As we celebrate the Winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere and the Summer Solstice in the Southern, the Natural Parent Network volunteers would like to wish you and your family Happy Holidays, whatever holiday(s) you may celebrate. As such, we have put together our own rendition of a classic for you. We hope you can take an opportunity to relax and spend time with your loved ones amidst the chaos of the season.
Photo credit: Elena Roussakis
I am proud and honored to be a co-founder of
Natural Parents Network (NPN), a community of natural-minded parents and parents-to-be where you will be informed, empowered, and inspired — and to work with the
many fabulous volunteers who keep NPN running.
When you visit NPN’s website you can find articles and posts about
Activism,
Balance,
Consistent Care,
Ecological Responsibility,
Family Safety,
Feeding With Love,
Gentle Discipline,
Healthy Living,
Holistic Health,
Natural Learning,
Nurturing Touch,
Parenting Philosophies,
Practical Home Help,
Preparing for Parenting,
Responding With Sensitivity,
Safe Sleep, and so much more!
The volunteers who dedicate their time and energy to make NPN the outstanding resource it is also spend countless hours informing and inspiring others on their personal blogs.
This month, the Natural Parents Network volunteers are sharing posts that celebrate books and reading! You will read posts that share some of our volunteers' favorite books and books they recommend you read for the sheer joy of reading. Other posts outline recommended reading as it relates to a wide variety of natural parenting topics. You will also find posts that outline favorite children’s books as well as books that inspire learning or have an educational focus. And, of course, no reading list would be complete without our volunteers' favorite cookbooks and health resources!
I love the attachment parenting principle of responding with sensitivity, because I think that in itself can sum up attached parenting: witnessing your child's needs and meeting them with love.
One thing that's become important to me is realizing that there's no magic formula for responding with sensitivity: Our children's needs are different from another child's, and the needs change as they grow. It's a very in-the-moment process of checking back with your child and yourself to see if you're in tune right now.
When Mikko was born, Sam and I learned quickly that we needed to respond quickly, and often! As a high-needs baby, Mikko needed a lot of help regulating and soothing himself: babywearing, bouncing, walking, white noise, massage, lullabies, and lots and lots of time breastfeeding. We figured out we could put him down for small periods — but only if we kept up the motion: in a bouncy seat with our foot doing the jiggling, or in a baby hammock that rocked him to sleep.
…
When Alrik was born, we discovered a truth we'd guessed: that every baby is different. He's been much more easy-going and independent, confident to forge his own trail even in unfamiliar places. But, still, he knows he can circle back to his home base and that he'll receive the reassurance and reconnection he needs.
Want to read more? Sure thing!
Every month the
joint newsletter from Hobo Mama, Code Name: Mama, and Natural Parents Network wings its way to inboxes all around the world, bringing compelling content like the article I wrote for the July newsletter on Responding With Sensitivity.
So
subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter:
original articles, linked resources around the month's theme, newsletter-exclusive giveaways and deals, fun polls, and more — all delivered right to your inbox!
Subscribe now to get the July 1 issue
with the article above on the rhythm of responsiveness!
The hardest and best thing I ever did when it comes to little ones and sleep? Adjust my expectations.
It's when I'm most stuck in my ideas that I should have a set number of uninterrupted hours of sleep in a particular environment at a particular time that I lose the most sleep! And the sleep that I do get isn't as refreshing or appreciated.
When I can let go of my need for "perfect" sleep, I can enjoy and optimize the sleep opportunities I have as an attachment mother of young children.
…
Here are a few tips as you transition to a new way of thinking about sleep.
Want to read more? Of course, you do!
Every month the
joint newsletter from Hobo Mama, Code Name: Mama, and Natural Parents Network wings its way to inboxes all around the world, bringing compelling content like the article I wrote for the June newsletter on Safe Sleep.
So
subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter:
original articles, linked resources around the month's theme, newsletter-exclusive giveaways and deals, fun polls, and more — all delivered right to your inbox!
Subscribe now to get the June 1 issue with the article above on sleep expectations!
Have you joined
NPN's new Flickr group yet? Over 1,100 beautiful, inspiring, and hilarious photos have already been added to our Flickr pool, and all 150 (and counting!) of our group's members have been
faithfully "starring" their favorite photographs of what natural parenting really looks like, propelling their top picks closer to winning some of the
nearly $1,100 in photography-related prizes offered in our Flickr contest.
