Dining room art show

Z's been enthusiastically creating works of art with stickers, markers, crayons and paint, and I've been looking for a tidy way of displaying a rotating collection of her work (you know, one that doesn't involve gobs of Scotch tape on my dining room walls). I think I may have found it with this solution from Pottery Barn Kids. I wonder if it's an online exclusive or whether it might be available in store (so I can save on shipping).

Link of the day

If you aren't already familiar with it, click on over to Thingamababy, a delightful toddler product review blog. The daddy in charge writes great toy reviews (largely based on his 2 1/2 year old daughter's interactions) and has recommended some of the better toys and books I've seen out there. In fact, he's responsible for Z's first magazine subscription (to the National Wildlife Foundation's Wild Animal Baby)! His blog is popular and influential enough that manufacturers are sending him free samples of their toys to review, but he seems to be maintaining his critical distance and isn't afraid to mock the stupid, the dangerous and those toys that limit imaginative play.

Even more on word of mouth

The NY Times profiles word of mouth research firm Keller Fay (the principals of which I met at a WOMMA conference) and offers some interesting tidbits on exactly how much each of us talk about brands in our regular, face-to-face conversations.

I'm going to be on Oprah!

Al Gore will be on the show discussing An Inconvenient Truth, and it will be broadcast live in Chicago at 9am next Tuesday. I found about about the show at Oprah.com, and I wrote in about my passion for the movie and the global warming cause as well as the questions I'd like to ask of Al Gore. They called me today to invite me to participate. Which means Gloria and I will be at Harpo Studios at 7am in less than a week. Gulp!

P.S. Anyone remember this post? I guess it pays to write down your goals.

Word of mouth at work

Anyone who works with me knows I've got a bit of passion for word of mouth marketing. I've learned a lot about the field from the WOMMA conferences I've attended, and just last week I presented an overview to interested folks at the agency.

So it's a happy coincidence that I've got a personal plug for the power of word of mouth today. You see, I recently signed up to be an Angie's List member, and I used the recommendations of other members to select a contractor to up the insulation in our 1910 frame house. I picked the top two companies and both came out to do estimates. Their prices were close, but I went with the more expensive company because I thought they were slightly more thorough and they suggested bringing our attic R-number up the recommended level for our region. I mailed in my 25% deposit on Friday and they called on Monday to ask if they could install at 12:30 Tuesday. They arrived at 12. I haven't seen the work myself since Josh is at home, but all signs point to an efficient operation. I'll do my duty and add my feedback to the Angie's List site.

Wouldn't it be great if there were word of mouth forums for everything we ask our friends, neighbors and co-workers about? A convenient, comprehensive resource for researching preschools, day care providers, doctors, hospitals, retirement communities and more? I suppose it's just a matter of time. We can access product reviews on most e-commerce sites and peruse vacations from heaven and hell at TripAdvisor, but I'm more emotionally and physically invested in the quality of a medical specialist than I am in an digital camera.

Thanksgiving photos are up

I've posted a handful of pictures from Thanksgiving weekend.

Furry bedfellows

I was putting Z to bed tonight, and I asked if she needed any animals. She said no. I asked if she wanted her blanket. "Yes, please."
I opened the door to leave and she whimpered, "I need an animal." So I offered her a dog. "No, I don't want a dog!" A sheep? "No! No sheep!" A different dog? "No!" Stumpy giraffe? Musical giraffe? Other sheep? "No, no, no!" Her dragon, like Ben from It's Bedtime?
"No! Take him away! I want my teddy. My small teddy."
Uh-oh. I'd emptied out her toy basket looking for acceptable animals, and I hadn't seen her favorite teddy. "I don't know, Z. I don't see your small teddy here," I said.
"It's downstairs," she replied.
I raced down the stairs and saw her small white teddy on the living room floor. Crisis averted.

Four under three

One of Josh's oldest friends and his wife have a little boy Z's age. We just found out last night they're expecting again. Only this time it's triplets. And no fertility treatments, spontaneous triplets. I can't even imagine.

Unschooling in the news

The NY Times profiles proponents of unschooling, a child-led homeschooling movement that's catching on in the Midwest, particularly in Chicago. I first heard of unschooling a little less than a year ago when I sold a Japanese-style baby carrier on Craigslist. It was a beautiful piece of baby gear, but one Z refused to be carried in and which was, frankly, a pain to use anyway.

The woman who answered my ad asked if I was, by any chance, the same Alma who once worked at Newcity. Turns out she was someone I'd hired to be Newcity's receptionist six years prior. She was three months pregnant with her new boyfriend's baby at the time, and she never came back to work after giving birth.

Fast forward to the present and she was living in Oak Park with her husband (same guy), their six year old and a one year old girl in need of a new carrier. We hung out in my living room for about an hour catching up, and it came out that she belonged to a group of parents who believe letting kids follow their interests beats the structure and pressure of regular schools.

Sounds nice in the abstract, but if I only studied what I wanted to, I might have spent my elementary school years doing nothing but reading Laura Ingalls Wilder books and learning the names of poisonous snakes. I might have figured out fractions while baking, but I definitely wouldn't have learned my multiplication tables or long division.

What's more, for the most part I loved school. And I'm pretty sure Z will too. She's already started asking to go.

