The Kluczinske Family's Blog

Vivian Antoinette Turns 1!

Michelle Kluczinske — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:22:07 +0000

On the morning of her birthday, Vivian woke up to see her birthday ring and birthday crown. For breakfast we had home fries, her favorite, and pancakes.

After breakfast, Curtiss read Vivian a birthday story called “On the Night You Were Born.”

Curtiss had to go to work so Vivian and I decided to visit the playgrounds. First stop was the swing. Vivian absolutely loves the swing. In fact, when I tried to get her out she held on for dear life so I let her swing for five more minutes.

At the other playground, Vivian likes going on these rocking animals. Yeah, they are pretty beat up. After playing, we went home so she could take her late morning nap and I went to cook lunch.

Of course you need pancit on your birthday. That is such a classic Filipino tradition. I’ve heard them referenced as the “long life noodles,” haha.

Eat up, Vivian!

This is the pumpkin apple harvest cake I made for Vivian after looking for healthy cake recipes online. It used a little sugar, but I am not one of those people that thinks giving a little bit of sugar is the equivalent to child abuse. If I handed her a soda, ice cream, and store bought cake then, yes, I think that would be harmful and disgusting!

Obviously, she really did enjoy her cake.

For dinner, we went to this place called Tudari and it was total fail compared to all the other places we tried. Well, okay, its a tie between Tudari skewered food house and Choi Gane or whatever that cooked all of its food in one pan.

We ended up eating Buffalo wings sorta kinda-ish on a stick and some other disgusting thing on a stick. We just stopped by the bakery and another place to pick up more food after.

I have to wait on posting pictures of Vivian’s gifts because they haven’t all arrived and I’d rather have them on one post. I’m also thinking about writing up Vivian’s birth story but we’ll see where that goes.

Loving the past year and the ones to come,
Michelle

Springtime at Woobang Land

Michelle Kluczinske — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:10:47 +0000

During one of Curtiss’ days off, we decided to visit C&Woobang Land. It is right across the street from a park we frequently go to so I’ve been curious ever since Vivian and I got to Korea. The website said they were planting 3 million tulips and I just had to see that.

Past the entrance gate. Look at the flight of stairs in the background. The amusement park was on a hill and you had to climb up three flights of those stairs before you got to anything.

Oh look, more stairs. There wasn’t really much up there besides another set of stairs which we eventually found out led to the tower. You can bunjee jump off of it!

Such a beautiful garden. Doesn’t it look like I edited those hearts into the picture?

They offered a topiary class. These giraffes are made out of that topiary moss stuff.

Here are wonderful spring sculptures in the topiary classroom.

There were a couple of rides around, but only one was really appropriate for Vivian.

the merry-go-round!

The operator made it go super slow and I don’t know if Vivian liked it that much.

We let her go on these machines because she likes those animals that are grounded by springs at the playground that you can rock back and forth on. Too bad the elephant was sort of scary because it doesn’t rock but ascends and descends instead.

Then there was Pikachu that basically had a seizure so frightening we had to take Vivian out after a couple of seconds.

Here’s an “Aladin” playground that was spelled incorrectly. I didn’t know Aladdin was still popular!

I got these tulips as a souvenir for 2,000 won. When I got them, they were not showing signs of blooming anytime soon.

Here they are a week later. Their life cycle was pretty short! They were beautiful while they lasted.

While we did go in the morning when it wasn’t very crowded, the sights and sounds were pretty overwhelming – a reason I won’t happily take Vivian to amusement parks and places like Chuck E. Cheese. Children can act out over stimulation later in the day by being cranky and/or hyperactive. But when you’re in Daegu you absolutely have to visit Woobang Land, especially in the springtime!

Still exploring Korea,
Michelle

The Hurried Infant episode 1

Michelle Kluczinske — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:21:21 +0000

I finished listening to the first part of The Hurried Infant, a discussion and critique of children’s “edutainment.” Creating a baby registry while I was pregnant, I could not avoid the lure of Baby Einstein and the vast amount of similar brands. Just like formula, cribs, playpens, and Bumbo seats I thought, “I don’t know how Vivian could survive without it.” Somehow I researched the topic of the media’s effect on children by reading numerous books, articles online, and the AAP’s as well as other countries’ stances. With the opinions of various authors and experts who bring a lot of research to the table and the testimonials of Baby Einstein-y customers and sale representatives, this radio broadcast is informative and refreshing. They even discuss the government’s role in brain focused studies.

