All Things Supercinski

12. Your Best Birth by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein — I have been hearing some buzz about this book and decided to read it to see if I can learn anything and if I should recommend it to my Bradley students. I was impressed with this book and it seems to fill a great niche in the birthing book collection. The book’s primary focus is informing mothers-to-be about their choices in prenatal care and the importance of making an educated decision in your choice of care provider to help have the birth you are wanting. From the authors,

“We feel that the true mark of a “best birth” is when the mother is respected, informed, and treated as a participant in every decision about her pregnancy, labor and delivery. We have observed that when doctors and midwives treat mothers as active participants in their own childbirths, the mothers always feel empowered, no matter whether their births were natural or surgical. And when women feel safe and empowered around their births, they are able to bond with their babies and enter motherhood from a place of strength and security.”

My favorite part about this book are the checklists of questions to ask as you interview care providers and choose birth places. This is definitely not a labor preparation book, but one that could and should be read early in pregnancy. My least favorite part of the book was the final section on “Taking Back Your Birth.” It seemed a little rushed and like they added every sidebar section they couldn’t fit in the earlier part of the book, making it seem very disjointed and choppy. Something else that bugged me was that every time I read the title, I saw Joel Osteen’s face and I thought the book should be called, “Your Best Birth Now” with prayers to claim a pain-free birth where all you do is cough and out pops your baby, but I digress.

As a whole, this book was great–easy to read, entertaining and very informative. I highly recommend it to every pregnant woman, no matter what kind of birth you are envisioning.

13. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride — This moving book tells the story of Ruth Jordan, a Polish Jew who immigrated to America and turned from her Orthodox Jewish upbringing and married a black man, became a follower of Jesus, and raised 12 children in poverty. It was a remarkable tale, and I highly recommend it.

14. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson – I saw this book on John Piper’s blog at DGM. The last book I read that he had reviewed was excellent, so I gave this one a try. It was beautifully written, and I even had to look up a few words as I was reading it. The story gave me much to think about as well.

15. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake – Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help (which is still my favorite book of 2010, read it!) recommended this book on Amazon and the book cover. While this book was not as wonderful as The Help, and I felt like I had to trudge through it at times.

16. Mastering the Zone – I read this after all the hype about the Zone diet and Paleo diets, just to get a little more insight. I liked what the author had to say, though not enough to follow it 100%. I’m already a firm believer in the importance of protein, but his block calculations were a bit much for me.

And with Josiah, a few more Happy Hollisters and Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (we loved this one!)

We have been busy expanding, planting and tending our garden these days. The kids have enjoyed helping and Annalise has squashed more than her share of sprouts. Most things are growing really well. I may have planted my tomatoes a little early, but time will tell. I abandoned my efforts of starting tomatoes from seed this year and purchased seedlings.

Our lettuce is growing like crazy and I have been giving away kale to anyone who comes over and will take some. We harvested at least 3 gallon freezer bags FULL of carrots–tops not included and we are eating a lot carrots, baking carrot cake for any festive occasion and juicing them.

In this picture, you can see the tomato plants in the foreground (just behind Josiah), with our squash (zucchini, butternut and spaghetti squash) in the far right, the newly expanded area. Behind the tomatoes are two rows of green beans, three rows of yellow onions, two rows of broccoli (some are starting to make their heads, some are younger) and some brussel sprouts at the end of one of the rows.

This picture shows the other end–two rows of potatoes (I need to mound them once more), with a third half of a row in the far back, the newly thinned lettuce patch, some bell peppers, spinach, kale, and a few beets hiding behind the kale. I have yet to plant the melons and cucumbers, but will do that this week.

Not pictured our the old 4×4 raised beds that we moved to the side yard, one has little strawberry plants and the others were recently cleared out to hold some of our melons. The milk jugs beside the tomato plants are to help keep them warm at night from an article I read in Texas Gardener… not sure if it is working or not yet.

And my almost all-Supercinski-raised meal: roasted chicken from broilers we raised at our friends’ home and Thomas helped process, Maple-Cranberry sweet potatoes from our garden last fall, and a salad (er, lettuce, I’m a lazy salad-maker and eater) from our garden.

You have got to try the sweet potato recipe! My pregnant friend, Leslie, recommended them, and you know if pregnant woman recommends a recipe, it is probably delicious. Never in my life do I think about and dream about food as much as when I am pregnant. Anyway,the sweet potatoes are delicious and I enjoy them so much my non-pregnant self craves them for a snack.

It is hard to believe our sweet girl is so close to two years old. Perhaps it is all the sweet baby skin I can see these days in her warm-weather clothing, or perhaps she has grown a lot lately, but she seems so big to me. She is talking up a storm and putting more and more words together. She cracks us up with some of the things she says. Yesterday, we walked through the “woods” at a local park. Annalise was a little scared and kept saying, “Momma, hold you me… hold you me…” it was so sweet.

