Dance Class Progress

This was the fourth week of dance class.  Which sounds really impressive, although Mia goes to class just once a week.  So really it is only the fourth dance class, not so impressive.  She is progressing.  She can do a first position plie correctly.  At first she was keeping her knees together for the entire bend, which is excruciatingly painful when tried out with 35 year old knees (I just heard my ACL rip painfully, not sure how she was even doing it).  But we worked on letting light go between her knees and she got it!  So at least now dance class won't cause her to have knee surgery when she is 20. 

The teacher has started closing the blinds so I can't watch as much as I want to.  I think she wants to keep the routine they are learning a secret, which is kind of laughable.  With 15 three year olds at various levels of terrible you really can't see much of a routine at all. 

The one thing that Jac is able to report back (he can go up to the window and peer in without looking odd, four year olds can get away with things that 35 year olds can't).  Well, Mia was itchy again last night.  The last class the teacher had the blinds open for awhile and I was able to watch her dance, which is darling in its awkwardness.  Well about 10 minutes into class she starts wiggling and itching.  She is no longer dancing. 

She has her left arm down the front of her black leotard and this makes the sleeve of the leotard creep down her right arm. So now she has a whole shoulder and part of her (upper, thank goodness) chest completely bare while her left arm and hand are searching for the offensive material.  I have no idea why she is so itchy or what is causing it, but she did it again last night.

Jac went up to look in about halfway through class and came running back.  "Mommy, she's itchy again!" 

We had a conversation in the truck and I told her that she needed to not take off her leotard in the middle of class.  And if she had an issue with her leotard she could ask her teachers for help.  Well, of course she isn't going to ask her teachers for help she is going to scratch herself! 

We also got a "fun" announcement last night.   Before class, the teacher informs us that she had "forgotten all about Valentines Day".  Well, I guess she remembered in the nick of time to torture us all, and we are supposed to bring 15 Valentines for the dance class to exchange next week.  (Are you kidding me?)  I need another Valentines Day party like I need another toilet to clean.  So here we go, Mia is terribly excited.

She suggested that since Jac didn't have a dance class to exchange Valentines with that perhaps we could enroll him in a dance class by next week in order for him to have a dancing Valentines Day party.  Oh my.

Blankies Are Key to a Good Night's Sleep

At least in this household anyway, we love our blankies.  Jac and Mia have had their blankets since birth.  With Jac it was a learning curve on my part, I didn't realize that you were supposed to choose the blanket for them and then let them bond with it.  I thought that he would become attached to one of the many blankets that I would put in his crib.  See, I was constantly washing his blankets, not realizing that a blankie also needs some seasoning, a bit of a smell in order to work its magic. 

I believe some wise mommy told me this and I stopped washing it (as frequently) and gave him one.  He had probably 30 blankets, I kid you not, from the luxe to the cotton he had it all and I wanted to get as much use out of all of them before he grew up!  Of course one child does not need that many blankets and I should have taken them back to the store.  After Jac gave up thumb sucking, right around the time he had is third or fourth severe ear infection he picked up the blanket and hasn't set it down since.

When he was around 15 months we realized that he wanted a specific part of his blanket.  He would wake often in the middle of the night and search and search with eyes closed, wimpering for this specific part of his blanket.  We finally realized that he was looking for the tag and that until he found the tag he could not possibly go back to sleep.  I then figured out that if I found the tag for him and waved it in front of his face and hands he would grab on like a man grabbing onto the side of the cliff to save himself, he really needed that tag.

This is a great example of how he sleeps, blankie is normally right on top.

Fast forward three years and you have a boy with a really gross blanket and a tag that is literally falling off from use.  Exhibit A shows that the tag may or may not make much longer.  What do I do?  Do I sew it back on when it falls off?  Should I preclude having this massive man hunt for a missing tag and go ahead and sew it on more securely now?  What if the next time I wash it, horror of horrors and the tag gets eaten by the washing machine? 

So I decided to go straight to the source, I asked Jac.

"What are we going to do when that tag falls off."  I asked it nonchalantly trying to keep him from seeing the wild look in my eyes.  I mean this boy didn't sleep through the night until he was (I could insert late teens here but he is only four, it just feels like late teens) I can't even say it without being embarrassed.  I take full responsibility for the sleep habits of my son, but needless to say we need that blanket!

In a very practical tone sounding somewhat like, duh mom, "We'll get a new blanket."

Hmm, not what I was expecting.  "It won't look the same and it won't smell the same," I informed him.

He then proceeds to question me about the origins of the blanket, who bought it, where did it come from, etc.  I give him the lowdown that the blanket would definitely not be the same; as Aunt Daphne bought it at TJ Maxx and we would never be able to find the same one.

He contemplates this. 

"We can get a different one as long as it has a tag."

At first I start to fall for this logic.  It may be a couple of nights before it gets the appropriate smell, but surely it won't take long.  Then we can be back in tag heaven and not have anything to worry about.  Except then I think, well, in another four years when he is eight will we be buying another blanket?  Every four years, for who knows how long will we need to replace a blanket for Jac to get to sleep and soothe himself in the middle of the night?  How long will this go on, do I care, should I care? 

