Moving on to the Next Stage

Samwise trying to escape the living room.

Samwise has been so close to crawling for so long…it seems like with Eowyn she just decided to up dive right into the next developmental stage and figure it out in a week. I understand every child is different and develops on their own timetable, but he has had an insatiable need for movement, and for about a month I was stooping over to walk him around by his hands all. the. time. As I sat and listened to the constant whining, I wondered if I had perhaps slightly stunted his movement by wearing him all the time up until I hurt my back and quit cold turkey sometime when he was seven months. Well this cute but very porky little boy has been giving me backaches through pregnancy, labor, bouncing him to sleep on the exercise ball, wearing him all day, and now walking him.

So I took some advice from Maria Montessori, or as she’s known around here “Maria.” Her theory on children is to provide an environment conducive to his “sensitive period.” A sensitive period is what ever developmental milestone a child feels driven to work towards, and during these stages we, as parents,should foster the child’s independent experimentation. This independence then leads to a confidence in the child’s abilities. So I decided that he needed to learn movement on his own, and not be dependent on mommy’s hands for it. I would let him pull up on me if we were sitting together on the floor, but nothing more. I put him on his tummy as much as he would tolerate, and if he just sat there and cried I moved him to a different room or gave him a different activity to do. He sat a long time with toys around him to encourage him to reach, and you know what? In a week or less he started crawling! I had been teaching him to depend on mommy to satiate his need for movement. It was so exciting to see his confidence rise as he learned how to crawl, mostly starting from a sitting position, but he also rapidly began rolling over, and moving from on his tummy to a seated position. He cries a lot less, and is able to entertain himself. He is pulling up on little tables and the couch, and beginning to cruise. The only thing is, he is a lot less cautious than his sister was. He has pushed against the table a few times, and fell backwards, and while sitting he will grab the back of his thighs and rock back on his head. He has been cruising and thrown himself when he reaches the end of the couch. I am guessing maybe it is a boy thing to be a bit more reckless. I’ve heard stories of wild little toddler boys, and while Eowyn is no delicate flower herself, she pales in comparison the stories I hear of little boys.

Eowyn’s not so thrilled at her brother’s new ability to get her stuff…

At the same time as I am seeing this recklessness in him, he is still a little snuggler, and puts his head down on me, give me hugs and kisses. He is shy and many times will cry at the attention of a stranger. He is also starting to become more difficult to feed. Some of it may be a thirst for more independence and some of it may be just a natural decline in appetite as he wants to be crawling more, or a slight lull in physical growth, as his body focuses on movement and language. He still loves beef, but is beginning to also show a strong preference for carbs as well. I can usually get him to eat some fruits and veggies if I sing and or give him something to keep his hands away from blocking his mouth, but I am seeing him less and less opening his mouth like a baby bird.

So with all this new movement, we had to really baby proof the house. The biggest thing is keeping him from hitting his head on the tile floor. So we bought a gate for the living room and tried to re-arrange the kitchen area to make a safe place for him to play, but he still kept hitting his head in the kitchen. So for now, we will keep him in the pack and play or the jumper when in the kitchen. But I got such a thrill out of re-arranging the living room and the kitchen area. Why is that so energizing to women? I just sat back and enjoyed the new arrangement, it looked like a new house! I just get the itch to move stuff around and think to myself how this new arrangement will be so much better and make our lives so much easier and look so much more organized. But of course its all nice and clean and shiny now, but as the weeks go on more and more things will become disheveled and dirty again, and the shininess of a new arrangement will be gone until the next time I get the itch.

Eowyn seems to be going through another language development, she is talking constantly. And she is coming up with some funny stuff. She squeaks her toes in her wet sandal and says that it sounds like a frog, with a little gleam in her eye waiting for someone to chuckle. She tells me that she is hungry and that her stomach is growling, which she demonstrates by making a sound like she is clearing her throat, and swings her belly back and forth. She did this once, and I chucked, so now she does it all the time waiting for a response. She tells jokes now too. Like she sings “row, row, row your refrigerator.” Or whatever other silly objects she can substitute in for boat, like clock, baby or door. She giggles and looks into your eye waiting to see your reaction. She struggled to climb up into her car seat the other day and triumphantly declared, “and the crowd goes wild!!” Joe and I were completely unprepared for it and lost it…haha.

But she’s not all fun and games all the time, as much as she feels joy at telling jokes, she feels the sobriety of situations as deeply as the silly times. Like the time I made her some peanut butter toast for breakfast and forgot to cut it in quarters before serving it too her. “This peanut butter is too big.” she declared. When I apologized, she replied, “That’s so disappointing.” Or the other day when I was removing some dead flowers from a vase on the table, she realized that they were dead,”just like Jesus.” We’ve been spending a lot of time outside, and she was running across the yard the other day yelling that the bees were getting in her eyes. I finally realized she was talking about the cloud of gnats that fly around your head, and tried to explain to her that first of all they weren’t bees, and secondly, she can’t out run them. She gets nervous when Mert, our cat, goes outside and yells out to her “Bedado, bedado!” Which is her translation of “cuidado” or “be careful” in Spanish. And finally, she went on a monologue at the dinner table about how she needed cold water in the swimming pool to make her cut on her knee better. She just kept going round and round saying the same thing very seriously and shuddering each time she mentioned the cold water.

Spending time outside in the pool!

