Hey, my baby's still in that bathwater!

I know that there are far too many c-sections nowadays.  I know that there are moms who schedule a whole package and the tummy tuck is done before the c-section is closed up.  But that doesn't mean that c-sections are never required.  Without one, without the heart monitor that showed he needed one, there would be no Biscuit.  So, as I commented on the post over at Mom's Rising, take a second to mention that you don't think ALL c-sections are unnecessary and that for some mamas and babies they are lifesaving.  Because when I read posts like this what I hear is "Sorry, but c-sections are just money makers for the doctors. Your baby should have died."  I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt and admitting that she probably didn't mean that, but the proof is in her future posts. Will those of us who have our children thanks to c-sections get a little nod, a little credit for doing the right thing, instead of just being looked at as poor dupes of the system?

Stupid mommy wars.

I'm quoting my comment here, but it probably makes more sense to go read the post it's a response to over there.

Because I had a fine pregnancy and didn't want invasive prenatal testing, we had no idea that our son had a major heart defect and Down syndrome -- but he did. Our first inkling that something was wrong was what his heart monitor showed when I had a contraction. It is a fact that without that monitor and the c-section it showed he needed (not me, him) he would have been stillborn because his defective heart could not have handled labor and delivery.

Please remember that when you rail against the medical establishment sticking their noses into a natural process like birth you are telling moms like me that our kids should have died. I'm not saying that you think that; I'm saying that when you are silent about the lives saved you are in effect saying that. Please take a moment and a line or two in your future posts to acknowledge that some of us have our precious children *thanks* to baby monitors, c-sections, and very caring doctors.

Believe me when I say that for the most part I agree with what you have written. By making monitoring a standard policy unnecessary c-sections will happen because some doctors are more worried about malpractice than actually doing the best thing for the patient(s) in front of them, as backward as that sounds. All I'm asking is that you not throw the baby out with the bathwater because that's *my* baby and I love him.

Tomato Soup

I made this soup last night and polished off the rest of it today.  I would have taken photos, but it broke a little and while tasting fantastic it looked a little funny.  Weird, but so what, it tasted great!

I found this recipe at Winker thanks to a Google search.  Here's what she did:

Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
half a cup of cream or milk
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz)
salt, pepper, and sugar to taste

Melt butter in a saucepan. Cook the onions in the butter gently until they are softened and translucent (maybe 15 minutes). Stir in the flour until it's completely combined with the butter. Gradually stir in the cream or milk and the broth. Mix in the baking soda and heat through. Add the tomatoes with their juice and puree with a stick blender. Heat through and add salt, sugar, and pepper to taste.

I didn't have a can of diced tomatoes, I had a can of organic tomato sauce.  And I didn't feel like getting out my immersion blender when I was using sauce anyway... besides I like onions.  So I minced the onion as finely as possible and just skipped that whole blending thing.  When adding the seasonings at the end I skipped the salt since the sauce I used has salt in it. It was good.  Even my non-tomato soup eating husband thought it was good - for tomato soup.  I think that was saying a lot.  I thought it was so nummy I needed to post about it.

Now if I could just get either kid to eat soup.  Hints welcome!

Hey, Medical Profession! Look at this!

Enjoy! I sure did. Thanks, Jennifer, for sharing this in your post. This is the kind of thing I like to see spread around the net virally.





Updated to add a title because I'm a twit that clicks Publish too fast.

Patrick Thibodeau's Basketball Game

I hope you like this as much as I did. Needed a tissue at the end though, even after I'd seen it a few times.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I love the way his teammates treat him like a teammate, not someone to be pitied. *That's* what it means to be a part of the community.

Feel free to Google his name and find more copies of the video. I found a nice article on Deadspin but the comments, for the most part, were not something I enjoyed reading. Jokes about "Down's" that I wouldn't suggest anyone should expose their eyes to. So, Buddy Walks still have more work to do. On my to-do list: contacting whoever runs Deadspin about sponsoring a Buddy Walk next fall.


