Una Promesa - A Promise

View of Madrid skyline from the neighborhood where I lived in Spain, 2006

When I was debating whether I should stay home full-time or return to work, I mentioned my desire for Quincy to grow up knowing Spanish.  In order to explain what my promise to Quincy will be, I have to tell you a little bit about my history with the language and why it is so important to me.

For starters, I took my first Spanish class my Freshman year of high school, and I wasn't happy about it.  I had wanted to take French, but it wasn't offered at my school.  What was a girl to do?  French was romantic, fancy, elegant, sophisticated... and speaking French would therefore make me romantic, fancy, elegant, and sophisticated.  I decided to go with Spanish because it was practical - West Michigan has a large population of Spanish speakers - and maybe, I thought, it would come in handy.

I found out that I loved Spanish class (apart from homework, tests, and the tedious book work required to learn a language), because the sounds, the music, the variety of cultures, accents... it all fascinated me.  After graduating high school with four years of Spanish under my belt, I enrolled at Grand Valley State University, with a major in Spanish and minor in Elementary Education (the latter I later dropped).  I was able to take the CLEP test for Spanish and began courses at the 300-level my Freshman year at GVSU.

The courses were difficult, taught only in Spanish, and the professors came from a variety of backgrounds, but I greatly enjoyed each class (well, mostly - grammar and I never really became good friends).  In my classes, I met some really great girls who shared a love of language, and I learned a great deal from them.

Some of my GVSU Friends
Stacy, Stefanie, Maggie & Sharlynn

During my Junior year at GVSU, I had the opportunity to study abroad for a semester in Spain. Brad's family had hosted a student from Spain for a number of visits, and so I was able to stay with her family just outside the city of Madrid (the took photo in this post is the view of Madrid from where I lived).  

I learned the language (not just out of a book, but in real life situations, too), ate delicious food, traveled around the country, took courses at the local university as well as through my American program, and met some really great people.

Segovia, Spain

Córdoba, Spain

Cochinillo - Roast Suckling Pig

Galicia, Spain

Langostinos (Shrimp), Percebes (I guess they're called "Goose Barnacles"?)
Caracoles (Snails), & Jamón (Ham)

Toledo, Spain

Celebrating our last night in Spain with friends!
Emily, Maggie & Brit

Frauke & Maggie - Fireworks for El Día de San Isidro

Brad and I even got engaged in Spain while he came for a visit.  (Romantic, right?!  I thought so!)

At my program building, sharing the news with friends!

El Parque del Retiro, Madrid

Real Madrid Soccer Stadium

My time in Spain was such a great adventure - I learned about another culture, language, and country; I also learned a great deal about myself.

Okay, so enough reminiscing...

Now as the mother of a six month old, I am looking forward to seeing the adventures of which Quincy will partake.  My job, and that of the community of family and friends around him, is to nurture him in every way possible, teaching him what we can from the knowledge we have gained, while also teaching him a sense of curiosity and adventure - a desire to learn more.

I spent eight academic years learning another language (including the Bachelor's Degree I earned at GVSU) and I still struggle with components of the language.  Grammar makes my skin crawl, I've lost a ton of vocabulary over the years, and I blush from time to time when speaking the language.  Why should Quincy spend so much of his time learning a language, as I did, when it can be incorporated in his daily routine?  I'm not saying I'm the perfect teacher, or that my grammar and vocabulary will be that of a native speaker, but  even him knowing fruits and vegetables or basic conversation in Spanish will be a success in my book.

So here is what I have decided to do:

READ in Spanish to Quincy.  I budgeted one hundred dollars to purchase books in Spanish to read to Quincy and also to use to teach myself new vocabulary.  I probably could have gotten  a slightly better deal ordering books online, but I went to the local Barnes & Noble so I could page through the books and see which ones would be good to have in the house.  I tried to get a variety of books: some with nursery rhymes and songs, others filled with pictures of everyday vocabulary, a few biblical books to encourage his faith in another language, and some familiar childhood books that I can remember reading (in English) with my parents.

One hundred dollars may seem like a lot, but I consider these books a great investment and should last for a while.  This way, we have a variety of books to read instead of cycling through the same three books several times a day.  A handful of the books have several stories (one has 365 stories and nursery rhymes!) so we will have different tales to read through as he grows!

