Peter's Cross Station

Bottle Update

I probably get 5-15 hits on this blog per day from people googling for info on nontoxic baby bottles.  We've been quite happy with the evenflo glass bottles while home and the Avent drop-ins while out.  (Yes, googler, the Avent drop-in liners are recyclable if you have access to #1 plastic recycling--same as a spring water bottle--but don't re-USE them.  #1 plastic starts to leach after one use.  Just remember #1=1 use.)

But Selina is coming up on eleven months next week and I remember weaning Nat from a bottle around that age and I'd like to do the same with Selina.  But the 12 oz Kleen Kanteen sippy cups (we have two for Nat to use in the car and for a treat, in front of the t.v. very rarely) are kinda clunky and heavy for Selina.  I considered a hot beverage cup I use that holds only 8 oz, but it's designed for adults and doesn't seem quite right either.  I thought about skipping the sippy stage altogether and Selina has practiced a little bit with juice glasses with about a tablespoon of water in them, but I can't do it cold turkey.  I want to fall back on a sippy for a while after all.

Today I found this product and I am so excited about trying it out!  Anyone ever use a foogo sippy by Thermos?  It holds 7 oz and comes with the handles (you can get these handles for your Kleen Kanteen, too, but it's still 12 oz which is just too heavy for Selina, when full of liquid).  As soon as it's May 1st and my monthly budget is all fresh and clean, I'm gonna order a couple.

I'll let you know how it goes!

ETA: Whew! Upon a closer look at the Thermos website, I saw that the plastic parts of the foogo are "rubberlike" and "soft" which is a red flag for phthalates (long banned in Europe). But a quick search this morning brought me to this page" which says they are BPA- and phthalate-free. So they're still on tomorrow's shopping list!

Calling All Baby Hippies!

Look! Frog has a beautiful, well-stocked Etsy shop! We are the proud owners of two frog-dyed baby shirts and we wear them with great joy. Go and do likewise!

Nontoxic

When I finally pulled my head out of the sand and read up on plastic (beginning with the Leery Polyp's terrific linkage), at least three concerns merged in my mind: economic justice issues, the health and well-being of my kids and a more shallow, but still important dislike of clutter in my living space.

For years I've thought to myself "I really should stop buying things made in China." But I was seduced every time by that low, low price. And I have been a starving (nearly literally) grad student for so much of my adulthood, that I have often felt I had no choice. I didn't buy much of anything in my student days, and what I did buy had to be cheap.

But the expense of these things has to be paid by someone, somewhere, and I knew good and well that when I bought a sweater on sale for $4.99, I wasn't paying, the company selling it wasn't paying and having seen and read plenty about what globalism-gone-mad does to actual workers, I knew that most of the time, a young Chinese girl in a factory somewhere was paying.

I am not proud that it took a bunch of recalled lead-tainted toys (and whatnot) to actually get me to change my habits. Even after marrying into tenure and a comfy middle-class lifestyle, I still bought the cheap stuff more often than I should. But between all the recalls and a bit more education about plastic, I started feeling like the karma bus was headed my way for buying all that slave-made swag.

The toys at Oompa.com and other nifty toy stores/catalogues cost at least three times more than the ones I might have bought before, but that means that I am paying my share of the expense that goes toward paying a worker a living wage and benefits. It also means we can only afford about a third as many toys around here. But that in and of itself is appealing. As for the plastic issue, everything I read about plastic toys said it's okay if children play with them, as long as they aren't putting them in their mouths. But Nat still puts everything in her mouth, so that's no help for us. Wood it is.

I can't say I was sad to just toss a lot of brightly colored plastic nonsense that was overrunning my smallish living space. (We have about 1000 square feet.) And Nat has yet to miss a single thing I got rid of. I think she'll love the dollhouse and some of the other little things headed here for the holidays, and since there will be less stuff, she'll actually be able to find it!

We also recently replaced about a dozen plastic sippy cups with two stainless steel ones. I have been wanting Nat to start using a regular glass for most drinking. But I still wanted something for the car, or to put by the bed at night or to take to the park. So far, two have been enough for those purposes and Nat is getting great at real cups. I am thinking pretty seriously about skipping the sippy stage with Selina and going straight to real cups. But maybe I'll buy another one or two of the stainless steel sippies when she's bigger and they both need them. It will still beat a dozen plastic ones rolling around my kitchen.

I'm not going to claim that I'm completely slave-labor-free in my purchasing these days, but I do feel better and "cleaner" about many things.

Bottle Update

By the way...

We used the drop-ins throughout our visit with Grandmom and Granddad. They are Avent brand and use the same nipples as the old, evil bottles. I kind of hate to reward Avent for using bad plastic by buying more of their products, but at least this way I am still using the nipples we already had that Selina likes.

