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This Saturday saw the start of our baby group social club, as 5 mommy's (including me) got together to talk about mommy stuff and basically just chill it out (as best as you can with a 6 month old hanging on you).
My Curly Sue and I thoroughly enjoyed the standing play station, that belongs to host mom Lyda and her baby, Kayla. My girl spent a solid amount of time, amused and entertained by the sights, feels and sounds on the station and I totally enjoyed not having to carry all of her 9 kilograms of cuteness around. :)
Hot topics for the day included breast pumps, starting baby on solids and co-sleeping. As you know, we co-sleep and are not yet ready to have her in her own bed yet. But I can feel the time drawing nigh, since she has recently started with solids and I am predicting that she will be sleeping right through the night really soon!
Another hot topic was whether we are broody yet and if we would contemplate having another baby soon, since, we have all the gadgets and growing expertise now anyways. I mean, if you think about it, it makes sense to get all of the "growing a family" stuff out of the way, and just have all your babies in a row, since you're used to the irregular sleeping patterns and spit up on your shirt. Not that I am interested in having another right now... or ever, for that matter. I mean, since hubstopher and I technically have a family of 3 already, I feel like I am done, thank you. He, on the other hand, is so keen for another and has already picked out names! I've given him an answer of "maybe... on condition that...." and am really just leaving it up the Lord!
But with that said, we both realize that we have enough to handle with, with our dazed teenager, needy primary schooler and giggly baby girl. We're good for now.
(left to right) Janine and Zach, Us, Karin and Rissa,
Tess and Josh and host, Lyda and baby Kayla
Lyda ended the meet off beautifully with a prayer and short message taken out of Stormy Omartin's book "The power of a praying parent". I love this book and find the prayers and devotionals to be short but powerful, inspiring and real soul food.
From the book:
"Parenting! The word itself can bring contradictory emotions to the surface. We try to do the best we can raising our children. Then, just when we think we've got the parenting terrain all figured out, we suddenly find ourselves in new territory again as each new age and stage presents another set of challenges. Sometimes we sail through smoothly. Sometimes we encounter tempests and tidal waves. Sometimes we get so tired that we just want to give up - let the storm take us where it will. But I have good news. We don't have to be tossed and turned by these winds of change. Our children's lives don't ever have to be left to chance... Nor do we have to be perfect parents. WE can start right now - this very minute, in fact - making a positive difference in our child's future. It doesn't matter if the child is three days old and perfect, or thirty years old and going through a third divorce because of an alcohol problem. At every stage of their lives our children need and will greatly benefit from our prayers. The key is not trying to do it all by ourselves all at once, but rather turning to the expert parent of all time - our Father God - for help."
It goes on to explain the power of prayer and submitting to God, whilst dedicating our children's lives to Him. I really recommend this book!
Future plans for the Mama&Baba group is to invite more new moms along and to include stimulating and learning activities for our babes, as they grow. I saw a few interesting ideas online and am quite eager to try them out!
