Fearsome Fireworks: Drowning Out the Noise

As we get near the Fourth, Jim and I are planning for another bang-up holiday with two kids who dislike fireworks sounds.

We are packing up the hearing protection earmuffs for the Fourth of July party surrounded by highly munitioned kamikaze teens (and adults).  We'll cut out before the real boomers are unleashed.

Then the Jones domicile will rock with crazy loud music until some little people have danced themselves into a stupor.



















***Baby Toolkit is the irregularly updated chronicle of citizen geeks who are trying to raise the next generation of Americans with apple pie, multi-tools, and not too much screaming.

Honoring Veterans on Memorial Day: John Reyes' Amazing Bike Ride

Things at Baby Toolkit headquarters have been pretty tough for the last few weeks.  Our close relative (a mother of young children) had a massive stroke the day before Mother's Day and has not yet regained consciousness.

This is why Jim and I did not stalk our new hero, John Reyes, when he rode through our region last weekend on his multi-month bicycle journey to raise funds, awareness, and friends for Fisher House.

 photo by John Reyes, all rights reserved

Fisher House is a great organization to remember this Memorial Day weekend.  Fisher Houses are much like Ronald McDonald Houses, but they serve the families of wounded soldiers receiving treatment at military hospitals.  Families of wounded soldiers can stay free while they visit and support their injured loved ones.



This is an important cause we can all assist this holiday weekend.

I'd never heard of Fisher House before last month.  Soldiers' Angels (earlier: Project Awesome 2010: Like Charlie's Angels With Yarn) sent an email about John Reyes and his incredible journey.

The Friday before Mother's Day, John Reyes departed from his hometown of San Antonio, Texas on a bicycle trip that will eventually take him through Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  That's 20 states and a district.

This self-described "comic book nerd" will be riding through the hot months of May, June, and July in some of the nation's muggiest weather.  Just reading his written itinerary is exhausting.

And he's doing this for other people, people who willingly serve us all- sometimes at great personal costs.

His fundraising target is $5000 for the trip, and he's currently at $1,220.

Please donate generously this Memorial Day weekend to John's Team Fisher campaign.

Bloggers, please offer John some publicity this patriotic weekend, July 4th, or when he rides through your area.  Tell your friends about him on Facebook and Twitter.

Please check his itinerary to see if he'll be in your area.  If he will be, can you send a message to local media outlets?  Publicity for John's trip is also excellent publicity for Fisher House Foundation.

We're inspired by John's generous efforts and are quite sorry we couldn't meet him when he came through our area.  Maybe you can say "hello" for us if he ends up in your neck of the woods (and offer him a cool drink or an evening meal).

Even if you are nowhere near his route, you can follow his Bostonandbackride blog, watch his YouTube vlogs, and follow his progrees on Twitter (@bostonandback).  You can also see some of his photos along the way on Flickr.

Enjoy a few moments of his ride...

 Safe journeys, John!

Thank you to all those who give and have given to our nation through national service!

***Baby Toolkit is a couple of geek parents who think John Reyes is supercool for his compassion, generosity, hard work, and bicycle skills.  We don't know him personally.  We wish him safe travels and wildly successful fundraising.

Behold, the Angels of Destruction*: Best Recall This Week

The holidays stress me out. I'd rather clean cookies out of the VCR* than buy gifts that evoke a very merry "meh" from their recipients.

But today the CPSC delivered unto me a seasonal greeting that appeals to my coal black heart.

Precious Moments angels may burn down your house. Starting with your Christmas tree.

That's no star, it's an incendiary device.

Platter-eyed cherubim just got edgy.

Merry bah humbug to y'all!

*Yes, we still have a VCR because Richard Scarry DVDs are impossible to find while the VHS tapes are plentiful and cheap on the resale market. Also, the Raptor likes to trap her hand inside while using the flippy door for toy storage. Also, we use it to watch the excellent Notes Alive! Nutcracker.

**Yes, the title of this post was stolen wholesale from Keith Donahue's book. The book's title is easily its best attribute. Check out his earlier The Stolen Child if you're looking for something to read.

