shoes which are too small.Walking. Children usually begin to walk any time between 10 and 24 months of age. Each child is unique and will move through the developmental stages at their own pace. Each child follows a developmental sequence from lying to sitting, crawling, standing, cruising, walking to running, jumping and hopping.
More ...
Mother's Day Amazing Business Mammas!Lisa @Giggle n Groove: Recently I purchased a necklace from Giggle ‘n Groove and I am just thrilled with it. Lisa is just so amazingly creative and clever and totally exceeds your expectations she did mine thats for sure!
A picture of my stunning necklace that I never want to take off! (below)Lisa’s BioFun & funky Handcrafted hair accessories & jewellery for girls, boys, ladies & men.We are renowned for our custom designed jewellery, particularly our Mothers & Children’s Name Bracelets & Hand Stamped pendants & Dog tags, as well as our friendly & efficient Customer service! Our jewellery is created from genuine Sterling silver components, Swarovski crystals & unique beads.Our Hair bows & Korkers are made from quality Grosgrain ribbon.Custom orders are our specialty for unique, one of a kind original pieces. Proudly Australian made since 2005 by a work at home Fairy! Lisa’s Gorgeous Daughter Bohdi (below)
A Video!
Book Recommendations
Mum of the Month - Zen
My Happy Ending By Zen Labuschagne
I remember waking up from my emergency C-section, I was dazed, sore and confused. My overwhelming desire was to see my new baby, but baby was nowhere to be seen, and no one wanted answer my questions.
The night before, I had come in to hospital in labour; my baby was four weeks early. It was my second child and I was full of hope and expectation. I could not wait to meet my new baby. The little person I had carried inside of me, and talked to and dreamed about for the last nine and a half months.
I had had a good pregnancy. Baby moved often, I’d had no problems. I had only been sick between six and twelve weeks pregnant, but apart from that, everything was fine. I took folic acid from 6 weeks. This pregnancy had been better than with my first child. I had felt so good and energetic that the previous day, I had still been at work, covering two stories for the newspaper I wrote for. All the scans were fine. Little did I know that during the next few days, my life would be turned upside down?
Bees Knees Kid for May
We don't have a Bees Knees Kid for May as we are waiting on photos. Win a $40 store credit for the June edition of "The Buzz"!!
Recipe - Everything Fried Rice
By Raising Children Network
For something different, you can serve this nutritious fried rice in Asian-style bowls with spoons.
Serves 4 Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 10 mins
2 tbsp oil 2 eggs, lightly whisked 100 gm green prawns, peeled, de-veined and chopped (optional) 1 carrot, grated 1 stick celery, finely chopped 1/4 Chinese cabbage, shredded 2 cups cooked long grain rice 1/2 cup frozen peas 2 tbsp light soy sauce 2 tbsp tomato sauce
1. Heat a wok or large frying pan over medium to high heat. Add half the oil and pour in whisked eggs. Turning the wok in a swirling motion, run egg around the sides of the pan to make a thin omelette. When cooked, turn omelette out onto a board, roll up, and cut into thin slices. 2. Reheat wok, and add remaining oil. Cook prawns in batches until cooked through and prawns change colour. Remove from wok and set aside. 3. Reheat wok. Add carrot and celery, and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes. Add cabbage, stirring for a further 2 minutes. 4. Add rice, prawns, peas, soy sauce and tomato sauce to the wok. Toss until combined and heated through. 5. Spoon into serving bowls and top with sliced egg.
Tip: if your children don't eat prawns, try this recipe with chicken strips or tofu instead. Older children might want to try using chopsticks to eat their fried rice. Keep a fork handy just in case.
%%companyname%% | %%companyaddress%% | Ph: %%companyphone%%If you no longer wish to receive messages like this from The Bees Knees, you may unsubscribe at any time... but you'll miss out on lots of fabulous goodies!
Children's Feet Development At six months of age the foot is still mostly cartilage. In fact the last bone doesn't begin to form until children are about 3 years old. By 18 years, most of the bones are fully formed. Children's feet are soft and pliable making them prone to damage from abnormal pressure, such as shoes which are too small.Walking. Children usually begin to walk any time between 10 and 24 months of age. Each child is unique and will move through the developmental stages at their own pace. Each child follows a developmental sequence from lying to sitting, crawling, standing, cruising, walking to running, jumping and hopping.
