I made my first Mei Tai carrier when Lukas and Jasper were 13 months old. I entertained a brief fantasy that I would become a WAHM (work-at-home-mom), making and selling baby carriers for a living. I decided that I would call them "Happy Baby Carriers" because they made for very happy babies. Here I am modeling the hot-off-the sewing machine first ever Happy Baby Mei Tai with 13-month-old Jaz:
What I didn't know at the time--what I couldn't even imagine--was that babywearing was something that would outlast diapers and nursing and the toddler years all together. Tonight I cooked dinner with Jasper in that very same carrier, which perhaps should now be called the "Happy Five-Year-Old Mei Tai."
The mei tai has always worked to bring each of my 3 kids into a calm and centered mode. And I guess that because I never stopped wearing Lukas and Jasper (though I did stop wearing them at the same time when I got pregnant with Zeben), the magic never stopped working.
This evening, Jaz was acting particularly defiant and obstinant--and ran across the street to play with our neighbor despite my just having asked him not to. He then continued to run away from me, and I had to chase him down with a scrambling Zeben under one arm and Lukas holding my other hand. Not fun. Jasper's "punishment" was 1/2 an hour on my back while I made dinner.
It really is amazing how well this works to mellow him out and remind him of our connection. After a couple of sulky minutes, he started asking questions about what I was cooking, and by the end of the carrier time, he was happy and snuggly and kissing my head. He ate a most excellent dinner and was exceptionally pleasant for the rest of the evening.
Lukas often needs some carrier time in the morning before school, so I'll pop him on while I make the kids' lunches. It gives him just the confidence boost he needs to happily get ready for school and leave the house without a fuss.
Do you think it will still work when they're 13?
4/29/08
Babywearing: Not Just For Babies
4/23/08
MockHawk at Work
4/22/08
Procreation creations
I always notice pregnant women everywhere at this time of year. The winter coats disappear and the bellies that have been tucked away all winter are suddenly walking down the street in broad daylight. But this year it really seems like there are an especially large number of pregnant women in town, and some of them are actually friends of mine! So exciting. One of the most exciting parts about it is that I have great excuses to make all sorts of tiny things for these new tiny people.
Gilly birthed her gorgeous baby boy, Eamon, a week ago, and today I dropped off a tiny tee for him and a playsilk/Super Big Sister Cape for Gilly's 3-year-old, Miryam.
For whatever reason, I seem to have been born with an especially large dose of pro-procreation programming, and nothing makes me happier than seeing pregnant mamas and mamas with new babies. I've been fascinated by them for as long as I can remember. And, really, who can blame me? When I was 4 or 5 months pregnant with Zeben, I went to an Ani Difranco concert. She was newly pregnant herself, and her hormonal state made her especially lovely that evening. It was my first time hearing her sing the song, "Reprieve," which includes this repeating line in reference to women having babies: "To split yourself in two is just the most radical thing you can do." And that line comes through my head every so often and I just feel it so strongly. How amazing and true.
A visit to baby Tucker
Yesterday was Patriot's Day, and Lena had the day off. Luke and Jaz still had preschool, though, and we happily dropped them off with planns to take full advantage of a rare opportunity to experience the lives of parents with only one kid. We packed Zeb into the car and headed out to Boston to visit Addie, Max and sweet baby Tucker. It seems like it was just a couple months ago that Addie and Max were driving out to our place to meet newborn Zeben for the first time. I can't believe it's been long enough since then for them to go through the whole process of deciding to get pregnant, getting pregnant, and birthing their own baby! Here's Addie (holding 5-day-old Zeb) and Lena back in November of 2006:
And here they are again, 17 months later, with a whole new person in the picture. Doesn't Zeben look absolutely huge compared to 10-day-old Tucker?
So far, Zeb seems to be quite taken with his new cousin. He can say his name quite well, "Tuck-er," and was especially pleased to watch him nursing (and felt inspired to do the same). 
Addie and Max and Tucker are all doing very well indeed, and Tucker is just the cutest little baby. I have total baby lust after hanging out with him for just a couple hours. It was so great to get to visit their sweet new family without the impact of our wild and rambunctious five-year-olds. What a nice treat for us all!
