Bird and Little Bird

In the Glue Department: A Sneak Peek at Volume Seven.

Goodness.  Did I say something about popping in with a preview of the latest issue of Alphabet Glue?  I think I did.  Only I promised you all said preview would appear in this space sometime around Tuesday.  Well, better late than never?  I think so.

 

Volume Seven will offer you and yours everything from indoor stargazing to paperfolding projects that build both stories and temporary housing for backyard bugs.  There are handmade books designed to tag along when you hit the road for summer adventures, and of course, brand new booklists organized both by theme and reading level.

 

I must say, Volume Seven of Alphabet Glue is reasonably fantastic, and I can't wait to share it with you.  So, let's meet back here tomorrow morning and I'll do just that.  

Kitchen Table Science: Lava Lamps.

I will begin by acknowledging that until now, this has not been the sort of blog where I exhort you to go out and purchase a box of Alka-Seltzer post haste.  But folks, that is all about to change.  I'm not sure how many of you are already familiar with Steve Spengler Science, but if you are at all the sort of person who likes to make reasonably sized messes out of household items in the name of scientific experimentation, you probably should be.  Mariam has to present a science experiment in class this afternoon, so yesterday we tried these homemade lava lamps thinking they were a possible contender.  Well, they win.

 

The basic idea is this: you mix 3 parts oil with one part water and ten or so drops of food coloring in a container with a tight fitting lid.  At first, the food coloring will just kind of sit in tiny blobs at the bottom of your container, attaching itself to the water as it sinks. 

 

The food coloring will start to become a little more diffuse, but will still generally hang out in the bottom part of the container.  But then...

You start adding the Alka-Seltzer and...

 

The jar turns into a do-it-yourself lava lamp! Once the bubbling from the Alka-Seltzer has stopped, put a lid on the jar and turn it in different directions to see big, fun blobs of color move around.  I suspect it would be awesome to look at with a flashlight in the dark as well.  

To read more about the details of the experiment as well as why it works, check out  this page on the Steve Spengler website.  I think that there is even a fun video to go along with the whole deal.  Enjoy!

The Week That Was.

This past week: 

- The big kid lost a tooth.  The little one gained one.  A surprising amount of drama surrounded both of these events.

- Speaking of said drama, Mariam's tooth-losing was a big enough ordeal for her that afterwards we had the following exchange: 

"Mama, I'm pretty sure that you are the tooth fairy, so could you not leave any money in my tooth pillow tonight.  I need you to wait another day."

"Why? Is it just more excitement than you can handle right now?"

"Yes. I've had enough. I need a break."

- Glue, Glue, Glue. As in, the Alphabet variety.  Baby nap times were dedicated to the cause of bringing you all Volume Seven in a timely fashion. Aiming for Friday, June 1st.  Perhaps a preview post round about Tuesday or Wednesday?  In the meantime, see the above photo for a little hint about what's inside. 

- Our wooden space playset from Armadillo Dreams arrived. It turns out to be in that special category of toys that I love so much that it is a little bit hard to accept that it isn't actually for me.  Apparently I'm supposed to let my kids play with it.  Oh, and Armadillo Dreams is having a sale through 5/28. Everything in the shop is 25% off.  I've got my eye on that narwhal. 

- The response to the Read Aloud Book Along idea was instant and amazing. I can't wait to read along with you all!  I will send out an email with the book choices on Thursday of this week.  Right now, I'm leaning towards one picture book and one chapter book.  I figure this is a good way to get as many kids involved as possible.  

- I was really encouraged by your comments and emails in response to my post about baby Z.'s food allergies.  Thank you to everyone who sent kind words.  Really. 

- Mariam spent three days out of the last seven fishing with Dan on various local bodies of water.  She had a great time, but the cumulative effect of all that outdoor time coupled with the early morning wake-ups has left me with one tired girl. I had to brush her teeth for her and carry her to bed tonight.  And we didn't even get a chance to discuss tooth fairy protocol first.  I think I'll wait for her to give the go-ahead. 

The Read Aloud Book Along.

