Saturday January 25th, 2-5pm

in West Asheville (address in image and DM)

-=General Info=-

You may have joined or heard tell of CJ’s Rolling on Rollerskates b-day extravaganza, Taija’s Boba & Butts, or the Blanketfortress pillowfight birthday slumber party from back in the day… well this year, for the Doodle’s second birthday, we’ll have a themed party to rival them all!

No gifts, just come play  – bring a tool to exhibit, a vacuum to race with, etc 

These are a few of Doodle’s Favorite things:
Vacuum Cleaners
Tools
Drums
Pickles and Olives

So we’re gonna have a blast for all ages! Get ready to throw down! 

The more all in you go, the more all out the party 

-~=The party will feature=~-

-~=Activities=~-

The Tool Exploratorium
Boom Station
Vacuum Drag Racing
Drum Circle
Pillow Bonk Circle

-~=Food & Drink=~-

Pouch Bar
Pickle & olive station
Berry Bowl
Fancy “Coconut” Refreshments

About the Activities

(and what to bring to be prepared!)

The Tool Exploratorium: discover and explore with eyes and hands all manner of tools, from hammers, to measuring tapes, chainsaws to… what will you bring to show off and explore?
The Tool Exploratorium will be set out for all to check out during the event – parent supervision required for some tools. All tools must be put back after exploration.

Boom Station: a wide range of boomers (ie. sticks, logs, hammers, clonkers, etc) and a nice solid pile of firewood to boom against. Fun for all ages! Ideal for those 3 and under, with supervision. Bring your favorite boomer if you like.

Vacuum Drag Racing: Bring your fastest vaccum and get ready to rumble!!!
It’s actually not drag racing, we’ll have a race track complete with curves all setup.
The race track is probably also good for RC cars – or at least the space is large enough for them if older kids want something like that to play with.

There will be multiple divisions:
– Adult Division
– Children’s Division
– All Ages Relay Race

Food Stations

For Refreshments:
Please help populate the potluck style snack zone with anything that from below that suits your fancy.

Pouch Bar: there’s a wide range of pouches out there.
Chicken soup, smoothie, fruit, salmon, chimichuri – the list goes on!!!
Make your own, or get your favite flavors!

Pickle & Olive Station:
Doodle does dearly love a pickle – and their olives!
Bring your favorites varieties to share! 

If your tastes are so inclined, more conventional accoutrements that go with these like tapas or charcuterie will do as well, though we expect the doodle and their friends to be focusing on the pickles and olives.

Berry Bowl:
Straw Berries, Blueberries, Razzamatazberries – frankly any berries you can acquire in this season will do…

Fancy “Coconut” Refreshments
Doodle thinks all fancy drinks are coconut, even if they aren’t coconut, so any fancy drinks will do! Ideally low sugar/no added sugars please! 

No need for presents, just come Doodle with us…
But what are we gonna Do-odle? We’re gonna Do-odle all kinds of things!

What are we Doodling?

We’ll have music and snacks, but we’re not just gonna sit around and doodle our thumbs! We’ve got things to Do-odle and we wanna Do-odle them with you! (no… that’s not some sort of innuendo… here’s a list…)

Our To Do-odle list includes:

1. Doodling up Shelves for Kitties and Doodles
2. Cabinet Doodle-Proofing
4. Ru’s Nursury Im-Proof-ments
5. Play Structure Repair-ments
6. Indoor Rock Climbing Hall-Wall

No pressure to Doodle in any particular way, great to just chill, dance, play etc. and we’re just excited to Doodle stuff with folks around, no matter how folks are excited to join in 

Additional Doodlings may include:

– Hot tub Soaks
– Devouring Yummy Snacks
– Dancing: anywhere and everywhere!
– Jus’ Doodling (ie. chillin’ with the Doodle)
– Doodle Cake on Day 2

When:

Jan 6th and January 20th between the hours of 9am and 3pm!

We’ll be rescheduling the 2nd Doodle party to a sat that folks aren’t snowed in, stay tuned! If you wanna swing by, DM us in case we’re out exploring the snow!

Join either day or both! It’s a wide window, so we don’t expect folks to stay the whole time, come and go as you wish!

Let us know you’re coming! And where is our home?

If you’re coming (and especially you’re not able to see the FB events 1 and 2 and know where we’ll be!), send us a text or an email at taija.and.seigea@riz-om.net to get the address and let us know 🙂
Also, if there’s something in particular you’re excited about share about it on the group or with us in a DM so we can know what to expect.

Things to Bring:

– Bring your little Doodles! (in this case, a doodle is your kiddos of all ages) We’ll find a way to play and enjoy whoever’s here!
– Bring some snacks if you wanna
– Bring some music if you wanna
– Bring toys for bigger kids perhaps?
– We’ll have the hot tub at a modest child-friendly temperature (~100*). Bring a swimsuit just in case if that’s exciting (it’s usually clothing optional, but depending on the comfort of who joins that may or may not be the case, so best to be prepared).
– Bring some weather-appropriate clothes in case you wanna help with something outside, depending on the weather quality…
– If you wanna bring extra tools you could, but we have what we need

Cerulean’s Name!

