Life Breaking In

Shameless brag post

2009-09-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have been way busy with work (and erm facebook) but I'll try to get a quick update in here at least weekly for a while. So here's something I was writing up as I pondered Sophie's recent explosion in a lot of areas... copy and pasted here, so yeah, brag brag brag!

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We seem to be getting renewed interest in Starfall, maybe as she realizes its use as she gets more intense about sounding things out. DD is reading out words many times a day now. Tonight it was "Exit" at the restaurant where we grabbed dinner. After saying "There are four squares and that one looks like an I, and a C, and an E" (these were noodle illustrations, penne, curved, and really twisty... took me looking at it from her POV to see how the counter cut off hew view to make the rectangles all look like squares and cut off the twisted pasta picture so it did just look like a cursive sort of E to figure it all out). "And a fork! hahaha..."

She's also really into being read chapter books, and broadening out into books, movies, rides at Disneyland, etc with "scary parts." Not sure what this is all about; she was super timid and still is often, but then she goes on real rollercoasters and asks for scary books. But then some things randomly still scare her.

She's started asking questions, looking for us to reassure her that people/animals do not each ANIMAL fish/mice/chickens/what have you, but just FOOD fish/mice/chickens. I had to speculate today on whether some owls like to eat seeds, especially as she has been an owl all night (she is ALWAYS something). I wonder if this is just something for her to wrap her mind around, or if we'll be going veggy in our home soon....

She's been telling amazing stories about magical creatures and animals. I want to write them down for her just so she can enjoy them someday, but of course I just enjoy them right now. Tonight it was a purple cow was on her straw getting a drink, then it grew a little and sat by her plate to eat, then it grew wings and flew up through the air....

She's obsessed with distinguishing between rhyme and alliteration. She heard me and DH mention this term once (I'm an English teacher, he's a nice nerd, we were talking about how nice something sounded with it) and now she gets it really well. So everything with an echoing sound gets defined, rhyme or alliteration.

And she can suddenly, on her own, draw entire faces and then says "this one is mad because he has no legs!" and scribbles red all over her, and black all over another who is angry some other day... so I showed her some ways to make legs and stick bodies. She completely and perfectly traced a striped cat I had drawn for her. She has been drawing faces and then turning them into suns, saying this is a girl in a sun, this is Sophie in a sun (COSMIC b/c I drew a baby-her in a sun for a life map thingy I made for a model for my students at school). Today it was a girl, who then had fur b/c she was in a kitty costume, apparently. Then the other night she had a rage and methodically knocked every paper and crayon off her art table. I've never seen her like that, but it looked satisfying. It wasn't too hard to get her to clean it up, either. She said she just got mad. (I wonder if it was again cosmic and she KNEW I was having a rough management day and threw that back at me, lol-- the next day the freshmen and I clicked much better!) I want to laugh, it's so temperamental artist, so... me:o

S I guess as a teacher I'm just amazed at each step as she goes. Of course, as a teacher the hardest thing is for me to step out of the way and only help very rarely. She really drives herself, then hits a wall and only sometimes wants us to give her a little guidance.

"Pit to Distress"

2009-07-08T10:11:00.002-07:00

Everyone needs to know about this. The standard of care for mothers and babies in the US (and other countries I'm sure) is just abominable. That we allow the medical industry to get away with this kind of BS is terrible. This is why I will never birth with anyone besides Dr. Wonderful and his team, or at home (more and more likely as the pit-loving, cut-loving OBs at the hospitals around here try to run them out of town, because they actually help women birth, instead of just inducing and cutting).

What is WRONG with people?????!!!!!

2009-07-08T10:11:00.001-07:00

And while we're on the subject...

2009-06-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

So, there are two bad secret ingredients of Hershey's chocolate...

First, most chocolate is on our don't-eat list (as I mentioned in my previous post) because it has artificial flavors. And, well, it tastes like crap. Luckily there's plenty of real chocolate available, even at the regular grocery store. It's just European and pricey. And there's even more choice at Jimbo's and the like. I remember what Hershey's chocolate used to taste like, how it used to melt in your mouth... it's just not the same anymore. It tastes fake and yucky. And of course Hershey's bought Cadbury and now the Cadbury we get in the USA is not the same stuff from England imported over here (which would be a dream-- yum!) but more of the same garbage. They ruined Cadbury Eggs! The gall.

And of course, another very important reason to avoid this stuff: The other secret ingredient is slavery. Yum!

It's not like I'm going to buy Hershey's if they switch to fair trade, unless they also switch back to selling chocolate and not just chocolate-FLAVORED bar food products. Or what have you. But I will still tell them to stop supporting slavery.

"Food"

2009-06-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

A great news release shared online by my friend:

"CSPI Urges FDA to Ban Artificial Food Dyes Linked to Behavior Problems"

The gist:

A comprehensive 2004 meta-analysis of the medical literature concluded that artificial dyes affect children's behavior, and two recent studies funded by the British government found that dyes (as well as the preservative sodium benzoate) adversely affect kids' behavior. Unlike most previous studies, those British studies tested children in the general population, not children whose parents suspected they were sensitive to dyes. As a result, the British government is successfully pressuring food manufacturers to switch to safer colorings.

The scary part:

Americans' exposure to artificial food dyes has risen sharply. According to the FDA, the amount of food dye certified for use was 12 milligrams per capita per day in 1955. In 2007, 59 mg per capita per day, or nearly five times as much, was certified for use. Dyes are used in countless foods and are sometimes used to simulate the color of fruits or vegetables. Kraft's Guacamole Dip gets its greenish color not from avocados (there are almost none) but from Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and Blue 1. The blue bits in Aunt Jemima Blueberry Waffles are blue thanks to Red 40 and Blue 2, not real blueberries.

The especially infuriating part--these companies can totally do without the dyes!

More than a dozen American varieties of Kraft's Oscar Meyer Lunchables kids' meals contain artificial food dyes, but not so the British versions. Starburst Chews, Skittles, and M&M candies—all Mars products—contain the full spectrum of artificial colors in the U.S., but not in the U.K., where the company uses natural colorings. Even foods that aren't particularly brightly colored can contain dyes, including several varieties of macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes. Betty Crocker's Au Gratin "100% Real" Potatoes are partly not real, colored as they are with Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, both derived from coal tar. Remarkably, in Britain, the color in McDonald's strawberry sauce for sundaes actually comes from strawberries; in the U.S. it comes from Red 40.

I agree with the mom who is shocked at the FDA... except I'm not really shocked because the FDA notoriously allows all kinds of horrible things to go into and be done to our food... or should I say "food."

This is just like how toys made for the US often have had dangerous plastic parts, whereas the same toys made for Europe are safer. The USA is so crazy stupid about some things!

This is the one line I won't cross, when it comes to what we eat, and what Sophie eats. It's got to be actual food. Sometimes it can be processed, like refined white sugar (but not high fructose corn syrup, because how they process that is especially disgusting, and it's especially bad for you), or white flour, but it's got to at least start as food, not coal tar!

Favorite Parenting Books

2009-06-25T14:13:00.000-07:00

Here's links to my favorite parenting books, because we keep chatting about this at playgroup and it's overwhelming. I'm looking for good tips on what to read next, too!

Something funny I noticed is that so many of these repeat the same idea: we need to change our ideas about "misbehavior" and make sure our expectations are developmentally realistic for our children. I know having set routines that work for ME and Sophie make both of us better able to enjoy the day, so that neither one of us runs out of internal or physical resources and crashes. Also, just reading books and articles helps me keep reminding myself that a lot of the time, all Sophie needs is a touch of connection and a few signals that Mommy and Daddy are indeed there to order the world, and she's cooperative and happy.

First, here's a list from Mothering's forums with a LOT of book and resource suggestions.

Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn
Amazing parenting philosophy; this captures what I already believe parenting and childhood should be. Not a lot of specific tips and tricks, though. Kohn's writing is very much based in solid research, and focused on enjoying our children as people right now, and helping them grow into independent and loving adults.

Kid Cooperation by Elizabeth Pantley
Wonderful specific techniques you can use immediately, that really work! Very gentle; I ignored the few bits on time out, and enjoyed the parts that remind us that we're really looking to help kids become responsible, happy adults, and that punishment doesn't work. Great advice for specific problem areas of parenting and life. A nice list of things you can try. I think she has a new "No Cry Discipline Book" to go with her No-Cry sleep books.

Adventures in Gentle Discipline by Hilary Flower (and published by La Leche League)
Much longer than Kid Cooperation, but similar in terms of giving you reminders about how to tackle each day, and lots of specific tips.

How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
It even has CARTOONS illustrating the techniques for engaging kids in positive interactions. Perfect for harried parents. I think this is more for older kids, though. I still am glad we have it on our shelf.

The Natural Child Project has many good articles about guiding children, what works and what to avoid. And just lots of interesting information about feminism, parenting history, breastfeeding...

Some other books and resources I'm checking out in the near future:

Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles : Winning for a Lifetime by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, because my friend is finding it useful.

Becoming the Parent You Want to Be

Enjoy Parenting

Playful Parenting by Lawrence J Cohen Because I think we do a lot of stuff like he suggests, and I want more specific ideas, games, etc. Mary Poppins was a Playful Parent/Nanny, I think :)

Our Babies, Ourselves... Hold On to Your Kids... Reclaiming Childhood... Coloring Outside the Lines...

...Ah, and so many from the list on MDC above. I'm glad there's a lot out there, because like I said, it all helps keep me in a mindset that is open to seeing my daughter as a person and not just behaviors, and as a part of our larger family and not a child in a vacuum. I find it grants me patience and the resources to be creative, which is SO necessary.

So I'm looking forward to seeing what else people are reading or have found useful.

Word Part II -- What IS Attachment Parenting?

2009-06-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

Since I'm on garage-sale eve here, I have no time to write, so it's another fun link.

But this is a big one! PhD in Parenting is a great blog I recently added to my Google Reader, and here its author puts together what AP is NOT, which I thinks help explain what it is. So many articles lately seem to be conflating AP with the hothouse/helicopter/status-driven/trendy/be the BEST parenting style going on lately... and that's not true at all. I think APers tend to be more laid back. So here it is, in much better words than my price-sticker/newsprint/hauling furniture brain can summon right now:

Attachment Parenting: What it is and isn't

Word!

2009-06-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here's an article that says keeping your babies close their first few years results in their being happy and healthy.

Love the book, and this is just DUH! and yet, so radical these days in this culture, it seems...

Makes me happy to snuggle my happy baby :)

In Praise of Not Praising

2009-06-17T19:51:00.001-07:00

So, everyone knows by now that Alfie Kohn is one of my favorite gurus. I just found an article summing up a lot of research and his writings on how praise is actually detrimental to children and developing skills.

Kohn's writings are all based on solid research, and his book (and DVD, which we should really watch, although we've read the book a lot) Unconditional Parenting is my favorite parenting book. Others have great specific tips I have found insanely useful, but this book is the bedrock of what it is we're trying to do with Sophie.

We have definitely stayed away from "good girl" with Sophie (because what's the implication? That if she didn't do whatever it was, that she would be a bad girl? There are no bad girls.) And we have tried to not say "good job," but I have found myself slipping into it like a lazy habit. Especially now that she is doing everything "by myself! by myself! Sophie do it!" --especially when she goes all day, even out and about, in panties -- it's too easy to blurt out some comment like "great job!" So this is my reminder to myself why we are so committed to avoiding this language trap. I vow to rout all "good jobs!" and other conditional statements from my vocabulary as much as I can.

Revenge of the Space Pandas

2009-06-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

Apparently, that's a children's play by David Mamet. Awesome! Someday I'm sure Sophie will love it, seeing how it combines space and pandas. And who knows, it's not too late to develop a healthy taste for revenge.

Today we all went to the zoo (Dashing Daddy having worked all afternoon Sunday with the other business owners/family members who have jobs during the week, he came with!), and it was great fun. The best part might be that Sophie wore panties the whole time. We visited the potty once maybe halfway through our visit (after the drive down and nursing/waiting to assemble with some other parents and babies, plus plenty of animal sightings from the Beco), and once before we left. So we're giving her reminders, especially before leaving the house or going into, say, the library, but we have only used training pants at night for probably a week now. At 25.5 months, she's doing so well. I can't believe what a grown-up girl I have now.

Pictures from the zoo coming soon I hope. I'll slap them on here after uploading them.... Okay, they're here! :)

And look at this adorable bunny we saw in the rabbit habitat:

This is Miss Ivanna DeSweet's Blog

2009-06-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

So, a couple weeks ago Sophie was still doing the "I need to be contrary and reject anything presented to me, even if it's nonsensical" two-year-old thing she was doing, and she didn't want to get in the car after visiting the store. She said it wasn't our car. So I said, "Oh, it is Miss Ivanna DeSweet's car?" and Sophie agreed, and Miss Ivanna promptly got in.

Now we frequently leave the house saying we are going to the moon in a rocket, and we get in the car as Miss Ivanna and her friend. Sooooo cute to hear Sophie glurble Miss Ivanna DeSweet.

Today she had no diapers, no training pants, no nakey bum (except a few minutes in the morning when she caught herself in the mirror and just had to dance for a few minutes while I got dressed-- "I have to DANCE! I'm naked! I have no shirt to-day!") and no accidents. We took a nap with panties/pants for the first time, and rode in the car and did the grocery store and returned home. We'll see what happens when she really NEEDS to go while we're out, but we tried before and after walking through the door, and I had prefolds, potty, clean pants, etc....

Oh gotta go, baby girl calls... erm, Miss Ivanna DeSweet calls....

Whew

2009-05-31T18:36:00.001-07:00

Today Sophie wore training pants just for a trip to Costco, and did use them, but also went right when we got home. Otherwise, she was in panties and pants all day, nakey bum a little, and NO ACCIDENTS!!! No nap, either. Whew!

She even had one time that she said she had to go, and we got her up there, and she took her time taking off her panties and tutu (naturally) and then went in her potty. I think that might be the first time we KNOW that she realized on her own she had to go, and she went, with no pee on her pants, while wearing panties and not nakey bum.

She also went poo in the big potty last night!

Gotta go get her to sleep now. Then hopefully I can get some stuff done. I'm feeling all adrift somehow.

Potty Learning

2009-05-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

((Here is Sophie posing at the fairy on the postcard from her Auntie M. Of course we have Santini Organic Condensed Milk, but she was pleased as punch to imitate it all. She LOVES imitating.))

Sophie was in panties and shorts/pants for almost the entire day (one stint nakey-bum, including her nap) and she only had two accidents. One time we'd tried the potty twice with no luck, and very shortly afterward she started to go and dashed to the potty. Got a good amount in the potty, not just on her clothes and a bit on the tile by the potty. One time we had tried but I knew we should try again... and she peed. It was all contained in her panties/pants, none on the floor, but also none in the potty. She's been fine nakey-bum for months now, even through naptime. But she's prone to fiddling with her bum, which leads to a scratched-up bum and yucky hands. So we're pressing on to full potty learning, with clothes. I really believed it would just take a few days, like with the naked learning worked out, because she was reacting as soon as she went in her 7th gen training pants. And it seems to be heading that way! We'll see what happens.

Fabulous morning playing with the old Boggle Jr Nonna passed along to us, dancing like maniacs to Thoroughly Modern Millie tunes, making tents and reading books. Nice early nap she did with just one nursing interlude and fun afternoon with the grandparents over while Gpa and Dashing Daddy worked on the new family business.

I'm winning the battle of the overly chaotic and dirty house, but it's fighting me the whole way. Our dishwasher is leaking copiously, a glass smashed over by Sophie's little table, and there's still plenty to do. I'm determined to get it in shape and start going through the place for STUFF for the garage sale in three weeks. Dashing Daddy's been working almost nonstop and the total lack of breaks, besides a shower here and a bedtime story there, has resulted in accumulated chores. It's never ending! Also, wanting to sit and watch Sophie to help her catch pees means less running up and down the stairs and out to the laundry and into the kitchen. But it seems to be worth it! How awesome would it be for her to be fully diaper-free before I go back to work in August?

She has three molars still working their way through, one canine that's been poised to pop for AGES, and then there will be just one last top back molar to go. She might even be done with teething before I return to work! THEN can I get a LITTLE morsel of sleep? She still very much wants to be in the family bed, and we want her there too, so long as we're not disrupting her sleep...but a more settled sleep after the oral pain is GONE would be loverly :)

Oh, the Things You Can Think!

2009-05-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to try to post more often (again!) and to kick things off, a two-second totally random tidbit of our day:

At the library today, while reading some Seuss, Sophie decided that BLOOGS blowing by are the funniest thing ever. "That's hilARious!" she pronounced. And then she decided they must be coming through a tunnel in the rock in the water. And laughed and laughed and laughed.

Love my girl.

It's Getting Crowded...

2009-04-18T21:45:00.001-07:00

There are all kinds of articles like this one about how Americans are getting oh-so-thrifty. I think it's great, because turning away from materialism and excessive consumption and competitiveness is going to be better for our world and maybe nudge a few folks closer to contentment.

But dangit, the library is so crowded now! And I'm not the only mom up early at garage sales and thrift stores anymore. Everyone is now doing what we've already been doing. I'm happy for them, I really am... I guess I'm just going to see myself as an incredible trendsetter.

I still laugh at all the "ways to save" that are really ways to still spend money on STUFF, just like "going green" pushes for slightly better STUFF that still puts demands on our resources.

We shopped for Sophie's birthday party supplies today, and MAN the plastic junk we had to wade through to find the few things we needed (we use cloth napkins at home, but for an outdoor party with this many people, we needed a few napkins and recyclable cups). I HATE SHOPPING. No matter what the task or trip, by the end I'm totally weary and headachey. It's the stimulation of the stores I think. And the miles of STUFF.

