momtourage

New Beginnings and Old Habits

Although I didn't know if I was going until the last possible second, in the end I did. I grabbed my book, speed walked down the street and arrived at a local pub for my very first (ever) book group meeting. I am proud of myself that in spite of  nagging insecurity (Will I have anything to say? Will what I say sound stupid?) I did it and I am glad that I did. Hooray!

And at the end of the evening, one of the participants hauled out a copy of her new book. As I paged through I was both impressed ( what a great subject matter!) and chagrined (I used to teach adult literacy at the public library and had a 'little sister' for several years - but after I had kids my volunteering kind of fell by the wayside). But I was mostly inspired. After all, this lady produced an easy to understand book dealing with a critically important topic that may just well spur many people to action (including myself - again). I wish her every success with the release.

This is What Happens

When your kids take pictures of your knitted items for your Ravelry page.

Waiting and waiting...

A few colorful pictures from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on this cold, gray day. (btw - They were taken only yesterday, so I know that spring is just around the corner.)

Minor Redesign

I don't know why we haven't done this before, but we have just become a little more au courant and added photos of books we have written (me - all knitting) and designed (woolypear, who is fabulously talented as you can see!) to the left-hand side of our site. They are all linked directly to Amazon for easy access to reviews (and potential impulse purchases).

One of the books that woolypear has just designed is not available yet so I couldn't link, but the cover is so adorable that I just had to include it here. As a child I whiled away many a winter afternoon cutting and stitching felt Christmas ornaments and I am anxious to get my hands on variations of that satisfying project to do with my own children. Written by Kata Golda, it is published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang. For the record, I happen to be somewhat addicted to their craft books and own an embarassingly large number of them. If you are on Ravelry and take a peek at my library, you will see what I mean!

nursery university

There’s a new documentary chronicling the grueling process of preschool admissions in New York City: Nursery University. I’m guessing that “University” refers to the comparison to competitive college admissions, and the belief that the path to the coveted Ivy League schools begins at the exclusive nursery school. Which is why these parents are shown going to great lengths to secure a place for their children in these institutions.

Just watching the trailer makes me anxious. The recent baby boom means that there are many, many toddlers vying for the precious few spots in private pre-k. While I didn’t encounter this when I lived in New York (luckily Mr G was painlessly accepted to a terrific school in Park Slope called Beansprouts), I did find this to be the case when I moved to Austin. In Texas, many moms put their babes on waiting lists when their child is in utero, hopefully timing it so that two years later, the child will be accepted. According to the film, niether expensive tuition nor the economic downturn is enough to deter folks from applying to these NY schools. On the contrary, the low odds seemed to make people more determined to get in.

I’m curious if you or anyone you know went through a similar challenging experience trying to get into a desirable nursery school.

Distractors

I consider myself somewhat of a Luddite. I process my own jams and pickles. I hand knit. I usually sew. I cook a vast percentage of the food that my family eats, and I buy the basic ingredients at a food cooperative where I work twice a month. I do a fair amount of bartering, completely circumventing modern monetary exchange patterns.

Yet am I a person outside (and above) the day to day workings of modern society? Absolutely not. In fact, I am often concerned by what I think of as distractors. This is something that comes between me and an immediate experience. For instance I stop to take a picture. Or a lot of pictures.

I write here. I check my email. I check in with Facebook. But more often with Ravelry. And even though I may joke about my antiquated cell phone or push button television, I still use them. A lot and more than I would like.

As I argued with someone over the foibles of Facebook ( which put my initially 'scary' dismissal of Twitter into proper perspective) I began to wonder about what my life would be like sans cyberlinks. Like someone negotiating a difficult marriage, I would be well served to write a list of pros and cons. And yet.

I made baby books for my sons from birth to 1 year old. I like to think that this is the continuation of that, that one day we will be able to look back and have a narrative to match the many photos we have accumulated. I don't know if I would have done this in a regular diary. I think that this time is difficult and exhilirating and precious, and I don't know if I would have documented it in any other way.

Weekend Bear

Maybe this is common practice in today's Kindergartens, but when Sam left school on Friday with a teddy (aptly named K-Bear) to be in charge of for the weekend I was completely surprised. And accompanying K-Bear was a brightly illustrated journal in which we were expected to fill 2 pages with words and pictures by Monday morning. We had been planning a rare weekend away and I was knocked a little off kilter by the idea of bringing an additional guest along, a bear beloved by the entire class who may have gotten lost or dirtied by outdoor doings/greasy restaurant food. Turns out I shouldn't have wasted a moment worrying.

