Birke Baehr

I love this guy and the empowering message he's sending about taking charge of the food we eat and making the world a better place. What an inspiring person! Thanks for the tip, Riki!

Thursday Links

Photo by Jim Wildman, NPR

Sometimes the good stuff piles up on my laptop faster than I can blog about it. Here are some amazing links that just can't wait to be shared. Read, listen, learn and enjoy:

Midwives save lives in Afghanistan (thanks to all the readers who sent this clip to me!):

Babies & "Meaningful Work": Why must they be separate?

Ways to help create a babies-at-work world

And lastly, you must listen to this great podcast about the impact of birthing practices on breastfeeding.

Let me know your thoughts!

Quote of the Day

Design by Shirley-Ann Dick, via Studio Overland and Underwood

Blog Crushing

Sometimes I encounter a blog that is so simple and original and evocative that I just get sucked right into it and after a few visits it starts to bend my perceptions of the world around me. Via Liivia is one of those blogs. I cannot read a word on it (the posts are in Finnish) but the photos alone are very powerful -- beautifully distilled moments arranged as they are like so much visual haiku. As a result of visiting this blog, I actually find myself more keenly aware, in my everyday life, of a certain cast shadow or the precise color radiating from a patch of sunlight or the exact softness of a favorite sweater.

You have to go.

The King's Speech

My hubby (who is a person who stutters) just tipped me off about this soon-to-be-released film starring the trifecta of acting awesomeness that is Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. It tells the story of King George VI, and his struggle to overcome his stutter during the lead-up to WWII. It looks fascinating, don't you think?

Leonardo da Vinci on Breastfeeding

Madonna and Child by Leonardo da Vinci

Happy Weekend

Photo originally posted here.

I hope your weekend is off to a lovely start! Here are a few bits and pieces of the internet that made me happy this week:

Everything in this shop, especially the crayon rings, the dotted tape, and the model's "love" tattoo!

This brilliantly cute wedding ring.

I really want to try this.

Babywearing in Parliament!!!

I adore this photo. The article is really interesting, too.

What surprised and delighted you this week?

More Island Adventures

We stayed in the village of Dunewood, Fire Island, which is so tiny it doesn't have a single store! For provisions, we had to walk fifteen minutes to Fair Harbor, which has an old-fashioned supermarket with a general-store kind of vibe, a fire department, a restaurant, a liquor store, and a pizza shop. Since it was the off-season these establishments were closed more often than not, so when we did go shopping we really had to stock up. At the beginning of the week we bought a bunch of groceries at the Pioneer Market and then we did a lot of cooking at "home" in the house we had rented in Dunewood.

We spent tons of time just frolicking on the beach near our house, as well as wandering the inland paths of the island which were full of gorgeous flora and fauna and character-filled beach cabins with their requisite rusty bikes, wagons, and surfboards always nearby...

We are not typically big bike-riders. I grew up loving to ride, but ever since moving to NYC I have been intimidated by the idea of taking a spin on a bike through the chaotic streets here. I'm just not that brave! Well, it didn't even take us 24 hours of being in the idyllic, peaceful, car-free bicycle paradise that is Fire Island before we were itching to jump on some wheels. So we walked to the relatively large town of Ocean Beach and rented this getup:

Taro and I took turns carting the kiddos and riding the other solo bike we rented. We went as far as the terrain would allow and it was an absolute blast. We loved it so much that we are now inspired to rent bikes here on the Upper West Side to tool around in Central Park (perhaps even this weekend!?!)

The sky and the ocean on Fire Island were in a constantly-changing, incredibly beautiful and dramatic conversation with one another. I wish my photos could even begin to convey their magnificence and dynamism. It was really wonderful to experience this beautiful beach with so few other people around.

Towards the latter part of the week, we were joined by Riki, who of course jumped right into adventure-mode and did everything from beach babywearing to bike-riding, to ocean-dipping with us. It was so great to have her!

