Couldn't Be Easier: Package-Free Shampoo

I've recently become very fond of Lush, a shop that sells natural and eco-friendly bath and body products. Here are two of their package-free, solid shampoos, sold in bar-form. You merely lather one up, just like a regular bar of soap, and then shampoo your hair. It couldn't be easier. And there's no plastic bottle produced and then recycled.
Right now, I'm using New!, the red one, which boasts scalp-stimulating properties and a heady cinnamon fragrance. And recently, I received a free bar of Seanik, with my purchase. The dark flecks you see in it are pieces of seaweed.

Couldn't Be Easier: Green Carpet Cleaning

Look at that white carpet! This is thanks to Lily's Home Services.

They shampoo-ed our somewhat large, white, living room carpet in about an hour. And they are true to their word. They scrubbed that carpet clean of all its stains (in our case, mostly foot/dog traffic) for a very reasonable price. And they don't use perchloroethylene (the main chemical used in carpet cleaning). While I didn't get the exact contents of what they used, (it's proprietary, they said), I gleaned from what they did say that it is mostly hot water and non-toxic household cleaner. Need some thorough, non-toxic cleaning done? Call these guys!

Thora Took Her First Steps

Last night we watched as Thora took her first steps! It was so exciting. I'm always surprised at the rush of joy I feel when I watch her do things she couldn't do before. Like putting the shape-finder puzzle piece in the right place. Or pointing to her ears, a word I didn't really expect her to know.

Last night, I came home from the walking the dog to find Thora and Sean on the floor in the living room. Sean said, "Show Mommy how you can stand," and then to me "She can pretty much stand as long as she wants now." We watched her stand and applaud herself, applause that we were happy to echo. And then Sean said, "Let's see if she'll walk between us."

So we sat a few feet apart and walked her back and forth between us. After the first couple trips, we stopped holding on and encouraged her to make the journey of a few steps on her own. At first, she did what she always does, and she fell forward into our arms. But after doing that just a couple times, she lifted up her feet and took 3 steps toward Sean. It was unreal. I couldn't believe that I'd just watched that. Her feet always stay so firmly planted when we let go that I wondered how she'd ever progress. Well, I guess that's how. She just does it.

Couldn't Be Easier... Well, it could

We've been composting now for 2 weeks and it couldn't be easier. Well... it could be, since Cambridge's pilot program for residents is a drop-off only program. And the recycling center is a 25 minute walk, on the other side of Central Square. So in that sense, it could be easier.

However, in terms of the collection of the compost-able material, it couldn't be easier. The small green bin is very small; as you can see, it's shorter than the top of our lowest drawer. The lid has a latch which keeps the lid closed. And although small, it is big enough for about a week's worth of scraps. And we create a good amount of scraps, since we cook at home EVERY night of the week.

The reason we started this was because of the brief clog in our kitchen sink, where we have a disposal. While we're pretty sure that the disposal is functional, we're not sure how the clog happened. So for the time-being, we're acting like the disposal is broken. Immediately after we un-clogged the sink, I became aware of the composting program, and so we switched over. We have a fairly good system going now. So I'm not sure when we'll determine what the clog's cause was.

Prior to switching over to the city's composting program, I learned about the negative impact organic material has when it's put into landfills. Sean's thought had always been that organic material helps other, slower-degrading material, breakdown. While that may be true, organic material releases methane gas, which apparently is significantly worse than carbon monoxide, and so it's much better to compost the scraps than throwing it away. Here's what the Cambridge Recycling website has to say about the hazards of food scraps in landfills:

By recycling food, we reduce methane emissions at landfills that result from decaying organic matter. Methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide! Our goal is to divert at least 400 pounds/week, avoiding about 20,000 pounds of CO2 per year. (The Works)

Anyway, Sean asked, last night, "If we had a working disposal, would we still compost?" And so that's what I set out to discover. And it looks like, as a result to my very limited research, that composting is still better than using your disposal. So much so that some communities, like Raleigh, NC, are banning in-sink disposals and instead encouraging composting. The expert, quoted in this Daily Green article, explains why composting is better than using a disposal:

For one thing, it saves water. For another, the nutrients rinsed down the kitchen sink aren't handled well by sewage treatment plants, and therefore end up entering local waterways. There, they spur harmful algae growth, which can crowd out other native species, and lead to poor water quality. (The Daily Green)

So, there it is.

Music We Both Love: Stereolab's "Emperor Tomato Ketchup"

This is a great album for easing into the day. Songs like "Les Yper-Sound" is nicely reminiscent of a children's round. And "Spark Plug" has a nice, 70's-ish rock vibe to it. Very chill. And of course, I have the sneaking feeling that she might be learning French. What kind of French is another question. Merde!

Couldn't Be Easier

So the venture into homemade baby wipes was as easy as pie! Well, so much easier than pie, really. It was as easy as measuring 2 tablespoons of two liquids and then mixing them with 2 cups of previously boiled water. I reconstituted a stack of machine-washed and -dried wipes that I merely put back into the plastic tub that we've been refilling with store-bought wipes.

