Art never tasted so good

One of Kora's new favorite things to do is draw. Whenever she sees a a crayon, a pen, or even a piece of drawing paper, she immediately says, "draw? draw?". As a matter of fact, her first sentence was signing, "help" (waving the crayon to me) "fish". Needless to say, D and I have drawn dozens of fish over the last couple of weeks. We've also worked on snakes, flowers, babies, butterflies, birds, and of course, Pop.

Yesterday I decided to introduce her to the wonderful world of finger painting. This was no small decision for me. Remember that any project with a toddler turns out to be about 30% art, then 70% clean-up. And finger painting was a doozy. Another factor for me was trying to find a non-toxic finger paint that I felt comfortable with the possibility of her putting it in her mouth. I decided to use plain yogurt. I am equally paranoid about food coloring, so I decided to make my own. Unfortunately I wasn't completely prepared so I ended up with only two colors. For the yellow I mixed in the spice turmeric with the yogurt and got a beautiful yellow. For the green I juiced some kale and just a bit of it was enough to turn the yogurt into a nice shade of green.

Kora's palette

Kora was a bit tentative, like, what am I supposed to do with this? I had her in her booster chair with her tray, but she thought I was serving her food because she dipped her fingers in a licked them. So, I put her on the floor instead with a big piece of drawing paper.

Here are the results:

Spring is in the air and I am F-ing miserable

After a bi-polar winter, it looks like spring is finally upon us. I enjoyed about five days of it, then my allergies hit me hard. It is really hard to put a baby, er, I mean toddler, to sleep when you are sniffling and sneezing every five minutes.

Kora's canines are through her gums, so we are hoping that the worst of that is behind us. Until her 2-year molars start coming out, which will probably be in a couple of weeks. Yeah.

I haven't mentioned it before but Kora is taking a dance class! She takes it with some of her buddies from our mom's group every Friday. It is fun. In the first class she kind of just stood and watched the teacher but now she is starting to get it. She *may* have a recital in May so I'll keep you all posted. I don't want to get the family all riled up and it ends up not happening.

Speaking of dancing, her new favorite thing is to dance to Shakira's Waka Waka video. She asks to watch the video over and over again. She even knows part of the dance. I'll have to record it and post it.

Boop!

Kora is 16 1/2 months old (so big!). And I breast-feed her. Yes, still.

Yes, I've become that hippie mom who breast-feeds her toddler. Sometimes in (gasp!) public.

I always knew I wanted to breast-feed, I just wasn't sure if I would be able to. I had heard all of these stories about women who didn't have enough milk, or their baby wouldn't latch on correctly, or it hurt too much, or...a thousand reasons why they didn't breast-feed.

Then I found two websites that changed my perspective on mommyhood forever: Kelly Mom and MotheringdotCommunity. These sites (and their community forums) provided me with endless hours of reading during my pregnancy. In the absence of a village-based community, these online communities gave me much needed advice and support when I was seeking answers. Breast-feeding was one of the topics I researched a lot. When I finally went into labor, I felt ready to do it.

It took me and Kora about 2 or 3 days to finally 'get it', and thank goodness that her pediatrician is also a board certified lactation consultant; since then our nursing relationship has blossomed and we've never looked back. We have had our slight struggles: a bite here and there (due to teething, not mischief), acrobatics while latched on, middle of the night nursing that seems to NEVER end. But all in all it has been a wonderful experience.

For the first five months or so all she took in was breast milk (except for about 1 CC of formula at the hospital her first day of life...grrr..don't get me started). It sure was amazing seeing her grow and thrive on nothing but my milk.

Even after she started eating solids, she still wanted to nurse a lot. And even now, she eats A LOT. Yet, she still wants to nurse several times a day (and night). Yes, I know a lot is due to comfort, but she still gets nutrition and immunities from my milk. In fact, about a third of her nutrients still come from my breast milk.

The way she communicates to me that she wants to nurse has changed over her life. Of course, she started out by smacking her lips, rooting and searching (then crying if she didn't find what she was looking for), then at around 8 months, she started signing "milk". A few months later, she would stick her hand down my shirt (she still does this...it can be a little embarrassing if we're out and about). Her most recent thing that started about a week ago is to say "boop", which is how she says "boob". Hindsight maybe I should have called them something else, like, "nummies, or "bah-bahs" or something cute and not so obvious. But "boop" it is, I guess!

I've often heard people comment, "They're too old to nurse if they can ask for it". One of the dumbest comments I've ever heard. They're asking for it very soon after their born! Luckily I don't pay attention to comments like this. I am, however, a bit more reluctant to nurse in public now that Kora is older. I just feel like people are more likely to be negative with her age.

What is my timeline for weaning Kora? Well, just by giving her solids is a step in weaning. The rest is probably up to her. I already don't really offer except at bedtime. The rest of the time she asks to nurse.

The normal weaning age for babies is between 1 and 3 years of age. The rate she's going I think she'll probably nurse until at least 2, but she'll change a lot over the next few months and maybe nursing will fall by the wayside. Right now I am just happy to have this for her so that she can explore the world while still having a safe haven she can return to as needed.

Kora sleep-nursing in my carrier

Switching Roles

Some of you may know that since our trip to Australia last spring, Darren has been the official 'stay-at-home-parent' and I have been concentrating on building my health insurance business. It worked out this way since Darren's industry has pretty much been at a standstill, and health insurance is (was!) a stable industry.

Fast forward to December 2010. It was getting pretty obvious to Darren that I am miserable doing what I do, and felt that I was 'missing out' on Kora time. Missing out is in quotes because I am VERY lucky to be working from home and still around to eat meals with the family and I KNOW we have it good. Kora has it good.