One of our favorite adventures was trekking to the remote Fire Island Lighthouse:

There was a lovely museum inside, and I was tickled to read the following caption on an exhibit of photos showing the families that had lived there as lighthouse keepers. Yay for lighthouse home birth!!!

All in all, it was a magical, memorable, completely fantastic week. We can't wait to return!

Alphabet Awesome

Several months ago, J mastered the alphabet and recently he has been obsessed with spelling words and writing letters. One of his favorite games (which he invented) is to make up nonsense words and ask me and Taro how to spell them. Somehow this activity evolved into a kind of faux spelling bee, wherein the spellers all get wrapped up asking the "judge" what the definition of the word is, or to please use it in a sentence. This usually ends in sidesplitting laughter as each gibberish word out-performs the last with hilarious meanings and usages. For example, this morning J asked Taro to spell the word, "Torkenslaggo". Then Taro asked for a definition. J replied that the meaning was simply Torkenslaggo. Still formulating his approach to the spelling, Taro asked if someone could use it in a sentence. Before I could even think, I answered, "She was so excited about her new Torkenslaggo that she broke out in a rash!" We then proceeded to fall on top of ourselves with giggles.

Meanwhile, don't you like this Alphabet Lithograph by Eric Carle? And how about these cute $12 Helvetica Alphabet Tees from American Apparel? Rad.

Island Baby/Toddlerwearing

With no cars on Fire Island to hop from place to place, we did a whole lot of walking. The first day we were there, we actually set out over the wood-plank-paved inland paths with our trusty Maclaren, only to run into patches of deep sand that made navigating with a stroller impossible. After that, we decided to adventure exclusively with the aid of our Mei Tai and woven wraps -- and we had so much fun while getting so much further! J got tons of exercise running along the beach for hours, but whenever he got tuckered out Taro or I would take turns wearing him. It was such a sweet treat and a blast from the past to wear our gangly three-year-old every day. W, of course, is still used to this mode of transportation ;)

Here are some of my favorite photos from our week of babywearing on the beach:

In these photos we are wearing our kids in a Babyhawk Mei Tai

and a Didymos woven wrap.

Modersohn-Becker on Breastfeeding

"I sketched a young mother with her child at her breast, sitting in a smoky hut. If only I could someday paint what I felt then! A sweet woman, an image of charity. She was nursing her big, year-old bambino, when with defiant eyes her four-year-old daughter snatched for her breast until she was given it. And the woman gave her life and her youth and her power to the child in utter simplicity, unaware that she was a heroine."

--Paula Modersohn-Becker

Quote and painting via a wonderful gem

of a little book I recently discovered, called

The Art of Motherhood.

Advertise on Marvelous Kiddo

Marvelous Kiddo is now accepting sponsors for the month of October. My blog usually gets between 30,000 and 50,000 visits in one month, and is a wonderful place to reach an audience of engaged, design-savvy, health-and-eco-conscious people.

Please email me at leigh(at)leighpennebaker(dot)com if you are interested in learning more about my rates and options! Thanks!

Stamping With Kids

I love love love this amazing tutorial on making stamps from plasticine, over at the fantastic blog, Filth Wizardry. I will totally do this with the kiddos come the cabin-fevery days of Winter...

Magical Days: Our Fire Island Adventure

We decided to spend the last days of Summer exploring a place we'd never been before, Fire Island, New York. Fire Island is only a short commuter train and ferry ride away from the city but it might as well be another planet.

Since we arrived late on a chilly, overcast Sunday afternoon and after the busy vacation season, from the moment we stepped off the boat it was as though we were inhabiting our own private natural paradise. There are no cars on the island (with the exception of the occasional law enforcement or emergency response vehicle and a lone yellow school bus that makes its rounds picking up/dropping kids off via the beach every day!) and other pedestrians were scarce.

We were so excited when we arrived that we made the five-minute walk from the ferry dock on the bay side of the island, straight to the beach on the ocean side, suitcases and all. Here are some glimpses of that magical stroll:

More soon...