SPEAK with Quincy in Spanish.  In talking about this promise with Brad, we decided that I would speak strictly in Spanish with Quincy when others aren't around.  Not that I want to make Quincy timid about speaking around others, but I want him to to be aware that speaking a language around others that do not understand could give them a feeling of alienation.  When Brad is around, English will be the primary language, but once it's just me and Quincy (or with other Spanish speakers), it'll just be Spanish. This obviously means while we play at home, but also out and about at the grocery store, running other errands, going for walks, etc.

This also means I had to make a decision about my accent.  From living in Spain, I have a rather (strong) Spanish accent, complete with the "Spanish lisp" (read more about ceceo and seseo here).  I've always held on strongly to my accent, since it shows where my language skills were nurtured and enhanced.  To be honest, it also helped distinguish certain words from others.  The pronunciation of hacer and a ser is very different with a Spanish accent, but is less distinguishable in a Latin American accent.  For those of you unfamiliar with the typical Spanish accent (I should note that there are a variety of accents besides the one I am familiar with, depending on the region of Spain), the word "gracias" is pronounced like "graTHiaS" (the "TH" here sounds like the same letter combination found at the end of the English word "with").  The letter S still has the same sound you would use in English, but all words with Z's and soft C's (ce- and ci-) are presented with the "TH" sound.

Our community has a very large hispanic population (about 22% of the total population), but does not have strong ties to Spain.  Most hispanics in the area are from Mexico (16.7% of the total population), while others are from Puerto Rico or Cuba (read more statistics here).  It would make more sense to have an accent that matched better with the local speakers, so I am making the adjustment to a more commonly recognized accent in my area.

SEEK out cultural events, playgroups and music that encourages cultural diversity.  This doesn't solely have to be related to Spanish or the local hispanic community.  I have a very dear friend in Germany (we met in Spain, actually) that we have kept in contact with and have visited each other over the years and plan on keeping up the tradition of crossing the ocean to hang out.

Brad, Maggie, Frauke & Marcel - Chicago 2007

Frauke & Maggie - Germany 2010

Michigan - Summer 2011
Stacey, Maggie, Brad, Doug, Sheryl, Marcel & Frauke

Beyond the international friends that Brad and I have, I also want to expose Quincy to new music, food, and cool festivals.  This may be easier said than done, but I'll see what I can find!  (Feel free to leave comments about recommendations of food, music, cultural events or playgroups you may know of!)  We obviously have the local tradition of Tulip Time, but we also established a tradition of attending the Garlic Festival when we lived out East.  We plan on going again this year!

Friends at Garlic Festival 2010
Chelsea, Christian, Monica, Jessica, Marcus, Maggie & Brad

WORK hard.  This will be a big challenge to relearn the vocabulary I have lost, study new vocabulary that we encounter along the way, and not give up when it gets a little tough.  For me, this means looking up words that I don't know, making an effort to always speak in Spanish, and haul out my old grammar book to brush up on the rules.

My new companion

All of these things I promise to do with and for Quincy so that he can grow up knowing more about the cultures and people around him, and have a natural curiosity to seek out new people, food, cultures... all things that will help him understand our worldly community more fully.

Special thanks to my Facebook friends that grew up in a multi-cultural home or have encouraged their own children to grow up speaking another language.  Your input and advice was really great to hear and use as I work on this promise to Quincy.  Feel free to leave comments below for any further advice, questions, resources, or tips - whether you are multi-lingual or just interested!

Got any promises you are working on in your life?  Share in the comments!

¡Buena suerte!

~M

Q2: 6 Months!

Quincy is 6 months old already! I wanted to take a brief look back at the past 3 months...

This kid is incredible

First Tastes: Food for Baby, Food for Thought

Instead of buying jarred baby food, I thought I'd give making my own baby food a try.  Pictured above is some of my "finished product" of baby food - steamed, pureed, frozen in cubes, and then stored in freezer bags.  It's recommended for babies to start solids between 4-6 months of age, beginning with pureed basic foods like veggies or fruits or baby cereals.

In our case, we had decided we would wait until Quincy turned six months old before starting solid foods.  In speaking with our pediatrician, we had also decided to start with vegetables, as some babies can enjoy the sweetness of fruits and then have difficulty liking vegetables.

