I cannot believe it has been so long since I last posted. I wish I could say it was because we have been so busy with lots of wonderful things but that's not the case. It is true we have been pretty busy but just with living life! Jason was out of town for 10 days, leaving mommy with all household duties...including cutting our grass with a push mower (we have 3.5 lots). I HATE cutting grass. My parents use to make me do it as a kid and I vowed to never have to do it when I lived in my own house! and bygolly I have held true to that commitment for the most part. Occasionally when J is gone or has been really busy I pull ranks and do it but he is the full time lawn maintenance crew. He plants a beautiful garden, keeps great grass, and he grows a lot of plants himself from seeds. He enjoys it so we are both happy :) Anyway, O and I had 10 days of girl time which was a lot of fun.
My lovely daughter has been quite a handful lately. Now that communication doesn't seem to be much of problem anymore, she has started talking up a storm. Pretty much within a matter a few weeks, she had great improvement to pretty much a nonexistent stutter. I know it seems impossible but she still has a very strong Russian accent, and her sentences are choppy so she can still be hard to understand if you are not use to her. A lot of her pronunciation is so similar to the Cyrillic alphabet. Everyone seems to get a kick out of her hard throaty Ks and rolled Rs.
Since the talking has taken off like a rocket we now have been dealing with a terribly sassy mouthed preschooler.
Her new favorite sayings are "that's not fair" and "I think you are too bossy!"
She asks "why?" every time we talk to her - and at first I was very supportive and understanding to it. I know every preschooler goes through it so I lovingly explained why to the inquiring mind...now, 3 weeks later, it is starting to get on my nerves! Yes I said it! I just know my daughter all to well and I have a strong inkling that a majority of the time that she does it now, it just to be annoying. I told her it was time to come upstairs and get ready for bed the other day. Of course as expected I hear her little voice...WHY? I just gave her my mom look and she stood up put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes..."I know, I know...stop asking you why. Just do as you say and do it quietly." as she storms up the stairs. I could have fell over with laughter at that moment.
We are kinda at wits end trying various forms of discipline for her sassy words but nothing seems to be fixing the problem. She knows she is wrong, we don't ignore it, and we make her correct herself, but I have a feeling we will need to wade this storm out.
Other than this challenge she is doing very well. Not growing too much, height wise she is still about the same and we are slowly closing in on 30lbs. I weighted her about 3 weeks ago and she was at 28, and it doesn't really seem like she has put on anything since then. She is a great eater, it just takes her forever to eat a meal! She loves her fruit and veggies. Jay and I don't really feed her any processed food, she eats fruit for snacks, and all meals include veggies and fruit as well as a protein. She is not much of a pasta eater and we are just now getting her back into eating bread. Ever since coming home, she has really shunned bread. I guess after being fed those delicious hot sweet rolls from the desky dom for 2 years spoiled her. She only drinks milk and water, we cut out all juices about 6 months ago and I am very happy that we did. I thought it would be impossible but know she has no problem with the water and likes it with lemons. Juice is only given as a treat or on special occasions. This was also a big help with our budget grocery shopping. A decent 100% juice cost about $4-$5 and would only last 2 days. Anything cheap was flavored sugar water. And though I know there are good choices out there, there is nothing healthier for a growing kid than just plain ole milk and water!
On to other news. Since J and I have decided to pursuing a pregnancy I have been studying about different birthing options. This is another reason why you have not seen any new posts - every spare minute I have has been spent with my nose buried in a book. After several documentaries and lots of books, we are highly considering a home birth and have 100% decided on a midwife. This has been truly amazing to learn about and has really opened my eyes to things that I never seen. It is crazy how society plays such a HUGE part in your thinking of your everyday experiences. Home birth was absolutely out of question and a disgusting idea to me, just little over 2 months ago. A friend recommended the documentary "Business of Being Born" and after watching that I was so flabbergasted I started reading everything I could get my hands on. Not only are we pursuing this as a birthing option but I have started researching schools to becoming a midwife. If you are cringing right now at the idea of midwifery - keep this in mind, the US is the ONLY country in the entire world that does not utilize midwifes as the standard care among their pregnant population HOWEVER we rank #7 in the death toll of our mothers/infants. Why? because we think technology is the answer to everything and Doctors love excitement. If a woman can give birth without the help of a doctor and his/her invention - what would they have to do?? Why have we forgot that the woman was built to give birth? Every 3 out of 4 woman in the US today deliver by a scheduled cesarean - these are woman who could have given birth naturally. Lets try and figure out one of the reasons why our county has a huge health care problem and costs - these millions of woman who decide to schedule their surgical deliveries EACH cost the insurance company an average of $14,000. and that's just for the surgery. Lets not forget to add all of the prenatal visits, unnecessary ultrasounds and tests...just to be sure! We are now talking to have a baby in the US cost almost $20,000 per person. They have made it a business. A midwife cost $3000-$4000 - this includes personalized pregnancy, birthing and postnatal care. I could rant and rave forever and there are so many health and bonding issues as towhy it is so amazing but if you are pregnant or thinking about it, don't be so bias - considering learning about it before passing judgment.