Sophie sure had fun playing with the Schleich animals and a few other really nice things in Target. It's amazing what's becoming more and more available at mainstream stores. I'd still rather hang out at Magical Child, and most of the time I find I have to go online for our oh-so-necessary STUFF, lol, but it's still nice to see the options opening up at places like Target, because not everybody lives in cool crunchy places.

Tomorrow we go for more STUFF (okay, food, and real food even) at Costco and then the new farmer's market that's opening up just around the corner from us! I hope Sophie takes an early nap so we can hang out there and show our support all day. And get lots of tasty produce!

Just Imagination

2009-03-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to jot down a bunch of the cute games Sophie loves to play lately. I think it was around 14mo she started doing real pretend play, putting her little baby dolls down on the couch pillows and saying sleepy or night night or something like that. Soon she was saying that EVERYthing was sad or happy, like, her baby was sad, sad, sad, boohoo (and tilted it down to the floor) and then gave it hugs and kisses and said now it's happyhappyhappy (and bounced it around). We played this out with dolls, water bottles, my boob, you name it. Pretty funny.

She's been doing more and more intense make-believe in the last few months. The playmobil nativity set made her obsessed with playing with tiny dolls, acting out circle time, going to the bookstore, jumping up, climbing and sliding. We had one day where we made up stories with sock puppets and her ugly dolls, and she's always got her "finger babies" at the ready (we use our fingers to be legs, and they swing, climb, jump, say Hi! hi! Hi! to each other, and sometimes now one is Sophie and one is Uma).

Sophie is ALWAYS coming up to me saying "This is the baby This is the mommy" and it's like the big hairbrush and the little one, or the big water glass and little one, or a bottle of soap and a wooden playfood jam jar. And she started putting in Daddy a lot, too. She decided her big toe is the daddy, the next is mommy, and the pinky is baby. Then she pointed to the two left and said, "and who are THESE guys?" And then the mommy and baby have to say Hi! hi! to each other, and then play on the playground (my leg or book makes a good slide) or jump or dance or ice skate or go to the library or eat different food or something.

Or getting his hair done, LOL.

She loves to make her dolls have birthday parties, and acts it all out, and picks one whose birthday it is and sings to them. And she has played with her play kitchen, cooking and saying "wait wait wait DING! It's READY!" since last fall. But she gets more involved now, and it's cute to see her roll out her dough and bake a cake for her dolls' party.

Okay, there's enough stream of consciousness writing on that. I really wanted to get some of the details down so we don't forget her cute games. It's too much; lately she's started making up these complex stories her fingers or dolls are going through.

Other things going on imagination related: I know this is just in my head, but I'm pretty sure the universe gave me a nice ironic kick in the butt today.

To the two women who chatted at lunch today: Thank you for being so sweet about Sophie looking at you and waving and saying hi and being interested in all around her. Thank you for admiring her manners and cuteness and thank you for saying lovely things about my mothering. That made my day.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the day. Hubris smack-down awaited. Sophie wouldn't take a nap until pretty late, and she was fragile afterwards... she started SCREAMING and crying for endless repeated bouts for an hour or so after her nap. And honestly, I am sick of nursing her like a newborn. She's been sick twice in a row here and is now teething FOUR teeth, two molars and two canines!!! But it's hard to nurse and play and nurse and play and then listen to sudden screaming cries. So I got to feel like world's worst mom by 4pm. I'm not sure if Sophie or I won the house drama queen title for the day.

Poor Sophie did better after a little while with Daddy. And she DID pee in the potty again this morning, and sat on it again later willingly.

Finally, we're off to the land of imagination once again tomorrow: we had to delay our trip when Sophie puked all over me (that's what I get for trying to dress like a put-together wife ONE TIME: puke all over me!!!), but David spent a bit of his birthday money to upgrade our Disney tix to an ongoing pass. So we get to go any time we want now (weekdays and not big holiday times). So that's where we'll be tomorrow! Yay!

Sick, sick, sick

2009-03-27T16:48:00.000-07:00

Three days of almost no sleep caught up with me. My poor Sophie girl went from playing happily with her friends to sickie-poos and throwing up and hanging limply on her mama. I was really impressed that she stopped throwing up by the time we went to sleep for the night, and then she just had yucky poos and sat on me and nursed/napped/watched PBS kids all day. She got up and played a bit each day, even, and was almost back to normal yesterday... enough to not even nap!!! so by 8pm when she was FINALLY down (she had slept in til 8am b/c of waking once or twice in the night), I felt totally burned out. For the past couple nights, I was either waking up a lot to settle her down, change sickie-poos, or sit on the couch with her nursing/sleeping on my lap, b/c it was the only thing that made her feel better (and cooler I think! Smart girl!) Of course, by the time Dashing Daddy was home, it was clear I was getting sick. And when I awoke in the night to see him propped up, not sleeping, I guessed correctly that he was, too.

We both felt sooooo gross this morning, but we are doing all right. We had to send Sophie to Grandma's house all day. I missed my girl! But I know we needed the rest and after a week cooped up inside, she was probably better off with a good playmate at a new house. She wasn't nursing much yesterday anyway. Oh yeah, last night I realized she has at least two of her last molars coming in-- got a glimpse of the bottom back of her mouth. Add that to the one upper canine coming in right now, and wow!

I hope we all get some good rest tonight. I am tired of feeling so lousy. Whine, whine, whine.

Itsy Bitsy Yogi

2009-03-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

So for V-day Nonna got Sophie a Yoga Kids DVD, and we watched it again this week and that night Sophie had fun showing Daddy all the poses she remembered.

She also goes around singing, sometimes pressing her hands together, "Namaste, namaste, namaste" like a song on the DVD. So cute!

Baby's First Simile

2009-03-10T14:03:00.001-07:00

So we're driving down the 101, having just scored some See Kai Run shoes (super soft yet protective rubber and leather shoes, good for developing feet) at 50%, and Sophie is happily wearing them, ready to show Daddy and Grandma as soon as we get home. We stick to the 101 instead of the 5 so we can enjoy the ocean. We're chatting about the ocean and what we see, and the new shoes... and then Sophie says her "shoes blue like the blue ocean." Now, I don't know for a fact that this is her first simile, but I do know that I had said nothing about blue beyond "new blue shoes!" She went on to say her shoes were blue like the blue houses (we were passing lovely beach bungalows), and blue like blue flowers! Wonderful.

These are magic shoes.

Applique'

2009-03-08T20:00:00.001-07:00

I am so totally doing this! Soon you'll see little figures pasted onto all of my family's clothing.

I've actually wanted to do this, to make my own super-cute (but very very cheap) clothes for Sophie, but I didn't know how. Now I do! Yay!

Calm Weekend

2009-03-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

The kitchen is clean, the fridge is cleaned out, the towels are in the dryer and the diapers in the wash, and dinner is maybe cooking in the slow cooker... the knob broke off a month ago, but it was still working if you used a towel to turn it... now the seasoned chicken and carrots we were going to eat all weekend are simmering incredibly lightly. Hmm! First my rice cooker died on me, and now this?! Granted, the crock pot sat for the first five years of our marriage unused (sorry, Brian! it was a lovely gift) but we have adored it and used it once or twice a week lately. And it dies?! It's at least incredibly sick, it seems. Boo!

Sophie found a golf ball at the park this week, and asked me if she could throw it. I advised her it was heavy and hard and better for rolling on the ground. She told me she needed a bat. I told her it would actually be a golf club, and to ask Daddy to share his when we got home. She remembered, and so now they are swinging a huge club around the living room taking gentle whacks at the ball and trying to get it in her monkey cup. Pretty cute.

I still have quite a bit of cleaning to do, but I also want to get some writing in today and tomorrow. It's nice to settle in for a long stretch knowing that I'm not delaying Dashing Daddy's work hours.

Sophie just said, "Let's go get it!" re: the golf ball. Her sentences keep getting longer and more complete. She also gave us quite the dramatic performance today at lunch, crying a little but mostly eating the scenery rather than the pizza, complete with hand gestures. I mean, raised hand, fingers splayed, shaking up and down, returning to cover her face, streak down her cheeks, back out in dramatic flourish... we applauded her when she was done and she seemed to appreciate that.

So what's going on...

2009-03-05T18:48:00.001-08:00

I just heard I'm being transferred to a different high school next year, where every class meets daily. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for perfect scheduling so I can go for 3-4 hours daily and not get stuck with periods 1 and 4 and be totally screwed.

A few other moms and I finally started a writing group and had our first meeting. We're going to keep each other motivated and share our individual areas of expertise. I got back into my novel finally, after a week or more, and realized (after pounding out two new scenes and reworking some messy info dump about midway through) that I've added over 7,000 words since starting revisions. Not bad! So now it's like 57K and closing in on 58K. I bet I add a LOT of words with the new side adventure I'm planning to add to the second half, and the big expansion of the final showdown with the big bad of book #1.

Then all I have left is writing the rest of book #2, and writing all of book #3, including slogging through three notebooks of passionate and crazy notes. And getting readers. And revising. And editing. And writing queries and summaries and getting 1,000 rejections. Yay!

I would write these novels even if no one else could ever read them. I have to write them. But it's nice to dream about getting published some day.

And it's particularly gratifying to listen to my sweet Sophie start to make up stores. "Once upon a time... Sophie! and... Icebat! AAANNNNNDDDD... Peako! shoes and socks! Go to park. Playyyyy. Play and Play and Play. Saaand. Swing." (The End)

I love it! I asked her questions and modeled a few things one time through, and after that she just went and made up all these little stories about her or her two Ugly Dolls going on daily adventures.

She also took one of her socks and invented sock puppets :) And made me do one, too, because whatever she finds can be turned into a baby and a mama (finger-babies, leaves, rocks, poles, napkins, water glasses, toes, whatever!) and often daddy and "who are these odder guys?" when there are extra toes, lol. So she prompted me to make a mama sock puppet and they went on adventures all around the park, too. They climbed trees and ran across the lawn to the path, and searched and searched for their friends Peako and Icebat.

This is the kind of thing I could do all day, every day.

(I'll post pictures of Sophie wearing her Uglies in my silk sling all bundled around her tiny torso as soon as I get them!)

Picking Right Back Up...

2009-03-03T21:19:00.001-08:00

Can't cover the months of backlog... can't dwell on what I should be recapping... must just write what's going on NOW!

We went to the zoo today. Sophie enjoyed petting some goats. "Go to the zoo. Pet some goats!" was her plan, she told us. We found some awesome apes thanks to our mama friends.

Sophie enjoyed her very first trip to Disneyland on Daddy's birthday. She was a bit unsure about the rides in general, but enjoyed the submarine, pirates, tiki room, and small world a lot. She was sooo excited and not scared at all at meeting Mickey Mouse!

Did you see this yet on flickr? Thanks to the Queen of Hearts, Sophie fell in love with Valentine's Day...

K, that's all I've got. I'm out!

Long-Overdue Sophie Update

2009-01-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

For all of you reading along for your Sophie news fix, I apologize. We've been so BUSY playing and baking and sewing and everything, I have let this slide. And then it got to be a big thing I had to catch up on, so it was harder and harder to get to. Now I really need to just ramble on for a few days and hope I record for baby book-dom all the wonderful things Sophie has been up to lately. This will be horribly vague and out of order. But it's all Sophie fun, which is great!

So, starting recently... Sophie can sing the entire chorus of "Mama Mia" by herself, but typically asks me to sing it with her (in the grocery store, repeatedly, of course!). It is something beyond cute when she sings "something broke-en heart-ed, bluuuuuue since the day we PART-ed..." LOL. We watched the movie with Nonna and Grandma for a special after-Christmas treat, and she got really into the ABBA music. We've been dancing along to Mama Mia, Dancing Queen, and a few other classics, since then.

Sophie is definitely into music and movement right now. She can climb to the top of the couches now, by herself, pretty consistently. "Way top!" she exclaims with glee. She can sing along with dozens of songs, getting pretty much all the lyrics, but she tends to peeter out when I ask her to do it on her own. When I catch her singing to herself, she can do it well but tends to get into loops and just do snatches. It's really endearing all the time, though. Some of her favorites are Chicken Soup with Rice, Baby Beluga, the Library Song, Goodnight My Angel, Goodnight My Someone, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Zipidee Doo Da, Skinamarinki Dinki Doo, and of course many Christmas carols she is still asking for a bit. "Christmas carol?"

She has also become quite a dancer. She loves to dance along with ballet we've watched on TV/youtube (it all started with a few minutes of the Nutcracker for the Christmas experience), and also techno like "I like to Move it" from Madagascar. And of course ABBA, and anything else fun and fast. We leap and spin and shake around the living room! She likes to use her new ribbom streamers Mama made her for Christmas (thanks to Nonna for the old curtain rings for the handles!).

We got a toddler yoga book out of the library yesterday, and she's been obsessed with it. She keeps asking for "yoga"-- so cute. We get down on the floor and flop around, although for many poses she's quite good, and with a bit of guidance she can do most of them, and gets this VERY proud look on her face. I think my woes about not being able to do a workout for more than three minutes are over for now, as long as I include her!

*****************************************************************
Oh, lordy, I started THIS post three weeks ago!

I'm going to go ahead and post it, and add more later!

So behind...

2009-01-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to write up a huge what Sophie's doing now post for months, but we've been sick over and over for months, too, so it's still coming...

I just had to share a great idea I just heard--now, this is just for mamas of toddlers-- keep remote controls in plastic baggies so that if they get dumped in the toilet, they don't get ruined. They'll work thru the bags and are safe! If I ever have a kid who is into everything like that, I want to remember that tip.

PLEASE contact your representative...

2008-12-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Some well-meaning legislation could very soon mean that we will no longer have access to safe, small-business toys (and possibly clothes and more) in the USA.

Please click here to see information and find out how to contact your representative. I am sending letters right now!

I was really hoping this was going to blow over, but it seems it really could threaten our ability to buy toys such as Selecta (they've said they won't sell in the USA anymore! Waaah!) and small local toymakers' wares. This is ridiculous. They are going to shut down the ability to sell and exist of those toymakers who have already long been vigilant about toy safety, via a law that's meant to deal with Hasboro and the others who keep making toxic toys in China.

We are so close to finally having good basic laws in our country about toy safety, and this comes along... it is so frustrating! I might have to get Auntie M to stock up on European toys by the end of her year abroad, if this really puts and end to this kind of toy being available here. Unbeleivable! We can sell toy jewelry with lead in it that can KILL a kid, but now we're making a law that can screw with companies as careful about children's safety as Selecta?

Okay, I'm off to letter-write!

This is why I still kind of want a Dreamer Design Park Avenue...

2008-12-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

article

...if I ever need to push another lil baby. Mostly I say, just wear them! But it's sad, sad, sad to see so many tiny babies just staring off into space at the mall or wherever.

I'm going to go cuddle my baby and help her off to dreamland!

Here we go again

2008-12-04T12:57:00.001-08:00

It's still dangerous in toyland!

One in three toys is toxic, says a not very scientific but still scary enough for me as a mommy, study by the Ecology Center. Don't forget about the awesome, growing site HealthyToys.org. They just updated for this year.

The new laws (yay, California, for leading the way in healthy toys, if totally destroying equal rights) that will force toy makers to make safer toys don't take effect until next year, and there could be toxic stock on the shelves for a while yet. Don't get me started on the lack of fair trade for most of this stuff, too. And the play jewelry is downright deadly, it seems!

Once again, it's best to follow the points of Healthy Toys, which I've seen listed in tons of magazines the past few months, and stick with natural materials like organic cotton, wool, natural rubber, and renewable wood. This tends to lead to more open-ended, imaginative, active toys, anyway. We're still trying to not overload on toys but rather amp up on play, but I do want to encourage Sophie's development in certain ways. So we're working on our list, checking in twice (and a third time for toxins!).

Best. FOD. Ever.

2008-12-03T19:50:00.001-08:00

This is the best thing I've seen from Funny or Die. All star cast!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

We're going, going...

2008-11-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

...gone, to the place where toad tunnels help keep the toads safe. Where you can get a BUI. Where the police station is made out of hay. Where the famer's market is all you need to live.

Yeah, baby!

We'll be with the family for the whole week. We get to see Aunti M and Bad Dan, we get to do Thanksgiving up right, we get to take our daughter to all our old haunts together, and we get to hit the ten year reunion before heading home again.

I might not be online at all this week. Until I return, here is an awesome post on a nice-looking blog I just found. I am so glad I have only ever been encouraged and supported with nursing thus far.

And some pictures of our sweet sunshine and happy family... (I've really been using flickr like a photo blog so you have to check in there regularly! I don't think I've posted any of these here yet; they are old...)

Just when I was softening...

2008-11-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

Just when I was starting to think we would have to accept Melissa and Doug toys as part of our play kitchen repertoire, I have found a ton about recalls, one as recent as this September in Canada (which doesn't like barium in baby toys! imagine that!). And now there's a whole thread with a lot of bad reviews, on Mothering...

SIGH. I didn't like the look of their "standard measurement" blocks anyway. They looked weird, like they had two different sets of sizes (isn't the WHOLE point to have everything match together?). And I've found some other options for playfood and other accessories. They had the Green Toys tea set and kitchen cookware/table setting/etc set at the toy store at the Carlsbad Outlets, even.... I need to decide what I'm going to pick as her Christmas present! (or presents... maybe just a few things, lol).

We have Nappage...

2008-11-17T12:38:00.000-08:00

After waking up at 4:45am on Saturday, Sophie finally wore herself out enough to fall asleep in the car on the way to Costco later that day. We promptly turned the car around and enjoyed her first nap in a week. She slept in a bit more Sunday and napped again, in a closer approximation of a normal sleep routine, and today she is down for her third nap in as many days!

Two weeks ago she napped every day, and I thought that might have been the end of her regularly not napping-- she would do every other day on average. But then last week happened. Is she seriously going to nap only every other week???

I hope she naps while we're up in Davis next week, because we'll want to be able to go out for dinner and stuff, and I don't want her down at 5pm every night.

