Natural Nuggets

The Daily Nugget - Potty Time

admin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:53:38 +0000

Don’t forget to flush. And put the seat down.

lovelysafemama.com

admin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:29:13 +0000

My beloved safemama.com has come out with a new site called lovelysafemama.com and it’s all about US girls!! I love froofy and smelly good beauty stuff but am always freaked out by the list of ingredients. Like I always say, “if I can’t pronounce it, I’m certainly not going to eat it.” OR slather it all over my Mama-licious baw-de. (Be sure to say this with a sexy voice or it will just sound stupid.) This site is an awesome resource for uncoding all that jive talk they put on those bottles. Happy resesarching!

Lovely Safe Mama

Naturally yours, Dallas

The Daily Nugget - 2009

admin — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:00:05 +0000

Happy 2009 everyone!

The Daily Nugget - Fat Lip

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:40:03 +0000

Poor guy.

First thing in the morning too.

Made for difficult paci sucking which just pissed him off even more.

loss, lactation and love

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:21:45 +0000

I just read this story and had to post to share with my fellow Nuggets. It’s sad but it does have a beautiful message.

Naturally Yours, Dallas

Please read Lactation and Loss and share.

attachment parenting

admin — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:18:36 +0000

When you become a parent for the first time - you say to yourself that you’re not going to do this with your child and you’re not going to do that. Either you loved your own parents and thought they hung the moon and you want to be just like them OR you’re like me and your parents serve as instruction manuals on what NOT to do. I love my parents but they put the F-U-N in dysfunction and I’m running in the opposite direction with my own kid. There are no hard and fast rules for raising kids, but I know what I don’t want to do and I just felt like I needed a little guidance on what tactics or theories might work best for us. There are several different parenting styles and all come with their own list of supporters, naysayers and the like. Some are love driven, some are fear driven and all seem to work in their own ways with their success being based on what the parent is striving for. For me, well, I grew up in a very authoritarian home. Punishment was handed out on the regular either physically, mentally or emotionally. My father was not afraid to dish it out…trust me. And because of that I lived in fear of my father. To one extent that “fear” is what kept me in line all the time. No trouble at school, no trouble out of school, yes sir, no sir, no drinking, no sex, no drugs…nothing. I was one straight laced kid solely out of the fear of the wrath that would be handed down by my dad. Sometimes I hated him, most times I loved him - I always respected him. But looking back on my childhood I do remember the feeling of loneliness and isolation. I felt invisible and not a part of the family. “Kids should be seen and not heard”, my dad would say. My curfews were set, my grade expectations were set, my groups of friends were set, what I wore, where I went, who I talked to on the phone and for how long…..all closely monitored by my father. He wasn’t mean per say, just very controlling. So now as I begin my parenting journey with my own son, the one thing I know is that I never want him to feel the way that I did. I’ve been searching for a different set of tools than what was handed down to me by my own parents. I want my son to feel included, loved and respected. I want to show him that his voice matters and that his opinions have value and merit. I want to give him control over his own life and help him understand the responsibility and consequences that come with free will. Oh yeah…did I mention he’s only one?

So off to the internet I go. There are four mainstream parentings styles - authoritarian, authoritative (AKA democratic & attachment), permissive and neglectful. I’m not going to drill down all of them but you can read about each one here. The one style that really resonated with me & the hubby with regards to what we wanted to try and follow with Kiki is attachment parenting. Attachment parenting (AP) was developed by Dr. Sears who I’ve got crazy respect for. Be sure to check out his site here. Attachment Parenting is a more loving way to build a secure bond with your child during those first few years after birth. I find it to be an easy parenting style because the expectations of the child are realistic and as Kiki gets older, I can see the work we’ve done through attachment parenting, start to take effect. He is loving, sweet and gentle. I set expectations of him that are in line with his age and developmental stage and by doing this, new experiences are fun and educational. He accepts help and through sign language knows how to communicate wants or needs. Now before you starting firing off your hate mail about this…I am a stay at home Mom. And we have created a lifestyle that allows us to uphold a family enviroment that we deem important to us. I’m with Kiki all day long..no daycare and no sitters. I have the time to work with him on a daily basis and I realize that not every Mom is in my position. I know some of you gals have careers that you love and your family enviroment may be different than ours. Whatever man. I’m not hating on any Mom regardless of her situation - ok?