Fortunately, the glass bottles (Evenflo) arrived while we were away and she is okay with those nipples too. She doesn't like them as much as the others, but she doesn't reject them. So we can stick to glass at home and drop-ins on the road.

All is well. I'd recommend either product.

Free

If you have a blog, the editor of Brain, Child magazine will send you a free copy. Pop over to her blog and tell her you want one.

I already subscribe and can't recommend the magazine heartily enough, but if you need further incentive, Dawn has an essay in this issue.

Sundry: Now With Product Review Update!

Selina is arcing slowly towards almost-gonna-be-okay-someday. She is creeping up on drinking 4 oz at a time which correlates to 4 hours of sleep. Come on, 10-2-6 schedule! But last night, she had a bottle at 9:30 and slept until 1:30. Yea! Right? But then she wouldn't go back to sleep until 4:45. Thank god I didn't have to get up at 6, take her to daycare and go to work like a normal person. Instead, I pushed her off on Cole when Nat woke up at 5:45 and told her not to bother me until 11. And she didn't so I went back to sleep.

I have been reading this advanced review copy of a book about teaching your kids a second language. I wasn't sure we were doing enough signing to make Nat truly fluent, but according to the book, we are just on the verge of enough. I'm taking a real course for grownups this fall at the local CC. Meanwhile, as Nat's spontaneous expressive language increases these days, she's often spontaneously signing what she says. "Look, Mama Shannon, a girl on a bicycle!" for example, all spoken and signed simultaneously this afternoon.

I want to hire a French-speaking babysitter for the fall semester (about 3 afternoons per week), not to teach her any formal lessons but just to speak to her in French, while supplementing with books and dvds in French at other times. French because I have studied it forever (without, of course, gaining much fluency) so I can sort of reinforce it and also because French is so stupid hard. If she gets it in her ear now, she can learn easier romance languages later with ease. I can read most basic Spanish at an intermediate level, for example, having only ever studied French. And we'll be doing Latin in home school which will also set her up for Spanish and Italian.

But then I think maybe I should find an ASL-fluent baby sitter instead and just stick to one extra language, done the heck to death. I don't know. Opinions?

We are going on a lo-o-o-o-ong trip in two weeks. 48 hours and three airplanes to Kawaii to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. It's times like this the adoptive, happy-to-bottle-feed mom wishes her boobs worked. I am going to lug five bottles of formula, five bottles of water and a zillion little ziplock bags with four oz. of formula powder in a huge carry on bag with all the snacks the other three of us will need to survive the skinflint, don't-feed-you-for-free-even-when-we-strand-you-for-hours new standards of air travel. Then there are the diapers in sizes one and four, the wipies to accompany the diapers and various gear items. I just broke down and bought this and we're snapping the baby car seat into it. I never thought I'd use a stroller by snapping a car seat into it. I would just wear the baby and push Nat. But my back says otherwise. So I'll still take my favorite wrap and snuggle Selina in it on the plane and maybe carry her some, but we'll have the stroller as back up.

Once there, we are sure to have a wonderful time, but getting there is not something we're looking forward to...

UPDATE ON THE JOOVY CABOOSE

I just posted a review of how the new stroller performed at a mom board I frequent. I'm copying it here for your edification:

My Jooy arrived and made it through three round-trip flights from Chicago to Hawaii (via LA and an inter-island hop) and back.

It was great for the airport. I have to admit I wrapped the baby and we used the baby carseat bit on the Joovy to port carry-on luggage (we had tons of that because we had to carry 48-hours worth of bottles, formula, diapers in two sizes and I added snacks that were meal-worthy for the entire trip for my toddler and partner too, having learned the hard way in past flight delays).

But we were able to belt Nat in seated even with the infant seat in place (it helped that we didn't put an infant in it, because I'm not sure it was really in the correct position--but fine for luggage).

It isn't super light, but the wheels are nice and large and smooth so it was manoueverable and easy enough to push along. I found it fairly easy to fold down too--I could manage it at the plane gate with sort of 1.5 hands--that is, with a baby wrap on me too.

I don't know how much I'll end up using it in ordinary life. For getting down to the park three blocks from home, I'll probably just be wrapping the baby and strolling Nat in the umbrella.
It feels sooo big to me, but when I really look at it, it's a fair footprint for two kids and gear. It's about the equivalent of two standing adults, shoulder-to-shoulder. That seems reasonable for subways or whatnot.

All in all, I'd buy it again. Especially for that long airplane trek.

Help?

If you were going to read ONE book about childbirth--not pregnancy, but just childbirth--what would it be?

