Having a dog "brother" is great

Stickers. Teodor loves sticking them.

I think it's great for a child to grow up with a pet brother/sister. I would probably not call Charlie my son like ever, but Teodor and him feel quite like brothers, you know, they like similar stuff (e.g. running after a ball, cuddling with me, begging for food when I'm eating,..) and they seem to be connected on a totally different level than me and Charlie. 

I believe having a dog brother teaches Teodor about shared attention (even though he gets much more of it than poor Charlie, he still learns that he is not the only one with needs) and also to care about others (no, he cannot pull Charlie's hair because it's painful for the dog)

It must be great to have a companion to play/cuddle with who is not twice bigger than you. Somebody who is fluffy, warm and loving. Somebody who will always eat your food. Somebody to share your secretest secrets...

Of course, having a dog sometimes annoys me (it seems like it would be easier just to have a baby), for example when he decides to bark while I try to make the toddler sleep, or when Teodor sees him in the morning at 6am, he is all ready to cuddle and play with the dog, which I am not. On the other hand, it is so sweet when Charlie runs to crying Teodor and licks his face to comfort him.

This is Teodor trying to cuddle with Charlie who is trying to play with his duck...I'm trying to teach Teodor to leave Charlie alone when he is in his bed...not very successfully, though.

Catching the bubble

Isn't it amazing how well he is already walking?

He starts to play his own first games...

...and it's adorable. No pictures, though.

1) He offers me something he has in his hands, when I reach for it, he takes it back and starts laughing. When I go back to my initial place, he offers me the thing again. And he won't give it to me again. And he laughs.

2) He likes to hide things under the pillow and pretend he doesn't know where it is. (it's Charlie's favourite game, too) Variation: He hides it, he finds it, he is happy.

3) He is trying to make me laugh. Him laughing makes me laugh. I love him so much :) He is becoming so interactive in the last few days and I love it.

4) Today he played fetch :) I threw a plush toy to Charlie and they both ran to get it. He loves to run now. It's great to have a dog, so they can run together. The other day they found a ball in the playground and Teodor was chasing Charlie and I was just sitting watching, they got tired just on their own :)

I feel like the coolest mum on the block...

...because I let him play in the puddles. :-)

¨

...and also because we take a toddler walk twice a day, rain or shine, we take only one when it's super-windy. Ok, we take the walks because we have to, we have a dog who has needs, but still, I could stuff him in the stroller and be done with the walk within ten minutes.

I really believe he benefits from both, he is learning about the world around him, he is building his immunity, hopefully building a good relationship with physical activity (we generally don't use the stroller any more, only if going places) and he is getting familiar with our neighbourhood. I am surprised we don't meet other mothers with toddlers (I saw a few going somewhere but never seen anybody taking a toddler walk), it would be fun to walk in flocks...

(yes, this was a self-praising post, sometimes you have to do it yourself if nobody else does :)

Montessori or Waldorf animals?

I want to get some animals for T., but I can't decide whether to take real-life looking Schleich animals or handcrafted wooden? I guess for now Schleich would be better but later, for imaginative play, would be better wooden, or get both? What would you take? (comments will be highly appreciated ;)

fler.cz, mokrous

picture from google

Chores

I do most of the house chores with Teodor, it takes more time and sometimes more energy, but doing so teaches him that things don't happen on their own, it makes him feel useful (he puts the dish-washing tablet into the dishwasher, helps me to empty the dishwasher, helps me un/load the washing machine/dryer,...) and most of all it makes him busy with real stuff. There are some chores I don't feel safe for him to help with like cleaning the toilet or washing the windows, I either do it when he sleeps or put him in the carrier and on my back, so he still gets the experience of the things being done.
The best thing out of this attitude is that I have a lot of free time while he's sleeping, which I can waste on the Internet or spend productively by reading! :-)

Practical Life: Self-care: Self-spoon-feeding

I always thought I would be the cool parent who doesn't mind the mess, but unfortunately I am not that kind of a mom. Mostly because it's me who has to clean the mess afterwards and I just feel like it's waste of time and resources if I can spoon-feed him in 10 minutes without spending another 15 minutes with cleaning the baby, his high-chair, table, table top, the dog (he has the nasty habit to be always in the way),...you get the picture. But lately it was becoming quite challenging to make him busy (can you see the amount of toys on his table top?), so he would open his mouth and ate properly. I took it as a wake-up call. He should get busy by feeding himself, it sounded like a pretty smart idea.

