Maman A Droit

New Blog!!

2011-07-19T23:32:00.000-05:00

I decided to change my blog and Twitter name to something more reflective of who I am, so I'll soon be shutting this blog down and switching over to http://www.crunchyconservativemommy.blogspot.com/ and will be changing my Twitter name to @CrunchyConMommy. I think the new name is much more "me" and it's definitely easier to spell and say. I hope you'll join me at my new blog! (If you are a Twitter follower you shouldn't have to do anything, except once I make the change, send any future replies or DM's to my new name rather than the old one!) Also, when I comment on your blogs now it'll show that Crunchy Con Mommy commented. When that happens, you'll know it was me!

Felt Crinkle French Fries Tutorial

2011-05-23T13:11:00.000-05:00

As a newbie to felt food making, I've been trying to start with foods my son loves. And as much as I'd love to pretend that's quinoa with eggplant & brussel sprouts, he wouldn't recognize any of those things even if I managed to make the awesomest felt food versions of them known to man. So instead I've got some fruit, a sandwich, an egg (not too terrible nutritionally so far, right?) and now...crinkle fries. We don't have them all that often, but when we do, my son gobbles them up. But all the fry patterns/tutorials I found were kind of lame 2D renditions (maybe they're supposed to be smushed McDonald's fries?), so I had to come up with my own. And when I showed him the first felt fry I finished, he was super excited and clearly recognized it. So if your kid is a fellow french fry lover, give this a go!

Materials:
Yellow felt (one sheet of felt should easily make 8-10 fries)
Matching embroidery floss.
Stuffing of your choice

How-To Make It:
1.) Cut out 4 rectangles of yellow felt for each fry you'd like to make. They all need to be the same length (mine were about 3 inches long), but I think it looks cute to have the two side pieces narrower than the top & bottom of the fry. The important thing is that the top & bottom are identical and the two sides are identical.

2.) Use blanket stitch (or whipstitch if you'd prefer non-crinkle fries) to attach the four pieces together to make a rectangular felt tunnel.

3.) Cut two small squares of felt to fit the ends of your fry (I just stood the fry-tunnel up on the felt to figure it out. If you prefer measuring, the end pieces should have two sides the same width as the long top of the fry & two sizes the width of the long side pieces.)

4.) Attach one end piece, then stuff the fry with poly-fil, wool stuffing, felt scraps, or whatever else you'd like. A pencil or stick might be helpful for shoving the stuffing way down in.

5.) Sew on the other end piece. If you want non-crinkle fries, you can stop here!

6.) This is the slightly tricky part. Thread yellow embroidery floss on to your needle and loop it around the fry, going underneath the thread at each seam but not into the felt.

7.) When your loop is back where it started, pull it really tight and quickly secure it (I used a small knot incorporating the seam I started from.) This is your first crinkle! Repeat this process 3-4 more times until you're happy with the number of crinkles.

8.) If you're making these fries for someone who still chews toys (or whose younger sibling does), I'd recommend sewing several fries together in little clumps to reduce the choking hazard. (We've all had fries stick together like this for real, so I don't think it ruins the realisticness at all.)

Voila! French fries.
Bon Appetit!

Book Review: Good Words: Inspiration for Catholic Women

2011-04-19T15:55:00.000-05:00

What it is
A book of quotations from a variety of authors, each accompanied by a few questions to reflect on. The book is loosely organized around Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (you know, a time to this, a time to that)

Who wrote it
Several different women authors of books published by St. Anthony Messenger Press.

First Impression
I love the cheerful flower on the cover. And I love the concept. As a mom of a very active toddler, I don't often have time to sit and read a whole 300 page book, or even an entire chapter of such a book at one time. The idea of a book that can be read in tiny snippets (I call them bathroom books because my grandma always had little devotional books like this in a hanging magazine rack on her restroom wall!).

Overall Impression
Because of the wide variety found in this book, something is sure to appeal to you and really speak to you. There were several quotations and questions that really captured my heart, like this one by Susan K. Rowland from her book, Make Room for God: Clearing out the Clutter:

Our belongings should not bog us down and make us slaves of us. We should be surrounded with beauty, with things reminding us we are God's children.
Anything else should be removed.
So go ahead and clear out!

This quotation and the accompanying reflection questions really did make me pause and well, reflect! Short, sweet, to the point, and relevant to my lifestlye.
But many of the quotes seemed to me to have been thrown in because that section was too short, or the editor wanted to feature a particular book. And I found it frustrating that they seemed to completely ignore the "negative" sides of some of the pairings. For example, in the section based on the "A time for war, a time for peace" section of the Ecclesiastes verse, all of the quoations and questions are about peace and nonviolence and things like that. None were about, for example, what in life IS worth fighting for. The book would have been fine arranged around more arbitrary themes or even around a calendar as a daily devotional book, so it's a little frustrating that they didn't even bother to follow their self-imposed structure.

Pros

Lots of variety
May expose you to another book you'll love
Something is sure to speak to you

Cons

Some questions are trite
Some quotations seem out-of-place

The Bottom Line
An okay gift, but not an intellectually challenging book or one that I would buy for myself.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Good Words - Inspiration for Catholic Women. They are also a great source for serenity prayer and baptism gifts. I received a free copy of this book for review purposes but received no monetary compensation and was under no pressure to provide a positive review of this book. This review is my honest opinion of the product in question.

Felt Frog Finger Puppet w/ Free PDF Pattern

2011-04-01T12:22:00.002-05:00

Introducing the newest addition to our felt finger puppet family...a frog! He'll be going in my son's Easter basket along with the bunny finger puppet I made earlier.

Materials Needed:

Green felt
White felt (scraps)
Black felt scraps and/or black thread for eyes
Green thread
White thread
Red or pink thread for mouth
Scissors
Embroidery needle
Two straight pins (optional)

This frog puppet is super easy. The head with eye bulges is all one piece, and pretty much all you have to do is sew on the eyes, nose and mouth, then assemble it all with some quick blanket stitch or backstitch. Which, in case I haven't mentioned, is really easy to learn. Believe it or not, I taught myself blanket stitch from a YouTube video just a few months ago!

Variations

If you want your frog finger puppet to be a toad finger puppet instead, you could use olive green felt and cut muddy brown spots out using the eye pupil circle from my pattern. Then, sew the spots at random on the body and face of the your toad. Muddy brown French knots can enhance the toady look.

For a tropical tree frog finger puppet, make the eye bulges a separate piece from the head itself and use bright orange or blue felt (or how cute would a hot pink and purple tree frog be?!?). Make a tummy circle out of the same bright color as the eye bulges (you can use the tummy oval from my monkey finger puppet pattern). Use black French knots to make a fun polka dot pattern if desired!

If you don't want to attempt sewing, you could use felt glue, but if you do I wouldn't recommend letting anyone who still chews toys play with it lest an eye come off!

The free PDF frog finger puppet pattern on Google docs is here.

Bunny Finger Puppet -Free Pattern

2011-03-19T13:01:00.001-05:00

After how well my monkey finger puppet turned out, I decided to make more. With Easter right around the corner, I thought some seasonal animals would be especially fun. So here's my white Easter Bunny finger puppet:

I'm partial to white rabbits-I even had one myself in elementary school (I named her Rosebud and called her "Rosie"). But bunnies come in a variety of colors, so feel free to make black, brown, & gray bunnies too! If you do use a different color, consider putting an oval of white or cream felt on the tummy (like on the monkey finger puppet) for extra cuteness. Anyway, I used a combination of blanket stitch & back stitch to make this rabbit finger puppet and it definitely took way less than an hour total to do-maybe 15-30 minutes?

I'm planning to make a couple more springy animals-a sheep, frog, and duck, and I'm going to put them in my toddler's Easter basket. I'll post patterns for any that turn out well so you can try them too!

Click here to get to my free printable bunny finger puppet PDF pattern on google docs.

I'm participating in:

March’s Families, Create! challenge was filled with awesome animal-themed posts. From Mo Willems to monkey finger puppets, our writers and crafters kept busy getting creative with the little animals in their lives.

Visit Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children to find out how you can participate in the next Families, Create! Carnival. Our April theme is "Fantasy" - childhood is a fascinating time, filled with magic around every corner. What can your family imagine and create?

Please take time to read the March submissions by the other carnival participants:

Lizz at Am I a Funny Girl turns a family outing at the zoo into a picture book to keep.
The kids at Living Peacefully with Children celebrated the emergence of Spring with butterflies. Check out their Coffee Filter Butterfly mobile and Pipe Cleaner Art.
Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes offers helpful ways for a child to remember calming techniques with a “Calming your Beast” basket.
Most of us have monkeys running around our house at times. Or lions. Or elephants. Make your child's creative animal play even better with stuffed animal tails! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares an easy tutorial.
Galit Breen at These Little Waves shares an easy way to get creative with Mo Willems' "We Are In A Book."
Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares a look at butterflies through metaphor, books and a coffee filter craft.
Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children knitted some simple Nugget Bunnies for her children's Ostara baskets while practicing a new technique.
Amy at Anktangle shares photographs of crocheting a lovable stuffed turtle for her son to play with.
Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes knows a few ways to bring beneficial birds to the garden.
Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias shares a fun little first sewing project.
Lauren at Hobo Mama has a fun and easy game to make to stimulate your preschooler's memory.
Using her children's artwork as inspiration, Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children woodburned wooden eggs for them to color in honor of Spring.
Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes is making nature bags or field bags for nature journals and the other things we may need as we explore our planet.
Animals are the inspiration for this set of handmade clay items for an I Spy bag at Living Peacefully with Children.

