Always the Critic

Farm share bounty

2011-01-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

As I've written before, we've signed up for a farm share this winter. It's worked out well so far. For the last 3 weeks, we've received organic strawberries - a rarity in the winter in New England and a very welcome treat. I've been trying to get better at documenting what it is that I do with my farm share produce. Here are some tasty recipes I've made so far:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Potato-and-Turnip-Gratin-107656 (I used milk instead of 1/2 and 1/2 and reduced the whipping cream to 1 c, with 1 additional cup of milk. It came out really well and I'll definitely make it again).
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Acorn-Squash-Salad-355930 (This is DELICIOUS! The balsamic vinegar reduction is amazing and we drizzled it on everything from potatoes to salad for the next 3 days.)
Kale has been a ubiquitous addition to almost every box we've received so I've learned to add it to pasta sauces, cheese crepes, quiche and just about everything else we make.

By the way - the quiche that I made hit the spot. I used Martha Stewart's pate brisee recipe, minus the sugar for the crust. Then I added 4 eggs, 1/2 c cream, 1/2 c grated Parmesan, salt, pepper over sauteed kale, onion and zucchini. It was delicious. Even my 3 year old ate it once I deconstructed it into crust, veggies and eggs piles. Although, be sure to bake the crust first for about 15 minutes at 400 with beans or pie weights. Otherwise, it will be too soft.

Overall, I have to say that this has worked out very well. We're getting more acorn squash this week so we'll have to make some more of that delicious balsamic vinegar reduction.

My dirty food couldn't be cleaner - how we became locavores

2010-12-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

Last year, I wrote about our farmer's market, which unfortunately only runs in the summer to mid-fall. Every year, I lament the end of the market, when I can no longer get local fresh produce and foodstuff. Ha ha to all that this year. In an attempt to live a more balanced, vegetable rich diet even in the grizzly cold of winter, we have signed up for a farm share. For a bargain price of about $28-30 per week (I am not sarcastic here - it really is a bargain as I will explain below), we get a small box of organic or sustainably IPM grown root veggies, green veggies and citrus. The box is a mix of produce from Enterprise Farm (in MA, close to us), farms from North Carolina and Florida.

This box has changed the way we eat. Instead of trying to figure out what to make and then heading to the supermarket for produce, I check the fridge and find a recipe online. This keeps us in season with the produce that's available, not to mention makes for tastier meals since the veggies are fresh and have great flavor. Also, it saves on the disappointment of showing up to the store only to find that they have no butternut squash.

It has also saved us money. First of all, instead of making almost daily trips to Trader Joe's for tasteless vegetables, we make one weekly trip to the pick up spot to get our box. We have learned in the 3 deliveries we've received so far that this gets us through the week, and our grocery bills have been decreasing since I now go in only for things like butter, yogurt, and pantry staples like pasta and rice. This has also saved us on the amount of food that we throw out. Sometimes, I would buy a bag of 4 avocados (all rock solid), soften them in our pantry, use 2 and have 2 go straight to the trash. Now, I get just one avocado, that I use to make a salad with the tomatoes I get from the farm, and some greens that are in the mix, like baby spinach or mixed meuslin and it's delicious.

The farm also has a buyers club for local staples like pickles and hand creams, yogurt and honey. That's next on our try-this-out-list. Now, if I could just find a chicken farm nearby where I could get fresh eggs and poultry year round. That would be super.

So - check out the farms in your area and see if they deliver and offer farm shares in winter and get on the wagon.

Goodbye, tomatoes

2010-07-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had to tear out all of my tomatoes. So heartbreaking but absolutely necessary. I have learned a few very important things, though. First of all, I must start all plants early, say March or at the very latest, April, of next year. This year, my beans and cucumbers have really been struggling: they are very small and are trying to grow in stifling heat. Secondly, I will plant nothing close to the edges of the pots since those parts dry out and heat up the fastest. And lastly, I will not set my hopes very high.

On the positive side, the alpine strawberries I planted at my parents' house are prospering and we are getting about 3-4 strawberries a day. This weekend, I separated the 4 bushes into a bigger space (thanks to my husband and my dad who dug soil and fenced it off from deer and rabbits). I planted only 2 bushes last year, so the fact that there are now 4 is encouraging! It's really great to reap rewards of your work, even if it's only 3-4 little strawberries a day.

Something is eating my tomatoes and it's not me

2010-06-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

For all of you who read my joyful post about my newly growing tomato will take part in my heartbreak. Just this morning, I had to resort to euthanasia of the tomato for a suspicious black growth at the bottom (see image). The leaves on the large plant had also started growing black spots and the yellowing and dying. I've been cutting them and tonight, I noticed that my newly potted 3rd pot has become infested with a population of tiny little bugs (tiny, knat size) crawling around. By biggest worry is that whatever this thing is, it will infect the rest of my garden and goodbye dreams of tomatoes this season or beans. I started growing cucumbers in the 3rd box and they are coming in very nicely, but now, they might also have to be sacrificed along with the infected tomato plant.

Now what? Do I chug the window box and start over? How do people do this for a living? Thank you to the farmer's at our farmer's market who bring fresh, bug free produce to our market every week.

Small City Garden Week 4 - 1st harvest

2010-06-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

I am proud to say that my husband and I enjoyed two very small string beans last night. My first harvest, produced in an urban jungle with barely any growing space.

The rest of the garden is starting to come together very nicely also. The sage, mint, oregano and lavender are in. I am not sure what happened to the parseley, so I've planted some more in the 3rd window box I have acquired. I also planted a large tomato plant donated by a friend (she noticed the sad size of my tomato plants and expressed concern about them being able to produce anything this year - I still have some hope, although it's starting to wane.) The great news is that the donated tomato plant seems to be doing very well, and is even growing - gasp - a tomato. It's twice as big as it was yesterday (the tomato, not the plant), which still puts it at about pea size, but it's great! I am so excited for a real, fresh, tomato. I also planted 3 bushes of cucumbers, which should be mature in mid August. Hopefully, I can have at least a couple of cukes before the fall frost kills them off. Note to self, start plantings in March and April so that by the summer, they are mature plants.

If you look at this picture closely, you can see that one of the wilted flowers is a little bigger than others. That's yesterday, and today, you can clearly see the tomato.

My goal this summer, in addition to those stated in previous posts, is to break even. I am not going to count the cost of pots, since I plan to use them next year, and I can discount most of the soil cost, since all I will have to do next year is re-fertilize it. That puts me about $30 in the hole. I figure each basket of tomatoes is $5 at the market (organic), a basket of beans is about $3, plus cukes. I need to grow about 4 baskets of tomatoes (cherry tomatoes, that is), plus about 2 lb of cukes and a lb of beans. Then I will break even. I am not counting the herbs, because I rarely buy herbs fresh.

Parenting on the playground

2010-06-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

I visit our local playgrounds on a daily basis and I often see the following take place:

11am Mom, nanny, etc. asks a tired hungry toddler "Jimmy, do you want to go home and have lunch?". The toddler scans all the fun playground structures and replies "No!" (that's because he's a toddler).

