Our Magical Time of the Year!

The magic began a week before Christmas Eve. As if I wasn't busy enough with work, photographing a wedding, and being a supermommy this month, I was also secretly planning a surprise 30th birthday for my best friend!

On Friday Dec 17th, we celebrated Dina's dirty thirty at the Viceroy Hotel Santa Monica! The dinner party was so much fun, and we definitely caught her off gaurd!

Then...... I got sick :( So poor Taji and I spent a large chunk of the week leading up to Christmas recuperating at home while Brad fed us chicken soup. Perfect timing too, with the nasty downpour and storms 5 days in a row, we sure didn't miss a thing and there was no perfect place to be than in our cozy little home.

All week long we received special deliveries for Taji from the North Pole and Jezisek...... and then the day before Christmas Eve we ran over to Fashion Island to show Taj the grandest sparkliest Christmas tree of all. We met up with our friends Laura and Greg, who are eagerly expecting their bundle of joy any minute! Taji showed off his adorable little santa suit, and got lots of attention, he even had his picture taken by a random older lady ha ha

Here is Santa Taji spreading cheer with his auntie Laura & Greg :)
Baby's First Jezisek!

Taj is a lucky little boy.... unlike other little boys in the US of A, he gets to celebrate christmas two different times, one Czech style and the other American style! Every year on Christmas Eve, children all over the Czech Republic celebrate the arrival of Jezisek (Baby Jesus) who delivers presents in the evening, after a very traditional celebratory dinner. My sister and I remember the magic, the anticipation of turning off all the lights, hiding in our room, and listening as Jezisek arrived. Then when we came out of our room we were blown away by how many presents surrounded the tree. That same magical experience we had we want to pass on to our little ones. This year was Taji's first Jezisek, and he was introduced to our special Czech tradition. :0) My sister and I perfected our traditional Czech dinner, and we even surprised ourselves just how good the soup, fish, and potato salad tasted...... babi and deda would be so proud!




After dinner and family portraits by the tree, my sister and I went to go hide with the kids while the daddy's stayed behind "to greet Jezisek and help him him unload the gifts!" Here we are in Chloe's room with the lights off, listening to Jezisek's bell. Taji became excited seeing Chloe get excited, it was very cute!

Baby's First Christmas Morning
After a late night at my sister's on Christmas Eve, we had a bit of a late start on Christmas Morning.... here is Taji attacking the presents!
He was much more experienced at unwrapping and tearing the paper off, and tried to munch on it too!

On Christmas Day we helped Taji open his gifts..... between Jezisek and Santa, he got so many cool wooden and electronic toys, outfits, books, accessories, teething toys........ he must have been a good little boy! We feasted on our traditional big breakfast, and had a busy day playing with toys and relaxing. What a magical holiday weekend was had...... thank you to our Czech Jezisek for Taj's awesome toys and outfits (wink wink) and my sister & family for a very special Christmas Eve. Oh, before I forget, last year Brad and I started our family tradition of "giving" every Christmas in lieu of buying big gifts for each other..... once Taj gets older he will help pick out the charities. This year, we donated to Starlight Children's Foundation, National Center for Fathering (in honor of the Brad- an Amazing daddy to Baby Taj!), and Charity:Water.... a non-profit that builds wells and delivers clean water to poor African communities (watch their awesome video). I encourage you to check out the links for each charity, get involved, but most importantly, start this tradition of Giving with your family :)

Merry Christmas from Santa Taji!

Why Montessori?

