kim through
   the looking glass

I’ve been asked this question a few times lately and I thought I’d share the answer here …

None.

That’s right - all summer, we haven’t used sunscreen.

I know your next question - how many burns have you all had?

None.

That’s right - all summer, no sunscreen, no burns.

Yes, I do own sunscreen. After seeing the Environmental Working Group’s Summer 2010 Sunscreen Guide, we bought some Badger SPF 15 sunscreen, but haven’t yet used it.

Want to know my sun rules?

• Out of the sun by 11 AM - short walks are okay (ie. heading home from the park or a friends’ house)
• If outside between 11AM and 4PM, make sure it’s somewhere with plenty of shade - very little sun exposure. Toddlers do NOT understand the concept of “stay in the shade, honey!”
• Outside again after 4PM
• Hats in the sun are a must

That’s it. Seriously. All summer we have played outside before 11 and after 4, making sure we’re in the shade if we’re outside between those hours. It may seem difficult, but I’d rather respect the power of the sun than slather chemicals on me or the kids in order to protect us. And it hasn’t been hard … it’s mostly been the opposite. We’ve been following a daily rhythm with times built in to enjoy outdoor play and indoor play, respecting our bodies’ need to rest when it’s hottest outside - have you ever had any luck with asking a toddler to come sit down it’s too hot to run around? I haven’t! It also means we’re getting sun exposure to give us Vitamin D.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the summer without sunscreen

It’s odd. I’ve had a hard time thinking about what to blog this last week since we came back from our vacation.

We spent a week at a cottage in Kincardine, Ontario with another family - our good friends and their two kids, who are almost the exact same age as our kids.

We spent a week playing with kids, enjoying the water and sand, talking, cooking, and eating very good food.

But to me, what was most wonderful, was the tribe-like atmosphere. Other adults to talk to - about superficial things, deep things, and everything in between. Other adults to share in the childcare, to give each of us a few much-needed breaks. To hold a baby while the other was doing something else for a moment.

To be completely honest, I felt absolutely no desire to check to see if I had new blog comments, to check out a forum I’m a part of, to check and see what was happening on Facebook. I’ll admit I did, once, think about checking my email, but that’s it.

There’s nothing wrong with social media, per se, but I can see how it’s a very poor substitution for actual human interaction. Being online leaves me feeling like I’ve wasted my time; like I’ve taken a ‘break’ but haven’t really rested; like I’d like the last 20 mins/hour/evening of my life back to do things that matter.

Being in the presence of real people who share your passions and who talk back in real time … with whom you can talk at the same time as making dinner or nursing your baby or taking a walk on the beach or setting the toddler up to colour … is just so very different than the things with which we have replaced such interactions.

And, I believe, so much healthier for not only ourselves, but most of all, our children.

Sometimes I wonder: If the people who devote so much time and energy to building online communities could put half the time into developing our physical communities … what would happen?

“And the men who hold high places

Must be the ones who start

To mold a new reality

Closer to the heart.”

- Rush, Closer To The Heart (1977)

Me! For the following brilliant piece of parenting that transpired a minute ago in front of my kitchen sink:

“Nonono, Gil. See, what’s going on here is that I want to fill Gwen’s water bottle and you want to look at it. I’m bigger - I win. Back off.”

Yep. Mom Of The Year - right here!

I posted earlier in the month about feeling like superwoman. Today? Not so much.

The week was off to a rough start - a wedding on Saturday, Brad’s grandfather’s birthday party on Sunday (complete with a 2.5 hour drive EACH WAY) and Brad gone for an overnight work trip Monday night. Add to that a 5AM wake-up on Wednesday morning, very hot and humid temperatures, stir in a little 45-minute screamfest by Gwen last night along with 4 wakes by Gil, two soaked onesies, and a tipped potty on the bed?

You get today.

Today when it is 29C (84F) feels like 40C (104F!!!!) with the humidity. Today when the window A/C unit has not had the opportunity to be installed. Today Gwen has been having tantrum after tantrum.

Today, I am not such a good mother. Today, I am just trying to keep it together - to not raise my voice (too loud), to not say things that I will regret, to enjoy the presence of my children.

On my last post, I mentioned that naptime is now the easiest part of my day! Lisa commented:

“I wish Michael could go to sleep on his own. Is there anything you did to help her with this?”

