Earth Day 2012

It's Earth Day today (for a couple more hours, at least). For us, that means it's the third annual "clean up one block of this filthy city" day, where we walk around our block and pick up every bit of trash we can find. Even the cigarette butts, of which there are many.

Liam helped.

Anna helped.

But mostly just Anna helped while Liam hit trees, bushes and lamp posts with a stick he picked up. That's just sort of how that kid rolls.

So yeah. That's all I have for you today. Peace out.

I forgot to "Boo!"

For the past four years, I've written a Halloween post in which my children dine on the flesh of innocents. This year, I apparently took a break. I'm sure the innocents will thank me later.

At any rate, you can read the previous years by clicking on this here hyper-text.

Speaking of holidays, Nathalie VanBalen, author of "Garlic Onion Beet Spinach Mango Carrot Grapefruit Juice" has a new coloring zine out called "Happy Thanksliving." Here's a sample page from her blog:

You should order it now so it will arrive in time for your kids to color it for Thanksgiving.

And speaking of "Garlic Onion Beet Spinach Mango Carrot Grapefruit Juice," VanBalen often puts free coloring sheets on her blog, often of the characters from the book. I printed out the two she made for Halloween this year and the kids colored them. Here are a couple that Anna did.

Thora:

Yellow Spotted Snails: 

Both of these are unfinished. Pretty much everything of Anna's is unfinished unless every single speck of white on the paper has been colored in. 

And here's Liam's Thora: 

So yeah. Good times. 

And a happy belated Halloween to all. 

North Dakota in September

We took a trip to North Dakota in early September to visit my parents. Here are some photos.

No late-fall stay at Grandpa and Grandma's is complete without a walk to Grandpa's gardens (and without taking home boxes of fresh vegetables).

I tried to get one of Anna in the corn, sort of like I got when she was just over a year old. 

Just for the heck of it, here's the one I took back in September of 2007.

Wow, that's really weird to look at those two together. I forget how long it's been.

Anyway, Liam loved running through the corn, too.

Then the corn attacked him!

I really like this next one. You can see Anna in the foreground and then Liam, but way back there is my dad getting eaten by the corn.

My dad scratched Anna and Liam's name into pumpkins with a pole barn nail (and he did the same for the other 7 grandkids and other people's grandkids in town, too). I talked to him last night and all of the pumpkins are picked and orange and ready to go. I wish we were less than 6 hours away.

This is as busy as it gets when we visit my parents' house. Which is why we love going there.

Then we visited some more family in Carrington, ND.

A good time was had by all.

Stats

I rarely talk about the health of my children. I suppose this is due to the fact that when I post photos and video of them it's pretty obvious that they're healthy. I also assume that in this day and age there is enough information out there about veganism to prove to anyone who cares to know that it's healthy for people in all stages of life.

But it occurs to me that some may think that kids of vegan parents can't be healthy, or that their diets are deficient in some way. 

My kids are healthy.

They've consistently been around and mostly above the 50th percentile in measurements of height, weight and head circumference (these are the things pediatricians check to make sure your kid is growing the way they're supposed to be growing). 

They get sick sometimes, sure. All kids do. I'd be concerned if they didn't (gotta build up those anti-bodies, ya know). 

But they don't get sick that much. This could, of course, be due to the fact that they don't go to daycare. It could also be genetic. I'm not going to say that a vegan diet fends off sickness, because while that may be true, it's not provable. Plenty of kids on non-vegan diets stay healthy and rarely get sick. 

The important point to make here is that my kids aren't getting sick because of their vegan diet. The beans, grains, vegetables, nuts, fruit and various processed foods such as soy milk and veggie burgers aren't making them sick and they're not somehow causing them to grow slower or less robustly then their peers who eat animals and animal products. And if the measurements are any indication (and what else could be?), they're growing a bit faster and a bit more robustly than their peers, statistically speaking.

