Baby Cereal for the Baby

He's getting big too fast. I've been putting off giving him solid food even though I thought he was ready because I've been enjoying his baby-ness so much.

Today I decided that he really needed more food than he was getting, so I mixed up some cereal and he was a little skeptical at first, but quickly decided it was GOOD, then I couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough.

Toy Recall

It's scary how many toys have been recalled recently. It makes me angry that companies that we trust to provide safe products for children have been so negligent. I don't think any of the recalls affect us, although we might have one thomas train piece that has been recalled- I'm not sure because our train set is packed away currently (I'll print out the recall sheet and tape it to the box), but how do I know that all of the other toys are really safe? Maybe they just haven't been tested.

It's tempting to throw out all toys made in china. I'm going to get rid of all the dollar store type toys that we have, and the name brand things, I'll be watching the CPSC Recall Page for updates.

Funny Pictures of other people's children

These aren't my kids, but most of them very well could be...

Baby Pictures

Here is a recent picture (from about 20 minutes ago) of the baby, and one from the hospital. Since he was so cute, the hospital used us in some nurse training manual they were working on, free professional photos- except they have a random nurse (we'll pretend that's great aunt louisa).

The Quiet

I skipped out on church after the sacrament. It's easy to get up and walk out when you have a baby. Everyone just assumes you're going to feed it or change it's diaper.

I started sneezing last night and thought it was allergies. This morning I woke up with a sinus headache and a horrible sore throat (which still, could be allergies and sleeping all night with my mouth open since I was so congested). I thought I was feeling better, but as soon as we sat down in the chapel I knew I should have stayed home. My nose started dripping and my sinuses were killing me. The only thing I had to wipe my nose on was a baby wash cloth (thank goodness for diaper bags).

I took the baby and walked home.

The house is silent. I've been home alone before and never felt such a stillness. It could be partly that things are empty without the piano and other things we've been moving into storage. It could be that the weather has turned cooler. It could be that my ears are plugged. Or it could be that so many of my neighbors are at church so the energy of people around is much less than normal.

It's kind of a nice feeling, aside from the sick part.

Dinner with Liberals

We had a really nice dinner with Derek and Sara last week. I hope my kids didn't wear them out too much.

It was an unusual, and pleasant feeling to discuss issues with someone more liberal/less conservative than myself. We're planning on another get together soon, possibly to watch Sicko (anyone know when it's coming out on dvd?).

Pictures

People are Cheep

Several weeks ago I posted our range on freecycle. I got one reply, but then the person never came and picked it up. The next week I posted the range on ksl classifieds in the free section. The next day one of our neighbors (from a block over) called about it.

I think I'm quitting freecycle. It irritates me too much. People are always asking for things, sometimes things that are fairly expensive.

Here's a post that came today:

Wanted Bread maker in good condition:
I really wanted one for my wedding, but people are cheep. Needless to
say I didn't get one. I would really like one though. Must be clean,
must work, and must be "newer." If your grandma pasted it down to you,
I don't want it.

This same person also wants a carseat for her baby that is due soon because the one they just got from freecycle "expires soon".

Some people are just cheep I guess. It's too bad really, I think freecycle could be something really great, but I get tired of people asking for so much.

I'll stick to KSL from now on.

Who Knew?

I have a group of "gardening friends". We get together on a discussion forum (The Microherd) and talk about all sorts of things. One of them recently posted about Himself Singing on youtube.

I'm not a big country fan, but it's a nice song. It's funny when you learn that someone you've known for awhile has a secret talent.

Green Ideas for Back to School

It's that time of year again, back to school. I'm thrilled to have a child in school, so I can buy school supplies without my husband looking at me like I'm a little nuts (yes, we need these six pairs of scissors!).

The only thing I don't love about back to school is the reminder it is of the cars idling in the drop off lane. To all parents, consider walking or riding bikes to school, it's good exercise for you and your kids, it gives you more time that you can focus on your child, and it is better for the air that we breathe. I hate to see all the kids out at recess during inversions, and we can all do a little to make a big difference.

If you must drive, PLEASE turn off your car. No one is going to die of heat, or freeze to death in the 10 minutes it might take for your child to get out of the school and into your car.

Thank you.

For more information on what you can do to improve our air quality, see Utah Mom's for Clean Air.

Announcement

It's exciting, and it's sad.

It's something I never imagined myself doing.

My Mr. and I are building a new home in a new development (one that I used to refer to as the swamp).

To keep up on the developments, see Our House, Next Door To Theirs. As you might have guessed from the title, we're building next door to some really good friends, you might say, my best friend (we already had a discussion on how you can have more than one best friend...).

It won't be my "dream home", but it's a step in the right direction.

(if anyone wants to come live next door to me, there are still lots available, and I'm recruiting good neighbors, so lets talk...)

Date Night: Dinner and not a Movie

The boys are having a fun day with grandpa and sleeping over, so my Mr. and I decided we should do something fun. Go to a movie? Nah... Go out to dinner? Hmmm... How about go to Ikea? We can walk around without kids and look at everything, and then eat dinner there.

That's what we did, it was great. Even the food was good (certainly not zaggat rated or anything, but good).

Squeaky Clean and Squealing

It's been a little too long since baby CP's last bath, so I gave him one tonight, and now he smells so nice and his skin is so soft. If you can see in the picture, his hair is all fuzzy.

There's nothing like a happy squealing clean little baby.

Best Cousins

When I was little, my cousin K and I said we were "best friends and best cousins too". Here's to a new generation!

Lying

What to do....

My six-year-old (I can't believe he's six already!) has been lying lately. He'll tell us that his younger brother did something, little brother will deny it, and six-year-old will say "he's a liar".

Eventually he comes forth and tells us he was lying. How do I get him to understand that he can't lie? What is an appropriate punishment? He already lost TV privliges for a couple of days for spanking an adult at church (he thinks it's funny, but we've told him he can't do it). I guess he'll lose bike privliges too.

I remember going through a lying phase, but I stopped when my mom told me that there might come a time when someone would accuse me of something I didn't do, and if I lied to her she wouldn't be able to stand up for me and say that her daughter didn't lie... I've tried a similar phrase on my six-year-old but he doesn't seem to care.

Sometimes I have no idea how to hande things... :)

Spitting can be problematic and Miscellaneous things

My sweet, beautiful baby is 4 months old. He's growing so fast. Faster than my other children (at least it seems that way). I was talking to an old college roommate (Hi Miss C!) over email recently about how wonderful it is having a third child. Not that number three is better than the first two, but I have finally figured out how to really enjoy him instead of waiting for him to reach each milestone.

Today he's discovered that he can spit. I'd call it blowing raspberries because that sounds better, but spitting is more accurate. He thinks it's hilarious, I think it's one more thing that gets all over my pants. Luckily my most recent pair dries fast and you can't tell they got slobber/spit up/or worse on them (I promise, if they get worse on them, I do change).

To any friends who read my blog that I no longer see every week, I miss you! We should have dinner sometime, or get our kids together to play...

