Licking the beaters

An inherited skill.

Nature Babe

Two like-minded moms and I started a local nature group with the intention of exposing our urban children to nature.  Chicago has plenty of opportunities to explore nature- it just takes a conscious effort to find them.  We meet at least once a week and have been to some amazing places, like the bird and butterfly sanctuary at Montrose Beach and the lagoon and prairie river at Humboldt Park.  Today, we walked through Jackson Park, home of the 1893 World's Fair and now a refuge for migratory birds with a Japanese garden.

Afterwards, we spread out blankets and had a picnic.  Here is Tye triple-fisting her food, clutching sauteed broccoli, a seaweed rice cake, and a fresh fig.  She has discriminating taste already.  As long as she's eating real food and not bits and pieces of nature, we're doing alright.

Attached Girls

According to an article in the LA Times, the age at which a girl enters puberty is affected by her attachment to her first caregiver, usually the mother.  New research in Psychological Science shows that poor mother-daughter attachment is linked to early onset of puberty, which is in turn related to an increased risk of cancer, depression, anxiety, and earlier sexual activity, increasing risk of STDs and teen pregnancy.  Girls who were insecurely attached to their mothers were 2 1/2 times more likely to reach puberty early compared to girls who had strong attachments with their mothers.


Parenting aimed at creating a strong attachment- including breastfeeding on demand, baby wearing, co-sleeping, and responding to a child's cries- is so emotionally beneficial that its affects are seen in a child's physical well-being even years in the future.  It reminds me of the unofficial mantra I hear at local La Leche League meetings: "A baby's wants are a baby's needs."  Now there is evidence to prove that the attachment a baby wants is actually needed for good health later in life.

Wherever I go...

I'll find your books.

Friday Favorite- Video Monitor

Some of the best advice I received about baby products was to purchase a video baby monitor.  My friend Caryn told me, "You'll think you won't need it, so you'll buy the regular sound monitor, but in about two weeks you'll want the video monitor and you'll go buy it, too.  So save yourself the cost of the regular one and just buy the video monitor now."


I'm extremely grateful I heeded her advice!  The video monitor has worked well with our non-conventional sleeping arrangements.  Tye sleeps best in our bed, both at night (before and after I join her) and for naps.  When Tye wakes up from a nap, she usually happily plays with Ziggy on the bed until I walk in to pick her up.  I know, though, that one of these days she'll go crawling, and I need to be able to watch her closely without having to stay in the room with her.  

We have the Summer brand video monitor, and it works well for us.  It's Tyler's favorite gadget because the camera zooms and pans across the room with a little joystick on the receiver.  Daytime viewing is in color, and darker viewing uses a night-vision camera.  The battery on the receiver doesn't last all that long- only about two hours, about enough to get us through a nap, but it plugs into any outlet- but that is my only complaint.  Otherwise, our video monitor has become a baby product I couldn't imagine living without.  

Tornado Tye

Playing Catch-Up

This week has been a week of playing catch-up... not in the usual sense, when I'm saying I need to catch up on laundry or chores.  I'm trying to catch up with Tye's growth.  Somewhere in the past week, she left me behind and grew in warp speed.  


Tye's summer clothes are suddenly all too small on her (thank goodness for hand-me-downs to get us into fall).  We're well into the 12-18 month sizes now, and while they look gigantic, they fit.  One of Tye's friends we see weekly looked identical to her on Friday- same exact size, same short blonde fuzz on mostly-bald heads- but today, Tye looked bigger than her.  


The biggest change, however, has come in the past 48 hours.  Tye decided she no longer is interested in sitting.  Rather, she insists upon pulling herself up to standing wherever she is.  She'll use anything she can find to assist her, whether it's high up- like the seat of my chair at this morning's La Leche League meeting- or barely higher than the floor, like her stuffed toys, or somewhere inbetween, like Mico's head.  Once her bum is in the air and off the ground, she's happy.  Sunday, Tye discovered that she can pivot from our coffee table to the couch behind her, all while standing.  She moved from the coffee table to the couch, walked the length of the couch and back, then returned to the table.  Our living room is now her playground.


Tye also decided that she can no longer be held.  Until Monday, inside any one of our carriers was Tye's favorite place, cozied up to a parent with a great view of the world.  Today, she cried and squirmed and reached for the ground every time I put her in it.  When I took her out and carried her, she tried to jump out of my arms.  I'm confident that we'll get past this stage as she has more opportunity to crawl and explore, but it's been a tough one so far this week. 


Tye's increased mobility has its perks.  She has finally learned how to push herself up from her belly to sitting, which makes her happy (most kids do that naturally as they crawl on all fours, but Tye's army crawl requires a pushup).  Her moving also has its downsides, beyond even the obvious extra energy required to chase after her.  Because Tye's belly is still glued to the ground as she moves, her shirts and dresses are quickly becoming trashed.  For some reason, they just don't stand up to being dragged over the sidewalk, through the grass, and across the carpet.  They look like something from the "before" side of a laundry detergent commercial (the ones that say in fine print, "Results simulated.")  


I love watching Tye learn as she utilizes her new-found speed and height.  So much more of our world is accessible to her now.  However, she's frustrated already that she can't move fast enough, can't reach everything and can't stand everywhere.  I'm so looking forward to her walking, for her sake (certainly not for mine!), that I'm having to remind myself several times a day to appreciate today for today and what it brings.  I'll only have a crawler for a short amount of time.  Before I know it, I'll be running behind Tye to catch up.