Now through
May 15,
visit the Natural Parents Network Flickr Pool — join, if you haven't yet! — and peruse the pics for the ones that speak to you.
Vote for as many as you like by clicking on the star marked "favorite" that appears above the lefthand corner of each photo.
Welcome to the Sunday Surf, a tour of the
best blogposts I've read throughout the week.
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| I'd like to see you be this nonchalant about such stylish headgear. |
A few links on body image this week:
It is a strange state, indeed: neither pregnant, nor out of shape, but showing a visible history of pregnancy. In spite of weighing more and looking different, I was never healthier than when I was pregnant and just after, in large part to the dynamic shift in lifestyle toward eating well and moving more. But we don’t connect health to physical appeal per se, as any healthy person who isn’t thin can tell you. And when a body shows signs of use beyond the sexual or athletic, we don’t seem to know how to respond to it.
In fairness, it’s worth noting that all this is just as shocking to the woman it’s happening to. Pregnancy is an intense transformation, childbirth an even more intense act. The recovery time is complicated and multi-layered. And what we are left with is a body that has created a child and often nourished it for a period of time afterward too. It’s easy to be proud of the act, but we follow that nod with an intense effort toward eradicating all signs of it.
When our children start hearing messages about body image starting in preschool or earlier, how do we instill a positive outlook?
So what do we do? What can we do? In a world where a Victoria’s Secret commercial asks, “What is Sexy?” and proceeds to answer its question with images of women who are all tall and thin with long legs and breasts that are somehow both large and perky, how do we teach our children that sexy is different things to different people, and that more importantly, sexy isn’t the only thing matters? Is it even possible to raise children, girls especially, who grow into adults who feel good about their bodies, even if they don’t fit the “ideal” image that is thrust in their face at every turn?
Recently,
Natural Parents Network launched a
Flickr Photo Pool and corresponding Photo Contest with over
$1000 in photography-related prizes up for grabs for our readers!
Many of you lovely NPN readers have already submitted photos of your beautiful families, showing us what natural parenting really looks like for you in many forms. We are loving the many images that have been added and the opportunity to see the diverse faces of our readers and fellow natural parents. There are almost 500 images added already to the Flickr Pool, and it is turning out to be a very fun way to see and share images of other parents and families like yours!
The April 30 deadline is fast approaching!
Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a fabulous prize package.
Join us for the #NatParNet Twitter Party
Monday, April 15, at 10 p.m. EDT
We are happy to announce that our very first
Natural Parents Network Twitter party will be held Monday, April 15th (yes, tax day!) at 7 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. CDT, 10 p.m. EDT).
Are you interested in learning more about natural parenting? Do you already consider yourself a natural parent? What is
natural parenting? Chat about our favorite topic with Dionna and me —
NPN's cofounders — and a few other of our fabulous NPN volunteers at our first Twitter party, this April 15.
Dionna and I will be
answering YOUR questions about NPN and natural parenting, and there will be a chance to
win prizes from our sponsors!
Our #NatParNet Twitter parties will inform, empower and inspire.
We invite you to join
@NatParNet in our new monthly chats on Twitter. The first of our monthly one-hour online chats will take place at 10 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 15, 2013.
- Connect with like-minded parents.
- Learn more about attachment parenting and natural family living.
- Make new friends and discuss topics that are relevant to your family.
How to participate in our monthly chats:
Welcome to the Sunday Surf, a tour of the
best blogposts I've read throughout the week.
While I was out shopping, I decided to grab some boys.
They were on sale.
Today's Sunday Surf is dedicated to the exciting happenings at
Natural Parents Network. Pull up a chair!
What Natural Parenting REALLY Looks Like! — NPN Flickr photo contest
Win some of the almost
$1100 in prizes by contributing your photos of
"What Natural Parenting Really Looks Like" to the new
Natural Parents Network Flickr Pool.
Photos submitted to the NPN Flickr Pool from now through March 31, 2013, will be considered entries into the contest. Please read the full
Photo Submission/Contest Rules before submitting your photos.
We're looking for high quality, beautiful, tender, funny, but above all
honest digital depictions of natural parenting. We are interested in images that showcase one or more of the
principles of the natural parenting lifestyle.