When your child first begins to walk, shoes are not necessary whilst indoors. Allowing babies to go barefoot or to wear socks or leather soft soled shoes helps the foot to grow normally and promotes the grasping action of the toes. Sometimes children walk with their feet pointed inwards (in-toeing) or outward (out-toeing), other children walk on their toes (toe-walking). In most cases, these variations in walking are normal. Most children will have grown out of these walking styles by the age of two. However, if these patterns persist, or you have concerns, you should take your child to a podiatrist. An estimated 10-20% of children have flat feet. Flat feet in children are not necessarily a problem. However, if they are causing pain, affecting mobility or interfering with activities then they should be investigated. Should the child also be experiencing what is described as "growing pains", a podiatry assessment may be warranted. Growing Feet A child's feet will double in size by the age of one and they are approximately half their adult length by 18 months of age. Between the ages of 5 and 12 growth is approximately 9 mm per year, with adult foot size approximated by twelve to fourteen years of age. Frequent changes in the size of shoes and socks are necessary to make room for rapidly growing feet during childhood. Do a size check at least 1-3 months up to the age of three, every 4 months up to five years and every 6 months from five years. About SKEANIE SKEANIE is a Preferred Provider of The AUSTRALIAN PODIATRY ASSOCIATION (NSW). SKEANIE designs classic leather footwear for little feet from newborn to five years. The SKEANIE Infant Range shoes feature a soft leather suede sole, perfect for pre-walkers and early walkers. The SKEANIE Junior Range feature an innovative light-weight flexible rubber sole, designed to protect and provide the flexibility little feet require when walking. Professional Advice A check-up with a podiatrist is recommended if: * You notice uneven shoe wear * You notice any skin rashes, hard skin lumps or bumps on your child's feet * Your child complains of recurrent pain in the feet and/or legs * Your child is constantly tripping or falling * Or you have any other concerns about your child’s feet. About Podiatrists Podiatrists are highly skilled health professionals trained to deal with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of medical and surgical conditions of the feet and lower limbs. Podiatrists are tertiary qualified and trained. They need to be registered with the Podiatrists' Registration Board and are continually upgrading their skills and knowledge through further education and training. Australian Podiatry Association (NSW) Phone: 02 96983751 Fax: 02 96987116 Email: apoda@podiatry.asn.au Post: 20/450 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 This information is not to be used as a substitute for advice from a podiatrist of medical professional. The above information is derived from The Australian Podiatry Association (NSW)'s "Children's Feet. What you need to know..."
Protect children's feet for life, say podiatrists. Children's feet are fragile and can be damaged easily, according to the Australian Podiatry Association (NSW).
For Foot Health Week (14th-20th October) the Association is focusing on children's feet, outlining the first steps to foot health.
"Children's feet are not just miniature versions of adult feet; they are still forming," says Brenden Brown, Vice President of the Association . "At birth, feet are mostly cartilage and in childhood and adolescence the bones in the feet, 52 in all, will form. During this time they are extremely fragile and any undue pressure can cause deformities. At the same time, they will grow rapidly, requiring regular shoe size checks."
The campaign aims to educate children and parents about the best ways to care for feet. The Association is promoting foot care, correct shoe fitting and professional follow up on foot problems.
"Walking is one of the first concerns for parents. It is important to remember that all children achieve this milestone in their own time: children usually walk between ten and 24 months of age," says Mr Brown. "Some children walk with toes pointed in or out while others walk on their toes. While this variation is generally normal, investigation is required if there seems to be a problem or if these walking styles persist beyond the age of two."
As children grow it is common for them to experience pain in the feet or legs. "While pain in the legs or feet is common it is not considered normal. Foot pain in children should be investigated especially if it is associated with falling or tripping, reluctance to participate in activities and difficulty finding shoes that fit comfortably."
Children often suffer from foot problems such as warts, in-grown toenails, rashes and tinea.
"We recommend that all foot problems be investigated professionally as treating the symptoms with an over-the-counter medication or preparation will not successfully resolve any underlying problem that exists."
The correct professional advice is important. "Podiatrists don't just prescribe orthotics, they are tertiary educated foot health professionals who are trained to diagnose and treat problems associated with the feet and lower limbs including injury, infection and disease, as well as structural or functional problems which includes difficulties with walking and foot pain," Mr Brown said.
More About Skeanie
SKEANIE Soft Soled Shoes and Boots was launched by Natasha Barber in June 2007 by mother of two from Goulburn in Southern NSW.
Natasha commenced her soft soled shoe research shortly after her Cheeky Monkey, Hamish was born. Finding high quality soft leather shoes in Australia was a challenge. After 2 years of research and design and the birth of her Little Princess, Bella, SKEANIE Soft Soled Baby Shoes and Boots was launched. Natasha has grown the range to include a variety of colours and design and four sizes from birth to 5 years. The SKEANIE range is constantly growing and evolving. Currently SKEANIE products are stocked in over 100 stores throughout Australia, New Zealand, USA and Denmark. SKEANIE Soft Soled Shoes and Boots are hand-made from high quality, super soft genuine leather to allow little feet to breathe and grow naturally. At birth, feet are mostly cartilage. It is during childhood that the bones in the feet form; during this time the feet are fragile and any undue pressure is not advised. Podiatrists and Pediatricians recommend soft soled shoes for babies and toddlers.
SKEANIE Soft Soled Baby Shoes and Boots are FAIR TRADE MADE by a family owned business and are able to offer exclusive and tailor-made designs for retailers. SKEANIE is 100% Australian Owned and Designed.
Shoe Shopping For Your Child's Developing Feet
