BabyWise Warnings

Wow. BabyWise has been shown to be bad before, and I can't stress this enough: YOU CANNOT SCHEDULE A BREASTFED BABY. WELL...you can, but it will lead to problems and probably early weaning, before a year. Check out this INSANE article about parents actually buying this crap: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990301&slug=2946922 I just can't believe anybody would actually follow ANY ADVICE that recommends scheduled feedings or expects a baby to sleep thought the night before 3 months. DO THEY WANT THEIR BABIES TO BECOME DETACHED?

WHAT THE HECK? Or a better question is...why are these parents so intent on buying into this crap that they need to "teach their baby highchair manners." INSANE! Babies drop stuff off of highchairs because they are learning about gravity, not because they are sinners. Wow. That's all I can say after reading that article and the crazy stuff it suggests. WOW WOW WOW! Some people are just that stupid to buy into sleep-training and scheduled feedings...who would let their baby cry for 3 hours!!! That is just child abuse. How can one detach themselves so much from loving their baby?

Why not to Spank

I was raised not being spanked. We also plan on not spanking. I know people that spank their kids and understand it's a personal choice. But it's not a choice I'm going to make. Here is a great blog about it http://phdinparenting.com/2008/11/04/best-anti-spanking-resources/ I know people that spank babies as young as 9 months, and frankly, it breaks my heart. Baby-proof your house, make sure your child is well-rested, well-feed, and has plenty of attention throughout the day...and and really you should avoid the issues of spanking.

Preventative discipline people. Just like in teaching. Don't allow something to become an issue or "leave something" open to become an issue. This is something that unless you have had a child I don't think you can truly understand. This is because the baby goes from a newborn blob to slowly mobile. First just reaching and rolling a little bit slowly. Then rolling more and grabbing better and farther. Then this is when you realize how to baby-proof. Your baby will show you what needs to be baby-proofed. And thank goodness, we are not like horses or something, whose babies can walk within a few hours of giving birth! We don't have to baby-proof for SEVERAL months.

I think this is yet another great plan of God's to get the parents slowly used to the idea of a baby and such! But until that baby becomes a mobile crawling machine, I never realized that babies get into everything. What age do babies stop? Never? LOL! But basically you can't punish the baby for exploring its environment at this age, anymore than you can spank it for talking in the middle of church...it doesn't know any better. Now I know the meaning of that saying. "Children just don't know any better." They really don't.

And it really breaks my heart to hear a mom say "Don't hit!" to a kid that's hitting and then smack it. GEE! What a great way to show what you mean!....NOT! I just can't imagine the fear in a child that would be randomly hit for random reasons. Hurry up! SMACK. Sit down! SMACK! I think there are enough tough knocks in our world and parents don't need to be one of them.

I also have had several parents say to me, "Oh, we were never going to spank, either! You just wait. Just wait till the terrible twos." It drives me nuts. REALLY! It makes wonder how awful their kids were...or how awful they were to their kids...

And no, I highly doubt you're going to randomly check in with me and find me spanking anymore than you would find me with a bottle of evil formula plugged into a future babe's mouth. And no, I don't condemn you if you spank, have spanked, or see no problem with spanking.

I just think it's INCREDIBLY wrong, sets up huge issues, and and and...

Would you spank a dog or cat? No? Why? Because it doesn't work! Why is it going to work with a little human? It's not! It's merely going to give them something to hold against you in the future.

One of the most interesting journal entries I had my students write while I was teaching was "What would you do differently as a parent than your parents did with you?" (I had my kids write daily journals when I taught English. I read them all daily as well. It only equalled about 20 lines in journal notebook, and I could read each in about less than 1 minute each and grade them all in about half of my block prep, daily. (I read fast...you have to if you are an English major. But consider the grade level they are writing on too. Very easy to read!) I digress.) The most common journal was "I wouldn't spank!" No kids ever wrote "I would spank!" Of course you also had the absurd, yet funny entries, like bigger allowances, etc...

