Today we went to the store and saw these:

Taco set

This is a set for people making tacos. Seems innocent enough right?

Except not… this is what is included in the taco set.

taco holders?

Forgive the pic quality please this was taken with my camera phone… but anyways.. taco holders?

Seriously?

How are these necessary? And talk about a uni-tasker!!!   Why do people need little contraptions that hold their tacos up for them? Isn’t that what your hands are for? TWO HANDS for TWO TACOS!

If you see another use for this please email me or drop me a line. Until then I shall keep using my hands to hold up my tacos.

I guess many of you are asking yourselves why it is important to have a day where women show their tits to strangers in group, well… there are many reasons for it but here are a few:

Here are the laws for breastfeeding by location. There are some places where mothers are still not protected from people trying to make them stop breastfeeding in public and even in places (like Texas) where there are laws that protect us people STILL feel the need to try and get us to either cover ourselves, go into bathroom, or stop all together. It has happened to many of us, me included. It has happened to be at the airport where a very rude waitress asked to go into a bathroom and insisted even after I told her what she was doing was illegal. It happened to be at Discovery Green park (and to other mothers) so much that we were on the news for it. They have since completely been supportive of it and had better training for their staff but it did happen to many of us. The point for making a stink out of breastfeeding in public in cases like the Discovery Green one was not to get someone in trouble. It was not to fire someone. It was solely to get them to respect us and the law. Neither I or the other mom who was on the news with me got any compensation for it and we did not ask for the heads of those who wronged us on a silver platter. We have both been there since, it is actually a favorite place of my family’s to go. I love the park and what it does for the green Houston community.  I was there for World Yoga Day with my family and kids two weeks ago and they always have events that we love to go to.

boobs

Why is our society such that breastfeeding in public is a taboo? Why do we get sneers and comments? This must end and this is the goal of the Breastfeeding Challenge.  Breastfeeding is simply feeding a child,  why don’t bottle feeding mothers get told to cover themselves or go hide in a restroom?

Breastfeeding must be seen as normal again and to get it that way there needs to be exposure to more breastfeeding mothers. We need to get out of hiding from behind out hooter hiders and from outside of the bathrooms that we have been pushed into. We need to be proud of what we are doing and not be afraid of doing what we need to do for our children.

So take them out, twirl them around, be proud! Your boobs are powerful!

So in doing research I found a couple of books that I think will work for her.

The first is Peter in Blueberry Land this is an old Swedish story that is simple and has a good message. It really helps kids develop their imagination and explore the fantasy world and pretend. The story is enchanting and it keeps kids entertained while it does have illustrations it is easy to get the child to imagine their own illustrations for what this story would look like.

The other is The Story of the Root Children this delighful little story talks about nature and how flowers and the seasons are intertwined. It does a good job of bringing fantasy and reality regarding the seasons together.

Last night Mike read The Root Chlidren to her and she listened and asked questions about it. I think she really got into trying to find out what things were and why. It is amazing to see her grow up and become more and more her own little person.

kate

We went to visit my inlaws last weekend and she was playing on the piano that they have. She loved turning the pages and it seems like she knows that the notes represent something special.

pianos

Of course now she wants piano lessons. I might start looking into lessons for her when she is 3 or 4. At what age do you recommend starting piano?

This picture of our children is perfect. Much <3 to her.

Speaking of love.

This picture makes Kate look amazingly beautiful and serene. The hat, the fence… I am amazed at how gentle she looks. This pic looks so old fashioned I almost want to make it into a black and white photograph and see how it looks. I might mess with it in a bit.

Especially because THIS is what she normally looks like. Tongue out. Dirty face. Basically a blur… She is such a nut.

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.

