Mother of Action: A Little Update

do you remember back in june when i decided to become a mother of action? even in the midst of a busy season, i want my parenting to be intentional. here's a little update on how it is all going:

1. more hand-on activities for cruz
the first step in accomplishing this goal is to get yourself an aunt carol. oh, aunt carol. she is my dad's youngest sister (all three are incredible-- dad lucked out in the sister department) and someone that i have always looked up to. our family moved from indiana to seattle when i was seven years old. we packed up our small car and drove through the endless cornfields of america. aunt carol made us activity books and gave us gifts to open every day of the trip. after reading my blog post, she became an "aunt of action" and sent cruz ten amazing hands-on activities. i try to pull these games out when cruz really needs some one-on-one mama time or if i'm nursing london. here's just a little peek at what he's been up to:
- hammering golf tees into foamboard and then balancing marbles on top
- using tongs to sort "fuzzies" into a muffin tin by color or number
- beading cheerios onto pipe cleaners and hanging them in the yard for birds

2. establish morning and evening routines for cruz
i have learned so much about cruz in the last two months, and one of those realizations has been that my child is a creature of habit. i should have remembered-- even when i was pregnant with him, he thrived on routine. if i happened to run late and we didn't eat breakfast at our normal time, i would be treated to a lively round of in-the-tummy-karate-chopping. so it shouldn't have surprised me that bringing home a tiny person with a lot of needs was going to throw cruz off his game. establishing morning and evening routines has been key to getting cruz functioning again. and i did it all with a whiteboard and a checklist.
our most common checklist is the bedtime checklist, but we've been using it less as cruz now knows what to expect from us. bath, put on jams, brush teeth, read two stories, prayers. he loves checking off each box and it motivates him to go on to the next activity. i even use a checklist during mealtimes to prompt him to try a little of everything (more on that in our next goal!).
one day while i worked at my desk, cruz pulled out an old calendar page and started checking off the boxes, "next is bath. check it off! next is jams. check it off!" i'm going to consider this one a success.

3. expand cruz's food palate
as i started to write out my august goals, tovi asked me what new foods cruz was eating. "um... carrots? and he's eaten meat a couple of times..." so clearly we need to continue working on this goal. all i've really accomplished is making a couple of checklists for cruz that he needs to complete before he gets down from the table. i'm going to give myself a lot of grace on this one, because i'm often trying to get his food together while simultaneously nursing a baby. so there.

onto august!

1. continue trying new foods
mom upon mom has raved about the book french kids eat everything. i've put off reading this for about two years because i think that in general the attitude of american-moms-are-doing-everything-wrong is unhelpful (can anyone feel me??). but moms that i like and know and trust also like this book and right now my kid is insisting on subsisting on cereal bars. it's not good. so i've ordered this book for a little inspiration. i'm also going to be tracking cruz's meals on a spreadsheet (nerd alert) and really try serving a new food seven times before giving up on it (unless the book tells me not too. i should read this thing).

2. running
this goal is for me, not cruz. i've been feeling very self-conscious and sensitive about the baby weight that's hanging around and i want to do something about it other than wallowing. i get it-- i don't really have that much extra weight, but i find myself thinking about it a lot, and it's caused some bursting into tears on more than one occasion (including an ugly cry at church), so it's time to take some action. i've signed up for robin's run club and the she.is.beautiful 5k. both are really healthy places to invest my time and money and energy. i am a little worried about finding the time to run, but tovi is so supportive of me taking this time for myself, and i know he'll be a big motivator and helper.

3. potty training
we've been trying to potty train for awhile. it's just not clicking and is frustrating for everyone. tovi starts soccer training camp this week and i think we'll be hanging out at the house all day every day while he's gone. this just might be the month that we get this potty thing under control. any advice out there?

so that's that for august! xo//becca