Updated to correct my poor grammar!

My Special Baby Crazy

I commented a little over at Pinwheels about big brothers/little sisters. I'm wondering how many of us Special Needs Mamas still felt the baby bug after having our special-er little one. In the midst of all the worry, concern, grieving for the perfect baby you thought you'd have, maybe even grieving for the birth that you wanted to experience, wondering if the older members of your family will accept and love your new one despite his differences, and the exhaustion is there time for being baby crazy for more children?

I have wanted 3 kids for as long as I have wanted kids. I'm 43 years old and I mean since 2002 (6 years), the year my husband proposed. I figured I wasn't too old to have kids but that we'd have to get moving on it as soon as the giant huge wedding happened. My husband would joke about wanting 5 kids, but I told him I could probably only manage 3 pregnancies in the time I had left so he'd better make 2 of those twins. Somehow, in that banter and joking it got set in my head that we would have 3 to make a family of 5. I just cannot shake that.

So we had The Biscuit right away and I think of him as a celebration of our wedding, though he was a little bit later than a honeymoon baby. We had The Cupcake in a celebration of finally getting to act like a family and take The Biscuit on vacation to my family's cabin in Montana. It was exhilarating, fun, and what we should have been able to do the year before, but the pediatric cardiologist said 4 hours away from the nearest hospital was unacceptable.

On the way home that year we drove home a totally different way than we had ever gone and passed through Logan, Utah. We stayed at a beautiful Hampton Inn, bought some flip-flops for me at a Wal-Mart (I place I only shop at on vacation through no great plan, that's just how it works out), and were excited that the only Starbucks was right across the street and had Grand Opening signs up. Turns out they were opening the next week, so no hot chocolates for us, but we still left Logan with a nice feeling. A feeling that for me has turned into baby #3. NOT THAT I'M PREGNANT. BECAUSE I AM NOT PREGNANT. I just know that somewhere out there Logan is waiting for us and someday Logan will be my third child. I know this with every looney cell in my looney body. I am totally open to the idea that by the time we are ready I'll be too old and Logan will come to our family by adoption. But I completely believe that he (or she) will come.

So, for now, I'm kinda perma-baby crazy. In a very specific way. And The Biscuit's special needs do play a part in it. It's guilt for what The Cupcake may need to do when we are gone. She may have to shoulder the responsibility for caring for him. And if Logan does join our family then she will have someone to share that responsibilty with. Otherwise it's all.on.her.

Duh-duh-duh! [/ominous music] Mommy guilt sucks.

I took the time to sit down and write this out tonight while making dinner (late, again) because The Cupcake came to the gate between their playroom and the kitchen and asked for some milk, by telling me her cup was "T" (empty). As soon as I took it and seemed satisfied with her signing MORE PLEASE she ran off and got her brother's empty cup and brought it to me too. So here we are. She's not even 2 years old and it seems to just be a part of her to help. She has Eldest Daughter syndrome, and there's not a darn thing I can do about it. Lucky Logan.

Slideshow of Earth from Space

This is one of those "forward to everyone you know things" which I normally abhor, but I'm a sucker for photos of the Earth from space.  I really like the way features are labeled so I'm sure I'm seeing what I'm seeing.

Enjoy!

Aaarrrggghhh!

Dear Interwebs,

Mommy needs a break, so I thought I would tell you about my afternoon.  Well, a part of my afternoon.  We have started an adventure in cloth diapering which is going really well, but every once in awhile I don't follow my "daily constitutional" routine and surprise Mommy with a very messy diaper when she was just sure that it was safe to put me in one of the back-up, not-quite-as-good diapers.  I got her really good today!  That's why she needed a break.

Good times.

Hugs & kisses (& poo),
The Cupcake

SMA

I read PostSecret every week. It's how I know that it's Sunday some weeks. This week I was touched by one secret and moved to action by another. These links just show you the postcards - please follow the link to the main page to see the comments other people have made -- the community that springs up around a secret is worth it.

