Stats

The girls had their check-ups last week.  E at age 3, is 25 pounds.  A, at 6 months, is

15 pounds.  How crazy is it that my 3 year old today wore the same set of snow pants that

she’s been wearing for the previous two years as well  (Size 12 months).  They were a tad short, but with

boots on, they were ok for sledding today in the 9 inches of snow we received last night. 

More to come tomorrow!  Guess it’ll be a White Christmas here in NY.  

Happy Holidays!

Last night’s dinner: Lentil Stew with chicken sausage, and garlic rolls.

Tonight’s dinner: Mozzerella Chicken Spinach Bake, beer bread, salad.

E Turns 3 and woodstove woes

Wow, my first baby girl is three years old today. We had a small party for her yesterday afternoon, with a train theme. She loves her Thomas and Fergus trains, and keeps track of them daily, playing with them as soon as she wakes up, and lying them on their sides in their garage before she goes to bed. We had ‘circle time’ in which we sang Down by the Station and of course I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad along with lots of other favorites. In between the songs, we read train stories.  E. LOVED her circle time.  She sang her heart out, and listened intently to the stories.  She was into her presents this year, wanting to play with each one before going to the next.  The kids, ranging in age from 5 months to 6 years, all played well together, and they were lots of fun to watch. 

We had a fire in the woodstove for the party.  The playroom is just cold without one, and yesterday was a cold icy/snowy mix outside, so we needed one.  We had cut off the woodstove for the three days prior to this in an experiment to see if it helped E’s cough.  E. was great all summer long, not needing any medication.  Since October when we have increasingly been using the stove, we’ve also increasingly used nebulized pulmicort and albuterol with her.   Sure enough, E’s cough was slowly fading away, even without pulmicort, until we fired up the woodstove again last night.  A coworker who bought a pellet stove last week told me that running the woodstove was the equivalent of handing her a pack of cigarettes.  She suggested replacing it with a pellet stove which burns far cleaner and is more efficient.  Our stove is an efficient one, but something still is bothering E.  I believe it is a catalytic burning stove, but it was produced in 1989, just as the EPA was implementing their new standards.  She has an appointment with her pediatrician next week, so we’ll see what they think.  Any ideas from parents of asthmatic kids who also burn wood in their home?  What has worked for you?  Having a fire provides so much ‘coziness’ to the room, its SO hard to give that up.   Do we need to replace the catalytic part of the stove? 

Last night’s dinner:  Pizza, fruit tray, various finger foods, Thomas Carrot Cake.

Tonight’s dinner:  Black beans and rice.

Book Review: Feeding the Kids

Feeding the Kids, The Flexible, No Battles, Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family by Pamela Gould, and Eleanor P. Taylor, Mancala Publishing, 2007, MSRP $16.95.   I had the pleasure of reading this book because it is in the stash of books the La Leche League left at my house between the November and December meetings which I hosted. 

This eating system engages  your family in a six week plan where you slowly make healthy changes in the way your family eats.  It starts with integrating more fruits and veggies, then changing to the right kinds of dairy and whole grain products, and finally the right kinds of proteins.  For families who have foodies writing their grocery lists, this book really doesn’t tell us anything we haven’t been hearing for years: eat more fruits and veggies, don’t eat trans-fats, and when you eat carbs, make them whole grain. And don’t drink 2% milk.  But you know that already.  It does have lots of information on how to make this work while traveling, and it has 40 pages of “mini-recipes” of easy to prepare healthy meals.  This is potentially the best section of the book.  The website also has a handy section that lists specific brands of products that pass their complicated field tests.  If you’ve ever tried reading ingredient lists for the tell-tale words “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” while grocery shopping with a toddler, this webpage will be invaluable to you.  The book is definately geared towards busy families with lots of ideas on how to make this work in the real world. 

Bottom line: 3/5 stars.  Borrow this book, don’t buy it.  Didn’t tell me much I didn’t already know, but I always appreciate decent kid-friendly recipes.  Be sure to check out their website, too.  Now go eat an apple. 