And finally my last bit of news.... I'm Open for business. The inventory is not complete yet, but I thought I'd start with what I have now. I'm constantly working at adding more products, so tell your friends and check back regularly. :)

Since I don't have enough to do...

Announcing Green Peas blog, discussion forum, and soon-to-be online retail store for all of your cloth diapering needs.

One word of warning with cloth diapers, they are addicting, and once you start you will want to convince everyone you know to use cloth.

Clean Slate

My friend L is getting married on Thursday (YEA!!!!). Last weekend we had a "girls night" party. We ate dinner at the Mandarin (if I was saying we ate dinner at Applebees, I wouldn't say "the Applebees", but it looks funny typing Mandarin the same way...). Then we went to L's new condo. It is nice! It is so clean, and mostly empty.

Over the last several weeks I've been decluttering and throwing things away, but now I really want to get rid of stuff. I went through a drawer in the kitchen that is always overflowing with pie pans and bread pans and glass measuring cups and an odd assortment of school lunch containers. It looks better now (plus I got rid of the can opener which has never worked well-I prefer the hand type).

My BEST friend N is moving soon, so she's cleaning out her house to get ready to sell it, so I've been looking at my house in a new way... If I was trying to sell my house, what would I need to get rid of? It's kind of difficult since the kitchen is not finished yet and I don't have places to store my wheat grinder or my kitchen-aid vegetable slicer attachment, so they are in the living room on the book case. But I'm doing what I can.

Sometimes a purge feels good.

What I'd really like to do is start over in a new house (and a new car). It's fun to dream.

Not SOCIALIZED healthcare!

Over the holiday I had the chance to discuss the state of health care in our country with some family members. It frustrates me that so many people seem to take the phrase "socialized health care" and run screaming with it.

Socialized health care! What's wrong with that? I hate to point it out, but what we have now is not working. My brother-in-law, who is wonderful in many ways, didn't have any reason for his knee-jerk reaction to the idea of socialized health care other than "people in Canada hate what they have and come here for medical care". Perhaps that does happen, but I can find just as many, if not more examples of Canadians who love their health coverage.

In our discussion we talked about the cost of the babies his wife and I both have had recently. Our medical insurance has a $5000 deductible on maternity, the bills came to $4995. He and his wife are "poor college students" and qualify for medicaid. I'm not sure if he paid anything at all for his baby. Yet, even after receiving free or very low cost health care he assumes that because he is a hard worker, he could pay any medical bills that he had to.

I'd encourage health-care-conservatives to actually read about "socialized" health care plans before dismissing them. The link is to the Barack Obama for President website. Also, it might be helpful to look up the definition of Socialism. I don't think anyone is advocating a complete switch to a socialist state. But what is so wrong with a health care system that is controlled by the state so that all citizens can benefit fairly and equitably. Think "Law of Consecration".

My husband and I have had to opt out of his employer sponsored plan because it has gotten too expensive. He works for a small business, and his bosses have a real concern about the possibility of one employee having a major medical problem and the entire company being priced out of the health insurance plans altogether.

It's passed the time for a change, and if you are lucky enough to have not realized that yet, take a look at some real people sharing their medical nightmares.

Going Tankless

I've been collecting information on things I want to include in my dream home. I'm currently researching tankless water heaters.

I'm leaning toward electric over gas because of the solar panels, but I wondered if any of my readers have any experience with tankless or on demand water heaters. My brother in law said he looked into them and decided not to get one because of the yearly maintenance. I can't find anything that says they require yearly maintenance.

I like the idea of not keeping a tank of water constantly hot. I also like that if we have company staying with us, we won't run out of hot water. My concerns mostly center around what temperature the water will be heated to and how well the temperature will be regulated when the temperature of the incoming water changes throughout the year.

Amnesty and Leniency

I used to read the comments on the Salt Lake Tribune Letters to the Editor section of their online paper. I've stopped for the most part, because it seems like the people who comment are Anti-Everything, and I find it a bit tiring. I did read some comments following a letter praising Orrin Hatch for voting against the immigration reform package (or maybe it was criticizing Bob Bennett for voting for it- I don't remember). There were lots of comments to the effect of, "stupid illegals, we shouldn't give them amnesty! Yea Hatch! Boo Bennett- just wait until the next election! Stupid illegals!" Nice things like that.

Amnesty is a pardoning of past wrongs. No one was suggesting amnesty. Only leniency (see Wikipedia).

People broke the law to be here and work, and there should be a penalty for that, but the penalty should be lenient to those who do not break other laws, people who just want to survive. Here's a question, what kind of a crime is illegal immigration? A misdemeanor? A felony? I read something from Tyler at Davis County Watch awhile back about how illegal immigration isn't a crime per se. Maybe he can enlighten us with the specifics, since I can't remember...

A $5000+ fine per person didn't seem terribly lenient to me. Our economy draws these people here, and then punishes them. Yes they broke a law to be here, and many of them broke another law by using fraudulent documents, but we could solve both issues if we fixed our immigration laws. "Secure" the border (as much as is possible), allow people to work legally without using other people's SS numbers (right there that solves a huge problem of ID theft), fine them, or sentence them to community service or some combination of the two, and then enforce the laws.

How long is it going to take before we fix the immigration problems?

Milestones

The baby rolled over today. He decided he had finally had enough with tummy time, and rolled to his back (from his left side if it matters). He was really mad when mom put him back on his tummy to see if he'd do it again (he didn't, but can you blame him! Sheesh mom, I just rolled over, why'd you put me back!?).
He's also been enjoying patty-cake patty-cake lately (for a few weeks anyway). If he's in the right mood, and you can find the right tickle spot, he'll even laugh. There's nothing like a baby laughing to make you feel good.

Phrase of the day

"I'm telling on you!"

In the past it's been, "I won't be your friend unless..."

My three-year-old came upstairs crying (and to "tell on" his brother) because his brother had hit him. I sent him back downstairs armed with the words, "please don't hit me, that makes me sad". I'm trying to teach them to work out their problems themselves. Based on their frequency of trips to report the others bad behavior to mom, I'm not sure that they understand the concept.

At least my children are better behaved than this little boy (Really, what is up with the lack of parenting there! I hope those parents were embarrassed enough by the media coverage that they realize they need to buy a book on child rearing).

Goodbye New Friend

The dealership called, our van is all repaired. My Mr. just left to take the "fun little rental" back.

I'm kind of sad about it.

:)

Smaller Vehicles

Our van is getting repaired. The transmission went bad (under warranty, isn't that nice!). I scheduled to take it in this morning to get worked on, then we'd have it back by the end of the day, but when my Mr. dropped it off, they realized the transmission wasn't in yet- so they gave us a rental.

It's a pretty metallic green Kia Sportage. I like it more than I thought I would. It's fun to drive and fits all the kids (and the dog) and it feels a lot smaller than the van. It makes me want to trade the van for something smaller (but I can't, so I'm trying unsuccessfully to push the thought from my head).

Clarification on Wishful Thinking...

