This is how Americans see it: "...head control is essential to sitting independently, and sitting is the key to crawling, standing, and learning to walk."(Babycenter) So basically it's another topic where everyone's an expert. Estonian mothers say, "sitting has no importance in over-all physical development. The later she learns the better!" and American mothers say, "sitting is an important milestone. Help your baby learn it so she can learn to crawl.". And all this time I have been really nervous if baby gets to sit even for a few seconds. 
Another sitting I wanted to mention is babysitting. I have a brand new babysitter. I found her with Google within only minutes so I was quite nervous how good she can be. She has no previous experience with such small babies and she's pretty young (22 years) but she loves children and has found a calling in babysitting. We started with three hours of seeing how the baby reacts to her. I was also at home in another room - ready to feed her or calm her down. Long story short: It went great.
Babysitter has a very melodic high-pitch voice and adamant determination to play with Siiri the entire time, except during naps. Babysitter moves toys in front of her, does funny faces and funny sounds and baby loves it. She spent more time smiling than she normally does during the entire day. She occasionally got nervous when she hadn't seen me for a while but she only needed a glimpse to see that I'm still nearby. The next time babysitter came Siiri gave her a smile the moment babysitter arrived. We made a deal for twice a week for three hours. 
Yay to the babysitter! I had the weirdies revelation the other day: People come in different shapes and sizes!
You're probably thinking something like, "Really? That's your big revelation? You're joking, right?". But I'm not. 
I had heard it before but I had no reason to believe it because it doesn't really apply to young people. Young women all have similar bodies, except they range from very thin to very fat. Boob size seemed the only body part that's not completely dependant on weight. In commercials there is only one size: thin and athletic with big boobs. It was easy to envy those who are thinner and more athletic. A few days ago I was in Bodycombat and looked around me. A gym full of 20-40 year old women and a couple of men. I had never really noticed but no two bodies looked alike. It wasn't just small hips versus wide hips. Some hips looked round, some oval, some looked square, some went on to legs without any transition, some seemed to stand apart from the rest of the body. And then I looked at the mirror and decided I like my shape. All the different shaped body parts actually go together well and there suddenly wasn't another woman in the vicinity whose body I'd rather have.I love my new hobby! I bake pies. Lots of pies. Different pies! Yumm!
We bought a book called "100 pies, Book 3". It has about 120 cake or pie recipes. I would have thought it's supposed to have 100 of them but I'm glad they didn't want to leave any of them out. Me and Erkki take turns in choosing which pie to bake. They're all very fattening and sweet. Many of them have berries or fruit or chocolate and nearly all the recipes have either butter or whipped cream. But that right here is an excellent reason to bake a pie. NONE of the recipes says, "Take a stick of low quality margarine and mix it with everlasting fruit flavored jam." It's all real ingredients and all real result. That has been my general direction in cooking - natural foods with high quality ingredients. A simple slice of pork with only salt and pepper now tastes better to me than store-marinated meat with a dozen badly defined ingredients or canned meat sauce. And there is no denying that butter is a better cake ingredient than margarine. I'm off to bake a cake. Reason is as good as any: Just Because I Can. I'm sure this new past time will pass before I end up a mangy looking fat old lady with a rolling pin in one hand and flour on my dress.
Heheh fun reading as always (though I really don't comment on everything, I do read them!).
ReplyDeleteAbout sitting - I'm no expert either but I believe a small amount of sitting won't do harm. I think the fear comes from the fact that baby bones are still all rather soft and if she is put to sit constantly, she might develop back problems. Which won't happen with sitting for meals only for example. This is also why they say it's best if the child doesn't start standing and walking too soon. Or well running, they usually run at first, easier to hold balance. It's a funny stadium when they can run but can't walk yet so getting to things that are quite close is a challenge :P Try to run two steps and see how that goes hehe.
In general I think you are definitely one of those people with a sober brain with nicely working braincells so follow your instincts on raising her - you really won't make major mistakes if you listen to your inner voice on how to go about something. Such a sitting for instance. If the voice inside says not yet, then not yet.
And wow.. pies... drool.. I wish I could cook. Okay well I actually wish I would like to cook. Or even tolerate it. Cooking is seriously the worst part of my day (aside from days when there's a german class). But don't we all have a secret idea of becoming these small round grannies who are covered with flour and who stuff food into their grandkids like there's no tomorrow? :)
...I really do read all the comments even when I don't always reply (or when there's a really long time before I reply).
ReplyDelete:) I quite like the image of being a pie-baking granny some day. I'd like to avoid being round but I suppose that would be too much to ask.
I decided it's sometimes better if I let baby sit. When she's in a half-lying position she pulls her head forward to see the entire room. That can't be good for her posture! I try to fully support her back when she sits for more than 5 seconds but she sure enjoys the view while sitting on my lap.