verdemama — green around the edges

Obsession, For Toddlers

by verdemama on May 7, 2010

Welcome to my new office. It’s great; it has air conditioning, tons of windows and a decent stereo. It’s where I’m spending several hours a day lately. The location? Out in the driveway in my Honda.

Orion is wild about playing the car. He can’t get enough of it. It’s the first thing he wants to do in the morning, even before breakfast and changing out of his PJs. Our usual morning ritual of going to the park has unofficially been put on hiatus, because we never make it past the car. When I try to get him to leave his four-wheeled playground, he starts screaming and thrashing about like an ensnared wildebeest. I’ve decided to just go with it, and allow him to fiddle with the dials and buttons, readjust (and smear up) my mirrors, turn on all the lights and put the key in the ignition and start the car a hundred times over. Fortunately I can still connect to my home’s Wi-Fi out there so as long as I bring my computer, I can endure Orion’s new hobby without being bored out of my gourd.

I’m still getting used to this new Orion—the one that has definitive interests, the one that fixates on things like buttons, switches, wheels and lights. Obsession is his new and all-consuming personality trait. When he finds something that intrigues him, he’ll literally do it over and over again, for hours. This week it’s the car, but next week it could be something totally different.

Should I be worried? Or is it just that he’s changing into a toddler? (No, seriously. Is this normal?) He’s no longer the little warm lump of love that once loved nothing more than sitting on my lap and cuddling all day. No, this new guy is independent (sorta sometimes) and knows what he likes, and, more importantly, knows what he doesn’t like—and won’t hesitate to tell me.

Life is changing. Orion is changing, whether or not I’m ready for it. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.

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The Diaper Debate Lives On

by verdemama on May 6, 2010

Before Orion arrived on the scene I put a lot of thought into what kind of diaper he would use. I always assumed I would opt for cloth, but when I read about how water-intensive washing all those nappies would be (which is a major negative here in drought-stricken Southern California), I started to look into alternatives. Regular disposables were out of the question for a number of reasons: they are made from nonrenewable, non-biodegradable plastic, they take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills and they are filled with toxic absorbent gels, deodorizers and other nasty chemicals. (Case in point: some Pampers products are currently in the news for causing kids major skin irritation.)

The answer for us was Nature Babycare diapers. These award-winning diapers are chlorine-free, plant-based, biodegradable and all-around awesome if you ask me. They’ve been through quite a few design changes in the past year but it seems that they’ve finally settled on a light, thin, comfy design that is nicely absorbent, convenient and won’t spend centuries in the landfill. They have served us well over the past 14 months.

On a related note, there’s an interesting article in the current print issue of Mothering magazine about the disposable/cloth conundrum. Their bottom line is that cloth is the one and only sustainable option, and even the cloth-disposable hybrids, such as gDiapers, aren’t a good option in their eyes. (Note: gDiapers feature a reusable outer cover filled with either a disposable gel insert or a reusable cloth insert. Mothering’s beef with gDiapers is that apparently the disposable gel inserts contain petrochemicals.) The article didn’t touch upon eco disposables like Nature Babycare but I’m guessing they aren’t fans of those, either.

Orion will likely continue using Nature Babycare diapers until that magical day he is potty trained, but I’m definitely still cloth-curious and just may try out cloth nappies on the next bambino.

Any cloth diaper pros out there? What are your favorites? Speak up, lurkers. Come out of the shadows. I know you’re out there!

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It’s a Good Thing He’s Cute…

by verdemama on May 4, 2010

…because this week—thanks to teething—he’s been acting like Damien from The Omen. It’s hard to get a blog post written when Orion won’t nap for longer than 20 minutes and won’t let me turn my attention away from him for five seconds. The waterfall of drool pouring down his chin tells me the problem is teething. Damn you, molars!!

These are the moments of parenthood that make you wonder how people make it through with their sanity intact. Wish me luck.

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Maximum Capacity*

by verdemama on May 2, 2010

This bus represents how my days feel most of the time—and my brain, too, for that matter. Full. Maxed out. Standing room only. I had a different, more significant blog post planned for today but I didn’t have quite enough oomph to cross the finish line. Instead, I’ll wait this one out on the sidelines, recoup my energy and start again tomorrow. I’ll try not to feel too guilty about tripping on my own shoelaces at the starting block.

*And, yes, Orion stuffed his bus full of bristle blocks all by himself, and yes, he’s probably a little OCD. (He gets that from each of his parents, in different ways.)

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We Got the Beets

by verdemama on April 28, 2010

There are so many great things about having a garden: always having the freshest of fresh produce right outside your back door; connecting with nature; and most importantly, for me, anyway, being able to teach my son about the true source of what he eats.

I want Orion to understand that food doesn’t just magically appear on grocery store shelves; it comes from the earth. The best food doesn’t come in a plastic bag or cellophane package. It comes wrapped in a dusting of soil, and maybe a tangle of roots.

Orion helped me harvest these beauties from our lil’ urban garden last night. He’s already a master at digging in the dirt and yanking on plants, so, as you could imagine, he was a total natural at pulling beets.

