Fun for Worms

I have a confession to make. I use my garburator. I feel bad to see the totally compostable food going down the drain.... but happy that I can take the garbage out with Baby on one arm and not have garbage juice running down my leg. BUT, still, I feel guilty.

The city of Vancouver launched a Residential Food Waste Collection Service this spring.  Why not reduce waste from the landfill for better use? Unfortunately, this service is not available for the folks who live in condos and apartments who are serviced by private waste removal companies. This doesn't really make much sense in a way; my parents live in a private home, collect their food waste in an ice cream container, have their own compost heap and a garden to put it in.  We don't. My garden is the size of a bathtub. Even if I had nifty ice cream container under the sink, where would I put my banana peels at the end of the day? Wouldn't condo and apartment dwellers be the people who would benefit most from this service?

So I found this cool invention by NatureMill. Your very own compost maker! It's about the size of a garbage can and it fits under the sink.

Here's how it works: lift the lid, throw in your coffee grinds and orange peels, forget about it for about a month, then open the drawer at the bottom. That's where you'll find ready-to-go compost for the worms in your garden. Check out the video on the site for the more "techie" version of my description.

That still leaves me with where would I put this lovely compost? um..... Maybe the gardeners could use it?

I will find a way! Stay tuned for the impending solution!

Getting Ready for the Season

Yesterday I found myself looking online to rent dishes to host a Christmas dinner for 10 people. Rent dishes for a dinner? No, maybe go to Ikea and buy stuff. More Ikea stuff. Am I crazy? Where will these 10 people sit? 6 inside and 4 on the patio? "Whoaaaa les moteurs"- as my mom would say. Pull the horses back, bring the sheep in, chew your carrot sticks.... slow everything down.

I seek simplicity. Abundance of simplicity. I am seeking it even more now that I have an 11 month old during this holiday season. Tonight, the power went out in the neighborhood. I came up from the underground parking and everything was much blacker. Baby and I came in, lit some candles, sat on the couch in our jackets and read stories. It was simple and lovely. Just like the night Baby Jesus was born, in complete simplicity, I will keep this in my mind. I will take time. Today, I started my simple and beautiful season with a small rosemary bush shaped like a Christmas tree. This will do.

Less running around in the stores, more time with friends.
Less line-ups, more walking in the snow.
Less gorging, more tasting.
Less spending, more giving.
Less stressing, more enjoying.

Right. 'tis the season to be jolly, darn it and that's what I'll be.

Great Moments

On the weekend, my husband installed our baby gates. Watching Baby help out was a super-precious-awww-he's-so-cute moment.

Alberto, our friend and awesome house painter came over 2 days ago to do some touch ups and while we were waiting for the plaster to dry we watched clips of Canadian comedian Russell Peters. I was laughing so hard and couldn't stop.  All the while Baby was looking at me, smiling and questioning me with his eyes 'I don't get it mom, what's so funny?' which made me laugh even more. This was such a great hurt-your-ribs kinda-of-laughing moment.

Yesterday, I got a message from a dear friend who lives in Toronto. She called to say that she was secretly in Vancouver working and wants to meet up on Friday! I miss her a lot. Whenever I see her, it seems like our time together is too short. She makes me laugh a lot and I wish she lived closer. Anticipating Friday, gives me lots of little happy-I-can't-wait-moments.

Last night, around 4:30am, Baby was crying hysterically in his crib. You can't help but wonder what is going on in his little head. Is it a bad dream? His teeth? Gas? Is he tangled? Mangled by monsters? My husband came down to his room to check on us. He picked up Baby from my arms, gently put back in his crib, shushed him softly and rubbed his back. Baby cried a little and went back to sleep. That was a really tired middle-of-the-night-love-my-husband moment.