Wee Foodie

One of Nat's favorite books these days is Eating the Alphabet by Lois Elhert (one of our favorite artists, and also illustrator of Chicka, Chicka, ABC). We have this edition, a lap-sized board book, and it is just gorgeous and bursting with color and yummy images.

I was just looking at a post on Family Food about having "gourmet" children and I thought about Nat today in the grocery store.

We shop at two grocery stores. One is an evil big-box and the other is a small, local, independent organic place. One sells national brand diapers by the truck-load (and we buy them, yes we do!) and one sells locally grown organic garlic (we buy that too!). So today we were at the garlic one, and the produce aisle is beginning to pick up a bit after a slow winter (they try to stay as local as possible) and Nat sat in the cart shouting with glee, "Leeks! L for leeks! A! Avocados! B is for broccoli!" Then there was the Swiss chard, the pears, apples, onions, peppers and other delights. It did my heart good. At least as good as hearing her make farm animal sounds. My baby knows her produce.

Many Things

Ejuhmuhkashun

While I was delirious, I re-read Einstein Never Used Flashcards and Teach Your Own and got all revved up again about homeschooling.

I think I am now ready to blog about homeschooling without getting all pissy and defensive. So bring on the questions or comments if you're interested in the topic and I will address them cheerily and with kindness.

I also scribbled out my "Parenting Vision Statement" (a concept which no doubt pre-exists my making it up, but I don't know where), which I decided Cole and I should write out independently and compare. So after she writes hers, I'll publish mine here. We are pretty much always on the same page, but I thought it would be interesting to look at specifics and have something we put together—together—to pull out in the future when things happen and we don't know what to do. We can consult our vision statement to get on track with the big picture. Has anybody else done this? Am I a complete lunatic who overthinks everything? (Nevermind, don't answer that, especially if you know me in the face-to-face world. Yes, I mean you. Shut up. And stop laughing.)

Hair

In the post about books below, Elise asked about why we want to lock Nat's hair. I've been planning a hair post for some time, so I'll start there.

I've always loved locs. I just think they're beautiful. I have never seen a woman with locs who didn't answer to my vision of the Holy Spirit, or if you prefer, some other kind of supreme queen-goddess. And I find men with locs to be more approachable than any other men. Except maybe men with beards. I realize this probably puts me in a small minority of middle-class white American women. But my daddy has a beard, my ex-husband has a beard, many of my closest white male friends have had beards and many of my closest Black male friends have had locs (and/or beards, in fact). So there you are.

That's an aesthetic and otherwise pretty personal reason.

As far as socio-political-values go, locs fall into that framework in our family perfectly. We place high value on natural hair. And we place high value on pride in natural hair. In DC, I met a lot of people with locs and I liked their attitude towards it. I want Nat to have that strong sense of specialness about herself and her hair. Locs are something only someone with Nat's genetic makeup can have. (I know there are white people out there with locs, but personally, I just think they don't look right AT ALL. Sorry if that's you.) In other words, locs are a treasure unique to Nat's racial heritage that we would like to see her cultivate.

I know there is a lot of debate out there about whether it's appropriate to give a child a hairstyle with the serious implications and "permanance" of locs. But we give our children all kinds of markers of our values that they are too young to choose for themselves. We drag them to religious services (or keep them away). We put political tee shirts on them. We make them eat meat or don't let them eat meat. We decide what school they should attend (if any) or we keep them out. Why should hair be a domain any different from these? Locs reflect our family's values about Black hair. They also reflect the values of our Black chosen family members to a large extent. So Nat will have "loc role models" to look to. If she decides she wants to cut them off someday when she's old enough to decide, it will be her decision and it will mean that getting rid of them is important enough to start all over with her hair. Meanwhile, as this mom insists, why should anyone assume she'll want to get rid of them? I expect she'll go through stages of loving them or hating them as she grows up, but if she sticks it out, she'll have the most beautiful hair of the freshman class she enters when she goes to college (or where ever she goes at age 18). I think she'll be thanking us for our foresight.

Nat's godfather, Uncle Wayne, started his locs about a year ago and they were looking fabulous when we visited recently. We went with him to his salon to see his locktician for a maintenance appointment and took the opportunity to talk to her about Nat's hair.

She asked what we are doing so far, and I gave her our run-down:

1. Wash hair about every ten days or two weeks (depending on how much food she smears on her head in any given week!)

2. Use lots of leave-in conditioner, spray-on detanglers, etc. and comb through carefully

3. Put gentle hairbands in for a few poofs--maybe twist or braid the poofs and tuck them under the hair bands for two-four days at a time, redoing as necessary

4. Taking styling breaks on days we aren't going out anywhere so Nat's hair can rest from the pulling into bands

5. Never pulling the hairline hair into anything--letting it grow strong without being put in any clips or bands (which means her edges always fuzz up, much to some onlookers' dismay in the grocery store--but I stand strong on doing what is actually best for her hair even if it isn't as neat as it would be otherwise)

She gave me an "A+" (her words) and this hair lotion and told me to make Nat silk sheets/pillows (she doesn't use pillows, so sheets it is) to help her back hair grow in without breaking.

