I really do not understand why because it isnt like I shy away at bugs. I kill roaches and pick them up with no problems. We see ants and spiders all of the time and I try to not instill on her that that bugs are there to kill us.  However I have noticed that Mike and others have sort of fashioned her into believing that bugs are evil and should be killed and feared. I am sure even I have had some guilt in this. She is also really into things being clean and I know that she equates bugs with dirt.

This Monday Mike sent me this link that talks about how girls may be primed to fear spiders. I really do not like the article and want to cry bull hockey on it. I believe that children can read our reactions at a very young age. Just how my father said that my son took falling down “like a man” when he didnt cry and just how the first thing people said about when Kate fell and cut her forehead was “I hope it doesnt scar her beautiful face”… we all say and do things that have gender stereotypes built into them.

Every time an article comes out that links having an X or Y chromosome with something it bothers me.  There is a really famous one that many Wolrd of Warcraft widows have cited in marriage related communities about how men are wired for video game addictions.  This article also discusses how this relates to aggression and being territorial.

Raising a child in a world where they are not automatically primed for certain things because of what society tells us is hard… almost impossible. As much as I like to try to raise my kids in a way that gives them equal opportunity to do what they believe is best for them the world makes it hard. My son gets called a beautiful little girl because of his long hair. I am asked why kate wears boy shirts and I see post after post about how OK it is to use a baby carrier that is pink on a boy. My answer is always “if it wont make them burst into flames it is ok by me”. In reality, it doesnt affect the child if they wear a color that society does not think they should be wearing. It doesnt affect the child if their hair is long or short and it wont make them grow a penis/have it fall off.

I even have friends who say “my husband would never go for XXXX” regarding their sons. LIke that their husbands would never allow their son to wear a pink diaper, or a shirt with flowers on it. My answer has always been, “then your husband needs to get over it”. If your husband/partner is seriously affected by their son wearing a color that is not on the blue/green color spectrum then the problem is with your partner, not with the clothes.

Why do we keep doing this to children? Why keep perpetuating the ideas that gender limits us so much?

If Kate is afraid of bugs, so be it. We will still learn about them and pick them up. Part of our plans for this fall is to study bugs in our homeschooling classes by picking them up and counting their legs, wings, body segments, etc. We will not change this because she thinks that they are gross because she still needs to learn about them. Calvin will learn about him at his own pace (when he stops trying to eat them) just as Calvin will also learn how to dance with mommy and he will do a plie.

I just came back from vacation and realized how hard it is to keep a green lifestyle while travelling. They dont make it easy on you, especially if you have kids.

Mike mentioned that he was thankful that I always did what I could to make sure that even while travelling we were healthy and eating well but I honestly did not feel like we did a great job.

We went to a couple of parks and such.  Amusement parks are incredibly wasteful…and some make it almost impossible to stay green.

We went to Schlitterbahn and stayed on the resort at the rapids part.  My reasoning was this. We did not have to drive to the park, the prices at the resort were not that different than a hotel around New Braunfels, we could go back to the hotel to have lunch/dinner/etc. and it would be easier on the kids.

My reasons were all right and we did do all of those things… I have to say that I loved staying there and I loved the park. They encourage people to bring in their own food and drinks, they do not allow styrofoam containers and they really are friendly to packing your own stuff.  It makes it much easier to save money and eat healthier foods. You bring your cooler along and go to town. This part wasnt so bad…

Then we went to Sea World and it all went downhill from there.  Not going into the issues that I have with Sea World (which will be in another post rest assured) they are really awful at helping families eat well while they are there. Their food is outrageously expensive and they do not let you bring in any foods or drinks. For our family with two young children this is incredibly difficult because we have to give them water and food every few minutes, especially in 105+ degree heat in central Texas. We spent a fortune and the food was no better than a McDonalds or Burger King, two places where my children have never eaten and that I hope they dont in a long time…  I have to say that I have no desire to go back to Sea World and that I feel truly guilty for how wasteful we were during this day. They give you everything in paper/carboard. They have nowhere to recycle it, it is all just trashed. While they do have recycling for plastic bottles I saw 3 of those recycling baskets in the whole park (there might be more but not nearly enough) and while I wanted to purchase a reusable sports bottle that they give (a souvenir one with Shamu on it) so that we wouldnt have to purchase and throw away more paper cups with plastic lids, the 4 places where I asked about them were out. I dont understand it. Apart from being the most expensive (by far) day of our trip it was probably the one that we enjoyed the least. We went as part of a family tradition of going and because Mike thought that the kids would enjoy it. They did enjoy parts of it, I wont lie… it wasnt a total bust. The aquarium was really cool for both of them and Kate loved seeing the sharks… but I would have preferred an aquarium, not an amusement park owned by Budweiser. .. I digress. The quality of the food was just abismal. I got 7 strawberries for 5 dollars because I really wanted my children to have fruits/veggies and not just fried chicken strips and french fries while out.

