These Little Piggies Had Tofu has slipped into stagnation. A spurting feed of photos of my adorable, adorable kids.
Don't get me wrong. I'm sure you all love my adorable kids. But it's not what I envisioned when I started this blog.
Part of the stagnation is due to the simple fact of having two kids. Part of it is because of the time-suck that is Facebook.
So here are the changes that I'm making. Anna Wednesday and Friday Liam are going to become Anna First Wednesday (to be published on the first Wednesday of each month) and Last Friday Liam (on the last Friday of the month).
This will hopefully prompt me to write more substantive posts and not rely on the twice-weekly photos of my adorable, adorable kids. I want to post more recipes, photos of food, animal rights-based arguments and thoughts, and stories about raising my kids vegan.
My 2010 resolution is to get back to a quality over quantity mindset. This means less overall posts, but more posts of substance.
I'm also, in the near future, going to create a fan page for the blog over on Facebook. All the cool kids are doing it.
I am also open to suggestions for topics. What do you, dear reader, want me to write about? Anything about vegan parenting you've always wanted to know? Is there an argument for or against veganism that you'd like to see addressed? Hit me up. I'm pretty insightful when I want to be.
That is all. Here's hoping you all have a happy 2010!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday Liam #30
Liam is now a master stair-climber. He's so good, in fact, that I felt reasonably confident in staying at the bottom of the stairs to get this shot.
He's also learning how to back down stairs and has managed to get a few steps down before starting to climb back up again.
He's also learning how to back down stairs and has managed to get a few steps down before starting to climb back up again.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Anna Wednesday #26 ... and Happy Turkey Day!
Click on the photo up there and you should be able to read Gideon's details (where he's from, what he likes to eat, etc.).
Anna "adopted" a turkey from Farm Sanctuary this year, as she has the previous two years. This year was better though, because she actually picked out the turkey, Gideon, from this page, and she waited and waited for his photo to come in the mail.
When we got the certificate she got all excited about, "the turkey that we feed." We hung it up in her room.
For the Piggy household, it's "Happy Turkey" day, instead of happy "Turkey Day."
And of course, we're still going to gorge ourselves on all sorts of deliciousness (which may or may not be detailed in an upcoming post).
Happy Thanksgiving! (To those of you in the US, that is.)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Veggie Nugget #31
Mt. Rainier, Md.: I want to care about the health and well-being of cows and chickens and pigs. Really, I do. But I don't. How can you convince me to eat less meat if I could not care less if 10,000,000,000 chickens or cows are tortured?
Jonathan Safran Foer: I couldn't. You are on the periphery of society---96% of Americans think animals should have legal protection. But you have every right to be.
Perhaps the environmental arguments mean something to you? Perhaps you like breathing good air, drinking good water? Perhaps you don't want E. Coli or campylobactor. Perhaps you like your antibiotics to work when you're ill? Perhaps not.
-From an online discussion at the Washington Post on Thursday with Jonathan Safran Foer.
His tone could be less snarky, but the substance of his answer couldn't be more spot-on.
Jonathan Safran Foer: I couldn't. You are on the periphery of society---96% of Americans think animals should have legal protection. But you have every right to be.
Perhaps the environmental arguments mean something to you? Perhaps you like breathing good air, drinking good water? Perhaps you don't want E. Coli or campylobactor. Perhaps you like your antibiotics to work when you're ill? Perhaps not.
-From an online discussion at the Washington Post on Thursday with Jonathan Safran Foer.
His tone could be less snarky, but the substance of his answer couldn't be more spot-on.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday Liam #25
I'm back-dating this one. I don't know how, but I forgot to do a Friday Liam two weeks in a row.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Anna Wednesday #24
Anna playing with her friend, Cameron (well, not really playing in this photo, but they did play for almost 3 hours straight) .
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Halloween
Halloween seems like a month ago already. But it was just last Saturday. Weird.
Liam didn't have a costume this year. Just this "My 1st Halloween" shirt and another shirt with an alien on it that says "Be Green."
For the third year in a row, Anna was Yoda.