11:15 Mom has been negotiating with Jimmy that it's really time to go home and have lunch and we have such yummy food, etc. The more she tries to convince him to go and eat, the more reluctant he is.

11:30 Now, everyone is tired, hungry and cranky. Mom, nanny, etc. finally loses it and says "Jimmy, get in the stroller right now, it's time to go." Jimmy is now ticked because his opinion was obviously asked for and then ignored, which like any human being will make someone angry. He bursts into a tamper tantrum that ends in the mom being completely crazy and embarrassed, and a really terrible lunch, nap, etc.

Let me give a different scenario.

10:55 Mom says: "Jimmy, in 5 minutes, we have to go home." (assertively)

11:00 Mom says: "Jimmy, it's time to go home" and starts picking up his toys and putting them away. Jimmy, reluctantly, considers coming and then seeing that there is no arguing (and last time when he argued, he had to go home anyway when mom said that it was time to go), gets into the stroller or at least allows the mom to put him in.

Victory Garden, Week 2

2010-06-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

I have plants! Well, it seems that my gardening efforts have not been in vain. I have now 3 beautiful bean plants and 2 sorry looking bean plants. The sorry looking plants I had transplanted, which they didn't like, but they are producing beans so I don't have the heart to rip them out and start over. There are 6 small beans, which are getting bigger every day, especially if we have some sunshine. The 3 newly planted bush beans are looking very hearty. We've had a lot of rain and not too much sun mixed with cool weather. My heart goes out for the farmers who make a living on this. It's hard going when the weather won't cooperate.

The tomatoes have not benefited from the increased rain and lack of sun. They are still the stumpy 4-5 inch plants that I had transplanted. I should have started them earlier. Note for next year!

The rest of the herbs are coming in and I am curious to see which ones are which. Of course, I forgot to write down what I had planted where, so I'll have to wait for real leaves to grow before yield can be determined.

I've included a picture of my alpine strawberry bush which I grow inside. Since I've started watering them at night, they've increased 50% in size and produce easily 2 strawberries a day, sometimes even more. Yummy!

Victory Garden, Week 1

2010-06-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

Oh me, oh my, how many funny things grow by! Or don't grow at all. I spent my evening 2 nights ago seeding and planting my wonderful magical garden, only to be heartbroken over the next few days to see the leaves on my bean plants dry out and wither away. I've called an expert to give me some advise and I am hoping she will return my plea for help before the last vestiges of life escape my plants. Does anyone know if I have to prop them upright?

On the positive side, the tomatoes I have planted don't seem to be succumbing to the same fate as quickly (yes, their leaves are also starting to wither at the ends). On the yet more positive side, it seems that although the bean plants are losing their leaves, they are producing beans! This is incredible. The tiny purple flowers of a few days ago are turning into thin, tiny little beans, which are growing very quickly.

No sign of anything else I've planted. Neither the extra bean plants or the herbs.

Here is a funny aside on parenting: after a particularly awful sleepless night with a toddler, I was staying horizontal as long as possible in the morning while my ever energized toddler ran circles around me. I was finally roused from my half sleep by her proud announcement that she did just like mama did with the seed packet and seeded the oregano seeds into the already overfull rosemary pot. Oh, well. Maybe that will be the oregano that actually grows!

Victory Garden, Day 1

2010-05-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

I love to garden, but I have one small problem. I live in a condo with 0 land. I've been growing alpine strawberries in pots for 4 years now - they yield about a strawberry a day in the summer and a strawberry a week in the winter. But that's not been enough for many months now and after unsuccessfully petitioning my association to plant in common space, by husband has agreed to fulfill my "eat fresh and grow your own" ambitions and figured out a way to secure a window box on the outside sill of our 3rd floor condo.

Here is day 1:

The box is attached; I've purchased all the hardware to attach the second box and my husband will likely do it soon, since he hates clutter even more than I do. I've started string bean plants and tomato plants. The string beans are in a pot, and are about a foot now (you can see them in this image).

I've placed them outside this morning because I need the flowers that have started blooming to be pollinated by someone other than me. The poor things have bent over under the weight of the wind and the rain that has descended on them today. I have to see about getting some steaks to prop them up.

The tomatoes are still at a 3-4" dwarf level and I need to get them transplanted asap if we are going to see any this summer (they need more sun than I have inside). I've also purchased seed packets of basil, parseley, sage, and oregano. I've got seedlings on mint, which are not making too much progress, but hey - beggars can't be choosers and perhaps they will grow once they get outside.

Let me outline my goals for the summer:

1. Supply any and all herbs my family needs for the next year (I will dry the excess and keep them for the winter)

2. Supply at least one tomato salad worth of tomatoes

3. Supply 1 side dish worth of bean plants (my friend who is knowledgeable about these things thinks I need more plants - good thing I have more beans).

4. Not let any plants, dirt or tools fall to the ground, 3 stories below).

It's chocolate and it's delicious

2010-03-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

For your foodies and knitters out there - I have two items to enter into the "love it" category. First, is a chocolate tart (originally called Chocolate Espresso Tart) from martha stewart. I had to drop the espresso part because we didn't have any espresso beans and I prefer my ganache sans coffee. The crust is not too sweet, the mascarpone adds the perfect amount of smoothness to balance the rich creaminess and sweetness of the ganache on top. It's all around delicious. You might be surprised by the shape of my tart in comparison to the picture with the recipe - I didn't have a rectangular tart pan so I used a regular cake pan, which worked fine. If you have a round tart pan, that might actually work even better for the sides, which collapsed a bit in my version.

The second item to be entered is a new addition to my yarn stash. From Fleece Artist, sock yarn appropriately called Chocolate, with slightly different hues of brown throughout. Delicious, isn't it? If fact, it's so good that my husband, upon seeing this noted very pointedly that he has no socks made by me.

City Select Stroller Test Drive

2010-03-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

Today, I did something that seemed impossible even only 4 months ago. I took 2 toddlers to the park by myself. Now, before you think that I adopted another child - let me explain. I helped a friend by taking her soon off her hands from her for a couple of hours - a favor she has done for me many times.

So, now you might think - how did you get said children to the park. I live in a city, and the parks are close, but not quite within easy walking distance for a toddler, and my friend lives up a heinous hill. So, I borrowed her brand new City Select stroller, equipped for 2 - she is expecting in a week, so she's equipped.

First impression: I am driving an SUV and I am only used to driving a coup. Second impression: this stroller is great and with 2 toddlers weighing in at 30 lb each, it handles only marginally worse than my Maclaren loaded with 1. Major cudos to Baby Jogger for the huge wheels, easily adjustable seats and the extra large canopies that kept both of my charges nicely shaded on this sunny day. The basket is the dream of every city mom. Not only could I fit the random collection of essential park items including: the sand toys, hand wipes, ball, diaper caddy and my husband's old tshirt for wiping slides, but I also fit my not so small bag stuffed with water bottles, snacks and personal items including a makeshift boo boo fix kit of band aids, alcohol wipes and disinfectant cloths. The handle bar is a little chunky for my hands, so I would have liked for them to narrow it a little bit in the center, but it's still great.

