Today's doctor's appointment

Had a quick (mandatory) doctor's appointment today where our pediatrician tested if dd development is where it should be (which it is, fortunately).

Both the doctor and the receptionist (who took care of weighing and measuring dd) were surprised it was a fuss-free appointment. They told me the check-up around the 12 months mark is normally never easy, and the children usually resist, fuss or cry a lot. They didn't ask me if I did anything special though, so I didn't say anything.

"You must have a very happy baby", the receptionist said, because dd smiled at her a lot, too. Well, I sure hope so!

Dd also "chatted" with her pediatrician afterwards. She did lots of "aaaa?"s and he responded - so sweet! He held her little hand before we left and told me she's a wonderful baby. Either he really knows what moms want to hear, or he really does like her a bit!

My little local tribe

Dd and I had a short but really nice meet-up today with two local mothers who are living TCC, too. It was wonderful to talk about TCC in our daily lives, and I sure got a lot out of it. We want to meet regulargly in the future. I'm so excited to see how it goes!

Dd crawled away from me almost all the time. At first she played in the sand where I could see her fine (not that I was looking at her all the time, but quickly checking if she's ok was easy). The other children were older than her and they seemed to get along well. One boy slightly pushed her but it didn't seem aggressive to me - he just wanted her to get out of his way. Also, I think it's best to leave her alone in these situations as long as she shows no signs of distress (which she didn't). She will have to cope with things like that on her own one day, so why not get a little practice here and there?

At one point she was crawling behind me where I could no longer see her so I turned my head every now and then, checking if I could still see her pants (which was all I could see from her from my angle). She did start crying after being away from me for quite some time. I believe she realized she could see no familar face, and didn't know how to find me. I went to pick her up and took her back to the group.

So I did interfere and help her (which I try to keep to a mininum). I believe in this situation it was necessary - there were no other tribe members for her to go to. Also, I think she would have been in great distress had I just left her crying on her own. I wouldn't have felt right.

On the subway on our way back she smiled and "chatted" so much with the guy next to us. She can be such a flirt!

She always seems happy to meet people, and "greets" and interacts with pretty much every friendly persons she sees. It's wonderful to witness.

Longing to be in nature again

After so many days of not really being in nature, I miss it a lot.

I went to one of our city's beautiful forests with dd to see if it's safe again to walk in there. It wasn't, so we only went up to the warning tape.

Even though we only walked for a few moments, I noticed how dd relaxed instantly. I've actually never seen her fussy in nature. It's like we have suddenly entered a holy place, and we both feel quiet, whole, awestruck and well.

Part 6 - What I did with my baby when we had to stay inside

Finally, what we love to do inside is dancing!

Dancing is always a winner.

I wrap dd or just hold her in my arms, and off we go. I normally listen to music I personally like, but clicking through hundreds of youtube videos I discovered my dd loves the song above!

Part 5 - What I did with my baby when we had to stay inside

One thing we both love (although we never do it for very long) is looking out the window. We live on a busy street, so there's a lot to see! Dd loves greeting the people passing by, watching dogs, looking at all the cars and trees.

I rearranged the furniture so she could climb on the window sill on her own which she did. So cute!

Dd is following my lead

My dear baby was crawling around some days ago and then tried to grad some charging cables and our cell phones that were hanging down the shelf.

I saw her from a distance and was chewing food.

So all I made was a "hm!" sound. Like "hey!". She turned around and looked at me. I shook my head and made a "no no" sound.

She wasn't to happy about it but she did indeed take her hand away.

That was the first time we communicated over a distance. I was happy that she simply did what I asked her! Let's hope I can keep it that way.

Part 4 - What I did with my baby when we had to stay inside

Something dd and I immensely enjoy is when I toss her up in the air.

I've done this as soon as I felt she was ready (at 4 or 5 months? I don't remember). Just a little bit at first, and I always checked her facial expression to see if she was comfortable with it. Over time, she enjoyed her little flights so much that I started throwing her up with all my power. I love her big smiles when she's up in the air. We really need to take a picture of that!

I can toss her up comfortably around 10 - 15 times before my arms get tired (dd is over 20 pounds now). Besindes being fun it's a really good shoulder workout, too!

Part 3 - What I did with my baby when we had to stay inside

I discovered that totally childish things are something I really enjoy doing with my dd.

We have no carpets, just laminate.

So we did the "run-run-run and then gliding a few seconds" game (I hope it makes sense). So much fun! Dd was wrapped on my back and enjoyed it, too.

Part 2 - What I did with my baby when we had to stay inside

When we had to stay inside a lot for a few days (see part 1), another thing I did was try a new hobby.

My mother gave me her old but unused sewing machine - from 1977!

