Joon's Christmas Wishlist

Apparently some people would like to know what to get Joon for Christmas. Well, since I get really crazy excited about making lists, here's a big long list of ideas.


However, I'd like to stress the point that Joon doesn't actually need anything!! Please DO NOT feel like you NEED to buy her anything!

If however you insist and you're feeling kinda lost as to what a one-and-a-half-year-old superbrainy smart kid would enjoy here's a lil' bit of help to lead you in a good direction...



As you most likely know, we're all about individual artists and their families rather than big corporations, we enjoy all things unique, high quality, natural and preferably eco-friendly. Many good reasons you see to buy handmade items from small shops on etsy.

So we've got some favorite etsy finds which we think Joon would have a lot of fun with.
In case you want to browse etsy on your own and/or are also looking for good gifting ideas for the many other people you love here's a nifty little tool...
The Etsy Gift Guides help you find perfect individual gifts for every last person you know. Check it out, it's a lot of fun! :)



~~~ Very pretty sweater ball


~~~LookMamaMadeIt
last i checked she didn't have any fruits or veggies in stock. but that may have changed and fruits and/or veggies would be wooooooonderful for joon.


~~~The Perfect Vest
littlerubaby is run by my sweet lovely friend brianna and i've been drooling over the vests she makes for months now... this would be great for joon! send her a convo and see if she has or is willing and able to make the vest in other color combinations for joon. B knows joon's style really well and would pick the perfect vest for her. ;)


~~~Crystal's Felted Wool Rings
in case you'd like to get a lil' somethin' for the new baby, this would be great!
loin cloth is run by another sweet friend of mine and who knows, she might have time in her busy schedule to crochet joon a funky lil' hat (or matching hats for joon and baby) before christmas...


~~~Pretty Play Silks
cosmic ripple aka brandy (yup, i know her too!) makes gorgeous playsilks and joon would surely looooove any one of the tie dye silks or brandy may have a set of three or five silks in different colors which would be a lot of fun to play with.


~~~Custom Crochet Hat
another sweet mama who i know does great work... colette could make a beautiful beanie for joon. bright and colorful please (you guessed it, i know ;) ) and measurements will follow when joon's awake.


~~~Bug Bites Play Food
any of these fruits and/or veggie sets would be sweet.


~~~Farm Puzzle Blocks
joon is all about some farm animals lately. and she needs building blocks. and she's discovering puzzles. need i say more?


~~~Crazy Toddler Blocks Set
i'm officially in loooooooooooooooove with these blocks (and everything else in their shop). in looooooooove!! seriously!


~~~Beneath The Rowan Tree
this is another one of my favorite etsy shops. anything from there would make joon happy i'm sure. especially the playsilks look fantastic.


~~~Color Matching Game
i just came across this game tonight and think it would be great for joon. she's very much into sorting stuff and she's also very much into stealing (or "borrowing" as i'm sure she would say) my cloth pins. plus, it's probably not too early to introduce colors at this point.




Now for the non-etsy options... The following ideas are from Jako-o an online store with a site in English. They're located in Germany though so packages could easily be sent directly to us (of course I'd be happy to wrap everything before we put it under the tree for Joon).

~~~Joon loves to help us clean


~~~More building blocks


~~~For the little world traveler


~~~Teaparty


~~~Someone's gotta do the cookin' round here



Our favorite state side online stores for kids stuff are
Oompa Toys and Nova Naturals



So to sum it all up, Joon loves animals, stacking, sorting, pretend play, music and books.

Books she has tons of though so unless you come across a book you absolutely love and think she must have it might be better to get her something else.

Music CDs she has surprisingly few of so that would also be a nice idea. Dave is very picky with what he'll listen to but I'll listen to just about anything as long as it makes Joon happy. I know that even Dave thinks the Music Together CDs are great, so that's something you could check out.

Rumour has it that Joon is getting a lovely handmade doll from her german family and we're deciding between a set of table and chairs and an easel for our little artist.
Btw, Ikea sells lots of really great toys (especially little dishwear and cooking sets). We'd also be happy to pick up whatever you'd like to give to Joon at our local Ikea.


So. The options are endless. Now feel free to go to town shopping or just think of us on Christmas Day and know that we love you and wish we could be together.

I hope you have a lot of fun doing all the things that get you into the holiday spirit this year!

Much love from us to you



Oh, and yes, we will be better at keeping the blog up-to-date. Ooups.

Rock'n'Roll Kids

Annalie and Joon having fun at Dave's rehearsal room...

Pictures, pictures, pictures

Check out Noojie's Photoalbum for lots of new pics!

Also, we're scheduled to get internet and phone back next week! Yay!! Send us a message if you need the new home phone number. ;)

New Video!

enjoy!

Yay!!! For our computer!

It works again! So Dave finally had a chance to take all those videos from the past few weeks and edit them into a nice little clip for your viewing pleasure. It'll be available on JoonToob shortly!