Monkey Felt Finger Puppet Free PDF Pattern!

2011-03-11T12:56:00.001-06:00

I decided to make my son some felt animal finger-puppets. He loves animals, especially monkeys, right now and we're working on learning how to pronounce all their names and make the noises they make. I thought finger puppets would be a great way to supplement the learning-about-animals we've been doing with books, Fisher-Price Little People, singing "Old McDonald", and staring & pointing at the occasional woodland creature who strays into our "backyard" (We live in an apartment, so I'm using the term pretty loosely).

I remember thinking they were fun as a kid, and also figured they were simple enough I might be able to actually make them successfully despite my limited sewing skills. The fact that felt is dirt cheap is an added bonus (20-40 cents for an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet in my neck of the woods).

So I started hunting for patterns. I fell in love with these patterns on Etsy, but couldn't justify spending $5 for 5 patterns.

I enlisted the aid of the children's librarian and scoured through dated books on puppet-making, all to no avail.

So I took a big gulp, and made my own. And to my amazement...it worked! I used the auto-shapes in Microsoft Word for the shapes, and hand-embroidered the eyes, nose, & mouth. And here's what my completed monkey finger puppet looked like:

His neck was a bit too long & narrow, so I corrected the pattern. So if you follow this pattern, the neck will be more like this bunny (pattern coming next!):

Anyway, I want to share my patterns with you guys, for free. So click here to get to the PDF of my monkey finger puppet pattern (on Google docs) and feel free to print it, use it, customize it, & share it! And please leave me comments to let me know how it goes or if you have any questions. I'm hoping to make lots more-you can see I already made a bunny (for his Easter basket) and I'll try to post as many patterns for you as I can.

Materials needed for monkey finger puppet:
Brown felt
Light brown or white felt.
Embroidery floss in the same two colors as your felt.
Sewing needle
Scissors
Pattern

Print the PDF pattern & follow the instructions on it. For the eyes, I used satin stitch to make some rough ovals, then backstitch to outline them. I used backstitch on the nose and mouth.

Let me know your feedback so I can improve this pattern & any future ones!

I'm participating in:

March’s Families, Create! challenge was filled with awesome animal-themed posts. From Mo Willems to monkey finger puppets, our writers and crafters kept busy getting creative with the little animals in their lives.

Visit Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children to find out how you can participate in the next Families, Create! Carnival. Our April theme is "Fantasy" - childhood is a fascinating time, filled with magic around every corner. What can your family imagine and create?

Please take time to read the March submissions by the other carnival participants:

Lizz at Am I a Funny Girl turns a family outing at the zoo into a picture book to keep.
The kids at Living Peacefully with Children celebrated the emergence of Spring with butterflies. Check out their Coffee Filter Butterfly mobile and Pipe Cleaner Art.
Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes offers helpful ways for a child to remember calming techniques with a “Calming your Beast” basket.
Most of us have monkeys running around our house at times. Or lions. Or elephants. Make your child's creative animal play even better with stuffed animal tails! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares an easy tutorial.
Galit Breen at These Little Waves shares an easy way to get creative with Mo Willems' "We Are In A Book."
Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares a look at butterflies through metaphor, books and a coffee filter craft.
Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children knitted some simple Nugget Bunnies for her children's Ostara baskets while practicing a new technique.
Amy at Anktangle shares photographs of crocheting a lovable stuffed turtle for her son to play with.
Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes knows a few ways to bring beneficial birds to the garden.
Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias shares a fun little first sewing project.
Lauren at Hobo Mama has a fun and easy game to make to stimulate your preschooler's memory.
Using her children's artwork as inspiration, Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children woodburned wooden eggs for them to color in honor of Spring.
Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes is making nature bags or field bags for nature journals and the other things we may need as we explore our planet.
Animals are the inspiration for this set of handmade clay items for an I Spy bag at Living Peacefully with Children.

Parenting With Grace: Book Review

2010-12-01T16:17:00.000-06:00

I received this wonderful book for free for review purposes from The Catholic Company, a small business specializing in selling books and gifts that can help Catholic families grow in their faith. The Catholic Company was recently recognized as one of the top 10 mobile commerce sites of 2010 by InternetRetailer.com finding themselves amongst the elite ranks of companies like Apple. Walgreens, Amazon & Barnes & Noble for their user-friendly, innovative website created in-house.

What it is: Parenting With Grace, 2nd ed. is a parenting book offering theoretical discussion of how attachment parenting meshes with the Catholic faith and practical suggestions for dealing with everyday parenting situations.

Who wrote it: Greg and Lisa Popcak are a husband-wife team of Catholic radio personalities with psychology backgrounds and 3 kids.

Overall Impressions:
I thought this book was extremely insightful, especially the section explaining why they feel practices like breastfeeding and co-sleeping mesh so well with the Catholic views of natural law and self-giving love. After reading this, I felt like I understood much better the reasons why those same practices felt so right for our family.
I also thought a lot of their "real-life" examples were pretty funny and found many suggestions that seem like good things to implement with my own family as my son gets older. I really liked the emphasis on positive discipline as opposed to punishment for misbehavior.

Pros:

Thorough discussion of attachment parenting, Catholic theology, & natural law

Well organized for easy reading/reference

Lots of "real-life" examples and practical solutions

Cons:Unapologetic in promoting only the parenting style they personally find best which may turn some readers with different parenting styles off

The bottom line I highly recommend this book to any Catholic parent or parent-to-be. Other Christian parents would probably like their tips, but should skip the first section on parenting types as it seems fairly anti-Protestant at times. I'm not going to try to be a mini-Lisa Popcak and copy everything they suggest, but there were definitely some great tips in there that I'll try to apply to my own famiy, and I LOVE the section discussing attachment parenting, the Bible, and the Catholic view of natural law.

Get it: Parenting With Grace is available from The Catholic Company for $14.95 as I post this review.

I was not compensated for this post other than by receiving a free copy of the book for review purposes, and this review is my honest & original opinion. Besides books like this one, the Catholic Company is also a great source for first communion gifts and baptism gifts.

Sex Au Naturel: Book Review

2010-07-19T22:07:00.000-05:00

As part of The Catholic Company's review program, I had the opportunity to read Sex Au Naturel. Here's what I thought:

What It Is:

Sex Au Naturel: What it is and Why it's Good for Your Marriage is a book explaining and defending the Catholic position on sex and contraception.

Who Wrote It:

Canadian Patrick Coffin hosts one of the most popular Catholic radio programs in America, Catholic Answers Live and blogs here.

First Impressions:

After some interesting personal testimony from the author, Sex Au Naturel starts a little slow with some "inside baseball" about the history of the recent internal conflict in Catholic Academia and the clergy about whether or not Humanae Vitae is theologically sound. As a convert to Catholicism, I didn't know what they were talking about some of the time (I.e. specific institutions and events mentioned). It did however help me see why books like this one are so important to have around (because so few people, even within the Church, know, believe, & can articulate the Church's teachings on sexuality and rationale for them.)

Overall Impressions:

Sex Au Naturel does a great job of showing that the Catholic position on sexuality and contraception-that sex is for married couples only, is both unitive and procreative, and that chaste use of natural family planning by married couples is the only moral form of "birth control"- is well grounded in Scripture and natural law as interpreted by centuries of Christian thinkers. I especially liked a section that gave lots of examples of verses from the Bible specifically supporting key aspects of Catholic teaching on sexuality, like verses exalting fertility, pregnancy, and kids and verses deriding contraception, sexual promiscuity, etc.

Pros:

Great sampling of Bible verses supporting key aspects of church positions on sexuality
Very readable
Doesn't shy away from unpopular truths

Cons:

May be confusing at times to non-Catholics or new Catholics

The Bottom Line:

This book is a great addition to the library of anyone curious about the Catholic Church's position on sexuality. I especially recommend it for engaged couples and parents or teachers of teens/young adults.

Buy It:

You can buy Sex Au Naturel from The Catholic Company for $12.95.

*This review is my honest opinion of the product and exclusively mine. I received a free book to review, but did not receive any monetary compensation.

Profile of a 1-year-old

2010-07-19T15:44:00.002-05:00

21.5 lbs
28 inches tall

Walking since: June 5th
Vocabulary: about 35 words

Favorite food: bananas
Favorite animal: dog
Favorite animal noise: baa baa
Favorite color: blue
Favorite toy: any kind of ball
Favorite book: 100 First Words

Things I love:

Walking all by myself
Going outside
Saying "Hi" to people
The library
Little Einsteins
Being in the BabyBjorn
Bathtime

Things I don't love:

Diaper changes
Mommy driving
Staying inside
My stroller
Wearing clothes
Really loud noises

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!

First Flower

2010-07-14T20:27:00.000-05:00

My baby picked a flower for me today. It was a sort of pathetic looking clover, and he plucked it right of with most of its stem, looked at me with his big blue eyes and grinned, and held the flower out towards me. "Thank you baby" I said. "I'll keep it forever."

It is currently being pressed beneath a stack of Hubby's books. I think I'll make a bookmark out of it.

Good day.

Stay-At-Home-Mom: Carnival of Nursing in Public

2010-07-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the July 2010 Carnival of Nursing in Public

This post was written for inclusion in the NursingFreedom.org. All week, July 5-9, we will be featuring articles and posts about nursing in public ("NIP"). See the bottom of this post for more information.

