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We Are Not Home-Schooling

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I did not anticipate the first blog I put up after having Ray-Ray would have a headline like this. Shows how much the landscape has changed in a short space of time…..and how busy life with three is! I do have his birth story drafted but that will be for another time. Presently we are in week three of a complete national lockdown. Schools and businesses are shut with only essential services operating in response to the global pandemic of COVID-19. After watching this virus take hold of many countries around the world our Prime Minister made the tough decision to implement this lockdown on Monday the 23 rd of April leaving 48 hours preparation. Like so many others we found our lives suddenly turned upside down. In the unbelievable position of working from home with three children aged 7,5 and 5 months of age. I had previously been working from home all through the newborn days with Ray-Ray. I thought this was to be my biggest challenge this year - holding on to my work during the inten...
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My Experience with Corruption & Cruelty from the Publishing Industry

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I have now written a total of seven books and guides. Eight if you count my first starting solids guide which became a book. I have also completed a Doctoral thesis that took me four years during which I gave birth to both my sons. I am now 33 weeks pregnant with our third baby having gone through two miscarriages over this time as well. I am an author. It is my dream and enables me to fulfill on my lifelong mission. With a background in the cut-throat world of academia I had no illusion that being an author would be an easy path…. but I did not expect the level of corruption and the cruelty I have received. I am still working through the impact of how I have been treated especially over the last year. As I mentioned in my preview post, I have kept waiting for the ‘right’ time to share this. I have wondered if I even want to share this. Will it just bring everything up? Will it come across like I am just complaining? That it was really my fault? Should I just be grateful because not ma...
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Starting Solids - The First 5 Weeks with Brianna Tekii

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Our Nourished Team is very lucky to have the expertise of highly qualified, evidenced-based nutritionists & dietitians who also literally walk-the-talk in feeding their own little ones. Senior Wellington consultant Brianna Tekii, has recently gone through the very process many of you have or are about to in starting solids with her gorgeous girl Elosie. Brianna is a Registered Dietitian with her Master's in Nutrition and Dietetics and Post Grad in Public Health and Hauora Māori. In this blog she shares her experience of starting solids The Nourished Baby way over the first five weeks with Elosie. ****** I had lots of advice about Eloise starting solids, even as a Senior Nutrition Consultant and a Registered Dietitian. This advice came from everywhere, friends, family, strangers and even my husband (sorry my love, but it's true!). Although this advice was all well-meaning, it was also contradictory both to each other as well as to the most up to date evidence of starting sol...
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Please Do More

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It has taken me a little bit of time to process and reflect on the events that shook our country on Friday. As someone in a position of leadership within our community and the wife of an immigrant raising two sons of mixed race, I have a message and a request that I need to share. Please Do More. While I was shocked and heart broken at the horror of the actions from one human being to the innocent lives of others, I was also not surprised, which is possibly just as heart breaking. My husband and I will be married eight years this year and we have been together for 10 years. His best friend and who was his best man at our wedding is Muslim. For the entire decade I have been side-by-side with him I have witnessed first hand the hatred and racism directed right to his face – including this morning. No child is born hating another child. They have no idea about 'race' and 'skin colour'. Hatred does not just happen. It grows. It grows from the seeds of language imprinted int...
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You Were Not Meant To Be

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As many of you know, we are trying for a third baby. We have been for some time. As expected, it’s been a process fraught with a lot of emotional turmoil. Initially a lot of this turmoil came from trying to figure out when . Our youngest son is now four. We never planned on having a big gap but I have had a few things on my plate (just a few) and a tight book publishing schedule for what will be my third year now. Working with a publishing company means that this schedule is unforgiving. It does have its advantages of providing a structure but to say it is not baby-friendly would be an understatement. This is aside from all other issues I have had with the company. Last year when we finally ‘worked out’ our ‘perfect time’ for our third bundle to arrive in the world it left us two months in which to conceive. Totally do-able right? And this would most likely require fertility treatment as well which is what we went through with Sahan due to a severe case of polycystic ovary syndrome. We...
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School Holidays & Dual Working Parents

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School broke up for our eldest son on December 14 th last year and he started back this week on Feb the 4 th . This first week back has also been a short week due to a public holiday on Wednesday. Everyone has a different experience (and opinion) of the school holidays. I wanted to share my own experience of this time – which will continue to be different every year. Before Arjun was of school age, the holidays were always something I was quietly afraid of. We are two working parents with absolutely no family help at all. None. Yes, we need to work. My husband and I run three businesses. They do not just stop for eight weeks. These are not ‘big businesses’ that we can simply take leave from and have them still working. Our work does put food on the table. Our work is also enjoyable. We do not want to stop for this length of time. If we included all school holidays and public holidays for the year, we are looking at around four months of the year not working. Last year was Arjun’s firs...
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2019 The Year of Hope

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Every year I set a word for the year. It is something I have been doing for a while time now after reading this in a business book. I used to do dream boards. I think these really helped when I was a lot younger, but after having the boys I have preferred to simplify the year goal-wise. Having a word for the year helps me to focus. I take actions and check that the choices I make are in line with this when the time comes. I do not spend a lot of time thinking about it. It is the first word that comes to me and feels right. A true gut-instinct. The word hope came so easily at the end of last year. In previous years I have had more grunter words, like ‘power’ and ‘unlimited’. Is 'grunter' a word....well it is now! Anyway, this year I want to change tack a little bit. It is no secret that last year was tough. I know that I did not even write my new year blog in 2018 until it was April! It was an up hill battle the whole time. This year while I know the fight is still going to be ...
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