Wildlife Menace

If you are distracted today, do as I did, and vote in George W. Bush as the Houston area's greatest wildlife menace.

The choices the editors give are:
Raspberry ants, Flying Cockroaches, Alligators, Wild Hogs and Nutria

But I think we all know whose the worst menace in these parts. Take twenty impish seconds and write his name in by Tuesday. For the fun of it.

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/ultimate/

I wrote in George W. Bush, to be exact.

Life Changing, Love Inducing, All Powerful Toddler Naming Contest

Our friend Chuck sent us this terrifying picture of my baby to confirm my last post's assertion that BabyG is more aptly TodderG.



Speaking of which: I never liked the name BabyG and am finding TodderG intolerable. I'm not sure I can ever write the word again it's so bad.

I therfore hereby and because of announce:
direct from MaGreen, GreenDaddy & the todder formerly known as BabyG:
the one and only, the first ever, never again, higly unique and extraordinary:

NAME!
THAT!
TODDLER!
CONTEST!
EXTRAVAGANZA!

Rules are: in the comments, you suggest one to fourteen possible blogland names for the toddler pictured above (or anywhere below). Hopefully the names will either adhere to the general rules of nomenclanture at Green Parenting, or completely revision them. I have already considered and discarded the following three options: ToddlerG, GreenToddler & Sprout. I like people knowing I'm talking about a toddler right off, but not so much I need toddler in the name. I like Sprout because it's the name of the Jolly Green Giant's little friend, and it's a little green thing. But that's also why I don't like it.

THE WINNER will receive a bottle of MaGreen's Famous, Handmixed, Non-Toxic, Sweet-Smelling All-Purpose Cleaner.

Material Differences

During our trip to India, I tried to pay attention to the material conditions that my family there live in and the way they choose to consume. Last year, the state of Gujarat, where my family is from, grew at a 10 percent rate. That is equivalent to China’s growth rate.

So the material conditions and choices I want to describe are those of middle-class Indians in one of India’s most prosperous states. The very poor in India consume a fraction of the resources used by people in the US, but what about the rising middle-class? Is the Indian middle-class copying American behavior? For example, George W. Bush defended his decision not to sign the Kyoto agreement by saying, "Kyoto would have wrecked our economy. I couldn't in good faith have signed Kyoto," and claimed that the treaty didn't require other "big polluters" such as India and China to cut emissions. Indians were quick to point out that pollution rates per capita for India are extremely low. But even environmentalists in the US shake their heads and lament the thousands of new cars on the roads in Asia canceling out the virtues of those who buy hybrids in America.

What I saw was that the middle-class in India go to great lengths to conserve energy and resources. We ought to consider carefully how middle-class Indians live and actually compare, in a detailed way, their lifestyles with those of people in the US before we come to conclusions about what respective initiatives are needed by each nation. I wrote out a list of sustainable practices and design choices that I noticed in the homes I visited in Gujarat:

Multiple overhead fans strategically placed over seating areas that rotate at extremely fast speeds

Window air-conditioning units in specific rooms that are kept closed when the unit is in use, so that people gather in an air-conditioned part of the house rather than air-condition the entire home

Easy to open shutters that let breezes in

Marble or tile flooring that stays cool in the heat

Reupholstering of old furniture rather than purchasing new

Lines strung in the balcony for drying clothes

Long rows of switches that can turn off each light, appliance, plug, or electrical device so that nothing is left running on standby

Western-style, sit-down toilets with a knob that controls water coming from the pipes so you can flush using just the right amount of water rather than always having to empty the entire tank.

Bidets rather than toilet paper, so less trees cut and less water required to flush

Solar water heaters or small, gas water heaters that make hot bathing water on demand rather than the huge contraptions we have in the US that keep a big tank of water hot all day and night

Buckets in the bathroom for “dhol” baths

Rooftops that collect rainwater and channel it into wells, which prevents flooding, replenishes aquifers, and averts salination in seaside areas

Pressure cookers with stacked containers inside of them, which make the most of the energy used by their gas stoves

Wall-mounted water purifiers rather than bottled water

Numerous stainless steel canisters for efficient storage of dry snacks, lentils, grains, and rice instead of disposable containers

Scooters for small commutes and running errands

My relatives in India live in comfort. They have refrigerators, air-conditioning, washing machines, microwaves, gas stoves, hot water for baths, good drinking water, well-appointed living spaces, and their own transportation. And yet, they use a fraction of the resources that people in the US do. (My cousin said he would share his utility bills with me so I can back up my claim with some numbers in the near future.) When middle-class Indians – the so-called biggest polluters according to Bush – have gone to such efforts, how can we in the US demand “equal” commitments to reductions in emissions. The burden is on those of us in United States and Europe.

