Polaroids, new baby survival skills

Well, awesome Paul has found a way of making his old (old, old) Polaroid camera work again. I love how iconic and vintage the pictures look, as if viewed through decades. They are already nostalgic to me because the last time I saw Polaroids was when I was little, so the flaws of the images look to me like the essence of childhood.
Life with a baby; how does one do it? I met a family at the beach with nine children. I want to know: what are their secrets? They didn't look like they were at their wits' ends. They seemed happy and un-desperate, but didn't share the magic beans with me.

Willem is the sweetest baby. He is a daisy, a lamb, a child already. I delight in him, and cherish holding and caring for him. But I can't put him down! He sleeps wonderfully throughout the day, but wakes up in bare minutes if I put him down. He loves to sleep wrapped on to me with cloth, but I can't chop vegetables that way, knead bread, clean the bathroom, do anything that requires two hands in front of me.

When he does get into a deep sleep, I find myself paralyzed with all the things I could be doing! Beginning tasks is getting harder, as the interruptions are constant!
I've done this before--former me, how did you do it? Oh yeah, I cried a lot.

It's Getting Warmer...

Last week it didn't hurt to be outside. Being outside as a family, which was once such a regular part of our time together has been impossible for such a long time because of the extreme cold of our bleak midwinter. Last Monday, though, it was time to go back to Crosby Farm Park.Gibbie just wanted to sit in his stroller and watch the river for a long time. (A park officer had earlier looked on in wonder as I plowed our little stroller through the snow!)
Ezra was snuggly wrapped onto Mama. We wonder how many more times we'll have of an Ezra small enough to do this with.
It was a short visit, but hopefully a foretaste of much to come.

Family Coffee Date: Swede Hollow Cafe

One of our very favorite spots to come as a family is Swede Hollow Cafe. It's on East Seventh, just up the hill from Metropolitan State University. It's not open in the evenings so much, but is a great place to come earlier in the day.What we love about our beloved Swede Hollow Cafe:
-beautiful outdoor seating, including: >a great fountain. Good for kids to play by/in when it's nice out! I like the sculptural faces on it as well.
>a community-run vegetable garden.
>a big, terraced rain garden of native plants and wildflowers--so fun for the kids. there's a little path to follow, and low, wide stone walls to walk on.
>ample outdoor seating
>poetry on rocks and a little door behind which to put your own poetry.
>in close walking distance to Swede Hollow park, which has good plant life, forest, a big tunnel, an old train bridge, a little stream running into still pools of water, lots of steps, a rock-sculpture area, some wetland area, an echo-y tunnel, sumac, touch-me-not, cattails, groundnuts, willow, and all kinds of other fun things.
-good coffee
-great house-made baked goods. I recommend the fruit cobbler, scones, and caramel rolls
-little piece of chocolate comes with espresso drinks
-very kind and considerate proprietor
-atmosphere-Swede Hollow is sun-drenched with a worn, wide-planked wood floor. It's not huge, and doesn't have couches, but while we've always been able to find a table, it's also always busy enough to have private conversations.
-has a high chair
-manages to be both very tasteful and unpretentious

Swede Hollow is one of those places we drove past for years before we actually stopped there, every time thinking it looked like such a promising place. When we can, we come here every week. The only thing we wish is that they were open more later in the evenings. On the rare occasions we have coffee shop time in the evenings, I'd love to go there, either for live music, or for time alone with the kids.

We actually frequented Swede Hollow Cafe for most of the winter last year. We bundled up the whole family in long underwear, sweaters, mittens; the works. We would take a hike, mostly with the kids wrapped on our backs, and then trudge up the big hill for hot chocolate, coffee, and scones at the cafe.

Advanced babywearing: two at once!

There is a beautiful photo in Mothering Magazine's babywearing issue of a mother wearing her little ones, who even look around the same ages as mine, one in front and one in back, using one long piece of fabric. I have tried and tried to the same, and finally have succeeded. Really, it's too much weight, and the front child's isn't distributed as nicely as I would like, but Gibbie loved this carry. He requests it all the time!

The key is using a very long wrap and putting the back child on first. With the back wrap, like the one in my tutorial, completed, take the extra straps and make a criss-cross seat for the front child, tying them to lower straps instead of to eachother. Adjust as necessary!

Recommended for strength training and masochists.