I am getting so excited about our trip, and so is she. She talks about how we'll drive drive drive and see Nonna and Poppa and Trevor and Melissa and Dan and Bimi and AJ... and kids (at the day care) and Christa and Allie.... and she's interested ("OoooOOOOO!") when I talk about her meeting my friends, some of whom she's never met.

We haven't had a REAL visit with my parent since August, and it's been longer for many folks. I'm so stoked! :)

Who needs sleep?

2008-11-12T17:46:00.000-08:00

Well, you're never gonna get it.

If you do not have a baby/toddler impeding your ability to get some sleep, please please please sleep when you can. Dashing Daddy and I are both sick with nasty colds (he's been coughing for a week and I am diving into the depths of snot and coughs and headaches and the "cold buzz" I get and I didn't even take any meds... I swear I thought I sleep-took-tylenol because I was so buzzy last night!). Sophie napped every day last week, easily... and now she's not napping AT ALL (Daddy got her down for a brief nap yesterday after a looooong walk, but that's been in for a week) and waking at 5am. Nothing like waking in the dark with a tiny face aglow from the DVR clock and a cheerful, "Hi!"

I'm trying to read all the reasons online why toddlers refuse sleep. Either she's about to get 15 teeth all at once, about to make some huge breakthrough like being able to order sushi for herself, or she's a genius, lol. I'm trying to focus on the possible upsides here. Like having HER get the sashimi from now on, darnit.

Luckily Grandma gave us a nice break this afternoon. And she's totally into starfall right now-- she comes over and starts going, "starfall?starfall.starfall?starfall?starfall?" and I say, "You want to play Starfall?" "OOOOHHHHH." I head over to the computer. "Please," she adds. And she emphatically picks the letters she wants to do (I don't let her use the mouse yet-- I'm too afraid she'll reformat the hardrive in a few messy clicks, so she points and I follow orders). Yeah, it's a bit much of screen time (I was just checking out what it was b/c I kept hearing about it, and she saw and wanted to see the "ABCDs"), but if she gets to watch PBS kids when she's sick, I get to use the internets to help me out when I'm sick. It's nice to sit all cozy with her and laugh at the funny animation.

Ah well, another night, another headache. I'm hitting the ibeprofin. I really hope to do a nice update on what we're all doing soon... maybe tonight once the meds kick in.

Yes, we did! ...and yes, we still can...

2008-11-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

Victory!

And defeat. It's really bittersweet in California today. I'm glad about how most of the state initiatives went countrywide, except for Prop 8 and the others like it across the country. I guess Obama's victory shows that progress makes its way; sometimes it seems slow and sometimes stunningly fast. I hope it doesn't take another 60 years to get rights back for everyone in California and the nation. I can't believe it only took 51% of people (after an expensive campaign with deceptive ads) to take rights away from a minority. I would have thought our constitution would have been better protected than that. This is the stuff (along with the hateful McCain/Palin supporters we got to see this year) that makes me think the Handmaid's Tale could still happen! Blah!

But we'll keep fighting that, and we'll get there. The country is headed in a much better direction now! And we're trying to focus on this huge huge historical moment and celebrate!

Hee hee

2008-11-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Don't Speak for Me, Sarah Palin

Apologies to Mr. Weber. Okay, not really because that was funny!

VOTE

2008-10-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

Just VOTE!

Hey, I know all you near and dear to me are going to vote, but this is my psychic cry to the population of California and the country. Last weekend we sat down with our sample ballots, mailers, and the internet and figured out each item on the ballot. Here's how I'm voting. Feel free to tell me if you think I've gone astray on any... some of these were vague calls, even after the research we managed to put into it. Some of course we are gung ho about. I don't care how you vote, just vote! (Okay, I DO care and we are disgusted by some of the stuff going on in this election, but I'd rather people actually think about it all for themselves, do some real research, and actually vote rather than just sit it out. That's the worst.)

President:
Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congress: Pick Nick!
State Assembly: Maxfield... just voting the party ticket on this one, I must admit.
Schools: Um, anyone want to nudge me on the Miracosta stuff? I have no idea about the issues or anything. I would tend to vote for whomever the teachers support but I don't know what their union name is to google.
SDUH School District: Hergeshiemer and Dalessandro, supported by my union.
Encinitas USD: Skiljan and Page's write ups had more of the educational keywords I know and love versus the very popular (judging from all her signs and endorsements) Mo... but I'm going to vote with my teacherly gut here.
Encinitas City Council: Houlihan, Collier, and Nanninga. I like the moderate-ness of Houlihan, how Collier is going to work with her, how their fliers were printed on 100% recycled paper!!! and I like Nanninga's environmentalism. Isn't it lovely I get to vote for three people? Perfect.

Propositions:
Prop 1A: Yes. Tough call as I worry it diverts money from intra-city public transportation (that serves people who NEED it), but I just can't say no to a chance to vote for public transportation like this. I think we need WAY more public trans EVERYwhere. So I hope this gets the ball rolling.

Prop 2: Yes. I love that CA can help make this the new standard in factory farming. Not QUITE as bad as it is now, all right! Yeah, there's debate about farms leaving CA, but it's freaking CA. People will farm here. And when it comes down to it, it's the least we can do.

Prop 3: I am totally not sure if these hospitals are for-profit places that we shouldn't be supporting with public money or not. For now I've got Yes b/c it's kids' hospitals for crying out loud... but I am hoping to get more info on this one.

Prop 4: No. I am totally against abortion but I think we should be working to find ways to reduce abortions (social support ways, not placing power over woman's bodies in the not-always-competent government's hands), not make girls face possibly abusive parents and coat hangers. No more deaths from "anemia," you know?

Prop 5: I've got yes on this right now. I think people deserve the chance to improve themselves, with help for addiction, rather than being thrown in jail. I believe in people and forgiveness. But I am willing to hear more about this prop still.

Prop 6: No. Doesn't seem to be good law-making or likely to reduce crime.

Prop 7: No. I LOVE the idea of changing over dramatically to green power, but this is just pouring money into a couple big companies. I want a better law to vote for next time. Until then, I'm cloth diapering and recycling!

Prop 8: No. Think they gays will teach your first grader to be gay? Um, no. Rather, I think a LOT of kids have been exposed to this whole topic THROUGH THE NASTY CAMPAIGN ADS being shown during the World Series. Ugh! As Dashing Daddy said, this is no different from people fifty years ago trying to restrict interracial marriages. Or interfaith. I see it as a total separation of church and state. Let Caesar have back what belongs to Caesar and all that. It's just unfortunate semantics. Marriage under civil law is ALREADY totally different from the sacrament that my church helped my husband and I bestow upon each other. And our marriage doesn't need protecting, thank you.

Prop 9: No... I think? The people who should know seem to think this is a redundant law. It sounded good to me, but I am trying to make an educated decision here... and this is an example of where that can be very muddling!

Prop 10: No. Even more just giving money to a few companies under the guise of going green. We need to do far more, and I do better green work with my own money for now, thank you!

Prop 11: No...well, maybe yes. But probably no.

And that's after an hour of research. Props can be great and silly here in CA. I'm trying to do my part.

Just remember...

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

A world made up of AP'd children...

2008-10-29T16:57:00.001-07:00

I think would be in sync with the world Jane Smiley invites to come into fulfillment in this essay.

THIS...

2008-10-23T13:37:00.001-07:00

...is what I've been thinking about the news the past day or so. THANK YOU, Campbell Brown!

Inequality

2008-10-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer...

“Greater income inequality stifles upward mobility between generations, making it harder for talented and hard-working people to get the rewards they deserve,” he said in a statement.
“It polarizes societies, it divides regions within countries, and it carves up the world between rich and poor.”

In the United States, the richest 10 percent earn an average of US$93,000 – the highest level in the OECD. The poorest 10 percent earn an average of US$5,800 – about 20 percent lower than the OECD average.
Social mobility is lowest in countries with high inequality such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy, the report said.

Seriously, CHILDREN are sliding deeper and deeper into poverty. Please, can we stop blaming the poor for being poor, for being lazy or stupid or whatever? It's CHILDREN.

And the social systems are all set up (some purposefully, like education) to replicate the current social order. It's a massively stacked deck. I like how Obama recognized this in some speech, about how people expect you to pull yourself up by the bootstaps, even if you don't have boots! So much of our mainstream society is a sham, blah. It's stuff like this that keeps making our family question, question, question, and opt out of so much of it all.

We need to do more. It's hard when things are so scary right now, but long-term, we need to simplify our life so we have more to spare and share.

Duh

2008-10-20T18:04:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a good article, summarizing a LOT of information that's in good books like The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.... but still, my reaction is mostly DUH. Of course big corporations are doing all this. But still good to remind ourselves.

Food Industry article

Funny

2008-10-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

And we could use some funny.

Just Gorgeous

2008-10-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

Angelina Jolie, nursing mama

This has got to be one of the most beautiful pictures of a mama ever! I hope it doesn't come across as sexualized (a husband's "private" photos of his gorgeous Hollywood star wife!) but rather helps to normalize breastfeeding, and breastfeeding around others, and without regard to pictures being snapped or folks hanging out in a room together while feeding babies. Yeah, that was circular, sue me. MY baby has been sleeping on the boob as she cuts two new molars, poor thing, and I'm a bit wipes out.

This makes me even more ridiculously proud that my students once insisted in a movie of my life, I would be played by the Angelina. Yeah, right. But the woman has, I think, shown that someone who's willing to think for herself... well... actually... THINKS. Which leads to all kinds of nice things!

Panda Cam!

2008-10-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

Panda cam!

In case you were needing some panda. We love it in our house! And we visit the pandas regularly, too.

Past Associations? And Last Chance!

2008-10-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

WHO wants to play the negative past associations game?

Hmm! I think McCain should rethink things, considering the market today!

Also, while we're at it: don't forget (especially if you happen to NOT live in California, lol) to register TODAY if you have not, and get others to do so as well! Here, The Roots told you to, so you'd better!

Prayers, Please

2008-10-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

I had to post my previous post that had been sitting on the screen, but now I have to ask for prayers for my sweet Grandpa, who had a stroke. Please keep him in your thoughts.

Banned Book-a-rama

2008-10-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

After dipping in and out during the little one's naps, for a week or two, I am so totally into The Catcher in the Rye. But there are too many phonies out there, who are so corny and all, I don't even FEEL like telling you all about it.

New American Dream

2008-09-30T17:27:00.001-07:00

I just found this site, and I'm enjoying checking it out so far...

New American Dream

I found it through this link about putting an end to bottled water use. We've managed, without any real work or hassle, to go bottle-free very quickly. Very rarely do they pop back into our lives anymore. A Thermos, Sigg, or Kleen Kanteen is all it takes.

Now, to tackle the immense amounts of plastic that come into our house still with every shopping trip! I recycle what I can, but our city only takes plastic 1 and 2. I am agog at all of the packaging we deal with just for a few cups of shredded cheese, for instance-- ack! I fear a bigger effort to buy in bulk and store things in safe containers (in my dream kitchen!) is in order. Slowly, step by step. I remember being totally overwhelmed about making changes two years ago, but we've done a ton already, and it's been easy (with the only real failure our attempt to find a pthaltate-free dishwasher detergent... our dishwasher is dreadful I think). So on we go!

Delayed 17mo roundup

2008-09-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

So, now that Sophie is sweetly sleeping (her naps are still not sure things! yesterday she was up all day and then conked for the night at 5:30), I can finally jot down a few of things that she's really into right now. This may repeat previous posts, because I'm just going to run through everything that pops into my head!

She loves make-believe. We play "lava!/save me, save me!/Super Sophie" where the sunlight on the carpet is lava, and we run up to it, and then declare, "hot! lava!" and run away. Or a blanket or towel is lava and it is on Mama or some stuffed animals, and we cry, "Save me, save me!" and Sophie comes and pulls it off us. She also now says Save me, save me, whenever she gets stuck somewhere, like she's trying to get across the room where she just has strewn all her toys. She says it sort of to herself, very cute.

She still loves to point and count at things, and has counted to ten, but doesn't do that very often! We busted out They Might Be Giants' Here Come the 123s again and it was very exciting to have all those number songs!

Oh! Songs! Sophie asks for music all day long! Mostly mommy singing. She loves Over in the Meadow and The No Song (thank you, Tom Hunter!) and Just a Girl by No Doubt and the color song from Signing Time, and a dozen other songs from storytimes we've been going to at the Gardens and library... she thinks there can be songs about anything, so she'll ask for one about whatever thing she sees or thinks of, so that's why Just a Girl came up, as she wanted a "girl song" and then there's this terrible penguin song I made up on the fly when she saw the giant stuffed penguin in Jimbo's by the cereal, and then the Star Spangled Banner when she wanted a flag song....

Here's the thing: you can sing a song (or play it on the "pu"--computer) and the second time through she'll be singing along with all of the rhymes or line ending words, and the third time she'll be singing half of the words in the lyrics. We listened to the No Song just last week and after a few times making mama sing it in the car, she was singing the entire song, basically. Some words she leaves out because she's drawing out others, but she's basically singing along with the whole thing. And she can do that with Billy Joel's Goodnight My Angel, too (that was the first book we bought for our kids-- a few years before getting pregnant!). So that's why I can't rewrite the dreadful penguin song-- she's singing it and doing little hand motions with it before I even get to the next word!

She loves to make me "be" her stuffed animals or dolls or even the neck pillow, and then point out and label everything around us, and I have to say "Ohhhh, a chair! ohhhh, a triangle! Ohhhh, the floor!". She still likes to read books over and over again. She loves "summer is summer" --oh yes, she also asks for entire books to be recited (because of course I have them memorized after reading them so much) so we'll also do poetry time in the car, with "Summer summer" as she calls it, and "Secret Seahorse" and etc.-- and Goodnight my angel and Mangia! Mangia! and Angels Watching Over Me and Are You My Mother (good, because SOMEone should like it and Dashing Daddy and I don't! but we get to read it a lot!).

She got a new (to us) play kitchen at the swap meet yesterday, and has been VERY into playing with that nonstop! I'll get pics up soon, but I have to eat lunch now before she needs me... more later!

Suck On This

2008-09-27T11:01:00.001-07:00

Hee, hee.

I'm just bookmarking this article because I really like it and I never remember where to find it. It's a great thing to reread right now with the horrible, horrible stuff going on China (and spreading at they find where these multinational companies shipped their products to).

Suck on This (Ecologist article on breastmilk)

Are our beaches safe? Nobody will know...

2008-09-26T12:07:00.001-07:00

Arnold line-item vetoed the funding for testing our beaches' water. We had a good summer, but when it's rainy, the water can get full of toxic run-off from lovely things on shore. Is it safe to go surfing? Swimming? Splashing your feet in the surf? Walking along the wet sand? Nobody will know if we don't get funding back. I guess this is one of those things they see as expendable, and I would agree, but the fact that we live all together and no one regulates the pollution means that it becomes more than an individual's thing to know if they want to go in the water. And we pay a lot to live close to the ocean; I don't think it's going to fly to tell people that the beach is just a total luxury. That water's going to go back through the water cycle, too. And through Carlsbad's desalination plant someday... it just seems like the least we can do.

17 months!

2008-09-23T20:54:00.001-07:00

Sophie is seventeen months old tonight.

And STILL AWAKE at 9:30pm. We have totally nailed her opportune nap window, right after 12pm/12:30 til 2:30 (we have to wake her up), and we STILL get this? I think we missed her bedtime window! Bah!

I'm going back upstairs to help out more....

I wanted to write a post about all the amazing things she's into at 17mo, but it'll have to wait!

Happy Banned Books Week!

2008-09-21T21:14:00.002-07:00

ALA's Banned Books Week info and more information from the Banned Books Week web site

And here's a happy little article about how Sarah Palin loves to tell you what you can't read. And abuse her (then, thankfully, limited) power to assert her personal agenda. YIKES!

It's chilling that so many people in this country could support someone who acts more like the antagonists of The Handmaid's Tale or Fahrenheit 451... seriously, I am going to start having my Hitler nightmares again if this keeps up. Sarah Palin wants to limit our freedoms, not even for the somewhat accepted reason of ensuring safety, but just to limit what other people can choose to read. Once you start allowing the mayor or whomever in power to choose what is unacceptable (to them) for a public library, or local bookstore (!!!), where does it stop? Is this book unacceptable because it talks about a gay character? How about this one with the backtalk towards God? And this one makes some unpatriotic claims about the US federal government's invovlement in South America, better sweep it off the shelves, too.

(Yeah, Mrs. Dalloway and E M Forster and others, get out of our libraries!)

The point of libraries it not to uphold the America held in the minds of those in power. It is to enable the poor child to read, the working class student to rise up... and to be truly democratic, libraries need to remain uncensored. Especially by those holding the most power! Please, read your Orwell.

The only book I'd really like to see banned is that certain one about becoming baby smart, except it doesn't say smart... I don't want to get search hits from that, tho! I think it's horribly misleading and can damage babies and families. And yet, I doubt it's been banned like, say, Of Mice and Men, Harry Potter, The Bridge to Teribithia, James and the Giant Peach, Where's Waldo, and Captain Underpants. Yeah. (I have, however, picked it up as my "buy one get one free" book at the library book sale and told the clerks exactly why I was buying it-- so I could recycle it, and possibly, just mayyybe, save one parent from picking it up and using it. Yay, capitalism!)

I already happen to be reading The Catcher in the Rye (finally... I have never read it! Just the first page in the summer before high school. So far I'm kind meh about it, although I can see how it'd be stunning back in the 50s.). But that'll be done in a few more hours of reading. I'm going to the library in the next couple of days, and I'll be sure to pick up a banned book to two (along with several more... I need reading material badly!), so I'll be ready for the 27th. I'm thinking Captain Underpants!

Okay, not really. That's just silly. I read that in college. Seriously, for my kid's lit course. Maybe some Joyce instead. I love the judge's famous line about reading Ulysses!