Again, I'm not attributing this to a vegan diet. In fact, I'm fairly certain it has more to do with genetics than anything. The point that I'm trying to make is that there is no measurable negative effect due to their vegan diet. They're happy and healthy.  

"The American Dietetic Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree that well-planned vegan and vegetarian diets can satisfy the nutritional needs and promote normal growth of infants and young children." 

-American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition, 1998; Messina & Burke, 1997

Whenever I read that quote, I always get hung up on that "well-planned" part. What does well-planned mean? Does it mean that we have to keep track of the caloric intake of our kids? Measure every gram of calcium that enters their body? Keep the calipers on hand to make sure they're not losing precious pounds from their chubby thighs? 

Or does it mean that we should just pay attention to what we're feeding our kids? Try not to feed them junk food. Stay away from an excessive amount of processed food. Make sure we feed them a variety of whole foods. Be at least a little knowledgeable about the dietary needs of the children in our care. 

And if that's the case, don't all diets that satisfy the nutritional needs and promote normal growth of infants and young children need to be well-planned? 

"Finish your peas." Were you told that growing up? Me too! That's because our parents wanted us to be healthy. All healthy diets are well-planned. 

I read up on nutrition when I first chose to be vegan. I read up again when my wife and I chose to have our first child. I brushed up a little bit when we decided to have our second. I'll occasionally read up on this or that vitamin or mineral. So yes, I did (and do) a bit of research on nutrition. I hope that anyone, vegan or not, would do the same thing.

But to be honest, my kids' nutrition isn't that big of a consideration in my day-to-day life. I just try to feed my them a varied diet with a vegetable, fruit and grain at every meal. Soy milk. Tofu sometimes. Smoothies quite a bit. I very rarely give them juice, since they eat quite a bit of fruit. I try to keep the snacks healthy, or at least not completely junky. Stuff like that. 

Today, Anna had her 4-year check-up and Liam had his 18-month check-up. Here are their stats. 

Anna:

Weight: 42.5 pounds (90th percentile, which means she weighs more than 90 percent and less than 10 percent of kids her age)

Height: 40.5 inches (67th percentile)

Liam:

Weight: 25.5 pounds (49th percentile)

Height: 33 inches (72nd percentile)

Head Circumference: 48 centimeters (57th percentile)

Her Mother's Daughter (and other Slices)

We went to IKEA yesterday and Anna went to this little play land they have there. It's kids-only. We drop her off and she has up to an hour there and then we come and get her. It's pretty cool.

Anyway, there's this loft that they can climb up to and watch a big screen TV. After she played for a while, she took a break and went up to watch TV (I know all of this because she told me). Here's the conversation we had about it:

Anna: I went to watch TV and there was a girl and she said, "This show is not for you."

Me: So, did you say anything back to her?

Anna: Yes, I said, "This show is for me!"

Me: That's great! And did she say anything back to you?

Anna: Yes, she said, "No! This show is not for you."

Me: Oh. Well did you say anything back to her?

Anna: I said, "Yes! This show is for me."

Me: Did it keep going like that? Or did one of you stop talking?

Anna: I stopped talking.

Me: And you watched the TV?

Anna: Yes.

Me: Because it was for you.

Anna: Yes.

Then I told her to give me a high five and commended her for sticking up for herself. She's assertive like her mom.

This is the kind of confidence I don't remember having as a kid. If I was in that situation I would have said, "Oh. OK. I guess it's not for me," and walked away.

I was never able to separate the concept of confidence from cockiness. I always felt that people who were sure of themselves were also full of themselves. I know now that I was wrong.

And I don't doubt that people will be wrong about Anna too, if she keeps up with this confidence stuff. She'll be called bossy or pushy or stubborn, instead of assertive and ambitious and strong willed.

But screw those people. She's awesome and I'm going to keep giving her high fives.

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Before nap and night time, we talk about happy thoughts; things that Anna can think about as she's going to bed. Usually, it's something that she did that day, like going sledding or eating something she really liked. Stuff like that. We usually supply the happy thoughts, but lately she's been wanting to determine what they are, which actually makes a lot more sense.

