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My he's 11 months already!

It’s hard to believe my little man is 11 months old. It does seem like a long time that he’s been here. Last summer being pregnant seems eons ago. It was such a hard summer. Now to plan his birthday present… it will be something with purple balloons since I found a large stash of them the other day cleaning out my office.

 

As for his stats… he has 4 teeth on top (2 aren’t that far down yet) and 2 on bottom. He doesn’t bite too much. I think he only does it when I’m out of milk. I’m SO happy that he’s still nursing. (Brandon was done at 5 months.) He sits wonderfully, but isn’t crawling, cruising or walking yet. Yesterday I sat him down and he scooted himself around 360 degrees in one spot. It was funny to watch. His first word is Daddy… but we are working on Mommy, Brandon and cat.

 

We’ve been busy this summer. I’m working 2 days a week at Fibertch. The boys go to Mom’s. Between my businesses and Brandon’s activity schedule it keeps us hopping.

 

Brandon attended a comic camp at the Arts Center (http:// www.explorearts.org). The first day he didn’t like it too much. But he made friends and had a really great time before it was all over with. We go to a viewing at the gallery on Sunday.

 

Brandon has also been taking gymnastics once a week. (http:// upstate-gymnastics.com) He took it last summer and really enjoys it. We’ve also been homeschooling. We made a deal with his Daddy to get through second grade reading during the summer to get him on grade level in that area. In a few weeks (when Mom returns to school) the boys will be going to a friends house who homeschool too so they can do school together two days a week. Two other days a week he will take a science class through a local co-operative. I’m excited for him. One thing about him being in public school last spring was that I missed him!

 

Business wise I’ve shifted gears a bit. I’ve decided to make Pampered Chef primary and Mary Kay secondary. I took a few months off (other than servicing customers) to really decide what I wanted to do. I love helping people and just believe that PC is a much better fit for me. I hate to disappoint the MK leaders that I worked so hard with, but this is the decision I’ve made. I believe the mission of both companies is wonderful. To build a successful (non-hobby) business you’ve got to align yourself with leaders who have done what you want to do… and that’s what I’m doing. I’m very excited.

 

Until next time!

This n that

Rowan's growin! He is starting to pull up if you stick out your fingers or if you have him down on the floor he will try and grab your legs to pull up. At least it means I don't have to have the house spotless yet. Last Thursday he came down with pink eye. His eyes were matting up bad Th afternoon. Thank goodness it stopped. Then Friday they were gunky... but not producing as much crud. We took him to the dr for a check out. Unfortunately he HATES the eye drops. I'm lucky if anything gets in them. Other than that he is doing great. He went to bed early last night and was up bright and bushy tailed this morning. (BTW I did finish making all of his diapers the other day. I'm so happy that I won't have to make more! My favorites are made out of baby blankets.)

B man is attending vacation bible school this week. He has spent a lot of time with his buddies Riley and Thames. We got together Sunday afternoon for their dad's birthday and a cookout. We were supposed to go to the lake, but their boat was messed up. We ate in the A/C and watched a movie (B & Riley played outside for the longest).

I believe Grammy is going to stay in SC. She is going with us to TX in 2 weeks, but will return with us. So I'm driving my car and dad is taking his. I don't look forward to the drive, but I'm anxious to be "on vacation."

Summer's here

School’s OUT…

…now what?

Actually, we are bring Brandon back home to homeschool. I am working to “do” second grade reading over the summer so he will be “on track” for a 3^rd grade science class that he will be taking at Team Classes. Plus we will continue with 3^rd grade stuff in the fall. B kind of wants to return to school, but it’s only for social reasons. So I will try and make life more social (I’m the kind of person who could stay home all the time… especially with high gas prices). I’m also going to get better at doing projects with him. I just don’t like hearing that he’s bored… plus he has his Scout stuff to work on.

R-man is doing well. He is recovering from Thrush on his bottom. I’m almost finished with making all of his diapers. This should be the last time I have to make them… then I can get on to other fun projects. Making 30+ diapers gets boring. At least I’m using different fabrics to keep it interesting.

He still isn’t crawling or pulling up. He will sit in the floor and play though. Thank goodness. He’ll roll around a bit sometimes… but prefers to sit up. I’m sure it won’t be too much longer.

