Happy Birthday Cassidy!

A little photographic proof that Cassidy did indeed turn 2 last week, for those who were not able to join her for such an auspicious occasion. As I'm sure all parents say, "Where does the time go?" But it really does feel that way. 2 years! Wow! At the same time I can also say that so far, it is still just getting more fun by the day.


So we kicked off the birth-day with her new (to her) play kitchen awaiting her in the living room. When we brought her into the living room we said "Cassidy what's that?". To which she replied "Oh! A stove!" and got right to work:

We followed that up with a little excursion by bike (in her new birthday dress and toting the Maisy library book bag I made for her):

For some cupcakes! Mmmm...one pumpkin and one gingerbread (she promptly ate the little ginger-man off the top of the gingerbread one). We also picked up a lovely red birthday leaf along the way:

Next we hit the library to find, read, and check out every Maisy book we could locate. Turns out, there are quite a few:

The day ended off with a chat with Aunt Caitlin and the opening of a pint-sized Kohahna t-shirt, giving Cassidy the chance to transform herself into a little blue elf:

We followed up the day itself with some weekend birthday festivities -- a trip to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, more lovely gifts from her many admirers and cake with candles -- but these pictures are scattered hither and thither amongst many cameras and will have to be gathered together at a later date. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure this little girl knows how loved she is, and we look forward to seeing what the next year brings!

The little individual

As Cassidy gets older (almost 2!) we're starting to see more of this fun little individual appearing. It's fun to see her thought process at work. Here are a couple moments that made me smile recently.


On a beautiful morning, I suggested a trip to the park. Cassidy agreed and quickly gathered together these items, which she decided we simple must bring along.

Apparently, her stuffed snowman, a tiny plastic pumpkin, a wooden spoon and my old t-ball hat were all necessary park-going gear.

This girl has definite ideas about what should be worn and taken with on various outings. Here's how we ended up going to the grocery store recently:

Yep. That's right. The diaper is over the pants. You see, after she had used the potty I asked her if she wanted to put on underwear or a diaper. I felt a minor sense of accomplishment when she said underwear. What I didn't realize was that she wanted underwear, pants and a diaper. When I questioned this approach she lay down on the floor insistently trying to put the diaper on by herself. I thought I would humor her briefly, so we put on the diaper, took a picture and played around the house. I thought I would take it off before we headed out to the market, but one has a way of forgetting these things and  I didn't quite take note that she was still sporting her baby superhero look until she was charging ahead of me into the grocery store...ah well.

A a random aside, not captured on camera is the time at the park one afternoon when Cassidy gleefully patted the backside of a girl wearing low-rider jeans and exclaimed "bum!" Low-riders on an eight year old bothered me too, but only the innocence and curiosity of an almost two year old could offer such an original response.

It's these unique little moments that bring a smile to the daily routine!

Happy Hallowe'en!

A little taste of some Hallowe'en fun here. 1 little girl, 2 great costumes, 4 pumpkins and her first go at trick or treating!

Summer to fall and back again

Hopefully with the onset of fall, I will have returned from my summer of spotty blogging to a little more regular posting. Now that we've just returned from our annual pilgrimage to the midwest, I guess it's truly time to take down the mental "On vacation" sign and move into the focused and productive cooler months I also so love.


These pictures from the first weekend of September are indicative of what our end of summer/early fall has been like. A morning can start with a winter coat and hot chocolate, and end in a day warm enough for a swim in the river. One moment I'm ready to fire up the oven and bring out the soup pot, the next it's all I can do not to just spend the day in a vegetative state on the couch, hoping to escape the 100 degree temps if I just don't move at all. But I've enjoyed September, with all it's weather oddities, to just appreciate what there is to like about all conditions. We'll see what October brings!

Celebrating ordinariness

I know, I know, you mostly come here for the cute pictures of one little girl right? But I also like to share a little bit of the parenting journey too. As we were biking home from town the other day, an idea clicked in my mind that I'd like share here with you: celebrating ordinariness. My mind has been abuzz with ideas lately as I've been working through a number of books about parenting, family life, education. It's been one of those delightful reading journeys, where one book leads to the next to the next to the next...