Three days ago, when a friend was visiting, I decided it was the right time to start, she was a great way how to channel my freakiness and we both laughed at him getting dirty :) (I decided not to take any more pictures of him eating because I don't want to give him the idea that getting messy while eating is something worth picture-taking). 

Side note: I had tried to give him a spoon many times before with the idea that we both would be feeding him, but it didn't work. I had to let myself go fully out of the process, letting him do his best. 

It's been three days now and every feeding is different: he likes to get dirty with dairy products, he is quite neat with lunch/dinner purees, he sometimes like to feed me, then I feed him (he puts the spoon in my mouth, I put mine in his), he is not allowed to spoon-feed the dog, though, this morning he was too lazy to feed himself and preferred to play with the dental floss...I try not to push it. I try to be ok with the fact he doesn't eat much now (but he breastfeeds during the day and night, so I am not worried that much that he wouldn't be getting enough of nutrients), I try to be ok with the fact I change his T-shirts a few times per day. I try to be fine with finding broccoli in his ears just before bedtime, I try to not to push him to put food properly on the spoon because he has no problem with putting an empty spoon in his mouth couple of times in a row...I can already see the progress, the coordination eye-hand-mouth is getting better, I hope to have a neat eater in half a year :)

Livie and Luca Fox shoes

Teodor received his first real (barefoot) shoes today!

When I opened the package (sorry, no fancy picture of the box, my camera is out of battery) and took them out, I was surprised how tough they felt compared to my Vivobarefoot shoes, the sole was almost as flexible as Teodor's Primigi shoes (which are one of the softest shoes in a non-barefoot toddler shoe department), which made me feel quite disappointed and annoyed. Luckily, they got softer after a few minutes of rolling and bending, also taking them for the first walk probably helped. 

Teodor walked a lit bit strangely in them, I guess he has to get used to the fact they are not as soft as Stonz? But he managed to walk the same distance as we usually walk with Charlie, so they must be comfy, he is not able to walk "far" in his Primigi sneakers. 

 

The down side: 

They are not very easy to put on.

They do not have removable lining, so it's impossible to check the fit against his foot. Considering the fact his feet have grown 1.5cm in the last month and half, I want to be sure, they are not running small, they are only 0.5cm bigger - I guess it's good for a new walker, not so good for my bank account balance. 

I decided to upload this picture because I think it's cute. We really take the doll everywhere with us.

Fun fact: I've just found out he has a model for girls :-)

Facing forward

After a couple of weeks of not using the stroller, I decided to give it a try again and see if Teodor changed his mind about sitting in it. To make the experiment more successful, I changed the seat to forward facing because I'm reading it all the time that children enjoy it, even though I am a strong believer of parent facing position (The end justifies the means, right?).

He didn't hate it. He didn't cry. But he didn't seem to enjoy it very much either. He probably liked the fact he saw Charlie all the time and that he was allowed to hold his leash. The biggest issue for me was the lack of communication, I could totally dive into my own thoughts without being disturbed...and I didn't see him pointing, I didn't hear him talking...We used to communicate all the time, so I felt that even in the stroller, it was still time spent together, this was a lonely time for both of us, so I'm changing the seat back.