Here is an excerpt I found, explaining Montessori philosophy of teaching in a nutshell:
Montessori is a method of teaching that is based on the developmental, behavioral tendencies of children. At the turn of the 20th Century Dr. Maria Montessori did something remarkable: she observed children. She worked with children declared mentally deficient, and ineducable, and by observing them carefully, and providing learning experiences geared toward the individual child's needs, she discovered successful ways to teach. She applied these techniques and made further observations in her first "school" in Rome, working with normal, but very poor preschool-aged children. Thus began Montessori's lifelong pursuit of understanding the development of children, and her creation of a developmental approach to education. Maria Montessori defined the goal of education as the development of a complete human being, a person oriented to his environment, and adapted to his time, place and culture. Montessori observed that children are driven to explore, repeat and work toward mastery of new skills. In her lectures and writings she identifies these behaviors, as well as orientation, order, imagination, manipulation, precision, and communication as innate in children. Children are driven to learn. The goal then is obviously to create an environment where the needs of the child at each stage of development dictate the form, content and pace of his education. (Contrast this with the current pressures upon children and teachers in traditional schools to allow state mandated aptitude test scores to drive the form, content and pace of a child's education). The Montessori preschool-kindergarten classroom is prepared with concrete, hands-on materials, organized in areas designed to appeal to the children's developmental interests. Montessori math and language materials are wonderful, and there are also works based on practical life activities, exercises in grace and courtesy, exploration of the senses, geography, and even animals and plants to care for. These materials are presented to the children and then left on the shelf for the children to work with as their interest dictates. Multi-age classrooms are an important aspect of a Montessori education. The children are not grouped by the same age, but rather by developmental plane, usually in three-year age spans. The younger children are inspired by the older ones, and the older ones take pride in helping the younger ones. It is a playful atmosphere in which children are free to choose what to work on, and free to repeat the same activity as much as they like. The children oscillate between periods of intense concentration on work, discussion with others, having a snack, observing what others are doing, and receiving lessons from one of the two full-time teachers. The works themselves are of profound interest to the child, because they provide opportunity for the child to discuss, experiment, organize and master things in his everyday environment. The playful atmosphere is a catalyst for ample learning because it is child-driven. Montessori stressed that a child's interaction with the environment is most productive in terms of the individual's development when it is self-chosen and founded upon individual interest.

Other research reveals that:
-Five-year-old Montessori pupils were better prepared for reading and math
-Montessori children displayed a greater sense of 'justice and fairness', interacted in an 'emotionally positive' way, and were less likely to engage in 'rough play' during break times.
-Not only were five-year-old primary school children better prepared for the "three Rs" at elementary level, they also had higher scores in tests of 'executive function'. This is the ability to adapt to changing and complex problems, and is seen as an indicator of future school and life success.
-Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of the popular Internet search engine Google.com, credited their years as Montessori students as a major factor in behind their success. When Barbara Walters asked if the fact that their parents were college professors was a factor behind their success, they said no, that it was their going to Montessori school where they learned to be self-directed and self-starters. They said that Montessori allowed them to learn to think for themselves and gave them freedom to pursue their own interests.

As you can see, both Brad and I are big believers in a strong Montessori foundation. We have friends that are Montessori teachers and our own 5 year old niece Chloe is an example of Montessori success. She loves to learn, is super creative, and is doing 2nd grade math! Having worked with autistic children in a montessori school, done behavior therapy, and now a School Psychologist, has given me a heads up in the importance of teaching to developmental levels versus grade. Young children's minds are like sponges, I love how Montessori taps into their free thinking and excitement about learning. Brad and I want to instill these same values in Taj, we want him to want to learn and love school from the beginning. We want school to come easy to Taj, and tap into his abilities and strengths. But most of all, we want him to have that necessary self-confidence needed to be successful in all facets of life. I feel like its never too early to immerse Taj in this environment. I love their structure of story-time, music, arts, play, exploration, and circle time. The only negative I see is that most children with a Montessori preschool education are overly prepared and advance for public school kindergarten, which can be detrimental for some if they are not continously challenged. I am a big advocate for our public schools, but I hate the state standards and "teaching to the test." Nevertheless, with a solid Montessori background I have faith that Taj would be a successful and self-assured student in public school, as well as responsible and interested in learning. Pair that with the international cultural travel experiences Brad and I plan to provide, along with creative art/ music/ or sports outlets, and I think we have ourselves the best wholesome multi-dimensional education plan there can be. :)

Taj turns 7 months old!

"Its my 7th month birthday, and all I got was a lousy sinus infection and croup!"
Sadly, this is true :( After our little guy dealt with nasal congestion for the last 4 weeks, I took him to his pediatrician and she prescribed amoxicillin antibiotics for the sinus infection. Then that same night , 2 nights before his 7 month bday, Taji suddenly woke in the middle of night crying with a croup cough (Croup is when the throat swells up, causing a "seal bark"-sounding cough.) Its completely viral, and the doc said we just have to wait it out. Three days of hot steam showers, baby rub, cool mist humidifier, and LOTS of extra TLC later, Taji's croup is almost completely gone and his nasal congestion is clearing up....... however, now mommy has a sore throat! First Brad got a cold, then Taji's sinus infection and croup, and now me..... let's hope our little Grover family is healthy in time for Christmas and Colorado!