Today, I learned my lesson. Don't give a 10 month old your car keys when walking on a leafy path. My mom, her dog Misha, Baby and I wanted to catch that 1 hour of sunshine today and headed for the beach. We returned from our walk to the jeep and couldn't find the keys anywhere. Baby! Where did you put the keys? Argh. After retracing our steps with a full bladder and not finding the keys, I called my husband at home. He was home nursing a nasty cold and I'm sure wasn't impressed when he had to take a cab across town to come get us. While we waited for him, Mom, Misha, Baby and I huddled in the back seat of the jeep, (which luckily I hadn't locked), and read through a big stack of kids' books I had just picked up at the library. This was a really nice get-cosy-with-those-you-love moment.

Right now, Baby and husband are asleep. It's 8:00 pm. The house is silent, the kind of silence that makes you wonder if there's something in your ears. I'm here with my thoughts, typing. This is a relaxing hey!-mom-you-did-good-today moment.

Ahh! The Smell of Baby Shampoo

I love the smell of Baby's hair when it's all clean and fluffy! So I decided to investigate his shampoo, Burt's Bees Baby Bee Shampoo and Baby Wash. Here's the list of ingredients, all 22 of them. Seems like a lot!

• Aqua
• Decyl glucoside: 0-100%
• Coco-betaine: coconut 0-100%
• Lauryl glucoside: sugar 0-100%
• Sucrose Laurate: another sugar type substance 0-100%
• Glycerin: naturally occurring alcohol compound of animal or vegetable origin 2-74%
• Betaine: viscosity controller 2-82%
• Coco-glucoside: foaming agent 0-100%
• Sodium cocoyl hydrolyzed soy protein: hair conditioning agent 0-100%
• Sweet orange peel oil: 0-100%
• Lemon peel oil: astringent 2-71%
• Vanilla fruit extract: 1-94%
• Glyceryl oleate: beeswax 0-93%
• Glucose: 1-82%
• Xanthan gum: binder 0-94%
• Sodium chloride: salt 0-0%
  
• Citric acid: fragrance agent 2-72%
• Glucose oxidase: enzyme 2-87%
• Lactoperoxidase: enzyme derived from milk 0-97%
• Benzyl benzoate: solvent and preservative 5-75%
• Geraniol: scent from essential oils 6-61%
• Linalool: hydrocarbon 5-65%

I marked in blue the 7 ingredients I know for sure. Then I visited the Environment Working Group Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database to check out what the rest of the ingredients are, their hazard score (known and suspected hazards from more than 50 definitive databases on scale of 1-10, 1 being the safest and 10 being of highest concern) and their data gap (a measure of how much is unknown about an ingredient.)

Results:

• The top 3 worst ingredients are benzyl benzoate 5, geraniol 6, and linalool 5, with associated studies showing a variety of results such as immune system toxicity, irritation, allergies, endocrine disruption, not to mention the results of studies made on animals. 
• Both benzyl benzoate and linalool are banned in Europe.
• Most ingredients were not assessed for safety in cosmetics by industry panel
• 7 ingredients have 100% data gap: meaning there are no studies found to see if there might be effects on our bodies.

Overall score for Burt's Bees Baby Bee Shampoo and Baby Wash is:

• 2 out of 10 hazard
• 81% data gap
• Non-compliant: This company has signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics but is not in compliance because of their use of one or more ingredients prohibited or restricted under the Compact. 
• 45% of baby shampoos in the database have a better score for hazard

So what does it mean to me and Baby?

• I can make more informed choices.
• I can buy and use products that make us smell nice and feeling good inside and out! I'm scared to see how Baby's butt cream scores...
• I can spread the news.

If you haven't already seen the amazing and informative animation, The Story of Stuff, check out The Story of Cosmetics.

Time Alone on Kingsway

Yesterday, while Baby was napping, the rain stopped and I jumped on my bike. I love my bike! I rode up 19th and stopped at The Cedar Cottage Coffee House on Kingsway. The French lady there makes the best cookies ever. At first, it seems like paying $0.75 for a thumb sized cookie seems a bit steep, but they are so delicious! I ate mine really slow and savored every bite. These homemade sweets are so much better than those giant, plate sized cookies most coffee shops offer nowadays. Why does it seems all baked goods are on steroids anyway?

