HOTT HOTT HOTT and a little babywearing too!

And no I am not talking about a person or thing !

It was the hottest day in Washington state history. We reached 106 degree's today and now at 11:30 I am still awake because why......? It is still 86 Degrees.

I am missing Virginia's air conditioners right now .

We spent a great day swimming, snacking at the beach and swimming some more .

I bought a water sling for Lyla to be worn in just like this one , it is made out of mesh .I loved it . Babywearing is for another post someday soon but I do love to wear my babies .




I lied lets talk about babywearing now . Did you know babies that are worn in a baby carrier such as a sling learn more,get "humanized" earlier,cry less and can nurse easier on demand ?

I strongly believe The womb lasts eighteen months: Nine months inside mother, and nine months outside.

Did you know Babywearing is convenient? How often do you wish you had free hands with an infant around ? With a carrier you can tend to your baby and go about your day .

Did you know Babywearing makes sibling care easier? As a mother of two children under 2 I know how hard of an adjustment it was and without my sling I couldnt have managed it at all . Not to mention how terribly heavy infant carseats are !

A dear friend of mine "J" has recently found the love of an ergo . I am so happy that I could introduce her to this amazing gift of babywearing .



She has this one isnt it so cute !Some moms find ergo's easier...I mean come one anyone could do up two buckles .


Wikipedia has a great write up on the benefits of babywearing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babywearing]

1.Mothers' progesterone (mothering hormone) is increased through physical contact with the infant, leading to a more intimate maternal bond, easier breastfeeding and better care. Thus lowering incidence of postpartum depression and psychosomatic illness.
2.Infants who are carried are calmer - all their primal/survival needs are met: caregiver can be seen, heard, smelled, touched, tasted, fed (breastfeeding mother) and motion necessary for continuing neural development, gastrointestinal and respiratory health and to establish balance (inner ear development) and muscle tone, is constant.
3.Infants IQ and brain mass are measurably greater. When primal needs are met, babies spend more time in a quiet state of attentive alertness, ideal for learning - rather than in a panicked survival mode.
4.Infants are more organized; parental rhythms (walking, heartbeat, etc.) have balancing and soothing effects on infants.
5.Infants are "humanized" earlier by developing socially; babies are closer to people and can study facial expressions, learn languages faster and be familiar with body language.
6.Developmental milestones such as learning to walk, talk and toilet train are reached earlier.
7.Contrary to western cultural myths, independence is established earlier.
Aggression is diminished.

I may add a WARNING " becareful wearing your baby is addictive, you will soon want diffrent carriers for diffrent outfits, moods, and locations. Dads will want to get in on the babywearing as well so he will also require a dad approved carrier like seen below"




These are of "S" wearing baby Riaan at 12 months on his back in an ergo .FYI Riaan was about 30 pounds .

Chances are.....

..If you walk into my house you will trip over a toy

..Riaan will be standing way close to the tv

..I will be cooking something organic

..Lyla will be naked Rolling around the floor

..There will be a few dirty cloth diapers laying around

..If stephans watching tv I wont be

..I will still be in my PJ's

..If you see me out I will be the only mama with a baby in a sling and toddler with a mohawk

Wordless Wednesday

Lots of Mcklinky blog hops

I am sure most of you have heard poor Stellan has been having such a hard time. If you havent checked in with MckMama you should. They need all the love and prayers they can get right now .

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This weeks Blog Hop is your favorite photo.This is a picture of Riaan he was just 12 months and learning to walk. We were living in Virgina and he loved to sit outside on the deck and play in his little pool.





I cant help but add one of Lyla as well. She is growing and changing so much every week, it is just amazing . Here she is enjoying the weather outside while brother played in the hose .



This week's Blog Hop theme is Favorite Kid Photos. You can have one or more of your favorite photos your kids, grandkids, someone else's kid or even YOU when you were a kid. Funny, precious, heartwarming... your favorite!.

Have you seen this blog ?

I see people giving away things sometimes on there blogs but this blog is just giveaways.Not that I have time everyday to enter but they do have some good stuff like today there is 3 giveaways inluding avon, one pink ladybug and country heart gifts.

http://agiveawayeveryday.blogspot.com/2009/07/3-companies-3-fabulous-giveaways-today.html

Boys will be Boys

"S" had to sadly work all day so I was stuck with nothing to do but we made a great day out of it .

I took Lyla, Riaan and our friend "J's" daughter "A" to the imagination museum here in town . What a blast we had. I wish I would have remebered my camera to take pictures but I do have pictures of my brother and Riaan riding a dirt bike from yesterday .Boys will be boys.

Frustration Boiling over

I don't want to "out" people on my blog, so I am going to call them by there first initial . I am sure people who know me IRL will put the pieces together but I am OK with that.