Happy

2008-09-21T21:14:00.001-07:00

Serious about Play

2008-09-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

Someone linked me up to this NPR article on creative, loose, make-believe play being the key to kids' developing executive function (self-regulation, which leads to success in school, life, social interactions, and world peace, apparently). I also liked this one I clicked through to, overall; some of the things the Tools of the Mind school is doing seem like even FURTHER controlling of kids, but I suppose its for kids who are already coming from problematic experiences, and there were some neat bits of info further down in the mish mash of content.

Sophie's toys have gotten a bit out of control, I must say. We were SO set on keeping them to a reasonable amount, but as she grew we added more toddler toys, versus more babyish toys, but she likes to get out the baby toys and use them in new ways a lot, and then I got a ton of stuffed animals from the closet back at my parents' house, a bunch of my old toys.... and suddenly we had toy overload. But we managed to organize it into categories, and hide some away, and now Sophie knows where to find the dolls, the stuffed animals, , the balls, the kitchen toys (mostly just kitchen stuff she's appropriated), the musical instruments (still percussion-heavy; we would love to find a trumpet of some kind she could play, or a safe string...), in the same way she knows where to get a clean napkin or bib, and where to put the newly folded laundry, and where to put the dirty ones. So I think that's good, that she has a good amount of space in this modern household where she can be in charge and help a bit. I also love how she mixes up her toys, and how certain stuffed animals have different personalities (altho most love to be fed by her tiny baby spoons, and be comforted, after she drops them, with hugs and kisses and rockarockarocka).

I have been meaning to read up on play for a while, which seems silly but this article, which I've seen before, reminded me that play has, like so much of our lives, been taken over and changed by corporations, and we sometimes need reminders about our traditional ways. I liked how the article made the distinction about how play is about play, and companies made it about things, and how that changed things. I know, from my limited reading, that trademarked toys (like from TV shows and movies) and many of the electronic "educational" toys tend to limit play; they can be used in one way, whereas "good" play lets kids be in control and make different decisions and their imaginations. Kids tend to just act out the TV show or do the one thing the toy is made for (and then often lose interest in it). Then there's the ways the majority of toys made today are bad for us... noisy toys that are programmed in volume to catch parents' attention in busy toy aisles, but are damaging for a baby's ears... toys made with chemicals that can cause cancer and infertility, even some that now are made to look "natural" (but are full of formaldehyde in the particle board or who knows what in the paint from China or petroleum in the "cloth")... the point is, I'm more okay with Sophie having a lot of toys that are being reused and therefore aren't demanding more resources from the planet, in manufacture and transport as well as materials, and a few carefully selected toys that will enhance her imagination-fueled play. I guess swathes of fabric (be it fancy playsilks or not), some big pillows and chairs, some paper tubes.... all these can be the makings of amazing make-believe.

I need recs for books on all this. I don't know if we're really a Waldorfy family, although I like a lot of what I've picked up casually from hanging out with families who are. Maybe we can learn some things and take what we like from those resources.... but as a teacher I really like this kind of research-based reminder of what play is all about.

Sophie's Latest Musical Obsession

2008-09-21T10:00:00.001-07:00

720

2008-09-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

I know it's not new, but I just saw this study that actually addresses the complicated issue of mortality of USA infants due to failure to breastfeed/formula. In light of the ongoing crisis of poisoned (yes, poisoned-- they used melamine, a plastic by-product, purposefully to boost protein content, with complete disregard for how this would sicken and kill babies) artificial baby milk from China, I think it's good to remember that the issue of formula causing infants' deaths is not just a "third world" issue. Yes, the marketing of formula to mothers in countries where it practically guarantees a large amount of deaths and sickness is abhorrent, but let's not get all first-world righteous and say it doesn't matter here in the good old USA. Formula can kill. It can kill babies here in the USA. There are complicating factors, but it comes down to this: if they had been breastfed, some babies who died would have lived. And let's not forget about the enormous increase in risk of cancer, asthma, lowered IQ, obesity, digestive issues, etc etc etc that come with formula every day, here, too.

I think formula has a vital role in the world. Some mothers truly can't support their babies with breast alone (something like 1-3%, not the huge numbers who seem to have issues, probably thanks to formula companies' bad advice, doctors and hospitals pushing formula to get money from those companies, totally ignorant peds and society as a whole, not to mention utterly unsupportive social programs--where's our maternity leave? Every other nation--and not just "first-world" nations-- except like five--"third world" nations-- have it!). Some babies have rare digestive/allergy issues. And thank goodness for formula then. But there is a huge distortion of the facts out there, a gross misrepresentation of the risks of deviating from the (biological) norm. And I think it's time to stop focusing on making money off of babies' increased illnesses and start helping all moms be truly informed, and get us the social support that practically every other country has in place (hello, Canada-- a year's maternity leave?!)

720. Did anyone tell their parents ahead of time of the risks? Does anyone care that our society makes it seriously too hard for most moms to do the simply thing of feeding their babies what they are designed by God and nature to eat?

Fall into the Grapes

2008-09-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

We went on a lovely family outing yesterday, walking around the Outlets so that Sophie could see the fountains and birds and Mommy could check out the Le Creuset cookware (thank you, Nonna, for the birthday money for it! I am trying hard to actually spend it, lol!)

Of course we had to pop into the baby stores, and we checked out shoes at Stride Rite. There were some low boots there that might be okay for Sophie. I need to get her some real rubber shoes before it starts getting drizzly in a couple months, and we've only ever done Roobeez, so it was time for some research. I found many of the shoes way too thick and hard, so I'm going to check out other options like Robeez Tredz and the like. I found an AWESOME resale shop just around the corner and already got Sophie some new pants and a couple other things for super cheap, and I noticed they had a ton of shoes.... hmm!

We popped into Baby Gap and found a "bookworm" longsleaved tee shirt, and long tees are one of the items we're trying to accumulate, so at outlet prices, we went for it.

Later, it was proven to be a good purchase, when Sophie (running around trying to avoid leaving the fountain wonderland for lunch) walked over to the side store window for the Gap and started saying (and signing) "grapes." Too funny! It took us a second to realize what she was doing, then we just looked at each other. I might have teared up a bit. I remembered later she was paying attention to the words just as much as the pictures in her Fruit book, but we hadn't read it for days and she's been way more into huckleberry than anything else!

Of course this was after Friday when I was walking her up the stairs and she started counting them... "two, three, four, five, six, nine, six, nine...." Again, too funny! She still does the cute thign where she says "twos a twos a twos a" pretending to count, but now she can actually count if you help her focus on each thing, like stepping up each step I guess, or holding up fingers one at a time. She loves it. "Mores? More more more?" She could count to two months ago, and just a few weeks ago started getting to three on her own, and then four on our last trip (counting fans at Carl's Jr.), and then suddenly up to six on her own! But she can get to ten sometimes with the finger thing.

She is SO into feeding her stuffed animals and dolls still. We have half of her spoons out to play with, and cups and plates... We stir stir stir, and then go "numnumnumnumnum" all day long, holding spoons to the raccoons' mouths. She likes to put dolls on the "high chair" (the big stuffed doll house chair so called because the babies can sit in that one) and say "BIIIIIIG!" because they are too big for the chair! And other things like that-- Mama and Dada are too big for the bike, and the box from Costco (she loves our own membership cards, too!)... and the spoons are BIG for the lil dolls.

She has also started wanting to show things to her dolls. She'll have me hold her goblin or panda or baby and start saying, "See! See? Oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and then saying what we are looking at, like a book or a toy or the remote control this morning! (She also let me know "foot ball" and "guitars" because we watched the game last night and played Rock Band a few days ago, all on the TV). She loves to "teach" her dolls about whatever she's showing them, including reading them words.

She has been trying SO hard to NOT nap the last weeks. Last week she wouldn't nap, and I had to return some library books and of course at 2:30 she fell asleep in the car. So now I am really going to stick with my rule of either getting in the car by one to go someplace (and having her fall asleep and coming right home!) or being trapped at home until she conks at night-- luckily, she at least has started going down at about 6 or 6:30 instead of staying up nearly as late as normal, which she used to do when she skipped naps! No nap yesterday, but Dashing Daddy and I finally got to watch There Will Be Blood since she conked so early (and fast! teeth, PJs, and 3 minutes of nursing!). Today she only went down because I tried putting her on my back in the mei tai and vaccuuming, and after ten extra minutes of swaying with it over the clean floor, she conked. She used to be too scared to do that anymore, so I'm happy! Except my carpet and rugs are so dreadful and dirty no matter how much I vaccuum, and my vaccuum is getting pretty old and useless. But at least she's napping! I know her lil brain needs it....

That's us right now. Please remember to go through Dashing Daddy's web site (C's N, linkie at the top on the right, yeah, up over there!) if you are going to create an account to buy stuff on ebay or amazon. He gets a cut if you enter those sites through his linkies to them! Tha

We Are Family

2008-09-10T19:41:00.001-07:00

Wow, we've been busy, getting ready for and going on our trip up to the Bay Area. We had a great time with just a few family members and three Dave Matthews Band concerts (Sophie and I attended on LeRoi's birthday... I didn't QUITE cry. Honest.), although the heat wave was unfortunate (no AC in big sis's house).

And Sunday morning, Sophie woke up and looked at Dada, then me, and sort of thought, and then said and signed, "family." Except like this: "faammly." It took us a sec to get it because we never use that sign. So cute! Time for a big family bed cuddle! She kept doing it that morning, and then again at the concert that night, and she would make us all group hug together. We danced together like that a bit to the great music.

And, we saw a raccoon! Sophie has two of my old stuffed animals and LOVES to say raccoon and feed them ("numnumnumnumnum...") so this was very exciting, right there in M's backyard as we dined al fresco (again, it was HOT). And she also loved the squirrels. You can BARELY see the raccoon in this lil pic, but the bigger size on my and Nonna's flickr streams show it better.

Sophie was stupendous in the car. We only stopped ONCE on the way up, for lunch/gas/running around pointing to the smiling star at Carl's Jr. (yeah, and she ate some chicken strips... not a lot of choices in East Jesus Nowhere, huh? I packed great fresh fruit for the drive up, but by the drive down, it was all over.) So we just hung out a little longer than normal on our one stop. On the way back up, she got a bit fussy and mentioned poop, so we pulled right off the freeway, changed her (poopless) dipe, and got back on... and she soon napped (so did Mommy). And we again stopped for lunch etc., and managed to drive on home without further stops. She was happy as a clam in the car for the vast majority of time, as I made her stuffed animals play peekaboo around her carseat and read her books. We also had fun looking for "tunnels" (any overpass counts!) and balloons (thank you, car dealerships!), diamonds (for the carpool lane) and letters (I never thought we'd be playing the alphabet game on car rides so soon!).

Well, we're gradually getting back into our routine here at home. By this weekend we should be set!

Sophie is about to bust out of a bunch of her clothes all of a sudden. It's time to hit garage sales again. I think she's going into 2T shirts, and she definitely needs some new pants (I think she does well in 3T even by now for her big cloth bum) and PJs... altho we might get a few Babyology soakers for PJ bottoms since she's still the Pee Queen. We tried Seventh Generation diapers on the trip (our first time EVER with disposable dipes) and they worked very well, altho she seemed to be getting chaffed around her thighs after a couple days. We might try them at night to see if she sleeps better with them... I think she was just worn out from the drive and short nap, but maybe they magically made her more comfy? I'm willing to do that experiment. Nothing better than curling up with her in bed, but I wouldn't mind less sleepy whinning and unnecessary latching on. It's probably just teething ups and downs.

So I adore Naartjie clothes, and while I am nonplussed by their website, I think I'll hit the mall to see what might be on clearance in her size... we've gotten fabulous scores there before. Costco and Target are our other cheapie standbys, altho the selection is small. Spam me your favorite baby/toddler clothing sources!

Speaking of spamming, I am seriously pondering a play kitchen for the girl for Christmas. I saw Sylvie's Kitchen in the Nova Naturals catalogue that came, and I see online it's actually cheaper than the Julianna's kitchen.... and I love light wood! I then did some searching around just on Amazon, since so many retailors are listing there stuff on there now. I don't really dig the look of the Camden Rose kitchen, and a lot of the bigger brands seem to be particleboard with many plastic fixtures, which I'm not really into for something we'd hopefully have for years and years. So, spam me your favorite play kitchen. I think by 2009 Sophie might be too big for her high chair and ready for a booster, thus making room for a play kitchen near Mama's kitchen! I'll also have to look into what play foods to get. I've heard that knitting playfood is fun and easy, because they knit up so fast... I'm reluctant to get Melissa and Doug (for anything, really) because the paint has worn away on the shape sorter SO quickly. We'll have to see if we can afford any of this by December anyway! Then by her birthday, we'll totally need to re-up on our passes to the zoo and gardens and maybe a few new places.... whew! But we just totally had the realization that this year, Sophie is totally going to "get" the holidays on a whole new level, way more than we had thought by her second time around. Last year she was kind of into the lights and toys, but now she'll totally get it! So we are looking forward to all that.

I've started saying (as certain household things and clothes get all blucky...yes, blucky...as in, worn out, stained, messy, slobby...), that I can't have nice things... but I have nice people. I am so grateful for my wonderful family! (Including those who are far away, yet let us stay at their home, and those to came to visit us, and those who Skype with us now, and those who visit their Sophie, and those who just read here about her!)

More bad news on Palin

2008-09-01T09:52:00.001-07:00

Even Bush finally gave in to people's pressure to protect the polar bear!

I read over on Crunchy Chicken about the reaction by Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, to Palin.

Senator McCain’s choice for a running mate is beyond belief. By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies.

Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science.

Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.

This is Senator McCain’s first significant choice in building his executive team and it’s a bad one. It has to raise serious doubts in the minds of voters about John McCain’s commitment to conservation, to addressing the impacts of global warming and to ensuring our country ends its dependency on oil.

Crazy like a fox... and just crazy, too.

2008-08-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well, when I woke up Friday and read the news of McCain's VP pick, I thought to myself, "Ohhhhhhhhh that's smart."

A young woman. Bam! A lot of people will be attracted to that paired with McCain. A lot of people are still yearning to vote for a woman in this election. Even I (who have wonderful online friends who are breastfeeding moms of many in Alaska, just like Palin), could perceive the attraction here.

But when I read what MoveOn had to say about Palin's incredible lack of experience and policies, I had to back away from my initial assessment. This has got to be an incredibly dumb choice. They took a risk, but it's just not the right one.

Here's what I read...
*************************************************************

Dear MoveOn member,

Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

* She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
* Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
* She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
* Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
* She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
* She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
* How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-9191302-wsf9aRx&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-9191302-wsf9aRx&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-9191302-wsf9aRx&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-9191302-wsf9aRx&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-9191302-wsf9aRx&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-9191302-wsf9aRx&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-9191302-wsf9aRx&t=7

7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-9191302-wsf9aRx&t=8

Put DOWN the Baby Einstein, pick UP the baby (and the boobie)

2008-08-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

Americans' Attitudes Toward Breastfeeing are Making our Kids Sick

Darn straight!

Edna Always Could Say It Best

2008-08-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,--but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, --
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave,
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

I adore this woman. And it's stunning to think of how these are merely her fragments and phrases....

Obama Mama

2008-08-26T18:14:00.003-07:00

Passing along a video from a certain midwife friend's blog :)

And in honor of this week's convention... (I can't help it-- I know, as I sit there reading Lies My Teacher Told Me and watching the coverage replay at the same time that most of it is phooey, but this is truly an amazing, historical breakthrough. I really want my daughter to grow up thinking it's totally normal for a black man to be president. And a woman, but that can be next, and hey, it's okay I suppose if she's the first!)

And in honor of Pop, who is doing amazing work for the campaign up in his district...

(And it's pretty cool that the man holding the baby towards the end, right after Whoopie sings "remember me" is our OB who helped me deliver Sophie!)

2008-08-26T18:14:00.001-07:00

Many Loves

2008-08-24T20:08:00.001-07:00

We have just sent off our last house guest, Sophie's beloved Auntie M, whose visit immediately followed Nonna and Papa's. There are a million pictures up on Flickr (seriously, Nonna's pics are way back on page 9 or 10 already, and there are many gorgeous ones taken on M's great camera) featuring some fun adventures and our silly girl. Sophie keeps saying Nonna, Papa, Melissa.... altho she understands they went home. She'll then say bye-bye.

We took our family along to play groups at the park, walks on the beach, and explorations out our front door. We also got some serious organization and errand running done. Thanks again, Mommy, for not letting me get crushed under the falling garage shelves. And for buying me new shelves.

But now all my teacher stuff is out of my living room at long last! And thanks M for helping me get the supplies for S's new toy shelves. I'll have to take pics of the amazingly clean house and garage I suppose....

Sophie has been on hyperdrive for over a week, tho, playing hard with her many loves. Hopefully she can have some calm time in the next week or two before we head up north . It'll be our first looooong driving trip so I'm hoping for the best!

Well, we continue to be impressed with Sophie's accomplishments. I get to brag here, I guess, to those adoring grandparents and aunties and cousins and etc reading, so here goes...

Sophie knows her colors. She can say the name of a color if you ask her what color something is, and she can find "the green one" for instance. She knows red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, black, and brown, altho black and brown we don't hear about too much I'd say.

She knows the numerals 1 through 10. She can't count to ten, but if you read the counting books and point to the numeral, she can tell you what it is. Today I held up fingers and she could tell me 1 through 7 that way. Her favorite number is still 6! She keeps pretending to count (pointing at a bunch of things in her counting book or buttons on my capris or whatever, and saying Twos twos mumble mumble twos...), and loves it when I hold her finger to point at each item and say the numbers as we count.

She knows pretty much the whole alphabet. She's been calling X K but I'm not sure if she's just saying it backwards (like she still says diaper pa-duh).

