A Book that Boggles the Mind

I checked out this book from the library and it is a must see board book. The colors  are great for little baby eyes, but I just don't know what to think of it. The only text is the sounds the different characters make, but what really makes this book is that the illustrations are pretty simple and there is this cut-out on every other page that turns one illustration into another. A sheep suddenly becomes a pig from one page to the next. You just have to see it.  I can't decide if this is genius or just confusing.  I definitely want to introduce this book to Kiddo once she can talk and then again when she can read, so I can get a sense of what a child thinks of a book like this.  Not that that will necessarily tell me what it may be doing to my kiddo's brain at 2 and half months. This could also be great for the budding artist, so maybe I could also introduce it again when she starts drawing and see what she thinks of it then.

I guess that means I want this for our home children's library, even though I'm not even sure if I like it. It is just so interesting...

Two More Bill Martin Books

So this book is part of a theme of books by Bill Martin, illustrated by Eric Carle. Baby Bear Baby Bear covers action words like climbing and flying and such. It has Prairie Dogs, Flying Squirrels and Skunks. Great for learning to read, but I think a little too advanced for babies unlike Brown Bear, Brown Bear from my last post, but I still read it to my little one. It is just not one I would get for until she is older and closer to the reading stage.












Polar Bear, Polar Bear covers hearing words like whistling, snarling, bellowing. I'm not too fond of it because though it has the usual illustrations, more unusual animals, and a nice ending, I can just imagine Kiddo one day asking me to mimic the "yelping" of a Peacock and as I read this book to her I really wanted to yelp like a peacock. I just don't remember hearing any peacocks "yelp" and have no idea how to mimic that sound. Though, I guess I could head back to Mayfield park which is the best place in Austin for a peacock encounter. I guess if I want authenticity I could play the sounds from this animal info site  from Seaworld or Animal Picture's Archive in which the peacock sounds more like it is trumpeting. I couldn't find a site that had all of the animal sounds from this book that actually worked. What does the fluting of a flamingo sound like? Do Flamingo's really flute?  And why do I like Brown Bear, Brown Bear even though it is doubtful I will see animals in the colors it names? Maybe because the time at which I read Brown Bear, Brown Bear for my baby I don't really care too much about authenticity, but once we start getting into the big words and reading time, I want books that are more reflective of reality if they have real things in them... Okay and for vanity's sake, I want to be able to mimic sounds for my Kiddo.


My husband after seeing a few of the books in this series would like to read "Sewer Rat, Sewer Rat, What do you Taste?" I kinda would too.

Play Mat

I just finished sewing this playmat for Kiddo. I wanted it for tummy time and I wanted something that was high contrast for her eyes. I've read that babies see black, white, red, and yellow best. I know Kiddo tends to focus on black and white objects much more often when they appear in her visual field.  I've never quilted before or done anything this elaborate. I made lots of mistakes and learned a lot. I figured Kiddo won't mind the mistakes and eventually this will have poop, spitup and pee on it so I shouldn't worry about it too much. I'm planning on attaching some toys around the edges via the elastic rings I sewed on. Though, you can't tell in this image one of the bits of something I used bled. I'm thinking it was the elastic I used. I just didn't think one needed to prewash elastic...

That Good Mom Feeling...

My little one loves the books. I don't know if it is because we are big reading family or because we have a makeshift diaper changing station by one of our bookshelves so that is one of the interesting things she sees. I take her to storytime at the library once a week where she is riveted for a good 30 minutes as the children's librarian reads at least 3 to 4 books with nursery rhyme singing in between. "I kissed the baby" is one of the books read at this past weeks story-time. Even a couple of other mothers have commented on how my kiddo is really into storytime. This wouldn't be half so amazing if she wasn't only 2.5 months old. I started suspecting she was crying because she was bored when she was about 7 weeks old, but in my zombiefied state from extreme sleep deprivation I was not sure if I was reading the signs right. I was already doing things like showing her around the house especially the art work on the walls, making sure she hung out in other rooms besides the living room, showing her black and white flashcards my husband and I made to distract her, rolling her around on a blanket for naked tummy time, and various other things, alot of which I read off of one of my friend's blogs (her baby was born 3 days after mine).

