“Bones” by Lila

“Skeleton” by Lila…

“Witch” by Sarina

“Graveyard” by Melisa

“Graveyard II” by Melisa

“R.I.P.” by Marisa

Have a Spooky Fun Halloween!

Mama Lisa

Bananas will always remind me of specific times and people:

In Infancy: I distinctly remember the smell of banana baby food – it reminds me of being a very little child. Then when I was an older kid, I remember buying a jar of banana baby food with friends and eating it… a flood of memories came back – or more like the feeling of babyhood came back to me… I was there momentarily. Interestingly, I expected the banana baby food to taste great – I must have loved it as a baby – but it was gross!

In Childhood in General: When I was growing up, my mother fried sliced bananas in butter for breakfast sometimes and put them on the side with fried eggs – it was a major childhood treat. This is now one of my comfort foods I make on occasions to feel warm and loved! (My own children haven’t taken to the fried bananas too much.)

The Tween Years: I remember making chocolate coated bananas with those kits you’d buy in the store with my mother. The chocolate was artificial, but if was fun nevertheless!

The Teenage Years: When I was a teenager, my grandparents would stay with us in the summer for about a month every year. I remember my grandfather eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches. This will always remind me of him.

Late teens: In college I studied in France for a few months, in Chinese restaurants in France they serve a banana flambé dessert that’s just out of this world! Funny that I think of a Chinese restaurant dessert in connection to France! (Obviously, I have lots of other food memories in France. But I’m limiting this conversation to bananas!)

And no, I’m not a skinny person! Someone who has this many food memories is not bound to be skinny! ;)

Feel free to share any food memories you have in the comments below. I welcome hearing about how other people enjoy bananas (feel free to include recipes).

To fry bananas, you literally slice them and fry them in butter in a frying pan on low to medium heat until lightly brown on both sides. They get caramelized. Then serve.

I thought my mother’s version was a Spanish or Puerto Rican recipe from her friend, but when I looked around the internet, I saw that it’s very American. There seem to be different recipes for fried bananas around the world. The flambé version in France probably includes liquor.

Soon I’ll post some correspondence between Gloria and me about the German cuisine we remember growing up with – it may be interesting for any of you children and grandchildren of German immigrants.

Bon appetit!

Mama Lisa

We’ve narrowed our search down to Lagottos (which are very hard to find) and either 2nd generation Goldendoodles or Labradoodles. But now we’re having a hard time finding a puppy in these breeds. If anyone knows of any good breeders where we can find these types of puppies, please email me at lisa@mamalisa.com .

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

We used my husband’s iPhone to guide us on our adventure. We knew there were a couple of geocaches in a nearby park. So we headed there.

My husband had previously downloaded a geocaching app for his iPhone called Geocaching.com Intro. At the park, the app finds the closest geocache and guides you to it.

The app found a geogache for us to find. The girls took turns with the iPhone pointing the direction on a compass.

Eventually you usually go off the path. (If they were on the path, people who didn’t know about the game might take them.) Then you follow the directions until you (hopefully) find the cache. The two we found today were in small plastic tubs. You’re supposed to sign the log that you find inside the tub. There are also trinkets inside the tub. You’re supposed to leave a trinket and you can take a trinket in return. We made sure all the girls had trinkets to exchange.

It was a lot of fun!

We had tried this last weekend in a more public park and never found the geocaches. Our theory is that people who didn’t know how the game might have found the caches because it was a more public place and took them. The game seems to work better in larger parks with more vegetation.

If you have a regular GPS system you can go to geocache.com and type in the zip code for the area you are going to. Then you can find different geocaches nearby. Pick one and find hints for finding it. I think it will give you the final coordinates too. You’ll need to sign up and read all about it!

Have fun!

Mama Lisa

That’s the image I saw in my head every time I heard the song… until years later, when I became a teenager, it was dashed to the ground, and shattered upon being told that the song was about drug use. Somehow that tainted the song for me and made it less interesting… somehow mundane… not of a person’s own, pure imagination, but drug induced.

Today, my childhood image has been redeemed. I learned that the song actually came from a childhood drawing by John Lennon’s son Julian. You can see the drawing below. When John asked his son what the drawing was about, Julian said, “It’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds.” Lucy was Julian’s playmate in school.

The song “Lucy in the Song with Diamonds” was also influenced by Lewis Carroll. Paul McCartney said, “We did the whole thing like an Alice in Wonderland idea, being in a boat on the river, slowly drifting downstream with those great cellophane flowers towering over your head. Every so often it broke off and you saw Lucy with Diamonds all over the sky.”

That is a much more interesting origin of this song! What’s more, it lets me remember my original conception of it… and feel like that’s what it was really about… the feeling of the innocent, colorful, originality of childhood.

Oh happy day! To regain a childhood perspective!

Hattip: Steve Bunche’s Blog

*****
On a sadder note, the real Lucy Vodden (née O’Donnell), Julian’s playmate, recently passed away from Lupus at the age of 46.

