Photography show in New Orleans!
May 16, 2009
I just was selected by Sylvia Plachy for an upcoming photography show in New Orleans at the New Orleans Photo Alliance. The show is called Forever Hold Your Peace and the opening is Saturday, June 6th from 6-9 at 1111 St. Mary’s in New Orleans and the show will be up until July 19th. My photograph is from a series I did on Las Vegas Wedding Chapels. Come check it out. My photo even made the postcard!
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Getting kids interested in reading
April 30, 2009
Books are great resources for kids of all ages, but in this time of internet accessibility, do kids really turn to books to learn? Probably so given all the great books out there for kids to read. Since my daughter is still a baby, she mainly has board books, though we’ve been reading to her since she was born. It seems that the more books we have lying around, the more she picks them up to read them. That and she sees us reading all the time – newspapers and books! Our favorite books to read to her are the Pigeon series, by Mo Williams. She just loves The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!
Brushing teeth: learning to brush at an early age!
April 28, 2009
At less that two years old, my daughter, who sees me and my husband brushing our teeth each morning (she’s usually asleep by the time we do it at night) has taken a keen interest in the toothbrush. On a recent playdate, she even convinced her friend to join in on the fun.
Since we’re all about Montessori in this house, I have taken her cue and begun teaching her about personal grooming habits: specifically brushing her teeth. According to Maria Montessori, children learn best when they are ready to learn the lesson in front of them. Their readiness is usually a sign that they feel some sense of control over what and how they will learn. Or maybe it’s the control that leads to the readiness. Children have, what Montessori termed, an “absorbent mind” and when the mind is ready, learning becomes more of an organic *knowing* rather than a chore. Think of it as an exploratory environment.
We’ve been trying to get Sophie used to brushing for some time now, but only recently has she shown any real interest. I’d say she’s still *tolerant* of the nightly brushing but it’s during the day when she really just won’t let go of the thing. I do hope this infatuation with the toothbrush stays with her.
The next lesson: potty training as her new favorite word is “poopy.”
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Birthday parties: how to photograph the birthday party fun
April 27, 2009
Birthday parties are filled with activities, food and fun – what’s a better time to capture your little one’s precociousness on film? Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you’re following around the tiny tot’s with your camera:
1) always follow the cake (or cupcakes) – endless kodak moments pop up
2) get on their level – in order to show how they interact with their world, get down to their height to you can see what they see.
3) keep your eye on the background – the simpler the scene is behind your child, the more they will stand out of the picture
4) have fun and get your camera in there – people always want to see the photos, even if they don’t particularly like stopping what they are doing to pose for you
5) get unposed shots, too!
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Baby lambs, goats and chickens make fun, if not wiley, chasing companions. Within an hour’s drive of San Francisco, we found some good old fashioned farm fun.
I was just photographing for the Golden Gate Mother’s Group’s (really great community of Bay Area moms!) upcoming article on in-city farms for the newsletter and headed to Slide Ranch, one of the farms profiled. It’s located just north of San Francisco in the Marin Headlands. Easy drive – just head out Highway 1 toward Stinson Beach and turn left at the Slide Ranch sign (directions HERE). They have some really fun family events, but what is even better for our family since I tend to be last minute, is that the ranch is part of the national park, so the grounds are open most of the time to visitors.
We smelled mint in the herb garden, frolicked with the chickens (not too close!) ran around the path in the flower garden, and blew kisses at the baby lambs. As soon as you look up from the flowers, herbs and animals you are greeted with the bright blue ocean, waves pounding against the rocks below. There are plenty of places to picnic, too. Just spectacular.
If you get yourself on the newsletter Slide Ranch then you’ll have plenty of advanced warning of when the events occur and can sign up. I’m told things sell out quick, so advance warning is key! And, the best part is, it’s under an hour from the city…in my view, that makes it one of the best family outings we’ve been on yet.
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Mommy water: wine and caffiene are a mom’s best friend
April 19, 2009
Unwinding after a long, long day at home with the baby with a nice big glass of wine! You know how it is – running around every minute, it seems, only to put your little tyke to sleep and upon turning around you see, actually see, the house for the first time all day and realize how much of a mess it really is. I’m not sayin’ I’m just sayin’ – a tall glass of wine can be soooo nice. Then, the next morning when you wake up to do it all over again, nothing starts the day better than a big cup of steaming coffee.