Ok, so that's my view on that...and at 15 months, no, I don't have a ton of experience with "real discipline" issues, because she's never had a tantrum. If she melts down, it's because she's over-tired and not getting what she needs...sleep!

So this time change is killing me. I HATE IT! I hate it getting dark out so early, don't you? But on the plus side, Claire is going to bed at 7. But that's bad as she wants to get up at 7, and I'd like to sleep another hour. BOO. Should I spank her for that? ;)

15 month milestones

Did you know October is attachment parenting month? Well it is, so before it's over, here's a link to a cool AP site: http://www.attachmentparenting.org/ YAY! Happy attachmenting!

I found this pretty decent list http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/articledetail.cfm?id=323 I was checking for 15 month milestones. Wow. She is 1 and 1/4 already! Seems like she's on track for everything. Yay! It's amazing to think back to last year at this time! And I know next year at this time she'll be talking up a storm because she already is! I also learned at the Breastfeeding/Parenting conference that it is normal for kids to first start saying a word by only say the first or last constant of it. So I'm thinking she's probably saying more than I'll list here, but these are words I can pick out as she says them regularly.

Words she can say:

1. Hi-Hi
2. Bye-Bye, Buh-Bye
3. ni-ni
4. up-up
5. Go
6. Ca! (Car)
7. Bow (we use clear tape hehe)
8. Baby/Boy/Girl--uses these for babies/kids indiscriminately but at least everyone is not BABY anymore
9. Mama for adult females
   Mommy for me! :) She is saying this more than Mama or Mom :)
10. Dada for all adult males
11. Daddy for Josh or Dad
12. Baby Claire! She will say this when we watch her videos or look in the mirror! She thinks baby is part of her name ;)
13. Ou! (out of highchair, carseat, etc)
14. Alk! (walk, while pushing on stroller)
15. Baby Girl (for her dolly)
16. Mwah! (Kissy noise while giving kiss!)
17. Dtop! (drop)
18. Row! (for throw, a favorite thing to do to food while in highchair)
19. duck
20. turtle
21. giggle
22. gaggle (although she has no idea what a gaggle of geese are, I'm sure. we're trying to teach her google now ;) teehee)
23. book
24. Mah! (More!)
25. Bobbi (for her Baby Carebear...when she first was trying to say Baby for anything with eyes and it has stuck)
26. Di-di for diaper
27. Ba! (for ball and balloons...loves to point at Balloons at the store when we go the floral dept!)
28. Mo! (For her elMO toy)
29. Nummies for nursing/wanting to nurse or (i-wan-nummas...I swear it sounds like a complete sentence!)
30. Nom-nom, num-num for food

Animal sounds:

1. moo
2. baa
3. quack
4. pants like a dog
5. sniffs like bunny
6. snorts like pig (more guttural)
7. hoots like a monkey

We are working on other animal sounds. Like Clucking for chickens, but she keeps quacking...and fishy lips for fish, but she then wants to give us kisses! Other new things since her 1st bday:

She's had MnMs (I didn't give them to her. I was at Bible Study. She stood up in my lap, reached halfway across the table, and crammed one in her mouth faster than I'd realized what had happened! I was freaking out, waiting for her to choke, but then a little smile spread across her face as she discovered the joy that is chocolate. So then she proceeded to eat about a dozen of them, one at at time. She loved them, and it kept her silent!)

She can push her stroller, highchair, and little car (that used to be her walker, but we converted) around the house. Sometimes she'll put her bear or doll in them when she pushes them. It's so cute! And I didn't even show her that! She came up with that on her own!

She can give Eskimo kisses (rub noses). Josh came up with this, and she caught on immediately. Now if she could just learn to pick up toys that fast...

She can run! She can crawl up our stairs really fast and step out the front door without crawling down the step (it's really shallow).

She can follow directions really well like if I tell her to go get a toy or book, follow me, go to the changing table, follow me to the mailbox, get on the bed, go to her highchair, etc! Of course she can be a stinker sometimes and thinks it's hilarious to run the opposite way...

She can also get on and off of her little chairs that go to her little tables!

Ok...that's all I can think of for now...I'm sure there's more!