Welcome to Hodgepodge Parenting!

I'm creating this blog to keep in touch with family and friends who would like to stay up to date on the happenings with our baby girl, Natalia. I will include musings of our approach to parenting, as this will inevitably play into the sorts of things I describe as happening in our little family.

A quick note on the title of the blog.  "Hodgepodge" refers to a mixture of different things.  In the three months since Natalia's birth, I've already realized that there isn't a one size fits all approach to parenting, and we have begun to incorporate sometimes wildly differing approaches into how we parent our daughter.  We tend to lean mostly towards Attachment Parenting, but when something isn't working, c'est la vie.

Natalia is being breast-fed full time now, but has also gotten expressed breast milk and formula in a bottle.  She does take a pacifier, which I swore I wouldn't introduce before she was born.  She spends her days in cloth diapers, nights and trips in chlorine-free disposable diapers, and we also take her on the big potty.  She spent the first two weeks of her life on the outside being put down only for diaper changes, spending the rest of the time on Oscar or on me.  Then she slept in her swing, since she didn't want to hear about sleeping flat on her back.  Finally, she is now sharing the big bed with mommy, and it has been wonderful! We use strollers, infant car seats, and baby carriers depending on the situation.  I've read about proponents of babywearing poopooing any item designed to keep baby away from the parents, but the reality is that it is not feasible to keep baby on your person at all times!  Showering comes to mind.  Yes, we can and do take baths together.  But somehow the idea of shaving my legs with one hand while balancing a wet infant with another doesn't seem very safe or desirable!

I'm sure as Natalia grows, there will be additional parenting takes that we will test; some we'll incorporate and others we'll dismiss.  For anyone who doesn't know, we hope to homeschool Natalia, at least through grade school.  We already speak to her in Polish, Spanish, and English, with a few American Sign Language signs thrown in for good measure.  We want her to be exposed to various music, different foods, and just all the wonderful diversity that this great big world has to offer.

Since I am opening this blog to my relatives and friends, you know that we all come from very different backgrounds and have different ideas of what's normal parenting. I may mention approaches to child rearing that we disagree with and hence don't follow, but please note that this is never meant as an affront to anyone who has chosen to parent their child differently from us.  We know every family's circumstances are different, and different personalities (of parents and children) need different approaches.


I know many of you will simply want to view  photographs and videos of our little pumpkin, and I will try to oblige.  So welcome to the blog, and hope it will help you feel closer to us.    :)