Kimya Dawson

Saamanta and I went to see Kimya Dawson tonight at The Aladdin... what an amazing show. All I knew of her was 1) that she's an MDC mom, 2) that her music was in the awesome movie, Juno, and that 3) Saamanta loves her.

There were several opening bands, 2 of them were really entertaining: Kimya's husband, Angelo Spencer, and his friends, a French band, L'Orchidee D'Hawaii. Both were totally silly, very talented musicians, and super energetic. Backstage was their 1 1/2 year old daughter, Panda, and we caught little glimpses of her every once in awhile, toddling around. This was the end of a 2 month tour for them, and they are really looking forward to getting home to Olympia tomorrow.

Kimya came on with a chair and her guitar, and had Matty Pop Chart sitting on the floor next to her, playing a little xylophone and giggling with her between songs. She exuded such a sweet, genuine, mellow vibe, and had a lot of really great messages beween (and during!) her songs for the surprisingly young crowd at her feet.

She's SO cute


Juno with Kimya Dawson singing "Loose Lips"


L'Orchidee D'Hawaii--bad sound, but you can get a sense of what their energy is like

Angelo Spencer--He sings, plays guitar, pounds the bass drum with one foot, and the high hat with the other, all at the same time...amazing.


Kimya, "Giants"

Pregnant and so silly

Birthday & Cake...but not at the same party

Today was Lily Marie's 2nd birthday... It is hard to believe that it was 2 years ago that my sister had her first baby. My whole family met at the cemetary to visit Lily's "brave", as Kylin calls it. It is amazing that our family has had 3 babies since Lily was born (Kaden, Dylan, and Kiran). It is amazing that after such a loss, life marches on...
Christian, Dylan & Haley


Dylie-Mac

Haley and Dylan

Kylin with the pony she brought for Lily Marie

Rich, Kaden, & Kylin

Julie and Kylin


After the afternoon from hell with 2 un-napped children and a 3rd who was dyyyyyyyyying for cake, we headed out to the 2nd Annual MDC Cake Party .

Ready for CAKE)

Liam in the Baby Circle

March 2006 Babes (some snuck out in February)--in order of appearance
Karen1968 & Chase, Indysmom & Graycen, Paisley & Asher, Bred & Kiran, Arwyn & Brisen, Savmay & Liam


We came home all hopped up on sugar, so we had a fashion show and dance party.








ETA: THANK YOU , ADINA for your html help so I can post links again. :)

Screamer

Kaden has truly discovered the power of his voice. He is talking, singing, and...screaming. Not while throwing tantrums. Not while head-banging to tool. Screaming..SHRIEKING..at the top of his lungs, when he is bored. When he wants our attention. When he wants to feel his power. He is doing it often and loudly. At first Rich and I reacted out of a purely knee-jerk, you're-bursting-my-eardrums place. It wasn't pretty. That sound instantly summons all of our bad parenting instincts. We were determined to find another way to approach this behavior, and I knew I was lacking insightful perspective on this new "developmental phase." So, I turned to my source of support and information, my friends on MDC. They said, "we've been there," "we are there," "we're STILL there"... It felt good to be validated...but I was looking for something to help me change how I was perceiving the "problem" of the shrieking. Then, Emily, one of my parenting mentors, posted this article entitled Surviving the Toddler Years (pretend there's a link here: http://www.naturalchild.org/naomi_aldort/toddler.html). This was exactly what I needed. A new pair of glasses. A new window to look at my child through. A new way to interpret what he's trying to tell me. Once I read it, it all clicked...I remembered that this little person has needs. He is experimenting with the world and how he can affect it. He likes the sound of his own voice. I remembered when I used to like to shriek at the top of my lungs (and it wasn't THAT long ago...lol). I decided to try a new approach. We decided there was an appropriate time and place to scream, and an inappropriate time and place. We introduced the outdoors as a place to make as much noise as you want...a place to scream and shriek to your little heart's content.

It is a little more work. When Kaden shrieks inside, we say "oh, we don't scream inside. we can scream outside though. would you like to go outside and scream?" To which he usually answers "side? side?" while pointing to the nearest door. We go outside, he screams, he shrieks, he barks, and laughs. He gets it all out. He waves good-bye to the screams. He blows them kisses. We go inside...lather, rinse, repeat. I can tell you honestly, this is not cutting down on the shrieking. What it IS doing, though, to our joy and delight, is removing the power struggle from the shrieks. We don't have to get upset, we don't have to engage in a battle of wills...it is an end to the seemingly endless cycle that we were caught in. For that, we are so grateful.




ps: if you need a good laugh tonight, check out this post: http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2007/10/strap-in-shut-up-and-hold-on-were-going.html (remember, i can't link?? lame, huh..). be prepared and forewarned that you may wake up everyone within a 10 mile radius with your side-splitting laughter, and you could very easily pee your pants. don't say i didn't warn you.

Bags and Babes

What a perfect gorgeous day it was. sunny. bright. (don't check for my forwarding address people, I haven't left the state or anything...we do get sunshine here, you know). I spent some time outside with the kids:


































I also got to sew! I'm working on some projects for a craft swap with other MDC moms...today I worked on the recycled wool sweater bags:

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by my friend, Ellie. The game is....get tagged and post 5 random facts about yourself and tag 5 others. You also have to make sure to post a comment on their blog to let them know they've been tagged.