She can read probably about 30 words, and we really should add more to her little word collection. Whenever we add a word she really loves, she learns it in about two tries and then can tell you what it is whenever she sees it again. Yesterday she read the word "Nonna" in the Mangia Mangia book we were reading. I asked her what it was, and she had not paid any attention to that (last) page before (she was always ready to go get another Boyton book. ((And now she can read whatever, if I write the words for her, a small as on my shopping list. I made her her own little list today at the store with cat, dog, moon, Nonna, Sophie on it. And a picture of surprised eyes, which is her favorite joke right now.))

And just now she brought her Scuola book to me that we haven't read in a week or more and said "la la la" in an asking tone, because she likes the page where the little mice are singing with their jaws all dropped.

And today at dinner David asked her out of the blue what we did yesterday (she was getting antsy and we wanted to finish eating before cleaning the copious amounts of pasta off of her) and she immediately said "Ocean, waves" and made a little gesture indicating waves washing around. I was still trying to remember what was yesterday as she did this! We kinda looked at each other, then shrugged. We have to stop being surprised I guess!

She also knows some shapes. She LOVES circles right now. She knows triangles. We're starting to say the names for all the other shapes in her shape sorter, and she totally calls the trapezoid "trap" now, and has enjoyed making stabs at octagon and pentagon and the like. Of course she knows star and moon and heart already. And she will point to the train tracks set up in a long ring and say oval, and she also can ID the diamond in her shape sorter.

She drew with chalk for the first time, and it was so cute as she declared all her work moon and circle. She also drew a T and looked at it, then sort of exclaimed, T! Surprise! Later we said, draw another T and she made two strokes, altho they were not put together as a T. It was cute as she accidentally made her T and discovered it. She kept asking for "moon" and "circle" and "draw" and her little neighbor friend's mom so nicely let us keep one chalk for her to use again right away.

She says on her own probably going on 300 words at this point, as she's always adding more.

Whew! So what else is she up to? She's very good about saying please and thank you, and giving kisses (or asking for them!) if she goes "bonk." She says bonk a lot right now! She is back into riding her pony and bike, and she loves the "new" toys we threw into all those new bins (my old toys from childhood-- she loves the Cabbage Patch doll!). She also loves to say "my turn." Frantically.

She is working on crawling and climbing, and climbed a couple stairs today. We're in trouble!

She had a menu in her hands today at brunch and immediately said "wind! windy!" which Grandma was doing for her (waving the menu at her to make wind) a month ago at my birthday dinner at Buca. We actually went to that same cafe for brunch on my birthday, so maybe that triggered it. It was funny!

I'm going to go play with her now. Forgive the shameless, shameless bragging. I have to tell the world how impressed I am with my girl! It's my job as her mommy.

Alfie Kohn

2008-08-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, I have a thing for nerds. But I adore Alfie Kohn!

Here's his newly expanded article lambasting the nanny reality shows on TV.

When I've caught a few minutes of these shows, they did indeed seem contrived and silly and terribly "conditional," meaning they enforce the idea that children are only worthy and loved if they do/say what their parents want. I have read about horrible incidents where the nanny encouraged the mom to halt cosleeping all of a sudden, and was okay with the child even vomiting from crying so much over that. She also apparently encouraged immediate weaning of a toddler. Right there I figure I can't trust any dang thing coming out of her mouth. But then again, why would I trust some person when I don't know anything about her credentials except she has nannied (guess what? so have a million other women! I have!) and oh yes has no children of her own.

I will admit, in a country where some parents use explicit shaming, spanking, and complete chaos as parenting strategies, the nanny shows might actually cause some extreme parents to dial it back a bit. Getting down on the child's level and connecting are good things.

But punishment and even praise are not, most of the time!

I have previously read (and reread) Kohn's well-researched parenting book Unconditional Parenting, and it is my favorite parenting book so far. It doesn't offer specific techniques or routines or tricks or anything like that, so it does force you to develop your own and talk to other kindred spirit parents to get tips, but it does this on purpose. It wants to delve into the foundations of how we parents, and look at the big picture, the long term picture. What kind of people do we want our children to be when they are children, when they are older children, when they are teens, when they are adults? And then how do we foster this?

Kohn has done his research, and the research is really clear. Punishments and rewards don't improve things like hard work, caring and empathy, intelligence, or even obedience. And he forces us to question if we really want "obedient" children anyway. I know I want a child that thinks for herself, who critically processes what anyone tells her, be it a teacher, a parent, a doctor, a commercial, an institution.... I would hope that she develop the skills to know when a source may become trusted, but as Buddah said, don't take for granted what anyone tells you, even me! And I want her to want to share and help others not because of what's in it for her (Mommy will praise me; I'll get a sticker; I'll avoid getting yelled at; I'll avoid having my toy taken away) but because she has developed a true understanding of the worth of thinking of others. Avoiding punishment is easy to swallow, but avoiding certain types of praise seems to hit more people as odd. But Kohn goes over all the research showing that when people are offered rewards, they lose interest in the task, and do more poorly, whereas if they are just engaged in a task, they tend to be more interested in continuing it for its own sake, and going further with it.

Personally, I don't like it when I hear parents at the playground saying "good boy!" or "good girl!" because, first of all, it sounds like they are talking to a dog. Just bugs me like that! But also, what is the implication? If the child did NOT do whatever it was, that he is a BAD boy? I don't like how it's a universal, holisitic label. I have slightly less trouble with "good job!" except that I think it's used WAY too much. Most things in life are fun or just life, not jobs. "Good swinging!" I hear on the playground. I don't think a kid needs encouragement to keep HAVING FUN! Also, there is that pesky research that still shows too much praise just withers a child's inherent motivation and interest.

Kohn goes so far as to say that just being more discriminate in praising is not enough; there is always that implication that praise creates: you are only worthy when you act a certain way. And that's conditional parenting. I was really drawn to what he was saying when the idea of what he meant by unconditional parenting clicked in my head with the idea of unconditional love-- the love of family, of parents, and of God. Don't I, in my imperfectness, owe my own child as much unconditional love I can offer, when God gives it to me? Shouldn't THIS, rather than behaviorism and factories (and classrooms inspired by them) and governments and etc be my model for parenting?

Kohn elaborates on his ideology for parenting, expanding on how offering true respect for children's personhood and looking at the big picture for needs being met or not can help with the journey. But I really recommend that everyone read the book. I have done a very poor job touching on a few small parts of it. It's the kind of book I could reread yearly, just to stay in touch with the ideas in it. I think Kohn's writing is intelligent and research-based but still very accessible and dabbled with humor. And, hey! There's also a DVD that's supposed to be wonderful, too, if you/your partner doesn't want to read a whole book! :)

Unconditional Parenting

Alfie Kohn's site

August Already!

2008-08-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

Whew, at least I don't have to get all bummed out about going back to work on the 18th (!!!) of August like I did when I was teaching. That's too early, man. What happened to Labor Day and then school? Well, we do get a whole week for Thanksgiving, which ROCKS.

And wow, Dashing Daddy taking over "my" laptop for his new business (see: Collector's Neighborhood !!! WOW!! Don't you want to tell your friends and visit it every day and click through and leave comments and get ready for the forums and awesome tools and etc etc etc??? Yeah, I know you do!) ahem, anyway... that has sure impeded my ability to update this blog. I once again have to think of all the things I'd love to post, and then forget them all as the days pass. I will try to give an update on the wonderful girl here, in Cliff's Notes form.

She has been pretty cranky and "fragile" the past two days, although up until then I'd say (and I did, I did say to a few of you!) that she was wonderfully fun and curious and crazy and calm.... I know she is teething up a storm. One new tooth appeared last week and I know the second is coming, which will bring it to eight when it shows.

She pretty much knows the alphabet. She demands that we sing the ABCs while pointing to each letter and loves her purple electronic book thingy that her (second? once-removed?) cousins Adam and Noah handed down to her. She especially has a fondness for "dough duh doo" (W) and "OOOOO". But really she's mad for letters. I've said it before: she's a tad scary. There were two copies of the alphabet carved into the sides of the tower at the top of the slide on Wednesday, and she insisted on stopping awhile to read them both, darting back and forth between them. Pretty cute. She also can read several more words but we don't spend too much time on that. We are on to reading longer story books now; she is still madly in love with "Saaaahm"/"Blah"/"Greeeeeeeeen" (Green Eggs and Ham) and now also Where the Wild Things Are and a bunch of others.

Hee hee, I have been away from this post for a couple hours, because she dragged me away to read Hippos Go Berserk ("Bazerk? Bazerk!") and then My Granny Went to Market like five times. Did you know there is a panda on page four? And a WATERMELON on page two!!! It was very exciting the third time through when we started such discoveries.

I really enjoy that Sophie and I can have little conversations. Tonight as I was nursing her down, she started chatting in that "I'm processing the day and closing things out and want to snuggle a few more minutes" kind of way, and she started talking about DaDa, and I reminded her he was out with his friends, and she asked about babies (because we go in the car and there are other babies there, at playgroup etc, so she has been saying this nonstop when we get ready to go places) and I said, no, no babies. Daddy's friends. And she said and signed girls? And I said, no, boys. And laughed to myself that he better not be hanging out with any girls (besides other wives of the softball players on this team, and possibly his sister!)

And we have little conversations like that all the time now. I'll say, let's get ready to go to the park and she'll say car, babies, swing! Or I'll say, maybe we'll go to the bookstore, and she'll say, Miles! (her little baby friend we often run into there) and then Choo choo! (the train table at B&N!).

Today we went swimming at our playgroup mama friend JL's pool and at first Sophie was very anti-pool (it's just a giant bathtub, Mama. You seriously expect me to go for this? She HATES baths right now!) but gradually she got comfortable with it and by the end she was laughing and SO excited to be totally swimming with Mama. (It was our second time swimming and it's been a while.) But it's nice that she can communicate with me, so I can ask if she wants to try out the pool and she can say splash if she wants to just stick her hand in, and no and all done if she wants to stay out or get out. She's also REALLY good about asking for help! help! with the sign when she gets stuck with a toy or can't reach it or something.

She's not been very excited about sitting and eating like she was a week ago, but is content to sit on my lap and pick up pieces of whatever I'm eating, so I have spent a lot of today sitting at the computer and eating token frozen peas and corn, and holding her in my lap while I eat a burrito and she eats the beans. She eats pretty darn well out and about at the park, though. Wednesday she ate a ton at playgroup!

Ah what else, what else.... she loves to tickle tickle. She's REALLY into giving kisses, so get ready for that if you come near her! She is also great about giving a kiss if she is rough with someone/something (sometimes a preemptive kiss before throwing a doll on the floor, lol. But what can you expect a kid to learn with the government setting that example these days?) She has been saying sorry a LOT mostly when she is startled, I think b/c I say it when I startle her. She'll figure out the use eventually, but for now it is sweetly pathetic. "It's okay, baby, you don't have to say sorry!" Aw!

She knows her colors pretty much. She was in love with orange for a few days but today it was green! all day long. I think because she was finally figuring those two out. Now she is also obsessed with circles, and points to everything and says circle and waits for me to say yes or no. She has known triangle for ages and ages so we'll see if she gets circle soon or later.

She loves counting and will go get her other counting books one after another if you read one of them. She recognizes the numerals for one and sometimes two and five and six and maybe ten. She loves to say six! I think because she thought we were saying sick/s, which she remembers from The Foot Book and mama's dreadful week of disgusting sickness. She totally digs having Mama hold her finger and help her count all the animals in her counting safari book.

She also loves to tell me that she pooped and have me lay her across my lap and check and say, "There's NO poop in this diaper!" I don't know if she loves the cuddles or the sly joke!

We are gradually moving bedtime a bit earlier by trying to get naptime earlier. It's working pretty well already. Dashing Daddy and I even got to watch a bit of recorded TV and a few netflix movies this week!

I am off to do the dishes before I have to move my laundry and start another load. Yeah, it's ten PM, what? We have some lovely downtime this Friday/weekend, then we parents and also spouses will celebrate our sixth (six! sicks!) wedding anniversary (ten years together this October!) and even go out to dinner sans Sophie (for the very first time ever ever ever away from her together!), and then the train of house guests start (YAY! I am so looking forward to everyone getting time with the awesome kid and her getting to give you all kisses... she LOVES looking at all our pictures and naming you all!). It'll be nonstop but fun for the rest of the month, and even a bit beyond!

Comic-Con

2008-07-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

So we went to the Con yesterday... and it was SO much fun!

We took the trolley over from Qualcom and it wasn't too crowded yet when we got there. We got our badges and scoped out the upstairs a bit, preparing for when we came back up for the programming we were hoping to catch, and then hit the floor. We were lucky to start on the end that was way less crowded, with lots of comic book vendors and the publishing house booths. I finally scored a replacement for my To Say Nothing of the Dog at Mysterious Galaxy books, and got a free book from Dell Ray. Not bad!

We split up because it was going to be too crazy to keep together and meander. Good thing, because the kid wanted to take a break almost immediately. A father with probably a ten year old daughter stopped by to say what a great tradition we were starting by bringing SS, and that he had been bringing his for four years. Then we launched back into the fray. SS loved looking at all the pictures and people... especially the picture of Kung Fu Panda. The rest of the day she kept asking for "Panda? PANDDA?" But she also dug the giant inflated Pikachu (sp?) because it looked like it was sticking out its tongue, and the giant inflated Nickelodeon ball, and the cool funky lights of the SciFi channel booth. That end of the hall was a complete crush, though. People were all lined up around a lot of the booths, but there was no way to tell for what, and it was so crowded you could barely move, or you couldn't stop moving if you were in a stream of people going one way. We soon returned to the joys of seeing stuffed monkeys over at the other end of the hall.

Before too long we met back up with Dashing Daddy and Grandpa, and grabbed some early lunch, thinking (rightly) that we wouldn't have a chance to eat anything later. Then I dashed off to the Connie Willis talk. I caught the end of the preceding talk about comic book author/illustrators, and it was interesting. Then I grabbed a front seat for Connie. She was funny, inspiring, articulate, and wonderful. I left the talk reluctantly, as she said she would probably sign in the hall right then... but good thing I did, as when I called Dashing Daddy he told me he, the kid, Grandpa, and our friends Ethan and Meredith were about to get into Ballroom 20 for the Joss Whedon panel. I then felt like I was in a Connie Willis book... specific, Passage, where the main character can't get through the hallways of the hospital. I was turned back by events staff and turned around by the confusing hallways, and crushed among all the attendees. Finally I made it over to the Ballroom and DD (with the kid asleep on his back) had a reentry ticket he was going to pass to me... but the woman in charge was a bit distracted by someone else while we were trying to pass the sleeping baby to me, and I just grabbed my hubby and dragged him in with me. We all got to go in! So I got a quick hug from Ethan and Meredith and then out cam Joss, Nathan Fillon, Neil Patrick Harris, and the rest of the Dr. Horrible crew. They were wonderful and funny. NPH and Fillon opened with a bit where Capt Hammer pulled out Dr. H's chair from under him... and at the end, they did it reversed. The word is there will hopefully be more Dr. H coming out, and generally more of this form of media creation/distribution (without those studio folks who keep cancelling Joss' great shows!).

We stayed for the American Dad panel (with many of our favorite actors) and the Family guy panel (with Seth Green!) and we got to see some episodes. Then DD and Grandpa went off for more work stuff and I stayed for most of the Bones panel. We got to see a huge chunk of a new episode and then many cast members came out to talk. I ran off with a sleeping baby (she had been up for most of the time in there, as we moved closer and closer to the front each panel, but she woke up again when we left) to get to the signing with Connie. After all I went through to get a book for her to sign, they were giving away copies of Passage that she was signing. After that, I could not believe I had managed to do EVERY thing I wanted to do. Wow! I was elated when we we inside the ballroom, but by 6pm I was flush with pop culture contentment. We hung around while the boys finished up with work stuff and then decided to get dinner in the Gaslamp while the line for the trolley calmed down. We ate at Aqua 2 and who should show up but Ethan and Meredith? So we got to chat with Ethan a bit more while he was waiting to order at his table with his Hollywood pals, and Sophie got to see Meredith (as she was awake) and a great meal. And we sat on the patio so we had a great view of all the funky folk walking from the Con to the parking lots. As we walked back up to the trolley a huge flock of nerds on bikes came charging through the Gaslamp, hollering and whooping, and we all cheered for them. We got on the trolley and made our way back to the car (with the kid in silly form, asking to be tickled the whole ride). She nursed and conked pretty soon into the drive home. I admit I dozed a bit myself. Soon after coming home we adults also conked; it was a long, full day. But we agreed it was insanely fun and we had a great time!

Damn, you, Comic Con!

2008-07-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

So we're going to Comic Con this year, finally... and I can't believe that both Connie Willis and Joss Whedon are going to be doing their things on the day we are happening to go... one right after another, NOT in the same room.

WHHHHHHY???????

I am SO tempted to try to get into the Whedon show, because it would have the cast of Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, plus info on all things Whedon... BUT I have to figure that there will be other chances to see Joss in San Diego, whereas Connie Willis is a special treat. And a super favorite author of mine. To Say Nothing of the Dog is the perfect book. (For the record, so are American Gods, The Bean Trees, The Beekeeper's Apprentice... there are many perfect books but not SO many that I can say "forget seeing Connie Willis!"). I figure it'll be way easier to get in to see Willis, too, whereas the other event will be crazy, too crazy for a CC newb. With a baby on her back.

If only they were at least a few hours apart, I could hope. As it is, I'll probably line up as early as I need to to see Willis, then when that's done (she's probably not doing autographs as there's an event the night before for that... but I will bring my book anyway... oh right, il Trebor lost it! LOL, well, Doomsday Book maybe) and then head over to the other thing and see if I can peak in or something... yeah right!

There's also a Seth McFarlane/Seth Green thing in the same room after that, so MAN I want to do that... but I gotta go with the novelist. Otherwise, Dashing Daddy is going for work research, so it should just be fun open time to wander around and see lots of crazy stuff! We're also looking forward to meeting up with a certain movie-making friend of Dashing Daddy's (hey, EW, any way you can get me into Ballroom 20 at will? Any magic powers?). Should be fun!