***And while we're on books, I just asked the library to buy Scroogenomics: Why We Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays. This, rather than visions of sugarplums, dances in my head.

Baby Toolkit is written by geek parents who are having a hard time embracing the holidays. We're Amazon affiliates, so if you're just dying to buy something through our Amazon links we get a percentage of the profits. We have no affiliation with Precious Moments, the CPSC, or other media we mention, and we may get a cease & desist notice for the Firestarter cover hack, so you absolutely didn't see it here.

Halloween 2009: Making Mario

My favorite Halloween costumes have function beyond the holiday. Before his first Halloween, Ranger's grandparents gave him a cowboy outfit, so we just added a Western hat to complete the costume.

I found an old chef's coat at a thrift shop, so Jim and I talked about a mad scientist costume (in the spirit of Dr. Horrible), but that amused us more than it would Ranger.

Cruising Dabbled.org's great Halloween coverage, I found a great costume that would delight Ranger and satisfy my hopes of reuse. (Thanks, Dot!)

Ranger follows the adventures of Mario in Kart , Tennis, and Strikers via Nintendo. When he saw the Flickr photo a Mario costume became a regular topic of conversation. I launched the hunt for a long-sleeved red shirt, denim overalls, white gloves, and a hat (or sewing pattern).

By Sunday, I had everything but the hat. Jim helped me search through pattern books for a good match and we settled on Simplicity 2808 (note for sewists*: this pattern is for adult sized hats as we're big-headed folk). Ranger's preschool Halloween parade was Thursday, so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights as an amateur milliner. The hat needed to look cartoonish, so all errors in tailoring could be deemed value-added features.

Jim fashioned Ranger's fine mustache from brown felt. I attached it to a loose-fitting loop of thin, soft elastic which fit over the ears and behind the nape.

Thursday's parade went well. Even the people who didn't know about Mario (like the nursing home residents who Ranger's class visited) loved his mustache.

On Friday afternoon, I noticed a long sleeved green onesie in the Raptor's closet hanging near her overalls. When I told Ranger about this, we both came to the same conclusion. On Saturday, Jim, Mario, and the Ranger hit the fabric store for more elastic while I sewed against the clock.

If you want to show off a homemade costume to people who will appreciate it, go to the fabric store on Halloween. Ranger got full rock star treatment from both staff and shoppers and EVERYONE knew about Mario. I think he preferred it even to trick or treating.

They returned home and one mustache later, the Mario brothers were cavorting on the front lawn.

Mario pulled out Ranger's golf set and entertained the neighborhood with some impromptu Mario Golf (why isn't this available for the Wii) while Luigi mostly laughed and pointed.

Luigi's hat is also an adult size large. I sewed a tuck in the back of the hatband to size it down. The large size makes her look more like Baby Luigi than Luigi and it leaves us the opportunity to reuse the hat set as the kids get older. Plus, I can wear it too.

Happy Halloween!

*Yes, this is an emerging word, but neither seamstress nor tailor really seemed appropriate and sewer (to me) always starts with a su sound and bears an entirely different meaning, so sewist it shall be. Feel free to suggest better terms.

***Baby Toolkit has received a Nintendo DS and a review copy of Mario Tennis from Nintendo. We have no fiscal interest in nor undisclosed relationship with Nintendo nor its parent companies. Baby Toolkit is written by geek parents who can be seen driving around town in felt mustaches.

photos: (c) Baby Toolkit, 2009. All rights reserved.

Bang-on fireworks noise solution: Bop away the blasts

Ranger is no fan of fireworks. The sounds make him want to hide (which, when I think about it, is a perfectly reasonable reaction to explosions).

Last year, Uncle Punk suggested a novel diversion from the local pyrotechnics, even more loud noise. We cranked up the Ramones and danced until we were too tired to care what sounds might emanate from the neighborhood.

This year, we'll shake up the noisy playlist.

What loud kid friendly tunes do you suggest?

