Parenting Naturally on a Budget Part 1: Toys

This series was birthed by a need I've seen in the community for parents who want to become "green" but just can't afford to. And it's no wonder... with all the articles I've seen on how to parent "naturally," I figured I'd better give the low-budget parents some hope. After all, most "green" lifestyles (as portrayed in the media) are way over my budget, but it is possible to parent naturally and frugally at the same time. And since that very idea has been my goal from the start, I thought I'd share some tips with the rest of the world, starting with baby toys.

Firstly, what are baby "toys"? "Toys" are merely tools of play that babies find fascinating and parents find safe. And babies rarely find "baby toys" fascinating, and many are not actually safe! The best "toys" I've found are not really toys at all. For example, just taking my son out into the yard gives him lots of fascinating "toys" in the form of grass, dandilions, rocks, bugs, and sticks. It doesn't get any more natural than that (assuming that you don't spray your yard, and why would you if you're trying to parent naturally?). If you want to encourage a more natural lifestyle, the best place to start is in the outdoors! Children love creating rock gardens, babies love looking at (and eating) flowers, and it's quite therapeutic for mom to walk barefoot in the grass as well.

No need to buy expensive organic wooden teething rings, just strip bark off a short, stout branch and let the kid chew! (Make sure you know what kind of tree it is and that it's edible and not sprayed) Or, I've found, rhubarb stalks work wonders for this purpose. So do frozen bananas (or other fruit. Experiment!) and cold, wet washcloths. Cloth toys are easy to make if you know how to sew basic stitches, just buy a yard of organic cloth and sew it (or tie, tightly, making sure there is no extra string) closed around a ball, rice, beans, newspaper, cardboard cut outs, or whatever else you can find that's interesting and edible. Take a page out of your great-grandparent's history and make corncob dolls or gourd dolls. Let your older baby rip apart old newspapers. Build cardboard-box and bedsheet tunnels and "forts." Be creative!

Bath toys are easy to find around the house. Anything that holds water will do, especially measuring cups. Pots and pans and simple stacking blocks are great for figuring out how to make noise, stacking, and bringing things in and out of containers. These things are not expensive!

Books are especially useful to have. I think 70% of my sons' belongings consist of books. (And most are hand-me-downs.) When he was tiny, I could show him the pictures. As he started exploring, he could put the board and cloth books in his mouth. Now, he loves flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures. In the future, he can learn to read them. At the moment, I like reading them and pointing to the pictures. They are a good investment to say the least! Who knew books would be so versatile?

By all means, buy a few organic toys to put in the car and the crib. But save yourself and your wallet some stress and find or make your own "natural" baby toys.

Renfest!

The Renaissance Faire was spectacular! We performed 4 times per day in 20 minute segments. Each time we performed, we were able to draw a good-sized crowd. The pavillion was even packed full a couple times! We had a good response, and the people in charge actually want to PAY us to come back next year. :) Everyone in our group performed to their best ability, and I am really proud of all of them.

The Renfest itself was also very nice. The people were friendly, there were interesting and funny shows going on, the vendors sold unique and beautiful pieces, and we all had a good time. I'm glad to have been a part of it!

Having said that, I did miss my husband and son a lot, and I'm glad to be home. :) I don't think I want to leave Taevyn for 4 days again anytime soon, but I'm happy I got to take a little vacation and do so well in the show.

Performing at the Renfest!

Sorry I have been away from this blog. As my little guy gets more mobile I'm finding it harder to find a spare 20 minutes to sit here and write. Also, I've been practicing for the SHARDS performance at the Iowa Renaissance Festival over Memorial Day. :) (SHARDS is the name of our theater troupe). So we will be performing this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday!!! I'm nervous but excited. I leave tomorrow, which means I'll be away from my little boy for 4 whole days. :( I'm a little sad about it, but I know I'll also relish the vacation and I'll probably be too occupied to worry.

Since I've been dragging him to Rochester, MN for practices nearly every weekend, his daddy hasn't seen much of him the past couple of weeks, but now they will get a chance to bond. :) I'm so lucky that Chris is a wonderful father, and that my son is such a pleasant baby (most of the time!)

At any rate, wish me luck!

Strep!

So it turns out my son has strep! Apparently it's very hard for babies to get but he somehow got it, and now we are very contagious! So, I'm a little stressed considering we have less than 4 weeks before we're going to perform our play and I still don't have my lines memorized! Anyway, I'm off to pay attention to the sick little one.

Spring Fever

My little son is sick. :( I guess it was inevitable that he would get sick at least once before his first birthday, but I'm still sad about it. He has a fever of 102.1 and congestion and crabbiness. He had a fever yesterday too that was more intense in the morning and then went away as the day wore on, and now it's back to full intensity this morning. I'll take him to the doctor if he has the same fever tomorrow.

Until then, I'm just giving him cold wash clothes to suck on, dosing him with baby motrin when he's too miserable to sleep, and putting him in the swing to soothe him.

I'm not feeling quite up to par either. I was pretty sick on Sunday but better now, although I still have a runny nose and the occasional sinus problem. So please don't hate me if i get nothing done this week!

Easter Kids :)

On Easter, I got a wonderful surprise gift... new baby goats! Not only that, but our mama goat, Frigga, (who we suspected was pregnant but didn't know for sure!) had triplets! :) She gave birth to a white male, a cream-colored male, and a black female. They all have cute little wattles and are part angora so they have curly hair.

I named them Spring (the cream colored one), Bata (a spin-off of the name Obatala, the white one), and Ostara (the black one.) Right now they are frolicking around, playing with each other and the other much older kids.

Frigga is a good mom, although she overdoes it. She keeps chasing Dawn around all over the barn. I don't know why she has it in for Dawn. She also has it in for the cats, who better not get within 10 feet of her babies! Frigga is quite an assertive soul, even for a goat! I have a lot of admiration for her because she even beats up on the huge bucks! But she is definitely a handful. She jumps over fences and nearly climbs the pines to reach their branches. If you try to get her to go somewhere, she'll try to go anywhere else. If you hear colorful language coming from the barn, it's usually directed at her.

Easter/Ostara

Happy Easter/Ostara! :)

For the past 2 days my husband, son, and I stayed at a motel in order to attend a family reunion. I got to meet my 5 month old cousin for the first time and watch him and my son interact with each other. Babies are fun to watch when they are interacting with other babies! This was also the first time I saw my great-grandmother in a while, and so she got to see my son as well.

I also got to introduce my husband to the family, and he seemed to tolerate them pretty well. My family is pretty eccentric, so it's kind of interesting watching non-family interact with a whole gaggle of them! It cost quite a bit of money to travel there but I'm glad I went. Family is becoming an important concept to me and I am enjoying fostering the connections I have between extended family members. I also am in the initial stages of trying to piece together family history. It will be a long process trying to find out who my ancestors were and what kind of life they led, but I feel excited and grounded and refreshed after the "vacation."

Travel is a liberating experience, and visiting family is a grounding experience.