Digging up knobbed puzzle pieces

I am always on the lookout for ways to re-use materials and trying to make further use of a knobbed puzzle the other day I set up a really simple activity that kept M busy for a while. These puzzles are the kind of material that after a few uses become old hat. I fear that is one of the disadvantage of most non open-ended materials. But well, with a bit of imagination we can reuse them!
For this activity you only need the wooden already mastered puzzle, a tray, and flour, salt or corn-starch. I covered the pieces with starch and presented it next to the base of the puzzle. I added a thick paintbrush as an invitation to uncover the "treasure".
M eagerly took the brush and dug up the pieces. She was quite excited to see what was buried there!

Pretend play and the three months milestone

Biyearly update, kind of...

My daughter has surprised me with pretend games as of late. At 2,3 years she spends each day some time pretending she is having tea with some friends. She has a tent in the playing room where she always "makes" us "tea and makrutes" (an Arabic cookie I believe she learnt from a book called "Muk travels around the world"). She also has some imaginary friends who apparently live in the tent. She has even given them names and keeps mentioning them.
Two weeks ago we attended her great granma's funeral in a Catholic church and she was apparently fascinated by the building for she started mentioning churches all the time and then she decided there was a mouse in the church and everything was turned into "mice in churches". Then, the church kick waned but she keeps inventing new games. Whenever we go to a park she gets under a slide or shack and pretends that is her house.
For two reasons this has really taken me aback. I thought pretend play was something that started later in a child's life, or so I had read, and I have never encouraged it, not consciously at least. She has a cabinet in our kitchen and another one in the bathroom but they are used to store real objects that she uses for practical life activities such as cooking, eating, washing or grooming herself. Some people might have thought her kitchen cabinet was a play kitchen but that is not the case. The only toy food she has is a set of cutting wooden food box that is kept in our living-room shelves with other items. Since the food in that set is sliced or cut in pieces I thought we might use it to work on fractions but I don't expect this to happen any soon.
Another game she has come up with all by herself is the "I spy" in the way of "tell me a word". Then, you tell her one and she starts looking around for the object you've just mentioned. This is a wonderful way to consolidate words seldom used. And talking about language, it is now evident that M's first language is Catalan. I guess it is only normal for this is the language she hears around. Since she started to interact with adults, her Catalan vocabulary has widened a lot. She understands English and does sometimes answer back in English or makes up mixed words such as "neetem" (need conjugated in Catalan), "playem" (from play) or "tuquing" (from tocar) but doesn't generally use English to express herself.

M is really into cooking, spooning, funneling, washing dishes, and other activities that tend to happen in the kitchen.

Other of her interests in the gross motor field are shooting balls, which she is very good at, going through tunnels or climbing onto places, and well, movement in general.

In the social aspect, M often asks to see children and we try to provide them whenever possible. As I have sometimes mentioned, in Spain most children M's age are in kindergartens plus we live in   an underpopulated area so it is not very often that we get to see children. Anyway, her interest is not  yet in playing with them, she enjoys watching them and interacts only with the ones she is more familiar with. We got a full garden of children yesterday and she had a great time. It is amazing to see her while children are playing with her toys and using her things, not always in the gentlest possible way. I feel very clumsy when expressing this. I don't like labeling behavior and escape using words such as "sharing" or "generosity". In fact what I am talking about is not exactly sharing I believe, at least not in the way most adults seem to think about the issue. We have never ever prompted her to share anything and yet it is beautiful indeed to see her "sharing" from her heart as it is to see her offering you her food even if it is her favorite food and there is only one piece left.
I have also noticed this girl of mine is growing very empathetic, as well. Some things have been worrying me as of late and whenever she sees me worry she urges me to laugh. "Riu, mama, riu", she says.


Dear little A is about to turn from tommy to back position. I expect it to happen any day. This baby of mine is really keen on movement. It started already in the belly and when very little time before his birth he did a somersault and changed from head to breech position. Most of the milestones I recall happening later are already taking place; turning, holding and raising head, doing crunches. Unlike her sister at his age, he sleeps much and generally he only wants to nurse when he is really hungry. I am amazed at how different two siblings can be. She could spend her days at the breast and he is sometimes annoyed if I offer him milk and he is just sleepy, or so it was at least until now that he's turned 3 months. Some patterns are starting to change, though. We are setting a bedtime routine that seems to work, something we never did with M. Hence her sleep habits have never been too good, or so I fear. I used to regard the idea of routines as a purely grown-up thing convenient to adult's lifestyle but I might have grown up myself for I find they can be useful and helpful for the baby. In general we go more with the flow of the everyday rhythm, trying to leave ample room for what might come up but this time around I have brought myself to set a bedtime routine to which I am sticking to.