I took kiddo to a momma and baby yoga class on Free Day of Yoga at Austin Kula Yoga. She seemed to really like it and it made me feel like a good mom while meeting some of my needs to be out of the house and get some exercise. Sadly, since I work in the mornings. I won't be going back to that particular yoga class which was the best of the ones of taken since that point in time. I just wish they had a 2pm class. There I saw info on a free demo for Heartsong Music Together. They had one at bookpeople. I had never seen my baby so awake and absorbed, not even at the yoga class. I went to several more demos and each time she seemed to really be into it. Momma/Baby yoga is hit or miss. She seems to like it only every other week or maybe that is because we've tried a new teacher every other week at Yoga Yoga which offers noon classes. I'm not as fond of the YogaYoga ones 'cause some teachers are into Kundalini yoga which I'm not all that fond of though the chanting is fun. Sadly Heartsong Music Together is super expensive, though even then I considered it, they just didn't have a good time available for me to take her. I started looking around for other things and discovered free story-time at the Austin Public Library. I've so far been to two libraries for books and babies. One wasn't so great since the librarian only read one book and the other one gave me that good mom feeling. I'm still really surprised my kiddo can pay attention that long and that so far she hasn't gotten fussy during story-time, though as soon as the last song is sung she is ready for food and a nap.

I'm still on the look-out for other things that give me that good mom feeling. I'm glad that books is one of those things since I've had a lifelong love of them. I will be posting the ones I like here.

"I Kissed the Baby!" has nice color contrast pictures for baby vision and allows for interaction at the end as well as explication since you can add to the text with animal sounds and naming the animals.


The Librarian also had out as a check-out book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See." I got this in the Slide and Find version for a friend's 1 year old. Now I want a copy for my little one. Simple, repetative text which babies like since they are trying to take in the big wide world and it is comforting. Pictures with good color contrast. It names colors and has a surprise as well as allowing for you to adlibb based on the pictures easily.











I discovered this series at the bookstore. I want to get the whole series. It has lots of colors, textures, and things to touch. I also like that you can play around with the text and involve it with the environment. Maia has a little stuffed bunny and a stuffed monster that would go great with  these two books.  I got my friend's 1 year-old the "That's not my fairy" one.

Plant Postmortem

I got out in the backyard again today. Mostly, I cut vines off my golden lead-ball tree and big desert willow so the pepper-vine doesn't strangle it like it did my butterfly bush. I cut down a few dead plants. Started thinking about putting veggies into our 4x8 bed, since it is time for seed planting. I dug out some of the ollas in it so I can eventually turn the soil over. The oregano went nutty and is taking over half the bed. I also have to pull up all the weeds growing the bed to plant it. I'm thinking it will be mostly salad greens since I can't have brassicas since they give my baby gas. I'm not planning on watering even the ollas, so whatever grows, grows. I have lots of leftover seeds so I'm not too concerned.

I also dealt with our trash can of compost which I hadn't been taking care of it had almost years worth of decomposed bits which if I had a chemistry set would probably tell me all the nutrients are in the wrong proportion to actually be good on any plants. I've dumped the smelly stuff onto one of the tree composting piles. I've lost a few more plants that I planted the first year in the house, but the plants that are thriving are really thriving.  I pleased that quite a few of these perennials that are now dead at least lasted for 2 seasons of blooming before biting the dust.

My pineapple guava died, as did my butterfly bush, daleas,  hops bush, yellow-bells, non-native golden thryallis, wax myrtle, duranta erecta, flame acanthus, barbadoes cherry, pigeon berry, piquin pepper, american beauty berry, all the vines I bought except for the dragonsnap vines. It seemed like the coral honeysuckle was doing well for a long time but it also died recently. I won't be replacing any of these and I'm putting them down on my scorecard as not good in my yard are requiring too much care.

One the other hand, the rock roses (planted 4, 2 different kinds), climbing rose, alligator juniper, mountain laurel, dessert willows, golden lead-ball tree, common bluebeard, purple skullcap, mexican marigold and almost all of the sages are doing well. My monterrey oak in the front yard is also really thriving.

