Let's Do the KinderBach Y'all

KinderBach is a great program for little ones to learn music and piano.

Lending my voice/music to local gathering in support of the humanrights of 7 Iran Bahai leaders facing execution. http://ow.ly/14OGq

Ahanu Swims

Well after giving Ahanu some goggles, he taught himself how to swim.



















These videos are very low quality videos from our cell phone cameras, but I hope you get the idea. If you can't tell, his head is under the water most of the time and his feet are off the ground.

Here's Ahanu's guide to swimming, in his own words: "You can try this too. Here's how you just try to swim underwater. Get some swimming goggles and put them on and then just take a breath and just go underwater and just kick your feet and push your arms up and down while on your tummy, when your head's underwater and your swimming!"

What is That Beast in the Garden? (Hint: It's related to a pumpkin)

I call it "The Beast", "The Monster", and "The Dinosaur", but really it is just a really big squash. I have yet to find out the name of the variety of this squash. Anyone who has any guesses, please comment below. It might be from one of the seeds I got from the Florida Organic Growers. I have yet to ask. I have not seen this particular variety mentioned anywhere online.

This is what it would look like if squashes were used instead of bouquets for beauty pageants.


Here's the monster in his natural habitat.


This is what it would look like if Ahanu's left arm mutated into a squash.

"The change hurts!"


"Ahhh! The transformation is finally complete!...Success!"


If kids could have squash as pets...We'd call this one "Lumpy".


This is what a younger cousin of "The Beast" looked like after we had eaten half of it.


The squash fruit grows quite large, but the plants themselves are actually trying to take over the entire yard (and soon the neighbor's. I have had to redirect them so they will not start growing into the street. (Remember: All the photos in the blog entries are linked to bigger versions. Just click to view larger!)









Well, if you are wondering. The squash tasted really good. We boiled big slices in water and ate them with butter and salt and sometimes rice as well. Dee-lish!

“I Love Donald! He’s the Best!”

Ahanu has loved Donald Duck comics ever since his father introduced them to him. I guess Safa was introduced to Donald Duck comics by his own father. He greatly appreciates the humor and wit they provide, especially those written by Carl Barks. Safa discovered that they even have an English class at the University of Florida that studies the comics of Carl Barks. Cool!

Ahanu first was fascinated by the Donald Duck comic books and had never seens the animated versions. He can be found in the room alone for long periods of time "reading" the books. For the last few months that is all we have gotten from the library and all we read to him at night.

Safa's enjoyment of reading them to Ahanu has been enhanced by the fact that he would enjoy reading them even if he wasn't reading them to anyone else.

We have also introduced Ahanu to the Donald Duck cartoons via YouTube.com. They have a ton of them there.

Ahanu was watching some of the videos on my computer while I was in the other room and I heard him laugh a few times and say,

"I love Donald! He's the best!"

Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids

Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids is a book I finally got back a couple of days ago from one of my neighbors. I hadn't finished reading it and though I was sure it would help our family, I was so excited about what I had read so far that I couldn't help but share it with her. Well, I just started reading it again and put into practice some of the suggestions I gleaned from the first few pages. I used these with Ahanu in our discussion on how we can have a more harmonious and stress-free sleep ritual. What we had was not working for either of us, so we are now in better co-operation on what we will do.

Check out the book! I didn't find it at my library a couple of years ago, so I went ahead and bought it. The book is based on the principles of Non-Violent Communication. NVC was developed by Marshall B. Rosenburg and has been spread by him and the organization he started call The Center for Non-Violent Communication. I have read a number of NVC books and found that it can assist us in communicating in all our relationships--Not just the ones we have with our kids. I hope to improve in this area every day!

Water Kefir: A Simple Description

I started making water kefir recently for a friend of mine who need the probiotics and didn't want her family to have dairy right now.
This the jar with water kefir grains at the bottom and a mixture of water, sugar, molasses, and lime. The kefir eat the sugar and add a fizziness to the liquid.
This is the jar with its cloth cover to allow the kefir to breathe and not explode and at the same time keeping bugs out.I then place the jar in a cupboard for about 48 hours.

Finally I strain the kefir grains from the liquid and then refrigerate it for something at tastes a bit like flat lime soda. I save the kefir grains for another batch and repeat the process.

When I get my milk kefir grains and kombucha starters, I will tell you more about that.

Here is a great website all about fermented foods: http://www.culturesforhealth.com