Well, the feeling of time going by real fast is something that becomes too obvious when you have children. Already three months and it seems it was yesterday that I found out I was pregnant!
Three months have had to pass to enable me to write a long update post, and there is yet so much I am leaving unsaid. I truly hope I will be able to write oftener now but I feel I can't promise anything. Sorry!

Our experience of EC so far

The satisfaction at every "catch"

Before A was born I knew I wished to start EC from the beginning. Then, he came all of a sudden and being one of the between 0,14 and 0,62 % of umbilical cord prolapse cases. While I was recovering both physically and emotionally from an emergency C-section (from a birth that had nicely started at home) that had rendered me terribly weak and anemic I couldn't start EC, not actively at least. But after he turned 1 month I had already observed his rhythm and was ready to start.

What is elimination communication?, some of you may ask. Without any shyness, let me quote our friend Wikipedia: EC is a practive in which a caregiver uses timing, signals, cues, and intuition to address an infant's need to eliminate waste. Caregivers try to recognize and respond to babies' bodily needs and enable them to urinate and defecate in an appropriate place (e.g. a toilet). (...) EC emphasizes communicaton between the caregiver and child, helping them both become more attuned to the child's innate rhythms and control of urination and defecation.

A is turning 3 months today and this week we have been able to catch every poop and many of his pees. The satisfaction at every "catch" is something very close to the excitement we, parents, feel when we witness a new skill in our children. What amazes me the most is how easy it is to EC a very young baby. I generally place him over a potty when he wakes up, after feeds, and whenever I have the intuition he has to go. More than 90 % of the times he does something and if we forget he is very efficient in letting us know that he is pretty uncomfortable. Something else that amazes me is the fact that he seems to wait for the moment you place him over the potty, at least to poop.
Many of you might think I am a freak but I have already gotten used to going to public bathrooms after a feed to help A urinate or defecate... and the feeling of success is quite exciting. Fortunately nobody has seen me yet... EC is not very popular in Spain.

I would really like to hear about other EC experiences so feel free to share!!

What's new: just too much

I have been wanting to post updates all these weeks and in my mind I had done so but now I realize I was just dreaming. I kind of have missed out three whole months of updates and that's too bad but I do have an excuse: I have no time!
Life with two children two years apart is quite different and taking into account that I have also worked since the littlest was 12 days, I feel writing a weekly update is just too much. Well, of course I was just working around 1,5 to 4,5 hours a week but it makes no difference, I spend the little time I have making projects or invitations for my toddler, or mobiles for my baby...
No time and here I am rambling on instead of getting to the point.
We have been intensely looking for a preschool for M, which has also taken much of my time both on pondering pros and cons and attending open house visits. The range of options is wide, although we have pretty much the idea of what we feel suits M best. Up to now we have visited several preschools and schools. The first one was a public/state conventional school in the middle of the woods. The lush surroundings and the fact that it is within walking distance from our house made the visit compelling. We had some expectations since many of the families who bring their children there, and some of the teachers, are alternative and there is a timid attempt at hands-on projects. I was positively surprised to see the variety of materials three-year-old children had access to and nonetheless a full class of 25 three-year-olds sitting and working on a collage of the snow at the same time made me feel a bit giddy. They talk endlessly about "the adaptation period". I feel two half mornings to adapt to the change of being home with a parent to being in a class with 24 other children and an adult cannot be possibly enough for M -- let alone me.
Next, we went to visit two little Montessori inspired preschools that use hands-on approaches and let one of the parents accompany the child for as long as the s/he needs it. Choosing one from these two had been our first idea but when we started comparing, we couldn't make our minds up. The one we had visited first, as soon as June last year, was the option I leant toward. The teachers seemed very respectful and their philosophy was on a par with mine in the majority of aspects. I also liked the families we had seen on their open house. The dad, though, was unimpressed by their Montessori material, which he thought looked too new, and suspected children had no free access to it. He favored the option I had dismissed because the owner of the land the preschool was in, and mother of two of the children who attended, had given me the impression she acted a bit as if she were the queen of the place. I have to confess I am rather bad at being in places where someone is clearly the owner. The teacher in that school, however, had spent long periods with Rebecca and Mauricio Wild and was acquainted with the Pestalozzi.
Yesterday we visited a public/state progressive school which is a 30 minute ride from our home. The facilities, materials, outdoor and indoor invitations to play and work were really impressive. They gave a two-hour talk, which neither the husband nor I could listen to from beginning to end because we had gone with both kids. We heard a bit each, though, and what was more important, visited the facility at M's rhythm. She was fascinated by a kind of sand box modeling steppe landscape and spent more than 20 minutes arranging the wonderful Schleich animals and trees and manipulating the pebbles and rocks. That school would really be an option weren't it -in my opinion- too far away, and located in the suburbs of a socially depressed town. I am sorry I might sound snob but the car ride with two kids that aren't keen on cars is what frightens me most, actually.
Next Saturday we are going to visit a Waldorf preschool and a brand new private progressive school. Then, another public school in the nearby and another Waldorf preschool the next weekend and I think that will be it. We will have to choose or decide to stay home for another year or until it is time A goes to preschool. M is always asking to see children so I don't know if that could be an option.
I wanted to write on how A nearly turns from tommy to back, on how M has come up with I-spy games all by herself, on how tender it is to hold a three-month old baby and how fun it is to be around our toddler but it is already way past midnight and I can't afford sleeping less than I already do. How about sharing some pics instead?