4/20/08
Naked Baby
I think one of my most favorite things about this beautiful weather we've been having is that, after the long, cold winter of long sleeves and long pants and long socks covering every inch of their skin, I am suddenly getting the chance to see so much more of my children. Seeing their exposed arms and feet on a daily basis taps into some primal mama love. This is especially true with the "baby," whose baby fleshiness is once again apparent for all to see. I still want to eat him.
I am hoping that hanging out naked a bunch this summer will inspire him to ditch his diapers, but I also just can't get enough of his milky soft skin.
I may never get him dressed again.
4/19/08
Backyard Beach
When I was growing up, my grandparents had an amazing house on Captiva Island in Florida. Until I was 15 (when they decided to sell the house), we spent this week of April (the school vacation week) at the beach. I have only good memories. The ocean is the one place I would happily pack us up and fly to for a vacation. But since that's not exactly possible for us to do, we took advantage of Saturday's 80° weather, and decided to bring the beach to us.
The combination of our sandbox and a 10 gallon bin of water provided hours of entertainment for Lukas, Jasper and Zeben, as well as a couple of kids from the neighborhood.
The main goal seemed to be to get the water from the bin into the sandbox as quickly as possible. At first I was resistant to this game, and encouraged them to water the flowers and plants instead. But eventually I surrendered, reasoning that clearly the sand would dry out soon enough, and that we weren't wasting too much water.
Even Zeben clearly understood the older kids' plan, and happily joined in the fun.
All in all, it was about as close to an island vacation as we can get at this point, and it was a surprisingly satisfying alternative. I imagined I could hear the sound of waves crashing in the background as I relaxed in the sun and took in the joy of five sandy and squealing kids.
4/12/08
Being Outside
Today was a gloriously warm, sunny day. The forecast had been for rain, and the surprise of instead having such a lovely day to be outside made it all the more spectacular. We walked into town for brunch around 11:00 and didn't end up leaving until after 3:00. We spent hours sitting in the park in the center of town, hanging out with all sorts of friends who were happening through, and also catching up with people who we hadn't seen since the last gloriously warm day of the fall. It felt so good to be outside. We all got a bit sunburned (I guess that means it's time to start putting on sunblock everyday), but it was the kind of sunburn that feels good.
When we did get home, Lena and I were pretty beat and welcomed the shaded relief of our house--a house that has been a little too cold all winter, but now feels perfectly cool. The boys, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with being inside. Luke and Jaz bounded in the front door, and then out the back door, pausing only momentarily to use the bathroom in between.
I had forgotten, in the loooong, cold, dark winter about how lovely Being Outside is for the kids. It's a whole different thing when there's no need for snowsuits and mittens and worries about snow getting stuck inside of boots. They are entertained for hours on end by sticks and dirt alone.
While Lena, Zeb, and I rested inside, Lukas and Jasper were busy working on their version of fairy land in the back yard. This is the fairy house that Jaz made:
Here are the Playmobil Fairies inside, eating their dinner. I love how he set the table up.
Lukas built the Fairy Hospital ("well, you know, because of course everyone needs a hospital").
Here he is tying the "ambulance boat" to the dock outside the hospital, after realizing that it would take the fairies a long time to get all the way across the yard from their house in an emergency. Especially if the emergency was a broken wing, or something like that.
When Zeben woke up from his nap, he wanted to go outside right away, and spent a good 45 minutes quietly observing a swarm of ants.
They really are fascinating. Ants. This is the kind of thing that you can forget about all winter long.
Hooray for spring.
4/11/08
T-shirts for Tucker
Today my amazing sister-in-law (Lena's twin sister), Addie, gave birth to her first baby. Lena was there, along with Addie's husband, Max, to welcome Tucker to this world. He weighed 6 lbs., 12 oz, and, according to Lena is both perfect and incredibly cute. I can't wait to meet him and see Addie in her blissed out new mama state.
To busy myself in Lena's absence last night, I started working on decorating some of the baby t-shirts from my dyeing day earlier this week. It felt like the only way I could participate in the birth from 100 miles away. While I cut fabric and stitched it on to the tiny T's for Tucker, I imagined him moving easily through Addie's pelvis and out onto his mama's chest.