I digress. Since moving to Cedar Cottage-Kensington, I've noticed that Kingsway is really lacking in interesting shops. Shops that lure you in, that lull you along to the next block, that make you buy things, like flowers... How many Vietnamese restaurants does one neighborhood need? I counted 13!

So I've decided to find something that would make this diagonal street special. I found some gems among the tacky glass chandelier shop, the $6 haircut salon, the Vietnamese video rental shop, the thrift store, the home gym equipment shop, the prayer rooms (?), and the Dutch Pannekoek House which is never open.

• The House of Dosas- Just eat the dosas. Your mouth will be happy.
• Famous Foods- Good for finding obscure organic grain from mountains far, far, away.  Nice organic meat section, buffalo steaks anyone?
• The Cedar Cottage Coffee House- The ceramic coffee cups are really cool.  Cooooookies!!!!

That's it! So far. Doesn't seem like much...

Vancouver Illustrator Bambi Edlund did a much better job of discovering and drawing the gems of Kingsway Street.  Check it out! Le Pen Now and Again

Remembrance Day Weekend

Where should we go? Go to the States? Wait in line at the border? Go to the Island? Pay an arm and a leg and a foot for the ferry? Go to Whistler? Las Vegas? Go to Kelowna and visit friends? Take the train to Seattle? Seems we can't decide. Everything seems blah... or too complicated with the baby... or too expensive....but we have a 4 day weekend!!! Shouldn't we make the most of it and travel?

Well, it's Thursday morning, it's raining and cold outside. I'm at home with my tea, Geraldo installing safety gates and Baby is napping. I'm starting to give up on traveling....On Sunday we might regret staying home. So be it. Besides it's time to remember.

War. I can't imagine how it feels
I was born in 1973
My grandpa, he trained in the army
He would run through an airfield
while planes dropped 10lb bags of flour on him
I wonder how he felt at that time

He didn't go to Europe in the end
He had 8 kids instead, is a great-grandpa
and is celebrating 60 years of marriage
Too many Canadians didn't make it
To be grandpas and great-grandpas
and those who did make it back
they still remember...
Thank you, all of you

Cure for a Sore Throat

Woke up with a sore throat yesterday, you know, the kind that hurts every time you swallow. Yuck. I picture a little bug in there playing with sharp scissors. So how to alleviate this? Some people swear by: oregano oil, vitamin C, ginger tea, iodine, chicken noddle soup, hugs and kisses, and rest (oh, ya rest, what is that again?)

This is what worked for me: Heritage O's, a cousin cereal of Cheerios, made of Kamut and Quinoa. These little O's are really hard and scratch my throat all the way down to my belly. Yum!

Today my throat feels great! It's those little O's, I swear! ;)

Safe Toys

Choosing safe toys for Baby. It's simple isn't it?

As long as the toy is BPA and Phthalate free, has low VOC, isn't painted with lead paint, is bigger than an apple, but smaller than a fridge, is not sprayed with fire-retardant chemicals, isn't too loud, isn't chipping, breaking, rusting or sharp and isn't recalled, then you're okay.  Oh, and watch out for Cadmium too! And it can't be made in China, 'cause you never know about those toys from China, right? It's safer if it's a seemingly overpriced, wooden puzzle from Germany, made in Thailand, right? Make sure you read the warning labels just in case you can't use it while sleeping, jump on it, or submerge it in water (all fun things to do, by the way) Oh, and no magnets! And to top it all off no annoying adult voice pretending to be a kid repeating: "Let's play 1-2-3!" over and over again.

Where are those affordable, fun, all organic, painted with beet juice toys made with recycled corn husks, that make soft, soothing noises, which are not wrapped in questionable containers? uh?

My kid loves banging on plastic bowls and cardboard boxes, he loves to wave my keys around and loves to chew his books.... hum....

Sometimes I feel like I'm back in university. Okay, for Toys 101, research and write a 50 page report on safety. Then for Car Seat 102, research and test 50 models and write a 20 page summary. Don't forget Baby Nutrition 201... Midterm is today.