Related titles: 

• Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense By Ellyn Satter, Bull Publishing Company, 2000. The bible of childhood nutrition.  This book details feeding your chid by age and stage.  No recipes, and its dense reading unlike Feeding the Kids which is an easy read.  One thing Ms. Satter points out is that kids should NOT eat a 100% whole grain diet when it comes to carbs.  Whole grains tend to speed up transit times in the digestive tract, and so many vitamins and minerals are simply not absorbed if we feed them all whole grains. 
• Super Baby Food, 2nd ed. by Ruth Yaron, 1996.  How to make your own babyfood.  Yes, when I lived in the Arctic Circle, and I only had one child, I made the majority of her babyfood.  I remember grinding millet (birdfood, as Bryan called it), and cooking it into a mush for her which she joyfully ate almost every morning.  I also made lots and lots of pureed sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, peas, and other fruits and veggies at a fraction of the cost of the commercial babyfoods available in the supermarket.  I will probably do the fruit and veggies for A, but not the cereal.  Actually, we’ve started solids with A later than with E, so I really don’t expect to do much pureed anything.  She’ll be able to grab a whole pea and put it in her mouth soon enough.  (We plan to start solids at six months).  Ms. Yaron also romotes a vegetarian diet, which can be tricky with kids.  This book is so jam-packed with kid-friendly, healthy (though vegetarian) recipes, that its well worth the money. 

To be continued:  Next post: Mollie Katzen’s Salad People. 

Tonight’s dinner: Pan-fried ribeye steak, Red-leaf salad with avacado and pinenuts, garlic dill red potatoes. 

Last night’s dinner: leftover Chicken soft tacos, mexican rice.

Ticks

Bryan got a tick the other day.  It was a deer tick, though we found it before it was engorged.  Deer ticks are notorious for carrying Lyme disease.  In fact, this area of NY has one of the highest Lyme disease rates in the country.  He got the tick presumably from carrying wood in for the woodstove.  I’ve been seeing lots of Lyme this year in the ED, and lots of ticks right now.  You have a much higher chance of getting Lyme if it is attached for greater than 24 hours, and it is engorged when you find it, neither of which characterizes Bryan’s tick.  Still, neither of us want the girls getting Lyme. 

Tonight’s dinner: Turkey stuffed cabbage and baked sweet potatoes.

Last night’s dinner: Bryan’s homemade Cream of Cauliflower soup with bread and butter and salad.

Holiday ‘08

A friend from a natural parenting group I have attended a handful of times sent me a letter that she sent to her family and friends for the holiday season.  Here it is, modified for our family’s needs.   Thank you, Linda.

 

Dear E and A’s Family and Friends,

 

We are sending out this “mass” mailing to connect with all of our daughters’ wonderful family before the holiday season.  We plan on being in Delaware the first weekend of December to celebrate E’s birthday.  While I have Thanksgiving off this year, I work the next day, so we plan on staying home for Thanksgiving.  Since we spent Christmas with my family last year, we will be spending Dec 26-30 in Pittsburgh. 

 

 First- we want to thank you all for your incredible generosity over the last 3 years.  Because of you, our girls have been clothed in style, read to from an extensive library, and play with great toys. We understand that this is a year of financial hardship for many.  Please do not feel obligated to give gifts to our family this year.  If your situation allows you to do so, please only buy for the girls.  Bryan and I have what we need, and will be making this holiday simpler by doing the same for our families.  

 

 It has been our goal to set aside $1,000 a year each into savings for E and A.  This was easy in Alaska with the PFD fund, but its harder here in NY.  Every dollar that you and our extended family/friend network have sent them has gone into this account and we have been staying on target towards meeting our goal.  Thank you for your help with this!

 

This holiday we would prefer gifts for their future funds.  If you are considering a present, we ask that you keep the following in mind:

 

1.      Please keep it small.  If they each get just one thing from you they will be better gifted than most children in America. Don’t forget to check Craig’s List or Ebay for this stuff.  It will still be new to the girls and its gentler on the Earth. 

 

2.      They already have an extensive collection of stuffed animals.  Please don’t give them any more. 

 

3.      E would enjoy any of the  “Melissa and Doug” wooden food play sets.  Her imagination goes wild these days.  She has a set of play pots and pans already.   She would also love to add to her collection of Thomas trains for her trainset.  This will be her birthday theme.  I think they do make a few girl train engines.  Her trains are all used, and show the signs. 

 

4.      E also loves puzzles, books, running, telling stories, singing songs, and playing outside.  She would love a subscription to literary magazine “High Five” and other preschool age magazines would be a big hit (National Wildlife Federation and National Geographic both have one.)  