Most recently I've been reading a book titled Simplicity Parenting. The author brings out a number of ways we can simplify family life to allow childhood to be just that...childhood. A slow and special time of learning, rather than a rushed crash course to adulthood. One idea that stood out to me was in the section on simplifying the daily schedule. Payne suggests dialing back on the number of scheduled activities, and to think more about just enjoying the everyday, rather than having to fill each day with some new and better form of entertainment or specialized educational experience. This built very nicely on a book I read a couple months ago, Teach Your Own, where the author emphasized how everyday activities could be a wonderful learning opportunity because of their immediate and tangible connection to real life. 


I have tried to take this to heart by thinking in terms of how we can slow down and enjoy the stuff of daily life, rather than just trying to get through the chores and errands in order to get on to something better. How can we enjoy what we are doing right now? On Friday we had a couple errands downtown and so got on the bike after naptime and set off. After one short stop in the fair trade store downtown, I thought, we have the time, why rush right on to our next errand? What to do? We walked right across the street to the park, checked out the fountain, Cassidy ran after some kids and then tried to play patty-cake with the big Lucy (of Peanuts fame) sculpture. I remembered it was "$2 Freddo Friday" (Freddo is an icy tea or coffee drink in various flavors) at Peet's, and not having had a Freddo previously, we walked down the street to give that a try.


Our next stop on the bike was the plant nursery near our house. I was in search of some fun plant for a house-warming gift, and Cassidy was in search of all the little goat/chicken/horse lawn ornaments they have hiding amongst the plants. Cassidy helped me pick out a lovely dark purple butterfly bush, and she "ooo'd" while the salesperson wrapped the pot in paper decorated with butterflies. She then got to hold the tube of wrapping paper and enjoy hearing how her "helloo" was amplified down the length of the tube. We put the plant in our bike pannier and continued home. 


There. Not the most exciting afternoon when it comes to describing it, but as we were on our way home, I realized that I felt totally relaxed. Instead of filling the afternoon with "we need to do this then that, then go here" plus worrying about whether Cassidy was having a good time or getting fussy, I just thought about how we could wrap the whole afternoon into a time of getting things done, but also little moments we could both enjoy. 


I know perhaps not every outing is going to look like this, but it opened my eyes to how good it can feel to slow down and enjoy the ordinary moments of each day. 

Here's a little ordinary moment at home, somewhat recently:

perfect weekend moment

Happy 4th of July!

Cassidy got to experience her first 4th of July fireworks this year! After some trepidation about the late hour, she held her own well into the night (the early morning today is another story, but we won't discuss that...).  It was fun to hear her little cries of "boom!" and "another one!" And funny too to watch while she turned her back on the grand firework finale to play with her glo stick instead :-). Fun to experience another festive first for the little girl.

Swimming and strawberries

Well I've been a bit delinquent in posting this month. Perhaps it was due to the run of good books I had recently, which seemed to take up all my free moments (I'm a bit of a compulsive reader, and once I start into a book I like, I will grab every free moment - however small - to read it), or the various visitors we have, or the beautiful summery weather we've been enjoying...or a combination of all of these things. For now, let's just say a lot of our recent moments together have looked a lot like these photos from a couple weekends ago:

Swimming, summer fruits, long, beautiful days...it doesn't get much better! Hope everyone is enjoying summer time too!

Tiny dancer

Farm Friends

So I'd been meaning to post these pictures for a little while now, along with some accompanying text to let you know just how much this little girl loves her farm animals. For those who have recently enjoyed a video chat, you'll know that a great conversation with the little Miss C can consist of asking "What does the cow say?" "What does the horse say?" etc...She really has quite a good repertoire of animal sounds.


In line with her love of animals, we are always on the lookout for new opportunities to get up close and personal with a few of these farm friends. I've detailed our encounters with baby goats and a miniature pony here before, well on the other end of size spectrum we recently got to visit with some draft horses at a "ploughing playday" nearby. The look of sheer delight on her face when she saw these big animals was enough to make the visit worthwhile.

Horses ready for ploughing

And here comes the horse-drawn wagon

Happy Half Birthday!

Today the little lady is 18 months old. I can't believe it really, but there it is. The girl has reached, what seems to me, the official threshold of toddler-dom. And a toddler she is indeed, exploring the world on her little toddle-legs, asserting her interests and preferences in no uncertain terms, and just generally filling out that fun and funny little character of hers.