Luckily, I have husband who loves research. Baby and I do all the testing.

All joking aside, it's worth looking online to familiarize yourself with good toy-choosing habits and to check products if you have any doubts. Visit

Healthy Stuff
 
Health Canada

One last funny bit. Read Curious Dad, Chad Skelton's funny article "Warning: Don't file away children in storage containers."

Gotta go! I have Installing Safety Gate 101 today!

Active Mom and Baby

As a new mom, it seems that on most days, the walls at home seem to get closer and closer together and by midday I'm itching to get out of the house. I've done some fun activities to beat the "piles of laundry to do, dishes to wash, carpets to vacuum, don't want to play on the floor anymore" blues.

I've done a lot (okay, maybe not a lot) of those painful "burpies" with Fit For Two and their workouts really do get you back into shape. A sport bra with extra support is essential and way better than wearing 2 bras at a time. I found mine at Lady Sport. I purchased one with velcro straps with makes it super easy to access for mid-workout baby milkshakes! ah ah! Working out outside at Kits Beach or Trout Lake, breathing in the fresh air while Baby fools around on my yoga mat beats the smelly gym any day.

Baby and I trained for the 10Km Turkey Trot with Lynn and baby Hannah, by taking long walks around the city. The seawall is so awesome! I also discovered the 19th avenue bike route from Commercial Street to Main Street. Main Street is a good motivator, there's lots of neat coffee shops to stop in for a mid-walk tea. There's no lack of walks and runs in Vancouver, some are stroller friendly, and for those that are not, dad and baby can always cheer you on at the finish line!

Yesterday, I visited Unity Yoga Teahouse and Studio and took my first Mom and Baby Yoga class. It was great! The studio is relaxing and unpretentious and the tea room adjacent to it is great for chatting with other moms. The floor seating was really popular with Baby too!  The instructor, Lou, led us through a series of gentle yoga poses, stretches, and infant massage with the option of incorporating babies to our session. The November sun was shining in, Baby barefoot on my mat banging the floor with his eggbeater and charming the other babies with his smile. What's not to love about doing yoga with wee ones cooing around you?

I'm always open to try something new.... any suggestions?

Sun Salutations

 

Yesterday, I went online to learn how to do Sun Salutations. This morning I managed to wake up before Baby and decided to do a few. I opened the blinds and WOW! The sun sure was saluting back at me! 

Thank you Mother Earth, God and the Universe!

Teaching My Body to Relearn

I've been observing Baby as he has been learning to sit up, balance and move about on the floor and I can't help but admire how straight his spine is and how his head just seems to sit there at the top, perfectly balanced on his thin, little neck. He seems so at ease sitting cross-legged on the carpet, while am sitting next to him feeling sore and uncomfortable. As he's been gaining more and more weight, I've also noticed how my body has been reacting to lifting and supporting him. Every fiber in my body seems to be screaming: "What about me? I need a massage!"

Ohh... how I love massages! But, there's something bitter sweet about getting a professional massage, it feels so good but when its over, you just want more and it just doesn't feel as good when you massage yourself.

And so, if you ask and let go, the universe provides.

Thanks to my friend Nisha who treated me for my birthday, I just had my second Alexander Technique session with Gabriella at the Alexander Technique Centre.  http://www.alexandertechniquecentre.ca/.

Quoting from Gaby's website, "The Alexander Technique is a practical, self-care, educational method for improving awareness, movement and posture. It provides the tools to recognize our habits and patterns of responses so that we can change them. It emphasizes the relationship of the head, neck and back which is fundamental to improved use of the body."

I've come away from these 2 short sessions with more awareness of how my body moves and holds itself, especially when holding and breastfeeding Baby.  It's also really wonderful to do something for me, and have someone guide me toward feeling better. Unlike a massage, it nice to know that I can apply what I learn and it will benefit me over time. I look forward to more learning!!! Thanks Nisha and Gaby.