Inside Wild Thing's head...

I have to admit, I think my kids are endlessly fascinating people. I think all four year olds are. They can tell us what is going on up there in their heads, without it being spoiled by peer pressure.

Here's a snippet of Wild Thing's world. He told me this while hovering on the side of the tub while I took my bath.

I won't transcribe my comments because after several kids I know my answers are meaningless - I generally say - "I wonder about that too!" or "Tell me why!"

"I'm a little kid right? I'll be a big kid like Nature Girl when I grow big enough to have mine own skates. Then I'll be a big boy like Dark Mirror. He's a a big kid man now. Then I'll be a big man and I'll get to get my sword and hat back and mine own ship back"

Okay rewind "You will?" I asked

"Yes, why did you take me off the ship and make me into your baby? How come pirates get to come back and be babies again? It's because they're magic. Some pirates don't like being babies though and they cry a lot. Tell me about the night you stole me from mine pirate ship. Did I have a beard?"

I thought we might be moving out of the pirate phase; there are some mighty fine dinosaur drawings being done these days. Now I find out his entire spiritual belief in birth and enlightenment is tied up in returning to all his pirate glory.

Have I mentioned that my mom is very competitive?

She entered an ugly contest with one of her best friends and as usual was determined to win. She scoffed at rashes and steroid treatments that Tamarak told her about and went for the gold. An incredibly swollen eye infection.

I'm brushing off the dust on my photograhy course memories. This would be the best picture I took - technically - the whole trip!

This is Sprout's best face...

 

It means "I was promised dessert"

I don't post as many pictures of Darkmirror as I'd like to...

Teens avoid such embarrassments, but here he is Christmas Eve already deep into the pile of new books he got.

 

Digging out from winter break...

I'll be back to regular blogging once we recover from our two weeks in western Quebec. Right now I'm nursing Sprout through croup, getting Nature Girl ready to start recorder lessons, preparing for Wild Thing to start speech therapy, and reining in the homework with Dark Mirror's end of semester home stretch.

I took 500 pictures over the break though and would LOVE to post a third of them but to cheer up my sister Zoom of knitnut.net who has lost her blog temporarily - a picture of Zoom, Duncan and Papa Pan on Christmas Day.

 

Weighing in on the motrin ad after the viral mommy fury has passed on by...

I'm always late to the party :-)

google: motrin ad, mommy, babywearing, bloggers and you can find the ad. Essentially it was a bitchy girlfriend to girlfriend "babywearing is cool and I have to even though it HURTS" motrin ad. It was stupid yes, the tone was all OFF...but you know what?

I have worn all 4 of my kids and Sprout is not worn anymore. I can't. I suffered a serious back injury in his birth and wearing him puts me in jeoporady of permanent nerve damage. Fun huh? Motrin wouldn't be my friend in this anyway BIG OLD MASK FOR RUPTURED DISC ISSUES but guess what...I wore him anyway even though I knew there was something bizarrely wrong with the way I was feeling (numb from hip to knee all the time) because I felt I had a duty to. All my other kids were worn in a sling from day one. I felt he deserved the same bonding...and it instantly let me connect with moms who had similar views on parenting. The sling was part of my mommy uniform. It is true. It really was my visual cue to "attachment parent!"

Now, I can wear him safely for short periods of time on my back as long as I don't have to do any forward bends (which are against the LAW now anyway).

But you know what? The first time I ran into a friend and I had him in the stroller 4 people commented on it in a disapproving way!!!! Like I'd suddenly become this detached parent because he wasn't in the sling!

Crazy huh? I actually related to the ad. But I still think it was in poor taste and badly executed.

The forgotten 5th child...

Sprout benefits from all the attention of his siblings. He's mellow, rolls with the punches, erm - more often shoves and crushing bear hugs, and is my earliest talker. He benefits from my relaxed attitude towards a whole host of things.

But come a giftgiving holiday and I am at a loss. Picking gifts for everyone else is easy. They love books, need clothing, have set ideas about toys they'd love. He gets all their hand me downs in every category and really at 14 months he doesn't express a need for anything except attention and bubbas and food. I was packing things to bring to Wakefield and saw the kids each had books and outfit and something from Santa will be coming of course. Then I looked at poor Sprout. His books are really the ones I'll read to the whole family because I felt I had to wrap something for him. His clothes are individually wrapped socks and second hand overalls. There wasn't a toy to be found and what on earth would Santa bring????

I'm REALLY picky about toys too.

Well I did research on PLAN toys and I am just in love with this company and their environmental and social practices (their toys are made from rubberwood trees slated for tearing out and burning. They take them on and keep them growing long enough for them to qualify as ORGANIC - 3 years no spraying etc, and offer their workers all sorts of amazing social programs). So Sprout is getting a little bag of sensory blocks that PLAN designed for autistic children. Part of the amount I spent on them goes to Austism Research. I couldn't feel better about a toy. AND they are super cool too. I can't wait to play with them myself!

Phew!

His Daddy-Oma is sending Chapter's giftcard money and I'll pick him another PLAN toy from their selection too. Nature Girl is hoping I'll get him (ahem) their slicing fruit and veggie set. He does like playing kitchen with us and is obsessed with knives. Theu're out of stock right now so that'll have to wait.

But really, check out PLAN toys...I'm usually suspicious of mass produced wooden toys but this company rocks...and they're inovative enought to come out with natural toys suitable for a 5th child!