The Learning Tower

In the mornings when I make coffee and Douglas is in the shower, I pray it isn't one of those three legged mornings.  

List #15: Toddler Fun Travel Bag List

Success!!!

Weekend Link Love

Found via The Ketchup War

If you have a long list of chores, this is something you must do before you start...(yeah, procrastination rules!)

I just love how this writer captures such a tiny jarring moment and carries on.

I'd love to see this kind of reflection!

This makes me wish I rode a bike.

A Murphy's Law document tailored for mamas!

Williamsburg is the birthplace of the hipster.  So this makes me go mm-hmm.

Talk about dedicated and talented.  Now I kinda wish I didn't have a reusable sandwich bag.

Rachel Coleman of Signing Time fame talks about raising a deaf child (and makes me laugh and want to cry) here and here.

I added this graphic novel to my Amazon shopping chart to prepare for our summer visit to Paris.

Do Right

This is our 16 month old son, Levi.  Douglas and I make decisions left and right for Levi.  Douglas and I are raising our son with so much love and so much thought.

Those with children know the gravity of making decisions.

There is a ridiculous amount of literature out there on the art of putting babies to sleep.  Pick up one book and it rallies against deadly co-sleeping.  Pick another book and it swears that the CIO (cry it out) approach is mentally damaging.   In the end parents decide.  Yet we all have the same want: to do what is right for our child and the family. 

There is a plethora of medical advice in terms of picky toddler eating.  There is the laissez faire approach that is very French ("They eat what we eat.  If they don't, they will not starve).  Levi's pediatrician advises that.  Other doctors suggest that we don't worry and give the kid vitamins.  There are also the all-day grazing and nibble tray advocates (Dr. Sears!).  

We do not always sway to the doctor's advice.  Sometimes we do.  I took Levi's pediatrician's advice and went for immunization shots all the way.  So many of my friends took a different path. 

What about deafness and language development?  

In Levi's playgroup, the majority of the children have been implanted.  Parents make that decision with the deepest belief that it is the right thing.  Douglas and I chose not to implant Levi because of the very same belief.  He came into this world with brown hair, ebony eyes that catch everything, a birthmark resembling a country and congenital deafness just like his parents.

What pains me is the fact that there is a gross failure to inform parents about language development.  For deaf children, to learn how to listen and speak is a skill.   I want my son to have that skill.  The more skills my son has, the more I can sleep at night.  

However, language precedes skill.  

From the very start Levi has had access to the most natural language--sign language.

Deaf children face linguistic deprivation when doctors decide for families that sign language will prevent them from acquiring speaking skills.  What about cognition?  Critical thinking?  The ability to ask why?  

Language spurs the ability to function in so many other areas.  With language, children are able to rationalize and internalize the world around them and develop important skills such as math skills, reading skills and oh yes, speaking skills.    

It makes my heart sing when I see parents in Levi's playgroup signing to their implanted children.  It reinforces my belief that we all start out with the same intentions: 

We want our children to rock this world.  

The Painted Garden

Word Count

 Levi talks.  A lot.  In the beginning I understood nearly everything he said because he would say the same thing over and over again.  Now he strings together words that sometimes make no sense.  For instance he says things like

List #14: Levi's To-Do List

The life of a busy toddler looks like this...

Weekend Link Love

Photo credit: Emily Blincoe

Last Sunday we hit our neighborhood flea market.  That market seriously rocks.  If you're ever in Williamsburg on a Sunday, by all means GO!  I got a cool cast metal L to match the D we have in our living room.  They were also selling ampersands.

Then I came across this cool ampersand series...

Some more Williamsburg loving.

This struck me as funny.

Check out Deaf mama Sheena's wonderful blog.  

VL2 (Visual Language & Visual Learning) recently came out with storybook apps!

I freaking love this.  Now if I could do something similar, but in mama fashion...

A quick way to use up avocados and visit heaven at the same time.

I bookmarked this.

They're unafraid of color.

Scribble Rebel

Our bed has three layers of blankets.  There's the sheet, the in-between blanket that vanishes when summer arrives and the comforter.  All white.

I know.  I know.  I know.

Wednesday at the Zoo

Remembering the Marathon

Found via www.highsnobiety.com

When something as terrible as the Boston bombings happens, I hold my son closer.  My heart goes out to the people who stood at the finish line, cheering the runners on.  My heart goes out to the runners, to the city of Boston, and to America's sense of wellbeing.

Ciggy Breaks

Let's pretend nicotine doesn't exist for a moment (therefore no evil cancer stuff and all that jazz).  

Think about smokers and those special ciggy breaks that allow normal sociable people to suddenly retreat to some distant isolated corner 10-20 feet away from their circle of activity to spend a few minutes alone with their cigarette.  Then they return to society and resume participation.  What do they do other than just smoke during those few minutes?  

Weekend Link Love

via lovetaza.com

A gray start to the weekend demands some color.  This rainbow stack of pancakes is perfect.  Only if I could find natural food coloring!

Some more color...minus Photoshop!

Rain rain equates frizz frizz.  So I'm looking at the third hair tutorial for curly hair inspiration...

Cute rain boots.

The story behind the Morton Salt girl.

What does 2000 calories look like?  I'm surprised by the avocados.

Hilarious.  This would make lunch interesting.

Nature fun.

And here is some anime-like fun with shadows.

My husband's doing his monthly ASL Slam event tonight.

I'm doing this with Julia Silvestri next week!

Teeth

I searched high and low for a happy toothy picture and this one was the only toothy photo I could find.  This photo is appropriate regardless because it is exactly how I feel--I'd bare my teeth if it helped me feel better.

How To Turn 35

Tennessee Love

Photo credit: Jeff Schuler

Traveling is like dating.  So we've had a string of vacations.

Hawaii was a working vacation.  Nice, but not memorable.   Asia was a wild, hot visit that involved a 16-hour bus ride from hell and spicy pho.  Left us breathless.  Kuanidup was just a vacant, mindless, pretty fling that remains a fantasy.  Israel was of the academic sort.  We didn't smile much but learned plenty.  Thinking about Guatemala makes us cringe.  Little Corn Island just off Nicaragua made us hesitate, hm.  Maybe this could be the one.   But the trip there was treacherous and we weren't ready for long-distance love.

Now there is Tennessee.  

We were not gone long enough for the basil in the refrigerator to shrivel but this was a trip that left us longing for more.  This was a vacation that involved cows in the morning, the scent of wild mint walking along a creek, glistening watersheds, acres of green grass and purple nettle and fairies in the mountains with names like Peat Moss.

Maybe it was fate that my camera was dead upon arrival with no charger in sight.  After bemoaning the lost photo opportunities I moved on.   I ran down a mountain and drank in the country as I turned 35.  

This morning Levi asked for the cows when he woke up.  He brought out his red sneakers and said, "Levi outside."  Tennessee, we love you.