little feet, big sky

Now that Spice is practically a toddler, it’s been a challenge finding natural, non-electronic toys that are age-appropriate and interesting.

The Uncle Goose blocks have been a total hit. While she’s too young to stack them yet, we have a slick little game where I make columns of 5 blocks all around the room and she knocks them down. Sometimes we go for broke and I try to see how high I can build before she bulldozes my tower.

Next up would be this pushcart. It actually belonged to my aunt’s (in the UK) neighbor’s son, who is now twenty, so this is a classic homemade toy. I sometimes see modern ones going for upwards of $80! This one holds most of her Uncle Goose blocks perfectly and she’s starting to get the hang of pushing it slowly while walking. In the meantime, it’s fun to bang on and put things in and out of.

Her Boon FrogPod with bathtoys isn’t at all natural, but it fits in the categories of ‘unusual’ and ‘toys’. The FrogPod fits the shower wall and stashes all her bath goodies. Some parents might find a nearly two-foot-tall green plastic frog in their shower to be an eyesore, but our bathroom is yellow rubber ducky -themed, so we’re hardly ones to judge. The bath goods themselves are these non-mildewing foam shapes that stack, float and stick to bathtub and tile walls. She chews on them, slaps them together and pulls them off the walls faster than I can stick them back up.

We prefer wooden toys since the spouse was Waldorf-educated and I’m not fond of over-sized plastic, electronic toys. I wish I could make them myself since they’re crazy expensive, but it’s time-consuming to do properly, so I just try to buy selectively. I generally like Moolka for their selection of natural toys, but from a Waldorf perspective, most of the toys still don’t leave much left for the imagination.

@livesinthetub got her the lovely soft duck below before she was born and with the crinkly material inside, it’s a solid favorite. The little wooden elephant she’s playing with up top is actually one of the spouse-unit’s from when he was a boy. Maybe that’s the charm of natural toys, that they’ll always be endearing to future generations.

I’ve been dabbling in cocktail drinks again, to get ready for the upcoming barbecue and summer party season. I’m not sure if these have names already, but if not, I’ve named them myself. :-)

I love Bailey’s and Kahlua and other rich liqueurs, but dairy is out of the question for me. These satisfy my sweet tooth once the bebe is down for the night. Enjoy!

Pirates’ Almond Joy

• 2 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. creme de cacao
• 1 oz. Malibu Coconut Rum

Shake over ice & serve in shot glasses.

Butterfinger

• 2 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. creme de cacao
• 1 oz. Buttershot

Shake over ice & serve in shot glasses.

And for those times when I want something fresh and fruity without the fuss:

Street Margarita

• 2 oz. vodka
• 2 oz. triple sec
• 2 oz. fresh lime juice

Fill a old-fashioned or cocktail glass with crushed ice. Shake over ice and pour into glass. Sprinkle a pinch of kosher salt on top.

Lord, what a rough week!

Yesterday, I couldn’t find my keys. I was due at a playdate/parenting support group meeting at 11 a.m. and was totally ready to head out the door with Spice wrapped up in our wrap and a diaper bag on my shoulder. Car keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Phone? Check. House keys? Umm.. I check all the usual spots and a few unusual ones. Still, no keys. By this time I was 10 minutes late and losing hope of finding them, and had so been looking forward to going. (This group is the ultimate mommy-venting space, so it’s the mother’s equivalent of a trip to the spa.) I took Spice out of the wrap so I could search under things better and put her in our new Pack N’ Play, which she did not appreciate. Between the missing keys, the bad morning and now a crying baby, I had a minor meltdown. *sigh* Took two kava and felt better, but still – being stuck all day at home sucked arse. :-(

It’s been a crazy two weeks. The spouse-unit has been busy with work stuff, so we’ve been like two passing ships in the night. (Sometimes literally, like Sunday night which he spent in a datacenter.) I’ve barely gotten to the gym once or twice, and since I’m still without a babysitter, that means I’ve been handling Spice on my own almost 24/7. Last Saturday, the spouse-unit was home for long enough that I had him take Spice just so I could clean the house. I’m so tired, exhausted really, and was totally counting on housecleaners coming today to help a bit. But, alas, they’ve just called and cancelled as one of them is sick.

Yes. This is my life this month. I remember going on a walk around Silverlake with some other mothers back when Spice was about 4-months-old. There was a young mother with an 8-month-old, and she looked frazzled; a little spacey, tired, a little unkempt and disheveled and her son was happily beaming in his PJs, since that’s how they’d run out of the house. I remember thinking how crazy it seemed (not wanting to be too judgmental even in my head in case I was like that one day), but of course, sometimes you can’t really relate until you get there yourself. Now, I want to hunt her down, call her up and say “OMG, I totally get how you were that day! I’m so there!” but I don’t have her number, let alone remember her name. (Heh, it’s a good day if I can remember my own name.)