She told us she (or another qualified professional) can start locs for Nat at 4 or 5 when her hair is fully grown in and strong enough to loc.

And that was our little hair adventure with Uncle Wayne.

Yesterday I put Nat's hair into two rows of french braids with little clips holding them down in the middle and at the ends. She doesn't have enough back hair to carry it much further than her crown, but it was cute. I discovered that she'll let me play with it if she's standing on her stool at the bathroom sink, being allowed to play in a basin of water and admire herself in the mirror. In a day or two (when I'm feeling better) I'm going to wash and condition it and try four rows of flat twists right after her bath while it's still really soft and wet.

Baby Stuff We Love

Einstein may not have used flashcards, but one trendy, bourgeois parenting fad I absolutely love is ASL for babies/kids. I am not talking about "babysigns" I am talking about real ASL. These videos teach real ASL to children for a variety of reasons from disabilities to second-language opportunities.

We are using them to learn a second language with Nat while she's able to absorb language so easily.

I am loving learning ASL myself. I also found this site (via a forum at signingtime.com, in fact) to try and keep myself ahead of Nat. It's not possible. She learns every sign the first time, thus outpacing me, when I need a bit more practice. I was going to take an in-person intro to ASL at the community college next semester, but I don't think I can manage it while teaching a new class myself. So I'm trying to do the internet free course as often as possible.

I am convinced that it's ASL that has put Nat so ahead of her age group in stuff like letter recognition--not to mention a recognition of the concept behind letters--and counting (and its concept) etc. She gets that some things are signs for other things. Letters are signs for words, which are signs for things or ideas. Somewhere on the website, there's an account of how a mother's cognitively disabled two year-old started sight reading whole words (and understanding them) at age two, several months after learning to sign.

I don't know what it does to her little brain (you can look up the research--also available at the video website) but it clearly does something good.

The problem that sometimes arises is that Nat just understands that everything in the world has a word and a sign. But lots of other people don't know signs. So she will give them signs and get no reinforcement and/or they will accidentally make a sign, Nat will name it enthusiastically, and again, get no reinforcement.

When we were on the plane for 7 hours, a stewardess came up and started playing with Nat on a level that was far beneath her, wiggling her fingers at Nat and saying "fing-ERS!" in a baby-voice. Then she stuck up her thumb and said, "what's this?" to which Nat excitedly declared "ten!" and the stewardess thought she was just babbling. I had to explain that she had inadvertently signed ten. Nat went on to "eleven" and on for a while happily while the stewardess freaked out.

But signing is so worth other people's confusion. Saturday, I was so sick and my throat was so sore that I couldn't talk. I rolled myself out of bed to spend a couple of hours with Nat who had been walking by my bedroom periodically and pounding and begging "mama!" heart-rendingly.

I sat with her and she brought me some of her favorite books. I was able to "read" the books to her by pointing to pictures and making signs while she shouted the words happily. I was able to "talk" to her about what was for dinner and even explain that my throat hurt too much to talk, all in sign.

The only drawback to these particular videos is the expense. But they really are worth it. We have a total of four of them, purchased here and there so as not to impact the budget too hard in any one month, and I plan to get her a couple more as soon as I've cleared all my holiday responsibilities within my budget. (Cole and I have allowances now. I should post more about that. Let me know if you're interested. It's working really well for us.)

If you know anyone who is having or recently had a baby, get them these videos! And check out your local library to see if they have them. If not, request them. I can't enthuse enough about them.

Books for Kids on African American History and Culture

Not my pithiest title, is it? Oh well.

I went through Nat's pile of picture books with tearable pages (still hiding in the closet until she stops eating books) and pulled some of my favorites. Without further ado, here's an annotated bibliography (subject to revision--this is just a start).

For Smaller Children

Shades of Black by Sandra and Miles Pinkney
This is a photo book of Black children with all different shades of skin and eyes and types of hair. The focus is on claiming Black identity regardless of how your body looks. "I am Black, I am unique" is the recurring motif. I bought this book strictly because when I flipped through the pages I saw a child pictured with locs and it's hard to find photos of children with locs (which Nat will have in a couple of years). But I also like the message that Nat has a right to claim her racial heritage even if she has white parents.
Edited to point out that these authors have a number of great books for and about Black children and their families. We have some of their others too.

