go get em lil fella
discipline? September 25, 2009
So, the other day I was at a babyboot camp class and during the entire class Anna was upset and screaming her head off. This wasn’t just crying, it was full blown screaming/shrieking. I was trying to give her snacks, water, toys, ignoring her, anything to get her to stop so I could continue the class. This other mom and baby boot camp participate then came up and asked if she could help. At first I was taken back, maybe a little hurt and defensive. I felt like she was stepping on my toes a little, but then I decided no, she is offering help and if it is going to benefit either me or Anna in some way…then I am all ears. Lets here it lady. So, she did a few techniques that I am not going to mention in detail. None the less, Anna was so worked up it didn’t help. But then she went on to offer that she teaches parenting classes/discipline classes in the Portland area. I don’t have her info, otherwise I would post it here. Anyway, I haven’t taken one of the classes yet, however she mentioned one of the books that she teaches from and I picked it up and have been totally in to it ever since.
It is called: Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by Becky Bailey, PhD. It is very interesting and I see that it is going to be very beneficial to us now as well as down the road. I am going to recommend it to all of my friends with kids. She points things out from a developmental stand point on how we as parents so often do things wrong and how it is sometimes our parenting techniques that only make matters worse. She pretty much talks about how we first have to change some of our behaviors as adults/parents before we can even begin to expect our kiddos to be able to do the same. Anyway, for anyone with kids, I highly recommend it. I know there are a lot of different books, styles, opinions etc but this one I have found to be very helpful.
Happenings around Portland Sept 25-27th September 25, 2009
What’s happening around Portland this weekend. All family friendly of course.
1. Polish Festival. Traditional Polish music, dance, beer and food. Pierogi’s Galore!
http://www.portlandpolonia.org/festival/index.html
2. Green Sprouts Organic Baby and Family Fest.
http://www.redirectguide.com/GreenSprouts/about.htm
3. PassItOn consignment/gently used baby and kiddos clothing and gear.
Anna and I went to this already this morning and they have TONS of stuff. Everything from clothes, shoes, toys, cribs, bedding, car seats, strollers…you name it and a big selcection. We found a lot of good stuff and that was cheap!!
Music Together September 23, 2009
Next week will start Anna’s first class at Music Together. It is an international music program for babies and toddlers.
Apparently, it was developed at Princeton. Pretty much, I expect it to make Anna into a musical genius. just kidding. It is basically something for her to get engaged in and have a group to attend. It will be something fun for us to do together. We went to a sample class and she was going crazy. Dancing, running around the room and laughing. It will be a good activity for us and something different to get us out of the house.
check it out…
“Music Together is an internationally recognized early childhood music program for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and the adults who love them. First offered to the public in 1987, it pioneered the concept of a research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music curriculum that strongly emphasizes and facilitates adult involvement.
Music Together classes are based on the recognition that all children are musical. All children can learn to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate with confidence in the music of our culture, provided that their early environment supports such learning.”
random pics September 23, 2009
Anna and her boyfriends in the wagon
Anna at the beach in Oregon
Timberline Lodge, top of Mt Hood Oregon; circa Aug 09
The Blog is back??? September 16, 2009
Not sure exactly if the blog is back. Just checked back in on my blog page since it had been awhile. There have been over 10,000 people who have viewed it….that is amazing. Just been thinking that maybe I would start posting some things again from time to time. Don’t really have a plan. This blog was started actually by my husband Ryan for me when I was first placed on bed rest in the winter of 2008. I spent 5.5 weeks at St. Vincent’s Hospital and another 5 weeks home in bed at my house anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first child. I had all the time in the world then to write things and posting funny video clips. I stopped writing several months ago as the demands of motherhood caught up with me and frankly I didn’t have much I wanted to say or post anymore. Am I still busy?? YES of course, I have a high energy, free spirited, 18 month old on my hands. I am busy. I am not a full-time stay at home mom either, I do work a professional job 26 hours a week. It is perfect blend of time at home and yet time away being able to be a grown up. It helps me to be a better mom and makes me appreciate my time at home so much more. Only trouble is I don’t “love” what I do for work– which is sort of sad because I devoted so much energy and time and money into obtaining my goal of grad school. In the end, it doesn’t leave me total full-filled. None the less, it is a means to an end. It allows me to work part-time, still bring home a decent salary, and have awesome benefits including phenomenal health insurance. I feel very lucky to have all that.
So, I thought for this post I would share something that I learned at a recent Pediatric dept meeting. Do you know that the guidelines for when a child can be in a forward/front facing car seat (age of 12 mos and weight of 20 pounds) was sort of arbitrarily picked more for convenience ( an easy way to remember) rather than being based on actual scientific data?? I found that to be so crazy. It is actually recommended to keep your kiddos facing in a rear facing car seat for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!!! The swedes are actually the ones to study regarding this. Apparently, they are the ones who practically invented car seats and believe it or not, over there they keep their kids facing backwards until…get this… age 4!!!!! Yes, you read that correctly, I said FOUR. And do you know what else??? They have one of lowest rate of infant and child mortality due to MVA ( motor vehicle accidents). DO you know that the #1 cause of deaths to infants/children are motor vehicle accidents?? It isn’t cancer, It isn’t drowning, it isn’t from illness such as the flu or from vaccinating your child. It is from MVA. And apparently we are all doing it wrong. Now some kids prefer to face the front, but really –if they have never done it–do they really know the difference?? Some parents claim well their legs seem all bunched up and they don’t have any leg room. Doesn’t matter. It is still safer for your kid to face back wards in his car seat than to face forward.
I have to say that we turned Anna around to face forward in my car around age 15 months. She has been facing forward since. I think we are going to try and turn her back around at least in my car. The car seat in Ryan’s car cannot be rear facing. Hoping she will tolerate it. In the end, it is what seems to be the safest……
Check out this video, watch it several times and then form your own opinion about front facing vs rear facing…..
Don’t mean to scare…just giving some info I found interesting.