I’m not certain when the “right” time is for having baby join family dinner time – if you know any guidelines, I’d love to hear them! We decided that now is the right time for our family. Our daughter is just shy of 2 years old and while she has been sitting at the table in her highchair (my post about that learning curve is HERE), it seems like the right time to eat family style.
Until now Sophie has eaten dinner at 5:30 or 6 and then we continued with our nightly routine before putting her to bed. Now, it seems like she’s happier eating later and closer to her bed time. We’re happier with this arrangement for her too as it allows her to sleep a little longer in the morning – even a few minutes can make a big difference! Unfortunately, that puts our grown up dinner later and later – sometimes we’re not even done by 10pm and that is just way too late. Again, it has to do with maximizing sleep time.
So, we’re in the process of deciding if Sophie joins us for nightly dinners or if we suck it up and eat late. I’ve always known I’d have family dinners (I did as a child and even when times got really rough we ate together every night and it seemed to hel get us through). But when to start? This week we decided to give it a try.
In keeping with Maria Montessori’s adage: not words but virtues, we are attempting to teach table manners to our (almost) 2 year old by modeling the correct behavior. Teaching through example. Now that we’ve pretty much mastered the “not throwing food on the floor,” it’s time to tackle nutrition, grace and courtesy, and manners. Whew – that’s a mouthful. Montessori and much to say about each of these topics and yet I only have the mental ability to begin with these as they relate to the nightly dinner.
Nutrition: This is a life long lesson I realize, but giving a solid foundation is a parent’s responsibility in my opinion. By showing Sophie that not only is she served a balanced meal (protein, veggie and starch) but also Mommy and Daddy eat that way every night, I hope to instill in her a “need” for good food. We don’t praise her for eating what she’s served (well, we try not to) and we don’t offer her food as a reward or withhold it as a punishment. This creates associations with food that lead to overindulging, stress eating and other bad habits. If we have dessert, she gets dessert (smaller portion!). In the interest of full disclose, our daughter will pick out most every veggie and put it aside unless it is a pea or a carrot. Those she’ll eat. But, hey, we’ve got to start somewhere.
Grace, courtesy and manners: Since putting a napkin in a 2 year old’s lap is not an option, we do more modeling of grace and courtesy at the dinner table, which fits in nicely with Montessori’s teaching that the sensitive period for grace, courtesy and manners is 3-6 years old and before that modeling is key. Still, we use napkins and put then in our laps. We wait to eat until we are all seated and served, though we don’t say grace or a blessing. When we have a conversation, we (try to) listen to each other before speaking. (Note: my husband and I are both talkers, so this one takes practice!) When it is clear that Sophie is finished, we ask her if she is all done – we’ve taught her the sign language for this, so she can communicate it easily when she feels like it. This part, truth be told, is hard as she doesn’t always want to communicate clearly and prefers to wiggle and squiggle in her chair. We try to reinforce the “all done” before we take her out. “Excuse me”, “thank you”, and “please” will all have to wait until she can actually speak. Feet and elbows are not allowed though chewing with her mouth open is (for now) as I’m usually thankful that she is actually eating.
Dinner time, as you may suspect, has become hectic. It’s not the best situation as I prefer to have a nice relaxing dinner, but, for now it’ll do. Plus, I like to feel like I am sowing the seeds of future mealtimes.
At 16 1/2 months, my daughter is an expert walker. In fact she even runs on occasion, though not nearly as fast and often as her friend, Sadie (pictured at right) who seems to prefer to run every where she goes, little pigtails bouncing with each step.
With my daughter firmly in Stage 5 development (according to Dr. Maria Montessori it is from month 12 to month 18), I thought I’d weigh in on a few of her developmental milestones to date. (FYI, for a really good list of all of the neurological and physical developments go HERE for the mommybahn’s take). Of particular interest to me are the following advances made possible by the “right brain” and “left brain” formulation… a phenomenon about which all the artists in my family are all a twitter.
