Parenting Zen

I don't actually know what zen or feng shui or any of that eastern stuff is, but I will say I've been trying to live in the parenting moment.

My friend Evan, who I once described as the most nostalgic person I know, told me once that her mother was even more nostalgic. Her mom, Meryl, a lady close to my heart who recently rescued Raph, Makili, and I from the sleeping in a mosquito cloud, would mourn for the 18 month Evan that grew up, the 2-year old, the 3 year old and so on. She would miss every age of her children. I've been trying to live more like that. To enjoy the age that we're in and not spend my time looking forward to when he'll talk, nap better, communicate, potty train, play soccer, etc.

I actually am in love with the smile he gives Raph when he sees him for the first time on a given day.

So in my effort to live in the now, let me start by saying I really do love this age. Makili is soaking up words and signs and trying so hard to communicate. He signs more, all done, eat (which looks like "make me puke"), hot, cold, up, help, fan, and probably more that I can't think of. He has some utterances that he uses for words, such as apple, watermelon, outside, daddy, berry, broom, etc. He'll tell you that a dog goes "woof, woof" (thanks to Charlie), a cat says "meow" (though his sounds more like a screech), and a horse says "neigh," and he'll do the "choo choo" while pretending to pull the whistle on the train. He will no longer say that cow says "moo." Apparently, he's moved on from that trick. If you ask him to dance, he will shuffle his little feet. If you tell him to get the mosquito, he will do a wide purposeful clap. He does all the signs for wheels on the bus, patty-cake, etc. He loves singing and any time I sing and stop he will vigorously sign "more." I've got quite a little trained seal. It's very cute.

And I actually am in love with the fact that he insisted on eating his snack while wearing Sam's helmet today.

He LOVES to eat, though he still does his share of nursing. Number one food is still watermelon, followed by beans, brown rice, cereal (now with soy milk), beets, cooked carrots and broccoli. He will NOT eat tomatoes (though he always sinks his teeth into them so that they rot), and rarely will eat cheese. He also loves to eat an apple. Now that we're in apple season, I can give him a whole apple and I swear eating it will entertain him for an hour. He loves to pick things in the garden, especially green tomatoes and green beans. He does like to chew on the green beans. He still nurses quite a bit - definitely first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but many times in between as well.

He has a mouthful of teeth. I thought we'd hold out at 12, but no they just kept coming and to be honest I have no idea how many teeth he has now...16? We can barely remember to brush them all. We're working on that, but as you may know, I'm not known for the whole bathing/cleanliness thing. I went for years of my life bathing only so as to wash my hair. I'm trying to do better as a parent, but well you know some things get skipped over here and there, like a tooth-brushing now and again. But we're working on the bedtime routine, so we're trying to make it a normal nightly thing.

He still sleeps great at night and has been napping very regularly for two hours in the afternoon. We've started putting him in his crib at bedtime instead of laying with him and falling asleep ourselves at 7:30. This has been going very well and he only cries for a minute or two usually.

And I actually am in love with this little face that he makes when he knows he is being naughty.

He LOVES reading. His favorite books (which I read over and over and over. I know... zen parenting - relax, enjoy it) are PeekaWho, Mr Wishy Washy (still?), Noisy farmyard, MooMoo Brown Cow, Moo, Baa, La la la, Baby Faces (because I act out all the baby emotions too), I Love You Sun, I Love You Moon, and Spots and Dots.

As for favorite activities, riding on the lawn mower is definitely at the top of the list. (Try to avoid the urge to leave comments about the lack of helmets around here. We know, we're irresponsible, but if makes you feel better he wears ear protection.) He also loves to ride around in his free dump vehicles. And to go down the slide. He has also taken to emptying toys out of baskets and then getting himself stuck in them as seen below. Today at the McCalls', he leaned over the kid "pack and play" to reach something, his feet left the floor and he got totally stuck balanced on his waist. He couldn't get in our out so he started screaming until I came and helped him. It was all I could do not to go get the camera first. That is apparently the mom I am, as seen below.

And I am totally head over heals, sickenly, disgustingly, whole-heartedly, blissfully in love with this exuberance, playfulness, silliness, total joy.