Happy Third Birthday

Selena turned three.  We had a roller skating party followed by pizza at Round Table.  It was a lot of fun.  I have to say Selena has the cutest friends.

Lately we've been drawing and writing letters to people a lot.  When we send someone a letter I've had her write the names of the recipient on the envelope by doing connect the dots.   So she was doing her thank you notes and I was cleaning up the kitchen and I come back and she had written a note to one of her friends and on the envelope was 5 out of the 7 letters of her friends name.  I had never spelled his name for her before...   We've also been doing a lot of digging and tree climbing.  The weather this spring has been great. She still enjoys cooking.  She prefers the real kitchen to her play kitchen.  Actually she doesn't really touch the play kitchen at all.  She makes interesting concoctions and tries to feed them to us. 

She's picked up some imaginary friends.  Their names are Do Re Mi.  Do is a dog, Re is a cat, and Mi is a mouse.  They live in the vacant house across the street.  Floyd made them up as part of her bed time stories but Selena invites them over often and they even go shopping with us.

She is still a cat.  When I call people on the phone she always wants to meow to them.  When we went to her well child visit she scampered up onto the exam table and when the doctor came in she meowed at him.  When he told her that he thought she looked more like a little girl than a little cat she said, "Meow, meow."   She is 34 inches tall and 26 pounds.  The doctor didn't say exactly but I think it was 5th percentile or less. 

As Allie is getting bigger they are playing more together.  I found them in the bathroom today unrolling two rolls of toilet paper.  They get along pretty well but they do have fights over toys.  Well Selena takes toys and Allie cries, or Allie takes toys and Selena shrieks.

How to Use a Soft Structured Baby Carrier

This video explains how to use the soft structured carrier that I make.  It is mostly for those who are lucky enough to have received one from me ;)  but maybe it will help other people with their carriers as well.

The soft structured carrier is by far my favorite type of carrier because I can wear the kids on my back.  The carrier should work even when they are toddlers.  I still put Selena on my back sometimes, however she only weighs 25lbs, but I'm sure it would work for heavier kids as well.  Please make sure you check the seams on the carrier frequently.  

Here are all my posts on soft structured carriers.  

She still looks like a baby...

Nine months old and she still looks like a baby, but she doesn't really act like one.  She is really walking now, but not 100% of the time.  She still crawls a lot, but she can walk across an entire room.  She "talks" a lot too, but just babylish.  No real words yet. 

Allie still adores her sister and wants to do everything she does.  It is kind of hard taking her places because she wants to paint, glue, draw, and do crafts just like Selena.  She is continuing to perfect what Floyd has dubbed the "baby death roll" which is a complete lunge out of your arms.  I am amazed I haven't dropped her.  She almost always uses the baby death roll to jump out of your arms when you are trying to carry her up stairs.  She would much rather do it herself, while giggling enthusiastically.  I also have taught her to go down stairs feet first and on her tummy.  Smart baby that she is she has adapted the technique to getting off the couch and bed (don't worry I am always right there) as well.   She also utilizes the death roll while you are trying to dress her.  It is very difficult to dress a child who is flailing around like a fish out of water.

She loves giving me baby slobber kisses.  She'll crawl into my lap, grab my head, and plant big kisses right on my lips.  Sometimes she gets a little carried away and starts using her brand new 4 teeth.  That hurts! ;)

She is pretty much down to two naps, and sometimes even just one.  She has also been going to bed early and getting up early.  It is kind of annoying because Selena is definitely a late to bed late to riser, and Allie is an early to bed early to riser.  So I get to go to bed late and get up early.  When Selena was younger sometimes I would get jealous of those parents who's baby's went to bed early, but now that I have one I have to admit sometimes it was more convenient that Selena went to bed late.  It wasn't really a problem taking her out for late events.  We did take Allie to a party in memory of my friend Rachel who died a few months ago from ovarian cancer.  Luckily Allie took a late nap the whole way there so she was able to stay up a couple hours later.  She did great.  She let everyone hold her and fuss over her.  But I have discovered that if you take 9 month old babies to memorial services they will spit and make raspberry noises during the prayers.  Selena did the same thing, at the same age, at my Nana's memorial.  Funny babies.

Here are some pictures of Allie.  The weather has been wonderful this winter.   I remember last year around this time I was getting really desperate for some sunshine. You can see the cherry trees starting to bloom in the background.  

Go Walking!

After reading my post from yesterday I think I am completely cheesy.  Oh well.

Walking is the first new thing I am going to advertise on my blog.  Though running is my preferred form of exercise I admit that it is hard when you first start and there is always the risk for injury.  However walking isn't hard.  It has very low risk for injury and it is miraculous in its benefits.

Health:  Reduces your risk of heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, colon cancer.  Walking lowers your blood sugar, slows aging, prevents colds, prevents insomnia, reduces stress and its ill effects.  See Walking A Miracle Cure.

Mood:  Walking is known to make you feel better and be less grouchy.  It has also been found to reduce symptoms of clinical depression.  Walking in nature makes the effects even greater.  See Mood Altering Exercise.

Environment:  I think purposeful walking is the best kind.  Instead of driving somewhere, walk there.  Park a mile or so away from work and walk the rest of the way.  Save gas. Save carbon monoxide emissions.  Save the environment.  

Cost: Walking is free.  You can do it anywhere and anytime.  You don't need any special equipment.  While a pair of comfortable shoes might be nice they aren't necessary.  You can walk barefooted if you want. Not only is walking free to you, but if everyone walked more billions of dollars would be saved in health care costs.  So you don't need fancy vitamins, expensive gym memberships or exercise equipment, the solution to good health is easy and free!

So go walking as much and as often as you can!

