Cleaning out the plastics

The fam was away last week on vacation (Happy Passover, everyone! and Congratulations to Amanda and Alan!), which explains my web silence. But don't worry everyone, I'm back.

My dearest darling Kara recently asked for some recommendations I may have about eco-friendly cleansers and about what research I've uncovered on alternatives to traditional sippy cups. I thought I'd post my email to her in response:

First, cleaning products. I've tried just about everything (Method, Seventh Generation, Eco line, etc.), but my favorite is Shaklee. I originally heard about it on a couple of Oprah's "going green" episodes, and then heard more about it from some friends who are devotees. Now, I'm hooked. If memory serves, the current owners discovered the company (and eventually bought it) when they were searching for non-chemical cleaning options for their sons who were suffering from allergies and severe asthma. The prices actually end up being better than a lot of the stuff you can buy in the stores because everything is concentrated. I started with the "Get Clean Starter Kit" and I am a fan of everything in there. And my cleaning ladies, who were very skeptical, have now been won over. They're even recommending the stuff to their other clients -- and they aren't interested in the eco-friendly part of the stuff. They just like the way they clean.

Now, sippy cups. This is somewhat tricky. The one I seem to like the best is The Safe Sippy. It's bpa, phthalate and DEHA free. But everyone else seems to like that one too because it's sold out literally everywhere until mid-May. It only seems to be available on the internet. I like this because it's basically like our Sigg bottles but with a sippy-style cap. Not wanting to wait a month, I have been searching for other options.

I bought this one at Babies R Us yesterday: . So far, it's ok. It doesn't leak, but it's somewhat heavy for Luke to carry (he manages, though), and there are 4 components to the top, which is kind of annoying. Babies R Us was out of the Born Free cups, but I intend to go back tomorrow to pick up some when they restock. They're free of bpa, but they don't specify that they're free of phthalates or DEHA, too.

And although they're not a pure sippy, I highly recommend the Sigg bottles for the whole family. We all have one. The boys drink fine from them -- although Luke had a learning curve at first with understanding that he couldn't tip it over. I just now read something, though, that says although Sigg is better than plastic, some people aren't convinced that its aluminum construction is risk free. The Klean Kanteen line seems to be more widely accepted as "safe" because it's stainless steel, and it has a sippy-style lid (which is currently backordered).

And for other tableware options, the Boon line seems to be good. It's sold at Babies R Us. Note that their sippy cup got terrible reviews on Amazon. Apparently it leaks and is hard for kids to figure out how to drink out of.

In general, short of finding something that it guaranteed to be free of such substances as phthlates, you can feel fairly comfortable about #5 plastics.

And as far as food storage goes, there's Ikea's 365 glass line, and Crate and Barrel has a decent glass selection. I bought some pyrex yesterday to use for storage (I couldn't find anything online saying it was bad, but please let me know if you find anything...). It's incredible (and scary) how much plastic there is around our house...

So sad

We woke up this morning to discover all the baby birdies died. We buried them in the backyard in their nest and had a little funeral. Matt and I have decided we've committed involuntary birdslaughter, but there's a good case for depraved indifference murder. My heart is broken. Maybe this is what parenthood does to you -- you develop an empathy you never really knew you were capable of. Everyone except Andrew, that is (see comment 1 to previous post). Not cool, Media Dude.

But as an interesting and/or disturbing aside, it seems the Mr. and I have created some bad bird karma. Last week, a bird committed suicide by crashing through the window of our garage door and hitting my van. (At the risk of sounding callous, my van was fine. The bird? Not so much.) It appeared to have died instantly. And $105.73 later, we have a new window on the garage door.

But since these things come in 3's, here's the question -- does the death of the baby birds count as one event, such that we have one more bird death on its way? OR, since we killed 5 baby birds (+ the one that killed itself = 6), are we done? I can only imagine that some sort of Alfred Hitchcock-inspired massacre awaits us...

Pray for the poor birdies...

It's official. Matt and I are total a-holes. Why, you ask? Let me share a little story...

