Skin Food.
Sun Infused Calendula Oil.
I make this every year, and every year it turns out differently. I grow calendula specifically for this purpose (between the carrots). Chamomile grows wildy at the sides of every field I enter so I don't bother growing that. Lavender I added this year just beacsue I had a bunch drying near me at the time.
Easy: fill a jar with your picked and dried flowers (dry spread out on a piece of muslin for a couple of days in a warmish place out of direct sunlight). Add cold pressed organic oils of your choice. This year I used sweet almond and jojoba and then added a dash of olive oil to fill the jar right to the top. Place on a sunny windowsill, turning often for a couple of weeks, or until you remember about it. The longer you leave it the darker and more scented it becomes.
Decant into little vials or samller pretty glass bottles.
This is my favourite oil for massaging my wee ones. Something I do as often as I can. From a few weeks old, daily pretty much, until they no longer let me. This is one of my favourite massgae books. And OMG, look at those pictures! How come my baby was so small and suprised looking and now she is such a beautifully big determind toddler?
This post has reminded me to offer my big boys a massage tonight. I think more than ever bigger children need touch. Even if it's just a hand and arm or foot massgae, a whole body one isn't often wanted. I have this theory that once kids get past a certain age, say 8-10, they seem to get so much less physical contact, hugs kisses, hand holding, arms around shoulders. And humans just *need* physical touch. I really believe that. They get big and not so cute/soft/baby-like and we forget.
So what do they do? When do they get to be touched? Do they really have to wait until their teen years and then the only touch available is of a sexual nature? I think teenagers must be SO touch-deprived. Maybe one reson why they are sexually active earlier than ever; they just want physical loving touch and don't know where or what else is available. Sad really, but likely yeah?
I am going to keep trying to tempt my boys into massage for as long as possible, even if it means they just have some laughs massaging each other. I can't think of a time when they have refused though, it's just too nice :) They don't need tempting at all just yet. And as for my little Beauty, she is happy to be touched, carried massaged - all day long :)
Food for Free this Friday: skin food and soul food.
My favourite place to buy oils, body butters and other skin treats, a Welsh company, Akamui.
5 comments:
Yes, physical touch is such a difficult one. My eldest son is getting on towards 15 now. He has never been what I would call a cuddly person, unlike son no 2(12) who regularly comes up and gives me a hug and a kiss.
But today we were walking in the woods and I was a little, shall I say pre occupied with something, and he came up and gave me a really lovely manly cuddle. The type where you can just lean on them...he is a good 6 inches taller than me! Then we walked holding hands for a while. It was lovely and made me think about how little we touch, and how I feel if I get hug deprived!!
Maybe as teenagers they need to get past an awkward stage before they are ready to hug again?
Or maybe that is just one of the mistakes I have made with child no 1?
No I think you are right - teens can be sensitive beyond reason sometimes - I was I remember ;) I was reading that Naomi Aldhort book, Raisng our children rasinging ourselves, and it said simple things like putting our arm around them if you are sitting watching a film together can be enough. But er, if your ds is that big it might not work :)
I don't think it's that he is that big...just that I am that small!!!!
I never made it to 5 foot so am already smaller than two of my 4 sons!!!
Really good point, Claire. I really try to give my older children (11, 9 and 8 years old) hugs. It is easy to forget and so I try to make myself remember. I was a very anxious and clingy teen and felt horribly un-confident and awkward and I can clearly remember feeling sad because cuddling my parents seemed such a stiff and alien thing to do. You've given my lots of food for thought!!
All my teens have been cuddly. My son did go through a stage of offering the top of his head to have his hair ruffled, instead of a hug, or giving a high five instead, but he's moved away from that now and gives random big bear hugs that sweep me off my feet :)The girls have always been quite cuddly and dd2 in particular has always loved a massage.
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