It Seems Like Yesterday

Imogen May, 3 weeks, June 2006

Sweetie Pie

As we left YaYa's house today, Immy said "See ya' in d'mornin' sweetie pie" to her 8-year old cousin. And then something like yep, I love YaYa so much.

Alice Olivia

Welcome to the world Alice Olivia!

Ten thousand things bright
Ten thousand miles, no dust
Water and sky one color
Houses shining along your road

Congratulations John and Sally

Immy Longstocking

It's short for Imolotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Simonsdaughter Longstocking.

Sun Cream

The cousins put on "sun cream," Sunday

Liberal Art

Imogen, watercolor & oil crayon

Bunnies Flowers Shadows

Immy feeding dandelions to Giacomo

To Carry Within us an Orchard

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

- Li-Young Lee

This poem brought me great comfort a few years ago when I really needed it.

A Play of Colors on Clouds

When I bring to you colored toys, my child,
I understand why there is such a play of colors on clouds, on water,
and why flowers are painted in tints
–when I give colored toys to you, my child.

Rabindranath Tagore

Immy Quotes: A Small Serving

-Immy (25 mos.) has a magnetic dress-up doll that has ballet shoes. She put them on once and I said, "Oh, she's a ballerina." That was a few weeks ago. A few days ago, Immy put the shoes back on the doll and said "dancerina clothes. Night-night dancerina."

-On Tuesday, Imogen came to me with three hair rubber bands. She said "bracelets," then put them on and showed me. I said, "Oh, that's creative." And very matter of fact, she turned on her heel and said "yeah, amazin'."

Salty, Impermanent Kingdoms

We are perishable, friends.
We are salty, impermanent kingdoms.

Robert Bly

Put Your Whole Self In

Use it all up.

-Raymond Carver

Such Beauty

1. A blacktail deer comes in close to check out Simon and Imogen
2. Immy and Dad making their way up the trail
3. Avalanche lilies
4. Lupine meadow

Hurricane Hill Trail, Hurricane Ridge
Olympic National Park
Sunday

Locally Grown

Second Place
Forks Old-Fashioned Fourth of July
Kiddies' Parade

Good Place to Land

Kalaloch (derived from the Quinault language meaning "good place to land")
Olympic National Park

You Lika' ze Pizza?

I scrambled all day Tuesday to get enough markers, paper, Play-Doh or toys into Imogen's hands before chaos broke out.

Pimp my Couch

Check out our new sectional.

Three-buck Truck

It was cheaper than a gallon of fuel!

All You Have to Do

All you have to do is wear a hat and carry a Greek newspaper.
Nobody will look twice at you.

David Bowie

Hippie Midwife Shakes up Obstetricians

Ina May Gaskin - the woman widely described as the "most famous" and "most authentic" midwife in the world - never even took a formal midwifery course. Nevertheless, obstetricians, who in most of the developed world prefer to deliver all babies themselves, have given her the ultimate honor - naming an obstetric procedure that literally saves life and limb after this unusual woman.

Link to Full Article
The Jerusalem Post

Safe Sunscreen for the Whole Family

Screen Your Sunscreen!

Ah, summertime! The sky is blue, the sun is bright; you lather up the kids with sunscreen for a dip in the pool… But are toxic chemicals swimming in your sunscreen? Here are our quick tips for choosing the safest sunscreens and protecting your whole family from sun and toxic chemicals!

Look for sunscreens that contain zinc or titanium as the active ingredients. These provide broad protection against UV (ultraviolet) rays and are the least toxic active ingredients available. Avoid sunscreens that contain these active ingredients linked with hormone effects: oxybenzone, octinoxate, and homosalate.

Avoid sunscreens that list ‘fragrance’ in the ingredients. Fragrances may contain phthalates, chemicals linked with reproductive effects and asthma.

Choose sunscreens with SPFs of 15 or higher. ‘Sun Protection Factor’ is a measurement of how well a product protects against UVB rays, the type of rays that cause sunburn.

Be sure that you are purchasing sunscreen or sunblock. Suntan lotions and tanning lotions do not contain active ingredients to protect against UV rays.

Apply your sunscreen generously and reapply at least every 2 hours. Most people do not apply enough sunscreen to actually reach the product's SPF rating.

Don’t depend solely on your sunscreen for protection. Remember to wear protective hats and clothing, and try to stay in the shade, especially between 10am and 4pm.