I love you night and day

I love you most, I love you best, 

Much, much more than all the rest *

*verses from my favourite book I Love You Night and Day by Smrti Prasadam-Halls

Wellies

If you live in northern Europe, you care about wellies because it rains here a lot. And if it doesn't, the ground is still wet. Not to mention puddles, puddles are like a magic magnetic spot for Teodor :) I kind of thought Stonz boots are waterproof, but after one play in a puddle, it was really wet inside, so I figured I can't use them as wellies...so what to do now? I didn't want traditional wellies for him because they look everything but comfortable to walk in. I mean there are some, which have quite soft sole, but the leg opening is just too wide, in my opinion, and I just see them falling off Teodor's feet easily.

Yesterday I came across MyMayu rain boots and I fell in love, ordered a pair on sale today...two weeks till they come :) They seem like comfy wellies which suit northern climate. I just have to hope Teodor's foot won't grow any more any time soon, because they are only 1cm bigger than his foot, which has grown 1.5 cm in the last month, pretty scary, huh? (but ordering a shoe bigger by 2.5cm than his foot seemed not very smart for a new walker)

Meet Teodor's best friend

His name is Mimi Kryštůfek :) "Mimi" because it means "baby" in Czech and Kryštůfek because I would name Teodor Kryštof if I moved back to Czech, but I stayed, so his name is Teodor.

He is with him when he is angry.

He is with him when he sleeps

He would be with him in the stroller (he hates the stroller now)

He takes him for our toddler walks

He also uses the knot on the doll's hat as a pacifier...so you can imagine how dirty it gets. And here comes the problem...Its head is filled with wool, so I can't use the dryer for drying it...so T. is suffers most of the day while his best friend is drying on the radiator (low temperature).

Anyway, I was against him getting attached to a thing at the beginning, but then I changed my mind, I though buying him such a soft doll and make it a part of his bedtime routine might help him to fall asleep...It took him about a month until he started liking it...and he is becoming more and more fond of it. Maybe too much? But I can see that he falls asleep much better if he has Mimi Kryštůfek in his hands. Mimi Kryštůfek sometimes helps him to calm down. I kind of thought he wouldn't get so attached to a thing because of the attachment parenting, he is attached to me, there is no need to get attached to an inanimate thing, but obviously I was wrong. And I guess it's not a bad thing :) I just have to get a twin for the doll, so I can wash and dry it in peace without stressing the baby.

Focused

It is often said that babies/young toddlers can't focus for longer than a few minuts. I disagree. If he is interested in something, he can focus on it even for 15 minutes. It is a lot about letting the child to be focused, not to disturb him by offering other activity (the other day I saw a 15-month old at the playground examining a piece of grass, but his father was distracting him by telling him to go to play with him with the ball) and about simplicity of the environment (the most challenging for us), so it doesn't distract the child. 

2-week old Teodor - can you see how focused even such a young baby can be?

I asked him to bring me Charlie's leash and he did. I can't get over the fact he is understanding what I'm saying. How could possibly be the newborn period more interesting than this one???

The benefits of weaning from the pacifier

I was quite annoyed when he decided he didn't need his paci any more. He got crankier, was waking up at night more often and used me as a substitution. He had to learn to calm himself down during the day. I still don't get why it happened. But now, over a month later I am very grateful for it. He became more willing to nurse, which is something I see as a positive thing (many try to wean their children from the breast at this age), mostly because it helps him fall asleep. Our baby takes his afternoon nap in bed! It is something I thought it would never happen to us. He also calmed down a lot in the evenings, not crawling and crawling until fully exhausted and then falling asleep.

Isn't he cold?

My baby doesn't wear socks at home. He didn't wear pants for a really long time either. He had mittens on twice this winter, he wore his winter overall only a couple of times but I taught him to keep his arms inside of his footmuff, I once let an old lady touch his hands on the bus and she was honestly surprised his hands were warm. I find it very important that Teodor is not over-dressed and it seems to be very good for his immunity, he had a runny nose twice in his life and it was always were light.

There is quite high probability he was wearing only a shirt under the footmuff :)

Pushing duck

He can push the duck now while walking! No more carrying with him...he is pushing it!!!

Toddler walk(ing)

It's amazing how well he can already walk. I am so excited for all the stuff he's going to learn, I am not the one who would be sentimentally looking back how cute the baby was...I am totally looking forward to the stuff which is coming to us :)

House hunting...

