When I go silent on social media it usually means I have something going on in my life that needs more of my focus and attention. These past two weeks were no different. Around the same time that Syntia’s second top tooth broke through, she developed a viral infection in her gums (herpetic stomatitis) – it’s been causing her so much pain that she’s been refusing to breastfeed. We resorted to using a breast pump and squirting the liquid gold into her mouth with a medicine dropper (bottles hurt her too much as well). While the viral infection was busy healing, she got hit with a bacterial infection that developed on the outside of her mouth (impetigo). Double whammy and doubly miserable baby. But we’re getting there. The last few nights she was willing to sleep horizontally (that’s right, she wanted to sleep upright for over a week – guess what this meant for me and Lj…) and overall she smiles a lot more. While I felt stuck in a dark tunnel with that light at the end being so damn far away, I did learn a lot about myself, about what strength is (and what it isn’t), about my relationship with my emotions and about the idea and belief that it is noble to sacrifice myself for my child. I know that last one might strike a chord, but I will elaborate in videos to come. Keep an eye out for more content on @parenting_4_life !
Here is the link to the post where I discuss my experience with sacrificing myself for my child: https://parentingforlife.net/sacrificing-yourself-for-your-child/
![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-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/135216034_868657797266702_107582540258970761_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=c4dd86&_nc_ohc=Z1V8WJUUqosAX-4LmjA&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfCJjAXVxtNiIi6gvUUl0MZd6cdkXtaHW6r2JeZgYPVE-A&oe=64DB2E92)
