Here lately, our life has been about finding balance. We have been taking more steps to become a more intentional and natural-living family and learning new things as we go. At the beginning of April, we took the plunge into clean eating! We cleared our cabinets almost completely and started basically from scratch! I am happy to say that while we are not 100% clean eaters, we are at about 90%, and we have never felt better! Aaron has lost about 10 pounds so far! Since I am pregnant, there is no real way to gauge my weight since I am gaining weekly from the pregnancy. (I can say though, at 36 weeks, I have only gained 18lbs!) My favorite thing about eating clean thus far has been the experimentation with new recipes, especially desserts! We have definitely found some favorites and some not so favorites so far, which I plan to start sharing! :) I am a little anxious about our eating with Elliot's arrival approaching quickly since we will be in the hospital for two days and then things will be incredibly hectic around here for a while, I'm sure! But, I am confident that we can FIND BALANCE!
Another balance issue we've been working with is discipline for Emma. I am anti spanking and want to practice gentle discipline for her. She is such a spit fire that it really is difficult at times to keep my cool with her. I have been doing really well with giving her words for her feelings when she is mad or upset and trying to redirect her when she is doing something that is not allowed. She has started to get "swats" for dangerous actions, like her new favorite of running into the street. But, that is the only thing I will swat for. Swatting/Spanking/etc. for hitting, biting, scratching is one of my biggest pet peeves. If a child hits, and you do not want him/her to hit, then what good is it for you to hit him/her back? No good. Basically you're saying, I can do this, but you can't. That may work when you're child is 16, but definitely not when they are toddlers. One thing we are struggling with is her hitting and scratching. She only does this to Aaron, and I haven't figured out why she always directs her frustrations towards him. Okay, well, he is REALLY aggravating at times, so I can see that. ;) But, what we have been doing is if we are holding her and she hits/scratches is putting her down and walking away. This really seems to work at home, but what do we do in public? At a restaurant or the park, etc? This is the struggle we are having lately. I have been reading a lot of gentle discipline articles on blogs and trying to get some guidance, so I will let you know what I come with!
