This is Daphne all snuggled up and ready to head out with Julie and I on a bile ride. Very cute! I love that sweater.

Here is a proof that Daphne eats solid foods at least SOMETIMES. She will only eat foods that her daddy gives her. She won’t eat anything that I give her really. I guess I get to make the food but not give it to her. Maybe this is her way of getting her daddy more involved with the food.

It is very cute though.

People tell me that I am becoming more and more like a hippie every day, but I think the truth is that I am just starting to show how much I have been changed by my recent experience abroad.

While I was in Italy and Greece, I learned about food traditions. The people there made their own food and they were proud of it. The food that was made every day was family property, and it was valued. Women truly mastered the art of staying at home taking care of the household. It was an honor to raise wonderful children and cook wonderful meals.

When I went to the grocery stores on Paros, there were no boxed ready-made meals. It was unheard of. Chicken was raw and not preseasoned and individually frozen. There were no boxed macaroni and cheese or other boxed prepared food. It was all home made, and it was all wonderful. I learned while I was there one very important thing.

I learned that there are food traditions that are amazing and wonderful around the world. They are as fabulous and gracious and amazing as the traditions that we have at Christmas, and they are around you all the time–all day every day. Good meals are a big part of being a happy soul.

I don’t understand the people that think they have no time for food, it is just beyond me. Our ancestors were able to settle down and do more than survival activities because they noticed that grains grow when you put them in the earth and they were able to use that to their advantage. I thank our ancestors for this work because it ensures that society can continue to go on and I can have the job I have as a wedding photographer, which would not have otherwise been possible (because no one would have time for leisurely activities like inventing the camera). Our survival is dependent on the food that we eat, and the quality of food that we eat.

The best and most incredible thing that can be done is creating and preparing foods in the traditions of our ancestors for a happy and healthy family.

I roll my own pasta like the Italians have always done. I am starting to mill my own grin with STONE, as all my ancestors have done. I make my own yogurt and sometimes my own butter. I have time to do these things because I believe that food is an inherent part of our culture, and I am not going to buy into the bull that some deadline or some 9-5 job is more important than me fulfilling these food traditions.

When I was pregnant and very ill, I watched a lot of TV shows. Many of them were no addicting, but there is one addiction that I carry with me to this day, and that is my Grey’s Anatomy addiction.

I watched the 2nd season reruns faithfully when they were on, and then, in September, I went to Greece and Italy with my friend, and we actually downloaded the episodes with Itunes and watched them. It is a pretty silly addiction.

So, the season premier was on last night, and it was really good. I keep telling myself that I am going to not watch this TV show anymore because sometimes I feel dumb being such a big fan of it, but I keep returning every week. I just wonder when it is going to be taken off the air permently, maybe then I will get some peace.

I ran into the following on the Ebay website.

“On September 26, 2007, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a recall of several types of toys due to a lead paint hazard. Items in the recall include certain Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway toys, toy gardening rakes, tools and chairs, Knights of the Sword toys, puppet theaters, spinning wheel-metal necklaces and additional children’s metal jewelry.

Also, today, September 27, 2007, the CPSC also recalled several types of Kolcraft play yards due to strangulation and suffocation hazards.”

I think the thing that is being communicated here is that NO toys are safe for kids. Make your own toys or buy wooden toys from sources you know.

Though I did break down the other day and buy Daphne a donkey and a goat the other day that were made of plastic. She actually chose the donkey, and I chose the goat for her, it was very endearing.

My new rant, however, is that I strongly believe in safe toys that will last generations. Kids do not need a house full of toys. It is possible to make awesome plaything out of household garbage. I filled an empty bottle with beans and she loves that thing. It cost me less than $.01 for the beans. Doing that is a wonderful recycling technique, and it is a wonderful way to keep my daughter safe.

Are there any toys out there that are safe for kids anymore? Are there any toys on the shelf anymore?

The under parts of my desk seem to be Daphne’s favorite place to play. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it is the least safe area. There are cords galore, and the electrical situation I’m sure constitutes a serious fire hazard, but despite all my moving her and telling her, she often crawls under the desk and starts to explore.

While I was writing my last blog post, she crawled under the desk and got hold of my mouse cord. She was facing away from the mouse, but she was playing with the cord nonetheless.

With one big pull, the mouse flew off my desk and smacked her in the back of the head. It was very funny to see. She was confused why she had been hit in the back of the head, and the reason I was laughing so hard was also hard for her to fathom.

I righted everything and went on my business without moving the baby out from under the desk. The next thing I knew, the mouse flew off my desk again in an exact repeat of what had just happened GRRRR. I was laughing, but Daphne didn’t like the game too much.

And NOW. She is chewing on my phone charger, so I had better go handle that.

I had an unexpected wonderful experience that I figured I would share with all my friends around me. I was telling my friend Julie about it after it happened, and she said that it was definitely a hippie moment, so if this changes your opinion of me, I am sorry, I can’t be helped.

Yesterday, we shoved three kids in the car (Audrey, Copper and Daphne) and headed out to a farm. Our intention was to go apple picking and bring home pounds and pounds of apples, but there was something else in store for us.

It turns out that the apple crop was esperacially awful this season, so there are no spare apples that the farmers want to allow for u-picking. The only thing that was available was grapes. After some deliberation, we decided that we would be able to do something with the 20 pounds of grapes we needed to pick and we set out for the field.

Julie’s littlest kid Copper is amazing. She has an amazing way of doing the cutest things at the most crazy of times. She was wearing a polka dot dress over a polka dot skirt and she had on some Robeez. It was the perfect outfit in the environment she was in. It wasn’t exactly practical, but it was definitely adorable. Copper lagged behind as we walked down the dirt road and if you looked back to see her, you would see that she was doing any number of totally adorable things, from picking up rocks to confronting as long as she possible could the dog that happily bound up to her.

It was the perfect day, not too hot, not too cold, and I was out with some good company and some adorable kids to pick grapes for preserves.

And then my moment—a long moment, happened. There I was with my baby strapped to me walking through the rows of grapes in the late September sun. The grapes hung down and crawled along the ground while the purple jewels of goodness were waiting for us to pick them. I ducked under the vines to go up to pick some grapes, and the way that the sun was glowing through the leaves put me back into time. It was like reliving all of the magic that I felt while I was a part of history on my Greek island of Paros. It was like I was there picking grapes as many thousands of my ancestors have done. Though my final intentions were not to make wine with the grapes, I was still partaking in the late September harvest of one of the most traditionally cultivated fruits in history.

I felt sorry for all the sorry sods in their offices or at work looking out their cement walls waiting for 5pm when they would be stuck in traffic. I got a chance to take part in a tradition that had been going on for thousands of years. I picked grapes with the sun streaming through the vines as many thousands of my ancestors have done over the past many thousands of years.

I am all caught up with posts and photos. That felt really good, but it took me quite a while. I will try to keep it up to date now. Thanks for reading!

I took this photo the last time Bob came up to visit. It is one of my favorites. They both look very happy and content.

After the food mess tonight, I took Daphne in to take a bath.

When we were done with the bath, I wrapped her up. She wanted her duck, so I handed it to her, but because she was swaddled, she had to try to bob for the duck. Pretty funny.