Despite what we may have planned on ahead of time, Quincy had a slightly different idea in mind for a start date.  For the week before we began giving him solid food, he had this face after nursing:

Much like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, I came to the realization that he was still hungry.  So instead of waiting out the remaining weeks, we started Quincy on solids.

I've realized I have a certain pattern for parenting, and the H-G Parenting Model might work for you, too.  It goes like this:

Here goes....

READ. 
I browsed a few books to figure out what foods would be good, and how to actually add in meals...

This is a great book for all things baby/children.  It reads like a textbook, but it's very informative 

Great book for gourmet recipes for being a super fancy cook (Quincy will eat better than I do, ha!)

Great book of easy recipes AND really good insight on how to start food and which foods to avoid

PREPARE. 
This is where you gather up all the stuff you'll need - in the case of making baby food, you'll need produce, something to puree the food, and something to store the food.

Picked up fresh veggies from the local farmers' market and grocery store.
Asparagus, Butternut Squash, Carrots, & Peas

I had heard from a few friends that make their own baby food, that freezing the pureed food in ice cube trays was the best way to go.  Each cube was like a portion, and you just pull out what you need and leave the rest frozen.  We purchased these ice cube trays because they were dishwasher safe, made of silicone (no risk of BPA's), flexible, and looked cool.

Flexible Ice Cube Trays to freeze pureed foods.

To puree the food, I used a Baby Bullet and a regular blender.  Any kind of food processor should work, too.

The Baby Bullet

The Blender

After getting all the gear together, I got to peeling, slicing, steaming, pureeing, freezing, and storing.  It was a grand old time!

Carrots

Fresh Peas (with the shell) vs. Frozen Peas (without shell)

Top Photos: Fresh Peas from the market - FAIL!  Notice the stringy appearance of the cubes; I wasn't able to get all of the little pieces out when blending it.

Bottom Photos: Frozen Peas - SUCCESS!  These blended much better and had a much brighter hue after freezing.  Use shelled peas, not the whole pod!

Butternut Squash

You may notice I didn't include asparagus in the prepared foods above - we instead opted to grill it with olive oil and lemon juice for a cookout on Father's Day.  Boy, was it good!  Quincy, unfortunately, did not get to try it.  Maybe next time!

When pureeing the food, use the water leftover from steaming the veggies to thin out the mixture.

I poured the water used for steaming into a measure cup,
and then added 1/4 cup at a time to the veggies until it was the right consistency.

I'll admit, you have to set aside some time to get everything together, but once you have it all cooked and then frozen, it's easy to just take a cube out of the freezer, place it in a container to thaw for the next day, and then serve it up when he's ready!




IMPLEMENT.
We started on a Saturday with butternut squash, and it went pretty well!  (Side bar here: Squash is referred to a vegetable with cooking but is actually considered a fruit, in case you were wondering).  With his first meal in the morning, he was very puzzled by what we kept putting in his mouth, but he eventually figured it out.  By the third meal of the day, he knew what to do.

First Tastes of Butternut Squash

Each feeding I started with the solid food, then followed it with nursing.  He still kept up his regular schedule of nursing every three to four hours, just with three meals of solid food added at the beginning of those nursing times.


QUESTION EVERYTHING.
Everything was going great.... until.... teething struck again (I've shared a few woes of teething before).  No, Quincy still hasn't actually had any teeth come in, but they sure like to move around.

Here is what Quincy was like on Day Three of Butternut Squash - note the happy snorting a few seconds into the video clip:




One quick note: I won't make a habit of uploading videos of every meal Quincy eats, but wanted to use this to demonstrate how things can change with babies.  You may have something figured out, and then the next day it's as if it never happened.

The following day, he wanted nothing to do with solid foods (I tried squash, then carrots for a few days, then peas just two days ago), and all it did was upset him.

New Talent - Crying with Carrots in One's Mouth

So many questions have run through my mind: Did he not like the food?  Was it too cold, too warm, too thick, too thin?  Should I have started him on a less-sweet food?  Should I try baby cereal?  Ultimately, it became obvious that his gums were bothering him (heavy drool, fussier than usual, Tylenol/Ibuprofen helped...), so I'm chalking this one up to another battle with incoming teeth, and hopefully it ends soon.