Here she is two years ago:
One year ago:
And this year:
She hasn't seen any of the movies and has no idea what the force is. I tried to briefly explain it, but didn't want to say too much because a) I didn't want to freak her out, and b) it's rooted in spirituality and religion and I don't feel like it's my place to instill those in her (seeing as how I have neither). And yes, I know, it's pure fiction. But I'm not sure she'd understand that at this point.
This year was Anna's first year of trick or treating. Obviously, a good deal of the candy given out at Halloween isn't vegan. That's a problem for us. But we want Anna to have the experience of going house to house in her neighborhood, saying trick-or-treat, taking whatever is given to her and saying thank you.
We really want Anna to grow up partaking in the same (or, at least similar) cultural experiences as her peers. We don't want to deprive her of trick or treating any more than we would want to deprive her of partaking in a Thanksgiving feast. On the face of it, it may seem like veganism would preclude us from these experiences or make them super difficult. But in reality, it's easy. It just takes a little bit of extra thought. Most decisions in parenting do.
So we decided that Anna would go trick or treating and she would then trade the non-vegan items for vegan ones. Her cousin isn't vegan, so he was willing to trade quite a bit of his vegan stuff for her non-vegan stuff. But he wanted to keep some vegan candies of his own, which left Anna with some non-vegan treats in her pumpkin. Of course, we had plenty of back-up candy for just such an occasion. We actually picked up a huge bag of assorted vegan candy at the Animal Rights Coalition.
So there you go. Vegan kid during Halloween problem: solved. Barely even a problem, actually.
Anna's cousin Noah didn't dress up as a scarecrow, he dressed up as The Scarecrow. From Batman. The face paint was applied after this photo.
Anna's uncle, cousin and uncle's girlfriend flew in from Colorado for my father-in-law's 60th birthday party, which was on Halloween night.
Where did that third kid come from? That's Sophia, daughter of our neighbor friends.
Here we are at the birthday party. I went as a Target employee, in case you're wondering. I used my old Target name tag from when I used to work one-hour photo there eight years ago.
Anna was up until 12:45 on Halloween night. I think that's the latest she's ever been up. From 10:30 on, she got more and more delirious. About a half hour before we left the party, she crashed (but didn't fall asleep) on a chair, staring blankly at a televised baseball game (is there any other way to watch baseball?).
So that was Halloween.
Liam didn't have a costume this year. Just this "My 1st Halloween" shirt and another shirt with an alien on it that says "Be Green."
For the third year in a row, Anna was Yoda.
Here she is two years ago:
One year ago:
And this year:
She hasn't seen any of the movies and has no idea what the force is. I tried to briefly explain it, but didn't want to say too much because a) I didn't want to freak her out, and b) it's rooted in spirituality and religion and I don't feel like it's my place to instill those in her (seeing as how I have neither). And yes, I know, it's pure fiction. But I'm not sure she'd understand that at this point.
This year was Anna's first year of trick or treating. Obviously, a good deal of the candy given out at Halloween isn't vegan. That's a problem for us. But we want Anna to have the experience of going house to house in her neighborhood, saying trick-or-treat, taking whatever is given to her and saying thank you.
We really want Anna to grow up partaking in the same (or, at least similar) cultural experiences as her peers. We don't want to deprive her of trick or treating any more than we would want to deprive her of partaking in a Thanksgiving feast. On the face of it, it may seem like veganism would preclude us from these experiences or make them super difficult. But in reality, it's easy. It just takes a little bit of extra thought. Most decisions in parenting do.
So we decided that Anna would go trick or treating and she would then trade the non-vegan items for vegan ones. Her cousin isn't vegan, so he was willing to trade quite a bit of his vegan stuff for her non-vegan stuff. But he wanted to keep some vegan candies of his own, which left Anna with some non-vegan treats in her pumpkin. Of course, we had plenty of back-up candy for just such an occasion. We actually picked up a huge bag of assorted vegan candy at the Animal Rights Coalition.
So there you go. Vegan kid during Halloween problem: solved. Barely even a problem, actually.
Anna's cousin Noah didn't dress up as a scarecrow, he dressed up as The Scarecrow. From Batman. The face paint was applied after this photo.
Anna's uncle, cousin and uncle's girlfriend flew in from Colorado for my father-in-law's 60th birthday party, which was on Halloween night.
