Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Read this. I just went and read the entire graphic novel in one sitting. It's the story of part of a young girl's childhood in Iran during the revolution.



You can read an excerpt here.

There is a movie coming out based on the novels and animated in a way similar to the original illustrations, I will definitely be seeing it.

Disappointed with Jun0 *spoilers*

I saw Jun0 tonight at the theatre and was initially very excited to see it:



While I laughed outloud several times during the movie and liked the characters, I was taken aback at how adoption was discussed- or rather, the lack of discussion around the topic. How adoption is portrayed in the movie (no counsel to the birthparents provided) is illegal. The potential adoptive mother is a very sympathetic character, desperate for a baby and seemingly very deserving of one (whole other controversy there, whether adoptive parents 'deserve' children more than biological parents). I was startled that the scenes between the pregnant 16 year old girl and a potentially adoptive mother were usually the pregnant teen reassuring and supporting the potential adoptive mother- wtf? There was no mention of other young mothers who parent successfully. There was almost no mention of the potential negative ramifications of adoption other than the adoptive parents maybe turning out to be bad parents. No mention was made of the sense of loss and identity that can go along with adoption for the rest of the lives of those involved.

Another critical look at Jun0: Why Jun0 Matters.

A list created by young mothers, about what they love about being a young mother:
Why we love being single and/or young mothers

The film is being marketed to teens, I wish they had done a better job on having the main character explore the pros and cons of all her pregnancy choices.

I am Zombie Food

28%

Holiday Baking

These are probably the cutest thing I baked, but they tasted disgusting and the candy stayed all sticky. I'd like to try again with a different recipe and candy, the traffic lights would be a big hit with the Jr set.



I made the candy canes and Jr made the "houses"



Almond Raspberry Cheesecake Bars.. if these taste as good as they smell they will be gone in a hot minute.



This one is from a kit, Mr. Blackbird and Jr made it. It might be the highlight of Jr's holiday season when he gets to smash it and eat it.

Activity Ideas for Young Children

It's winter here and I've been hoarding fun activity ideas to keep us from getting cabin fever.

Under the Bed Storage Container



Cheap (13$ CDN) and easy water or indoor "sand" table. Substitutes for sand could be puffed wheat or oatmeal. Yes, you will have to sweep/vaccuum/wipe after this activity (and many of the others I'm about to post) but my personal theory is that if cleanup takes less time than how long the children are occupied for, it's worth it. My only caution is do not use the indoor sandbox if you have cats, they will think it's a litterbox. (Guess how I know).

I have friend who use their big narrow storage boxes for containing messes, for example having their children sit in it to play playdough in a carpeted room or to do a craft where you cover paper with glue then sprinkle glitter on. One friend said her son played for 2 hours straight in a similar box with rice and thomas trains- I'd vaccum for that! I will warn you that some children may try to dump out the box. Blackbird Jr never tried, but don't say I didn't warn you.

There are lots of fun things you can do with the water table, one of my favourite is to take an empty milk container and make an "iceberg" that Blackbird Jr can watch melt, have toys ride on, etc. You can freeze small toys in the iceberg as well to be rediscovered as it melts.

Flour Tray



I was trying to encourage Blackbird Jr to draw with his fingers but he was more interested in driving in the flour. Afterwards his cars all had a "washdown" (thomas-speak for carwash) in a big bowl of soapy water on a towel on the floor.

Other Activity Ideas:

- Use paint tape to make roads on the carpet for driving trucks on.

- Make coloured ice cubes and float them in a bowl of water or see what happens when two different colours melt together (e.g. red and blue will make purple water).

-Make a shoebox into a mailbox and give your child the junk mail to play with.

-Save empty food containers to play grocery store. We found a kids' play grocery cart at a garage sale for 50 cents and Blackbird Jr spent hours playing with it as a young toddler.

- toss balls into storage containers, the bathtub or a laundry basket.

-Make a paddle with a paintstick and a paper plate and hit balloons with it.

-Colour vanilla pudding with food colouring and then fingerpaint.

-Painting outside with a brush and a bucket of water. Painting with water on a chalkboard is fun too.

-Save your holiday cards that are made from sturdy paper. Punch holes around the edges and let children sew with shoelaces or other string.

A book I found really useful for activities when Blackbird Jr was younger was The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner. We found lots of fun ideas in there to try and some have made it into regular play repetoire.

Ginger Cookies

After being lost in the forest for 3 days, Ginger Man waves frantically at the rescue helicopters.

I feel really busy but have mostly been doing stuff like taking naps and watching Project Runway.