35

2008-07-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, I finally have searched deep into my soul, consulted the wise philosophers of life's dark and light times, and I have found the upside of being terribly, horribly, PAINFULLY sick for a full week (as in, sick in bed in so much pain I could barely stand just to lay there, let alone swallow, let alone sip water... it was like Satan was kicking me in the ear, through my jawbone, and into my throat. The left side of my head and cheek were throbbing all Wednesday night! But, er, on to the bright side, as I said... I'm OVER all that... no more whining!)... the evil cold (ha! "cold") from Hell with its sore throat pushed me over a few more pounds to a new milestone:

Since a week or so into January (so not quite 6 months), I have lost 35 lbs.

Whoohoo!!! I am almost back down to pre-baby weight. Probably I am if you only count this baby and not the immediately preceding pregnancy/miscarriage/ice cream and chocolate and movies in bed for two weeks. I still am going to keep going until I hit a really healthy weight or it's time to get pregnant again, but I'm starting to feel really good about getting to a good starting weight before that time comes! Yay!

TF has just spent a huge chunk of time sitting in her chair eating peas, delightedly signing and saying "peas" every time I walk by. And asking for more five times or so!

The house is slowing crawling back to semi-clean after all the sickness. I figure we'll get it back to tolerable, and then the next time we clean everything we can go deeper, instead of killing myself now when I'm not 100% quite yet.

She has also been demanding to see pictures of her godfather, il Trebor! I printed up a bunch of pics to put in a book for her, of lots of loved ones, but having that big mug flashing across the big computer screen is all that will satisfy her sometimes. She also loves to list some of the people she loves: T! (her uncle), "Meysh" (her aunt), and "baddan!" (her other uncle). She woke up saying T one day a couple weeks ago, and went on to list all three, and ever since then it's fun little game. She loves to see pictures of all those wild and crazy family members, too. She also can recognize her Papa and Nonna in pics, of course, and Bimi.

She very sweetly gave many kisses to Grandpa on Friday. We were celebrating Dashing Daddy's belated Independence Day (it was the last of his two weeks' notice). I hung a banner made of manila folders and paper clips, with label dots for a festive touch, to celebrate his starting his own business.

Um... I need to get pics up, but I need to get cameras charged.

What else is new... the girl can read Mommy now, too. And eyes and toes, somewhat consistently. And she started reading letters on store signs while we were out last night... L! T! (Linens N Things had a great sale on tubs for cramming baby clothes into...). She walks over to where we keep the big print words and tries to get them, and demands, "reeead?" She loves counting to two as well. And she's just about got her colors down... green is still tricky and the Rubic's cube doesn't offer any purple practice, altho she loves to say black and brown, too. I like how she does white like she's wiping across her body and forehead, very enthusiastically. She really loves when we read her new Barefoot Books, so thanks MPK! She is OBSESSED with the photo picture book I got her for the car and says "kick, jump, stretch, HUUUUUG, sad" and etc nonstop all day... two of her new favorite words are Bow (because when Mommy bows it's hilarious, apparently) and Crocodile (of the Lyle, Lyle variety).

We're setting off on a whole new family routine, of Dashing Daddy at home in the upstairs office we put together for him, on my (former) laptop. I'm fussing about trying to turn this computer into a noveling station for myself. I set up my ancient awful webcam but still need to find the mike for Sykpe (please, Bad Dan, find me a webcam for my PC!). I hung up the silver magnetic board from Ikea and now I think it just makes the big living room wall look messy. Too busy. Too much. And I think I had convinced myself it was dry erase and now I'm bummed it's not. Blah. But it'll be interesting to see how things go in this new season of life together!

Moving to the next stage

2008-07-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

It's so hard seeing my baby cry, but she's solidly into toddlerhood now and we're trying to shift our habits a bit from responding to baby needs to sometimes delaying and saying no to a toddler. Like when she was a wee baby, we tried to focus not just on her, but on living our adult (er, ya know, aspiring to adult) lives, and letting her observe. But we've had to keep more of an eye on her as she got more and more mobile, in this crazy modern world. So it's a good time to renew our commitment to "life-centered" living, now that she really has a good sense of herself and her world.

I've been rolling these thoughts around in my mind lately: how do we transition from that baby phase where she only had needs to a new phase where sometimes we have to delay or say no? We don't want to tell her that her needs are not important, but we also want her to get a sense of how things work for the whole family. I think she got a lot of this while at Nonna's home child care while we were visiting, when she had to wait for beloved Nonna to finish work, and play with lots of other children. I also know kids tend to act needier with Mommy than others; she's been a trooper while I've been sick, that's for sure! Anyway, as I'm rambling on here... I enjoyed skimming (in my sick stupor) these two articles today. I didn't love the woo-woo metaphor of blockage in the first one, but I like the idea. And the second one speaks to my strong impulse to be active with the toddler either learning by my side or playing on her own. That's hard when she's really on her own; I wish we had kids to call right over from next door for her to play with at the drop of a hat! Or a sibling! ;) Anyway, this is all ideal, but speaking to other moms I get the sense that we're on the right track. It really has just been a matter of building new habits.

Cry for Connection: A Fresh Approach to Tantrums

Who's in Control?

Now I Know My ABCs....

2008-07-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

We are sick, by the way, the girlchild and I. I felt like utter death all weekend and now she's snotty as all get-out and pretty miserable. I think she had this cold first, tho.

So this morning I plop her down and she goes for her bath letters. She starts saying "lll lll lll" so I find the L for her, and she gets excited. Then she proceeds to say the name or sound for several other letters. She knows B, W, M, P, L, O, T, H, and maybe K and U... I didn't pay perfect attention (hey, I'm sick) but it was pretty impressive to me. Then she kept asking "whatsthat?" and she's doing it again, now... she's adamant that I tell her all the letters she doesn't know yet.

Aw, poor sickie, I think the energy post-nap has worn off already! Gotta go cuddle....

Keeping Homebirth as an Option

2008-07-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well, Dashing Daddy has ONE more week working for the Man, before cutting loose and working for himself (developing his own website--just as Thomas Jefferson imagined the individual self-supporting American!). And we're going to set up some COBRA for insurance but if things take off, we'll have to leap into individual insurance-- not a pretty world, I gather. There's only one doctor (a certain "Dr. Wonderful" as he's known on the interwebz) I care to have during the next several (childbearing) years, so as long as I can see him and go to the hospital around the corner (makes it easy to show up in transition), I'm good. Insurance is otherwise to keep up from losing our home if we get hit by a bus, IMO. But if it turns out that it would actually be cheaper to do so, we could end up even doing homebirths down the line.

Which is why articles (well, not the articles but the facts in them) tick me off.

Big Medicine's blowback on homebirths

Also, a lot of women do not have access to Dr. Wonderfuls or baby friendly hospitals. Heck, home birth is still illegal in some states!!! With doctors ignoring science, pushing drugs that are not approved for birth, pushing inductions and sections to time births better for their holidays and TV watching... we need to have the options of opting out. I'm lucky in that my state allows homebirth (altho there has been gross mistreatment of midwives right here in Cali) and there are LOTS of choices of midwives in my area. It's nice to know that if I so choose, I have that option. Although, for me, it's hard to turn away from what worked so well last time. I did detest being in the hospital afterwards, tho.

Anyway, here's another good article outlining just some of the shocking details about maternal mortality (on the rise in the US-- we have one of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality of any "first world" or even moderately developed country-- hmmm!!!!!!): Revealing the Real Risks: Obstetrical Interventions and Maternal Mortality

It's the science, stupid: the facts don't lie. Interventions lead to increased deaths of mamas and babies. Who wouldn't want to be able to opt out?

The Notebook is Full...

2008-07-10T23:15:00.000-07:00

And that means I need to move on to the next stage of writing, I suppose. I think it's going to involve lots of notecards taped to the wall, binders, sporks and tissues. And maybe even a little writing.

Seriously, I have my three books outlined (and two of them partly written). I have themes that seem to evolve marvelously from book to book. Character arcs that intertwine and twang against each other. A growing cast of characters. A magillion quotations from Women Who Run with the Wolves copied in my notebook for future inspiration (mostly I read that book and say, "WHAT? How does this woman know what's in my mind and soul? How do these folk tales from random cultures know? Maybe Yeats was right! No, no, Yeats canNOT have been right, the kook... hmm...."

So where do I go from here?

I guess I finish reading my inspiration books. I gather maps of the southwest US and botanical information on said locale. I reread what I have written (that's where the sporks and tissues come in I bet) and remind myself I wrote it all during NaNoWriMo and KNEW plenty of it was placeholding filler crap at the time. I figure out what character development I still need to play around with, and what organizational methods I still need to try out, in terms of plotting out story and character STUFF that is threatening to come spilling off the pages of my notebook, a million inked letters spilling off the page like letters are wont to do in the PBS show Word World (which we only watch for five minutes while I file the baby's nails... that's right, my baby gets a mani and TV... full baby spa service!).

And I figure out WHERE I want to start writing (rewrite book one? Jump back into book two, where I left off or reworking things a bit, since that one ended when I was too frustrated and too busy nursing the baby so often to type?). And then....

WRITE!

I want prizes!

2008-07-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hell yes (as they say in the UCD Band-uh) I would like a suite of slings and other goodies...

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

San Diego is jumping on the Greenwagon...and tangental ramblings

2008-07-08T17:06:00.000-07:00

San Diego Goes Green

But I feel that we could do a really good job making big-impact changes here. We have the surfer/funky/crunchy culture going on, we made a big deal in the industries that we set out to grow here... it seems very possible and a good fit. Now if we could just get over the whole bankrupt/corrupt thing we've been rocking the last few years....

I'm very proud that a local group of Greenpeace is operating in North County and trying to have an effect on the current campaign, to let the possible local and national officeholders know they need to respond to the green demands of their constituents. And Encinitas itself is moving closer and closer to banning plastic bags (thanks in great part to the Surfrider association), which would be AWESOME. I forget my cloth bag occasionally (or forget to speak up the five times it takes to get checkers to avoid giving me a plastic bag, when I DO have a bag on hand), but MAN we've cut down on the number of plastic bags coming into our house. It's probably been like five bags (from any store-- grocery, Target, clothes shopping, etc.) in the past two or three months.

I feel especially good about this after seeing the pictures of masses and masses of plastic bags (headed for recycling at least) in the new Green Guide put out by National Geographic. Whew! Plastic is forever; it doesn't biodegrade, and it uses oil! The Green Guide, by the way, really impressed me, as a mainstream publication that actually seems to be of the mindset that making environmental and healthy choices might mean more than agreeing with whatever the FDA currently says and buying more and more products so long as they are somewhat "green." Granted, they do admit (at least they admit it!) that they are focused on consumer products, but overall I found the magazine more focused on things you're likely to buy no matter what, and helping you make the best choice, rather than showing off a bunch of stuff you don't need and telling you to buy buy buy because it's green. I found the magazine useful and not obnoxious and that's rare for environmental info out in the mainstream lately, so I give it my approval. I think people starting from scratch when it comes to going green would find it accessible and very informative!

Well this veered here and there, didn't it? Anyway, the lovebug has yet to nap today, so I am just trying to get her down for the night soon soon soon here, I hope! Poor thing!

Independence Day

2008-07-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

Independence Day was technically Friday, but for our family it's still going... Dashing Daddy is officially quitting tomorrow! He is already coding away at his new endeavor (top secret, sorry!) and will be done with his final two weeks in, erm, two weeks, and will then be free of his job (I just deleted my comments on this... let's just say "his job" and you can imagine all the adjectives and modifying clauses I COULD type up about it). I am so happy and excited for him. He's putting me to work soon, too, so I get to be useful. It's rather funny as he sits at the computer doing market research on his project, and I sit on the couch across the room researching myths and things and brainstorming ideas for MY project (my books, which are coming along a great deal recently, thank you!), and our toddler runs around playing like mad on the carpet between us. Lights down on this Happy Domestic Family, as the keyboard, popper toy, and scribbling noises fade. And... SCENE.

The baby had a fabulous time at the fair last night, laughing heartily at the idiots who climbed into a giant ball and bounced through the air for our amusement. She was mesmerized by the man playing the Chad Stick or whatever the instrument is called, and she loved the animals (Moo! Baa! Goat! Bunny! Gobble gobble! Boc boc boc!) and the lights and kiddie rides (watching them-- we decided she was too little for rides yet). She happily cavorted with her grandparents and Auntie Em. And Dashing Daddy and Grandpa even did some research on the new business's field, so it's all a tax write off! Even the delicious, evil fried food and cinnamon rolls!

I really meant to write a post about our trip to the hometown, which was awesome, but it will have to wait until I get all the pics on the computer (and until I am writing on the computer with all the pics... the network is just too slow for this mama. But the Sweet Granddaughter did indeed have a fun time really falling in love with her mama's family and playing with the daycare kids and running amok in all kind of new places.

So whaddaya say NOW, FDA?

2008-07-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

In the article in my last post, the FDA claimed no good studies proved food dyes affect children adversely.

Well... "Food Additives and Hyperactive Behavior" in the Lancet this month would seem to add to the studies (that aren't good enough for the FDA, or the food industry lobbyists rather) that show us the harmful effects of these artificial food dyes.

Get this stuff OUT of our food! We're talking about kids here.

I'm flummoxed by realizing how much in the mainstream grocery store is not food (and I'm not talking about the packaging or the laundry aisle, either). I'm love how Michael Pollan puts it so simply (and this is our rule already): "Eat food." *hysterical laughter* Wait, DON'T eat petroleum and known carcinogens and hormone disruptors???

I feel so sorry for the kids made to feel bad in school and put on drugs to cure what could simply be a diet thing.

Yeesh

2008-06-18T15:46:00.001-07:00

Once again, the kick in the pants we need to keep to real, whole foods...

Group requests FDA ban food dyes

Yum, tar coal!

I'm out for a trip home... I'll be online but on a totally different routine I'm sure....

In Which Our Heroine Attempts to Pack a Week's Worth of Clothes into a Thimble

2008-06-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Figuratively. As in, I need to catch up on the blog, squeeze all the happenings into this post.

And as in, packing for TF and Mommy's trip to ye olde hometowne. So far I have a huge pile of clothes on the guest bed.

Nah, I'm a bit organized for the trip. I've learned by now it's the one way to get things done w/o running around like MAD, being late, and simply not getting things done... altho we do plenty of that around here, too.

Anyway, what have we been up to this month?

Ok, now I'm typing one-handedly...

We took TF to the Wild Animal Park-- a lovely drive on the backroads there, many hilarious (to TF) birds, and some very neat creatures... hogs (and baby hogs!), tiny deer, monkeys swinging (and baby nursing!), giraffes, lions, rhinos, etc etc. All good fun. Pics up soon!

Dashing Daddy is job hunting again... and working more than ever on starting his own company. Can't blame him! He's too smart and too hardworking to put up with the clowns in charge at most places. It's one thing to be in your own classroom and only have to deal with the folks in admin occassionally; it's got to be another to have your job revolve around their clowniness....

TF can read. Yeah. She was telling me the sounds of the letters on the carpet at the library (first she did "wwwah" for the HUGE W and I thought it was cute that she could tell it was a letter, as she does that reading bit only for real lettering... but she says wwah for ALL letters, lol... but then she said OOOO for the O, and B for the B.... and I promptly felt very afraid! LOL). So we printed some words in very large letters in bright red on some cut up posterboard, so she could see the words, as we were told this was easiest for lil kids (and we could see if she knew them w/o illustrations) and BAM, a week later she's reading six words or so.... ball, bird, book, cat, dog, car.... I know I'm the Mommy and probably sound insufferably snotty, but it's pretty stunning. I am so proud of my girl! Not even 14 months old yet! We just read the words to her at first, but on Sunday, father's day, we asked her about them and she read! I'll try to get it on camera, b/c dang, it's adorable. Next week we read Vanity Fair together... lol. But I am looking forward to sharing so many great books with her, when she's much older. For now, it was something that she was clearly very interested in, and finds fun.

She's also doing new cute things... she loves things that are upside down.... she loves making the sign for owl (but on her mouth, extra cute) and a lil hoo hoo sound... she's figured out it's hilarious to pretend to give something to mommy, the to daddy, over and over again-- teaser! or just run away screaming with laughter. She loves music... her obsession is to say more more more more more more... until you sing the right song... certain books mean certain songs... like the busy hand book = itsy bitsy spider, the moo ba lalala book = old mcdonald, and of course the ABC book... or she'll see ABC anywhere and go "BBB!" And she'll go lalala for the lalala lemon song... she loooooves barenaked ladies' kids music.'

ok my one hand is tired now! as you can tell. more from the road soon I hope! we are getting to see one of my oldest friends marry another friend from junior high! Super excited about that. And just being with my family and old haunts. We are very sad for daddy tho. So there will lots of pic we hope!

Crossing over to the dark side...

2008-06-12T19:56:00.002-07:00

I bought a stroller today.

More coming soon! (Including pictures I hope!)

Shaping Up

2008-06-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

Here's someone else's pic of the same toy:

I went out and bought TF a shape sorter a few weeks ago, and b/c my good friend highly recommended it, I got the Melissa and Doug one from our local toy shop, even tho I kind of avoid that brand for various reasons (I also got the dollhouse, too, tho! Too sweet! A neighbor had given Sophie an old house and it was built for all these oddly shaped dolls we didn't have (and I don't want her playing with the actual "Little People" b/c of the pthalates in the soft plastic), so I just got her a new one since she loved playing with the house). Anyway, the next day I read online how all these people hated the toy b/c of the top falling off and the shapes being confusing and all this stuff... whatever, Sophie loved putting the blocks in and taking them out (of the big opened top). Good container play fun, right?