Ghosts of Christmas Past: Links to Earlier Baby Toolkit Holiday Hacks

In an effort to recycle more, we offer some Baby Toolkit holiday hacks in excellent used condition:

• Toddler-friendly ornaments- decorations your kid can really play with.
  
• Slacker gift wrap- pillowcases work too. I'd love to see someone furoshiki wrap a bicycle!
  
• Give 'Em a Smile- DIY calendars as gifts

Plus, a few easy handmade gifts that work year-round:

• Crowning Glory- sew reversible play crowns for the junior royals in your life.
• A Banner by Any Other Name- sew a festive name banner- or skip the name and make a decoration with holiday fabrics.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that our tree is still in the closet, and I have yet to wrap even one gift. I plan on liberally using the "look at the pretty baby" excuse this year.

What seasonal hacks are you employing?

Nutcracker Revelations

While watching the Nutcracker with Ranger, a crazy list of thoughts ran through my head ("like sugarplum fairies," Jim interjects):

• Watching Ranger enjoy this ballet charms me. His pure enjoyment of the music and movement helps me remember my own blissful connection with music and dance (before adolescence and 80s pop made everything awkward and self-conscious). We bought a storybook concert version of the Nutcracker (based on a Maurice Sendak book) when Ranger turned 2, and he watched it so often that I thought he would wear out the tape.
• Just last week, I came out to my friends as a hardcore childhood ballerina-wannabe (I don't know that anyone would guess it of me now). I adored ballet, leotards, tutus, and beribboned pointe shoes, that is until my little pink ballet flats hit the hardwood floors of actual ballet lessons. A few weeks of the basic positions convinced me that it was far more fun to leap, prance, and spin alone at home.
• The only reason I told my friends is because both of their daughters are going through ballerina stages where they want to wear leotards around the clock. My ultra-girly 5-year-old self still has the ability to embarrass me 30 years later. Let's just call that early interest my road less taken.
• Going to bed tonight Ranger tells Jim, "I like dancing."
  "Really?" Jim asks.
  Shrugging shoulders, "It's pretty great."
  
• Ranger and I have actual debt of gratitude to Tchaikovsky. My mom was raised in a family that prohibited dancing, so it was a little surprising that my dad's plan for their first date was this holiday ballet. Despite the fact that mom's upbringing suggested the road to hell was toe-polished wood lined with sugarplum fairies, her rebellious spirit overcame those fears. She and my dad were married within a year (secretly, but that's another story).
• About 45 years after their first date, my parents took Ranger to see a children's dance theatre production of The Nutcracker. They thought their 2-year-old grandson would drag them out the door before the end of the first act, but he sat rapt for most of the production. It means a lot to me that he and my parents enjoyed the show together as it is significant in our family history.

I wouldn't have watched this ballet alone. Ranger makes it fun for me. His interest in movement far exceeds my rather superficial ballet-obsession (which was really more about looking pretty and wearing lots pink things with ribbons and sequins). I think he might actually practice if we enrolled him in hip-hop classes.

Ranger's love for dance is deep and joyous: one friend commented at his birthday dance party that she "didn't believe in reincarnation until [she] saw Ranger dance. Elvis is with us."

For Jim and I there is great wonder in watching our child discover what makes him happy (even if it is a dream that never captured us). My mom's divergence from parental preferences reminds me that even rebellion can turn out well in the long run. What more comforting holiday story can a parent wish for?

What stories lead you wax philosophical about your family?

Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Buy Nothing Day's Eve

This year, we are looking forward to a peaceful Thanksgiving with those we love. However you spend your day, we wish you happiness and respite.

Thank you so much for being a part of Baby Toolkit. This ongoing conversation with other parents and friends invigorates our daily lives and keeps the old synapses firing.

Tomorrow, for Black Friday, we're planning on staying out of the stores. Observing Buy Nothing Day has become a tradition for Jim and I. As we've chosen to cut our spending and stick to useful and meaningful gifts, Buy Nothing Day reminds us to enjoy rare vacation days together doing something interesting.

If you are shopping tomorrow, please remember the cardinal rule of discounts:

It's only a good deal if you needed it or were going to buy it anyway.

