quick hit: beasties, etc.

Why (among other reasons) I am mourning MCA (and I really am. Licensed to Ill was a revelation to 10 year old me when my cousin played it between LL Cool J and Aerosmith records. It felt mad and funny and very adolescent, in the can't hardly wait sense. Rest in power, Adam Yauch.)

Megan and Miriam are giving away a free Kindle copy of their book, The Other Baby Book, on Mother's Day! Read it over your kid-made breakfast in bed.

Michelle at the Parent Vortex reminded me that my kid isn't the only one being a persnickety, independent twerp sometimes (a sweet, adorable twerp, that is).

Once upon a time, I had a real job, and in that other lifetime this kind of thing was relevant to me. 

Far and away the craziest birth story I've ever read.

And, finally, Zelda turned three months old. Cute cute cute. Happy Sunday!

quick hit: placentas, floor beds and sharing

A few things from around the internet:

My doula and friend, David Goldman, was featured on Peaceful Parenting! He's a great resource for information on the benefits of placenta consumption, and I'm so proud to see him getting some recognition, especially on such a well-respected site. 

Melissa of Vibrant Wanderings wrote a pretty great post on sharing from the Montessori perspective. We like and encorporate into our lives lots of the Montessori approach to child-rearing, but are by no means scholars on the subject. Since Zelda's birth, George has caught a(n age appropriate) case of The Mines, and at playdates it was becoming unclear whether I should force him to share or just let the struggles over toys shake out between the kids. This was just the read I needed, and sparked some great discussion amongst my friends when I shared it on Facebook. Thanks (again), Melissa!

Speaking of Montessori, we finally made the transition from George's crib to a floor bed. He loved his crib after moving into it from our bed, when he was about 15 months old, and it became apparent by his all-night starfishing and tossing/turning that he needed his own space. I was inspired by this (very old) post at Bloesem Kids and this (also old) post at Sew Liberated and, after a little whining about the change, George is nothing short of thrilled about his new bed. Some of his more recent frustrations seemed to be centered around being "unable" to do things on his own when I'm occupied with Zelda, so I'm hoping that this will foster his independence a little and show him that it can feel just as good (or better) to do things on his own. It seems to be working, so, awesome. 

Lastly, we've been doing things like this:

G & Z, same outfit, same age (give or take a few weeks). 

on offbeat mama!

One of my very most favorite pictures of George (in case you couldn't tell by the banner) is in Offbeat Mama's roundup of reading-related photos to celebrate banned books week. Both the holiday and the subject matter are near and dear to my heart, so I'm stoked to see my formerly-much-littler dude included.