Yesterday we spent ALL day outside working in the yard. A few days before I had relocated our hanging ferns on our porch to sit in the sun on the patio. Towards the end of the day, I was pruning the ferns in preparation for putting them back on the porch. As I was clearing away the dead stuff, I came across a hunk of "brush." I tossed it the pile of clippings and weeds we still had left to throw away. When I looked at it from another angle, I saw it was actually a nest. I then picked it up, and showed it to my darling husband. "Look sweetie, a bird nested in my fern!" He comes over, inspects it, and says, "cool." We then threw it back in to the pile of clippings. GASP!! Then we tossed the pile into a garbage bag and put it in the garage. Why didn't we put it on the side yard with the other trash? Or take it to the curb with the other 3 bags of clippings we'd amassed during the day? Beats me.

So this morning I go into the garage to get the cleaning supplies for the cleaning ladies, and I hear something. A little squeaky noise. I immediately call Matt and beg him to come home arguing that we've apparently trapped some living animal in our garbage. Believing this animal to be some sort of rodent, I refuse to go anywhere near it. At this point, I'm mildly saddened at the thought of a poor animal suffocating in a plastic bag full of decaying weeds, but believing it to be a mouse, I get over it. Matt laughs at me and goes back to work.

Several hours later, as the cleaning ladies are replacing the supplies in the garage and I'm writing their check, we all hear the noise -- louder this time. Squeakier. Aidee confirms that it's probably a mouse, except she says "baby" mouse. So now I feel guilty. I beg her to look in the bag for me, and then she sees it. Sitting on top. The nest. "Ahhh, Ms. Mary! It's full of baby birds!"

Holy crap!

"And they're starving!" So Aidee, her mother-in-law Elena, and I rush out the baby birds, find the exact spot in my ferns that they were situated in, and replace the entire nest. Then I start to panic. I rush into the house and call the first number I can think of -- Winghaven, a bird sanctuary and garden set up a million years ago by some rich, child-less woman who lived in the fancy part of uptown Charlotte and who loved birds. While I'm doing this, Aidee is literally digging up our lawn (i.e. weeds) to find something to feed the birds. I rush outside through the garage, and then I hear more squeaking -- we forgot one! Another baby bird just lying on top of this clipping pile squeaking its little heart out! So Elena comes to rescue that one while Aidee is feeding the others little bug/worm things she find in the soil and while the Winghaven lady is telling me that their mother may very well return, we need to leave them be for a while, etc.

Noah is enthralled for all of 30 seconds (his baby bird excitement is then quickly replaced by his (false) belief that he has managed to tie the drawstring of his pants). I peek in the nest and see these 5 precious little things, all of them stretching their delicate necks out and desperately opening their beaks in search of food. My heart is literally breaking and I'm near tears. (Who knew I could care this much about none-human living things?)

I then call Matt again to tell him that we are two of the dumbest, cruelest people ever. And that's when we see Mommy returning. She clearly had been searching for her babies. For the last hour now, she's been keeping tabs on them and bringing them food. But the most amazing thing is that she seems to have recruited help. There are definitely at least 2-3 birds coming to these babies. As pathetic as this sounds, please think of these poor babies and send positive energy their way so they live. And then pray that Matt and I gain a shred of common sense and learn to either a) leave a birdnest exactly where we find it; or b) open our eyes enough to notice 5 baby birds sitting right under our noses. It's truly amazing Noah and Luke are still alive.

UPDATE: We lost one. Either fell out of the nest or was pushed out because it had already died. This is so upsetting.

Following up on Boy Wonder's music recommendations

For those of you who aren't loyal readers of the Boy Wonder's blog, I had asked Matt's former roommate and all-around BFF for recommendations for new music for my sweetiecakes. We had been listening to the same stuff for years, and I decided to surprise him for his birthday with a large new array of CDs for his/our listening pleasure. I was attempting to introduce us to some new things, and challenge our tastes somewhat as well (some people have commented in the past that I fear new things. Really?!?) I consulted the B.W., a couple of my brothers, and read a ton of stuff on NPR. Here's what Matt opened (actually, the boys opened them) on his birthday:

1. Avett Brothers -- Emotionalism. One brother of mine is a huge fan, and it was on an NPR Best of 2007 list. So far, Matt's a fan. I haven't heard it yet, so I have no comment thus far.

2. Iron & Wine -- The Shepherd's Dog. Also from an NPR's Best of 2007. Pretty cool, although I think Matt likes it more than I do.

