Unity - joining the personal and academic

One of my core beliefs is that connection is at the very heart of creating a caring, sustainable human presence on the planet.  In wondering how people come to come to have an environmental ethic, one of the fullest answers seems to be that they have to care about the natural world from a personal rather than abstract intellectual place.  For people to care about the natural world in this way, a meaningful personal connection to it seems essential.  Following this path, I have come to believe that the innate ability for people to deeply connect and care is either nurtured or inhibited from a person’s earliest days on earth.  

My life is profoundly focused on early childhood right now, as well as on issues of sustainability.  While there are many, many, many facets to and approaches for addressing the later, all of which are important, I think there is something deeply essential about being mindful about how we raise our children.  There is a beautiful window of time in which the basic physically and emotional needs of infants, babies and children can be consistently met out of a place of deep connection, caring and love.  Doing so helps them to develop into secure, confident young people who are able to connect, care and love in return. 

Beyond this ability to feel connected to and care for one’s own self and those in your immediate community, comes the ability to confidently venture further into the world and begin to make broader connections.  Having the opportunity to explore and connect with the natural world as a child is fundamental to both the well-being of the child and the ultimate well-being of the natural world.  Having the ability as a parent in this time and place to nurture whole-hearted, connected children who behave in caring ways seems to source from an ongoing effort to stay connected to one’s self, as it is not the easiest path.

In an effort to create congruence and ensure authenticity, my PhD research is directly tied to all of the above, which is pretty cool.

From the mouths of babes

Here are some of Bryce's more memorable and "charming" statements of the past month:

• When I was in a sad, sleep deprived state this week - "I'm pretty new and your pretty old, but that's ok, we can still snuggle."
• When wanting a hug from him the night before the baby was born - "Oh no, you are getting so old."
• When asking him for a kiss as I left for work - "Go kiss yourself."
• When covered in his vomit - "I can smell you, your're stinky."
• When absolutely exhausted the morning after a night of faux labor and his stomach upset - "You're just like the ugly duckling."

A dad's love

Jeremy is a truly great dad. For the first several days of Sasha's life he was the only one to change her diaper.  He made many runs home while I was at the hospital to give Bryce some extra love. He snuggles so sweetly with Sasha and will walk around the house for hours trying to get a gas bubble out if that is needed. He builds awesome train tracks for Bryce, often before the sun is properly up, and has taken him on lots of adventurse in the past few weeks to make sure he gets good activity and quality time with a parent.  In short, when he isn't hard at work to be able to provide for his family he is highly engaged with the even more important job of parenting.  He even cooks and cleans without being asked! :) His kids are lucky to have such a loving, devoted, hands on dad.  I am lucky to have a husband who is so committed to his family and is an equal partner in everything it takes to care for our children. Thank you for everything you do Love!

Sleepy Sashimi

I am often envious of just how much Sasha sleeps and probably should be taking much greater advantage of the "sleep when the baby sleeps" advice.  She is still very much in that newborn phase of sleeping almost all the time. She will be up for an hour - maybe two in the morning, then sleep for most of the day with short stints of nursing, and then have another hour or two where she is up and alert in the evening.

Sasha will sleep for several hours at a time at night too, which is a blessing. Unfortunately, the transition to being a big brother has resulted in Bryce's night habits regressing and it seems that they are in cahoots to take turns waking up so there is minimal time when they are both asleep at night.

Evolving eyes

Sasha's eyes are still closed much more than they are open.  However, over the course of the past weeks they have really started to shift from that unfathomable baby color to grey to a definite shade of blue.  At this point, although it may be too early to really make an official determination, I feel pretty comfortable calling it that Sasha will have blue eyes like her daddy and brother (and her Heda).

Motherhood

I think this picture speaks for itself. I would gladly take many, many more moments just like this one.

Baby in a basket

My baby shower gift from my sister was a wonderful moses basket that rests in a rocker.  It's home is by the side of our bed and it has become a wonderful little nest for Sasha to rest in during the day while I am doing things upstairs.  I often find myself snapping photos of our girl in a sweet state of repose in her basket.