Blossom Rocks

This is why

I love the way she writes. Honest and to the point without being condescending of others who choose different sleep methods.

If you are such a light sleeper that you feel homicidal every morning, I am not going to tell you that you have to sleep with your kid. Do I sleep as well with my kids in our bed as I would without? No. But it will be over soon, and it’s not weird to want to be close to your children when their physiological and psychological development dictates that they need to be held close.

This next one is from a blog where she contributes Raising Kvell and in it she answers typical questions about why she breastfeeds her toddler. Here

Am I a push-over? A weak mom who needs her son more than he needs her? Not at all. Am I letting my toddler run my life? No way. Am I spoiling him? There’s no evidence of that! Do I enjoy knowing that mothers who nurse longer have lower rates of breast, uterine, ovarian cancer and osteoporosis? Sure. Do I enjoy knowing that breastmilk contains antibiotic, anti-allergy, and anti-obesity properties? Yes. Is this why I do it? No. Those are neat facts, but the real reason we nurse this way, now, all night, all day, anywhere and anyhow, is because it’s not broken, so there is nothing to fix.

Ultimately, I get to parent the way I want to, and you get to parent the way you want to. I may not have convinced you that extended nursing is as wonderful as I think is, but that’s okay. When I see my precious son gaze into my eyes and grin that milky grin – the same eyes that looked into mine minutes after he careened out of my body; the eyes that convinced me that my only job was to keep this child thriving with the miraculous resources given to me through my body- not much else matters.

She's awesome!

What should a 4 year old know?

What should a 4 year old know?

I really loved this article. I don't go out of my way to teach Little C anything, as in we don't sit down or make time specifically to learn something new. But we do look for opportunities during the day to talk about colours, counting, new animals and insects etc. Sometimes this approach is challenging for me, as I did well with formal learning (although at an older age than she is now) and thrived in a testing/recalled memory environment.

Which leads me on to this: www.yourbabycanread.com.au:

Based on the research of Robert C.Titzer, Ph.D, Your Baby Can Read! is the first video series in the world designed to help babies, toddlers, and preschoolers learn to read!..."Dr. Titzer's multi-sensory reading approach" teaches little ones to recognize words, easily and naturally, using several senses at the same time.

This "reading program" can be started as early as 3 months! Why on earth does a baby need to read?

Some Babies Just Cry

Tiny B cried constantly for the first 7 weeks of his life. I'm not even exaggerating. It was thoroughly exhausting. I tried everything to try and stop his cries. Rocking him, feeding him, patting him, shushing him, dancing with him, wearing him in sling, singing to him, humming to him...you get the idea.

It was especially hard as I thought I had this whole parenting bizzo down, with having already parented one baby through to toddlerhood. Little C hardly ever cried and she was so easy to read. She'd squeak and you'd either feed her, change her or help her to sleep and that was it! People told us what fabulous parents we were as she was so content, and that it was because we were so calm and confident. Ha! We were, but it was thanks to Little C as she was so complacent.

About week 3 I decided that he just had to cry. Never by himself as I find that really insensitive towards anyone let alone a tiny baby, but I resolved that he just must need to cry and then one day he might stop.

I've just found this awesome blog post at naturalparentsnetwork.com "Allowing Crying Without Practising Cry-It-Out". In it she says;

The premise is that transitions are difficult, and children will struggle with them. Struggling may lead to crying, but struggling is OK. We don’t need to protect our children from struggling – we need to protect them from suffering.

So it’s OK to allow them to struggle. It’s OK to put them in situations where they’re uncomfortable. It’s OK for them to cry.

The key is how we react when they cry. Are we listening intently, or are we tuning out? Do we know if they’re panicked, or just uncomfortable? Do we know when the struggle becomes suffering?

This rings so true for me, and it's relieving to read. I sometimes felt inadequate when I couldn't calm his cries, but only on reflection after the crying episode. Whilst in the middle of it, just sitting and listening to him felt right.

Another example of where I should listen to my instincts and not question myself so much.

Welcome!

I've thought about starting a blog for a wee while now, and with a gentle nudge from a friend, here is Hybrid Sausage!

I already spend far too much time on the internet doing...um...I dunno, but the time fly's by when I allow myself the time to sit. Now at least I will have a record of time spent on the internet.

I hope to bring you articles from various places, and hope you find them as interesting as I do. So look forward to articles about parenting, eco issues, schooling, health and anything else that takes my fancy :)

Melissa