As tiny as these t-shirts are, they likely will fit the little one more like a dress at this point. But I think they'll fit perfectly right around the time when it gets hot enough for him to wear them.
This morning, when I was showing the shirts to the boys, my little bird-obsessed toddler got insanely jealous about the bird t-shirt. So I made one for him today while he napped. He loves it.
I will definitely be making more of these. It was incredibly satisfying work. Kind of like having babies.
Congratulations to Addie and Max! Welcome Tucker!
4/10/08
One Year Later
Today, just like in the brilliant story book, Once Upon A Potty, Zeben received a package in the mail. And in this package was something strange and new. It was neither a hat nor a frisbee nor a basketball hoop. It was a Baby Bjorn Toilet Trainer. Though its name might lead you to believe otherwise, this product does not actually toilet train your child. It's actually an insert that you put into the big toilet to make the hole a more appropriate size for a tiny bum. Zeben was not especially impressed at first. But once he got around to trying it out, he was quite pleased indeed.
After documenting this special milestone, as any proud mother would, I decided to look back through photos of Zeben's earlier potty days. Because while this was Zeben's first time trying out a toilet insert, he is not exactly a novice in the potty department.
Soon after Zeben was born, we began holding him over sinks and letting him pee there, rather than in a diaper. He also grew accustomed to using a little potty, and even preferred it to using diapers (wouldn't we all). I wasn't exactly a pro at elimination communication, as it's called, but I did feel like I learned how to communicate with Zeb about his elimination needs, and we were rather successful for a few months. However, once Zeben started crawling, he wanted nothing to do with sitting on the potty. By 8 months, he was back to using diapers full-time. It wasn't until recently that he began to show renewed interest in his elimination and he seemed willing to try the potty again. Anyway, I found this picture of Zeben's first time sitting unassisted on his Baby Bjorn Little Potty. He was exactly 4 months old.
And purely by coincidence (I swear!), he was wearing the same exact t-shirt then that he wore today when trying out the big toilet for the first time. How crazy is that? Clearly, in some ways, we're in the same place now as we were a year ago. Zeben, sitting on yellow Baby Bjorn potties wearing his red dragon shirt. But when I look at the picture of that chubby little baby, it is hard to believe it's the same Zeben. What a difference a year makes.
4/9/08
Teething Update
Zeb has 8 teeth now. He's still drooling up a storm, so there could be more to come in the next week or so. But he's been sleeping better and nursing less and I think we may have survived this round of teething insanity. 12 more to go.
The First Time
Today was the first time, in a loooong time, that it was warm enough to be outside in just a t-shirt. It was the first time since the fall that we left the heat turned off in our house all day (even though it still never got warmer than 62° inside). I guess spring always feels like a lot of newness, what with birth happening all around you. But I think it feels especially new when you've got little ones to experience everything with.
He looked like such a big kid.
I also bought him his first pair of crocs today. Too cute.
Lukas started riding a two-wheeler bike for the first time this past week. After spending hours upon hours glued to his pedal-less run bike, he's long had the balance part of riding a bicycle totally mastered. When Jaz started riding a regular two-wheeler last summer, Luke cheered him on with such excitement. But he didn't even want to try riding one himself. Until now. And, as is the norm for kids who have been riding balance bikes, the first ride on the two-wheeler was really not that big of a deal. He got on the bike, and rode it. But he was still quite proud of himself.And, of course, we are proud of him too.
Jasper handed down his two-wheeler from last summer to Lukas (who is really too big for it, but he feels more comfortable on the smaller frame), and has just started riding his BIG bike (that he was too scared to try last summer) for the first time this week. He can go really fast on it.
Today was also the first time this season for eating strawberry pops on the front porch.
And, of course, it provided the perfect opportunity for the first 3-boys-together photos of the spring.