However, my heart really wasn't in my work anymore. I'm not sure it ever was. It is hard to start a business anyway. It's doubly hard when you just aren't interested in the work. I made some money, but nowhere close to where we thought we would be by that point.

So, we had a few come to jesus talks, and tossed around some ideas. We knew we couldn't keep living the way we were without money coming in; our savings has already suffered enough.

Right around this time Darren was approached by someone to see if he would be interested in building a custom home. When all was said and done, he was selected to build this house, which will probably break ground in May and finish in December. This is bittersweet news. Sweet because this allows me to take a step back and be a constant presence in Kora's day. Slightly bitter because we actually had some other plans, a plan B if you will, that would have been pretty exciting. However we've put plan B on the back-burner for now, not to be discarded. My hope is next year we'll be able to pursue it.

So anyway, while I am still selling insurance and maintaining my client base, I no longer have the pressure of sell sell sell. I can relax and enjoy the days. For example, this afternoon Kora and I went to Monkey Joe's Inflatable Playground. By the way, Kora has no fear. She wants to go on the highest slide over and over again. That's our girl!

Night-Weaning Update

So...not much has changed in the sleep department. Sorry to keep going on and on about it, but I find myself obsessing more and more about sleep. The less I have of it, the more I obsess. Kora's canines are trying to pop through, and K's been having a rough time of it. On top of that she seemed to have had a little cold in the last couple of days. I'm hoping she is over that now and we can get back to business...which is, of course, sleep.

Kora is great in every other way, I want to add. So maybe it is good in a way that she doesn't give me this, or else I might be the envy of all other mothers for having the MOST PERFECT BABY IN THE WORLD.

Tonight for dinner I served her food in a little bowl along with a spoon and fork. I made a big deal of it, and I think she really appreciated it. She usually gets her food scattered on her table mat and she uses her fingers. Darren filmed her quite a bit, and we got some cute footage of her. We had to cut out all of the footage where she is reaching for the camera, which is quite often now.

Mom's back from Zombieland...kind of

People don't tell you how exhausting parenthood is. Sure, they'll tell you all day long how rewarding it is, how fun it is. But they steer clear of any negativity, lest you change your mind about having kids!

Not that I would have changed my mind...hehe.

Kora's nighttime activities include waking up every 1 1/2 - 2 hours and nursing back to sleep, usually on top of me. It allows me to get more sleep than if I had to go to her room each time, and truth be told I really do love snuggling up to her. However, after 15 months of this, I've realized that something HAS to change. For the sake of my sanity and health. It has to.

So, four nights ago we decided to partially nightwean her*. This means that from the time we put her to bed until about 3AM, I do not nurse her. I rock her, sing to her, cuddle her, beg her, anything BUT nurse her back to sleep. Since she is 15 months old, I talk to her so she'll understand. "Boobs are sleeping. We can nurse later, but not now." I have to say, she actually gets it! The first two nights she gave me very little fussing. And on night 3, she actually slept from 9PM until about 2:15AM! HUUUUGGGEE. She didn't come to our bed until a little after 5AM, and she slept until 7. It's been a lot of work but it's totally been worth it. If we can just get her down to 1 or 2 wakings per night I will be so happy.

Oh, and Enya works wonders. I just turn on her album on my iphone and it instantly soothes. Both me and Kora.

Anyway, now that I see a light at the end of the tunnel, I am committed to blogging more regularly. My goal is to update the blog at least weekly. So, if I don't do it, you have the right to bug me.

Here is an awesome video of Kora. I've been speaking more Chinese to her and she's totally getting it.

* We started to do this back in November and had a bit of success, but we reverted back to old habits quickly. Her teething was getting bad, and I refuse to put her through this when she's not feeling 100%. If she needs the comfort of nursing, I give it to her.

Bet you've been wondering what I've been up to

So sorry for the long delay. I wasn't told ahead of time that the holiday season was such a whirlwind of food, gifts and family. Fun times!

Just so you know, I have been racking up the developmental milestones like crazy. Mommy is convinced I'm a genius, but she tries not to say it too often because she's afraid I'll get a big head. Too late for that! haha.

Here is what I've been doing:

1. Teeth - I now have eleven teeth, with the 12th about to poke through any day now. Those molars were a pain in the a$$, I tell you.
2. Words - I have trouble with my S-words right now, but luckily mommy and daddy understand me most of the time. If you ask them they'll say that I can say, "woof, ball, boob, eyes, out, eggs, moo, meow, peas, apple, bubble, that, gou (Chinese for dog), yang wa-wa (Chinese for doll), lao-hu (Chinese for tiger). If you ask me, I can also say, "cheese, olives, outside, bread, bird, there it/she/he is". Just not clearly yet.
3. Signing - Signing makes it easy for me to tell mommy and daddy what I want them to do. Like, "bath, potty, eat, brush teeth, more, all done, help". Other signs I know are "bird, elephant, fish, thank you". I'm not sure what "thank you" means, but mommy and daddy have been trying to show me that you do this when someone hands you something. Weird.
4. I can run!
5. I am really good at dancing. Mommy and daddy embarrass me when they try to dance though. I try to show them how it's done, but alas, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.
6. I continue to (mostly) poop in the potty. It is so much more comfortable than pooping in my pants. Because then it gets all smooshed. Yuck.
7. I am a little slow on signing potty when I have to pee. It's just because sometimes I don't realize I have to go until I'm actually going. I have had some success though, and I even peed in the potty for gammy one day! I finally made a believer out of her that you can use a potty early on.
8. I still don't like to be away from mommy and daddy for too long, but they've found ways to sneak away here and there. It's okay, as long as they come back!

I can't believe I'm going to be 15 months old tomorrow.