I've moved my blog. Please come visit me at:
http://playeatlove.com
Friday, June 25, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Lightning Bugz: bambole, bambole e più bambole ... Dolls, dolls and more dolls (of the Waldorf persuasion, of course)
Lightning Bugz dolls ...
Let the obsession begin
Having a daughter altered my world in ways I never could have imagined, but perhaps the one thing that has surprised me most is my reaction to the "girly" things I despised when I was child. I know my mother scratched her head not infrequently as I climbed trees, kicked soccer balls, insisted on wearing the same pair of burgundy cords and blue swish Nike sneakers nearly every day and vociferously rejected every bow, dress or hairbrush she pleaded with me to try. I was, without apology, a tomboy. I wore my tough girl badge proudly and defied anyone to change me into a "little miss priss" (as I was apt to call my much more feminine younger sister). Dolls? Better to keep them out of my sight lest they become fodder for one of my games. I recall that while on vacation in Florida my friend and I hung my sister's Norfin doll to the ceiling fan just for kicks. My sister's persistent wailing did nothing to soften my heart. Don't misunderstand. I loved (and still adore) my sister, but I truly detested the endless stream of dolls that inhabited our shared bedroom.Let the obsession begin
When my baby girl was born last year, I pictured long days swinging from trees with my son and new daughter (a dream we shall certainly make a reality once I can find a local tree strong and safe enough to hold us), bug hunts, digging in the dirt, and evening games of kickball in the yard. What I did not envision was a nursery full of dolls ... Waldorf dolls to be exact. That is, until I found Lightning Bugz.
Don't know what a Waldorf doll is? Not to worry ... neither did I at first, but www.etsy.com is a virtual playground for lovers of handcrafted delights, and I passed many a tranquil evening perusing handmade dolls with cascading hair of every shade. A Waldorf or Steiner doll is a doll made of natural cotton interlock knit fabric and wool stuffing crafted with European dollmaking techniques. The marvelous hair is generally of mohair or boucle. The intentionally simple facial appearance of the dolls inspires children to use creativity and imagination during play.
There are many Waldorf dollmakers whose dolls will fascinate children and delight parents, and you can expect an unending series of posts here about them, but today's post is dedicated to my personal obsession: Lightning Bugz.
My dear friend Candy is the heart and soul behind Lightning Bugz, and our home is watched over by Lizzie (the rainbow haired beauty), Ella (the custom ladybug fairy), Summer (the stunning blond and incidently the very first Lightning Bugz ever sold) and most recently Crystal (the icy blue fairy with blue jays prancing on her frock). To say that Candy puts her whole self into making her dolls is an understatement. She pours her goodness into every detail, sizes, resizes, stitches and restitches until each little masterpiece actually feels like a living being. And they are magical, oh so enchanting creatures. My daughter awakens each morning and greets her Lightning Bugz posse as if they were old friends. She snuggles them, rocks them, feeds them and loves them up in such a nurturing way that I am moved to my very core. Even my four year old son smiles at the wondrous colors and infinite variety of Candy's bevy of beauties.
Our Lightning Bugz are going to be with us for the long haul and will probably live to tell many a glorious story to my grandchildren. They are that well crafted. Get one and just try to stay away from Candy's etsy site after that. It is impossible. Believe me ... I've tried. It has become an addiction, but one that I am happy to live with for this point forward. If I have to be ailing, it might as well be from an obsession with the divine, darling dolls called Lightning Bugz.
Don't say I didn't warn you ... here's where you can find Candy and her "bugz":
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lightningbugz (the etsy site that started it all)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-US-West/Lightning-Bugz/390194831969?v=wall (the new Facebook site that simply fuels my addiction -- chat here with Candy and those of us who adore her handiwork)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightningbugz/ (the flikr site where you can oooohhh and ahhhh over Candy's creations)
Up next on my blog: where to find natural wooden construction toys your children will love (if my son is any indication).
