Two Wheels One Baby

Best Valentine’s Day present ever was having Kyle for a three day weekend because of President’s Day.

Speaking of presidents, we watched the documentary produced by Edward Norton, By the People on Friday night. The documentary film that was originally about a young senator who had the ability to inspire the youth turned into a behind the scenes play by play of the 2008 election primaries. There were great scenes of the Obama family, Axelrod, Plouffe and interviews with big media. The best part about the film was that it transported me out of this negative gridlock that is our political system back into the time of hope. I have to believe that Obama will move us beyond this crap.
Kyle took Annika grocery shopping on Saturday while I worked out and bought ingredients to make Shepherd’s Pie. I made some gluten free crust for it and it turned out really well.
On Sunday morning, Valentine’s Day, I made Gluten free banana pancakes that turned out oh-so fluffy, apple chicken sausage, bacon and a feta-tomato-onion scramble.

Pancake Recipe:

• 2 c. Bob’s all purpose gluten free flour
• 1 tsp. xanthum gum
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp. oil
• banana
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 3/4 c. soy milk
• 1/4 c. goat yogurt
• 1/4 c. applesauce

Mix wet ingredients in blender. Sift dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients gradually.
Since Kyle and I aren’t hip on the Vday consumer thing, we rode our bikes with Annika in tote in the Burley trailer to Target and Crate & Barrel to spend gift cards that we had received. Kyle had his eye on some ear phones at Target and I wanted more lighting for our loft. After 5 minutes of hard core decision laboring at Crate & Barrel, we decided on this beauty.
Biking with Baby:
When I was still pregnant, I often thought about how I could bike with Annika. Because I cycled every day of the pregnancy until 2 days past my due date, I was jonesin’ to get back in the saddle after she was born, but I new it would take careful consideration. I was concerned with functionality, ease of use and safety, of course. We have owned a Burley Trailer for about 4 years now. It was originally bought for towing the dogs or camping. I was pretty dead set against using the trailer to transport Annika because my only experience with it was on dedicated bike trails, not street traffic. But, I knew there was no way she was going to be on the bike in a seat until she could wear a helmet so the trailer was my only option.
Kyle harnessed her car seat base into the trailer so getting her in and out would be a simple click away. And as far as the safety issue is concerned, she is strapped into the car seat just like she would be in a car. Both the roll bar on the car seat and the roll bar on the trailer protects her head. Technically, this rig is not legal for her because Massachusetts law states that all children must wear a helmet, but I would argue that she is much safer this way than a child wearing a helmet, sitting in a seat mounted on the bike.
Pros:

1. protects her from the elements – wind, cold, rain, street dust
2. efficient – not that much heavier
3. load bearing – I can toss a bunch of stuff in the trailer with her
4. sturdy – absorbs shocks from street potholes and bumps
5. compatibility – switches between different bikes
6. safe
7. snooze machine – she passes out!

Cons:

1. set up – takes about 5 minutes to attach the trailer (luckily we’re blessed to live in a condo that provides an outdoor bike shed)
2. big footprint – hard to store
3. expensive

And to top off the Valentine’s Day, I bought this appropriately branded Cabernet, Cyles Gladiator, from Darwins LTD. on our hot chocolate pit stop. I’m a sucker for labeling. Speaking of labeling, I just visited the wine’s website and it turns out that they are banned in Alabama because it’s deemed pornographic. Oh Alabama, I’m speechless. If anyone wants to buy me a present, I’d love the t-shirt, ‘banned in Alabama’ from their website.

Life is stressful – this afternoon I had to run the following errands in a snowstorm:
1 – pick up dry cleaning
2 – buy dishwashing detergent and cereal
3 – pick up produce share in condo lobby

Everything I needed to get fit into or on our stroller. I love this thing.

It’s the Quinny Buzz stroller and in addition to the bassinet shown, we have the traditional stroller and car seats attachments.

The stroller also came with a nice rain guard (shown) and a mosquito net.

Breastfeeding
Besides medical reasons, I don’t understand why women choose not to breastfeed? Breastfeeding = weight loss. That should be reason enough, and there’s so many more reasons…bonding, free, convenient, protection for the baby against sickness and on and on.
When getting dressed today, I decided to try on some jeans that I haven’t wore since I closed MoCo in July 2008 – AND THEY FIT! What a fantastic start to the day, and I owe it mostly to breastfeeding.
I guess I should also mention that I get my butt whipped every Saturday at the gym during a circuit training class and that Annika and I enjoy Mommy and Me aerobics every Friday and that I try to walk around Fresh Pond every other day and the newly rigged Burly trailer helps me bike Annika around. So I do get my fair share of exercise. And then there’s the not eating dairy or gluten because of her intolerances.

