Breathe in the Refreshment!! What a wonderful day!

Today was nice. I am excited about a few things.

1. Today we worked at no nap, and it was no challenge. There was a bit of over-reacting towards pre/post dinner time, but nothing a bit of understanding and patience on my part didn't help. And Viola! It's 7:00 pm and my little one is down for the night, no fuss, no battle, not even the relaxing CD I used to finally get her down at 10:30 last night! We have been going back and forth between napping and not napping, and today finally felt like an ideal sleep patterned day!!

2. Nurse Land, loving it rather than being fed-up! The only time she nursed today, aside from nursing to sleep, was when she received a minor bloody nose from some uncoordinated dance moves with the other sweet ones at Music Together this morning. that was about 10:30am. She didn't even seem to notice not having a wake up nurse. She asked a couple times during the day for a nurse, but I diverted it. At the end of the day, nursing her to sleep, I felt really good about it! I want it to be like this. I want to be able to nurse with her at the end of our busy days. I want to be able to have milk for her when she really needs comfort and grounding, or in case she should become ill. And this level of nursing, this level I can absolutely live with! Let's see how it goes from here. :)

3. I have discovered an amazing resource offered by BC Housing here in BC. It is a Rental Assistance Program. In short, once I begin working and am no longer on assistance, I can receive an amount of money to go towards my rent. This has given me hope and enthusiasm about becoming financially independent! Go Mama, go! (This is especially exciting to me because it makes my desire to have my own place with T more achievable.)

4. I am, after being motivated better by blogs I've read, planning on going back to cloth diapers. I honestly don't know why I stopped. I think my issue was the kind of diapers I was using as opposed to the fact that they were cloth. Anyways, a while back I bought 5 nice cloth diapers in the hopes of returning to cloth land. I have learned that 10 might be a more reasonable number to keep in stock. So, I am planning to either purchase or sew some ASAP. Weeeee!! (I also did not think T would still be in diapers after 2, but hey, it's her thing.)

5. We had a glorious day today, the little monkey and I! After breakfast, we walked with T in the stroller to our beloved Music Together class(about a 5 minute walk for grown-up legs). We had so much fun there, as usual. Then, we came back with T walking and leading the way/pace. It was so wonderful. I have been wanting to make it a priority to give space for her to experience a walk where she takes the lead and has the time, space and opportunity to walk as slowly as she wants, to stop and experience anything she sees along the way she wishes to. It was incredibly rewarding. I feel that this start played an immense role in creating the day we experienced! (She chose to take her boots and socks off part way too, which was lovely for the grassy parts!)
After lunch, I created intentional space for "quite time" for both T and myself. I think that the fact that this time I was also having quite time (journaling in the living room right outside of our bedroom) effected her ability and motivation to also enjoy her quiet time. She was busy dressing the lovely and anatomically correct baby boy doll our good friend Auntie J lent to her, and tending to her other babysitting duties. During this time I played a lullaby type CD with some nice singing and classical style music. I truly believe that this is an incredibly important time for her, to have this facilitated down time, especially if she is not napping.
After this, we had a lovely bike ride. The intention of this was to pick of the memory stick for my new digital camera, however it was faulty. They are going to order me a new one which will be in tomorrow, and so that may mark the beginning of my life as a text and picture blogger!! I am excited for that! :) Though the mission was not achieved, so much more magic and beauty occurred. She was super excited about the lovely fountain in the middle of the square where the store was. After some wet time spent being enchanted, and making a new little friend, we were off. I decided to take a different way back and see if we could find our way. Well, we also happened upon a park. Need I say more?
After returning home T had fun playing and snacking. Then dinner and a bath and to bed. And here I am, free to relax and finish off the rest of the Panda Licorice! ^.^

Much love to you all! I look forward to photo blogs soon!!!

-Sarah Christina, One Radical Mama! ^.^