Breatfeeding

Breast feeding

There are so many wonderful benefit of breast feeding. Not only for your baby but also for you. I don't really understand why somebody would choose not to breast feed. I am not judging anybody. When I go out I don't have to take anything with me other than the diaper bag. No bottles to carry around. No bottles to wash and sanitize. And NO thousands of dollars wasted in formula. It is all built in and it is free! Breast milk is made specially to suit your baby's growing body. It is good for their body and good for their soul.

I love nursing my baby! Big Boy got 2 years and 3 month of it. He weaned himself. And now he doesn't even want it at all. Which is weird to me...When he gets hurt I still have that feeling of wanting to nurse him and it feels odd that he doesn't want too. My goal was to nurse him until he was done. He is done now and I am happy I offered him the best nutrition, love and support that I could. I will do the same for LP. I will breast feed her until she feels she is done and doesn't want it anymore.

The closeness I get from nursing my babies and the bond we feel I don't think it would have been as strong if I would have bottle fed them. It is hard to explain. It is to me like living with my husband, sleeping next to him and never have sexual relationships. We wouldn't have that nice bonding time together. We would become just roommates if you will.

Sometimes it happens that due to a special circumstance some moms may want to breastfeed but they can't. And that is alright! What can you do if you just can't do it! If you bottle feed your baby, make sure you are focus solely on him, you pet him and sing maybe. Let him know that you are there with him physically and mentally. Placing a cloth on his chest and the bottle on top so he can drink by himself is not a bonding situation...But if you have a choice do what is best for your baby. Breasts were specially design for nursing babies. They provide the perfect nutrition for their growing body and soul.  Even if you work and you can only pump one time, enough for only one bottle! One bottle day of breast milk would still give him some antibodies and the good fat that breast milk has among other things.

It is amazing the power of breast milk! Read this article that says breastfeeding less than 6 months shows decrease in mental health from Peaceful Parenting

Here there are some videos that can explain the benefits of breast feeding better than I can.

This one is a good one about consumer capitalism and breastfeeding benefits.

When ignorance meets knowledge:
This video shows the 2 sides of the coin,
the ignorance part where shares all the negative
things people say about breast feeding  and the knowledge
all the things people that know say. It is harsh at the beginning but
is a good video that leaves you with a nice message.

What do we do all day?

This is an example of a productive day for us:

After we had breakfast we go to the learning room and we do circle time and Little Princess gets to do some tummy time. After that I prepare lunch and its solo time for Big Boy. He likes reading books or plays with what ever suits him at that time.

 Once lunch is over is nap time. They usually take a nap. And this is the time for me to nap if I'm tired (which I could do pretty much every day if I want and Little Princess is napping). But If I take a nap I don't get to work on getting materials ready or blogging, or just having time for myself.

Right after nap we have a snack and go outside.

This is the summer schedule...in the fall when it gets darker earlier we go outside in the morning and circle time in the afternoon.

We come back inside...I prepare dinner and after that is night night time for my babies. We brush teeth, read 2 or 3 books then I stay with them until they fall asleep (I usually fall asleep first!).



A normal day:

We get up and have breakfast....Big Boy plays by himself while I organize. Then we go outside. When we come back inside we have lunch and after that we take a nap. Once nap is over is snack time.  We go outside and we play....We comeback inside and it usually gets late because we lost track of time. I prepare dinner and they go to sleep.


Another normal day:

This is a day when my husband is home and we go out or just relax and don't do much of anything. We do some gardening, go for a hike, or go to the coast to have a picnic. We do grocery shopping for the week and things like that.

How and why we Co-Sleep?

When I got pregnant with my first child I put on the baby registry's list a crib and bottles among other things. I bought what I thought a baby needs to have. How did I know what a baby needs? I worked as a nanny and all the children I babysat they had a crib and had bottles. So how would I ever know that those where the most useless things I acquired.

I am proud to say that neither of my children EVER spend a night in a crib or have a bottle. Family members where concerned that they would get seriously hurt. But how ironic...99 % of the time I put Big Boy as a baby in  the crib he got his arms stuck and screamed louder than the siren of a fire truck. So 3 out of 4 times he got hurt in the crib...but only 1 time in his 2 and 1/2 years old of age got hurt in the bed. He did fell from the mattress (luckily we lowered our bed a few days before it happened). He was 4 months old and at that age he started beginning crawling where he would place his forehead on the ground and push forward with his feet and that is how I think he got from the center of the bed to the edge and down.

We LOVE co-sleeping. It works great for us. And to me it makes total sense! I don't like to sleep alone...I love having my husband next to me. I feel safe and I like that. Now, if I as an adult sleep in the same bed with my husband, and not in a room alone. Why would I expect my baby to sleep solo. It has been proved I think that co sleeping helps them sleep better, feel more secure and loved. Have you heard about premature twin babies that they put them next to each other to help them develop? I believe that it works the same way with term babies.

