The art of breastfeeding

Browsing on Pinterest I have come across some beautiful breastfeeding images that I would love to share with you.

So sweet and warm, don’t you think?

(Click on the images to see the source)

Instant success adventure book

When we borrowed “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” from the local library to have something new to read during the Easter holidays, we expected that our boy would like the book. What we didn’t know is that the first time we read the book, we would have to do it about 10 times straight.

So, if you have a child you loves family adventures and is fascinated by bears (or any animals for that matter), this is the book for you.

Where the wild books are

Hi there, how has the new year been so far? Hanging tight to all those resolutions?

I wanted to share some fantastic books we have been enjoying lately, the little boy can’t have enough of them!

Any good suggestions for a 2 and a half year old with a wild imagination?

Breastfeeding in Mongolia

 

Breastfeeding in the Land of Ghenghis Khan

I just had to share this article, makes you re-evaluate everything you know and think about breastfeeding.

A fox, really?

A couple of days ago we confirmed what we lately suspected: our son is color blind. Actually it should be called Color Vision Deficiency (CVD), as he knows most of the colours all right, only that anything green seems to be orange for him. This comes as no surprise, as we knew that being my son he would have a 50% chance to be affected, as my father has CVD too.  Males suffer it and females carry it for the next generation (see this for more info).

I found this image below very useful to test pre-school kids, as it displays animals instead of numbers, which are the usual test cards. Briefly explained, a color blind person sees a cow where you see a deer, has no clue there is a bear there, and can clearly perceive a fox in the middle left (more information here).

And how did I feel when he pointed at the screen saying “cow” and “fox”? A little sad, because even if this is a minor affliction, life will be a tiny bit harder for him, and at the same time full of unconditional love and determination to do everything in my hand to make sure this doesn’t affect his confidence and (later on) ambition.

All I want for christmas is…

Honestly, all I want for Christmas is good health for everyone and a chance to put my feet up for 5 minutes! Lately we are going through a rough patch of poor health of our little boy and, let me tell you, it’s tough!! He still breastfeeds quite frequently but when he’s ill all he wants to do is nurse. And that means all day and all night. It’s exhausting, but it’s the only thing that comforts him, poor thing.

Having said that, there are some material things out there that could make Christmas a bit jollier, in an entirely superficial way, like a new pair of awesome boots for mama, ha. Here I present you my Christmas wish list:

1  Sangean Table Top Radio / 2  Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Eighth Season / 3  Frye Women’s Melissa Button Knee-High Boot / 4  Penguin Classics Clothebound edition of Pride and Prejudice /  5  Crocs Retro Runner Sneaker / 6  In the Town All Year ‘Round by Rotraut Susanne Berner

Another cool book for the little ones – Picture my day

Hey there! Here I bring you another beautiful book we are enjoying at home ever since we bought it, it’s called Picture My Day by Severine Cordier and Cynthia Lacroix. It has the cutest illustrations of the daily life of a family, showing the daily routine at home, the outdoors, foods, the season… everything you can think of that conforms the world (and vocabulary) of a young child. I can´t recommend it enough.

Also writing this post I’ve just found out that the authors have another book called Picture My World. I am definitely checking it out.

More lovely books for kids here.

Books for animal loving kids

My boy loves animals, like most kids, I suppose. He loves seeing them, chasing them, petting them, riding them and the rest. So animal books are some of his favorite bedtime (or anytime) books. Here are some that I think are fun for the kids, and also with great illustrations for the parent who is reading them for the 17th time in a row.

…

• The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit, by Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch
• The Very Busy Spider, by Eric Carle
• Following the Sun, by Jenny Stow

Kid´s books: Rotraut Susanne Berner

If your kids love books with lots of details and several stories going on at the same time, check out the lovely “City” books series by German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner:

Motherhood & fatherhood, books I have read lately

Every morning I get the bus by myself and then (and only then) it is my chance to read uninterrupted, in the short 10 minutes journey to town. I love to read, but I can´t do as much as I used to since our boy invaded (in a good way, mostly) my life.

I love fiction literature (I have just finished To Kill A Mockingbird, next is Catch-22), I rarely read “baby books”, and this was the first time I have read a memoir, I think. These two books are very different, the only link between them would be that they are about being a parent, written from a very contrasting perspective.

Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way is written by Mayim Bialik, the well-known actress (Blossom, The Big Bang Theory), doctor in neuroscience, and unofficial spokesperson for attachment parenting. The book is not a typical guide to attachment parenting or how to raise kids in any form, but how she and her husband parent, and why. She is extremely articulate and informative, but also warm at the same time, and she never shies away from saying how hard things are sometimes for her with the (sometimes unconventional, and always selfless) commitment this parenting style demands. I have learnt a good deal from the book (I didn’t know about Elimination Communication, for example), even if it doesn’t fully suit my lifestyle (homeschooling or the mentioned EC method area bit too “hardcore” for me). I am very interested in finding out more about Gentle Discipline, a very appealing way to bring up our children without threats, punishments or shouting, now that my toddler son is entering the feared terrible twos phase.

Self Abuse, by Jonathan Self, was bought by my husband and to be honest I was not interested in it at first. Then I started reading a bit out of curiosity and I couldn’t stop. The author is the older brother of famed novelist Will Self, and he accounts his life starting with a childhood with an emotionally cold father and a hyper-sensitive unstable mother, and their (obviously?) disastrous marriage. Jonathan Self himself marries and divorces twice, probably because he works too much and consumes dangerous amounts of cocaine, but his angst and desperation for not being close to his children makes a harrowing read.