I don't think I am very hard to get along with . I mean as long as you respect me and my believes I have a very wide variety of friends. But recently a few people who I will call "L" and "A" have me so frustrated.

"A" cant seem to decide if she hates me or loves me.One day she calls, texts, wants to know what she can get for me children . But on the other hand we wont hear from her for more then week . When we do ask for something it seems like as long as it is something she likes she will get it. What happened to see a need fill a need . I may need an excersaucer for Lyla but not a 50.00 outfit .Am I sounding not grateful ? I am grateful so grateful for all she has done and what she will continue to do . I just hate the mixed messages in my life . After moving across the country and back, after moving 3 times since being back I just want some stability .

As for "L" please decide our we friends or not . I don't expect alot but again just some stability and knowing if I am having a bad day , can I count on you ? Will you answer your phone? I also get the feeling you haven't been sharing your true emotions and life situations . Maybe you are feeling like my situation with Riaan is to much for you to handle?

When we were in Virgina I so badly wanted to " come Home ". Sadly I came back to no home , friends who have moved on and found new connections and found a longing to go back to Virgina. It is terrible the whole time in Virgina I couldn't see the good there, it was truly one of those moments that you didn't see what you had tell it was gone .

You want some Raw emotion ?

at 21 I have....

2 beatiful kids I love and adore

1 child who is special and I love him more for that

at 21 I have....

a great man who stands beside me

a great man who doesnt know the power of emotion

a great man who needs some help in his sobriety

a great man who provides financially

a great man but a BETTER father

at 21 I have....

a mom who is slightly crazy

a brother who I love and wish he could love himself as much

a sister who sometimes I wish see's what other's see

an absent father who I dont miss

at 21 I need...

the guidence of knowing everything is ok

the hope to know gods plan is the right plan

the friendship's in my life to bloom

Therapy Session #1

Miss "R" came over for Riaans first therapy session yesterday. I am not sure what I was expecting from speech therapy for a 2 year old but it looked like playing.It looked like what we do on a normeal basis. She did recommened we simplify our speech to him . For instance we say " Riaan do you want to get down from your booster seat ?" and then just get him down . She would like us to say " Riaan do you want to get down ? Down ? Down ?" Her thoughts are that possibly he is getting confused with all the words and isnt able to process them . So now we focus on one word out of the sentance for him that sums up the sentance for him . Another thing she wants us to try to do is gestures. Such as pointing to what we are talking about, patting or tapping an object (ex. if we wanted him to sit down we would pat the ground).

Again I am not sure what I was expecting from speech therapy but I dont know how he is going to start talking like this .

Because Kids live here

Riaan took advantage of us tonight! I was nursing Lyla and Daddy was talking on the phone with grandma .I think the pictures say alot !

Wordless Wednesday

Riaan's Evaluation

I have had some e-mails of people wondering what exactly I am concerned about with Riaan . So I thought I would share in detail what his evaluation from an early developmental intervention group.I contacted them because at 2 years old Riaan used few words and mostly just made a few sounds . He was showing frustration due to not being able to communicate.

Scoring was pretty average in adaptive skills, cognative and total motor skills. The concerns were social/emotional and receptive language. His scores for language was at just 11 months and social/emotional was at 16 months. At the time of testing Riaan was 27 months.

What does this mean ?

Well I wish I had more answers myself.The women who came to evaluate him "J" and "R" were both very nice but did show visable concern about some of Riaan's behaviors. I myself wonder why he does some of the things he does (EX. hitting his own head out of frustration, not being able to sit still for a book, being unaware of his own size ).

Here is what I dont know....why in there evaluation they mention his ears being small, if he breaths through his nose while sleeping , why they say" of concern of the evaluators is the amount of sleep that Riaan needs during the day.It was reported that he will take two naps during the day and sleep 10-12 hours a night . A child at his age would be expected to take one nap and sleep through the night ."

To clear it up Riaan doesnt always need two naps a day but will sometimes take two naps to make our evenings more pleasurable with guests being around . If he does not take a second nap he does go to sleep around 7:30pm.On average he does take one 2 hour nap and sleeps 12 hours at night .

What is my concern? The lack of speech, that he struggles to use utensiles, that he seems so frustrated.

After there first visit "R" and a social worker came and talked with us . They provided me with no "real" answers just that we should get his hearing tested, we should see a neurologist and we will start therapy this Thursday.I know they aren't doctors but I really needed something more .

My emotion of this all is Scared. Not angrey, not frustrated , not even sad. I am scared .Scared of what this means for Riaan , what it means for his future, what it means for us and how it will affect our daily life .

These are raw emotions of a 20 something mom who never saw this coming. These are raw emotions of an attachment parenting, cloth diapering, organic eating, non-vaxing 20 something mom who doesnt know what any of this means .

