Buddy Walk!!!

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Get off your duff and walk a mile with us!

Our Visitor

One of the highlights of our trip was waking up to a voice mail message on my cell phone from the alarm company. One of our motion detectors had gone off. I called them back and told them we were in California and asked could they tell me any more? Just that the police had been called and we were safe to assume that the police had found nothing since the police had not called the alarm company back. Yeah, right. So we called the police dept and got basically the same answer. The officer had found nothing. Had he looked in the backyard? Oh, of course, they always do that. Uh-huh.

As our trip continued we realized that the zone that had gone off was the one that is incorrectly labeled as a motion sensor and is really a door or window -- we couldn't remember which. Great.

So when we arrived home my husband walked all through the house and all around the house and found nothing. Ok, must have been nothing.

About 6 hours later (I think), after having been out in the mud room numerous times to tend to laundry, guess what flew from the mud room into the kitchen? A bat. That's right, a frickin' bat! We finally convinced it to go back to the mud room where we could shut it off from the rest of the house. Then my husband went around and opened the back door and eventually convinced it that outside was better than inside.

Good times. At least when the alarm went off it wasn't a false alarm. At least no one got bit. My advice is to not leave unscreened doors and windows open when packing a car at night for a trip. Or to get screens. I know I really want them now.

So I took this little trip...

to Sacramento. I went to a conference and my family communed with our extended families and their pets.

I got very little sleep starting with driving all night to get there. During the conference I either had a late night at workshops/meetings or stayed up late to get in some kid and hubby time. Then we drove straight back overnight. I'm barely awake and doing things.

In fact, I was just going to read 2 blogs and then get that load of clothes in the washer going as the presoak has had plenty long to do its job. What should I find but that Kathryn at Daring Young Mom has actually mentioned *me* in her post about laundry. So now that I've given her some linky love back, I'm off to throw some more clothes in with some Charlie's Soap (love, love, love, love). Then a nap.

Hahahahaha! Moms don't get to nap. :-(

PS -- Before I could hit post both kids were slipping on the Pergo floor. Why would that be? Could it be the spit and chewed up Goldfish cracker paste that must have appeared while I was typing? I can let you know that the Charlie's Soap All-Purpose cleaner (diluted 10:1) got that mess up with no problems. Other than me being disgusted, I mean.

Not Really a Formula Recall

I got an update that infant formula made in China may have excessive amounts of melamine. Yeah, the stuff they make bowls out of. We aren't supposed to worry because no formulas made in China have been approved for sale in the U.S. I thought it was interesting for this sentence:

Melamine artificially increases the protein profile of milk and can cause kidney diseases.

Whoa. Satisfies some of my curiosity about why Chinese products keep having these bizarre things in them.

HABA recall (old news)

I'm just getting caught up on my news from the gov't. We've been given several HABA toys as gifts. Ooh, they're wood! Ooh, they're from Germany, not China! Yet they are still subject to recalls. Just in case you are like me and think that you had found a "safe" brand of toy. Sigh.

CPSC HABA recall info with pictures.

Sewing Project -- kids' pants

I found this through Balancing Everything. It is a super easy way to make kids' pants out of t-shirts. Now I know what I'm going to do with all those t-shirts I bothered to pack and move up here even though I don't wear them. Hallelujah, I don't have to wonder whether to spend the Carter's Store gift certificate on day clothes or pjs!

Busy, busy, hard, hard.

That about sums up my life right now. I have 9 tabs open in Chrome (Google's new browser that I'm trying out) of things I need to do or write about. I also have a text file with the urls of 6 more. I think that I'll just go with a bullet list for now.

