Slow days.. And that's ok!
Life with almost a 2,5 year old and a 10 month old.. Isn't a walk in the park. :D Even though, it involves lots of walks in a park.
It's not easy and it is busy. (Hence the lack of blog posts lately.) Jasmiina is becoming more and more active, she's crawling all around the house and exploring, getting everywhere (our house is pretty much a yes-space) and leaving a huge mess after herself.. And she's especially crazy after Adelaide's things - what Adelaide has, she must get. And Jasmiina is surprisingly strong (when she is grabbing Adelaide's books..)! And fast. She doesn't stand much yet - even though, she has done it twice now! But she's trying, and she can reach far, for example, on Adelaide's little table. Which Adelaide often doesn't like.
At the same time, Jasmiina needs to check in with me often. I remember this age with Adelaide.. I used to sit on a pillow on the floor, for most of the day, and she would come to me, grab me, crawl all over me, hug and kiss me, sit in my lap, nurse.. Then go to her nearby toys, bring some to me, we would explore them together, and again she'd be off and then again back to me.. There and back, constantly, all day long. It was impossible to do much more than that.
And now this is all coming back to me.. Because that is exactly what I would do with Jasmiina now. If I wouldn't have an almost 2,5 year old also wanting things from me.
Adelaide mostly wants to read books. Sometimes it seems like she could do only that. We have been to the library twice now. (Started a new habit of going there and getting library books, I had wanted to do that for a while.) The first time wasn't very successful, because we went there after a playdate, everyone was tired, and I had Jasmiina in the carrier, which made it sooo hard to watch after Adelaide and at the same time choose some books.. Impossible, almost. So I grabbed some books fast (without choosing them much, and almost all of them really turned out to be no good, Adelaide also didn't like them much) and decided, that library trips will be something, that we will do just me and Adelaide, leaving Jasmiina to nap at home, when Mr. Husband is working at home.
And the second time now we did that.. Adelaide loved the library, because they also have a really nice playroom. And I could choose some books for her in peace. (She wasn't that interested to choose herself yet, too occupied with the playroom.) And this time she loves the books. :) These are the ones I chose.. Not all are perfect, but Adelaide likes the Eliisa series and also a classic about Muna.
Ok, but what else we do? We go outside. Now it's basically once a day, during Jasmiina's first nap. For like 1,5 hours.. Even though ideally I would want to aim for at least 2 hours. But the weather has been.. horrible. I try to be an optimist, when it comes to the weather.. But this has been pretty depressing. Cold, wet, muddy.. Adelaide seems to have fun regardless.
Once a week we have our Montessori play mornings. I want to write more about those, another time, because they are so cool!
And then we are just home. Apart from the usual - cooking, eating, cleaning, dressing.. What do we do all day?
Truth be told, those things alone take a lot of our time. And many days it feels, that we haven't really done anything.. Anything senseful, that is. And I have heard the same from many other parents, who have children of similar ages. The baby is taking so much time.. And interrupting, that it can feel, that you don't get to concentrate enough on what the older child could or should be doing.
But honestly, I don't think it's all that bad. Yes, our days are quite slow.. And often it feels like we don't do "much". Life for sure would be very different, if I would have just Adelaide.. But I feel quite calm and confident, that these calm days at home are good for her. First of all, she has no problem with them. She finds what to do. And even if she wanders around a bit, boredom is good for children, because it leads her to find herself something to do. She chooses, what to do, herself, and I think it is so important.
I don't believe in adult-led education for little children anyway, you know, if someone were to offer her arts and crafts all day long, what to do. But when she herself chooses something.. Totally independently takes it, invents her own game or explores it as she wishes.. For as long as she wishes.. Concentrating on it and enjoying it.. And then puts it away, when she's done. Well, that's valuable!
And when I have been sitting and observing her in this.. As she builds something, and has some big point behind her creations.. I keep thinking: yes, this is good. THIS is valuable.
And then she takes this shape puzzle and does it for like 30 minutes! One day she took all the puzzles we have at home and did them all.
Once I suggested that she drew a card, because we were going to a birthday party. I folded the paper, she drew a bit, but wasn't very into it, so we didn't give the card. It stayed on the table. One moment, she just goes and totally independently finds a tray from her art shelf, which is in a huge mess right now, because everything has been put away from Jasmiina. She goes and takes out little paper strips that were for cutting and tearing, that she hadn't touched for weeks. She tears them into tiny pieces, cuts some.. And then gets glue herself and glues them on this paper. Basically, she made some little craft project. But it was ALL HER, I wasn't involved anyhow. That's why it is so valuable.
We have had our Pikler triange out for a while now. It was put away for a long time (because Mr. Husband broke it and it had to be fixed), and climbing and all kinds of gym exercises are happening daily now.
And here some pictures from our daily walks and daily, slow life.
From the baby ballet..
Some painting in pajamas..