Today My Mr. and I were talking to some family members about the sad news of his motorcycle sale. Someone started talking about little boys and crashes and broken bones (which really makes me want to live a motorcycle-free life) and I said something similar to "be careful Mr., talk like that makes me want to ban any future motorcycle purchases...".

My Mr. was not too happy about that, so I feel the need to clarify. I don't love motorcycles, but I do love my Mr. I recognize that motorcycle riding is a big part of his "family quality time". I may joke about selling his motorcycle when he's not at home (which is not what happened, I should point out), I may feel some kind of wishful thinking about a motorcycle-free life, but I would NEVER EVER actually demand that he get rid of his bike forever, or ban him from getting a new one.

Happy Father's Day

Why I Love My Mr...

-He works hard (and he can do just about anything). Yesterday he fixed the plumbing on our trailer where the gray water tank had fallen off last fall, then he welded some steel supports to make sure it didn't happen again. He also recently fixed our air conditioner, and my computer. He does it all.

-He always manages to surprise me. I've mentioned getting a push reel lawn mower before, and he wasn't so thrilled with that idea, but the other day he said that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Then, of course, there's something else he's done recently that really surprised me, but I'm not allowed to talk about it yet. (Edit: I can talk about it now.)

-He wants me to be happy. On days when he's been at work all day, and at school half the night, he comes home and gives me a foot rub and asks me if my day was okay with the kids, even though I know that he's probably more tired than I am.

-He's a good dad. He talks in a silly voice because it makes the baby laugh. He's good at playing monsters with the kids, and he lets them jump all over him. He also changes poopy cloth diapers.

-He's handsome. I said this in an earlier post... My SIL commented on how my Mr. is aging nicely, and I couldn't agree more. He just keeps getting better and better looking.

Happy Fathers Day Mr.

Sacrifice

My Mr. sold his motorcycle yesterday. He loved that motorcycle, and I know how difficult it must have been for him to let someone else drive it away, knowing that he won't be able to go on rides with his brothers anytime soon. It was actually even hard for me, which I didn't expect. A teenage boy is the new owner, and I kept wondering if he would take good care of "El Diablo". I felt the same way when we sold our pet Ferris the Ferret (ferrets do NOT make good pets for babies or small children). It's easy to get attached to things.

There are several things which led us to decide that selling the bike was a good idea. Here they are, in no particular order...

1.) My Mr. would like a new bike (the blue one pictured is his current dream bike, and is making the sale of the old bike easier to deal with) at some point, and this is a good time of year to sell motorcycles, and his old bike was still new enough that if we sold it now, we'd still get a pretty good price for it.

2.) Having a baby has been more expensive than we expected, and it came down to canceling some camping trips to pay the hospital bill or selling the motorcycle. We all decided it would be better to not have a motorcycle for a year or so and still go camping than to have a motorcycle that you can't ever take anywhere.

3.) My Mr. is currently in school and isn't able to ride his motorcycle much. He hadn't started the bike since february when he went to Moab with his brothers, so it didn't make sense to keep it around when he just doesn't have time to ride.

He may be going through a mourning period, but he'll be okay. I'm grateful that he was willing to sell it (it was even his idea...), and that his priorities are in the right place.

Another Grown-Up post

My last post on age has me wondering....

Sometimes I feel, as a parent, that I'm winging it. Most of the time.

I don't remember ever feeling like my parents were winging it. I never questioned that they knew what they were doing. Now that I am there, I think they must have, and it's an interesting position to be in. Kind of like when my Mister laughs when the boys get excited about "pulling through" in a parking spot because he remembers telling his dad to "pull through" too.

I am the parent now, and I remember how I viewed my parents, and it's scary and strange and fun to think that my kids view me in that same way.

I am the authority, for a few more years anyway.

Am I a grown-up now?

I was writing an email to a friend and said that I could drive my Mister's truck to go shopping for a bridal shower present for another friend, because my Mister would be staying home with the three kids and probably wouldn't want to go anywhere with all of them.

I feel more "adult" than I did in high school, but I don't feel any more "adult" than I did in college. How has time passed so quickly that I now have three children? The scary thing is, is that time will continue to pass quicker and quicker and before I know it, my children will be having children of their own.

Our van needs a new transmission (covered under the warranty thankfully) and I took it in to the dealership to get it checked. The guy/person/man/whatever that helped me was someone who I went to high school with (which is why I have a hard time referring to him as a grown-up person because if he is, then so am I).

The older I get, the more I realize that ages that seemed so old to me, aren't so old after all. My Aunt, who I used to go stay with as a child, will always seem 26 to me. That's the age she was when I first became aware that she had an age. Imagine my shock the year I turned 26.

On the road again...

I told myself that I would start running again once the baby started sleeping through the night. I took him in for his two-month check up a couple of days ago where the doctor asked how long he was sleeping at night. I told her 3-4 hours at a time, and she said that he really ought to be sleeping for longer stretches than that (tell that to him, is what I thought). Apparently he heard what she said because last night, I fed him around 11pm or so, and he didn't wake up again until 5:45.

After he went back to sleep, I was wide awake and I kept thinking about how good it would feel to be outside in the morning air with my ipod. I tried to rationalize by saying that 11-5:45 wasn't really the WHOLE night, but the lure of the cool air and the ipod were too strong. It's really nice to have a desire to go running that is strong enough to help overcome the torture of the first few weeks of running after a 9-month hiatus.

I thought I'd start easy with my two-mile loop, but as I was going I decided I could do the three-mile loop. It took me about 30 minutes, which I thought was pretty good for my first time back. Now lets hope I can keep it up.

White Horse Prophecy

I've heard about the "constitution hanging by a thread" before, but not of the "official" (or unofficial) White Horse Prophecy until I read the article about it, and subsequent letters to the editor in the Tribune.

To find out more, I googled, and found an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal.

Here is a nice little excerpt...

"There have been several Republicans that I have known who thought that they were that individual," says Mr. Hartley [executive director of the Utah Republican Party], citing Todd Nielson, a GOP congressional candidate who failed in the 1996 state primary and Republican LaVar Christensen, currently vying for a seat for Utah's Second Congressional District. They have intimated to him that "the Constitution's hanging by a thread, and that they would be there to defend the Constitution," says Mr. Hartley.

...[but] frankly, I would worry about anybody who thought they were fulfilling prophecy".

I apologize for the (minor) change in context. It made the article more amusing.

Naked Bottoms

This morning after swimming lessons, I told my 3-year-old to go sit on the toilet. During the time it took me to set the baby down (still in his car seat), my 3-year-old had gone into the baby's bedroom and wet his pants (and the floor).

After that, he sat on the toilet, but of course nothing came out. When he was done, he couldn't find any underwear, and I couldn't go look just at the moment, so he's been half naked ever since.

Being naked is a good thing for toilet training, because he hasn't had any accidents since this morning, and he has run up the stairs to tell me "mom, I have more pee". "Okay", I say, "Go put it in the potty!". He even pooped on the toilet (today may be the first day in a long time that I have not had to rinse a poopy diaper or poopy training pants out in the toilet...).

I'm so proud.

So if you see a naked 3-year-old at the park, don't worry, we're just potty training.

