A busy morning

When our computer broke down two months ago most of our documents and pictures were irreversibly lost and the thought of this was truly painful. Apart from the obvious feeling of loss I could not bring myself to post about our activities because I needed to illustrate them with pictures, pictures that were gone forever. I am afraid that period will remain undocumented. In the meantime, though, I have been taking some shots, mostly of our inside activities. When we do something outside is often a water or messy activity that requires either special attention or the use of the hands. Hence, the camera is absent there. And, oh did I ever mention I am the worst photographer ever?
Today, I would like to share a glimpse into one of those "summerish" days when M was adjusting to her new schedule and got up at 6.30. By mid morning that day, we had already done three more or less messy activities.
The first one, and my first attempt at making play dough, went this way:
We set out the ingredients we were going to use. No cream of tartar or tartar powder at hand so we just gathered all-purpose flour, salt, warm water, and oil. It was just an attempt and above all a suggested scenario full of practical life activities for M. In the image you can see her using the ladle to add salt to the water. She, later, added the flour, poured a glass of oil and we stirred the mixture.
The resulting play dough was malleable and nice but since it didn't contain tartar powder or the like, it only lasted for half a week. Afterwards it got hard as if we had been using bread dough. Never mind, M enjoyed the process but didn't pay much attention to the play dough.

The following scenario that same morning suggested painting. The normal kind. I set out an old sheet, cardboard paper, brushes, and red finger paint and there came M. 

After some strokes, she wanted to go outside. It was really sunny so I thought we could give ice block painting a try. We had prepared ice blocks with a little bit of red finger paint stirred in them the afternoon before.

There she is enjoying the iced painting while sitting on the potty...

What activities have you been doing outside as of late?

Our mutual weaning

It is not easy to know where to start, since it feels ages have passed since I wrote my last acceptable post. I am a bit sad to notice I have no posts under the labels 16 or 17 months, so I am going to try and make up for this lack while I have time. M will be turning 18 months in three days. And, what have we been doing for the past two months, you may ask. Well, much indeed. Apart from feeling sick most of the time, I have been trying to keep at M's pace and although I know I am far from perfection, I have tried to keep the "guilty mama" feeling at a minimum.

When I first found out or, better said, guessed I was pregnant, my first feelings overwhelmed me. I felt it was way too early and M was too small and needed me an absolute lot. It took us some days (an wonderful words from special friends) to see the wonder and feasibility of having children 2 years apart. I can say I am really excited now and I know M will handle -and is already handling- it perfectly. There have been, in fact, quite a few things that have surprised me during this first trimester of pregnancy. 

I started out with a strange kind of wild feeling towards nursing while pregnant. It was as if I was telling the baby in my womb: "you will not steal this from your sister". And I realize now that trying to go with the flow and accept facts as they are has been something the new baby has showed me. Already teaching from inside, uh?

For the first three months of pregnancy, we kept the breast-feeding despite my uneasiness, the pain, the feeling of dizziness, and a growing feeling of impatience towards the end. Against all expectations, it seemed that the uneasier I felt, the more M needed to nurse. She was mirroring my inner self, as she has always done. The less comfortable I was with the situation, the more she needed to nurse as if to say "if you give me regretfully, once won't be enough; the more regret, the more we'll need to repeat it". It was her frequent demand what showed me something needed to be changed. Besides, my physical tiredness was ever growing and the milk supply dropping, so we came to a point one day when M started to spend nearly all night asking to nurse and after long sessions she would still cry asking for water and food. Nursing had always soothed her but now it wasn't even doing that, so after a specially difficult night on a Thursday morning before going to work, M's daddy had a gentle and clever conversation with her, which I overheard from bed. The conversation had two clear parts and one objective: weaning. The dad told M that mama was feeling too weak and the milk was going to be less and less; pointed out that the three of us were having worse and restless nights, and invited her to say "bye-bye" to "meme", the word M had invented for nursing when she started to talk. We wanted to make it real simple and easy to understand in order to  have her willing collaboration. Since M was really familiar with the concept of "bye-bye", this seemed to work very well. She responded in a very sensible way and spent most of the day telling me: "bye-bye, meme", and to my surprise, started to mention the baby every time. I was really startled by this because neither my husband nor me had mentioned the baby in the process.

For that first day, she didn't ask to nurse. Then at bed time, the dad put her to sleep and it was ok. Every time she woke during the night, he got her to sleep again. The following day, after a whole morning without asking to nurse, she started to cry desperately and since I had what seemed lots of milk, I offered her some and had a clear feeling that it would be our last session. I made my husband take pictures of it and was not wrong at all. After that, M has never nursed again. 