5 Random Things About Breana:

1) I am totally excited to start flat traveling. We are in the process of making our flat traveler family, and as soon as they are done they will be off to exotic places. This started as an unschooling project for Kylin, but I think I might be even more into it than she is!! :) I'm making a Flat Mommy to exchange with other mommies--we can share recipes, routines, crafting stuff...anything we want to learn about how other mommies do their stuff in other parts of the country and the world!

2) I also love real-life, 3-D traveling. One of the aspects of unschooling that Rich and I are so excited about is that the world is our classroom. When the boys are a little older we hope to begin our traveling adventures in earnest, but for now we will be road-testing Euri (our Eurovan) on a trip to the Oregon Country Fair, and then on to California.

3) And, speaking of the Country Fair, that is an even that I live for all year. I love the fair community. I love the food. I love the environment. I love the eco-consciousness. I love the nakedness. I love the costumes. I love the music. I love the barefoot people. I fucking LOVE the fair.

4) I ran a half marathon once. I did! The 2004 Hippie Chick Half Marathon. 13 miles, all at once.

5) I have always wanted to dye my hair black and pink. Not necessarily together. I have wanted to dye it black. And I have wanted to dye it pink. Well, today is the day! And I have decided on black AND pink! I am so excited. A little nervous, but mostly just excited. It will add a little color to our days of poopy diapers (although those ARE colorful), nursing, and not being able to get out us all together to get of the house to save my life.

Ok, FRIENDS:

1) MamaNomad, my new sister-friend and soon-to-be personal shopper and fashion consultant.

2) My sister-in-law, Theresa, who I am SOOOOOOOOOO freaking excited to see next month.

3) My cousin, Rachel, who moved far away to North Idaho, but I'm excited to be able to keep up with their family through her blog.

4) My fellow MDC and ICAN homeschooling mama-friend of three, Allison.

and last, but not least,

5) EarthMamaGoddess, Deb, who is in the middle of packing and moving, but who's blog, and friendship, I absolutely adore.

MDC Summer Picnic

MDC (mothering dot com, for those of you who do not spend your days and nights chatting online with other mothering junkies) is a source of support and information for so many moms, and has been the place that I have made most of my recent friendships. I share things with these girls that I don't share with others. I ask for help, even when I can't ask for it from those closest to me. I offer help to people I have never met, and have the same offered to me. These are amazing, loving, and witty mamas who make up our Portland chat thread. I love them all dearly...

These photos were all taken by one of the mamas, Amymay. You can see all of here photos here

I went up to the hospital to visit this morning. Haley and Dylan are both doing well, Haley's pain is much better today...hopefully she recovers really quickly.

Haley & Dylan

Kaden the Rock Star

Christian & Dylan


This is what Kaden does to the house daily:
DESTRUCTO


We went to Peanut Butter & Ellie's tonight for an MDC get-together and had a great time.
Grey & Joi

Bill, Marek, Stefan, & Claudia

Lee & Jake

Kaden's 1st Birthday

I can't believe that my baby is one... and I really can't believe that so soon we will have another baby!!
Kaden has just started to really walk, finally got his first teeth, and is beginning to sign and talk to initiate communication. The first year is such an amazing time...
He is a very sweet boy, full of spunk and curiosity. Very bright, a little mischievous, and way too cute for his own good.

Kaden, *near* the time of his actual birth
(I have always taken a picture of Kylin at the actual time of her birth, 12:04 am--as my mom has done with me. Kaden's is a little bit harder...I rarely see 4:22 am with my eyes open and camera nearby...so, I fudged a little bit. shhhhh)


We had a playdate in the morning here with lots of friends

Amy, Hal, and Indigo

Claudia and Stefan

Kaden, screeching

Kaden and his first gifts





Rich came home early from work to spend the day celebrating with us. :-)

Daddy putting together Kaden's gift from us






"Fly away!!!"


And then we had a family party in the evening. We ate soup together, ate cake, and watched Kaden open his gifts. We missed everyone who couldn't make it :-(
Uncle Bubby

Grandma Patti

Tyler

Great-Grandma Cross

Sissy

The Birthday Boy

Daddy

Uncle Christian

"P is for Pirate"

A potty seat--perfect for EC, so Mommy doesn't have to hold him over the sink or toilet... too bad he thinks it's just a toy!

Gifts from Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Jim



.....AND, the BEST part........
CAKE!!







Playing with the new toys

Nakey Walker

Uncle Christian, Aunt Haley, & Kaden


Signing "Thank You"

Pedicures

We spent the morning at a fellow MDC mama's place, pampering our little piggies.
Jade & Kylin

Kaden

Tatiana

Jade & Kylin

MDC Cake Party

I belong to this online community called Mothering Dot Commune--it is a section of the Mothering magazine website that allows people who practice or are interested in natural family living to network and discuss everything under the sun (well, ALMOST everything). There is a really active local group of MDC mamas, and we chat on a monthly forum thread. In November we were particularly chatty (or so we thought), and had over 1500 posts in one month (we are on our way to 3,000 posts this month :gulp:), so we decided to throw ourselves a cake party. Everyone brought cake or some kind of sweet, and we also brought stuff we didn't use anymore to gift to others, and donations to help an MDC family for the holidays, and we got together for the afternoon to do more chatting (and meet some of the other mamas that we had not yet met in real life). We had a wonderful time, and all left on a glorious sugar high.

breana, PGNPORTLAND & baby Sophia, mamadaisy

breana & mamadaisy

savmay & breana

Kaden & Max

mcsarahb & Lily, chiromama & lovely (in the mirror)

breana, mommaof3, lovely & baby Jake