Fewer gifts are good for the planet and your bottom line. Your savings can also help change the world:



As always, we ask everyone NOT to buy chocolate (unless it is Fair Trade certified) until it no longer brings injury to children half a world away.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Talking Turkey: Jennie-O Offers a Fool Proof Turkey

We've hosted a few Thanksgiving dinners in our home, and with the exception of last year's, they have been unmitigated disasters.

Our first Thanksgiving away from extended family the turkey didn't thaw according to instructions. Not noticing the total lack of pliability, we put it in oven as instructed (not removing any of the extra parts inside the bird). After a long day of cooking, we found a mushy disaster. We tipped the content of the roasting pan into the garbage and high-tailed it to the only local grocery store still open for pre-cooked ham.

The year before Ranger was born Jim and I spent weeks planning an elaborate menu that was Martha Stewart in its vision. We even included individual compote-stuffed acorn squash for each guest.

Our guests arrived hours early, just in time to be here when the oven caught fire. We ate each dish sequentially (as they now had to be heated in our tiny, EasyBake wattage microwave) in the slightly smoky dining room. Needless to say no guest present has ever suggested us hosting Thanksgiving again.

When Jennie-O contacted me that they had an idiot-proof turkey available, I wondered how far our reputation as destroyers of Thanksgiving had traveled. Their miracle turkey could go straight from freezer to oven without cleaning, thawing, marinating, or prepping for roasting.

Our Jennie-O Oven Ready Turkey came boneless, skinless, and frozen. We removed the exterior bag to find the turkey in a roasting bag. We placed the roasting bag in an ovenproof dish and cut 3 small slits in the bag.

The turkey then went in the preheated oven for about 2 hours, emerging as an easy and flavorful dinner. The pop-up timer signaled the end of cooking (and popped around the same time our meat thermometer hit the recommended inner temp of 170 degrees). The thermometer was much easier to use in the Jennie-O Oven Ready turkey breast than in a conventional bird (where you need to avoid the bone). [Video of cooking instructions]

When we cut off the roasting bag, there was enough juice to make a homemade gravy, but it wasn't necessary. Jennie-O includes a packet of gravy mix (add water and heat on the stove). We should have started the gravy before the turkey came out of the oven, but we did not. Instead, driven by the savory scent of turkey, we microwaved the mix.

The turkey was surprisingly juicy and tender. The seasoning was mild, but delicious. Jennie-O's Oven-Ready Turkey was our first successful turkey. These fool-proof gobblers could save future holidays here, and the boneless turkey breast makes a hearty weeknight dinner.

Jennie-O Oven Ready Turkeys can be found year-round at Safeway (Dominicks, Genuardi’s, Vons), Jewel, Super Wal-Marts, Ralph's, King Sooper, Acme, Schnucks, HEB, Meijer, Winn Dixie, Publix, Hy-Vee, Super Target, Fry's, Von's, and some Kroger and Super-Valu Divisions. A 12 lb. whole turkey costs $28, a 5 lb. bone-in breast costs $17, and the 2.75 lb. boneless breast retails for around $13.

Jennie-O turkeys can be ordered online, but their heavy shipping weights and need for expedited shipping translate into considerably higher costs.

Even if you're an expert poultry chef, you can enter Jennie-O's Trauma or Triumph Sweepstakes to win a month of free groceries from Amazon, an iPod nano, a camcorder, and Netflix or iTunes gift cards.

What holiday cooking disasters have you experienced?

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Okay, this is sort of a last minute post, but please make note that Mother's Day is this Sunday, May 11th.

Last year we wrote a gift guide for geek moms that might provide some last-minute ideas that don't involve the jewelry store or the flower shop. Our Mother's Day Wrap-up reader comments might offer some good ideas too.

P.S. Don't forget that you can donate to great organizations like Heifer Project too! What mom doesn't want bees?

Happy Earth Day!

Maybe it's some subliminal resentment of the Earth's recent rattling under my family in the middle of the night, but Earth Day snuck (my apologies to British readers, but we just don't use sneaked here) up on me entirely.