So, I've got this idea.  And, I think it's a good one.  An idea that promises to be fun for everyone involved, with the added possibility of being slightly educational here and there.  I believe that is generally considered a positive thing, right?

Here it is:

The Read Aloud Book Along.  Each month we all read the same book together. Virtual bookclub style. Except, we read it aloud to our respective young folks.  Think of it as an opportunity for all of us to read something (hopefully great) while further developing this long-distance community of literature lovers that you've helped me to cultivate through the blog and through Alphabet Glue.  And, it is also an opportunity to explore new books with your kids, or to get back on the read aloud wagon if you and yours have fallen off a bit because of busy schedules, or the kids learning to read to themselves, or any of the other real life reasons why that sort of thing happens.  As with the booklists in Alphabet Glue, I'll be choosing books for the Book Along with an emphasis on well written books that have been positively reviewed and that have (in my opinion) earned their place in the canon of children's literature.  

On the first of each month, I'll anounce the book that we are reading that month, and will provide you all with a link to a password protected page here on the blog.  I'm going to use a password for a couple of reasons.  First of all, because the page will have a discussion area that can be used not only by the grown-ups doing the reading, but also by the kids doing the listening.  In this way, we can all discuss any aspects of the book that we'd like to, and we can do it together in a space that is just for us, and that is certifiably spam comment free.  The second reason that I'm going to give us our own secret club here on the blog is so that at the end of each month I can gift you with a little surprise activity or printable related to our read. Something that you and your family can use to round out your experience with the book that we've read. 

If you would like to participate in the Read Aloud Book Along for June, here is what I'd like you to do:

- Send me an email at [email protected] letting me know that you are planning to read along with us

- Give me the ages of your kiddos. I can't promise that I can choose books that are perfect for everyone, but knowing who is generally participating will be helpful when it comes time for me to choose a title.

- If you are of the blogging persuasion yourself, pop a button up in your own personal sidebar.  

 

- And, spread the word.  Forward this along to friends, post it on your blog, share it on Facebook.  I think that we can all agree that when it comes to reading wonderful books out loud with our favorite people, the more the merrier.  

I hope that you and your family will join us!

 

Getting it Back Together.

Some people are allergic to seeds and grass and pollen and probably even beautifully fluffy little front yard dandelions like this one.  Some people are allergic to animals.  Others to food.  According to the amazingly thorough checklist used by our allergist's office to order tests, some people are even allergic to snails.  So what is the little man at my house allergic to? The jury is still out on that one, but after a couple of semi-impossible weeks of dealing with the additional possibilities, I figured that I might as well emerge to tell the tale of where we currently stand.

As you might have noticed, this little blog has been rife with allusions to the last couple of weeks having been a bit rough around the edges.  Indeed, Zak hasn't been feeling super fantastic and between wicked flaring eczema, constant spit up, a stuffy nose and a new tooth, things like happiness and sleep have been in short supply.  We trekked back to the pediatrician in the midst of all this, only to discover that on top of all the rest of it, the baby was also losing weight and was down about a half a pound from his last visit.  The effect on morale: not so awesome. 

So, after a couple of false starts on potential sanity and health restoring plans, we came up with the following: I would start eating ridiculous amounts of the food that does not seem to bother Zak in an effort to get him more calories, we would use hydrocortisone on the eczema and would try to do so without feeling guilty all the time and, we would make another visit to the allergist and follow it up with a conference with the pediatrician's office where we would develop a longer term plan.  

We are most of the way through those steps now, having gone to the allergist yesterday and to the pediatrician this morning.  The hydrocortisone is really like magic, and although I still have my reservations, I also know that my son deserves to feel better and not to be covered in bloody scratches all the time.  He is gaining weight again, and starting this week, we will begin to introduce a few high calorie solids. Rice cereal mixed with breast milk, a bit of avocado.  The allergy tests were inconclusive in a couple of areas, so we await blood test results.  Kind of anxiously.