And finally, I wanted to run a brief update on my gardening adventures. Since living in apartments for quite a while I have wished that I had a lovely little assortment of flowers right outside my door, to cut and bring inside and arrange in a little vase here and there around the house. So when we bought the new house, I was so excited at all the open space to plant flowers. The yard is basically a blank canvas waiting to be cultivated. So, even before we officially had the house, I was drawing up plans for what plants I would plant where. I know, it was a dangerous game to play, potentially increasing my disappointment if we lost the house, but we didn’t 😀 So I decided that I wanted to try to make a little cut flower garden off the corner of our deck. I bought seeds online to get more bang for my buck. And I am pretty new at this, but one warm day, back in the spring, I thought my little seedlings would like some sunshine, so I brought them out on the deck, but I left the plastic over them that I had been using to keep them moist. But that was a big mistake! I ended up steaming them because it got so hot under the plastic with out ventilation. So I started over, and this time they lived! I cleared out the sod with some help from my Mother in Law and from Joe. And we found all sorts of treasure in our yard! It’s so much fun seeing what you can find in your yard, and even more so with a house that was built in 1890. Although, it’s fun to imagine, we probably didn’t really find anything all that old.

Here is all our treasure! Special items to note: My Mother in Law found a Sheriff badge in the center left of the picture. I found a dinosaur in the top center and ring near the bottom, and on the left is Joe’s fork from Thailand used my the original owner of the house. (At least, that’s what we decided it was) And a lot of beer bottle caps and rusty tools.

As I went along merrily planting my seedlings, and few larger flowers from the store, all my hard work was getting chomped right off in the night. And I think I finally know who the culprit is: the little bunny that lives under our deck! He munched the mums, bleeding heart, and peony, and he even ate every single one of the cosmos and delphinium! So I put some wire around the peony and the bleeding heart to save the more expensive plants. Thankfully,he seems to be leaving alone about half of the stuff though: the lantana, lavender, butterfly bush, button mums, and the bells of Ireland. The poppies initially got eaten down to the ground, but have grown back twice as large, and have been since untouched. Maybe the don’t taste so good after they get bigger. Some of the plants that are being eaten are supposed to be poisonous, and not attractive to wildlife, but I guess no one told Mr. Bunny. But anyways, I guess there will be some trial and error involved in figuring out what is safe to put out and what will be eaten. My flower garden right now doesn’t look that impressive, but maybe later in the summer, I’ll take a picture . But for now, here is the front garden that was already started when we bought the house. I gave the rose bushes a little pruning back in February when they started getting new leaves, and now they have just filled out so beautifully!

More than Halfway

So We made it past six months, in fact, we even made it past seven months! Before six months its a lot of drudgery; sure they are cute, and sometimes cuddly, but at least for the two babies I have had, they are a lot of work, a lot of crying, and little reward. Things get a little easier after six months as they get into a stable routine of sleeping and eating, you can actually see and measure all the new things they are learning and their little personalities really start coming out. He’s sitting up very well on his own by now, no more flopping over. But now he has his sights set on walking. No, not crawling, crawling is for babies. Of which Samwise is not. At least, that’s what he thinks. Put him on his tummy, he just lays there and cries. Sometimes he will try a couple of times to get his legs under him, but then he gives up. I really think he could crawl too if he actually tried. He is so strong, he can hold himself in a standing position if he has something sturdy to grip. He’s scooted on his butt a few times. He’s also tried going from sitting to crawling and banged his poor little nose on the floor…And so, all he wants to do is have someone hold his hands to help him walk around the house, which is really hard on my back since he is still very short. It is so cute to see him start playing with Eowyn though; he will chase her around the house and shriek at her, as she runs and giggles. He walks up to people with his big slobbery mouth open and rams his face into you to show affection (I think).

Backing up!

He’s been expaning his vocabulary starting with the traditional Kovac baby “rah, rah, rah, rah…etc.” Eowyn said this a lot too 🙂 then he added, “guh.” Just “guh,” no repeating on this one. Next he has been saying “kkkuh” especially when he sees Mert, I wonder if he is trying to say cat! The most recent one has been “mmba, mmba, mmba,” and he slapped his belly over and over while saying it. I think he is trying to do the sign and say mommy! I repeated it, and he did it again with the vocal and the motion! So exciting; nothing gets a parent excited like hearing those first mama’s and dada’s! And finally, every time he hears someone cough, he follows with his own fake cough! lol…

I’ve talked before about how impressed I am with his eating abilities, especially compared to Eowyn. He loves meatballs, mongolian beef cooked in the crockpot, cheese, yogurt, avocado on craker. He also likes crackers of all varieties, a staple baby food group, some fruits, and toast. And of course he is still doing well with the fruits and veggies pureed smush. Eowyn is so good with him, she loves to help feeding him by giving him a cracker or his sippy. She has even fed him from a spoon a little bit. She gets so into interacting with him while he is eating that it is just one more stumbling block/stalling tactic to eating her own meals. She plays with him, gives him his pacifier, scolds him and tells him what to do and how to play all the time. She loves going in his room to greet him when he wakes up. It’s so cute to see her mothering he toys too. She has never really gotten into dolls so far, but she likes taking care of Kitty Meow Meow and has been playing a lot with her baby Margaret Doll too.

Mongolian Beef, Rice, and Peas.

She also likes pretending she is a snake a lot lately too. She scoots along on the floor going, “sssss” Most of the time she is a snake when she brings her cup or bowl to the sink. She has enjoyed all the gardening work we have been doing lately. She loves watering the dirt, and making little ponds, and she has enjoyed watching the seeds grow and learning a little bit about plants. And because I am crazy I have been digging up sod in my spare time (back before it rained for two weeks straight.) and she would come over and asking, “did you find more dirt?”
“Yes,” I replied.
Then she would say, “Wabo, mommy, wabo!”
Wabo, being her version of “bravo.”

Even Mert has been getting brave and coming out.

