Luxury for Baby's Feet

I am so excited that these booties have finally arrived! 

These fair trade baby booties are made in Vietnam by a Fair Trade Federation company employing about 45 disadvantaged women in Hanoi.

The booties are two tone silk with traditional Vietnamese design and measure 5" from heel to toe.  They are fully lined with a padded soft corduroy and canvas soles - so comfy you will want them for yourself.  Seriously, I am a cozy footwear fanatic and the thought of these on my feet during the Maine winters is truly delicious.  The only thing slightly better is the image of a chubby little baby cruising around town with the most luxurious footwear around!


Have a baby, know a baby, think you might one day?  Scoop these up ... the babies will thank you!

7 months and Counting

Happy Monday everyone. Can you all belive I am 32 weeks pregnant!! Just 2 more months to go.
This so far has been such a great experience (well most of it). I am so excited about the idea of being a mom. I also know how fantastic of a father my husband Nick is going to be. He already is!!!

So on my mind this past week has been parenting, what morals will we teach Lily or Spencer?  Clearly I am very much a supporter of Fair Trade. It will be important to me for my children to understand that not everyone lives like we do. There is so much poverty and struggle out there, not that we are rich by any means but in comparison to some cultures we absolutly are. This is why Fair Trade IS so important, it is really us doing our part to make sure we are not supporting sweat shops. Obviously it is going to happen without us even being aware of it. I am so excited that I have great toys for my children that I absolutly know are fair trade..well because I work for the company that pays the wages!!!!!
So there is my weekly fair trade rant!!! Help to support fair trade, even if it is just one cup of coffee or preferably an item from us... !!!!
Thank you all for listening.. peace love and fair trade
NYki
P.S. The crib sets are coming soon!!!

What? We should play with our own kids???

I'm sure many of you heard about the controversy over Disney's Baby Einstein series and their claim that the series will make your baby smarter.  Unlike those of you in touch with the outside world, I actually had not heard about it until I listened to the story on NPR's Talk of the Nation last week. 

I was absolutely speechless (well, not exactly but that gets the message across in a much more polite way!) listening to the topic being debated.  I am also quite sure that the talented Neil Conan shared my opinions as host of the show.  Poor man, I felt bad that he was not able to speak to the idiotic claims and parents feeling the need to make their baby smarter in the first place.

Now, I know that tv and video games have taken over for many kids in the US (I'm not that naive) but is there really such a large portion of mainstream American parents that do not realize that plopping your baby/toddler/preschooler/child in front of the tv for these videos is not going to aid in their healthy development as much as actually playing and interacting with your own children?!

I am not anti-tv at all - I've been known to put on some Olivia or Charlie and Lola so I can make dinner or get some e-mails out.  I just find it a bit unnerving that playing with your kids is not commonly recognized, and practiced, as the healthiest way to promote normal development.  And out of curiosity, why is it exactly that we are trying to "make our babies smarter?"  Are we claiming that we were all not particularly smart babies and are trying to make up for our own loss of infant intelligence?  I can double check my facts, but I'm pretty sure babies have been developing just fine around the world for quite a number of years and we have managed to churn out some pretty smart people out there. Enough of my rant ... get off the computer and go play with your kids.  I will if you will.

For some fun ways to play with your kids and encourage some fun in the house, check out the Monkey Beanz fair trade soft drum set and fair trade soft tool set or the always popular fair trade counting book.  No guarantees on IQ boosts but I bet you and your kids will have a good time together and, I'm no expert, but I'd say that is pretty important to raising a smart, healthy family.

Hormones

Hi Monkey Beanerz... I cannot believe it has been so long since I have written!!! Well I am back!!!!
I am now almost 7 months pregnant. The baby is kicking and moving about as we speak which gives me this amazing feeling that sometimes is very overwhelming for me... is it possible to already be completely in love??? My only complaint about being pregnant at this time is the hormone situation. I get very overwhelmed with life at times, almost so much that I cannot deal with it. I get angry, I get anxiety, I yell!!! It is awful. Who is this person?? What can I do to make it stop?? ahhh well I feel better already.

Monkey Beanz has some great things happening!!!!! It will all be here soon enough my friends. Stay tuned. Now time to go study about what to do during child birth.. Peace love and Monkeys

Nyki Greene

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

= GOOD     =NOT SO MUCH


So this is my first, and likely my last, foray into movie reviews which shows you just how strongly I feel about this one.  Sure the general rule of thumb is the book is always better than the movie ... but not all movies completely remove all appealing aspects of a story.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs the movie can barely be said to be based on the story of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs the book.