Please enter only photographs you are comfortable having published on Natural Parents Network (including our social media accounts, newsletters, etc., and with attribution), whose subjects have given their consent to the same. Please caption each submission with the photo's title and a short description.
Each photo must be submitted via Flickr™ to the NPN Flickr Pool. If you do not have a Flickr account, you can sign up for free at
Flickr.com using your Yahoo! or Google ID or Facebook login.
Each group member may add up to four images per day.
Contest is open to all amateur photographers. Please, no watermarks or professional photographs.
From April 1-10, our contestants, readers, and volunteers will vote by "favoriting" the photos they like best. To add a photo to your favorites, sign into your Flickr account, go to the picture you want to "favorite," look at the top left corner of the screen, and click on the star next to the word "favorite." Once the star turns pink, you have "favorited" that photo.
On April 11, our editorial team will tally the votes, and the top twenty photos starred as a “favorite” by the most people will go head-to-head in a voting-enabled featured post from April 15-25 on Natural Parents Network. We encourage you to drum up support for your own photos — or those you admire! — by sharing the link on Facebook and Twitter, as the top eight entries (and the editors' favorite) will win an assortment of fabulous prizes donated from a range of photography-happy Etsy sellers and a place of honor in their very own
Wordless Wednesday post on NPN.
Of course, once the contest ends, the
NPN Flickr pool will remain a great place to share your best photos and get some inspiration. Plus, you never know when your work might pop up on NPN (hint: keep an eye out on
Wednesdays)!
See details at the link, and please share this contest with your parenting friends! We'd love as wide a range of natural parenting photos as possible in our pool and can't wait to see what wonderful photos you submit.
New joint newsletter for Hobo Mama, Natural Parents Network, and Code Name: Mama
If you've
signed up for my email newsletter,
you should now have received your very first issue — hot off the virtual presses!
(If you didn't receive it and think you should have, let me know so I can help troubleshoot your subscription.)
Our fabulous NPN volunteers have stirred together
natural parenting resources, inspiration, original content, exciting giveaways, and exclusive coupons and baked up a monthly newsletter! Dionna and I will have our own corners in each issue, so you'll also get the
latest Hobo Mama news as well. I'm excited to have this newsletter finally reaching your inboxes!
If you haven't subscribed yet,
sign up now, because there are a lot of subscriber-only benefits in store!
Congratulations to all of the Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide Winners!
For a unique heirloom gift that you will treasure for a lifetime, have Destany Fenton paint a portrait of your child or family.
Be sure to like Destany Fenton Fine Art on Facebook!
Help protect the environment with these beautifully functional glass straws.
Be sure to like Glass Dharma on Facebook!
I am proud and honored to be a co-founder of
Natural Parents Network (NPN), a community of natural-minded parents and parents-to-be where you will be informed, empowered, and inspired — and to work with the
many fabulous volunteers who keep NPN running.
When you visit NPN’s website you can find articles and posts about
Activism,
Balance,
Consistent Care,
Ecological Responsibility,
Family Safety,
Feeding With Love,
Gentle Discipline,
Healthy Living,
Holistic Health,
Natural Learning,
Nurturing Touch,
Parenting Philosophies,
Practical Home Help,
Preparing for Parenting,
Responding With Sensitivity,
Safe Sleep, and so much more!
Today I would like to share some bookmark-worthy posts that highlight several wonderful posts from 20 volunteers with the Natural Parents Network. These posts were featured on the personal blogs of the Natural Parents Network volunteers and are some of
the best of 2012.
We hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as we enjoyed writing them. We are always looking for new volunteers so please,
contact us if you are interested.
Just a few hours per month can help other mamas in a huge way!
Most Viewed Post: Why I want to Homeschool / Why I Don't Want to Homeschool
Personal Favorite Post: Hello Mornings
Post I Wish More People Saw: Eating Healthy on the Road
Reminder to enter the
Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide! This spectacular giveaway
ends TOMORROW, November 25!
Head over to enter
our huge giveaway extravaganza:
Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide
Prizes are from 74 companies reviewed by 25 of our NPN volunteers. The companies are giving away 89 products and gift certificates, for a total combined value of $2,550!
Here are
my giveaways from the guide:
Giveaway: 2 Playsilks from BirchLeaf Designs — $26 ARV {11.25; Worldwide}
Shop now with coupon code NPN and
get 10% off through November 25, 2012!