My lovely daughter has been quite a handful lately. Now that communication doesn't seem to be much of problem anymore, she has started talking up a storm. Pretty much within a matter a few weeks, she had great improvement to pretty much a nonexistent stutter. I know it seems impossible but she still has a very strong Russian accent, and her sentences are choppy so she can still be hard to understand if you are not use to her. A lot of her pronunciation is so similar to the Cyrillic alphabet. Everyone seems to get a kick out of her hard throaty Ks and rolled Rs.
Since the talking has taken off like a rocket we now have been dealing with a terribly sassy mouthed preschooler.
Her new favorite sayings are "that's not fair" and "I think you are too bossy!"
She asks "why?" every time we talk to her - and at first I was very supportive and understanding to it. I know every preschooler goes through it so I lovingly explained why to the inquiring mind...now, 3 weeks later, it is starting to get on my nerves! Yes I said it! I just know my daughter all to well and I have a strong inkling that a majority of the time that she does it now, it just to be annoying. I told her it was time to come upstairs and get ready for bed the other day. Of course as expected I hear her little voice...WHY? I just gave her my mom look and she stood up put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes..."I know, I know...stop asking you why. Just do as you say and do it quietly." as she storms up the stairs. I could have fell over with laughter at that moment.
We are kinda at wits end trying various forms of discipline for her sassy words but nothing seems to be fixing the problem. She knows she is wrong, we don't ignore it, and we make her correct herself, but I have a feeling we will need to wade this storm out.
Other than this challenge she is doing very well. Not growing too much, height wise she is still about the same and we are slowly closing in on 30lbs. I weighted her about 3 weeks ago and she was at 28, and it doesn't really seem like she has put on anything since then. She is a great eater, it just takes her forever to eat a meal! She loves her fruit and veggies. Jay and I don't really feed her any processed food, she eats fruit for snacks, and all meals include veggies and fruit as well as a protein. She is not much of a pasta eater and we are just now getting her back into eating bread. Ever since coming home, she has really shunned bread. I guess after being fed those delicious hot sweet rolls from the desky dom for 2 years spoiled her. She only drinks milk and water, we cut out all juices about 6 months ago and I am very happy that we did. I thought it would be impossible but know she has no problem with the water and likes it with lemons. Juice is only given as a treat or on special occasions. This was also a big help with our budget grocery shopping. A decent 100% juice cost about $4-$5 and would only last 2 days. Anything cheap was flavored sugar water. And though I know there are good choices out there, there is nothing healthier for a growing kid than just plain ole milk and water!
On to other news. Since J and I have decided to pursuing a pregnancy I have been studying about different birthing options. This is another reason why you have not seen any new posts - every spare minute I have has been spent with my nose buried in a book. After several documentaries and lots of books, we are highly considering a home birth and have 100% decided on a midwife. This has been truly amazing to learn about and has really opened my eyes to things that I never seen. It is crazy how society plays such a HUGE part in your thinking of your everyday experiences. Home birth was absolutely out of question and a disgusting idea to me, just little over 2 months ago. A friend recommended the documentary "Business of Being Born" and after watching that I was so flabbergasted I started reading everything I could get my hands on. Not only are we pursuing this as a birthing option but I have started researching schools to becoming a midwife. If you are cringing right now at the idea of midwifery - keep this in mind, the US is the ONLY country in the entire world that does not utilize midwifes as the standard care among their pregnant population HOWEVER we rank #7 in the death toll of our mothers/infants. Why? because we think technology is the answer to everything and Doctors love excitement. If a woman can give birth without the help of a doctor and his/her invention - what would they have to do?? Why have we forgot that the woman was built to give birth? Every 3 out of 4 woman in the US today deliver by a scheduled cesarean - these are woman who could have given birth naturally. Lets try and figure out one of the reasons why our county has a huge health care problem and costs - these millions of woman who decide to schedule their surgical deliveries EACH cost the insurance company an average of $14,000. and that's just for the surgery. Lets not forget to add all of the prenatal visits, unnecessary ultrasounds and tests...just to be sure! We are now talking to have a baby in the US cost almost $20,000 per person. They have made it a business. A midwife cost $3000-$4000 - this includes personalized pregnancy, birthing and postnatal care. I could rant and rave forever and there are so many health and bonding issues as towhy it is so amazing but if you are pregnant or thinking about it, don't be so bias - considering learning about it before passing judgment.
Comments
As for midwives and home births, it's a personal choice. My whole goal of childbirth was to have a healthy child as painless as possible!