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Finding the Wrap Love
It all started with a simple sling. I remember the day vividly for it was like all others in those early days of my second child's life. I was learning (slowly) how to manage both my 3 year old son and my 3 month old daughter and I was frazzled (at best) most moments of most days. While I reveled in the chaos of a two child home, I simply couldn't figure out how mothers of multiple children did ANYTHING. It was in that period that I first came to understand what my own mother meant when she would occasionally lament, "I only have 2 hands!" And she had four of us!
*** I interrupt this regularly scheduled segment to applaud my mother. You are a wonder, and I am still awed by the grace with which you parent and grandparent.
"I only have two hands." Would that God could give mothers eyes in the back of our heads, an extra set of hands, ears all around town ... though I do marvel that our hearts are capable of expanding infinitely as each new babe is laid in our arms. Lacking two actual extra appendages, I couldn't help but jump with glee when my own mother pulled off the shelf in Marshalls (yes, you read that correctly) a black canvas ring sling by Parents of Invention. I'd never seen such a curious article, but I promptly threw it in my cart and whisked it home. Anything that promised extra bonding time with my baby while allowing me to play with my little boy warranted a try.
It was the beginning of the most glorious adventure. The minute my daughter pressed her little cheek upon my chest, her heart finding and matching the rhythm of my own, I transformed into a wrapping mamma. I've never looked back despite the collection of odd looks we'll receive when we stroll about town united physically beneath a glorious tie-dyed Didymos woven wrap. Ah yes, I quickly moved from ring slings to woven wraps when my daughter was four months old. She's nearly 15 months today, and we still wrap daily. I call my baby carriers my "magic wraps" because my precious girl falls asleep almost instantly when I "wear" her. When she's tired and ready for her nap, she'll often trot over to our stack of woven wraps and pick the one she'd like to sport that day.
Oh mammas. If you haven't worn your child, you must at least try. Pop over to the best baby wearing community on line (www.thebabywearer.com) where you will find a forum that will answer the questions you didn't even know you had about how to wrap, which wrap to choose, and why wrapping benefits both baby and mamma. You'll find how-to videos there and on YouTube. You might even join a babywearing group in your area to connect with like-minded mammas who will tell you that worn babies experience a sense of security and love each time they view the world from inside a layer of fabric attached to their mamma or daddy.
If cotton is the fabric of our lives, then woven wraps represent the fabric of our hearts. I don't know if I will ever be able to part with the wraps my daughter and I use each day in these early years of her life. They symbolize all that we share now and the closeness I hope we will forever feel as mother and daughter. I only wish I had discovered wrap love when my son was a newborn, though he and I fortunately have other special ways to connect (books are the bridge by which our two shores are joined).
If you are interested in wrapping, be sure to buy quality wraps and slings and to learn proper babywearing techniques before attempting to wear a child. If done properly, babywearing will reward you richly.
And for you mammas and dads who currently wrap, please post your favorite wraps and carries and tell us why you wrap. It's a topic I never tire of discussing.
Happy babywearing!
*** I interrupt this regularly scheduled segment to applaud my mother. You are a wonder, and I am still awed by the grace with which you parent and grandparent.
"I only have two hands." Would that God could give mothers eyes in the back of our heads, an extra set of hands, ears all around town ... though I do marvel that our hearts are capable of expanding infinitely as each new babe is laid in our arms. Lacking two actual extra appendages, I couldn't help but jump with glee when my own mother pulled off the shelf in Marshalls (yes, you read that correctly) a black canvas ring sling by Parents of Invention. I'd never seen such a curious article, but I promptly threw it in my cart and whisked it home. Anything that promised extra bonding time with my baby while allowing me to play with my little boy warranted a try.
It was the beginning of the most glorious adventure. The minute my daughter pressed her little cheek upon my chest, her heart finding and matching the rhythm of my own, I transformed into a wrapping mamma. I've never looked back despite the collection of odd looks we'll receive when we stroll about town united physically beneath a glorious tie-dyed Didymos woven wrap. Ah yes, I quickly moved from ring slings to woven wraps when my daughter was four months old. She's nearly 15 months today, and we still wrap daily. I call my baby carriers my "magic wraps" because my precious girl falls asleep almost instantly when I "wear" her. When she's tired and ready for her nap, she'll often trot over to our stack of woven wraps and pick the one she'd like to sport that day.
