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Dear Jonas,

We are now back at home and you are very excited. With all of your new awareness at 6 months, you are staring out our huge windows, following the beams and just taking it all in.

You also have your very own bedroom -perfectly suited for you. We have put a little futon on the floor and all of your toys and books are easily accessible for you. For now, as we make the slow shift into sleeping in our own beds, this is where you will nap each day. At night time you will (for the most part) be sleeping on a mattress next to our bed. Last night was our first night at home and also our first night with this new arrangement. I didn't sleep much, but I think you slept fine. After having you sleep in the crook of my arm for the past 6 months (except those first few weeks in the bassinet) in our bed, it was hard not to feel you next to me, breathing and cuddling so close. It felt so strange last night...every hour I woke up to make sure you were still okay, even though you were only a couple of feet away from me! I think that this new sleeping arrangement is for the best, to begin spacing your night feeding now that you have begun solids. You are now so much more active and I need to sleep more in the night to be able to keep up to your impending crawling exploratory period...

Here is some stuff to describe you at 6 months:

* you are a very very light sleeper

* so far you love apples, sweet potato and squash (...well, that's all you've eaten)

*you are refusing the bottle at the moment and will only take your liquids from my breast or a cup

*you are still teething, but no teeth have come out yet - to soothe your aches you like to chew on cold cloths and when the pain gets worse we give you a homeopathic remedy which usually calms you, but when the pain is really bad we give you some Tylenol and that always works

*you are excellent at entertaining yourself for long periods of time...half an hour sometimes!

*for as long as I remember, you love books. You are able to sit through your favourites, you also like to touch and chew at them as well.

-your all time faves are :5 Little Speckled Frogs and Bunnies Go To School

*your favourite music includes:

-Putumayo Kids 'World Playground'

-Quiet Time Raffi

-Thomas Mapfumo

-Kiban Ahluwalia

-Putumayo Kids 'Animal Playground'

-The Be Good Tanyas 'Hello Love'

-Putumayo 'Arabic Groove'

*your favourite outfit - no clothes, no diaper

*your favourite activities include:

-being outside,

-watching mamamama working in the kitchen,

-laughing at Bower the dog,

-staring at trees,

-cuddling with Dad in bed,

-bath time

*you like camping and road trips


Love Mum

All Grown Up

Jonas is a big boy now. Well, not quite, I suppose, but he now has (as Jordan and I call it) HUMAN POO. Gone are the purely breast fed yellow and pleasant smelling baby poops; now we have the real stuff. Jonas still mainly breastfeeds, but he does have small amounts of solids 2-3 times a day. Last week was sweet potatoes, this week has been apples.

I can tell you, nothing feels more natural and satisfying than going over to Jerry and Jill's and picking apples and plums from the trees, peas from the garden and berries from the bushes. It feels so good to take this stuff home and prepare it for Jonas and us.

Without alot of conscious effort, our diet has been very 'raw' this summer. On the whole I am feeling quite good and healthy, considering I still feed Jonas throughout the night. I recently bought a dehydrator and have been using it non stop making crackers, veggie chips, sun burgers and nori chips. In a week or so I would like to start dehydrating apples, pears and anything else I can find around the property. I am also going to make lots of applesauce. Anyone out there know what would be healthiest - canning the applesauce or freezing it??

Jordan just got back from spending a couple of days hiking at Strathcona Park. Of course I was a little jealous, but I think it was a good little break for all of us. Just to have some time alone.Jill spent an afternoon with Jonas and I laid out in the sun and started reading The Birth House by Ami McKay at Rebecca Spit. It was such a treat! Usually when we have someone take care of Jonas, Jordan and I will go out and do something like hike, run, clean - always something active. It was just nice to be lazy for a few hours! While I had time alone, Jill took Jonas in his new stroller through the community centre trails and then down to the ocean for a swim. They then ate black berries all the way home - Jonas is still pooping out the seeds! Anyway, Jonas was very happy and I think it was absolutely wonderful that he went on this little adventure with Jill and had some time to connect with her. Jonas is very lucky (and we all are!) because there are 3 SETS of grandparents - and soon they will all live nearby! My parents will be moving from the Kootenays in the next couple of months!!