Here is my take-away from the last two weeks of near constant parenting madness.  I love this kid.  So much. He is cute and hilarious and an unrepentant flirt. You should see him charm the ladies at the front desk of any doctor's office we visit.  And, I may want him to exist in a lovely little bubble of cloth diapers and only breastmilk until six months and purely natural remedies for all that ails him.  But as of this moment the parenting project is officially operating under revised terms and conditions.  We will do what we need to do to keep this kid happy, healthy and growing like he should.  We will do it without all of the constant second guessing and mind numbing guilt. 

And, I am hereby done letting my inner voice tell me otherwise.  

In the Memorable Quotes Department.

"Mama," she says, "Sometimes I think that I'm asleep, but then I realize that I'm not.  I'm just thinking really, really deeply." 

Professionalism.

I've been having all these conversations with fellow bloggers lately about the importance of being authentic in your writing. About only posting when you've got something of consequence to say, or a story to tell, and certainly only when you are prepared to do a nice job of things.  Well, with that said, I'm going to post this random picture of my kid's tiny, adorable fingers just because I like it. And, I'm going to say nothing much about it.  Then, I will congratulate myself for having thought for a very short while about taking myself kind of seriously while I eat some dessert in my pajamas.  I try. 

Can We Talk More About This?

  

My garden, that is.  I know that any of you who have stuck it out as Bird and Little Bird readers for any length of time are probably aware of the cyclical nature of my musings.  Round about the end of April each year I begin obsessing with the greening of my little corner of the earth and kind of can't be quiet about it until I've driven everyone around me crazy.  But just remember, it will be only a few short months until you have to listen to me go on and on about how noisy snowpants are in the dryer at night and then you'll be just wishing for some garden talk.

Annie 2.0 and I planted quite a few of the spring and summer crops into our community garden plot this last weekend and the sunny Saturday, combined with stellar soil and good planting progress, seems to have resulted in some significant growing optimism this year.  Memories of The Great Onion Weeding of 2011 encouraged us to lay down a strip of landscape fabric on the onion bed this year.  We cut holes into the fabric to put the plants in.  I suppose that there is some risk of the onions getting exposed to excess moisture doing it this way, but I'll do pretty much anything to avoid weeding the onion bed, so consider this a risk taken.

The other change that we made to the garden plan this year was to allocate a completely autonomous garden area for Mariam's use.  She has a three by four foot mini-plot of her own, and she's been given totally free reign to do with it as she pleases.  She can plant whatever she wants, however she chooses, without adult interference of any kind.  She is thrilled, and suddenly, very invested in spending time at the garden.  This might be one of my best ideas yet.  I'm thinking we need to make up another garden seed book or three (from Volume Six of Alphabet Glue) so that she can carry them in her pockets and pull a page of seeds off and toss it into the ground whenever she feels like it.  Easier than trying to share seed packets with her, I would suspect.  

Also new this year: purple potatoes.  We generally plant Yukon Gold, and we'll do those again this year as well, but these Purple Adirondacks looked so colorful and fun, we decided that a row of these was in order too.  

Thanks for listening to my garden talk (yet again).  I do appreciate it, believe me.  I'd love to return the favor... What are you planting this year? 

Oh, and today is the final day to use the discount code from the Alphabet Glue giveaway on the Rhythm of the Home blog.  Enter "ROTH" at checkout for 15% off issues of the magazine. 

Library Monday: The Adventures of Tintin.

For awhile there, it did seem as though Tintin was everywhere that you looked.  I suppose this was probably related to the fact that there was recently a big, fancy motion picture made about everyone's favorite intrepid reporter turned boy hero.  By Steven Spielberg. But here is the thing about Tintin: blockbuster movie or no, the original Tintin stories have been around for nearly seventy years, and this longevity is both well deserved and seemingly immune to current fads both at the bookstore and in the movie theatre. 

I'm always a bit suprised when I run across folks who haven't read Tintin, either on their own or with their children.  But I suppose that it isn't at all unusual for books written seven decades ago to go overlooked by those who generally enjoy more contemporary reads.  Still, I for one think that Tintin is as well read now as ever, especially since the original stories are being republished in smaller format (read: easier to carry with you), multi-book anthology volumes.  

