Syntia is well on her way to becoming a farm girl through and through. Having grown up in an urban setting myself, it is awesome to see how comfortable she is sitting on my horse’s back or going for a ride on Cesar’s tractor. Farm life was completely foreign to me when I moved out …
Cesar literally playing with fire. Fire is one of his big fascinations, and he welcomes stormy nights when the power goes out (= lots of candles). When I was young I did not get much experience with fire. Once, I set a paper tissue on fire (I was playing in secret, I was not to …
Living in a community comes with a set of challenges. One of those challenges is the use of space. Lj, Syntia and I share a house with (currently) 4 other people. The kitchen, lounge, bathroom, laundry room, porch and garden are all communal areas. To ourselves we have a 40 square meter room that we …
Repost from @kimberlytolife: Meet Cesar, a child of life, his own man. He belongs to no one but himself. He has adults in his world that are responsible for him and his wellbeing, that guide him and teach him by example. But he leads and directs his own life. Cesar is empowered. He is never …
Seems like winter decided to make its entrance afterall. The rains seem to have stopped and getting that gentle afternoon sunlight coming through. Gently caressing the land with its last rays before setting down for the night. Cesar and I took a bit of an extended stroll after attending to the horses. Enjoying the sceneries …
Parenting hack Always drink coffee, tea or any other hot beverage in a travel mug when you’re with your little people! I had to learn this one the hard way … When Syntia was about 6 months old a cup of coffee (that had just been reheated) got bumped over on the table and the …
Made my first mei-tai!! Syntia and I both have become fond of using a wrap to go for walks together. With her getting bigger and my elastic wrap being too hot, cumbersome and elastic, I started researching what the next step would be. After deciding on a mei-tai, the next step was finding out how …
I started this little chart for myself inspired by the @eqafe recording ‘Realizing My Reach’. Drawing it out in circles, layers – me being the dot in the centre, the origin point – made me realise how often I work from the outer layers in. Where I first take care of all those points furthest …
Cesar asked me to make some modifications to his chair to accommodate the birdie 😁 I was a bit hesitant to take in the birdie, last time we didn’t have a child of our own around. Cesar’s been very good with the bird, patient when we have to take care of her/him (we’ll have to …
![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=AwcDjJsv6z8AX8z3F1X&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfDz7JKknfXiTiNtMQPTY6feuYnVgUtaSV9OJJa_M1vbzA&oe=64823152)