Anyway, we all still love the Earth even if it has been waking me up in terror this week.

In honor of Earth Day, I'll reuse and recycle some of our favorite hacks:

• making building blocks out of used milk cartons,
• reusing an old shower curtain as a splat mat,
• Anna's great DIY plans ($7) to make a great play kitchen out of old boxes,
• reusing an old vinyl table cloth to protect your car's cargo area,
  
• why we choose fabric over paper and plastic.

Plus, here's a way to show the Earth a little extra love this Earth Day, Mother's Day, and/or Father's Day.

Jim and I have long been supporters and HUGE fans of Heifer Project. So we're asking Baby Toolkit readers to fund some bees and trees through Team Baby Toolkit at Heifer.org.

We would love to have 300 friends (about half our current subscribers) join us in supporting this great cause. If you're interested in participating, you can set up your own team member page and have donations made on your behalf. Did I mention that your contributions are tax deductible in the U.S.?

What better way to tell the Big Mama you love her (especially as she can grow her own flowers)?

Holiday Hack: Slacker Gift Wrap

Wrapping Giant Gifts:
At my friend Karen's house I noticed a giant box clearly labeled playhouse next to the tree with a couple squares of gift wrap on it.

I must have looked perplexed because Karen said, "All you have to do is cover all the pictures."

That's right- our toddlers can't read yet! Pure genius!

Plus, it minimizes paper use/waste.

If your box is covered with photos, or you want full coverage merely for aesthetics- wrap the oversized box or item in a tablecloth, blanket, or bed sheet and secure it with ribbon, yarn, string, and/or safety pins.

Wrapping Very Small Gifts:
Back in the olden days, my brother and I (heavily financed by Mom) bought Dad a pricey video club membership.

If you're saying "Bought a video membership?" you have forfeited your right to sing along with Time-Life commercials relating to the 80s.

It was essentially a paper business card with my Dad's name written on it- by hand. It entitled us to rent any of their 50 or so videos at additional cost. We were soooo proud of our gift- it was a shame that it was so small that it could even get lost in his stocking.

So we put it in a wooden caboose Dad built for our train set. And we wrapped that in a big box. And we wrapped that big box in a giant box filled with wadded up newspaper from the recycling shelf. And that- we could wrap with a sheet.

And as a holiday gift to everyone, we'd like to share a favorite (and timely) Jones household word:

scurryfunge (we heard it attributed to New England, but have no idea if this is accurate)- a hasty tidying of the house between the time you see a neighbor coming and the time she knocks on the door. (Informal English)

We tend to use this word to describe the frantic last minute cleaning I'm avoiding right now.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Hack: Toddler-friendly Ornaments

Jim and I didn't own a Christmas tree the first year of our married life. His mom thought that was a travesty and bought us a 2' tall artificial tree. This little tree was our primary tree for years. We liked to load it down with comically large ornaments or decorate it with only lights and keep it on the bathroom counter (I smirk to think of this, even though I have no idea why).

At some point we bought a 6' artificial tree which we suspect is made of plastic and standard grade pipe cleaners. I'm sure we got it on clearance. Its weak boughs can't support an ornament of much weight. Every year we get motivated enough to put it up (which is something like 1:3) we swear we will buy a new one next year.

Ranger LOVES holiday lights. We put the big tree up last year without ornaments. We added a foot tapper on/off switch to our tree on the recommendation of Parent Hacks- and he loves controlling the lights.

As we're not very invested in tradition, we decided to try this year to make the decorations as toddler-friendly as possible.

When a friend mentioned that he was wiring all his gaming figurines to hang as holiday decorations, it struck me that we might not need ornaments or wire ornament hangers at all. With yarn or ribbon and the versatile lark's head knot almost anything can become an ornament (and you can jettison those silly wire ornament hangers for good).

Thus, the first Baby Toolkit video was born! Learn to make a lark's head knot:


Sorry about the off-screen portions, I shot the video alone while Ranger napped, so there was no time for a retake. I promise I'll do better with framing in future videos, but I will probably always sound like total tool.

