The Old LA Zoo

We love going to Griffith Park and though it is a huge park with tons to do we tend to go to the same places over and over. Weekdays we usually head over to Travel Town for train rides and on the weekends we typically have brunch at Trails Cafe followed by a hike up to the observatory.  We never manage to make it to the carousel, the pony rides, the bat cave,  Shane's Inspiration , etc.  So a few weekends ago we decided to mix it up.  We still had brunch at the Trails Cafe (I cannot pass up their granola and coffee) and then we took a short drive to the other side of the park to check out the Old LA Zoo.

The original LA zoo was built in 1912 and closed in 1965 when the new zoo, also in Griffith Park, opened . The cages and enclosures from the old zoo are still in place and it's fun to hike around and let your kids pretend to be zoo animals.  They can growl in the bear enclosure and rattle the bars of the old iron cages animals were kept in before we knew better.  Although many people talk about the area being secluded and hard to find, it's actually just a short walk from the parking lot and right next to a big grassy picnic area.  In fact, in an inspired bit of party planning, there was an animal themed birthday party going on with a bunch of 3 year olds with painted faces running around in the cages.  I'm sure the parents ended up with some very cute pictures.  And further up the path, in some creepier looking abandoned cages we found a local band taking some promotional photos.

The Old LA Zoo is near Shane's Inspiration Playground.  Drive past the playground so that it is on your left.  A parking lot will be on your right. Keep following the road until it dead ends.  You can park for free at the end of the road and then off to your left (facing the barricade) are the stairs to where the old zoo is.

MOMS Club of Marina Del Rey and Mar Vista

If you've read any of my posts from when M was an infant you know that I had my struggles adjusting to parenthood and staying at home.  Really, what new mom doesn't?  One of the best things I did to help me get through that period, and actually every new phase of parenting since then, was to join my local MOMS Club chapter.  I tried out a few different classes, playgroups and meet-ups, but the moms I really ended up clicking with were those in the MOMS Club.  The families I met through the club are now our close friends-- the ones we vacation with, the ones who I count on to watch the boys in a pinch and the ones I call when M doesn't get into that charter school we were hoping for.  And the club now has a web site -- The MOMS Club of Marina Del Rey and Mar Vista.  So check them out!  If you live in the neighborhood consider joining.  And either way,  I really encourage any stay at home parents out there to find a group to be a part of.  Staying home with children can be wonderful, but it can also be frustrating, exhausting and lonely.  We all need people we can count on who can understand what we're going through.

Eczema Part 3: The Allergist

So last time I posted about Baby S's eczema we were seeing a naturopath, avoiding gluten and doing some homeopathic remedies.  After 6 weeks of brown rice pasta and mealy gluten free bread Baby S's cheeks were still a red mottled mess.  We returned to the naturopath, hoping to get the okay to pick up some bagels on the way home, but instead were instructed to stay off gluten and eliminate about 20 other foods from our diet.  The 6 page list included corn, avocados, lentils, dairy and more.  I decided I just couldn't do it.  So after a 2 week binge where I ate absolutely anything I wanted, we proceeded to meet with an allergist.

The allergist did a scratch test which revealed Baby S is allergic to dairy, eggs, peanuts, dust mites and dogs.  So we are back to eliminating problematic foods.  We also ditched our down pillows, bought allergenic covers for our mattresses, started vacuuming daily and sent our dog for a 3 week vacation at my parent's house.  We're using coconut oil and CeraVe cream on his skin.  After 3 weeks Baby S's face was nearly clear.  It had been so long since his face had been smooth and just wanted to rub my cheeks against his all day long.  No toddlers pointed at him shouting "boo-boo".  No well meaning strangers told me I just needed to buy a tub of Aquaphor.  A week ago Baby S caught the stomach flu and the eczema flared up again, but it is starting to subside and I am hopeful that this new regime will keep it under control.

M's Busytown Birthday!

