Here's our 2 year (2 years, 2 months, if you want the exact age) singing a lovely tune! It starts out as "I'm a Little Teapot" and then transitions to singing "...pour mama dirty out!!"
Cinderella Ate My Daughter
I'm in the middle of reading the great new book by Peggy Orenstein (Cinderella Ate My Daughter) and thought I'd pause to go check her out at West Portal Books. I wish I'd finished the book before going to hear her talk because I never like to ask questions at the end if I haven't read the book.
As parents, we'll always be fighting something. Instead of saying no, no, no to Disney Princesses, Sesame Street, etc., it's important to find alternatives that you can say YES to. Other fairy tales such as Athena or Joan of Arc are great. It's important to channel your energy and passion into positive stories, ideas, and playtime activities.
And lucky for all of us, Peggy Orenstein is compiling a list of resources! "Obviously your girl should engage in outdoor activities and sports; pursue arts, music, science and culture; play with gender-neutral toys and toys that challenge notions of gender; do all kinds of things. But to specifically counter the hyper-feminized consumer culture, to find things you can say “yes” to that feel equal rather than compensatory to “girlie” products, try some of the following." -Peggy Orenstein
Here are a few of my favorites:
Campaign for a Commercial Free-Childhood
Anti-Sexist/Anti-Consumerist Children’s Books
My New Favorite Stationer
As you may now know, I'm no longer creating stationery suites for weddings, etc. It was great for 6 years, but after the birth of my son, it became very difficult to keep up with clients, have meetings, and meet deadlines. Now that I kind of have a handle on my boy, I'm heading back to my first love of photography! I love love love weddings and working Saturdays is very conducive to my schedule as a mom :) In fact, if you're getting married, check out my giveaway to win FREE wedding photography!
The good news is that I found a great local (San Francisco) stationer who creates the most beautiful wedding invites! Her name is Kerry and she rules over at Paper Dahlia. Her work can be seen at Minted, Pressroom & Co., Big Cartel, and of course on her site! She has recently launched a few new letterpress designs that are really sweet! Here are a few photos!
Our Boy Turns 2
Yay! I'm finally getting around to posting photos from our son's 2nd birthday party! We had a few close friends and our family over to sing 'Happy Birthday' to our sweet boy. And you know what, next year I'm going to hire a photographer! It's so hard to be Mom, Hostess, and Photographer!!
I made little chalk coloring books for the toddler guests and wrapped them up with ribbon. Inside is a 4 page accordion book! I used books that I had leftover from the Campbell-Henley wedding programs! The white 'pom pom flowers' are from Vida (you can only see one in the first photo, but we had about 6 hanging from the beams). Thanks, Vida!!
The last photo shows a happy, worn out, shirtless tot playing with the day's presents. A few faves include new animals from the Schleich company, Lincoln Logs, and Automoblox.