Now, Mia on the other hand announced to me today after I asked if I could wash her blanket, "Mommy, I don't need my blanket."

The shock that went past my face must have been extraordinary.  Literally, she just through an enormous fit one week ago because it had to be washed.  She has also had her blanket from birth.  Her Aunt Misty gaves us the fluffiest, silkiest blanket ever.  I knew that I needed to have it with her at all times when she was an infant for her to bond with it.  Well, bond with it she did.

--At 12 months she walked to the blanket, not me.

--At 15 months she had a sign for blanket, she couldn't say blanket yet but I gave her sign because she was constantly searching for and asking for it.  Here is a picture of her signing "blankie" and then I am sure there was a search and now you see her coming down the hall with it all smiles.  (Look at those legs!)

--At two we had to take it EVERYWHERE.  Grocery stores, malls, mommy and me classes, everywhere.

--At two and half it became not only her lovely, but her toy when her and Jac used them to play ghost, as evidenced by this post.

--At three, just this fall she threw up on the blankie.  It had to be washed, it was disgusting.  She stood up in the kitchen waiting for the blanket to be cleaned until 1:00 before she would lay down and go to sleep.  No tears, just patiently waiting.

--At three and half I show her playing doctor with Jac and the blanket is the stretcher in this post.

Here is a picture of Mia snuggling up with it after a long day at the lake, sounds cozy doesn't it?  Yuk!

Mia has loved her blanket even more than Jac if possible, Exhibit B shows a huge tear in the satin edge, this is the part that she rubs while sucking her thumb and going to sleep.  And this blanket is no longer a bright pretty  pink, it is a dull gray with unknown stains all over.

And now today, she announces, "sometimes I don't need it."  Like its no big thing.  The proof is in the pudding because not two minutes later I was decorating some Valentines at the table with Jac and she was standing beside me on our push toy school bus.  (I realize that this is highly dangerous and for whatever reason didn't notice that she had grown five inches, I was concentrating on Valentines.)  Well, of course the school bus moves, she flies into the air and comes down hard on her rear.  She cried, I held her. But blankie was in the washer, she didn't even ask for it.  Amazing.

Blankie is clean and dry now, and just as she is starting to get sleepy she comes looking for it.  I guess when she says that "sometimes she doesn't need it" she is being literal.  There are specific moments throughout the day when she doesn't need it.  But now is not one of them.

My advice for all new parents, let your child bond with a blanket.  It can do wonders at 2am when you really need some sleep.  But when you go to choose one, buy two.  That way you have a backup.

Free Ranging It

I am a free range parent wanna be.  I love all of the ideas of letting my kids grow up the way I did, back in the innocent 70's, but they still seem too young to give any real freedom to.  In our great-grandparents day they would have already been a paid employee at the shoe factory or in charge of milking Bessie every morning at 5:00.  I try though.  Especially in those times when you can make them feel like they have freedom when in reality it is just a tiny bit.

Here is a picture of Jac walking home from our neighbors after a lunch playdate.  Our yards connect although they are several houses down, I can see their back porch from my backyard.  For Jac though, there is one yard that he goes through that he wouldn't really see me yet and probably with his back turned wouldn't see my neighbor watching him either! 

He asked if he could walk home by himself.  Of course this wasn't his idea or my idea, this was my neighbors idea after she had already let her daughter walk home from our house by herself.  It makes sense that he would then want to try it and for my guy who really doesn't like to be alone, I was proud of him!  The biggest risk was that he would run out of steam and not make it up the hill (I have been known to carry him on the way home before, playdates are a lot of work!)  This was such a momentous occasion that I had to get the camera out (you can laugh at that, it's okay). 

So here's to my sort of free range kid.  I can see an independent little guy just around the corner.

Watch Out I Am On My Soapbox

Here we go.  I warned you.

Over the years I have become more and more interested in the food I eat.  I believe the catalyst was living in Austin, Texas and being surrounded by great restaurants (too many to list here but my faves are Roy's, Jeffrey's, Truluck's) amazing grocery stores (Whole Foods and Central Market) and becoming friends with foodies.  The unfortunate part of this increased interest in my food is that now I know where it comes from.

My progression into this mystery continue with Jeff reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and getting interested, I was not.  I don't like to watch documentaries, let alone read them.  At least I didn't.  I was pretty much a hardline fiction nut until my dear husband convinced me to read a few.  I think after so many years of school and a couple of degrees I didn't want any more text books in my life and that was what I viewed nonfiction as.   Then he got me to watch Supersize Me, which gives much of the same message as Fast Food Nation.  Needless to say I have never, I repeat never, touched McDonald's again. 




Then a few forays into organic and free range, nice but expensive.  I liked farmer's markets, but everything was so..... in season.  What if I wanted an apple in the spring? 




Then, my friend Amy gave me a book, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.  She had gotten me; hook, line, and sinker.  For those of you who don't want to read Omnivore's Dilemma, although I highly recommend it, watch Food, Inc.  You must watch this documentary.  I know, I know, you don't like the idea of someone shooting a deer frolicking in the wild, let alone hear about how your beef is raised and slaughtered.  Just think of it as a horror movie and bite the bullet.  You have eaten meat all your life and you owe it to those furry little animals that makes us all strong to see what their life is like.  It is not honorable, there is no frolicking, it is awful.  Just because you turn your head and don't look, doesn't mean it goes away.


