a hippie with a minivan

Long walk…

This morning we went to a recreational park that isn’t too far away from here… we had gone there a few times near the end of summer/early fall and then stopped for whatever reason… I plan to go quite more often….
It was a really nice day today… though there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground the weather was quite mild and you can just FEEL that spring is coming… Feeling spring is one of my favorite feelings… It just feels like new things are coming, life is coming back… I really think that I do suffer at times from seasonal depression… my moods are always very in tune with the weather outside… the last week the mild temps have given me a new found energy that I lost for a while…

So we went on the walking trail (there are a few cross country skiing trails also) and we started walking… Colin was on my back and Xavier was just walking next to me most of the time… when we got to the end of the trail I took Colin off my back and let him walk.. he walked about 7/8ths of the way back, a few times I stopped and offered to put him back on my back and he didn’t want to… near the end he started stagering and falling more often, I again offered and again he refused…. he played along the way, getting a stick at times and “drawing” in the snow, colapsing onto snowbanks and examinin trees and animal tracks, both boys were having fun… finally Colin fell while walking and just stayed on all fours for a few seconds… I asked if he wanted to go in the backpack, again he said no… but then laid down on the ground, face down in the snow… I picked him up… he cried a bit… he wanted to walk more but jut couldn’t… I told Xavier to run and I would catch him and that made colin laugh and we walked back to the car…

Xavier was also getting pretty tired near the end…

Just before we got to the car I checked the park map to see how far we had gone.. I seems that we walked about 3 km which means that Colin walked a bit over a KM over hills and everything… pretty impressive I think….

It is sad…

I made a mistake and visited the AP board on Babycenter again…. mistake… bit mistake…

It is truly sad that a board on a mainstream site that used to be such a haven for AP parents and place to get support, information and have questions answered is practically not AP anymore… especially since it is a place that was easy for people that were going to the birthboards etc to find…
I am thinking of downloading a site blocker… you know one of those that are made for kids LOL…

Anyways… I do like reading boards so I going to put a little more effort in the Greener Pastures and the Mothering Boards…. and a lot more effort into never going to BabyCenter again…

Sad….

A little walk in the Park….

We had fun this morning going for a walk in the Park..

First we got to the park and played in the structures a bit and then went up the hill and found a little “house” that some kids made with branches…

Xavier thought it was really cool…

He made up a little story that he was the Daddy and that he had to build a fire… so he stacked up a few branches infront of the “house”… he then found a stick and went back into the house to find Marshmallows…

Colin stayed around a bit and watched Xavier attentively for a while… and played in and around the house for a bit…

But then went off to explore by himself… he actually went pretty far, once in a while looking back making sure that we were still there…

We then walked a bit more and and followed Rabit tracks and ski-doo trails, bird prints and a fallen tree… While we were following the Rabbit tracks Xavier found a Rabbit hole and we stayed there for a few minutes while he hoped the Rabbit would pop out…

Walking back home Colin fell asleep on my back… and I had an issue of Mothering waiting for me in the mailbox so I sat in the snow while Xavier played on the “mountain” in the front yard and had fun jumping off the Cliff…

I also saw one of the first signs of spring on one of my Lilac trees…

Vege Pate…

I have been making this recipe for a while… It was a big Hit at Colin’s Party last year, my grandmother came back for thirds!!! I sent out quite a few e-mails with the recipe the day after…

Vege Pate

1 1/2 cup Sunflower seeds, ground
1/2 cup Flour, Whole wheat
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 Large Carrot, grated
1 Large Potato, grated
1 Large Celery stalk
2 tbsp Lemon juice
2 tbsp Oil
1 Onion, fresh and grated or fried
Salt, pepper, Poultry seasoning (or Thyme, sage etc)

Preheat oven to 350
Ground Sunflower seeds, place in food processor, add flour, yeast,
grated veggies, lemon juice, oil and spices
Process until smooth, ajust seasonings (tends to need quite a bit)
Place in Square Cake pan and bake for about 45 min or until golden
brown. (don’t overcook or it will be dry)

I love serving it in a wrap (like the photo above)

The Islands of Parenting….

Here is a little analogy I used to describe parenting styles today…

Think of the parent as an island on a big lake…

The parent that doesn’t force independence but sets clear boundaries:
The child will test the boundaries….stay near the island for a while and then will slowly swim further and further always coming back and touching base…. then, when they are ready they will succeed at getting to the shoreline… (adulthood)

If you force independence, it is as if you start pushing the child into the water to make them swim… if you do that they will get start clinging onto the island more and more, they may develop fears of the water, push them too hard… they may drown or find another island to be their base….

The Overbearing and over protective parent?… it is like building a fence on the island… they will one day escape and try to go too far too fast or develop terrible fears of the water and never be able to adventure further…

I was wondering though…. what would the Permissive Parent be… an island of Jello? A series of little Islands just big enough to hold onto but not enought to provide safety? an island with muddy borders?

What do you think?