Tour De Cure

I am participating in a ride from San Antonio to Austin to benefit the American Diabetes Association. Click on the picture to go to my fundraising site! Even $5 makes a difference!

Greenie Meanie - Library Books

Instead of buying a new book and wasting paper (and space in your house), walk to your local library and check it out.

Austin has a great online system to find the book you are looking for. You can even put it on hold so it will be waiting for you when you are ready to go pick it up!

Check your local libary system to see if they have a similar system.

Sleep Success!!!

For all of you battling with sleep issues, I want to tell you that there is hope!!!

At 21 mo, Weapon X has been an all night nurser until a few weeks ago when he just stopped waking up at night. I had been sleeping with him on a futon matress on the floor in his room. because there just wasn't room for the 3 of us in our double bed!

The first step to getting him to sleep through the night was to leave after I nursed him. I found that he slept for longer stretches when I wasn't right there next to him. One morning I woke up at 6 and he had slept the whole night by himself!!!

The next step was getting him to go to sleep without the crazy crying fit! I knew it was time to really work on this when nursing was not enough to put him to sleep anymore.

We have been reading the “No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers” and it has helped a lot. X has gone to sleep himself, with no crying and for the past 2 nights!!! And he slept until 6:30 too!!! Amazing! I’m so proud of him!!!

You can get a lot of good information from articles on the website .

The big things that have been helping us are:

•Earlier bedtime. She suggests between 6:30 and 7:30 for the time they actually go to sleep.

•Making sure he is getting between 13 and 14 hours of sleep per day, including nap. She has a chart that lists sleep needs at different ages.

•Making room for wind down time before sleep. After jammies and potty time we go into his room and instead of me trying to get him to sleep right away I close the door and we read a few books. And then I touch his toes and talk about how his toes worked so hard for him today. They walked and ran and now they are tired. They need to go to sleep. I go through each body part. The second time I ask him to say “night night” to each part after I say how tired it is. Then I ask him for a kiss and tell him I’m going to be right out side his room. I give him a board book (The napping house) I turn off the light and leave. He complains for 30 seconds and then he is OUT! Amazing. I never thought it would happen!!!

•I put blackout fabric (very cheap at Jo Ann's Fabric) on his window because it is just too bright outside at 7pm!

She has a little chart that lists things that kids say when they are asked, “what do you do to try to go to sleep, and does it work?” All the kids had different answers like, “I stare at the ceiling” and all of them said their methods didn’t work. The bottom line is that kids have no clue how to go to sleep!

Good luck!

Killer Hamsters? What?

You read that correctly. Your hamster could kill you. I don't write this to be alarmist, just to give you the information. Apparently hamsters can get a virus and give it to you. It is rare for this to happen, but according to this article it pays to ask your pet store about the health screening of their animals. What will they think of next!?!

Food colorings and preservatives

It turns out that parent's instincts about food colorings and preservatives may be correct. A recent study showed a link between some food colorings and a reduction in the IQs of children. You can read an article about it here, but if you Google it, you will see this news has been published in many places, and these additives have been in question for some time.

According to the study, the food additives in question are:
Tartrazine (E102)
Ponceau 4R (E124) - Banned in the US
Sunset yellow (E110)
Carmoisine (E122) - Banned in the US
Quinoline yellow (E104)
Allura red AC (E129)
Sodium Benzoate (preservative)

Diapering

I hope to be able to use cloth diapers at home with our second child. Most daycares don't accept cloth diapers, so that leaves disposables as the only option. We may consider switching to them for potty training, but we still have the daycare issue.

I ran across an interesting article about the politics of diapers. If you have the time, it is an interesting read. I will say that the article is strongly biased towards using cloth diapers!

If you are interested in using cloth diapers, but have no clue where to start, Jillian's Drawers has a 21 day trial pack of different cloth diapers. You only pay $10 if you send them all back after 21 days. You pay $100 if you keep them all.

Or you can read through the ZRecs Cloth Diaper Showdown which compares some of the more popular options!

Wash your eyes!

I have been commuting to work on my bike these days. It has been great fun and a great stress relief! The weather is gorgeous in Austin right now, so riding is just such a pleasant experience. In 1 month I will probably be complaining about the sweltering heat, but right now it is heaven!

Unfortunately, Austin is an allergy city. We have pollens in the air all year round and this makes for irritated eyes. When I was riding long distances before Weapon X was born, I had some eye issues caused by sweat and other irritants in the air.

I want to make sure to avoid the eye issues, so I have been flushing my eyes with saline after every ride. I have not had any issues yet, so that says something.

There are MANY options for saline or artificial tears, so feel free to shop around. Some have thimerosal, a preservative ingredient with Mercury. If the idea of putting Mercury in your eyes makes you uncomfortable, read the labels. Also consider reading the labels of your contact solution and mascara, because many of these also contain thimerosal.

If you do end up with a stye, or chalazion my opthomologist recommended wetting a wash cloth with water as hot as is comfortable. Press it against your eye(s) for 10 minutes multiple times per day. This should help the stye heal on its own. This works, and it pays to do this as soon as you feel irritation coming on. I had a few really bad experiences, and that was enough to last a lifetime!

When you are frustrated, remember your kids think differently!

Match Me and I Will Grow
by Dr. James MacDonald

Yes, I know you want me to change in many ways.

Well, if you want me to pay more attention, then pay attention to me.

If you want me to play more, then play more with me.

If you want me to do more, then show me something I can do.

If you want me to communicate, then communicate in any of the ways I can do.

If you want me to talk, then talk in ways I can do.

If you want me to learn your languange, then learn and speak my language first.

If you want me to talk about your ideas, then talk about mine first.

You and I live two worlds far apart. Mine is a world of actions, feelings, and sensations.

I am a feeler and a mover. Your world is mainly one of thought and language. You are a thinker and a talker.

I know you want me to think and talk like you, but it's taken you years to get where you are. Give me time, and I will get there.

I will get there best when you live with me in my world. When you act and move and communicate as I can.

Match what I do, and show me the possible next step; and I will grow with you.

I am learning. Please don't make me do it alone.

Join my natural path, and we will grow together.

My computer is very sick...

My HD is on life support, and that makes me sad. But! It also gives me the opportunity to learn more about how to fix a sick computer!

This is where I am in the process, maybe you can help.

• I hooked up my HD to my husband's laptop and retrieved the data (YAY!)
• I tried to boot from the Windows disk to reinstall Windows.
• Windows tried to "look for existing versions of Windows"
• During its search, Windows gets confused, and I have to shutdown :(

I read that I should disconnect all peripherals (like my scanner) so I will do that and try again.

My old IT guy also suggested I run a diagnostic on the HD. I will also try that and see how it goes!