Oh mammas. If you haven't worn your child, you must at least try. Pop over to the best baby wearing community on line (www.thebabywearer.com) where you will find a forum that will answer the questions you didn't even know you had about how to wrap, which wrap to choose, and why wrapping benefits both baby and mamma. You'll find how-to videos there and on YouTube. You might even join a babywearing group in your area to connect with like-minded mammas who will tell you that worn babies experience a sense of security and love each time they view the world from inside a layer of fabric attached to their mamma or daddy.
If cotton is the fabric of our lives, then woven wraps represent the fabric of our hearts. I don't know if I will ever be able to part with the wraps my daughter and I use each day in these early years of her life. They symbolize all that we share now and the closeness I hope we will forever feel as mother and daughter. I only wish I had discovered wrap love when my son was a newborn, though he and I fortunately have other special ways to connect (books are the bridge by which our two shores are joined).
If you are interested in wrapping, be sure to buy quality wraps and slings and to learn proper babywearing techniques before attempting to wear a child. If done properly, babywearing will reward you richly.
And for you mammas and dads who currently wrap, please post your favorite wraps and carries and tell us why you wrap. It's a topic I never tire of discussing.
Happy babywearing!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Heaven on Earth ... and it is ...
I've been a mother for nearly four years now, but I experienced a mental shift in the way I parent about one year ago when I first read Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children by Sharifa Oppenheimer.
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Earth-Handbook-Parents-Children/dp/0880105666
It was in the pages of this magnificent guide that I first learned about the Waldorf philosophy of education. I reveled in each page as I pondered creative ways to build my family culture with a "guiding principle of love." Ideas abound for art projects, storytelling, festival celebrations, indoor and outdoor play spaces that are both functional and mystical, natural and open-ended toys, and perhaps most importantly for making play the foundation a child's day. This book is a revelation, and I credit it as the impetus for my journey into my own version of attachment/natural/slow parenting.
For all of you who have found my little blog while you seek ways to connect on an intimate level with your children, read Heaven on Earth before you do anything else. You won't regret it.
Have a magical weekend ...
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Earth-Handbook-Parents-Children/dp/0880105666
It was in the pages of this magnificent guide that I first learned about the Waldorf philosophy of education. I reveled in each page as I pondered creative ways to build my family culture with a "guiding principle of love." Ideas abound for art projects, storytelling, festival celebrations, indoor and outdoor play spaces that are both functional and mystical, natural and open-ended toys, and perhaps most importantly for making play the foundation a child's day. This book is a revelation, and I credit it as the impetus for my journey into my own version of attachment/natural/slow parenting.
For all of you who have found my little blog while you seek ways to connect on an intimate level with your children, read Heaven on Earth before you do anything else. You won't regret it.
Have a magical weekend ...
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Henry Louis Granju 1991-2010
I am new to the mommyblogger world, and as a scholar of literature, I thought it best to do some research before plunging full force into this new endeavor. Thus, last night I began to chart this new terrain and happened upon a story that utterly flattened me:
http://mamapundit.com/2010/05/henry-louis-granju-1991-2010/
Henry Louis Granju was the son of Katie Allison Granju, author of Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child and the prominent blog mamapundit: motherhood, and all the rest of it.
This courageous mother has laid bare the details of her son's drug addiction and chronicled the month she sat vigil by his hospital bed as life, marvelous, joyous, painful, bittersweet, fascinating, complicated life, trickled out from his young body. As I read back through her blog, piecing together the story from a blend of her own words and those of journalists and fellow bloggers, my breath slowed and my heart pounded. Henry's curly tresses, his piercing eyes, his vivacious spirit -- all of this washed over me and left me limp. To think of Katie running her fingers through that splendid head of hair when Henry was but a boy of five and then again when he lay still fighting for his life ... there are no words, only prayers. Prayers for Katie, her children (one of whom still swims comfortably in her mother's womb unaware that her brother's energy has passed on to a different place), Henry's father and stepparents, his cousins, aunts, uncles, friends. Prayers for all of us who look at our own children today and weep for joy that we can press our hands against their warm faces, touch our lips upon their downy soft backs, embrace them, love them, nurture them, imbibe their impulsive grasping at life ... prayers that we may parent with a consciousness that overrides the daily challenges of raising young children and that we may learn from Henry's precious life and death so that his passing may not be in vain.
