missalexmissalex

Hello all. I have been lurking a little while. I have a 5 month old
daughter whom I plan to homeschool, and I am leaning more and more
towards unschooling. I taught in public & private schools for 5 years
before quitting for a variety of reasons. I'm not even going to try
to say anything else about that right now, since my last placement
left me pretty bitter.

I just read an awesome new book that I had to tell you folks about.
It's called Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and
Reunited. In addition to telling their story, Elyse Schein and Paula
Bernstein talk about other twins who were separated as babies. One
pair of men were both obsessively clean. One attributed it to growing
up with his birth mother, who was like that too, and the other
thought it was in reaction to having a mom who was a slob. When
questioned about the eating habits of another pair when they were
still preschool age, one adoptive mom said the kid was an awful
eater, and would only eat things that had cinnamon on them. The
adoptive mom of the other twin said that her daughter was a wonderful
eater, and would eat absolutely anything as long as she put cinnamon
on it! It blows my mind that a little quirk that specific would be
genetic.

As horribly sad and wrong as it was that these children were
separated, this is such amazing information to have. It just goes to
show you how very much our babies are their own little people the
moment they are born. Of course I want my baby to eat lots of things
and be neat and clean, etc etc. But knowing how very, very strong her
inborn preferences and tendencies are, I feel like it is my
responsibility to work with her within her comfort zone instead of
trying to change her completely. I want to be the "She'll eat
anything, as long as it has cinnamon on it" mom. :)

Thanks for letting me listen to all your conversations, as I'm
learning a lot.

Alex
mom to Katya, 5 mos