3. Vampire Weekend, per the B.W. Irene, you are insane. This is AWESOME! I completely love the entire CD, and Matt does to. (For the record, by Matt saying, "Yeah, that's pretty cool," that means he's completely in love, too.) And please consider what personal issues I had to overcome just to buy the thing -- I hate vampires!! I get the heebie-jeebies about all things "evil" (which includes zombies and their love of brains, so let's avoid all those jokes, okay 3A dorks?). Why would a perfectly decent band pick that terrible name?

4. The New Pornographers -- Challengers. We're also big fans of this one too, and so is Luke. The kid LOVES IT! We now make sure we have it in the car with us to distract him if he starts to freak out. He likes to dance to the entire CD by moving only his left hand, pointer finger extended. I think he gets his dancing prowess from his daddy.

5. Feist -- the Reminder. I'll admit, I wanted this one. I've been singing "1234" ever since those darn ipod commercials. Then I heard "I Feel It All" and liked it, too. The rest of the CD is more mellow than those two songs, but still pretty decent.

6. Robert Plant & Allison Kraus -- Raising Sand. Heard tons of good reviews about this CD. I was trying to draw Matt's tastes out a bit, but I figured he wouldn't like it. And he doesn't. Not at all. I do. So we'll keep it.

7. Matt Pond PA -- Several Arrows Later. Brian's recommendation, and we totally love it. It's one of the biggest hits of the group. I just ordered Last Light.

8. Tabu Rey Rochereau -- The Voice of Lightness: Congo Classics from the 1960s and 70s. This one came from NPR, and the review said "it's some of the most beautiful singing that exists," so I was intrigued. And it is -- absolutely gorgeous. It's great music to have on around the house during the day, while we're cooking, etc. Highly recommend this one for anyone wanting to try something a little different.

9. Lucinda Black Bear -- 'capo my heart' and other bear songs. This is a band from Brooklyn that NPR considers one of the best unknown bands from 2007. Here's their summarized review: "Brooklyn's Lucinda Black Bear is a new project led by Christian Gibbs. The band plays carefully written folk-rock with stunning arrangements. Capo My Heart and Other Bear Songs is a melancholy collection of songs that are expressive and moving. With Kristin Mueller on drums, Chad Hammer on cello and Clare Burson on violin, they paint lonely, deserted images with dark minor chords and complex melodies." That kind of thing isn't usually my cup of tea, but Matt usually digs that kind of stuff, and who doesn't want to support folks from the old 'hood, right?

10. Blizten Trapper -- Wild Mountain Nation. Described on NPR as "a little like Grateful Dead meets Pavement." I don't even know what that means. But I knew that neither Matt nor I had ever heard of these guys, and but they'd been getting a lot of press lately, so I thought it was worth a try. I haven't listened to it yet, but Matt artfully describes it as "pretty cool."

11. Stars -- In Our Bedroom After the War. Saw it on several "best of" lists for 2007. I made Matt listen to the samples on line before we opened it. Apparently, it's getting returned.

12. LCD Soundsystem -- Sound of Silver. See #11, supra.

13. Backyardigans -- Born to Play. Having won widespread acclaim by some tough critics in our circle, we decided to take a chance. While "Surf's Up, Ho Daddy" is always a crowd pleaser, we're finding ourselves more frequently humming "Almost Everything is Boinga." "Dragon Mountain," however, is currently receiving the most requests. ... Okay, okay. This wasn't one we wrapped up for daddy, but we did buy it. And "we" LOVE IT!

14. Mates of State -- Team Boo. Another B.W. recommendation, and another hit. Our Constant Concern is on our current list of "to-buys."

15. Nada Surf -- Let Go. Got great reviews on Amazon, but I can't for the life of me remember why I bought it. But he likes it, so yay me.

16. White Stripes -- Icky Thump. This CD was a testament to how much I love my husband. I'd heard some of their stuff before, and I hated it. And just the looks of 'em freak me out. But I thought Matt might like it, so I bought it anyway. As predicted, he thinks its decent, I still hate it.

Notwithstanding what I said re: 16, I didn't love my husband enough to buy him the new Radiohead CD. I just couldn't bring myself to do it -- I've hated Radiohead for so long that I thought it would be compromising my principles to purchase it. But I ordered for him today, as gesture of good will, because I knew he wanted it and it served as a replacement for one of the ones we're returning.