For those that are unfamiliar, the Tintin books are a series of well-drawn comic books about a young Belgian reporter named Tintin and his canine companion, Snowy.  Written by Herge, beginning in the 1940's, the Tintin books have been praised for their brightly colored drawings that contain both intracate detail and clean lines, as well as for being able to tell stories that cross genre lines in order to allow our hero to save the day in the most dramatic way possible.  The Tintin books encompass everything from history and humor to politics and space travel.  

Now, I will be the first to admit that the reading of Tintin is not uncomplicated by the age of the stories.  A friend of ours often jokes that he learned everything he knows about the world's vices by reading Tintin as a kid.  There are references to alcohol, there are guns and thugs, and, it is pretty hard to ignore the clear racism that permeates the attitudes of the era represented.  That being said, while each of these things might otherwise cause me to veto a book that Mariam wants to read, here they are presented in ways that make it easy to have a conversation about topics that might otherwise get heavy handed treatment. And, it all seems so dated and ridiculous anyway that it is also easy to ignore it if you so choose. 

I'm very confident that there is Tintin to be had at a library near you, so if you haven't bonded with our boy detective since your own childhood, or haven't yet introduced him to your young readers, I suggest you get on that right away.  An added bonus: it takes a really long time for a kiddo to read one of the books to themselves, because each individual page is so packed with detailed pictures and tiny text.  If you've got both an eager reader and a few chores that you need to get done on your own, you're in business.  

 

 

A Reading Round-up.

I decided that since our normal Library Monday chat got subsumed by fuss this week, maybe we could talk books a bit today instead.  Because we really are reading some good, good stuff right now.  I know that I've mentioned at least a billion times previously how very much I love From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  And this is still true.  So it is perhaps a bit of a surprise that I am just now getting around to reading it to Mariam.  To be honest, this is mostly because I knew that she would love it like crazy too, but she recently went through a phase for about a year where she would pack a tiny suitcase and threaten to run away whenever she was mad at us.  Just like Ramona is a recipe for learning how to throw a good tantrum, this book is a pretty stellar thought provoker when it comes to making an excellent plan for running away from home. So, I made her promise she would never run away, and we dove right in.  And as always, I'm in awe of how good this book is.  

On deck: The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary and Mr. and Mrs. Bunny- Dectective Extraordinaires by Polly Horvath.

For his part, Zak is all about the Sally books by Stephen Huneck.  By which I mean that he really, really loves them and that this enthusiasm often results in a lot of arm flapping and yelling while they are read to him.  Very loud yelling.  But, I think that the yelling can be classified as the joyful variety, so Sally the dog it is. 

I am not managing as much reading for myself as I would like these days; the sleep deprivation doesn't quite lend itself to deep thinking about great literature.  I did, however, just recently finish reading The Lost City of Z by David Grann.  It was pretty much awesome.  It's basically a historical account mixed with a modern day mystery and a bit of archaeology for good measure.  Couldn't put it down.

Oh, and can we still be friends if I launch one more tiny complaint about the fact that it was such an unreasonable week at our house?  Because yesterday afternoon the kitchen sink became completely clogged and is no longer usable. Waiting on a plumber so that I can, you know, cook and stuff.  Also, last night I got so tired that I just spontaneously threw up. Which is gross, and I'm kind of sorry for telling you, but I will also say that this turn of events lent itself so incredibly well to a series of jokes about how the North Korean government claimed that Kim Jong Il had died because he just got really tired.  And that was pretty funny. As well as a little inappropriate.  Alright, then. Off to the pediatrician with baby Z. for a food allergy strategy session.

I've closed comments and chosen a winner for the Armadillo Dreams giveaway, but don't forget that the discount code "BIRDANDLITTLEBIRD" is good for 10% off your purchase in their Etsy shop for the entire month of May!

Also, the Alphabet Glue giveaway on the Rhythm of the Home blog has ended as well, but you can still use the discount code "ROTH" for 15% off issues of Alphabet Glue, through May 15th.  And you should totally do that, because Dawn says that Volume Six is the best so far, and she has good taste.