Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!
This seems like the first Christmas in ages that I got to party ON THE DAY! Usually we perform for old folks homes or orphanges or at hotels, then we celebrate Christmas AFTER the 25th. It feels RIGHT to celebrate it on the day...however, it feels like Christmas is shorter. Ha! I still don't want to take down the Christmas decorations till the year is over.

Well, here's what we did for Christmas.
Morning time was filled with cuddles and kisses. SKIN to SKIN time with Mommy, while I thanked God for giving me such a sweet and precious little Gemini boy this year. Last Christmas Boobins was a 3 month old fetus in my tummy. :) Now he's a big/skinny 6 month old boy. :)


After cuddles, I dressed Boobins in his Christmas vest and walked around giving Christmas Cheers to everyone we met. Until he stopped giving cheer, and instead giving off the fumes of something that needed changing. (After feeding him solids, the smell of doodoo instantly changed! Beware my friend mothers! The smell only gets worse!)

Then the afternoon came and I started wrapping presents and writing Christmas notes for everyone here. :) There's something about giving presents to people. I love it! I enjoy watching people's faces light up and become encouraged with the simpliest gifts. It's not about the present itself, it's usually the thought that counts. :) So... this year Josh and I gave presents to 39 people, plus my family-6. WHEW!!! I feel good!!! :) You should have seen me in my room in the middle of the floor wrapping presents, while Brian sat next to me ripping up paper, grabbing ribbons, playing with presents, and all the rest. So, some of our wrapping was a bit wrinkled, and some toys broken (JK), but it was fun!
We brought all our presents to dinner to pass out. Sadly I don't have any photos of our big bag and two big baskets of presents.
Anyway, I had a wonderful Christmas! Food and fellowship was great. Took some Christmas photos, something I was really looking forward to doing.

There were 4 other tables decorated as below.

Mary and Shun were the cooks! Thanks again Mary for the awesome dinner! I really loved the salad and PIES...goodness me!! Tasty! Shun's rice was awesome too! First time for me to eat the chirashizushi during our Christmas parties.

Katie and Kina. Their younger sister, Kimby, was also dressed up like this too. So cute!

And...family photos.

Us with Uncle Isamu!

Yay! I wish everyone a super wonderful Christmas and New Years!!! Can't want to see your Christmas posts and family photos.

Hat Show

Last week I pulled out his size 70 clothes. I found a stack of hats, so I had a little fun. Some hats are still too big, but tried them on him anyway.

Hair Cut!

I woke up yesterday morning and after taking one look at Boobins I decided, "I'm going to cut his hair today!"
So, I sat him in his walker and turned on his favorite video, Baby Einstein. And as he watched his video, I watched his baby hair fall to the floor. Aww...a part of me wanted to shout, "Noooo!! Stop!!" But, thank God I cut it! He looks soooo much cuter and fatter!





Some people say he looks more like Leika's boys now, others say he looks totally Japanese now, and some say he looks like Hik and Angel's boys. So...although he's cuter, he looks less like me. Ha! Darnit!

For fun

This is pretty funny!

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/parents-prank-kids-with-bad-gifts-15153721?tab=9482931&section=4765066

Is Crying it Out Dangerous for Kids?

By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Wed, Dec 14, 2011

Is crying it out hurting your child?

If the link between parent and child is strong enough that kids can "catch" their parents' stress, it may stand to reason that babies crave the physical connection that comes with a cuddle. It's something that plenty of parents are more than happy to provide during the day but, when it comes to bedtime, the modern emphasis has been on teaching good sleep habits -- and giving mom and dad a break.

Most sleep-deprived parents get to the point where they're willing to try almost anything in order to get a good night's rest. While some decry it as cruel, others have had success with the "cry it out" method -- teaching babies to "self-soothe" by letting their nighttime crying go unanswered.

But is "crying it out" about establishing independence? Or is it just a way of making those early years easier for parents?

In an article published this week in Psychology Today, one researcher says that crying it out could be dangerous for children, leading to a lifetime of harm.

"A crying baby in our ancestral environment would have signaled predators to tasty morsels," writes Darcia Narvaez, an Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Collaborative for Ethical Education at the University of Notre Dame. "So our evolved parenting practices alleviated baby distress and precluded crying except in emergencies."

When babies are stressed, their bodies release the hormone cortisol, which can damage or even destroy neurons in their still-developing brains, researchers at Yale University and Harvard Medical School have found. That can lead to a higher incidence of ADHD, poor academic performance, and anti-social tendencies.

Human babies are hardwired for near-constant holding, breastfeeding, and having their other needs met quickly -- the hallmarks of Attachment Parenting, Narvaez points out -- in order for their brains to develop properly. Even Dr. Richard Ferber, whose sleep-training method is commonly called the Cry It Out Method, says that he never intended parents to completely ignore their babies nighttime tears.

"I've always believed that there are many solutions to sleep problems, and that every family and every child is unique," he said in an interview with BabyTalk. "People want one easy solution, but there's no such thing. I never encouraged parents to let their babies cry it out, but one of the many treatment styles I described in my book is gradual extinction, where you delay your response time to your baby's wakings. I went to great pains in the second edition to clarify that that treatment is not appropriate for every sleep issue, of which there are many."

What he does encourage is teaching children to soothe themselves during normal nighttime wakings. But many parents extend his advice to include all bedtime-related crying. That's the type of crying it out sets kids up for stress-related problems, trust issues, anxiety disorders, reduced brain function, and a lack of independence, Narvaez writes. And since the problems are on a genetic level, they can't necessarily be fixed later in life.

"In studies of rats with high or low nurturing mothers, there is a critical period for turning on genes that control anxiety for the rest of life," Narvaez writes. "If in the first 10 days of life you have low nurturing rat mother (the equivalent of the first 6 months of life in a human), the gene never gets turned on and the rat is anxious towards new situations for the rest of its life, unless drugs are administered to alleviate the anxiety."

Could a lack of nurturing explain our "Prozac Nation?" Narvaez points out that she's witnessed the long-term physical effects of it firsthand.

"I was raised in a middle-class family with a depressed mother, harsh father and overall emotionally unsupportive environment -- not unlike others raised in the USA," she writes. "I have only recently realized from extensive reading about the effects of early parenting on body and brain development that I show the signs of undercare -- poor memory (cortisol released during distress harms hippocampus development), irritable bowel and other poor vagal tone issues, and high social anxiety."

The lack of nurturing, and the prevalence of parents who put their own needs in front of their kids', may be to blame for the mental and physical health problems that are plaguing the United States now.

"If we want a strong country and people," she writes, "we've got to pay attention to what children need for optimal development."

Christmas

My attempt at taking a beautiful Christmasy photo.

Do you notice anything out of the ordinary?

Merry Christmas to you!
May this Christmas be filled with many laughs and great joy!

My Whereabouts

Caption: Boobins with Aunty Sherry

Hey there,
I just wanted to post something quick to let you know my whereabouts, and to reasure you that I'm still alive!

Josh went to driving school on November 20th, for a little over two weeks. So in the mean time, I stayed at Sam and Leika's then moved on to stay at my parents house for 11 days.

Now I'm back home and am busy with Christmas planning and organizing. :) But I am taking care to photograph my son during this season, so...hang in there. I'll have photos posted of my visits soon. :)

Love you!