Baking Brownies
My mother in law got me yummy gluten free brownies for Christmas and she gave Kyle an all end pieces brownie pan after he protested his love for them on facebook. We tried it out this past Saturday and they turned out delicious!
All this brownie business makes us sleepy.

Sleeping
To prepare for having a baby in an open air loft with one bedroom, we knew we had to be crafty with the baby sleeping arrangement. We had no idea what to expect with baby temperament, but we knew from reading books and talking to other parents that for the first two months, you have to get up so much during the night that it may be better to keep baby close for convenience.

Kyle mentioned that he read something in his dad book, Be Prepared (really funny book, btw), that a newborn can safely sleep in many makeshift beds, including dresser drawers. We have a nice external california closet in our bedroom with drawers that are perfect bassinet size. In my attempt at baby minimalism, I simply bought an organic mattress from Absolute Organic Baby to custom fit the drawer. In addition to the drawer option, I wanted something more portable, so after extensive research, I found the baby Miyo Baby Hammock (shown left) designed by New Zealanders. You can see a video demonstration of the sling here. The hammock is great because it mounts to any standard door frame and folds up nicely for travel.

For the first few months, colicky Annika traded beds A LOT. She went back and forth from the drawer, to a boppy pillow on our bed, to sleeping next to me in bed. We have just now gotten into a more regular sleeping schedule with the hammock. Now, at almost 5 months, Annika loves the Hammock.

Secrets of getting ready
Annika LOVES white noise (clothes dryer, hair dryer, sleepmate white noise, microwave fan), so I have the pleasure of drying my hair with a toy attached to the cord for visual stimulation. She goes nuts!
Ice Skating
We bundled Annika up in her polar bear outfit, courtesy of Auntie Cory, to brave the 28 degree weather (10 degree wind chill), and go skating at the Fresh Pond dog swimming area. During the summer, it’s nice to take the dogs here and sit on the benches, but it makes for a perfect ice skating destination in the winter. The wind was too much for Annika so I got maybe 15 minutes of skating in, but it was really nice. I also fell on my tailbone because I was skating backward while playing with Gordo (our pug) and someone had thrown a rock on the ice while it was melting (since frozen). My skate hit the rock and I hit my ass. ouch.

My first post as a mom! Life has been pretty crazy, especially with a semi-colicky baby.
Baby Stats:
Name – Annika Karin Ramey
Age – 4.5 months
Weight – 14 lbs.
Height – omg, I just had the pediatric appointment yesterday and I cannot remember. Just found her paperwork and she’s 25.5″
Dimeanor – colicky for the first 3 months and this has been slowly tapering off. We think she’s intolerant to cow protiens and peanuts from my breast milk.
Loves – bathtime, reading, standing up, her jumper, walks, sleeping in the burley trailer while mommy rides bike, mommy and me aerobics
Hates – childcare, sleeping for more than 3 hours, getting dressed, strangers holding her
Tolerates – lying on the floor for short periods of time, car rides
The picture above is us celebrating New Years 2010.
This posting was prompted by me winning the honor of reviewing a piece of baby gear: the Puj Tub. In prior posts, I have mentioned my preference for living modestly in a minimalist environment – less stuff, more life. This is somewhat difficult to do with a baby, but we have made it work. Our apartment is a one bedroom open air loft and the only separated space is the bathroom. Annika has traded off from sleeping in a drawer with an organic mattress, next to me in bed, on her boppy pillow on an ottoman next to our bed, and in a sling that mounts to the door frame in the bathroom (where she’s napping now).

Because we have little space and my design taste leans toward clean, modern lines, I jumped at the chance to review the Puj Tub because I was already familiar with the tub after doing some pre-baby online research. Becoming parents has made my husband and I want to become engineers…there’s a huge market opportunity to design for people like us that don’t need a bunch of gear, but rather a few very functional items.

Why do I like the Puj Tub?
1 – stores by hanging flat so it can drip dry
2 – it’s white with no frilly embellishments
3 – the tub fits in any residential bathroom sink

Why the Puj Tub may not be perfect for a colicky baby?
1 – bathtime has always been Annika’s favorite activity….even when she was crying herself crazy, we could put her in the sink surrounded by warm water and she’d immediately settle down. The more immersed she was in water, the best. Since we only have a stand up shower, the sink is our only option, but whenever we have traveled with her and a bath tub has been available, she has loved bathing with us, floating on top of the water on my legs.
2 – because the Puj Tub is designed to be safe (can’t fault them for that), it allows for Annika’s bum and a little of her belly to be covered.
3 – Annika has always liked stretching out rather than sitting and the tub is condusive to a perpendicular position.

