Page 8 - Family & Parenting
Family & Parenting
November 06, 2012
Early one January day, my husband Rusty, and I got THE call from our adoption agency. The call we had waited years to receive. The call that would change our lives forever. There was an eleven-month-old baby boy waiting for us in Taiwan. We rushed over to the adoption agency and got his referral packet with pictures, documents, and medical information about him. We pored through every page a dozen times and stared at his picture for hours -- a tiny guy with a disheveled fluff of black hair and mismatched pajamas. He was the most beautiful baby we had ever seen. We couldn't wait to hold him in our arms, rock him to sleep, and let him know that we will love him forever. But, of course, there was more paperwork and the adoption had to go through the court system in Taiwan.
Four months later, we got another call. The Taiwanese courts had issued the final decree and he was our baby. We would pick him up in Taiwan at the end of June. Because we didn't want to jinx the adoption, we hadn't done
Family & Parenting
November 05, 2012
My first pregnancy took 20 months. My second pregnancy was 26 months. That is a long time to wait to meet my sons. I couldn’t talk to them before we met. I couldn’t make plans for their future. I didn’t know if they would be boys or girls. I didn’t get to tell them how much I already loved them.
My husband and I did not plan to adopt. We married, established our career paths, bought a house and then said “time to have kids!” I wasn’t sure I’d like being pregnant but I knew I would love being a mom. I had been a babysitter, a teacher and a nanny for almost 20 years! It was my turn. But years went by. We endured tests, surgeries and procedures. We spent a lot of money. Eight years later we felt we were at the end of the road. I still felt I was meant to be a mother. My husband said to give him 6 months before bringing up adoption. One year into waiting for an adopted child, he asked “why did we wait so long?”
We met our son’s birth mom 6 weeks before he was born. She officially “picked us”
Family & Parenting
October 24, 2012
Throughout my life, there have been moments I've imprinted on my brain and heart forever. During each of those moments, I've closed my eyes tight to take a mental picture. I store those memories in a special place I access when the first colors of fall fill my eyes, during the quiet moments I spend alone, and in the middle of the night when I cuddle my children back to sleep.
It's there that I hold the last hug I shared with my father before he died, the 10 shades of green on the first hill I laid eyes on in Ireland during a trip with my parents, the moment I realized I was in love with Ash, the first time I locked eyes with Noah, and the car ride to the hospital minutes before meeting Maya where all I could think about was how beautiful life is.
Over the weekend, our family took a tour of the White House, and I stood in front of the Oval Office with each of my children. Looking in at the President's desk, I squeezed my eyes extra tight thinking about how much I love Ash, Noah
Family & Parenting
Travel
August 28, 2012
Editor's note: Written from the point of view of the Ergobaby Original Carrier - Black/Green, a retired color:
Hi there. I know this is not your typical blog post, but I heard that Ergobaby wanted to hear some great travel stories…and boy, have I got a ton to tell you! You see, I’ve been around the block a few times after being given to a wonderful family. I’m an Ergobaby Original Carrier - Black/Green. They don’t even make my color anymore, that’s how long I’ve been around. Before I met my family, I sat in a warehouse with all of the other Ergobaby Carriers wondering what type of family I’d be going to – and I was thrilled to be pulled off the shelf one day and my journey started in a nice brown cardboard box.
When I arrived at my final destination, central Maryland, I was shocked to find out that my family hadn’t even originally wanted me! The mom was pregnant and had a big ol’ belly, and the dad was into all sorts of outdoor things. I found out that, at first, they had put a DIFFERENT
Family & Parenting
August 24, 2012
I love walking my dogs with my baby. We all get out of the house, get some fresh air, and spend some time together. However, when you have a dog, other people with dogs often like to stop to say hi. You might also want to take your dog to a dog park where they can play off leash and socialize with their doggy friends. Doing this with a stroller would be pretty much impossible, whereas wearing your baby in a carrier frees up your hands and gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of the terrain you can tackle. The question, then, is which carrier to use. From my perspective as a behavior analyst, dog trainer, dog owner, and mom to two young sons, I have developed a strong preference for the Ergo, and recommend it to all my clients with babies. Here is why. (Please note that I am not in any way associated with the Ergobaby company; they did not ask me to write this or offer me products– it is entirely my own opinion.)
