In Unconditional Parenting, Alfie Kohn asked the question: “Why should our children do what we want them to do?”

Now, of course, safety issues come to mind when I read the above. Nugget is going to stay out of the street and be carried through parking lots (for now at least). She is going to wear a seatbelt, and she is going to follow the rules mommy and daddy follow (do not walk on the flowers). But, if it’s not a social or safety rule, I ask myself if I have to have my way or whether we can do it the way Nugget wants.

By doing the above, I learned Nugget can sit at the big table by herself. (How did she become such a big girl?) She will sit in the big chair at the big table and be happy as a clam.

I also discovered that she can use a fork without stabbing herself.

Parenthood: it’s a journey.

Sometimes she’ll still sit in her high chair. That’s fine, too. Sometimes we serve her at her little table, which is now in the living room (since we still are waiting for our furniture to arrive from Norway!) and sometimes she’ll eat on the run (while walking around the house).

In the past month, she started to want to walk around while eating. Instead of trying to have it our way, we are blending desires. The adults want to eat out, and the toddlers wants to move. Today, we all went out to eat Japanese. We ‘blended desires’ by sitting on the tatami mats, so Nugget had more room to move around. It worked really well!

Some tantrums ARE due to manipulation according to Dr. Sears. When we think she is having a ‘fake’ tantrum, we tend to say something like “I’m sorry you are frustrated about XYX” or ask her to use words and then let it go. We don’t give her overly huge amounts of attention when she has them.

I also think that at least one tantrum was from low blood sugar after she woke from nap. DH and I get cranky when we have low blood sugar, so I make an effort to offer lots of snacks through the day and do my best to make sure she eats something before napping.

Below are some links that you might find useful:

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/6/T063300.asp

And another way of seeing and handling tantrums…

http://www.babycenter.com/expert/toddler/toddlerbehavior/11622.html

Technorati Tags: toddler parenting babies tantrumstoddler tantrums

The day we were to travel for the holidays, I woke at 4 or 5 so I could take a shower before we had to leave. We woke so early that we actually had to wake the baby before she could wake us up with her usual 6 a.m. squawk.

We had decided to fly, because the idea of driving (for 10 – 12 hours) with a baby made me break out in hives.

We were supposed to leave the house at 6 a.m. At 6:10 a.m., I asked DH if he had the birth certificate we needed for the airline.

Nope. He had made copies, but he didn’t know where the copies were located. I continued nursing the baby while he ran around looking for them.

At 6:20 a.m. we finally leave the house.

Our flight was to leave at 8:15 a.m.

We decided to leave without the birth certificate and get going. Of course, the highway was clogged.

“This doesn’t look good,” says DH.

“No, it doesn’t.”

We continue to crawl at 5 mph on the highway. We get past the traffic jam and start moving at a real speed. Time ticks on.

At the airport, we have to park the car in Outer Mongolia and take a bus into the airport. We do this while carrying a car seat, a baby, three suitcases and two diaper bags.

At one point, my husband exclaimed at me carrying the baby on the front, my diaper bag on my back and wheeling a suitcase in each hand. I felt like I’d conquered the world.

Until we got in line and were immediately told there’s no way we’d make our flight.

Why?

Because of the looooong line to check in. Because we were late. When you have a lap baby, there is often no easy way to check in. Because I had to go through the special security line that blows air on your body to check for bomb dust. My 16-month-old does not know how to make bombs, but she had to have air blown on her, too.

(Note: Coming back from an unnamed airport in a smaller city, I was shocked that I NEVER had to provide photo ID.)

After we had definitely missed our flight, I felt so much less stressed! Wow, what a difference! While people ran past us to get to their flights, we could amble along knowing that we had already messed up and missed ours.

What a relief.

We ambled around. We let the baby walk to the security gate on her own with no worries of being on time.

We elected to try for standby. We were 2 and 3 on the list.

After 3 hours of waiting, we had sunk to 9-10 on the list. Those darned special United frequent flyer whatever people had gotten ahead of us.

We decided to rent a car and drive.

Our luggage had already gone ahead to Detroit, MI.

At one point, our car was in Virginia, we were on a highway in Pennsylvania, and our luggage was in Michigan.

