We continue to be delighted with the inspiration and wisdom our Carnival of Natural Parenting participants share, and we hope you'll join us for the next carnival in January 2012! (Check out our 2011 posts if you missed any:
January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
July,
August,
September,
October, and
November.)
Your co-hosts are
Lauren at Hobo Mama and
Dionna at Code Name: Mama.
Here are the submission details for January 2012:
Theme: Experiments in Natural Family Living: Have you ever been curious about trying a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, going no 'poo, or doing something else to make your life (or your family's life) more natural or green? Try something for at least a week sometime before January's carnival and then share your experiences in your post.
For ideas on what to try, see our post "Choose your experiment in natural family living."
Deadline:
Tuesday, January 3. Fill out the
webform (at the link or at the bottom) and email your submission to us by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time: CarNatPar {at} NaturalParentsNetwork.com
Carnival date: Tuesday, January 10. Before you post, we will send you an email with a little blurb in html to paste into your submission that will introduce the carnival. You will publish your post on January 10 and email us the link if you haven't done so already. Once everyone's posts are published on January 10 by noon Eastern time, we will send out a finalized list of all the participants' links to generate lots of link love for your site! We'll include full instructions in the email we send before the posting date.
affiliate links in post
Welcome to the Safe Cosleeping Blog Carnival
This post was written for inclusion in the Safe Cosleeping Blog Carnival hosted by Monkey Butt Junction. Our bloggers have written on so many different aspects of cosleeping. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
Since my husband and I share a bed with our four-year-old, Mikko, we knew we needed to figure out logistics when adding a baby, Alrik, into the mix.
Here are some precautions we've taken for four in the bed:
Separate the baby and the older sibling:
Mikko sleeps like many four-year-olds: erratically. He'll often end up upside-down, flopped over my hip, or even on the floor. I knew a big part of Alrik's safety was protecting him from his big brother.
Before Alrik's arrival, Mikko slept cozily in between Sam and me, but much closer to me. Because I know even having a partner near a baby isn't safe, Sam slept on one edge of our king-size mattress, and Mikko and I slept on the other. My body protected Mikko from rolling off onto the floor or into a crack. As Mikko grew older and there was no longer any worry about rolling onto him, he took the initiative of sometimes sleeping cuddled up to Sam, sometimes to me, sometimes to both of us. He liked being in the middle — but I thought that's where Alrik should be.
Even though we have a king-size mattress (on the floor), we started feeling a little squishy with four of us in bed when Alrik was born. At first, we tried moving Mikko onto a small crib mattress placed next to ours. I would get him to sleep in the big bed, and Sam would move him over when we were ready to sleep. However, it backfired — Mikko wouldn't wake up when transferred, but he would sometime during each night, at which point he would clamber over Sam to get to me.
I realized immediately that I couldn't leave Alrik between Sam and me as I had done with Mikko as a baby, so I exclusively began having Alrik sleep on the far side of the mattress, then me, then Mikko, then Sam on his side.
Somewhere I have a picture of this little mattress next to our bed, but here it is in the second bedroom, where we also tried it out. Same thing, though — Sam could get Mikko down to sleep elsewhere, but then he'd usually end up back in bed with me. How can I disagree? Cosleeping is some snuggly stuff.
Supervise their sleep together.
We put Mikko down to bed before Sam and I go to sleep. However, this means that Alrik usually goes down before Mikko, which would then leave them in bed alone together.
Alrik solves this by refusing to stay asleep without me making body contact, leading me to believe we wouldn't get much sleep if we weren't cosleeping. Alrik snoozes on my lap or Sam's downstairs until Sam and I are ready to go to bed.
Mikko's past the napping age, but if he were still napping, I would stay in the bed with them both, as I do now for most of Alrik's naps, or check back every few minutes to supervise, as I do the rest of the time with Alrik's naps.
(We had an Amby baby hammock for Mikko's naps when he was a baby, but it's since been recalled and the company has gone out of business — eek — so we don't use it for Alrik.)