I had the kids facing each other, since they are friends and would get a kick out of it. I would NOT recommend this position with siblings unless you have children who share an incredible love for each other and don't poke, prod or otherwise torchure each other when cranky, tired, etc. Because, let's face it, you need to pay attention to the road and not who untied whos shoe, etc.

So, would I buy this stroller? Probably. If my kids were less than 3 years apart and my oldest couldn't easily surf on a board, I would opt for it. I am hoping that my kids will be more than 3 years apart, so that my oldest will be either walking or surfing, which means I won't need a stroller made for two. If you have twins, check the bassinet setup. You may not be super happy with the way the basinets can be arranged although the dual toddler seat setup is great.

Getting healthy or not

2010-03-03T16:06:00.001-08:00

I became fed up with my yoga instructor and started looking for a new way of getting some exercise. I've done yoga for about 6 years now (with lots of different instructors), a habit I started when I was in grad school and in serious need of some de-stressing activity.

Now I am 20 pounds heavier than I was in my grad school days, thanks to motherhood and my baking addiction. I started my "get fit routine" at Benefitness where I got a $15 class pass. Best $15 I've spent on a class in years! I walked out barely able to walk - the instructor was that good at getting me to move and burn some calories. And it showed me just how far I have to go to get myself back in shape.

Low and behold, a week after I realized that a path to body salvation lies in a gym near me, a friend sent a Groupon (group coupon) for the Healthworks group of gyms in the area: $24 for 24 day passes. That's right - $1 per day - to be used anytime between Feb and Apr 29th. It's 2 days a week, for 12 weeks. I am determined to get at least 1 day in a week before the coupon expires and I've been on track so far.
For those of you not from Boston, Healthworks is a group of 4 or 5 gyms for women, with everything from a sauna to a full class schedule to personal training, a spa, massage sessions and other fun stuff.

Here is a list of classes I've taken:

Fitness Flashback: A movement class with no props - basically, jump and move to the beat with the instructor to 80s music. Probably my favorite aerobic class so far, since it does not require me to be coordinated.

Hoop: I thought to myself: "How hard can this class be? I hooped all through childhood" Well, this class was a complete disaster. First of all, it turns out that there is a primary direction to hoop and a secondary direction. I cannot hoop in the secondary direction. Also, the hoop is weighted, with the weights forming bead like bumps on the INSIDE of the hoop. I am not sure what this is meant to accomplish, but as the instructor warned us - I had bruises all around my mid section after the class. Instead of feeling a good workout and a good burn, I felt beaten up and sore.

Body Pump: "The Original barbell workout". When I ventured into this class, I had only a vague recollection of what a barbell was. It's a bar, which has some weight to it, onto which you put more weights, and then clips on the ends to hold it all together. I am really glad that there are no men at this gym. The last thing I needed to see was some jock lifting his body weight like it was a feather. Needless to say that I learned just how weak my arms are in that class. I kept going down and down in weight until I was at the bare respectable minimum and I still was hurting. And I remember thinking to myself - oh god, even the leg exercises require you to hold the bar with your arms.

Step Express - a 30 minute step class. This gave me flashbacks to high school, where I took step after school for a year or two. For some reason, every instructor feels the need to create their own moves, which leave me baffled for long enough to lose my step and be out of step with the rest of the class. It's a good workout - both for your coordination and your body.

Slow Flow Yoga - I have never attended a fast flow yoga class, if something like this exists, but this is the basic yoga class, taught by a very tall soft spoken joke cracking British gentleman who says "Good" while you are doing a pose that is making you want to cry, and all of a sudden, with his words of encouragement, you feel good. And you really can do more...

Ironically, I've gained 2 pounds since I've started this fiasco, but I'm telling myself that it's all muscle weight. Yeah body pump!

How to get sleep and rest with a new baby

2010-03-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

When I first had my daughter, I thought I'd never get a full night's sleep again. That's probably true - she's 2 now and I am becoming less and less optimistic about ever getting a long stretch of uninterrupted sleep. Nonetheless, there are some remedies that all new parents can make to make the situation better.

Please understand that I am not a sleep or child expert, so my advice is just that.

1. Get dimmers - when you're mixing bottles at 2am or changing a diaper, you'll be more comfortable in dim lights than in full on brightness and you'll be able to get to sleep better after.

2. Designate your time and mine. My husband used to spend 8pm to 11pm with my daughter, doing everything to keep her sleeping or entertained. This allowed me a nice 3 hour uninterrupted stretch. Then I would take over for the rest of the night, but that 3 hours was a real life saver.

3. At around 7:30pm, dim the lights in your house and turn down the music. It seems ridiculous at first, but it will help your body get into sleep and rest better.

4. Repeat your routine every night consistently so that your body can get used to the shifted sleep schedule.

A side not to the night owls. For those of you who like to stay up late, swap with your husband. Let him take the 5am - 7am shift, so you can sleep in. It's amazing what an extra 2 hours can do for you in the morning.

One Giant Leap for a Bottle

2010-03-02T11:01:00.001-08:00

About 2 years ago, my husband bought me a Sigg bottle. I was really excited about it. First of all, it meant that he no longer had to break his back carrying water up to our 3rd floor walkup. Second, it meant that I could take almost a liter of water with me every day. Third, I would be saving the planet from the 3-4 plastic bottles I was tossing into the recycling bin every day.

Fast forward a year or so, and we hear news that Sigg, the company who made it cool to have a non-plastic reusable bottle, announces that their bottles have a BPA-lining. I'll let you read real news to judge whether there is real merit to the reasons why they didn't release the information as soon as they knew that BPA was a problem - a whopping year before the news finally leaked out. No pun intended.

Needless to say, I've chugged the Sigg bottle and now enjoy my beverages from a stylish new SubZero bottle, free of dents and BPA (it's stainless steel). Will I ever buy Sigg again? Probably not. Would you?

Dirty Food

2010-03-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

I love the farmer's market. Here, it happens every Thursday, from 1pm till dusk, but most wares sell out by 6pm, so if you want the best fish, meat or produce, you have to show up early.

There is something truly wonderful about the earthiness of market produce. It literally has dirt on it and I come home, laden with heavy bags of produce and I shake off all the dirt from the bag after I've unpacked it. Every November, when the market closes down and I return to buying food in the sterile bright supermarket, I start to sorely miss the dirt. I get used to it by December, when the winter chill has set in and fresh food is a distant memory.

This time of year, in late February early March, when root cellared supplies are running short and the spring crops haven't yet come in, we enter the true deep freeze of winter. The body starts to yearn for fresh food and we look at the smallest sprouts in the dirt with great hope. Soon enough, just a couple more months, and we'll taste the sweetness of fresh strawberries and smell the ripe tomatoes once more and the cycle will repeat itself again.