I loved this book as a child - read it over and over and got totally absorbed in the grandfather telling the story of the land of Chewandswallow.  The image of the giant pancake closing down the school stays with me to this day.  As with many of my childhood favorites, I've been able to rediscover so many wonderful children's books.  I remember the day I found Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in the library several years ago and became giddy with excitement as I described the story to my daughter.  We have read it many times (of course, we now own our own copy) and have shared many laughs and silly reenactments of the giant food raining down on the people of Chewandswallow as they escape on their boats made of bread.

So I was thrilled when I heard they made a movie from the book.  I immediately put all those great images from the book into wondrous animation and imagined experiencing Grandpa telling the kids this dreamlike bedtime story in the larger than life world of the theater.  Regrettably, I had not seen any previews, read any reviews or heard anything at all about the movie ... like that they had turned my childhood book of imagination and fantasy into your run of the mill action cartoon flick with some big meatballs thrown in.

I mean, come on, there are no "bad guys" in the real Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, no evil greedy mayor, no romance subplot, no family tragedy to overcome in the final cheesy ending moments.  Oh, there are so many ways they could have made this into a really fun kids movie, encouraging imaginations to run wild ... but they didn't.  They churned out another animated movie with no originality and a dependence on the same old bad guy/good guy story line.

We very rarely go to the movies and this was our first time going all together as a family and all I can say is, I'm glad we own the book.

Fair Trade in Action

A working shot of my sister-in-law, Watcharee (far left) meeting with one of our craftswomen about final patterns for our new Monkey Beanz crib bedding sets and diaper bags!!

Anyone who has had any experience with Thai culture knows the importance of family to Thais and Watcharee has gone above and beyond what most siblings in this country would consider helping out.  Really, we would not be able to create our new products without her help.  I hope that we will able to grow this business with her along for the ride to continue to support the people of Thailand including our own Thai relatives.  Thanks for the support and go to Monkey Beanz to sign up for our newsletter for announcements of new product arrivals!

Fair Trade Month Kick Off

I will start off with my number one excuse for not blogging for several weeks since it is actually pretty exciting.  We have been having some "issues" with our current website program and I've been toying with the idea of switching for some time so this seemed like as good a time as any.  After several days of scouring websites and online forums for reviews and comparisons, I chose which program to switch to and I have to say, this is one of the best decisions I have made.  I love the set up of the new site and that is what I have been doing  day after day these last couple of weeks and I think we are just about ready to make the switch.  I'm hoping I will get it up and running this weekend.  Yay!!!

In any case, I though that the first day of October, aka Fair Trade Month, would be a good day to get back into my blogging and share some thoughts...

The question:  What is Fair Trade?  I get this question a lot and have answered it so many times, I could probably do it in  my sleep.  If you are reading this, you probably already know the cookie cutter answer - fair living wages paid to employees, comfortable working conditions, ability for workers to have vacation and sick time or leave of absence to care for their family.  These are all inherent aspects to the fair trade movement and the foundation to any fair trade business practice but there is something more beneath those facts that I feel lies at the focus of Fair Trade Month for me.  In a word - awareness.

I recently had a parent in my daughter's school ask me if I only had fair trade or green products in my house for the kids to play with.  Umm ... no.  While it would be wonderful to live in a time when there were more options for fair trade products, organic products etc, I don't believe that this is an all or nothing issue.  I don't think that in order to call myself a proponent of fair trade, I need to rid my house of all non-fair trade items just as I don't think that I need to buy only organic food for my family to say I believe in the benefits of buying local and organic food.

I would not have been able to start and run a business that took advantage of others for my own profit or sell products to parents that I would not want my own children to play with.  Yet, that remains true even when I give in and buy the girls those inflatable Spiderman swim tubes that surely say Made in China on the bottom.  I do my best to support companies that are doing more with their business than simply trying to turn a profit but if  were to clear out everything in our house that is not organic, local or fair trade ... well, it would be a lot easier to pick up around here, I guess!

My goal for Fair Trade Month is to promote awareness.  Awareness of other people and cultures,  Awareness of where our food comes from.  Awareness of where the products around us come from.  Not to create guilt at all the mass produced, chemically enhanced items that may be there but just to be aware of what is around us.  To make changes where it is desired and possible and to be okay with knowing that just taking that moment of awareness is, itself, making a change.