Where did that third kid come from? That's Sophia, daughter of our neighbor friends.
Here we are at the birthday party. I went as a Target employee, in case you're wondering. I used my old Target name tag from when I used to work one-hour photo there eight years ago.
Anna was up until 12:45 on Halloween night. I think that's the latest she's ever been up. From 10:30 on, she got more and more delirious. About a half hour before we left the party, she crashed (but didn't fall asleep) on a chair, staring blankly at a televised baseball game (is there any other way to watch baseball?).
So that was Halloween.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Liam Laughing Again
So yeah, this laughter blows his previous laughter out of the water (another thing better about this video is that he doesn't spit up at the end of it).
He doesn't do it in this video, but he's actually started to initiate peekaboo now. It's great.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Anna Wednesday #23
Her idea to cut a face in the box (because of the pumpkin carving she did a few weeks ago). My idea to put it on her head.
Halloween photos to come.
Halloween photos to come.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Boo!
It's that time of year again!
Guess what she's eating!
For the last couple years, we at the Piggy household have dined on human flesh for Halloween. A couple years ago, it was a free-range human, Timothy. He was treated well and ... well, I'll just pull a quote like I did last year:
Here's a photo of Anna feasting on the lucky little guy way back when.
And last year, we didn't have as much time on our hands, so we just picked up some human liver at a supermarket.
But this year, we've been trying to be more compassionate and eat more locally ... really adopt a back-to-the-land attitude toward food. So we raised some backyard cats. Here's Anna feasting on rice krispies and cat eyeballs.
Liam looked on in shocked horror. But he'll learn soon enough: If you don't finish your cat eyeballs you don't get any dessert.
Finally, here's Anna just taking it all in. She's such a foodie. She's my little Bourdain-in-training.
Have a Happy Halloween! I'll post some costume photos in a couple days.
Guess what she's eating!
For the last couple years, we at the Piggy household have dined on human flesh for Halloween. A couple years ago, it was a free-range human, Timothy. He was treated well and ... well, I'll just pull a quote like I did last year:
Little Timothy was fed a natural diet free of growth hormones and antibiotics and was allowed to leave his cage and go outside and play for sometimes up to a few hours per day! And he lived four happy years before he was shipped off to the slaughter house and took a bolt gun to the head (really, the most humane way to kill a human raised for meat). We're pretty sure the bolt gun was painless. So don't go getting your undies in a bunch. He lived a good life. We're compassionate people here in the Piggy household.
Here's a photo of Anna feasting on the lucky little guy way back when.
And last year, we didn't have as much time on our hands, so we just picked up some human liver at a supermarket.
But this year, we've been trying to be more compassionate and eat more locally ... really adopt a back-to-the-land attitude toward food. So we raised some backyard cats. Here's Anna feasting on rice krispies and cat eyeballs.
Liam looked on in shocked horror. But he'll learn soon enough: If you don't finish your cat eyeballs you don't get any dessert.
Finally, here's Anna just taking it all in. She's such a foodie. She's my little Bourdain-in-training.
Have a Happy Halloween! I'll post some costume photos in a couple days.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday Liam #23
That's a skinned apple. He shaved some off with his teeth, but not too much. As with all things (especially food), he got bored with it after about a minute and wanted to do something else.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Fall in the Back Yard
The tree out back usually has some nice colors in the Fall. We didn't get the bright red this year that we have in years past, but the yellows are spectacular.
The kids are pretty freaking cute, too.
Anna loves pushing Liam in the swing, but I think he likes it even more.
And of course, some shots of the kids in the tree.
Yes, I had Liam sit on the tree, too. Don't worry. I had a hand on him.
The kids are pretty freaking cute, too.
Anna loves pushing Liam in the swing, but I think he likes it even more.
And of course, some shots of the kids in the tree.
Yes, I had Liam sit on the tree, too. Don't worry. I had a hand on him.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Anna Wednesday #21
This will be funnier to the people out there who have known me within the last 10 years or so. The shirt that Anna's wearing is the one that I've worn approximately 1 out of every 2 days since my mom bought it for me back when I was a freshman or sophomore in college.
And yes ... I realize it's Thursday.
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