With all this being said, this is the only tub that works with our lifestyle. If Annika was more of a sponge bath baby, then it would be perfect!

Check out the Puj Tub for yourself at Puj’s new website for baby bath tubs!

Doing well now with the challenge, but the evening of the first day was ROUGH. Kyle and I walked to Whole Foods to partake in the bar extravaganza because all their food ingredients are labeled so well. I could barely finish my meal because all I wanted was something sweet. I had the shakes like a crack addict. When we got home, I made myself some raspberries with yogurt and honey.

Day 2 – Breakfast – eggs with prosciutto and parmesan.
Lunch – fruit smoothie and potato chips
Dinner – homemade hamburgers with garlic, onion and colby cheese with cottage cheese and an antipasto salad.
Snack – grapes

Day 3 – Breakfast – gluten free banana / blueberry pancakes with peanut butter & honey, bacon
Lunch – pear, orange, pistachios
Dinner – seared tuna and broccoli

In talking with my Mom about what her and my Dad could do to adjust their diet (because they’re not really doing anything wrong), I challenged her to go sugar free for one week.

Then yesterday I realized that I needed to take the same challenge. So starting today, both Kyle and I will be reading labels and staying away from sugar from one week.

The hardest part will be abstaining from coffee (because I add sugar and soy milk) and after lunch and dinner when I crave sugar.

Today’s Breakfast – plain yogurt, banana, strawberries, grapes, gluten-free granola, honey, and dried cranberries (as I type this I realize that there might be sugar in the cranberries so I just ran to check the label and sure enough, evaporated can juice – SHIT!), and green tea

This is going to be hard.

LivableStreets Alliance to host Street Talk by Marius Navazo on What we can learn from Spain: urban mobility planning in Barcelona.

When: Thursday, June 25, 7 – 9 pm
Where: 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge

*This event is free and open to the public. donation suggested beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery and delivered thanks to Metro Pedal Power!* What are the results of impementing better transit networks, traffic calming zones, and a bike sharing program? Are these measures always environmentally-friendly? Are they enough to create better places to live and enjoy? Learn about the development of urban mobility plans in Greater Barcelona and Catalonia, Spain. See what the Catalan Government is encouraging municipalities to do.

Marius Navazo is a geographer who has been working for the last 10 years in town and regional planning, focused on transportation and its impacts to improve cities from a social and environmental perspective. He has been working at the Catalan Government for the last 4 years, and now he is a freelancer working for different municipalities in the Barcelona area.
For more information, click here.

LivableStreets Alliance to host Street Talk by Noah Budnick on The Changing Streets of NYC: an inside view.

When: Thursday, May 28, 7 – 9 pm
Where: 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge

*This event is free and open to the public. donation suggested beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!* Learn about the political and physical changes that have come to NYC in the past few years. From the campaign for congestion pricing to European-style bike lanes, civic groups and City Hall are embracing green transportation like never before. Transportation Alternatives helped usher in this sea change and now they are working harder than ever to help educate the public and build support to cement the mind shift that’s taking place. Noah will show photos of NYC’s most notable improvements and events, and tell the behind the scenes story that made them happen.

Noah Budnick develops political and media strategies for Transportation Alternatives’ work to win biking and walking improvements, to reclaim public space for pedestrians, bicyclists and mass transit, to reform government transportation and street safety policy to discourage driving, and win more funding for biking and walking projects in New York City.
For more information, click here.

The combination of our new living situation and a recent article in Dwell article called “At Home in the Zone” about practicing sustainability like you preach inspired me to start blogging again. This post is going to show pictures of our new place along with what sustainability means in our lives.

