Toddler Archives - Ra'Co Life

September 8, 2015December 27, 2018

“Just us 3” Family Photoshoot

Thanks to the most wonderful friend and photographer Luis we got totally authentically us shots. We are so happy with the results and it was a ton of fun. Iza kind of hates getting her picture taken, so it was even more fun to see that the photoshoot was of a happy Iza.

Thank you to Bubby for the incredible DKNY tye dye dress that matched mine. It worked out so great. And to Luis for the patience and outrageous results. Perfect! And to Kurtis who I adore and who definitely only did this because it was important to me.

The reason for the shoot is more than just documentation: This shoot is part of my Bells Palsy recovery process to accept my permanent state and capture everything on camera to remember the moment. With Iza in the belly we have maybe 10 photos total from 6 months on because I was too overwhelmed every time I saw my face staring back at me. Now at 90%, it feels like the acceptance has come from a place of personal power. It was so much fun to take these shots and I see true joy in all our faces in the results. I really am so grateful to all my friends and family who have given me positive affirmation over the last 2+ years during recovery. Thank you!

From our Photographer Luis Pedro Gramajo: Un día lleno de sonrisas, amor y creatividad con esta hermosa familia, ya están listos para recibir al nuevo miebro de la familia… Los Brand son una familia muy divertida y sobre todo creativa, son fuera de lo común y estoy seguro que esta nueva vida que está siendo puesta en sus manos va a aprender disfrutar la vida cada moneto, espero que les guste…

Translated to English: A day full of smiles, good energy and love with this beautiful family, they´re ready to receive the new member of the family… The Brand’s are a really creative and fun family, I´m sure that this new life that is given to them is going to enjoy every day with them, hope you like it… ENJOY!!!

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September 1, 2015September 1, 2015

How to Entertain a Toddler for 3 Whole Days

Thank goodness yesterday was a Monday… I don’t think I have ever been so happy for the start of the week to come! I was absolutely wiped out from 3 full days with a crazy, emotional toddler. My goodness emotions run high these days! I swear no two minutes are the same and the bouncing from happy to sad to happy to sleeping leaves my head spinning. But on the inside far beneath the facade of exhaustion, I am remembering and relishing in the tiny moments of each of our activities and I wanted to share our very occupied schedule.

This past Friday was a teacher’s development day, leaving a school full of kids and their parents without a place to go. Myself with a few other moms took it upon themselves to develop some level of entertainment to get through the 1st day which would have been our Friday, but then I was on my own!

Friday:

Make a mess while cooking a blueberry pancake breakfast
Spend an hour cleaning up the mess after breakfast
Swimming, playground and lunch with friends (for 5 hours)
Walk around the neighborhood

Saturday:

Early grocery shop, sitting front and center in the cart
Jump around in the car as if it was a playground
Skype with Abuela
Farm tour and find as many things that look like circles as possible
Talk about how Iza’s doll is scared of the mouse
Play with the iPad for far too long
Play with neighbors and then go for a walk and run into more neighbors
Take a bath until fingers are wrinkly

Sunday:

Put together a very complicated shelving unit and hide all the screw backs from mommy
Spend 2 hours looking for the screw backs
Long walk around the neighborhood and fill the stroller up with dirt
Hug a tree
Float around the house like a butterfly (with one broken wing)
Paint a picture
Talk about how yesterday the swing backfired and hit her in the head
Reorganize toy baskets
Take a ridiculously long nap

I spent quite a bit of time researching ahead of time, so I now have a pretty long list of options for our next school closing. This was definitely a trying weekend for me with being pregnant and my poor toes on my right foot feel broken from all the running around after Iza (with the added weight of Zai), but there were wonderfully fun moments embedded into it. I relish in the simple things with this little lady. She is at a very fun age, full of discovery… I get to be apart of that discovery!

Highlights from the 3 Days:

Porta Hotel Antigua for swimming and playground with friends: This is a wonderful pool with a center section that has just about 4″ of water. Perfect for a toddler who wants to get wet, but is not a super fan of wet hair. Oh! And it’s heated. The playground is really an exceptional treat. Iza was just like a big kid playing with Maya Lily.

Farm Tour at Caoba Farms: The beautiful and serene backdrop is not a joke. We regularly walk the grounds to just enjoy the scenery and to see what is popping up next. Here are our salad greens! Iza likes to find the macadamia shells that have cracked open and pair them together.

Walking with Neighbors: We love to walk with the Mercer’s in the afternoons, but this Saturday we were fortunate to run into some of Iza’s other classmates. Adoi is in her class and believe it or not he is 6 months younger than her. The kid is absolutely adorable, and very tall. When Iza saw him she went running right up to him!

