Eli and I have been attending a Baby Sign LanguageClass for the past 5 weeks at the Harold J. Ballard Parent Center in Old Town. We go once or twice a week and the class is around 3 hours long. Typically we sing songs, do a little dancing, play with toys, story time, share our brags/gripes, snack time, etc… Not only are the classes fun, but we have made many new friends as well. Eli’s classmates are all around his age or a little older so it’s nice to talk with other Moms about things like feeding and teething that they have already gone through.
This week we went on a field trip to The Stein Family Farm in National City. On the tour we learned about the History of the Farm and got to tour the home, barn, and gardens. On the farm they have a goose, a pig named Petunia, some bunnies, and a bunch of chickens. Of course Eli wasn’t to impressed with the chickens because he has his own at home. We also got to pick fresh oranges and make fresh O.J. for snack time! We had a great time and Eli was thoroughly worn out on the drive home.
We had a wonderful Saturday afternoon in Ocean Beach. We started out the morning with a walk down to the beach. We picked up some breakfast burritos at Nicos on the way down. It is almost starting to become a family weekend tradition. The lady at the counter that calls me chico new my order before I said it. “Dos Burritos de desayuno, un regular y otro sin tocineta pero con frijoles .” I can barely speak Spanish so I apologize at how bad I may write it. To be honest I have been speaking English for most of my life, and still have an issue with writing it. !Que Lastima! Back to our morning… after picking up burritos we head down to the water and eat our burritos on the sea wall. We get to watch the waves and see the boats leaving Mission Bay Harbor. Not too shabby.
After our walk we had a picnic in our yard and enjoyed the sun. Later on in the afternoon we went for another walk down the hill to the local kite parade and festival. Another loop by the water to check the waves, then back up to casa. Lyndsey caught some photos of the grom on my belly this afternoon that were worth sharing para las madres
Lyndsey and I were having a talk the other day about how much food we consume as a family. It amazes us that even though we pay attention to what we eat, more importantly what is in what we eat, we still battle with weight management and staying in shape. With childhood obesity on the rise, and just the plain obvious truth that Americans are Fat, it is important to us that we don’t fall into the same unhealthy trap that so many families have. That is why this article on “What the world Eats,” was so interesting to us. You may have already seen these photos from when they first published in Time Magazine or in the book called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. We first noticed them a few years back, but after running across the photo’s again, they really got us thinking.
You see a few years ago photographer Peter Menzel and his wife Faith D’Aluisio started to photograph what family’s around the globe eat and wrote down what their weekly expenditure is. In 2005 they published an award winning book called Hungry Planet: What The World Eats.
This project turned out to be so educational that he’s currently still giving lectures at universities about this very subject. A current exhibition is held until May 9, 2010 is hosted by the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota.
As you look at the photographs and see what they spend per week, you can draw a lot of different conclusions about their diet their surroundings, their personal/economic circumstance and how globalization has influenced what people eat.
A quote from his website about his book:
Today we are witnessing the greatest change in global diets since the invention of agriculture. Globalization, mass tourism, and giant agribusiness have filled American supermarket shelves with extraordinary new foods and McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Kraft Cheese Singles are being exported to every corner of the planet.
The Following are a few pictures taken by Peter Menzel from TIME magazine photo galleries of “Hungry Planet”
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53 Family recipe: Okra and mutton
Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11 Favorite foods: fish, pasta with ragu, hot dogs, frozen fish sticks
Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25 Favorite foods: sashimi, fruit, cake, potato chips
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo Food expenditure for one week: $31.55 Family recipe: Potato soup with cabbage
U.S.A. : The Revis family of North Carolina Food expenditure for one week: $329 Favorite foods: spaghetti, french fries, sesame chicken
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23 Favorite foods: soup with fresh sheep meat (This favorite is only prepared to mark a special occasion, like the end of Ramadan.)
Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09 Favorite foods: pizza, crab, pasta, chicken
View the TIME magazine photo galleries of “Hungry Planet” part I, part II and part III.
Eli is starting to get use to laying on his belly, so we thought that it would probably be a good idea that he get use to lying on a surfboard.
He took to it pretty easy, almost too easy…it wasn’t long before he started giving the dog and chickens dirty looks almost as to say, “hey beat it FORD, this is my wave!”
Eli and Judah have been spending allot of time together. They actually meet on an entire different level than we do, almost like they understand each other and both know how to communicate without any said dialect or words. Which makes for a funny dynamic because apparently Judah is some kind of comedian and Eli laughs at him quite a bit. It is really cute.
Click the link below to see photos from Eli’s first lawn session.
Eli’s Grandma / Lyndsey Mom came into town last Sunday to visit and help out with Eli for a week. It has been nice having her around. We almost got to go on another date, but Eli had his mind set on something different. We have had a nice time visiting with her and getting things done around the house, like gardening.