I must confess I was highly surprised at M's ability to adapt, as well as her understanding of the situation, in the same way I was surprised at my sudden acceptance of facts -such a stubborn girl I am. I like to call this process we've undergone "our mutual weaning". Also to my surprise, my level of tiredness began to fall after weaning and this benefited all of us. What has had me in wonder, most of all, though, is that our bonding has taken a new and delighful direction. Right after weaning, M started to come to me and hug me while saying "mahhma" in a tone full of love. It was the most incredible token of affection. Not only wasn't she bearing any grudge, but she was giving me support, at 17 months! Apart from bringing tears to my eyes, the thought of this has taught me -again- that our children are our most special teachers.

What have we been up to?

I am very happy to be back and I am back with great news. I feel I would need a whole day to write all I want to write but I will have to do with less. So, here it is, our big piece of news: M is going to be a big sister in December this year, just about the week she'll turn 2.
Having said that, you see my excuse for the lack of posting lately. I have been feeling rather sick and extremely tired. Besides, our computer broke down and we survived without computer for 3 weeks!! There is much more to be said, and I expect to be able to start writing soon. For the moment being, I will am happy to share a few of our latest pics with you.

Many thanks for being there!!

What's new: Questions and commands

This week I have really noticed a change in M's response to questions and commands. For so many months I have been talking to her and asking her questions that would go unanswered that now I am really taken aback everytime she produces a reply. It has really taken place from one day to the next one. As many other days, one morning this week I asked M to bring her slippers to the bedroom and in less than two minutes there she was, one slipper in each hand. I was happier than suprised 'cause I didn't doubt for a second that she had understood my command. However, I'm also afraid I might sound too proud a mother for someone outside the scene, so I repeated the same command that evening and had the same result.
I have been asking M to go to her rug and wait for me to read her the book she was asking to be read several times as well and she seems to be grasping the concept of waiting for some minutes for something to happen. This is the kind of progress that reminds me of the value of having spoken to her so much. I am a strong believer in talking to babies from the first moment and in talking to them as you would talk to an adult, in a clear yet unsimplifyied way, informing of what is to come and never lying or hidding information. It might be a quirk of mine but I hate it when adults talk to babies imitating baby talk and call things using the words the baby would. I know, it is silly but I just can't stand it. I really think babies are such intelligent creatures that we are doing them no good if we invent a language instead of using language. If a baby learns that a dog is a "wow" or something like that, he will have to learn again later on that it is a dog. Ok, a baby might not be able to pronounce "dog" from the first day he starts to speak, but he is perfectly capable of learning and registering the words "dog" and "puppy". This is at least what I am seeing with M these days. She still calls our cat "pa" but since we saw some "kittens" last weekend she shows to be able to recognise both words.
You must be thinking I am obsessed with language. I may be... after all, it has something to do with my profession. I want to note, though, other skills M has shown to have as of late. Some days ago, as she was helping me load the washing machine she was very reluctant to put some jumper inside the machine. Our conversation went as follows:
"Can you please put this diaper inside the washing machine"
She would
"Can you please put this pajamas (hers) inside the washing machine"
She would
"Can you please put this jumper (daddy's) inside the washing machine"
Then she would start telling me repeatedly it was papa's.
At first I failed to understand why she didn't want daddy's jumper in the laundry but after this happened again two days later, I realised her logics were sound: she was sorting by person... Hence daddy's jumper could not belong in that laundry group, we were only loading the machine with diapers and baby clothes!!! 
Our main computer seems to have broken down, so unfortunately I have no pics to upload this week. Sorry!!

What's new: latest creations, acquisitions, and activities

After M turned 15 months at the end of March, I thought it appropriate to start introducing the concept of setting a table and I found the placemat was a simple way to do it. On my wishlist there was a beautiful cloth placemat but having realized M could perfectly be 3 by the time I learned how to sew and made my ideal mat, I have asked my mum to make it for us. This means we won't have it immediately. In the meantime, we are using a provisional one, I made by tracing plate and cutlery with a permanent marker, as you can see here.

Another of M's grandma's creations is this cute woolen satchel. M likes it and is almost able to get her arms through the straps on her own. It has proved to be useful and been a great hit among relatives and friends.

 

In order to welcome spring, which seems to have gone away for the past two or three weeks, we made a Spring felt board. It's really simple to make and makes a beautiful open-ended activity. M seems to like it, although she waits for me to make up the picture. 

Last week we gave sorting by color a shot. It didn't really engage M, but there it was suggested.

One of the things on my to-do list is homemade painting... I have several recipes and have been wanting to try one for a long time. In the meantime, we decided to paint the balcony and this is how M helped:

Some words must be added to the growing list of vocabulary. As it couldn't be otherwise, due to the amount of time we seem to be spending handling cutlery and dinner sets, one of the new acquisitions is "po" for "fork". Others are "pedra" (stone), which you say amazingly clear; "boo" for "ball", and "bó" for "sabó" (soap); "teeth", "knee", "chair", and the star of the week: up, up, up. Seeing you tell yourself "up" when you fall down cheers my soul up.

