Playing with Sounds

Summer means lots of outdoor activities with a toddler in tow. One of the best things about our community is the overwhelming number of options provided by our area metroparks. One of Sprout's favorites is the Children's Discovery Garden. Our baby loves water more than I think any child I've ever known. The discovery garden has a waterfall cave and an artificial stream with rocks that she enjoys exploring. One of her favorite things at the garden, however, is the Sound Maze with its oversized musical instruments created by SoundPlay.com.

I really want to encourage my daughter's interest in music so I'm hoping to spend some time with her playing and building musical instruments. Between all of the fabulous PVC percussion instruments inspired by the Blue Man Group and the instructions on this website, we should be able to satisfy the musical yearnings of 100s of children.

Work With Me!

I'm currently bidding on yarn to make this shawl. I'm obsessed with yarn right now and with shawls. Probably because I'm making shawl pins.

Work With Me!

NOLA Public Library seeking books

I found this on another blog and wanted to post it here, as much so that I'd know where to find the information when I get some books together as for anything else.

Seeking Book Donations
The New Orleans Public Library
(New Orleans LA)
The New Orleans Public Library is asking for any and all hardcover and paperback books for people of all ages in an effort to restock the shelves after Katrina. The staff will assess which titles will be designated for its collections. The rest will be distributed to destitute families or sold for library fundraising. Please send your books to:

Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations
New Orleans Public Library
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70112

If you tell the post office that they are for the library in New Orleans, they will give you the library rate which is slightly less than the book rate.
_______________

This is from:

http://www.nyfa.org/opp_detail.asp?%20type=Opportunity&id=95&fid=1&sid=54&oppid=9591

The New Orleans Public Library site is:

http://nutrias.org/

Tags:

• NOLA
• NewOrleans
• BigEasy
• Katrina
• Donations

I Love Gadgets For My Baby

One of the links in my blogroll (available in the sidebar) is to BabyGadget.net. Everyday, as I browse through the many blogs that I'm subscribed to through Bloglines, I look forward to the cool new stuff that I see on the BabyGadget website. Were it not for the BabyGadget RSS feed, I would never have known about a thermometer for babies that clips to their diaper and will allow you to monitor the temperature of a sleeping baby without waking her thanks to a remote with a built in alarm that will sound if your child's fever rises above a selected temperature. (It may not be as accurate as a rectal temp but if you noticed an increased temperature you could always check with the rectal thermometer before calling the pediatrician.)

I also owe BabyGadget for alerting me to the existance of the Sack n Seat. A portable fabric child restraint which enables parents to secure their infants or toddlers to almost any kitchen or dining chair. A useful trick when you're at the home of a childless (childfree?) family friend or when all the high chairs at the corner bar have been snagged by patrons who are already seated.

BabyGadget also features cool toys. I absolutely adore this wooden anatomy puzzle and these car toys with interchangeable parts are way too much fun to ever let the kids play with.

Much of the baby furniture featured on BabyGadget appeals to me because of its modern aesthetics. (For whatever reason, modern furnishings were not covered in any of the decorative arts courses that I took in college. As a consequence, I never spent an afternoon in an overly warm classroom watching an endless series of slides of the legs or arms of Eames chairs while struggling to stay awake.) A recent post featured modular furnishings by Crival which could be modified in numerous ways so that it was both functional as furnishings and interesting as sculpture and/or puzzle. The editors of BabyGadget and I apparently read at least one common blog because I've seen several items posted that I'd seen first on DaddyTypes.

Whether it's toys, furniture or books, one thing that the BabyGaget site has taught me is that I'm really, really grateful that the Moma Online Store does not have an RSS feed that will keep me posted on new items in their inventory or tell me what's on sale... I can't afford to know.

Tags:

• BabyGaget
• DaddyTypes
• Crival
• babies
• MoMA

A way to undo what we do every day

I fantasize often about a shiney new car... or at least a functioning second car that I can use to run errands, visit friends, take Mica to the Boonshoft or play dates, and take myself back to Bellydance classes or weight loss group meetings. In a perfect world I'd have a beautiful and afordable hybrid station wagon or minivan that got 50+ miles to the gallon and produced almost no emissions.

Since I'm unaware of any vehicle on the market that meets that description, and since I'm unlikely to be in a position to be picky should a functioning second vehicle suggest itself, I admit that I've had some concerns about the environmental impact of becoming a 2 car family. (or the environmental impact of the 1993 Ford Escort wagon which serves as our primary vehicle for that matter)

Enter TerraPass, a company that pools small contributions from people like me and invests them in clean energy and projects/programs that reduce the impact of emissions on the environment. The focus is specifically on reducing global warming by counteracting the carbondioxide produced by vehicles, so the $49.95/year that the TerraPass would cost to offset the emissions of our little red wagon wouldn't make up for the environmental impact of a slow oil leak. Still, for $0.14/day, I'm sure it's nice to feel like you're really doing something about the impact that your daily commute or your second trip to the grocery store in a week. (because you forgot to get diapers when you went the first time)

http://www.terrapass.com/index.html

Tags:

• terrapass
• car-shopping
• environmentalism

Omphaloskepsis

I had the wonderful opportunity this evening to attend Sandstorm, a "Celebration of Middle Eastern Dance" at the Schuster Center in Dayton. I loved the performances, what I saw of them. Unfortunately, the organizers of the show neglected to consider the opacity of the people who would occupy the seats. As a consequence, no one seated further back than the third row was able to see the performances as they were meant to be viewed. Of the earliest performances, I can only say that several of the performers had lovely hair and/or head coverings. Once we moved to stand next to the wall, we saw some amazing dancing.

And now, I must address myself to the "persons" seated behind us for the performance. I resisted the temptation to ask this question during the performance and had moved out of range to ask it during either the intermission or following the show, so I'll ask here...

"Do you make it a habit to speak through live performances or should those of us unfortunate enough to be seated within earshot consider ourselves honored by your running dialogue throughout the show? I realize that you couldn't see anything. No one could see anything!!!!! But it really did not improve anyone's appreciation of the show to hear you talk. Would you mind, in future, limiting your oratory to the intermission and the period following the show? Thank you so very much."

Mind candy

Bembo.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

I went through this whole application, one letter at a time, with Miss Mica sitting on my lap. She absolutely loved it. As something of a type junkie, I have to admit that I was pretty enthralled myself.