4/8/08
Add Some Color
The flowers in our yard are really blooming now, adding some much needed color to this grayish brown time of year. This true sign of spring has definitely boosted my mood and energy levels and given me new inspiration. After weeks of telling Lena, "I think I'll dye today" (which always drove her crazy, since she heard it as "I think I'll die today"), yesterday I finally did it. I dyed. This is the pile of clothes and diapers that needed some help in the color department:
I have dyed things (clothes, cloth bags, fabric) several times now, but not enough that I feel like I really know what I'm doing. There is always a frantic and disorganized search for directions, bins to do the dyeing in, or some forgotten ingredient. This time around, I thought I'd be well prepared, and I started getting things ready two weeks before I actually ended up doing the dyeing. But still, there was a last-minute bike ride to the grocery store for huge quantities of salt because I'd forgotten just how much was required.
Ingredients for dyeing:
- Dye (2 TBS of each color)
- Water (6 gallons per container of dye)
- Salt (1 cup per gallon of water)
- Soda Ash (the fixer, 1/3 cup per 3 gallons of water)
- Synthrapol (special detergent that makes the dye not bleed)
- Platic bins (at least 10 gallon capacity each)
- Apron
- Rubber Gloves
- Dust Mask
- Bowls/buckets for mixing
- Plastic/metal utensils for stirring the dye
- A well-ventilated space
- A sleeping baby
<-- Here I am, all decked out and ready to dye!
My least favorite part of the dyeing process is mixing the powdered dye with water. This is because my mother (a textile artist) has scared me about the toxicity of the dye in its powdered form. The dye is sold as "safe and easy," but on the container it does say that one of the ingredients has been proven to cause cancer. Once it is in liquid form, it is not so much of an issue because you can't really inhale it anymore. But when the dye is still powder, I wear a dust mask and try not to breathe.
The other challenge I was faced with this time, since it was my first time dyeing outside, was getting the warm water from the kitchen to the bins. I had a two-gallon bucket, so each bin of dye required 3 trips inside for water. Here's the dye set-up:
Adding the clothes to the dye is the most fun part, though it always feels a bit crazy and haphazard. I was also dyeing some clothing items for a few friends, and I was trying to remember which colors they wanted things as I tossed them into the various buckets. The colors I used were: sunrise red, tangerine, deep yellow, brilliant blue, and plum.
After I got everything well saturated in dye, I spent about 20 minutes going from bin to bin, stirring things up. Ideally, you would stir the dye continuously, but I just don't see how that's possible (unless you're only doing one color at a time or have more than one person doing the dyeing). Letting it sit can cause the dye to color the fabric unevenly.
The next stage involves mixing the soda ash with water and adding it to the dye baths. You are supposed to add it in three separate doses over 15 minutes, but I couldn't manage to do the math for that (2/3 cup divided by 3? I do love calculus, but I never really mastered fractions), so I decided to just add it in two doses. Soda Ash is a chemical, so I donned the mask yet again and also tried to make sure that I was upwind of the powder (which can be an eye irritant). After I got all the soda ash added, Zeben woke up. Thank goodness he didn't wake up any earlier! After a banana and some nursing, he was happy to play in the sandbox while I worked at emptying the dye bins and rinsing the dye out of the fabric.
It took a couple of hours to get everything cleaned up and in the washing machine, but there were no major spills, and I didn't even get any dye on my hands. Here is the pile of transformed items:
So much more colorful! These Hanna Andersson suits turned out great:
The one on the right was pink and white to begin with, and the one on the left was pink, white and lime. They were fine before, but I LOVE them now! And the stains are much less noticeable. I also love the way these swaddlebees pocket fitted diapers turned out:
They were all periwinkle on the outside, and natural on the inside before the dyeing. I love how a few of them ended up two-toned, and I love the way the periwinkle mixed with the dye. These Little Beetle Hemp fitted diapers also turned out really well:
They were all natural colored before, and now they're so much more fun! The dye did an excellent job covering up all the stains as well.
It was so great to go to bed last night feeling so accomplished. I think there will be more dyeing to come in the next few weeks. I have some more ideas up my sleeve, and I want to try some other colors (the only bummer this time around was that the tangerine and the sunrise red ended up being nearly identical, and the deep yellow turned out looking a bit like neon orange. It's pretty intense).
I'm also looking forward to more color outside in the weeks to come as the flowering trees and bushes get ready to bloom! This is my most favorite time of year.
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