After spending the summer in the trailer aka 'The Family Cottage', we are moving back into our house! We made a little money, so it was definitely worth the sacrifice but I must say that we are all more than ready to be back home. Just in time for Jonas's crawling...

Solid Food

Ok, so I may be a little overinformed and probably misinformed as well. And so some people may think, its not a big deal. But as a mom, it is a big deal what I feed my son.
He is teething and growing and doing all these new things at once. He is also, all of a sudden, totally into our food. I am caught unprepared. I thought he wouldn't be into solids until 9 months or so...I thought breastmilk would keep him interested. Now he wants food...our food.
So I first fed him a little mashed banana. But then I remembered afterward that the only food I have any sensitivity toward is the banana. oops. gotta keep him away from that one for abit longer. Then a few days later I fed him some avocado with a little water. I then breastfed him afterwards as most books/internet suggest. He was really quite fussy for the rest of the day. Not with gas, and maybe it had nothing to do with the food, maybe it was just the teething. I don't know.
But now that I think of it, avocados don't even grow around here. Shouldn't I be feeding him something that is locally grown? Something that we have actually evolved to eat. Isn't eating locally grown foods far better, nutritionally and for our systems, than something imported that our bodies aren't even evolved to eat? hmmm. I don't know the answer. But I do no, however, that something grown locally whether organic or not, will have more nutrients that something that was picked and shipped here for far away. So, what should I feed my son as his first solids?
Maybe I will skip the mangoes, banana and avocado and pick some peas and squash from the garden...
There is just so much info out there, so many opposing studies. Local or organic, ideally, I guess, locally organic. To cook or to do raw for baby?

We all want the very best for baby. We want them to avoid creating food allergies and sensitivities later in life, we want them to build strong digestive fire, we want them to stay away from as much GMO's as possible, we want them to eat organic and avoid all the deadly toxins. Life isn't perfect, but as a mom I want to provide the best beginnings as possible.

Any suggestions/stories of first solids for baby?

Big Changes

In a week Jonas will be 6 months old. I feel as if we have gone through a big transformation over the past 3 weeks. Jonas has gone from mellow Buddha baby to non stop inquisitive, energetic and playful baby.

When once you were satisfied to sit on mamas lap, stare/hit your mobile or stroll around outside, now you are playing, rolling around everywhere, sitting, squirming forward/crawling, making high pitched screams....we have nicknamed you the Velosiraptor because the sound you make is very animalistic sounding. Its tough on the ears,...but you also make other very pleasant sounds as well. It all seems to have happened so quickly.

You are also really into watching us eat and drink. You get very upset if you aren't with us at the dinner table, so now we put you in your Bumbo seat right on the table. That was ok maybe once, but you insisted on eating as well.

We tried, about a week ago, to give you your first 'solids'. We were eating dinner at Grandma Janet and Opa Case's house and you were sitting in their high chair. You were sooo adamant about eating so I mashed some banana and you ate it - eagerly. Your spit out reflex is completely gone which means, along with your eagerness for our food, that you are now ready for some solids.

Throughout this 3 week growth spurt of yours, you have been abit fussy. With all that growing, I don't blame you one bit!

I think that some of the funnest times lately is when all three of us are laying in bed. You love to entertain us with your babbling, yelling, squirming/crawling and, well, just your new wild antics...

This summer has been so incredibly busy! We had visitors non stop for about 5 weeks and then we went to Vancouver for a little week long vacation.

My 8 year old nephew, Cameron, came to stay with us for 3 weeks. THAT was busy, but lots of fun as well. Did some camping. My parents also visited; they are selling their house in the Kootenays and moving to Vancouver Island in the fall! Very excited about that. Had friends visit. Phew!

Vancouver was great. The vacation that both Jordan and I really needed. A breath of fresh air. How funny does that sound? Our island, where everyone flocks to for summer vacationing, we leave for the city for our vacation. I suppose its nice because it gives new perspective and therefor invigorates. We stayed with our good friends who just purchased a new house in Vancouver; we had a brand new suite all to ourselves. This was nice so that we could move about freely with Jonas; he napped lots without interruption etc etc...