I brought the boys to the neighborhood we lived in
before they were born for a trek in the woods.

It's a gorgeous location.

It's steep, though, which was scary at first.

Eventually they thought the hills were the best part.

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 April 2014!(Check out May, April, March, February, January 2014, December 2013, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, January, and summaries of all our 2012 posts and 2011 posts if you missed any.)

Your co-hosts are Dionna at Code Name: Mama and Lauren at Hobo Mama.


Here are the submission details for June 2014:

Theme: Kids and Animals: How do your children interact with other critters? What kinds of pets do you have, and what lessons have your kids learned through caring for them? How else do you encounter other creatures, and what do these relationships mean to your family? Carnival posting: June 10.

Deadline: Tuesday, June 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, June 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 June 10 and email us the link if you haven't done so already. Once everyone's posts are published on June 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.

We explored a new playground and got some shots of the kids
enjoying contraptions they'd never seen before.

Mikko loved this spiderweb-ball thing.

Fortunately it didn't trap him.

Alrik on the slide.

Cool action shot!

Time for a music break!

I adore this song from Dar Williams, "The One Who Knows":


It really speaks to how I want to be as a mother.

All the things you treasure most
will be the hardest won.
I will watch you struggle long
before the answers come.
But I won't make it harder —
I'll be there to cheer you on.
I'll shine the light that guides you down
the road you're walking on.

Every time I hear those lines, I think: Yes! I don't want to make it harder. There's enough of struggle in growing as it is, and it's not my job to add to it.

I wrote this diary as we were trying to conceive our third child. I'm currently eighteen weeks pregnant and happy to share it with you now.

I don't share when we're trying to conceive. I never have, through three pregnancies so far. It just feels odd to me, for people to know, to be waiting, to be pushing us to test, to reveal — I guess I fear it will make us more anxious, and the wait less special, less of a delicious secret between Sam and me.

But I think the pre-conception thoughts are interesting to share, so I've decided to write this diary, to be published whenever it feels right.


December 18, 2013
I've boiled my DivaCup, and I wonder if — and hope — it's the last time for a good long while. I looked at it while it was cooling in the dish rack and thought how sad I'll be if next month comes around again and I'm using it.

My ovulation date is — get this — Christmas. I think this is so cool. As long as we can sneak away from the kids this week, we'll be golden.

Alrik's been busy with some parent-tot classes this spring, taking swimming, soccer,
and now gymnastics. He LOVES gymnastics.

Jumping into the foam pit is such a rush!

Rolling down the incline.

He prefers his own patented balance-beam move: The Waddle.