slow and steady

Do you remember that day last summer when we thought it time to take Moonpie's training wheels off?  Do you remember the tears and the frustration?
Just look at my poor baby!  It breaks my heart to see that!

She has been asking for a while now to try again, and yesterday we finally did it.  You know what happened?  She did it.  She did it!  There was no running behind the bike, no wobbly legs.  She just took off like she'd been doing it for years!  We were all so proud of our girl.

This moment, on the bike, was another confirmation for one of the aspects I feel strongly about in child rearing and education.  When a child is ready, they will succeed.  I think back to all of those parent/teacher conferences I took part in when I taught in the public school.  I had the inkling of the thought that the children would get it when they were ready, but that wasn't a popular notion with my parents or the administration.  But now I am confident in this thinking.  Some children need gentle nudges and encouragement, and some just take off on their own, but the fact remains that if you let a child move at their own pace, the success will be easier to come by.
I could have set Moonpie outside for the last year forcing her to ride- and she would have been miserable in the process.  But this way, allowing her to trust her own judgement and her own intuition, she proudly conquered what she set out to do.

Slow and steady.
In her own time.

beautiful moments

i love those first moments when you discover there is a rainbow in the sky. perfectly arched overhead. and you just stand there, transfixed by it's beauty and it's mystery. the fun part comes in trying to find all of it, but often times, part of it is hidden. maybe behind a big old barn, or a bill board. i think of this sometimes with my children. here i have before me these two beautiful rainbows. full of utter delight and mysterious possibility. sometimes, the beauty of who they are can get obstructed- maybe behind a cranky disposition, or a snide remark. but it is so important for me to remember, that they are still rainbows- full of beauty and light. and if i just walk around that 'big old barn' of a hard moment, i can see it all there- all of the glory that is wrapped up in their little selves.

photos taken by my extremely talented friend, lynsey.

don't call it a come back

once again i have decided to make life harder than it has to be- i have switched to cloth diapers. that sounds extremely definitive. it is more accurate to say that i am making the switch to cloth diapers. and i didn't go for the easy all in ones, oh no, we're going old school with the chinese prefolds. i have been researching and wrestling with the cloth diaper issue for about 2 years now (since my second was born). i really wanted to use cloth diapers, i just couldn't figure it all out. it seemed way too confusing on the web. so i continued to put it off until the elusive 'next baby' is born. but then i read some research that was disturbing to me. right now there is research going on that is finding that present day adult male infertility may be linked to disposable diapers. and that the 'crystals' used to make those suckers so absorbent is the same chemical that has been banned for use in tampons because of causing toxic shock syndrome. add that to the environmental issues surrounding disposables and i was sent over the line! the very next day i visited a shop in austin ( http://www.austinbabystore.com/ ) that is the cloth diaper mecca. they have it all. as i stood before the shelves i felt the shakes coming on. so i did what any sensible girl would do and made my husband decide. he went right past the cute organic all in ones that i was leaning towards and walked to the other side of the tracks- hence the chinese prefolds. as we drove away i could hardly contain my excitement. if it weren't for the fact that we had to wash them 5 times before wearing i would have certainly outfitted us all in a prefold. when we got home i set to work and by morning we were ready to go. try one- he pulled it off whining 'too tight'. try 2- pee every where. try 3, 4, and 5- see try 2. so my honeymoon is over. i must admit that i'm feeling disappointed. i really wanted this to magically work the first try- like i wanted it to be with breast feeding and sling wearing and potty training, etc. you'd think i'd learn! fortunately i'm going back to austin tomorrow to pick up john from the airport. i will be going back to the shop to get some advice. i know this is just me, millions of parents around the world use prefolds successfully. i can do this...

btw- any advice or stories about successful cloth diapering would be extremely welcome!