babies harvest herbs in the circle of the sun,
circle of the sun on harvest day.
babies harvest herbs in the circle of the sun,
circle of the sun on harvest day.
clouds to the north, clouds to the south,
wind and rain to the east and the west.
babies harvest herbs in the circle of the sun,
circle of the sun on harvest day.
When I gave birth to a wee little boy, I knew I had to start researching. To learn how to bring this little boy to the world and how to bring the world to this little boy. I wanted him to be able to express his feelings with all his heart. I wanted him to have what he needed to process his ups and downs without the baggage that so many men grow up with.
Little did we know, on that first day, that he is a very sensitive boy. As in autistic sensitive (not autistic but that sensitive) which we learned through a brief, informal consult with G. Neufeld. Thus making my goals even more important and challenging! Liam, aka Wrinkles, is a beautiful and lovely little soul. The more I get to know him and be his Mom, aka Momony (another Liam-ism), the more I cherish him and learn to help him grow into that big-hearted, open soul.
My little boy led me to look for natural parenting resources because I couldn’t just wing it or ‘get by’ with the mainstream parenting blathering. There is such beauty in finding something that helps me be more truly me AND raise my wee ones to their fullest potential. That deep beauty is on the scale of digging in my own dirt and planting my own garden, building our own wee, snug house, or baking bread and making soup to nourish my family. It’s in my bones, in our evolution and I am relearning to live in that beauty.
When Rory was born we knew that she could help Liam. Help him open up more… or something. But Liam has helped me be a different Mom to Rory in her early years than Liam had, through learning more about attachment and natural parenting. There are some sweet women in my life right now who are pregnant and whom I am living vicariously through. I think back to being pregnant the first time and giving birth, and wishing I had more exposure to natural parenting resources from the beginning. So I’m going to give you my personal list of cherished alternative books. It’s a small list but they could get you started on your own journey.
parenting: Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children’ by Sharifa Oppenheimer
birth: Spiritual Midwifery’ by Ina May Gaskin
birth: Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation by Pam England CNM MA and Rob Horowitz PhD
parenting: Hold onto your Kids by Gordon Neufeld
baby: Diaper Free!: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer
general: Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around by Raffi Cavoukian (yeah that’s Raffi) and Sharna Olfman.
Vicariously yours,
Nat
My baby, Aurora, turned three. She’s a sweet, compassionate, loving, and eager little lovely:)
Happy birthday my little girl!
Tim finished all the little details with the foundation (form removal, exterior plumbing and electrical, drain rock, septic hook up, etc) in July in preparation for his ‘vacation’ time in August. The house materials arrived in late July and Tim started building full time on August 1st.
We’ve also constructed a teepee which is lovely for shade that was inspired by the bluebirdbaby blog and sent off a doll for Craft Hope’s project… it’s always nice to be apart of something bigger!
If only I could get my kidlets to sit still for a photo. I’m thinking about making a bottom sheet out of my bird seed bags, they’re woven plastic so I think they’ll do the job nicely.
Cheers.
Liam and Aurora watching the action from our giant pile of dirt… excavated for the foundation.
Thanks for the great shots Rocky - so crisp, and finally photos of me.
My foundation!!
Checking out the cement truck… I got to check out the cab, in Liam’s shy absence.
We’ve been here one year, exactly. Husband guy said that we’ll live in the motorhome for ~3 months while we build. I had my doubts and multiplied his estimate and said that I’m willing to live in the motorhome for 1 year. I was over-shooting so that the house would come in plenty of time, ha ha! Anyway, I’m so excited to have our foundation and the prefab ordered for August. Tim has August off… and we have the second weekend in August set for a ‘barn raising’ to bang up the walls. Then the third weekend is for banging up the siding. All welcome, wink wink:)
It’s so tiny and Tim is so handy that he thinks everything but the plumbing will be easy! I don’t have a head for all the details but Tim has probably built and re-built this house a hundred times over, in his head.
Tomorrow we get to pull the plywood off the foundation walls, my Mom comes next week, Rory’s birthday and then mine - so many reasons to celebrate. Cheers!
That was one big hole adding to an already too large pile of dirt! But the kidlets don’t seem to mind.
Beside our dwarfed sand box, that beast was an exciting one to see lift the septic tanks off the deck and into the hole.
Two very lucky children got to have this Cat around for a couple of days while they dug the septic field for all the pipes. Unfortunately we’re having to do some rethinking for the placement of the house because they weren’t able to dig the septic in very deep, so we may just be moving the house forward several feet… not huge but it has consequences with future additions.
New rocks from ‘the hole’ are being put to good use. Here’s a path to a little jungle pool… I settled the kiddie pool in there so they have shade from the scorching heat we’ve been having. Cheers!
Actually I won’t post a photo of the biggest news in my life (too boring), I have started working… good, honest work at the grocery store - yay it’s on island and it’s easy:) Husband guy is half time as well so we trade off, it’s such a good deal!
We just love the giro… possibly addicted. On the home front, we may have work starting on our new septic next week! Fingers, toes and knees crossed:)
My boy is 5!! The boy who likes to be called Wrinkles, just like his favouritest stuffy ever!
thanks for the crows Mom!
My boy loves numbers. On the phone, beep, beep, beep. On my watch, which he calls his own. Actually any clock unless he missed the cherished time (ie. when he looks at his watch and it’s 4:46, he wants it to go back so he can see 4:44). He loves numbers so much that both his Papa bear and I will point out special times like 12:34 and 56 seconds, 11:11 and 11 seconds, even 6:33 because 3+3 is 6). We happily stopped the car once to bring him into the front seat to see some cool number on the odometer. Aurora came too of course.
For once I became the queen of play dough because I thought to make numbers with it (usually Papa bear is the king with his nest, eggs and bird ensembles). Liam thought to do play dough numbers to show the time. Luckily we had a whole minute to transform the 7 into an 8! Rory wanted numbers too, of course.
Isn’t he soooo cute!
Husband guy has been facilitating a Neufeld course on thursday nights. Despite feeling overwhelmed at the thought of being on my own all day and for bedtime as well, I realized that I really love and adore it. Usually Papa bear helps Liam fall asleep and I help Rory seperately. This worked well because they don’t seem to wind down in sync so one inevitably disrupts the other. And after Rory was born, I always had her to nurse. So I’ve missed out on a lot of bedtimes with Liam. Except when Tim is away. So his course ended last week and I just couldn’t give up my bedtime with Liam so I suggested he pretend to go off to work after dinner, in hopes that he could have some time to himself. Although I suspect he’s preparing for Easter next week.
So I got to see Liam get all snuggly with his dog stuffies and prepare his little nest in the blankets. I brought him his frog quilt (the one we made him before he was born), I changed him into his jammies and I read him Whispering, twice. I hugged him and thanked him for our day together. (As an aside, I’d really like some help with vocabulary and blessings for that sweet dozy time to tell him how I love him. I love you just doesn’t cut it with this little enigma).
He’s growing up too fast (and not fast enough some times, ha ha). My watch on his wrist makes him look ten, not almost 5. Slow down little boy, you’re still my baby. I promise for your sake and mine that we’ll have some special times together, just you and me.
And not just 4:44 and 44 seconds!