Here are the things I am enjoying so far:


1. Her increased and joyful interaction with the world. Her "hellos" and "hi's" have suddenly become bountiful to just about anyone passing by who catches her interest. Anyone shorter than grown-up size also gets a "baby" thrown their way and also possibly a poke in the eye or mouth while she points out these newly discovered facial features (we're still working on "look but don't touch").


2. Her desire and ability to eat more chunky foods. Though any large chunks of vegetable are still largely disdained, this girl has become a fiend for pasta, rice, quinoa and pretty much any type of grain she can shovel in by the fistful. Also apples, strawberries and kiwis rank high on the list.


3. Naps that have sometimes reached the 2 or 3 hour mark. Yes, it has really happened.


Here are the challenges:


1. Her suddenly increased attachment to me. She loves the new meet and greet, as long as I'm right there. The moment I leave the room = tears.


2. The new-found drama when she doesn't get her way. The throwing herself backwards to get out of my arms, pounding on the floor and wailing kind. At least I try to take comfort in the fact that it is often for something like not wanting to come inside from playing. Glad my girl likes the outdoors.


So, you'd think that if I was going to write a whole post about being 18 months I would at least have thought to take a picture on this auspicious day, but I didn't. At least not until about 5 minutes ago. Instead let's take a little trip down memory lane to this day in May 2009 to see how far we have come:

Mother's Day at the beach

Safety and love

After the wordy musings of my last post, this one will be nice and short.


This wasn't an easy week for the little lady. She started off not feeling so great, and we had some pretty rough nights. But she handled it well, managing things in her own way by retreating to "safe mode", which included wanting to be as close to me as possible at all hours and wearing her bike helmet everywhere.

She's a tough little girl and I admire her strength, but I also needed to learn more about my own. It's hard, when you have been up and down all night, to have to continue giving that same level of love all day, when there is work to be done but a little person breaks down into tears when you step away for so much as a second just to go to the bathroom. But I am learning that I can do it. Needless to say, it is nice to see her feeling better again now.

Earth Day and the little changes everyday

So as I mentioned in some previous posts, I've been attempting to implement various earth-friendly changes into my life in recent months via the "One Small Change Challenge". Not to say that I'm not usually doing that, but I was making a particular effort. I discovered a few things along the way.


First, April:


During the month of April I was trying not to buy anything packaged in plastic. I did pretty well but found a few weaknesses - cereal and crackers. Brant likes them, the little Miss C likes them, and yes I like them too. I suppose I could start making my own, but realistically I don't have the time for it. We could stop eating them, but with a daughter who loves crackers and a husband who loves his Grape-nuts, I just don't see that happening anytime soon.


A bit more bad news? Economically speaking, I didn't find my plastic-packaging fast to be all that rewarding. In some cases, it was actually more expensive to buy the bulk items. Never mind the fact that I also needed to haul all my own containers to the store. At my local market which features many bulk bins, the cost of a pound of whole wheat pasta was roughly $3. The cost of a pound of pre-packaged organic whole wheat pasta at Safeways? $1.50. A pound of bulk tofu? $2.89. At Safeways (14 oz) in a convenient plastic tub? Again, $1.50. From that standpoint, it can be hard to justify the bulk purchasing - other than as a way to give myself an earth-friendly pat on the back.


That said, there were some bright moments to this effort. Since I was really thinking about this, I ended up discovering that there are some interesting and creative packaging options being attempted - and it was a pleasure to support them. One of my favorites was the reusable glass bottles of Strauss organic milk. Although this is the most expensive organic milk on the shelf, Strauss is a local dairy and they sell their milk in reusable glass bottles. You make a bottle deposit when your purchase, which is refunded when you bring the bottle back. Good local milk in a reusable container? Yes please. 


While this one involves plastic, another interesting option I discovered was a pizzeria that does reusable pizza boxes. The boxes are made of plastic, but you can purchase one with your order and then get $1 off all future pizza orders when you bring your box. I love hearing about companies that are thinking "out of the box" (haha) in these kinds of ways. And I want to support and encourage them whenever it is possible for me to do so.


I also discovered, while examining my plastic-packaged granola (conveniently abundant at the Grocery Outlet right now), that the company that makes it actually invites you to return the packaging to them! They then recycle it into other cool stuff that you can get as you accumulate "points" by returning your bags. I love these creative approaches!


