Very cool blog post I'm sharing

I don't even know the person who wrote this, but a friend of mine on Facebook posted a link to it & I was really touched & inspired by it & wanted to pass it along as well. I suppose the fact that I am a nurse helps me to understand this mother's point of view.

http://www.jumbleofjill.com/2010/05/great-post-from-fellow-twin-mom.html

(the "insert link" button is not working for me........I guess you have to copy & paste this into your URL bar at the top of your page, sorry for the hassle......)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. :)

"Your Baby Can Read" update #5

Well little J has officially finished this program, he actually did a couple of days prior to his birthday. Now he is supposed to randomly view the videos daily & we are supposed to be reading books, lots of books.

The problem is that little J is bored to death with the videos. He doesn't want to watch them anymore. I was starting to have this problem earlier on. I moved to the last two DVDs a little early because he was bored with the previous ones. I also had changed his viewing schedule to once a day instead of twice a day & that helped a lot too.

He also will not sit & read a book with me. He likes to look at his books & flip the pages & look at them, but he won't sit with me & do it like that, at least not yet.

So I feel like we're a little stuck for now.

In the morning while I workout & shower I have changed up his viewing schedule & it's working well. I record two shows on TV for him (auto b. good & cherub's wings). So here's an example of how his weekly viewing goes. Monday: auto b. good Tuesday: cherub's wings Wednesday: Your Baby Can Read Thursday: Spanish Your Baby Can Read Friday: Veggie Tales Saturday: Spanish Veggie Tales Sunday: Your Baby Can Read

Decreasing how many days per week that he views the Your Baby Can Read DVDs does increase his interest in them. And he still loves the flashcards.

Last Saturday we took part in a research study on children that have done the Your Baby Can Read program. Two psychologists came to our home & did various testing on little J & I filled out lots of questionnaires. They also had an IQ test, but I was hating it (the way it was being done anyways) & made hubby take it instead. He was a great sport & did it. They really don't tell us anything, just that they are collecting data for research. We have no idea how he did by their standards. A lot of the testing they were doing I didn't get to see because I was filling out so many questionnaires. I did, however, see them holding up 2 flashcards & saying one of those words & he had to choose one. At first he was carefully looking at both of them & most of the time choosing the right word (I was amazed at this!), but then he quickly lost his attention span & was just quickly grabbing stuff without taking a good look. I was encouraged by that, though, & plan to continue doing that with the 2 flashcards in the future. They did seem impressed that he knows his name so well & that he will engage in activity with people & follow commands.

That's all the updates I can think of at the moment.......

13 months updates

So little J is now 13 months. It seems like there was so much excitement over hitting the 12th month, so much momentum leading up to that point & now that has faded--13 months doesn't seem so exciting really. But of course I always make an effort to enjoy every stage, so it's not that I'm not happy about it, it just doesn't feel like as big of a deal as all the past months did.

He gained a pound over the last month, now weighing in at 24.4 lbs, which puts him in the 50-75% for his age. But his height is still 30", putting him in the 25-50% for his age, & his head circumference is still 19", putting him in the 75-90% for his age. He appears to still have a big brain, but he's getting short, LOL. His height hasn't changed since he turned 10 months & his head circumference hasn't changed since he turned 11 months. He definitely has a long torso & short legs. Daddy & I both have long torsos, but average length legs, so hopefully his legs will catch up at some point, haha!

He is walking really well now, probably about 90% of the time. He's also getting better with the sippy cup, but I still help him with it during his mealtime. I will help him with his milk, kefir, & water (he drinks A LOT of water, just like mom!), but I also always leave a sippy of juice available just like the water & I refuse to help him with that one. He likes juice so much that he works hard to drink it & this is really helping to teach him how to use the sippy cup by himself. I also always leave a sippy cup of water in his crib overnight. He's not so cranky in the morning now. He almost always drinks from it somewhere during the night &/or in the morning when he first wakes up. I'm getting a little more sleep because of this, which is a good thing. He still wakes up early, but since he can drink the water if he's thirsty he's not gonna cry about being thirsty & he will play quietly in his crib until I wake up most days now. And I usually wake up at 6 or 7 on my own. 7:15 has been the latest I've slept til since he's been quiet & that was only one day that that happened.

