Festival Baby

I don’t remember going to music festivals as a kid. I do remember going to a Pete Seeger show and maybe an Oktoberfest, but not quite a festival. This year, I decided to take my little Vintage Clothing business The Style Revival on the road and with me, the whole family.

Crestone Music Festival ’09 in Crestone, Colorado. We were prepared because I had done flea markets so there wasn’t much prep work, but since I would be facepainting too, we needed grandma to come watch our daughter while we worked all day. We parked our little camper behind the booth so she could nap and kept lots of extra food nearby so as not to have to rely on festival food.

Thank goodness my mother-in-law was there. I don’t think we could have juggled it alone. We met the other vendors nearby and there families. We played with the hula hoops, danced to the reggae and bluegrass, ate pizza and just had an all around good time. Other than the late night freezes that weekend while camping, it went pretty smoothly.

I decided I want to do it again next year and maybe even try a couple more festivals. As my daughter gets older, she’ll be able to run off and play with the other festival kids without me having to worry about her. It is a temporary way for me to mimic a communal lifestyle for us and allow her to be exposed to music and culture while enjoying a family camping weekend together.

Love: Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves

Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves is a great book about parenting. The author, Naomi Aldort, stresses the need to validate your children’s feelings and let them work through them on their own,  instead of the more common method of trying to distract them from their feelings. She emphasizes that our children should not have to always act in accordance with our needs. If it is not unsafe or hurting anyone, why not let them climb those rocks and get filthy? Or even go so far as act out their power struggles on you. Additionally, she helps parents consider ways to give their children more autonomy. All of this felt really intuitive to me and I appreciated her advice.  However, there is a catch. Read more »

Only Child

At a baby shower recently, some moms were sitting around discussing how exhausting infants and young toddlers are and how grateful they are to be “done.” They had two, a boy and a girl. When I also expressed that I was “done.” They were shocked and joked that I had to meet the status quo of at least two children. Though it was complimentary (I think) that they felt I “seemed like the type to have more,” they could not quite explain what that meant. Am I too maternal for just one? On the way home, I grew a little upset thinking about it. Read more »

Mama Mentor

You might not realize it, but chances are you have a mama mentor. It may be your mom, but (no offense, mom) most likely your mom’s methods are a little outdated, if she remembers child rearing at all in the first place. I am thinking more of a friend, or a sister, someone whose initiation into motherhood came before yours. This person has introduced you to all methods, products and philosophies that you hold dear in parenting. My mama mentor is my old roommate and dear friend, Leanne.

Leanne’s youngest daughter is about a year older than my daughter, so when I was pregnant, Leanne was eager to help me out. She introduced me to baby legs, cloth diapers, EC and Ina May Gaskin. Once I had my daughter, Leanne sent me books on parenting that she found helpful. Since she is a buddhist, a life philosophy I wholly admire, I knew that her methods and my own would jive.  Now that she has daughter #2, her time is more constricted, but I still look forward to learning from her whenever I can. Thanks, Leanne.

What’s Behind that Organic Label?

When I became a mom, I became a bit more fanatical about buying organic foods, especially dairy. We all know about hormones and antibiotics in dairy. There is always the debate in the food aisle about whether to buy local or buy organic. Generally, I choose organic. Local is great for the environment, but I am thinking of the more immediate effects on my family. Our local co-op does a great job of stocking shelves with local goods that are organic, but not certified organic. That way, I know what I am getting. However, sometimes, in larger stores, we don’t have that extra service and have to choose based solely on labels. In this case, I choose the lesser of the expensive organic. But not today.

After reading this article on alternet, I had to rethink my purchase. Organic is the conscious choice and already a lot more expensive than non-organic. But when I realized that buying the cheaper organic milk, such as Horizon, was actually contributing to larger, less socially responsible, big corporations, those I try to avoid when they are in my face, I chose Organic Valley instead. It cost 70 cents more, but it is a cooperative, not a corporation. That explained the higher price tag. So, now, I am paying even more for organic.

What is truly irritating about this, money aside, is that I spend so much time reading labels on everything from shampoo to juice, and now I have to read even closer to see what corporation I am giving my money too. Even worse, most of the time the product doesn’t even tell you, for fear of losing customers.

Sometimes, we don’t have a choice between organics because there is only one, or sometimes we don’t even have organic at all, but when we do have the choice, we should make it count. This brings us back to buying local as much as possible and supporting small businesses.

Excerpt from article: “What’s important to keep in mind is that these big corporations are getting into organics not because they have doubts about their prior business practices or doubts about chemical, industrial agriculture,” said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association. “They’re getting in because they want to make a lot of money — they want to make it fast.” He said the companies couldn’t care less about “family farmers making the transition to organic farms.”

I Want (Blank) Now.

My daughter’s new favorite words a la 22 month old is, “I want (fill in the blank) now.” She doesn’t say it in an obnoxious manner as you may imagine those words would come out. Instead it is very matter of fact twinged with a bit of sweetness, which of course is greatly emphasized by her cute little face. Regardless, the fact is, she wants something. It is as if she has begun her initiation into consumerism, the constant need to have something. It starts young. Read more »

Donate Old Strollers to Homeless

While walking down Venice Beach in Los Angeles, I noticed a man dressed in the ragged attire of the homeless and, in front of him, I was shocked to see a baby stroller, much like my own, what I refer to as the SUV of strollers, the jogging stroller. Obviously, I was very upset to learn that he was homeless with a child, but as we passed him, there was no baby on board, but instead the stroller was filled with his belonging and a small dog was perched on top taking a nap. After this sighting, I saw several more around L.A., San Francisco and Portland, tres west coast.

I know I’ve been living out in the boonies for a long time, but when did homeless people trade in the old trusty  shopping cart for new fangled baby strollers? It doesn’t seem like they would hold as much, though they may ride better in today’s urban landscape. Isn’t there a poor mother out there that could put that stroller to better use?

BPA Found in GLASS Baby Jars

You stopped buying plastic toys and all your plastic water bottles are BPA free. You finally feel like you have gotten a grip on that nasty estrogen-mimicking chemical when this study comes out of Canada saying that traces of BPA have been found in baby food in glass jars. Apparently, the plastic lining on the lids leaks bisphenol-A. Sorry mamas, but toxins are lurking everywhere. Stop buying baby food in jars. Invest in a food processor and take advantage of summer’s farmers markets. Good luck!

West Coast Road Trip ’09- The Last Leg…

The impetus for our journey was our friends Yi-Jau and Brenda’s wedding in Portland at the end of June. So, once we reached our destination, we knew we had reached the climax of our journey and only the denoument was left to wrap it up.  So, we figured we better have a rockin’ good time, which we did.

We arrived in Portland on Last Thursday on Alberta Street, which was just an amazing raucous celebration of creativity, ingenuity and fun. Since we were there before the street was closed to cars, we meandered very slowly along the sidewalk checking out the bounty of wild artistry. Read more »

West Coast Road Trip ’09- Newport, Oregon

From Eugene, we had lunch in another cool little Oregon town, Corvalis, before heading to the coast. Unfortunately, we didn’t see much of it because it rained the whole time, but we did have one clear morning where we took advantage of the chilly beach and absorbed more ocean. We ended up at the very cool Newport Aquarium, which our daughter absolutely loved.

Newport Aquarium

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