The gregg's mist flower is barely hanging in there as are the calylophus (which had been one of the most prolific bloomer up 'till recently), golden skeltoneye, damianita,  hymenoxys, native golden thryallis (the non-native died), spice bush.

For the most part more plants that I bought survived than died. I can't really afford to spend much on gardening this year and am realizing I spent way too much on plants last-year. I'm really glad I eventual moved to only buying the cheap 2in plants from the Barton Spring's nursery.  If I do get anymore plants I'm only buying ones that have already thrived in the backyard like the sages and rock rose, but I want to continue to monitor what worked and what didn't before purchasing any other plants. Especially since I'm thinking I may transplant quite a few in order to make room for creating a playground for Kiddo. I'm leaning toward a natural playground which incorporates play areas using natural elements like a sand box surrounded by rocks, boulders, tree stumps,  pathways made with wood or other natural elements...

I had planned on fruit trees, but now I'm thinking they require too much care...

After I get the backyard in a manageable cleaned up state, I will figure what needs to be moved and start making playground plans. I just need to remember that pea gravel and some other elements can be had free on craigslist.

Book Report: The Tao of Poop

One of my best friends sent me this book not that long after she spent almost two weeks at my house getting me through the hump of my husband going back to work. We had many conversations about how nothing went as planned for me and how difficult pregnancy, nursing and taking care of a newborn were and how unprepared for all of it I felt. I thought I would be spending my pregnancy getting comfortable with the changes in my body and doing art work and being quietly joyful about the coming baby. I wanted to enjoy my pregnancy just like I planned on enjoying being with my little one. Instead I threw up violently and ate for three and tried to stubbornly stick to all the plans I made in the first easy 8 weeks of pregnancy when life was so much easier. Through all the misery of throwing up daily sometimes every hour, I came eventually after it was all over to see it as a gift. It was great preparation at least physically for birth and surrender especially once I let go of all my birth plans and pregnancy expectations. But like any hard lesson I got to replay it with each new aspect of motherhood. I've had to surrender a lot and mourn my dreams/my delusions which all seemed so reasonable because I read tons of books, blogs, etc. What does this have to do with the Tao of Poop? The first chapter is about expectations and how they make you miserable... But it is not just expectations that make one miserable but comparison and judgement. My expectations didn't happen in a vacuum, I had a friend who gave birth 10 weeks before me, I had people constantly telling me about their experiences, I had a childbirth class or two not to mention book upon book, I had the legacy of the women in my families' births to lead me to a sense of failure as if there was some right way to do things. The Tao of Poop is about coming to terms with your expectations, letting go of self-judgement which also tends to translate into judgement of others and realizing there is no such person as the perfect mother. After each chapter where the author talks about her own trials she gives you exercises to do to reflect on your own life and example of other mothers coming to terms with motherhood. It is a super short book and I will admit I never do the exercises in any book just read and reflect. I had already come to the opinion that motherhood would be a spiritual journey for me after having to let go of my dreams of what I thought it would be like to coming to terms with what it is in the moment and this book helped remind me to let go.  It reminded me that everyone is different and there is no one right way. I'm planning on reading more memoir like books about motherhood, so I can retain a perspective of being in the moment listening to my child's needs and my own and so I can remember that there is no one right way.

Modifications to Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies (mother-in-law's recipe)

I cut down the sugar again to 1/4 cup which makes the cookies a little more crumbly. I think that is about as low as the sugar can go in a cookies recipe and still taste good. It also requires one to put less walnuts/cranberries and to press the cookie dough together to keep in one piece.

2 stick butter, left on the counter 'till soft

1/4 cup rapadura

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups white flour (whole wheat pastry flour would work too)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 rounded teaspoon cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

3 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup walnuts

Oven 350

Directions:

Beat together butter and sugars until creamy

Add eggs and vanilla; beat well

Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well

Stir in oats and cranberries; mix well

Take a spoonful of dough and mash together a place on to an Ungreased cookie sheet

Bake in 350 oven, 10 minutes.

Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet.