Fostering a Love of Learning

The main thing that I love about Montessori is that if done correctly you can end up with a child who loves to learn who is curious about the amazing world around us. Personally I lost my love of learning when middle school hit, I had no desire to attend college and hardly cared about high school. After having a child however I wanted to learn, not just to teach him but for me. Now there is little I enjoy as much as I do learning, particularly about history. I have been attending school online for awhile, and before it was all just to learn everything I could about anything that interested me. Now however I have decided to finally be degree seeking, and now that we are no longer military it's going to cost a small fortune to finally get that piece of paper in my hand.
I want my children to love learning, and have a strong desire to know all that they can. So instead of rushing on walks we stop and explore everything from bugs to cracks in the side walk. We read as much as we can and any time a question arises I do all I can to answer it to the greatest degree of my knowledge and their level of understanding.

The Soul Soother

There is something about little little that brings this amazing peace to you when he is close. I always get a sense of peace when I am around my boys even when things are pure chaos but there is something about this little man that just soothes the soul. I am so excited to see what kind of person he becomes as he grows older, and I hope he never looses this sense of peace he carries around with him.

Montessori Materials

With Little Little's first bday fast approaching I have been on the look out for fun educational things, I got all of this from Adena Montessori. They have amazing prices for Montessori materials, which are super expensive and defiantly not in the average budget. Although they were all listed in the infant/toddler section  the discs on dowels are not going to be put in the rotation for awhile, although his brother may have fun with them. So for now he is going to have the circle puzzles, Horizontal Dowel Variation ,and imbucare Box w/ Large Cylinder.  I am very excited to see what he thinks of them. He isn't one for normal toys so I think they should work out great, at the moment his favorite toy is rhythm sticks. There is nothing better than a toy you can both chew and beat everything in sight with! There are a few more things on the way that I know he will love, this is the first birthday we are going all natural and I am super excited about it. Not that we won't buy plastic toys or little metal cars (I have boys after all what kind of mom would I be if we didn't have hot wheels in our house?) I cannot wait for his little wooden animal to get here. Here's to hoping he loves it all if not just some of it!

Behavior

Big little and I seem to butt heads often, and since his dad has been gone for longer periods of time over the day with work, behavior has become a major issue. I know I need to work on patience (that is one virtue I have the hardest time possessing) and change something in our daily life to fix whatever the problem is but I just don't know what! He can be the sweetest person out there, he is loving and kind and on the flip side he is crazy hyper and the most defiant child I have ever met (if you know me you know where he gets this from) I think a lot of the head butting is how similar we are but, I just am not sure what to do at this point. I need to finish simplicity parenting (any guide to calmer kids should be read by all adults in this house). Being a parent is such a tough thing, you love them more than anything and who doesn't want the absolute best for their kids? In those bad moments I have flashes of those kids you see and die a little inside for their parents, or thoughts of all those messed up adults who according to their psychologists their parents are to blame for every bad thing in their lives/things they have done. Finding a good balance of everything is hard especially since every child needs one that is tailored to them. I wish that the desire to raise happy healthy children would solve it all, at this point though I am willing to try anything. No form of punishment seems to phase him, and positive re-enforcement worked about half the time (the time that he is normally well behaved any ways). I never realized quiet what a worry being a parent would be I knew it would be bad, but this is defiantly exceeding my expectations.

Germany

Down our street, an old smelly barn and a beautiful church!

Gladbach, our German Village.

It may be that living abroad was a dream I have had since childhood, but I just can't seem to stop missing Germany. Three years of our married lives we got the amazing chance to live in a foreign country, it's where Big little went from a baby to a boy, and it's where we brought Little little home for the first time. It's such an amazing country with such a turbulent past. Where we lived was a tiny village ( Honestly tiny) it was picturesque and beautiful and over a thousand years old. No where in America (that I have seen) has tiny villages that are so beautiful usually the smaller it is here the more ghetto. We had awesome neighbors who did all sorts of things we thought odd but who were always friendly and willing to help us. The boys had their German Oma and Opa who gave them candy every single time we went over. I loved how driving to our village was like driving in the mountains. The airport has been one of my favorite places since I can remember, any where with that amount of possibility has to be. Germany was like that but even better, even just a walk in the woods or a stroll down to our village park was always enjoyable. The food was amazing and the chance to go to a new country where you didn't speak the language and the customs were unknown was always a possibility. My love of history grew even more, as did my love of architecture and for people. My not so secret secret hope is that one day we will get a chance to live abroad again, I'd go pretty much anywhere. If I got to choose though I would opt for Ireland my favorite place we saw, or of course for Round 2 of  Deutschland!

Round 2

It's amazing how many things you have down to a science by the time your second one comes along. Everything from birthing to feeding flows so much smoother the second time around. My first birthing experience was way to medically involved. They believed my water had broke (the pre-sack did) and since no one bothered to check me I was put on pitocin and 43 hours later the pushing (for 2.5 hours mind you) began.  It was nothing like what I had hoped for. If it had been my second baby I would have left the hospital if I had ever gone in besides for a quick check, and waited at home for labor to actually begin. My baby was whisked away for hours on end, and being to timid I didn't demand the things I had rights to (it took them over four hours before the pleading finally allowed me to see him). The second time around I went over my due date, I had a completely natural birth (Warnings that it hurt like hell didn't quiet do it justice) in a tub in a German hospital, we got skin to skin immediately and shortly after the birth we had our first latch on.
With Big little I would hide myself away to nurse, being entirely to prudish for anyone's good. So he was supplemented (Not that I see this as a bad thing in the least bit, you do what works for you and this time that's what worked for us) with little little he has never had formula we have had no need (thank you nursing cover) I have loved nursing this time around I don't feel like I have to hermit myself away to give my baby what I need.
We now know that following the rhythm of the child is what we need to do as often as possible, before he got used to ours. Both boys have learned to deal with different situations (Travel being our number one) that don't go along with what they always want. One of the best things I have done for both boys is baby wearing. I LOVE it, and so did both of them the benefits both mentally and emotionally have been huge for us. They get to see what we are doing and how we do it, and they get the closeness we both desire.
Little little came into an environment where we read more, and focus more on following their whims on things like walks. It may take us half an hour to walk half a block sometimes but we enjoy it. I wish I had known everything I know now sometimes. But that learning curve is something to be enjoyed. There are things I would do different if I could go back but I am so glad for every step we took along the way that has got us where we are now, I can honestly say I love the place we are in as a family, as parents, and as spouses.

Sleeping Methods

I am not one for co-sleeping once we hit a certain age (The one where someone knows I will nurse at any given point through out the night just for some sleep) After reading Bringin up Bebe our next child may be weaned of night nursing a little earlier than this one was, we finally accomplished this a month or two ago and sleeping through the night with out nursing has its ups and downs. I loved nursing at night since it was our one time just us, cuddling. We believe in crying it out, but to what extent? Some nights our boys will cry for ridiculous amounts of time. One has growing pains, and sharing a room that often means both wake up. When it comes to pain or nightmares how long do you cuddle and soothe for? My parents were the best when it came to this I don't remember having to go to sleep afraid if I needed them. I think laying there in the toddler bed for longer periods of time is something I need to work on. No matter how sweaty, uncomfortable, and how much crying ensues from the other child. I love every minute of it and need to let other things go and focus on the beautiful moments I have with my boys while they are still little.