July Photos Posted

On the docket this month: teeth, elimination communication, and accessories.

But this girl takes accessorizing seriously. You'll see Abby wearing an amber teething necklace in most of the photos. When worn against the skin, the amber heats up and releases minuscule amounts of resin that supposedly has healing properties. Yes, we are hippies. But we figure it can't hurt, and she seems to have less teething-related pain while wearing it.

 

Review: Shelf Monkey

Title: Shelf Monkey
Author: Corey Redekop
Category: Fiction
Rating: 3/5
Summary: A clinically depressed bookworm gets a job at a mega-bookstore.

Review: Witty at every turn. I liked all the book and author references, although I wasn't familiar with a lot of them. (And I thought I was a bookworm!) I didn't really believe the main characters' actions at the climax, but it was still an enjoyable enough read.

Review: The Diaper-Free Baby

Title: The Diaper-Free Baby: The Natural Toilet Training Alternative
Author: Christine Gross-Loh
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: A mother of two shares tools and information you can use to practice elimination communication (EC) with your children.

Review: Out of all the EC books out there, I chose to read this one because it sounded like a more laidback approach. It was, and I'm glad for that. My main hesitation to EC was the idea that I'd have to watch Abby like a hawk 24-7 to catch every elimination. So it was refreshing to read about examples of parents who successfully practice EC only some of the time. The book is organized by age of the child, so there's some repetition, but I didn't mind the reinforcement of the concepts. You could read just the part that applies to your child's age, which is a nice option to have.

If you're interested in EC, this book is a good place to start.

To Catch a Pee

I bought The Diaper-Free Baby: The Natural Toilet Training Alternative before Abby was born, fully intending to read it before she arrived. That didn't happen.

Then right after she was born, I had lots of time to read during her 30- to 45-minute nursing sessions, but I was not in the mood to read about baby stuff. And what's more, the idea of practicing elimination communication (EC) just stressed me out. When I was learning so many new things in those first 3 months, I couldn't fathom adding something that wasn't absolutely necessary. So the book sat on the bookshelf.

The last few weeks, I've finally been feeling ready to read it. The clincher was some friends of ours with a 1-year-old telling me they'd like to us to try it out so they can live vicariously through us and hear how it goes. This week, I started reading the book.

The gist of EC is that babies do not inherently like to sit in their own waste. So you learn your baby's signals for when she's about to eliminate so you can take her to the toilet (or her own little potty), avoiding a situation where she's sitting in her own waste. And by learning to communicate with your baby about her elimination needs, you're creating a valuable foundation for potty-training later. In fact, many EC babies end up potty-trained earlier than other babies. And how much more "green" can you get than avoiding the cloth or disposable debate altogether?

Also, here's something I didn't know that I wish I had before Abby was born: Some parents practice EC 24-7, while others practice it occasionally. Some EC babies go without diapers entirely, some wear them only some of the time, while others still wear diapers all the time. I had this vision in my head that Abby would have to be diaper-free all day every day, and I would have to pay constant attention to her facial expressions so as not to get peed on. But it doesn't have to be like that.

The book says babies typically eliminate at certain times of the day—soon after waking from a nap, during or after a feeding, or soon after being taken out of a sling/wrap or car seat. So a couple days ago, I decided to see if Abby followed those patterns. Each time she woke up from a nap, I took her diaper off and laid her on a clean prefold diaper. And sure enough, she peed within 5-10 minutes of waking up. I removed the prefold and put on a clean diaper, and she didn't have to sit in her own pee for 2 hours before her next diaper change. I was hooked.

My next step was to see if I could get her to pee in the toilet. Yesterday after her morning nap, I took her diaper off and held her over the toilet. And my little 4-month-old daughter peed in the toilet! Then Erik tried later that day and she peed in the toilet again.

If only I had known it would be so easy, I wouldn't have been so overwhelmed with the idea right after she was born.

Now excuse me while I go print this post and get it laminated so it's handy for when Abby's first boyfriend comes to the house...

Review: Me and the Pumpkin Queen

Title: Me and the Pumpkin Queen
Author: Marlane Kennedy
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: 11-year-old Mildred starts growing giant pumpkins as a way to reconnect with her mom who passed away when she was 6.

Review: The best parts of this book were the ones about growing giant pumpkins. It's easy to see the author did her homework on the topic. The story was alright, but a few things bothered me: Mildred didn't always sound 11 years old—saying things like "to no avail," when it wasn't part of her character to be precocious. A few parts weren't really necessary and slowed the story down, like stepping the reader through every single thing Mildred does when she gets home from school one day. And finally, there were a few things that didn't feel resolved, like a mention of how the dad and his co-worker should go on a date but it's never mentioned again.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this unless you're really into pumpkins.

June Photos Posted

You won't want to miss the June batch...we finally caught Abby laughing on camera!