We discuss our very humble home and some of our efforts to make it a really accessible space for our kiddo AKA a “Yes space” and the pure delight that is a ripe strawberry.
A whole VIBE. Our home sweet home, that Papa tries his best to not be ashamed of...
—Podcast Transcript—
Intro:
Elodie
Hi there, I'm Elodie, she her
JBug
Mama!
Jon
I'm Jon. He/him.
JBug
Papa!
Elodie
and this is the baby Juniper, they them.
JBug
Mee mee mee! Baby
Jon
We're doing our best at respectful and gender open, parenting
Elodie
Follow along each week. As this fabulous kiddo, gets a little bit bigger and we all hopefully get a little wiser
JBug
(sounds of frustration)
Elodie
as of this episode, They are 16 months old.
Jon
Okay, let's get to the show.
JBug
Baby!
—-Intro Nonsense—-
Jon
They're so good.
Elodie
See their little brain working, like, obviously you brought home a teddy bear? Container full of animal crackers. Give yourself a little pat on the back. Give yourself a little hug. Yeah.
Jon
And they just like chomped like the face of it.
Jon
I wanna talk about Strawberries and I wanna talk about Yes spaces. Anyway, right now those Supple brighter red really sweet and juicy quintessential, Strawberries
Elodie
Idyllic strawberry
Jon
And at this moment, JBug has the dexterity in their mouth. They have the teeth and it's just like this perfect fruit for them that I don't need to cut up. I can just cut the stem off.
Elodie
I just bite the stem off.
Jon
Oh, nice. That's a good idea
Elodie
I’m just lazy. I wash it and bite the stem off.
Jon
Yeah, like, it's been really fun being able to just hand them the whole piece of fruit.
Elodie
Yeah, I love it.
Jon
Oh man, they can eat those all day and really satisfying for them. You can tell that they love having like the whole piece of fruit and taking bites out and just munching on it
Elodie
Sharing bites with people.
Jon
You've taught them the sign for it and so they really like making the strawberry sign and like trying to ask for more
Elodie
Oh this morning they held the strawberry and they like poked their finger into the the top of the strawberry and they were making the strawberry sign
Jon
with the strawberry
Elodie
with the strawberry like figuring out how this how the sign fits into the world in a way
Jon
Adorable
Elodie
It was really cute. Yeah, see their little brain working.
Jon
It's really fun to see them gain more autonomy, like gain more control of their life. You know and it's like a small part of that but it's just really cool
Elodie
And it takes a lot of trust to give them that space to have that autonomy but… we should watch that YouTube video on how to dislodge something again. You know, just brush up on it.
Jon
A refresher. So tthis was probably like a week ago or something that I just gave them one. Just wanted to see and they just handled it
Elodie
I mean When they were like six or seven months old, we let them have a whole strawberry then too, because they were just gums back then. And then obviously, as they get a year old, you chop them up, pretty fine.
Jon
Yeah.
Elodie
But JBug looks at our food and then they look at their little chopped up little bites, and I can tell they're, like, kind of jealous that I'm biting into a whole sandwich. They want the big thing to chomp on.
Jon
which they don't have the molars yet. So like there's a It's there's some stuff that they can do that with. What was it, they grabbed your piece of pizza and they just chomped the face of it, they didn't stick the pointy end in they just took the soft bit of it. They loved it.
Elodie
They end up with a mouthful of cheese?
Jon
Yeah Cheese and sauce and the soft bread and yeah. They ate it though. They were down. Honestly, I'm less worried about them chocking when we're actually just eating, we're there we can see what's happening. it's more like if they're off doing their own thing and I'm doing dishes or something. That's when I’ve got to keep the little timer in the back of your head. You know. Throw some eyes their direction, every
Elodie
30 seconds
Jon
I was gonna say 60 seconds but yeah yeah yeah be listening for the sounds they're making in the background make sure that
Elodie
That they’re making sounds
Jon
Yeah. but if things are quiet you check a little more often speaking of which it's been really fun. We've been trying to make the space more approachable for them.
Elodie
Yeah.
Jon
I can’t remember if we've talked about where we're currently living, right now. So we were going to be building a house and that was extremely tight on budget and everything. We think we could make it happen and so we started getting this property. Anyway, we bought a trailer. That is not too bad It's like a 2016.
Elodie
Shout out to anyone experiencing housing and insecurity with the rental crisis right now but we just couldn't get into a rental. We applied at a bunch of places
Jon
Especially not for the money that we were talking about. So like financially, this turned out to be the right decision but it is initially like the in-between short term for getting a house built and then we had some complications with the water board. And yeah, there was a fire, some infrastructure got damaged. Anyway,
Elodie
So we are not allowed to build on our property yet
Jon
We get to wait.
Elodie
Yeah we dream of right now.
