I've moved!

kidoinfo.com

New column is up on kidoinfo.com!

And here's a sneak peek of my new blog. Still a few details to work out. I'll keep posting here until everything is all set and will post a note when I make the move!

feeling groovy: the power of attraction

I'm a big fan of Scott Noelle and have been subscribing to his "Daily Groove" for almost two years now.

I love starting my day with an inspiring e-mail and focus point to help me relate to my children in a positive, respectful and really groovy way.

Here's today's groove:

THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle
www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove

:: The Power of Attraction ::

Attraction means pulling instead of pushing. The
"pull" of attraction is not physical. You attract by
focusing your mind. Your thoughts have a sort of
"gravity" that pulls matching thoughts, conditions and
events into your awareness and experience.

Today, try this experiment...

Think of *one* characteristic that you really, really
adore and appreciate about your child. Something that
makes you smile when you think about it. Pick a
keyword or phrase to remind you of this trait, and
write it on the back of your hand. (If your child can
read, use a code word or symbol instead.)

The idea is to focus on this aspect of your child as
many times as you can today. But don't tell your child
specifically what you're doing -- the power is in what
you think, not what you say.

You might also put little reminder Post-it notes in
places like door handles, telephones, the fridge, your
car visor -- wherever you frequently look or reach.

After a full day of focusing on this aspect of your
child, review the day and note how it affected your
interactions.

Can you see how, through your intentional focus, you
*created* (attracted) that experience?

See the results of one reader's experiment:
http://dailygroove.net/power-of-attraction#comment-177

Feel free to forward this message to your friends!
(Please include this paragraph and everything above.)
Copyright (c) 2008 by Scott Noelle

Today Lily will be at summer camp again (four whole days this week--she could not be happier!) so Quinn and I will be having another special Mama-Quinn day.

Yesterday we cleaned out the van (getting ready for our upcoming road trip :-) and enjoyed a nice lunch date at Panera Bread.

It was such a treat to just relax and be with Quinn all day. We didn't really have any place that we needed to be and I was content to just sit and watch him run around the same tree a dozen times and even felt inspired to join in!

Today, we do have a few errands that I would like to run (paperwork for my new job that is due today, an oil change and new tires for the freshly-cleaned van). There will still be plenty of time to run around trees (and lamp-posts and fire hydrants) and to marvel at the amazing-ness of motorcycles and construction sites and garbage trucks. But there is also a loose agenda of items that I would like to accomplish.

So today, keeping this daily groove in mind, while we're running our errands, I would like to focus on how joyful and expressive and fun two-year-olds, and especially my beloved Quinn, can be!

(I know I was supposed to only pick one trait, but as I closed my eyes and thought about what I wanted to focus on about Quinn, those three things all popped in together!)

And on that note, I hear pitter-patter feet upstairs...my joyful, expressive, fun little guy is awake!!

lily explores the lily pads...

Our fast-growing friends!

Our visitors have grown exponentially in the last few days. Today I moved them over to a new branch of milkweed (though they seemed to be doing just find on the week-old one). While I was transferring our four caterpillars, I discovered another brand-new one (so small you can't even see its stripes yet) so we now have five friends to observe in the coming weeks!

Up 'til now, I have been, by far, the most interested in the current happenings in the Critter Corner (with John being a close second) but now that the caterpillars are big enough to hold (briefly and gently), Lily has taken much more interest!

Crunching Caterpillars!

While we were sleeping last night, our caterpillar friends were busy doing what they do best -- eating lots of Milkweed!

Here's a picture of the largest caterpillar with evidence of its nocturnal nibbling.

Monarchs!!

Our daily milkweed inspections have paid off! We have FOUR tiny Monarch caterpillars and several leaves with eggs!

Egg on the underside of a milkweed leaf (yellow dot in the center of the photo):



Tiny caterpillar on the top side of a milkweed leaf:



A temporary home for the caterpillars (a glass jar with a screen top):



And here's the new home I made tonight after John took the kids up to bed:



The supplies I used were: a yard-and-a-half of tulle, a 12" wooden embroidery hoop, and some ribbon (which was my biggest expense and totally not necessary--string would have worked fine--but the rainbow ribbon was soooo pretty! ;-) Total cost: $6.72.

I taped one edge of the tulle to the inside hoop and then wrapped around the rest of the hoop. I put the top hoop on to hold it in place and then loosened it just enough to slip the ribbon in, which I secured with a knot. No sewing involved (not that I have anything against sewing but just wanted to share how quick and EASY it was to make!). Oh and I used a playsilk that we already had to cover the top.