Samwise has gotten bored with most of his little baby toys, and mostly enjoys playing with the larger toys, and dumping baskets of things into his face, and taking two objects and colliding them together. I remember Eowyn dumping toys on her face a lot too. So I’ve tried getting a few of the early Montessori things together for him too like discovery baskets, threading rings on a peg, some found objects, puffballs in the wipes box (a tired and true classic). He’s also enjoyed things with moving parts like our activity cube and the spinner on the front of the walker. A lot of this stuff are things that Eowyn still likes to play with so she has been having a harder time with sharing lately…I can’t wait till he actually can move. I’ll be refereeing all day.

Playing in Eowyn’s little pond she made.

Speaking of discipline, Eowyn has been working on a mural in the living room:

But wait, there’s more!

So yeah, over all things are staring to go more smoothly. Oh and the other day, I even went to Home Depot with the two of them by myself! It actually went pretty well too. Samwise sat in the front seat of the cart and just stared. He didn’t even make a peep until right before we went to the check out. Taking Eowyn to the potty was a little challenging but maybe there is hope that someday soon, we will be able to do something besides stay at home all day.

Wow! What a nice little photo model!

Paschal Narrative Lessons

Alright, went off on a tangent there, but seriously, I have been busy. Besides feeding and encouraging my children to sleep, I have been preparing for Easter. And because I am crazy, preparing for Easter this year involved painting peg people for Catechesis Lessons. So now, we have the 12 disciples, Jesus, the three women at the tomb, two Roman soldiers, and a donkey. Now all I would like to do for next year is to procure settings for the three of them.

We had been counting down to Easter for the duration of Lent since our Advent Calendar went over so well. I didn’t do any special lessons, but I tried most days to read about the life of Jesus, pray, and to mark off the days of course. Sometimes I would have a Montessori-like Practical Life Lesson for afterwards, such as:

Planting Seeds

Washing Windows

Sweeping Sand

Painting a rock with water

And the Classic, Pouring Water

We started our Holy Week with a Palm Sunday Lesson, which technically is not part of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd curriculum, but I guess we’re not following it strictly. I searched around on Etsy and came across a plain wooden donkey that could seat a peg person. We constructed an arch out of blocks to represent the entrance to Jerusalem, and I made palms and robes out of felt. For the actual presentation, I read an account from a children’s Bible, and then read it again, and used the materials to act out the story, and then read it a third time asking Eowyn to use the materials to follow the story, and asked a few “wondering questions” at the end as she was working with the materials.

 

She particularly loved lining up the palms and robes to make a road for Jesus, she even wrapped the robes around some of the figures and had them take them off and lay them down. At some point the ladies were parachuting down off of the arch. When I asked what they were doing, she said that they were going to a party for Jesus. I guess it probably was kind of like a big party.

Next, we did the Last Supper or the Cenacle. So I had to make twelve disciples. When starting out, I told myself that I needed to just make simple figures maybe two designs just painted with different colors to differentiate one character from another in order to not spend hours painting peg people. Well, I should have known myself better than that. Of course I ended up researching each of the twelve disciples and tried to match their personalities to various designs.

From the left: I based Jesus’ design on James Tissot’s Jesus, but I added a blue stripe which in Judaism symbolizes divinity. Next is Peter and Andrew (fisherman design 1), James and John (fisherman design 2), Phillip (Jewish citizen design), Bartholomew (lawyer design), Thomas and Matthew (Romanized Jewish design), James the Younger (Jewish citizen design), Thaddaeus and Simon (Zealot design), and Judas (lawyer design). I always try to make my figures not look European by using medium to dark skin tones and more ethnic looking clothing.

As I did the presentation Eowyn was very focused, much more than usual. She is sometimes a little difficult to settle, but the presentation really seemed to have grabbed her attention. She had each disciple eat the bread and drink the wine, and when I read about Jesus being arrested and crucified, I put the cross on the table, and then I lit two little candles, and we sang “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” It is so special to hear her little voice sing these words of profound truth, as I pray she is pondering them in her heart. During her free time, she held up Jesus to the small cross in the center of the table, and said “look, Jesus is on the cross.” It is so exciting to see her begin to connect things and build a foundation for (by God’s grace) a lifetime of faith.

And Finally, we did the presentation of the Empty Tomb. I really wanted to have a nicer tomb this year, but it just didn’t work out the way I had planned it, so I used some materials from the Easter Garden I made for her when she was very little. Just a little terra cotta pot tipped on it’s side and covered in play-doh. But I did make three women and two Roman soldiers to use, as well as the angel from the Nativity set, and Jesus from the Last Supper set. I read from Matthew 28:1-10 and showed her the story of our Lord’s Resurrection. It came a couple days late, but I don’t mind extending out our holidays. They are such important days, it seems a shame to try to constrict all the celebrating to one day. Besides that’s how all of the Old Testament Holy Days were celebrated.

Since then, she has randomly asked for me or Joe to read out of the Bible twice, and not the children’s Bible or the Storybook Bible, she insisted it was the real Bible. “Read about baby Jesus” she asks. And “read about Jesus having dinner.” There are no words to describe my joy at consenting to those requests.

These Lessons from the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd have been such a blessing to our home. It has given me a way to learn how to talk to Eowyn, and soon Samwise, about Jesus. It gives us a template that we can use to talk about God every day (or at least most days). Even if it isn’t a special lesson with meticulously prepared materials, we have a special space to go to to remind us to pray and read the Bible. If I can let those things become part of their routine, I think that it is one of the best gifts that I can give them.

 

The Good Shepherd

3/18/15

 

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd curriculum is like magic, it’s so perfect especially for very small children. The hands on lessons, the invitation to imitate an adult, independent time for repetition and reflection, limited but concentrated sit down and listen time, the sense of holiness the environment imparts on littles. It just works, they get it. That is one thing I greatly miss about our old church. I still dream that maybe someday I can help start a Good Shepherd Catechesis program at whatever church we go to, but I do hope to do some of the lessons at home with my own kids in the meantime.