Giveaway: Nursing/Maternity Wear $75 Gift Card & Virtual Bra Fitting from A Mother's Boutique {11.25; Worldwide}
Shop now with coupon code HOBO10 and
get a 10% discount off virtually any item in the store (certain exclusions apply)
through Nov. 25.
Giveaway: 3 Nutcracker Kids Ballet DVDs from Prima Princessa — $21 ARV {11.25; US/Can}
Shop now for these wonderful children's ballet DVDs — only $6.99 so very affordable for any little dancer on your list!
Giveaway: Superhero Cape & Kit (Reversible!) from Pip & Bean — $25 ARV {11.25; Worldwide}
Shop now for these high-quality, affordable capes and other dress-up goodies!
Giveaway and review at ourfeminist{play}school: Poetry of a Hobo Mama: E-book Edition – $10 ARV {11.25; World Wide} {2 copies!}
Shop now with coupon code SAP84AYJ and get 20% off all orders of the trade paperback at
the CreateSpace store through December 31, 2012! And for this weekend only, the price has been reduced even further!
This post is written as part of Blog Action Day. The topic this year is the Power of We.
You can still take part — just post today about how you use community to change the world for the better.
I'm privileged to co-run
Natural Parents Network, which means I get to hang out — both virtually and sometimes, as above, in real life — with an amazing group of
NPN volunteers.
I already knew parenting blogging was pretty special. I've made friends through my blog and learned so much from the writing of the wonderful voices in the blogosphere.
But
getting to know so many of these parents personally took it to a whole new level.
I am proud and honored to be a co-founder and part of the team involved in running
Natural Parents Network (NPN).
Natural Parents Network is a
community of natural-minded parents and parents-to-be where you will be informed, empowered, and inspired to live your values. At NPN, you can find articles about
Activism,
Balance,
Consistent Care,
Ecological Responsibility,
Family Safety,
Feeding With Love,
Gentle Discipline,
Healthy Living,
Holistic Health,
Natural Learning,
Nurturing Touch,
Parenting Philosophies,
Practical Home Help,
Preparing for Parenting,
Responding With Sensitivity,
Safe Sleep, and so much more!
The
volunteers who dedicate their time and energy to making NPN the outstanding resource it is also spend countless hours
informing, empowering, and inspiring others on their personal blogs.
Today I would like to share some bookmark-worthy posts that highlight all aspects of babywearing. These posts were featured on the personal blogs of the
Natural Parents Network volunteers and are some of my favorites. We hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as we enjoyed writing them.
We are
always looking for new volunteers so please
contact us if you are interested. Just a few hours per month can help other parents in a huge way!
Benefits of Babywearing / Reasons To Babywear
Join us as
Natural Parents Network celebrates
World Breastfeeding Week, commemorated in more than 170 countries worldwide August 1-7.
We invite you to come along with us:
- Read the posts on breastfeeding that will go live this week.
- Write your own breastfeeding-related posts, and link them on the bloghop.
- Share the word about World Breastfeeding Week! Grab the code below to paste at the end of any blog post you're linking up to tell others about WBW and encourage them to read all the shared posts.
It's that time again! You might remember the great post in December 2011 that highlighted the
Natural Parents Network volunteers'
most popular or favorite posts from the year. Or what about the March 2012 post that featured
do-it-yourself projects, how-tos, tutorials, and recipes? Well, we are back and this time we are bringing you a collection of posts that focus on what our lives really look like!
Yep — we are giving you a sneak peak into things like a typical day in our life, special or fun outings, or photos that show all of you what parenting looks like for us. Basically, we are keeping it real!
There are a lot of really wonderful posts here that show that even though we blog about our parenting ideals, we really are just regular mamas, getting by one day at a time!
So enjoy seeing a typical day in the trenches!
Laura at WaldenMommy: Life Behind the Red Front Door shares "Just Another Monday." This post appeared in March of 2012 and is a typical busy day with the Herd. You can also find Laura on
Facebook.
Cynthia at The Hippie Housewife shares a typical day in her life, complete with a blood test, a stop at the thrift store, and lots and lots of books. You can also find The Hippie Housewife on
Facebook,
Google+, and
Pinterest.
Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings shares A Day In The Life: Two Years Old, a photo journal commemorating her daughter's second birthday by attempting to capture a sense of the daily routine at this busy stage. You can also find Vibrant Wanderings on
Facebook,
Twitter,
Pinterest, and
Networked Blogs.