As for the other part of my plan, that was to not buy anything new for the month of April. In this area I also didn't completely succeed, but shopping was definitely much reduced, and it actually felt good to decide not to go shopping because I made this pledge to myself. So what was our weakness? We made a trip to REI to take advantage of the limited time member discount and got a new bike helmet for Brant and a hat for me. I would love to keep this up as much as possible - not buying anything new unless we really need it and buying used isn't an option.


I'd like to do better with reduced packaging, and it was cool to discover companies that are making a conscious and sincere effort to take this into consideration, but it remains a challenge when the economics and practicality (not every store has bulk bins) don't support making this change easily. I think what I will try to do is identify the products that I feel are really doing a good job (like the Strauss milk) and focus my efforts on supporting them, even if they are a bit more expensive. I'll try to find the savings elsewhere - if we can keep up with an overall reduction of shopping, I think we should even come out ahead!


Now, in general:


I really enjoyed thinking about small changes, and I think the fun thing about this effort is seeing how I have integrated them into my daily life. I like watching aspects of each change roll forward from month to month. In February, my change was to "do more of what matters". I'm still consciously making the choice to get us out and engaged in activities that make us feel like an active part of our community. I think this choice has helped with reducing our consumption of "stuff" and increased our consumption of good, quality living. This past weekend we took part in a fun farm tour to support local farms and Cassidy got some time up close with sweet little baby goats (I'll say more about all that later). 

In March we tried to purchase less plastics. As I really took a critical look at the amount of plastic that we so easily buy, it opened my eyes to just how much of it there is out there. While there is some stuff where plastic still seems like the best option, I'm now trying to gradually replace more and more of it with other, more sustainable options. I think more about what I buy. I am one who can easily be talked into a good deal, but I'm starting to realize that just because plastic is often the cheapest choice, that doesn't mean it is the one I should get. As I think about things we need for the home, I'm putting questions closer to the forefront of my thinking. First "Can I choose another product that is not made from or heavily packaged in plastic?" If that other option is out of my price range, I can simply ask "Can we live without it?" The answer is that, often, we can.


What I'm thinking about as I continue to carry these changes forward is, how can they make me feel good about our lives on this beautiful planet? I don't feel like living in a world of eco-guilt (for all the things I'm not doing) is all that conducive to a healthy and productive life, but I also don't think we can go on blithely consuming as much as we want without thinking about the consequences. What I am loving is the feeling of control over the decisions I make - each small change - the decision to buy the Strauss milk for example - or each small choice - getting up and actively getting out to support our community - make me feel like if I take enough of these little baby steps, eventually they will lead up to a full run. Since I feel I'm fortunate to have these choices available to me, I want to embrace them. I am excited to continue discovering the creative ways we can continue making the changes that will invite a more harmonious relationship with all the other living things on this planet. Happy Earth Day!


(And if you made it this far through my Earth Day/small change musings, my congratulations to you as well!)

Saturday mornings are for plant sales

There really is nothing like a good spring plant sale on a moisty, misty Saturday morning. Well, to tell you the truth, that thought never actually occurred to me until this weekend, but it still seems right. On the hot, sunny days of last week, spring was coming down upon us in full force, but on yesterday's cool grey morning, it was back to more of a slow creep...


We drove out through white-blossomed apple orchards towards the coast. Our first stop: an amazing organic bakery with a wood-fired oven for baking their breads and gardens and a miniature pony out back:

The end point of our drive was the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) and the plant sale for cool-weather, spring crops. Air hung damp and cool on the forests and gardens around us and two guitarists serenaded shoppers with some folksy music, as we perused brassicas with intriguing names like "Shiney Diney" (yes, I had to buy that one), lots of lettuce, herbs, edible flowers and perennials. We also came away with some hot flamingo chard (bright pink stems apparently), pacific beauty calendula, white-flowering borage and cilantro. 


I hadn't been back to OAEC since I took a two-week residential permaculture course there eight years ago, and we enjoyed the chance to explore the gardens once again. C took a particular fancy to a circular teaching area full of chairs suitable for climbing. Other than that, we tried to keep her careening baby steps from landing on any tender new growth in the gardens.

