My Geek Baby

Calling all kids who want to ride in the bike parade as part of the Nelson County July 4th celebration! If you live in or around Nelson County, VA (30 miles west of Charlottesville), you can watch or participate in the parade.

(not an actual pic from the parade, but these kids are pretty cute)

My sister Kim noticed something was missing from her small close-knit community a few years back; a July 4th celebration. So she started one. It grows more each year; more people want to get involved, and this year the local radio station will be there too, with radio personality, “The Bear.”

Here are some details.
What: 4th of July Parade
When: Friday, July 4, 2008
Time: 11:00am
Where: Front Street & Main Street, Lovingston

Sign up:
e-mail: nelsonparade@yahoo.com
phone: 263-6700
fax: 263-6713
address: P.O. Box 352, Lovingston, VA 22949

More information on the Nelson County Parade blog

PSA: This post is rated G for “Gross.”

Every parent thinks it’s adorable when their kid had liquefied peas smeared on their chubby little face but to everyone else it looks like duck poop. Indie is sitting up and practicing with some rice cereal.

For those who would rather see a preview, a “before” shot, here she is contemplating rice cereal as dessert, with Honker and her squeaky toy that Jake thought was for a dog (we have two cats). If we switched over entirely, she’d starve, as very little gets swallowed.

“Yeah, sure I’ll try some”

“Oh that IS good.” She savors it like I savor a nice sip of Shiraz.

“There’s some on my chin. No, I got it, Mom. No need to scrape the spoon across my face again, thank you.”

But really she prefers finger foods.

Happy Dad’s Day

To Jake; who has learned that it does take a village to raise a child, but only one hand to change a diaper. Thanks for your infinite patience, willingness to get up in the middle of the night, and ability to make up a funny song in a matter of seconds.

Environmentalism has become trendy again - probably similar to how it was in the 1970’s - and this trend is a good one even if people fall off the wagon after gas prices go back down and they give up on their garden. As a suburban gardener I have a little space outdoors to grow some black-eyed susans, Asiatic lillies, basil, rosemary, tomatoes and peppers. What I can’t do easily is carry large bags of compost around to add nutrients to the garden. Compound guilt from using disposal diapers and what happens? I bought a composter!

The Enviocycle is a simple aerated bin.

I add 50 percent green waste (fruit, coffee grounds, egg shells, yard scraps) and 50 percent brown waste (shredded mail). And every few days I give is a spin like the wheel on The Price is Right.

In a few months, after it’s had a chance to decompose, I’ll have nutrient-rich compost for my garden.

Here’s what it looks like on the inside.

For readers wondering in horror how it smells? It smells like a freshly mowed lawn. I’m NOT throwing away dairy or meat in there so it’s pretty clean.

What’s this have to do with the baby? A lot. If she sees us recycling and composting, it will become second nature for her to do the same, to see the life cycle of food and waste. And she’ll have less garbage to haul to the curb when she’s old enough to do some chores. Next year?

For gardening on a larger-scale, check out my sister’s Black Oak Farm blog.

Baby’s room has a Nature theme.

Turtles, butterflies and ladybugs are all welcome here.

Pictures on the wall were covers from children’s books.

“I thought I heard a baby in here!” said my co-worker who sits near my office. I was trying to stroll Indie out with a quickness after a the maximum amount of time allowed to have kids in the office had passed.

Here’s part of the “new normal.” Daycare calls and tells me that Indira’s ear infection is looking kind of gross and want me to pick her up. OK, no problem. But I have a meeting after lunch that I need (want?) to be in person for. Why not just take the call from home? Usually that would work but I’m a managing editor of a magazine and sometimes you need to look at photos or graphics together or it’s simply more effective to have the meeting in person. Our art director was about to leave for vacation. I had to make a decision. So I did. And luckily, the awesome people I work with were totally cool with the fact that I had a sleeping baby in the meeting, and later an awake baby clinging and swinging from me like a hiker who just slipped off Mt. Everest. Decisions were made and we all went back to our tasks - mine was getting baby home before too many other people noticed she was there. But she was and I have to be OK with it. Life happens. Roll with it. Hopefully your colleagues will too.

Probably not a good idea to start baby on rice cereal the same week she has learned to blow raspberries. Ppppbbbllllssst.