Vicious Canines Attack BabyG

It happened in Utah, the second to the last day we were there. My cheerful, funny, walky little baby was mauled by what I think were two canines sometime between breakfast in my mother's hotel and lunch. It happened that fast.

What started out as a fever and mild crankiness, evolved into her most painful teething episode yet. It has meant a two hundred percent meltdown from a general feeling of discontent into an outright rage, several times a day, for the last 6 days.

Teething has always been hard for our little one. She refuses to eat anything but breastmilk, she gets diahrrea, she has 100.9 degree fevers, she wakes every couple of hours and requires long bouts of nursing...And these canines, they have been the worst. And I hear the most painful teeth to come in are molars.

I've decided to amass a list of green teething solutions. I'm going to say upfront that BabyG has been eating lots of Infant Motrin because nothing else I tried came close to working for her. We tried Hylands teething tablets, teething bisquits, teething toys.

However, I know there are levels of teething, and I know there are lots of remedies out there I haven't tried, and that might work alone for mild teething or (for us) augment the pain medication. Maybe there's a natural solution that will beat out Motrin...

So this is a general call: What teething remedies have you all used or have you seen used to good effect?

I've heard about: frozen bananas, vegetables, frozen washrags, clove oil. Anybody use any of these methods, or know anything about them? Teething post will be up in a week or so...

I Need Your Birthday Cake Recipes

Purpose of this post: I'm begging for recipes & ideas

Well, we're having people over for BabyG's birthday and the question is: what do I do about cake?

The memory I'll indulge: Once my grandma made my father a sandwich cake, which she was very proud of, and which he still describes with shudders. I think there were spam layers, some sort of chopped veggie layers, and cream cheese layers. On white bread? Something like that. She made it because dad said he hated cake, and she wanted him to have a cake he'd like.

Moral: In most other ways I'd love to emulate my grandmother, but I don't want to bomb on the cake-thing.

BTW: I hate cake. And so does GreenDaddy.

Why cake matters: The photo, I guess. Maybe she'll have fun digging into it. I'm not sure.

Important note: I am a terribe baker. But deep down, no matter what I write afterwards, I want BabyG to have cake.

And: If at all possible, whatever cake, or cake variation I make...I'd like it to be impressive.

And: I realize my expecations are high and as of yet undefined. Please bear with me.

I am of twenty-two minds a few of which are:

1) Cook the baby some sugar free cake and don't jolt her into sugarhood.
a) But what kind of cake...not carrot. We are stealing friend Cos's
birthday open house idea, and so think we won't also steal the
delicious carrot cake his birthday starred.
b) Recipes anyone...? Or ideas about kinds?

12) Cook a cake alternative. I've read Jello is fun (but ew!...)
a) Any other ideas/opinions about this?

17) Cook her a massively chocolate cake with sugar and the rest.
a) Do they make "healthy" chocolate cakes?

How Green is Your Driving?

I am madly studying for two PhD exams, and have less time to devote to Green Parenting for the next month and a half. So I'll be posting shorter, and taking shortcuts when I can.

And the first shortcut, I found via our friend Laura's blog, which she found from the Guardian Online. It's a quiz to find out how "green" your driving is. Laura got six out of eight, but I scored a measley three of eight on the test.

Click here to see if you can out-green me.

I'm fairly certain most people will. Probably will follow this post up with Green Driving tips, as it seems I'm in need of learning them.

Flea Killing Pomade for Men: Green Parenting Survey #1

I am so nerdily excited! Green Parenting has received its first requests for advice. The (certainly delusional) bones in my body that have always known, deep inside, that I am wiser and full of better hints than Heloise, Ann Landers, Miss Manners, Dr. Ruth and Dan Savage are all heated up -- they're glowing, buzzing, mooing, I say, and quite tantalizingly so, of self-importance.

Quixotic Mama is asking about what we do to get rid of fleas; Lou wants to know about natural pommades. As it turns out, I had been working up a post about the cat (we don't have dogs) anyways, as Raj was just wondering abou fleas the other day. But the pommade thing will take even extra research.

Does anybody out there have any suggestions about natural, home-made pommades for men? Or for that matter, does anyone want to weigh in on the natural (no Advantage, FrontLine etc.) flea issue before I post something that sounds all knowing but isn't as smart as what you've always done? Please share!

It just now occurs to me that it would serve all sorts of important purposes if somebody could come up with a pommade for men that also repels fleas. Think greaser poodles.

Anyway. It has been my turn to post for the last few days, and this is my promise that I will post soon. It is true I had a momentary lapse of writer's oomph while trying to decide what to write about boundaries and plastics, but the more immediate prospect of answering actual questions has thawed me out.

So thanks Quixotic Mama and Lou for making my bones moo.