I’ve been meaning to catch myself up on photo posts for a while now and I think I am pretty close. My goal being, to be able to post current happenings in photos right after they take place rather than wait till I get through the backlog of photos. This is sort of a photodump. As much as I try not to do it, it is sometimes necessary. Next up: my first solo fun outing with girlfriends (which really happened in August, oops) and of course THE REST OF THE DISNEY POSTS (I promise they are coming)
Table of Contents
1. Birthday Beaching
These photos got lost in the mess that my TAOMAB folder is at this point. But Lexi is so cute in some of them I couldn’t leave them off the blog. This was the morning after AJ’s birthday. It was stormy and overcast, so we had only a short swim but the beach was gorgeous in its frowny state.
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Back at the hotel with sandy and wet morning hair wearing one of my husband’s tee shirts and yoga pants and playing with Lexi who was being the usual adorable self, enjoying clapping and eating my nose (her favorite)
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2. BLW
3. Water Love
She loves “swimming” on her own with just my support, frequently lowering her head to drink the water (but instead gets a face full of it) or reaches out and scoops some of it in her mouth,
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4. Evening walks
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One such walk was in our backyard on the golf course. We had her touch trees and palm trees and leaves. Let her crawl around the turf and touch the short soft grass (since the ground gets sprayed with pesticides frequently and so does our backyard grass, we make sure her hands get thoroughly washed afterwards before she is able to put them in her mouth). She had a lot of fun doing that. That’s where I pretty much draw the line at trying to protect her from toxins. She has to be able to have fun experiences, learn about the world on her own. I will do my best to protect her from “said world” (like making sure she doesn’t put her hands in her mouth after touching the grass and washing them before she does) but at some point she needs to grow through her own experiences and fun encounters. Things (as opposed to experiences) that are not essential, on the other hand, cheap toxic toys, or processed baby foods have no place in our household. We will also take certain actions that only inconvenience us, as her parents, but serve to protect her, as long as her experience of the world has not been limited by them, if that makes sense.
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Lexi is so so adorable. I love the neon green shirt – she looks so edgy in it. And she looks a lot like andrew. So sinking in cuteness 🙂
Those pictures at the beach are fantastic; I absolutely love the one with you and Alexis and the sunset!
Wow, the sunsets are amazing!
I love your attitude to her exploring the world, like trying to make it rather safe but letting her do a lot of things on her own and learn to face the consequences (good or bad) and deal with them. It’s very healthy!
Cuz so many parents are crazily overprotective and then don’t let their kids live their life.
Garrett got a rock in his mouth and his nose once. I think he was even walking at that point. Ha! Thankfully I retrieved them immediately.
Love love love your photography and Lexie’s such a doll! Just wondering why she wasn’t in her bathers in the beach shots?
*A reader from Malaysia*
She was having fun being naked. It’s good for sensory input too.
Alexis is so cute!! She gets more adorable every month!
I understand your rationalization about letting the baby explore her world. I consider you one of the most cautious and conscientious parents I “know” and, honestly, I’m pretty suprised you let your baby crawl on a golf course. I would think the amount of pesticides on that grass would be worse than any bad plastic toy she could chew on. I know you do a ton of reading and research. . . maybe you’ve researched this already? I don’t mean this to sound disrespectful–I’m just curious. . .
I am not 100% happy with letting her crawl there, but I am trying to figure out where to draw the line. I don’t want her to live in a bubble and with chemicals everywhere she’d have to live in a bubble to protect her from everything. So i take any precaution I can that doesn’t directly impede development through experience through the world. I know the days that they spray the golf courses and we avoid those days and like I said we wash her hands before she is able to put them in her mouth.
I remember growing up in Russia with real woods in my back yard and real meadows and real grass, not being afraid to roll around- it was awesome. Our kids can’t have it. There is no place here where she can touch grass without it being sprayed with some shit. It’s sad really.
“Our kids can’t have it” Well, that’s certainly not true! There are tons of places you can go without having to play on grass that has been treated with pesticides. All of our lawn care for our yard we do naturally and all organic. Natural lawn care is really straightforward.
And state, national and local parks are all over – we’ve been taking out daughter out hiking and camping before she could even crawl, and none of those places have maintained lawns that are treated chemically.
But personally, I can’t imagine choosing to live in a golf course community (for a lot of reasons) but the environmental impact of golf courses are awful, and golf courses are the most toxic areas in the country, they treated with more chemicals and pesticides than literally any other type of land: http://www.livescience.com/9331-scientists-measure-pesticide-runoff-golf-courses.html
There is even research being done that has linked avid golfers to increased risks of cancer (http://www.livestrong.com/article/353429-lymphoma-in-avid-golfers/) – I can’t imagine living on one! If you are concerned about chemical exposure, of all the things you can do to protect Lexi from harmful chemicals, keeping her off of golf courses may be one of the most effective.
Most lawns in our part of Florida are taken care of by the HOA, so we don’t have a say in the matter, so organic isn’t an option. I wrote a post about living in a golf community when I was pregnant and how sucky it is that there is this exposure. We have little choice though, because 95% of communities here are ON a golf course. Those that are not, you don’t really want to live in ( generally, not all of course)
Where in FL do you live? I have quite a number of family and friends that live in the state and none of them live in golf course communities. But I guess FL is a little different that way, further up north those new golf course communities with McMansions tend to be seen as cheesy and a little nouveau riche.
That’s one on thing I love about living in a well established home in a historic neighborhood – I never have to worry about things like Chinese drywall (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/RealtyCheck/story?id=7637590&page=1) – personally, if environmental toxins is a real concern for you, living in new construction in a golf course community is about as bad as you can get!
In a town that has more golf courses per capita than any other place in the US 🙂
Don’t you guys have park systems and nature preserves free from pesticides? I’m spoiled living up north, but we’ve got tons of woods for the kids to frolic in, and those park areas never get sprayed. Our town doesn’t either! 🙂 I think it must be hard to live in an area where they are spraying everything. Eek! I agree that you can drive yourself nuts with trying to protect them too much, though. I definitely do organic food and no playing on pesticide grass, cause those are my comfort areas. I also check the bacteria levels before we swim in natural waters (lakes for us), cause some of those are scary high! I’m glad to see that a lot of politicians who stand up for clean air and food were re-elected this cycle!
So cute! There’s nothing happier than a naked baby, exploring nature. 🙂
YES!!!
Were you worried about the pesticides, etc., being absorbed through the skin? We got our lawn sprayed and they told us not to allow her to be out in it for 24 hours (and for us not to touch it or walk through it so the toxins didn’t get on our carpet, where she walks and crawls), and that by the times you washed your hands it would have been absorbed anyway.
I also personally have to squirm at the naked beach pics…I’m all about naked baby time (we do it daily) but omg, I hate itchy sand in the girl parts! haha
LOL! Have you ever been at the beach? The waves are strong enough to push sand all the way in your bikini bottoms so you end up with a butt full of sand anyways lol
Re: lawn, I know the spraying schedule so we don’t go out when it’s been freshly sprayed. And yes, I don’t love it, and we don’t do it often, but I believe in spontaneity and considering she barely gets any toxin exposure anywhere else, I think this one occasionally is acceptable (*wincing*) to make sure she has normal world experiences. My husband is a bit of a germophobe and I can see how hard it is for him to be spontaneous and have fun because he has all these “issues”, I really don’t want to teach Lexi to stay away from everything. I want her to feel free within reason of course.
I looooove her chunky legs!
Lovely place, pics and baby!!!