Jon
So now since we're going to be in this for a little bit longer, yeah it's not bad. I'm good with it. We decided. Hey, you know, I think we could make this space cuter and more accessible for Juniper. Yeah,
Elodie
yeah. I really like that you used the word accessible because accessibility is really at the Crux of it. If you want to respect someone, you make the world something they can navigate.
Jon
Yeah. Mhm. So we took out some of the bench seating and the table and we took out the couches that were like the fold-out pulled out beds, like we're good. We'd rather have just the space open. Make it just nice
Elodie
I just want Jbug to be able to run around a little bit inside.
Jon
Yeah, totally. So now it's like looking pretty good we’re throwing some paint up. But one of the coolest things and this was your idea was to have low on the floor seating, I'm not sure what the
Elodie
Yeah, floor cushions, floor sofas, a low table, that JBug can actually sit at and eat their food and get up on their own accord when they're done eating
Jon
Like Japanese tea table style.
Elodie
Yeah. And is this really my idea or should we shout out Janet Lansbury, or RIE parenting.These are Concepts that are definitely out there that I, of course, picked up. And was like, no, this is really important to me that we get them out of their high chair, that we get them, having that autonomy to get themselves up and down at the table.
Jon
So, they've got large somewhat cushioned platforms to get up into the bed so they can get up and down from the bed. And we don't have to worry about them falling too far. But it's basically like the whole Space is now J bug friendly like they can sit on the couch easily. That is not a lot of room to fall or climb up anywhere. And also you were telling me that they're feeling kind of restricted in their high chair. Yeah. They felt like they were being locked in,
Elodie
They would sign “all done” but they weren't really done. They'd want to keep eating but they were done being trapped and then they'd sit on my lap at the table and just munch away and continue eating. And when they were full, they got up and walked away and I just it's really important to me that we preserve their internal satiety cues. That they feel hunger that they feel fullness that they recognize that, and they have that internal communication with self and that's definitely something that I was raised to eat everything on my plate and not want more, and it just was very external. My, my eating programming. And so, it's something I am really protective of in JBug. I'm not controlling what they eat. I bring food out when it's time to eat, and I let them tell me when they're hungry and I'll make them food. It's not as regimented as I thought it would be like, obviously you brought home a teddy bear container full of animal crackers
Jon
It was such a good buy.
Elodie
I know.
Jon
Okay, we didn't need that many animal crackers. But yeah, they got me with the teddy bear shaped clear, plastic container. And as soon as I brought that in, that kid just got all excited and they were given the bear hug,
Elodie
They wrapped their arms around the teddy bear.
Jon
They're tub of animal crackers.
Elodie
They started rocking it. Like a baby.
Jon
Yeah, so cute.
Elodie
Yeah. And I think them learning to get the lid on and off is a really good puzzle for them right now. With some motivation behind it. I actually really like that they're going to not have that food scarcity, either. That I kind of had. Yeah, I was telling you when I was a kid, I remember getting those animal crackers. And loving them, but it was a really restricted thing. So something looks really satisfying for me to watch them reach their hand in and touch the entire top layer of crackers and run their little baby fingers through these knobbly cookies.
Jon
That's really fun.
Elodie
Made me really happy. So that's all for now, folks.
Jon
Yeah, it's looking like my brain just turned off.
Elodie
Yep, we love you. We'll talk to you later.
Jon { 9:59 }
Yeah, these are updates things happening. Babies growing, getting more self-reliant. Gaining skills, enjoying their space, making their space for them
Elodie
Making their space for them.
Jon
although I gotta say, making this space more comfortable for Jbug has made the space super comfortable for me like yeah, really, really nice. We made that space more open and more accessible for our kiddo and it made it more open and accessible for us. You know it feels good on my brain.
Elodie
give yourself a little pat on the back.. give yourself a Hug. Yeah.
Jon { 10:36 }
Alright. Hey, good luck everybody. Yeah, let's keep a keep plugging along.
Elodie
Thanks for listening to our updates.
Jon
Yeah, love y'all.
Elodie
Love you too
Jon
Byyyyyyyeee
Outro Nonsense
Jon
Meandering BS. rabbit hole into a rabbit hole into rabbit hole.
I'm excited to like see how it goes and let them have a little bit more freedom and autonomy on the being at the table and being done and you know,
Elodie
but when you do make the world accessible, it's easier for everyone to navigate
Jon { 11:11 }
building regulations that were going to make the doors wide enough and open the right way and that all these things
Elodie
It benefits everyone.
Jon It benefits everyone
Elodie
And little ones too!
Jon
Anyway, this is just like a little microcosm of that.
Jon
Hey, thank you for listening. Our intro outro music is by MOOW. Follow us on social media and give us nice reviews. We love you.
Elodie
We Love you
--- End of transcript ---
--- Episode 2 -- Strawberries and Yes Spaces.wav ---
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