Small miracles

I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen.

Every book I've read on Montessori for 0-3 year olds proclaims the floor bed is an aid to the child's developing independence and promotes freedom of movement. Well, yes, I believe all that but how do you actually get them to sleep?? In our case, since Finlay was able to slither out of bed by himself (at about 6 months), he has been unable to go to sleep without breast-feeding. Why would you go to sleep when you could get out of bed and look at books, practice standing up, open and close the wardrobe, pull all of the clothes out of the wardrobe etc.? Though I questioned myself endlessly, I continued to feed him to sleep because I couldn't stand to listen to him crying when he had tired himself to exhaustion.

A few times Brent came out of Fin's room sighing, 'We're getting a cot.' Other days I considered trying a dummy. Neither of those items entered the house, purely because of my sheer determination (craziness?) to follow Montessori principles to the letter, but we definitely thought about it. Where had my faith gone?

As a Montessori teacher, I'm used to having faith in the 'child who is not yet there'. Even the most destructive child has the potential for goodness. The most timid child has the potential for bravery. But would my own little boy ever learn to go to sleep on his own, or was I destined to feed him to sleep forever?

Then yesterday, after I had left him in bed not-quite-asleep, something strange happened. I heard him moving around as usual, pulling things off his shelves, rattling his door, babbling to himself, complaining a little, then.... silence. After a little while I peeped in and he was asleep on his bed! The same thing happened this evening. We've turned the corner.

I don't expect this to be the last time he ever needs my assistance to get to sleep but at least now we know this new reality is possible. My faith is back.

Meanwhile, my days are still being spent arranging and re-arranging the furniture to come up with the best layout for our 0-3 environment. I think I'll be doing this for the next few weeks!

Happily, we now have enough space for Brent and I to practice our morning yoga, much to Fin's delight:

And a final goodbye from my new favorite spot....

Changes...

I have sat down a number of times in the past few weeks to write this post, but never seem to get past the first few words before being distracted and putting it off for another day... I'm determined that today will be the day.

The reason for my absence? House hunting. Yes, it's finally time for us to pack up and move to that 'dream home' I have been longing for... space, sunlight, garden - this one has it all, plus chickens! We searched long and hard for this one and I'm so pleased to have finally signed the lease so we don't have to hunt any longer. We're getting the keys tomorrow and will spend a week painting and gardening before moving in next week. Exciting times!

Another exciting announcement is that along with this new home will come my new business - I'll be setting up a home-based Montessori daycare for 1-3 year olds. This is something I've been planning for a very long time and I'm so happy it is finally coming to fruition. It feels so good to have my brain working overtime, imagining, planning and determining every detail of the environment I'm about to create. I look forward to sharing the journey here at 'A Montessori Home'.

Meanwhile, Finlay powers on perfecting the art of standing, cruising, balancing and exploring every corner of the house. He's 8 months now... time is going by so fast. It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating how he could pull himself up to stand. Now he can balance by leaning against the furniture, climb onto our bed and get down safely (this took lots of practice to perfect!). One of my favorite new developments is that he is mimicking our vocal sounds now. Such a treat! Here's a video of Fin 'buzzing' with Daddy. Brent is a trumpet player, so he is thrilled that Fin has started buzzing his lips. Like daddy, like Fin :)

We're realising now that there is a reason Montessori floor-beds are recommended as single size ('twin' in the US). Finlay's cot-sized bed just isn't big enough to contain his tossing and turning and sleep-crawling. Many nights we find him like this:

Mostly though, being out of bed wakes him up which has resulted in many sleepless nights for him and us. Thank goodness he'll have his own bedroom in our new house so we can fit in a bigger bed for him.

So now we just need to get in this house and get started. I've ordered our Montessori materials from the US, collected tables, chairs and shelves from all over Auckland and now I'm ready to run with it. What fun!