The new working class

Today during swimming lessons, I sat and watched several workers at the pool. They're installing the big slide inside and working on the splash pad outside. One thing that I noticed is that most of them were hispanic. Several years ago it would have been teenage boys doing that sort of work. When I was in high school, fast food workers were generally all high school students as well. One of the criticisms I have hear about the guest worker program is that it creates a new working class. It seems rather obvious that there is already a new working class, but it's a working class without the protections that a guest worker program would have provided (to all of us).

I'm disappointed that the immigration bill wasn't passed. There were several things about it that I wasn't thrilled about, but I recognized that there were going to have to be some major compromises. Now we get to just keep going the way we are with no solutions to the immigration problem. And people who are so desperate to work here get to do so by using fraudulent documents.

Our government owes it to all of us to fix this problem, and we owe it to our fellow human beings to give them the opportunities that we enjoy because we were lucky enough to be born where we were.

Free Movie in the Park

The North Salt Lake Youth City Council is sponsoring a free movie night at Hatch Park in North Salt Lake.

Hook

SATURDAY June 16th

Movie starts at dusk

Bring your friends and family (and a blanket to sit on)

The youth council will be selling concessions, so come enjoy the movie, and support the great youth of North Salt Lake!

Second Day of Swimming Lessons

Today someone pooped in the pool.

A few minutes into my 3-year-old's class, they moved the class to the other side of the pool, set up cones, and brought out some bleach. There were three or four teenage boys with nets, scooping very small brown chunks out of the water. I briefly wondered if it was my boy who was responsible, but his teachers didn't get him out of the water, so I figured it must have happened during an earlier lesson.

After the lessons were over, we went to a family dressing room where I started getting the kids rinsed off. As I was rinsing, I noticed that my 3-year-old had pooped in his swim diaper. One of his disgusting poops. Not the grainy ones, but the chunky flaky poo ones. (sorry about that, I hope no one plans on eating ever again)

My son pooped in the pool. I'm so proud...

(and to all the other parents of children in the pool... I'm so sorry... (although I guess there's so much chlorine in that water that the poop probably wouldn't hurt anyone))

On another note (sort of) those nasty poopy diapers are not because of a lactose intolerance. We had him tested and everything came back normal. The labs didn't find anything wrong with him. The Dr. suggested seeing a GI specialist at primary children's. We're debating.... The cost...The pain (for the 3-year-old) of getting poked and prodded... We're weary of the nasty poop though, so maybe we'll go.

First day of swimming lessons

My 5-year-old went happily off to class with his teacher. This is his 3rd or 4th session of swimming lessons, so he knows the routine.

My 3-year-old lost his enthusiasm as soon as we arrived at the pool. He wasn't at all interested in joining the "fun" no matter how much his poor teacher tried to talk it up. I sat with him and nudged him until he was sitting at the edge of the pool. With about 5 minutes left in class, he finally decided it might be fun enough to make it worth climbing into water that he considered far too cold for regular enjoyment. He did try to escape a couple of times though...

Masonry Heaters

I've been doing a lot of reading about things I would like to have in my "dream home" (we're hoping to build it in the next few years).

My dad mentioned these to me, and the house plan we are looking at is passive solar and has a nice big brick fireplace that fills one wall. A Masonry Heater would be perfect there.

I'd like one that looks kind of like this: but it would also have a bread baking oven on the taller side (that's the side that would be sort of in the kitchen.

Masonry Heaters are designed to burn one quick fire at very high temperatures, which keeps it very clean, then the heat is stored in the thermal mass and slowly released into the house for somewhere between 12-20 hours (I've read varying times). The Thermal mass that the heater provides will also work with the passive solar design of our house plan to absorb heat from the southern windows in the winter.

Rain Gardens

A rain garden is depressional area that is created to hold rain water and let it infiltrate into the ground rather than running off the lawn. Its planted with plants that can tolerate varying moisture conditions from very wet to very dry. The plants also have deep fibrous root systems that soak up the excess water that has been directed to the depression.

Roof downspouts can be directed into a rain garden, or it could just be a low area that your driveway drains into. Rain gardens usually have native plants, but can include non-native plants as well.

There are two main benefits that I see for having a rain garden. First, more water is absorbed through the ground, keeping pollutants out of the groundwater. Second is that a rain garden means less grass to mow and water.

Order your t-shirt now!

1) Already smarter than Bush. (On an infant's shirt)

2) 1/20/09: End of an Error!

3) That's OK, I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway

4) Let's Fix Democracy in This Country First

5) Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber.

6) You Can't Be Pro-War And Pro-Life At The Same Time

7) If You Can Read This, You're Not Our President

8) Hey, Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet?

9) George Bush: Creating the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight

10) America : One Nation, Under Surveillance

11) They Call Him "W" So He Can Spell It

12) Which God Do You Kill For?

13) Jail to the Chief!

14) Who Would Jesus Torture?

15) No, Seriously, Why Did We Invade?

16) Bush: God's Way of Proving Intelligent Design is Full Of Crap

17) Bad president! No Banana.

18) We Need a President Who's Fluent In At Least One Language

19) We're Making Enemies Faster Than We Can Kill Them

20) Rich Man's War, Poor Man's Blood

21) Is It Vietnam Yet?

22) Bush Doesn't Care About White People, Either

23) Where Are We Going? And Why Are We In This Handbasket?

24) You Elected Him. You Deserve Him.

25) Impeach Cheney First

26) When Bush Took Office, Gas Was $1.46/gal!

27) The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century

28) 2004: Embarrassed - 2005: Horrified - 2006: Terrified

29) Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity

Urban Legends and Cookies

My mother-in-law came to visit the new baby a few weeks ago and left us a bag of homemade cookies when she went home. One kind was a chocolate peanut butter cookie (which was pretty good even though I don't like peanut butter) the other kind was what she called "Revenge Cookies" because the recipe was circulated online after a woman was tricked into paying $250.00 for it. My mother-in-law guessed it was probably not a true story, but the cookies were very tasty.

Here's the info on the "Revenge Cookie" urban legend at my favorite website Snopes.com.

Here's the recipe if you feel so inclined. I don't think I'll ever make them since they involve grating a hershey bar (grating!). I'd also cut the recipe in half, because 112 cookies is a bit excessive.

2 C butter
4 C flour
2 tsp soda
2 C sugar
5 cups oatmeal (measure and then blend to a powder in blender)
24 oz chocolate chips
2 C brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 8 oz hershey bar, grated
4 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
3 C chopped nuts
2 tsp vanilla

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda. Add chocolate chips, hershey bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

I'd like to think he gets it from me...

Good common sense that is.

Check out my brother's recent post:

Shenpa Warrior and Global Warming

The most wonderful thing...

I tried to get a picture, but by the time I got the camera out, he was done smiling.

Yesterday was the first day that the baby has smiled in response to me talking to him. He smiled and *almost* laughed- he was trying hard. He also smiled at his oldest brother, who thought it was pretty cool and made some interesting faces trying to get him to laugh.