Here’s Cerulean’s full name, and a little about it!
💙 Cerulean Sklar 随 (Suí) Ventrella 💙

Cerulean is a name Taija has always loved the name. It’s a shade of blue that was one of the earlier pigments to be invented. Cerulean (the pigment) is in a lot of famous paintings, including many of Claude Monet’s paintings, as well as many others. 💙

Sklar is Taija’s paternal grandmother’s maiden name. It’s a Jewish Belorussian name and it means glassmaker.

随 (Suí) is the surname portion of CJ O’Reilly’s Chinese name 随杰. 随 (pronounced ‘sway’ with a rising tone) means “to follow” or “to listen”, which has different connotations in the US and ‘western’ society, but in the context of Daoism means receptive and able to follow the 道 (dao or ‘Tao’) in a sagely capacity. CJ lived in China for ~5 years and speaks Chinese and would like to pass on this passion and adopted philosophy of Daoism in this surname.

Ventrella, of course, is Taija’s last name. It’s Italian, and it comes from my mother’s dad’s side. My parents decided to give me my mom’s last name because they thought that “Taija Ventrella” sounded a lot prettier than “Taija Weinstein,” but I also like to say it’s because they’re feminists who live life on their own terms — not simply according to tradition — which is always something I’ve appreciated about both sides of my family.
🍓🍓🍓

Cerulean’s health!

Cerulean and Taija healthy! All ultrasounds and tests have been good with no significantly unusual things to note, other than perhaps an active lil babe that likes to move! No surprise there 🙂

Is Cerulean a boy or a Girl?

Well, we have chosen not to share Cerulean’s sex now, or after birth. Rather, we’re leaving space for their gender inquiry!

Our reasons include, but are not limited to some of the following:
🍓 We don’t think our baby’s genitals are vital information for anyone but their doctors.
🍓 We believe that gender is not determined by sex, and can only be decided by the person to whom it belongs. We want to give Cerulean the opportunity to tell us who they are. Have a peek at this little Genderbread Person explainer!

🍓 We think gender stereotypes are pervasive and limiting. Even in the most well meaning communities, they start at infancy. (“She’s such a little drama queen. You know how girls are, so emotional! Just wait until she’s a teenager!” “Aw, he’s such a tough little guy!” “For the boys we have truck print, and for the girls we have butterflies!” “Aw, he’s a real ladies man! Look at him flirting with that nurse!” “Watch out mama, she’s going to be real trouble with the boys when she grows up!”) We know we can’t avoid these things completely, but we’d like to try to minimize them.
🍓 Cerulean’s gender does not significantly impact the way we want to parent them. We believe all children deserve access to the full spectrum of toys, clothes, self expression, emotional range, and opportunities in the world. In that way, until it becomes relevant to them, their gender is not relevant to us. (Most kids raised in this way have some sense of their gender around age 3, and we will always honor and encourage their exploration of their own gender).
🍓🍓🍓

Got questions about gender neutral parenting?

🍓Are you trying to raise a non-binary child?
No. We are trying to raise a healthy happy human, of whatever gender they turn out to be.
🍓How are we supposed to refer to them?
We suggest referring to Cerulean as they/them, the same way we all refer to anyone whose gender is unknown to us. (i.e. “I’m so excited to meet the new teacher! I wonder what they will be like.” “I put a poster up for this cat I found for the owner to see. I bet they are missing their pet.”) The bonus benefit to this is that you will get some good practice in using those pronouns, for the non-binary people in your life.
Using the singular they is very normal, and we all do it all the time (as in the examples above). It has been in use since the 14th century by the likes of Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson (and for that matter probably most English speakers, including yourself whether you noticed or not), and while admittedly criticized by prescriptive grammarians since the 18th century, it is nevertheless in the dictionary on both sides of the Atlantic.
🍓What if I strongly disagree with your choice not to gender Cerulean?
That’s ok! We are sure it won’t be the last parenting decision we make that you don’t agree with. If you are a parent, you are probably pretty familiar with the fact that no parenting decision anyone makes is going to be without controversy. As with any parenting choices, we encourage you to make peace with those thoughts, and assure you that in any area where we desire your specific feedback, we will ask.
🍓Do you think parents who gender their babies at birth are wrong?
No. We think there are lots of loving and thoughtful ways to parent.
🍓Will Cerulean only be allowed to have gender neutral things?
No. We want Cerulean to have access to the full spectrum of colors, toys and fun! For friends and family members who are itching to buy baby clothes and toys, we encourage you to go wild, and pick whatever your heart desires (or just stick to the registry).
Image: us cutting open our “gender inquiry” cake. As we revealed the color inside, I yelled, “Surprise! Binary gender is a construct!” No one present was surprised. 🤣