My New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-11T09:11:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking recently that I rarely make New Year's resolutions, and perhaps I ought to give this some thought. What would I like to accomplish this year and what can I do differently? Here is what I've come up with:

1. Make more money and try to keep more of it in my pocket

2. Drink all the hot chocolate I want, so long as I make it at home and it doesn't cost much (see #1 and French Women Don't Get Fat)

3. Go on more dates with my husband in nice clothing with jewelry (at least earrings and necklace) and makeup (at least lipstick).

4. Find out where my food comes from and try to minimize the distance it has to travel

5. Buy less (see #1)

6. Plant a garden - this is a tough one. I live in an appartment buildings and, let's just say, we're not exactly green

7. See more cultural events like plays, ballets and operas

8. Spend more time with my girlfriends

And now that it's written in stone.. um, I mean in digital easily-erasable format, I will have to stick to it and perhaps even write a post at the end of the year as a self-evaluation of sorts, since owning my own business, I am my own boss and evaluator. You never know, I might just earn myself a pay raise.

There is a nightmare in my knitting basket

2009-12-31T11:13:00.001-08:00

I found a pattern on Ravelry several months ago that's just the stuff I love to knit - one piece, yolk, barely any seaming. It's called Owls by Kate Davis. I am writing this post on the eve of finishing the sweater. For all of you knitters out there, you know the elation one feels when you finish something, and for yourself none the less. There is only one problem - I've had to rip out the entire body and the yoke and start all over. Nothing entertains my husband more than watching me spend hours and hours knitting something that he can then rip out in 2 minutes, muttering to himself, "One stitch, two stitch, good stitch, bad stitch".

Why do restart, then? Through my experience with clothing I've realized that those pesky little problems that you notice at the beginning will stay with the garment no matter how much you try to ignore them, and for me, it comes down to ripping it apart before I do all the finishing work, or letting it sit in the closet for 2 years while I "forget" to wear it and then ripping it apart and reknitting.

To all of you knitters who are thinking about making this pattern, keep these things in mind:

1. Because of the thickness of the yarn, this is a chunky sweater and if it's not made correctly, will make you look chunky (like it does for me). In fair disclaimor, my yarn is a little thicker than what the pattern called for.

2. The back increase and decrease is really for the strong at heart because on me it looks hideous. The top part bunches unpleasantly, so I've ripped the body out and I will make the shaping on the sides. I will try to make it smaller - something like 3 decreases and 4 increases, to see if it looks better at the end.

3. For me, the yolk (or the top part of the sweater after you've joined body and sleeves) is too short. I've seen this on pictures of other knitters for this pattern. It seems that for size L, you should knit about 1-2 inches in stockinette before starting the owls and potentially with a small decrease before the purl first owl row. I'll give it a go and see how it comes out.

Baby got wheels - stroller evolution

2009-09-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

My daughter is a year and a half and we're on our second stroller. It's a nice stroller - a Maclaren, the biggest and best that Maclaren makes. And we're starting to think about getting a new one. Don't get me wrong. We have a great stroller. But it's falling apart because we use it in ways it was never meant to be used. You see, we live in the city, with potholes, uneven sidewalks, stairs, curbs and other obstructions that reak havoc on the stroller that, according to Eli - the owner of Magic Beans in Brooklne - is a shopping mall stroller. Ours has never seen the insides of the shopping mall. I don't own a car, so the stroller is our only mode of transport during the week and we log at least a mile a day, sometimes even more.

I am an honest believer that there is no perfect stroller, so I don't blame our for falling short. Perfection is an art that has alluded the stroller world, even with some hefty pricetags that are out there. Take our first stroller for example. We had a MicraLite. True to its name it was very small and very light. But it had a terrible basket on the bottom that couldn't hold anything. But it had full wheels on the back which could go up stairs beautifully (a trait I didn't appreciate until we got our Maclaren). It also had long U shaped handle, which was perfect because you could drive it with one hand thanks to the middle bar, but also had horns on the ends for hanging things like blankets and bags and groceries. We really miss the middle bar because it's really hard to drive the Maclaren while talking on the phone or as my husband always says - it's hard to drink his coffee and drive the stroller.

Why do we like the Maclaren? First and foremost, we had the spiffiest model which reclines to a comfortable 5 degrees. This was key when we go for day long trips or on vacations because our daughter can sleep in the stroller pretty comfortably. Secondly, we love how well it can fold. There is a slight negative part to this, since it becomes very long when it folds, so in some of the smaller cars we've rented, it has been a real challenge to get it into the trunk. Also, the basket and all of its contents are crushed when the stroller is folded.

So, what's next for us? At this stage, it's really unclear. I would like a light stroller, wich chunky wheels at the back and a big basket. I would also like for it to fold easily and compactly. It must have a middle bar so my husband can get his coffee. It must have a basinet so that when/if we have baby#2, we can have a properly positioned infant. And if possible, I would like for it be no wider than my hips. Otherwise, I fear that my hips will expand to fill the space.

Simple Green Beans

2009-08-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

It was 8 pm and my stomach was growling and the fridge was looking decidedly empty. I had just finished a yoga class, so my hunger was exacerbated by the ache in my muscles. I had a bag of green beans from our farmer's market, so I decided to give them a try. Typically, green beans are prepared in 2 steps. First, you boil the beans and then, plunge them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. I am not a big fan of this kind of beans - they seem too tough and not flavorful enough.

Last night I cooked my beans a little longer than typically recommended - 5-7 minutes. And I didn't plunge them into an ice bath - it's too much work and I don't like the result anyway! In my recipe, the beans are cooked a bit more and are thus softer. And they are warm when you pour over the sauce, so they have a chance to absorb it. I'm not proud to admit it, but I ate the whole thing right then and there. It didn't even make it to the plate - and I mopped up the remaining sauce with bread. This is also an excellent side dish for beef.

Simple Green Beans (Haricot verts)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of green beans, cut off ends, cut into 2 inch pieces

1/4 red Vidalia onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove

5-7 tbsp olive oil

juice from 1 lemon

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Preparation:

Boil water in a medium pot and add the green beans. Boil for about 5-7 minute until the beans start to be tender but still nicely green. This is just past the bright green stage. Pour off the water and add the beans to a mixing bowl. Add the onion. Put the garlic, olive oil, salt and lemon juice into a food processor and process until the mixture is uniform. Pour the sauce over the bean and onion mixture. Mix and serve.

Mint Flavored Iced Tea (No Sugar)

2009-08-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

OK, OK. I've sworn 100 times that I would write down recipes that I create on the fly, and I almost never do. And then comes the time 3 months down the line when I try to recreate that perfect thing and it NEVER comes out the same.

So, here, I will try to avoid this scenario and share with you a recipe for Mint Flavored Iced Tea.

Ingredients:

boiling water

2 tea bags (English breakfast decaf is my favorite)

1+ tsp honey

1 tea bag of mint tea or some dried or fresh mint leaves

2 lemons

water

Boil 3-4 cups of water and add the English Breakfast teabags. I brew the tea right in the pitcher because mine is tempered glass but you can also use a bowl or a pot and pour it into a pitcher once the water has cooled. Add the mint tea bag or put the mint leaves into a tea pouch and add to the water. If you have fresh mint leaves, you can add them to the water without a tea pouch. Add the honey and stir. Let this brew sit for about 20-30 minutes. It should have a nice brown color and should smell of mint and honey. Then squeeze the juice from 2 lemons into the tea and give it a try. You may have to add a little bit more honey if the tea is too sour. Then fill the rest of the picture with water and refrigerate. The tea can last a couple of days in the fridge, but ours never even makes it that far!