 

5.   Book ideas:  Pretend Soup or Salad People by Mollie Katzen, (yes, the author of the beloved Moosewood Cookbook series writes vegetarian cookbooks for kids, too). Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont, Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell, Adele and Simon by Barbara McClintock, Pat the Bunny for Alex, any signing video for Alex, The Cow who Clucked by Denise Fleming, 1,2,3, Moose by Andrea Helmen.  Check out http://www.joancarrisbooks.com/babies.html for more kids book reviews by age. 

 

6.      They both love dancing to music – from folk to hip hop.  CD’s to add to their collection would be wonderful. 

 

7.  E could use some warm fall-winter clothes, size 3T for shirts, and 2T or 3T for pants.  She LOVES to wear dresses, too, but doesn’t have any long sleeved play dresses for winter.  If you buy pants, be sure they have an adjustable waistband.  Since she’s now potty trained and a VERY tiny kid, most of her pants fall right off her.  Size 18 month are too short.  She doesn’t have any jeans that fit right now.  Old Navy seems to run slimmer than most (I remember she couldn’t wear them with cloth diapers because they were too slim).  She is 25-26 pounds, and JUST getting into size 3T for shirts.  She probably won’t fit into a 4T for a year and half, so no larger than 3T.  Alex is pretty good on clothes.  She is an average kid size wise, and will soon transition to 6-9 month sized clothes. 

 

8.      Please consider the fact that toys (and other products) made from plastics and other synthetic materials (including cloth, electronics, and paint) have been found to contain chemicals that are damaging to the development of healthy children (in particular lead, PVC, phthalates, and bisphenol-A).  We are trying to limit the number of synthetics the girls handle every day.  It is very hard given our plastic centered world.  But every new non-synthetic toy brings us one step closer.

 

9.    Here are some resources for natural toys:

 

o       “Melissa and Doug” toys are available in most stores that carry toys and they are certified non-toxic, with a strong safety inspection system.

o       Maukilo – great variety and selection of non-toxic awesome toys (from puzzles, to books, to games, to toys).  www.maukilo.com    866-628-5456

o       Rosie Hippos “wooden toys, books, games, & music”  www.rosiehippo.com   800-385-2620

o       www.urthchild.com – organic clothes, organic skin care, organic bedding, and wooden toys

 

Please pass the word on to anyone you know who is thinking of giving the girls’ gifts this year.

 

We love you all.  Thank you for keeping the health and future of our children and our planet in mind this holiday season.

 

Take care and see you soon.

Love,

C, B, E, and A

 

Tonight’s dinner: Salmon burgers (sadly, using store-bought canned wild alaskan salmon), quinoa-carrot pilaf, salad

 Last night’s dinner: Spagetti and meatballs, italian bread

Wednesday’s dinner: Parmesan parseleyed tilapia, salad, quinoa

5 days and I’m out

Of NaBloPoMo, that is.  On Thursday, I worked 10 AM-10 PM.  I didn’t think to post in the morning.  I left work at 11 PM, and got home around 11:30.  I often wind down by checking my email before going to bed.  At 11:45, I finally remembered that I hadn’t posted.  SO I wrote a short and sweet post, and pushed the ‘publish’ button at 11:55 pm, a good 5 mins before my midnight deadline.  Don’t ya know, I got a connectivity error.  Really, I did!  Our cable was out for some reason, and becasue our internet comes through our cable, I was out of luck.  It worked fine at 11:30, but sometime betweeen then an 11:55, it went down, and when I went to bed ad 12:30, it was still out.  But that doesn’t explain Friday, which I had off completely.  Or yesterday, when I only worked 8AM-5pm.  I guess I figured that I’m out, so now the pressure’s off.  I’d like to keep up the rest of the month, though, after my little hiatus.  We’ll see.  Its tougher than I thought it would be to post EVERY DAY! 

Today has been busy.  I took the girls to church, then we all went to our local (20 miles away) wholesale club, and since we were in town, went to a Mexican place for lunch.   Bryan and I each had a little girl and a shopping cart, and we’re exhausted.  Imagine if we were doing our marathon once-monthly shopping day in Fairbanks with two girls.  I don’t know how we’d do it.  This afternoon the STeelers play, and we’ll get the game on cable.  I’m off, so it should be a nice family evening at home. 