It was interesting to me, as we walked around the grounds, to think back on my eight years ago self and everything that had transpired between my last visit to the gardens and now. Would eight years ago me have expected today's me to be the one that returned? That course had been a special experience for me, at a particular point in my life. Then, I was a senior in college, new to California, fully captivated by a place and people and ideas about living that were new and exciting to me. Then, my post-graduate life waited like a mysterious gift, ready to be unwrapped. Now, I'm well into post-graduate life and I know something about the different places and people and job experiences it contains - not to mention marriage and motherhood. Some of it has indeed been magical and mysterious. Other parts have been fairly mundane. And now, here I am living actually quite close to OAEC. 


It's interesting to me to note which roads in life wrap back on themselves, and which ones don't. As I walked up through the gardens following the little miss C, I felt grateful that this road was one that brought me back. 

Happiest little hippy baby...striding into spring!

April Small Change

So as you may remember our change from March was to buy less plastics. I can't attest to 100% success, but then I suppose "buy less" is more relative than "buy none", so maybe any small effort qualifies as success...I didn't buy any new plastics for the home (whether in the form of gadgets, ziploc bags, whatever). One happy coincidence came in the form of the Easter egg dilemma. I'd pretty much convinced myself that I wasn't into the whole Easter as another commercial holiday thing, and thus was satisfied not to indulge in any of those plastic eggs to be filled with candy; however, as the month wore on and I reflected more on the Easters of my childhood, I remembered how much I enjoyed cracking open those little eggs filled with treasures, and then I kind of wanted Cassidy to have that experience too...alas. Just then another mom in one of our local mom's groups posted that she had a ton of those plastic eggs that she wanted to get rid of and I happily scooped up a bag from her. Yeah I know they are kind of cheesy, but kind of fun too. 

enjoying an egg full of cheerios

At any rate, even though we were able to cut down somewhat on the general plastics, plastics in the form of food packaging continue to flow in at a disheartening rate. Even though for the last few months I've been eyeing what all I can find in the bulk bins, and often purchasing from them, it's sometimes discouraging when stuff is actually more expensive bought in bulk than it is handily packaged for me. I know there are a bunch of weird economics that make that the case, but let's face it, it can be all too tempting to go for the easier option. Plus, when Brant and I both work (albeit part-time in my case), I don't always have time to hit the shops with the good bulk bins when I need something. But still, despite these words of discouragement, hope springs eternal and I'm really going to try to not buy any new plastic-packaged food items as my small change in the month of April.


On top of that, April being the actual month of Earth Day, I'm going to throw in a bonus round and try not to buy anything new whatsoever (except for food, obviously, and things like toothpaste or shampoo or whatever). I think this will be a good chance to really rethink our purchasing habits. I was recently reading this blog posting from YES! magazine, which inspired me with some helpful questions in thinking through each time you want to purchase something. How will I do? Well it will be interesting to find out - I may be setting my expectations a little too high - but it will be fun to try at least!

Ice Cream Ride

Last Sunday we did a little ice cream bike ride with various friends and associates to one of our favorite nearby ice creameries. Featuring unique flavors such as olive oil and lavender, it's a fun place to go even just for the chance to test out some of these interesting ice cream tastes. The bike ride was beautiful - mostly along a bike trail with green and yellow fields of mustard along the side. All around us other people were enjoying the afternoon on all kinds of bikes, or on foot, or as we saw one guy doing, on a motorized kid-style scooter. I wasn't so sure about the last option, but it was nice to see everyone out and about. 


Cassidy was in her element at our ice cream stop, since she had many interested people to lavish her with attention.

I love all her little expressions as she goes stomping around in her little mushroom boots (she has these little brown boots decorated with red and white mushrooms in the super mario style...), doing her funny waddle. Checking out the world and demanding that the world check her out too.


Really, a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Felt kind of European (as I imagine it at least), to be able to bike to the next town for ice cream and playing in the park and then back home for dinner.


We even took it one step further by stopping for dinner downtown on our way home, something we never do. But, we realized, if you like having local businesses then you'd better be supporting them. We stopped at our favorite Chinese place, unsure of how Cassidy would take to it, but turned out - she loved it! Veggie dumplings were a bit hit, along with big handfuls of rice, bits of mango from a chicken and mango dish, and some tofu and veggie soup. She also enjoyed the fact that the restaurant was right next to a fountain, which she got to splash her hands in prior to the meal.

All in all, discovering many wonderful ways to spend a Sunday!