I would love to be breastfeeding and/or pregnant for pretty much the next 10-15 years of my life. Crazy? Maybe a little. But let me explain. My hubby comes from a family of 6, and his mom is one of 8 kids. His aunts have between 2 and 9 kids (the one with only 2 is the youngest and may have more!) Family gatherings at his grandparents' house are some of the most joyful events I've ever been exposed to, with kids running around, teenaged cousins watching sports together, engaged 20-somethings showing off their rings, middle aged aunts cooking and gushing about their grandkids and bragging about their honors students, and nursing mamas and their grinning babies. Seeing these happy large families has given me the confidence that I could successfully raise 6-8 kids if I'm able to have that many.

So for me, and for other mamas who want or already have large families, the issue of nursing in public seems even more pressing. I guess it's sort of like taking the concept to the logical extreme. Because the nursing phase of my life (hopefully) won't be over anytime soon. It will be a big chunk of my life. In fact, when my almost-year-old baby is a teenager, there's a good chance I'll be nursing a new baby.

Very few people in contemporary American society would argue against the proposition that women in general have the right to be in public places. Yet many of them do argue that nursing moms should just stay home until their babies are old enough/weaned enough that they don't need to nurse in public. I've seen this proposed in the comments on pretty much every news story I've read about a nursing mom being told to stop or leave the public place she was at. I've also heard it from relatives.

Which leads me back to my 10-15 year plan. If I have older kids and teenagers and nurslings at the same time, I can't live in some sort of babies-and-mommies-only-dreamworld. I will have to (and want to) be out in public, driving my kids to stuff and watching them compete and perform.

And you know, babies don't "choose" when they want to nurse. They get hungry and want to eat, or get frightened and want to nurse for comfort. Period. There isn't a thought process like there is for adults, or an understanding of time that allows babies to think "well, we're almost done here, so I'll just wait 15 minutes to nurse." At some point (although I'm not sure when) a nursling may be old enough to be asked to wait and to understand what that means enough to be willing to do it. But not for a long while. Anyway, if a nursing mama and her nursling are out in public for hours at a time, there's a good chance the little one will want to nurse at some point.

My question for people who say nursing mamas should stay home is this: if my current baby turns into a baseball player, and has a tournament, do I not have as much right as any other parent to go watch him play? And what if I do have a nursing baby-say 4 months old, old enough to be out and about, but young enough to be nursing exclusively and frequently? To argue that I should stay at home instead of being present at my older children's activities is an infringement of my rights as a parent, and my human right to go out in public.

Guess what? I'm not hiding in my house for the next 15 years so I can nurse my babies. I'm going to nurse my babies in front of their older siblings. And any of their friends who happen to be around. I'll try to use discretion, but I honestly don't think it damages kids psychologically to see mothers breastfeeding (which seems to be the implication of many people who argue that they don't want their kids to "see that"). I think it's probably good for them, if anything.

If you can make it work financially, I think being a stay-at-home mom is best for kids, which I believe is well-supported by social science data and anecdotal evidence. But to argue that moms actually have to literally stay in their homes? Absurd.

Welcome to the Carnival of Nursing in Public

Please join us all week, July 5-9, as we celebrate and support breastfeeding mothers. And visit NursingFreedom.org any time to connect with other breastfeeding supporters, learn more about your legal right to nurse in public, and read (and contribute!) articles about breastfeeding and N.I.P.

Do you support breastfeeding in public? Grab this badge for your blog or website to show your support and encourage others to educate themselves about the benefits of breastfeeding and the rights of breastfeeding mothers and children.

This post is just one of many being featured as part of the Carnival of Nursing in Public. Please visit our other writers each day of the Carnival. Click on the links below to see each day’s posts - new articles will be posted on the following days:
July 5 - Making Breastfeeding the Norm: Creating a Culture of Breastfeeding in a Hyper-Sexualized World
July 6 – Supporting Breastfeeding Mothers: the New, the Experienced, and the Mothers of More Than One Nursing Child
July 7 – Creating a Supportive Network: Your Stories and Celebrations of N.I.P.
July 8 – Breastfeeding: International and Religious Perspectives
July 9 – Your Legal Right to Nurse in Public, and How to Respond to Anyone Who Questions It

Alternative ABC's Review

2010-07-08T23:21:00.002-05:00

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to review Alternative ABC's from AMMO Books, and here's what we thought.

What it is:
An alphabet board book featuring cool words and art from "alternative" lifestyles, like street and skate style, green living, and even yoga! All of the art in the book is from the 13th floor design firm, who’ve done work for everyone from Quiksilver and Oakley to Mattel and Disney.

Publication info:
Published by AMMO (American Modern) Books, a publisher specializing in provocative, one-of-a-kind books, especially on visual arts and pop culture.

First Impressions:
I was immediately impressed by the vivid colors and smooth artwork in the book. Baby seemed equally interested in the eye-catching pictures.

General Impressions:
The artwork in this book is awesome. It’s surprisingly sophisticated while still child-like and fun. There was never a page that I wondered why they chose the artwork they ended up with to match that particular word. And I love that each letter gets a full two-page spread, so there’s plenty of room to have great art and a nice big letter to help the kiddos learn them (it's easy to get so distracted admiring this book as a piece of artwork that you forget that the actual point it to teach kids letter-or maybe it's both?)

My biggest concern is that the unusual words might be confusing for babies. If you are still learning the words "shoe" and "car", throwing "k is for kicks" and "l is for lowrider" into the mix might not help matters. However, for a pre-schooler who already has basic words down, the hipster vocab may tickle their funny bone.

I think this book would be an especially fun shower present for a mama-to-be who isn’t the pastel-colored-baby-animals type, or of course for anyone who participates in, watches or talks about activities featured in the book but ignored by most pre-school literature, like dirt bike racing or yoga!

Pros:

Unique art
Bold, colorful style
Includes words from many popular lifestyles typically ignored by pre-school literature

Cons:

Unusual words may be confusing to babies

The bottom line:

These books are cool-looking and very unique. I would especially recommend them for kids who are bored with traditional alphabet books, and as shower gifts for alternative parents.

Buy it:

Alternative ABC's is available directly from AMMO for $14.95 or from most major book retailers.

*This review is my honest opinion of the product and exclusively mine. I received a free book to review, but did not receive any monetary compensation. Every baby is unique and your family may have a slightly different experience than the one I just described.

Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake DVD review and Giveaway!!!

2010-07-03T15:49:00.002-05:00

My friend Mama A, got the chance to review another DVD with her toddler daughter, and here's what they thought:

What it is:
Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake is a DVD designed to introduce classical ballet to kids. It features the Paris Opera Ballet performing Swan Lake, plus students from the School of American Ballet demonstrating basic ballet moves, and adorable cartoon ballerinas explaining the story.

Who Makes It:
Prima Princessa is a company started by two mommies who wanted to share their love of ballet with their daughters.

First Impressions:
I loved the cover of the DVD-it’s bright pink with ballerinas on the front. It immediately attracted my daughter’s attention too! It wasn’t long after opening the package that we had the DVD in the DVD player for her to watch.

General Impressions:
I honestly love watching this DVD with my daughter. It’s great. It shows the Swan Lake production by the Paris Opera Ballet and during intermission there are snippets of basic ballet moves and little girls doing these moves. I love the fact that the entire Swan Lake story is explained while they are showing it; I believe this is what kept my daughter’s attention. She loves stories! During the snippets my daughter would get up and actually try the moves (as seen in these pictures!) For days now she has been coming up to me and saying, “Mommy, I be ‘rina’(ballerina)” while handing me her mommymade tutu! I was impressed that she even got her DADDY to get up and do some of the jumping around with her! In fact, this has become the DVD I put in to keep my daughter entertained when I need to get housework done!

Pros:

Shows basic concepts of ballet to where toddlers can enjoy it.
Explains the Swan Lake story so little kids can understand what’s going on while keeping their attention.
The Prima Princessa cartoon is just as cute as can be!

Cons:

Very girly so it may not appeal to some boys

The bottom line:
It is a wonderful DVD for any princess (or prince) to watch and learn the basics of ballet.

Buy It:
Snag your own copy for just $6.99 from this list of links from their site.

Win it:
Prima Princessa is generously giving one reader a free copy of Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake! To enter, visit the Prima Princessa website, then comment here with something interesting you read on their site-it can be a fact about the company, ballet in general, or another product they make you wish you could have, anything you want as long as you learned about it on their site!
For extra entries after the mandatory first entry, do any of the following, and please leave a seperate comment for each you thing you do:

Sign up for the free Prima Princessa e-newsletter
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Enter by Midnight on Wednesday, July 20th to win. I'll pick a winner using random.org, then contact them by e-mail. If I don't hear back within 48 hours of contacting the winner, I'll pick a new winner.

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*This review is Mama A's honest opinion of the product and exclusively hers. She received a free DVD to review, but did not receive any monetary compensation. Every child is different and your family may have a slightly different experience than the one just described.