...it is so damn difficult (probably even more than finding the right first shoes, see the entry below this one), we have quite a good budget, but there are so few houses for sale in Estonia, not to mention there are only 4 in our desired area... :( One is down, they told us they would sell it to somebody else, but the house is still for sale on the internet, don't know what happened there, the other two are just for a total renovation, which is something we don't want to do...and on Thursday a new house popped out and immediately fell in love with it: very good price + the old-fashioned look:

We kind of were aware that there might be some bummer because the price was too good to be true...On Saturday we went to check it out and the reality was very sad, they were isolating the floors and the walls over the summer, so there were no floors, the walls looked not ready and the house smelled like nobody was living there for quite a while. The staircase to upstairs was in a different entrance (it used to be a separate apartmnet) and the upstairs was so not ready. 

The porch was super cute

Upstairs

upstairs

downstairs

kitchen, smaller than our city aparment kitchen, the door in the middle is to the bathroom.

room with no flooring and unfinshed walls.

It was a tiring trip...here is the most tired member of the family :)

Choosing the first shoes...

...it is damn hard. Not only because the choice is in Estonia very limited (and over-priced), but also there are just so many aspects, which need to be taken into consideration.

We decided to go with barefoot, which means I have to order online because the only barefoot shoes I found here in Estonia are Little Blue Lamb, but again it's also an online shop and with not a big product selection. And they are made for a wider feet, Teodor has quite narrow. I actually ordered a pair but sold it to a friend because they were too wide and quite small (you wouldn't how difficult it is to measure his foot). When I finally decide on something, e.g. Livie and Luca or Attipas, they don't sell internationally (well, their website doesn't have an e-shop), which is just annoying, I don't have time to search for an e-shop which sells internationally.

So far he has Stonz, but they feel too wide and Primigi, which are not barefoot, but seem to be quite good for pushing his wagon on the asphalt roads (It is recommended not to use Stonz on the pavements/roads, etc. because they wore out quickly on these surfaces)

I am so stuck on choosing the right shoes and it starts to frustrate me because spring is coming, he walks very well now, and he still doesn't have shoes we can use in the city. (He walks in his socks in the shopping centres, for example, and people look down at me with their looks saying "why don't you put shoes on your child, mother?"

Running away, but the stairs will stop him :) I sometimes feel like Stonz are too wide for him and are not the best choice either...

Now he sometimes lifts his arms when walking, probably showing that he can walk without help of his arms to keep his balance.

Practising the new skill

Now he can get off the rocking horse on his own, he likes to put one leg down and then push himself back on the horse and then down again and up again...he is awesome :)
(side note: he tried to put the train track together today, didn't succeed, though. He didn't cry the last night and didn't want me to babywear him at night, so I woke up in a playful mood, that's why I took the railroad out)

Weaning from babywearing

Even though I believe I should babywear my baby as much as he asks for it because it fulfills his needs for contact with his mother, I also believe I have to take care of myself and he should learn to calm himself down to sleep. So a few days ago, I decided not to carry him in the evening till he falls asleep. The trick is in going to sleep later and have daddy present (which means Teodor has to go to bed later because his father comes home at around 7pm)...The dad plays with him or we both pretend to sleep (dad is so much better at it), he slowly wears down and falls asleep nursing.

Today the whiny/cranky baby who threw himself on the floor for no reason (from my point of view) is gone
FINALLY!!!!, the happy toddler is back :), so I thought we might try to take a nap together in the afternoon, I set a time limit of one hour, if he wouldn't fall asleep, I would put him in Tula...and we both fell asleep and slept for two hours. Afternoon naps are not happening for me since he started crawling (at about 7 months), so this was like a huge treat for me :)

Morning nap, looking like a baby in a womb, no?

Letting the child lead

I found out that listening to his needs and doing things "his way" works the best for us. Unlike when I read/somebody tells me that this or that should be done, then I think about it, decide to give it a try and then we both end up frustrated. But it does not mean he can do whatever he wants because I am very much aware children need boundaries mostly because it gives them security.