Welcome to the December Mindful Mama Carnival: Staying Mindful During the Holiday Season
This post was written for inclusion in the Mindful Mama Carnival hosted by Becoming Crunchy and TouchstoneZ. This month our participants have shared how they stay mindful during the holiday season. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
I've always loved the season of Advent, and the traditional celebration of the
weeks leading up to Christmas as practiced by the Christian church. Growing up, we
lit candles in our Advent wreath at every suppertime (and squabbled over who got to blow them out).
1 We followed along every Sunday at church with the big Advent wreath, often being one of the families who volunteered to come up front and lead that week's lighting.
2 This year, we've found a way to incorporate the celebration into our own family.
I know this is the Mindful Mama Carnival, but I have to give credit to a
mindful papa. It's Sam who's spearheaded our celebrations and come up with what we've done week to week.
A little background: We started going to a new church just before Alrik's birth, and our attendance has been … spotty. Part of that is finding a good way for Mikko to worship with us (a
perpetual problem). He hasn't wanted to go to the nursery or children's church (too scary), but he also hasn't wanted to sit quietly in the service (boooring). On the Sunday before Advent started, I had finally convinced him to stay in the nursery with Alrik and me, so the three of us missed the service. Sam, who was in the service, brought home an Advent guide that had been handed out. We fully intended to go to church the next two weeks … and missed both of them. Oops! Good thing we had a
handy Advent guide.
So, anyway, that first skipped week, the first Sunday of Advent, Sam baked some
"Jesus bread"3 with Mikko (see above photo), then pulled some chairs into a circle near the electronic keyboard. I think the idea was that I would play the songs for that week, but the booklet didn't include the music, so we went
a capella. We read some Bible passages, sang the suggested Advent hymn (
"Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus"
) and children's song (
"Jesus Loves Me"
) while shaking random percussive instruments (even Alrik, although he added an element of drool), and broke some Jesus bread together. It was like a little
home church service, or what I like to think of as detention for skipping church.
The next week, we did it again.
I'll tell you
what I'm taking away from this Advent celebration. I realize so far this has been very religion-centric because that's how it looks in our house, but I'm hoping it can benefit those of you who have a different faith or none at all.
Separating Advent into weeks makes the wait more manageable for a child.
When we told Mikko there were 24 sleeps till Christmas (or whatever number we were on — I think he started asking immediately after Thanksgiving, actually), we might as well have told him there was a googol of sleeps left.
"Why it take so yong time!" he lamented. (I will be so sad when he learns how to pronounce Ls, let me tell you.) Saying four weeks (although it's kind of five weeks this year, with Christmas on a Sunday — on which we will likely skip church again) is less unreasonable for a little kid.
Showing the weeks passing makes it more concrete for a child.
We're using
24-day Advent calendars as well, but there's something satisfying about four candles around an Advent wreath. Watching one candle lit per week and, if you're using real candles, seeing the earlier ones burn down lower than the later ones,
takes the waiting out of the abstract and into the real.
We are hosting a gingerbread house decorating party today, so I have to get downstairs to where the action is! Hope with me that Alrik stays asleep for his nap once I abandon him…
Ok, bear with me here as I explain the backstory. I wrote this post — “
Why I am not as fabulous a parent as my blog suggests“ — wherein I talk about, well, just that, plus feature some pictures of
EasyLunchboxes because combining two items in one compartment was the trigger for this huge tantrum that almost made me start tantruming in tandem.
Kelly Lester, the owner of EasyLunchboxes, was inspired to write up
this post on her blog in response:
Most of the things you read on my website and this blog, not to mention what you see in my videos, would lead you to believe that I always wear heels and an apron in the kitchen, where I enjoy every. single. minute of packing perfectly balanced rainbow colored lunches for my children, in between sharing household and parenting tips with my fans via every social media platform on the planet. My lipstick is red and my smile is bright to welcome my husband, who sweeps in with roses from our garden which has not one piece of fence that needs mending. […]
I often work in my pajamas till mid-afternoon, sometimes I’m so busy I don’t even wash my face till I go to bed at night (that’s so gross), I pretty much can’t stand cooking (even though I do it and I’m fairly good at it), the girls pretty much hate helping around the house , and I’m way too often short with them and the hubby. In fact, I don’t spend nearly as much time with them as I should, simply because I’m working. What’s THAT about? Of course family is more important than work she said while typing this post, listening to all of them in the other room without me.