So I created some sheepfold materials for Eowyn to work with:

 

 

 

I used a Melissa & Doug crate that a toy came in for the sheepfold…heh. Looks pretty solid for keeping wolves out and sheep in, right?

Traditionally, the figures are supposed to be flat to differentiate it as an allegorical story vs. a historical lesson, but I am not much of a wood worker, and I didn’t want to spend the money, so I chose to substitute peg people instead. The Good Shepherd lesson is central to the program (hence the name) and one of the first lessons  in the youngest age group as little ones begin to shape an understanding of Jesus.

When I gave the Good Shepherd materials to Eowyn, I read the Good Shepherd passage out of the Jesus Storybook Bible. I showed her how the gate opened to let the sheep and shepherd out, and talked about the pieces. I asked her what the animals were, I told her the man was called a shepherd and he takes care of the sheep like a daddy. We talked about the fence how it keeps the sheep safe, and the gate. She loved it, she played with the gate opening and closing it making the sheep come in and out. However, she quickly rejected the Shepherd, and replaced him with a cheesy plastic Jesus figure we had in her room. I said yes, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Then she opened the gate and said “Daddy home!” and the sheep ran out of the gate and gave Jesus a hug. Wow. Almost made me cry, but maybe that’s because I am pregnant. She played with some crackers in the pasture….haha. Then, she opened the gate and she sat in the pasture. At this point, I probably should have stopped her and reminded her to treat her things with care, but I watched and waited, and she opened the gate and came out and said “Daddy home!” It was like she was identifying herself with the sheep even though when I asked her if she was a sheep after she got in the pasture initially, she said “no.”

 

Sharing crackers with the sheep and closing the gate. Mert (in the background) chose to work with other materials instead.

I was amazed. We haven’t gotten a formal structure or setting for it, but it’s a work in progress, and it makes me excited to make more materials in the future.

The Chicken

3/18/15

So Eowyn is already funny like her daddy and is developing sense of humor. As most of you know, she can say her letters and numbers very well right now, but she sometimes declares “A, no A, B, no B, etc.” Or she will go right down the list, “A, B, C, no A, no B, no C” Then she smiles, and says “I funny…” lol. Then the other day, she started saying “doin-doin,” and moved her fingers in the air. We could not figure out for a long time what she meant, and I would ask, “doin-doin? What’s that mean?” and she laughed. Then she added “gua-gua” and “fried chicken” to her joke repertoire. She was saying these silly words to me and was practically hysterical when I kept asking her what they meant. I figured out she got the “fried chicken” from a Veggie Tales video, “doin-doin” was her translation of “first signs,” another video she watches hence the finger movements with that one. And I still have yet to figure out “gua-gua” but I think that one is purely made up since the others became a game.

She is also starting to assert her preferences, primarily her phrase is “like that ___” only, by “like that,” she actually means “I don’t like that.” For example, one day when I came to get her up in the morning, she wandered out her door still a little sleepy I think, and saw Mert sitting in the hall and got started by her. Turing quickly away, she came running back in the room to me, scrunched up her face and declared, “like that Mert-Mert.” Haha…so hard not to laugh. When we are walking past a boy or girl at the grocery store, she will yell loudly, “like that boy” or “like that girl!” I am pretty sure, they can hear us, and I just hope they didn’t actually get that she was saying she didn’t like them….I hear that phrase so much lately, that Joe and I are starting to use it to each other. She’ll say, “like that apple,” if it’s the wrong kind or “like that smoothie” if there are still lumps in it. The phrase also comes out when there is some completely benign character on the tv that she for some reason thinks is scary, like the grandfather or baby on Daniel Tiger.

A couple weeks ago, we went to the Children’s Museum here in Richmond. I had been wanting to take Eowyn, and since there was a dollar night, and it has been too cold to go anywhere, we decided to give it a try. There were lots of interactive things there and some pretend play areas, and a lot of kids. I think at first Eowyn was a little scared of all the noise and activity, but we found a slide to get her warmed up. After the slide she seemed to relax a bit, and we headed to an exhibit that used air to move play scarves through transparent tubes and shoot the scarf in the air so Eowyn could catch it before it fluttered gently back to the ground. She got a big kick out of that too. There was a sand area, and a water area, and fun little apple picking game. They also had an art area that we took advantage of since Eowyn loves to paint. Sadly, we forgot the work of art on the drying rack since we ended up having to leave in a hurry…Our final destination and the source of Eowyn’s undoing, was pretty little carousel. They only ran it once every half hour and it was a dollar a ride. Joe took her on the ride so I could stand by and take pictures. This carousel had lots of different animals besides the usual horses, and when asked which one she wanted to ride, she made a beeline for a large magnificent chicken. Since, she didn’t know that the chicken was going to move, she got a bit impatient and almost didn’t make it while waiting for the other children to get on the ride. But as soon as it started going around, she smiled and giggled. She enjoyed it so much in fact that when exiting the ride, she realized it was over, and threw herself on the ground yelling, “Ride chicken!! Ride Chicken!!” Well, we never fully recovered after that, and there seemed to a huge influx of older kids ramming around and running over little ones, so we called it a day and left despite Eowyn’s helpless cries of “chicken!”

As Eowyn says, “Woah, woah, woah, boat…maiwily, maiwily, maiwily, maiwily…dweeeem!”

 

Driving the vegetable truck, “beep! beep!”

 

Our lost masterpiece…

 

The legendary Chicken.

 

Minutes before disaster….

