Monday, March 17, 2014

Biting and gardening

Biting and gardening - are the two related? Well, you bite into things you grow in the garden, so yes, I guess they are. But for the purpose of this post, they are related because they are both on my mind. Let's begin with the biting. The Babe has forever been "the biter". I offer this information up freely in conversation, we don't hide it, and it's something we have been working on from the start. I'm pleased to say the phase of her biting her daycare mates as a form of self-defense appears to have come to an end. However, the biting itself has not stopped; it has turned into self-biting when frustrated, which actually has me more worried. My immediate thoughts were "she's self-harming at 2! What can we do to stop this before it turns into cutting?!?" A bit of an extreme to go to, as she is years away from being able to buy anything, let alone razor blades, at a store. But of course, off to Google we went to learn if this is "normal" behaviour. It is, but I wanted a more reliable second source of confirmation.

After a lovely discussion with her daycare provider, I learned some good techniques for her and for myself. This is one of the many reasons I love our daycare - I can go to them with a concern and feel supported, both in being able to ask the question and also with the various information nuggets they give me to take home and use. Some of it is for The Babe, but more of it is for me. As you readers know, patience is not my strong suit, and when my child is physically responding to me, maybe it's a lightbulb to take a minute, a breath, a step out of the room, because it might be me, not her. Ouch. But true. Part of growing as a mom for me is realizing my shortcomings now directly affect the actions of my little person. My husband can choose how to tell me how I am affecting him, she cannot. Reality check for mom.

On to biting into other things - gardening! The monsoon rains have stopped and I'm super stoked to start gardening and to do it with The Babe. It will be an opportunity to let her pick one or two things to plant which we can check on to see how they grow. I've decided to grow herbs in pots on my deck, and I'm hoping I will be less devastated this year if she rips those out of the pot (that happened last year). Again, an opportunity to work on my patience. In the backyard we have a number of large raised garden beds where last year we planted fruit and vegetables. The Babe devoured the strawberries as soon as they were ripe, sometimes not even when they were ripe, and I can't wait to see how this year's crop will turn out. We've already decided what we are planting, in the hopes she will eat all of it.

We learned some valuable lessons last year - water more, eat more lettuce, do not plant round carrots just because they look cool on the package - and this year we will be applying those lessons to the garden. Including planting more cucumbers because The Babe can eat her weight in pickles. I will also be home on maternity leave in July and August, which I realize doesn't mean I will have "more time" but it does mean I will be in the backyard more which means the garden will not be so out of sight out of mind as it was last year.

I've been looking up tips on gardening with a toddler, to see how I can engage her in the process. And then I remembered that engagement doesn't happen on the internet, it happens outside, so I just want to leave work early to go home and plant! I won't, but it was a nice thought.

Now, the real question is, how can I teach The Babe which ones are weeds and how to pull them? ;)




~ H