I pray god shows us the way. The way to Riaan's Learning Journey .

The design girl giveaway's and more

For those of you who havent read about Our Journey of Love you really should. There desire to help children and to add to there family is amazing .

To help there adoption fund The Design Girl was offered some great giveaways and sales . Run over there and enter for the chance to win free makeover's and templates for your blog !

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On a diffrent note I would also love it if you went to For Your Tears.It is a great blog of a sweet women who is sending out handkerchiefs to mothers who have recently lost a child . As women it is important to support each other especially when we are grieving .

Miss Lyla Mae

Even though we started this blog for our journey with Riaan's possible learning disabilities this is our families blog to share the good the bad and the love . Our newest addition to our family Lyla is all of that.She is as sweet as a bug until she isnt . She is such a great sleeper tell she isnt and wants to party all night .I also want to share her birth story for you as I had a successful VBAC.

My water broke on Monday April 6, 2009. I was so exciting that my daughter was going to be born at home into the loving arms of Stephan and our midwife team . Well after 3 days of trying everything possible Lyla decided she was happy where she was and had no intetions of coming on her own . I was not just emotional that I thought I lost my chance of a homebirth but for months before the birth I was preparing for a VBAC.For those of you who dont know what a VBAC is it stands for " Vaginal Birth after C-section". I had such a traumatic birth with Riaan that I wanted nothing to do with hospitals or there staff.

God did have a plan and after 14 hours of pitocin and 2 loving nurses ( which one was named Lyla ) I got my VBAC. Lyla Mae was born on April 10, 2009 into the arms of a doctor who was not prepared for only 30 minutes of pushing ! They handed her straight to me and it was love at first sight. She nursed great from the start and was over joyed with my hospital experience and there support of my options in my VBAC, Vaccinations and cloth diapers.

See now I know God planned it this way to give me peace in my c-section, I allowed myself to listen to god and go to the hospital even though I didnt want to and I am so happy I did . I was told so many times VBAC'S arent safe, no hospital will do them and god showed me that wasnt true. He provided me with a great team of people who I forever am indebted to not just for allowing me to birth the way I wanted to but for the healing of my first birth.

Please dont allow someone to tell you, you cant have a vbac.Please dont allow them to change your mind . If your OB wont do it, find a new one. If you are interested in it look it up all the research shows it is safe and more and more women every day are making the decision to birth the way they want .

A favorite Recipe

My favorite recipe and very easy I must say is A Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup. All you do is through it in a crock pot. I also use the same recipe for the inside of my pot pies .


INGREDIENTS
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
1/2 cup uncooked wild rice, rinsed thoroughly
2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 large yellow onion, chopped
5 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons HERB-OX® Chicken Flavored Bouillon Granules
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
slivered almonds, for garnish

DIRECTIONS
In large (6-quart) slow cooker, combine all ingredients with the exception of the heavy cream and flour. Cover and cook on the LOW heat setting for 4 hours or until the chicken is cooked through and the rice is tender. Just before serving, combine the heavy cream and the flour. Slowly stir the cream mixture into the soup. Cook and stir constantly for 5 minutes or until mixture is slightly thickened. Ladle into bowls and garnish with slivered almonds.

Not me monday

Welcome to my first Not Me! Monday! I have been reading all your Not Me! Monday's for months now though. This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.




So hear goes.... because I follow everything my pediatrician says I do not allow my 2 year old to walk around the house with his bottle or eat with his hands .

My husband would NEVER think it would be funny to tape our son to a chair to make him sit still for just a moment and Riaan would never love it so much I may want to actually try it out more often !

I being well mannered and always think of using the bathroom before leaving to go the park, I wouldnt have had to go pee so bad I had to ask my mom to watch out for cars or people while I " poped a squat" in a corner..NOPE not me

Now your turn, lets hear about the crazy things you may have done this week .

Where to start

I enjoy reading others blogs of love, adventure, hearts desires and loses.I never thought I would feel the need to start a journal of our journey . Our journey of the unknown, our journey of possible autisim , of possible pain , of possible genetic disorders. But I do know this, this journal will be of our joy of having children young, eating organic, cloth diapering our babies and trying every day to see the joy of what we face.

Riaan was 2 in April of 09. He is such a joy, he is crazy and loud but gentle and loves his baby sister. He also was not talking, couldnt sit still for more then a moment, would hit himself out of frustration and was growing very large in size.

What does this mean? I am not sure yet. You and I will learn more as we go on but for now we know he will start speech therapy every week. We are on a wait list for a child audiologist and child neurologist.

This blog wont have perfect spelling but it will have raw emotions of a 20 something mom of 2 kids who never saw this coming.