24 February 2008

Singing Praises

Olivia has been singing her prayers - it is a great way for her to remember all the words, even if she doesn't quite know what they mean.

The first time she sang "Blessed is the Spot" all by herself, I was so amazed that I actually wrote down the date. It was February 6, 2008. There, Miss Olivia, you can't say I totally failed with the baby book...

And here's a more recent version - she's taken to embellishing some notes on her own, so it has its own unique sound. And don't worry - there's no image component on purpose. I feel weird about watching people pray.


13 February 2008

Shameless Plug


I've started a baby carrier enterprise, called Mama Mia Mei Tais, and so I thought, "why not plug it on my daughter's blog?"

So I am.

I specialize in custom-made baby carriers, and even have some organic options. Yay, organic cotton!

http://MamaMiaMeiTais.blogspot.com



07 February 2008

Things I Like: gDiapers

These little contraptions from Australia are really gaining a foothold here in the U.S.!

It seems that one of the eternal baby questions - cloth or disposable? - has finally met its match. The solution? gDiapers! Why? They're flushable! Yes! FLUSHABLE!! Woo-hoo!

When I first saw them in the baby aisle of our local Whole Foods, I promptly sat down in the middle of the aisle and read all about them. I had been using Seventh Generation for Olivia when we traveled outside of the house for more than 10 minutes (we use cloth at home), but I still felt terrible about using disposable diapers. It takes about 500 years for a disposable diaper to degrade! And some statistics state that the average child will use around 7,000 disposable diapers before becoming toilet trained around 2 ½ years of age! And that 20 billion disposable diapers end up in landfills every year! Bleck!

"Holy cow!" I thought, "How am I going to make a difference?"

Well, first of all, we decided to use cloth. And it was pretty awesome, because cloth is softer on baby's skin (Olivia has had one (1) case of diaper rash to date, and she's almost two years old!), not to mention that we have a great diaper service which means that we don't have to trek down three flights of stairs to our coin-op laundry and spend a bazillion dollars washing the diapers numerous times in hot water!

But what about when we go out on the town? Who wants to lug around a duffel bag full of clean (and then dirty) cloth diapers? Not me! Enter gDiapers (with a glorious fanfare)!

They work similarly to cloth, in that there is an insert which one covers by a waterproof cover. But they are less bulky, are 100% biodegradable, and you can flush them (without the cover of course).

They are a bit more expensive than your cheap disposables, but they are comparable to Huggies, and, when paired with cloth, are a lot less expensive - particularly on the earth.

And that's really the bottom line. Don't loose sight of the fact that the money that you make is a tool - some may say a gift from the Creator - to be used in the best way possible. And being a steward to the earth (another Divine gift), is to me a vital consideration when using my purchasing power.

Read more about gDiapers here. Or ask me a question - I have loads of info on the things, and even some cool coupons. : )

06 February 2008

Snow Day!

Yay! Nathan got off of work earlier than normal, due to inclement weather! It's a snow day!

Olivia and I donned our snowboots and trekked out to our front yard to play. On our way, we met Nathan on his way in from the storm. We made out first family snowman!

Olivia worked really hard:


Daddy Nate even ran all the way upstairs for tomato buttons and a carrot nose. While he was gone, Olivia and I made a tiny snowbaby. Can you see it? (hint: it's on the left of the big one)

05 February 2008

Pigs in a Blanket

We recently spent the day at a hotel to celebrate our five-year anniversary (yay!), and actually spent most our time playing on the “big bed” (as Olivia termed the tall king sized bed). Jumping was of course the favorite activity, but as we wound down for the day, playing tent & hiding under the covers was fun, too.

Here’s an excerpt of some of Olivia’s calming exercise, where she repeats to herself the parts of “This Little Piggy” that she can remember.



The script reads (as best as I can transcribe it):

"[This little piggy] ... went to market
this little piggy [went] to town
an' this little piggy went
wee'le-wee wee'le all the way home!"

(with the Super Bowl commentator in the background)