Babe's Books of the week

I've posted before about how important I think it is to read to your babies. The benefits to me are obvious; not only does it help with your child's growing language, communication and memory skills but also teaches them numbers, letters and colours and stimulates imagination.

Maybe its just the librarian in me talking but I genuinely loved reading books as I was growing up (and still do!) and I think its because my parents instilled good reading habits with me when I was so young.

When ZJ was only a couple of months old I started him off with Touch and Feel books such as the 'Thats not my...' range (there are heaps of different ones). These are small enough for bubs to handle and tough enough to take their chewing and pulling. Each page has something to stimulate the babe's senses such as in 'Thats not my pirate' where the pirates shirt was too silky, his beard was too soft or his cutlass was too shiny!

We have 'bedtime stories' as part of the nightly routine now and Zander is up for it most nights. Sometimes he is too tired and the little devil lets me know by turning the pages really fast so i have to read quickly! We usually cut it down to one tiny book and a cuddle in these cases. I've gotten into the habit of reading the same 3-6 books throughout the week, and i really don't think it matters to have a new book every night - its the one on one time and the reading thats important at this stage.

Anyway to get to the point of this post, I am introducing 'The Babe's Books of the Week'. I hope to do this once a week but it may take me a while to get it up and running.

On the bookshelf this week...

Duck's Key: Where Can It Be?
This is a nice and simple book with only a few words per page - which is great for keeping attention spans in place! It also has lift up flaps on each page which baby can explore and help with.

Team Machines: 3-D Move and Play Fun
This one is a favourite with ZJ and I have to admit this one gets read alot. The kid has even pushed away the book i have been reading and grabbed this one so it must be ok with him.
It has a nice rolling rhythm to the words, and its also got movable parts on each page.

Today Is Monday In Louisiana
This book was sent to me by a good friend from New Orleans. Anyone who knows me knows I love that place to the depths of my core and this friend is trying to encourage ZJ too. I love this book because not only does it talk about all my favourite foods (mmm Gumbo, mmm jambalaya...) but it repeats each days food as you go on through the week which helps with the recall skills.

Gaston Goes to Mardi Gras
Obviously from the same place as the previous book. This one is only for special occasions but I have pulled it out for carnival season :) Its a bit longer so I find its only worth doing as a first book or when ZJ is super awake.

Sadly, it makes me very homesick for New Orleans so i have a wee cry each time i read it. A little sad, no!?

Twinkle, Twinkle, Time for Bed
This is a sweet and simple little book and perfect for finishing off the night with.






I would love to hear your favourite books are for reading to babies and any that you may recommend - I'm always looking for a good read!

Dear lord, I have a one year old

Hey bloggerverse! Its hard to imagine that I have a one year old kicking around. It doesn't really seem like that long ago I was laying in a hospital bed, utterly covered in tubes and devices recovering from a traumatic labour and c section. It doesnt feel like a year ago that I was wheeled down to NICU to hold my baby for the very first time.

I remember feeling utter awe and just how wonderful he was.

I remember when I was finally allowed to get out of that hell hole which was hospital and go home with my boys. It was such a lovely couple of weeks and when someone described it as a 'babymoon', I couldn't agree more. I was smitten, my partner was smitten and god we were just so happy. Everything fell into place and my baby thrived.

A now here he is...a year old! Its a such a joy to see him change and grow each day and turn into a little person.

♥

For those who never got to read my baby's birth story which I wrote back in February 2009, here it is....

11 months old and counting

Its been a busy couple of months and I've barely been on the computer at all.
It doesn't help that my computer seems to self destruct every 2 minutes either.

Tonight however, I've managed to get it working for more than those two minutes AND attach to my external hard drive so I've been madly downloading (and then uploading to flickr) the photos I have been taking lately.

Funny random thought though, I TRY not to be behind the camera too much when I'm at home with the boys. I remember a person saying a couple of years ago how she was always taking photos of her kids that she only seemed to see them through the view finder and shes missing them growing up! I laughed at the time but she was like 'I'm deadly serious'. So that's been stuck in my mind a lot whenever I pull the camera out and in some ways of gone to the opposite extreme and been a real slacker about taking any.

I guess now I'm conscious to actually balance it out and remember the moment first hand AS WELL, if possible, through a photo.

Speaking of moments, wow... how the pass quickly. I can't believe that we will have a one year old in a couple of weeks. I can't believe how much hes grown and how much of a cool little person he is turning into.

He is so clever, cunning and watchful. He only sees you do something once and has it figured out in his head. Luckily for us his fine motor skills are not so quick and his strength so little, that he hasn't quite figured out how to make his fingers unlock the gate to the stairs like Daddy, or get the baby jail protecting him from the kitchen/computer area down, even if he knows how it all works.

Yet.

2009

What a wonderful year.

This year:
♥ I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who changed my life. I got to see him grow and develop every single day.
♥ I made some friends and lost some.
♥ I dealt with alot of body and self issues and I learned to accept change in my own skin.
♥ I played way out of my comfort zone.
♥ I learned what a wonderful thoughtful partner I have and how lucky I am.
♥ I spent a very chilly winter in a cold drafty horrid house.
♥ I failed and I won.
♥ I reconnected with people I thought were gone for good.
♥ I spent the first few days of spring playing in the grass with my boys.
♥ I was really poor.
♥ I mourned the ending of my marriage, got engaged and witnessed a friend happy on her wedding day.
♥ I tried new opportunities, some worked, some didn't.
♥ I developed a thicker skin.
and...
♥ I healed.

ZJ's first christmas present.

Its finally starting to feel like christmas for me over here in little old NZ.

