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!

Stop and smell the flowers

This was not the best week. Monday started off to the sound of chainsaws and a woodchipper. Our neighbor across the street was removing the large front tree in their yard (apparently the root system was beginning to interfere with the foundation of the house), but in order to bring the tree down safely it had to be removed piece by piece. It's always sad to see a big tree coming down, and it doesn't help when chainsaws always seem to start buzzing right when it's supposed to be naptime...


The chainsaw days were followed up with the car getting broken into in the Target parking lot. They stole the stereo and, as if to add insult to injury, they also took a big grocery bag filled with a bunch of Asian sauces we'd purchased over the weekend in Chinatown and I hadn't yet gotten around to bringing into the house. Fortunately nothing else was taken and no damage was done to the car in the process, but it just seemed so random and pointless. I was upset about losing the stereo and groceries, but more than the stuff it's that feeling of having your space violated that is so distressing. 


So between the tree, the no naps, the car break-in and a few other things that don't require further detail here, mid-week found me feeling very glum and wondering what I had done to so offend the universe this week. One afternoon Cassidy and I were hanging laundry and playing out in the backyard (rather she was playing and I was lost in my own pity-party) when she broken my train of thought by suddenly announcing "La! La!" "La" is her word for flower (I think it comes from the way you say the "lo" in the word flower). I looked to where she was pointing and was surprised to realize one whole wall of our garden was in bloom. There have been some flowers here and there that I had noticed, but now it seemed like everything was out and announcing that spring is really here. I noted azaleas, bleeding hearts, peonies, and more I couldn't identify (and actually I'm not totally solid on the peonies either). But it shifted my perspective right there to stand for a moment and soak in the beauty of all these springtime flowers, right in my own backyard. I ran back inside for the camera to capture these moments of spring. I continually have Cassidy to thank for reminding me to notice everything that's good.

Big firsts

This past week was a big week of firsts for one little girl. Although not exactly the week of her very first steps (we've been thinking "this is it!" for a while now...), I think this is the first week she discovered for herself that walking was actually fun. 


On Monday we were at our Kindermusik class, and the teacher was demonstrating how bubbles can be used to create a peaceful atmosphere (rather than just contributing to more chaos). She had the lights low and some quiet music on and was blowing bubbles around the room for all the babies when Cassidy almost unthinkingly took to her feet, arms raised in the air, big smile on her face, following the bubbles around the room. 


Whether it was music class, this week's visit from grandpa, the warm weather letting us know spring is really here, or something else entirely, some little switch in Cassidy's mind has flipped - she is ready to walk. The rest of the week we would catch her suddenly taking to her feet with her funny little bow-legged baby walk...

Another first for the week...Cassidy's first haircut! Her hair has been hanging shaggily into her eyes for some time now, but it wasn't until yesterday that I got around to actually doing anything about it. I took her to a special "baby salon", where she got to sit in a car-shaped hair cutting chair and watch an Elmo DVD in a room filled with pictures of other happily hair-cut babies and other oddities like a mini table-top ferris wheel covered in lights. As soon as she was put into the chair and wrapped in a tiny haircutting smock, she was in "the zone". Totally captivated by all of the interesting things in her new environment, she peacefully allowed the hairstylist to trim up those fuzzy baby locks into a cute little bob. I wish I could have captured it on camera, but I know that had I brought out the camera the peaceful spell would have immediately been broken. Anyway, she did get a special certificate at the end with her picture and a lock of hair in a little ziploc baggie. So we do have some memento of the occasion.

We did get some pictures of her new "big girl" haircut once we got back to nai nai and bop's house:

It's funny how, almost more than walking, the new haircut is what really makes her seem like a little girl now. I kept looking over at her yesterday, with her neatly trimmed bangs and pink bow, and catching glimpses of "the girl", who up until now has mostly just been known to us as "the baby".

Beach picnic

So I didn't get to posting anything last week - it was a busy one - but I will try to make up for it now by posting some of the promised beach picnic photos from a couple weeks ago. A beautiful evening! 

The girl who liked her books

I think Cassidy has always liked books. However, I think her enjoyment of books really took off when she was about 8 months old, and I started putting her on the potty a few times a day and reading to her. Since that time, she continues to use the potty regularly, but more than that her love of books has just grown and grown.

