We just celebrated my mother's birthday and my daughter was kind enough to fall asleep cuddled up to her Grandmother for the first time. My mother obviously thought that this was the best present of all and is still smiling ear to ear about it tonight.
I am still planning on sharing Victoria's birth story with you all as I love raising awareness of the wonders of having home births, but it is late and my little one wants to go to bed, so instead I will share with you the singer Nolwenn Leroy.
My mother wanted her CD for her birthday, and I absolutely fell in love with this artist.
We both love celtic music, so this was absolutely perfect for all of us to listen to, and Victoria certainly loved it.
Bonus on the artist's part, in the clip she is wearing the exact bird mask that I've been wanting to make for the longest time. She's definitely inspired me to make it happen!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Solids already?
I was fully prepared as a new mom for all of my best laid plans to be upended by the little one that joined our family.
I knew that everything I claimed I would do and be as a parent, would probably be constantly challenged by our daughter.
However I don't think I was quite ready for those challenges to start so early! But sure enough, the first inkling of independence is poking its head up... she already wants to eat! Since yesterday I've been feeding my four month old (and a half) applesauce, and I am already planning the next meals I will introduce to her since there is no two ways about it: she wants to eat solid food now!
My big dreams about solely breast feeding until she was at least 6 months old just went to the way side, as my daughter made it very clear that she was not waiting a moment longer to start eating. Her pulling at my hand every time I sat down to eat, in order to bring my fork or spoon to her own mouth made it very clear.
Part of the difficulty of being a "baby wearer" is that the child does have access to everything you do. However my little one was up until this week very content just looking at me eat and not getting involved. Things changed almost instantly and while I fought it at first, I quickly realized I was not going to be able to get a moment's peace unless I let her have a go at eating herself.
So yesterday was our first test and she took to it like no tomorrow. She literally was throwing herself at the spoon of food, grabbing it with both hands and trying to shove more apple sauce in her little mouth. It was extremely cute, so I couldn't really begrudge her the fact that I won't be able to say I kept her only on breast milk for 6 months. If she's ready, she's ready.
This morning, my usually cheery, smiling baby started crying after our morning nap... and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on until suddenly the light bulb went on and I pulled out the apple sauce. Sure enough the transformation was instantaneous and she started laughing as she ate her food. Message received little one, sorry Mommy sometimes doesn't get it right away.
Here is to a baby-led exploration of life!
And on the up-side, we have now so many new ASL words to explore, "Apple" and "More" are the new ones I introduced since yesterday and my little monkey's eyes brightened as soon as I made the sign for "Apple" today. I wonder what carrot looks like in ASL...
I knew that everything I claimed I would do and be as a parent, would probably be constantly challenged by our daughter.
However I don't think I was quite ready for those challenges to start so early! But sure enough, the first inkling of independence is poking its head up... she already wants to eat! Since yesterday I've been feeding my four month old (and a half) applesauce, and I am already planning the next meals I will introduce to her since there is no two ways about it: she wants to eat solid food now!
My big dreams about solely breast feeding until she was at least 6 months old just went to the way side, as my daughter made it very clear that she was not waiting a moment longer to start eating. Her pulling at my hand every time I sat down to eat, in order to bring my fork or spoon to her own mouth made it very clear.
Part of the difficulty of being a "baby wearer" is that the child does have access to everything you do. However my little one was up until this week very content just looking at me eat and not getting involved. Things changed almost instantly and while I fought it at first, I quickly realized I was not going to be able to get a moment's peace unless I let her have a go at eating herself.
So yesterday was our first test and she took to it like no tomorrow. She literally was throwing herself at the spoon of food, grabbing it with both hands and trying to shove more apple sauce in her little mouth. It was extremely cute, so I couldn't really begrudge her the fact that I won't be able to say I kept her only on breast milk for 6 months. If she's ready, she's ready.
This morning, my usually cheery, smiling baby started crying after our morning nap... and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on until suddenly the light bulb went on and I pulled out the apple sauce. Sure enough the transformation was instantaneous and she started laughing as she ate her food. Message received little one, sorry Mommy sometimes doesn't get it right away.
Here is to a baby-led exploration of life!
And on the up-side, we have now so many new ASL words to explore, "Apple" and "More" are the new ones I introduced since yesterday and my little monkey's eyes brightened as soon as I made the sign for "Apple" today. I wonder what carrot looks like in ASL...
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Still here... indeed
All my well laid plans of writing every day went to the wayside as I started this blog at a pretty inopportune moment.
