Restoration

If you're anything like me, your kneejerk reaction to this photo would probably be anger, disgust. Giant backhoe in the middle of an open field, next to a beautiful oak tree. Tearing up the ground, raping mother Earth -- this is a job for the monkeywrench gang!

Actually this photo represents something of a metaphor for what I have been experiencing lately. This field here is in the middle of a wonderful and transformative healing process. Right now looks as though its being helped through some of the crisis stage.

We live directly behind this field. We were enjoying some warm evenings last month so I opened the back door and suddenly we heard the most beautiful sound of hundreds of frogs singing out in the field. Now, I have lived in this neighborhood on and off for about four years, and that is a new sound altogether. The frogs have returned to the field because the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy is restoring this ordinary field (also known as the Ojai Meadow) back to its original state in nature, which is a wet marshland. So, that sound was like the heralding of this wonderful healing for the ecosystem that was plugged up and planted over for so long. And that is what all the heavy machinery is about. Because to just let the field lie fallow would not actually restore it to health. Which reminded me, sometimes you have to tear down what's in place in order to make things right again.

Breakfast

Green Smoothie!

Thinking about what is appropriate to feed the baby has helped me take notice of my own eating habits. I want to be able to share our food with him, so the simpler we eat, the easier it is for all of us. This morning we three enjoyed a blender full of banana romaine smoothie. 2 bananas, a head of romaine, and 1/2 cup water for consistency.

Paella

Look what arrived at the market, just in time to add to my paella dish.
When you visit the Ojai Sunday market, check out Frank's family's stand. I don't know the farm's name, but its right next to B.D.s (the herb and greens farmer). They always have the first of the summer beauties like these little gems. He even has a few strawberries right now.

To make this paella, I started with Freshtopia's inspired recipe and made a few very minor changes. No farmer could convince me their turnips were as mild as I would prefer (not a big turnip fan) so I used jicama in place of the turnip and I dehydrated the mixture for two hours to remove some of the moisture. I also added red bell pepper strips to the mushroom marinade and dehydrated both of those for a bit to concentrate the flavor. It was fabulous. Wouldn't it be fun to do a Spanish night with tapas, paella, sangria, almond ice cream? I'll probably find the time to accomplish that when Sebastian is thirty or so...

Happy Birthday to Me!

Sun Burger

E. made secret recipe sun burgers for my birthday! And I took a photo with my new camera! Yes, I am so excited!

I haven't posted in a while and I am thinking about what I would like to say about that, so I'll discuss in my next post. In the meantime, I am making raw PAELLA for the SB potluck tomorrow. That was a dish I looooved. Here is the link to freshtopia's video recipe: Enjoy.

More on Nursing

www.thegardendiet.com

Check out Jinjee's new ebook on the yoga of nursing. Sounds like she knows exactly what I am talking about regarding nourishment, comfort and our relationship to food. Her littlest, Yarrow, is two days younger than Sebastian. And if you come check out the Santa Barbara raw meetup (link) you can meet raw baby Theo. He is two days older than Sebastian. We raw mamas were having some fun in August 2006. Sorry if that was crude, but hey! That's nature.

Baby Love

Changes

Sebastian teething on celery - his favorite!

If the hints are any indication - I am getting a new digital camera (with video!) for my birthday. So needed, as you can tell by the quality of the photos on this blog. My birthday is the 17th of February. I will have done the solar loop 31 times. I have some pretty strong intentions for the next thirty years. Truthfully I hope most of them are radically different from the first thirty. There were some pretty rough years in there. Some good ones, but overall the bad outweighed the good. I know that will be different when I look back at age 6o.

Sebastian is changing so rapidly. He's now crawling. He has two teeth and a full head of hair. He has a very strong personality. He has a mesmerizing smile and an infectious laugh.

I received a wonderful email from a woman on our raw meetup group asking what I was doing regarding Sebastian's diet. She was impressed at how healthy he looks. That was gratifying. He is super healthy and I try to keep him as looking as normal as possible. Most of the other moms in my mother's groups have no idea what I am up to, I don't even advertise the fact that he has never been sick. All the other babes have at one time or another come down with myriad different types of illness. He did get a stuffy nose once, but that was due to some extenuating circumstances. Flooding in the house during a storm. I think it stirred up some nasty mold in here, the house is pretty old. We had it all cleaned up and dried out and since then - nothing! Amazing.

What I've been doing lately is breastfeeding him. He has had no solid food in over a month, with the exception of a few little tastes. When he was 6 months, we started a routine of pureed soft fruits and veggies at about noon. I had begun feeding him because he was so interested in what I was eating. But, he quickly grew tired of that. So, I just kept nursing. And he stopped showing interest in my food. And he keeps gaining weight, his coloring is good, and he is right on target for all the developmental milestones. So, that has been working well.

Then, his digestion changed this week (in regards to the amount and timing of output) so I decided that he may need to try again. I picked up some bananas and the wonderful avos that have appeared at the market -- at last. So, today he had a couple of bites. He's not all that interested, but I am going to keep offering and see where that goes.