Visiting Langston by Willie Perdomo
A lovely introduction for a young child to Langston Hughes both as a historical figure and as a poet. Beautiful illustrations accompanied by brief, lovely text make it good for small children.

Nappy by Charisse Carney-Nunes
This is one of two books I got in DC that are autographed (I'm a sucker for collectable books). As the mother combs her daughter's hair, she connects her to Black women's historical experiences through hair. At the end of the book are brief, factual introductory profiles of some important women in Black history.

No Mirrors in My Nana's House by Ysaye M. Barnwell
This is the second of my autographed DC haul. It's a beautifully illustrated rhyming memory of the narrator's grandmother and how she constructed beauty and worth through something other than shallow appearance.

Updated 20 December 2006

We found a couple of wonderful books this weekend at Reading Reptile children's bookstore in Kansas City.

Bintou's Braids by Sylviane Diouf
I generally prefer books about African American culture to books about African culture, but I had to get this one because Bintou's hair is exactly like Nat's: "four little puffs." I also like that because it is set in Africa it assumes Black hair as the norm--not something compared to white hair, but compared to other Black hair. Bintou wants beautiful braids like the older girls and women, but only has little girl hair. It's got highly appealing illustrations, too.

Earth Mother by Ellen Jackson is another book that is really based on African culture, but is presented in this book in a fairly universal way. I used to get Old Turtle for everyone for baby gifts. I still like it, but it has officially been bumped now, in favor of Earth Mother. As Earth Mother walks the world, caring for all its creatures, the Man thanks her for the frogs he eats but complains about the mosquitoes. He suggests the world would be perfect with more frogs and no mosquitoes. Guess what Frog and Mosquito suggest? It's a beautiful image of God and a wise lesson about ecology that does not hammer itself at the reader. Earth Mother just smiles quietly at everyone's suggestions and the reader sees for herself how short sighted her creatures are. It features a beautiful Black woman with dark skin and a soft afro as the Goddess herself. In a world short on beautiful images of women who look like Nat, this is a must-have book not just for my daughter, but for every little girl.

We also found bell hooks' Happy to Be Nappy in board book form (huzzah! for Nat who is tough on books) at the Peace Nook in Columbia, where we stopped for supper on our drive home.

Updated February 2008

Lately, Nat's favorite book is So Much by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. It's the story of a mother and a baby welcoming family members one at a time until Daddy finally arrives for his surprise birthday party. The language is Carribean-inflected English and the pictures are great, as Helen Oxenbury's always are!

Not about Black History and Culture Per Se, but also Good

People by Peter Spier
I love this book and used to teach it to my preschoolers. It is full of illustrations of people and various people-parts, like eyes, noses, mouths, hair, skin, etc. and pictures of housing, transportation...everything about people all over the world. It basically introduces race and culture in a neutral, "wow look at the variety" kind of way. My only quibble with it is that in the opening pages, there's a sort of Eden-esque picture of a man and a woman in a big beautiful outdoor space and they are...white and blonde. Heh, I don't think so. I got a brown marker and colored them in. Then I got a black marker and made their hair black and curly. Then I did the same for the family representing the typical "USA" family.

A Family Alphabet Book by Bobbie Combs
This is an ABC book featuring illustrations of queer parents and their children. It shows a nice mix of races, ages, abilities, etc. and the family representing "L for Lunch" might even be Cole, Nat and I if you squint and imagine Cole in drag... So it's a nice book just for representation purposes.

Whistle for Willie or really anything by Ezra Jack Keats
Keats was a favorite of mine as a child and now I love reading the books to Nat. She can "read" The Snowy Day herself, in fact, her favorite part being when the snow falls..."plop! Right on Peter's head." Keats' illustrations are great not just because they feature Black children, but because they feature children living in urban spaces. These are also nice for purposes of simple representation. (I've linked to a treasury of ten stories under one cover.)

For Older Children

A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman; A Picture Book of Rosa Parks by David Adler
These have more text and are better for ealry reader-aged kids. Beautiful illustrations!

Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison
With her typical genius, Toni Morrison writes a fictional, first-person narrative of the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of children integrating schools. It's creatively real, but perfectly age-appropriate for a child's first introduction to a tough, important part of U.S. history.

Harlem Stomp: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill\
This is a really cool book! If you don't know much yourself about the Harlem Renaissance, you'll learn a lot from this book. It's a great reference for any age, but geared to older children.