I thought for sure, that while I was going to visit family in France I could keep up with my blog... after all I'd be on vacation right? What else would I have to do but create fun and witty posts to update my blog?
Well needless to say that instead of leisurely updating my blog with all the amazing stories and cool crafts that I was doing, I am spending my time eating (I'm in France after all) and catching up with my mother and grand-mother, as well as letting my daughter get acquainted with her grandma and great-grandma. Luckily we are here for quite a while and I am finally finding a bit of time here and there to craft and do silly things like write on the computer, which my daughter is finding increasingly intriguing.
These past few weeks have been just so filled with wonder and happiness. Trips back to France to see my mother have been in the past a bit bittersweet as we just never have enough time to catch up and I find myself upset that I cannot take care of her and my grandmother. The knowledge that my grandmother has alzheimer is also usually hard to deal with, but this trip has been just amazing for them.
Both my mother and grand mother are able to dote on the baby, and the joy in their eyes makes the trip very much worth it. I also know that it might be the only time that my grandmother gets to meet Victoria so this is extremely precious. And my daughter has been nothing but gracious to her "Papoune", giving her the biggest smiles she can and always laughing and talking in her sweet garble. There have been a few times where grandma asked what those baby sounds were in the next room, but mostly she's been able to remember who Victoria is, and is just happy to watch her play on the playmat that I bring next to her bed every morning.
In the midst of all that, I've been compiling recipes from the family and french magazines, to try when I get back home, and eating... a lot... my excuse is that I'm breastfeeding, but really I just miss French food so bad when I'm away and I just catch up on all the treats when I'm here. I'm gathering info on how to make certain cheese and yogurts at home and hopefully will be able to somewhat recreate my favorite treats when I get back!
I've also taken up embroidery, something that I'd never really done before. I decided upon that craft during my trip to France because it is so very portable!
So far I've done four little ditties... but am a bit weary of posting them here as I've taken art from some of my favorite artists and reproduced it in order to practice and wouldn't want to either upset any of those artists or get caught in a copyright issue. However one of those was my own creation, so here it is!
"Under the stars" If I were to do it again I would certainly use silver for the star trail, but this was made with what I had on hand.
Off I go... but I'll be back soon.
I thought for sure, that while I was going to visit family in France I could keep up with my blog... after all I'd be on vacation right? What else would I have to do but create fun and witty posts to update my blog?
Well needless to say that instead of leisurely updating my blog with all the amazing stories and cool crafts that I was doing, I am spending my time eating (I'm in France after all) and catching up with my mother and grand-mother, as well as letting my daughter get acquainted with her grandma and great-grandma. Luckily we are here for quite a while and I am finally finding a bit of time here and there to craft and do silly things like write on the computer, which my daughter is finding increasingly intriguing.
These past few weeks have been just so filled with wonder and happiness. Trips back to France to see my mother have been in the past a bit bittersweet as we just never have enough time to catch up and I find myself upset that I cannot take care of her and my grandmother. The knowledge that my grandmother has alzheimer is also usually hard to deal with, but this trip has been just amazing for them.
Both my mother and grand mother are able to dote on the baby, and the joy in their eyes makes the trip very much worth it. I also know that it might be the only time that my grandmother gets to meet Victoria so this is extremely precious. And my daughter has been nothing but gracious to her "Papoune", giving her the biggest smiles she can and always laughing and talking in her sweet garble. There have been a few times where grandma asked what those baby sounds were in the next room, but mostly she's been able to remember who Victoria is, and is just happy to watch her play on the playmat that I bring next to her bed every morning.
In the midst of all that, I've been compiling recipes from the family and french magazines, to try when I get back home, and eating... a lot... my excuse is that I'm breastfeeding, but really I just miss French food so bad when I'm away and I just catch up on all the treats when I'm here. I'm gathering info on how to make certain cheese and yogurts at home and hopefully will be able to somewhat recreate my favorite treats when I get back!
I've also taken up embroidery, something that I'd never really done before. I decided upon that craft during my trip to France because it is so very portable!
So far I've done four little ditties... but am a bit weary of posting them here as I've taken art from some of my favorite artists and reproduced it in order to practice and wouldn't want to either upset any of those artists or get caught in a copyright issue. However one of those was my own creation, so here it is!
"Under the stars" If I were to do it again I would certainly use silver for the star trail, but this was made with what I had on hand.
Off I go... but I'll be back soon.
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