Some good points that are presented:
-The Mozart effect, which is what most of these products are based on, studied college students. This kind of test result has never been replicated with infants.
-While it is true that brain synapses are most rapidly formed before the age of three, there are no studies that show the benefits of overstimulating your child with television. More synapses doesn’t necessarily mean more intelligent.
-For each hour a child spends in front of a TV in a day, it averages from 6 to 8 less words in their vocabulary.
-A child will learn significantly less from media resources than they would from face to face interaction. This is commonly referred to as “video deficit.” A common example is that a child will not learn a foreign language from television.
-Before the age of 3, each hour of television adds 10% more to the chance of ADD at the age of 7. The quick flashing images of television reduce a child’s attention span whereas singing and reading expand it.
-Children will learn to depend on television long into adulthood because they have never learned to entertain themselves and neither did their parents.
-Our culture has learned to value the brain more than any other aspect of human nature. More children despise school and have uncontrollable emotions. Raise the whole child, not just his brain.

As stated in “The Hurried Infant,” in 1970 children began to watch television around 4 years old. Now, children are exposed to television when they are as young as 4 months old. A wonderful analogy was made when someone stated it was like the parents were outsourcing themselves to “edutainment.” Products like “Your Baby Can Read” really annoy me. Just because a baby can associate a pattern on a flash card or TV screen to an image, it doesn’t mean the baby has any comprehension whatsoever. So, what is the point? They’ll have to learn how to read again. They need to learn what a letter is, how vowels sound, how to form a sentence, and most importantly they need to be ready and interested.

Also, in a Waldorf viewpoint, the life force/energy of a child under three is concentrated into physical development. By forcing a child to read, you are moving the center of his life force and thereby hindering him. We need to rethink the values we are bestowing upon our children.

Happy we are raising Vivian in a tv-free home,
Michelle

The Curious Adventures of Vivian Antoinette

Michelle Kluczinske — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:44:10 +0000

Whenever I cook a meal, Vivian is content crawling around the kitchen playing with some cooking utensils and pots or toys we’ve brought in from her play room. As she’s growing older she has become more curious and can crawl across the room in the blink of an eye. One night I was making pasta with heavy cream, diced tomatoes, sweet Italian sausage, and herbs (Yum, one of our favorite meals!). I was stirring in the heavy cream and when I looked down I saw that Vivian emptied out a kitchen cabinet and was crawling in.

Look at that fluffy cloth diaper bun!

I really wasn’t worried about it because we don’t have any poisonous cleaning chemicals around. Tell me one thing that baking soda and vinegar can’t fix! Okay, wood floors but we don’t have them. =)

Caught by surprise!
“Oh no, this is going on the blog, isn’t it?”

Exploring the world with my baby,
Michelle

Easter

Michelle Kluczinske — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:46:53 +0000

I hoped everyone enjoyed celebrating Easter. We had a beautiful day so we spent it at the park and downtown. We usually drive by this park on our way home from shopping and on Easter we stopped by to see this awesome building.

While we were there, they had some blow up dispaly.

Vivian sat on the grass to take some pictures.

And some church was handing out real eggs.

While we were taking more pictures,

some lady called Vivian cute, which was normal for us
except she combed her and her baby’s hair, sat next to us, and made her baby take pictures with Vivian for a good 10 minutes.

It was hard taking pictures of Vivian because it was busy and people kept trying to get her attention.

The little honey bunny all tuckered out.

Enjoying the new life of spring,
Michelle

Splish Splash

Michelle Kluczinske — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:25:49 +0000

Vivian has loved baths ever since she was born. She loves splashing around and trying to drink the water. When we are in a rush, Vivian goes in our water baby carrier to join in a shower. We recently switched from Noodle and Boo products to WAHM (“work and home mom”) made items. We loved Noodle and Boo because it is a mom made product straight out of San Jose that has gained celebrity recognition (its that good!), it smelled nice, and it was pthalate free. I decided to go with hand made WAHM soaps that are more pure and have many nourishing ingredients such as goat’s milk which attracts moisture to your skin instead of animal fat which clogs pore, essential oils instead of irritating fragrances, oils to help lather instead of SLS detergents that clean by harsh corrosion of tissues, no pthalates, and they don’t strip the glycerin to use in lotions.

Curtiss giving Vivian a bath. She was having fun until she saw the camera, haha.

We got this cute after bath cap for her because her hair is getting super long and I didn’t want her getting to cold.
It also helps keeping her hair out of the lotion.

Isn’t she adorable? I love her cheeks!

This post reminds me of the the time we were discussing all the harmful ingredients in vaccines with her pediatrician here. It eventually ended with him saying, “Well, there are a lot of of bad things out there like HFCS. You can’t protect her from everything.” Are you kidding?! Oh sure, there’s yellow dust (heavy metals from China) in the air, preservatives in most food, aborted fetus cells in certain vaccines, and the atmosphere is deteriorating so the sun’s rays are going to fry us. Let’s all not care and throw our health and more importantly our children’s health to the wind. I can contribute in giving my daughter a long, healthy life and if I can avoid all these man made harms then I will.