The weather is hot and sunny. Today is christmas eve and I think most people have already escaped Auckland for summer baches down the coast, and so driving around feels like of nice instead of the usual stress it is on the average day.

after visiting some old workmates (who were the skeleton crew on, dressed in shorts and jandals and looking pretty casual) at one of my old haunts I stopped at the supermarket to get some food for the christmas lunch we are having at work.

The place was PACKED.

It took me 43 minutes of waiting in a queue to finally get to the checkout (might I add, busting to go to the loo so it felt more like 1 hr and 43 minutes). But the mood was kinda cheery with everyone in the line chatting away, telling of their christmas plans and generally just being good spirited. The food in everyone's trolleys looked so good. King prawns, cherries, punnets of strawberries exploding everywhere, cheeses and crackers and not to mention old favourites at christmas like christmas pies, cakes and champagne!

Work is busy busy busy, with lots of people (the ones still left in Auckland that is) coming in and getting what books there ARE left on the shelves - which is actually not much now, we are down the dregs - to take away with them over the christmas new years period.

For me I only get 4 days off but wow I'm looking forward to them!

Merry christmas everyone! Hope you have a wonderful break.

Being the secondary parent

When ZJ was first born and Simon went back to work, I was the primary caregiver - I knew everything that was going on with him. I would record all of the amounts of formula he was drinking in my diary, know exactly how long he had slept for, how many dirty nappies he had and when he did something new.

Just after ZJ turned 3 months old and my maternity payments dried up, Simon and I swapped places so that he became the primary caregiver and I went back to work. This decision was made for a few reasons - 1. I earned more. Alot more...enough to live off one income. 2. Simon hated his job whereas I loved mine, and 3. Because we wanted to have a stay at home parent instead of putting the babe in daycare, those other two reasons just fit together and made sense with this one.

It was bizarre at first. I was the baby expert. I did the research, knew what, where how and when with ZJ and had gotten him into a fantastic routine. Simon had always been a hands on dad - especially the first couple of weeks when i was recovering from my labour AND c section so he wasn't a complete noob, infact he was quite a natural at it, but I think swapping places was hard on us both to begin with.

I felt horridly guilty for going back to work so soon, even with Simon staying home. It didnt help that i was constantly bullied for that (and my non breastfeeding decision of course) by all the crunchy parents i have contact with during the day. It seems crunchy parenting is the new black and god forbid if you are not one of the crowd.

Self confidence wise it caught me off guard alot too. As the 'Mum' i feel its my duty to know every single detail if ZJ's day and i feel odd that I don't. I feel as the 'Mum' i should be the primary caregiver and be the expert on my child. So it feels bizarre when i say to Simon 'Should I put him down for a nap?', or 'Is it ok to feed him this now?' and 'what do you think I should do?'. It goes against all my instincts and feelings and i hated not being in control.

Then there is also the problem of lack of sleep for me. Just because Simon is the primary caregiver doesn't mean he has 'mommy ears'. If ZJ even makes a snuffle I am wide awake. It got better when he moved to his own room and when we put the baby monitor on a little quieter... but it can still cause problems.

Nowadays though, it all runs pretty smoothly. We have a good routine set and we stick too it. It makes us all happy and feel secure I think.
Simon is a fantastic stay at home dad and its obvious he loves it. He doesn't mind the lack of adult company - which is good considering there are not too many stay at home dad groups - infact i think he kind of thrives on it. He actually worried about me changing my mind and wanting to swap again I think. I thrive at work, I enjoy going every day, growing my career and doing something new. I enjoy the special time i get with my son when i get home and the last feed of the day (most of the time, when ZJ is cooperating :P) when i get to snuggle with him before he goes to sleep. On weekends we usually let each other have a sleep in day and it gives me time to spend with my son as well, or recoup from the business if its my turn.

I know it wouldn't of worked for us if I had continued to stay home or if we both worked full time (i think we would be far too exhausted to enjoy life) and I'm glad we broke out of the norms and did something a little different as the results have been so so worth it.

My Baby Geek

We gifted a keyboard to ZJ.
He <3s it.

Learning new tricks

ZJ has been pulling himself up onto his knees for basically as long as he could crawl. But yesterday he figured out getting onto his feet means his reach for things on the coffee table/bookshelf/TV stand etc etc was just so much better.

It amazes me how quickly these little creatures learn a new trick. One day they will be like, 'nah can't be bothered with that rubbish' and then the next they will be 'please, i mastered that hours ago, onwards!'.

Some people in the world just make me lol

Before you read the rest of this post, please watch this video:



Right, so what did you get from that?

Expected sappy blah that jewelery ads usual are right?

I kinda went 'awe' but I was in a sappy kind of mood at the time. I thought the dude saying i love you to his wife of the table and the look on her face was kinda sweet and the guy feeding his bub in the rocking chair...well I think there is nothing hotter than i guy feeding a baby but that is just me and well... i digress.

The reason this video came to my attention was that it was featured on the Fearless Formula Feeder blog... because some lactavist over at BirthActivist had had a bit of a fit over it. "...I was outraged within seconds when it showed a mom leaning over an empty crib while dad bottle fed a baby in the background. I mean come on, wouldn’t it be better to give mom a diamond for breastfeeding? Or even as a push present? But this was just sad. If you’re as outraged as I am, you can write them..." she wrote.

Uhm, lolwut?

I mean seriously you guys, there is being passionate about breastfeeding, and there is being a bit of a nazi about it too, but really... this just goes to a whole other level. This is just kinda crazy in my eyes. Over all the crap (and there is alot of it, even i have to admit that) you can get upset about Lactavists, this isnt it.

I was so glad to see no one really backed her up on this rant.

But i put it out to the world, what did you get from that ad? Did you think it was worth getting upset about? Do yuo think we SHOULD jump on ads like this more or do you think people need to settle down a bit and just see the ad for what it is...advertising?