Google Ads are Gone and Being Replace With Ads For the Greater Good

I've taken all the Google Ads off my blog.  I initially put them up in a hope to get a little money from this blog, but the ads are often not pertinent and lots of them are for things that I don't like (ie dieting and weight loss scams or surgery, quick money making schemes, excessive refinancing, unethical baby formula advertising, among others).   I am also trying to reduce my family's consumption of unnecessary things and I am finding this very hard to do with the constant bombardment of advertising I experience every day.  Thus I was feeling very hypocritical.  I rant about how corporations are greedy and do unethical things yet I was supporting unethical things for a few measly pennies that I may never even get to collect due to the fact that Google will not cut you a check until you earn $100. 

I am still going to use the Amazon ads because I specifically create them and choose exactly what product they display.  I only get money from them if you order something after clicking on a link from my blog.  I will try to be  judicious in my use of them, but books are always fair game.  You can never have too many books. ;)

I am also going to replace the Google Ads with ads for things that I believe are beneficial for our society as a whole, but are not widely advertised because the product or activity is not "marketable" (ie. no one can make a lot of money off of it) or the product or activity is cheaper and better all around but cuts into some powerful entities bottom line and thus is the target of anti-advertising.  I got this idea from the site http://www.bestforbabes.org.  The site has started an ad campaign for breastfeeding (see the cute ad in the right hand side bar) and I figured why not do the same thing for other things as well.  So in the future feel free to "pirate" any images I create and use them as ads on your own blog.  You can link back to me or wherever you like. 

Just a little bit left of the twos

Just a few more weeks and Selena turns three.  It truly is crazy how fast your kids grow up.  The last year has been kind of a blur.  Selena is doing great and is just full of funny things she says.  I'm trying hard not to laugh at them right when she says them, because I know she is just emulating what she sees around her and trying to be a big girl. 

Right now she enjoys painting, sending and receiving mail, cooking (ie making up her own recipes to mix together in a bowl), riding her trike, watching Curious George, acting like a cat, wrestling with Allie, swinging really high on the swings, and playing with her toy dogs.  She has mastered climbing the tree in our front yard, swinging from the branch and jumping down.

Some cute Selena moments:

- I moan as she dumps all the socks on the floor that I just put away and she says, "Mom, don't get whiny."
- She tells me, "Allie is the best baby in town."
- We've been enjoying the "Pants on the Ground" song from American Idol and she woke up in the morning and her diaper was falling off and I said that it must be uncomfortable for her and she says in all seriousness, "Maybe that's how people's pants get on the ground."
- She wanted to create a rainbow using a flashlight, paper, and a glass of water like she saw on Curious George and we were having a hard time getting it to work so I said we needed to get her Dad to help since he is the science teacher.  He was sleeping upstairs so she start's yelling, "Mr. Bangerter Dad, Mr. Bangerter Dad."
- One day she tells me, "I'm growing to be a big human and I need big human toys.  Like an Ipod, or a computer, or something else."  I respond, "An Ipod or a computer?"  and she says, "Or something else. Like maybe a big human flashlight."  I say, "I think we'll go with the big human flashlight." and she says, "Ok."

Homemade Soup = Pure Luxury

For the past year I've been making various soups from New England Soup Factory Cookbook: More Than 100 Recipes from the Nation's Best Purveyor of Fine Soup

and have decided that a bowl of homemade soup, with some slices of homemade bread, with homemade ice cream for dessert is the epitome of luxury.

I've probably made at least 20 different soups from this cookbook and almost all of them have turned out good. Generally I don't make homemade stock and just use Swanson free range chicken broth, but lately I've been making homemade stock more often. My favorite recipes are the Cauliflower, Potato, and Cheese Soup and the Sausage Minestrone (couldn't find an online recipe). The soups usually take about an hour and half to make (only about 30 minutes of that is active though)but I think they are worth it. I try to make at least one soup a week and then I put the leftovers in mason jars. Some go in the fridge and some go in the freezer. 

Great Pregnancy Information

Sorting through my bookmarks I came across this link.  This article does a great job explaining many of the problems with maternal care in our country.  Very informative.


http://www.alternet.org/story/65608/?page=entire

Mothering Magazine - Digital Version

I really enjoy reading Mothering magazine.  Some (but not all) articles are on what most would consider the very extreme side of "natural" living/parenting.  I really like the alternative perspective it gives compared to more mainstream parenting magazines and how it points out aspects of our society and challenges you to think about why we do things the way we do.  I also like the fact that it is privately owned and not a product of the massive American media machine ;).

For the past couple years I have been checking out this magazine at the library when each new issue comes out.  I've thought about subscribing, but I can get it at the library for free and doing so saves paper and waste so I haven't.  But the last few issues have had some really good articles that I've wanted to keep.  I decided to look into their digital version, but I kind of assumed that you couldn't print out the articles so I didn't know how much good it would do me.  Well you can print out the articles and the technology they use to deliver the magazine is very impressive (to me as a computer programmer).  You can also buy digital reprints of popular articles and soon they will have the ability to purchase digital versions of back issues.  And it is ridiculously cheap at $6 for a year's subscription. 


They have a sample issue here:

http://www.mothering-digital.com/mothering/sample/

The current sample is the July/August 2009 issue and the article on Breastfeeding in the land of Genghis Khan is so interesting.  The vaccine articles are also extremely informative. 

*Mothering magazine did not sponsor this blog in any way.  This is wholly my own personal opinion.

Great Blog Article About Learning Domestic Arts

I read this blog post last summer and I have thought about it a few times since because it so very accurately described some of my very own thoughts.   So I decided to track it down, which wasn't easy, and share it/save it. 

http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2009/08/breaking-needles-while-breaking-ground.html