Minimize the use of sunscreen on infants under six months, who should be kept out of direct sunlight. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends using minimal amounts of sunscreen on small areas only when adequate clothing and shade are not available.

Have a great summer!

June 2008 Growing Up Green Newsletter
Washington Toxics Coalition

Difficult and Expensive to Undo

It is very difficult and expensive to undo after you are married the things that your mother and father did to you while you were putting your first six birthdays behind you.

Bureau of Social Hygiene study, 1928

Black and White

Nothing you do for children
is ever wasted.
Garrison Keillor

Blue and White

Immy wore her first ponytail and an old-timey nautical get-up to see the tall ships in Port Angeles. Little did I know that she would have better looked the part with dreadlocks and a cigarette just like the real tall ship crews!

I big

"Mama, I big," said Imogen, sitting on her doll house couch.

Don't Fence me In

Oh deer!

This beautiful doe came to our backyard for some clover on Monday.

On a somewhat related note,
Imogen now says "oh dear!"

Talking 'bout my girl

Written by Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald:

Dear daughter:

I have loved you from the moment I met you. You were still wet from the birth canal, hair matted to your scalp, eyes squeezed shut. They dried you off, cut the cord, placed you in a bassinet under a warming light. I went over to you. My hand covered your torso.

And I loved you.

That was 17 years ago, 17 years that have moved as cheetahs move.

The infant is a toddler, the toddler is a little girl, the little girl is an adolescent, the adolescent is you, a girl on the verge of womanhood, graduating high school -- with honors! -- this spring, going to college in the fall.

You are facing the future. I am facing the past, sitting here looking at old pictures of you and listening to songs whose lyrics make me sad.

There you are with a plastic pig snout from some restaurant strapped over your nose, looking up with crossed eyes. And the Temptations are singing about sunshine on a cloudy day. "My Girl."

There you are walking with your arms folded and your lips poked out, pouting because that bad old ground had the nerve to skin your knee. And Paul Simon is singing "there could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you."

There you are in your senior picture, your hair glossy and long, wearing a white cap and gown, facing the camera, smiling your confidence. Stevie Wonder is singing, "isn't she lovely?" And she is.

There's this other song that really gets me, though. It's called "I Wish I Could." A meditative keyboard and guitar frame the melody, and Peabo Bryson sings of watching his little girl playing in the leaves, of kneeling by her side to say bedtime prayers, of snapping pictures, trying to "hold on to the memory before the whole thing slips away." He sings:

"I wish I could save these moments and put 'em in a jar.
I wish I could stop the world from turning, keep things just the way they are.
I wish I could shelter you from everything not pure and sweet and good.
I know I can't. I know I can't. But I wish I could."

Honey, you know your dad. Your dad doesn't cry unless there's a death in the family or a loss in the playoffs. But I swear, that song brings me too close for comfort every time. Every doggone time.

You know why? Well, in the past 17 years, I have used a Nerf gun to chase off the monsters under your bed, given you my shoulders as a throne from which to look down on the world, waited outside with other parents while you sat in the arena cheering some pop star who had stolen your heart away from me.

I have endured your rolling eyes, your heavy sighs and your indifference (hated your indifference most of all).

But what comes now is harder than all that. Because what comes now is the beginning of goodbye.

Yes, I know. You're not going anywhere. You still live in that landfill down the hall you call a bedroom.

But see, I am losing my little girl. She is waving her last farewells to me here and now. And some woman is about to take her place. Giggly, excitable and gawky on high heels, but a woman, all the same.

There is much I want for this woman. I want success for her. I want adventure and travel, dancing and laughter, discovery and joy. I want challenges, but I want contentment, too, that peace that comes from knowing you are exactly where you are meant to be in life, doing exactly what you are meant to do. I want her to be happy.

You see, I haven't met her yet, but already, I love this woman.

And yet, I'd give anything to make her go away, to cast her back beyond the horizon. I would trade her without a second thought for just one more chance to take out a Nerf gun and slay any monsters that dare trouble my little girl.

Oh, I know I can't. But I wish I could.

Nature Lifts, Carries Us

If, when we were young we tramped through forests of Ne­braska cottonwoods, or raised pigeons on a rooftop in Queens, or fished for Ozark bluegills, or felt the swell of a wave that traveled a thousand miles before lifting our boat, then we were bound to the natural world and remain so today. Nature still informs our years–lifts us, carries us.

