Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Yarr!

Yarr!  A band of scurvy Pirates has kidnapped the young Princess!

Luckily, we had plenty of Pirate Booty to pay her ransom.

And the wee princess is safe, and can grow up to save the Empire
(even though she does not look too happy about it.)
Happy Halloween!


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

My parenting style. A bit crunchy granola....

A Poem, and a few things about how I like to mother my children..
 
 
 
 
Mother, O' Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth.
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek - peekaboo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,
But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~ Ruth Hulbert Hamilton
 
I found this poem today on a natural parenting site.  I've heard the last stanza before but never the entire thing, so I thought I'd share.  (I think I might nick name Leia "Roo"!) Then, I surfed the site a bit too far, and found myself watching a circumcision video and nearly vomited.   The video was about 6 minutes long but I could only stomach the first minute.  I have never ever heard a newborn scream like that.  I had to change my shirt for all the milk that started to leak in sympathy or something.  I am still nauseous.  If you have a baby boy, you should watch the procedure, with non edited volume, before deciding what to do. And make sure it is a north american video, as in some countries, like australia, they will sometimes anaesthesize (which takes away the screaming, but not the horror.) where as here, anasethesia is not reccomended for little babies.  (and neither is circumcision).  Controversial posting, I know, but, there you have it. 

Mina was taking about babies, eggs, birds and so on, and we got to saying , wouldn't it be weird if humans laid eggs like birds to, and had to sit on the egg for 9 months before the baby could hatch.  I said how awful that would be to have to sit on it for 9 months.  Keith said that humans would have invented an incubator so that we wouldn't have to.  But then we laughed, because we both know that I would have insisted on sitting on that egg for the whole 9 months! No fake incubator in this house! 

Someone was looking for me at church the other day, but did not know who I was.  So his wife told him to look for the woman with a baby tied to her chest.  :)  Yep, that's me!  One Sunday I gave in and let someone in another meeting hold her, and the entire 40 minutes she was gone I felt so uneasy.  Eventually she started to fuss, and was returned to me BY A COMPLETE STRANGER WHO I HAVE NEVER MET IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!! I am still horrified by this.  I think that will be the last time I let my infant out of my sight.  
 
Also , look - you can make boobs with your keyboard!  (.Y.)  how cool is that? Clearly I am spending way too much time on the internet.  

Now if only I could force myself to jump onto the whole wheat/no sugar/kale smoothie drinking bandwagon...  I just can't enjoy those things! Even though I know I should...

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

love

dear keith,
i love you in the morning,
and in the afternon.
i love you in the evening,
underneath the moon.
happy 13th anniversary
~~s


you may notice that there are no uppercase letters in my e mails, blog posts, facebook comments etc.  this is because i am usually holding this sweet bundle of baby.  please excuse. i think i love holding her even more than she loves to be held.  therre are many things i need to do,
  • buy printer paper
  • get rosin for a's cello
  • garbage bags
  • make the bed
  • get dinner ready
  • move the laundry
  • clean up the yard before it snows
  • return library books
  • and so on...
but, i would rather just snuggle this girl.  

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Happy Midwifery week!

It is the International Week of  the Midwife!  I could not let this week go by without a shout out!  My midwife for my last 2 babies is Noreen Walker.  She is so fantastic, and the care I have received from her has been incredible.  My little one is 8 weeks old (already!) and I miss Noreen every day.  It is kind of like breaking up with your highschool boyfriend - I have these weird thoughts about maybe going grocery shopping in the town that she lives just so that I might bump into her.. So weird, I know...

I have had 3 very different births.  The first was in a hospital, and I was very naieve. I thought it would be just like you see on TV.  Get the epidural, count to 10 and push out the baby, easy peasy.   It was a disaster.  I often feel so sad for Abby that she was born so traumatically.  My second was a water birth with Noreen at a birth center.  It was incredible.  The latest was a home birth that was so fast and easy that Noreen could not make it here on time.  Also incredible.  I thought that my second experience could not be improved uopn, but being at home made things even better.  My 2 midwife babies were born so peacefully.   Having a skilled, caring and generally awesome all around midwife, is essential!   Thank you Noreen.

 Here are some books I have loved reading:
  • Get Me Out: a History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank by Randi Hutter Epstein - very interesting and written with a great sense of humour
  • Birth Matters and Spiritual Midwifery by Ina Mae Gaskins  - well, everything by Ina Mae (I feel I can call her that because my midwife drank wine in a hot tub with Ina Mae once.)  Be prepared for a lot of hippy dippy birth stories, which are funny to read, and very beautiful and inspiring.
  • The Business of Being Born (DVD) : This really opens your eyes about the medicalization of childbirth.  It is so sad that most North American women today will never know what normal childbirth is.  
Birth is powerful.  Birth is beautiful.  Birth is normal and healthy.  
Happy Midwifery week Noreen.

Monday, October 01, 2012

When You're Smiling


My family is in need of some smiles...Here are 3 surefire ways. 

1) if you are 7 weeks old, just find the nearest light fixture and break out in a grin.   Smiles are hard to capture at this age, as they move fast, and babies hate the flash.  But here are a couple of attempts.

2) Another thing that makes me smile are Mina and Abby's babysitting methods.  I'm sure blogger will put these pics in the wrong order, so just bear with me.  Or is it bare? When I shower in the AM, Mina is often in charge of babsitting Leia.  Which usually involves covering her in stuffies or reading her a story.  The other day, she choose a 3-D book and was very helpful by putting the 3-D glasses on the baby. Abby's special big-sister talent is to rock Leia to sleep.  I don't have a pic yet, but often I will be preparing dinner or doing something that requires both hands, and I will give Leia to Abby while doing this.  Most times, when I am ready to take Leia again, she is fast asleep in Abby's loving, but sore, arms.




3) An apple a day :  we have a great apple tree in the yard, and this time of year, Mina can often be found right underneath of it, doing yoga and eating an apple.  Sometimes there are none to be found on the ground, so she climbs up into the tree and shakes the branches until one falls down.  And it is so easy for me to tell them to just go and get an apple from the tree when they want snacks!



So there you have it folks.  3 ways to get happy, from the Nixons!