Potty Training

3/4/15

Prior to potty training, Eowyn went through a food renaissance. She has spent so much of her life being picky and resisting new foods, but every now and then we enter into a short time period of a couple of weeks or so where she is open to trying new foods, or revisiting old rejects. I think it might have something to do with a growth spurt since she was eating like a horse. During this time she revisited cheese, which she only seems to eat during these spurts even though cheese used to be her favorite. She ate a lot of green beans and peas which she hasn’t touched in probably about a year. I had also been bribing her to try new things with the promise of “chocolate candy” m&m’s and reese’s pieces. She tried scrambled egg, noodle, banana, and had a hard time with gagging on them….I also bought strawberries at the store, and as Eowyn was “helping” me put groceries away broke open the container and spilled them on the floor. She picked one up off the floor and took a bite, completely out of the blue. I cringed a bit since our floors are definitely not clean enough to eat off of, but I didn’t want to interrupt the magical moment. She let out a “mmm…” and asked for more and I obliged with two helpings of diced strawberries.

Eating home-made bread, yum! Even Eowyn though it was addicting.

But between potty training and morning sickness/fatigue. I think I already told most people, but in case someone reading this didn’t know we’re expecting!…surprise! Happy Birthday! As Eowyn would say. She likes adding the happy birthday for good measure in all cases of surprise, regardless of whether it’s actually a birthday.

Hopefully not a preview of what’s to come…

Anyways, I haven’t been pushing the “new” foods as hard and her appetite seems to have waned, and we are back to the basic crackers and hummus. As soon as she opens her eyes in the morning she asks for hummus, and I tell her “no, we don’t have hummus for breakfast.” Especially when I have morning sickness…gross. Then she proclaims that today is “milk day!” I am not sure where this came from. I usually give her some milk shortly after getting up; maybe she means “milk today.”

So, right around Advent, she started to seem like she was ready to start, and she even went in the potty a few times, but I didn’t have the time and I didn’t think it was a good idea to start something new like that right before a nine hour road trip, and a week of being off schedule. So, I put it off. After interviewing a few sources, and reading a few things online, I decided to go for it. We started the first day with nothing on the bottom and drinking lots and lots of beverages….I explained to her what to do if she felt she had to go, and had her sit on the potty often and if she started going on the floor, I’d bring her over to the potty and tell her that “no pee doesn’t go on the floor, pee goes in the potty.” And every time she got some in the potty, I gave her a reward, namely, chocolate candy. We practiced for at least a few hours every day, and worked our way up to no diapers all day. After a couple days, she was going on her own even though, I would still prompt her now and then, and she was having maybe one small accident once in a while, where she realized she was going and stopped so she could run to the potty and finish. Then, after about a week we moved on to undies, and after a few more days added pants. She really seemed to learn really quick to me. The whole thing has taken less than three weeks. Nursery is still hard for her since, she sometimes doesn’t want to go with a stranger to the potty…but she has gone a few times, yay! I put the training pants on her when we go out and she usually stays dry and tells me if she has to go at the store! Yay for no diapers in the day! I also was a little excited to start potty training to get a few months rest from diapers before, we have the new baby!

Playing with Daddy in our biggest snowfall this year! It was so deep Eowyn got tired of walking through it…

Halloween Fun

11/4/14

 

Joe and I agreed we had a pretty successful Halloween this year. The weekend before Halloween we went to a local pumpkin farm. They advertised a little playground area, so we figured she would have fun, and we weren’t disappointed. There was a field with a swing set and slide, as well as lots of little plastic playskool slides and ride on toys. Perfect for toddlers. But the most exciting attraction was a leftover balloon tied to a metal chair in the far corner of the field…probably spent half our time over there in the corner. When the shadows started to get long, we decided we better head to the pumpkin patch and get our pumpkin, and some cute pictures of course. It was a very large space and we set out across the field and up the hill in search of the one. Eowyn liked running through the pumpkins. She set her face like flint and began her determined climb up the hill and would not stop despite mommy’s petitions for pictures. I couldn’t figure out where she was going. At the top of the hill was a little dirt path for the tractor rides and she turned and told me she wanted to go for a walk on that little dirt road. Don’t know how she spotted it across the field, but we walked on the road a bit. Then we found a pumpkin and started back. I got her to sit on a few pumpkins on the way back and snapped a few pictures while I asked her to say her abc’s to distract her and get her to sit still for a minute. It was a fun day together 🙂

 

 

 

We came home and I set up a washing station for her to wash her pumpkin. Having toddlers wash fruits and veggies is a typical Montessori activity, and some times she goes for those kinds of things and sometimes she doesn’t. But she did really enjoy it! It sounds so strange that something so mundane as washing a pumpkin with sponges, cups, and an old toothbrush would engage a busy toddler, but she loved it and was very focused especially when she used the toothbrush. When she seemed to be winding down, I brought out her paints to decorate the pumpkin. She also loves paints, much to my enjoyment she likes paints, crayons, and playdoh. With such a short attention span these days, its very noticeable when something captures her interest for more than five minutes, and we were probably out there painting the pumpkin for 20 minutes! She used brushes and her fingers for different textures and blended the paints together with water now and then. When she was done she had pretty much covered the entire thing; I was so proud of her! Although toward the end she started putting the paint in her hair, so we had to go immediately to the bath when we were done.

 

 

 

Later, I drilled some holes in the pumpkin in a swirly geometric pattern from and idea I got on Pinterest…the drilling worked but I couldn’t really see the light coming out. I think I either needed a brighter light or a bigger drill bit. Oh well. Anyways when I carved it out I offered the pumpkin guts to Eowyn to play in, and she would have none of it. She ran away. She hasn’t really ever been a fan of gooey sensory play. Yet she eats hummus, peanut butter, or mashed avocado with her finger. I can’t figure her out.