I want to share in the hopes that more people will go sign this petition (I know, I know, cheesy, but this time it seems worth it).

Tortillas

I just read this hilarious little post on Daring Young Mom .  I thought about sharing my rant there, but that didn't seem in the spirit of things, so I'm getting on my soap box over here where I belong.

I work really hard not to buy foods with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and trans fats.  Tortillas are the hardest thing to find.  Even if they have 0% trans fats per serving there may still be partially hydrogenated oils in the ingredient list.  I just checked Mission's web site (search for "trans fat" on that page and you'll find several informative sections) and they claim that they have stopped using these, but the stores I shop at aren't stocking the new product.

Lately I've given up looking at the regular grocery stores to see if the companies have finally come around (although I'm glad that Mission has realized it was a bad idea) and just buy our tortillas at Trader Joe's.  They have packages of 10 tortillas for less than $2 that freeze beautifully.  And -- drum roll, please -- no freaky ingredients!

Thank you, Trader Jose!

DonorsChoose.org -- technology meets charity on a personal level

You may notice there's a new widget on my blog. I now have a Giving Page on DonorsChoose.org of my very own. I'm not doing this as part of a challenge (although they kind of forced me to join one, weird), I just want to try to pitch in and send some attention to teachers that I think deserve some help for their cool projects.

If you aren't familiar with how DonorsChoose.org works let me explain. Teachers post proposals with the help of the DonorsChoose.org people and you go search through them and find ones that you want to donate to. You are donating whatever amount you want to a specific teacher's project. You can sort and filter based on all sorts of things. I chose to focus on Special Needs classrooms that are serving preschool age kids. Once I had put a few of those on my page I got excited and added some more where the total needed is less than $100. That means that your $25 or $50 or $100 (or $5 if you're in a boat like mine) could complete the funding of this proposal and get the materials needed into those kids' hands. So please, take a minute and see if there is something that inspires you. Use my page as a starting off point or just go to DonorsChoose.org and search on your own.

I had heard of this website linking donors directly with teachers last year during their Bloggers Challenge. It fell out of my head until I saw an ad on YouData tonight. Go, YouData!

Dear President-Elect Obama,

Dear President-Elect Obama,
Originally uploaded by KYouell.
This is my contribution to the Message For Obama pool on Flickr. You can search for the tag "messageforobama" to see more.

Here is what the text says:

"She's 18 months old and typical. He's 3 years old, has Down syndrome and a heart defect that may require more medical intervention.

"I want her to be happy, healthy and independent. I want him to be happy, healthy and independent.

"I don't want her to have to take care of him when we are gone. To accomplish our goals we need *your* support.

"Please support Early Intervention Programs, Inclusion Programs, and help us get health care we can actually afford to use."

*****
Here is the rest of the message I wrote:

Some of us believe that abortion should not be illegal, yet we wouldn't dream of having one ourselves.

Some of us do the best we can, make a decent living and then get blindsided with medical bills and a situation that is hard to dig our way out of.

Even if I won the lottery and money was never an object for me ever again, I couldn't buy inclusion in our community for my son. That requires the participation of the community in welcoming him in.

Don't forget that some of the people that cannot (yet) speak for themselves are not babies that the anti-choice people are trying to speak for, but they are babies that are here, have loving families, and *still* need the help of society.

It's nice to finally feel good about the outcome of an election. Thank you for the hope you have kindled in my heart. Wednesday, 11/5/2008, felt like Christmas morning did when I was small. Magical!

My Intro to YouData

Way back when I learned about sk*rt from OMSH (you know, Heather, who commented once that she promises never to make me drink any Kool-Aid). Sk*rt eventually became Kirtsy, Heather became an editor, and I just don't go there often. I do get their emails every week or so and I certainly pay attention to contests. Especially contests where they are giving away a free laptop (it's over -- I didn't win). I was curious about this whole YouData thing and went to their site to learn more.