We are considering getting a hypoallergenic dog since we have dog allergies in our house. Here are the breeds the American Kennel Club lists as the dogs that allergy sufferers generally do well with:

Bedlington Terrier
Bichon Frise
Chinese Crested
Irish Water Spaniel
Kerry Blue Terrier
Maltese
Poodles (Toy, Miniature or Standard)
Portuguese Water Dog
Schnauzer (Miniature, Standard or Giant)
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier
Xoloitzcuintli

These dogs don’t shed – so they don’t produce a lot of dander (which is what most allergy sufferers are allergic to). The AKC recommends against the mixed breeds of poodles that are so popular these days for allergy sufferers… you won’t know for sure if the dog’s coat with be shedding or not in these dogs.

We’re considering getting a Bichon Frise or a Schnauzer. Both seem to be good with kids. Though Schnauzers are better with older kids. I need to find out how old they mean. My son is 15, so presumably he’s old enough. My daughter is 8. Would she grow with a puppy and be old enough by the time it’s mature to play actively with it? Some people say Schnauzers can be snappy. The Bichon Frise seems to be a gentle dog for kids of all ages. I wonder if it would bark at strangers on my property (which we would like). Next I hope to visit a breeder of both types of dogs with my family to see how we like the dogs’ temperament and see what the owners have to say about each type of dog.

If you’re getting a dog it’s a good idea to research the different breeds to make sure you choose one that’s right for your family.

If you’d like to share any personal experiences with any of the breeds above, we’d love to hear about it.

If you’d like to learn about different dog breeds, you can look them up at the American Kennel Club’s site.

UPDATE: We’ve added Standard Poodles to the dogs we’re considering – they’re supposed to be very smart and good with kids – though they can grow to be 70 pounds. Also, some people love Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers. Though you need to make sure the temperament is good with children. They require a lot of grooming.

Here’s a list of the Hypoallergenic Dogs in size order by weight (at the end are the 3 dogs with three size variations):

Hypoallergenic Dogs in Size Order…

Maltese (under 7 lbs.)
Chinese Crested (under 10 lbs.)
Bichon Frise (7 to 12 lbs.)
Bedlington Terrier (17 to 23 lbs.)
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier (30 to 40 lbs.)
Kerry Blue Terrier (33 to 40 lbs.)
Portuguese Water Dog (35 to 60 lbs.)
Irish Water Spaniel (45 to 65 lbs.)

***
Poodles (Toy 6 to 9 lbs., Miniature 15 to 17 lbs. or Standard 45 to 70 lbs.)
Schnauzer (Miniature 10 to 15 lbs., Standard 30 to 45 lbs. or Giant 55 to 80 lbs.)
Xoloitzcuintli (Toy 5 to 15 lbs., Miniature 15 to 30 lbs. or Standard 25 to 40 lbs.)

Here are some possible ways to help your child:

1) Eat right and exercise yourself as an example to your child (most of us could improve our habits!)
2) Have lots of fruit in your house as an alternative to junk food and limit the junk food and soda in your house. (The NY Times article points out that your child will just find the junk food elsewhere. But meanwhile, if s/he’s grazing on healthy snacks presumably your child would be less hungry for other food.)
3) Eat Family Meals together
4) Less Take-in Food
5) Have them Bring Lunch to School (cafeteria lunches leave much to be desired)
6) Find an alternate activity to snacking – like a hobby
7) Have your child help you plan the meals for the family, thus helping them learn how to think about food in a healthy way.
8) Smaller dishes lead to smaller portions. When my friend visited us from France, she was amazed by the huge sizes of our dishes here in the US. If you have smaller dishes and you fill them up, you feel like you’re eating the same amount as a larger dish filled up. Yet your portion is less.
9) Make less carbohydrates. My husband is over 6 feet tall and my 15 year old son is almost 6 feet tall. Sometimes, I find myself making larger and larger amounts of pasta or rice to keep up with them. Lately, I’ve been trying to make less pasta, so we all eat less carbs, rather than making more and having leftovers.
10) We try to take long walks at parks together as a family.
11) We’re considering getting a dog – with the understanding that our kids would have to help walk it. That would be a daily walk for all of us!

Please feel free to let us know any advice you might have, in the comments below, for helping children eat healthy food and eat healthy amounts of food, without causing eating disorders down the road.

We visited a very kid friendly nature preserve today with a lovely garden.  The gardeners there were in the middle of planting a sensory garden, as a nice addition to their main garden.  A sensory garden should have plants that stimulate each of the five senses: smell, taste, sight, sound and touch.  Sensory gardens are wonderful for children to help them learn about the five senses.

Sight is easy in a garden…

So is smell.  They were planting mint…

Taste is pretty easy too.  They were planting blueberry bushes…

The sense of touch is pretty easy too.  You need to have safe plants to touch near the pathway.  Different textured leaves work nicely.  I noticed they were planting some ornamental grasses…

Now sound in a garden I find interesting.  They were planting something called Clethra Hummingbird.  The gardener I spoke to said it makes a crackling noise in the Fall.

Even if you don’t plant a full sensory garden, you can use these ideas in your garden, around your yard or on your balcony if you’re in an apartment, even on a windowsill.  It’s just another way to be creative in your life and think of things another way!

Check out Sensory Garden for Kids for more on building a sensory garden with children and Sensory Gardens which talks about other reasons to create a sensory garden (i.e. for healing, socializing, etc.)

Enjoy your gardening experience with all your senses!

Mama Lisa

blue and yellow from edison on Vimeo.

…Important to remember with children too!

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for pointing out this cool video!

Mama Lisa