One more week, I am linking up to Melissa's Vibrant Wanderings.

Followers or readers?

When I first started this blog, Spanish was the language I used to write my posts. The only readers I was aware of didn't really read English fluently so that was a major reason to keep it Spanish.
Over the time, I found out those followers were not really following along and the ones who did were either fluent in English or didn't read Spanish at all so I decided to switch to English and I've been writing practically all my posts in this language since.
In the past months, and deducing from the visits my blog receives, I've noticed that in the same way public followers of the blog are not always readers of my posts, there are quite a number of unknown readers who aren't publicly following along.
I am really curious about these people who seem to enjoy reading my posts and I would really like to cater to these people's interests, if I could. I understand, however, one may have reasons not to follow along openly. Having said that, another of my concerns is whether I should use a language the majority of the public understands.
For all these reasons, if you are reading these lines and you are not a follower of my blog yet, I invite you to become one so I can get to know you more, or if you are too shy for that, I invite you to send me an email saying which posts you've enjoyed and what you'd rather read about, as well as what language you prefer.
Needless to say, I appreciate your interest and comments!!

What have we been up to lately?

Some unexpected events and other expected ones have kept me busy and a bit tired as of late. I regret not having posted oftener and have a bit of a feeling of hopelessness. However, I will try to make up for this absence by sharing some pics of interesting outings.
As you can imagine, M has been having a great time.

On Good Friday we went for a walk downtown and she enjoyed strolling hither and thither. I realized it was her first time walking down a pedestrian walkway and I loved to see her self-confident and joyful. It was a delightful picture to watch.

After the walk we met some friends in a nice child-friendly café and M felt at home. She found at least two teddies. It is incredible how much she loves teddy bears.

 

At the weekend we went to visit a nearby farm and that's what we found; baaaa.

There are quite a few words and concepts M has picked up and been using as of late. One that fascinates us is "aya". First she took to calling her cousin "aya". We wondered why, 'cause she also called her "kiakia", something closer to her real name "Clara". Then she started using "aya" when pointing at girls in the street, the market or  anywhere. They were mostly beautiful girls with long hair. She also uses "aya" for her aunt Iris, whose hair is very long and very black, and most of the time she exclaims "aya" happily, almost as happy as when she calls her teddies. She really fancies "ayas".

Another concept she has picked recently is "up" and I am amazed at how clearly she says it. It is probably the first word, apart from "mama" and "papa" she utters completely and fine. "Up" she tells herself when she falls down. "Up" when she wants to climb to bed. "Up" asking me to pick her up.

Some other words she has started using are "pedra" (stone in Catalan), "more", "ham", "chair", "ball". We also notice a bit of syntax sneaking in, for instance when she says "papa nyam nyam" while attempting to feed her dad, or "nena psss" while sitting a doll on the potty.

I love how she talks to herself or to her teddies and the way she has taken to reading books aloud. She oftentimes comes to me with a book wanting me to read it to her, which I am always willing to do. It is not seldom that she wants me to skip to her favorite page. She seems to have a favorite page in every book. 

Some of the activities I set up for her these past weeks have caught her attention, others have been a flop. Those which didn't appeal to her made me think it was due to the way they were suggested, too abstractly maybe. She would simply ignore them. After pondering it over, I ended up deciding that we desperately need a nice wooden tray. In the meantime I have tried to suggest activities in a clearer way simulating tray-contained activities and this has proved to be a success.

I left a mini-basket with kiwis and a mold for cupcakes on the rug last night for her to discover this morning and she headed for it still in her pajamas. 

Quite a hit were the small foam squares I clipped for her to stick to the window. Of course the water included had something to do with the activity being successful. There you can see her sticking wet foam squares to the window (please ignore the spots on the glass... it's been raining most of the week:-)

Something new we have finally organized in the kitchen is a low cabinet for M to get snacks whenever she feels hungry. I have been wanting to do this for ages but only managed to do it today and it took less than ten minutes... However, I start noticing that she is able to ask for something she is not seeing. It used to happen only with "water", "teddy" or "papa", but she is now able to say "banana", for instance, if she is hungry. Or more frequently "more" pointing towards the place she ate something before.

Another milestone that took place today was M putting her pants half on. She has been attempting to get dressed many times, masters hats and scarves, headbands and necklaces, but pants... this is news!!

 

I am linking up to Vibrant Wanderings right away before the midnight clock strikes twelve and my precious computer turns into a pumpkin:-)

Thanks for reading!!!