Holiday weekend update

This may be the longest I've gone without updating my blog, but I've been pretty much offline since Wednesday morning. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and Z loved having her "Gamangampa" here. In addition to showering her with attention, they bought her a fabulous farm from Geppetto's Toybox in Downtown Oak Park. It's from a company called Danny First Toys. Their playsets are a refreshing alternative to Dora and Little People--no hard plastic pieces to step on in the night and no battery powered sound effects.
I did my American consumerist duty and hit two stores mid-Black Friday morning with my M-I-L. I scored some deals, including a bunch of Z-friendly arts and craft supplies and a $10 pair of comfy pajamas for myself. Today we enjoyed the balmy weather at the Morton Arboretum Children's Garden, where Z partook in a children's nature walk that involved searching for stuffed animals in nature and determining if they survived winter by "snacking, napping, sleeping or flapping," and ended with free hot cocoa for the kids.

Hell hath no fury like a nursing mom scorned

I'm seeing a fair about of media coverage for Tuesday's nationwide "nurse-in" in support of Emily Gillette, who was removed from a Delta Airlines flight when she refused to cover her 1-year-old child with a blanket. Check out the articles in USA Today and the Chicago Tribune.

UPDATE: If you haven't already, please join me in signing this petition is favor of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act before Congress. Over 20,000 women have already signed on.

This makes me mad

Our dumb president has appointed right-wing idiot Eric Keroack to lead the nation's family-planning program. The Title X family-planning program has a federal mandate to provide information and access to birth control, pregnancy tests and counseling (but no abortions). Yet Keroack doesn't believe in birth control. The abstinence-only nutcase has previously served in organizations that spread misinformation about condom reliability and abortions, and he claims that premarital sex disrupts brain chemistry, creating a physiological barrier to happy marriage.

Will Times Square smell like piss again?

Hardly. Charmin's coming to the rescue of grande latte-drinking tourists by offering spotless bathrooms. I swear I pitched this very idea to a certain bathroom cleaner brand years ago. Anyway, they're getting lots of media pick up on it.

Tofurky

This post is for Eleanor, my once vegan-but-now-omnivorous sister. Slashfood has a fascinating review of the frequently (and apparently fairly) derided vegetarian Thanksgiving staple Tofurky. Seems Tofurky is pretty Tofunky.

I seem to recall Eleanor saying she made or ate Tofurky once or twice, but I also remember the more famous family story of the Thanksgiving she spent with Grandma Lorraine in Orange County. It seems the two of them decided Turkey Day would be a good day for craft shopping just over the border in Mexico. They'd packed sandwiches for the trip and a concerned woman took pity on them when she saw the two eating PBJs at a bus station on Thanksgiving. I think they were offered a turkey dinner at a local church.

Filling Mommy's Shoes

MVI_2252 on Vimeo

Countdown to Turkey Day

This was the last shopping weekend before Thanksgiving, and we are 80 percent prepared for our small feast. We'll be joined by my in-laws and hopefully new parents Stacie and Bob will let us bring over some food and pie. Here's the menu: Roast Turkey with Herb Butter (we're using an 11 pound organic bird), Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Cranberry and Dried Cherry Sauce, a tossed green salad, fresh-baked rolls or corn bread, and a stuffing recipe I adapted from a newspaper article a few years ago. Dessert will be Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake and Pear Cherry Pie.

My Fruited Thanksgiving Stuffing

1/4 to 1/2 cup each prunes, raisins, dried peaches and dried cranberries, chopped
1 loaf sourdough bread, stale and cubed
1 cup chicken broth
dried onion (you could use fresh, but I'm not an onion lover)
2 stalks celery
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup butter
garlic powder
salt and pepper

Saute onions and celery in butter 5 minutes. Add all fruit and cook until soft. Pour broth over bread, toss with fruit mixture and pour into a greased pan. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper and bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

Potty training update

Z had been resisting our suggestions to try using the potty, so we decided to give the whole issue a rest for a while. And low and behold, that (or possibly the Mr. Rogers Potty Book from the library) immediately reignited her interest in the subject. For the last two days, she's been asking both of us to take her to the potty and she's been pulling her pants down and helping us unfasten her diaper. She talks the talk and flushes with glee, but no production of numbers one or two. Yet.

Anyway, she amused herself (and me) for about 45 minutes this afternoon pottying her teddy bear. With Z's help, Teddy "used" the potty about 15 times, which was cute enough after I convinced her she could "pretend flush for pretend pee." But what really cracked me up was when she announced that "Teddy had a accident on the floor!" She'd grab a Kleenex and scrub the carpet with it while exclaiming over "Teddy's accident! I wipe up the mess! It's okay, Teddy!"

Welcome Charlie

My friends Stacie and Bob welcomed baby Charlie early Friday morning, making Z's buddy Annelise into a big sister. I had the pleasure of visiting the new addition this afternoon at West Sub, and both he and mom looked great.

Squeezing in a baby

The NY Times Home section includes a profile of a couple who modified their very compact 265 square foot apartment to make room for a new baby. The article includes some fabulously inventive design ideas, but no mention of what might happen when the newborn outgrows the basket bassinet, much less starts running around.

Peace, love and Gap

No red and green. No mistletoe or Christmas trees. Just Chicago native Common rapping about the spirit of the season...and doing a decent job of selling Gap hoodies. Nicely done commercial.