2009-04-15T10:41:00.001-07:00

Now, it's time for me to delve a little into the movie critic shoes. I saw The Reader yesterday. I have to say that I love Ralph Fiennes so my view of this movie is biased.

Let's start with the fact that it's been about 24 hours since I've seen it and I still can't stop thinking about it. I see the character's faces, I am revisiting scenes from the movie. It's an amazing film. About love, about life, about the impact strangers can have on our lives.

I love the truthfulness of this film. It's rare these days to find a movie where the end isn't sugar coated. Where people have real faults, and you take them for the way they are and love them your whole life. Ok, that's all I'll say. Go and watch it (on DVD probably).

Like mother, like daughter or why the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

2009-03-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

At the playground today, my daughter was fascinated with a little girl who was wearing a pink snow suit: this super-warm coverage with long sleeves and long pant legs looked like a sumo wrestler outfit on this tiny little girl. On her feet, she had tiny thin little silver ballet-slipper shoes. I thought the snow suit a little excessive for this beautiful 55 degree day and the shoes far too cold.

I made a comment to her and the mom on her "pretty little shoes", which seemed perfectly placed, until I noticed that the mom was wearing an adult version of those same silver ballet shoes with her winter parka. No joke.

Check out this video a friend sent me on the topic.

3 for 1

2009-03-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

Today, I heard of 3 friends losing their jobs. Having myself been layed off 3 times in the last crash (2001), I can offer some useful advise:
1. Don't dispair, don't blame yourself, and don't think that you are contagious. One of the hardest things to accept when you lose your job is that it really was not your fault. Too many other factors combined to cause this issue.
2. Put your resume together and revise it once a week. Don't fix it any more often than that or you'll go crazy.
3. Do 1 job-hunting activity per day. For example, Monday is resume fixing day. Spend 3 hours fixing your resume, sending it to friends for review, etc. Tuesday is Monster.com and LinkedIn day, spend 3 hours on those, searching and saving jobs. Wednesday is apply online day. Thursday is go-to-networking events day (have at least one event per week where you have to get dressed and look like a human being. If you can't afford the admission price, email the organizer and explain that you have just lost your job and whether they can offer a discounted admission rate - most people will). Find something useful to do on Friday.
4. Find a job, some job. Between stints of tech-based employment, I worked at Crate and Barrel. Sure, I didn't use my degree, but I earned enough to make rent AND I got a great kitchen in the process. It'll keep you sane and get you out of the house, talking to people. Just don't forget to keep looking for a real job.

Did you learn that or were you born with it

2009-02-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

I was sitting with my daughter in a mommy and me class when I noticed a peculiar thing. There are kids who sit in the front, there are kids who sit where they were placed and there are kids who go to the back and play with the toys unrelated to the program or lesson.

My kid is the first kind: no matter where I sit in the room, she will go to the "front row", stare at the teacher for 45 minutes of class and soak in every word. She won't look back at me, she knows I'm there. I'm glad she inherited this trait from me, although I wonder if this is a real trait of just a passing phase. I'm glad she didn't inherit her father's class-attending methods - taking a snooze in the back rows.

The most peculiar thing is that I never encouraged or taught her to do this. I never said, "listen to the teacher". So one has to wonder, was she born with it? What happens to the kids who aren't interested in the teacher or the lesson at hand? Do they grow up to be those kids passing notes and texting in the back of the classroom? Do they do poorly in school? Do they reform? Do they learn differently?

If we assume that there are at least 3 different kinds of learners, can we have a one-style-fits-all education system? I wonder.

Family Adventure in the Poconos, Take 2

2009-01-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

Several months ago, I wrote about our family adventure in the Poconos. Little did I know that only a few short months later I would be adding a sequel posting.

It's December 24th. We're heading to the Poconos for the Christmas holiday. This is an all day affair - we start at 6am when our daughter gets up. Judiciously pack the car. Leave 1/2 the things we need while driving in the truck and curse ourselves for it all the way to the first rest stop.

Fast forward 6 blissful hours, we've finally arrived at my parents' complex in the Poconos. It's 3pm. We're all cranky. We've been in the car for far longer than is necessary, we're tired, we're cramped, we want to get there already and unpack and rest. We come to the turn for my parents' road and we make 5 attempts to climb the hill. These fail due to a nice cover of ice on the hill right at the turn, covered by a nice thin layer of water mist. Needless to say, this makes conditions rather slippery.

After the 5th attempt, I take my frustration out of the car, grab the shovel that my husband put right at the top of our junk in the trunk (what good foresight!) and start shovelling piles of dirt, slush and ice from the bottom of the hill onto the hill to create 2 tracks for the tires.

You have to imagine this. I am dressed in corduroy pants, in hiking boots which are slippery and not meant for iceclimbing, and a ski jacket that matches neither the hiking boots nor the pants. After 10 minutes, I am splatted in mud, my pants are wet up to my ankles, I am muttering curses under my breath at the association, at our timing and at our stupidity in arriving at this place first. Finally, as I am about to finish this job and we are about to undertake our fist attempt, we see a gravel truck from the association making the rounds. After a little more muttering from me, the truck finally gets around to our section of the road and heads up the hill.

It's now 4pm. We follow. What meets us at the driveway is even less inspiring. The hill there is completely frozen over with a nice layer of ice and there is no gravel or dirt that we can throw. We quickly abandon all hope of getting the car up the hill and park at the culdesack. My husband takes the shovel and makes heads up the hill to try to make a path for us. 5 minutes go by. 10 minutes go by. We start to approach 15 minutes when I start thinking of a contingency plan. What if he'd fallen on the ice and can't get up. I'm in the car, so I won't hear him. It's starting to get dark, so soon enough I won't even be able to see the small path he's managed to crack in the ice. I have a baby with me. Do I leave her in the car, and go by myself or do I take her with me?

Finally, I see the careful descent of his black boots, and I make a mental note to take our walkie talkies in the future when travelling in the winter.

And, so, we make it into the house, we unpack and then my parents arrive and my dad makes it up both hills without much trouble, because, after all, it's not his first ice storm.

Baby How To: Subways

2008-11-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

As a mother who is permanently attached to a stroller, I've formed a new appreciation for those members of our society who are bound to a wheelchair. Naturally, I have it much easier - I can pick up the stroller with all my might and carry it up stairs, if need be. A handicapped person cannot.