What I’m trying to get across is that when we have babies for the first time…no one knows what they are doing. And the only experience we have to pull from is our own childhood. If you disagree with how your parents handled things or maybe you even think they are awesome - there is help out there. There are websites, books, friends, shrinks…whatever. Just remember that it is our responsibility to raise decent and good kids before we kick them out the door and thrust them onto society! Ok - before I put away my soapbox…here are the basic principles of attachment parenting or AP. Check it out…maybe it would work for you. Maybe not. But no one is an expert on raising kids and there is no shame in getting a little help along the way.

Eight principles of attachment parenting

Per Dr. Sears’ theory of attachment parenting (AP), proponents such as the API attempt to foster a secure bond with their children by promoting eight principles which are identified as goals for parents to strive for. These eight principles are:

Preparation for Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting
Feed with Love and Respect
Respond with Sensitivity
Use Nurturing Touch
Ensure Safe Sleep, Physically and Emotionally
Provide Consistent Loving Care
Practice Positive Discipline
Strive for Balance in Personal and Family Life

These values are interpreted in a variety of ways. Many attachment parents also choose to live a natural family living (NFL) lifestyle, such as natural childbirth, home birth, stay-at-home parenting, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, babywearing, homeschooling, unschooling, the anti-circumcision movement, the anti-vaccination movement, natural health, cooperative movements, and support of organic food.

However, Dr. Sears does not require a parent to strictly follow any set of rules, instead encouraging parents to be creative in responding to their child’s needs. Attachment parenting, outside the guise of Dr. Sears, focuses on responses that support secure attachments.

Naturally yours, Dallas

babywearing followup

admin — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:38:15 +0000

Babywearing is one of the things that I have done with Kiki that has always felt right. Even from the very beginning we’ve both enjoyed the closeness that babywearing offers Mom and babe. I can remember when he was a newborn I’d put him in in his sling and off we’d go. I even used it a lot at home and it allowed me to have two free hands to sort laundry, go to the bathroom (wash after of course!), make a sandwhich, whatever I needed to get done. And anytime he was fussy I would put him in his sling and he would calm right down. Even now that he is a year old, I still toss him in his sling if we’re grocery shopping, going on a walk or if he’s just fussy in the early evening. I love babywearing and I know I’m going to miss it when he’s no longer interested…and that time is fast approaching!

As a new Mom, I know there are all sorts of things you try when you bring home a new baby. Some things work out and some do not. There’s co-sleeping, breastfeeding or formula, crying it out, cloth diapering…the list goes on. You always want to do what’s best for your new baby BUT you should also do what is best for your family. So as you go down the list of things that you want to try with your new bundle of joy - please put babywearing at the top of that list. There are a lot benefits to babywearing for both you and your baby and it will help you create a bond with your infant that will stay with you forever. Babywearing is easy (if done correctly) and you have several types of wraps out there to try. Hey - you could even ask a friend if they have one you could just check out before you commit and purchase.

Then again - babywearing may not be for you! But you owe it to yourself and your little one to put it on the list of “things to try” when you’re bringing that new little one home. You just might be surprised!

Side Nugget - A friend sent me a comment regarding this post mentioning the fact that some of us Mamas find it hard to babywear due to our increased “fluffiness” after delivery! I, myself, topped the scales at 240 with Kiki and I was still about 230lbs when I left the hospital. I had a tough time finding a sling to work but I did eventually settle with the Maya Wrap. The Maya Wrap has tons of extra fabric and I was able to position is right above my belly. If you don’t want to buy something online because you’re not sure it will work for you, ask other Moms, hit the web or make a trip to the local baby super store where they have several different styles in stock - and just try them all. But remember - don’t let this make you crazy!!! You’ve probably got enough going on with a new baby so don’t let this add to the insanity! You can still have a beautiful bonding experience with your newborn while nursing or kangaroo care. The most important thing is that your little one needs to be close to you AND daddy. Lots of skin to skin contact trumps any old sling, any day!

Here is a link to great article on parentingweb.com on the benefits of babywearing.

Benefits of Babywearing

stupid motrin ad featuring babywearing

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:31:54 +0000

My fellow babywearing Mamas are going to lllooovvveee this one. Motrin (as in pain reliever) put out a video basically trash talking babywearing and implying that Moms who wear their babes in slings are doing it to “totally look like an official Mom”. This stupid video completely discredits the benefit of babywearing for both baby and Mom OR DAD and suggests that babywearing causes back pain, headaches and makes us cry, “what about me?” UUGGGHH! So the Prez of the Babywearing International wrote a little letter giving them the facts and telling them where to stick those facts. Ok - the letter wasn’t quite so nasty but you know the lady that wrote it was completely going off the hinges on Motrin behind closed doors. Anyways - here is the link to the video.