I just have to grit my teeth and bear it. I’ve been trying to get out more and trying to hook up with other mother’s in the same place. As much as I find Ning annoying, I’ve also started a parenting group, the Hollywood Parents Network for networking with other mothers in the area. Feel free to join!

I’ve always wanted to get into wraps for baby-wearing. I guess it’s just been the ultimate convenience, a way to carry your baby that’s traditional, simple, easy to care for, no rings, buckles, snaps, velcro, etc. Unfortunately, it’s also the way with the steepest learning curve, as figuring out to secure them safely while staying comfortable is a little tricky. I recently splurged on a short (3.5m) Vatanai wrap in Maruyama and have been totally in love with it since it arrived. But a little backstory first…

My first wrap was a brown Moby wrap. Simple and cheap, I still remember the complete feeling of joy I had two weeks after Spice was born when I managed to wander around the house eating a bowl of watermelon with both hands free while she slept snuggled against my chest. I was hooked on baby wearing. Unfortunately, the heavy jersey was hot and heavy in our California summers and I put it aside for cooler weather. I bought a Gypsy Mama gauze wrap, but returned it as soon as it arrived because it was also thick. I was also disappointed with the length and the dragging-ends-on-the-ground issue. A few visits to thebabywearer.com and the now missing ~elly rebozo page had me set on a rebozo, or rebozo-length non-stretchy wrap, but I put it off out for expense, disappointment in the Gypsy Mama wrap, and my fear of no being able to master the various carries comfortably enough. Added to this was that, come winter and cooler weather, Spice was too heavy for our stretchy Moby wrap and I started to write off wraps in favor of the Ergo I was using while eyeing other soft-structured carriers.

Still, in an effort to give it one final try, I hit up thebabywearer.com forums again and found a few references to warm weather wraps. The best recommendation for someone using a Vatanai wrap was from a mother in Australia. I mean, Australia’s pretty warm, right? :-) $100 was a little steep for a wrap, but from looking at the FSOT listings, I could see it had a pretty good resale value in case I didn’t like it, so I jumped.

I can’t imagine parting with it now. Sometimes, I put it for wash and toy with the idea of getting another one to use when I put it for wash, or at least, that’s the excuse I tell myself. It’s so soft and sturdy and it has the perfect “grippiness” to hold my 20lbs. of sweetness right where I tie her without budging an inch. The fabric isn’t thin, but it’s not heavy or heating. It seems to conform to my body temp pretty well, which is awesome here in California, but will be downright essential when we go to Malaysia in the summer. I have a front kangaroo carry down pat, and a pretty good back kangaroo carry, too. I’ve even figured out how to tie it loosely on for the easiest pop-ability, and have made it as pop-able as the Angelpack buckle tai. I imagine when Spice is standing/walking, I’ll get the back carry just as easy. If you’re in doubt about carries, it also came with several charts of step-by-step pictures for several carries that had us successful in an hour.

Of course, one of the things I love best about a non-woven stretchy wrap is it’s versatility. I love having something that doubles as a blanket, a nursing cover, a sun shade, a towel and more and that cleans up as easily as tossing in the washer & dryer with the clothes. (As you can see from the pic, it also worked as an impromptu baby-belt to keep Spice safely and comfortably seated in one of our patio chairs.) It folds/packs down to virtually nothing and the colors on the Maruyama are just perfect – pink, but muted and sweet. I’ve become a wrap addict and it’s all thanks to elegant Vatanai wrap.

I recently bought Spice a lovely set of alphabet blocks from Uncle Goose ($32). These blocks are just gorgeous and would make an excellent baby shower gift. Uncle Goose only makes blocks and their sustainable Michigan basswood blocks meet U.S. and European safety standards and are made with non-toxic inks.

Each block is 1-3/4 inches square, and the sides vary in their designs: two embossed sides per block, letters, numbers & numeral names, and animal pictures with their names. They’re light but solid and feel sturdy, and I can imagine passing them down to other kids in the future.

As if that wasn’t cool enough, Uncle Goose also makes Braille blocks, Nursery Rhyme blocks, and foreign language blocks for languages such as Russian, Danish, Arabic and Chinese.

After ker-fuffing around (as my aunt would say), I finally ordered a new SSC (soft-structured carrier). I’ve been using the spouse-unit’s Ergo a whole lot in the past two months, but hated several things about it, including how fugly, bulky and limited it was. What I really wanted was a padded mei tai (I have an unpadded one), but the long straps are killer to keep from dragging on the ground. I finally realized I wanted a “buckle tai” – a low-frills mei tai with buckles instead of straps.