Easy-peasy! And now I'm off to check out monarchwatch.org to learn more about our visitors...

transitions

There's been a little hint of fall in the air this week. On our early morning walks, Quinn and I have opted for long pants and sweatshirts and I even dug some socks out of the drawer on a particularly cool morning this week.

The kids have noticed the change in light and (mercifully) have started sleeping a little later in the morning. They are also heading up to bed a little earlier in the evening.

And as of this week, they have started asking us to leave their room at bedtime so they can play quietly together. Lily has gathered a collection of board books (favorites that we have been enjoying together since she was an infant like Brown Bear, Each Peach Pear Plum, and Jamberry) and is now proudly "reading" them to her brother.

While on a morning walk this week, I noticed a seed pod on a milkweed plant. (We're checking the undersides of leaves daily in hopes of finding Monarch eggs.)

Part of me felt a bit of sadness. The seasons often feel very much like my experience of parenting -- just when I start to feel comfortable and find a rhythm that works where we are, things begin to shift.

But the milkweed pod also reminds me of the wonder and beauty that each season brings.

In just a few weeks, Lily will be returning to her beloved Waldorf-inspired nursery school, where stalks of milkweed will be used as beautiful wands to spray feathery seeds around the gardens.

And later in the fall, the dried milkweed pods will be become boats into which the children will place candles and wishes during the annual Lantern Walk (a magical evening designed to gently introduce the young children to darkness and night).

This fall will also include a transition into "playschool" (a.k.a. daycare) two days a week and a return to work for me.

The kids and I stopped by our "new school" this week to drop off paperwork and say hello. As I sat in a tiny chair at a tiny table getting to know the center's director, Lily and Quinn explored what will be Lily's classroom. Quinn dove right in (any place with a train table, Legos, blocks, and an assortment of construction vehicles has his clear approval). Lily hung back, staying close to me and taking it all in, but later noted that "it seems pretty fun there."

When we left the center, which we will visit several more times in the coming weeks, we stopped to visit a nearby farm. As we visited with the sheep, goats and pigs we talked about how much fun it will be to visit the farm on our way to or from playschool and how some days we might go early and stop for bagels at our favorite coffee shop.

We continue to read books about the first day of school and separation anxiety, and reminisce about last summer when Lily felt sick to her tummy every time we talked about her starting nursery school.

"That was before I knew how much fun school is, Mama," Lily always adds.

And I remind her (and myself) that change can often feel scary and uncomfortable--whether you are two, or four, or 34. But discomfort is not necessarily a bad thing. It can be a great opportunity for us to slow down and tune in and stretch a little bit out of our comfort zone.

And a wonderful opportunity to surrender and trust that the Life Force that creates and sustains the milkweed plants, and the butterflies who feast on them, is always there to nourish and support us.

get your ducks in a row...

transitions

I am counting down to September when my kids will start attending a daycare center two full days a week (and my four year old will also go to the most wonderful Waldorf-inspired Nursery School you could ever imagine an additional two mornings).

And I will have two full days open to do my work (writing, teaching, researching, designing workshops, and wherever else "following my bliss" takes me).

I have worked through a dozen permutations of work/school/daycare options and this is what feels best for us right now.

I have been processing this decision since my daughter was about 12-14 months old and I started getting urges to find substitute care so that I could focus on my work.

Right about that time I became pregnant with my son (it took us almost a year to get pregnant with our first so we decided to start trying sooner rather than later. Surprisingly! Things happened quite a bit sooner this time around and we were on our way to becoming a family of four!!)

So I put the work plans on hold and I joyfully dove back into everything pregnancy/birth/baby.

I continued to write freelance for a local parenting magazine and teach prenatal and two other yoga classes, and played "pass the toddler" with my husband and parents.

It was extremely stressful, to put it mildly.

I felt like I was unraveling at the seams...packing my daughter in the car, racing to my mom's to drop her off, zooming down to the yoga studio, out of breath and out of energy, to stand in front of a class and tell people to "just relax and breathe."

So about half-way through my second pregnancy, I gave up all but my prenatal class. And as soon as Quinn was born, I gave that up too.

I kept writing as much as I could, which wasn't much. One article a month--750 words--was all that I could handle. And some months I couldn't even handle that. There were a few months that I just had to apologize to my editor and say, "Sorry but it just isn't going to happen this month."

And things kind of worked pretty well for a while with my older in nursery school two mornings and my younger at a wonderful home daycare three mornings. (I traded childcare with a friend so every-other-Monday, while my younger was daycare, my older went to her house for a playdate, and I got some extra writing time.)

But in the last few months it's become really clear to me that two hour blocks here and there are just not enough.

I need and want more time to work.