Going back to the rest of the trip. What helped us in trying to both save money and not be wasteful was a) our cooler b) ice and c) local grocery stores and d) our Kleen Kanteens. We loaded those puppies up before we left and they lasted us 3 days so we did not have to get bottled water while we were in our rooms or pay for the overpriced stuff that was being sold in vending machines at the hotels.

We stopped at a Super S Foods is Johnson City and gathered some supplies in the middle of our journey across the Hill Country in central Texas. With those provisions we had fresh fruit, sandwich material, and were able to stop at Pedernales State Park for a picnic and eat at our hotel room. You can never have enough ice. Ever.

What would I have done differently? Had some more shelf stable foods. Made some more snacks like granola bars and cookies. I made muffins and they were great but they did not last very long with a family of 4 in a 7 day road trip.

I will be posting more random ideas that come to me as I get them but I learned a great deal on this trip regarding how to keep your ethical/moral beliefs while enjoying a vacation in a world that does not understand why you dont want to feed your kids doritos and koolad jammers for breakfast/lunch/dinner.

When Calvin was born I did not need more stuff so I havent bought a new babywearing device in ages. This Mother’s day I decided that I needed a really good supportive wrap for my big babies and decided to splurge on a good Didymos waves.

I didnt know if getting a woven wrap in the middle of the texas heat would be a good idea but I went for it. I have worn this wrap every time that I have needed a babywearing device since I got it.  Today is was over 90 degrees and hot as hell.

Here is Calvin hanging out in the new waves while at the park today. I am putting Kate in a swing and he is just chilling.

Here you can see Kate and Aidan walking hand in hand and Calvin’s head peeping out from the top of the waves while I carry two bags.

I am so in love with this wrap. It is cool and supportive. Soft and comfy. I really dont know how I lived so long without it.

Last week was the grand opening of the Children Museum with new and improved awesome ninja rooms for kids (ok maybe no ninjas but supposedly awesome anyways).

I want to see it really bad but I am not interested in sitting there with 6000 of my closest friends and their rugrats because this week is the dreaded Spring Break… so I will wait until some time later this month or early next month. But seriously I cant wait. I love museums.

Living in Houston I have access to tons of museums. We frequent The Houston Museum of Natural Science and have a family membership. We truly love the butterfly center that they have. Kate is still scared of the dinosaurs but she is intrigued as well.

Mike and I are huge art lovers so the Art Museum or Houston Museum of Fine Arts has tons of great shows, sometimes shows from the MOMA.

The Contemporary Arts Museum usually has cutting edge things to see, eventhough I kind of have issues with the selling of the museum to pop culture but I am a bit of a purist…. even Mike doesnt agree with me on that one but I am seriously bothered by icons and what seems to me like advertising at museums.

We lived in Montrose for a while, very close to Rothko Chapel and the Menil Collection which is free and full of beautiful art. It is also a great place to have a picnic and take a walk around a great part of the city. It can be a true day event.

Older kids will love the Health Museum, it is fun and gross… as well as informative. My fave kind of learning is the learning the sneaky ninja kind.

This place is gonna be crowded but it is popular… i say with a warning that while this is a fun place to go it is a true “zoo” during Spring Break. It is.. the ZOO!. We have a new little red bear that people are going crazy for. I want to see it but am not going this week. No way. No how.

Is that enough suggestions for now? I’ll post more tomorrow. Off to bed!

What have we been up to? Tons…

Tomorrow we start a Kindermusik and Sign Language class at our downtown library with the kids. I am looking forward to it.

Kate got her kitchen in finally from Camden Rose.  I am in love with it and so it she… basically it is the most beautiful piece of anything that I have seen in a long time. The wood has a great color and it is true heirloom quality.

I knit the little towel for the oven so she could have her own towel to hang on her kitchen. She thought it was really cool and was amazed that I made it just for her, she knew I made it because she watched me knit it for a couple of days.  It matches our real kitchen because our kitchen has wood trim so she really thinks that it is all part of our kitchen.  She is truly amazing. .. she is getting smarter and more chatty. She amuses Calvin and he amuses her as well.. they do a good job of keeping each other company at this point.

Calvin is no longer my little potato baby… this makes me sad as I truly feel like my baby boy is dissappearing before my eyes… just like Kate did.

this is hard on a mother… so very hard.