Also, Alex learned how to roll over this week.  When put on the floor, she’ll immediately go from her back to her belly, then give a little squeal.  She’s really getting to be a lot of fun.  She hasn’t figured out how to go from her belly to her back yet.  If only she would sleep at night… 

Tonight’s dinner: Turkey kielbasa and sauerkraut with pierogies

Last night’s dinner: Chinese take-out

Faith in my fellow citizens

Until yesterday, the last two elections have been thoroughly disappointing for me.  First, in 2000 with the whole Gore-Florida-chad debacle.  I firmly believed, though, that the democratic party would energize itself after this because now, clearly, every vote really DOES count.  I was confident that the American people would not re-elect George Bush for a second term.  As the results came in, that night, though, in 2004, I lost faith in the American people.  How could that happen?  I lost faith in the political system in this country.  The last four years, as one after another federal organization has lost credibility, from the EPA to the FDA to the military to rampant special interests coming above the needs of the American people, and now even the SEC, I continued to bury my head in the sand.  Yesterday, as I watched Barak Obama make his acceptance speech, the hope that began to flicker within me about 8 months ago, is shining brightly.  We did it.  The American people have had enough and are ready for change.  The thing is, meaningful change can’t happen without involvement.  The people must be ready to do more than vote to get us out of some of these messes we’re now in.  We all must do our part to serve our community.  What will you do?  What will I do?

Spoiled nights and a plea for help

From the age of 2 months until about a week ago, A. has been sleeping through the night.  She would go down between 9:30-11:00 pm and sleep until 6:30-7:30 AM.  For a baby that hasn’t yet started solids, and is exclusively breastfed, this was an unusual suprise, but one that we got used to quickly, and even counted on once I started working again when she was 3 months old.  She even fell asleep in her crib by herself a handful of times.   She battled her first cold last week, and though her symptoms are almost gone, this week she has an aversion to sleeping by herself.   She has been up every 90 mins-2 hours for the last 5 nights.  This leads to her sleeping with us out of pure survival mechanisms, but she doesn’t sleep any better there than in her crib, and is nursing every two hours or more.  She also has reduced her pumped breastmilk intake while I am gone.  We’re ready to try anything (except formula).  Our pediatrician wants us to wait to introduce solids until she is 6 months, but I’m ready to start something in the evenings when she turns 5 months.  She won’t take a pacifier, and generally wakes up screaming everytime we try to put her in her crib.  I’m not even sure she’ll take cereal as this child still has a gag reflex to beat the band.  She wakes up her older sister, so in general, none of us have had a good night’s sleep in the last 5 nights.  To say we’re edgy is probably an understatement.    For one, we need to establish a bedtime routine.  Until now, we just put her down when she falls asleep in our arms, but this isn’t working anymore.  Maybe a fan in her room will help, too.  Apparently this reduces the incidence of SIDS, too.  Any other suggestions? 

Tonight’s dinner:  Chicken Rizzolis courtesy of Marilyn!  Yummo!

VOTE

Please, please, please VOTE tomorrow.  If you are STILL undecided, check out Campaign Issues 2008.  Polls here in NY STates are open 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM.  Give yourself plenty of time in case the record numbers actually show up.  Not sure where to vote?  Click here.  Still not sure after checking out the issues?  Just vote for Obama. 

Tonight’s dinner:  leftover chili over rice with corn muffins. 

GO STEELERS!  Good luck tonight on Monday Night Football!

Kesugi Ridge

Bryan gets a magazine called Mother Earth News. Its a great little periodical about living in an earth-friendly manner.     Today I was flipping through, and on their reader photographs page was a two page panorama shot of Denali and seemingly miles and miles of the surrounding Alaska Range.  This was taken from a 27 mile backpacking trail in the Talkeetnas between Anchorage and Fairbanks, the Kesugi Ridge Trail.  Denali State Park contains the trail, and it runs parallel to the AK Range, across the highway from Denali National Park.  They say you get the best views of Denali not from within Denali National Park, but up on this Kesugi Ridge.  Bryan and I always had the Kesugi Ridge trail on our Alaska to-do list, but it never got done.  Why, oh why did we not make time for this spectacular hike?

Tonight’s dinner: Mom’s chili over macaroni, corn muffins