Archive for April, 2008

Don’t they look like a choir singing “Haaallleluuujjjah“? Too bad I didn’t have a regurgitated worm or bug for them. I’ll leave that to the other mamma of the house.

So, several of my friends and I have been talking about and sharing some of the small changes we have made in our lives regarding the environment and our consumer lifestyle. I thought I would share some of my favorite changes that we have made since I love reading and hearing about changes others have made.

One of the biggest changes we have made is buying most of our produce from a community share agriculture program, which I love. We have been eating new kinds of veggies and some healthier versions of our favorites.

We no longer purchase bottled water. We fill up our reusable bottles (these are my favorites). These bottles are also great if you are worried about BPAs from plastics, and so cute too!

We also use cloth (yes, you heard me right…)diapers. I have to admit, this was a hard one for me to try out. I keep reading about them and thinking about them and I was just leary because of my deep seeded fear of dealing with the poop. Then, I went through potty training with Ava and realized that poop is just…poop. No big deal. And really, as Moms, poop is pretty minor on the scale of nasties that we deal with. I tried several different cloth diapers and these were my faves by far. They function just like disposables and are super easy to clean. The hardest thing is stuffing the inserts into the diaper since they are a pocket diaper…but more on that later.

I love these wrap-n-mats that I found through my friend Rebecca….we use these instead of ziploc bags for sandwhiches, carrot sticks, cherry tomatos, or whatever. Ava loves them, and so do I. They are super easy to clean and really versatile. They hold roughly two full sandwhiches.

These are my new favorite reusable bags. They are so thin they just roll into a tiny little ball and I can carry them in the car, in my purse, in the diaper bag. And they hold a TON for their size. 5 bags will cover my grocery shopping trip each week.

OK, and finally…we have started composting. Anyone who knows me, knows I am too impatient for the 6 months it takes a normal compost pile to go through the process. So, I made my own composter following some instructions on the internet. Basically, I bought a black 35 gallon trash can, drilled holes all over, and placed it on cinder blocks to allow air to circulate through it. We add to it everynight and then about once a week, I add water, and newspaper and roll it a few times to mix. I have heard this should break down in 4-6 weeks. It’s looking pretty good so far.

Some of my friends suggestions are these: Mrs. Meyers Cleansers, automatic light switches, Sara Snow’s TV show, and these cute little lunch bags.

I took our little animal lover (and her little sister) to the Bayou Wildlife Park today. Grandma Mary met us there and we had fun taking the tram through the “park” and feeding the animals as they came up to the tram. They have an amazing number/variety of animals for South Texas. It is a private owned place run by a man who spent 30 years gathering these animals from around the world. They had emus, zebras, bison, giraffes, goats, horses, alligators, lemurs, llamas, antelope, camels, reindeer, ostriches, and many more that I can’t remember. Ava also went on her first pony ride (hear that, Aunt Sara?). It was a fun day!

Spring has been so great here. Today was no exception. We love sitting outside in the afternoon playing and swinging. Look who’s trying to crawl?

While eating dinner outside at a Mediterrean cafe, Ava looks up and says…”the sun is like a giant flashlight burning my eyes!”

Look closely! Do you see the little bird beak and eyes poking out through the plant? (This is a good time to click on the photo to activate the cool zoom feature that Dave loves). This view is from inside our office, taken just through our window at eye level. A little bird family has set up a nest in the mandivilla plant outside our window. There are three eggs in the nest and I have had so much fun watching them build up the nest and now sit on the eggs. Ava and I watch for the Mamma bird to come back every afternoon and sit on the nest. We can’t wait for the little birdies to hatch so we can watch them too. So cool!

Ava and Olivia have reached a point where they actually play together. OK, Ava plays and Olivia laughs. But, it is really hilarious and fun to watch. Ava will lay on top of Olivia or tickle her or whatever mischief she has in mind and Olivia simply giggles. Ava can do no wrong by her right now. (Unless she is chucking a book at warp speed straight for her nose, then things get a little hairy…see previous post).

This new year I did not make resolutions. Instead, I chose a word. One word to focus on for the year and for my life. My word this year was BALANCE. And, I think that I might have come a little closer to my word recently. For those of you who don’t know…I got a J-O-B. That’s right, I’m taking the plunge back into the working world. Well, maybe not plunge, maybe just a little toe dipping.

I went back to work shortly after having Ava and tried to balance my two worlds, with some success I think. I was really lucky because I had a great boss who was super flexible (by any standards, but especially by the standards of the academic science world) and I had great childcare so I never worried when I was away. I also had a fantastic spouse who carried his half and between it all …it worked. I remember one set of experiments that took about 18 hrs to complete and they had to be done straight through. I would nurse Ava and then drive into the lab at around 4 in the morning and then drive home to feed her again and get us all ready for the day and off to work at our normal time. When I found out baby number two was on her way, I realized it would be pretty near impossible to keep all the balls in the air juggling a scientific post-doc with two little children. Since we were moving states due to Dave’s job, I decided it was a good time for a little sabatical. I was surprised by how much flak this drew from different people. I had more than one person make comments such as, “Well, that’s such a shame.” Even if I retorted that I still planned to be a productive member of both society and the scientific community at large and perhaps return to work in a couple years, people looked at me as though I had two heads. Even my father was concerned, asking “When are you going to get back to work…” about a month after I had Olivia. Of course, I should add that I also had some really supportive people who barely blinked when I said I was taking time off.

Taking the past year off has been the best decision for me. We have had so much FUN! I have really enjoyed being fully present while both girls are growing, changing, and learning every day. I also think our house is more peaceful since we aren’t constantly late for work or late for a doctors appointment or rushing to get dinner on the table when we get home before everyone needs to go to bed. Of course, on the flip side…since staying home there have been days when I thought I might actually lock myself in the bathroom if I had to deal with one more temper tantrum or pee running down someones leg or crying babies that refused to sleep. I have missed adult conversations and grabbing coffee with my pals while we debated the latest scientific news or celebrity gossip. Hell, I have missed just having a full day of adult conversation or being able to plan an actual experiment rather than thinking about discipline techniques, potty training, and organic baby foods. While I just couldn’t see heading back into work at a post-doc working 10 hour days while 1/2 of my salary would go to daycare, I think I may have found a compromise.

Thanks to my old boss Brett, I found a position with a contractor that manages the grant review process for groups such as NIH, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), DOD, etc. I can work from home most of the time and then go into Washington DC for meetings every month or so. I started the job this past month and have already been to DC a couple times. I hired a babysitter to come over 10-20 hrs a week to help out with the kids while I work. Ava is attending preschool now a couple days a week and will go 5 days a week in the fall for several hours each day. My Mom is close enough to come up when I am gone for overnight trips. All the balls are back in the air. And, I think I have found a resemblance of balance. For now. At least on the Mommy front. Now off to balance the other flanks.