The crust was perfect and flaky… even if it didnt brown. it stayed pale as a goth kid… still it tasted amazing and was loved by all. I think that I am going to make the pot pie a tradition for us for Christmas eve, it seems like it was a real hit. Full of veggies and really good for you. Kate even ate the green beans, broccolli, cauliflower, and carrots inside of it.. maybe she ate it because she helped me chop them? she loves eating stuff she helps prepare. I made the pot pie in my red enamel glazed cast iron pan and it turned out just perfect. I love that dish. seriously folks cast iron is worth it.

I got the recipe for this dish from the Compassionate Cookbook by PETA. The gravy is a mushroom gravy and the crust is just vegetable shortening, water, flour, and salt. It is a great recipe to throw in all of your extra veggies and you do not miss meat at all.

I was originally going to make regular pinto beans as a side… well we got home and I realized that I had NO BEANS AT ALL. This is unheard of.  We always have beans. We buy them by the mega bag load and we never run out. Beans are really some of our favorite meal.. we eat them with everything!!! So I ran around looking for a suitable replacement for beans and I found lentils.  I love them and I believe that they are totally under appreaciated in most households. They came out perfect and were a great side dish. Just add a little tomatoes, onions, maybe some curry.. and we are done.  I got this recipe from the “lets pull stuff out of my pantry” cookbook.. ok so it isnt a real cook book but it is generally how I cook.

This leads to combinations that I am sure my husband would rather forget.

My husband was in charge of the potato salad. He is every year honestly… I dare not come between that man and his potato salad recipe. It is the same recipe that his mother uses and really.. what smart woman comes between a man and his mommy? Yeah.. not one so I stand back and watch his work.

This recipe is pretty much a perfect recipe. If somehow they could incorporate booze into it, it would be completely perfect but well.. that is another post entirely.

It consists of olives, relish, eggs, potatos, mayo, mustard, and other stuff i cant remember… all I know is that there are no real measurements involved just dipping your finger into the bowl and tasting and hoping that it turned out good. Usually.. this is not a problem. It surely wasnt this time as the salad was perfect and we all ate it heartily for days.

We needed rice. Well I always need rice. Rice and I are best friends and go way back… I loves me some rice. Rice. Rice Rice. Rice with everything. Yum.

We cooked and cooked, then ate and ate and were merry.

We went to bed and waited for the next day when the presents would be opened and the Christmas dinner would be made… that was a different story all together. …

It is so relaxing to not have communication with the outside world for most of this time. When I first started dating Mike we didnt even have phone service out there. Now we do but no internet still. As much as I complain about it, I love it. It is the only way to get me to disconnect from the outside world for a while and quite honestly I need it sometimes.

Please meet Paux Paux.

Or at least the back of his head.

Paux Paux's head

This is my father in law and Mike’s awesome dad. He drove us around in tractor and tractor trailers and we loved it.

Tractor Love

I was loving it, Calvin was asleep on my chest… as usual and Mike was having a blast.

Wow I look tired.

Here I am fashioning a new camera that Mike had to bring with us.

It is so small, it fits in a pocket.

It is a Sony High Def flash media AVC HD camera. Teeny Tiny and adorable but powerful.

Look at the TEENY camera!

Mike’s parents live in this adorable and sleepy little town called Buna Texas.

The place has one stoplight and at the most a couple thousand people. It is around 30 minutes away from Beaumont, Texas and close to the Texas/Louisiana border. Mike grew up there and his parents lived in the same house for over 25 years.  I believe that their plan was never to get a new house but their home was totalled by the insurance company after Hurricane Rita in 2005. They live in Jasper county which was right where the eye of the storm came in, and eventhough they are pretty inland they had sustaintial damage in their county. A tree fell on the corner of their house and punched a hole or two in the roof. While the insides were ok and the house itself was livable they needed to purchase a new home sooner or later so they looked and looked for a new perfect home for a while.

They have a little over 6 acres of land and their old house was on one end, so they decided to move the new house to another end of the land.  To do this they had to drill a new well (they are obviously on well water), new septic system, put up a new light pole, you know everything… this was finally done and they were able to move into their new house recently.

While I understand that to many people a septic system isnt the most interesting thing one earth, I believe this one is fascinating. Their system takes all of the waste water and the bacteria inside of it breakdown the waste material in it. After it does this, it sprays out the water onto their garden. No harmful stuff that stays underground and the water is used to do a greater good.

Septic System

There is tons of random stuff all over the land. This is the car that Michael learned to drive in. Still looks good as new doesnt it?

Hidden car

I will update more about the food situation during thanksgiving and about what other things we did while on our trip out into the country of east texas. I loved it, but I am glad to be back.