It is kind of difficult in today's society let the child lead because people are worried that the child is a manipulator and is misusing their parent's goodness. I believe Naomi Aldort is right in her book Raising children, raising ourselves that children want to be good, they are not born as manipulators who are testing their parents or little "evils" who have to be disciplined, so they would become decent members of the society. Children learn by observing the world around, (monkey see, monkey do, right?), Maria Montessori calls it absorbent mind, not really sure how they Steiner calls it, but that's not very important, my (Aldort's) point is that if I behave right, children will too. I can already see it on Teodor that he tends to copy my behaviour, which puts some pressure on me to "behave right", like stop eating in front of my laptop without a plate or leaving mess behind. Setting an example is one of our main educational tools. But how we discipline our son should not be the content of this article, so back to having the child as the leader...

 Another aspect of people being worried to let the child lead is the highly appreciated independence (because if the child leads in the first year/s, it will include a lot of dependence). So when I mention that Teodor is currently being carried about a third of the day (for naps, shopping,...), some people tend to comment on it like he was never going to gain independence or start telling me how their child is already independent, doesn't want to be carried, etc. I believe/hope he will get what he needs and then he will get off my back again. Yesterday I read an article that an average 6-week-old baby in the USA spends with feeding in mother's arms about 3 hours. Three hours out of 24! It's just scary because babies need the attachment in the first year and 3 hours is just so little. But it was not that different with Teodor -when he was born, my boyfriend didn't want him in the bed, I respected it, and he was not carried because he didn't demand it but when he became 2 months old, he no longer wanted to be in his rocking daybed, so I started babywearing a lot, which led to bed-sharing and attachment parenting. Then he started crawling and started sleeping well in the stroller, better than in the wrap, so I followed his lead and sold most of the wraps. At the age of 11 months, he started walking and started to have serious problems with falling asleep (I guess his brain must be like a very very busy computer), but the carrier (not wrap) helped him to fall asleep, so I started using it. Tula carrier also helps him with calming down when having a tantrum, so there is nothing easier than buckle him in, walk around the apartment for a few minutes and then put him down. The same when he has some nightmares at night, we could try to wake him up (which is recommended, but very difficult, actually) or I just put him on my stomach, walk for a few minutes, put him down, give him breast and continue the sleep.

Yes, I sometimes get a bit unsure if he is ever going to nap somewhere else than in Tula or if he's ever going to stop having tantrums, but then I see some teenagers on the bus and realize that this all will stop one day and it will be a good story to tell, plus I believe it will give him a good starting point for his life, being sure that there is somebody who deeply cares about his needs, which is something child needs more than being independent. Of course, I don't want to raise a 5-year old who wouldn't be able to play on his own, but for some reason I am not worried this will be Teodor's case, he can have such a focused play on his own even at the age of one. He just has problems with calming down on his own because the world is just too interesting and helping him with that is not such a self-sacrifice.

Good news

His first tooth is coming!!!! It is so exciting!!! And I am filled with hope he will become less clingy/whiny after it erupts.
It also seems like the lack of sleep has finally caught up with him because he's been sleeping on my back for more than two hours (that has never happened before) and doesn't show any signs of waking up any time soon. Yay!

Birthday presents

1) Rocking horse Mamas and Papas Pockets Pony - the main and the most expensive present.

It has different textures to stimulate child's sensory perception - I didn't think it was such a big deal and was thinking that maybe we should have bought an ordinary looking brown rocking horse, which would be more according to montessori/waldorf teaching but Teodor, unexpectedly, likes to feel/pat the horse, so it seems we hit the jackpot with buying this one. There is a hole in the nose he hasn't found out about and a hidden squeaker in one of the ears he doesn't know about either. We don't want to show him the squeaker because it is going to drive the dog crazy. I just like it that there are still things for him to explore.

Another reason why we bought a rocking animal is that it should help with developing a sense of balance.