Morality & Breastfeeding in Public

2010-06-17T13:14:00.000-05:00

A recent comment from a relative that even with nursing clothes and discretion "just because you can [nurse in public] doesn't mean you should!" set me to thinking quite seriously about the morality of breastfeeding in public, and here's what I came up with:

I believe based on the scientific research and anecdotal evidence I've seen that breastfeeding is the best choice for babies' mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Because of this, I think I have a moral duty to breastfeed.* And I believe other mothers do too, unless it would be an unreasonable hardship or otherwise impossible. I don't think mothers who can't breastfeed should feel bad or are doing anything immoral by formula feeding though, of course! Or say, a mother who has to take a medication for a serious condition that is not safe for breastfeeding babies and has to use formula- I definitely don't think that's immoral! I do think that if a mother is reasonably capable of breastfeeding safely, she has a moral duty to do so and provide her child with the best nutrition and comfort available. Anyway, there are a couple of other moral duties I've been thinking about with this too.

One is that as a Christian, I think I have a moral duty to behave modestly. In life in general for me, this means not wearing low cut tops, not posting sexy pictures of myself on Facebook, and a myriad of other things. So how does this balance with the moral duty to breastfeed? I think I ought to breastfeed modestly. I don't think that breastfeeding is in any way obscene, but I do think that due to the oversexualization of our culture, many men would be prone to sexual thoughts if they saw exposed breast, and I don't want to elicit sexual thoughts in anyone other than Hubby!

To help me nurse modestly, I got a few super-cute nursing tops from Motherwear that allow me to nurse without revealing any of my breast except maybe when Baby's first getting attached and when he's done. And I try not to flash anyone. Baby won't tolerate a blanket over his head, so I don't bother even trying that anymore. For other moms who can afford it, nursing tops, etc are great. But I certainly don't think any mom should feel she has to make expensive purchases to breastfeed. Simply exercising reasonable discretion with what she can afford is all I think is necessary. But even with that being said, Baby's needs come first, and if that means some breast is exposed to public view, I don't think that's bad at all!

I also think the general population has a duty in regards to breastfeeding, and that is to mind their own business. I know that some people are creeps and might be trying to check me out. But beyond attempting to be modest in my feeding Baby, it's really not my problem. I cover up in hopes of not tempting anyone/causing anyone to sin by lusting after me, but I think that's as far as my role goes. My obligation to my baby comes before any obligation to the general public, including the obligation to modesty.

This goes for church too as far as I'm concerned. While I try to nurse modestly and quietly so I'm not a distraction, I think it's ultimately the responsibility of the other people in attendance to ensure their own focus is on God and not on the people around them, including me and my nursling.

What are your thoughts on the morality of nursing in public?

*"Duty" tends to have a little bit of a negative connotation in some contexts, so I just wanted to state for the record that besides thinking that I should breastfeed, I also love breastfeeding my son, and while I consider it a duty, I certainly don't think of it as a chore!

Ways to Have Outdoor Fun with a Pre-Walker

2010-06-08T00:46:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the June Carnival of Natural Parenting: Outdoor fun

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared their stories and tips for playing outside with kids. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

***

Baby and I both love being outside. But since he can't walk yet* it's easy to feel like there's nothing to do outside. And it's true that he can't ride a bike or fly a kite or play tag or kick the can yet. But here are some things we've come up with to allow our crawling baby to enjoy the great outdoors!

Feed the animals
Scatter birdseed in your yard or a park and point out the animals and birds that come for a nibble. We've had cardinals, robins, pigeons, thrushes, grackles, chipmunks, and squirrels! Baby gets really excited and waves to them, which is adorable and makes me giggle.

Go sight-seeing
Many landmarks, state and national parks, etc have wheelchair accessible trails, which means they are also stroller accessible, plus you can bring a baby carrier pretty much anywhere!

Go on a nature walk in your own neighborhood
To a baby, even manicured lawns, landcaping rocks, and backyard flower and veggie gardens are exciting new examples of nature. Act as baby's tour guide, pointing out the names of natural things in your everyday world. Look for things baby can touch and smell, like rocks, pinecones, and flowers, and supervise closely to make sure your baby doesn't eat anything dangerous.

Use the playground equipment
Baby loves swinging. He's a chewer though so I always bring baby wipes and wipe down the black rubber park swing before I put him in it. They also have cloth covers for baby swings you can buy if you're worried about germs and to add padding if your baby is still pretty little for the swing.
We feel comfortable now letting him "ride" a little dinosaur on what looks like a giant spring (it's only about a foot off the ground). We hold him the whole time even though he hangs on too most of the time.
We have also started using the baby slide, again holding him the whole time. You have to gauge your baby's abilities and the limitations of the playground equipment available to you, but you might be surprised how much you can play at the playground if you're willing to get involved in the playing yourself.

Make a Splash
While you have to be extremely careful, swimming can be a great option for pre-walkers. And there's tons of great gear available to keep baby safe and comfy, from swim diapers to UV protective shirts to floaties. If your baby thinks he's a fish like mine does and never wants bath time to end, swimming is an awesome way to let them enjoy the water more!

These are just a few things we've thought of to do with Baby, but it's by no means an exaustive list of the possibilities for outdoors fun with a pre-walking baby. Be creative and have fun with your little one and the wonders of nature!

*No longer true as of this weekend...I now have a walking baby! Hurray!(I'm very proud)

***

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

Garden Treats — Asha at Mom Costume has once again been bitten by the gardening bug — and this time her baby's tagging along for some fresh air and dirt exploration. (@titbagsandsnoot)

Outdoor Free Roam — Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting follows her daughter's lead whenever they go outside. (@mamapoekie)

Summer fun in Austin with a toddler — Jessica at This Is Worthwhile is brainstorming ways to beat the heat in Texas. (@tisworthwhile)

summer fun… — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children is looking forward to spending the summer outside with her children the way she used to spend summers with her mother.

Outdoor Fun for Pre-Walkers — Maman A Droit has figured out ways to let her pre-walker enjoy the outdoors. (@MamanADroit)

Summer Homeschool Fun at Camp Review — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now discusses how Camp Review motivated and captivated her homeschooling family. (@DebChitwood)

Digging, Tree Climbing and Puddle Jumping — Laura at Laura's Blog bemoans the loss of her girls' climbing tree but knows they'll find something else just as naturally tempting.

The Sweet Smells of Summer — Erin at A Beatnik's Beat on Life is looking forward to the many smells of summer she and her daughters enjoy and identify. (@babybeatnik)

June Carnival of Natural Parenting: Outdoor Fun — Sybil at Musings of a Milk Maker is a confirmed couch potato who can't help but be inspired by the outdoor opportunities Seattle offers her family. (@sybilryan)

Take a Hike — Michelle at The Parent Vortex connects with her family and the Earth on frequent hikes in their Pacific wilderness. (@TheParentVortex)

Following Paul — Julie at Simple Life gives her kids unstructured time to dig in the dirt and pick mulberries. (@homemakerjulie)

Instilling a Love of the Outdoors in Your Baby/Toddler — Tessasdad at Stay At Home Dad in Lansing offers a photo book of tips for helping your little ones enjoy the outdoors. (@tessasdad)

Camping, baby! — Jen at Grow With Graces has easy tips for tent camping with a little one. (@growwithgraces)

Think Outside the Easel for Summertime Fun — Acacia at Be Present Mama finds several ways to bring art fun to the outdoors.

Outdoor Learning in our Urban Environment — Andrea at Ella-Bean & Co. has found ways to get grass between her daughter's toes, even in the city.

Outdoor Education — Alison at BluebirdMama offers parents tips and resources for making each outdoor excursion a learning experience. (@childbearing)

Turning Inside Out — Christie of Childhood 101 finds kids get a kick out of taking indoor toys outside. (@Childhood101)

Watching Peas Sprout — Deb at Science@home combines fun with purpose in this educational outdoor activity. (@ScienceMum)

How To Create a Pirate Treasure Hunt & Other Easy Outdoor Pirate Activities (June Carnival of Natural Parenting) — Dionna at Code Name: Mama has pirate-themed play ideas for ye scurvy landlubbers. (@CodeNameMama)

What We Do — Luschka at Diary of a First Child has managed to expose her 8-month-old to a wide variety of outdoor fun, even with the notoriously dreary UK weather. (@diaryfirstchild)

Summer Fun — Darcel at The Mahogany Way finds her family's visits to the beach refreshing in so many ways. (@MahoganyWayMama)

Playing outside without a backyard — Sheryl at Little Snowflakes doesn't let the lack of a backyard stop her family from enjoying the outdoors. There are plenty of things to do outside of your yard! (@sheryljesin)

Having Fun Outdoors, Playset Free — Guavalicious at They Are So Cute When They Are Sleeping has resisted a backyard playset in favor of the regular backyard. (@guavalicious)

Moon Gazing with your Toddler — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries is keeping her toddler up at night, but it's for a good reason: to share the wonders of the night sky! (@babydust)

the great outdoors — The grumbles at grumbles and grunts wonders whether her urban child can experience the same free-range childhood she enjoyed. (@thegrumbles)

Let's Take It Outside! — NavelgazingBajan at Navelgazing is looking for ideas: how can she spend time with her pre-walker outside this summer? (@BlkWmnDoBF)

A home by the sea: June Carnival of Natural Parenting: Outdoor fun — Lauren at Hobo Mama is living her dream of a home near the beach, and taking full advantage of it. (@Hobo_Mama)

An Outside Girl — Zoey at Good Goog moved her family to (almost) the middle of nowhere so that her outdoor-loving girl could have more grass and less concrete. (@zoeyspeak)

Neighborhood Nature — Kelly at Kelly Naturally has learned to connect with the nature she has instead of mourning the nature she misses. (@kellynaturally)

Building Lovely Memories of Swimming, Spiders and Gravestones — Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch and her family are simply outdoorsy people. (@kitchenwitch)

"Buh-Bye" Season — Danielle at born.in.japan must leave laundry behind and follow her son's call to the outdoors. (@borninjp)

Backyard Camping — Becoming Mamas took her family camping very close to home! (@becomingmamas)

The Color of Dreams — Seeking Mother at Woman Seeking Mother makes gardening magical by teaching her son that each flower is a faery. (@seekingmother)

Homemade Play Dough

2010-05-29T20:08:00.001-05:00

My mom recently found the play-dough recipe she made when we were kids. It's made of all edible ingredients, so it's safe to eat, but it's so salty, your kids probably won't be tempted to try it more than once (and yes, I know this because I ate it myself as a kid-I still remember the saltiness!)