Knowing the plants

It was a great moment for me when Gibbie, seeing staghorn sumac with it's drying flower clusters pointing up all over, said, "hey, that looks like fruit!" What kind of fruit, we asked? And he said, "Sumac!" I was particularly proud because the sumac flowers we have gathered looked very different from these, because these had all lost their leaves. Yup, we've been making a tasty juice from the flower clusters, and he's even developed an appreciation for licking the sour fuzzy flowers.
I do hope the kids grow up knowing how to read the land and plants. In the above photo, you can see dozens of different plants. I don't so much care if he knows all their names (I sure don't!) but I'd like to teach him, and learn together, and I'm sure eventually learn from him, all about them. Know how to make baskets from the bark of the white trees, as he calls them. Know how to eat the different parts of the milkweed plant during different seasons. We can dig the wild parsnip, and look forward to the raspberry and blackberry seasons in their turns. We will look around for the jewelweed when we get a nettle's sting and pop the seeds out at each other in the late summer when the pods are spring-loaded.
Here Gibbie is enjoying the tactile beauty of the ready milkweed seeds. Soon he will scatter them in the breeze, as any happy person will.

Fall is a great time for gathering basket supplies; we collected willow and cattail. They are drying on the porch, if one can call it drying with all this rain! I look forward to weaving them up into beautiful and useful things when we are stuck inside later in the year. That's the great beauty of this world; In the plants, seemingly dying back in the fall, are the stores for new life, promises of fresh vigor and growth next year, and abundant material for wild and artisinal beauty. This world is so made that in a deeper sense than I can grasp, dead things are always and everywhere coming to life, greater and better than before they fell. I am thinking of the food we eat, the seeds we sow, the troubled lives we live, and Christ himself.

Mama Wears the baby on her back! Back-Wrap Tutorial

I get asked all the time about how I wear my babies, and where I got my wrap. Here's the secret: my wrap is just a plain piece of fabric! This wrap, my favorite, is 5 1/2 yards of fabric, 45 inches wide. It's a cotton batik print that I like. It would be more practical if it was a plain dark or neutral fabric rather than a brightly colored print. I didn't sew it or hem it, just kept the nice selvages as they came, and tuck the ends in when I think of it.
I wear the baby all the time, and often find wearing him on my back more practical than the front, and much more comfortable than a one-shoulder sling. I like this particular method of the back carry because:
-unlike some other carries, it doesn't press on anything sensitive, and doesn't give me mastitis
-this tie is pretty modest. It doesn't make anything separate and protrude in an obvious and unflattering way. Women who have tried many back wraps will know what I am talking about.

This is a trickier wrap to do, and I didn't really master it until baby numero dos, but we are oh so happy with it, it was worth the practice in front of the mirror.
1. I find the middle of my wrap.
2. Setting him down in front of me, with his back towards me, I put this part of the fabric over the center of his back. I run each side of the fabric under his arms. I can hold on to these in front of him, and they will fully support him. Now I will lift him up over my head.2. Lifting him up over my head, I set him on my shoulders, as if to give him a horsey ride. Most people I have met seem to find this the trickiest part of this carry. Holding him snugly by both my "handles", I flip his legs over my shoulders to the back. Now his whole self is behind me, and I'm holding onto him with the wrap in my hands. I usually lean forward at this point. It's also a good time to tug his sweater down.
3. In the above photo, you see I am holding the fabric above my shoulders. Now that he is on my back, I move the fabric down under my arms: I hold both tails in my right hand while I slip my left arm up through them so my arm is on top of the fabric strap, and then do the same on the other side. The baby rides high on the back. He often likes to look over my shoulder and I can see his head if I look back.4. Ok, baby is on the back, held securely by a strap across his back. This strap comes under my arms (right under the armpits) to the front, where I have one side in each hand. I cross these over my chest to opposite hands. (up over my chest, if you know what I mean.) Now I pull them towards the back again.5. Reaching behind myself, I draw the straps under his legs and cross them over his bottom, bringing each up over my opposite shoulder, to the front again.


6. Now the straps are crossed behind the baby's back, but don't really hold him securely in yet. I fix this by reaching behind me and spreading out the straps from side to side so that they cover the bulk of his body.
7. I spread the fabric strap closest to his body before the one on top of it. You can see me tugging with one hand; I pull the fabric as far over him as I can to the sides.. This picture also shows my hand straightening out the strap where it goes over my shoulder on the right (it was twisted). I do this on both sides and this makes the wrap more comfortable for me as well as helping the wrap to stay spread out in back. I take my time and do this well.

