New blog, who dis?

 

Welcome to the new blog! About two years ago, I moved to Instagram and Facebook only, trying to focus on facebook as a blog. Well, that didn't happen! To be fair, I also started grad school and teaching so I was already stretched thin. I graduated in December with my MA in Education. Now, in the classroom, I teach high school English. My son Ezra is now starting Kindergarten in the fall. My partner Amelia and I are still going strong. I've been holding it down since, mostly on IG. 

Taking it back though to the blog, writing is a form of therapy for me and I've been blogging in some capacity ever since college. I miss it. I miss creating a post, connecting in a deeper way than the constraints of a caption. 

So, here we are. My new blog! I will try to post 2-4 times a month but part of this process is to not set expectations for myself. I want to just enjoy the day to day and if it happens, great. If it doesn't, that is okay too. 

What kind of posts do you want me to write about? What questions do you have? Let's see what unfolds!

xoxo,

Lala

A Lesson In Mindfulness from the Kindergarten Classroom

Originally published April 11, 2022

Life moves fast. Like, it's already the end of the school year and Ezra is almost 4 fast. We are getting ready to move to a home that I will be renting with my brother. I am still knee deep in grad school work. My allergies are crazy.

But, I still need to remember to breathe.

For my action research project for grad school, I taught my kindergarteners how to take belly breaths, which is the kid way of saying deep breathing. In a way, I also re-taught myself. I did the exercise of deep breathing and buzzing out like a bee, hissing like a snake, and exhaling up like a whale.

And, let me tell you I changed too. It's funny how we do something to help others and it ends up helping us too in a way we didn't even realize we needed. I strayed away from my daily practices of mindfulness. In my search for a way to calm my classroom after lunch and teach the little bodies how to handle big emotions, I reminded my big body how to handle big emotions too. Emotions that I had been sweeping under the rug. All the daily stress is now being tackled with breathing and writing, not being thrown into a pile for another day.

Sometimes us adults need to go back to the basics. Breathing is fundamental. Opening your eyes and just saying "I am." is brave and bold, especially in the storms of life. But, we can't forget the day to day too. Don't save your mindfulness for a rainy day. Take this reminder from my classroom and breathe.

Place your hand on your heart and belly. Breathe in and feel your belly balloon fill up. Breathe out and buzz like a bee.

Buzzzzzz,

Angela Pena

Potty Training & Gut Health Matters

 Originally published May 10, 2021

We are currently on week four of potty training in my household. It's been almost a full month of laundry, rushing to the potty, and trying again and again. I decided to list the ten things that have helped me the most (and Ezra) through this new endeavor. Here are ten tips that I've found/been told:

1. Keep a change of clothes in your purse and your car. Even a shirt because pee pee can get on shirts.
2. Get a portable potty to keep in the car for outings. Amazon has cheap ones from a variety of sellers. You want a foldable one that can be put in a purse or a tote.
3. Stickers. Keep a chart or hand out stickers for each successful try.
4. Sing. Sing about going to the potty, going pee pee or poo poo, or even for wearing big kid underwear.
5. For boys, use pee pee targets. You can get them on Amazon or even use Cheerios. Have them aim at the target.
6. If your kid goes to daycare, make sure they are using the same techniques as you so you can be on the same page.
7. Make them try to go potty before every outing and, when in doubt, put a pull up over your kid's underwear while they are in the car so it doesn't get on the car seat if there is an accident. This allows them to still feel the wetness when they have an accident.
8. Don't scold your kid. Accidents happen. Ezra had a pee pee accident yesterday because he was playing outside and couldn't make it to the potty by the time he approached my mom to go. It's ok. Clean them up and show kindness.
9. Read books. I grew up and also read Ezra "Once Upon a Potty" because it shows the anatomy of a boy and girl, depending on the version you get.
10. Pay attention to your kid's gut health!

Gut health? Yes. This is the tenth and arguably the most important. When your kid is a regular pooper and their poop is healthy, it makes potty training easier. I make sure of this by feeding Ezra as balanced of a diet as a toddler will eat. He still has ice cream and such every now and then but at least offering a vegetable at every meal helps.

Speaking of success, Ezra is almost fully potty trained. I lucked out and he is even waking up to potty in the middle of the night. We are still trying to get him to poop in the potty consistently, but each day we make progress. I still continue to use his prebiotic and fiber supplement, I still offer a variety of foods for a well rounded gut, and I still always have a change of clothes with me. Hopefully my tips help and you find Begin Health as valuable to your family as mine. Motherhood and parenting in general is all about community and sharing, and these inside tips and the supplement recommendation are my way of sharing the wisdom that I know works for me in hopes that it makes on of your lives a bit easier. We're in this together. We're stronger together.

xoxo,

Lala