Cultural Parenting

Before I was pregnant, I read and LOVED the book "Bringing Up Bebe".  It provided such keen observations about American and French cultural values, both in parenting and beyond.

I recently found an American blogger who hosted a series called Motherhood Around the World. It consisted of American mothers living in other countries sharing their observations about what is different in parenting in their current cultures opposed to the states.  Since graduating from college, I've begun to process what my place is in our family and in this world, and I've done a lot of thinking on cultural norms of wives and mothers as it pertains to career and education.  I found it especially interesting to see how other cultures value the woman's role in and/or out of the home.  It did seem though that from conservative to liberal cultures (as far as women's roles go), live in nannies are common in much of the world.  As I think about being home alone with our bebe while Michael works 11 hour days, I think I could really get used to the idea of another woman to be around to share the load, and even to have the company.  I love this section from the post on parenting in China (the link to the full article is listed below).

"Here, a nanny is called an “ayi,” which means “auntie” in Chinese, which I think is really sweet, because everyone feels like they're part of the family. She tells my girls that she loves them. I was coming from somewhere where I didn't have any help at all, so I thought, oh my gosh, I have some free time! It is a very normal thing here, and I can see why. My eyes have been opened, so to say! Moms just aren't meant to go at it alone. For some reason in the U.S., we have this huge expectation to be perfect and to accomplish that perfection all by ourselves. All those silly e-cards about stressed out moms who are drinking wine appear extra silly to me since moving to China, those moms just don't exist here. There's much more of a sense of a team effort around raising children."

A few of the other articles talked about strangers stepping in to help calm a child when he or she is throwing a tantrum in public.  I would probably find this invasive at first, but how great would it be to have this "team" mentality in a stressful situation, instead of receiving judgmental looks from others passing by?

Below are my favorite posts from the series:

Mexico

Abu Dhabi

India

China

Germany
Norway

Much love,

-K&M

23 Weeks // Portland

Today closes out week 23 of the pregnancy.  Holy cow, it is starting to fly!  I'm getting more and more excited each day.  He's been dancing around quite a lot in there, and I'm glad that he's enjoying the space while he still has it.

On the way to Portland last weekend we pulled over to take a few pictures - parts of the drive down to Portland are absolutely stunning.  

The main reason we went to Portland was for Michael to attend a coffee conference (because those exist) and a concert.  I spent most of the time exploring the city with our friends and dear hosts.  We also managed to visit one of the best baby stores and did some drooling over strollers.

Kiley and Justin, everybody.  Aren't the the cutest?

And thanks, Kiley, for the pictures. :)

-K&M

22 Weeks // Gender Reveal

So, we found out the gender of our bebe.  We didn't know that we were going to have the ultrasound until the day of, so it happened fast and nobody really knew when we found out.  It was kind of nice to have time to process learning this new fact about our little one.  Not only are we having a baby, but we are having a son.

Growing up I always wanted to have a boy first.  But then during this pregnancy, it just felt like it was a girl.  And everyone else felt like it was a girl!  Obviously none of us can know this but everyone seemed to agree.  :)  I envisioned a little girl full of giggles wearing bright colors.  As she grew I would encourage and challenge her to be a thinker, a learner, and be a voice in the culture around her. 

When we found out we were having a boy, we were a bit shocked.  Since then, in thinking about having and raising a son, I feel extremely honored. And humbled. This tiny body inside of me will grow up to be a man.  What?  And that's where my thoughts have been lately... moving from the excitement over general baby cuteness to realizing the sobering responsibility of raising a human being - a son, a boy, a man.  I feel so small. 

To close out, here's a picture of baby (boy!) papaya. :)

-K&M

20 & 21 Weeks // CdA Babymoon & Blueberry Picking

Yeah, things have been a little behind lately.  But Bebe is faithfully growing whether we are documenting or not!

Here we were at 20 weeks.

Last weekend we stayed the night in CdA, ID. While it's only a 30 minute drive away, the time to mentally unplug and not be working through a list of to-dos was really great. We found some new thrift stores and visited a new coffee shop, so the weekend had a different feel than our typical day trips.

Probably my favorite part of the trip was Sunday morning. We got up for kind of an early breakfast (more like I dragged Michael out of bed because momma was hungry) then we went back to bed for a few hours. When we woke up again late morning we drove to the beach to spend some time reading. There's just something about being by the water that is so therapeutic.

It was kind of hard to be excited about Monday after that weekend, but I think that even now we're both still enjoying the lingering effects of intentional time together.

This past weekend was spent at the apartment doing lots of reorganizing and cleaning.  The nesting bug has bitten me hard, I've been feeling the urge to clean and prepare almost since the beginning.  I'm just trying to act on those impulses now before I'm the size of a whale! :)

Anyways, we did take Sunday afternoon to journey up to Greenbluff,  this wonderful community of farms just north of Spokane.  You pick your own produce - it's fresh, delicious, and CHEAP!  I'm ready to move north just so that I can do my shopping there every week.

Bebe at 21 weeks.

  

Michael's lucky day - we found a grilled cheese food truck that served gluten free options!  I can't remember what all was on this sandwich but it included bacon, pulled pork, apples, and of course lots of cheese... 

-K&M