Attachment Issues

We are finally addressing Baby Bears lack of socialization. As our first child and with our move to the UK he has had a perfect storm of passive reinforcement for his attachment to us. With no siblings, no more day care, and not being at nursery age for church he has had very little interaction with kids (or adults for that matter) outside of our immediate family in the last few months. Combine that with his just entering the age range known for attachment issues and you have the perfect clingy baby.

Luckily for all his issues I just came back to day shift so we can really start focusing on our casual socialization and short term separation. More daddy time means more activities. More activities means more trips to the park, visits to Kidz Play (indoor play areas), and a dinner or two with friends. Just getting out and around other people more will hopefully take the edge off of his anxiety. Our focused socialization will be during nursery at church (yay callings) where he has to deal with other children crying and playing. The biggest issue there so far is that HIS MOMMY has to help and play with OTHER KIDS and that is NOT OKAY. We are hoping that with all of the casual socialization we will soon see some gradual improvements. I imagine every child goes through some version of this phase. Hopefully we will see improvement soon.

Now if we had a better plan for the tangled mess that is weening/sleep schedule/crib sleeping...

Walkies

Baby Bear has just started walking on his own last week. We were playing upstairs and he wanted to get his little green ball over to the ball chute and finally decided it would be easier to get up and walk it over than to manage the ball while crawling. I have no video and no pictures and couldn't care less, it was perfect. I absolutely love watching him figure things out and this is another perfect example. To watch him work it over and decide to try a new solution was wonderful. When he turned back to check with Daddy I gave him a smile and cheered him on. He finished his walk and absolutely beamed. I loved that he loved it.

Covering Down

Hello again everyone, Daddy Bear here. Mommy Bear has not been able to keep up with her blog project here so I am going to lend a hand and catch her up to date so she can have a fresh start. Go ahead and check out all of our pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/slobears as well, we are way better at keeping all the pictures flowing there than updates appearing here.

We got a great start here while we were in our temporary accommodations between our local ward and our new friends that I work with. Baby Bear adjusted really well to the new ward and has been doing lots big boy things. He prefers feeding himself with his spoon and fork, is very proud of himself using booster seats instead of high chairs when we eat out, walks when he thinks we aren't looking, and has picked up a few signs (more, up, all done/no more) and loves clapping and laughing. He is getting along well and is getting bored with his pacifier which is doing great things for his vocalization.

In mid November we finally found a rental that would work for us and moved in. Unfortunately all of our things had been held up on the east coast during the storms there and we would be on loaner furniture for a while. It was bad enough that we started sleeping on the air mattress we had shipped over because it was more comfortable. We weren't working with much through the holidays but did not count ourselves anything less than blessed.

The first big event was Baby Bears' birthday! We had a big group birthday party with the ward and four little girls that all turned 1 within a week of Baby Bear. It was really sweet and they all played and ate pretty well together. On his actual birthday we took him to an indoor play center in the afternoon. It had large padded play areas with slides and ball pits and was broken up by age group. He loved the ball pit so much that we are going to set a mini ball pit up in the rental. We finished the day with a nice family dinner and presents.

 Next came Christmas! Our home was filled with love and happiness throughout the season and we worked out a grand Christmas Eve feast, a fun morning teaching Baby Bear how to rip open presents, and a huge Christmas gathering of essentially EVERYONE I work with and all their families that we are still very grateful for!

New Years went the way of the dodo as were were in bed by 9 (thank you Baby Bears' sleeping issues) although I was close to going vigilante when the neighborhood youths almost firecracker-ed Baby Bear awake. If I had a lawn I would have shoo-ed them off of it.

After a little holiday recovery time we finally got our stuff in (only 3 months in transit) and couldn't have been happier to see our bed.  Our furniture is roughly in its place but will probably take a month to get every last thing unpacked and organized. We do not have that many things but Mommy Bear has her schedule filled with Baby and Daddy is working half the time. We seem to have this problem where once we all get together the boxes become invisible and we just want to play and take trips. For example our things got in on the 2nd and then I ended up having the 9th-13th off. You would think that I would have everything unpacked and perfectly organized with that kind of time. Instead I packed the family up and traipsed around Scotland for 3 days! Irresponsible? Yes! GREAT IDEA? ALSO YES!

 So now we are just returned from Scotland, with half a house to unpack, a baby whose sleep issues we are slowly working through, and a Mommy Bear learning the ropes of stay-at-home-mom for the first time. She really wants to get the hang of blogging but is a little swamped at the moment, go easy on her :)

Bad Blogger

I know I've been a very bad blogger, but it is only partially my fault. We didn't have internet for about a month while we moved from our temporary apartment to our house.

During my absence from the blogosphere we moved, Baby Bear got invited to his first birthday party and he turned one.

Mass amounts of photos to follow shortly.

Happy Sunday

Good morning everyone, we are now exponentially more contact-able. We have our new phone with Skype/Blogger/Flickr/Magic Jack all set up for video calls and phone service to both the US and UK. Get ahold of us through here/email/facebook and we will get all of our new numbers and handles out to you.

30

Today I turned 30. I will say it hasn't been nearly as panic-inducing as I used to think it would be. If even 5 years ago I was told that today I would 1) be married 2) have a baby 3) be a stay-at-home mom and 4) be living in England, I wouldn't have believed any of it.

I feel that now that I'm 30, I should have something profound to say about it. Looking back, I'd say my 20s were all about figuring out what was going on in my head and learning to be ok with it. What I discovered is this: I am an introvert. I live in my head way too much and am way too comfortable there. I'm not shy. I'm not overly insecure. I can be social when needed or when I make a conscious effort, but it is not something that comes naturally. This explains it pretty well actually: http://sveidt.deviantart.com/art/How-to-Live-with-Introverts-Guide-Printable-320818879.

For the moment, my life is pretty together. I have an amazing husband that is perfect for me. He loves me and accepts me for exactly who I am- the good, the bad, the crazy and the ugly- and that is a really great feeling. I have a beautiful son that makes me smile til my face hurts. I have family and a handful of great friends that I love dearly. I'm at the beginning of this great adventure with my own little family that is going to allow us to spend the next 3 years exploring Europe and growing closer than ever as we learn to rely on each other.

It is because of all these things that I feel empowered today.

I know that I think and dream much bolder than I act. I don't take many risks or venture outside of my comfort zone very often. Turning 30 has me looking at what I want to make of the next 10 years. And I've decided that I want to be audacious. I'm not quite sure how to be an audacious introvert, but I'm excited to figure it out.