Laura at Pug in the Kitchen shares A Busy Day in the Life of her family. This post is a whirlwind look at life two children under the age of 3. You can also find Laura on
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Pinterest.
Momma Jorje shares Typical Visit to the Pediatric Cardiologist + Results. Read her post to see what it is like to take her infant son for regular visits to a cardiologist. You can also find Momma Jorje on
Facebook.
On June 10th 2012, Baby Sean was born. He is truly a miracle baby and both he and his family need our help.
A fellow blogger with
Natural Parents Network shared Baby Sean’s incredible story with us and asked if we could reach out to our friends and fans. Jennifer of
Hybrid Rasta Mama is hoping to raise $1,000 over the next several days to help both baby Sean and his family as they face the lofty challenges in front of them.
Please take a moment and read a little about Baby Sean’s journey and needs as shared by Jennifer.
From 2001 until June 2011, I was fortunate enough to have five of the most caring, uplifting, generous and supportive people caring for my grandmother who suffered from dementia. This family literally fell into our lives and because of their selflessness, my grandmother lived 94 wonderful years. Without the care and support she received, I doubt that my daughter would have had the opportunity to spend two years with a great-grandmother who loved her, even when she did not have a clue who she was.
Caroline was my grandmother’s main caretaker but her entire family (husband Tony and their three young children) did everything that my family could not. They bathed her, they cleaned up her bathroom accidents, they fed her nourishing foods, they told her stories, they took her to concerts, they took her camping, they took her to family events, and the list goes on. They lived with her 24 hours per day, 7 days per week with no time off. They embraced her and together, they become an expanded family.
After my grandmother passed away in June 2011, I not only mourned her death but I mourned the loss of my extended family. Although I knew we would keep in touch, it would still be different.
Welcome to the Sunday Surf, a tour of the
best blogposts I've read throughout the week.
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| Two monkeys |
Not sure why it's so hard to get Sunday Surf done around here lately. It's after 10 p.m. here and this is the first time this weekend I've had a chance to write.
Next weekend we'll be traveling, so I'm not making any promises for getting right back on track…
Mikko is super excited about our road trip. We're driving to California for a family wedding. We'll see how two kiddos do in the car for so long, but I'm excited about it in general. Any tips to pass along? Places to stop between Seattle and San Francisco? Car-ride distractions? Hotel-living advice? Ideas for cloth diapering and ECing on the run?
Since I couldn't get into
Natural Parents Network last week (server hiccup), I've decided to devote the space to catching you up on what's been going on at NPN!
(The last set I stole from
Anktangle, because I wasn't able to grab them myself! If you look at the slide
in her post, it's the first one Mikko went down as well at about that age, in our nearby playground. Or maybe he was older. He's not that athletically inclined, heh heh. I remember being just as excited, too!)
Carnival & bloghop news:
It was Carnival of Natural Parenting week, and we had a wonderful variety of
positive birth stories — C-sections, unmedicated births, medicated births, homebirths, hospital births, unattended births — you name it. Some of us are healing from painful experiences, and some of us look back with wholehearted joy, but either way we all found something to appreciate and love in our birth journeys. Please read and enjoy the many links.
The theme is Summer Fun for Children, and it's hosted at ChildOrganics.
Hop on over this week to link up your new and old posts on the subject! You have until next Sunday, June 24.
I've posted my
response to the TIME Magazine attachment parenting cover story controversy at BlogHer.
Dionna of
Code Name: Mama and my cofounder at
Natural Parents Network is luminous
model #3 in the
TIME story (that's her behind the scenes at right). I was up for being one of the
extended breastfeeding families photographed for TIME, and I'm alternately jealous and relieved I wasn't chosen, because — hoo, boy, what a firestorm the media like to create.
I comment on the narrow focus (thin, white women) and sensationalistic slant of the article and advocate for a call to community:
My general take on The Mommy Wars, the beautiful AP families who modeled for the magazine, the unfortunate slant of the TIME article, and the horrific comments some people have made on various sites is this: We're all parenting the best we know how. We're doing what works for us and our families. We don't need to set up barriers that don't exist between parents who are all doing what we can to raise healthy, happy children.
Read more »
.png "Top posts of 2012 from natural parenting writers = Hobo Mama")
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. 
