Singing Every Day and Every Night...

I just read that the month of March is Sing with Your child Month! Aiden and I enjoy singing and dancing together at least once a day. As soon as he hears the music, he moves his little body excitedly and claps his hands. Even at the young age of 11 months, he knows that when we put on the music it is a fun time to be creative, silly, sing and dance around together.
When I worked at this amazing pre-school in Wyoming a few years ago, I was introduced to the Music Together program. Every week a Music Together teacher came to our school and taught music and movement to all of the classes. The songs were catchy, easy to learn and beautifully melodic. Each child and teacher is given a Music Together CD and songbook and are encouraged to bring the music home and enjoy with their parents. I soon found myself listening to the Music Together CD in my car with my husband on long road trips. He soon caught the Music Together bug and quickly started humming along-but don't tell him I said anything about THAT! :)
Classes were only 30-45 minutes long-perfect for the short attention span of a 5 year old and everyone was encouraged to only be as involved as they were comfortable with. Dancing with scarves, learning and repeating tonal patterns, finger-plays, singing in a round, acting out feelings, and having an instrumental jam session were just a few of the fun activities that took place in our classes. These classes introduce children to the joy of making music rather than passively receiving it from the television or a CD. While participating class, it was easy to completely  relax and forget all our troubles of life and become a carefree child again.
Music Together is an internationally recognized program for children ages 0-5 and the adults who love and care for them. The first public class took place in 1987 pioneering the concept of research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music curriculum that strongly encourages adult involvement. Parents and children can create so many good memories and bonding in a music class and bring the songs home for the rest of the family to enjoy. Visit the Music Together website to learn more about finding a class near you. I am hoping to sign up for a class as a birthday present when Aiden turns one. I'll be sure to report back on how he likes it :)
Here is a recent video that was just posted on the Music Together facebook page. A Music Together teacher was taking a bike tour through Africa and stopped to teach some children a song and activity to the tune of "Biddy Biddy" from the Drum song collection.
What are some of your favorite songs that you and your family sing together?

Yummies for Aiden's Tummy

From the moment I learned of my pregnancy with Aiden, I became super careful of what I put into my body. I drank so much water and when I did occasionally have a soda it was a Hansen's and not a Pepsi. I added more fresh fruits and vegetables to my diet and cut out red meat completely. (Well actually my body did that on it's own as I was disgusted by red meat my entire pregnancy.) I believe it may have been a natural defense mechanism of my pregnant body, loosing the cravings for foods that were not so good for myself and my baby and replacing them with cravings for foods such as fruits, veggies, whole grains and white meats. Every time I ate something that was not going to be beneficial for my growing fetus such as a cookie or a king-sized Butterfinger bar, I imagined my tiny baby ingesting all that sugar and the guilt set in. This kept my sugar-binges under control. I always ate whenever hunger set in because I knew if I didn't, nausea would come and that wouldn't be a pretty sight. For the last trimester of my pregnancy I even woke up at 4am with this crazy, insatiable hunger that wouldn't allow me to sleep until I ate. I remember feeling like my stomach was eating itself away until I fed it. My little guy was sure hungry at all hours of the day and night just as he would be after he was born.
After I gave birth and began breast-feeding, I continued to have an even greater awareness of what was going into my body as I held my little angel baby looking at me with his little, trusting eyes. I continued the healthy eating with the mindset that I was the sole source of all his nutrients, AKA the "liquid gold."  I began feeding Aiden whenever he wanted it from me, free of any schedule. Somewhere in all the preparing for motherhood books  I remember reading about how some people think it is so important to put baby on a feeding schedule from day one. Something about this felt off even before I dabbled in my knowledge of the attachment parenting principals. I mean seriously, do we deny ourselves the luxury of eating whenever we feel the need? Then why is it necessary to apply this scheduling to a newborn baby who doesn't even know night from day? Who's needs are we fulfilling when we schedule a baby? Ours or theirs? And who's needs should come first? These questions led me to learning more about attachment parenting or parenting on instinct. It felt right to honor my baby's need to be fed at any time just as fulfilling my need to eat at all hours during pregnancy.
As Aiden grew and began eating solids, I began to get more creative and making all of his food myself. I just figured if I'm already feeding him the best milk possible, why mess up the plan with processed baby food? I feel that just the act of breast-feeding sets your mind to continuing the pattern of eating whole, fresh foods as much as possible. It becomes part of your sub-conscience. You are what you eat right? So my baby food making frenzy began. I made friends with my magic bullet, a butternut squash from my local farmer's market and these little baby cubes containers, (for freezer storage) and was happy to put in a little extra effort to give me the peace of mind that I was providing him with the most nutritious food I could.
Aiden is now 11 months old and thriving. His favorite foods are yams, bananas, apples, guacamole, my home made chicken noodle soup and as of tonight my, "Go Green Orzo" which I created tonight in a pinch as we had almost run out of Aiden-friendly foods. Before eating this dish, Aiden refused his peas. He threw them at me. He smashed them into his hair. He even faked coughed as if he was choking on them. I had to think of a way for him to enjoy them so I came up with this recipe on a desperate attempt for him to re-think his boo on peas. He LOVED it! Yea!  Here's the recipe, happy eating!

