“Leila, my eyes are sick”, Cesar, my 4 year old son, tells me. My first instinct is to go into full-blown paranoia – there’s something wrong with him!! I stop for a moment and take a breather. I’ve been down this path before, going into fear only veils me from what is really here. Almost …
*WARNING TOTAL GOOEY MOM MOMENT* Gian and I have the same type of water bottle and we always get confused as to what bottle is whose. I also often add mineral drops and apple cider vinegar to my water, which Gian and Cesar find to not be a pleasant way to find out they got …
Cesar calling on the Moon and Ocean to make bigger and BIGGER WAVES! Shouting how strong and powerful they are, pleading for a display of some raw nature force. I didn’t intend to swim in the water so I was wearing a dress, keeping us by the small waves rolling on the shore with my …
The other day I was playing with my son Cesar on our veranda. We have a collection of wooden cut offs that we keep there for him to play with (cause you know, our room is at maximum toy capacity). I started building random structures with the blocks, and Cesar was complaining he doesn’t know …
What does kindness mean? How have I been living kindness? Have I been truly kind to myself and others, or have I been micro-managing myself to ‘fit in’? How we define a word affects our relationship with ourselves, our children and everyone else around us. Maite opens up her relationship with the word kindness, how …
In this video Leila shares her experience with Postpartum Depression and how she has come to look at it as being an Existential Crisis that envelops one’s whole life and the definitions we’ve ascribed to ourselves. Rather than being a short-term ‘localized’ experience, the Raw Truth of ourselves steps forth and we have the opportunity …
A few years ago I dragged a bin of wood cut offs destined for the fire place out of the shed, thinking they’d be awesome as building blocks. I was talking to @adam.closs who is a carpenter and was busy with some woodwork outside about the blocks. He got the idea of cutting some pillars …
Spending some time with Cesar in the Parrot aviary. Cesar likes to share his food with them. When he eats a piece of fruit or veg but gets close to the stem he stops eating and collects little bits to give to the Parrots. Here he had already gotten a lot of apple to eat …
In this video Leila discusses some of the aspects that may be involved in the experience of feeling like your child is abusing you. Remaining conscious of the variables that define the balance in our parent-child relationship will assist in tweaking our own approach and behaviour. Whenever a conflict or friction arises, we have an …
![Cesar gave Syntia his train tracks about a year ago, and before they were hers, she would play with them together with Cesar. She's had a ton of time to learn the different pieces, how to put them together and build a track, but for some reason, she DID NOT want to build a track by herself and most of all preferred to just watch as someone else built the track for her.
Lj and I knew she was perfectly capable of building a track for herself and we tried to support her to start small and show herself that she can do it. Or that we'd be here if she gets stuck, but she can at least try on her own. Any such attempts, however, were met with an absolute and firm refusal. So, we did it with her, or for her.
We started wondering, is this little girl really just taking advantage of us at this point? Are we entertaining this too much? Should we push harder? We knew she could do it, she knew she could do it, but for some reason she just didn't want to do it, at least, not yet.
And then one day, out of the blue, she takes out her blocks and starts building a track... by herself. Lj quietly waived me over, pointing at her, then signing 'shhht', lol - didn't want to disturb the moment. The track you see in the pic is the first one she built by herself. It wasn't a "beginner's" track like a simple circle or a straight line, it was a more intricate design laid out exactly and precisely how she wanted it to be, including all the elements she wanted to have as a part of it. Kabam, out of the blue.
There are other things where Syntia 'took her sweet time', like learning how to walk and potty training, where it was clear at some point that she was able to do it, but for some reason, pulled back or didn't want to do it all by herself just yet. It's so easy as parents to freak out over that, to think that children should develop skills in a particular way, like 'starting small' or doing something by yourself as soon as you're able to. But not all kids are the same in this. [Continued in comments..]](https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/135216034_868657797266702_107582540258970761_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=5qvWorAaQU0AX_Qrjn2&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfDa1vIk6Qhk_1PDgoVXTtJDmGgcHTiP-4__UARGzUY8gw&oe=647E3CD2)