I want to say firstly that although I love that naptime is easy, I miss snuggling with my little girl.

A lot.

Beginning in my pregnancy, Gwen stopped nursing to sleep at night. Still did it for naps, but started wanting to snuggle with daddy for sleep. Since she was so good at doing it for nighttime, I began to encourage her to snuggle with me to fall asleep about halfway through the pregnancy. We would nurse until she was sleepy, and then we would snuggle in the rocking chair and I’d rock her to sleep. Read the rest of this entry »

I know it’s totally cliche, but it’s true. Mere weeks after the birthday letter I wrote, Gwen has changed so much!

• She is completely potty trained (!!)  and is almost toilet independent - only needs help with wiping and pulling up underwear/shorts/pants. She only wears a cloth diaper to bed, mostly because she spends part of the night with us and we don’t want to be covered in pee. However, she wakes up dry about 90% of the time these days - generally waking us in the night to pee if needed.
• Her sentences and vocabulary are growing by leaps and bounds! She has started saying “pease” and “pank you” with regularity and has picked up on my “oh geez!” when something’s happened A couple of days ago she said, “Oopsies! Train fall down - I crash it!”
• Naptime has become a 5 minute affair - after lunch around 12:30 or 1 PM, we go upstairs, go pee, get changed (if needed), turn on the fan, hop into bed with boy, have a kiss and hug, and then I leave the room and she falls asleep by herself. It’s both amazing and sad all at the same time.
• She can jump! With both feet off the ground at once! So fun!
• She is starting to understand the concept of numbers and counting - when I begin counting and pointing at something, she picks it up and continues, “two … three … nine.” Four and five are currently a mystery

Shots in the Dark (watch it HERE on youtube!) is a Canadian-made documentary about vaccinations and their undesirable effects. An excerpt from the film synopsis:

“Far from rejecting the documented benefits of vaccination, Shots in the Dark makes very clear that, in the name of the greater good, great suffering has been inflicted on the most vulnerable members of society. And the film asks the necessary question, at what point is this trade-off unacceptable?”

What a great question. I don’t know anyone who would suggest that vaccinations are not useful. And I love that the film doesn’t bring that into question. They go much, much further than that and discusses topics such as:

• Why are so few people are compensated for vaccine reactions
• Why there is any doubt about whether or not vaccines can cause illness (Seriously. Why? Read the vaccine insert - it’s well documented that vaccines can cause undesirable side effects!)
• Why big pharma is allowed to calls the shots when it comes to vaccine research

I urge everyone to watch this revealing video series (there’s 8 parts on youtube - each about 10 minutes long). I’m not trying to make anyone anti-vaccine. I’m just all about informed consent, and I do NOT believe that informed consent is being obtained in most cases of vaccination.

I just stumbled across this (3 minute) excerpt from Jan Hunt’s The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart audiobook: The Parenting Golden Rule. I love that it describes common ‘discipline’ techniques as occurring between two people - a husband and wife. It really puts these methods into perspective!

I’ve long suspected a food intolerance in Gwen. After introducing solids, she began to gain weight slowly, she always has bags under her eyes, she was a frequent night-waker, etc.

So, last week, I decided to try an elimination diet - our main concerns were gluten, tomatoes, and food dyes, based on some iffy experiences we’d had with larger-than-normal volumes of the latter two and a hunch for the gluten - after all, my sister has Celiac disease and my nephew was allergic to wheat as a baby.

The elimination diet began on Monday of last week, and I am both happy and sad to report that Gwen’s months-long intestinal upset was almost immediately cleared up. The only episode of upset she appeared to experience was Thursday night/Friday morning, so I thought for SURE that it might not be gluten, since she hadn’t eaten any on Thursday. Fast-forward to later Friday morning when we went to the park with our peeps and I brought up the incident. Nadine (can I call you by name on the blog?), who also has Celiac disease, had eaten the same thing as Gwen the previous night for dinner and also experienced a mild gluten reaction.

Sigh.

While we’re not 100% sure yet (I’d like to give the gluten-free diet another week and then introduce it again and see how it goes), it appears that our house might be joining the ranks of the gluten-free.

Honestly? I’m just happy that Gwen seems to be feeling better!