So, here is a little bit of how-to on taking babies on a subway:
(Some background on my perspective: I'm not talking about subways that have elevators, drive-on platforms, and such. I'm talking about the old trolley cars that have 3 stairs at all entrances and exits, so you MUST negotiate stairs with a baby, a stroller and a diaper bag.)
1. Start with a plan. Make sure you know where you are going before you get to the train station so that you're not checking the subway map as you're trying to negotiate the train car. And get your money out in advance.
2. Once you get to the subway, scope out the surroundings. Check if there are any strapping men around who seem like they would be helpful in getting the stroller up the stairs. Make eye contact and smile at them in that damsel-in-distress sort of way. Best if you select someone who is married and will have little interest in you sexually, otherwise they may get the wrong idea.
3. If you are successful in getting a fellow passenger to help you, thank them profusely, and if possible in a way that the rest of the passengers can hear. That way, others may feel guilty for not helping you and will do it for someone else at a later date.
4. Once you reach your destination, thank your lucky stars profusely for the fact that strollers come with wheels and straps and that just this time, your child was kept from sticking her tiny little hands into all the dirty crevasses of the subway car by those magic things called straps.

Ms. Right or Ms. Right Now

2008-11-18T17:29:00.000-08:00

So, you are all thinking that I'll spend some of your precious reading time espousing on the value of a good relationship and the importance of choosing the right partner? Well, sort of.

It's not the romantic relationship that I'm talking about. I'm talking about a business relationship. A friend who is expecting recently mentioned that she had discussed doing part time work with her boss post baby and was flatly turned down. The reason?

Well, it's more complicated than one sentence can really describe. I can see the scenario here and this is complete conjecture. A busy boss, gets out of an exec level meeting, walks back to her set of offices/cubes to dish out work to her minions. She needs them right there, right now. Or does she? Could she perhaps put together an email and send off specific duties via the web to be completed by clearly stated deadlines? Of course, she can. Or she should be able to do. (As a side note, I am using she here, but it's really meant to be he or she.)

I think that we're still a couple of decades away from being able to work in such a virtual environment. Of course there are plenty of companies that operate virtually already, but it's not mainstream yet. It won't be until The Boss starts being able to type just as quickly as she can speak and minions start being just as responsive to written orders as they are to verbal ones. How long do we have until this virtual world takes over? I'm not sure. Probably at least another decade.

So, what does this have to do with being Right or being Right Now? I think, and hope, that in the virtual world, more and more women can work part time from home and thus be Ms. Right and not Ms. Right Now. With the baby boomers retiring we'll need all the extra manpower, or womanpower I should say, that we can get. Also, I think that it will be liberating for the generation of moms who had to choose and for those who will follow them.

I am lucky enough that my work can be done from my computer at home, part time, when I get to it and in a big part that's because I work for myself. Most others are not this lucky. They require actual employment at, as James Bond said "an honest job". With benefits. And a steady paycheck.

So, the next time you snub at someone who works part time, give some real thought to how much time you are really needed at your job and how much time you surf the web. I'm guessing it's only 60% or so.

The secret life of babies

2008-09-19T01:45:00.001-07:00

I want you to think back a little bit. When was the last time that you went to sleep parallel to your bed and woke up perpendicular to it? It sounds like an odd question, doesn't it. I'll get back to it in a little while.

I went to a La Leche League meeting when my daughter was about 2 months old and one of the leaders, when asked whether one baby's frequent nursing at night was a symptom of co-sleeping, answered that it's perfectly normal for babies to wake up at night frequently to nurse and that as a mother you don't want your baby to sleep through the night anyway because you'll miss out on the bonding of nursing at night. That's total crap.

From the moment a new baby makes it into the life of a family, the mother, father and everyone who hears that baby crying at night - the neighbors, the neighborhood cat, the cops driving by on night patrol - want that baby to sleep from 8pm to 6 am at least. Continuously. Without crying or needing a diaper change or nursing.

I can appreciate the challenge here. Dr. Sears says that babies love to practice their newly acquired skills at night. They wake up and sit if they've just learned to sit up, or walk around the crib if they've just learned to walk. They roll, turn over, play with their pacifier, play with the crib bumper, kick off their blanket. Sometimes they bang their pacifier against the crib bars, reminiscent of the way prisoners bang their metal cups along their cell bars. This problem of playing at night is exacerbated by the short sleep cycles that babies have, and so if it seems that your infant is waking up every hour, it's because they probably are.

As I write this post, the clock reads 4:53am. My daughter is sound asleep after her now-all-too-regular 4 am feeding and I am wide awake. In fact, she fell asleep while nursing in my arms, warm and snugly. I'm debating the benefits of using the same remedy on myself - a warm glass of milk and a cuddle with something warm. I've nixed the idea of the milk and settled for water off my bedside table. The computer is really warm and I'm snuggled with it in bed. And now that I've put the post to electronic memory, I'm hoping that I won't be staying up much longer, placticing my newly acquired skill of blogging.

The day pass is $3 for the week

2008-08-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

I have to describe to you the day we had today because it's fading into the recesses of my memory all too quickly and it was just too good to be true. It was a comedy of errors from the start.

The day started at 1am. You read that correctly. That's 1am. Not 1pm. Our daughter decided that it was time to party and refused to go to sleep until the wee hour of 3 or 4 or some other such thing. When she woke up well rested at 7am, my husband and I drew straws for who would go to hang out with her and who would get to sleep a little more. I lost.

9:15am: We're leaving the house, on our way to Stroudsburg, somewhere in PA. We needed to stop by a local library to print out some coupons for ACMoore, since we'd be passing it on the way and I needed to get a fill for my yarn habit.

9:45am: We've on our way. Google could not exactly pin point the location of 5540 Rt. 611 but it didn't look too far. There were no numbers that I can spot as we drove (and the one I saw 534 didn't look encouraging), but the slew of abandoned buildings didn't look enticing.

10:05am: We finally get to the municipal center, with the police, etc. offices, and we ask a gentleman if there is a library somewhere near. He swears up and down that the closest library is a clear 5 miles in the opposite direction and that there isn't a library here. He says, go past Stroud Mall, you'll see a Midas, then you can't miss the building, it's on the left, it's huge, yada yada. Disappointed, we pull around the driveway to get back to the exit, and what do we see? Mount Pocono Public Library. It's on the other side of the building where we just had the conversation about the lack of such a library anywhere close.

10:10am: I enter the 2nd floor of the county library, and ask if there are computers with a printer that I can use. The very kind librarian points me to a set, and then, almost absent mindelessly asks if I am a resident. I, with a straight face, say yes. This is where I get in trouble. Since I have no proof that anyone actually pays taxes here, I have to buy a day pass. Undaunted, I ask: "How much is a day pass?" The librarian answers: "It's $3 for the week." It took all of my composure not to laugh at the fact that a day pass is only sold by the week.

10:12am: I head back to the car to get cash from my husband as I realize that I have none. I'm guessing they don't take cards.

10:15am: I sit down at the computer. I find ACMoore.com, I get to the coupons page. The library doesn't have Adobe Reader installed on the computers to I can't open the PDF page with the coupon. Argh.

10:17am: In a cold sweat, I search Google for a web based PDF reader. I find one called Issau or some other such thing (it's actually pretty good). They make me register. I would typically object to such a thing, but I no longer care. I am on a mission.