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cup salt
3 cups water
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp cream of tartar
Food coloring or unsweetened Kool-Aid powder as desired (it'll be sorta off-white if you don't dye it. Yellow was my personal favorite playdough color!)

Mix all ingredients in a large saucepan, then cook over medium heat until it's thick (hard to stir) and comes away from the edges of the pan. Knead a few times.

We always stored it in a large ziplock bag until it eventually dried out.

Easy Primavera for Busy Mommies

2010-05-21T14:14:00.003-05:00

This is the meal I make when Hubby can't come home to eat with me and I want something yummy and nutritious I can make without having to set Baby down for more than a minute or two!*

Step 1: Pasta

Boil any kind of pasta you want. I used whole wheat rotini, but have used plain old spaghetti before!

Step 2: Veggies

I heat up about a tablespoon of butter in a frying pan and throw in some garlic and oregano (you could use olive oil instead and use any combo of spices you want!). Then, I add about a cup of frozen mixed veggies, and stir occasionally until they are heated up!

Step 3: Assemble & Eat!

Drain the pasta, then pour it on the plate or bowl you want to use. Pour the veggies on top. I like to sprinkle a little cheese on top. And that's it. You're done! Eat and enjoy!!!

*Safety note:

This whole meal can be prepared while holding a baby with the exception of the draining of noodles and pouring of hot food out of pans onto a plate. I recommend putting your baby safely out of the way for the minute or two this takes. But NEVER carry a hot pot or pan above a baby's head!!! Also, be sure to keep your baby a safe distance away from boiling water and hot butter/oil. I stir with my right hand while Baby's on my left hip and my body is turned to the side so I'm completely between him and the hazards.

This post is linking up at

Vegetarian Foodie Friday @ Breastfeeding Moms Unite!

Foodie Fridays @ Designs by Gollum

Charley Harper's ABC's Giveaway Winner!

2010-05-13T00:49:00.000-05:00

Congrats to Michelle B., who was the winner of a free copy of Charley Harper's ABC's from AMMO Books.* Enjoy your new book Michelle, and thanks to everyone who entered.

I also encourage everyone to enter my current giveaway by next Wednesday to win a free copy of a new sports DVD for babies, toddlers, & pre-schoolers, Baby Goes Pro:Early Beginning, and stay tuned for more great giveaways coming soon!

*if I don't hear back from Michelle by Saturday morning, I'll pick a new winner

Large Canvas Print from Canvas On Demand Review

2010-05-08T00:18:00.001-05:00

What it is:
A large canvas print (16"x20") of a digital picture I uploaded from my computer to the Canvas On Demand website. I chose a picture my mother-in-law took of WWII bomber at an air show. We chose the photorealistic style and standard editing- no extra touch-ups or anything like that.

Who Makes It:
Canvas On Demand, a company started by a pair of dads named Joe and Tom from Indiana and New York (6 kids between the 2 of them) who love outdoors activities and were both formerly involved with Art.com. I looked up their Better Business Bureau score online, and it's an "A."

First Impressions:
The ordering process was so quick and easy, I was almost afraid I'd missed something! There are a lot of size and customization options, but if you look around the site, there are detailed explanations for all of them. For example, instead of the option I picked, you can have them make your picture look like it is an oil painting, complete with brushstrokes!

I was also impressed at how quickly it got here. For our canvas print, it just took a couple of days from when I ordered it for it to actually be delivered to us.

General Impressions:
The large canvas print looks awesome! I'm so excited to put it up in Baby's room in the new apartment we are moving to. I was afraid it might be pixelated, like a paper copy of an enlargement that big would probably, but instead it looks almost like a painting. There is one tiny dot of glare or something, but it's from the picture we sent in, not any error on their part. (I checked the original on my computer-definitely our fault!) They might've been able to fix it had I chosen a more expensive editing type.

Pros:

high quality/durability
many size options
less expensive than many other sites that print your photos on canvas
variety of customization and editing choices

Cons:

mistakes in your photos may end up in your canvas too!

The bottom line:
The large canvas prints from Canvas on Demand are gorgeous ways to show off your photography and decorate your home.

*This review is my honest opinion of the product and exclusively mine. I received a free large canvas print to review but did not receive any monetary compensation.

Baby Goes Pro:Early Beginning DVD Review & Giveaway!!!

2010-05-01T08:59:00.007-05:00

My dear friend, Mama A, agreed to review Baby Goes Pro: Early Beginning, a new sports DVD for kids, with her 3 year-old son, AJ, and her 2 year-old daughter, Sissy. Here's what they thought:

What it is:

Baby Goes Pro: Early Beginning is a DVD designed to help kids under the age of 4 better understand sports, and to get kids moving!

Who Makes It:
Baby Goes Pro, a company started and run by by soccer mom Valerie Stern and by Gigi Fernandez a two-time Olympic Gold medalist in the sport of tennis and mother of twin toddlers.

First Impressions:
The packaging is very simple with just the name of the DVD and the Baby Goes Pro! monkey, Emkei, on it. It definitely got me curious! The kids were excited just to get a new
DVD!

General Impressions:
AJ is at the age that he's starting to really get into sports, so this DVD was right up his alley, and Sissy is just interested in whatever her big brother is into! We've had the DVD for about 3-4 days so far and I've already lost count of how many times the kids have watched it! There are catchy songs throughout the DVD that make it easy on Mommy's ears. The songs introduce a sport and then the DVD shows people playing that sport. It covers basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, and of course, tennis. For example, during the basketball segment the people in the video demonstrated passing the ball and then throwing it in the hoop. I think AJ is definitely understanding what is going on!

The only thing that I don't really like is that the DVD is targeted to kids under the age of 4 but when it goes through specifics of a sport (like hitting the ball in baseball) a little box with the word "hitting" appears on the screen. Neither of my kids know how to read yet so they don't really understand that, unless I am sitting down right there telling them what it says....which in turn I guess could be a good thing because eventually they'll learn how to read that word! I will say this though: the DVD is definitely up there with our Baby Einstein DVDs we had when AJ was born in terms of how much the kids like it!

Pros:

Kids are excited to get out and moving to play new sports

Great music to listen to

Attracts the kids, so it's great when you just HAVE to have the kids sit
for a bit

Cons:

Some words are written on the screen instead of spoken so pre-readers might not catch on to exactly WHAT is being shown

The bottom line:
Worth the time and money to invest in this. Not only to add to the 'ways to get Nick Jr. off my TV" list but also to show the kids the basics of sports.

Buy It:
You can buy Baby Goes Pro: Early Beginning directly from Gigi and Valerie at the Baby Goes Pro Website for $14.95 (+ free shipping) at time of posting. Plus use the coupon code "facebook" and get 20% off (which should make it around $12 total!)

Win It:
Baby Goes Pro is generously giving one Maman A Droit reader a free copy of the DVD, Baby Goes Pro: Early Beginning! To enter, leave a comment below telling me which of the 5 sports they feature on the DVD is your favorite.

Extra Entries:
For extra entries after the mandatory first entry do any of the following and leave a seperate comment for each thing you do:

Follow this blog

Follow @MamanADroit on Twitter

Follow Baby Goes Pro! on Facebook

Tweet this giveaway

Blog about this giveaway (leave the link in your comment, please)

Enter by midnight on Wednesday, May 19th to win! I'll use Random.org to pick a winner, and if I don't hear back from you within 48 hours after I e-mail you, I'll pick a new winner.

*This review is Mama A's honest opinion of the product and exclusively hers. She received a free DVD to review, but did not receive any monetary compensation. Every child is different and your family may have a slightly different experience than the one she just described.

this giveaway is listed at:

and:

Sweeps Advantage: Free Sweepstakes and Contests

Strawberry Banana Pudding Pie

2010-04-30T09:48:00.003-05:00

This pie was so yummy and easy I wanted to share the recipe with you! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups crushed graham crackers
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
2 boxes of vanilla instant pudding
2 cups milk
1 container Cool Whip
2 bananas
6-8 strawberries

Step One: The Crust

Melt butter in 2 cup measuring cup or microwave safe bowl
Stir in sugar with fork
Stir in Graham crackers
Grease pan for less sticking
Press graham cracker mix on bottom and sides of pie pan
Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes to set

Step 2: The fruit

Slice 1 1/2 bananas (feed other half banana to baby to keep him occupied while you make pie)
Slice a half dozen strawberries
Layer the fruit directly on the crust

Step 3: The pudding

Mix two 3.4 oz. boxes of vanilla pudding with 2 cups of milk
Add 1 cup of Cool Whip to the pudding
Pour the pudding mix on top of the fruit and spread with a spoon so it fills the crust
Spread Cool Whip on top of pudding. If desired, use frosting gun to make it cutesy. I don't have one, so I just used a spatula.
Add a few slices of banana and/or strawberry to the top for added beauty and flavor.
Attempt not to eat all in one sitting.

