My Blog
Supporting Independence
"I wish they would stay at this age forever," commented the father of one-year-old twins.
"My little boy is growing up too fast," lamented a friend on Facebook.
"If I wean my baby, I feel like I'm losing my connection with her," a fellow mom admitted.
We can't deny that from the moment of birth, our babies demonstrate an unstoppable drive towards functional and intellectual independence. A few moments after leaving the womb, if given the right environmental conditions, babies start working hard to…
"My little boy is growing up too fast," lamented a friend on Facebook.
"If I wean my baby, I feel like I'm losing my connection with her," a fellow mom admitted.
We can't deny that from the moment of birth, our babies demonstrate an unstoppable drive towards functional and intellectual independence. A few moments after leaving the womb, if given the right environmental conditions, babies start working hard to…
Breaking Bread
My twelve-month old son loves LOVES bread. If it were up to him, he'd eat nothing but bread at all three meals. When he was younger, I could give him his food and then offer a piece of bread and he'd be content with the arrangement, but now that he's keenly aware of the goings-on at the dinner table, he's realized that there's bread available at dinnertime. Of course, to him that means that he can have bread instead of all the other food, and he's prepared to throw a tantrum to get his way. …
Resolutions
Whew... My head has been spinning since November, and I'm not really sure where to begin.
Out of the blue, I was offered the amazing opportunity to head up the creation of the Elementary program at the Montessori Institute Of San Diego's model school. A dream come true, for sure, but one that has required me to spin a few more plates than the ones I already had going. I'm working part-time right now, mostly from home while Zach naps, but I start work full-time in September as the head guide in …
Out of the blue, I was offered the amazing opportunity to head up the creation of the Elementary program at the Montessori Institute Of San Diego's model school. A dream come true, for sure, but one that has required me to spin a few more plates than the ones I already had going. I'm working part-time right now, mostly from home while Zach naps, but I start work full-time in September as the head guide in …
Learning
So often we focus our parenting energies on "teaching moments": spouting nouns ad nauseum, choosing the perfect picture book, or refereeing toddler interactions on the playground. We fail to notice, however, that babies and toddlers really learn the most when they are given the time, space, and framework to explore, experiment, and reach their own conclusions.
Zach is transitioning from babyhood to toddlerhood, a process that's as enthralling as it is exhausting. Meals are messy food-flinging f…
Zach is transitioning from babyhood to toddlerhood, a process that's as enthralling as it is exhausting. Meals are messy food-flinging f…
MontessoRIE
I absolutely love RIE, an approach to infant care developed by Magda Gerber based on the work of Emmi Pickler. I found in RIE a simple, practical, and effective path for helping my baby navigate the rough waters of his first years of life. One of my favorite aspects of RIE is the belief that a child deserves to be treated with the utmost respect and his feelings need to be acknowledged. Here's a great article that goes into more detail, courtesy of one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Janet …
Milk It!
We're at this great stage where Zach is beginning to eat just about everything we do (although sometimes I have to mash it up a bit because he only has 5 teeth). A couple of nights ago he devoured copious amounts of homemade garlicky baba ganoush, followed by mahi mahi with shitake mushrooms and grapefruit reduction! He's also finally figured out how to drink out of a glass (more about that in another post), but he's not crazy about the concept of plain water. I've successfully transitioned h…
What's the Rush? (a rant of sorts...)
Our daily rhythm involves spending an hour at the park between morning and noon naps. Before Zach was mobile, I would lay out a blanket on the grass and he would be content rolling, playing with toys, and watching the other children. I would push him on the swing for a few minutes, which he loves, but for the most part we would just hang out on the grass and Zach would do his thing happily while I chatted with other care givers (i.e. nannies and grandparents).
Zach has recently started wanting …
Zach has recently started wanting …
Mucho Happy Halloween!
While I dig myself out from under a mountain of post-trip laundry and try to get used to 5:00am wake-up calls (darn the time zone change, messed up Zach's sleep rhythm), here's a picture of my little man celebrating his first Halloween... Mucho Happy Halloween from "El Zachary"!
Food Fight
Yesterday at the park I struck up a conversation with a grandmother who's visiting from Argentina to help her daughter, who just had her second child. The older sibling, a little girl named Carla, is only 15 months old. Carla's grandmother told me that the little girl's world has been turned upside-down with the baby's birth, and for the past week she has refused to eat anything except fruit.
Every couple of minutes, the grandmother would interrupt our conversation to walk across the playground…
Every couple of minutes, the grandmother would interrupt our conversation to walk across the playground…
Potty Post
It's been two weeks since we introduced Zach to the potty. I only have one word to describe our experience:
Wow.
Our brief journey has been hassle-free and has become a daily reminder of the respect we should have towards the youngest members of our species. I keep asking myself why I waited so long to introduce this process, even though we're starting a lot earlier than most families. He seems so content every time he relieves himself on the potty, and his discomfort when his cloth diaper is w…
Wow.
Our brief journey has been hassle-free and has become a daily reminder of the respect we should have towards the youngest members of our species. I keep asking myself why I waited so long to introduce this process, even though we're starting a lot earlier than most families. He seems so content every time he relieves himself on the potty, and his discomfort when his cloth diaper is w…
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