06/23/2010
There are times when feeding the kidlet can be a trial. I get quite tired of hearing “I don’t like that” at dinner time (usually referring to some kind of non-processed, non-ground meat). On the other hand, when I asked him what he would like for lunch today he asked “Well, do we have any broccoli? And carrots?” I said “That can’t be all you want, that doesn’t sound like a filling lunch” and he responded “I want some mango too, mom” (with a tone that suggested “Duhhhhhh!” ;)). It’s hard to get too irritated and to complain about a picky eater when the first thing he asks for at meal time are vegetables and fruit. He may not be open to every food out there, and his diet might seem boring to me, but the fact that he eats fruit and veggies (even if its the same ones) every day puts him far ahead of some.Â
Baby L is becoming quite a good eater as well. She has 12 teeth already at not quite 13 months. She actually prefers things with more texture to things that are gooey at this point. She shovels in diced chicken, happily crunches on lightly steamed veggies. It takes a little coaxing to get her to eat avocado, banana, mango, etc. Once I get her to taste it, then she’ll keep eating it, but if I don’t help some into her mouth so she can see how good it is, she will touch it and recoil and leave it on her tray, heh.
She is also starting to communicate and you can see a real little person with her own personality developing now. She says “DaDa” and “MaMa” and “book” (well, its more like OooK). She says “ess” and nods her head once sharply for “yes” and is signing “more”, “done”, and “milk” — although to be fair, her signs aren’t what you call precise, and she tends to use them even if they don’t quite fit. She’ll do “more”, when she is hungry before she has had anything, so technically its not really *more* its just *some* 😉
Sleep training Baby L has been a total dream compared to what we went through with the Kidlet. Of course he had a lot of other issues given his early life. I put off the sleep training for as long as I could, partially in dread, but mostly because I’m a believer in co-sleeping and attachment parenting. Still, within a couple days her agitation at being put down was down to minutes. After two weeks it is down to a few seconds of fussing. She is also sleeping through the night and not needing feeding at all, so, in theory, I should be getting more sleep.Â
Except of course I am not getting my naps. Today when the baby went down, Kidlet and I cleaned out the homework corner. It’s amazing how much junk accumulates in our drawers there. We also culled out all the materials that were too easy for him. I’ve always supplemented his out of the home education. Much of it is a bit of the “unschooling” approach – “sneaking” in education while playing. He doesn’t realize the mathematical applications of baking muffins, science experiments are just cool fun, he loves art projects (today he was doing some coloring and he says to me “I think I’ll do this one like Marc Chagall and use crazy colors”, it gave me a little glow :)), helping me write shopping lists for the foods he wants, etc.  But we also have file folder games and workbooks, piles of reading materials and so forth. Most of what we put away was actually geared for first graders, and he is beyond it already =0 I kept out a grade one reading comprehension workbook (flash forward reading) although only the second half looks worth using, and one on maps (from scholastic); the rest of it is now shelved and waiting for the baby to get there.
Posted by Kristen in Brain Dump, Kidlet & Baby L