Suggestions for variations:

Add pineapple slices to the fruity layers and 1 cup of shredded coconut to the pudding for a tropical treat!
Try chocolate pudding with either bananas, strawberries or rasberries. Use chocolate Graham crackers for the crust!
Use soymilk or lactose free milk for the pudding if desired/necessary.

This yummy recipe post is linking up to Foodie Fridays @ Breastfeeding Moms Unite! and Momtrends

Charley Harper's ABC's Review & Giveaway!

2010-04-23T10:14:00.008-05:00

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to review Charley Harper's ABC's from AMMO Books, and here's what we thought.

What it is:
An alphabet board book featuring nature inspired artwork from noted American artist Charley Harper.

Publication info:
Published by AMMO (American Modern) Books, a publisher specializing in provocative, one-of-a-kind books, especially on visual arts and pop culture.

First Impressions:
I was immediately impressed by the colorful artwork. I especially loved the nuthatch (bird) on the cover that was stylized but still easily recognizable.

General Impressions:

These books are definitely easy on the eyes. Charley Harper specializes in what he called minimal realism, but there's a surprising variety in his art. It was tempting to take pictures of all the pages for this review, but I restrained myself and just included a few of my favorites. Because each letter gets its own two-page spread, the book is pretty thick, but there's also a thinner version with 4 letters per page and just as nice of artwork (for most letters it's the same picture as the thick version). I like that the thick version only has one letter per page, but I also like how the thin version fits easily into my small diaper bag. Baby seems really interested in the colorful pictures and this book holds his interest longer than most of his other books. The only downside I saw is that some of the illustrations are probably too abstract for kids who are still learning to identify types of animals. For example, this herd of zebras:

However, most of the pictures are pretty clear and I think this book is great to have in your collection as long as you have some less abstract pictures of zebras, etc. to show your little one(s) too when you're trying to teach them animals instead of letters.

Pros:

Beautiful artwork
two thicknesses
well-made/durable

Cons:

Some pictures may be too abstract for some kids

The bottom line:
These books are beautifully illustrated and a fun introduction to different styles of art. I think they'd make a great addition to the library of any baby/toddler/pre-schooler.

Buy it:
You can buy both versions of Charley Harper's ABC's directly from AMMO

Win it:

AMMO Books is generously giving one reader a free copy of your choice of either the thick or thin version of Charley Harper's ABC's. To enter, visit the AMMO Books website, then comment here with the title of another book that sounds interesting, either for your child/grandchild or for yourself!

For extra entries after the mandatory first entry, do any of the following, and please leave a seperate comment for each you thing you do:

Follow @AMMOBooks on Twitter
Become a fan of AMMO Bookson Facebook
Follow this blog on Google FriendConnect
Follow @MamanADroit on Twitter
Tweet/Retweet this giveaway
Blog about this giveaway (please leave the link in your comment)

Enter by Midnight on Wednesday, May 12th to win. I'll pick a winner using random.org, then contact them by e-mail. If I don't hear back within 48 hours of contacting the winner, I'll pick a new winner.

*This review is my honest opinion of the product and exclusively mine. I received free books to review, but did not receive any monetary compensation. Every baby is different and your family may have a slightly different experience than the one I just described.

This Giveaway is listed at:

Online-Sweepstakes.com

Free Sweepstakes and Contests

Body Image Blog Carnival Wrap-Up

2010-04-19T14:17:00.000-05:00

For the past week (April 12-18th) I co-hosted a "Body Image Blog Carnival" with Melodie from Breastfeeding Moms Unite! We had tons of great posts written by fabulous women who really shared their heart on this topic. But sadly, our Body Image Carnival has come to an end. I really enjoyed reading all of the great submissions. For one thing, it made me really feel like I'm part of a community (or at least an e-community!) full of women who, just like me, have insecurities and flaws, but are learning to love their bodies anyway. We tried to split it up into small chunks so it'd be possible to read all the featured posts each day, but just in case you missed any of the great posts, here's a complete listing of all the posts we featured. Any link that doesn't say where it leads goes to either Melodie's site or mine! Enjoy, and thanks again to all the participants, especially the lovely ladies who submitted posts and to Melodie for all her hard work!

How Breastfeeding Can Change Our Body Image

Less Breast at Momthings and the Snoot

BFAR, Breasts and Body Image at Pocket Buddha

Big B, Little B at Code Name Mama

Commentaries on New Study Breast Ptosis: Causes and Cure

Sagging Breasts? What's to Blame? at PhD in Parenting

Saggy Boobs and Nursing at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom

The Skinny on Being Skinny

You Can Never Tell About Anyone Just By Looking a guest post at Breastfeeding Moms Unite!

Too Thin? at Schmoopy Baby

She's Way Too Skinny at Step Up and Stand Out...For Real!

Extra Curves at Breastfeeding Momma

Weight Loss Surgery: My Ball and Chain at Cream of Mommy Soup

Who Am I?

Hello, I'm a Dancer at Hobo Mama

Learning From My Daughter at Living Peacefully With Children

Body Image at One Starry Night

The Goddess at Mother Flippin'

Body Image and Culture

"Mom Jeans" and the Curse of MILF at Tis Worthwhile

You Look Great at Lil' Snowflakes

The Body Image Carnival at Authentic Parenting

Happy to be Female at Breeder Brain

How Can I Avoid Beauty Obsession? at Breastfeeding Moms Unite

Sexy Moms

What is Sexy at The Bee in Your Bonnet

VII - Happily Ever After The End Part or LUCKY at Honest To Betsy

My Body - A Critical Look at Keeping Mum Sane

Making Peace

Making Peace at Strocel.com

Embarrassed by My Leg at Kim Through The Looking Glass

How Pregnancy Changed My Body at The Mahogany Way

Baby Body at Motherhood Saved My Life

Making Peace With My Body at Momopoly

Pregnancy Loss and Femininity at The Verve Path

Beach Body at DesignHER Momma

Three Practices for Loving The Skin You're In at Baby Dust Diaries

Cesarean Sections

What To Expect of Your Body After a C-Section

Eating Disorders

NEDA Walk Invitation guest post at Maman A Droit

Product Reviews

Bravado Bliss Nursing Bra

MENYKA Nursing and Maternity Wear

Making Peace With Our Bodies

2010-04-17T15:07:00.004-05:00

This post is part of the Body Image Carnival held by myself, Maman A Droit and by Melodie from Breastfeeding Moms Unite!. Each day we are featuring great submissions by real women about their body image. Most are moms, and all have heartfelt stories to tell.

We all have our flaws, things we'd change to have a "better" body. And it's easy to let these imperfections win out, to let them convince us that we have less worth because of them. But ultimately, reaching the goal of a positive body image comes down to one thing: embracing these imperfections and who you are, the way you are now.
Making peace with yourself. Of course, this is easier said than done. Today's featured posts share personal stories of how some fabulous women are making peace with their own bodies.

Amber from Keepin' it Real in the Suburbs talks about making peace with her body not being entirely her own anymore in her post, Making Peace.

I have deeply ambivalent feelings about this loss of control over my physical self. On the one hand, I am very grateful to have had this experience of birthing and breastfeeding my children. It is an amazing gift. They are amazing gifts. On the other hand, it hasn’t all been super-fun. I didn’t enjoy pregnancy much, between the nausea and the extreme emotions and the constant nosebleeds I got. I don’t really like its physical aftermath, either. And sometimes I really just want some time and space to myself, which isn’t always possible when you have these two little people underfoot.

Kim of Kim Through the Looking-Glass makes peace with her pregnancy-induced varicose veins in her post, Embarassed by My Leg .

I became unexpectedly pregnant with my son when my daughter was just one year old. My first symptom was a juicy varicose vein running across my thigh that made me say to myself - "Hey! I haven't seen one of those since ... oh no!" During my second pregnancy, my veins got much worse much more quickly.

Melodie from Breastfeeding Moms Unite! makes peace with her c-section scar in her post, What to Expect of Your Body After a C-Section.

After I had time to take in the fact that my abdomen wore staples that looked like a Hannibal Lector mask, I was pretty upset that I wouldn’t be able to wear a cute bikini or pretty panties ever again. But I got over that aspect of my c-section pretty fast. My issues with my cesarean were more than skin deep. As far as my body image went I was a little more concerned with my deflated beach ball tummy and stretch marks.

Darcel from Mahogany Way makes peace with her stretchmarks, and not losing her pregnancy weight as fast as some people made her think she might, as she discusses in her post, How Pregnancy Changed My Body.

Watching my body transform, and having the baby belly was amazing. I still think pregnancy is amazing.
I was completely unprepared for the way my body would look later on. The stretch marks, and the way my belly was hanging down just made me feel disgusting. I hated that I had to wear maternity clothes for so long after she was born. I wanted to know why my body didn't snap back into place like the women I saw on TV.
I wanted to know when it was going to snap back.

Celina from Motherhood Saved My Life! makes peace with her "longjas" and episiotomy scar in her post

I don’t view these things as negative. These physical marks are worth the beautiful “prize” at the end of the 40 weeks. Don’t get me wrong I had a few issues with my body after I had each of my children. I gained a lot of weight with each baby and after escaping my first pregnancy stretch mark free, the pregnant belly of my second child wasn’t as forgiving.

