We are the most balanced baby people I know! No extremes here of nursing a child on demand until age three —or of putting a baby on a four hour eating schedule while he’s still in the hospital at two days old! Somewhere between those extremes is an amazing way to parent babies and toddlers in which everybody (baby, parents, and siblings) enjoy each other and fall into a comfortable family rhythm that does not over-emphasize one child’s “wants” over another. And one in which wants and needs are differentiated and met as is appropriate. This is certainly not an article about baby and toddler training (check out our blog for more on that!); however, our parenting of our babies really did have something to do with the deep, communicative relationships that we developed with our children.
Talk about everything while you are going through your regular routines!
There is a lot of “talk” these days about talking to your baby in utero. We talked to our babies in the womb—sang to them, read to them, etc.—though not nearly as much as we did once they were born!
Yes, we talked to our babies! We sang to them, talked to them, rocked them and walked them as newborns. But we increased this even more once the baby became four to six months old.
When we got our babies and toddlers up in the morning, we spent even more time with them. I would get our babies and toddlers up, rock them, read to them, sing to them, walk around their rooms and read their posters and plaques to them, etc.
Rockies and Reading
Before their naps, we would have “rockies and reading” time in which I rocked the baby, sang Scripture songs, and read a little. (This was actually the pre-cursor to when the toddler became mature enough to join the preschoolers for story time—sort of a rite of passage that would happen as this time in Mama’s chair increased, and the little one could sit long enough for afternoon story time (one to two hours!).
We began talking baby talk early! Talking to babies and toddlers via books, songs, rhymes, etc., then eventually discussing these things, was the beginning of communicating with our kids. So….go for the baby talk! Start communicating early with your kids.