Quickie Product Review

We love our nifty booster/high chair.
Here's why:

10. Aunt Nancy gave it to us.
9. It fits nicely on a regular dining room chair, saving space in our small apartment.
8. It folds down to a decent, packable size for trips.
7. The tray is removeable so it can be pushed right up to any table.
6. It's pretty colors.
5. The tray has two layers, one with a cup depression and one flat.
4. You can get the top level all dirty and toss it aside and have a clean level underneath to mess up before you have to seriously wash anything.
3. There's a lid that snaps onto the tray so you can put food on it and stick it in the fridge, or just keep it clean en route to grammie's house.
2. It has no fabric bits for food to stick on forever and get really gross.

and the number one reason we love our booster/high chair:

1. The ENTIRE thing is dishwasher safe.

Stuff Returns

This is our stroller.

I am what you might call, "stroller proud." I LOVE my stroller. Now, Nat wasn't into strollers for a while. She much prefered being carried. But nowadays, she likes to stroll.

Whether or not you love this stroller will depend on what you want and/or need. But for my list of criteria it was perfect. Here's my list:

1. Lightweight. I have back troubles and the weight of the baby is enough. I didn't want the stroller to add much more. This stroller weighs less than 10 lbs.

2. Easy to fold and unfold one-handed. Check. I have folded and unfolded this sucker while holding Nat in one arm, lifted it into and out of the back of the car, opened and closed the car, etc. alone, countless times.

3. Narrow wheel base. This was key, because as I stroller-shopped, I kept thinking of all those suburbanites on the DC Metro with their minivan-esque strollers and how they seemed to gravitate to the opening doors at rush hour when people needed to get by. I did not want people thinking the thoughts about me that I have thought about such people. I wanted a stroller that could modestly scoot to the back of a subway car and take up no more space than an additional standing adult. This stroller has the narrowest wheel base I could find. That combined with the weight, cinched it.

4. As a bonus, this stroller, though an umbrella-fold style, has six-inch, rather than four-inch wheels, which makes it fairly hearty for all-terrain use. Though it's no jogging stroller, I'm no jogger, so I don't mind.

5. As another bonus, the Silver Cross Micro got a Consumer Reports "quick pick" listing as a much, much cheaper alternative to much, much higher-end strollers for similar performance. It was compared, for example, to the bug-a-boo for performance.

What this stroller does not have is the ability to recline. (The next size up, the Silver Cross Mini, can recline, but is 2 lbs heavier and it wasn't worth it to me). Thus it is recommended for babies 6 months and up. We used it starting around 3 months, by tipping it back on two wheels--not something the manufacturer would recommend in a million years, I'm sure--but at that age, Nat only wanted to ride in it for about 15 minutes at a time anyway.

And while this stroller may not be as rugged as some, it is rugged enough to last for at least another baby, I've no doubt. It has been checked four times on multi-leg flights and man-handled by baggage carriers and it has survived.

It has just enough handy storage to suit me. Again, it's no minivan, which is just the way I want it. It has a nice basket under the seat and a large pocket on the back of the sun viser. It came with a rain cover which we've never used (since we don't live in the city anymore and don't walk through much rain), and it has a carrying handle which is nice for carting it up three flights of stairs with one hand while carting the baby in the other (we live three flights up).

Plus, it's pretty.

I repeat, it may not be the stroller of your dreams, but it is definitely the stroller of mine. It is one of my all-time favorite baby things, in fact. It gets the job done with minimalist style and allows me to feel that I am still that carefree light packer of pre-baby days.

Stuff Continued

A long time ago, I read something on Susie's blog about Carol's Daughter. I went over and immediately bought a new baby gift basket and saved it for Nat, who had not then arrived.

Carol's Daughter is a woman-owned, small skin, hair and body care business geared towards African American women and children (and even some things for men). I think there's a brick and mortar store in Harlem, but we've ordered from the internet with great service, and now we're on the catalogue mailing list, too.

It's hard to buy smelly things when you can't smell them, I realize. But everything we've ever gotten from this place has smelled delicious. We regularly use the Essential Baby Jelly to moisturize Nat's skin (and the extra always goes onto my elbows) and the Rose and Jojoba Body Rub both in her bathwater and very lightly, in her hair which is getting long and full, except where it's still bald from sleeping on her back.

All of the products are naturally derived and light and healthy for the skin--no petroleum jelly, no chemicals. I ordered a few new things for the whole family recently: lotion for Cole and me; shampoo, and a new kind of baby lotion for Nat.

Considering the quality of these products, they are very fairly priced and we feel good about supporting a small business rather than some global corporation.

More Stuff Recommendations

First, an addendum to that hammock post:

Ditching our crib and buying something else for Nat to sleep in was not as hard as it might have been, because the crib we bought originally, was this mini crib and it was fairly economical. The cost of the crib and the hammock together still came to less than what lots of people pay for a regular crib. We still like the mini crib a lot. It's pretty and very apartment friendly in its size. Nat seems to be happy with the mattress (which is far thinner than a regular crib mattress) after sleeping in the hammock, on pallets on floors or play yards (when we are visiting others). Its only big drawback is the lack of a drop-down side, so that I have to reach down into it and pull Nat out which is not so easy on the back. I think the drawbacks are worth the space and price savings, but you be the judge. It wouldn't be one of the things I insist everyone would love (unlike the hammock!).