Well, tonight she suddenly got it! I showed her the star block and star hole earlier today, so maybe something clicked... she got that one in, and then a bunch of others. She would get really frustrated and toss the block and swing her hands around and hit the block on her head... yikes! But soon she figured out just to give the block to mommy and I'd do it, so she got to see it go in, and then she'd try it again. She did it a bunch and it was so cute when she went, "Ididit!" like she does (normally she says this when just placing the block on any old hole, or a puzzle piece on any gap on the puzzle board-- really funny. And it was really funny she she made me do a block and then said "yooodidit!"). I'm glad for her b/c I am terrible terrible terrible at spatial stuff so maybe she'll fare better! Anyway, Dashing Daddy and I had a lot of fun playing with her and then reading a baby faces book ten times, lol. She totally remembers what each book is about, and makes the faces of each baby (happy, sad, surprised, laughing--throwing her head way back like I taught her by overacting, typically, lol).

She still loves to say "noooo" and "no no no no" and "red" for almost any question these days. Reading letters, if she starts it she still goes P P P but if I ask, today it all says W W W (I AM reading Women Who Run With the Wolves and she likes reading the What in Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See, so it's been coming up).

She's kinda scary sometimes. But sooo much fun to chase around the living room giving kisses! She gave Daddy a hug and a kiss tonight when I prompted her! Awww!

You Know, For Kids!

2008-06-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

I just was given a great idea for clean up time and I want to jot it down for when TF is older. The idea is this: Throw down a hula hoop and pick up and put away everything inside it, then repeat until the floor is cleaned up! Helps little kids focus in a potentially overwhelming task.

And if you don't get the title, you must go netflix the Coen bros' Hudsucker Proxy :)

Booking Along

2008-06-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

So I have made a lot of progress, at least in getting back into the world of my novels. I haven't reviewed much of the information I have on my computer (as in, my two started drafts and tons of typed notes), but my notebook and I have gotten reacquainted and very friendly, mostly as TF runs around up and down the path outside, or while she plays with Daddy on the floor. I found my ultimate ending to the third book, which is exciting and scary. That's most of what I have in book three, too, so I still have a ways to go, building backwards for the benefit of book two, and then back into book one. I finally got some concrete ideas for expanding book one down, which is lovely, as I had an abundance of ideas for book two, which was making book one look more anemic than ever.

I am still terrified that my writing is plodding and my dialog is atrocious.

I am still going.

Why Lansinoh is Heaven-Sent

2008-05-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

Let your pregnant/nursing friends know: watch out what they use for nipple soreness.

I personally only used Lansinoh (for the first few days I had some soreness and blistering-- I guess that's a testimony to how well it works b/c I was FINE after a very small bit of soreness--one tube wasn't too pricey and used a minuscule percent of it!). It's very very very careful about the sources of its product, ensuring it is utterly pure. That way you really don't have to worry (while caring for a newborn!) about removing it (what does that mean? scrubbing sore nipples with soap??? That would dry them out and, oh yeah, hurt!) before nursing. It's the only product recommended by La Leche League because of this true promise of purity. I have some stuff from Earth Mama Angel Baby that I would use if I wanted something different and was in a situation where I could be sure to clean it all off, but that company is very careful about using only basic natural ingredients. I can't imagine putting long chemical sounding (probably derived from petrolium--what isn't?) stuff on my baby's food source! So I hope people see this warning (hey, if the FDA is concerned, it must be REALLY bad!) and stick with the stuff that won't risk their tiny new babies.

Back to the Book

2008-05-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

I started in again on Book Two of my fantasy trilogy. I've been thinking about it for a few weeks, and finally I decided to see if I can work some writing into my days. Ultimately I figured that Sophie is clearly doing very well, and I might as well assume that I AM the luckiest woman alive and put some of that luck towards my writing.

I'm trying to figure out where to jump in. I usually novel by NaNo, but I find that prep definitely helps (as well as leaving some room for spontaneous movements), so I am going to see if I can work out some broader vision while I have time. I know I need to go back and expand Book One, Demeter's Daughters. I have some ideas for Book Three and I might try to work out more details so I can build up to a big finish... or just leave it up in the air. I know a big cave figures in, at this point. Yeah.

Book Two (right now either Fall or The Bright Fall I think, rather than Brightness Falls which sounds like a NaNoism of the worst sort, looking back, altho that's what on the document title right now!) needs Books One and Three to get their act together before it can sort itself out. But it is something of a lovely mess. And that's really the point; I'm enjoying the mess of it all. I just want to wind up the plot a bit and let the characters go crazy, because the mythology of it all is worked out pretty well at this point. Now it needs some life. But that's what Shitty First Drafts are for (thank you, Anne Lamott, for giving me an excuse to swear when I just promised myself that I would stop 100%... writing doesn't count, right? TF is way too verbal to swear around, but she can't actually read yet so I should be safe.)

I also need to figure out if these are young adult books or not. It seems plenty of edgy topics are fine in YA these days so that's all right. I just need to decide that it's going to be YA and stick with it, because I keep jumping around. But my MC is only 17 when the books start, so I think it should be. Can you tell I am giving myself a talking to about this right now? :P

Okay, so I also need to finish some research/inspirational reading, which means some Women Who Run with the Wolves (which was awesome when I read some last fall) and some At the Root of this Longing (which looks interesting) and some Heroine's Journey (which I got at the library sale for cheap and hopefully won't suck; somebody took my Joseph Campbell from my classroom two years ago so I might go rebuy it... how can you not have Hero with a Thousand Faces in your house, huh? MAN that was a pain to get and pricey, last time... Oh well, you can't live without a lil Campbell on your shelf!)

Right now, tho, I think it's naptime. It was a miserable night with TF. I stayed up way too late (Pride and Prejudice was on twice in a row on cable... now, I own this DVD and watched in a few months ago, but still I kept it on for three hours while I brainstormed my cipher of a male MC into a thin but slightly more than two dimensional existence). And then TF clawed and flopped more than usual. If we do end up hitting the (miserable!) Padres game this afternoon, I want to have rested up. I will probably bring a book there anyway!

World Breastfeeding Week prep is kicking off

2008-05-23T22:42:00.001-07:00

La Leche League's World Breastfeeding Week preparations are underway. I don't know what I'm doing for it this year but I thought I'd share the info here so we can all start planning!

I especially like this page: Quotes (altho of course it should say quotations and it should phrase the stats as choosing formula increases risks, not BFing reduces risks, but ah well! I am picky about language on all fronts... except in my very casual blog! I am nursing half the time, remember!)

I'm just saying...

2008-05-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

Sophie loves to "read" Hop on Pop-- she'll point to the title of the book and go "Puh! Puh!" I guess because the title and the first two pages have a LOT of the P sound. So I started pointing out to her the letter P and making the sound, and then we started doing that just the past week with a bunch of letters. Mostly if you ask her, "What's that say?" and point to a letter she goes, "Puh! Puh!" but she only does this when she points to letters (not, say, little rows of stars decorating a book) so I figured that was good progress. But today she was looking at Snuggle Puppy and I was reading Kingsolver, all cuddled in the chair together, and I realize she's going "O! Ooo!" in the little voice she uses for "reading"... and she's pointing at the big O on the back cover of the book. Normally she'd say "ball" for a circle, so I am pretty amazed. There was no doubt she remembered from the last two days when I had thought to say "O" a couple times.

Um, I'm just saying... my baby can read!

Or at least is starting to get the idea of letters.

Of course, if I point and ask, she still goes, "Puh! Puh!" because that's the habit I guess, but on her own she can point out at least one letter and say the name/sound!

ETA: She did it again looking at the Boyton books at Barnes and Noble... she was saying O for the P, then when I showed her the book with the big O, and asked "What does that say?" she started to say P, but stopped, looked back at it, and said O before getting up to RUN around like crazy for two hours! My friend confirmed she totally read it. Or at least is familiar with those books, I admitted. But STILL!

Buon Compleanno, Nonna!

2008-05-21T22:12:00.001-07:00

Here it is, rather late in the day, but that's the interwebs for ya...

It's just a slice of life, so you can see what she's up to now. Watch the end for the best part! We took lots of videos today but the last one was best. Te amo e mi manchi! We (and your real giftie) will be there before you know it...

Encinitas Environment Day

2008-05-18T12:13:00.001-07:00

Get ready for our very own local festival!

Encinitas Environment Day

There's even an accompanying film festival:

Cottonwood Creak Environmental Film Fest

Assuming the girl is up for it, we'll be attending! Hope to see the local kindred spirits there as well. I am mostly posting this so I don't forget about it. Or lose the website link and then go on the wrong day. Not that I would EVER do anything like that. I certainly didn't go to the Earth Day fair on the wrong day. (To be fair, it wasn't even on Earth Day, so it's not like I forgot which day THAT was).

Thanks for Nothing, Big Brother

2008-05-18T10:07:00.001-07:00

See, this kind of thing is why I don't inherently trust government safety/regulatory/health agencies:

FDA defends BPA

Why is the burden to prove the substance is NOT safe, instead of the other way around? These things are leaching into our kids. Many studies show they, at very low level exposure to tiny people, are disrupting hormones, affecting development, fertility, etc, and then there's just the chemical poison side of things. And yet the FDA comes out with a statement at this time of media coverage of BPA specifically to defend BPA... yeah, poor lil BPA.

What about the BABIES? ("Please, won't someone think of the children!?!") But seriously, shouldn't that be our first priority? Why is it still safe until proven guilty, while babies (small and therefore more easily affected, and still developing) are left to bear the burden?

We stayed away from BPA for a long time already but I know a lot of people just learned about it recently... well, see how the FDA reacted to the news? Yeah, there ya go.

Ugh

2008-05-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

So what was my big Mother's Day present?

Roseola.

Yeah, TF had a fever Sunday (starting all night-- what a gift, eh?) so I got to stay home and tend to her. Monday and Tuesday, too. We figured chicken pox, as her lil friend had it start and she was exposed at the right time, but by Tuesday afternoon with fever and no spots, I decided it was time to take her to the doc, who announced it was an infection and she needed antibiotics (that would turn her poo red, no less!). Before we could fill the script, her fever broke and she was back to normal in terms of playing, sleeping (transferring, too). Wednesday I discovered she was still out of sorts and tired, and the rash started. Finally I figured it out, after a night of superstress and walking her and watching her sleep. My expert Mommy friend confirmed it and then I FINALLY learned two neighbors' kids also had it recently! So there you go. I was turning into a nonstop jabbering wreck worrying about her and trying to get us back into balance, but once we knew what it was, I began to dial it back a bit. Well, after I processed it for a lil bit.

So that's the planet I've been living on the past week. And I have one thing to say: UGH! Very little showering, less hair washing (I am detoxing my hair from overwashing, moving towards no-poo or at least a more balance routine), zero exercise , lots of eating whatever random food I can grab with one hand, with little regard for balance... it's like having a newborn again in a way. But she sleeps less peacefully! Yesterday when TF was crying at the park for Signing Time (what she's been doing when she's just wiped and feeling icky) I decided that was it, we would stay in our stagnant state and eat cereal and watch PBS all day. We are just trying to wait this out, and only AFTER I see she is 100% will we attempt to get back to our routine.

Altho the lack of routine or exercise or industrious activity is dragging me down. But everytime I break the rule I get smacked back down (three scrubbed red potatoes out of the half dozen I needed were sacrificed last night in an aborted attempt to use up the extra slowcooker chicken broth in a new Italian soup). Gotta be patient.

If only typing didn't wake the restless babe! I can stop and come back to the blog, but I wish wish wish I could work on my novel more consistently. That would be an activity I could do while she naps/nurses. I might try a system where I bounce between writing and researching, see if I can get a rhythm with her sleep cycles going....

It's almost the weekend! Mama bear wants some rest.

Scary, scary, scary!

2008-05-12T08:54:00.000-07:00

Um... one more reason to eat whole foods:

Major food companies are adding chemicals to their processed foods that actually turn your taste buds off, and they don't have to tell you on the label, just list "artificial flavors."

I've gotten to the point where even the vague "natural flavors" scares me, because it's more likely than not to be heavily processed corn or soy, produced by synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and extracted by industrial procedures. And I don't need much corn in my diet, and I think soy is starting to creep in too much, too (it IS an endocrine disrupter, afterall-- too much of certain soy can be bad, but someone forgot to tell the processed food companies... or rather, they DID try to tell them but they aren't listening).

Anyway, just one more kick in the pants to reach our goal of eating only "upfront" foods-- mostly whole foods and only processed foods that are upfront about what's in the packaging. Because like Kingsolver says, hard cheeses are hard :) And like I say, ice cream is necessary! And usually when you don't have time to make it yourself! And parents of toddlers sometimes just need convenience foods, admittedly. But it's becoming more and more evident that the slightly higher prices over at the health food store (where I still read labels carefully and leave plenty of the shelves with a laugh) are worth it, more than the hidden price of processed foods.

Belated Birthday Babblings

2008-05-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I had SO much fun celebrating Sophie's birthday that I had no time to post on the actual day... then I was gearing up for having my family in town and a party the weekend following, and so I still was too busy... and then it had been so long I insisted I not post a thing til I had time to get a good birthday post in for my girl!

We had a beautiful day; Dashing Daddy stayed home from work. We all got up together (not even too early) and went downstairs to discover Sophie's new bike! And we went out to breakfast, then all went to playgroup at the park. Sophie had lots of fun running around with Daddy, playing in the sand, and splashing in the fountain. After that it was time for a long nap, and later that day we went out to the toy store to get some birthday presents from far flung family who had sent checks, and new shoes. Then we went to another toy store to wait until it was time to meet up for dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, and then back home for some cupcakes and singing Happy Birthday.

It was an amazingly sweet day.

Sophie really enjoyed the weekend, too, because there were lots of people over at the house the whole time, and Nonna took her for walks a million times a day and let her play in the "soil" and taught her about birds. Everyone decorated party cups and hung crepe paper streamers and hauled out the alcohol, and viola, a birthday bash! Sophie loved spinning around hugging all her presents! My family had a yummy brunch on the gorgeous beach the next day, too. The only downside to the whole thing was when Sophie kept asking for Nonna for the next several days!

Well, that's a very abbreviated account of all the fun. Here's a much longer story: Sophie's birth story. I have been wanting to share this and I thought her birthday would be a good time. This is just the unedited ramblings of a sleep deprived new mom, so bare with me. I also used word's find-and-replace to change out people's names so that's why it says "OurDoula" for instance, lol.

So without further ado... The fully natural birth of Sophia Ann:

So I FINALLY just finished typing out Sophia's birth story. I sort of just typed out all I could remember (writing at intervals a week and more after her birth...) and it's sort of for my memory years from now as well as sharing online. So here it is!

Sophia Ann’s Birth Story

Around 3am (was it 2:30? Did I nod back off for a while? Let’s say around 3am), Monday morning I got up. Not unusual at this point in the pregnancy. But after using the rest room, I found myself unable to get comfortable and go back to sleep. I started chastising myself for keeping myself awake with the excitement that it could be birthing beginning, thinking it’d be nothing and I’d just end up having to nap all morning while I had errands to get done. I felt sort of crampy like a period or like an upset stomach, but multiple trips to the bathroom didn’t yield any improvement. I tried going online but could not get comfy in bed. I tried sitting on my birth ball, leaning onto the bed. I probably dozed a short time before 6am when DH’s alarm was set to go off. By this time I had started checking my toilet paper and there were streaks of pink showing. That was what assured me this was not just an upset stomach. I still felt unsure about how “real” this was going to be, as I had never felt any Braxton Hicks or anything. But when DH woke up at 6, I was beside him in bed, and pulled him over to me. He was a bit surprised at my pushiness but nuzzled up behind me, and I told him I didn’t think he could go to work that day. He had pleaded the previous Friday for the birth to come so he wouldn’t have to return the next week, and he got his wish just in time! I wondered if he should go off anyway, but we decided even if the birthing petered out for the time being, he wasn’t going anywhere!

We both took showers and shaved, preparing for perhaps a long day and lots of pictures soon! Around 8am we called our doula, (OurDoula), to let her know that things were getting started. She suggested we take a walk, so we did, just around our block. It was a beautiful day; it had rained in the night, and now the sun was out. Everything was glistening and fresh. Back at home, I did some Hypnobabies CDs and we even watched a DVR’d episode of House. DH got me the muffins out of the freezer and helped me drink lots of water. I was going to the bathroom to pee pretty nonstop, and I found that sitting on the toilet was my favorite place, whereas I was surprisingly uncomfortable sitting on the birth ball. I liked leaning/hanging on DH, too, so we sort of hugged/danced frequently. We went for another walk around 10. Things continued like this until around noon (DH was keeping track of my waves and even checked my cervix a few times, and he reported that things were getting more regular and frequent and moving along by around noon). Indeed, it was around this time that things got more intense. DH called OurDoula again at some point, I suppose, to let her know we were really doing this, and she suggested a bath to help me relax. DH drew my bath and it was very nice (funny, as that is very similar to how this whole pregnancy started…). At a certain point, DH suggested I really try to do my light switch (from HypnoBabies) so I sat in the green comfy chair and sort of managed to sleep and use my light switch to relax a while. Things were getting more and more intense, so I had DH call OurDoula and soon she was coming over. When she got to the house, I was kneeling in the nursery, leaning over the birth ball. She did some massaging and checked me out, and she said she thought I was at transition because the waves seemed to be getting erratic. I decided I wanted to go to the hospital at this time. DH got everything ready and OurDoula and I hung out upstairs, doing the same. He must have called Dr. B’s office to let them know the baby was coming at some point, too. Then DH drove me to the hospital, as I did my CD. It was nice to see the ocean as we came over the hill on Rancho Santa Fe, as waves were a major image for me in birthing, for birthing waves (contractions), waves of relaxation, visualizing waves on the beach relaxing me, the ocean and a forest on the shore as my safe special birthing place….