Dancing like a butterfly: Wings are essential for any little girl – so she can fly! What a fun moment to capture on camera. Iza demanded her “corte” (Spanish word for skirt) and her wings from me, but found the hat in her dress up box all on her own. Coupled with her WHO shirt, I think this kid has some serious style. Our friend Nikki makes these wings if you are interested in them!

Hug a Tree: This is an image from one of the first times we witnessed Iza hugging trees. She just ran right up to them and wrapped her cute little body all over the tree. There has to be something psychologically rewarding about hugging a natural element. Maya Lily and Noah (wonderful neighbors and friends) quickly caught onto the movement and helped to paint the perfect picture of happy children in nature.

Painting a picture: More like painting with water and a little color! This gal absolutely loves to see water mess something up. Water color paints are by far the best choice and this is a great set provided by my artist mother Jan Ruby-Crystal.

Taking a nap with Mama: While there was a kick, fight and scream leading up to this perfectly tranquil moment, it was pure heaven for me to be laying with Iza for a 2+ hour nap on Sunday. She is just so squishy and her trust implicit. I love that she is still able to just fall apart in my arms. I know soon that moment will be gone, so I am taking all I can get right now.

August 24, 2015August 24, 2015

5 Ways to Mitigate Pregnancy Challenges

It’s interesting to go through the stages of pregnancy because I can see how quickly the ebb and flow of nature really works. I am like an ocean with changing tides; inevitably I am always going to come back to a calm sea, but there are going to be waves, manmade disruption and natural disasters like storms in between.

For the past 4 days I have really had a rough go of it and while I am nearing the end of my rapidly short rope of patience, I am trying to gently remind myself that it will come around. I still have 6 weeks left which is not an encouraging time span. It feels like it will literally never end, but I know that 6 weeks from now I will be sorry I did not relish in the quiet moments when I could. It is all a balance and test of give and take.

Here are some ways I am trying to deal with it:

Surrounding myself with strong female supports who have been there and being very directed and clear with my husband about what I need him to support me with (don’t leave it to be a guessing game, ladies. They don’t get it!)
Going for long walks by myself and spending time alone when Iza is at school
Laying in bed as long as I need to and not feeling bad about doing one more thing around the house
Canceling meetings as needed and letting go of the need to do anything
Writing for the sake of therapy and not work

Having a toddler makes it even harder

The hardest part has been the emotional upheaval of Iza. I almost feel as though she senses my hormonal and emotional shift and as a result her emotions have mirrored mine. She is a disaster of clinginess and desperation. She is hanging all over me and gravitating to one of our rooms at night (oh yes, we are sleeping in different rooms now so my tossing and turning is done without strain on our marriage), so none of us are sleeping and we are having a really hard time resetting our patience level.

What am I doing about it? I am trying to reason with her and negotiate her journey through all this too.

I am trying to keep in mind that she doesn’t understand why I am upset and that the term “Zai” to her means belly. So I am giving her the permission to go through her emotions the same way I need to be supported.
I am being patient with her realizing that she may not quite yet correlate that it is a human life in there and that mama is having a hard time supporting all the weight and the changes physically
We are taking a bath together every night as a family so she can still climb all over us without having to lift her up
We are allowing her the time to talk through and draw out why she is “scared”
I am relying very heavily on my terrific new network here in Antigua, Guatemala to help take her mind off it with playdates and activities

Even in writing this quick little post, really helped me to relax my emotions for a minute. #5 is maybe the best help of all for me. Check out the post on Tips n’ Tricks for Coping with Baby #2 to get some insight on how to manage all of this, not just the hard parts.

October 31, 2014

Co-Sleeping with a Toddler

Wiped out.

I’m kicked and hit, my face is smooshed and I nearly roll off the bed, everytime. This little lady thinks she is 250lbs and 6′ long. She takes up the entire bed and then some… and it never seems to be enough space. Where do these creatures get off without sharing? We have given them life and then they just take, take, take from the moment they arrive.

In all seriousness, we keep trying to co-sleep with Iza because we love to cuddle her and be close to her when she is so small. She latches on when she is falling to sleep and gives the best hugs! During the day, she never stops moving, but at night its the same, she never stops moving.

If you can’t tell, I have just been up all night because Kurt heard her coughing and brought her into our bed. She didn’t want to sleep on the bed, she had to lay on top of me with her head buried in my neck. I could hardly breathe so I moved her to the side and then she started the rustle and roll, taking us both out in her midst. Fun stuff.

Anyone that co-sleeps I give major snaps too. This family is just simple not meant to do it.