Tending to a garden is a lot like raising children. There’s lots of hard work, but you’re rewarded for your effort. You plant your seeds and watch them grow.

PS: What was the fate of the beets, you wonder? They were cubed and roasted for an hour, then cooled and drizzled with one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, one tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper, then tossed with fresh basil and baby lettuces from the garden, soft goat cheese and walnuts. Okay, I forgot the walnuts, but I meant to use them and definitely will next time. You’ll have to take my word that the beet salad was both gorgeous and delicious. Sorry I don’t have an image of it to share with you. Sometimes you have to put the camera down and just eat the food.

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Best iPhone Apps for Babies, Part I

by verdemama on April 25, 2010

“How do you work this thing again?“

I know what you’re thinking: “Yeah, right! Like I’m going to let my baby beat the everloving crap my $200 piece of awesomeness.” Well, that’s what I thought, too. Turns out, if your baby is at all dexterous/mobile/conscious, he or she, at some point, will INSIST on having your phone, or there will be screaming hell to pay. Usually while you’re in public trying to look like a respectable parent. Now, I’m not suggesting you plunk your kid down for a few hours with an expensive 3G babysitter, but when five minutes of quiet sanity is called for, this could be just the distraction baby needs.

Granted, my kid is only 14 months old and lacks some of the comprehension skills and dexterity to enjoy the more educational counting and alphabet games, so I’m not claiming any of the apps I’m featuring here will get your kid on the fast track to Harvard. They’re simply fun, and they may buy you a few moments of peace.

Without further ado: here’s a roundup (part one) of my favorite apps for a baby. They are Orion approved!

Peekaboo Barn

Orion’s favorite! An adorable little app featuring a bouncing barn and friendly animals that pop out when baby taps the door open. Baby learns animal sounds and names (in English and Spanish). $1.99

Peekaboo Wild

Peekaboo Barn’s younger sibling, but this time set in the African grassland. $1.99

Sound Shaker

Cute sound-making app featuring chime, whistle, drum, barnyard animal and mystery sounds that move and roll when tapped or tilted. Sounds change with repeated taps and reveal an animated surprise. $1.99

eliasZOO

A sleek and design-y app featuring flash cards with animal sounds and names. (I was always curious about what sound unicorns make. Now I know.) $1.99

Doodle Buddy

Baby can finger paint and stamp a blank canvas or photo from your iPhone library. And the best part? It’s FREE!

Stay tuned for part two next week!

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Happy Earth Day!

by verdemama on April 22, 2010

Now go let your kid play in the dirt (or mulch, as the case may be).

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We Really Should Stop Meeting Like This, Bunny

by verdemama on April 21, 2010

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10,000 Photos

by verdemama on April 20, 2010

My little man used to LOVE the camera. I’d be in his face all day long with either my Canon SLR or my trusty iPhone, and he would just eat it up, flashing me his (formerly) gummy grin and being his usually hammy self. As a photographer’s subject, he delivered the goods. But for the past few months, this is more the norm:

Most of the shots I have of him now are either blurry (the kid moves FAST) or of the back of his head (which is cute, sure, but I prefer seeing his baby blues and squishy cheeks) or, if I’m lucky, this serious side profile thing he’s been doing lately. Now when he sees me coming at him with a camera, he turns away like a brooding teenager. Maybe I overdid it, photographing every second of his life? Ten thousand photos of him in my iPhoto library suggests that that might be the case.

(The Paul Frank PJs are cute though, no?)

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Eco Cup o’ Joe: All the Caffeine, None of the Guilt

by verdemama on April 19, 2010

I want to talk to you for a minute about something very important—something that affects the wellbeing of mothers all across this great land. I’m talking about that most precious of natural resources: COFFEE. Yes, coffee—that sweet, sweet life-giving nectar of the gods.

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t complete a sentence or put one foot in front of the other each morning without a steamy cuppa joe to jolt my ass awake. We make a big ol’ pot at home every A.M. and sip on it for a couple of hours. But thanks to baby-induced late nights and early morns, my coffee lust now extends beyond the break-of-day homebrew. Yes, now it calls to me wherever I am, and I find myself sniffing out coffee shops pretty much whenever I’m out and about.

Only, my guilt about using and tossing so many paper and plastic cups really started to drain the fun out of my afternoon caffeine fix. Until I laid my eyes upon the Eco Cup:

Nope, it’s not a paper cup. It’s actually a ceramic cup, with a silicone lid and sleeve. Sixteen ounces of sheer reusable awesomeness. I like it because from far away, it looks like a regular paper cup, but up close, people notice that it’s actually a hefty ceramic mug. It’s a great conversation starter. And it feels good to not contribute to the bazillion coffee cups piling up in the landfills. Plus, coffee just tastes better out of ceramic.

I take this with me any time I feel the caffeine jones will strike, so now I can get blazed on a Peet’s latte and no longer experience a venti-sized amount of guilt.

Available online at amazon.com.