We hung our lighted tree primarily with Barrel-of-Monkeys monkeys (again, Parent Hacks inspired) and linking letters. We also put up some other small toys that Ranger generally tends to ignore most of the time. We didn't put anything very tempting on the tree because we didn't want to torture the kid or inspire him to take up indoor tree climbing.

When it's time to put the tree in the closet, I'm getting all the old ornaments out. The ones without sentimental value (which is most of them) are headed to a local thrift shop.

Recast toys or other objects you already own as ornaments reduces decorating costs and required storage space for those other 11 months of the year.

There will be no more talk of replacing the tree. It finally looks like it actually belongs in our house.

The Best Gift Guide Ever

Don't miss AJ's inspired gift list at Thingamababy. It's the best you'll see online.

Under Our Tree

Jim and I spent many years trying to get family members to donate to our favorite organizations (like Heifer Project) rather than purchase holiday gifts for us. It's not that we didn't like gifts, but we didn't NEED anything and our house overflowed with stuff already.

For us, holidays are the best playing games and enjoying time with family and friends. We really hope that Ranger will also appreciate the community aspects of holidays more than the stuff or the volume of stuff.

So, we're trying to give each family member a personally significant, reasonably priced gift and not fall prey to the last minute "one more thing" add on gifts.

Here are a few of our 2007 choices:

For my dad, our geek grandpa: a Rhinoskin CASE for his techie cell phone/PDA (not the phone itself).

For Jim's dad, our fisherman grandpa: a personalized CASE (reading GrandpaJones) for his fishing rods.

For our 4-year old niece: a ceramic name necklace.

and for Jim's mom: a ceramic photo tile pendant with a favorite picture of Ranger.

Does your family have a holiday giving strategy? What gifts (or kinds of gifts) are you giving this year?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Look, a Thanksgiving turkey everyone can love! This vegetarian beauty was made by the fine minds at Figs with Bri. [via Craftster]

And Jessica at Indexed- beautifully sums it all up:

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Get the Most Out of Black Friday: Buy Nothing!

One of Jim's and my favorite holiday traditions is Buy Nothing Day. In the late 90s we started reading Adbusters, and something about BND really captured our imagination. It's subversive and creative. MTV won't even air Buy Nothing Day's paid ads. (See them below if you're curious what kind of thinking offends the people who make Jackass and the Osbournes)

We're looking forward to a relaxing day of friends, food, and games. For me, that's way better than any doorbuster deal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

thanks for the reminder, Judy!

XO Laptop: Changing the World

A laptop with ears? Well, yes... Designed for kids? Right AGAIN! And also an instrument of global change.

The XO laptop is a marvel of energy efficiency, durability, and innovative software. It is designed for the One Laptop Per Child initiative in developing nations.

And for one more week (as part of a two week program) you can Give One and Get One. For $399 ($200 of which is tax deductible) you can send a laptop to a child in a developing nation and one to the Canadian or American home of you choice. These are sweet laptops, but their real appeal is their dedication to social justice.

In a week (on Nov. 26) the XO will no longer be available in the US or Canada for purchase except in massive quantities, so don't wait to decide. T-Mobile is throwing in a year of complimentary Hot Spot WiFi access (retail value $350) for everyone who GOGOs.

You can also enter an XO laptop giveaway at Prizey through January 4, 2008.

Chocolate's Dark, Dirty Secret: No, It's Not Nougat

To the utter astonishment of friends and relatives, Jim and I quit chocolate cold turkey in 2001. We were chocoholics of the first degree. When I cleaned out the kitchen for all our chocolate we found over 14 pounds- not counting things containing cocoa.

At first I thought I would lose my mind. One night someone walked past me in a Circuit City smelling of Butterfinger bar and my consuming envy made me want to tackle them and bounce their head off the floor a few dozen times. I'm not a violent person, so this bizarre desire definitely meant I had momentarily relocated to downtown, central Crazy.
Chocolate was to me comfort, reward, and love. My beloved grandmother used to keep chocolate bars stashed for the grandkids, so it's hard not to associate a Nestle Crunch with the pure joy of visiting grandma. My grandma loved kids, all kids- so much that she dedicated her life to schools and orphanages in Africa. I'm sure she had similar treats for the kids there.