He usually still takes his morning nap, but it's usually a short one. And he always still takes a 2 hour afternoon nap, sometimes from 1-3, but more often now it's 2-4 & sometimes even 3-5. Yesterday it was actually 4-6!! He still tries really hard to stay awake until daddy gets home from work which I think is so cute. He normally goes to bed for the night somewhere between 6-8 pm, but yesterday after such a late nap he stayed up til 10 pm!!

He's still wearing mostly size 18 month clothes, although he is wearing "some" of his 24 month clothes, but they are a tad large on him. He has a lot of summer clothes in size 24 month so I pulled them out to make sure they get used, even if they are a tad large. I would hate to wait for him to move to that size after the warm weather has passed & they never got used.

As for upcoming milestones: I guess there's talking & using things like a spoon & fork. I'm sure there's many other smaller ones, but those are the big ones that come to mind. I am very insistent on not forcing him to do any milestones. Based on what I've seen so far he will do it when he's ready whether I show him how or not. And yeah, I keep reminding myself that if they HAD to be taught we'd have a whole bunch of people in society who had negligent parents (ie drug addicts that pay no attention to their kids--screaming or not--while they are getting high) who wouldn't know how to walk or use forks & spoons, etc. And of course you just don't see that sort of stuff, unless they have a developmental delay of course, that's a whole other situation.

I've seen some people who try to potty train at a really early age, like a year old & even younger. I see them getting so frustrated & the poor kid is frustrated (& probably going to end up with zero self esteem). If they don't even have the physical ability to do it it's just so pointless & harmful to be trying to force it IMO.

That's all I can think of for updates at the moment..........until next month.......

Frontline: The Vaccine War

I have no clue how many people who might be reading this would've watched this show. But I saw a posting about it on Facebook & set my DVR to record it.

I also saw some comments about it on Facebook where a lot of people were upset about it, saying it was pro-vaccine & didn't present the info fairly. I have to say that I don't agree with that at all.

I actually thought the info was presented very well & from every angle possible.

I am not anti-vaccine, I just want SAFE vaccines. And because I don't feel they are safe I am not vaccinating my son.

I can see & appreciate what the medical (pro-vaccine) side is doing. They want to protect against & eradicate these awful diseases. And they did accomplish this with smallpox. Had I lived prior to that I never would've thought it was possible, but they did it.

This show discussed the possibility of future outbreaks because more & more people are choosing to not vaccinate their kids. And they mentioned the fact that most parents right now didn't grow up with some of the diseases (ie measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough) & it makes it easier for them to dismiss the need of the vaccine, which I would have to say is true.

The problem I see is that the govt is sitting back & complaining about the people choosing to not vaccinate their kids. Yet they refuse to listen to the people, they refuse to work on making SAFE vaccines. They are just hard-headed, insisting that they are already "safe enough". The problem to me is that the govt has a god-complex. They only see the big picture & that what they are doing is so important for the good of the people that minor (to THEM) issues of a few kids being seriously injured or dying is not a big deal. They have their statistics (of the cases that are proven, most are not & so many cases aren't even counted in those statistics) & go on & on about how so few get injured or killed, blah blah blah. This is the whole problem to me, they simply don't care. When that kid that's hurt is YOUR KID it really is a big deal & that's what the govt is just not getting & it's simply because they don't care enough in my opinion.

I am 37, soon to be 38. Vaccines these days are VERY different from vaccines when I was a kid & I think a lot of people don't realize this. They differ a lot in how they are engineered. And they also differ in the fact that there are SO MANY MORE now than there used to be, I do think they are getting a bit carried away I have to say. And it also differs in how many a child receives at one time with each visit to the doctor--they get soooo many at a time now it's unreal.

That's all for now, just some ranting based on responses I saw from people to this show.

Maybe someday the govt will get it & find a way to make safer vaccines, & also stop getting so carried away about how many diseases to vaccinate for (I mean, seriously, the chicken pox does not need a vaccine), but I'm not holding my breath.