Rolling Over and a Tooth All in One Week

Well, Felix turns four months on Saturday and he started rolling back to front earlier this week. Yesterday I was rubbing his lower gums and felt a sharp protrustion on his bottom right side. I felt like I should write that somewhere, so here it is. I was terrible with tracking Boo's stuff. Seriously, I couldn't even tell you when Boo's first tooth came in. Does that make me a terrible mother? I.just.can't.remember. So I'm trying to do better here by writing this somewhere where I can find it later! And I'll leave you with some almost four month old cuteness.



And some older boy cuteness. Boo is helping mommy sweep!

Yell yell yell

Two blogs in one day? Well, it's been awhile and everyone's asleep and I'm too tired to go put laundry away as I should. I just read this article and thought it was interesting.

Shouting is the New Spanking

I can definitely relate to this post. Yelling is what happens when I'm overtired, overstressed, over fill-in-the-blank. I've personally found that the best way to combat this is not more parenting techniques. I've got quite a few of those at my disposal, not that I couldn't use more or do better with the things I have learned, but usually this is not the problem when I get to yell mode with Boo. Usually I need me time, rest and relaxation, hot tea, you name it. A glass of wine when I'm not preggo...mmm...wine.

I guess if I wanted to be smart about this, I'd sit down and figure out what my triggers are, when I'm most likely to yell, etc...and develop a plan to back myself off when I feel a yell coming on. Easier said than done. It's a no brainer if hubby is here to take a break, hop in a hot bath, and escape for a bit. It takes a lot more creativity to combat yelling when hubby is at class or otherwise occupied. So perhaps it's a matter of finding creative solutions when the easy option is not available.

I definitely think it's worth the effort to continue to try to do better and be better for my child. But I do feel defeated some days, knowing that no matter how hard I try I won't ever reach that perfect ideal. Ah - such is life. Perfection is an ideal, something to strive for, but never truly in our grasp!

Just In Case Anyone Was Wondering

It's the question many parents have wondered at one time or another. That all important life changing question. Yes, how does one safely remove an object lodged in a child's nose? That's the one you were thinking of, wasn't it?

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/t110215.asp

Well, there you have it. That's what I googled this morning. I had tried the blow it out method to no avail and was afraid of doing something wrong lest I cause the green pea, Boo's object of choice, further up the nose. I love love love my child. But why why why? I *know* in my head that this is a developmentally normal experiment for a 3 year old to try and I'm so glad that Boo has such a curious and inquisitive spirit, but sometimes I wish he would pass on certain experiments. Luckily he told me right away. He was pretty upset that he couldn't get it out. Honestly, I'm a bit glad that he was upset about it. Not enough to feel traumatized forever, but hopefully enough to not try this again.

Special Times with Touch

When Boo was an infant I bought this infant massage book. We rarely got through an entire massage when he was an infant and I wasn't overly consistent with it, but it was always very special when I made time to do this with Boo.

As Boo grew older, massage kind of fell by the wayside and I kind of forgot about this special way of connecting with my little man. Enter pregnancy and third trimester fatigue and irritability. I know I've written a lot of posts lately about this fatigue, struggle to be a loving mom, and associated stress. So pardon me another such post please!

In my brainstorming efforts, massage resurfaced and beckoned to me. I got out my Aromatherapy and Massage for Mother and Baby book and made up a basic pregnancy massage oil. The recipe called for Almond, but I didn't have any almond oil in the house. So I used apricot oil for mine instead. I added my tangerine and lavendar essential oils, which were the suggested ones. I must say that it smells a bit on the heavenly side!

Starting this past weekend and several days since then Boo and I have had special massage times during which I attempt to massage his feet or "footies" as I like to call them in the moment. He's very ticklish on his feet, so sometimes this works and sometimes not. But he's always pretty eager to try. Then he gets very excited to hold his little hands out for a bit of oil and rub it on mommy. He loves to massage my preggo belly for me. This feels great on my stretchmarked belly and we talk to baby while we massage. It's been wonderful to hear Boo talk to his sibling while he rubs my belly and it's such a relaxing time for both of us.

This all made me very curious about massage with children. The book that I have is pretty specific to infants, so I decided to do what I always do when I get curious. I googled. Here's an article that talks about the benefits of massage for children. I thought it was pretty interesting anyways. I guess it's just one more resource that links human touch to positive outcomes.

Here's another one. This isn't specific to massage. But it's about human touch. This is a blog written about skin to skin touch for siblings. It made me cry - not hard to do when you're in your third trimester of pregnancy, but whatever!

Skin to Skin Bonding

Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever read? I admit that I'm a huge believer in skin to skin bonding. When Boo was a baby I gave up on the baby bathtub - I HATED every single one that I tried. So into the tub with mommy he went. And he LOVED it and so did I. It was so relaxing to settle into the warm water with my little one. He would often nurse during this time when he was an infant. It was much more relaxing to me not trying to hold up a squirming baby in an akward position in a baby bathtub contraption. As he grew he eventually started taking baths on his own. But even now we still enjoy the occasional bath together and it's still a wonderful bonding experience. In fact, last Saturday we had one of those dreaded meltdown moments where nothing seemed to work. I had just arrived home from a pampering session at a salon and was resting on the couch when Boo woke up from nap. He came downstairs and sat on my lap and just cried. And cried. And cried. And cried. I tried everything under the sun. Are you hungry? Still tired? Have a bad dream? You name it.I know that he really really had not wanted me to leave earlier that day and so I suspect that may have had something to do with it. Finally I said, do you want to take a bath with mommy? He cried for another minute, then hopped up and ran to the bathroom and started stripping. Crisis over. We happily reconnected and both of our stress levels plummeted. It will be a bit bittersweet when he outgrows this kind of connecting, so for now I will attempt to delight in these special times.

This is the Way We Wash Our Hands

Let me start this post by saying that I LOVE that Boo is so independent and loves to do things for himself.

However, I will say that I find myself taking a lot of deep breaths these days because I'm battling my own impatience. It's much quicker for me to wash Boo's hands at the sink than to stand by and let him do it. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad except that he can't yet reach the nozzle on the faucet. But he is of course so offended if I turn the water on for him, so I have to pick him up so that he can turn the water on himself. Then he must push the black button that turns the water to spray and he can't reach that either. So I have to hold him while he does that. So once that's done he's content to put his hands under the water while I hand him the soap. Once he receives the soap he promptly pushes me away and says, "Mommy. Go o'er dere." This is where I take a very deep breath because I know that he can't figure out how to pump the soap (it locks if you turn it the wrong way), yet he insists on trying for a bit each time. After he's tried and grunted and become frustrated with it I'll offer to help and he'll grudgingly accept help from mommy to pump the soap. But then I must immediately move away again while he rubs his hands together under the water. Usually I have to prompt him to turn the water off or we'd be there half the day while he plays in the water. And once again, even though he can't reach it, he must push the black button that turns the water from spray to pour. Then he turns the faucet off and I must lift him up for both tasks. After that he will happily climb down the stool and wipe his hands and face with his towel and then throw said towel into the garbage.

And some people say that extended nursing, babywearing, and refusing cry it out methods will cause a child to be overly dependent. Hahaha. I simply have to laugh at that as I care for my stubbornly independent 2 1/2 year old!