As much as I love the pretty-pretty of parenting blogging (because that can be
just as real), I appreciate the bloggers who confess, who cut away the masks and let us see parenting-as-it-is.
Incidentally, I was inspired to ask Kelly to host a giveaway of EasyLunchboxes, which has gone live today:
So how’s that for synergy? Head over to try to win a set for yourself — but do not,under any circumstances, combine two foods in a single compartment. Or you will bear the unholy wrath of a four-year-old. You have been warned.
From utilities to wrapping paper to holiday cards, great ways to keep expenses down at the holidays!
Love this post on the Victoria’s Secret catalog vs. real-life mothers, particularly the part where she muses on which clothes are nursing-friendly, and then this:
I began imagining the catalog with real-life moms as models, something like a Victoria’s Secret meets The Shape of a Mother. In this imaginary catalog, stretch marks and green and purple veins radiate from the tops of push-up bras. Thighs are rippled rather than taut, just as nature intended. Calves resemble topographical maps with varicosities forming the contour lines. The exposed midriffs look deflated or doughy, depending on whether the model is contracting her transverse abdominals or not. Flesh yields to elastic waistbands. I know some of these models are moms, but I don’t understand how they’ve avoided stretch marks, cellulite, and that inelastic skin on their bellies that I thought was universal.
This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked "Win it!" for the mandatory main entry and optional bonus entries.
EasyLunchboxes is offering our readers a giveaway of a
Bento Lunch Box System: a container set and one cooler lunch bag (winner chooses color), a value of $21.90.
This system is a
sustainable and eco-friendly way to carry meals and snacks on the go! EasyLunchboxes are the perfect solution for
packing lunches and snacks for school, preschool, daycare, work, playdates, family outings, or any time you need to bring your own healthy meal — without a lot of waste.
Get a jump on your New Year's resolution to stop brown bagging it or paying too much for lunch out, and enter to win one of these fun and environmentally conscious
bento lunch box sets!
We actually won a set of EasyLunchboxes in a giveaway (so I'm here to tell you it can be done!), and Mikko was excited to immediately put them to use for
picnics and snacks out. Since Mikko was three at the time and in only a half-day preschool twice a week, and since Sam and I worked exclusively from home, we didn't need them for traditional purposes perhaps, but they still came in handy, and do even more so now.
Sam now works
part of the time from an outside office and has to bring his own sustenance since there's no other possibility within walking distance. We also take turns bringing our (now) two boys
out for excursions, and it works well to
bring along healthy and kid-approved food to eat.
I can see EasyLunchboxes being ideal for whenever you or someone in your family
would otherwise pack a meal or eat out:
- School lunches
- Preschool or daycare snacks and meals
- Allergy-friendly foods
- Playdates
- Running errands
- Working in an office
The containers are
so much better quality than those disposable brands (
read bento bloggers' unsolicited opinions here!) – a very sturdy polypropylene. Each is
subdivided into three compartments, so you can get your bento on.
We don't get all that fancy — here are some crackers, hummus to dip, and some yummy cheese slices.
But other people have gotten
way creative, as seen from
fan bento lunch pics on the EasyLunchboxes site:
I like that the compartments
separate the meal or snack components, giving you options for making fun combinations (and forgoing gross ones!).
No matter what you put in them, you'll know you're giving your family the benefit of
your healthy, homemade meals — and
saving money to boot! You're also
creating less waste by opting for a reusable lunch container over plastic baggies, and portioning out your own family-size foods and leftovers over store-bought single-serve items.
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. 