• I'm going to vote for Obama. Even though Gov. Sarah Palin also has a son with Down syndrome, I am not changing my support just for that. There's a lot more to a person than how many copies of his 21st chromosome her son has. Obama gives me hope, and I enjoy voting *for* someone instead of strategically trying to make my vote count. Blah.
• I'm not going to see Tropic Thunder, but then I probably wasn't going to anyway. But now I won't Netflix it.
• The Biscuit started preschool and he doesn't like it. Part of me really wants to say, "Fine we are homeschooling!" but I know we need to give it more than 2 days.
• The Buddy Walk is coming up! Go to www.buddywalk.org and put in your ZIP code to find one near you. Then go to it. We are in your community, don't pretend we aren't. This isn't a fund-raiser like Race for the Cure and others like that because we aren't trying to find a cure for Down syndrome. This is an awareness-raiser and funds stay local to help families in your community. Please, please, please go. Another more detailed post coming on this.
• Little Miss Cupcake had her first "poo art" as in playing with the contents of a blow-out diaper. I won't be making peas 2 nights in a row again for awhile. She likes them too much.
• Today I pulled out some clothes that I was saving for her next growth spurt and put her in a dress that was mine when I was little. Totally cool! So I'll probably do a post -- with photos! -- about that.

Now, off to bed with me.

Nononononono

I just counted and preschool starts in 3 weeks.

I'm petrified.

It has nothing to do with me going on a job interview in the morning. Ack! Look at the time! To bed with me already.

Mobile blogging

Looking for a claim token
-kyouell

Ignore that. Just setting up my phone so I can post from it if I want.

Ooh, Carriers Too!

There's a second give-away. Go enter. Now. Go!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Free BumGenius Starter Kit!!!

Yes, I mean those 3 exclamation marks. I want this kit so bad I could spit! So here's my blog entry promoting the contest so that I can get an extra entry. Crossing my fingers for me and my kids' bums!

Go check it out!

Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature's Child - Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies

Rex Kwon Do

Diaper Saga

Haven't had much to say lately, but our dramas do continue. The Biscuit gave us a sign yesterday that he might be ready to start potty training: he pooped in his diaper then removed it, running around the play area with poop still hanging from his cute little butt. I have now determined that the sleeping bag we use as a giant floor cushion in that room does in fact fit in our washer and that the little flimsy drying rack I have can hold the weight of about 1/3 of said sleeping bag (the rest of it laying over the deck railing). Thankfully, (HA!) it was 101 degrees yesterday so the sleeping bag dried pretty fast.

On a side note, I'm now kicking myself that we rented a house with no a/c. I remember thinking that it was no big deal because it's freaking Oregon and since it's an older house there are all sorts of windows that we can open to get a breeze from whatever direction it is coming. Which *would* work great if a good half of the windows weren't painted shut! [kick, kick!]

We have been having a problem with The Biscuit's diapers leaking overnight so switched to a nighttime pull-up. Yeah, just because Kimberly-Clark says that it's just for nighttime doesn't mean it's strong enough to take him and all his milk drinking. I've gone ahead and ordered a custom-made $50 diaper for him through Tallulah Baby. That is a fully-loaded for nighttime, with some special adjustments for his particular body shape, diaper and a cover (and shipping). I'm looking forward to it!

We are using gDiapers with The Cupcake almost all of the time now. I'm going to invest in some prefolds (unbleached India prefolds if I can find them for a good price) to use as inserts in them instead of the gDiaper flushables that we are buying now. The next step is some BumGenius diapers which should fit both kids so that even when The Biscuit is fully potty-trained they will still work on The Cupcake. Trying hard here to make a wise investment, before taking reselling them on eBay into consideration. Somewhere in there we get to buy cloth wipes too. From what I've heard (and experienced with the gDiapers) it's extra yukky to try to separate those non-flushable baby wipes from what you are flushing and washing. I'm not ready to switch to the flushable toddler wipes yet, so I think we are just going to go ahead and go the cloth route. From what I hear flannel receiving blankets make great ones when cut down and the edges are serged, so that will be my first serger project. Just as soon as I get some power to my sewing area. Ah, old houses.