She loves her brother, “Siah” or sometimes “Josiah” or “Jo-Jo”, depending on her mood. She will follow him around and play with him all the time. They have been getting into some mischief together outdoors involving sand, dirt and water. Josiah is tall enough to turn on the hose now, so their outdoor play the past two days has somehow resulted in a soaking wet (and happy) Annalise. Serious warnings and dire consequences have been issued.

Annalise loves to swing in the big kid swing, either on her bottom or tummy. She enjoys helping me cook by stirring and dumping ingredients, and sometimes sneaking in a secret ingredient or two such as a pretzel she was eating or piece of cracker if I am not looking. She also likes trying to fold laundry, put on said laundry, and taking care of her babies. “Baby Love”, her most loved baby, was tragically lost at a Houston Target last month. We replaced her with a new “Baby Love” who looks very much like the old one, but if I ask her where “Baby Love” is, she always replies, “gone”, in a sad little voice, until I show her the new one. They aren’t so attached yet.

We upgraded her sleeping situation to include a pillow and blanket, slowly, slowly easing the transition to a big girl bed. It took a few days to get used to, but now she likes it. This picture below is of Annalise painting an egg that the librarian gave each of the kids to decorate at home. You will notice that her shirt is on inside out and backward, which is often the case as Annalise likes to take her shirts off and put them on by herself.

You may recall that she began learning to use the potty last month. Those efforts went well for several days resulting in two days with no accidents, and then she got a horrible diaper rash from some nasty overnight diapers and refused to sit on the potty for a few days. We abandoned the potty efforts for awhile and may resume again soon. She goes every time she sits on it, but I’m not sure of her holding capabilities yet. This update is so long, but I hope you can see how much we love our baby girl!

Yesterday over breakfast, Josiah and I were discussing our plans for the morning of going to the park to play in the beautiful sunshine. To this, Josiah said, “That’s a great idea. Running and climbing and sliding are good exercise for boys and girls. You know, people who have lumpy bottoms that are big and not flat, they should just go to the park and go down the slide a bunch. That will make their bottoms flat and not lumpy anymore.”

Ah, if only it were so simple!

We have continued doing our once-a-week homeschool preschool lessons with Josiah and his friend. I have enjoyed planning more involved activities than we would do on our own. I have also enjoyed the weekly playdate and love that Josiah and Andrew enjoy each others company so much–especially since his mom is great company for me, too!

(If you don’t want to scroll through all of these pictures, here are some of my favorite places to go for ideas submitted by other moms. Easy! ABC & 123 and Unplug Your Kids. I am sure there are tons more, do you have a favorite?)

Here are some pictures from some of my recent lessons:
Recently we did a lesson on Cars and Wheels. We did a matching game and a sorting by size game (not pictured). They were both too easy. Maybe I’ll let Annalise try it soon. I did most of this lesson with clipart and markers. :)

Our experiment involved making predictions about whether or not different objects would roll or slide down a little ramp I made. We charted our predictions and the results of our experiments. (Annalise colored on it as we worked.)

Lastly, the boys painted on paper using cars and trucks. Josiah was a ham and took his shirt off and painted his chest.

Another week, but without pictures, we learned about crickets and insects. They learned about the basic anatomy of insects by looking at pictures (head, thorax, abdomen, eyes, antennae, mouth and palps–sung to “head, shoulders, knees and toes”), looking at a dead cricket pinned on foam and identifying its parts, and then making collages of bugs from different shapes I cut out before we started. The boys glued the shapes to make a head, thorax, abdomen, legs, antennae, eyes and mouth. They each had several live crickets in a jar to observe throughout the week.

Many of the weeks that I host school, I make the boys little “BOB”-type books for them to practice reading at home. I write them and draw basic pictures for each week. They only take about 10 minutes to write and draw the very basic pictures, and Josiah loves to practice reading with them. I cover them with construction paper and sew the binding, which takes like 10 seconds. For car week, the books had this little story:

Bob is a car.
Bob sat in the sun.
Bob was hot.
A cat sat on Bob.
Bob gets gas.
Bob can go fast.
Bob hit a big rig. Uh oh!
Bob gets a tow.
The End.

We made a trip to Beaumont last weekend to visit our friends, Elijah and Stephanie and meet their new baby, Moses. Annalise was most excited about “Baby Moses” and loved holding him, which she asked/demanded to do a lot.

We enjoyed spending time with our friends and their neighbors who have also become friends of ours. The three families headed to a small town outside of Beaumont for a carnival. I am not a big carnival person, but it was so much fun since Josiah is old enough and big enough to ride some of the smaller rides. He rode this up-and-down bus ride with Thomas and Drew–who is also four.