As a result of my grandparents' work, I always had a heightened sense of Africa. My mom never said "Eat your dinner, there are starving children in Africa." Instead I overheard conversations about war, coups, government closure of schools and orphanages, poverty, famine, police that show up in the middle of the night, imprisonment, execution, and families that had become kin to ours fleeing their nation through dangerous means both legal and illegal. I have always felt thankful not to have been born there, and I deeply respected my grandparents' courage to work in such a dangerous place.

So... when I found out that virtually every American chocolate bar is tainted with child slavery (enacted in Africa), I didn't want to believe it. Knight-Ridder had a series of articles outing the use of child slaves to harvest cocoa and coffee beans* in the Ivory Cost and Mali. It's fallen off most of the news site because it's age (2001), but it's been reprinted here.

After a few months of research, the evidence mounted- and it became apparent that the American chocolate industry was not interested in reform. Bob Dole was hired as a lobbyist for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association as they quashed Congressional energies to mandate slavery-free labeling. Instead of agreeing to voluntary labeling, they offered a alternate plan in which they would monitor cocoa farms and work for reform. Their compromise, the Harkin-Engel protocol was accepted and immediately forgotten. To date, the chocolate industry has not even attempted to meet their own plan. They don't really care about anything beyond their bottom line and big chocolate is banking that the American consumers won't care about the lives of foreign children either.

So Jim and I quit eating chocolate. Honestly, even something so delicious starts to taste like fetid poo when it's produced by companies willingly complicit in child slavery. It seemed to me like every chocolate bar I bought undid my grandparents' efforts to help children in Africa.

On the whole, our friends and family didn't respond well to this decision. Some mocked us for caring too much, others went out of their way to find chocolate industry PR to reassure us, and one close family member broke my heart by saying "Well, what else would those kids do? It probably keeps them out of trouble."

So, we turned our boycott into something secret. Just an "I don't eat chocolate" response. I was tired of arguing with everyone and hearing things that disappointed me. People would ask why and Jim and I started giving dodgy answers. I clearly lack my grandparents' courage.

A recent article in Melbourne's The Age newspaper on chocolate slavery nudged my sheepish social consciousness. Jim sent me links surrounding Tony's Chocolonley (a Dutch man who turned himself in to the police for knowingly buying goods obtained through a crime).

Now I won't ask you to stop eating chocolate on my word alone please Google "chocolate slavery BBC" for a reputable international source.

I am asking that everyone at least bypass gift chocolates this holiday season. Do you really want to feed you children the product of child exploitation? Fair-trade certified chocolate is okay, but everything else- according to the Salvation Army's anti-slavery unit probably contains beans harvested by slaves (thanks to the workings of the commodities market).

Sorry about the soapbox, but I really needed to say something about this issue that's been buried or misrepresented in the American media. I'm just having trouble believing that I live in a country where people are willing to have children suffer and even die for cheap luxury goods.

If you're considering boycotting gift chocolates, we'd love to hear about it...

*We don't drink coffee.

***This post is the independent, unsolicited opinion of Baby Toolkit. Photo: Baby Toolkit, (c) 2007. All rights reserved.

Give 'Em a Smile: Calendars as Holiday Gifts

My friend Karen found some well-priced blank calendars that she is scrapbooking into grandparent gifts for the holidays.

And if you're like me- short on filigree scissors and decadent papers- you're probably thinking "I could do something like that with a editing program and a printer." Well of course we can- but do you really want to drive to a copy shop for spiral binding?

If the answer is yes- then consider making the calendar pages with Google Calendar. You can enter all the relevant family holidays as one calendar per clan. Then, with a few mouse clicks, you can choose to include the appropriate family dates and whatever calendars are appropriate (like Catholic observances for my mother-in-law, the Tour de France dates and phases of the moon for my dad, and, ahem, license plate renewal reminders in bold for a forgetful friend). With a minimal amount of work you can produce some calendars that are personalized in function as well as form.