Authorized User

Today was my "errand running" day. The kids were at kindergarten and play group, so it was just the baby and I (which always makes for easier errand running). I stopped by my Mr.'s place of employment so he could sign a couple of checks that were made out to him so that I could deposit them. Usually, I just sign the checks and deposit them (since it's a joint account, the credit union doesn't mind (unless you are trying to deposit a tax refund check- then they get all obnoxious about it)). Today, one of the checks was a rebate check from our credit card, and I could only cash it at costco, so I figured I'd be safe and have my Mr. sign it, even though our credit card is a joint account...

They wouldn't let me cash it- even though he had already signed it and both our names were on the account. Things like that make me mad. I can understand if my name wasn't on the account, but hello!

Before I got married, I had a Discover card. When Mr. and I got married, I sent a form in to add him to my account. Guess what happened... Discover Card cancelled my account and signed us up for a new one with him as the primary account holder and me as an "authorized user". Unfortunately I hadn't memorized my old number- and didn't realize what they had done until I had been using the new card long enough that I had the number memorized- who wants to have to memorize a whole new number again.

Yes, it's true, my Mr. earns all of the money we live off of, but I'm the one who pays the bills and buys groceries and generally keeps our lives running smoothly, so I don't really think I ought to be relegated to the status of "authorized user". My Mr. (who is a smart man) agrees with me and feels appropriate outrage over the whole thing.

From now on, when we sign up for something, we're using my name first.

How much will you pay?

Several weeks ago I got an email forward from my Mr's very sweet little grandfather telling us not to buy gas yesterday (the 15th) because we were going to boycott gas that day and force prices down. My Mr's cousin hit reply-all and said "won't we just fill up on the 16th?".

Sad but true. According to today's Tribune, the "boycott" wasn't well supported... Boycotting gas stations for one day does absolutely nothing to bring the price of fuel down. Because, as my Mr's cousin said, we'd just fill up the day after.

I'd like to suggest a more effective boycott. Instead of not filling up on one specific day, how about cutting your gas consumption in half. Walk or ride your bike more. Plan trips in the car so that you can get all your errands done at once. Don't drive unless you have to. Maybe it won't do much to bring prices down (I, like Doug Wright "Don't understand the oil business..") but it will save some money.

My Mr. has been riding his bike and pulling our 5-year-old in the bike trailer every morning to go to school. I've been walking with the baby in the front-pack and the 3-year-old in the stroller, to pick him up in the afternoon. My Mr. has been riding his bike to work every day that he can (his truck is a company vehicle and sometimes they need it for work stuff). Instead of going to the store "real quick" to pick up something, I'm doing without until I have a bunch of errands to run at once- I'm hoping to limit outings like that to once a week or less.

My prediction is $4/gallon this summer. Is that enough to make you change your driving habits? (and I'm really wishing I owned a diesel or hybrid right now...)

Not one more son...

In today's Tribune (I guess the article was published on the 12th, but I read online...) there is an editorial titled Iraq is not worth the sacrifice on one more mother's child written by Kathleen Snyder. Her son was captured and executed after a January 20th attack in Karbala Iraq.

Last night my Mr. and I attended a farewell party for a family member who will be deployed soon. I fear for his safety and I am angered that he is being asked to go. We have very different views on the war and the current administration. He goes because he believes that he can make a difference, and he believes that the US has some sort of responsibility to the people there. I'm not sure exactly what he thinks that might be, and it seemed inappropriate to ask so instead, I wished him safety and said that we would have to have another party next summer, when he comes home.

I'm angry that so much is being asked of men and women and their families, for something that is so unnecessary. We were lied to about the reasons for the war, but each time a new reason is fabricated, so many choose to believe that it's a good reason. We must protect ourselves from the 9-11 terrorists, wait, no, we must stop Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction, wait, no, we must secure Iraq. I don't even know what the reason currently being given for the justification of sending people to fight and be injured or killed.

Kathleen Snyder ends her editorial with this: Death on the battlefields of Iraq does not compare to World War II. The sacrifices being made by American families are not in the proud tradition of generations fighting for their country. Only when all Americans realize the horror of Iraq, realize that the situation is not going to improve, and bring all combat troops home will there be peace for my family. Not until then can the American military be rebuilt to fight the true war on terror. Stop the insanity. Stop the war. Bring our troops home to defend America.

To the women who came before...

Mothers Day 2007 is nearly over. I was gifted with paper flowers and cards, and homemade corn bread muffins. I have been thinking for a week now about my mom and what I could do for her for mothers day. Unfortunately, my good intentions kept getting pushed aside as I changed diapers, washed diapers, rinsed diapers out in toilets, picked up toys, made peanut butter sandwiches, did dishes, washed laundry, had a fish flushed down the toilet (yes, sadly, after surviving the jam incident, otto succumbed after having the entire can of fish food dumped in his bowl), and planted a garden. I'm sure there are other things in there, but I'm too tired to recall.

My gift to my mother ended up being much more last-minute than I would have liked. I picked some roses from my rosebushes and tied them with a ribbon. Then I wrote the card...

In church, the lesson in young women's was on journal writing. The lesson was a bit on the short side, so, to fill in the rest of the time, we talked about various experiences we had with journal writing. I told about my father-in-law who keeps an incredible journal and emails it weekly to the family so that we all stay up to date with their lives. Then I told about one of my prized possessions.

For Christmas in 1991 I asked my grandmother to write down the stories that I grew up hearing her and my grandfather tell about their lives. There's the story of the time my grandmother and her cousin Francis tried to make fudge, and burned it, so they buried it in the back yard so that they wouldn't get in trouble for wasting so much sugar. Then there's the story of how my grandfather got sprayed by a skunk when he was head down in a skunk hole trying to catch skunks to earn money from the skins. There's the story of how my grandfather proposed when they were in the ninth grade after he fell in love with her when he saw her playing "catch" (catcher) on the school soft ball team. She said no, but when he asked again years later, she said yes.

I've always loved my mom, and have been grateful for all the things she did for me, but it has only been since I have become a mother that I have really understood the sacrifice she made for me. She sang me to sleep many many nights, she always gave me a hug when she sent me off to elementary school. She drove me to voice lessons, soccer games, and gymnastics. I'm sure she lost patience with me sometimes, but I have very few memories of those times. It is often hard for me to be patient with my children when they say "why" a million times a day, or when they whine because they are tired or hungry. It frustrates me when they don't listen, and I have to think a lot about how my mom acted in certain situations to help me deal with my own children.

So thank you mom, for making me the person I am, and teaching me how to be the mother I am learning to be. Thank you to my grandmothers for the things they taught me, and the things they taught my parents. My grandmother, the one who wrote her stories for me back in 1991, died a few years ago. After she died, I had an intense desire to know more about her parents. What were they like, how did they influence her to make her who she was? She influenced my father, and so on, now I influence my children by the kind of person that I am, and the cycle will continue. We all influence those who come after us, so to all the women who came before, on this mothers day, Thank you.

