Sunday Salon - June 8

This weekend has been very busy, but I have still managed to get quite a lot of reading done. I seem to be in the midst of a lot of parenting books at the moment. I recently finished Baby Signs by Linda Acredolo (review forthcoming), and I am currently reading The Blessing of A Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children, by Wendy Mogel, for the Mother's Circle I belong to. Up next is the The Stay-at-home Survival Guide by Melissa Stanton, which I am reading as part of a Mothertalk blog tour.

As Maya gets a bit older, her personality is really starting to come through. And this is one child who never stops going! Take, for example, Maya's behaviour at a baby shower we went to yesterday. There was another baby there only three weeks older than Maya. These two babies couldn't be any more different from each other! While Maya had to be on the floor demonstrating her ability to sit and her attempts at crawling, the other baby was content sitting in her mom's lap attentively but quietly watching what was going on. Maya reveled in being handed from person to person, complete strangers she had never met before, while the other baby stayed with her mom. At one point, when the two babies were sitting next to each other, Maya started reaching over and scratching the other baby. I was really dismayed, and felt a bit humiliated that I didn't catch what she was doing right away, until I figured out what her intention was...she was trying to reach the other baby's face, and when I held her arms and leaned over she planted a big drooly kiss on the other baby's forehead! I definitely don't have a mellow baby.

If Maya's current personality is anything to go by, she is going to be very sociable and outgoing, the kind of kid that runs over and knocks other kids over with a big bear hug, and I will be reading Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka to figure out how to best nurture this wonderful, challenging, energetic, exhausting, active child I have been blessed with. Come to think of it, I may be reading it sooner rather than later, since my darling cherub is already pulling herself up to a standing position in the crib. Oy vey!