At first she would allow me to read any old book while she was on the potty, but eventually she became a more discerning reader and wanted to hear specific books. When we were unable to correctly interpret her grunts and pointing, we moved the potty right next to the bookshelf so she could choose for herself:

She definitely has her favorites. For a while, it was Mr. Paint Pig (seen pictured here). Incidentally, this was one of Brant's favorite books as a kid, which he used to ask his grandfather to read to him over...and over...and over again. We had a bit of a laugh over the role reversal as Cassidy repeatedly pulled down Mr. Paint Pig for Brant to read to her. Let's just say it's one of those books that, as an adult, doesn't always stand the test of five-times-a-day reading.

Now she is bound to ask for a book just about any time and place - sometimes moments after getting up in the morning, or even as she is in the middle of getting ready for bed:

Lately, she's been into the "big girl" books. You know, the ones with paper pages rather than the board books. She has a kids biography of Barack Obama, simple titled "Barack", which she asks for often with a sort of gutteral "Bara". I never thought this would be one of my daughter's first words. Needless to say, I find the storyline running through my head throughout the day: "Looking back it's hard to believe how far he has come..." And I expect that this is a trend that is bound to continue.

This week at the library I picked out a new big kid book for her. (One I thought I might enjoy just as much too :-)). It's a fun German book with big, interesting illustrations titled In the town, all year round, which pictures sweet scenes from just the kind of town you'd want to live in, and you get to find the characters on each page as they move through the seasons. I love that it ends with a lantern festival at a pond. One of my favorite seasonal events when we lived in JP.

Cassidy and Brant spent a long time enjoying this book as soon as we brought it home. C climbing from side to side across Brant's shoulders to get a better view of the scene. When I came over Cassidy made the sign for "book" with her hands, just to make sure I knew what was going on:

This girl loves books in all their shapes and sizes. I think the last picture says it all.

Small change successes

It's Tuesday, but somehow I already find that I can barely remember what happened last week. As it turns out, I hardly took any pictures, so all I have to share here is Cassidy having a Zen-like moment on the couch holding a Tibetan butter lamp. She took it off the table herself to examine, and I thought she had a sort of Buddhist monk look in her orange dress, holding the lamp:

So anyway, that's that. How did we do on our monthly "doing more of what matters challenge?" I guess my feeling is that the results are mixed. I can't say the whole month was life-changing, or that there weren't moments "what do we do now?" or shopping trips to Target that turned bigger than expected, but overall I found myself thinking more about our challenge as we went about our days. When I found myself feeling bored or isolated, I did more actively try to get out and reach out. I think we spent more time playing in park, with other kids playing at our homes or theirs, in the library. I guess I'd need to crunch more numbers to determine if we actually spent less time "consuming" in February than in other months, but I feel we did. Even with the necessary shopping trips we did make, I think we did less aimless wandering around shopping centers.

Fittingly, our month ended with a sunset picnic on the beach. It was a perfect example of what really matters. Hanging out on the beach as a family, eating sandwiches (well, Cassidy eating equal parts sandwich, baby puree, and sand), and watching C excitedly exploring in every direction was a wonderful way to end the weekend and the month. I think Brant took some pictures, but they aren't uploaded yet, so I'll post them later if I can.

I think the best part about this "one small change" for the month of February is that it is something that will continue. I plan to actively continue pursuing more and more of the activities that matter to fill our weeks. It just feels better. For March, however, we are also adding our new challenge, which I have decided will be to buy less plastics. Even though a lot of different kinds of plastic are recyclable here, there are still plenty that aren't. Plus, just filling my recycling bin each week is not really that satisfying. Energy is still needed to break all those plastics down in the recycling process. Not to mention all the non-renewable resources and energy that went into making them in the first place. So, the plan is to purchase as few things contained in plastics, or new things for the home made of plastic. I will look for alternatives or try to do without.

I am hoping another upside to this change is a reduction in clutter around the home. I think a lot of junk that just crowds around the house is due to all the little bits and pieces of plastic and packaging that we buy or otherwise obtain - for example plastic bags of different types (I am one of those weird people who wash and reuse ziploc bags - I even have a special drying rack for this purpose - but bags are always floating around in a state of reuse), little junky gadgets that somehow find their way in and easily break, etc... So I'm looking forward to it - we'll see how we go!