Lucky Dog

When we first got our dog, a boxer, five years ago, she was really good about staying around our yard. When she got to be full-grown, she discovered she could open the gates on the fence, so we bought locks to keep in the gates. Lately, various people have been leaving the garage doors open when they go out to ride their bikes, and Taja has been running away to her friend's house. The first time it happened, the friend's human called to tell us she was there.

Today, I looked outside and saw that the doors were all open and the dog was gone. We piled in the car (interrupting the baby's lunch, so he was not pleased) and drove over to pick her up. One of these days we won't have to make the full trip, because she'll be lying dead at the side of the road. My kids do not understand what the big deal is "we can just get another dog".

Today, we arrived at her friend's house and the humans were not at home. Taja didn't let this stop her from playing with her friend- she just opened the gate and let herself in. They were having a great time. We may have to put an end to independent bike riding if the doors and gates continue to get left open...

Lips Vs. Heart

A year ago, Derek at A Liberal Mormon wrote a piece on Christian Conservatives and the appearance of religion versus the actions of religion. It's an incredibly well thought out piece. One that I wish all those who love that our current president is such a religious person would read.

One of my brothers-in-law said recently that President Bush has been acting "almost prophet-like lately". This scares me. And makes me really sad. Not to speak badly about my brother-in-law. He's a wonderful, smart, funny, kind person. He just happens to have some really black and white views on politics and religion, and often combines the two. I have a hard time with his politics, but I know he feels the same way about mine. Such is life...

Anyway, take the time to read Derek's Christian Conservatives: Lips Vs. Heart post, and while you're there, look around. It's a great blog.

Letter from Moms for Clean Air

Hello Mamas-
after talking to dr. brian moench (founder of utah
physicians for a health enviroment), i have a better
sense of why wed's evening meeting in bountiful is
important for us, moms. in essence, the intermountain
power agency (IPA) is trying to finance its third
coal-fired power plant in delta by selling energy to
small out-of-state municipalities, such as wasco
county in oregon.

the reason why we need to show up at this meeting is
that this plant will be built in OUR state, WE will
suffer all of the toxic pollution consequences and
receive NONE of the energy generated, meanwhile,
orgeon gets cheap power at the expense of OUR
children's health. clearly, this is a moral and
ethical issue and as moms, we must stand up for our
children's right to breathe clean air.

the utah physicians for a healthy enviroment will be
speaking out against this proposed long-term contract
between wasco county, oregon and the intermountain
power agency at 7pm, may 9th at the west bountiful
city building (550 north 800 west): directions from
slc are as follows:

directions: going north on I-15, take the 400 north exit and go west over the highway. take
a right at the first stop sign. the city building is on your right
just after the school.

we hope to see you there -- and please spread the
word, especially to friends, familyand collegues in
the delta and bountiful area.

with warm wishes,

cherise udell
founder, utah moms for clean air
utahmomsforcleanair.org

Making good use of space...

Along the freeway in the Sacramento, CA area, there are beautiful flowering bushes. At least that is my memory from the yearly trips to the northern coast. Coming home after vacation always made me realize how dry and plain the roadsides in Utah were. The plain roadsides (at least a mile or so in Kaysville) will soon take on a more interesting, and useful appearance.

From today's Salt Lake Tribune:

Seeds planted today along a strip of Interstate 15 will some day fuel state trucks and snowplows. And that will reduce the need for mowing, allow the use of less-harmful pesticides and look pretty when the summertime yellow, blue and red and flowers bloom. Utah State University and the Utah Department of Transportation are teaming up on an experiment to plant a bit more than a mile of grassy safety strips around the state with plants whose seeds can be crushed and processed into 100 percent biodiesel. UDOT will use the homegrown stuff to replace the biodiesel it already uses in state vehicles.

The idea came from Dallas Hanks, a 44-year-old biologist who is working on his doctoral degree at USU. With an initial $50,000 from UDOT, Hanks aims to prove the 2,500 miles of state-owned highway right-of-way could yield an annual average of 500,000 gallons of 100 percent biodiesel, or B100. Planting the safflower, camelina, canola and perennial flax will save about $1.6 million per year in mowing costs, UDOT officials said. They won't know, however, the total savings to the agency from the project until the first-year experiment is finished...

I hope the project is wildly successful, and is spread to more areas.

Edited to add a link to today's 5/9/07 Tribune, which has another article about the bio diesel project. USU & UDOT

Senator Bob Bennett on Health Care

It's a start. Now I just hope that some changes happen. I thought his comment about everyone being covered currently was interesting. He said that by law everyone is covered, because they can go to an emergency room and can't be denied care, but he also said that it is a stupid and expensive way of providing health care and that we can do better.

The Sky Bridge

I don't go downtown very often, so I don't have much of an emotional investment in what happens. I think that compared to the way the downtown malls were, anything would be an improvement.

I don't think a sky bridge would be the death of main street. It just doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. The old malls forced everyone out onto main street to go from one to the other, and that didn't seem to help "keep main street alive".

Todays article in the Salt Lake Tribune about Rocky's Veto on the sky bridge mentioned Rocky's idea of closing main street to cars. Trax would still go through, obviously, but I think the idea bears some contemplation. The ZCMI center food court always had people in it, eating and talking (at least during my teen-age years when I was at the mall more often). Imagine if that type of atmosphere could be transferred outside. If main street was closed to traffic, and an inviting atmosphere was created to attract people, it wouldn't matter if there was a sky bridge or not, because people would want to be on main street.

I think the key here is attracting people to main street instead of trying to force them to pass through it (by doing away with the sky bridge idea) on their way to the other mall.

Blue Sky?

My parents are talking to a contractor about installing solar panels on their roof. They could power 75% of their energy usage that way. The contractor who is doing it didn't have good things to say about Rocky Mountain Power's Blue Sky program.

Here's what my mom related to me:

Apparently Rocky Mountain Power is divided into two sections, one is directly involved with selling the power to customers, and I can't remember exactly, but I think the other one must be the power generation side. The side they present to the public and the PSC is conveniently always struggling. The profits stay in the other, more obscure side. They have lots of money, are making big profits, and keep the stock investors satisified. The really good reason for RMP to get the customers to buy "shares" of Blue Sky is that you get nothing tangible for your investment, only the good feelings of having helped make our environment more green. But they could easily build out the windmill project with other income and make their stockholders (who take real risks in investing and should get some return for it) partners instead.

You would do better to invest in the stock of companies who are working to improve our environment an at least have an opportunity to also participate in the profits.

So obviously here, the way Rocky Mountian Power is running the blue sky program is not so great, but if people just stop paying extra for the renewable energy resources, will RMP keep putting money into it or will they just let the whole thing drop? I'm feeling a bit torn, and for now will keep my 1 block of blue sky.

Utah Moms for Clean Air

From Jen's Green Journal: Did you know . . .
The air quality in the Salt Lake Valley shaves off an average of two years per person's life span?
Each red alert day is equivalent to smoking half a pack of cigarettes? With 22 red alert days this past winter, each one of us -- including babies and children -- has had the equivalent of smoking 11 packs of cigarettes this year.

