Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Thumb Sucking

 So... my Nash is a full on THUMB SUCKER! I am not sure how to feel about this. I prided myself on not having a soother or thumb sucker... but now my third is? Does this mean I don't hold him enough?, cuddle him enough? Is he feeling he has to self sooth cause mom isn't there enough? Oh... the terrible irrational thoughts a mother has. Now logically I KNOW he's fine, it's normal and has nothing to do with my parenting skills... but WHY do we do this to ourselves? The guilt, the self blame, the worry... for what? I saw the doctor today and he's 100% healthy and there's no problem with thumb sucking. (except the dentist maybe later?) But still i worry and frett. Anyone else feel this way ever?

He is an amazing baby and rarely cries, but do I take advantage of the fact he's so sweet and calm and easy going?

Lord help my thoughts.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Pretend Play

I had mentioned before that I was fascinated by the fact that my son was engaging in interactive play with his friends. What is really important to realize here is that he is using his PRETEND play abilities he learned at a younger age.
Let me mention again how important pretend play is. When a parent plays with their child and uses their imagination, they are using rich language that helps that child learn to talk soon and have a wider vocabulary. Having a pretend tea party for instance allows you to introduce words such as: saucer, teapot, "scolding hot, teaspoon, mug." When you play tea party with your child you can add these words in and allow them to talk about who is coming to the party or which animals want cream and sugar in their tea. Parents will enrich their children with more language as well as have fun and build a close bond with them.

IDEAS
Try pretending to take a train to the zoo and fill up the couch with animals.
Have a tea party and invite all their favourite toys to join you.
Play store and buy and sell lots of items to talk about.
Talk to grandma on the play phone and discuss weather, the daily activies or adventures
Take a spaceship ride on the comfy chair and visit planets with strange creature.

Imagination is only as limited as you allow it... and follow your child's lead when they change the story. This will engage them longer and you may be surprised how much they know or want to talk about.

The age they begin to use pretend play is about 15-18 months, but I have experienced this sooner with my little signer, Geran. Geran would sign fly, moon, light and be 'signing away' tell me his stories. I would take his lead and talk about it. For example, "oh, you see a fly on the light? Are his feet hot? Did he find something good to eat? Does he think the light is a moon?" I liked to stir Geran's imagination and see what he would do next.

Know that when you engage in pretend play, you are boosting their IQ and building a strong language base.
For more information on how baby sign language and pretend play are important language building exercises go to www.stickyhands.ca

Monday, August 29, 2011

Burst with Love

Have you ever felt so much love that you could just BURST? I really really pray that each and every person in the entire world gets to feel that at least once in their life. I felt that today (again). I had so much fun with my two boys. My two year old and my soon to be 3 month old. My two year old is so adorable and fun... I love him so much, I could burst. From little moments of 'I wanta sleep in the crib" to, "little bit, little bit" when he asks for just a bit more milk. Here he is running about learning to take his own shoes off, brush his own teeth, go on the potty on his own all day long, sing the alphabet and read little words. Geran is growing up so fast, and yet I cherish the comments that keep him my baby just a "little bit" longer. I love watching him play in the sandbox with his friends. Each day I giggle or smile to myself at yet another cute thing he does. He had a friend over today and they were manipulating these tiny toys.... ( a puppy figurine and a kitty figurine) She's meowing with her kitty and saying "hi" and Geran's barking and talking with a high voice with his puppy. They move from parallel play to interactive play... such development right before my eyes. I am so blessed to be able to stay at home with my children to not miss out on these amazing moments. And when bedtime comes and he's about to be put down, he asks for 'potty' time... I know he probably doesn't have a big pee or another, but he squeezes one out just to spend a few more minutes with me. It puts a frog in my throat to see his big brown eyes look at me after potty time as he says, "snuggle with mommy in mommy's bed?" How can I resist... so I ruin bedtime routine and let him "snuggle with mommy"... only to have him 4 minutes later, say, "crib crib" I ask him if he's tired and wants to sleep and he says yes. What an amazing son I have. Kissing his baby brother and being placed down into his crib, he falls asleep within minutes and it isn't even 8 o'clock yet. I am just bursting with pride and love. I then nurse my 3 month old as he smiles at me and drifts off to sleepland as well. I stare, in delight at my children and thank God once again for blessing me. I don't know if there are many that have this kind of love in their life, but I sure as heck am going to indulge in mine.

Friday, August 26, 2011

days like this

Days of bubbles, books, playdoe and love... with my little ones happy, my yard healthy, toys everywhere and giggles galore.

I love it!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

My home

I just looked out my back bedroom window as I was sitting there creating my craft thankyou cards and realized... this is my life... I glanced back at my sleeping 10 week old... so sweet, healthy, honest. I could hear my two year old stir in the next room, talking to himself, pretend play alive in his world... and I noticed the blue flower on my bushes... and tiny blades of grass... the new fence pannels that my hard working husband put in and I thought to myself... this is my life... I'm blessed!

baby signs

There I go again... I had USC come out and I gave them my gov't grant of 100 towards Nashy's future... now both my boys will have at least 50,000 towards University in about 17 years... hope this helps baby. As he's here... chatting away, I am sharing the fact that I run Baby Sign Language Classes in Abbotsford and he mentions that he knows his kids did that with his grandchildren. It is such a small world I am finding and everyone around me is getting more and more aware of this amazing trend. Teaching Geran, my two year old, to sign, has improved his vocab and IQ. Even Robert, who has grandkids now and knows his stuff was amazed that Geran, who just turned two... can count to 10, recite the alphabet in order and can recognize all the letters... he can even read small words! I know I will be using their future monies towards University.... cause my babies are so smart... spoken from the Mother... smiles.

Amanda

Monday, August 22, 2011

accountability

Hey, why are you not all yelling at me to get my blog going? You'd think I just had a baby... oh yeah.. I did!

It's been wonderful, exhausting, exhilarating, balancing, dirty, messy, lovely, sweet, soft, confusing, daunting, rewarding and beautiful.

Motherhood...