In Making Peace With My Body Kate from Momopoly talks about how motherhood and her Catholic faith helped her in her struggle with eating disorders and gave her the inspiration she needed to make peace with her body.

But, like He does so often, God gave me a wake-up call, an “Ah-ha” moment that forced me to take a good, hard look at something other than my new butt graffiti. One day I was staring at Madeline’s naked body and admiring all of her dimples and rolls. She grinned at me, looking up with bright eyes. Something about that innocent smile crushed me. I began to cry as I realized that for the first time in my life my body angst wasn’t only hurting me, it was hurting my daughter. Each time I punished myself for not being thin enough, each time I shed tears over stretch marks, each time I stood in front of the mirror just to berate my body, I was transferring my hate to Madeline and failing to be a healthy role model.

The Verve Path discusses how miscarriage can impact body image and self-esteem, and provides some insights into how she made peace with her body after multiple miscarriages in Pregnancy Loss and Femininity .

It is obvious that a pregnancy loss can affect a woman (and her partner) in many ways emotionally and physically. The physical pain and hormones alone can wreck havoc. What I have realized with this most recent loss is that it affects my feelings of being feminine. Our sense of ourselves as feminine beings can be so intimately tied into our reproductive health and vitality that a loss can cast a dark shadow on our views of ourselves. Feelings of anger at your body, of being “broken”, of being “less of a woman”, are all very common. Personally, I have found that I face a major period of anger at my body.

Erika from DesignHER Momma talks about making peace with her new swimsuit body in her post, Beach Body.

I wish somebody would have shook me, looked me in the eye, and told me that I will never look as good as I do at that very moment. Told me that my stomach will never be as tight, and my b00bs will never be as perky. Told me to stand up straight and find some freakin' confidence.

Honestly, I don't wish for those days back. I'm happy and content with my place in life. I admit that things on my body wiggle and jiggle a bit more than they used to. I'm ok with this (kinda). My body has created and housed 3 perfect little babies, and I have the war wounds to prove it.

Paige from Baby Dust Diaries provides some tips for making peace with your own body in Three Practices for Loving the Skin You're In .

I find though, that there aren’t very many tools for physically practicing self-acceptance. If we wanted to learn to relax we could think about what stresses us and how we want to feel but we would also be able to implement daily practices, like breathing and meditation, to help us embrace the change. Here I present three practices for learning to love the skin you are in.

Also be sure to check out the great body image submissions from "Sexy Moms" that Melodie is featuring today at Breastfeeding Moms Unite!

Culture and Body Image

2010-04-14T16:51:00.010-05:00

This post is part of the Body Image Carnival held by myself, Maman A Droit and by Melodie from Breastfeeding Moms Unite!. Each day we are featuring great submissions by real women about their body image. Most are moms, and all have heartfelt stories to tell.

While much of body image is individual, there's also a large and undeniable amount of influence held by culture. Culture tells us the standards of beauty in our society, or at least held by a segment of our society, which we then individually choose to accept or reject.

In her post, "Mom jeans" and the Curse of MILF Jessica from This is Worthwhile rejects the inherent assumption in phrases like "MILF" and "mom jeans" that Mom=not hot.

In modern society mothers are discarded by the mainstream as sexy, powerful women based on the caricaturization of a few. Yes, some women wear clothing that is frumpy and ill-fitting. Yes, some women choose not to wear make-up or do their hair. But that does not mean it is a "mom look." It is that particular woman's expression of herself and she might also be a mother. It's not the mother in her that makes her dress in an unflattering way. It's the woman that she is that fuels those decisions. They are separate.

Over at Lil Snowflakes in You look great!, Sheryl observes a cultural phenomenon in which people seem to think it's okay to say just about anything to pregnant women.

As I gained weight my body changed and suddenly it became a topic of conversation for anyone that I encountered. Not a day went by without someone commenting on my body. Here are some examples: How much weight have you gained? Your face has really changed! You look like you're having a girl (code for: your face is fat!).

Mama Poekie at Authentic Parenting shares her experience examining her body image in light of Western culture and then Western African culture.

I moved to Africa three years ago and from then on, things really started to change. Over a period of six months, I had gained back all the weight I had lost through years of dieting. Our cook was trying to do a good job, which meant that his bosses needed to be well nourished, and every time I tried to explain how to cook healthy meals, he added oil or sugar when I wasn’t watching. At that time we were living in Cameroon, where really fat people are considered beautiful. This led to horrifying cultural clashes: the plumber coming over telling me Cameroon did me justice, because I had gotten so big! That’s probably the last thing you want to hear if you are living with the ‘thin is beautiful’ mindset we are raised by.

Carolyn from Breeder Brain thought she had fully explored her gender identity... until she became a mother, as she discusses in her post, Happy to Be Female.

When I was born, I was labeled female and given a female name and raised as a girl. I don’t remember ever feeling strongly about my sex or gender identity until recently. My sense of self and my perception of how my physical body and how society expected me to be meshed well enough for me to get by.”

Also be sure to check out The Skinny on Being Skinny where Melodie features some great posts about how "skinny" women view their own bodies.

Nest Cookies

2010-04-03T09:51:00.002-05:00

Last year and this year both I made cookies that look like nests full of eggs. They are made of coconut-coated sugar cookies and peanut butter M&M's (although you can use any egg shaped candy as long as it has a hard candy coating to prevent akward melting. Here's How they turned out:

The great thing is that these cookies are super-cute, delicious, and easy! Just follow these simple steps to make your own nest cookies for Easter or spring in general (shopping tip: Easter is tomorrow, so if you are making these just for fun, you can probably find great deals on the candy during the early part if next week!)

1.) Toast some shredded coconut on a coconut sheet @350 degrees for 5-10 minutes.

2.) Prepare your favorite sugar cookie recipe. I like this one .

3.) Make balls of dough and roll them in the coconut.

4.) Place the balls of dough on a cookie sheet and bake according to your recipe.

5.) Place 2-5 egg shaped candy coated pieces into the center of each cookie while it's still warm on the cookie sheet. I do this immediately after taking them out of the oven.

6.) Eat and enjoy!!!

Why I'm mad about my Sex Education

2010-03-24T00:05:00.000-05:00

This post won't use sexual slang or crass language, but may include some anatomical or technical terms you aren't ready to explain to your kids yet.

In elementary school, I remember an awkward video followed by free sample travel-sized deodorants. Then in high school, sex ed mainly consisted of awkward diagrams on a handout, a long list of STD's and symptoms, and a condoms vs. the pill vs. IUD type chart. My parents talked to me about the emotional and moral aspects of sexual activity, and even sent me to a special class at church with a dozen other unwilling victims to learn more about our church's stance (I was Methodist at the time. Their stance was basically no sex before marriage, no abortion without a good reason, otherwise do what you want.) But one thing missing in all of this was a thorough and scientifically accurate discussion of natural family planning.

It wasn't until I was in college and dating my now hubby that I found out there is a way to practice natural family planning that is safe, cheap, effective, all-natural, and doesn't mean you have to have 20 kids. I had never heard of the "sympto-thermal method", but I now know that it works by using your basal body temperature (waking temperature), cervical mucus, and optionally internal cervix self-exams, in a cross-checking way to determine when ovulation has occurred.

Then abstinence is recommended during your fertile times if you are trying to avoid getting pregnant, or condoms if you aren't opposed to them for religious reasons like me and other pro-life Catholics. If you want to get pregnant, you know when the odds are most in your favor. There's more to it than that, but that's the basic gist of it. It has been proven 99% effective in clinical studies, meaning it has a "perfect use" rating just as high or higher than comparable statistics for the pill, condoms, and IUDs (obviously, like any family planning method, it doesn't work very well if you don't do it right or you cheat!)

Anecdotally, we conceived Baby exactly when we wanted to, and Hubby has relatives with anywhere from 2 to 9 kids who spaced them exactly the way they wanted to.

After I first found out about sympto-thermal natural family planning, I told my mom about it, and she didn't believe me, because she had never heard of it. I recently shared it with a friend, and she hadn't heard of it either. I've found that most of my friends and relatives either haven't heard anything about natural family planning or think it just means the outdated and ineffective "calendar method" or "rhythm method".

I'm not going to tell anybody what kind of family planning/birth control they should practice, but it really irritates me that this option isn't really presented to most women as a viable one. So I wanted to post this so you, my readers, have the knowledge necessary to truly make informed choices about your reproduction.

A few good resources:

NFPandmore.org - this Catholic organization has tons of info on NFP including an entire manual available in PDF form for free because they are so passionate about making NFP accessible to all women. Besides scientific and "how to" type info, this site also has theological arguments in favor of NFP and ecological breastfeeding from a Catholic perspective, and some links to Protestant theological arguments supporting NFP.

Contracept.org:A secular website with a reasonably fair website, although they allege a 16% "average fail rate" without citing any research to support the use of that number. Also has some good links to other NFP sites.

Planned Parenthood - PP refers to it as a "Fertility Awareness Method" and claims up to a 25% failure rate for all FAMs (lumping unreliable methods in with the sympto-thermal kind) if you don't always do them correctly. I personally find this pretty deceptive, as they list both perfect and imperfect use statistics for the methods they favor, such as the pill and condoms but only an imperfect use rate for NFP. But I know many people consider them fairly authoritative, so I included this link despite my dislike for PP and their practices, including but not limited to this small deception.