M turned four this week and I can't really justify calling him "Baby M" any longer, so from here on out it's just "M".  For his fourth birthday party we decided to do a "Busytown" theme.  M loves the Richard Scarry books and is a bit obsessed with the show Busytown Mysteries.  Now every year I say I'm going to make it easy on myself and just take M to PartyCity and make him pick out a pre-packaged theme, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  I spend too much time looking at sites like ohdeeoh and Pinterest and keep forgetting that I am not that crafty or patient.

Case in point: here is the inspiration for one of our party activities

and here is how it actually turned out

You will notice I did not get out my jigsaw and fiberboard to create the cutouts.  In fact, I did not even bother to cover up the copy on cereal boxes.  Minus 1 for me, I should have at least glued some construction paper on the back of the boxes.

Anyway, if you are looking for the gold standard of Busytown Birthday parties, check out this post over on stitch/craft.  It's a really beautiful party. But if you are looking for some ideas that the average, lazier, Type-B parent can pull off you have come to the right place.

We had our party outside at a local park, so we didn't have a lot of decorations.  We had the "town" and figures for the kids to play with.  I photocopied the pages out of What Do People Do All Day and The Adventures of Lowly Worm, glued them to the back of cereal boxes and stuck them on the end of the table.  I purchased the figures online; we had Huckle, Sally, Lowly, Mr. Fixit, Hilda Hippo, Pig Will and Bananas Gorilla.  I put out a few of our Richard Scarry books so that guests who weren't familiar with Busytown would have some context.  We had crayons and coloring pages from the Hello Busytown! coloring book for guests as well.  Although I must admit none of these activities were nearly as popular as the Stomp Rockets that we decided to bring along at the last minute.  No connection to Busytown, but the kids were lining up to launch them while the coloring pages blew around in the wind.

When it was time for cake we surprised our guests with a mystery.  We gathered everyone around the table and then opened the cake box to reveal not a cake, but a picture of Goldbug with a note that read

It's the Mystery of the Missing Birthday Cake!

It's a Busytown Mystery just for you!  To find your cake follow the clues!  

For your first clue, ask where would Lowly go?  He likes to play tic, tac toe

At first the kids were a little confused, but we had rehearsed this game with M a few weeks prior to the party so he knew what was going on.  He led all of his friends over to the Tic Tac Toe board in the park where a friend of ours was waiting with a picture of Lowly and another clue.  The kids had to go to 4 different locations in the park and eventually ended up back at the table where we had the actual cake waiting for them.  I wasn't sure if this game would work, but it ended up being lots of fun and I cannot tell you how cute it was to see a line of 20 kids running around the park chanting "Cake! Cake!" 

My mother-in-law is an excellent and adventurous cake maker and volunteered to make us a Huckle cake.  Since we were at the park and didn't have a cooler big enough to hide the cake she wrapped it as if it was a present and hid it in plain view.  When the lid was removed the sides fell down to reveal the cake.  (My mother-in-law probably could pull off an ohdeedoh worthy party).

In our favor bags we had mini magnifying glasses, little notebooks that I decorated with Busytown stickers (which came with the Hello Busytown! coloring book), party blowers and pretzels.  M loved his party and even his friends who had never heard of Busytown had a great time.

Eczema Part 2: The Naturopath

So I kept waiting to write a follow up post on Baby S's eczema.  I was hoping that if I tried enough treatments sooner or later I would find some lotion or change to my diet or strange folk remedy and I could come back to the blog and write "Hooray!  Baby S's skin is clear!  Here's the solution!"  Well, that has not happened, although I did try a lot treatments.  I eliminated dairy, soy and caffeine from my diet.  I tried various creams obtained from the corner drugstore, the herbal pharmacy, even the Indian Market.  Everywhere Baby S and I went some well meaning stranger claimed to know a miracle cure-- everything from rubbing Baby S's cheeks with banana peels (which I tried) to peeing on his face (which I did not).

In my previous post I noted that the eczema did not bother Baby S much.  That is no longer the case.  During the day he does okay, but at night he thrashes around and scratches at his cheeks.  He wakes every few hours and I pat or nurse him back to sleep. I cut and file his nails constantly but still wake to bloody sheets.  I pledged I wasn't going to use the steroid cream anymore, but seeing him so uncomfortable led me to start using it again.  The cream did help some, but even after using it for 10 days straight his skin was still red and mottled so that 's when I decided I needed to seek out additional help.  Our pediatrician and dermatologist just weren't cutting it.