Next month July 2^nd-9^th we (me and the boys) will join mom, dad, and Grammy on a trip to Texas. Mimi and Granddad haven’t met R-man yet. They came out last summer before he was born. I’m not sure if we are dropping Grammy off or if she will return with us… which makes a difference in what vehicles we take. It shall be interesting.

I’m working on a new web project. I’ll keep you posted. I’m still working 2 days a week. Mom is keeping the boys most of the time. I have a PC show to do tonight. I only do one every few months as requested. I didn’t think it would come together… but it has. I’ll work for a little money.

The weather has been hot, hot, hot… like August in June. Hopefully we’ll start to see a reprieve. I don’t blame the earth for fighting back with all the pollution we keep dumping into it. I bought the 11^th Hour and it’s good.

9 Months

I can't believe you are now 9 months old. You've just about spent the same amount of time outside as you did inside.

Right now you are so fun. You laugh, you giggle. You love your big brother to pieces. Just the other day you figured out how to blow your tongue (not sure what it's really called). When you are in the mood you make a lot of noises.

You love to eat. You are about to turn into a graham cracker. You really love them at the moment. I'm trying to feed you all raw food... except for those darn crackers. You like being in control. But boy do you make a mess.

You aren't able to get into a sitting position on your own yet... you aren't crawling either. But you will sit up for awhile. You just have to have cushions or someone nearby.

Your hair is finally starting to grow out a bit. A lot of the early stuff broke off.

You HATE baths and sometimes hate to have your diaper changed.

You LOVE sleeping/nursing with mommy. Since Christmas you sleep the first part of the night in your bed and then I move you to your double bed and we sleep together almost every night for the rest of the night together.

You still love the sling. You also like to ride around in the stroller... but don't stop moving or you want out. You like car rides too.

You don't fall asleep anywhere like you used to when you were younger. That makes it hard to go to church.

You are a blessing and a wonderful baby boy. I'm so glad you are with us. I love you. - Mom

Polycarbonate plastics

Just in case you missed this in the national news... polycarbonate plastic is bad... especially for babies and children because it leaches BPA (especially when heated). If you have a recycling number on your item, most #7's are this type of plastic. The plastic is the hard stuff that is translucent.

I'm a bit upset, but not surprised, when I found out yesterday that some of my items I have at home are polycarbonate. Particularly my Rock 'n Serve dishes from Tupperware and (probably, I'm waiting on confirmation) my Quick Stir Pitcher from Pampered Chef. I'm not worried too much on the measuring cups, etc. because they get used quickly. I'm not keeping food in them for long term storage or heating them. I contacted TW yesterday and their and independent tests showed that they don't exceed the governments allowed daily amounts. I guess that is their legalease... but I will not have them in my house. Especially the TW pieces because they get heated! You can go here to read more from TW.

So Rachel, dearest cousin, when you read this hopefully all the BPA bottles will be removed from the baby shelves. But I recommend glass bottles for your new one. That is what we use with Rowan. I breastfeed, but I store what milk I do pump in glass and if he gets a little formula, he gets it in glass. Here are the ones I use. I ordered mine last year when they were harder to come by.

Here is also another great resource that I found yesterday. It is a chart that tells what common brand name items to avoid and what they are made from. Thank you healthychild.org!

It has been raining almost all morning thank goodness. It started yesterday. We put a tarp up for Dad's birthday party last weekend and it was nice being outside and not getting wet. There isn't an overhang at the back door and usually I have to balance an umbrella while unloading the kids and unlocking the door... so it was nice to have the extra cover.

I'm uploading more pictures to flickr as I type this. So go check them out.

Yesterday was adventurous. We skipped church thanks to Rowan keeping me up so much Saturday night. Noelle had her dance recital at 2 so I arranged for Brandon to go to a friend's house. (Noelle did great at what were able to see.) Anyway, Brandon got hit in the head with a piece of PVC pipe and so last night Stephen took him to the ER to get stitches. Thank goodness for technology because they have this wonderful skin glue that they used instead. They were out so late last night that I let him stay home. What an event!

Rowan got his second tooth Friday. He is growing up and developing so quickly. He's still not crawling yet. Last night I was reading that he might not ever crawl. Some babies don't. He does roll though. I'm also working (finally) on ECing him. That is elimination communication... trying to get him to signal to me when he needs to go. I did catch one pee. We'll see how well it works for us. Thank goodness it isn't an all or nothing since my schedule is all over the place. I'll keep you posted.