If you wonder but how do they have their mommy and daddy "time"? Because we co-sleep we don't use our bed the way we use to use it before having children. Our bed is for sleeping purposes only. There are other places in the house. Enough of this subject. It makes me flush :-o

So how we co-sleep you may wonder. When Big Boy was 4 months we took the base of the bed and put it away. So we have the king size mattress on the floor. And we moved the mattress against the two walls. BB would sleep between us. Right before Little Princes was born I placed the crib mattress on the floor between the two walls and right next to our mattress. The funny thing it was that it was meant for LP once she is born not for him. It was perfect! BB liked the new bed and now LP sleeps between us in a organic diaper changing pad that I was given. I know it may sound bad but it is actually a very high end quality one and is way much better than the little First Years co-sleeper that is short, noisy, thin padded and who knows what materials they used to make it...The king size mattress seems a bit small right now to me. But once we get her "bed" out of it, we'll have a bit more space.

To recap, we always co-slept with our children. They sleep good and we do too. I will never expect them to do something that I don't like doing myself. It is good for their growth. It is better for emotional well being. And we LOVE it!

What really matters

Kristin's mother said..."it seems like your generation is different. You don't care about how clean your house is, you spend more time with your children."

I  replied: I like what your mother said! That's the way it should be. Children always come first! I rather have a messy house but a happy child. It makes me frustrated when the house is messy because it seems like it is never the other way around. But it is easier to mess up the house when you are living in it constantly. I am a stay home mom, and my oldest child is 2 1/2. We are home always unless we go t the park and things like that. You know what? The day we die we won't take with us the house or the red rods but all the memories of our life. That is what matters.

"The day we die we won't take with us the house or the red rods but all the memories of our life"

Spending time with my children is the most important thing for me. I love them to pieces! I always tell Big Boy I love him truly, madly, deeply (like our favorite song).  My question is why do we need or want a museum like house? I think it is nice to have a clean house. I would love to have a house that looks beautiful. But am I willing to sacrifice my nights, the only time I have that I can spend time with my husband to clean or organize the house? No way, Jose! We all need time for ourselves, mommy-daddy time and time with our children. They come first...I do clean and I do organize whenever I can. But if a funnier opportunity comes knocking at my door I ready for the fun!


If you are a clean freak and you love doing it, great, by all means. I am not trying to say that a messy house is better. But for me is better a happy son that a super neat, clean and organize house. I say that because I cannot have it both. I can either make the house happy or my children. That's it.

Our Circle Time in Spanish

This is what we do for circle time.

This is our circle time board's front part.

This is the inside of the board

This are the cards I made for the board.

First we do the pledge allegiance to the flag. I guess my point of this is for him to learn the US flag.

Then I grab the guitar and I pretend I play this welcome song:

Viniendo a las apuradas

Viniendo a las apuradas

Viniendo a las apuradas

Es hora de jugar.

Hola a Big Boy,

hola a Little Princess,

hola a mami.

Es hora de empezar.

After we sang the song a couple of times. We start going thought the board. We start with writing the date, then we do the song for the months of the year, then the days of the week, and then the letter of the day (he chooses which letter he wants and places it on the board). Then he chooses a card for the shape of the day, the number of the day, and the color of the day that he gets place them one at a time where it goes on the board. We are also learning about the weather so he looks out of the window and he tells me if is sunny, cloudy, etc. Then he gets the weather card and place it in the right spot on the board. I have it all color coded to make it easier for him.

We usually arrange the number cards on the floor and he helps me to put in in order before he choses one and places it on the board. We do the same for all the cards.

When all the cards and all the circle time is done we say goodbye to all the shapes, colors etc., that are left on the board for the next time we do circle time to say goodbye and take them out. This way we review what we did last.

After the board activity, he can choose to do a felt story, to read a book or music. Many times we do all of that. Then I try to do a presentation of what ever Montessori material I have ready for him. 

* If you like to download the circle time board activities, let me know. I sell them for 2 dollars. Check out the download for sale page of my blog.

Colors for Subject Area

Math:
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Division


Science:
Zoology
Botany


History:
Black


Geography: Depends on the work


Sensorial: I decided to use pink for sensorial printed material. I like pink.


I gathered this information from Barbara and other montessori moms of one of the groups a follow.  This doesn't replace what your manual says and it may or not may be accurate. But as long as you are consistent with the subject color it doesn't really matter which color you choose.

DIY Smell Bottles

DIY Smell Bottles

I prepared all bottles with a cotton ball inside and I added the 

following scents:

- Oregano Oil

- Vanilla Extract

- Almond Extract

- Perfume that smell like roses

I am not much of a measuring person...I do most things just like you see

in the pictures...Got a piece of felt, rapped it around the baby food jar 

then I tied it and cut it.

I got this garage sale labels at the Dollar Tree store.

Wallah! They are all done!