On Halloween I dressed her in her bee costume in the morning. A la the tutu experience, she resisted a bit at first, but as violently as with the tutu. But I was determined to get cute pictures and have an enjoyable Halloween for her. So I put it on anyways, and talked to her about it as I did. I asked her what colors were on it, and what sound a bee makes, and put her in front of the mirror. That seemed to help and she made no qualms about the costume the rest of the day. I think that it helped that it was a fairly normal outfit; basically a sweatshirt that buttoned at the bottom and some leggings. The costume itself was one that my mom made for my sister when she was little. Thanks mom! Oh and the antennae barrettes. We practiced with the barrettes earlier in the week so she would get used to it since I don’t usually do her hair up. I bribed her to sit in her chair with some candy, and got my pictures. Then we went to the little park around the corner and played and I got some more nice images of my little busy bee.

 

 

In the evening, I dressed as the busy bee keeper. Even though I showed her my costume earlier this week in parts she was still a little unsure of it, and preferred holding on to Daddy’s hand when we were trick or treating. She got the hang of it pretty quick. She walked up to the door with me and waited. When they brought out the candy she put her bucket down, picked a candy or two out of the bowl and put them in her bucket, picked the bucket back up and left. No problems. I think she got it so quickly because it involved candy. We were out until she saw someone’s nice pile of rocks in their landscaping and got distracted. She wanted to take one, and when we wouldn’t let her steal other people’s rocks she got upset, and I thought she was probably tired anyways so we went home. We said the standard going home transition phrase, “let’s go home and see Mert Mert.”

 

“Mert Mert” she mumbled between tears. She always gets excited to go home when we mention Mert, and she looks for her as soon as we open the door. And Mert is usually waiting right at the door.

All in all a really pleasant Halloween experience besides missing family. It was really so warm, probably the warmest Halloween we’ve ever experienced. We laughed to ourselves at the ballerinas and princesses that would be freezing their tutu’s off after the first house in New York, but really when we make fun we are just happy to have the mild weather. I was too hot in my costume, but then again I am used to dressing for a New York trick or treating experience in the freezing rain or snow.

 

Toddling About

9/22/14

It’s so surreal to me that the leaves are changing colors and its still 90 degrees. I looked up the weather to plan what Eowyn and I will wear to tomorrow, and it’s still going to be in the 80’s. I guess I am anxious to change my wardrobe over to my fall stuff; it feels like it should be that time of year. I can’t wear fall clothes because it’s too warm,  but I feel I’d like to change my wardrobe over to the darker warmer color of my fall wardrobe. I like changes. Only little changes, like in my diet or wardrobe. I explained this to Joe and he told me that that I do it to myself. Oh well, I suppose I can endure a few more warm Virginia days…

Anyways, on to what everyone really wants to hear about

The other week Eowyn and I went to the grocery store, and as we were picking out a cart she stopped and pointed out the fact that we had missed the large plastic car parked on the other side of the entryway. “Carr!!” She got in the blue one and I started to buckle her in. “Green!” she shouted as she changed her mind to the green one. I followed her over to the green one to buckle her in. The she yelled “Yeyea!” and “Red!” you get the idea. I finally made her settle on the red one after we tried out all the colors, and buckled her into the germ infested car. (I suppose that’s why she is sick now) I was a little hesitant if she could handle it with out trying to throw herself out of the car every five seconds, but I buckled her in and gave her, a snack cup, a drink, the i-pod and her kitty. And I told her if she can’t stay in the car she would have to ride up front with mommy. I was a little hopeful too because shopping with her has been horrible…she whines and cries and tries to escape no matter how many toys, snacks, and activities I try to placate her with. But the car worked pretty well! I stopped and let her smell the fruit and put it in the bag because she likes to help me with those things. I even let her out momentarily to help me put the green beans from a low shelf into the bag. Everything went well until it was time to go. The nice lady at the store put all our things in a separate cart to walk out with us, and so I proceeded to tell Eowyn that it was time to get out of her car and go home. Tried to reason with her but eventually, had to forcibly remove her from the car as she arched her back and threw her head back into my mouth. That felt good. So…over all the car worked well…just the germs the exit we have to figure out.

I’ve been working on more activities to keep Eowyn occupied and stimulated. She now can recognize all her uppercase letters by sight and can make the sound for all but a hand full of letters. She struggles with the “f”, “z” and “s” sounds, the z and s come out like a raspberry sound lol. Much to the pleasure of my math teacher husband, I made number cards for her next which she learned quickly, she even says the number one now, which she has always ignored. I dug up some small magnetic numbers and showed her how to match them with the number cards and after three tries she’s got that down too.

 

She’s been into recognizing body parts, so I made her a festive fall scarecrow face to practice constructing a face. The eyes, nose, mouth and hat are all removable. She’s played with it a few times but doesn’t really get the symmetry of it yet, and it ends up being a cyclops or having an upside down mouth for a uni-brow.

 

Finally, we were taking a bath the other day, and I caught her looking intently at her wrinkled up fingers and toes and running her fingertips over them. So cute! I told her that her fingers and toes had turned into raisins, and she looked at me seriously and said “re-re” which is raisin. Haha…Now when we take a bath she checks them immediately after getting in, and continues to periodically check them throughout the bath and informing me if they turn into raisins 🙂

 

Sensory activity of the week, playing with rocks and silk flowers with and without water

 

Big slide at park.

Swing-swing at park.

 

Pillow Mountain has kept us occupied for weeks….So much for a simple clean living room 😛

Creativity

9/12/14

I have been noticing a lot of changes in Eowyn (her blog name from now on) lately. She seems to have more complex thoughts, but lacks the ability to tell me. She knows lots of words. She just can’t speak them well enough yet to communicate her thoughts. A few weeks ago I made Zucchini bread, and was so pleased that she tried it, and even liked it! Usually she won’t let any new food within 12 inches of her mouth…but anyways, she had been eating it just fine, and then one night I sliced some up to go with dinner and served it on a plate. I picked a piece off the plate and gave it to her and she started to cry! Finally, I figured out that she wanted to choose her own piece of bread! As a parent I was amazed that she is starting to have those kinds of thoughts, but I am sure as it continues to flare up, it will get old.