Josiah and Drew also rode a helicopter ride and the huge ferris wheel with Drew’s dad. I cannot believe my little boy is big enough to ride a ferris wheel! The kids and I rode the carousel before heading home.

It was a fun and tiring weekend–the perfect way to adjust to a time change. Seriously–the kids have adjusted better than ever before. When we got home, our seedlings in our garden needed watering. Apparently, Annalise thought she did, too.

Blogging has been a little sparse these days. I have been spending almost every spare moment finishing up my lactation educator requirements and they are done! I hope to get them in the mail this week. You can imagine how free I feel! Now I have a few little projects to start (and finish)–taxes, landscaping in the front yard (with the help of Big Event), and repainting the laundry room.

We gave Josiah a bicycle with training wheels for Christmas, but it was a little too big. We put it away since it was too cold to ride anyway and pulled it out two weeks ago. He grew enough for his feet to reach his pedals and is enjoying riding it. He has improved so much in such a short time and is getting better about stopping on his own.

Thomas and the kids enjoyed the snow last week in their non-waterproof winter-wear. They built a little snowman, which Josiah crashed down shortly after it was finished.

And lastly, a cute picture of the kids.

Only three more of these updates to go until she is two. Our sweet girl is very independent these days. The phrase I hear most from her is, “Do it!” Which translated means, “I want to do it myself, don’t help me.” Some things she is doing herself these days include putting on her shirts and working hard on her pants (the backs just don’t come up right!), buckling herself in strollers and part of her carseat, zipping up coats, putting on coats, and wiping herself after going potty.

Yes, you read that correctly. Going potty. I had resigned myself to not even attempting teaching Annalise to use the potty until closer to three after some of our experiences with Josiah. However, this girl has a different plan. She is learning to use it and has been since this weekend. She stayed dry today from the time she got up until her nap. Granted, we went to the bathroom at least seven times, but she is learning. Her new big girl underwear are one of her favorite things.

Annalise loves to dress up, cook in her little kitchen, stand on a chair and “help”/watch me cook, and play with Josiah. Those two can entertain themselves chasing each other around the house for a long time. She loves to play in his room with his Lego duplo blocks and will sit and stack and take them apart for a long time. She still plays with her babies a lot and dotes on Baby Love (whom she no longer calls Baby La, but Baby Luff). She loves to help in the garden and has stomped on almost every little sprout we have out there.

Annalise will sit still for books and loves to read longer books these days. Her favorite this month is “Bumblebugs and Elephants” by Margaret Wise Brown. When we read it, she always points to herself and says “Am-weese. Little.” It is so cute.

6. Birth & Breastfeeding by Michel Odent–This was another lactation educator training book. I chose it from the reading list after recognizing the author as the French guy with great things to say from “The Business of Being Born”. This book was a lot of philosophy, not the kind of practical book I would recommend to any pregnant woman. He has some great ideas along with some very interesting ones that I don’t agree with.

7. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – I feel like I am always hearing Jodi Picoult books recommended, but this was the first one I read. It was a page-turner for sure and I shed a few tears over this one. I would recommend it if you were looking for fiction to read. It made me so thankful for my children’s health and was one more reminder to enjoy them and love them today. My favorite quote from this book was, “I realize then that we never have children, we receive them. And sometimes it’s not for quite as long as we would have expected or hoped. But it is still better than never having had those children at all.”
I just realized this was made into a move last year. Who knew? I must live in a cave or something… So I rented it and it stunk. Do not see this movie. Read the book. I cannot believe Jodi Picoult let them butcher her book that way. They completely changed the ending and everything. Boo, hiss, rotten tomatoes…

8. SuperFreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner — Thomas and I enjoyed reading Freakonomics a few years ago. It gave me some insight into my good friend and walking buddy, Megan, who now has her doctorate in economics. This book was interesting and a really fast read, but it was a bit disappointing compared to the first book. The last chapter on climate change seemed to drag on forever. The first part of the book was written with a bit more boldness and “in your face” tone than I remember the first book, but I guess that is the story of the sequel.

9. Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot — This was a chick-lit mystery recommended on a friend’s blog. It was cute, entertaining, and a really quick book to read. It was definitely “chick-lit”, but not annoying like some I have read. If this book sounds appealing, you should check out the Spellman Files (and the sequels) by Lisa Lutz. They are hilarious.

10. Size 14 Is Not Fat Either (the sequel to the previous book) by Meg Cabot. It was cute and really fast to read, but definitely a sequel as sequels go–edgier, worse language, etc. to the point that I don’t really care to read the next book in the series.

11. The Coach’s Notebook: Games and Strategies for Lactation Education by Linda Smith — This book was a fabulous resource and I got some really great ideas. I can’t wait to start trying some of them in my latest Bradley class.

Not counting read-alouds of three Happy Hollisters and Charlotte’s Web.