Maiya performing at Tuesday Night

Youngest Open Mic on Tuesday Night Project from Gary San Angel on Vimeo.

Thanks to Tuesday Night Project folks for allowing Maiya to join the Open Mic on August 3rd for her debut on the Tuesday Night stage.  Thanks to Joe Reilly for performing this at the Children's Social Forum in June in Detroit.

B.Y.O. Chopstix

Here's a Great Leap project I am excited to have been a part of. It's Nobuko and Luke (Aidge) performing B.Y.O. Chopstix--a cute music video encouraging us all to be a little greener... and do our part to help save the earth, one hashi at a time... Bring Your Own Chopstix.

This project was so much fun! I helped organize the background extras, and helped with some of the pre-production stuff to get the project organized. As part of craft services, we bought all the breakfast goodies and snacks. On the day of the video shoot, Tony and I got there at 5am to start setting up the craft services area. One of my jobs was to prep the food and set up the dishes for all of the food you see on the set. That boiling water (me). The edamame and California rolls were plated up by me and Dora.

It was really fun being part of the production, getting to see inside all the drawers and fridges for a small Japanese restaurant. I also got to be "stage mom" for a bit when they decided (it had been tentatively set for another day) that they had time to shoot Maiya holding the Chopstick Art that we created together for the video. I ran to the car to get a different shirt and quickly ran a brush through her hair and put on a cute headband (since her hair was a bit crazy from her first overnight visit to Auntie Keiko's and from running the Chibi-K earlier in the morning.

So, B.Y.O. Chopstix... if you want to see it screened, it will premiere at the Collaboratory performance: Order to Go. It will be music, theater, movement and dance... on the theme of throwaway take-out containers. Nobuko will perform, and there will be a reception and Q&A with special guests to follow. Sept. 11 at 7pm at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in Culver City. Go to the new, improved Great Leap website for more info.

Nat'l Breastfeeding Week

As a lactivist, I proudly nursed Maiya for 3 years and 3 months.  It was not easy at the beginning.  It took us about 5 months to get her latched on properly, but I was determined not to give up because I knew how breastmilk was building her immunity for a lifetime.  I was visiting a lactation consultant for months and relied on blogger mama friends for advice on natural parenting for years. I breastfed exclusively for 6 months and for the first year or more, I was nursing about every 2 hours, nights included (benefits of cosleeping by design).  It was worth all of the effort because it is the best gift I could have given her.  This photo was taken by Parmley Photography in 2005 when Maiya was a newborn for a calendar of mamas nursing in public spaces.  The photo was taken at the Farmer's Market on Fairfax.