10:23am: I figure out how to screen shoot from the viewer since I can't figure out how to print from it (there is actually a clear print button, but i was too frazzled to see it). I print one copy. Check it. Pay the required 15cents per page to the librarian. I check my wallet, I have only 30 more cents, so my dreams of printing many coupons in the chance that we'll go back some time later in the week are dashed. I print 2 more pages, empty out my wallet and head back to the car to find one stark raving mad husband who has spent 30 minutes in the car waiting for me to get back from the library he didn't want to go to with coupons to a store he doesn't want to go to.
10:35am: We're finally on our way to Stroudsbourg. 5 miles go by. 7miles go by. 10 miles go by. We've now passed another municipal library. Still no "you can't miss it" building. Still no Midas. Finally at about 11am, we see the library, we see Midas, we see the huge building, and it actually was large and we didn't miss it.

11:05am: We stop at ACMoore. We buy yarn and then we do the calculation: $8 saved - $3 weekly day pass - $0.45 for copies - extra gas. Yeah - we had pretty much broken even.

I have to add another note here. Ever since we arrived here on Friday night, my husband has been in search of a good Chinese place. We didn't find one on Friday night. Since we were heading in a different direction today, we kept an eye out. Guess what? There are no Chinese places besides the greasy-spoon-take-out-joints within a 20 mile radius of the house. Oh, well, I guess we'll have to do this at home.

After we did get to Stroudsburg, we got complemented 4 times on what a nice little boy we have. I think I'll have to sew some flowers onto her jeans. Otherwise, she does look like a boy.

By the way, Stroudsburg is a very nice little town. I don't like that a major route with trucks and all goes right through the center, but otherwise, it's great. We had lunch at great Turkish restaurant called Istanbul cafe. They had fantastic kataifi and excellent Turkish coffee. We should know as my husband had 3 servings.

When we got home, we traded naps and then my husband made ostrich steaks. You read that correctly. Ostrich tastes like a mixture between chicken, turkey and beef. Try to imagine that or go to your local butcher and order some.

Sleep

2008-08-21T05:32:00.000-07:00

"To sleep, perchance to dream". Doesn't that sounds like the best thing? Sweet sleep and some sweet dreams. Ok, I guess it's not from a very warm and cozy play, but at least the sentiment is nice. I can tell you what my dreams are made of: sleeping on nice flowy white sheets, with a soft breeze gliding through the room, waking up to the sound of the birds chirping outside and the smell of pancakes cooking in the kitchen. That's the stuff. Really.

I was walking along the streets of Brookline early one morning, sipping my freshly made Starbucks hot chocolate, thinking to myself that I'd better find a nice long street so that I won't constantly have to think about where to go and which turn to make. So that my road can be straight, and I can be pushing my sleeping child in her stroller without thinking much of anything.

Did you ever notice that all moms with young children have the same look on their face. Underslept, overtired, puffy eyes. We nod to each other the same way that bus drivers nod to each other as they pass. The sort of acknowledgement of the woes and difficulties. The acknowledgement that we understand, better than anybody else on the street.

I loathe mothers who walk out, composed, with make up on, with clean pressed clothing, and head out confidently with their stroller to their Pilates or some other such thing. Then I have to remind myself that in the last 6 months, there has probably been 1 occasion when, with the help of someone, I got out of the house without getting pucked on in the stairwell, with my hair composed, with some makeup on, and with decent clothing. I don't go to pilates. That's the next hurdle. Perhaps baby ups can count for exercise for another two months or so, and then I'll have to find a real exercise routine.

And so, dear readers, I must say: "Goodnight and good luck". May your night be restful. May your baby, if you have one, seize fighting sleep for this just one evening and may you get all the sleep your dreams are made of.

A League of Their Own

2008-07-29T18:27:00.001-07:00

When you become a first time mother, there is a vast array of organizations that are ready and willing to lend you their services. Most are for profit and have some very specific marketing goals in mind. Think Isis Maternity for those of you who are local folk. Not so of the La Leche League (LLL).

I first heard of LLL through a friend who breastfeeds her baby. It seemed like a good thing to think about, but I didn't contact anyone or do anything until I was at home with a 3 week old baby and seriously sore nipples that I didn't know what to do about. I called up a friendly LLL leader (who I had never met or spoken to) who talked me through some things that could be wrong and what I could try for remedy. I can't quite remember what, if anything, of what she said I actually tried and what, if anything, helped. But I very clearly remember that I found great solice from the fact that there was a person on the other end of the line who wanted nothing from me and who was sitting there, ready to listen to my woes and offer advice.

So, why am I telling you such personal and odd facts? Because I want to dispell this notion that LLL is some crazy cult that will make you breastfeed your kid until they are well into college. That is simply not the case. While there are certainly some mothers who are still breastfeeding children well into their 4th year (and I raise an eyebrow on that), the vast majority of the moms who come breasfeed until a year or even less. To anyone who thinks a year is too long to breastfeed, please note that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers breastfeed until 1 year. Although maybe some of you with kids think that they are some crazy cooky cult.

And so, if any of you know a pregnant woman or a new mother who wants to breastfeed but may need a little help, send her to http://www.llli.org/ and she's sure to find the help she needs. I've been to 3 meetings and enjoyed all of them.

By the way, I have to mention one story because it's been burning in my memory. I was at a baby shower not that long ago and the LLL came up as a good support group for breastfeeding moms. Then one expecting mother recalled the horror story of her friend who was going to LLL. Yada, yada, yada, the friend gets mastitis and guess what? The evil leaders at LLL were telling her to keep breastfeeding while all she wanted to do was stop because she was in horrible pain. You should see this woman's face. To an unsuspecting deaf onlooker, she was talking about war crimes.

I know mastitis very well - I've had it 3 times. Mastitis may be cured by antibiotics, but you won't get rid of the pain until you empty your plug. If you stop breastfeeding your kid because you have mastitis, you get horrible engorgement because your body still thinks that you should be feeding your baby (and it's right). If that woman thought she was in pain from the infection, she had no idea what was coming!

Here comes the G - our first try of the gDiapers

2008-07-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow greenies,

I am here to save the planet, one diaper at a time. Well, maybe I won't quite be able to save the planet, that's Al Gore's job, but I hope to make a small impact with my choices as a consumer and a mother.

This whole green thing started my realization that diapers generate a fantastic amount of waste. So, naturally, when I was pregnant, I did research about cloth diapers (I even attended a very long and very boring seminar). We finally bought about $200 worth of cloth diapering supplies, which included fantastic wool diaper covers. These worked for about 3 months, at which point Golda developed a heat rash from all the extra layers of cloth and wool and I had to admit defeat. Not to mention the diapers impeding her ability to move.

Fast forward 2 months later - about 300 disposable diapers are being moved to local landfills.

What to do? What to do?

Thankfully, a friend had tried the gDiaper and since it didn't work for her son, it was available and ready for me to try, which I did today with my daughter. These work pretty well, with some minor issues like the fact that the clips press into her skin and leave scary looking red marks. I think that we can solve most of these by upgrading to Mediums, since she is getting too big for Small and I love the fact that I don't have to empty the trash every day in her room and that we're doing a small thing for the planet.

