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31 Days of Parenting Littles: Wake

Submitted by hannah on Tue, 28/10/2014 - 20:14

We never intended to co-sleep with our children. When I was pregnant with Zak, we got a cot (crib), and a bassinet to use, just like every "normal" couple does. We intended for him to sleep in our room for the first few months and then transition to his own room in his cot once he outgrew the bassinet. That's just what you do...right? Well, turns out, not so much.

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Free

Submitted by hannah on Mon, 27/10/2014 - 20:22

There's a quote that says, "the best things in life are free", and often that saying goes with a cute picture of a couple holding hands, or kids smiling, a little girl dancing in a field of flowers...beautiful, sweet images that bring to mind love and family, joy, laughter, etc. Well, I have to disagree with the wording of that saying. Those things aren't free. In fact, they're very costly- often moreso than material things. To say that they're free actually cheapens them I think.

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Visit

Submitted by hannah on Sun, 26/10/2014 - 19:15

Being a parent really changes your social life. When you have your first and your friends aren't yet having children, it can really drastically change things! We had Zak sooner than we were planning on having children, and we were the first in our circle of friends to have kids. We were never big on schedules, and Zak slept amazingly while we were out as long as we were wearing him, so we never saw a reason for cutting down on visiting friends, going to braais, etc, but not all our single or young married friends felt comfortable having a baby around or knew that we would still be happy to come, so invitations became a bit few and far between.

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Enjoy

Submitted by hannah on Sat, 25/10/2014 - 20:49

People have a tendency to be very negative about parenting- even parents who LOVE their kids and love being parents still say a lot of negative things surrounding parenting in general. This tends to come out most while talking with parents who have younger children than they do (or pregnant moms- they get it the worst I think!). "Just you wait..." Sleepless nights, colic, tantrums, terrible twos, sassy three year olds, rebellious teens, etc, etc. When people see you with more than two children, or even more than one sometimes, it's always, "Wow, you've got YOUR hands full!" Today we were at the mall with our three kiddos and although I got oohs and ahhs over Anneke, I still got that comment from several people, and even worse, "So you must be done now, right?"

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Dare

Submitted by hannah on Fri, 24/10/2014 - 20:14

I hear about a lot of dare-devil little boys. The type who scramble up trees with no thoughts of how to get down, or worse, try jumping off the roof with an umbrella for a parachute- things like that that are often portrayed in movies and subsequently tested out by real live counterparts. Read more about 31 Days of Parenting Littles: Dare...

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Look

Submitted by hannah on Thu, 23/10/2014 - 20:28

"Look Mommy! Look! Look! Look Daddy! Look!"

Every parent knows this refrain well. "Look! A leaf! A caterpillar! A flower! Look! I'm running SO FAST! Look! I can climb the slide! Look! I can slide down the slide! Look Mommy! Look!"

Right now Josiah is especially excited about having us look at everything he does and sees. He runs around saying, "sah! sah!" which means "see! see!".

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Expect

Submitted by raoul on Wed, 22/10/2014 - 19:13

Today's #5MFW is a guest post by none other than me! (aka Raoul)

What are you expecting?

It's a question every parent and parent-to-be is asked when there is a baby on the way. Unlike the bad old days, everyone wants to find out the gender of their new addition to the family. Personally, I don't. As Hannah has explained to numerous friends (over and over again), for me finding out the gender is the only thing that makes the pregnancy exciting. And so we get this question time and time again until baby is born. Read more about 31 Days of Parenting Littles: Expect...

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Second

Submitted by hannah on Tue, 21/10/2014 - 19:42

Josiah is our second child- second son as well. When he was born we felt quite comfortable that we knew what we were doing. And we did when it came to the little things. It didn't take long for us to discover though that just because he was our second son didn't mean he would be anything like our first! People say that every child is different, and I was in complete agreement with that when I was pregnant with Josiah. I didn't expect him to be the same as Zak. You can't really fully understand HOW different they can be until the second one arrives though!

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Fear

Submitted by hannah on Mon, 20/10/2014 - 21:09

You have not KNOWN fear until you see your child seriously hurt or sick. I've never been more afraid than the time Josiah took a very bad fall at 10 months old. He fell from a height of about 5 feet onto a tile floor and I was terrified. Immediately your mind jumps to the worst- he could die- his neck could be broken or there could be internal bleeding on the brain- he could DIE.

31 Days of Parenting Littles: Honor

Submitted by hannah on Sun, 19/10/2014 - 17:54

The Bible says to honor your father and mother (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2). What exactly does that mean though, and how can we teach it to our children? The verb, to honor, means "to regard with great respect". So according to that, one of the things we need to teach our children is to respect us. To do that, we need to be worthy of respect and we also need to model respect, especially towards each other.