chalk lesson

For some reason I chose to buy the kids chalk again, you know the cheap stuff you can get at the supermarket. It was such an exciting gift when I went to find it today and H played for at least 20 min at the chalk board, especially fond of the new chalk board duster (yes that was in the pack and my excuse for buying crappy chalk again). Anyway todays lesson:

Do not buy standard chalk for kids under 5, for the third time this year, within 5 min of opening the box all the chalk is in at least 3 pieces per stick and trodden underfoot - the blackboard easle was outside thank goodness.

Next time try the sidewalk chalk!

catch up

Well, its nearly Christmas and a long time since I blogged. In that time we got a new computer - a Mac and 5 months later and I'm still having trouble typing on this keyboard. We have moved to Melbourne, well not really Melbourne, just the eastern suburbs, 40min out of Melbourne. and life is very different.

I have not done any EC since we moved with Xavier (carpet in every room of this house!), although today after his nap, he did a wee and we caught a poo in the potty. Wow, a wonderful first; he is so cute, cheering himself after every successful trip to the potty. He's been doing a wee in the potty before bath ever night for a couple of weeks. SO I'm going to try a bit harder to give him more opportunities and reduce the amount of pooey nappies I have to wash!

Harriet has been home with me full time since we moved. She has been bored and missing her friends terribly, it is so sad to see her so heartbroken. She just wants new friends. She is booked in to Kindergarten next year so I'm hoping I'll meet some mums at the AGM next week and organise some play dates. I worked with her on numbers today, inspired by a pic that gorgeous Emma and Bellana put up on her FB page. She still gets confused with 6 and 9 which is funny because she used to know it all. She didn't have the attention today to do it independently so will try again next week.

craving nature

We had a fabulous easter at the most amazing camp site.http://www.coolendel.com.au/camping.html. We stayed 3 night and would have stayed longer if it were not for the rain and the unsettled Baby X at night. We have come home so rejuvenated and exhausted and refreshed all at once. I used to always say that you don't know me til you've been camping / bush walking with me and I feel that is so true. Harriet came home a totally different child. She has had full week following the camp happy and acting like an angel, no tantrums and just so pleasant. I wonder how we can capture this for always. Xavier was also very happy and able to be occupied just by being with us. He slept all his day sleeps in the sling, it would have been the perfect opportunity to really push the EC thing, but I was using disposable nappies and just forgot about it. (probably b/c we couldn't fit the potty in the car). So we're keen to camp again and I've now got a list of all the extra things we need.

I've been working with X on EC since we came home, with lots of misses and quite a few catches we're having fun. I think he is much happier without a nappy on too. I might get a pair of crotchless pants for winter, just been using babylegs (http://www.babesinarms.com.au/babylegs) but I worry that his little bottom gets cold.

I'm waiting now to hear if we'll be moving, otherwise I would probably be investigating the local Montesorri (http://www.eloneramontessori.com.au/) school for Harriet, I really think it is time she moved on from the family day care she is at and I think she would benefit from this kind of environment. Although we have valued her carer, there is a lot of push towards gender stereotypes and being a girl / princesss. It is probably everywhere but I think I'd like for her to gain some intrinsic motivation for eductaion / exploring.

bare baby bums are so cute

Well I started thinking about EC (elimination communication) a bit more and found this http://www.parttimenappyfree.com.au/ so now I've been thinking about it more for a few days. So much makes sense when I look back to Xavier's first 4 months. He was colicky and often the only way we could settle him was to put him on the change table and take off his nappy. He would only poo once his nappy was off for months. He was totally asking us to help him with his elimination but we weren't listening. Now I had heard of EC before (mainly when I read gentle birth gentle mothering when I was pregnant with X  http://www.sarahjbuckley.com/ ) but I was under the impression it was all or nothing and I couldn't imagine having the ability to cope full time with no nappies. So instead I decided to do the cloth nappy thing. Anyway it has been great being introduced to EC now and I'm just thinking ...just save one more nappy being washed, preventing nappy rash that bit more. So I thought I'd just start with offering potty when he wakes. Over the last 2 days I have been intermittently taking him to the potty, yesterday he was offered the potty 3 times and then as soon as we were outside he did a wee. Today he had a long nap - well thats another story- and as soon as he woke I took off his nappy, it was dry and I sat him on the toilet and for the first time he happily sat and then he did a wee. Of course I carried on with praise and singing etc etc, but I don't think he even realised what he had done. Oh well, one more nappy saved. Yay for us :)

monday morning

Well this is my first post. So many things I've been thinking to blog the last few days and now I sit down to write ...hmmm. For a start my computer blew up yesterday so its strange to be sitting at my husbands computer. I guess I wanted to start a blog as I feel like I'm learning lots about being a mum. Every day I find new ideas and concepts and new parenting networks. I just need somewhere to compile or my random thoughts and finds and in a way it gives me 'someone' other than my children to 'talk' to.

As I sit here I listen to Xavier (now 8 months) cry himself to sleep. Writing is a good distraction, however lately I have been finding it increasingly difficult to allow him to cry. I think this change in me comes as I attend ABA meetings and read all sorts of amazing blogs. I always tend to find the stories and thoughts of parents who practice attachment parenting the most interesting. However I feel like I'm only just finding out about this concept. Yes, I have known about it for ages but dismissed it as something foreign to me and something that would take too much time for me to think about properly and so now with a vivacious 3 year old daughter and my divine 8 month old son and no work (for the first time since I was 16) I find myself wondering what is my parenting style?

So that is what I am going to try to achieve in this blog. Finding confidence in myself as a mum. Sounds like fun, hopefully I won't rant too much and find the lighter side of all that being a mum is to me.