That's disgusting. I had a hard time this winter with the gross air. I hated to drive to the school to pick up my son, because that contributes to the air pollution, but I didn't want us to be out walking with the air the way it was either. We can all do little things to make a difference...

Check out Utah Moms for Clean Air to find out how you can make a difference in your neighborhood.

(I particularly like the suggestion of not letting your car idle)

So much for food...

A few months ago, after my Mr. turned 30, our health insurance premium went up by $70/month. Now it's going up another $70. It's ridiculous, especially since I am one of the lucky ones. At least I have insurance, and can pay for it (although it's starting to hurt). We've had our current insurance for less than 3 years, and our monthly premium has nearly doubled. If this keeps up, we're not going to be able to afford it anymore.

Maybe more of us need to get angry about our lousy health care system and insist on some sort of health care reform?

Write your elected officials. Please.

(really, it's enough to make me become a one-issue voter- Barack Obama says he'll get universal healthcare going if he's elected....)

Gray Knees

On the way home from visiting grandma and grandpa last night, the boys were singing primary songs. My three-year-old likes I love to see the temple and I am a child of God the best. After he finished the first song, he started in on I am a child of God. He's just barely learning the second verse, but when he started to sing "I am a child of God, and so my needs are gray" (or great, it was hard to tell exactly what he was singing), his older brother said, no, no, no, it's "so my knees are gray!".

When I was a kid I always thought it was "and so my needs are gray", which didn't make any sense to me, but who was I to question God?

It fits along nicely with the time my 5-year-old sang about Jesus eating Honeycombes.

Lactose Intolerance

I've always been a little skeptical when someone says that their child is lactose intolerant, so I say this with a little apprehension, but I'm pretty sure that my 3-year-old is (or it's possible that it is some kind of allergy...). Since the time he started eating solid foods, his diapers have never been what I consider normal. His BM's have always been nasty and grainy. Last year, I finally asked the Dr. about it, and she suggested going two weeks without any dairy and then if his BM's improve, try giving him a big glass of milk and see if they get nasty again.

Two weeks later, his diapers had gotten much better, but when we gave him milk, nothing happened. Some time between then and a few months ago, his diapers got nasty again, so we decided to try again. After the graininess cleared up, he ate a quesadilla and had problems the next morning.

Cheese has been a big part of our diets, so I'm trying to figure out what kinds of snacks can replace cheese sticks. I haven't tried yogurt, but I'm hoping he can still eat that (otherwise I'll have to try making yogurt with soy milk or rice milk). I made salmon patties for dinner last week, and the only vegetable that you can eat with salmon patties is creamed peas and potatoes. The only soy milk we have at home currently is vanilla flavored and I didn't want to eat vanilla flavored creamed peas, so I made two pans of it. A small pan with soy milk (it looked nasty, so I made my Mr. taste it), and a pan with regular milk for the rest of us. My 3-year-old liked it and gobbled it up like it was candy.

Criminal Activity at West Valley McDonalds...

From today's Tribune:

A sock-snatcher at a McDonald's playland in West Valley City holed himself up in a plastic treehouse when police came asking about his booty.
The 6-year-old bandit stuffed his pants full of children's socks while playing at a McDonald's restaurant about 6 p.m. Saturday. When he denied the deed, one parent called the police.
And so police came . . . chuckling.
"Make sure to take off your boots if you go into the playland," Sgt. Dusten Hansen e-mailed to a fellow officer.
When police reached the restaurant at 35 S. 56 West, the child fled into the restaurant's playland - his sock stash slipping out of his pant legs as he ran. The boy took refuge in a plastic treehouse.
With the help of an older child, police coaxed the boy down.
"It ended peacefully," Hansen mused.
The sock-snatcher and his grandfather were released without further incident.
jstettler@sltrib.com

New Baby Picture

See Nat, he really is cute! :)

I can't believe people really think like this...

There is a really good post over at Utah Amicus. Here is a link.

It's about the resolution that Don Larson, in Utah County would like to pass stating that it is Satan's plan to destroy the United States by stealth invasion (illegal immigration). If people didn't really think things like that, I'd find the whole thing hilarious (well, it's funny anyway...).

It's things like this that give mormons a bad name...

Not that I support illegal immigration. I think people should come to the US legally, the problem is that our immigration system is so broken that it IS impossible for so many who want a better life to come here. The system needs to be fixed, but in the mean time, we need to have a little more compassion for our fellow men (and women and children).

Edited to add: Somehow I missed another good post over at Utah Amicus... I heard part of this Doug Wright show, but missed the part where Satan called in. Dang. Satan Calls the Doug Wright Show

Please don't feed jam to the gold fish...

Maybe it was his way of telling me that the fish bowl really needed to be cleaned (it did), or maybe he was hoping to recreate A Fish Out of Water, but the other day, my 3-year-old came into the living room saying that he fed the fish. Remembering times when my older son had tried to feed the fish, I immediately pictured the entire container of fish food covering the water's surface. In the kitchen, I was relieved to see that there was only a small hand full of fish food in the bowl, but there was also some sort of pink foam in and around the bowl. I had made strawberry jam the day before, and left the cup of jam-foam* sitting on the counter. I guess my 3-year-old thought the fish might like a special treat... The fish didn't die, thankfully, and the bowl got cleaned.

*Jam-foam: during the boiling stage of jam making, a foam is produced which has to be scooped off before canning.

Obama

I'm skeptical about any politician's motives, especially when that politician wants to be president. That said, I like what I have read about Barack Obama. His background may be a bit short on the political side (which is probably a good thing), but it is full of dedication to helping others. He seems genuine, and I would like to think that it is more than just political staging.

Here are a couple of quotes from his website...

On Families:

Strong families raise successful children and keep communities together. While Senator Obama does not believe that we can simply legislate healthy families, good parenting skills or economic success, he does believe we can eliminate roadblocks that parents face and provide tools to help them succeed.

On Health Care:

"In the 2008 campaign, affordable, universal health care for every single American must not be a question of whether, it must be a question of how. We have the ideas, we have the resources, and we will have universal health care in this country by the end of the next president's first term."

A friend sent me a copy of a New York Times editorial by Thomas Friedman. You have to subscribe to the NY Times to read it, so if you are interested, send me an email or something and I'll send you a copy. Friedman starts the editorial by talking about his wife's visit to a school house in Kenya. On the wall of the school house is a poster of Senator Obama and his wife. He also talks about pictures of Senator Obama at the offices of public officials in Kenya.

Friedman then writes, "Yes, Mr. Obama’s father was Kenyan, but nevertheless, that poster and those pictures got me thinking: when was the last time you saw a U.S. president or politician being held up as a role model abroad? It’s been awhile. And that got me thinking about Mr. Obama. It seems to me that the strongest case one could make for an Obama presidency right now is rarely articulated: it is his potential to repair the broken relationship between America and the world."

The ability to repair broken relationships with the rest of the world just might be a good quality for the next president to have...

The First Baseball Game

My 5-year-old was a little nervous about playing against a "real team" until I told him that this would be their first game too. It's pretty funny, because they don't keep track of runs or outs, they just let the kids hit the ball, run the bases, and throw the ball around.

