Conscious Mom

teaching Little M the sign for 'cookie' probably wasn't such a great idea.

I'm in the middle of a book about how parenting can be used for spiritual growth, A Path for Parents by Sara Burns. I'll probably write more about this book when I am done, but for now I want to use one of its ideas: using everyday situations for insight and growth. I used to do this a lot, notice the ever changing nature of existence when hiking, or the tendency to get stuck in my own point of view at work, and how that colored my relationships with people. But since becoming a parent, its all been about sleep, food, and diapers. This morning Little M just wasn't happy with anything. She'd start a book, then close it ...

I don't do anything special with my hair. Most days, I wash and comb it. On the rare occasion I'm feeling especially creative I will put it into a ponytail. If I have a job interview I will blow it dry. But a ponytail just won't cut it for my kid the way it will for me - haircare is yet another way in which I want more for my child than myself - so I'm learning all about caring for and styling a completely different hair type than mine. At 14 months, Little M won't sit still longer than 45 seconds, so styling isn't happening yet. GOOD; I am NOT READY for that! I am a member of ...

Thanks for sticking with me when I wasn't posting for a while. I'm sorry it took so long for your comments to appear. They got stuck in 'moderation limbo' and I didn't know they were there. A new edition of Wordpress sent them to a different place than the old version. Now that I have figured it out your comments should appear more quickly. Happy 2008 to everyone and I'll try to post more frequently.

For months we've been wondering what Little M would say once she started talking. Now we know: "Cheerios, give me Cheerios." She likes Cheerios so much she made up her own sign for them. It looks a little bit like the sign for 'more' (as in 'more Cheerios'). She even makes the sign in her sleep, so now we know what she dreams about: Cheerios. She also made up a sign for music, which is the same as her sign for dancing. She holds her arm out and bends her elbow back and forth (we think she is imitating us dancing). She asks for music from the moment she wakes up until bed time. Her ...

Right here, at home, just not blogging. Little M is going through a stage in which she needs me with her all the time. So I've been playing blocks, co-napping, and reading Pat the Bunny (over and over and over). Some random things I've been thinking about: Internet privacy. It's not recommended to give identifying information about oneself and children on the Web so I am gradually revising old posts to take out any of that. It's hard to imagine anything I've written here can come back to haunt me, that she'd be picked on in school because the bully found out she read Pat The Bunny a lot (A LOT) as a baby. But maybe things go on in the ...