One development is heterolateral movement – meaning that the brain can navigate movement on alternating sides of the body like stair climbing or swing your arms while walking. Right now Sophie either walks like a Frankenstein baby with her knees locked and her body stiffly swaying in the direction her feet are moving or she swings her upper body from side to side while walking with such glee that she invariably knocks herself off balance. It’s utterly endearing. I did manage to capture all this on tape so that we can look back and remember how she learned to walk. I fear all these little experiments with movement and balance will cease as soon as she masters walking, never to be seen again unless on video.
Further evidence of the communication between brain hemispheres is hand dominance. Unfortunately, since I’ve broken my right hand Sophie has been mimicking my left handed movements so it’s hard to tell which hand is dominant for her yet. She seems quite ambidextrous at this point.
And finally, cross-patterning. The brain can now, in Stage 5, manage to navigate your hand across your body to do something. Think shaking hands, reaching over your plate to grab a spoon, opening doors. Ahh, the opening and closing of doors. This activity is done repeatedly all day as often as possible. In fact, Sophie so enjoys this that she doesn’t even realize she’s closed herself into a closet or the bathroom until she realizes that she can’t grab the edge of the door to open it. It’s a wonder we spend any money on toys!?!
All this to say our little one is progressing right on target…however, as I read more and more about milestones I’m learning that I care less about the time frame that she masters said milestones and more about her discovering new possibilities. It’s easy to get caught up in the constant competition of comparing who is doing what and when they do it. I know, I’m guilty of it myself more than I care to admit. Only, if I take a step back and just watch Sophie and her discoveries, I find that I’m more inclined to share in the wonder of them with her rather than gloating about them.
What my 16 month old is teaching me about the power of now
March 24, 2009
So I just started the book, The Power of Now. I’m not endorsing it just yet as I’m only finished with the introduction as of this writing – it’s too early to know if it resonates or not. However, I did have a realization today while playing with my 16 month old based on those first few pages I’ve read.
To completely oversimplify (remember, I’m only a few pages in to the book), the book advocates leaving the past and the future behind when trying to relish one’s consciousness in the here and now. Not easy, some might say with so much uncertainty about the future and so many woes about the recent past.
But today, while playing in our living room with our daughter I noticed that Sophie has no such hold on either the past or the present. She is consumed with the present as much as any one can be – absorbed with the task of putting her pacifier in to one bowl then moving it to the larger bowl, then back again. The simple action of doing for the sake of doing – not the result.
Then it hit me – maybe we reach “enlightenment” before our brains take over and propel us toward the constant cacophany that is our vocal mind. It’s in gaining our conscious mind that we f#%@ everything up. Yet that still leaves the question – how do we get back? Or better yet, should we?
To pacify or not to pacify?
March 20, 2009
In our house, we decided that a pacifier was the way to go when at two or three months our daughter was having trouble sleeping. Well, that is an understatement. She had a witching hour where she screamed her tiny head off of a full hour, if not longer and the only things that calmed her were the 5 “s”s as advocated by the baby whisperer who wrote Happiest Baby on the Block. One of those “s”s is sucking and after such termoil with breastfeeding we opted for the pacifier.
Cut to our daughter now at almost 2 years old and what is her most dominant feature? Her pacifier. We call it a chewpete (from the spanish word for sucker that I’m certain I’m not spelling correctly). First off there is absolutely no sleeping without 2 of them – one for her mouth and one for her hand. She doesn’t keep it in all night long but she needs it right there next to her. Unfortunately is acts as her lovey as well.
Second is every other time of the day. It all started innocently enough. Sophie was allowed her chewpete at night and when she hurt herself. Then we moved and all of the upheaval surrounding packing and moving affected her so we gave it to her when she was distressed throughout those days. Then she got really sick and it was one of the only things that calmed her down and, while she was vomitting and so unhappy I didn’t have the heart to take it away. But now she’s all better and throws a fit when she doesn’t have it unless she is really distracted, like on the playground.
I’m just so unsure of what to do now – do I go through the hassle of weaning her or simply deal with it until she’s ready to part with it? And, mind you, she does have the personality that leads me to believe that she will one day wake up and be done with it…she’s shown similar fortitude in the past. Unfortunately I think her father, her grandmother and I have become as addicted to it as she is as the chewpete calms and quiets her. Not a bad thing when you’re out grocery shopping and the waterworks start to flow.
I never considered I’d be a mom who allowed a pacifier and yet here I am. Just one more instance in a string of things that I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Now I know and I’m at a loss as to what to do about it…
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