Here a MOO, there a MOO..

...everywhere a MOO-MOO!

Today we had a party for little M. She had a blast. Her actual birthday isn't until Wednesday (also the solstice!!). The party was quite large, but since we had one just like it for N's first birthday, I figured we'd do the same for Moo. She especially loved her cupcake from The Bleeding Heart Bakery. They're an awesome organic bakery who uses local ingredients and sustainable practices.. if anyone is in Chicago, I highly suggest you check them out. Their red velvet cupcakes are divine. I'm rambling..

The party was fun, I got to see a few friends (some old and some new!) and was overall wonderful.

Also, MOO TOOK HER FIRST STEPS TODAY! N didn't take her first steps until she was 14 months old. I'm very excited and oh so proud of my little one.

Whether the weather be cold...

...or whether the weather be hot,
we'll weather the weather,
whatever the weather,
whether we like it or not!

It's COLD! Granted, it could be worse, it's actually 25 deggrees out right now. Last night it got into the single digits, and I'm sure the temps will continue to plumet. Something is up with our furnace and it's not heating the house at all (I went and felt the side of it when it kicked on and it doesn't get warm at all!). I've got a space heater going and that's not exactly ideal. I might order another one from Amazon because this one isn't effectively heating the house. Without the space heaters it's between 55 degrees and 60 degrees during the day! The space heater kicks it up to about 70 and it makes all the difference, but it only heats one portion of the house at a time (so our bedroom are is significantly colder, and the bathroom and hubby's office are both around 50 degrees. Brr!

Anyways, Moo is having a big party on Saturday for her birthday. It's not very Waldorfy of us, I know, but it's a tradition that we have a big party for our children's first birthday. That said, all of the food will be home made (except for the cake, which needs to be quite large and I couldn't afford our local organic bakery) and the treats will be natural not toxic-laden ones. No real games, just a big activity table set up for kids to color and create, etc. It should be pretty fun :)

With that said, I've got to continue cleaning. I don't have much energy and want to curl up in a ball as it is FREEZING in here, but I think I'll survive!

Back for business.

Well, after a brief hiatus, I'm back.

I had stopped to contemplate taking photos down. A few months ago I requested on facebook that family & friends not post photos of my kids on their pages. Most of those photos weren't OK'ed by me. Currently, I feel that yes, photos can be posted, but my permission needs to be attained before hand.

As for the blog, I have decided to continue posting photos here, as I normally have. I want my children to grow up knowing that photos of themselves matter, and being in a blog with stories about them, little vignettes, almost, is a great start. At least, in my opinion it is.

So. Updates!

My darling husband Jaime has gotten me a sewing machine! It was for our anniversary last month. I'm still learning to use it, but so far I have made Moo a pair of longies and N a pair of under-mittens from a felted wool sweater.

I may be starting an online business. Hint: has something to do with breastfeeding advocacy. Check for updates in the coming weeks!

Preparations!

It's good to be back into the swing of things!



I've been pretty busy lately. Tossing most of the kids toys due to lead meant only that there would be very few things for them to play with. I'm all for simple living and minimal toys, but this is seriously the bare minimum. I had to figure out what they'd be getting for their birthdays, and for Christmas (which all fall in the same week!). Since we're flat broke, I was only able to get a couple of things. The rest is up to me to make.



Right now, on the agenda for "creating", are playsilks, felted wool balls (though the cats keep stealing them, I'll get to that later), and a doll for M. I'm doing surprisingly well. I think that the doll, when finished, will end up being about 12-14". I'm not totally sure yet. I need to get some brown embroidery floss for her eyes, and I need to figure out something for the hair (I can't crochet so that's out of the question!). I also obviously need to make the body, but that shouldn't be too difficult. I'm using things around the house, and doing it all by hand. For the skin, I used a cotton knit crib sheet that I had laying around. The stuffing in the head is a lambswool sweater that I thrifted. The only synthetic material in the doll is the nylon stocking that I used for her head, but that's not too bad seeing that she's being created using only found materials!

Also in the works are preparations for N's 3rd birthday. I'm going to hold a very small party on her actual birthday, which falls on a Monday. We plan to dye playsilks with the kids, so I've got all that ready. I also need to come up with a "game plan" so that I can figure out how to make it short and sweet but still special for N. More importantly, I need to start trying out cake recipes for the big day. I might just do cupcakes, I have better luck with those! We shall see. Invitations need to go out in under a month, and I don't want to be thinking too hard about this during the weeks before Christmas because we have the Solstice, Moo's birthday (Which falls on the solstice!), Advent, and a ton of other things to worry about! I need to get everything set -now-.

Oh, and I need to make their birthday crowns.... eep!!!



Current nature table setup,not so many nature goodies as our cats have been rather mischevious!

M Has Lead Poisoning!

Last Friday, the kids went to the doctor for a checkup. I'm not one to do well-child visits, since we don't vaccinate, but I'm glad I followed my insticnts. M, who I call Moo alot now, is 10 months, so the decided to prick her finger and draw blood to check her hemoglobin and lead levels. No biggie. After about 20 minutes (the test only takes a few minutes) our wonderful doctor came back in to give us the news- her lead count was elevated, at 11. It's borderline, but not normal. They then sent us for bloodwork to be drawn from both girls via their veins, and I get the results tomorrow (eep!).

In the meantime, I've been stressing about where it's coming from. We've since found two sources- there is a lead water pipe that comes into our house- it's the first pipe that the water hits, and all of our water passes through it. We also found lead pain in one of the support posts in our basement apartment. We're hoping that these issues can be fixed quickly and effectively, but in the meantime, we've been taking alot of precautionary measures.

Bathing- Tonight, we started filtering our bath water. We each have to bathe out of a bucket, at let me tell you it is not fun. M is especially not fond of it. N didn't seem to notice a difference, but was glad she wasn't being bathed with "blood (lead) water".
Ingesting- We've also been filtering our drinking and cooking water.
Toys- I went with my instincts and bagged up all of our questionable wooden (Melissa & Doug and cheap Target brand) toys, and our plastic toys that I've been meaning to weed out.

There's just so much going on... I've been meaning to blog, but I really haven't gotten the chance! Anyhow, that's where things stand as of now and I'll be sure to update as we go.

In addition- if anyone has any Pur water filters that they want to get rid of, I'll take them off of your hands! I'm so so broke and we really need them. Thank you.

Megan

Ergo Giveaway!!

5 Vinez Monkeys is holding an Ergo giveaway! Check it out!

http://www.5vinezmonkeys.com/2010/09/ergobaby-carrier-review-giveaway-108.html
http://www.5vinezmonkeys.com/
http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/

We LOVEEE our Ergo but it has seen a little too much love!

Apple Picking

We took the girls apple picking at a wonderful apple orchard about an hour and a half away. I couldn't find an organic one, but I didn't want to deprive N of the experience (she really wanted to go!). We finished up the day with some local honey sticks and all was good.