Interesting links:
“Group Finds Carcinogens in Kids’ Bath Products” from USA Today.
“Make Homemade Soap” powerpoint.

I really can’t wait to make our own soap when Vivian’s older. Lye is not something to play around with. She loves picking up stuff off the floor and I can’t imagine what would happen if she accidentally ingested an undissolved crystal.

Striving for a future with healthy bodies and minds,
Michelle

Trying Out a New Hairstyle

Michelle Kluczinske — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:32:16 +0000

We wanted to see what Vivian looked like with pig tails. While it is cute, I really like her beautiful hair down. We might be doing this hairstyle in the summer though when she doesn’t need to wear hats anymore.

Here’s Vivian after going out having a snack and with deflated hair, haha.

Having fun styling Vivian before she can vocally protest,
Michelle

A Corner of my Craft Table

Michelle Kluczinske — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:46:57 +0000

We set up a desk in the living room just for my crafting. On one side there’s my sewing machine, in the middle there’s a pile of fabric, and at the other side I have a little mommy’s corner that’s a work in progess.

I ordered some toys for Vivian from Nova Natural and decided to get something for myself.

I was excited when this came in the mail. The artwork is by Ruth Elasser. Doesn’t so cute next to the needle felted doll I made awhile ago? They are lovely reminders of the gift of motherhood.

Loving parenthood and crafting,
Michelle

Prepping for Vivian’s Birthday

Michelle Kluczinske — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:46:39 +0000

I am making a mental list of all the things that need to get done for Vivian’s birthday and decided to share.

* A birthday crown like shown in this simple tutorial. It not really going to look like that. There will be felt, her initial, maybe elastic, but I really want to do something more.

* Playstands. I will finish these! They were put on hold because of Curtiss’ field problem which rarely allowed him to come home during waking hours.

* A cuddly doll. Basically a waldorf doll with stretch cotton terry as a body so she doesn’t need to be dressed. Great for a young kidlette.

* Birthday cake. Since its her first birthday her cake needs to be special. She’s going to have some so I can’t get store-bought cakes filled with sugar unless I want to give her her first high on her birthday. “Happy Birthday! Oh, you’re not twitching or banging your head against the table yet. Here’s more cake.”

* Photographs. I want to mail some pictures of Vivian for her first birthday. I don’t know if I’ll be taking these or taking her to a photo place. I need to find her birthday outfit too. Got to get this done soon since shipping takes forever and then we have to get the pictures mailed out too.

Did I mention I ordered some supplies from Joann a month ago and they haven’t gotten here yet? There’s the elastic, thread, and yarn for a knitted doll I wanted to make for Vivian since forever. Not ordering from Joann anytime soon.

Trying not to feel overwhelmed,
Michelle

Vivian’s First Birthday Wish List

Michelle Kluczinske — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:09:54 +0000

Vivian’s turning 1 year old on May 6th. We have decided not to go to California for various reasons (would miss Curtiss, terribly long 16 hour flight, wouldn’t be able to drive, inevitable family drama) so I made these wishlists for anyone wanting to send Vivian a present. Forgive me Miss Manners, I know wishlists are rude and demanding but you have to understand our circumstances! You don’t have to send a present anway. I could make most of the things on there and what they’d lack in quality would be made up for in love, haha.

So here is our most coveted wish list from Nova Natural:
http://www.novanatural.com/s.nl/sc.32/.f?wlName=R9T3XM
It consists of doll’s furniture and carved wooden frames that I could spend all day drooling over and a kinderlyre which we would love to have and I honestly could never make!

And this is our Amazon.com wishlist:
https://www.amazon.com/wishlist/222XN4ACISY3R
There’s a lovely wooden kitchen, some toys, and a bunch of books. Did you know when we moved our box of books got lost in the mail? Yea, we were sad for awhile.

So, have fun browsing and don’t feel obligated. I don’t want Vivian to grow up to selfishly associate birthdays and holidays with presents. As long as we have our craft supplies, a house, nourishment, and each other we have everything we need.

What are we doing for Vivian’s birthday since we decided not to go back to California? I don’t know yet! I’d talk to Curtiss about it but they scheduled him for duty AGAIN in two weeks and he’s going to be at work until 9 am tomorrow.

Still oogling the wishlists,
Michelle

Edited to add: You can e-mail me at midotimas (at) gmail (dot) com for our shipping address!