Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Holy Crap -or- Eliminate This!

Today the house is super quiet. We've already vacuumed, swept, straightened, pumped and eaten -- twice. And now Holden's back asleep for another nap so I will use this time to address you (although, I should probably be thinking about something healthy and organic to make for dinner.) Too bad what sounds good is 'french fries from Crown Burgers.'

OK, so today I hosted an EC meeting. That's right, for those of you new to the blog, EC is short for Elimination Communication. Read all about it:
Here or Here.



So like Le Leche League and other Mommy-Support-Groups round the world, EC has their own variety. Meetings are held once a month at different locales through out the valley; and I volunteered my home for January because 10am is right smack in the middle of Holden's nap time...and since he's finally on some semblance of a routine, I figured it would be much easier to host a few mom's and kids than to juggle and stress about sleep.

So obviously I was a little nervous to be hosting a 'Diaper Free Baby' meeting. You kind of picture in your head what that means... a snapshot?
  • Imagine 15 little babies running around in split crotch pants (or just FREE?!?!?) signaling 'potty' and then just using my hard wood floor to 'do their thing'
  • Since we only have 2 bathrooms and one's off the master, there were not enough "potty's" to go around
  • I asked Danny if he wanted me to call the carpet cleaners immediately or just wait until the stench had really sunk in...
  • Cloth Diapers strewn about my living room -- some clean, some not so much
  • Crawlers and Toddlers wrestling over the Baby Bjorn potty and seeing who could throw the insert the farthest: my wall and my lamp lost that contest.
  • Mother's in COMPLETE denial about how CRAZY their children were/are!
  • They were the worst kind of hippies - liberal ones. I think most of them voted for Obama, and they drove Subarus -- or worse, hybrids.
  • The scent was so pungent (whether from the babies or their unshaven armpits adorned only with crystal deodorant I did not know...) but my eyes started to water.
  • Since the babies were all diaper free, the adults finally just joined in and we all took off our pants too...
Yes, I'm obviously joking.

The meeting was actually the mellowest play date I've ever been privy to. The two mom's (plus moi) and the five kids played great together. In fact, not one child cried in the entire two hour period!!! And they all had on training pants/underwear or diapers. I mean the babes obviously; I didn't actually check to see what type of undergarments the other mommies were wearing.

We talked about the joys of EC - how we're so grateful it's stress free, and what a great parenting philosophy it is (being in tune with your baby and listening to your child's signals). None of us are hard-core ECers, so we've each adapted it for our lifestyle.

We talked about the trials of breastfeeding, how we've incorporated co-sleeping on some level and discussed our L&D's (labor and deliveries).

We compared baby carriers...discussed our favorite slings, et cetera (and how overrated we think Baby Bjorn varieties can be.)

The kids shared organic snacks and Holden kept giving Lucy (the darling 9 month old) hugs...she is the same size as his cousin Faye, so he's been practicing 'giving loves'. Maybe he was flirting?

After about two hours of visiting and playing, the party broke up and mom's departed with tired but quite happy kids en tote. The house was still in tact -- a few crumbs here and there, and some toys to put back; but nothing out of the ordinary.

Holden was stoked -- not only because of the fun playtime-- but because we got to vacuum twice today...and that makes him even happier than waking up with clean pants after a nap.

8 comments:

mrs. farlanderz said...

I haven't started yet. I need to read more but have my little potty ready to go! :)

Laurie said...

Love your humor, still laughing!

We used ec (I call it infant potty trainiing) with our third and enjoyed it very much, were delighted to start and finish sooner than we had with traditional delayed toilet learning. That was 30 years ago and now our grandchild is using it too :-))

Here are a few more links in case anyone wants to read more:

http://www.TimL.com/ipt
http://www.pottywhisperer.com

http://www.white-boucke.com/IPTstuff.html
“Infant Potty Training” book and “Potty Whispering” DVD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_potty_training_method

"The Suite Spot", how clever for your blog name.

Cheers

Alicia said...

Sabrena, that was the funniest post. I'm so glad that you were joking about all those things though :).

Cicely said...

Holden looks like such a big boy! Faye misses pushing away his loves- now she is just pushing away my face.

Erin said...

HAhaaa! This was fantastic. I would love to discuss this whole ECing thing more with you some time... it scares me to death for some reason but obviously there's something to it. Jonah's on the verge of potty training, but maybe it's something we'd consider with baby #2? Any tips you have to offer would be most welcome.

Let's talk again soon, I always love hearing your voice.

Laurie said...

Erin,

Dealing with something unknown can be scary at first, but ec is very simple and natural. Imagine if you were stuck somewhere for a few days with your baby and had no diapers. You'd probably figure out that you can hold or seat him somewhere and get him to go for you at likely times. Bear in mind that you can start with just a few potty sits a day and increase when you feel comfortable (keeping him diapered the rest of the time if you want). It's actually a lot of fun :-)

Erin said...

Thanks for the encouragement. I look forward to checking out the other resources you mentioned Laurie!

genevievepelissie said...

Thanks for allowing us to come play, spread crumbs around, and talk about all the mommy things. Really fun and it was so nice to meet you. :)