 

Kitchen after Eowyn helped me make zucchini bread.

She is also starting to engage more in imaginative play. I caught her reading a book to Mert the other day; Mert looked very engaged..haha, and she was brushing her doll’s hair, and had Mert’s mice go for a bike ride. I like how she has all these beautiful toys and she is playing with cat toys, heh.

 

Mice riding the bike.

And this one made me really proud being and artist, she was in the bath the other day and she pointed to the two screws on the cover to the drain lever and said “eyes!” and pointed to the lever below them and said, “nose!” Its so exciting that she is starting to be creative and use her imagination. And while her words are not enough to communicate all her thoughts yet, she is beginning to increase the amount of words she learns every day more rapidly. I was giving her a bath the other day and I called to Joe, then Eowyn smiles at me and yells, “Jooooeee!” Haha…I thought that was so funny, but Joe didn’t like it as much. But because she is getting frustrated at not being able to speak well, she is whining all. the. time….I’ve started to tell her when she is, so maybe if she can at least identify it she can know what I’m talking about when I tell her to stop. Hopefully she’ll hit that mythological language explosion soon and save us both the frustration. But for now the sentence that she uses the most is “help me.” Help me jump on the bed, help me turn on the tv and get a show, help me find the page in the book that I am thinking of in my head, help me climb on top of the dresser, etc…When she first said “help me” I thought it sounded so creepy. She stumbled awkwardly over the words in her cute little voice, and it reminded me of some creepy child on Dr. Who. It just sounds unnatural for my baby to speak a sentence…I guess what all of this culminates to is that she is almost not a baby anymore! 😥

She’s also been enjoying painting more, much to my  excitement! She asked for her paints the other day right out of the blue! She likes her crayons and we’ve tried stickers recently which she loved but they ended up all over her rocking chair.

Painting outside on the porch.

Finally, what’s making me hopeful for the language explosion is her love of learning letters right now. She has been in love with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! For the past couple of months, and always likes to look at the letter chart on the last page. So I have been pointing out the letters to her and telling her what letter they are. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but she loves that book so much that I now have committed this great literary work to memory, and I recite it to her on request every time I put her down to sleep. She has been watching some shows on Netflix that teach letters over, and over, and over. So, I figured I would make some of these Montessori inspired letters for her. I love that tactile quality of the Montessori letters, but I made mine colorful (things always seem to hold her interest longer if they are brightly colored), and I made mine upper case letters. Traditionally they are supposed to be lower case, but she had already absorbed most of the letters in capital format, so I didn’t want to confuse her. I will probably make a lower case set too eventually. Maybe she can match the two sets or something.

 

Being a teacher, Joe went through all the cards and quizzed her the other night and she only missed eight letters! I have begun to teach her the sounds the letters make too, since she is so interested in them, I figured I might as well follow her lead. I’m not going to say, “No! I don’t want you to learn letters!” Hopefully I can foster a love of learning early 🙂 I keep on trying to get a good video of her saying her letters to post, but she won’t let me. As soon as she sees the camera or the pod, she drops what she’s doing and runs over to me to see the babies held within the magic box.

Her favorite letter lately has been W or as she says: “Dubbey!” She has been playing or doing something else and she will suddenly remember that her precious dubbey is missing! Amazingly, she almost always remembers where she left it even if it is in a mess of other letters. She will play hide and seek with it, by hiding it under some other letters, or flipping it over, and then smile and say dubbey! And slowly flip it over and find it. It’s like her new best friend.

She points out letters (and numbers sometimes) on the other apartments and on cereal boxes, TV, etc. I have been made aware of letters everywhere! So I’m hoping that this sudden interest in letters will help her learn more sounds, and consequently more words, and hopefully less whining 🙂

Simplifying Life

9/2/14

So, its not perfect, we still get clutter, but it’s better than it was! Here is our new apartment all unpacked and decorated. It was a bit of a squeeze even though we have about the same number of square feet of living space we lost our attic. We purged a satisfying amount of stuff, and things look neat and orderly when Eowyn hasn’t run through wreaking it, just don’t look in our closet. It’s been lovely having an actual closet that you can hang clothes in and reach them all, but unfortunately that spacious closet has become our “attic” in lieu of a real one. Joe is really amazing at packing and fitting things in a small space, must be all that Tetris practice.

Anyways, packing up one’s life and moving to another state, though being a daunting task, can also be a great opportunity to de-clutter and to simplify. It is amazing how many things crept into the nooks and crannies of our house to set up camp and became permanent fixtures, their presence taken for granted. I have found myself asking, “do I really need these?” “Why am I hanging on to this?” “Will I ever use this?” “Why do I do things the way I do?” Another question I asked myself was “Is this item worth dragging all the way down to Virginia?”As I packed I would say, “I should be able to fit all of my holiday decorations in this box, and all of my clothes in this box, or Eowyn only needs x number of this type of toy.” It really helped to have physical limitations. And as I piled up stuff for the garbage/salvo, it was very satisfying.