Yesterday we went to see a highly recommended naturopath.  I'm generally not into alternative medicine, but since conventional medicine wasn't helping I decided it was worth trying.  The doctor took a detailed history and observed Baby S's behavior.  Because Baby S's eczema is primarily on his cheeks, as opposed to the more classical presentation on the elbows and knees, the doctor believes the root cause is related to diet or digestion.  And it is true that Baby S has had problems with constipation and still spits up frequently.  The naturopath  recommended we eliminate gluten from our diet (for 6 weeks - ugh!), add daily probiotics, multi-vitamins and cod-liver oil for Baby S.  He gave us a prescription for a homeopathic remedy and Tamanu oil to use topically.  I really hope this will help Baby S.

Threats and Sighs

So we've been having a little problem with Baby M for the last week or so.  At three and a half he has started biting.  He never bit anyone before, but now he does.  Hard.  And he doesn't let go until you physically unclamp his jaw from your arm.  On the plus side, he only bites my husband and me, but really, is that much of a plus?  We ask him why he is biting and he replies "I don't know."  We've told him biting is unacceptable, that it hurts us, that he should use his words, that if he is angry or frustrated he can bite a pillow.  None of these statements have had any effect. He bites seemingly without cause or provocation.  Yesterday he leaned over and bit me while we were eating dinner.  Tonight he bit my husband while getting into the bath.  I suspect that he is biting because he feels he's not getting enough attention, and we are doing our best to spend dedicated time with him, but we still really would like the biting to stop.

Today I was sitting on the couch with the boys and I saw Baby M lean in for the bite.  Tired, angry, tangled up with Baby S and unable to move away I said, "If you bite me you cannot play your Super-Grover game on the computer." (I'd told him he could play it after lunch.)  He paused for a moment and then sunk his teeth into my wrist.  In theory I don't believe in threatening children, especially with "consequences" completely unrelated to the problem behavior.  But in practice?  Well, stuff happens.  But today I was reminded why I try not to use threats.  As soon as I said "Ok, no computer game" he started the tantrum to end all tantrums.  He screamed and cried for about an hour (apologies to my neighbor with the open house).  The tantrum I could handle, but then he told me "The thing that will make me stop biting is if you let me play a game."  Not exactly the message I was going for.  Later that night I overheard Baby M relating the episode to my husband.  His explanation of what happened was "Mommy took away my game to make me frustrated because I made Mommy frustrated when I bit her."  Again, not really the lesson I wanted him to learn.  Furthermore, Baby M bit my husband about 15 minutes prior to this conversation, so aside from not teaching him anything useful my threat didn't curb the problem behavior either.

I'd like Baby M to learn that biting is wrong because it hurts people and understand that hurting people is wrong.  I'd like him to learn to express his feelings and ask for what he needs.  I am just not sure how to teach him this. I talk about treating people with respect. I try to label his own and other's feelings.  Our number one house rule is that we do not hurt people or animals.  I just do not know what to do.  Sigh.

The Dining Passport

Baby M is not a terrible eater, but he is not a great eater and I'm always looking for ways to get him to eat a wider variety of foods. The Dining Passport is a clever idea that I got from Family Fun Magazine.  The passport is a booklet your child can record all of his culinary adventures in.  We kept ours very simple.  I punched holes in a bunch of 3 x 5 cards and strung them together.  Then we printed out flags from around the world at the CIA website.  Whenever Baby M eats an ethnic meal he gets to paste the nation's flag onto one of the cards and I write in the date and a few details about the meal.  Then we look up the country on the globe and see how far it is from Los Angeles.  I've found this is a terrific way to expand Baby M's diet.  He really loves getting to paste new flags into his passport, so much so that he'll gladly eat falafel or dosa or other foods that might normally be rejected.  And as a bonus, he is learning a bit of geography at the same time.  So far his passport contains flags from Egypt, Morocco, Italy, Mexico, Thailand and India.