Babywearing

Despite the risk of sounding preachy I would like to steal a few minutes of your time to tell you about what I find to be our best parenting tool so far... Babywearing.

From day one and well into childhood babies want to be held. Anyone who's ever taken care of a baby knows that there is no way around carrying the baby through at least a small portion of the day.

Of course at first when babies are small and light it´s not terribly strenuous to simply carry them on one arm superman style, but after a while even the strongest arm gets heavy, the uneven weight distribution causes back tension or even pain and, well, it´s just not practical to have at least one arm constantly attached to a child if you need to fold laundry, shop for groceries, tidy up the house and do all those other chores that every parent has to stay on top of.

That´s why people have been using wide straps of fabric to wrap a baby close to the mother´s, father´s or often older sibling´s body in native cultures across the globe for hundreds, probably thousands of years. Somehow the past few generations of awfully civilized and industrialized Europeans and north Americans have ignored and eventually lost that wisdom and put babies in all sorts of devices (rocking cribs, strollers, prams, swings...) preferably far away from the mother´s body to make sure the babies wouldn't be spoiled and of course to demonstrate a certain amount of wealth and education. Families wanted to make sure everyone could see that they had absolutely nothing in common with those native tribal women. (This goes for breastfeeding too, by the way, but that´s a whole nother blog.)

Fortunately for our sanity, our arms and backs, our neighbors' ears, our wallets and especially our babies the benefits of Babywearing have made it more popular again in our western "civilized" world and at this point new parents get to choose between endless amounts of different Babywearing devices to help make the once "outdated" poor people's way of child rearing comfortable, practical and also very much fashionable again. (Strangely enough, as we rediscover the wisdom of old tribal cultures now it seems that most new mother's in Latin America, Africa and Asia who can afford to, buy Strollers instead of using their mother's old Fabric Wraps. They need to set themselves apart from the poor and loose the knowledge of Babywearing and Breastfeeding.)

So anyways, what I'm trying to say is... If you've ever been around Joon you know what a happy, smart, confident and well balanced child she is. We are absolutely sure that a large portion of that comes from the love and reassurance she feels when we carry her close to us. There's simply no better place for a baby to learn about all the exiting things the world has to offer than the safety of her parents arms!

Babywearing...
... strengthens the parent child bond
... improves parent child communication
... makes for easy travel especially on uneven ground, narrow sidewalks or shopping aisles
... leaves you with to hands for chores or older siblings
... makes your back strong if you use a good carrier properly
... helps mother' get back in shape after pregnancy
... improves milk production
... especially father's benefit from being physically close to their child and having a tool for calming otherwise seemingly inconsolable babies
... helps strengthen baby´s muscles
... improves baby´s sense of balance
... stimulates baby´s brain without the risk of over stimulation
... helps shape the baby´s hip disks which are often not yet properly molded at birth
... reduces colic symptoms
... keeps baby warm in the winter
... devices fold up and fit into a diaper bag or purse instead of having to be taken apart and stored in the trunk of a car

Babywearing simply makes for happier babies and parents!

So if you are expecting, already have a baby or small child or need a babyshower gift for a friend, daughter, niece, please consider getting a Babycarrier! I strongly believe that there is no other one thing that improves the quality of both the new parent´s and baby´s life more so than a good Babycarrier.

If you're interested in learning more about this subject please check out thebabywearer.com or auf Deutsch stillen-und-tragen.de and of course I´ll be happy to answer any questions you have regarding this subject.

May in Wiesbaden

Howdy everyone,

in an attempt to improve communication flow we´ve decided to start a new blog hoping that this new host will allow for easier updates.

So, what´s happening?

Well, Joon is 11 months old now, she can walk and say cat/Katze (hadduh or sometimes cattuh) and mom (mamam), she´s ridiculously smart and funny and huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge! We have so much fun watching her explore the world and learning new skills every day. We don´t have as much fun trying to nightwean and washing endless amounts of cloth diapers, but apparently sleepless nights and stink are part of the deal. And really, nothing has ever made us happier than this stinky, loud, clingy kid and the sweet loving hugs she gives us now.

Dave is well on his way to rockstardom with his new band Family Freud and several other projects that he works on. They just spent two weeks in the studio recording their first album due to be released in the fall and played their first show last night which, quite frankly, kicked ass. Check out Family Freud´s Myspace for more info coming soon.
Dave also just finished the first long stretch of german class and is now finally able to communicate well in that strange and way too complicated language of mine.

I´ve had more time to sew again and have been getting very positive feedback for my work which feels fantastic. Apparently there are things other than mommying that I´m good at. Yay!

It´s summer, we´re outside constantly, Joon´s birthday is coming up and we will have all of our immediate family together in the same place at the same time, things are just going extremely well for all of us... in short, Life is good! :)

Much love and strawberry kisses to you all...

Oh, and just in case you haven´t been there in a while, we have been updating
our Photoalbum regularly, so there´s lots of Joon to ouh and ah over there.