The major players on the buckle tai market are the Beco Butterfly II and the Catbird Pikkolo. They’re remarkably similar, including gorgeous designs and quality workmanship, but have a few notable differences. The Butterfly has an inner sling that the baby sits in; it’s both a feature and a PITA. It means you can do pretty safe Santa tosses to get the baby on your back, or pass the carrier off to someone else with the baby still inside. But it also means an extra, likely annoying step if you & your kid are the adventurous sort. So I was all set to order the Pikkolo until I realized how short the body is. Spice is tall for her age and since the Pikkolo doesn’t have a headrest part, she would be hanging out over the top a lot.

So I googled a bit more and found a comment somewhere that the Angelpack was good for taller babies and those nursing in carriers. I instantly loved the simplicity of it and promptly ordered one in Lotus from Frogmama. Lorene from Frogmama had incredible service (she responded almost instantly to both my emails the day I ordered) and shipped my Angelpack out the same day I ordered it!

It arrived last week and I instantly put Spice inside. I ditched the removable chest strap buckle and instead crossed the straps behind my back and buckled them. This is by far the most comfortable non-wrap front carry I’ve ever had. Unlike the Ergo with that god-forsaken thing to buckle behind your neck of all places, crossing the straps on the Angelpack means nice padding over your shoulders and across the upper part of your back, plus easy buckles & adjusting at your waist. It was just as easy and comfortable to Santa-toss Spice onto my back and cross the straps in front later to get from food prep done for dinner.

The print, Lotus, is beautiful. It looks elegant and casual at the same time. The whole carrier looks sleek and I’ve gotten compliments on it already. The straps extend quite a bit, and easily fit my mother who happens to be quite a bit fluffier than me. Perhaps my only complaint it that the hood is a little awkward. There are toggle clasps on the cords to adjust the hood space and when the hood is tucked into the inside pocket, I feel like the clasps are hard and bulky against Spice’s back. I’ve resorted to tucking in the fabric and straps of the hood and leaving the clasps hanging out behind Spice’s back – not elegant, but I’m sure it’s more comfortable for her. The hood fabric is also a little narrow and I can’t figure out if that’s a good thing or not. Spice is one of those babies that doesn’t like things over her head, so I guess less fabric is better, but when I pull it up, it seems to barely cover her neck to the top of her head. I’ll have to see how it works out as she gets older.

One of the other moms in our playgroup had the nifty Sophie the Giraffe teether by Vulli. This thing is like kiddie crack to babies that are teething. It’s simple and made of natural rubber, but it has all the right angles to make it easy to grab and a small squeaker inside to make it interesting once in a while. It’s also small and thin enough to tuck inside the wrap or baby carrier with Spice so that she has something else to grab and chew on other than my hair. :-)

They don’t seem to have them listed on the website, but I found these awesome hand puppets at IKEA for an amazing $4 each. I picked up a lamb, pig, chicken and fish, but I don’t remember what the other ones where. Cute, machine washable and great fun for playing with babies.

It’s finally happened: I’ve been summoned for jury duty. Ironically, I’m interested enough in the judicial system to be curious about being a juror, but I’m still breastfeeding Spice and I don’t have childcare available. Really, really not wanting to serve right now, I did some Googling.
Turns out that in the state of California, breastfeeding mothers can defer their service for a year and can continue to do so as long as you BF for. As usual, lucky us here in Cali; some states are so hostile to BFing moms that you can be arrested and jailed for missing jury duty because you are BFing a baby. This is mind-boggling to me. What do you do if your baby doesn’t take a bottle? Or if you’re plagued with supply problems? Ugh. The whole thing is just wrong.

• Find out if your state has family-friendly jury duty laws.

A great tip I heard before Spice was born was to keep an extra ‘lovey’, or favorite toy, around in case the original is irreparably damaged or lost. I have two JellyCat elephants for Spice’s lovey, and quietly rotate them for play and wash so that they wear out evenly. :-)

I know I can’t entirely pick her favorite toy, but I can certainly encourage it while she’s a baby. We’ve had Elle since before Spice was born, so it’s been in many baby pictures so that she’ll be able to remember it long afterwards. Elle came along to England with us for Christmas, and I make sure that it gets tucked in for naps. I want to crochet a harness for Elle so that I can attach it to Spice’s car seat, or baby carrier when we’re out, and when she’s older, I’ll make a doll sling or wrap so that Spice can “wear” Elle. :-)

What’s really neat is that as Spice transitions out of swaddling, her free hands grab on to Elle more and more, so I have a feeling my crazy plans are actually working a little. :-)