When she is not doing a slapdash job of housework or cooking, Red enjoys reading (both to herself and to son, Champ). Her favourite genres range from romance to adventure, Dr Seuss to touch n' feel.
Red is in her late 20's, but won't give her exact age. She enjoys setting up play dates for Champ and coffee with the girls. Her and Cowboy do try to have regular 'date nights', but she acknowledges that there is an inevitable shift of priority when a couple becomes a family.
So what about her approach to parenting? "I do take a professional approach to parenting, I read expert opinions and scour parenting websites for advice, but ultimately make up my own mind because I know our family best." Red enthuses. The mother of one, believes in a more gentle approach to parenting and does her best to encourage closeness between her family members.
Natural birth, extended breastfeeding, helping children to fall asleep comfortingly and lots of love, time and affection feel like the natural way to raise a child to Red. "But don't confuse me for a parenting Nazi, while I have a very strong belief that this is best for my family, I respect different ways parents choose to raise children and know that each parent is doing the best job with what they have." she is quick to counter.
Cowboy is your typical 'nice guy'. "Red's friends actually didn't think the relationship would last initially, because they thought I was too nice for her!" he jokes.
Aged in his early 30's, Cowboy tries his best to make a career for himself while still getting home early enough to give Red a hand with Champ before his bedtime. He laments being a "late starter" in the career race, and after several post graduate attempts, has finally found a calling in the business field. "I am one year into completing my postgraduate studies in Business Management, funny thing is that I have studied for years in other fields, but am still not a 'graduate'; still the university let me begin the postgraduate degree in recognition of my work experience." Cowboy explains.
Cowboy thinks the world of his wife and son and does his best to provide for them and spend 'quality time' with them ("without the aid of the Wiggles,if I can help it!"). In his 'spare' time Cowboy enjoys playing squash with his mates and in a past life enjoyed tennis which he can not seem to find the time for lately.
Cowboy is a night owl, and enjoys video games and movies when Red and Champ have long since retired for the night.
Champ
Champ is the first child of Red and Cowboy. He is a bundle of energy and was almost born crawling. "Champ loved tummy time from day 1 when Red and I would massage him on his tummy, I think that set the stage form him crawling by 5 months" says Cowboy. Champ was walking by 10 months and now keeps both his parents fit by running everywhere he goes.
Despite all this energy, Champ has a great attention span and will sit and puzzle over new challenges for long periods of time(his current challenge is to learn to post shapes in the right holes of one of his educational toys). "Don't get me started about reading" laughs Red, "every time we walk past the bookshelf Champ will call out 'book' and we will sit down and read together". The kid certainly gets his recommended 3 books a day!
Besides 'reading', Champ loves his sand pit and especially music. Like most kids, Champ enjoys playing on his toy drum and shaking his maraccas. Champ also enjoys shaking his nappy to the Wiggles.
Champ celebrated his first birthday in December 2008 with a Teddy Bear's picnic for all of his friends. "He is already a ladies man, with most of his little party guests being girls. I just seem to have made friends with Mum's who have girls - he'll appreciate it when he is older!" laughs Red.
No comments:
Post a Comment