Mr. Floatie

Mr. Floatie must be celebrating today!

Photos: lightstalkers.org, georgiastrait.org 

Raising an Adventurous Eater

I heard a fun interview on KUOW with Matthew Amster-Burton, Seattle food critic, dad to Iris and author of the new book Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater. I can't wait to read it (the first three chapters are free on the book's website). The author blogs at Roots and Grubs.

Friends for Life

A new study on baboon mothers' offspring mortality found that the infants of those with "strong relationships with other females are more likely to survive to adulthood than baboons reared by less social mothers."

The study also found that:

• the "strongest social bonds" were between mothers and adult daughters (followed by sisters)
  
• "social" doesn't mean "wildly social," but a "close social bond"
  
• the social female baboons formed close, long-lasting relationships with particular female partners
  
• the benefit may have to do with regulating the stress hormone cortisol
  

(quoted text from UCLA Newsroom press release)

"I want to grow up fast"

Imogen, 3, from the back seat this afternoon:


"I'm too small to play with Elizabeth [her cousin].
I want to grow up fast.
How can we make me grow up faster?"

I read just yesterday that touching and cuddling your baby activate growth hormones which in turn promote healthy development. It was a side note in an article on The Independent's website about the possible consequences of leaving babies to cry to sleep.

Motherhood: Poetry & Conversation

My Uterus, That Party Balloon

Tuesday, July 7 at 7 p.m., High Point Library (West Seattle), 3411 SW Raymond St.

"Does motherhood still define women – whether they choose to have children or not? A poetry reading and conversation with Elizabeth Austen and Erin Malone.

Elizabeth Austen is the literary producer at KUOW 94.9 public radio [Seattle]; her new poems consider the personal and cultural implications of choosing not to have children. Erin Malone is the mother of a young son and author of a chapbook, What Sound Does It Make, that chronicles new motherhood complicated by post-partum mood disorder.

Free.  Co-sponsored by the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs."

From: http://elizabethausten.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/the-party-balloon-in-west-seattle/

"Rhodilly"

Neighborhood Schools

The Seattle Times has written a thoughtful editorial about overhauling Seattle Public Schools' dysfunctional student-assignment plan.

It Had Something To Do With Love

Today

Tank Pop Art

Today

Our Douglas Squirrel

This little critter, Washington's native Douglas Squirrel, visits the pine trees in our yard and chatters.

Hair-Raising Picnic

Monday

Baby Names

The baby doll Immy got for her birthday five days ago has already been named:

Hats (on Wednesday)

Warika (on Thursday)

Karhaas (on Friday)

Gaberella (on Saturday) and

Bennie (on Sunday)

My Darlings

A few times every day, Imogen switches roles with me. She calls me "my darlings," and I call her "Mama."

Snake and Butterfly

Olympic Discovery Adventure Trail

Today

Now We Are Three

Olympic Discovery Adventure Trail

Today

Free-Range Parenting

It seems as though the newest wave of mothers is saying no to prenatal Beethoven appreciation classes, homework tutors in kindergarten, or moving to a town near their child’s college campus so the darling can more easily have home-cooked meals. (O.K., O.K., many were already saying no, but now they’re doing so without the feeling that a good parent would say yes.) Over coffee and out in cyberspace they are gleefully labeling themselves “bad mommies,” pouring out their doubts, their dissatisfaction and their dysfunction, celebrating their own shortcomings in contrast to their older sisters’ cloying perfection.

Lisa Belkin

The New York Times Magazine | The Way We Live Now

"Let the Kid Be," May 29, 2009

Full Article

Box Bike

My friend Trina in The Netherlands will soon be a mother of four. She bought a "box bike" to get her kids to school and back. I love it!

Happy Birthday Joan!

Lifelong Friend, Imogen's Birthday Twin

Happy Birthday Imogen!

Storm King Ranger Station, Lake Crescent

Olympic National Park

Today

Somewhere a Small Girl

Imogen at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center fountain today

Tess Gallagher

Tess Gallagher reading poetry today--Raymond Carver's birthday, his empty chair behind her--at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center during the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts

Goodwill 2.0

shopgoodwill.com 

For Now

I Stop Writing the Poem

to fold the clothes. No matter who lives

or who dies, I'm still a woman.

I'll always have plenty to do.

I bring the arms of his shirt

together. Nothing can stop

our tenderness. I'll get back

to the poem. I'll get back to being

a woman. But for now

there's a shirt, a giant shirt

in my hands, and somewhere a small girl

standing next to her mother

watching to see how it's done.

-Tess Gallagher

Festivalizing

Immy May having fun at the Juan de Fuca Festival 

Saturday, Port Angeles 

Of Course

Immy is now saying "of course" as in "we'll need party hats, 'uh' course."

Wiktionary: "of course...[a]sserts that the associated phrase should not be argued, particularly if it is obvious or there is no choice in the matter."

Word World

Imogen asleep in her car seat
with my dictionary
Today

Handcrafted

Craft is the handprint of all culture.

Imogen, last night

Microeconomics

At Immy's pretend stores, ice cream shops and fish markets, everything costs "50-god dollars."

Girl's Life

Read-Along

Imogen follows along with her Grammy--on tape--reading Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep: A Yarn About Wool.

Haircut

Duck Derby

Rosy Posies

Happy Mother's Day!

Imogen surprised me today by drawing one of Great-Gramma's tulips on her magnetic doodle pad.

She also named this blog post.

Almost three years into mothering and I still feel like I need to be pinched. I find Immy so exponentially amazing that I can hardly believe she came from me. I don't take credit, I just watch in awe. Thank you Immy for making me a mother. I've never been so proud or felt I had a higher calling. Having you is the fulfillment of my greatest dream.

One Child at a Time

Top: Immy briefly helps her cousin YaYa, who spent more than four hours at the farmer's market today raising money for Pennies for Peace. What a great person YaYa is, spending her beautiful Saturday helping girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Bottom: Imogen shows off the tulips we gently picked out for Great-Gramma.

Three Trips Around the Sun

Imogen turns 3 on May 27

Semper Paratus

Imogen's co-op preschool and cousin YaYa's home-school program went on a field trip last week to the Coast Guard station. We toured a boat, watched a helicopter hoist up a man, and, "always ready," the Coast Guard dads set up a bouncy house where the kids bounced themselves silly.

Think About the Place Where You Live

Simon, Imogen and Niles

Ediz Hook, Port Angeles

Take a Picture of Me Jumping

In Dewy Damps

When I was nearly five in the fall of 1975, my family moved from Seattle to Sappho, Washington, near Forks. Recently, on my way to Forks, with Imogen asleep in the back of the car and a camera on hand, I drove up the road we lived on.

Two of my favorite bigleaf maple trees are still standing, covered in chartreuse moss and old man's beard lichen:

One is partly hollow so that my sister and dad and I could go inside if we crouched down.

The other held a beloved handmade swing.

I'm amazed and happy they're both still alive and reminded to be thankful for the abundance of nature and this enchanted place in the landscape of my childhood.

One Little Girl in a Pale Pink Coat Heard

Me (singing): High on a hill was a lonely goatherd, lay-di-oh, lay-di-oh, lay-di-oh!

Immy: Who sings that song?

Me: Maria…from The Sound of Music…the governess…who takes care of the children.

Immy: Julie Andrews sings it.