Oh, and for the people who are curious about diapers piling up and smelling, I can say that I am already over-caught up with laundry like never before. Basically I have the opposite problem in that I am usually wanting to wash diapers and scouring the house for things to wash with them. I've never been more on top of the laundry than I have since we started using the gDiapers for The Cupcake. So I really do think that's a fear, not an actual issue. Maybe it's left over from diaper service days, when you kept the diapers for someone else to pick up and wash?

Updated to add links. Doh!

Homeschooling/Unschooling

I sent my husband an email and then realized it should be a blog post.

I joined a Yahoo group for unschoolers pretty soon after we moved. Not that I know what that means, but I wanted to learn. I'm one of those weird products of public school that loves learning. Go figure!

Anyway, a blog that I had been avoiding because I knew I would get hooked on it sucked me into its web today. Jessica, formerly Very Mom and Kerflop, has a new blog about her homeschooling/unschooling adventure called Balancing Everything.

None of the posts are long. These two I found especially fascinating since I am someone who also wants to take the plunge.

This one talks about her LDS-based reasons for homeschooling. While I am not of that religious persuasion I still think it is worth reading for parents whose children fall under the category of Special Education. Don't forget that "gifted and talented" students are part of Special Ed (at least that's what they called us in the 70's and 80's).

There is a post that gave me a new perspective on public school, mostly because that was not my experience. And that may very well be because I was part of the whole Gifted thing. Huh, just dawned on me that I was not mainstreamed for English and Math from second grade on.

Two more posts reminded me of me. One of my laziness and the other of how I'm trying so hard not to post things that will let scary people do bad things to us.

Then she gets to the hopeful part and the beginning of a plan.

Proof they are learning!

There's more, but not much as of yet. But I'm really inspired. And that's why I wanted to share. Now go read!

Happy Early Mother's Day to the Congresswoman from Washington State

Here is this year's message and, just because it touched my heart, here is last year's introduction of her son, Cole. He's really grown!

Of to go cry more, because it's so good that this caucus exists and because I wish my son was talking that much.

Glow In The Woods

I've pondered what to write other than, "Go read. Bear witness. Say their children's names. Learn how to be a help instead of making them feel invisible." Really that should be enough. You should go. But instead I've been pondering why it is so important to me. Why do I feel so drawn to this group?

Two things came to me this afternoon:

1. My dad's aunt and uncle, who raised him and his brother, had a son of their own who died of SIDS. As the story goes, one Easter morning they got up and the baby was blue.
2. My mom's mom either had one or two babies before my eldest uncle (depends on who is telling the story). As it is there is an 18-year gap between the oldest and the youngest of my aunts/uncles. If the first baby had lived there would have been 20 years.
   

So the loss that draws me to these women's stories is not just the grieving for the perfect son that I thought we had for 2 days, but there is also a desire to understand these two women that were such a big part of my life.

What are you doing for Mother's Day?

I have decided that for my Mother's Day I would like to join Standing Women. Go check out their story and see if there will be a group standing in a park that you would like to join.

Update: I found the page about the original book this idea is based on. The author also has a blog, but it seems to stop in 2007 and doesn't have any updates about the 2008 event.

"Jim Never Asks for Seconds at Home"

I know. Stupid line from Airplane taken from stupider instant coffee ads in my childhood. But I was so happy that my husband boyfriend* wants me to make more bread! I tried it once and it turned out very delicious. When he asked me to bake some again this line popped into my head.

Sadly, it's taken me about 24 hours to find the recipe again. I knew that it was from a link in a comment on Daring Young Mom. I knew that there were 3 pages of comments on the site that actually had the recipe. And I knew that I had combed those for necessary changes and had made a text file with the original recipe (which made 2 loaves) and the changes from the comments. Then I had a second text file with my 1 loaf version. How hard could it be to find a text file?

Well it turns out that the recipe (and so my file name) is "Outrageously Easy Big Bread" so all my searching under "bread" and "easy" yielded nothing. I gave up and started searching through DYM's archives. At least we haven't been in this house long and I knew I'd made the bread here. Luckily she tagged it "food" and it was in the third post I read! Yahoo!

