Four Years Ago

Flowers from Aunt Suzie Sent on Your Original Birthday

Four years ago, right about now, I gave birth to you, the baby girl of my dreams.

My "Sprout". My laughing Allegra. My daisy. My sunshine. My love. My "Mr. Golden Sun".

Your daddy and I checked in to the hospital at 6:10 a.m. (so said the admission papers I found in my suitcase during last week's trip to the beach) and five peaceful hours later you arrived.

My darling girl. What more can I say?

Happy birthday, Sprout.

Love,

Your Mama

Can't Blog

Sprout and me are wiggling.

Replying to all your lovely comments as soon as we're done.

Update: Sprout's Dora Goes Green Party!

Back in July, I blogged about Sprout's upcoming birthday party and asked for suggestions on how to make it a bit greener. Since my post, Mom Go Green put up a nice summary of her little guys birthday party and included the ways in which she greened it up and ways she did not. I thought it might be helpful if I did the same. The adults outnumbered the children who ranged in age from one to 10.

The Green:

Sent out electronic evites instead of paper invites

Asked attendees to please bring re-gifted gifts only. This proved to be quite a success and Sprout couldn't of been happier with what she received: books galore, a hand-me-down pair of pink crocs which she wore to bed, a baby doll with full set of clothes and assorted accessories, a visor to keep the suds out of her eyes during bathtime and a LeapPad caterpiller. Sprout also received some cash (very green wouldn't you say?) and a very special figurine from her Grandma and Granddaddy.

Green Husband made the cutest decorations based on Tiffany's comment. We took old maps, traced a circle with an old, scratched CD, used adhesive glue to glue the map onto the side of the CD with the title (leaving the rainbow-y side showing), and then hung them in our front window using ribbon. Map would have been proud and we finally found a use for all those unusable CDs!

All food was homemade. Not in MY home, sillies! I can't cook, remember! In the past I've ordered the cake and food platters from our local grocery store. The food was yummy, but the packaging was absolutely out of the control. This year, I made the cupcakes, my sister-in-law iced them, our neighbors brought a yummy casserole to feed all, and I kept the coffee brewing. We even had mimosas! In addtion, right before the party, I ran out to the farmer's market and bought fresh peaches and chocolate crossiant to add to the mix.

And finally, are you sitting down?, no gift bags for party attendees. Nobody asked me where they were and no one gave me the evil eye for not having them. There. I said it.

The Un-Green

Beside basically having an event where everyone drove to and we emitted carbon just by being, I would say the biggest un-green-ness of it all was still the paper products. I am a sucker for the themed parties, as I've mentioned before, so all the paperware was Diego and Dora-related. I did wash all of the plasticware, however, to use again. I did not go overboard on decorations and only bought three things to hang - if I had been more creative, those probably could have been done at home too.

All in all, it was a very happy birthday. Wouldn't you say, Sprout?

We've Been Leaded

I was planning on kicking back and visiting some blogs tonight when a small notice on msn.com caught my eye. Lead paint in toys. Again. Only this time it affects us. REALLY affects us. Why? I think I have only mentioned about a thousand times that Sprout is ga-ga over Dora the Explorer. Hence, we have about a thousand Dora-related items. Several of them are on the list. The recall list.

I feel guilty because here I was thinking that I was buying a treat for my daughter. Something that she really loves, and I was, instead, inadvertantly poisoning her. Some of the toys are a bit worn now, meaning, yes, some of the paint has flaked away. I am just thankful that she did habitually put them in her mouth. But when I think of the hours, HOURS, that she has played with these toys, it makes me sick.

Diana from Big Green Purse, at the time the Thomas the Tank Engine series was being recalled for the same exact reason, told us that it was time to stop buying toys from China. I wish I had listened to her advice.

Dora Goes Green

Next month is Sprout's birthday and I am as much a slave to "themed" birthday parties as the rest of us...actually...scratch that. I LOVE THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTIES! There. I said it.

As much as I would just like to call her birthday "green" and call it a day, the girl is in l-o-v-e with that cute little explorer Dora. Remember the Backpack who we found at the yard sale for $1.00? It has now become her handbag. Did I mention it talks? If you do not have a child who is a member of the pre-school set, this post may read like "Blah, blah, blah, blah, green, blah, blah blah, blah blah." I apologize in advance.

But I digress.

So, I have decided that Sprout's birthday theme this year will be Dora Goes Green. Although, have you noticed...Dora is already very green?

1) She almost always walks everywhere.

2) When she and Boots do not walk, they either carpool (Tico's car) or take the train (Azul).

3) Her cousin Diego works at his parent's animal rescue center and Dora has helped him rescue baby bears and baby jaguars on several occasions.

4) Her Map recycles himself.

5) Dora fixed Backpack with duct tape (aka sticky tape) when his strap broke, thereby eliminating the need to purchase a new one.

6) Dora rarely, if ever, wears a different outfit. I can only imagine how eco-friendly this is. And Boots only wears boots! Now THAT'S saving on water and laundry detergent!

7) Dora seems to get A LOT of exercise and rarely eats. Not sure if that is entirely healthy, but I am sure she has great HDL levels.

8) Dora is bi-lingual.

9) Dora hair is a nice low-maintenance bob. I'm sure this saves time in the bath and on shampoo consumption (okay, these are getting weak, I realize that).

10) As far as I can tell, Dora does not use plastic grocery bags.

Okay, okay, things got REALLY lame at the end there - but in any case, I'm on my way to plan Sprout's Dora Goes Green birthday party!! Can you help us plan a Dora Goes Green birthday party? GREAT! Thanks for helping! Gracias!