When we got there, it was so cute how he pushed the button and told them we were there to have a baby. We got in, had to do some paperwork at the counter (yikes! Glad we preregistered to avoid even more!) and then went to my room. I went to the bathroom and got into just my nighshirt and I could hear DH and OurDoula moving about the room setting it up, drawing the curtains, etc. DH went to park the car. I moved around the room, trying to decide where I was going to get comfy. I got on the bed and hung over the birth ball, and they ran a strip monitoring the baby’s heartbeat for about 20-30 minutes. It was only towards the end of this that I wanted to move, as I was tired. OurDoula was massaging me. So they said I was done and I lay down on the bed, on my side. I figured I’d rest a moment, but OurDoula would make me move around before too long. But in fact, I ended up staying right there for about two hours, and I basically slept my way to full dilation and effacement! The birthing waves were very intense at this point, and I had been vocalizing pretty loudly since before leaving home. So while I lay there, I would be fine through two or three waves, just going with them, and then there would be a big one and I’d vocalize, and even hang on to the bed handle, and OurDoula would massage my feet, which helped a lot. She also did this thing where she’s press in on my hips, which helped a lot at first, and later I’m sure it was still taking the edge off. But the feet being touched was a huge help for focusing down and out past my belly. I remember getting very cold and not being able to say I needed a blanket, worried I was tensing up from the cold. I finally got out “cold” and they got me one. DH was sitting at the side of the bed facing me. He and OurDoula told me later, since I didn’t know really what was going on, that I had pretty much been asleep for those two hours. Thank you, Hypnobabies! Also, OurDoula noted later that the nurses were using the handheld Doppler, not insisting that I move so they could use the belly belt to check on the baby, something she says she’s never seen them do before.

So OurDoula suggested at some point that I could push if I felt like it, and I tried it out, even though I didn’t feel an urge and wasn’t sure what I was doing. But I discovered that it could help take the edge off of the birthing waves, so I kept at it when I felt like it, and gradually I think I did feel an urge. They checked me to be sure it was okay to push, and I forget if Dr. B came in at some point… anyway, at some point he came in and checked me (again, not asking me to move but going with the position I was in, which OurDoula was impressed with) and told me the baby was right there and I could go ahead and push. I remember asking how long this part normally takes, just to get my head in the game for what was next (and OurDoula said while it varied, normally 1-3 hours). So I started pushing with each wave, and gradually the waves changes so that it was more an urge to push, not discomfort in the belly anymore. So I focused more and more on pushing. And the nurses gathered around—there was a shift change so I got two new ones but Julia stayed as well, so nice of her! (And the new nurse, Jaley --don’t know how to spell, it-- was SO nice and the next night mentioned how much she loved how we were trying different things….) And everyone was saying how strong I was and relaxed, and OurDoula was saying how I was trusting my body to do what it knew to do, and it got very dark and there was a spotlight just waiting for the baby’s entrance into the world, and it was very tribal and cavelike and magical, and I would open my eyes and see DH smiling at me, so happy. And also if I looked at Dr. B’s face I would be reassured that he was tuned in and all was well. Soon everyone was saying how much hair the baby had. So that gave me a sense of where we were—I had no idea the whole time if the baby was about to slide out or if I had a long way to go. It felt funny when Dr. B massaged me, I think, but hooray for no tearing! And everyone said I’d feel a lot of pressure and stretching, but really I just remember this tremendous overwhelming sense of the urge to push, and it was more like having to take a flying leap into a chasm, not pain or worry about stretching like I had imagined. I did feel at times I would turn inside out, though. And everyone encouraged me to breath, deep long breaths, since I guess I was not doing that too well, and to push longer and harder, but it was just encouragement, no counting. And the nurses and OurDoula held my left leg up to one side, and I even rested my foot on Dr. B’s shoulder, and it went on and on and at one point they told me to feel the baby’s head, and I have a vague impression of seeing curly wet hair, and later finally Dr. B told me not to push but just breath, and then the head came out, and the whole body, and they made me help pull her up on to me, and told me to do skin to skin, so I threw up my nightie, so now all my pictures have my boobs showing in them, and the baby was on my chest, and it was amazing, and then someone asked what it was, but I couldn’t tell as it was face down, and we wanted someone to really look and tell us so we didn’t get it wrong, and they checked and it was a girl! I said, “Sophie!” or Sophia or the like. And DH and I just looked at the sweet baby girl we had made.

I hung on to her, and I birthed the placenta in one push. Dr. B had me feel the cord to see it had stopped pulsing, and DH ended up cutting it. And before long I sat up with some help (maneuvering with Sophie on me) and we had our first nursing, with help from OurDoula especially. Dr. Biter had noted that we should have a Shakespeare quotation for the birth announcement, since it was Shakespeare’s birthday (and he knew that was totally awesome to us), but all I had was an e e cumming quotation from a poem, “I love you much most beautiful darling” that goes “sunlight and singing welcome your coming” but then I did say how about “like spring to the earth you are welcome hither” and we all just enjoyed how Sophie had come on the perfect day. Julia the nurse and Dr. B and then OurDoula took their leave. DH stayed close with Sophie as she was bathed and checked over. The nurses exclaimed that she basically stood up on her legs as they held her up, I remember. And then I heard that DH’s family was outside and so we should see them before moving rooms. It turned out they had been there for hours. So they came in and had two gift bags with balloons, one for a girl and one for a boy, and they asked which we wanted! It turned out Dr. B had seen them in the hall but he was careful to wait to tell them what it was, although he told them all was well with us. So we told them it was a girl and they looked at her, and DH called my mom to tell her the news, and I talked with her, and it’s true what I told her, that I couldn’t have done it without her example she had set for me; I trusted that it could and should be done this way because she had done so before me. Then I rested, and DH’s family held Sophie. Then they left to get us some food and get DH’s things that he had forgotten at home, and I got up and got cleaned up a bit and then sat in a wheel chair while the nurses finished some more things with Sophie, while DH stuck close to her still, and then we all went down the hall to our room, which thankfully was ours alone (no roommate!). So I settled into my bed, and DH brought everything of ours into our room, and we just enjoyed Sophie in her little bed.

And there begins a much longer story of our beginning times with Sophie… suffice it to say here that some of the details above may be a bit mixed up after such amazing experiences, and that we just love our little girl so much our hearts are bursting. Right afterwards, I was relieved that birthing was over, and elated at the accomplishment at the same time. Seriously, it was an empowering, awesome experience I am so grateful for, and looking back, I cherish it (it’s not nearly as scary as people say it will be or show it on TV! It is SO very much something different…qualitatively different). And it’s amazing to be on the other side of that experience, to own it, because a woman can’t really get it until she had lived it. Ultimately, I’m both grateful and feeling sort of “of course” that the whole thing went as smoothly as it did; I stopped to be grateful afterwards, but in the moment, it seemed natural that I was deemed ready to push when I felt ready, and that things progressed well, and that Sophie emerged just fine. It was a both a sublime (as in overwhelming, tremendous, awesome) and a wholesome experience, like I was just walking a path that was strangely familiar, that all the women before me have walked.

If you know me IRL...

2008-04-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

...Do me a favor and keep your eyes out for Foogo straw water bottles. They are tall skinny water bottles with a hard straw that pops out of the top, not a traditional sippy cup. Sophie does best with straws right now (the normal kind, not the kind the kid has to bite to draw water), and this fits the bill as well as being safe of toxic plastics. I hear they have them at Target but everywhere I've looked online is out of stock. If you see any, grab them and I will reimburse you! I'd take several! Blue or pink or both, whatever. I figure it's worth a shot to ask. Man, safe toddler cups are hard to come by these days! The Safe Sippy is out of stock everywhere, too. I figure at this rate Sophie will be drinking out of (lead-free, of course) crystal wine glasses before we get our hands on a good cup. I'm trying to decide if it's worth ordering some anyway, or if by May/June she'll be into something else? I think older kids go more toward straw tops rather than sippy tops, right? So... maybe! But thanks for letting me know if you spot any instock online or at your store!

5 Days and counting...

2008-04-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

Ohhhhh I am SO gonna cry when we sing my girl Happy Birthday.

Hey, Nonna, are you ready to (gently) pull the birthday girl's ear one time for her turning one year old? That's the only Italian birthday tradition I can find so far!

It's crazy how she has become a KID all of a sudden. Don't get me wrong-- she'll go from playing and talking to suddenly signing to nurse and conking out and there's my baby all cuddled up again... but she's my BIG baby now :). She's be in at least 12 month old sizes for a while now, but she's wearing some 18 month old shirts, and 2T and 3T pants (that cloth diaper adds some good "learning to walk and fall down a lot" padding!). As she would sign, "So big!"

I've been thinking I need to finish off her baby book for the first year... I really need to go through and jot down all the firsts and fill in some of the blanks for "favorites" and the like, then put in some pictures. But luckily with blogs, pictures, and videocameras, we haven't forgotten when stuff happened!

I am getting some new pictures up as soon as I get another ten minutes on the downstairs computer. She's a beautiful, funny girl!

I have also been thinking I need to record the words/signs she has as of one year. I'm going to try to list them all here....

Words she uses/has said:
Dog (DOOAAA)
Dada (also signs)
Mama (also signs)
Ball (Baa! sometimes signs it)
Balloon (same as ball, and this can be for a small balloon or a hot air balloon, or even the moon!)
Bird (Biir!)
Fish (sssshhhhhh, while doing the sign)
Nonna (also can sign it--we think she's also trying to say grandma and grandpa, and she can sign them, too, but it's all a bit muddled, as it's kind of harder)
Baby (Dayday, while signing-- this often means she wants to watch Baby Signing Time)
Sign (Shiii, and she can sign it, which typically means Signing Time)
Cereal (sheer, and signs it)
More (Moar, and signs it)
Car (and signs it-- she also does this for all transportation, like bikes, altho she signs airplane and makes a cute airplane engine noise to go with it)
She used to say Hi but now only signs it, but she can say and sign Bye bye
Book (Booa, and signs it)
Water (Waaa and does her own version of the sign)
Duck (duh, and signs it like bird)
I think she might be saying "baa" for sheep right not
Shoes (shhhu, and only does the sign if holding her shoes in her hands! She will grab her foot for this and socks and feet and toes, too!)
I swear to god she's saying "What's that?" (whaDAaaa?) and has for months, plus she does this cute thing where she babbles like "where is it?" or "where'd it go?" and makes a gesture of shrugging and holding her palms up flat.
The other day she was playing peekaboo with herself in the mirror and said "AHboo" whenever she peeked at herself... so I guess that's "peekaboo" too.
She goes "mmm" (and sometimes signs/says more over and over) for music and signing.
"Shheee" for stars and sparkles right now, too...
Tetshh for teeth, and she signs it. She loves the brush your teeth song
Elbow "Bobo" (and points, and LAUGHS at Mama's elbow... hmmm) Actually she points at a lot of face parts/body parts, too... eye, ear, nose, hair... now we're trying to teach her "bum"! LOL
Knee (and point)

Words she signs:
She mostly just signs these, also she imitates so many sounds now too...
Cat
Horse (she also will say "neigh" sometimes too!)
Fan (also the same for pinwheel, altho she makes this fffff sound at the same time, too)
Airplane, with sound effects
Hot (three blows of air-- also for fireplaces in life and picture books!)
Eat (and she has her own little Uuhhn noise she makes that's very clearly "put food in my mouth"!)
Thank you
All done (altho right now she thinks this means the high chair or food, but often she still uses it to mean get me out of this chair, lol).
Bunny (her sign is just like her water sign but it hops faster!)
Light, of course!
Sleep/sleepy (I can't remember if she's kind of said this, too)
Wash hands
I think she started doing "bath" recently.
Shirt

Sheesh, I can't remember anything else... not sure if this is definitive; I should check with Dashing Daddy. But WOW, little girl of mine, you are VERBAL! I hope Dashing Daddy's genes help you do better than your mama on the math section of the SAT (it's okay, they have TWO language based sections now, LOL). I love it because we can communicate, which is lovely in and of itself, but also because you can just let us know what you want quickly and happily, and we don't reduce you to tears with our boneheaded inability to tell that OF COURSE you want us to play "Lovesong" for a fifth time, or get you outta that chair, or feed you, or whatever! You just keep totally blowing away our expectations for how much you will learn, and we know you understand so much more than you can yet say. You're amazing! And we love you.

Birthday Girl Ideas

2008-04-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Dashing Daddy suggested to me that folks might want some specific tips in finding the Birthday Girl some treasures. Of course she doesn't expect anything, but if anyone was pondering how to find what she might like, and wishes it was easier, here are some ideas...

She LOVES books, and is still pretty much on board books but will probably do better with regular paper before too too long. She's starting to get into toys like shape sorters (or anything more "complex" like stackables, containers, puzzles, etc), cars/trucks/trains/planes/boats/etc, toys/cloth books with buttons/ties/zippers/other amazing things on them, musical instruments, balls, and dolls. Anything is full of wonder for her, really! Here are some places we like to shop (for ideas or actual toys!):

Oompa (great selection and different ways of searching)
The Magic Cabin
The Magical Child (local shopping, and the ladies who work there are very helpful in finding things)
Amazon wishlist, under her name (LOTS of books and some baby toys that have been on there a while...)
Guitar Hero 3 and 4

Okay, that last one seems odd. But I'm just following directions from Dashing Daddy!

Nearing a Year

2008-04-05T14:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby's about to turn one year old. She's changed so much, and every day turns more and more into Sophie. Her Sophieness increases exponentially. And the girl's got personality.

We've been struggling with having introduced a wee bit of TV to her. She's seen (and ignored) sports and news (firestorm 2007!), but she was like a crack addict with Signing Time. She finally seems to be understanding when we say "Signing Time is sleeping now" that she can't watch it again. But there were a couple rough days there. Her ability to communicate, however, is growing so fast, it's hard to say it wasn't worth it. We're continuing to see which volumes we like best; the two Baby Signing Time DVDs are clearly the favorites. And I don't know if I appreciate certain ones teaching her "ice cream" and the like. Same issue with books sometimes, but it's easier to skip over the bad pages (or paste something over the offending image). But they've all been helping us all to learn the signs, and she's adding more and more to her regular usage each day. She clearly understands much more than she can say, too.

I can hardly imagine how much she'll keep changing even in the few weeks before her birthday, and in the coming months. Surely she'll be trying walking on her own a bit more. She seems interested in things on a new level... friends' big toy trucks are enticing, she's following emotions and plot in her storybooks more, and she's starting to put things together/back in bins/over the edge of the bathtub, instead of just throwing things off shelves/out of bins. We love it when she tossing something down/into a bin/over the edge and then says "Where is it?" (seriously, it sounds like this, and has for months and months just like her "What dat?"). I think it's time to get her the wooden shape sorter box toy thingy I saw at Magic Cabin. For now she's putting her ring stacker pieces back together (the tower and base parts).

Of course her big fascination continues to be bikes and other toys with wheels. She toddles over (with mama helping) to all the bikes and scooters at playgroup to study them. We got her her first bike! Of course it is a trike and has no pedals, but still. And then a cute baby helmet to go with it. Safety first! Of course she's a Davis girl by blood if not actual address, so a bike is appropriate. I've also had sweet grandmothers out in public tell me that was their first birthday gift to their now grown children as well, so it seems the thing to do.

She seems to be dropping down to one nap, very gradually, which makes our days quite hard to predict. And she's so up and down all the time that mama is going to be trying out a nice ring sling in the very near future, and a pouch that she'll probably wear all the time. You know those moments when you think you're just running into the other room for something and the next thing you know you've been holding your baby for 20 minutes and your arm is aching? Yeah, she's 20 pounds and we're going to work on core strength instead of that one poor arm muscle! Of course I'm still eying maybe one more ring sling in linen, for summer/fall, too, and some mei tai panels just for fun... but I think our carrier options are a good variety and functional for now. And the best part is, we've got it all down and ready to go for all our future kids, too. Thanks, Pancake Baby! Oh, dear. Well, you got undivided attention for a couple years, too, and you can go to Stanford and your little brother will settle for UCD, and your little whatever will be stuck with State, and any more will be apprenticed at 12 to local metalworkers or weavers, so it's a trade off.

Just trying to catch up on what's happening... we're probably going to head out for some outdoor time now that the haze has burned off. We're looking forward to seeing the family in just a few more weeks for the big birthday bash!

Awesome

2008-04-03T15:06:00.001-07:00

Look how cool I was when I was a kid.

Book: The Sweet Far Thing

2008-04-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, I finished Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy last week, after racing through the last several hundred pages in the last day. Sophie was very obliging to let me read while she played and to nap extra long so I could finish the book in full "tears and sighs and heart thumping engagement" mode.

A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing comprise the trilogy, which takes place in Victorian England and focuses on Gemma Doyle and her friends as they explore the magical Realms and the dangerous real world... they live corseted lives and find freedom in magic, but danger in both worlds. Bray throws in some lovely poetic allusions (I especially loved all of the Paradise Lost bits, the fire-lined angel wings, etc., in the second book). She goes places I didn't expect, which is incredibly rare for any story. I can almost always figure what's coming, in a movie, TV show, or book, and I prize the authors who surprise me while still making it real and right. In the end I couldn't have loved these books more. They were full of incredibly empowering female images, while being an awesome, "grab you and don't let go til the last page" story. Incredibly moving, funny, mysterious, epic, and beautiful. I really did cry and get goosepimples, multiple times, and that's rare. And Bray is apparently very funny, as I've recently discovered in her blog, which you can check out to the right (I'll move it down to the other author's blogs before long). I highly recommend this trilogy to anyone who likes the boarding school genre, fantasy, or female empowerment. There's not a lot about birth/babies but my earth mama and feminist elements were both satisfied. And that's pretty amazing!

If anyone reads these, let me know me know if you liked them. I used to have a copy of the first but it's gone to some former student who hopefully was swept up in it and loves it dearly.