The recipe that I found called for 2 T baby bath soap, 2 T baby oil, and 2 C. boiled, cooled water. I used several of the un-touched, dust-collecting bottles of Johnson's products we received as un-opened hand-me-downs and parts of care packages, so this project was easy and free!

Overall, I'm really pleased with how these came out. They don't have the chemical scent of the store-bought wipes (even though we've always bought "unscented") but rather smell like the baby bath and baby oil, which is pretty pleasant. And I wouldn't hesitate wiping Thora's face or hands with these, whereas with the store-bought wipes, I always fear that the liquid is going to get in her eyes or mouth. And an extra bonus: I think the baby oil may actually make the poop easier to get off of the cloth diapers. My theory is that while not rendering the diapers non-absorbent, the oil rubs onto the diaper and creates a barrier, much like the diaper liner, which doesn't allow the poop to bind with the cloth. This was a bit of a blessing, since I waited too long to re-order diaper liners, and we went without them for about a week. However, we didn't suffer too much, I think, because of the new wipes. Hooray, New Wipes!

Beer of the Month

Magic Hat H I.P.A. (SeasonAle)

I love this beer. It is so refreshing but bite-y at the same time. Perhaps I should say up front that my beer terminology is completely amateurish, in case you didn't realize with "bite-y." But that's not going to stop me from highlighting the occasional standout beer.

Here's how Magic Hat describes it: "A medium-bodied beer with a fresh and fruitful nose of vernal vitality. It begins and ends with a big hop bite that is itself forever balanced on the brink by a steady rhythm of malt."

I had this with dinner last week which was then followed with a couple scoops of raspberry sorbet, and I couldn't believe how intense the sorbet's fruitiness seemed. Last night, I had a HI.P.A. with Sean's Chicken and Green Chile Quesadillas and it was again, very complimentary. This is a great beer. I do hope that, while a seasonal brew, it stays on the shelves at Trader Joe's for a month or two more.

Music We Both Love: The Rushmore Soundtrack

This cd rocks for both Thora and I. Thora really picks up on its sounds, the sleigh bells on "Snowflake Music," the crazy drums on "Piranas are a Very Tricky Species," the high pitches on "Margaret Yang's Theme." It's great for us during the middle of the day, the soundtrack to a meal or snack that then segues into some music play afterward. And of course, it's very pleasant to the adult ear. I find myself singing the infinitely-repeatable "Oh Yoko!" all afternoon, which is better than the other infinitely-repeatable song that I recently became aware of, on For the Kids Three: "...poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty, poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty..."

Stars Align, Thora Falls Asleep in Mother's Arms

There are few things quite as narcotic for me, as a mom, than watching Thora's heavy eyelids droop, her head nod, her eyes falling back into her head. When it comes to a crib nap (as opposed to the effortless, languishing, 2-hour(!!!) naps she takes in her stroller) Thora fights sleep with everything she's got. Everything. She does what I would imagine most babies do to resist taking a nap. She rubs her eyes. She cries. She sits up or or stands, holding on to the bars of her crib. It's all very effective. I'm mean, clearly she can't fall asleep standing up, and therefore she won't miss all the excitement that might be going on during the mid-morning, like Mommy unloading the dishwasher or checking email or crawling into her own bed for a quick nap. Exciting!
But here are some of the things that I was surprised to see her work into her No Sleep repertoire. She tugs her hair. She does "mattress angels," which are like snow angels without the snow. She sings or talks her jibberish baby words. She pats the mattress like she's burping it. Her most recent technique is the tugging of her eyelashes. Really?!? And these are all things she does while she's visibly sleepy. For example, I'll be standing over the crib, jiggling her butt, giving her this nice little jostling very much like the jostle she might get while in the stroller, and she's relaxed, laying there eyes fluttering. Her eyes close. And then a second later, her eyes pop open and she begins to do furious mattress angels. It's like watching someone who is falling asleep at the wheel. You can almost imagine her thinking, "Oh my god, I just almost fell asleep. Wake Up, Thora. Wake up! Mattress Angel Mattress Angel mattress angelll..... Oh my god, I just almost fell asleep again! Tug on Eyelids, Eyelids, Eyelids..."
Of course in addition to these cute little tactics, there is the blur of the tantrum, the writhing out of my reach, the body-flopping, the inconsolable crying. Ugghh. So today, after already trying once for the nap and giving up after a couple short intervals of crying, we tried again after Georgia's walk. And it worked. Thora was exhausted, having been up since 5 am (yeah), but wasn't so tired that she wanted to swirl her fatigue into a windstorm of frustrated crying and all-around losing-it. Instead, she just went with it. She just let go of everything, all her little baby woes, worries, thoughts, curiousities, and gave in to sleep. And Oh My God, is that not the most satisfying feeling a mom of a one year old can have. Yeah, the first step will be nice, and the first real words, and the reading, and all of it. But in the context of our life now, Thora effortlessly falling asleep in my arms is about as good as it can get. Now... on to the dishes.

p.s. the above photo was taken when she was just over two months old, back when she would fall asleep all day long. At night, however...