Because, let’s face it, he is half the reason I am here.
I really wanted to post a picture of us, preferably from when I was little, but I don’t have my hard drive hooked up right now. So hopefully I will have some time to later.
But I wanted to take a moment to tell you I love you.
“Dad, I love you”
I would now like to wish my husband a happy father’s day. You have given me these two wonderful boys that have made you a father and me a mother. For that, there are no words to express how thankful I am.
There is no greater sound then when I hear you and Ian laughing at whatever game you are playing.
Ian & Dad just chillin’
I don’t really see the point of buying my husband something for father’s day. It would be different if the kids wanted to get him something, but they are too young still. I do however love the homemade gifts they give.
Typically the kids make something in school, but my boys are not in school yet, so I had to help them.
Have I ever told you how much I love hand print art?
Well, I will tell you now.
“I LOVE hand print art, more than chocolate covered peanut butter.”
Since Ian went on his first fishing trip with his dad recently, I thought it would be perfect. Plus I could add Baby Sid’s hand print as another fish.
Turns out, I should really think these things through before I begin.
Since Ian was ready to paint, I didn’t want him to change his mind, and I quickly painted his hand and put it to canvas.
Ian & Baby Sid’s hands
I had let Ian pick out the color of the fish. Again, should have thought that trough first.
fished product
Since the water was blue, we should have done a contrasting color. And yes, I should have painted the water first, which was the major problem with this picture.
My mom helped me with Baby Sid’s hand print, but I should have waited until he was asleep. Cause his is the one on top and it looks bigger than Ian’s.
I think they looked more like birds then fish.
Ian was very happy with the picture, but the perfectionist in me couldn’t quite enjoy it.
Ian really like making his hand prints, so while I was trying to finish the painting he was making more hand prints.
I decided to use these hand prints and make something else.
Even though the painting didn’t turn out the way I saw it in my mind, Ian gave it to Dad anyway. Ian was very proud of the picture and really liked it. It just won’t be going up on the walls of the living room.
I am a sunshine kid, which is odd since I was raised in the rainy Pacific Northwest. But we do have glorious summers.
However, summer means the last thing I want to do is be inside on my computer. So it took me a little while to plan our meals for the week. To remedy this problem I think I will need to sit down one evening this week and plan my meals for the rest of the summer.
I know, things will change, but at least if I have something to go on then I won’t be scrambling. Like I did this week.
Of course summer time also means doing lots of stuff outside. Which Ian LOVES! He would spend all day outside if he could. Including trips to the park.
Baby Sid is not yet a fan of grass
The Big Slide. We used to use wax paper to make it more slippery
Ian is getting so big
Baby Sid just swinging
Ian loves to do things with his brother, even if it means using the baby swings
I had started to do these photo challenges to try to get back to photographing things other than my children. Don’t get me wrong, I love taking and having their pictures, I just wanted to broaden my spectra.
However, this weeks challenge speaks of childhood.
Childhood is fleeting. Innocence is fleeting. Being able to find pure joy in the splashing of water is fleeting.
To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.
The pacifier, the binky, the mouth plug, the whatever you call it…
As parents we love them and hate them.
We love how they calm our babies down and gets them to stop crying.
We hate how dependent they become to them, how they look blocking that cute little smile, and how it can be a nightmare to wean the baby off them.
This would be such a sweet picture of Ian, with out that binky!
We, as parents, can also become addicted to the pacifier. It is a quick, easy, fail safe way to sooth an upset child.
Some parents are totally opposed to them, some insist their children have one, while some just let the infant decided.
The American Academy of Pediatrics have concluded that pacifiers, among other steps, might help to reduce the instances in SIDS for babies who are more vulnerable to it. They recommend introducing it only after the first month if baby is breast-feeding and for no longer then 12 months. They also say not to force your child to take one; my nephew would have nothing to do with one.
When I was pregnant with Ian, I had decided I would not force the issue one way or the other.
Ian was four weeks early and had a hard time nursing. He wouldn’t/couldn’t latch on. But he wanted to suckle on something so I had asked one nurse for a pacifier. She flat-out refused me. She told me it would only make things worse for him and eating. (She was also not very nice about our issues breast-feeding) So I waited until shift change and asked the new nurse.
She brought Ian one of the Soothie pacifiers that they give out at most hospitals. It is designed more like a bottle nipple and made out of one piece of silicon.
For about a week I had to pump and then feed Ian with a syringe, tube and a finger in his mouth. This is not really doable with one person. So instead of a finger I would have him suck on his pacifier, while I plunged the syringe releasing milk in his mouth. It was these two actions together that helped him figure out how to suckle to get milk.
However, Ian became increasingly dependent on the pacifier to calm him and to help him to sleep.
I became more dependent on it so he wouldn’t cry in public.
I figured I would wean him off the pacifier around two-years old. But we had a lot of new things happening to him, we made a trip out to the east coast, he was getting a sibling, his dad was working out-of-town, he was changing to a toddler bed and getting potty trained. So I figured I could let him keep his binky.
Ian and Baby Sid. Both with a binky…
I decided to wait till he turned three. I am not sure why we are dependent on some kind of mile-stone to in order to make this type of change. But that was the one I chose.
When he was approaching his third birthday we discussed what would be different about this age. One of the things I told him was that he wouldn’t get his binky anymore. I should note that after the age of two I didn’t really let him have it unless it involved sleeping or sickness.
I decided that we would go to Build a Bear and he could pick out a stuffed animal. He would then have to say good-bye to the binky and place it in the stuffed animal. That way he would always have it, just not in his mouth.
Shortly after his birthday we were going to the mall for Easter Bunny pictures and he decided that he was ready to trade his binky for a stuffed animal.
He decided on a penguin, he loves penguins, from the movie Happy Feet. It has a bow tie on that lights up.
The employee had him give his binky a kiss, say good-bye to it and place it the penguin.
It was great that she had him put it there, so it didn’t appear to him that she was taking it away.
He went to sleep the first night without any issues, but he wanted his binky when he woke up. He was pretty upset when he couldn’t get it out of the penguin. When he was more awake, he didn’t find it quite so upsetting.
I would give him his penguin and explain again how his binky is inside it, because he was a big boy and didn’t need it in his mouth anymore.
He has only asked for it a couple of times since. I thought it would be an issue because his brother now uses one, but he understands that Baby Sid is a baby and that is why he gets one. Although, Ian does like to take it away from Baby Sid when he wakes up. Ian says “Baby Sid not need dis, he awake now” and then puts it in the baby crib.
I have decided that I will take away Sid’s around his first birthday. By that time he no longer needs it to learn to suckle and needs to learn to sooth himself with out it. Plus I feel he is too young to put up a protest about it.
Baby Sid’s first Halloween, with a binky
I also think it will be easier on Sid because he doesn’t really depend on it like Ian did. In fact when he was younger he didn’t really like it. I am also trying to limit the amount of time he has it.
There is a book written by Melissa Burnett called The Paci Fairy. It is a story book designed to help wean your child off the pacifier with some tips to help you. On her website you can download a form for your child to write a letter to the Paci Fairy. I have not read this book, but I do know someone who has used it.
Whatever your feelings are about the pacifier, make the choices that are right for you and your family.
I Tri and Craft 