Richard Louv
Last Child in the Woods:
Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

I Could See and Hear the Water

The Elwha Trail, Olympic National Park
Sunday

Immy Quotes: A Snippet

"Born in a garbage truck?"
"Birth to baby?"
"Mommy and Daddy--nice."
"I read it to you?" (you read it to me)
"Coco" (Coho ferry)

Fevers in Infants and Toddlers

Immy has a fever of 102.2 right now, so I'm trying to learn more about fevers:

All kids get fevers, and in the majority of cases, most are completely back to normal within a few days. For older infants and children (but not necessarily for infants younger than 3 months), the way they act is far more important than the reading on your thermometer. Everyone gets cranky when they have a fever. This is normal and should be expected.

But if you're ever in doubt about what to do or what a fever might mean, or if your child is acting ill in a way that concerns you even if there's no fever, always call your doctor for advice.

Call your doctor if you have an:

• infant younger than 3 months with a temperature of 100.4° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius) or higher
• older child with a temperature of higher than 102.2° Fahrenheit (39° Celsius)

KidsHealth.org

Mister Rogers Needs Your Help

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is still broadcast five days a week on 63% of PBS stations, but the 40-year tradition could end this fall when PBS begins beaming only one episode a week to its member stations.

Sensing the end was near, I've let Imogen watch Mister Rogers. She loves the trolley and the Neighborhood of Make Believe. I love Mister Rogers' gentle and wonder-filled way of being a person in the world and for letting us all know that we can be loved and special just the way we are.

If you think PBS is wrong to deliver only one Mister Rogers episode a week, please e-mail Seattle station KCTS at start@kcts.org or go here and let them know what you think.

Cut & paste for busy people:
I am writing to KCTS today to express my dissatisfaction with PBS's decision to reduce Mister Rogers' Neighborhood episodes down to one a week this fall. Mister Rogers has been a television friend of American children for 40 years. He is peerless and his messages are timeless. Please let PBS know that I and many others like me urge it to reconsider its decision to reduce Mister Rogers episodes and to continue the full-week schedule. Thank you.

A Little Brother with a Big Heart

Check out the extraordinary story of Pedro Rogers, a Chief Sealth High School senior who took his sister--a pregnant teenager at the time of her own prom--to his prom.

Seafood WATCH

A mom I know who is a scientist at NOAA recommended the Monterey Bay Aquarium: Seafood WATCH website for looking up health and sustainability information on the fish you eat and feed your family ("Seafood Search"). You will find out where and how your fish was caught and which factors create a "best choice" of fish. The search engine also recommends good alternatives and fish to avoid. I looked up Tilapia for example, and found the best choice is U.S. farmed, that a good alternative is Central or South American-farmed and that we should avoid China- or Taiwan-farmed Tilapia.

Tide Tables

Hot Link: Washington Tide Tables by Location

Baby "Business" Cards

Two-year-olds in New Zealand are getting down to business. Toddlers can now follow up after important playground meetings by exchanging business cards. The specially made cards have age-appropriate art such as diaper pins. The cards have become a bit of a fad — with moms acting as liaisons to the swing-set network.

-NPR Morning Edition Listen

Dust in Home has TV Flame Retardants

Another great reason to "Kill Your Television":

A Boston University School of Public Health study has pinpointed television as the largest source of flame retardants in household dust. These chemicals, PBDEs, have been found in almost every American tested for them and that includes breastmilk.

Full Article

The Hills Fill my Heart

Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park
Sunday

Our Rain Forest

A Washington DC grandparent asked a Washington Post "Travel Q&A" columnist how he could take his grandson, who is "not keen on flying over 'big oceans,'" to see a rain forest. K.C. Summers, the columnist, had the following suggestions, in order:

1. Central America
2. Costa Rica
3. Belize or Panama
4. Puerto Rico
5. Olympic Peninsula

He finally--after lengthy descriptions of all the other rain forests--gets to ours in the last sentence:

And if you'd like to avoid crossing an ocean altogether, there's Washington state's Olympic Peninsula ( http://www.olympicpeninsula.org), home to a temperate rain forest.

Yes, K.C. Summers, he said they'd like to avoid crossing an ocean! It's too bad North America's only temperate rain forest--right here on the Olympic Peninsula--is mentioned as an "oh yeah, one more thing..." in this column. Vacationing near the rain forests of Washington state could reduce a traveler's carbon footprint for summer travel, and help ensure the very survival of our ancient forests.