A Reassurance: This is the part of the back carry which I found most infuriating. Until I got the hang of it, I thought it was impossible and figured people I'd seen in pictures must have gotten help or been contortionists. Now I can do it "all my-byself". It just took practice. 8. Here I have spread out the other straps so that both together form a seat for the baby and will also hold him in securely against my back.

See how his legs are uneven? I didn't spread that first strap out quite enough. We both survived.

9. Sometimes I wear the shoulder straps just on the tops of my shoulders, other times I spread them out across my shoulders; even down over the tops of my arms. Whatever feels most comfortable.

10. When everything is all straight and good, I pull on the straps to make sure the baby is tight against my back. He should be very secure, and pretty high up on my back. If I feel like his is sagging down, riding low, or if there is any space between myself and him, I work the straps until he is nice and snug.


11. To secure the wrap, I draw one of my shoulder straps under the chest strap. This keeps the shoulder straps away from my neck. Again, make sure to draw everything snug and comfortably tight. As I wear the baby around, I find that my wrap stretches a bit and the baby gradually creeps lower; wrapping and tying it snugly keeps the baby in position and feels best on my back. If I find myself leaning forward, usually the wrap isn't tight enough or the baby is too low.
12. Tie a square knot in the two fabric straps. (that's right over left, then left over right, or vice-versa.) I like to tie the knot as close to the middle as possible, as I find that most comfortable.I like the back carry for working in the garden, in the kitchen, in the yard, hiking, and biking; anything where I need both hands, need to see my feet, or just need to not have the space in front of me occupied by another person who grabs at everything.

Please let me know if you find these instructions useful or would like more clarification of any point.

EXTRA NOTES:
If my baby falls asleep on my back, as he is lulled by my motions, I may retie the wrap with one or both of the shoulder straps running over his head and shoulders. This way his head won't loll around.

I have only used this wrap with a baby who can sit up. When he is awake, he holds his own head up. As on inward-facing front wraps, he can tuck his head into me when he wants to disappear from the world. He also has a great view of where we are going if he is feeling adventuresome.

My baby is over 20 pounds now and this wrap is comfortable for long periods of time for us. My older child is 30 pounds and I only use this wrap for shorter periods of time with him, mostly because neither of us has wanted much longer. He is still a fan of wraps and slings and loves occasionally being worn. Most of the time however, he wants to walk all by himself.

I do not claim responsibility for the safety of anyone besides myself and my own baby. I have only the experience of wearing my own baby. Certainly every paired baby and babywearer should use their own judgement and follow the specific needs of their own bodies. In my totally non-expert opinion, I think this wrap is best for babywearing couples who are already comfortable with front wraps.

I have not had any trouble with my baby squirming out of this wrap, and I can always feel right where he is. I usually find wearing him on the back calming, but if he is very upset or seems uncomfortable, I take him down.
To do this, I:
- untie the knot,
-loosen the straps,
and either:
- lift him back up over my head,
-or unwrap him while I am leaning forward, pulling him to my front with one arm.

I found it very helpful to look in a mirror while I was learning this wrap.

Family Biking

We are getting somewhere in our quest to use biking as practical transportation for the family. The first thing we tried was having both boys in a bike trailer. Our toddler loves it, but the babe cried the whole way- "I'm distraught, scared, and in pain" kind of crying. Today was a big leap forward.

The innovation: wear the baby! It seems this is our answer to all baby dilemmas.
Why I loved it:
1.No crying
2. I've gotten really comfortable with wearing Ezra on my back. I knew he was secure.
3. He can look over my shoulder.
4. No crying. Did I mention that?
5. He sang! As I started biking, he began to croon.
6. My body absorbed the shocks of the road for him. I can accommodate for bumps, very much unlike the trailer
7. My mountain bike was a plus-- I usually hate leaning over, but it was great when he fell asleep, he had a perfect perch for his helmet-heavy head. His body also seemed to support my back a bit.
8. It was comfy for me.
9. I feel safer about him being able to see him and having him so close to me.

You can see in the picture an extra cloth tied over him. That's not holding him on. It's for sun protection. Earlier I had it up over his arms. The helmet mostly shades his eyes.