And if we ever want to go outside twice now, then it looks like this. :) Estonian November..
This is childhood at it's best.
It's not easy and it is busy. (Hence the lack of blog posts lately.) Jasmiina is becoming more and more active, she's crawling all around the house and exploring, getting everywhere (our house is pretty much a yes-space) and leaving a huge mess after herself.. And she's especially crazy after Adelaide's things - what Adelaide has, she must get. And Jasmiina is surprisingly strong (when she is grabbing Adelaide's books..)! And fast. She doesn't stand much yet - even though, she has done it twice now! But she's trying, and she can reach far, for example, on Adelaide's little table. Which Adelaide often doesn't like.
At the same time, Jasmiina needs to check in with me often. I remember this age with Adelaide.. I used to sit on a pillow on the floor, for most of the day, and she would come to me, grab me, crawl all over me, hug and kiss me, sit in my lap, nurse.. Then go to her nearby toys, bring some to me, we would explore them together, and again she'd be off and then again back to me.. There and back, constantly, all day long. It was impossible to do much more than that.
And now this is all coming back to me.. Because that is exactly what I would do with Jasmiina now. If I wouldn't have an almost 2,5 year old also wanting things from me.
Adelaide mostly wants to read books. Sometimes it seems like she could do only that. We have been to the library twice now. (Started a new habit of going there and getting library books, I had wanted to do that for a while.) The first time wasn't very successful, because we went there after a playdate, everyone was tired, and I had Jasmiina in the carrier, which made it sooo hard to watch after Adelaide and at the same time choose some books.. Impossible, almost. So I grabbed some books fast (without choosing them much, and almost all of them really turned out to be no good, Adelaide also didn't like them much) and decided, that library trips will be something, that we will do just me and Adelaide, leaving Jasmiina to nap at home, when Mr. Husband is working at home.
And the second time now we did that.. Adelaide loved the library, because they also have a really nice playroom. And I could choose some books for her in peace. (She wasn't that interested to choose herself yet, too occupied with the playroom.) And this time she loves the books. :) These are the ones I chose.. Not all are perfect, but Adelaide likes the Eliisa series and also a classic about Muna.
Ok, but what else we do? We go outside. Now it's basically once a day, during Jasmiina's first nap. For like 1,5 hours.. Even though ideally I would want to aim for at least 2 hours. But the weather has been.. horrible. I try to be an optimist, when it comes to the weather.. But this has been pretty depressing. Cold, wet, muddy.. Adelaide seems to have fun regardless.
Once a week we have our Montessori play mornings. I want to write more about those, another time, because they are so cool!
And then we are just home. Apart from the usual - cooking, eating, cleaning, dressing.. What do we do all day?
Truth be told, those things alone take a lot of our time. And many days it feels, that we haven't really done anything.. Anything senseful, that is. And I have heard the same from many other parents, who have children of similar ages. The baby is taking so much time.. And interrupting, that it can feel, that you don't get to concentrate enough on what the older child could or should be doing.
But honestly, I don't think it's all that bad. Yes, our days are quite slow.. And often it feels like we don't do "much". Life for sure would be very different, if I would have just Adelaide.. But I feel quite calm and confident, that these calm days at home are good for her. First of all, she has no problem with them. She finds what to do. And even if she wanders around a bit, boredom is good for children, because it leads her to find herself something to do. She chooses, what to do, herself, and I think it is so important.
I don't believe in adult-led education for little children anyway, you know, if someone were to offer her arts and crafts all day long, what to do. But when she herself chooses something.. Totally independently takes it, invents her own game or explores it as she wishes.. For as long as she wishes.. Concentrating on it and enjoying it.. And then puts it away, when she's done. Well, that's valuable!
And when I have been sitting and observing her in this.. As she builds something, and has some big point behind her creations.. I keep thinking: yes, this is good. THIS is valuable.
And then she takes this shape puzzle and does it for like 30 minutes! One day she took all the puzzles we have at home and did them all.
Once I suggested that she drew a card, because we were going to a birthday party. I folded the paper, she drew a bit, but wasn't very into it, so we didn't give the card. It stayed on the table. One moment, she just goes and totally independently finds a tray from her art shelf, which is in a huge mess right now, because everything has been put away from Jasmiina. She goes and takes out little paper strips that were for cutting and tearing, that she hadn't touched for weeks. She tears them into tiny pieces, cuts some.. And then gets glue herself and glues them on this paper. Basically, she made some little craft project. But it was ALL HER, I wasn't involved anyhow. That's why it is so valuable.
We have had our Pikler triange out for a while now. It was put away for a long time (because Mr. Husband broke it and it had to be fixed), and climbing and all kinds of gym exercises are happening daily now.
And here some pictures from our daily walks and daily, slow life.
From the baby ballet..
Some painting in pajamas..
And if we ever want to go outside twice now, then it looks like this. :) Estonian November..
This is childhood at it's best.
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