Family Life – Page 55 – a hippie with a minivan

La Cabane à Sucre…

Here are a few pics from “La Cabane à Sucre” or “Sugar Shack” where we went last Thursday… This is one tradition that I want my Family to know. It is something that I loved doing as a child…

For those who don’t know what it is… Quebec is the largest producer of Maple Syrup in the world so when the Nectar Flows the Sugar shack go to work…. collecting the Maple water a few times a day and the boiling it down to the Maple Syrup we know…

With the syrup comes the food… A whole array of traditional french-canadian cuisine… Def not healthy or vegetarian and not something that I could eat everyday or more than once a year…

Cretons on toast,Split Pea soup, Maple omelette, Breakfast Sausages, Apple Maple Ham. Maple Baked Beans, Pork rinds, Beignets, homemade dougnuts, Maple cake, Maple sugar Pie etc…

Followed by “tire sur Neige”
Hot maple syrup poured onto snow making a Maple taffy…

Now “Sugaring off” also includes small petting zoo’s at many places, horse drawn sled or buggy rides etc…
Anyway… here are some pics….

Here is the Maple Taffy…

This was an amazingly nice Llama called Tommy…

I think it is now safe to say…

That Xavier has weaned…

When I started nursing my newborn almost 5 years ago I would have never had guessed that I would have nursed this long, I couldn’t even imagine it… Nursing a baby was so foreign to me, I had never really seen anyone nurse… however, I knew that Formula would never touch my child’s lips…

My original goal was a year… but by the time he was 6 months old I knew that I would be letting him wean himself.. I couldn’t imagine taking something away from him that was perfect for his health, that nothing else could come close to nutritionally, that was the perfect comforting tool and that he enjoyed so much. I couldn’t imagine weaning him to the milk of another species just because our society has put a taboo on breasts.

When I got pregnant with Colin I offered often even though it was painful at times… it wasn’t martyrdom to do so, I did so out of respect for his needs. My temporary discomfort was nothing compared to taking away the benefits of nursing… the pain passed and we both continued to enjoy nursing…. Colin was born and Tandem nursing became second nature…

Near the end of my last pregnancy, Xavier went down to nursing once a day and then started to skip days… With the arrival of his newest brother he started to skip days more often and went to once or twice a week and then continued to diminish…

Though he still came to nurse at times, at one point a few weeks ago he suddenly lost the ability to suck…

The last time he tried he was a bit sad because he couldn’t get any milk, but said that though he couldn’t get milk anymore he was still nursing… and then he then gave me big hugs… I think he knows that he is done, but just wants to make sure that he can if he needs to… and though I wouldn’t be surprised if he asks again I think it is now safe to say that we are at the end of our nursing relationship…

I am proud of the fact that I practice complete Child led Weaning… I could never do it any other way.

Of course there were ups and downs in the 4 1/2 years… but what great relationship doesn’t have ups and downs?

Though I have shared it many times before… here is my favourite nursing pic of Xavier and a memory that I will cherish forever… he was 3 1/2 here…

sitting pretty..

KhÃ©na has only been on the floor for a few minutes a handful of times and I just started recently… he is mostly always in my arms or being worn or in Simon’s arms like I believe a young baby should be…

One of the things that I am really annoyed at hearing is that tummy time is important (it is of course if a baby is in containment devices all day), that babies shouldn’t be held too much, or the myth that they won’t learn how to sit, crawl, walk etc if they are always in arms or being worn…

well… I put KhÃ©na on the floor earlier today and sat him down and here he is…

and a few pics just because he’s cute….

stella the friendly ghost…

Yesterday morning started with Xavier wanting to bring Simon breakfast in bed, something that he had decided on the night before… Though I did help him a tiny bit by getting a plastic bowl and glass out, he did the rest… juice (diluted of course) and cereal were on the menu and he brought them to the room served on a strawberry tray..

Later in the afternoon they went for a walk and Xavier decided that he wanted to bring his babies in the toy stroller with him… he has been taking care of his baby a lot lately which is a lot of fun to see… especially when we went shopping and he brought his baby in the homemade pouch that I made for him….

Then, during the bath he told Simon that he sees a ghost and she is his friend…. in a short time it became Stella, his ghost sister that lives in the walls… she fell asleep on the couch next to him last night that ate ghost bagels at the table this morning… and then played with him and Colin in the playroom… he has even convinced Colin of her…

I like her… she is quiet…

know better… do better…

After letting our diet slip into a more mainstream diet and having TV be watched a bit too often at the end of the pregnancy…. Going back to a whole food/ natural food diet and cutting a lot of TV time has made way for many changes in the boys…

The last weeks has been great… the boys fight but not as often, just normal brotherly “love” stuff now… they play and laugh and make up stories with toys, play together etc… Xavier is not screaming as much and the house is just a lot more calm…

I really believe that their “behaviour” was a direct result of our slip in diet… I feel awful for it, but as the saying goes… when you know better you do better…

It wasn’t a big slip mind you, and not at all near to a “normal” mainstream diet that I see some people have, but it was enough to make a difference….

I also really love to see that behaviour can be curved by diet and positive parenting and it is not punitive “discipline” that is the answer as so many are led to believe…

No spanking, hitting, tapping, slapping, or any other synonym that basically means beating a child into submission…

No withdrawal of love, instilling fear of abandonment, naughty chair, time out or other synonym of conditional love….

No bribing or rewards for everything so that they won’t do anything without expecting something in return…

The kids know that whatever they do we will love them… It is not conditional to what they do…

In practicing unconditional parenting they are learning to do the right things for the right reasons.. not because they have the fear to be punished and not because they want praise but because they want to do the right thing…

I have to admit that it is hard at times, and we still have things to work on…

it is hard to break the cycle of abuse and conditional love that I experienced as a child… but I will and I am doing it because again..

I know better and I will do better…