If I were hired to help the folks at gDiapers improve their product, I would suggest the following:
1. Get rid of the clips (these hold the waterproof layer onto the cover). Replace them with Velcro or some other brilliantly sticky idea. Perhaps even a piece of elastic.
2. Make the bands around the legs tighter. My kid's super chunky thighs were still not quite filling the bands on the Smalls. Imagine what poor little skinny babies have to go through.
3. Include more covers and plastic shields in the starter kit or sell them separately in stores (which they don't do) or online (for cheap - right now, the covers are $17 online, which is about the cost of a super microfiber diaper like BumGenius and thus, is too much). I am also a big believe that you ought to make the money on the inserts - NOT on the covers. Think of printer companies who make money on the cartidges and only scant profit on the printer itself.
4. People love to get fun stuff - like their kid's name on the diapers and different colors for different sizes. I happen to be lucky, that my baby's name starts with a G, but others might like their kids' initials on the diapers as well. You can be the Williams Sonoma of the diaper world.
5. These things have a learning curve. You really need to have some people do demos. Like the Tupperware parties, we'll have diapering parties. Get some experienced moms who have done this, give them some demo equipment (like a bucket to simulate the toilet for a proper flushing demo) and set them loose. An hourly rate plus some commission based on the amount of starter kits they sell. If anyone from gDiapers is reading this - just send a note, I can help.

P.S. If you lose your swishstick (used for turning the insides of the diapers into toilet soup), disposable chopsticks work just as well.

"To Zip or Not to Zip" or "The Ode to My Car"

2008-07-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

When my daughter was about 5 weeks old, I discovered that my car had a flat tire. Naturally, I did not discover this until I was already on the street, rolling along. Had I been without a baby in a two door car, I would have probably been much more composed. But alas, I was still high on my post-partum hormones, so this was not a calm moment for me. My first instinct was to cry. Which I did not. My second was to call my husband for help, which I did not. My third instinct was to call AAA and use our gold membership for a quick tire change (thankfully, I had a spare in the trunk). Which I did.

As the guy was leaving, I said to him, "Is the spare tire supposed to be so flat?" He said: "Yeah, it's a donut, lady!". Thankfully, my subsequent trip to Natick was without mishaps.

When I got into the car the next day, I yet again discovered that I had a flat tire, this time the spare itself was flat. Aha. Now AAA can't really help. First, I again wanted to cry. Thankfully for my self esteem, I did not. Then I decided to call my husband for help. Thankfully, I nixed that also. Then, I decided to call the only people who could help me - Sullivan Tire down the street from us. They helped! They added air to my spare AND told me 4 hours later that my holy tire was unrepairable.

Fast forward two months later, on a hot summer day, I am cruising to Natick (maybe I shouldn't go to Natick any more) on 4 new tires. I turn on the AC only to realize that there is no AC and the air that's projected at me is just as hot as the air outside (maybe a little hotter). So, I do the only reasonable thing and go to the Sullivan Tire guys again and get some freon. $200 dollars. One week later, I have no AC again! Do you see where this is going? Well, we donated my car with brand new tires to WGBH on June 2nd. It's blue book value was $500 in fair condition and $900 in excellent condition. Guess how much they sold it for? $1400. No joke.

So, why is this post titled, "To zip or not to zip?" As you can imagine, a modern woman in a city hardly needs a full time car. So, I've done the only reasonable thing and signed up for a part time car, a Zipcar to be exact. So, now, I am a Zipster, baby in tow and all. And every time I think that I may need to go somewhere, I say to myself, "To zip or not to zip?" And that is the question.

At the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts), Boston

2008-07-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

My husband and I decided to be brave and took our 4 month old daughter to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

There are a lot of things you can learn form a place based on their ability to support a visit with a baby. First of all, I breastfeed my daughter, so I need a place to sit down and feed. As you can imagine, at the museum, the vast majority of benches are in the middle of the galleries, which make them hardly convenient for discreet breastfeeding, even with a wrap.

After about two hours of browsing the galleries and trying to note a discreet bench, we decided that we’d had enough dirty looks about our crying kid and that it was time to feed. I asked one of the very helpful MFA employees (no sarcasm here, they really are helpful) if there was a place I could feed my baby. What did I expect as an answer? I was guessing that she would make some suggestions about some discreet corners that afforded some amount of privacy and a plushy bench. I could not believe my astonishment when she said that there was a changing station and nursing room directly behind us, enclosed by, don’t laugh, glass doors. Upon further inspection we realized that the doors were not see-through.

Once inside this triangular room, we checked the walls several times to make sure that there wasn’t another door through which we were supposed to pass to get to the nursing/changing room. My husband even checked the map to see if this led somewhere else. It did not. I must mention here that although the rest of the museum was a comfortable cool temperature, this closet, I mean, nursing room, had no AC and was decidedly muggy and hot. I’ll leave it to you to imagine how much sweat poured off me while I was holding my very warm baby for 40 minutes.

Here is a list of items in the changing station/nursing room, from right to left as you enter: one(1) narrow wood bench, one (1) piano with its own small bench, two (2) poles with extendable ropes (used for orchestrating masses into lines or blocking off areas), four or five (4 or 5) bookcases stacked into the corner, one (1) bronze replica of the Lincoln memorial, four (4) boards the size of a door stacked in the other corner, and one (1) set of lockers, presumably used for employee belongings since some of them were locked. Notice that nowhere in this list is a comfortable chair or couch for nursing, a sink for rinsing bottles, a bottle warmer or a changing table. I’m not sure where we would have changed our baby if we didn’t have a stroller with us, but probably the banged up, slightly dirty marble floor would be the only option.

While trying to pass the time, my husband and I tried to think of good uses for the various objects in the room. For starters, the piano is obvious. While you feed your child, your husband can play some Mozart to stimulate their brain development. The replica of the Lincoln memorial must be there so that you can rub his right knee and get some luck, ‘cause you’ll need all the luck you can get. The bookshelves are part of an obstacle course along with the ropes for your other children. The boards are probably meant to divide the room should another mother come in to feed her baby, which she would have to do on the floor because I was occupying the only bench suitable for this process.

I understand the issue at hand here. The MFA is going through a series of major renovations and everyone’s time and energy is consumed with making this happen. And as a parent who wants her child to grow up with culture and to have a good museum nearby that she can visit on class trips or weekend jaunts with her parents I am going to cut the museum a little slack here. But I can’t imagine that there isn’t a small chair that can be spared and a table that can be added to this room. It doesn’t take much to make a big difference. I would be happy to lend my consulting services to help the museum plan their parents-with-baby experience.

On our way out, we did locate a changing table… It was mounted to the wall in one of the stairways. Not quite the ideal place.

So, what have we learned about the MFA in this trip? They’ve definitely thought about the patron experience, even about their smallest visitors, which is great! A few more finishing touches and the visit will be much better.