I also recommend the "Sympto" charting app for iPhone or iPod Touch, which I'm helping to Anericanize by revising many of the texts written in English on a volunteer basis (meaning I get nothing other than warm fuzzy feelings if more people download it!)

That's Not My Car! Touch and Feel Book: Adroit Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

2010-03-19T19:12:00.005-05:00

Grandma & Grandad S gave Baby this book as a gift, and I wanted to share my thoughts on it with you! *

What it is:
A touch and feel book about a mouse looking for his car. The mouse explains on each page why a certain car isn't his, then on the last page successfully identifies his car by its "squashy bumper."

Publication Info:
by Fiona Watt
published by Usborne Books

First Impressions:
I immediately loved the textures. For example, one of the pages has a big rectangular area of the scratchy side of Velcro. One of my pet peeves is touch & feel books that don't have distinctive textures. This book defintely doesn't have that problem! Besides the scratchy Velcro, there is also smooth silvery metallic paper, bumpy green shiny plastic, something that looks like tin foil folded like an accordion, and a couple other textures.

General impressions:
This book has now been one of Baby's favorites for several months. He really likes feeling the textures. The premise of the book is a little over Baby's head, but as he is only 8 months old, so is just about any plot line. When he's older I think he'll like it-we'll have to see! He just likes looking at the pictures at this point, so having good pictures makes it a winner for our household. The scratchy Velcro got a little dust and fuzz stuck in it, but not too much. The pages are holding up really well to Baby chewing the corners, throwing the book, standing/crawling on the book, and violently turning pages.

Pros:

Great textural variety
Cute, colorful illustrations
Well-made/durable

Cons:

Concept more appropriate for older babies/toddlers
Velcro gets dirty

The Bottom Line:
This book is cute, colorful, and has great textures. Baby and I both love it and will probably buy more books in this series.

Win It:
Usborne Books is generously offering one reader a free copy of That's Not My Car!
To enter, visit Usborne Books then comment below about another Usborne book that sounds fun to you. Please enter by midnight (US Central Time) on March 31st. I'll use random.org to pick a winner and contact you by e-mail (If I don't hear back from you within 48 hours, I'll pick a new winner.) Good luck to all!

DUE TO A COMPUTER MALFUNCTION BEYOND MY CONTROL, THE COMMENTS HAVE NOW SWITCHED FROM INTENSE DEBATE TO BLOGGER. IF YOU COMMENTED BEFORE, YOU ARE STILL ENTERED TO WIN EVEN IF YOUR COMMENTS ARE NOT VISIBLE AT THIS TIME! ALL NEW COMMENTS USING BLOGGER WILL ALSO HAVE AN EQUAL CHANCE OF WINNING!

*This review is my honest opinion of the product and exclusively mine. I did not receive any compensation for this review. No two babies are the same, and your family may have a slightly different experience with this product than the one I just described.

My Vintage Green Raincoat

2010-03-09T00:00:00.004-06:00

Welcome to the March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage green!

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month we're writing about being green — both how green we were when we were young and how green our kids are today. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

I have a bright green raincoat I love to wear-its rubbery coating means I actually stay totally dry on wet days, and its mid-thigh length means even the tops of my legs benefit from this wonderful dryness. I've worn it to shop in, to run in, and all sorts of other rainy day activities. But I'll let you in on a little secret: it's actually a GapKids size XXL from about 1994. It used to belong to my big brother when he was in 4th and 5th grade. But in my family, we don't throw old clothes away: we hand them down. So when my brother outgrew it, it went into the coat closet until I grew into it a few years later.

Besides this raincoat, I was also a regular recipient of hand-me-downs from a girl at church who, like me, had no sisters. Luckily she had great taste in clothes and I got tons of compliments when I wore her old things. More recently, almost all my maternity clothes and a few of my nursing tops were generously given to me by my husband's aunt who had worn them herself about 3 years ago, and we've been dressing our son in the hand-me-downs from her toddler. When Baby is a big brother, his siblings will wear the same adorable little outfits he did (plus a few new things here and there).

"Hand-me-downs" get a bad rap; many people think it's shameful, an indication you can't afford new clothes. Many people who wear hand-me-downs are embarassed to admit it and do so quietly. But I think hand-me-downs are highly underrated, and actually one of the best traditions in our society. In fact, here are the top 5 reasons I think hand-me-downs are great:

Good for the pocketbook-since they are generally free, they save lots of money over buying all your family's clothes new.
Good for the environment-reusing clothes saves resources used in the clothing itself and in the manufacturing process.
Good for your pride-it's a lot harder to base your worth on material things when your material things are last season (or older) and have already been worn by someone else. It just becomes less of a priority.
Good for your imagination-you have to be creative to incorporate old clothes into your wardrobe in a fashionable way.
Good for nostalgia-when I wear my raincoat, I think about hiking through a French forest and exploring Irish castles with my big brother. A new coat wouldn't have those fun memories!

So next time you realize that pair of jeans is just never going to fit again, complete the bittersweet weaning of your youngest and don't need nursing tops anymore, or your 8 old's shirts are suddenly all 3/4 sleeves, pass them on. Pass them on to your younger kids, your cousins, your friends. Pass them on to other families in your playgroup or La Leche League meeting group. And don't be ashamed of wearing your favorite hand-me-downs. Proudly go out into the world and don your vintage green raincoats!

You Tell Me: What's your favorite hand-me down you've received or given (or both)?

Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants.
(This list will be updated March 9 with all the carnival links.)

My Momma Was a Hippie — Jessica at This is Worthwhile is continuing her Earth Momma mother's way of honoring nature by taking her child outside every day. (@tisworthwhile)
Mom Did Know Best, About Diapers at Least — Guavalicious at They Are So Cute When They Are Sleeping has a dirty secret about cloth diapers: They're easy. (@guavalicious)
The Force that Drives the Water Through the Rocks — Shana at Tales of Minor Interest remembers her first spiritual connection with nature, granted to her through her father's care for the spirits of the earth.
Confessions of a Cabbage Patch Kid — Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma learned about landfills and recycling through gardening. (@kitchenwitch)
Seeing My Grandmother Through Green Colored Lenses — Michelle at Seeking Mother was raised by a grandmother who wouldn't let anyone throw out used clothing — ever — and who believed baths were water enough for two or more people at least. (@seekingmother)
Through Green Tinted Glasses — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis realized her family didn't so much choose green as it chose them, since not being green would have cost a lot more.
Green or Die! — NavelgazingBajan at Navelgazing remembers berating her family for not turning off the faucets — and notes that her efforts to save the planet for another 20 years must have worked.
Natural Parenting Carnival: Green Living — Sarah at Natural Parenting is doing more to make her children's generation green than what she had as a child.
Natural Parenting Carnival: Vintage Green — pchanner at A Mom's Fresh Start used to fill her own water bottles from a spring — before doing so was cool. (@pchanner)
Getting Dirty — Molly at Molly's Place is inspired by her mother's camaraderie with nature. She's going to get back in touch with the real food cycle, as opposed to the "shrink-wrapped nutrition" you can buy. (@KPMolly)
My Vintage Green Raincoat — Mama at Maman A Droit is wearing her brother's bright green raincoat — 16 years later! (@MamanADroit)
Vintage Green — Darcel at Mahogany Way hasn't realized it yet, but she is slowly turning into her parents. ;) (@MahoganyWayMama)
Vintage Green — mrs green at littlegreenblog reminds us that children can be green simply by being kids. (@myzerowaste)
March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage Green — Lauren at Hobo Mama was eco-chic before it was en vogue. (@Hobo_Mama)
Growing Up Green — Chrystal at Happy Mothering honed her green instinct from an early age. (@HappyMothering)
greener pastures — The Grumbles at Grumbles and Grunts has a list of ways she's transitioning from green living as a novelty to green living as a lifestyle. (@thegrumbles)
Vintage Green: The Hot Water Tank Is Not Sexy — Zoey at Good Goog had to go green when moss started growing around her feet. (@zoeyspeak)
We Walked Softly — Starr at Earth Mama wrote a beautiful post about how her parents instilled a love of and respect for Earth and nature in her, and how she is passing that gift on to her own children.
Save the Mermaids! — CurlyMonkey is learning from her daughter how to keep the mermaids happy. (@curlymonkey_)
March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage Green — Dionna at Code Name: Mama sees glimpses of her mother's greenness frugality in her own life - but she draws the line at pantyhose soap. (@CodeNameMama)
I Thought I Made Them Green, But Really They Made Me — Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! thought she made her parents green — until she took a closer look. (@bfmom)
A Culture of Less — Alison at BluebirdMama explained why homebirth is the green childbirth choice. I love this thought! (@childbearing)
5 Ways to Embarrass Your Children While Going Green — Acacia at Be Present Mama shares some of the embarrassing things her parents did to her in the name of being eco-conscious.
Ending Is Better than Mending? — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries is teaching us how to darn socks armed only with a light bulb. (@babydust)
There and Back Again: A Green Girl's Tale — Lactating Girl offers a gentle reminder that certain eco-conscious practices shouldn't be "ideals," but realities. (@LactatingGirl)

Welcome!

2010-03-04T18:35:00.000-06:00

I just migrated here from http://www.mamanadroit.typepad.com/ where I was unhappy with the limitations of typepad's free blogs. I'll repost my best posts here plus resume tomorrow with my normal blogging. Thanks for checking it out!