Guess Who Joined Us For Dinner?

Welcome to dinner Noa!

She dined on an apple core and a way over cooked sweet potato, far preferring the apple core.

Here's to more dinners and food groups soon! Yay big food!

Imaginary Friends

Where is Sissy's ride?

When I asked Isaac to sing me a song in the car, he told me that he would, but he could only sing one song because he was pretty busy. "I have to pick up a jumparoo for Sissy's baby sister at 9 o'clock, so I'm pretty busy right now." I didn't know Sissy had a baby sister! I didn't even know Sissy up until a month ago.

Now I'm learning more about her every day. Sissy is his best friend now, and she does some crazy stuff! Especially when he can't fall asleep at naptime. Earlier this week he shouted from his room, "Mommy! I want to tell you the crazy thing Sissy did! She climbed down the side of my crib and jumped into the wall and went all the way down her new porch stairs and into the street and into her house and into her own bed without scooting or waking up at all!!"  One week before, on an especially raucous no-nap day, he shouted with glee, "Hey mommy! We're having a birthday party, will you join us and sing happy birthday?"

Yesterday I learned that Sissy has a mom named Tessie. Tessie hung out with Isaac in his crib yesterday when he couldn't nap and Sissy had ridden her bicycle home all by herself. I learned that Sissy's baby sister's name is Ter-hion. When I was holding his real baby sister, Isaac was holding Sissy's baby sister, though he decided to put her in the stroller because he couldn't catch a ball and hold her at the same time. Sissy isn't always nice to her baby sister. Over the weekend Isaac told me, "Sissy is in time out for biting her baby sister, Mommy."

I asked him today what it was like playing with Sissy. He said it was fun and comfortable. I asked him where Sissy was, and he said like I should have known, "She's in the crib! Can you take her out?"

So I did, and she was way easier to pick up than Isaac!

Baby Led Weaning

This is much yummier and squishier than plastic. What fun!

Noa was sitting in her exersaucer, madly trying to eat the plastic letter B and the plastic butterfly hanging next to the plastic letter B. She was yelling a lot. I started thinking maybe they didn't taste nice? How about a banana? I've been reading the Baby Led Weaning book for a little while now, and feeling inspired by their (many might say crazy!) ideas.

"The mush stops here!" In a nutshell (not a spoon), the Baby Led Weaning idea is that babies will feed themselves when they are ready to, and we don't have to push food into them. It's finger foods from the beginning, whenever the baby decides the beginning will be (an ability to sit up and grab things required).

BLW proponents say feeding themselves helps babies learn hand-eye coordination. Babies will have an sense of what they are putting in their mouths instead of being surprised by the mush, so they'll be happier doing it. They won't feel left out of the family dinner. They won't choke because their reflexes will push the food out if they aren't ready for it, (Noa pushed out the little piece of banana that she accidentally bit off). I think BLW is even supposed to make them smarter!

I'm gonna give it a shot with Noa. I didn't do it with Isaac (and he's certainly smart enough). I mostly chewed his food for him in the very beginning (I know, gross, but helpful in a digestive enzyme sort of way!), and he loved being fed so it wasn't a problem.

Noa, by the way, isn't quite ready. As you can see from the photo up there, I was holding the banana for her, and I think that is a major no-no. The little girl needs to be in charge, and I don't think she is quite up to the task yet. But soon!

For now, I think the thumb is yummiest. Especially when it's covered with banana goop.

It's ok mom. I'll eat it when I'm good and ready.

The Making of a Momma is Not Easy

I've been seeing this face a lot lately.

"Love the child most when they are most difficult to love." 

I just found this. It is advice passed on from one momma's great-great grandmother. I wish this great-great grandmother were by my side right now.

It's been really hard lately with Isaac and Noa. Really hard. My patience is so incredibly thin, and Isaac keeps scratching through it over and over again, leaving me really raw.

So I just did a little retail therapy and bought Unconditional Parenting, and Love and Anger: The Parental Dilemma

I also vow to get more sleep, and maybe even a little exercise. Everything I've read says feeling like you are about to lose it is usually because your own person's needs are being majorly ignored. Mine are being ignored so much, I'm not even sure who I am these days.

Sorry for being such a downer, but as Isaac told me yesterday when I was upset, "It's okay momma, some days are just like that."



 

Bite me.

Yesterday I came as close as I ever have to telling someone to bite me. As in, "Bite me, Lady."

We were at the Park Slope Food Coop. Isaac was sitting in the cart wanting EVERYTHING.

"I want to hold a potato!",
"NO! A bigger potatohoh!",
"Give me a pumpkin!",
"Does the checkout lady have to weigh the blackberries before we can eat them?",
"As soon as the checkout lady weighs the blackberries, I am going to eat them."

That was only the fruit and vegetable section. Once we were in the bulk aisle he got really rowdy.

"Animal Crackers!!!!"
"I want animal crackers!!!"
"No, no, no!!!! I want them in my hand!!"
"I want to HOLD them!"

I moved the cart 5 feet away to a safer area next to the spices. I told him I was going to get us some spiral pasta and made my way through the crowd to the pasta bin.

"Pasta?! Pasta!? I want to HOLD pasta!"
"Give me pasta Mommy! Mommy? I want the pasta mommy!"

By then I wanted to pretend that he was not my child and that I didn't know him. I wanted to get the spiral pasta and run from the bulk aisle as fast as I could. So I'm digging as fast as I can into the pasta bin when this lady comes up to me and says, "Why don't you just talk to him."

"Bite me."

The Funny Things He Says Part 2: Birthday Theme

Isaac cut into a colorful pile of playdough cake he was making me for my birthday. He pointed at a red spot. "This is the pit of the cake mommy." Then there was a long pause, "The thing about cakes is," he continued, looking up and into my eyes, "That some cakes have pits, and some do not."

Later that evening, he asked me, "What day was I born?" I answered, "You were born September 10th."  His eyes got really big. "Same day as my birthday!"

The checkout lady at the food coop asked Isaac how old he was. With a huge smile and his messy haired head thrown back, Isaac shouted, "I'm 10 o'clock!"

The Forest School

Classwork

We joined the Forest School in Prospect Park this session, and are so tickled by it. It is just so dang sweet.

An average class is like this: We all walk to the "classroom" together, quietly (hard for me, yes), and then stop to sing a song about a lark who says "cookoo". After we arrive, we play in the mud with sticks, little shovels, pails and cups of water. A hand washing song is sung, and the kids line up to swish their hands in a shiny metal bowl filled with warm water.

Snack time is awesome: There is an earthenware plate covered first with a little red checkered towel and then with crispy and sweet sliced apples. They pass around cool hibiscus tea in tiny white ceramic sake cups, and homemade bread with either butter or apple butter. Isaac always pauses as if making a great decision, and then announces, "apple butter!"

After snack we do a bit more exploring. Today we went fishing with sticks at the dog beach. We caught some dogs! There was an especially big and nice one named Lily.

We finish with a circle time full of sweet songs about nature and bugs, say bye-bye, and then play with "kites", or little bits of silk tied to sticks.

The thing that makes all this so wonderful is how incredibly gentle it is. All of the kids classes I have been to with Isaac up until this one have been really loud! This is really quiet. The singing is quiet, and the games are quiet. The exploring leaves them space to discover without rules. It's quiet enough that I notice myself, or catch myself wanting to tell Isaac to do something, and then realize he's very capable of figuring it out on his own.

Thank you Forest School!