Food, Inc. isn't just about the slaughter houses of America and how big business has turned our meat supply into a factory instead of a field.  It is also about the Monsanto's of the world who have turned our fields into petri dishes.  It is about obesity, politics, money, school lunches, genetically modified foods, superbugs, immigrants and cloning.  In a word it is about food.  If you are not informed about the food you eat you will enable this to continue.  Everytime you eat at a restaurant or shop in the grocery store, you vote with your dollar and it is up to you whether you vote for this to continue or for it to end. 

I could seriously go on and on about this.  But instead I am going to let you read a letter that will be dropped into the mail tomorrow which summarizes my feelings. 

January 29, 2010



Mrs. Michelle Obama


1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW


Washington, DC 20500






Dear Mrs. Obama,


As I watch your husband’s first State of the Union address I am filled with wonder about the type of person he must be to want to tackle all of the issues of our nation. I do believe that he has an enormous task ahead of him. America is an unwieldy ship that needs a strong person to Captain us and begin to move us ahead past the bickering, the terrorists, the unbelievable debt we have amassed and the unhealthy habits that we have aquired.


The most literal unhealthy habit is what I would like to ask you about; how and what we eat as American’s today. I so have admired your garden on the White House grounds as well as the way you went about implementing it and using the food from it. To show Washington DC school children that it is possible to grow your own food and to then harvest and use eat it, is a lesson that most children simply do not get today. I have been trying to give my own children this very same lesson on a smaller scale. We try to eat healthy and grow some of our own vegetables in the summer. I also want them to be aware of where their food comes from in very specific terms. Although they are young, Jefferson “Jac” is four and Mia is three, they understand that when I prepare a chicken for dinner that that chicken used to be alive. They also understand the effort involved in planting a tomato seed in the ground and waiting for three months to eat a fresh tomato. If only it were that simple.


I am appalled at the politics behind the food we eat. I am writing you a letter from a rather ignorant position. I admit that I have not researched my point of view thoroughly. I have read some books and watched some documentaries that strictly speaking share my point of view and I have not done any due diligence in asking the other side why they do what they do. However, I still want to pose a few questions to you even given my lack of knowledge.






1. Why are we subsidizing food that is completely unhealthy for Americans? Corn is highly subsidized and has taken over as the staple of America, how can this be a good thing?


o The USDA site also says that 4.1% of U.S. corn goes for high fructose corn syrup. That means that since 29.9% of all U.S. cropland harvested was planted in corn in 2007, 1.2% of all U.S. cropland harvested in 2007 went for high fructose corn syrup. That’s only slightly less than the 1.5% of U.S. cropland devoted to vegetables or the 1.6% of U.S. cropland devoted to [fruit] orchards. Jill Richardson, La Vida Locavore.


2. Why do school children receive processed food, prepackaged and simply warmed upon location? According to the Take Part website, 80% of schools serve lunches with more than the daily recommended amount of saturated fat and over 40% don’t serve fresh fruits or vegetables.


3. Why do lobbyists and VPs from Monsanto, seem to fill the ranks of the FDA, the USDA and the EPA? Is this not seen as a conflict of interest?


4. Why is Monsanto allowed to witch hunt farmers who refuse to use their genetically modified soybeans? In fact, why are Americans allowed to eat genetically modified food to begin with; the American Academy of Environmental Medicine concluded that animal studies have demonstrated a causal relationship between GM foods and infertility, accelerated aging, dysfunctional insulin regulation, changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system, and immune problems such as asthma, allergies, and inflammation. And Americans can’t even get a label on which foods contain GMOs.


5. I am appalled at the ads by Monsanto claiming sustainable agriculture when they are the very definition of non-sustainable with seeds that only last one generation and also the new Sweet Surprise campaign from the Corn Refiners Association goes so far as to say that high fructose corn syrup has been demonized without cause. Where is the truth in advertising?






I completely understand that the wheels of justice turn slowly in order to be thorough and just. However, as Americans are bamboozled by big business we continue to become more and more unhealthy. It just shouldn’t be the case that unhealthy high-fat, high-sugar food is more affordable than a vegetable. And when all costs are taken into account this food truly is not more affordable as obesity and diabetes continually. It takes a lot of time to eat healthy, should it really be expensive on top of it? Should we have to worry if our food is causing diseases, cancer, allergies and other problems?


I watched a show that followed you and the President for a few days after he had been in office a few months, maybe it was a special on the 100 day mark. In the piece your assistant discussed how you follow up on letters that you receive from constituents. I do hope that is the case.


I am so excited that perhaps while your husband tackles the immediate dramatic issues in our country that you and his support team continue to remind him of a problem that is so basic; our food.


I would love to hear your opinion on these questions. Perhaps you even have some advice for me in this area.


Thank you so much for your efforts to date, I think you are doing a fabulous job.