I wanted to sew myself a ring sling from one of my woven wraps. It took me some days to read through the old dusty manual, take out all the different needles and other parts, do a few test runs, measure my wrap, reading the sewing instructions one last time, and then: sewing the ring sling.

It was a lot of fun for both dd and myself. It was challenging to keep her little hands away from the needle while I was sewing, but it went well and I was confident she would be fine. Most of the time she played with small parts she grabbed. She was absolutely fascinated by the sounds and movements the machine made the few seconds I was actually using it.

Dd crawled into our bedroom (where I had placed the sewing machine) several times on her own to explore it all by herself. I had secured the needle before leaving the machine unsupervised - not sure if this was even necessary but this way I did not have to think about it at all.

Trusting my husband to trust our daughter

In the beginning of our CC journey, my husband was very worried about our dd's physical safety. He was afraid she might hurt herself, and that my idea to just trust her fully was too much for a little baby to live up to.

He would get up and sit down next to her when she was climbing. He would stand behind her when she was sitting somewhere near the edge of a mattress. He said he could not do nothing, and that TCC sounded cruel and dangerous to him. In short, he was always worried.

I don't remember when these worries started fading away.

I just realized that something had changed when my father-in-law arrived at our place today, and our dd was climbing on the couch, as always. My father-in-law was worried she might fall. And then I heard these magical words from my husband: "Oh, don't worry, she never falls"*.

Can you believe it?

I know I hardly couldn't!

* I personally try to say things like "she always maintains her balance on the couch" or something similar - I believe in the positive expression instead of saying what I don't want to happen. Who knows what our unconscious mind picks up.

Part 1 - What I did with my baby when we had to stay inside

I normally take my dd to parks, to the woods, to some place green and calm where there's a lot for her to discover. It was through her that I discovered how much I actually like being in nature (because I can easily stay inside for days, working/reading on my laptop).

A week ago, something like a little hurricane hit our city. Not sure what the correct term is, it probably was no hurricane. But we had no public traffic for some days, lots of trees had fallen on the streets, and bricks still kept falling off roofs. It was quite serious, and came very suddenly. We were lucky to be inside when it happened. We were told to stay inside for some days unless we absolutely have to leave the house.

What do you do with a lively almost-1-y/o if you have to stay inside most of the day?

I'll share with you what I have been doing so far, because it actually works quite well.

Part 1: the bathtub!

Dd loves to take a bath. We started out with little bath in the kitchen sink while I was tidying up the kitchen, or preparing food. When she got to big for our sink, I put her in the bathtub while brushing my teeth and following my morning routines.

I usually don't put in a lot of water, but sometimes she has so much fun with the flowing tap water, trying to drink it, putting her hands into it, and playing with the handles so I sometimes let her fill the bathtub up fully.

Her body feels very soft and relaxed aftewards. I can diaper her without any fuss, and dress her easily. Sometimes I hand her something to play with while she has to lay still on her back for a moment, but after a good bath, that's not even necessary.

Hope you guys love it too!

Authenticity in the little things

My dd has always had lots of fun handing us things. Oftentimes when we're eating together, she hands me whatever she's holding at the moment.

I realized so often we say "Oooooh well thank you so much, how kind of you" or things like that, and take the item from her.

I speak the truth now: "Thanks sweetie, I don't need another spoon for now. You can put it there".

It feels better for me, and I believe for her, too. Because I take her more seriously this way, telling her how I really feel, and how eating with someone else works. I believe she's happier knowing what she's really supposed to do, instead of interacting with someone who makes things up to keep her supposedly happy.

Babies and knives

Yesterday we went to see a friend with a baby daugther a little younger than my dd. We were eating something, sitting at the table, when the mother said "OH MY GOD, she has gotten hold of your knife!!!" and tried to carefully take it out of her hands. Then she said: "Oh wait. You were doing this continuum stuff, right?". I chuckled.

I wasn't even aware of having placed the knife where my dd could take it. It's no longer something I think about, apparently.

Then the mother carefully handed her own knife to her little girl and she started exploring it, too. Although, she did look at her mother surprised, as if she was wondering why on earth she was suddenly allowed to take it. And, needless to say, no blood was shed, ha ha, and we spend a happy afternoon, discussing TCC among many other things.

Welcome to the Continuum Concept

After hearing about Jean Liedloff's "The Continuum Concept" before my daughter was born, I decided to read it when she was two months old.

When dd was five months, I started working with a professional CC consultant.

Dd will be one year old in just a few weeks, and by now I have developed a real passion for parenting the continuum way! It feels right, and people often notice how I'm doing things a little differently. And, most importantly, how well it's working for us.

From now on, I intend to use this blog as a diary, keeping notes of what we're doing.

Some of this might work for you as well, and if it does, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment and connect with me.