By letting a child be a child they learn to develop the skills that are required for them to become functioning adults, including social and emotional skills such as taking turns, language skills, and the use of cognitive skills. Since I am an awful parent I also believe that roughhousing is fine, not only fine… but necessary. I think that it teaches kids limits and interpersonal interactions. And of course… there is that pesky imagination that is fermented when they play pretend.  I believe that all humans are born with a just about endless capacity to be creative. You know those people that say that they are not creative? I dont believe that they were born that way… I believe that many children are not allowed or encouraged to let their creativity flow and grow.  A child whose creativity is hampered and squashed will grow up to be an adult who believes that they are not creative.

In recent years we have been so focused on getting children in so many rigid and structured activities (soccer, dance, etc.) that a child has very little free time for just playing. Add into this the use of very limited toys that do not offer the opportunity for a child to develop their imagination  and you have children who are not allowed to play.. but are told what to play and how to play. This has been shown to cause children to not be able to self regulate. Not only this but a child not being allowed to just play can even lead to depression and anxiety in the child.  It is sad that play is not valued as a crucial part in a child’s life and recess is being taken away so that kids can learn how to take the tests that things like No Child Left Behind have instituted.

Last week we were at a birthday party for the daughter of Tori, one of my dear friends. At this party there were some beautiful playstands with playsilks and a great variety of toys that allowed the myriad of kids at this party to just play.  For hours they “mixed” in their “kitchens”, they dressed up and defended princesses from dragons, and they danced for each other.

Here is Kate dressed up like a princess with a crooked hat. All of the children that were there were the kids of parents who are into waldorf schooling and the children were an endless pit of ideas as to what to do with the open ended toys that they were provided. Nothing they were given to play with had batteries and they were not needed, as a child’s mind has an endless battery for fun and ideas.

Here the children were allowed to eat real and pretend food. As my children grow older I have learned to really cherish the old fashioned wisdom that said that a child’s job was to play. I hope to never forget this and that more people realize how necessary this is for all children.

I have 6 sewing machines. An overlock machine too.

I havent used most of them in a while but I got a bug recently and decided to sew.

I found this fabric on etsy that made me fall in love with it. I love piggies I truly do. Actually.. I didnt find it. The evil Devin found it… go read about her exploits with Japanese fabric on her yarn yoga blog on my blogroll. She has been sewing up a storm too… anyways… this temptress found fabric and sent me the link and I fell in love…

So I made Kate a dress.

It was my first time sewing in a while but I like how it turned out. It fits her well and I find it adorable… it is a linen fabric so it is great for our humid Houston.

Then I decided that Calvin needed an outfit.. so I kept sewing… and this came out of it. It is cute and it fits his fat litle body…it will be the perfect set of outfits for bluebonnet pictures. I think i will do those this weekend.

I have more fabric of this but I am not sure what I am going to do with it.. maybe something for me? Maybe a stuffed animal? Hmm… we shall see.

We have two and Kate and Cal both like to play with them. I even like playing with them because they are soothing. I cant understand why I love these and not regular baby rattles but plastic rattles sound empty… and these sound like rain falling almost… these sound like they are something different. I wont even try explaining it but I even like the way that they smell.

I belive sometimes that my having kids was just an excuse for me to buy stuff that I wanted but blame it on my kids. There might be more truth to that than originally thought….

Squash is a food that is in season a great deal of the year here, our climate seems to lend itself to it being grown. We have this green which is my fave, a few yellow variaties, and some other round ones that look like little pumpkins.

The name of my dish “Calabazitas” is actually “little pumpkins” in spanish. This is a really great veg*an dish that is easy to make and inexpensive. We have been getting some great squash in our share recently and i had been waiting for the right opportunity to make a good dish out of them. Last night was the night.

I chopped some red onion. I like using red in this because it is sweeter. I let it sweat for a bit… I didnt want it brown but just translucent and soft. You know what I mean.  I love onion when it is soft and sweet. It adds depts to the party.