Next Up: Carriers

The lovely and talented Dawn handed down her favorite sling to us when Nat came home. It was our favorite sling too. It was snuggly purple fleece with adjustable shoulder snaps so any adult could wear it comportably. Nat lived in it for at least a month and half lived in it for another two, until it got too hot for fleece and Nat got too big for me to strain only one shoulder with a sling. Here she is sleeping away happy as a baby clam. (I pulled it open, aimed the camera at my tummy and snapped.)

Once Nat outgrew the sling, I asked dawn for her next recommendation. She suggested the Ellaroo Wrap. And boy, oh boy, was she right!

The great thing about this one is that you can tie it a zillion ways--I might've wrapped it sling-style (and did, briefly) from the get-go, but with Nat bigger and heavier, we found the front-cross-carry to be ideal (these instructions are a little different from ours--we add a final step of pulling the horizontal "sash" piece up over the baby's butt for a sense of even more security and a bit more bottom support to take pressure off her legs).
This method of tying the wrap distributes nearly equal weight in not just two (shoulders) places, but three (adding lower back). It was super comfortable for a long time. I have a bad back and this was the next best thing to carrying my own body weight, because the baby is snugged so tightly and the weight is distributed so evenly. Nat loved it too. I tried the fancy, over-priced carrier sported by movie stars (they don't need my advertising, you know who I mean) and it just didn't distribute the weight as well, because it isn't nearly as personally adjustable to the body of the wearer. It also smooshed Nat's face uncomfortably, whereas again, the wrap could be pulled and tugged and loosened to fit the baby just so.

We could still use the wrap, and do occasionally on planes and stuff, but now Nat loves her stroller (she hated it before she developed some object-permanence and couldn't see where we were), and she's heavier, so we use it less. I think it's pretty, too, and never felt frumpy wearing it. It costs a bit, when you buy it from this company, but once I accidentally forgot it on a trip to visit my parents, so my mother and I went out and bought some fabric and she ran a seam so I could use that, and it cost about the same as a new wrap from Ellaroo, because it's a lot of fabric. You could buy cheaper fabric and run your seam and probably save some money, but I thought the fabric was worth it. We bought the large size, I believe (can't quite remember) because I wanted to be sure I had plenty of fabric to tie any way I liked. I could have gotten away with a medium because I always had a long tail left over, but I'm really skinny and Nat (though growing) is small (for her age), so that's just us.

I have heard that some babies don't like wraps and slings, but Nat loved them. For a long time, we could take her anywhere, because at nap or bed time, I could just wrap her up and she'd sleep on me sound as in her bed. We even went to a couple of adult movies, trusting she'd sleep quietly in the wrap (and she mostly did, especially if we sat on the aisle, so I could stand and bounce a little when she stirred).

So if your baby hates these things, I'm sorry. But if you don't have a baby yet--give it every chance, because it made life a bazillion times easier for us. A BA-zillion!

A Room of Her Own

Tonight is Nat's third night of sleeping in her crib in her own room. If we were less than committed to moving her out of the hammock at the foot of our bed, well, Uncle David fixed us good by disassembling the hammock and putting it away.

But all three of us have loved the hammock lo these nine months. Nat just hit 18 pounds and I think she might've safely and happily stayed in the hammock until her first birthday, but we were ready to shift her to her room. When she first got here, we had placed the crib at the foot of our bed and after three nights of misery, and having to just give up and bring her to bed with us (something we did once in a while in her teeny infancy but didn't want to commit to long-term), we broke down and ordered the hammock.

It's a very nifty thing and though it's a bit pricey, I would buy it again for twice as much. (My in-laws actually paid for ours as a gift, but I'd buy it again myself in a heartbeat.) It's beautiful and cozy and recommended for preventing sleep dangers like SIDS, smothering or just simple reflux. She loved it right away. Since she was born small, she needed little round pillows by her hips to keep her in place for weeks. We never worried about her rolling over or later, crawling out. The hammock rocks and bounces gently whenever the baby moves and it just lulled her back to sleep.

So if I were making a list of things all new parents should have, I'd put this at the top of the list. Even if you co-sleep, it's nice for naps etc. And it supposedly can be easily packed for travel, though we never did that.