On the drive home, he was a little disappointed that he still had to have practices...I guess he thought that since he "knows how to play" he could just have games now.


His favorite part of the game was "hitting the ball". The funniest thing about the game was watching kids hit the ball and then not running. They'd just stand there while everyone was yelling Run! Run!. Other kids would be on base, and when the ball was hit, they'd start running all over the place, from second base to home, from first base toward the ball....

Instructional league baseball...good parental entertainment.

Baby Blues, Bad News, Good News...

Bad news and baby blues are not good companions. My poor Mr. must be at a loss as to what to do with me some days. It's actually getting better, which is why I can write about it now. There were a few days when I could hardly open my mouth without crying. It all started when the baby was two days old and had to go to the Dr to get his bilirubin level checked (again). There weren't any appointments, so they "squeezed" me in. I should have recognized that as a bad sign, and prepared myself...

We arrived three minutes early, and sat down in the waiting area. I thought the baby would be getting hungry soon, but figured I'd wait until after we saw the dr. We waited for an hour. When we got into the room, the aide wanted to weigh him. I told her we were only there for his bilirubin test and that I'd rather not get him undressed (he was still sleeping, although I knew any minute he'd wake up screaming). She left and a few minutes later the dr. walked in. It wasn't our regular dr, which makes the next part even more embarrassing... As soon as he asked how we were doing, I burst into tears. It was hard not to laugh while I was crying, which made it sound like I was crying a lot more than I really was.

Oh well.

Bad news later that day didn't help.

Thankfully, my emotional roller coaster seems like it's slowing down a bit. It's also been nice that I've had three bits of good news (actually all of them happened yesterday...).

Two more of my friends are pregnant. In a couple of years (assuming they all live close enough to get together regularly) we'll have a nice group of little kids to play together. There will be 5 babies all within a year of each other. The last bit of good news is that another friend is getting married!

If it's not one poop, it's the other...

After reading about all sorts of ways to make cloth diapering easier (and to avoid rinsing diapers in the toilet), I've discovered something...

It's really not that big of a deal to rinse a diaper out in the toilet. I don't actually have to stick my hand in the poopy-toilet-water or anything. I just hang on to a corner and swish it around a bit until the poop is mostly off, then put it in the diaper pail. My Mr. is not so fond of doing that (and not that I enjoy it or anything), but cloth diapers aren't too bad. Flushable diaper wipes would be nice, since I haven't been able to bring myself to use cloth wipes (I spend all this time trying to get the poop off of the diaper and into the toilet- so why would I want to have more bits of cloth with poop on them?!). We currently just use disposable wipes and toss them in the trash.

I finished cleaning up the 3-year-old's poopy diaper, sat down to read my email, and wham (that's not what it sounds like, but you get the idea), the baby takes his turn.

Thankfully he's in disposables until bits and pieces are all healed.

Cousins

They're exactly one week apart.

Wouldn't this be cool?

...I can say that because I'm not the one who mows the lawn.

Underage Tanning

Sorry for anyone who thought this post was going to be some sort of political commentary... My life is pretty much all-consumed by the new little one.

In the hospital, the little man's bilirubin levels were on the high side, so I had to take him to get retested yesterday. His levels had gone up, so this fancy portable fiber optic blanket (aka biliblanket) was ordered for him and delivered to us at home last night. It's definitely a step up from the grow lights I was under as a jaundiced baby. The main down side, is that now instead of feeling stuck in my house, I'm stuck in a three-foot radius that includes the crib, the changing table and the rocking chair. He doesn't seem to mind (really what more could a new baby want!).

I like to think of it as his own little tanning bed.

Oh cruel world...

Babies don't like bright flashes that go off when they're trying to sleep...

Baby

The baby is here! We left for the hospital around midnight, and the little guy was born at 5:43 am. I'm so glad that my sister and Mr were both there, I couldn't have gotten through the event without them.

The baby has light hair! Both of his brothers were born with very dark hair, so this might be our redhead. The other surprise was his size, his brothers were both under 7lbs. This guy was 8lbs 3oz and 20 inches long.

Pictures to follow...

No News Is No News...

Still no news on the baby front, at least the MY baby front.

A & N's baby was born last wednesday, and I got to hold him for a little while on sunday. He is a beautiful little baby. I love the little faces that newborns make when they are sleeping. Little half-smiles, worried faces... I love them all.

I'd be jealous, except that he was born via c-section, which doesn't sound like much fun to me... The good thing for them is that now N gets to start feeling better every day, whereas, I keep getting more and more uncomfortable every day.

:)

Taking care of each other

Last week I was having a discussion with some family members about whether the government ought to be in the business of providing welfare-type social services. One argument was that those types of services should be provided by private organizations, like churches.

I don't think that taking care of the less-fortunate among us should be viewed any differently than paying for roads and other conveniences that come along with living in a community. It benefits everyone when we make sure that all of our citizens have their basic needs met, regardless of what they may or may not "deserve". During the discussion we talked about the Sunrise Metro Apartments.

My gardening friend Patrick wrote this based on his personal experiences, and I thought it worth pasting here...

The standard litany I used to hear in community mental health services delivery was this, in order of immediate priority:

1) Provide water and other healthy liquids to drink, and healthy foods to eat, when and where and how people will drink and eat them.

2) Provide permanent housing where people will live -- housing that is safe, affordable, and healthy for the people who live there.

3) Provide community support. This can include places to socialize with peers, places to find medical and psychiatric treatment, places to find information about other services and opportunities. Places to fill in the gaps.

4) Provide the necessary supports to find (and keep) decent work for a living wage. Volunteer and part-time work is of value in itself, can be excellent for training and education -- but full-time paid work needs to be the primary goal, for as many people as can achieve it.

Offer those four primary services in effective ways to people in trouble, and many can go on to live good lives. The costs of emergency services (hospital emerg depts., police, fire, etc.) will drop. Jail and prison populations will be reduced. Alcoholism and other forms of drug abuse will decline.

Sometimes, some services need to be offered in creative ways to people who are in particular difficulties. There are many different approaches to filling in the gaps -- ways of adding necessary rungs on the ladders of support, to use a metaphor.

Despite widespread cynicism about so-called "government handouts" and the so-called "inefficiency of the public sector" (as compared to private enterprise) -- the overwhelming evidence I've seen (in short-term and long-term studies; in observation of many individuals and individual organizations; in my own life) has convinced me this is the cheapest and most reliable path to making a better life. For everyone.

Most people accept the necessity of paying for our roads and sidewalks and bridges and sewers. It bemuses and it saddens me, to think we still have conflicts over keeping our people off our streets; conflicts about removing our people from begging on our sidewalks; conflicts about providing our people with enough hope so they won't jump off our bridges -- and conflicts about helping our people to not throw their own lives into the sewer.

We all individually pay for -- and we all individually suffer from -- the suffering of others. One way or another. Personally, I'd rather pay for solutions to the root causes of problems, instead of band-aid reactions to the symptoms of problems.

All the best,
-Patrick