I am copying Dwell’s article format where they break down a households’ zones and give tips on how people can be more sustainable.
Location has so much to do with sustainability. Whether you can walk or bike to grab your basic necessities affects your carbon footprint dramatically. Additionally, do you WANT to walk or ride your bike in your neighborhood. Walkscore.com gives a good indication of how easy it will be to buy groceries, visit the library or park, go hang out at a coffee shop all by foot. There are 2 faults with this website, though. Fault 1 – The website uses google maps to calculate a walkscore so any business or other registered with google will appear…even if the info is outdated. Fault 2 – there is an emotional factor that is pretty impossible to calculate and that is the general feeling of a neighborhood. For example, our condo in Madison on Willy Street has a walk score of 89 out of 100 and is located in a fantastic community where you want to walk or ride your bike. Our first house here in Boston in Southie had a walk score of 88 and a terrible sense of community. There was trash and dog shit on the sidewalks, lack of trees, shady people walking around, Kyle was jumped by high school age kids and badly beaten up, and our bikes were stolen from right under our noses. Totally different than Willy Street even though the score only differed by 1 point. Lastly, our new place in Cambridge has a walk score of 80 and is pretty par with our place in Madison. The dog park, fresh pond, that I will reference later, is a huge plus!
Last month, Livable Streets Alliance held a Street Talk on Urban Health where Russ Lopez talked about how our built environment shapes ourselves like proximity to necessities like grocery stores effects a person’s health. He brought up the conflict between environmentalists and urbanists. Here I thought they could be the same? Apparently environmentalists don’t like cities because they’re dirty. Russ disagrees with teaching inner city children to respect their environment because, really, what is their environmental impact? They take mass transportation, don’t consume much… This is the only thing that I very much disagreed with Russ on. If children were taught to respect their environment and community, maybe there would be less trash on the streets and sidewalks. After living in Southie and experiencing a community first hand that does not respect the environment nor their community, I wanted to run for the suburbs. I was so sick of city living that I was willing to compromise our car free life. If I, who am a pretty staunch urbanist, want to flee for the burbs, how does a normal person feel about living in the city with communities like this? Inner city communities don’t have to be gentrified to feel great; neighbors just need to respect one another and their living space.
Transportation, part of location, has a direct effect on your lifestyle. We will not live anywhere where a car is a necessity. We have a motorcycle and 5 bikes. To get to work, Kyle takes 1 of 3 buses that regularly run by our place and then he takes a free shuttle from Genzyme corporate headquarters out to the Framingham burbs where he works. When the weather is nice, he commutes via motorcycle. I do all the errands and go to the gym on my bike. We are members of Zipcar for the times when you REALLY need a car like escaping the city for the weekend or a trip to IKEA.
Parks, Cambridge’s Fresh Pond is literally out our back door. We exit the loft, open a fence door to a walk down abandoned railroad tracks (that I think will soon be a bike path), and 200 ft. to fresh pond. The dogs can leave and return from the loft leash-less if we like. Fresh Pond is a large reservoir that is surrounded by a golf course and limestone path with periodic doggie bag / trash stations. There are no fences and the whole park is considered off-leash. There’s even a side pond / dock / wading pool for dogs. Too bad both our dogs are not water loving. The best part is that it’s a shared space between bicyclists, walkers, runners and dog walkers. Everyone is so happy to be there. I’ve run around the pond and it’s a 2 mile loop. Animal Planet was there a couple weeks ago shooting a special so look out for that. I can’t wait to take the stroller and baby to the park and do the walking loop every day.
Memorial Drive along the river, is closed to cars on Sundays and it’s super close by. Here’s a video about it:

Grocery Stores, a large chain store with organics and a pretty big micro/craft beer selection is a 5 minute walk across the parking lot from us. Plus, we’re lucky to live across the Fresh Pond from the largest Whole Foods in Boston. The bike path connects us there.

Inside the Loft
Space and Design, only 750 sq. ft. so we had to sell 3/4 of what we owned before on craigslist and ebay. Now we have no clutter and nothing that we don’t need or use on a regular basis…except for some scrapbooks, memorabilia, comic books, and coin collections. The unit has 16 ft ceilings, bamboo and rough pine floors, clean, white walls, and the outside wall is one large brick/warehouse window.
Furnishings, not only did we have to sell items on craigslist, but we had to replace a few. I found a west elm sofa, crate & barrel chair/ottoman, and west elm media stand all used on craigslist. We needed a few new storage items to help us get organized (container store and IKEA are great for this), plus I wanted a new duvet and rug. We hung all of Kyle’s guitars on the walls as well as my bike. Our other three bikes are kept in a special bike storage shed outside.
Baby is coming, so how is a baby fitting into this small space equation? I have our back storage space by the bathroom equiped with baby personal care. The washer/dryer is also next to the bathroom to make washing the diapers easy. The shelves in our living room are filled with boxes for toys and other accessories. We’re going to find a pack-n-play for the living room to double as a changing station and crib. Otherwise, the baby will sleep next to us in a hanging crib like a Kanoe. Obviously, this is idealistic and things will change, but it’s definitely possible to raise a baby in a small space. Think of how moms in Manhattan, Japan, and even Africa cope with space…I feel pretty lucky.