The knowledge that Katie Allison Granju, a writer who cracked open the the world of attachment parenting to many of us mainstream mammas, had to use her exquisite talent for crafting prose to pen her own child's obituary leaves me breathless. She remembers the act as such: "It was a writing assignment so devastatingly, achingly painful that I can’t even find words to describe it."
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/knoxnews/obituary.aspx?n=henry-louis-granju&pid=143292162
While I envision this blog as a place where we together can steep ourselves in natural parenting, borrow from the Waldorf and Reggio Emilia philosophies, delight in slow living and slow food, meander through aisles of natural toys, consider the importance of play, of family time, of limited television viewing, of reading with our kids, of storytelling and of dancing in our kitchens, I would be remiss if I didn't memorialize in this blessed moment Henry Louis Granju, a bright spirit whose presence here was far too brief.
http://mamapundit.com/2010/05/henry-louis-granju-1991-2010/
Henry Louis Granju was the son of Katie Allison Granju, author of Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child and the prominent blog mamapundit: motherhood, and all the rest of it.
This courageous mother has laid bare the details of her son's drug addiction and chronicled the month she sat vigil by his hospital bed as life, marvelous, joyous, painful, bittersweet, fascinating, complicated life, trickled out from his young body. As I read back through her blog, piecing together the story from a blend of her own words and those of journalists and fellow bloggers, my breath slowed and my heart pounded. Henry's curly tresses, his piercing eyes, his vivacious spirit -- all of this washed over me and left me limp. To think of Katie running her fingers through that splendid head of hair when Henry was but a boy of five and then again when he lay still fighting for his life ... there are no words, only prayers. Prayers for Katie, her children (one of whom still swims comfortably in her mother's womb unaware that her brother's energy has passed on to a different place), Henry's father and stepparents, his cousins, aunts, uncles, friends. Prayers for all of us who look at our own children today and weep for joy that we can press our hands against their warm faces, touch our lips upon their downy soft backs, embrace them, love them, nurture them, imbibe their impulsive grasping at life ... prayers that we may parent with a consciousness that overrides the daily challenges of raising young children and that we may learn from Henry's precious life and death so that his passing may not be in vain.
The knowledge that Katie Allison Granju, a writer who cracked open the the world of attachment parenting to many of us mainstream mammas, had to use her exquisite talent for crafting prose to pen her own child's obituary leaves me breathless. She remembers the act as such: "It was a writing assignment so devastatingly, achingly painful that I can’t even find words to describe it."
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/knoxnews/obituary.aspx?n=henry-louis-granju&pid=143292162
While I envision this blog as a place where we together can steep ourselves in natural parenting, borrow from the Waldorf and Reggio Emilia philosophies, delight in slow living and slow food, meander through aisles of natural toys, consider the importance of play, of family time, of limited television viewing, of reading with our kids, of storytelling and of dancing in our kitchens, I would be remiss if I didn't memorialize in this blessed moment Henry Louis Granju, a bright spirit whose presence here was far too brief.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Why It Is Finally Time to Play, Eat and Love ...
I'm an academic. It is what I do, what I know, what I love, but since having children, I've created a sacred space in my life for pure, unadulterated, kick your heels up and twirl around, bubble blowing, cartwheel turning, top of your lungs singing, snow cones from the ice cream man PLAY. It's simple to do really. Just follow your little ones. They'll show you how it is done in the most simple and least self-conscious of terms. Summer is here and the days are lengthening, and as they do, the eternal call of lightning bugs and frog filled creaks echoes in my memory. I think it is time to follow that call again and to play, eat and love. Won't you join me for a while?
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