You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2009.
I couldn’t believe it! It scared him a little bit, he cried for a second while sitting there pushing and then he got a little scared of the result… I praised him endlessly and made a whole big deal of it, we flushed it together in the “big kids potty” and after all that he did a little dancing in celebration. He was, in the end, very proud of his work. I guess it’s the only time in life that we get to celebrate poop, so we must do it well.
It was nearly 90 degrees here this weekend and I was loving it. I have missed summer and being hot so much and we have had such a cold spring so far. This weekend we played outside the entire time and today we went to a local beach. The boys had a blast. When I put them to bed, I usually recount the day we had together so they have some time for reflection and remembering, and I ask them whether they liked this or that or if they remember what I am talking about. I said “Did you like the beach today?” and Lucas said “Yeah, Yeah.” I said “Did you like playing with the sticks in the sand?” Eliot said “mmmmm.”
Yep. In the potty at 19 months. What a genius.
After all this time going back and forth, we are moving back to Paris. Who knows for how long, probably several years, the good news is that we’ll be keeping our house here in Hastings, and eventually returning to it. I am adjusting mentally and expecting to have a good time, expecting to create it for myself and for the happiness of the babies. We all need happy mothers. Just please, Paris, have a sunny summer, I need the sun. There are things to look forward to: travelling again. We expect to go to Germany and visit Bertram’s parents often, we’ll be in Greece for a friend’s wedding, a possible month long trip to Bali, and several trips within France. Linguistic progress. My French is frustrating and I intend to get myself over the hump. The babies will become tri-lingual and that will be a beautiful thing to watch.
We will be leaving the first of June and I will keep everyone posted and full of pictures…. my moving gift is a NEW DIGITAL CAMERA! Mine is currently reading “error message” and that is not good.
On a constant quest to become a better, more adequately responsive, fair and consistent mother, I have been reading up on toddlerhood. It is facinating. I find the combonation of field research and reading to be endlessly rewarding with the boys. As they change, so need I. There are pleanty of books out there on this subject, and beware, pleanty of terrible ones. I feel equipted to weed out the good ones (there are few) and have been really moved by a couple in particular. They have helped me make some important changes in the way I interact with and react to the babies and in the environment I provide for them. By request, for those that are interested in looking into any of this, here are the books I have found to be the best and most rewarding so far:
The Emotional Life of the Toddler by Alicia Leiberman
The First Three Years of Life by Burton White
Making the Terrible Twos Terrific by John Rosemond