After this I added the chopped squash. I like it in squares or strips. I dont know the fancy schamncy name for that… I didnt go to culinary school folks. I just know that small means it cooks faster and I dont have patience or time. So small it is. I let those sweat for a bit and then I add a can of diced tomatoes and raise the heat a bit. At this time you can add corn, cooked and drained beans, and maybe a little veggie broth.  For spices I like cumin (duh), garlic, salt, pepper, maybe some red pepper or chipotle powder… but only if you can handle it. This dish has some great flavors on its own so it doesnt need much. Dont over do it. Cover and let it simmer for a while.

It tastes great right off of the oven but it also tastes good cold…I dont know why it actually tastes better the next day right out of the fridge like a cold soup.

This is a pretty typical mexican dish that I inherited from my mom. It is savory but subtle and easy for kids to eat because it is in small-ish chunks. I tell my kids that the tomato is ketchup. That helps a ton too.

The 365 blog above has a good description of what one can entail. It usually involved herbs, incense, blood of some animal, prayers, an egg, a curandera, and whatever else your shaman has decided in their vast experience exorcising the bad energies and spirits out of people that you will need to heal.

I dont really believe in any things like this but the “limpia” ceremony (literally means “clean”) is an interesting phenomenon in Mexican culture. We are really a superticious people. I have two beautiful children (no bias here) and everytime we go out and a lady looks at them they have to touch them.  If you dont the kid will get the evil eye or “Mal de Ojo”. A result of this ailment usually involves kids having stomach problems… possibly a great deal of vomiting. It might involve a cold. It some extreme cases it could maybe even lead to the death of the beautiful child. Supposedly this “eye” is not done on purpose but if you look at a child long enough and want one like it or admire it… you can do it without knowing it.. so you must touch the baby or carry it for a few seconds. This will ward off the eye that you could have given the child.

If we go out somewhere and our kids have been stared at we come home and give them a bath with some herbs… this is a good step is keeping the evil out, Gloria goes so far as to give them a rub down with alcohol. She tells me when they have been around women with no children who want children because if that is the case I need to keep an eye out for any signs of sickness that could have been caused as a result.

These beliefs are old and ingrained deep within the culture and psyche of my family. My family doesnt claim to follow the old folk traditions because they are generally based on pagan rituals and beliefs… but when I saw them this Tuesday to have dinner with them they insisted that I put socks on my children to avoid them getting any kind of “bad airs” that come in through their feet. We live in a large city in the united state and my father went to medical school…. and he truly and honest to goodness believes this to be true. They refused to leave until I put sock on my kids feet eventhough it was 80 degrees outside. I shook my head and nodded… knowing full well that even in my skepticism I do my own little things to make sure that none of the evil spirits or energies get to us.

Mike believes in karma, wayyyy before My name is Earl came out… Mike was a believer that karma was a powerful force in our lives and he doesnt believe in doing certain things because it created bad juju for us. We joke about it… and I wonder sometimes if it is he really thinks that it is true or not… but when certain things pop up he will stop me or himself from doing things.. as to not get the dark clouds around us as a result of our actions. I guess this is his own form of weird beliefs.

What’s funny about these beliefs in my culture is that we are very high and mighty about how this is not witchcraft… this is not dark magic.. this is just the energies moving around us.  I guess it is like the “force”… if you want to put it in a geek term.

I find it funny how most cultures have something like this.

So my family insists that someone has somehow put some kind of black mark on our house or our family… maybe we made someone angry or maybe someone is jealous of us. They are unsure but we need a cleansing apparently.

Gloria has made sure to give her house a good cleansing because she wants to make sure that it is not coming from her. She burned a few oils and moved some furniture around to try and create a cleaner “air” for the children and for her.  Their suggestion is that we do something similar.

I have been eating copious amounts of chocolate recently. I think that it is my way of fending off the foul mood I get into when I feel sick. I made chocolate cupcakes this week and the week before I made donuts.

I dont know what the world is telling me but maybe I just need to start using bleach again…

Regardless, I might pick up a dozen eggs tonight to shake in front of my coughing kids and husband. Hey, it cant hurt.