Note to self:
-install a handlebar mirror; it was tough to see well behind me on the side where his head was. Okay this time, as Paul was there, but I'd feel better with a mirror.
-Watch the gravel. I was extra careful about stuff I'd not normally care about. In an industrial area we went though, the bike lane was strewn with sand and gravel. Ditto for broken glass.
-Next time remember to tie up my pant cuff. These wide pant legs are perfect for catching in the chain.
Saint Paul is a great place for biking! We went to the other side of downtown and only had a few blocks where we weren't on a bike path or bike lane or small street. We are also so blessed to live in Frogtown, within close range of so much that we love. It's a very transit friendly neighborhood and except in the dead of winter, it's totally possible to get around without a car even with little kids in tow.
It is a beautiful day for biking! Down in the hollow it's cool and shady and oh-so-lovely.

Monday Adventure

I'm not bloging about anything too serious today- just a photo tour of our day.We stepped out of our front door for our usual Monday morning outing. This week's adventure had an added twist caused by our recent car trouble. (Don't worry, it's nothing too serious. I just need to get around to it! I'll blog about it later.) We took the bus to Swede Hollow!
We had to transfer buses in downtown St. Paul. Gibbie's did pretty well with the waiting.
We finally made it to Swede Hollow. Much to our surprise, as well as their's, the power was out. Gibbie had a cold chocolate instead of hot, and I had a drip brew instead of Macchiato. The shop has such good natural light that, apart from the slight drink differences, we didn't miss the electricity.
Then down into Swede Hollow park we went. Libby and Gib had a great time playing by the water.
Look at the strange flowers Gibbie found. He said, "They're sticky."
Ezra needed a little snack in the woods.
He felt much better afterwords.
Here we all are. It was a difficult self portrait to take with such a squirmy family. Another freeing, relaxing day off.

A simple loom

Libby here, making my blog debut! I've always loved making things. Being with little ones all day, every day, I find that I can't do fine art; actual drawing, painting take a kind of time and concentration I just don't have, but I love to make things of all kinds, and find that other kinds of making can feed that creative impulse. I find this especially satisfying when my projects are part of the rhythm of daily life; when a handmade object can fill a daily need, when I can work on it with the kids, and when I can make it with the surplus byproducts of our life.
This simle loom fits all my criterion. Using fabric from old clothes, (also solving my quandry of what to do with clothes once they're worn past the point of donatablility!) I can make rugs myself which I otherwise would have had to buy.
The resulting rug is very thick, absorbent, machine washable, and should be quite durable, as its thickness is multiple layers of cloth. It is downright cushy on the feet! It is modified from weavings I found in Twined Rag Rugs, available at our library. Because I use whole fabric instead of string, it works up quickly. It's also possible to just do a few minutes of work whenever I get a chance, making it Mama-and- Kid-friendly.
Fabric: Old sheets, dress shirts, khakis, jeans, etc. Terrycloth (old bathrobes or towels) would feel wonderful stepping of the tub, and tshirts would be great for the weft (horizontal weaving) though nothing stretchy should be used for the warp. (the vertical strips to be woven on)
Preparation of Fabric: Tear into strips. If denim or terry, I would cut instead of tearing. Strips should be just wide enough that when scrunched, the strip is as thick as a pencil. Thicker fabric=thinner strips.
Loom: The glory of this loom is it is so simple! Two sawed-off broomsticks are tied with rope around the door itself. I set the intended length of the rug by securing the sticks with strips of fabric. I can post more pics if anyone wants to know how to do it!
Warping: String strips between sticks. I attach the strips to one another as I go along by cutting slits in the ends of the fabric and weaving them through eachother. Then tighten this now-continuous strip until the top and bottom sticks are even and the strips are tight with an even tension. The color of the warp fabric will be almost totally hidden by the weavers.
Weaving/Weft: Use two strips at once, twining them both aroung each warp strip. When you get to the end of a row, just turn around and go back in the other direction.
Finishing: Pull out the broom sticks. (The loom will fall apart.) You will be left with
a row of loops at each end of the rug. Pull each loop through it's neighbor. Split the last loop into two and tie it to itself so that nothing can unravel.
Here I am, weaving with my happy, watermelon-rind-chewing babe on my back. He's teething, (hence the watermelon) and seems so much happier when I wear him lots.
These are not nearly complete instructions, but I just wanted to throw this out as an idea. As I get more experienced with blogging, perchance I will someday be up to posting a real tutorial!