Friends and Helpful Advice

Seems like the past few days have been filled with wonderful advice from friends. Last night Melissa came over with her son Fisher for dinner. I was telling her how Stuey cries between 8-10ish often at night and how I didn't know what to do for it. She stood up with Stuey and showed me this wonderful move which helps settle the gas bubbles in their system. And it worked beautifully! After Melissa left, I could see Stuey starting to get uncomfortable. So I started doing the magical move and sure enough-he fell asleep without his crying bout. YEAH!!! :)


The second piece of advice had to do with how to best work with Nora....

Today was another tiring day with Nora. I called my friend Marias and she and I were brainstorming ways to do good discipline techniques without spanking. Seems like she and I have been feeling like we're coming to dead ends lately with our little ones. Lately Nora laughs when I say "time out". Frusturating as all get out!

Anyhow, we both thought of people in our life with kids who are older and decided we would call around and get ideas from. I called my friend Libby-she has 3 daughters. She wasn't home, but I talked to her mom who gave wonderful advice. She told me that time outs probably aren't effective for Nora since she is so young. Instead, she recommended distraction with a different activity or focus and getting down on the floor with her more. Boy did this work! I was amazed. Bath time was MUCH easier. When Nora showed signs of losing it, I turned her music CD on loud and started playing with the bath toys in an animated fashion. Then tonight after dinner she and I sat on the floor and played imaginary kitchen with various cooking tools. I think I just need to take more time out throughout the day to really connect with her on her level. Sometimes I get too busy trying to get things done around the house (fold laundry, cook, clean, etc..) and forget to do the pretend play stuff with Nora which she dearly loves.

I'm so thankful for both these pieces of wonderful advice for the past two days. Seems like my little gray cloud has moved on and I have a better attitude and approach for my parenting woes. (Zoya)

PHOTOS: The top Photo is Melissa, Fisher and Stu.
next one down is Stuart and I last night

next one down is Patrick and Nora watching the red sox game over the weekend (the bottle is EMPTY!) :)

one on the bottom is one our mommy helper, Megan, took of Stu and Nora two days ago when she was watching them for a couple of hours.