I've been thinking lately about all the products we have found to be truly valuable this year and how I should make a list, because before Nat came, I was desperate for such a list, myself from an actual parent I trusted, rather than the pre-fab lists they give you at stores. Therefore, note the new category of "Baby Stuff We Love" and if you're shopping, may we humbly submit our suggestions? (No one is giving us a dime, we just want to share.)

Thanks and More on Baby Food

Thanks for all your truly helpful feedback on teaching online. I was worried about some of the very issues you raised, e.g. feeling like class is always in session (try to limit this), to require or not to require minimums for participation (not sure about this yet), whether or not the trainer's exhortations to us to use the group project feature is a dumb idea that should be ignored (probably), worry that students will miss deadlines (remind them), making deadlines in multiple time zones (tricky).

The program I'm teaching for is one of the country's largest (maybe the largest?) online programs and it features several BA and BS degree entirely online, including some humanities stuff. They cater to nontraditional students and military students based around the world. I am really looking forward to dealing with that student demographic. I have always loved military students when I've had them.

My concerns have revolved around how to create the warmth and intellectual freedom and respect that I prize in my real-life classroom. I depend on my students' coming to trust and listen to each other in spite of philosophical, personal or political differences. I think I'm pretty good at making that happen in real life. How to do it online? We'll see, but it's a learning curve.

Frankly, blogging and my involvement on a couple of discussion boards (esp. IB) give me hope that it can be done. But unlike those things, a class is not necessarily composed of people with like minds and similar attitudes (less so, anyway). I mean a blog or even bulletin board attracts people who want to "hang out" together on some level right? But you're stuck with classmates.

Still, I think the subject I'm teaching will probably attract cool students. I'm fairly certain it's not required by any online degree program, but will be a choice for the students who take it. That's always nice. I am working on the syllabus. I pulled a bunch of books off of my shelf and piled them up as a preliminary syllabus plan and realized that of 11 novels, 9 were by women. While I realize that if the genders were switched, no one would bat an eye, in this case, I figured I'd better add some boys or get called mean names and be accused of having an agenda. Of course there are plenty of boys to choose from, but you know, the first things I pulled were my favorites.

Go figure.

If you have further advice, or just got here and want to add yours, please do!

********

Before Nat got here, I was starting to cook a bit more regularly than I ever had done in the past. I also knew I wanted to feed her organic formula, since we opted not to try adoptive breast feeding (and even if we had done that, we'd have needed a supplement). So I started cruising the internet for organic formula and found Baby's Only organic formula online. I buy it 2 cases at a time for maximum discount. It's actually cheaper, that way, than a lot of the big brands more common in small town groceries stores like ours (where you can't get the organic). It's a LOT cheaper than buying the organic at the tres expensive grocery stores in cities that have nice organic ones (I know because I bought an emergency can in DC once).

Anyway, in my cruising for formula, I bumped into some stuff about making baby food and I bought Super Baby Food and read it almost cover-to-cover.

Now, Yaron is a bit nutty. I take her advice with a large grain of salt (for instance, I do not use a flame-thrower to disinfect my kitchen before and after blending every banana for Nat). But the book is really loaded with nutritional information that helped me start changing our diets for the better before Nat even arrived on the scene. For example, there is no reason on God's green earth to use white flour or white rice, EVER, as far as I can tell. Not because they're so bad, but because whole grain is so totally fabulous, especially if one is cooking a more or less vegetarian diet. Also, her charts about when babies can eat what and exactly how to prepare it are really helpful and easy to understand. So we've been following her plan pretty closely, giving Nat an extra week or two before introducing things, since she's small and was a little early.

I endorse the book with reservations about the flame-throwers etc. I think, however, that this site gives you all the info you need to really know to do the same thing we're doing with the book. I just really like books. I also bought little trays especially for freezing baby food, rather than using ice cube trays. Why? Because we don't have any ice cube trays I would have had to buy them anyway. Mine may or may not have been more expensive than ice cube trays, but they came with sealable covers and I bought them while waiting for Nat which sometimes required retail activity in lieu of morning sickness to remind me a baby was on the way.

As for the price of organic, well, it's not that bad considering how little produce it takes to fill a month's worth of ice cube trays. Right now, she eats about four cubes of grain a day (two rice, two oats) and about two cubes of fruit or veggies a day (one mixed in each grain meal). Since many things, like the rice and oats, sweet potatoes, avocados, are thinned a bit (or a lot in the case of the grains) with formula, one medium sweet potato, one avocado, one banana, a cup of grain, go a long way. Hence my $5 estimate, which, I admit, is an estimate. But at .69 a jar (two servings=one day), organic baby sweet potatoes from the grocery store are no comparison. Neither are .59 per jar NON organic baby foods, frankly.

So there you have it. Our Nat meal plan. Highly recommended.