DIY Octahedron mobile

I have wanted to share this post for weeks and I am happy to finally have the time to do so. Around six weeks we took the Gobbi mobile away -although we kept it as decoration in our dining room- and presented our variation of the Octahedron mobile.
I started making this mobile for the sake of making it when M was around 14 months and I didn't have the slightest idea that I would have another baby within a year. It might have been one of the omens that preceded my pregnancy. Another one was reading books and articles on Montessori for babies even when my actual baby was way past babyhood.
That was the start. I only finished it some weeks ago, when A was already past his fifth week and I was starting to thing that if I couldn't finish it on time, I would have to save it for another baby.
My original idea was to make the three blue, red and golden octahedrons but to simplify my life and since the only cardboard I had on hand was golden, I decided to modify the Montessori mobile a bit and make three octahedrons identical in color, different in shape, each octahedron being 1 cm bigger than the previous one. To make the mobile I upcycled a cardboard gift bag that glimmered, a thread of fishing line, and a pipe cleaner, so it really cost me nothing!
I liked the result! And A seems to like it as well, for he everyday looks at it for a short while. Nothing like the two hours or so I've read somewhere... Nope... He can concentrate on it for around ten or fifteen minutes, after which he starts whining. So are my children... not much time on their backs.

Nearly getting there

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, when I was a little girl, I used to ask my mother if using a long ladder we could reach the sky. The answer I remember is that should we attempt to touch the sky, it would move higher and higher, eluding thus our touch.
Some days I feel as if my aim were like the sky in my mother's tale, just impossible to achieve. Others, like today, I feel we are nearly getting there. But what do I mean by "my aim" anyway?
Some might say it is perfection. I don't know.
I aspire to live in harmony, keeping the children contented and happy, inventing and setting interesting activities for the toddler, responding to the baby's cues, catching as many of his pees and poops, getting to finish house chores, writing as much as possible, doing interesting classes, and being a nice mother, wife, friend, daughter, sister, teacher...
How was my day today? The morning went by in the blink of an eye. If it hadn't been for a failed attempt to go for a stroll, aborted by the terrible wind, the baby would have maybe slept for three hours non-stop. But we've set out with sleeping A in the stroller, M walking by my side. I seldom give a dime for A's chances of sleeping much if he is not tightly held but life always surprises me and that's what I've told myself this morning. The stroller was the best option under such weather and given the fact that he was sleeping in my arms when we were preparing to go out. Lovely M has tried to ride her trike but since I didn't have enough hands to push her, she has very kindly offered to walk.
No sooner had we walked down the street, not even bent the corner, when I have realized the wisest option was going back. Fortunately, M has found out some balloons and stickers we had under the stroller, which has entertained her on the way back. Unfortunately, A has woken up and the following hour and a half he's been rather upset.
In my attempt to reach the aim, I keep on redesigning nap time and bed time routines that can match our needs with two children. Conclusion, after a frugal meal we've spent more than one and a half hours to get to sleep. When the husband has arrived, though, both kids were napping like angels. Full stop.
The afternoon has been spent amidst a trip to the store, a visit to the lake to feed the ducks, supper and bed time.
Why do I feel, then, that today we are getting closer to the ideal? I guess it is because I have been able to do some laundry, folded clothes, shopped for pants -now that I can't get into any of my old pants-, prepared two simple activities for M, made a kettledrum with recycled items during nap time, survived the morning, gotten to sleep a baby that doesn't like nursing to sleep... No baking or tinkering today but I have the feeling I have done my best to get closer to my dream. Well, and it wouldn't be so without this short while of writing. This feels like paradise although it is way past midnight...

Hand printing with finger paint

A very simple yet engaging activity is hand printing. The way I have typically presented this activity is a squirt of finger paint on a tray. However, a mixture of liquid food coloring and flour would also do the trick. Make sure the food coloring doesn't stain permanently. From my experience, powder food coloring can be turned into liquid by adding water but the tinge stays in your skin for a while.
This time around I papered the table with brown craft paper, placed the tray with paint on one corner, printed a hand and left it there as an invitation to my toddler. That simple. I love leaving invitations here and there and specially watching my child approaching them.
How do you present this kind of activities? Do you let your children take the lead? I'd love to hear about you!