Many of the dogs we know and love are, well, a little nutty. One of my
Family & Parenting
Travel
August 12, 2012
After a week of sunshine and warm weather this past July, the typical gray skies of Western Washington returned, along with 60 degree temperatures. It turns out though that 60 degrees and gray skies is perfect weather for blueberry picking! My summer bucket list just received another check mark. Bergen and I met Nina and her two kids (ages 1 & nearly 5) at Larsen Lake in Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, to see just how many blueberries we could gather in our buckets. We both strapped the babies into their ergos on our backs, and with Maya in the lead we started down the main path. Hundreds of blueberry bushes line this greenbelt area in the middle of suburbia allowing us to have our choice of spots to start from. As we started picking away, Maya and I took Nina's advice:
Pay attention to the color of the berry. The darker the better. If the blueberry isn't blue, it's not ready to be picked!
If the berry just seems to fall right off the stem, it's probably a good choice!
Family & Parenting
Travel
August 09, 2012
I think one of the biggest gifts we can give our kids is the gift of travel. Not only does travel expose children to amazing locations, but also it teaches about other cultures, develops situational flexibility, encourages imaginative thinking, and helps illustrate a sense of world scale.
When my first son, Alexander, was only 5 months old, we had the amazing opportunity to pack our bags (and our house!) and head to England for 3 years. While some might find the thought terrifying, we were so excited about the opportunities it was going to give us to go, do, and see!
While in England, our family grew with the birth of our second son, Edward. But even with a toddler and a newborn, we took every travel opportunity we could (the Ergobaby Carrier sure did help!!).
Our first holiday as a family of four was to England’s famous Lake District. We found a nice holiday cottage to rent just outside of the town of Keswick. Weather in England can be quite unpredictable, but the Weather Gods must have
Family & Parenting
Travel
August 06, 2012
I didn’t have a Passport until I was 19 years old. To say my children’s traveling adventures will be different from mine is a bit of an understatement. But, we’re living in Germany and we are going to make the most of it and that means visiting and exploring countries I never imagined I’d see as an adult, let alone as a child. My kids are definitely too young to truly appreciate all they’re experiencing, but that won’t stop us from packing up and hitting Europe.
Bruges, Belgium
Our first overnight adventure outside of Germany was to Bruges, Belgium. My husband and I visited Bruges about seven years ago when we lived in Germany before, but this was our first time with kids. It was different. To say the least. But in a wonderfully crazy, loud, kid kind of way.
Bruges' history lies in its location: it served as a through-way between northern and southern Europe. The city's heyday was in the 14th and 15th Century, and admiring buildings that old puts into perspective just how young The United
Family & Parenting
Travel
July 27, 2012
A lot of people think we are crazy because we travel with an infant. I think it has been something that sort of defines us. During our first cross country trip in 2010, Mila was only 5 months old when we left. In a couple of weeks, we will be heading out again with a 3 1/2 month old baby Luka. The first time around, Mila was not old enough to walk or sit in a compact, collapsible stroller, we had to find a carrier that was comfortable for both the parent and the baby as well as being extremely mobile. After looking and trying at a lot of options, we decided that the Ergobaby carrier was the best solution.
[caption id="attachment_2805" align="aligncenter" width="500"] In the shuttle going in to Grand Canyon National Park. Mila here has just turned 9-months old.[/caption]
When Ava was a baby, we had some of the other carriers like the Baby Bjorn or the simple sling-style carriers. Although they worked reasonably well for the most part, it was agonizingly uncomfortable and back breaking after
Family & Parenting
Travel
July 26, 2012
Here are what long flights and car rides used to mean: Quiet time. Daydreaming time. I’d make sure I had a good playlist on my iPod, a water bottle, gum.
And then I had a baby.
Here are what long flights and car rides mean now: A vaudeville show. Step right up, babies and gents, we’ve got jugglers and funny face-makers, song singers and snack givers, a strong man who can hold a baby in one arm and walk up and down the aisle not one, not two, but 15 times for your amusement. A fortune-teller who knows exactly what happens at the end of Where’s Spot? For a 2-year-old and her parents, it’s laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and “Are we there yet?” takes on a whole new urgency.
Sadie’s first road trip happened when she was two weeks old (a four-hour drive for a family beach vacation). She first went on a plane at 6 weeks. And both times, I steeled my nerves for whatever was to come. Have baby, will travel, onward and upward. Or something.
Except… there was remarkably little to steel myself