As I am sure many others do, I tend to feel overwhelmed a lot of the time with so many things vying for my attention: projects, housework, artwork, mothering, spiritual life, physical health, balancing relationships, and my own desires to relax now and then. And it certainly doesn’t help having a very demanding one year old who drags out anything not nailed down and flinging it into another room. When the floor is covered with toys, pillows, blankets, kitchen utensils, office supplies, clothes, and just general refuse, I sometimes feel like I am drowning in stuff! It makes it harder to concentrate, when I already have a hard time focusing. I always find myself *attempting* to multitask, and end up feeding Eowyn, getting an activity for her, starting a project, putting Eowyn down for a nap, going on facebook, scrambling to pick up, going to the store, starting laundry, putting away groceries that have been waiting in the bag too long…until at the end of an exhausting day I have 15 things started and nothing finished. I have tried lots of times to organize belongings, schedule my day, and organize priorities, and it usually works for a while, but there is always more more more. Over the past year or so, I have had a lot of conversations and ideas bouncing around in my head having to do with simplifying, prioritizing, and minimizing distractions from life. So here is a list of all of my inspirations for simplifying:

Living in the Past

Joe and I have had a lot of thought provoking conversations about how our current culture goes about living. We’ve talked about use of technology, how we use our time, and how we interact with people. One thing we have come to decide that we would like to have times to disconnect from technology now and then, and especially when we are with people. We would like to value developing real relationships through quality time and conversation, as well as pursuing more classical pass times that are more focused on creating something instead of consuming something. This conversation in addition to many other conversations have been sparked by articles from one of Joe’s favorite blogs: Art of Manliness. It sounds like a super corny title, but I have particularly enjoyed the way they write about life and society in the distant past vs. modern society. It is strange how the culture of the not so distant past seems so foreign with a slower paced life and more wholesome values, and their use of time seems to be in contrast to the lives we have known today. Minimalism also takes some cues from the past on Living Well and Spending Less, where she talks about more modest closet size in older homes, and what we can learn from it.

 

Minimalists

As briefly mentioned above, I have also been made aware of a trend call minimalism. I had heard about it before, but I found a lot of encouragement in reading posts from a friend of mine on Imperfectly Simple. If you haven’t heard of it, the basic idea is that living with less physical stuff can be very freeing. Using and buying only what you need leaves less cleaning, maintenance, clutter, and more money. I also feel a little rebellious now and then towards the idea that we are cogs in the corporate american economical machine whose primary function is to spend money. I tend to balk at the idea that spending money will make you happier, and that we are brainwashed by advertisements to believe this to be true, but in my many weaker moments I easily cave to spending on impulses or buying stupid things. I always try to buy the least expensive option, which is sometimes good, but that doesn’t always work out well because it either breaks or I don’t love it, and end up not using it. I do this a lot with clothes especially. With minimalism the idea is that when you do buy things, you think about it and make sure to only acquire things that you really love or things that you really need. So minimalists do buy things, but they tend spend more to get something really nice instead of buying a lot of little cheap things. Or recycling/re-purposing things you already have is always a good thing to try. The “less is more principal” can be applied to other areas of life, and the ways we use our time. I don’t think I will ever be an extreme minimalist as I think there can be some potential problems with it, at least for our family, but the basic principals have been very helpful for moving, and cleaning out clutter.

Montessori and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

Most people have heard of Montessori Schools, but I first became interested in it via Maria Montessori’s religious counter part Sophia Cavalleti. She developed a religious program for children called the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, that borrows a lot from Maria’s educational philosophies. In both there is a high emphasis on simple yet beautiful aesthetics and purpose for every item in the classroom. Every item has a place that it belongs and a reason to be there. There is an emphasis on order, natural materials, cycles, seasons, and routines. (always good things to use to simplify life with kids) Children are trained to be productive members of the household, and to find enjoyment in the accomplishment of a task that they have completed independently. We are only just starting on this, and I am sure that there will be bumps in the road and it could be a bit more difficult than doing it myself for a time, but overall, I think it will pay off eventually, and help to simplify. The only thing that I have had somewhat of a problem with is the idea that children learn by manipulating objects with their hands, which I do think is very helpful to children. And while you are only to place a small sampling of items out at a time, there is still the trouble of storing multiple specialized learning materials. So though Eowyn’s room looks decent on the surface, just don’t ask to see the closet!

 

Japanese Influences

The aesthetics, and culture of the Japanese have been intriguing me since middle school. I love the emphasis on nature; growing up in a rural area has made me to very much enjoy the peace and beauty of what God has made in creation. The Japanese designs bring the outside in through large windows, and art printed right on the walls/screens, flower arrangements, and natural materials. The spareness of the Japanese zen aesthetic is calming to me. There is no clutter, everything that is not being used is packed away out of sight behind the neat sliding doors of built in cabinets. Though some extreme examples of this aesthetic can seem cold to me. The attention to negative space and  intention and purpose again behind the placement of every object, is very appealing to my aesthetic senses. The space is freeing, and I also like the idea of versatility of rooms and furniture. For example, in a Japanese house, a futon or floor bed can be rolled up and put away and screens can be moved to section off different areas of a house. Economy of space is important for our family as we have never had a ton of space and even though our new apartment has the same square footage, we lost our attic, which to some degree had turned into a junk depository anyways. Finally, I don’t know if we would ever be able to get away with it in our culture, but the idea of lounging on cushions on the floor all the time sounds comfy!

Packing up everything and living with only the things left out was an interesting experiment that I would not have otherwise have been able to try. Having only 4 cups, plates, and bowls made for…less dishes! I was more likely to wash something and reuse it instead of letting a mountain of dishes pile up in the sink. I re-wore my clothes that I had left out a few more times than usual. As furniture left and items were hidden away in boxes, it felt like we were going back in time to the beginning of our marriage. We celebrated our first New Year’s in that house right before our wedding (1/10), we had very little furniture so we sat on pillows and blankets on the floor along with a few guests, and played video games and set our cell phones to go off at midnight because we had no cable or internet. The amount of stuff that we had accumulated in the course of the first five years of our marriage is staggering. As the house emptied it seemed to grow quite large. Our final night we ate on the floor of our empty spacious living room using a cooler for a table and we slept in the same room on the futon mattress to our couch. We entertained a few last minute guests on the mattress and lounged on the floor. It was surreal but kind of nice to see how little we need. It makes me wish for a sustainable and practical way to re-create it, but I suppose that gives me something to work towards.