After we got the rental car, I took my somwhat sheepish husband to out favorite Japanese sushi place. I knew that getting loaded up on sushi would make everything okay. Plus, there’s a fantastic toy store. I knew we would need toys — lots of them — to make it 10 hours in the car with the baboo.

I tore through the store throwing coloring books, crayons, soft books and bascially any toy that won’t hurt if thrown at my head into the cart. More than $100 later, we were set.

Ah, the holidays!

You can read Zooglobble’s list of Children’s Albums of 2006. Get dancin’!

Tags: Children Music – Mom Blog – Mommy Blog – Parenting – Kid Music – Punk Music for Kids – Rock Music for Kids

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I never thought I’d make it to more than a year of nursing. Now, we’ve been nursing for 14 months.

I had my baby while standing in my front hallway. I delivered her myself. Afterwards, blood started coming out of me at a fast rate. I didn’t really care at that point. I just didn’t want to slip in it while holding the baby,and I didn’t want to get the furniture messy!

Because of losing so much blood, my body put milk making down on its list of things to do. A month went by until the doctor realized the baby was not gaining very well.

During my last week of maternity leave, I had to pump 4-6 x per day in addition to nursing 8-12 x per day. Basically, I was either pumping or nursing around the clock. And when I wasn’t doing one of those activities, I was trying to eat and drink a lot, so I could make the milk my baby needed.

Unfortunately, I had to supplement with formula. Even the lactation consultant said to supplement, because the weight gain was soooo low. Thank goodness I had the help of a lactation consultant who could teach me how to supplement while proteching my milk supply.

Eventually, I had weeks in which the baby got all breast milk. I was thrilled.

=)

Of course, the fine women in my life helped me, too.

I thought I’ll just get to 6 weeks. And then I’ll get to 3 months. And then I’ll make it just to 6 months and decide. By 6 months, things were great!

At 9 months, we were having a blast.

At a year, we point to body parts while mommy names them while we nurse. We giggle. We let mommy eat our hands. We stop nursing at night. YAY!

At 14 months, we snuggle for an hour each morning and nurse before we
have breakfast. We are loving it.

I am so happy I fought to keep nursing.
Tags: Breastfeeding – Nursing a Toddler – Baby Nursing – Mom Blog – Mommy Blog

• A set of little books
• A wagon, preferably one with a little door on the side
• A Rody ride-on bouncy toy
• Train set
• A child-size but real cleaning set with broom, duster, spray bottle, etc.
• An egg carton filled with sensory materials such as playdough, gak, etc.
• Bathtub bin for bath toys

Technorati Tags: mommy+blog mom+blog parenting baby+gifts toddler+gifts toddlers

Their clothes stand out because they are stylish and the designers use a wide variety of decoration (stripes, polka dots, leopard prints) in the clothing, so you don’t get tired of dressing your child like everyone else’s child. Visit The Children’s Place!

Take 15% Off Your Entire Purchase At Childrensplace.com!

Children’s Place coupons are valid online only.

Tags: Baby Clothing Infant Clothing Baby Gifts Baby Clothing Coupons

It took me a long time to learn all of this, and I share this information only so that I can prevent these painful rashes in your little one.

As I said in my previous post, I most likely developed these rashes because I was fed formula and was allergic to the formula.

After many years and much trial and error (and avoidance of certain foods) I discovered the following:

• Steroidal creams temporarily help the problem and the rash comes back WORSE when the cream is stopped. Since you can’t use the cream forever, you’ll have to uncover another solution if you want a permanent change.
• Adding probiotics to the diet is important. I really like Primal Defense; it works well for me. Since we’re all different chemical beings, another brand might work better for you or your baby.
• Adding raw cultured vegetables to the diet helps. I buy them them from Rejuvenative Foods in my local health food store.
• Using a protective cream such as calendula (mmmm, smells good!) or Aquaphor helps seal in the moisture and relieve pain and redness.
• When the itching is really bad, a little hydrocortisone cream can help. This isn’t my favorite option since it’s not natural, but it’s better than going crazy due to the itching.
• I eliminated dairy, wheat, tomatoes, bananas, eggs, sugar, and gluten from my diet for several weeks. I experienced ENORMOUS improvement.
• Foods that can be used instead of the above include: quinoa, amaranth, millet, brown rice, jasmine rice and any number of fruits and vegetables.