I know this wasn't that interesting, but I don't want to lose the recipe again. So I shall share it with you. First the credits:

Daring Young Mom's post
The comment by Slawebb
The link that Slawebb included in her comment

And here is my version for only 1 loaf (advice and comments in parenthesis are from the original link):

Ingredients:

1 packet of yeast
2 T warm water
1 C hot water
1.5 T sugar
0.5 t salt
1.5 C flour
2T + 2t vegetable or corn oil
1.5 C flour



Directions:

Note: This recipe works best if all ingredients are set out, ready to go, in advance.

Pour warm water into a small ceramic bowl and add the yeast, but DO NOT STIR. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, pour hot water over the sugar and salt, then stir with a wooden spoon to completely dissolve. Combine 1.5 cups flour with the water mixture. Pour the oil on top of the dough mixture then add the yeast mixture on top of that, but DO NOT STIR. Top with the remaining 1.5 cups of flour and mix well. (I begin mixing with the wooden spoon but I very quickly have to move into squishing the dough with my hands.) At this point, the dough should be pliant and moist, but not gooey. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set aside to rise for at least 45 minutes. (I've left it for almost two hours.)

Knead the dough if you want. Flatten it into roughly an oval/rounded rectangular shape, about 1/2- to 3/4-inch thickness; then roll the dough lengthwise and place on an ungreased, but very BIG, cookie sheet. Cover the dough with a moist towel and set aside to rise again for another 45 minutes (or longer).

After the dough has risen the second time, preheat the oven to 375 and bake for exactly 23 minutes. If you can keep everyone from digging in right away, allow to cool for about 15 minutes and then enjoy.

Enjoy!


*He's decided that it was more fun to be boyfriend/girlfriend.

He is ours and that is that.

I was getting caught up on Sweet|Salty Kate and that led my brain to this:

I get comments like "How do you do it?" and I wonder that these people think I had a choice. The Biscuit is who we got. He is ours and that is that. Then I run across a woman who is adopting a boy with Down syndrome because his bio parents decided to only take home the typical twin from the hospital. It makes me wonder what that NICU nurse who mentioned there are waiting lists of people that want to adopt a baby with Down syndrome was really trying to say; was she offering me a choice?


(Edited to fix a spelling error.)

Ok, I admit it, I suck at this blogging thing. I have plenty to say when I read posts on someone else's blog, but then not much left when it comes to here.

And as I go to bed with the children -- literally in our big bed with the two of them -- there isn't that coveted mommy time at the computer after they are sleeping. I'm struggling with how on earth to get The Cupcake to sleep by herself after 9pm instead of on or by me or my husband. Honestly I thought I would be having a problem getting a pacifier away from her at age 3, not getting *me* away from her at 11 months old. Every once in awhile I can roll away from her, put a sleeping Biscuit in his bed and then go see what my guy is up to, but it's rare. I usually fall asleep with them and just get back into whatever side of the bed she has left me after I put him down. It's sad. She's quite the bed-hog and I miss my hubby.

Which is all kind of beside the point because I thought of something to say today. I have a pet peeve language-wise. People breathe in and out, their breath is what they breathe in and out. Use the "e" for the verb, people! And clothes are what we wear. The plural of cloth is cloths. I know it's not following the "add 'es' when the word ends in 'th'" rule, but that's because "clothes" is already a word. Please!

It reminds me of this xkcd comic, except that I've been annoyed with Freecycle and Craigslist, not the whole internet. I've been on them looking for a free or almost-free dryer that is electric. Modifying this rental house for our gas dryer is not going to work. And I can't keep hauling everything to the laundromat as that is too expensive in both time and money. Ack. Whine.

Off to make grilled cheese! Ever tried it with a slice of tomato? Mmm. Excellent. Better than with ham. Even better still is with both ham and tomato!