Well I can almost say that I have the first garden plot ready for it’s new vegetable garden. I turned over another batch of humus/compost from my tumbler bin last weekend on my birthday and have been mixing it into the soil for the past week. About four months ago, after the first good rains, red winger worms from my vermicomposter bin migrated next door to the tumbler. I guess they liked the environment because they multiplied themselves and took over the bin turning the entire tumbler into a vermicomposter. That means that instead of my bin being full of fresh compost, my bin was full of humus. Worm Poo. This is one of the best things you can add to your organic soil. It jump starts the soil, giving the plants nutrients to grow strong and healthy. I will probably start planting seeds and plants next week once I figure out my plot arrangement.
Click the link below to view more photos or order prints:
I was checking out some stuff online the other day as I was preparing our next garden plot and ran across a program that a developer designed for planning out your next vegetable garden. I thought that it was pretty funny. I have actually sketched out my ideas on a notepad so the thought of actually using a computer program may not be that far off.
With GrowVeg.com it is easy to draw out your garden plan and decide how best to plant it. The GrowVeg.com planning tool clearly shows how much space plants require and how to group them for maximum success, removing the need to look up planting distances and crop families.
Growing advice is just one click away as you select the plants that you wish to include, enabling you to solve problems and maximise your harvest from the space you have.
I was thinking that I might give it a run to see if it is worth recommending to my friends that may need a little help figuring out where to start. I will keep you posted…
Well I had another birthday yesterday, and I have to admit that this one made me feel a little older. Lyndsey brought it to my attention that I can no longer say that I am in my “mid thirtees”, but “close to forty”. Yikes! I do have to admit that with all the exciting changes that took place last year, I feel like my life does have more meaning and direction. Not that it lacked any before, lets just say a baby can defnatly change your proirities, which will inevidably change some of your direction. I guess a better way to word it would be to say that my life may have a more defined meaning, thus leading to a more defined direction. I am so blessed by the changes that took place last year that even at this point I can hardly anticipate or even begin to understand the rewards and follies that will come.
Say What? This doesn’t look like that blog about that handsome young family living in Ocean Beach, San Diego. You know the family that thinks they are a small scale poultry farm complete with fish and crazy dog. Well don’t worry, you are in the right place. It was time to move our online weblog off of blogger and over to wordpress.
Blogger has some changes up their sleeve that will be taking place next month, and they will no longer allow you to FTP host your blog. This lags, especially if you are developing content in a subdomain…blah blah blah nerdy internet jargin blah blah. I know what most of you are thinking so I will spare you, lets just say the time was right to make the move. Que Lastima Blogger, I have been using blogger for over 5 years now, it was nice relationship, but it had to end. I have no hard feelings towards blogger, however wordpress is awesome. That is, if you know what to do and how to manipulate blah blah more jargin.
Please bear with us as we make the neccassry adjustments and template changes.
Eli is almost 5 months old. WOW! He can almost sit up by himself now. We have caught him rolling over, but he doesn’t do it that often yet. He still really doesn’t enjoy being on his belly that much, although he is getting better at it. He can’t crawl, can’t stand by himself, and he certainly can not walk yet, however with a little help from his dad he can skate.
Lyndsey and I were able to go hit the scene yesterday afternoon/evening for a few hours thanks to some good friends who watched Eli for us. Lyndsey was pretty nervous, leaving Eli for his first time, but everything worked out great. My lifelong family friend Timmy lives out in Lakeside with his wife and two kids. His wife is a Sunday school teacher and Timmy is a assistant Pastor at a local church, so Lyndsey felt that they met the qualifications to watch Eli.
After we dropped Eli off we headed to the local mall in El Cajon to watch the movie Avatar and see what all the rage was about. The movie was pretty cool I have to admit, especially the 3d experience. But what was even cooler than the movie is that we got to the mall early and had time to stop for a bite to eat. Fortunately for us they just opened a new Bob’s Big Boy outside of the mall and I got to have my first Big Boy Burger in almost 20 years. Lyndsey couldn’t understand why I was so excited about eating a Bob’s Big Boy so I had to explain to her the history that Bob’s Big Boy had not only with my family, but many families throughout Southern California.
Makes You Say Ohhh Boy!
Coming from the Midwest, and not being a red meat eater, she thought I was completely off of my rocker and was unable to relate to my excitement. For those of you, like my lovely wife, that do not know what a Bob’s Big Boy is, let’s just say the Big Boy was the first double decker hamburger ever made, later to be copied by the Mc Donalds fast food franchise and be called the Big Mac. Big Boy’s was a Car Hop in the 50’s that eventually turned into a Diner Franchise in the 70’s & 80’s. They were also famous for not only their Big Boy Burger and iconic logo of a fat boy in overalls holding up the burger, but their own brand of season salt, Big Boy Blue Cheese dressing, and secret hamburger sauce. The Big Boy Franchise made it outside of California, however they were not called Bob’s in many other states, they were called something else like JB’s or Kip’s. I remember eating at Kip’s Big Boy in Texas after I moved their with my family in the late 80’s, and thought that it tasted pretty bad. Nothing like a Bob’s Big Boy. The other franchises never lived up to reputation that Bob’s had in California and eventually brought down the Big Boy name. I think the last Bob’s Big Boy closed down sometime in the early 90’s.
For those of you that know what Bob’s Big Boy is I will say, yes I had the season salt and blue cheese dressing it was great! I did pass on the fudge cake dessert…let’s just say I am not in my teens anymore.
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