Aiden's Go Green Orzo

1 box of orzo
1 small tub of pesto sauce, (or make your own)
1/4 stick of butter
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 bag of (thawed) frozen peas

Cook orzo according to directions on the box. Drain and add butter, cheese, pesto sauce and peas. Mix and enjoy!

This post is part of the 2010 API Principles of Parenting blog carnival, a series of monthly parenting blog carnivals, hosted by API Speaks. Learn more about attachment parenting by visiting the API website.

Two Foodies, A Baby, and A Major Roadtrip :)

Last month was spent up in Oregon having some quality time with our family. We are so lucky that my husband's job allows him to telecommute when need be. It was a two day trip from the bay area to the suburbs of Portland where our family lives. The car was loaded with baby gear and plenty of snacks to keep us energized for the long trips. Aiden did amazingly well on the road on the way there and back. We were so very lucky for that. 14 hours in 2 days on the road is enough to make anyone a little crazy let alone a 10 month old baby :)

On the way home we decided to take a detour to the coast and through the redwoods on HWY 101 which I had never been. We stayed the night in a beautiful Hampton Inn in Crescent City, CA with an ocean view and it was extremely affordable! Crescent City was a quaint little coastal town with only a few restaurants and a Safeway thank goodness! I'm always hopeful of at least one good supermarket when traveling to new places in case we find ourselves needing some baby Tylenol or Pedialyte at 2am. In the morning we used our UrbanSpoon app on our iphone to find the best restaurant for breakfast in this new town. Our goal was to eat organically the whole way down the 101 that day, just for kicks not because we are the kind of people who ONLY eat organically but we thought it would be fun to seek out the healthiest options of road food on this trip. Good 'ole Urban Spoon led us to the Good Harvest Cafe which was a great pick! The avocado, bacon, and cheddar omelet was to die for and the french toast was just crispy enough to withstand the heaping amounts of maple syrup I drizzled on. Mmmmmm I am starting to salivate just remembering it. Considering some late night french toast maybe...
We continued on our journey driving along the coast with the windows down, the new Norah Jones album turned up, breathing in the salty sea air mixed with the scent big, green redwoods. The ocean water sparkled that day and Aiden slept most of the morning drive.

Our next stop was Arcata, home of CSU Humboldt and more hippies than I'd ever seen in my whole life! Wow there were so many hippies! And not even the kind of preppy REI hippies you see in most parts, I'm talking the red-eyed, dreads, incense-saturated, just rolled out of bed hippies! And the OLD hippies like my parents age. The ones who probably followed the Grateful Dead and then never went on to do anything else with their lives except move to Arcata, sit on the sidewalk outside a store and sell friendship bracelets. Since we were in hippie-ville we made sure to dress our little hipster baby accordingly...

About 12 miles down the road from Arcata is the gorgeous, Victorian-inspired town of Eureka. We decided to eat there for lunch because I found this awesome new North Coast CO-OP with an amazing selection of organic foods, wines, a full service deli, fresh baked breads, the BEST prices of teas I've ever seen and a HUGE organic health and beauty section. I wanted to shop all day! We got the yummiest free-range turkey and avocado sandwich on a fresh baked whole wheat roll and I was in heaven. We even found Aiden some Earth's Best gourmet baby food that he scarfed down. It was a variety that I hadn't seen anywhere else-chicken risotto with mango...
If there's one thing those hippies have got right it is the way that they eat. All along our drive that day on the 101 were some awesome looking Natural food stores and Co-ops. The demand for good food must be high around there because I have never seen such a high concentration of quality grocery stores and organic restaurants than down the 101.

On to view some of God's most fantastic natural wonders...da da DUM.....The Redwoods!

A "Breast-Stop" and then on to Ukiah for dinner. I found this restaurant in one of those free tourist magazines I took at one of the redwood parks we stopped at earlier. What caught my eye was, "...the first organic brewery in the nation..." Sweet! An organic brewery. There's always great food at breweries so we went for it. The Ukiah Brewing Co. lived up to the hype. I had an organic greens pear salad with walnuts and endives and a scrumptious viniagrette. For my entree I had the chicken strips which were crisped to perfection and cajun french fries. YUM. Organic ketchup and mustard sat on every table and when we asked if they could heat up Aiden's food in the microwave, (which we avoid at home) the waitress politely replied, " Oh we don't HAVE a microwave. Microwaves are bad for your food." Right on girlfriend, RIGHT ON! LOVE it! So she brought us a cup of boiling water instead to heat his food. Live music filled the air and a beautiful 1930's-looking bar gave us something fun to look at. If you ever find yourself in Ukiah, check it out.
It IS possible to eat well on a roadtrip. If you have an iphone use the Urban Spoon app, if not than do your research before you get in the car but when there's a will to avoid nasty Mickey D's, there's probably a natural foods store right up the street. Well unless you live in middle America then you're screwed. When we drove from Wyoming through Nebraska there was nothing but greasy spoons called Perkins. NASTY old people food. If driving in the midwest where they haven't yet discovered healthy eating then pack your own lunch. The End :)