Besides Taj's first cold, he is a healthy 17 pounder of smiles and giggles. He's very close to crawling but has not made his debut quite yet! He goes from sitting, walking his hands out to crawl position and kneels, then sits back on his bottom. What a tease! He is also crawling backwards, and rolls every which way to reach for his toys. We just love watching him explore and manipulate his toys, his favorite are the stacker, his rings, piano, mirror, books, and Sophie the Giraffe (who he gnaws furiously on!) Taji is beginning to wave hi and bye, says "haaaaa" for Hi, and is perfecting his "dada" to surprise daddy with it soon! And speaking of dada, Taj LOVES to watch him play the guitar, and enjoys getting tucked into bed by him! He is having a blast in his weekly Kindermusik class and when we return to work after our 3 week holiday break, Taji will be starting a 3-day/wk infant Montessori program! Brad and I absolutely love Montessori and think Taji is ready! More on this later....)

Now that he is 7 months old, Taji is beginning the transition to formula. I did a lot of research on this, and chose to go with #1 organic Nature's One BabyOnly. Right now I am just nursing him in the morning and night, and he gets half formula/ half breastmilk bottles during the day. Those of you that know me real well know that I HATE pumping, so I was finally emotionally and physically ready to retire the breastpump (for a little while at least.) If it wasnt for me working part-time, I would have continued to nurse Taji until 12 months, but I'm just too tired and annoyed with the whole pumping deal. Taji has also been a real trooper tasting all his rainbow foods: squash, sweet potato, yams, carrots, potatoes, peas, green beans, spinach, banana, apple, pear..... and so far his fave is apple, and cooked carrots with potatoes (just made it tonight and he "mmm"ed his way through the bites.) I can't wait to combine the veggies with rice, and introduce peaches, apricots, and avocado..... we are having a lot of fun with this :)

Gearing up for a Grover Christmas

Last weekend we managed to get some of our annual Grover holiday traditions done! We began with tree picking at the christmas tree farm. It was one of the hottest days if you can believe it, and it was a bit funny walking around looking at trees wearing t-shirts in december :) Taji loved touching the trees and looking at the baby trees that will be ready to be cutt down this time next year!

We are really feeling in the holiday spirit now with the wonderful aroma of the tree, our fire going, and of course the stockings!

Next up, Roger's Gardens for our special ornament picking and Taji's first visit with Santa! When we began this tradition last Christmas, Taji was just a little peanut in my tummy.....

This year, he is our bundle of joy sharing in the spirit of christmas with us for the very first time!

For our ornament picking, we couldn't decide on just one.... afterall it was Taj's first ornament. Brad found a "Taj Mahal" ornament, how symbolic right?! We also found one of a little boy on a sled (on right) that reminded us of our little boy.

And last but not least, we visited Santa at the garden's gazebo (the original Disneyland gazebo).... one of the only secret spots to snag a pic with santa without having to go to a crowded mall or stand in a line! This was Taj's first time seeing a strange old man covered with lots of white hair, and then being sat in his lap (kind of an interesting way to view it, right?) so you can imagine that he was slightly uneasy. He was a good sport, .......cautious..... but just went along with it.

The pic below is classic! Santa looking off to the side while Taji sits awkwardly with his arms up attempting to smile despite his confusion, ha ha! Maybe he'll be more of a "Jezisek" fan! :)

Taj's first Overnighter!

Two weekends ago, my sister and I took our babies and drove up to beautiful Santa Barabara for the weekend. While I photographed my first wedding at the Bacara Resort & Spa one of the days, my sister spent quality time with the kiddos. The family that hired me were generous to get me a room at the resort :) Chloe and Taji had a blast playing together in the room and outside at the resort. I ran around shooting pics for a good 8 hours, popping in to see the babes when I could and waving at my sister and kids as they strolled by. It was a neat experience, but as you know by now, I decided this would be my last "shoot" because right before we left for Santa Barbara I came to a realization that my photographic journey was taking up more time than expected, and specifically precious time away from my sweet baby boy :( I am putting the "business" on hold and strictly making it a hobby, getting back to snapping away pics of my little model and family. You can see some teasers from the wedding on my photo blog.

Our Santa Barbara weekend was also Taji's first time away from home (and his crib) overnight. The resort provided a snazzy crib for him, pretty nice huh? He did great! He and Chloe took a bath together, played in the beds, and Taji fell asleep for the night, with only his usual wakings.

The next day was when my sister and I had the real fun with our babes. We lounged around, took pics of the kids in front of the lobby's gorgeous christmas trees.....

Went to breakfast.....

and took some fun portraits around the scenic resort and coastline!

We then headed to downtown SB, had pastries and hot cocoa at a yummy bakery and then made the long rainy trek home back to the OC. We had an interesting adventure on the ride back with the kids..... from a quick dinner stop to an unexpected diaper change.... ah, it was memorable. A big thanks to my lovely sister for helping me out with Taji all weekend and for a super nice sister-bonding time :) Here's to an annual weekender with our babes from now on! Love you!