So, there you have it. As far as B.W.'s other suggestions, Matt already had the Shins CD Brian had burned for him, so I didn't buy that one. I didn't get Regina Specktor because I knew once he found out about the Grey's Anatomy thing, he'd be predisposed to loathe her, and since I was already foisting Feist and Allison Kraus on him, I didn't think poor Regina would fly. Comment at will to convince him otherwise. And re: The Strokes, Brian just didn't give me enough there to motivate me.

As an aside, I have recently fallen in love with all of the Putumayo CDs (currently buy 2, get 1 free at Barnes & Noble, along with several other "indie" selections including Matt Pond PA's Last Light & Rainbows), which are world music compilations organized by genre. I'm digging Arabic Groove, Turkish Groove and New Orleans right now. Just ordered ones on Mississippi Blues and Gypsy music. And for those you looking for gift-giving suggestions for the youngsters in your life, the kids "playground" compilations are fantastic -- the boys are absolutely loving the "Sing-A-Long" CD right now and Matt and I don't mind listening to it (over and over again) at all.


(And don't comment on any typos -- I haven't had time to proofread adequately because my mad lullaby singing skills are being requested at this very moment by a little boy down the hall).

And the winner is...

The Acura! We're sure all of you were sitting on the edges of your seats waiting to hear about our car decision. We went for the 2005 dark gray Acura TSX (4 cylinder, so somewhat better gas mileage than the TL). We bought it from a salesman who, by his email address, referred to himself as "Big D." But, lucky for us, he was pathetically inexperienced and his first offer (without even asking if we had a trade) was $4500 below sticker. We negotiated a great deal, and I got to play "bad cop"! I was so good at it (hard to believe, I know) that Big D kept trying to get Sweetie to shake on a deal while I was on the other side of the dealership on the phone. Much, much fun.

IT'S SWEETIE'S BIRTHDAY!!

Happy 32nd Birthday to the most wonderful husband I could ever have dreamed of. I wish to take this opportunity to publicly declare, once again, my undying love for this man. He spends every day working incredibly hard to create a beautiful life for our family, and with every single thing he does, he devotes himself to being a compassionate and generous husband and father. Noah, Luke and I are three of the happiest people around, simply because he's around with us. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!! (Photo taken by Noah Mason)

Things I have recently learned from my children

1. It is apparently "not good manners to yell at little boys."
2. It is "not nice to people to turn off the TV when they go upstairs."
3. It is "not fair" to be given four mini-chocolate chip cookies instead of five.
4. It is "not fair" not to be given a snack within 5 minutes of having refused to eat one's lunch.
5. When Noah is not given the afore-mentioned snack, he will grunt loudly in protest once every few minutes. If ignored for about 20 minutes, he will fall asleep.
6. "Mommies are supposed to buy little boys toys when they stay home with Mary [the babysitter]."
7. You will be "wasting time" if you wait more than 2 minutes between an almost-4 year old's request for milk and receipt of milk.
8. Never tell a little boy that you will be taking him to Chuck-E-Cheese's for his birthday with his best friend when, in fact, his birthday is still one month away. He will demand you go now, then will cry uncontrollably for 10 minutes when you tell him you can't go now. But that was a rookie mistake. I knew better than that.
9. Big brothers don't like their little brothers to "talk" to them (i.e. scream in their face) while SuperWhy is on.
10. If I am slow on the breakfast clean-up (this morning it was Toastee-O's and diced apples), and put Luke's lunch in front of him at the table while his leftover breakfast is still within reach, he will pour the cereal and the apples on top of his tofu & vegetables, stir it all up with a spoon and eat it together.
11. Luke can vomit without letting his binky fall out of his mouth. And he doesn't seem to mind sucking back whatever vomit stayed on the binky.
12. Mrs. Newell (Noah's preschool teacher) doesn't like dinosaurs.
13. But she does like new Lightening McQueen shoes.
14. Mabel also likes new Lightening McQueen shoes. Apparently they taste good. We need another new pair of Lightening McQueen shoes.
15. Noah: "Mommy, I love you so much."
Me: "Awww. That's so sweet. I love you, too. HOW much do you love me?"
Noah: "I love you 5000."
Me: "5000? What about 10,000?"
Noah: "No, just 5000."