He was a bit suspicious to the horse at the beginning (well, it's almost as big as he is, so no wonder he was not throwing himself at it), but he was driven to come back and rock the horse, touch his nose, etc....well, a day later, after a few tries with daddy (he has holidays now), he has learned to rock on his own. He is even very close to learning getting off without our help. Definitely a good gift and would recommend for a one-year olds, do not regret money spent on it.

2) Hape Duck - Great for developing gross motor skills.

Teodor likes the duck but he is not pushing it in front of him, he carries it, which is funny. He is probably not such a good walker yet, he still has to focus on what his legs are doing instead of on the duck. I am sure he will enjoy it soon.

3) Drum - I guess it's good for motor skills, hearing and rhytm (and annoying our neighbours:)

We got it from our friends and he loves it. He is now in this stage when he likes to hit things with another thing, so it's just perfect + it is bearable sound :)

4) Sound book - he actually got it before his birthday because we didn't want to shovel him with gifts plus I am horrible at keeping stuff I buy from him. I like that the animals are very real-like and that the sounds comes when he turns the pages, he doesn't have to press anything. He is trying to imitate the chickens and cows, so I guess it is a very good present, too. 

5) Ball run - good for motor skills and learning the basics of physics (?)

 His dad made it for him, he finished it last night and it was standing in the living room when we woke up :) 

Getting the baby to be a happy one again

I let again a children trainers' take over my mother's common sense...

I've read somewhere that babies at about 1 year should sleep once a day and also longer, so I had this idea to postpone his morning nap till late morning and that would be it. He was so tired at the end of the day that he fell asleep while nursing, which was actually good, but his nap didn't get any longer, after a few days he got sleep deprived and the cycle of unhappy baby began...

...So I dedicated today to his napping and preventing him from getting worked up...and it worked. Now he is calmly sleeping in our bed while I'm writing this :) 

Side note: We started reading before bedtime again because he shows interest in reading, he found the Estonian word tšuhh so funny, I mean nothing lifts your spirit up as a baby laughing his head off because of a word :))

Afternoon nap, even though he is already 1, he is still my little baby

Failed

I had the whole birthday party planned in my head and it all went so wrong.

About a week before (maybe two/three, I haven't been very good at keeping track of time lately), he started sleeping very badly at night and it became very difficult to make him nap during the day, in addition to that he got a cold and the weather worsened considerably, so I was not in the mood to really think about the birthday. We invited only my close friend with her husband, the other friend was supposed to come on the next day, but got busy with something, my boyfriend didn't want to invite anybody, but his brother invited himself for the following weekend and he might invite his only friends over, too. Anyway, I see with thayt friend almost every week, so Teodor is familiar with her (and I also meet with the other friend that often, too), not so much with her husband...

We were cleaning the whole morning, Teodor was quite fine toddling around, he napped on my back while preparing snacks, but he woke up around the time when the friends came and was a bit off. It was a bit chaotic as we should have started getting ready for the party on Saturday, not on Sunday, which was the actual celebration day, I don't know when things went wrong, but he became so whiny and was whiny the whole party..It got so annoying that we started thinking there was something wrong with him and took him to ER, but they said he was fine and he actually was very fine in the hospital, walking around, smiling at people...

Toddling around the hospital

It was a quite sad party, but I am pretty sure I will remember it till the end of my days and it might become a good story to tell when he is older. Trying to see it from the bright side...

Probably the emotions piled up, so he couldn't sleep at night - I made him sleep in the carrier several times, but when I tried to put him to bed (we bed share), he woke up screaming and the only thing making him stop was putting him in the carrier again and march around the apartment. I slept part of the night sitting with him in the carrier, then I managed to make him sleep in the bed (at 2am), when he woke up some time after, he was willing to take the breast and kept sleeping, at about 4:30, I had to put him in the carrier again, but luckily he was fine with being put back to bed, so we slept till 7. This was the worst night in our life together...and I thought when they become one, they are supposed to start sleeping better.