Stine Kuskner

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By Stine Kuskner - Fri 8th Apr 2011

 

5 MONTHS+ - 1 Dec. 2010

There's blended fruit all over Liva, Laia, me and half the couch.... The pediatrician told us we could give them blended apples, pears and bananas with the juice of an orange when they were 5 months old. Today was the first attempt. I had put it in bottles with the hole made bigger, Laia did great and Liva, well......

When they got the first taste in their mouth, they both made a funny face. Laia started laughing, grabbed for the bottle with her little hands, placed it in her mouth and sucked almost 200 ml og blended fruit, until there was no more left. Liva gave it a second try, made another face and looked at me as if asking what in the world I was giving her. We kept trying for a while, but when Laia was half way through her bottle, Liva had eaten about 10 ml. I tried spoon feeding her, that worked for a while. When it stopped working, I went back to the bottle. Then back to the spoon. By this time Laia was done, watching her sister being fed and saying Mm Mm Mm Mm, which means "more" "more" "more" "more". I gave her a couple of spoonfulls and she was happy, but I didn't want to give her too much since it was the first time and she had already gulped down all hers. Eventually Liva had eaten about 2/3 and was crying - I don't want her associating eating fruit with something bad, so I decided to stop. Laia was still saying Mm Mm Mm, but she'll have to wait until tomorrow.

While I was feeding them we got a new addition to our family - my sister-in-law here in Barcelona had a little baby girl! :) Liva & Laia now have 5 cousins, Albert's brother's 3 children here in Barcelona Martí (4), Guillem (1½) and Berta (a few hours), and my brother's 2 children in Denmark Freja (4) and Simon (2). It'll be loads of fun when they're a bit older and can play together.

5 MONTHS+ - 3 Dec. 2010

Liva has started yelling - it has been going on for about 1 week now, and it's driving me nuts!! At first it was cute - she had just discovered she could make really loud sounds, and thought it was fun. Laia had her yelling-phase about 1 month ago, it lasted less than a week and she only yelled a few times a day. Liva yells and yells and yells.... Regardless of whether she's happy, angry, hungry, tired, playing, bored, etc, etc, etc. She just yells..... I've tried loads to make her stop - putting my hand over her mouth makes her laugh and yell even louder. Squirting water on her - like we do with the cats when we have to teach them they're doing something they shouldn't be doing - makes her laugh and eventually yell. This morning I "slapped" her with one finger on her mouth and cheek. She was surprised and didn't know whether to cry or laugh - in the end she chose to smile... And then yell some more.

Just to set one thing clear - I would NEVER slap my children! I use only one finger, and I don't touch her very hard. Liva is a very nervous girl, and needs quiet and tranquility around her. She can't handle loud noises and she's very easily shocked/surprised. The doctor told us that her unwillingness to sleep but sleeping like a baby (excuse the pun) when she finally sleeps is a typical sign that she's a nervous girl. She needs to feel safe, know what's going on and what will happen next. For this reason having a schedule is very important for her. And for this reason I had hoped that the element of surprise in "slapping" her with one finger would help her understand not to yell. But so far it hasn't worked...

Laia just woke up and is sitting on my lap, smiling like a little angel. Time to stop and go enjoy my girl, wait for Liva to wake up, and feed them their fruit. Then start packing and getting everything ready for tomorrow - we're off to Denmark for 4 full weeks, all 4 of us!! It's the first time the four of us get vacation-time together, and we're soooooo looking forward to it. We'll be staying with my parents which means help with the girls, which means time for Albert and me to relax and spend some time with each other. I'm sure it'll be the best December ever! :)