This week there were two things that pissed me off:

First one. The new Motrin Ad. Basically it is an ad in print and in video that says this:

Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion.

I mean, in theory it’s a great idea.

There’s the front baby carrier, sling, schwing, wrap, pouch.

And who knows what else they’ve come up with. Wear your baby on your side, your front, go hands free.

Supposedly, it’s a real bonding experience.

They say that babies carried close to the bod tend to cry less than others.

But what about me? Do moms that wear their babies cry more than those who don’t?

I sure do!

These things put a ton of strain on your back, your neck, your shoulders. Did I mention your back?!

I mean, I’ll put up with the pain because it’s a good kind of pain; it’s for my kid.

Plus, it totally makes me look like an official mom.

And so if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why.

As a mother and a babywearer I find this ad offensive, ignorant, and in poor taste. Babywearing is not supposed to be painful, if it is… then you are doing it wrong.  Letters were written to Motrin and a great deal of anger ensued by many people.  Blogs were fired up and they made emails fly and were sent to many a group. I sent a response and so did many angry women (maybe we should try Motrin to feel better… HA). Motrin is supposedly going to remove the ad. It is on their website still so feel free to see it for yourself. It infuriated me.

The second thing that pissed me off today was part of our International Babywearing Week event today. While there a couple of us nursed our children, well… you wont believe it but it stirred up a s$%^storm and I was told to cover up and stop. Repeatedly.

Lets begin with Exhibit A. Here is a picture of one of the evil breastfeeding offenses. Can you see the evil?

Evil Breastfeeder

Then… there is this little thing called the Texas Law.. that states:

Chapter 165. Breast-Feeding
Subchapter A. Breast-Feeding Rights and Policies
Sec. 165.001. Legislative Finding
The legislature finds that breast-feeding a baby is an important and basic act of nurture that must be encouraged in the interests of maternal and child health and family values. In compliance with the breast-feeding promotion program established under the Federal Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. section 1771 et seq.), the Legislature recognizes breast-feeding as the best method of infant nutrition.
Sec. 165.002. Right to Breast-Feed
A mother is entitled to breast-feed her baby in any location in which the mother is authorized to be

I was told by the employee at Discovery Green that she was trying to keep people happy and that people had complained. Needless to say I have already started my own little one woman campaign to email everyone under the sun and call the media outlets to get this rectified. What’s worse… this has happened to other moms at this park. This supposedly family friendly and green park that was paid for with our tax dollars in part is violating our rights. My anger isnt really about me as much… I dont mind nursing in public. I have done it in many a country and many a place. I will do it anywhere that I please. No security guard will stop me from doing it. But for those moms who are afraid of it and who might be discouraged from breastfeeding because of this, this is who I am trying to get this changed for.  Actions like this continue to further the idea that breastfeeding is gross and unnatural and continue to make our culture not breastfeeding friendly.

On a happy note here are some pics from the event.

International Babywearing Week 2008

This is my all bundled up with my “refugee” look, as Mike likes to call it.

I am wearing a babywearing poncho, Olives and Applesauce Mei Tai, and a wool Greek fisherman hat.

Alma the Babywearing Refugee

Babies taste really good with Curry Ketchup.

Yum.

Sunday we made it to the Renaissance festival in Plantersville Texas.

Much fun was had and much food was consumed. The day was really quite beautiful, it was not hot and it was not cold. There was a light breeze and it was just comfortable with little humidity (well little as far as Houston is concerened).

Kate and the Flowers

Kate loved eating smelling the flowers and dancing around like a monkey child. We watched a group do a little jig and dance a fling and Kate danced right along with them.

Dancing Kate

I dressed the kids up in tie dye as you can see because if Ren Faire isnt the time to let your freak flag fly then when can you? Calvin was also wearing lime green baby legs and yellow socks. He has more colors on than Superman.

Tie dye baby

My two favorite things on earth. Food and hot men babywearing. As a side note : You dont not realize how wonderful a father a man is until you are driving back, tired and weary from being out all day long and the baby starts crying. Then the man in question busts out in a harmony with you of “The Lion sleeps tonight” to try and calm the baby down a bit, and then when the song is over start singing about how we are exiting the freeway just for the him and to not cry because we are going to get him out. There are fewer things on earth that are sweeter and more heartwarming than this.

Real men wear their babies.

Days like yesterday, with the perfect weather… the sunlight and the ren freaks… are days that I love living in Texas. With its big cities and small towns. WIth the little feed stores and big trucks. With its multitude of faires and get togethers that are just excuses for people to get together and be merry. This weekend was a weekend where I loved Texas.

Country feed store