Yesterday, one of her happy thoughts was flossing (which is something she just started to do).

Tonight, one of her happy thoughts was, "getting bigger and stronger."

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For supper tonight: Toasted Sesame Kale and Veganomicon's Blueberry Corn Pancakes, which are my new favorite pancake. So easy and so fucking good.

I don't swear a lot on this blog. Maybe you've noticed. But I just did there. That's how good the pancakes are. I'm not going to say it again. Once is enough. But really, they're that good. For an approximation of what they look like, check out the photos here (mine were bigger than these, because I like big pancakes).

Anyway, Anna and Liam both loved the kale and the pancakes (which, oddly enough, went together really good). It was Liam's first time eating kale and he didn't even flinch. He just starting eating it like it was something he'd always eaten. And then he asked for more. He's a good little eater.

---

Do I brag about my kids too much?

---

I was trying to explain the concept of glasses to Anna; how some people can't see that good and so they have to wear glasses. I could tell it was hard for her to understand so I took a couple photos to illustrate.

This first one is how it looks with my glasses on.


And this is what it looks like with my glasses off (and no, this isn't an exaggeration):



So now she probably still doesn't get it, but it might make a little more sense.

Random Photos

So I have photos. And I want to post them. So here you go.

We made cinnamon buns last weekend. We used this recipe at Vegan Yum Yum. We didn't use a big enough dish and didn't bake them long enough so the inside rolls were kind of gooey and not fully cooked (I think it's mostly because they didn't have enough room to expand, but then agian I'm sort of a bread novice), but the outsides pieces were pretty damn good. Definitely going to try it again with a bigger pan (or 2).

Here they are basking in the yellow glow of our stove light.






Liam's first birthday was in January. At first, we were going to have it at our house, but enough people RSVPd yes that we decided to move the party to a hotel near our house. All we had to do was rent a room for the night and they let us use the pool area the next day. There you go. A cheap pool-party birthday.


Liam wasn't actually too into the cake. He ate some, but like any food, he tired of it after a few bites and wanted something else (this is a blessing in disguise because it means he loves eating new foods).


Sledding in the back yard.


And I made a snow angel.


This was Anna's idea. I thought it looked cool.


She still loves her stuffed friends. George is laying on Rocky (the dog) who is laying on Buddy (the bear).


Anna's frosty window in the morning.




Jen and Liam.








Anna likes to help in the kitchen.


And I suppose the secret is out now. That's right. I'm pregnant.

OK. Not really. Seriously though, my gut is not usually that pronounced. But it is what it is. What can I say? I like food, beer and I don't regularly exercise. Sue me.

Actually, I sort of wear my weight with pride. I haven't lost a single pound since choosing veganism over seven years ago. That's not to say that you can't lose weight by going vegan, but ... well, look at me. I'm not exactly wasting away over here.

I'm still watching Ella on Friday's, much to my kids' delight. Liam has taken quite a shine to her. He even wants to hug her now when she comes over. It's awwwwwdorable.

1 year.

Liam's a year old today.

Here's a video. He walks.

Song, Cuddle, Monkey Pile

Liam's almost a year old! Here he is with his big sister.

Now that he has, for the most part, stopped pulling Anna's hair, they tumble around a lot more. Monkey piles are now regular occurrences in the Piggy household.

Anna's Original Music

Liam's almost one year old already. When Anna turned one I made a 15 minute slideshow of photos and video. In my attempt to give Liam as much media-exposure as his big sister, I'm putting together a slideshow of him, too.

There is significantly less time to do stuff like this these days, but I'll be glad I did it down the road.

Anyway, while going through the video from the past year I came across this and was shocked that I didn't post it at the time. Here's Anna singing a made-up song back in June.

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.

Friday Liam #29

Friday Liam #28

Friday Liam #27

Friday Liam #26

Liam with his cousin Jacob (they were born on the same day).



It's Friday, right?

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.

Friday Liam #24

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.

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.