ADJUST & EXPECT NOTHING TO GO AS PLANNED
I'm a bit of a planner (I'm sure there are a few of you out there laughing at the phrase "a bit"), but there comes a point where the plan goes out the window and you just see how things play out.   I'm hoping his gums calm down soon, and we can get into a rhythm with solids, but for the meantime I'll keep trying a little bit at a time until he's ready again.  I might also use the H-G Parenting Model and start over with some more reading...

Bon appetit!

~M

Let's Get Physical!

Let's face it, ladies.  After having a baby, your body is less than ideal.  At least in my situation, I still looked six months pregnant after giving birth, and it took a while until I could fit back into normal clothing again (and even now things are still... different).  Despite my jeans fitting without too much discomfort, things just aren't quite the same as before.

But, don't let yourself be discouraged!  Remember, you had nearly ten months for your body to stretch and bend to stash a little baby inside, so you should get at least that time to reacquaint yourself with your new body!  And boy do I have an exercise program for you!  Whether you're a new mom, veteran mom, dad looking to get in better shape, or just someone who wants a healthy workout, stay tuned!

This revolutionary workout was developed while sleep deprived and wishing my body would look exactly the same as when I was in college.  So obviously, it's very faulty and was aimed at unrealistic expectations.  But let's be honest, isn't that what most workout plans do?  While in the never-ending state of dark circles and prayers for a sleeping infant, I created these exercises you can do with your baby.  Don't have a baby?  Use a bag of flour or sugar, or strap down your favorite stuffed animal with a few hand weights.

My Baby Weight

BURP CLOTH LUNGE

In our household, there are always burp cloths scattered around the living room, kitchen, dining room... pretty much within a few feet of wherever you may be standing.

Simply extend one foot in front of you, bend your knee down into a lunge, scoop up the cloth, and return to a standing position.  It works best while holding your weights (such as your baby), to increase the difficulty of the move.

Lunge

Grasp

Extend to Standing

That familiar juicy burp that turns into a damp shoulder and a puddle on the floor has taught us to always have one (or twelve) on hand.  I use these displaced cloths as a motivational piece, both to build in some much need exercise to my day, and also tidy up the house.


AIRPLANE LEG TUCKS & ARM PRESSES

The Airplane is a classic infant/mommy game, though take caution if your baby has just eaten, as the probability of spit-up bombs dropping from the planes increases the closer the airplane is flown to a completed feeding time.  Also, this should not be done with babies whose neck muscles are not yet developed.

Leg Tucks: Lay down on your back with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle.  Place the baby on your shins by straddling their legs around your legs and either hold them at their hands or under their armpits for support.  Slide your legs toward your chest, and then back out.  Be sure to keep your legs parallel to the floor to keep baby in a similar placement throughout the movement.

90 Degree Legs

Half-Tuck

Full-Tuck

Arm Presses: Lay down on your back with your legs bent at the knees and your feet planted on the floor.  While holding your baby parallel to your chest, lift them up and down by extending your arms up into the air, and then bring the baby back down to your chest.

Down

Up

MOMMA SWING

This move is horrible for your back, but it seems to be a favorite of Quincy's.

Momma Swing in Action!

 Begin with your weight cradled in your hands; baby's legs will straddle your right hand (you kinda clutch their bottom), and your left hand will cradle their neck/head.  Bend slightly at the waist, look down at your baby, and extend your arms out to the right.  In an arc like motion, dip the baby down and back up to the left, then swing back in the same arc path to the right.

Starting, 

Down,  

and ...

Up!

BABY PULL-UP

This has been a go-to technique for a slightly fussy baby, though it hasn't helped with a hungry, really fussy or exhausted baby.

Baby Pull-Up in Action!

Using the down position of the Momma Swing, pull your weight from the extended position (baby near the floor) up close to your face by bending at the elbows.

Down/Extended Position

Up/Contracted Position

DISCLAIMER

I have no medical backing or training to know what is good for one's body or overall health.  Please do these exercises with great caution and exercise at your own risk.  This post is clearly for entertainment purposes only, though seeking ways of getting exercise while going about your daily routine can be helpful, as long as you are healthy enough for exercise and don't do anything foolish.  Moving a baby too quickly and jostling their heads without their necks fully supporting the movement can lead to Shaken Baby Syndrome.  Also, all movements should be accompanied with ridiculous noises from the parent such as "HUH!", "BOO!", or "YAH!" to increase baby's enjoyment.

Keep up the good work!

~M