K-Bear sat with us in diners, went on several hiking excursions and visited a few stores. (He just window shopped.) I was impressed and amazed by how eagerly both of my sons stepped up to assuming responsibility for him, explaining the sights to him (K-Bear had never left Brooklyn before) and voicing 'his' feelings. "K-Bear thinks the burrito is too messy to sit by. K bear is afraid of heights." They revealed new, maybe even more grown-up dimensions of themselves. Funneled through the K-Bear filter, our pictures and accounts of the weekend practically wrote themselves. And with a lightness and sense of humor that I often struggle to find.

Later, I thought how this is one of the attractive things about a child having a pet, a being that needs you to interpret and enjoy the world to its fullest extent. But with walking chores and vet bills taken into account, I think K-Bear is the right ticket at this particular time.

gdiapers

I’ve just started designing a Green Baby Guide, based on the popular blog by Rebecca Kelley and Joy Hatch. The first chapter I’ve read is about diapers: cloth vs. disposable. We all know that cloth is better for our environment, while disposable ones are far too convenient, but I was astonished to learn what disposable diapers are mostly comprised of ingredients that are derived from crude oil. With the exception of the fluff pulp that comes from trees, the super-absorbent polymer, polypropylene, polyethylene, adhesive, and elastic are all made from oil. So not only are the diapers adding to our landfills, but it’s another reason why we are dependant on fossil fuels.

There’s a relatively new alternative that combines the convenience of disposable with the eco-friendly conscience of cloth: gdiapers. Like cloth, gdiapers consist of a washable cotton outer layer (with velco tabs), a nylon layer that snaps onto the outer shell, and a flushable/compostable inner liner. You can buy a kit that contains all three elements, and then refills of the liners. I’ve tried them, and was pretty pleased with both the absorbent ability (a problem I encountered when I previously tried cloth—they leak!), and the ease in which I was able to flush them—no worries about clogging the drain. And as a design snob, I can say that the design of the diaper is simple, esthetically pleasing, and very practically made; they come in attractive colors and the velcro closes toward the backside, so that curious babies are less likely to undo them.

First Day of Spring, Snow

Sam has been very excited about the impending arrival of spring. (They have been discussing it in his Kindergarten class.) Last night he went to bed expecting birds chirping, flowers blooming, a sunny morning. Instead we got snow.

Big, gorgeous chunks of snow dwindling to indifferent flurries as the morning went along, until we were left with cold and flat gray.

I am embarrassed to say that I didn't believe Sam when he first alerted me to the snow. It is trash day on our block and I pictured a flurry of Styrofoam bits and old papers swirling about. And then for a brief, heart-wrenching second I was brought back to 9/11, when ash and scattered paperwork rained down on our Brooklyn neighborhood like snow. It didn't help that I am just finishing Julia Glass' novel, The Whole World Over.Not to 'spoil' it for anyone but it is set around that particular time, and since the fear from then has failed to leave me all these years later a sudden mention is like a punch in the gut.

Reeling it back in to the present - today what we have is snow. And though it was not my ideal wish for the first day of spring I am pretty darn thankful for it.

Making Your Own Baby Food (And Other Things You Don't Do As Much With the Second Baby)

Sorry, honey, I'd love to play superhero with you but Mommy's too busy pushing peas through a strainer right now. Not.

In the strange position of being the eldest child raising a youngest child, I am often aware of the advantages and disadvantages of birth order.  With my older son, whom I call Cakie in blogland, I made much of his baby food from scratch.  He didn't go to daycare until he was a year old, so I taught him baby sign language as I fed him every day.  He got a whole lot of attention.  I can't believe we thought we were busy back then.

Does he have the advantage?

My baby, Trucker to you blogettes, occasionally gets a big batch of homemade baby food.  Yeah, he gets a lot from the jars, too.  But I've learned a few things along the way.  I'm actually a better baby food cooker, if you can believe it.  I've learned to roast the veggies, instead of steaming, to make them all carmelized and sweet.  When Cake was a baby, I had two books I used to guide me as I made the baby food.  One was returned to its original owner.  The other has the best recipes for toddlers and tells you to steam all the food for babies.  Now I found a great website that answers most of my questions for me. 

Cakie sat around on his bum until he was nine months old.  Again, we thought we were busy.  Trucker, perhaps in an effort to keep up with his brother, started crawling at six months and pulling himself up at seven.  I fear he'll be walking at nine months.  It all makes me wonder if Trucker has it a little bit better.  Cakie got a lot of attention.  And he still needs a lot of attention.  It might be his personality, or it might be what he is used to.  I wonder if Trucker will be more independent because I was too busy playing superhero with Cakie to cater to his every whim?

Since Cakie made it out of babyhood in one piece, we are a lot more relaxed about Trucker.  Will this make him a mellow guy?  Or will he just have more trips to the emergency room?

Will Trucker will ever pick up the sign language?  I'm doing my best to work on it.  Though he'll probably just start talking this month.