I ate macrobiotically for a while, too. That really helped me a great deal, and it was hard to continue it since so much socializing happens over food. However, I did keep some of the healthy recipes in my file for the kitchen. Miso soup has a lot of enzymes that are good for the digestion. Grated daikon is delicious and helps with skin problems. I felt lucky that my skin woes led me to such a delicious way of eating!

What I’ve written above is not a comprehensive program. It’s simply an outline of where this health adventure took me and what worked for me personally.

Good luck!

The way it was written took me off on my own tangent. I remembered yesterday afternoon and how the Nugget, having missed part of a nap, came home and fell asleep in my arms. My cell phone rang in the other room. I could have put her down, I supposed, and answered it or called the person back. Instead, I continued to sit in the chair with her.

The land line rang, and I knew it was DH calling to say when he’d be home. I didn’t want to risk waking her by putting her down in the crib. I kept holding her. I studied her face and noticed how much it looked like the 3-D ultrasound photograph, which was the first time I saw what she might look like. I am still stunned at how well that technology captured her features.

Briefly, I regretted not having a book. However, I was practicing.

I was practicing being in the moment and not rushing to wipe up a dust bunny, empty the diaper pail, get the next snack or meal ready.

I just sat there. I enjoyed Nugget’s warmth, her trust in me, her weight against my lap, and watching her still and peaceful face.
As I sat there, I realized that this moment, this one moment I was allowing myself to enjoy in its entirety, had made my entire week.

Mothering Motherhood Parenting Mommy Blog Mommy Blogging Baby Toddler

If you’ve ever been around a nursing baby, you know that you have two choices when they are hungry. You can nurse them and have a happy and calm baby. Or you can refuse them and have a screaming baby. Which would you prefer on your flight?

You can read about Delta airlines and breastfeeding in this article.

Below is a part of a statement from Moms Rising along with a link to a petition.

SIGN THE PETITION TO DELTA AIRLINES AND CONGRESS: Tell Delta Airlines to get a clue and be supportive of breastfeeding mothers. And tell Congress it’s time to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, which amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding mothers. Clearly this law is needed now!

Technorati Tags: Delta Airlines Breastfeeding Nursing in Public Mommy Blog Parenting

Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady’s Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep , Stay Asleep, And Wake Up Happy: This book, in conjunction with No-Cry Sleep Solution (see below for review), solved our sleepless nights. I knew that I’d not be able to let my baby cry alone, so I was intrigued when I learned of a sleep system that would not involve crying! We used her techniques. Although we had some sleepless nights at the start of this program, our baby now sleeps 12 hours! She wakes up happy and energetic and there’s no more fussing or whining at night because she’s exhausted. One of my friends told me that (after doing this program) her daughter was a whole new child, because she was finally getting the sleep she needed.

The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night: Again and again, I hear from desperate parents who can’t get their children to sleep through the night. Author Elizabeth Pantley offers a gentle way to help your child sleep longer. The most useful part was selecting and establishing a routine. Once we choose a routine and stuck to it, our daughter transformed into knowing that night is for sleeping. We’ve been using these techniques for several months and sometimes the baby is snoring even before we can put her in bed. One possible drawback is how well the “Pantley Pull Off” technique works. Often, mothers nurse their baby to sleep. Pantley suggests that when a baby goes to sleep nursing, they will want to nurse during their brief awakenings at night. If they can’t nurse because they mother isn’t there, they will then wake up. Pantley suggests allowing the baby to get right to the edge of sleep and then remove the breast so that the baby sleeps on her own. I’ve heard rave (and a few mediocre) reviews of Pantley Pull Off, which is just one small part of her otherwise great (and proven) sleep program.

The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer The author shares his technique of using 5 special techniques to soothe and calm your baby to sleep. When our baby cried and we couldn’t figure out what to do (her diaper was dry, she’d just eaten) we’d turn to these gentle and soothing techniques, and they worked like a charm! These techniques restored calm to our baby — and to us!

You can also read about how I got my baby to sleep through the night.

Tags: Sleeping Through the Night Mothering Toddlers Motherhood Parenting Mommy Blog Mommy Blogging Baby Toddler