PS Guess what internet social networking group got the vid removed from Motrin’s site……TWITTER. Yeah bitches.

Motrin’s Stupid Video Against Babywearing

For more info on the benefits of babywearing go to Babywearing International.

Christmas tree - real vs fake

admin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:58:09 +0000

i’ve come across a cool video on the eco argument of real or fake Christmas trees. We always buy local and real trees. But I can see where people would think that buying a fake tree means that you get to keep using it year after year. Fake trees have a HUGE carbon footprint and typically come from China. Plus you can’t recycle them once you’re done with it. Fake trees go to landfills and sit there for all eternity. Just kidding on the eternity..but I’m sure it’s only like a million years or something. Check out this video and decide for yourself.

Real vs fake

PS Don’t forget to skip the tinsel too. If you use tinsel on a real tree…you can’t recycle it.

Naturally yours, Dallas

The Green Party - update

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:09:33 +0000

Hey everyone! We celebrated Kiki’s first birthday this past Saturday with a huge party and loads of family and friends. It was my intention to make this party as eco friendly as possible and believe me, twas not easy! I’ll go down the list of what I bought with regards to partyware, what we recycled from other parties and what I skipped out on completely. It’s really hard to fight the urge to go completely overboard with your kid’s first birthday. You want to spoil, overindulge and just make everything over the top! But just keep in mind that the first party is really for you, the parents and not as much for the little one. My only goal was to really make memories to share with him when he got older. I wanted him to know that even though he would never remember the first year, we would. And I wanted to make sure he could see through pictures and hear through stories, how happy and complete our lives were because of him. That’s what this celebration was for us. Ok - enough of the sap and back to the good stuff.

Partyware - Green Party Goods I found this site online after doing a search for “green party goods”. After some additional digging I found that this company is really the only one out there that is offering several lines (and a good selection) of eco friendly party supplies. They have corn products, bamboo and recycled paper. I chose to go with corn and bough plates, silverware and cups. I think I spent about $55.00 for all and I got everything in quantities of fifty. Everything arrived on time, in good condition and the products held up well. YAY! Check out the link for more info.

Food - This was tough because I wanted to keep down the cost and I wanted to stay healthy. I realized that putting together an ORGANIC fruit/veggie/cheese/cracker tray for forty people was going to be super expensive, so I had to go with the already prepared store bought trays. I supplemented with Pirate’s Booty, Monster Mix, pinwheels and veggie chips. For desert I had homemade brownies with Ghiradellie chocolate and dried cherries and for the cake…well, the cake was the hit! We made a birthday cake shaped like an airplane and it was awesome. I used organic yellow cake mix and all organic ingredients. And I made buttercream icing from scratch…also organic. It turned out really well and was a big hit at the party.

Drinks - We don’t drink sodas around here so I put out a pitcher of filtered water (no plastic bottles), tea, wine, beer and Honest Kids juice boxes that went over well with the kids.

Decorations - We didn’t put up an decorations other than the pointsettia that was on the food table. I can plant it in the yard if I want and someone gave it to us. Most party deorations are made of paper and since we only do the first birthday, well, once…I didn’t see the point. Another way to cut back on waste and money.

Gift bags for kids - Nope. None of these either. Why? Because it’s not their party. It’s Kiki’s. So why would i give out presents to other kids when the party is not for them? However, I did have leftover cake mix so I made cupcakes and put each kid’s initial on the top. See..I’m not a total fun sucker.

Memory Makers - I came up with this idea and it was a huge hit! I went to the fabric store and found a big piece of organic muslin cotton. I used this as a “tablecloth” of sorts and asked that everyone sign it with a special message for Kiki. I put it on a table, added a lamp for light, put out some fabric markers and a framed picture of Kiki. Everyone that was there wrote really sweet messages. I’ll put it away until next year and then we’ll use it again. Hopefully in eighteen years when he thinks birthday parties are “sooooo lame” he will be able to look at it and know how much he’s been loved by our friends and family over the years. Yeah, right.

So all in all, this party wasn’t as green as I would’ve liked. But I do feel like we made a big effort to reduce a lot of waste, use organic food and I know we got people talking about going a little greener themselves because I had friends asking a lot of questions. I guess in the long run that’s what it’s really about. Awareness and setting an example that there are ways to do things differently and a little greener. Even if it’s just one party at a time.

Naturally yours, Dallas