Well, the first thing you need to do is fill out some surveys about yourself. I'm a sucker for surveys. Just love giving people my opinion about things. So I signed right up and proceded to survey away. That took no time at all and then I could go look at some ads. Just some cute little banner ads in their ad viewer on the website. Boom, I had earned 25-cents. Not much, but more than I usually bring home. (Why, oh why, don't I get paid for each poopy diaper I change???) So, since it was a lot easier than changing a diaper and they promised to put a shiny quarter in my PayPal account, I was having fun. I clicked thru each banner to the respective advertisers' websites to earn some more change, 15-cents here, 17-cents there. The next thing I knew I had learned about Kiva.org and seen some scary (as in eww, I don't want to dust that) Halloween figurines and some crazy expensive baby furniture. Random surfing could have produced the same results. Pretty soon the kids needed me so I got off the computer.

I didn't think about it until a few days later when I got an email from PayPal saying that I've received $3. Huh? Sure enough it's from YouData. Well, thank you! So I instantly go back and view more ads and listen to the happy little ka-ching sound. I am loving YouData.

Polycarbonate vs. Polypropylene

I just heard through some mamas that I trust that it's a bad idea to put food storage containers in the dishwasher, as the heat can cause yucky chemicals to leach out. Eww. So, thinks I, I will get some glass storage for our leftovers. Haha! Thwarted the plastics industry. And lo and behold we have a Chefs Catalog just sitting around begging me to have a reason to look through it. So this morning I do.

They have 1 (count 'em -- one) listing for glass storage. And they have "poly" lids. Poly-what lids, I ask? A quick flip through the rest of the catalog shows that they have other storage that is polycarbonate (one of the options for that is stainless-steel containers but they still have the polycarbonate lids), and some cutting boards that are made from polypropylene. So I then asked myself what's the difference between polycarbonate and polypropylene, and are either one of them safe?

A quick read of the Wikipedia pages for both made me sure that polycarbonate was not something I wanted near our food. The polypropylene page wasn't so clear so I kept looking. I found a site called Safe Mama that has a tag for the listings about polypropylene. It looks to me like polypropylene is not a hazardous choice to be near our food. I still think I'm going to opt for the Anchor Hocking sets that have glass lids and leave all the plastic behind. I found that they have 3 sizes on Cooking.com along with a ton of other items like cookie jars and chalkboard jars (how cool!) when I searched the site for "anchor hocking storage." I saw the same 3 pieces sold as a set at my local grocery store so I'm going to compare the price before I buy, but this is what I'm going with.

Oh, one other thing I learned on those Wikipedia pages. Polycarbonate has a plastics identification code of 7 and polypropylene is a 5. Just so you can look at what you have in your cupboard and not wonder what it is. As long as there is a number inside of a triangle made of arrows, you can be sure of what you've got. There's even a Wikipedia page with a chart listing all of the codes and linking back to the pages for individual types of plastics.

Enjoy! And keep your food safe.

A reason not to Homeschool?

I've been daydreaming about homeschooling my kids since before I got pregnant. Now that The Biscuit is in preschool and hating it -- I have to stay with him the whole time or he's just a panic attack in the corner -- I'm fighting myself not to pull him.

Now I run across this story and it makes me think that what I should be doing is getting him out of the house every day at school time, even though school is only twice a week. Once he gets that this is the routine I know he'll be ok, but 2 days a week is not enough of a routine that he's going to grasp it quickly. Then we have breaks because I needed to go on a trip and we came home and got sick and it really makes less sense to him. I think that he thinks that school is over. Whew, got through that. Sorry, little dude. Not *even* the case. And I don't need you regressing when you are 25. Not that I blame the parents in the story. In their case I think I would have made the exact same choices. But it sure makes me wonder what I'm setting him up for if I don't get him up and outta here every single day.

Election Gas

Has anyone else noticed that as the election gets closer gas prices are coming down? I'm suspicious! Damn oil profiteers and their war and cronies and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I swear I'd have a stroke if I didn't have a blog to dump some of this frustration on.

Free Starbucks? Sign me up!

Thank you, Heather, for pointing me at this cute Lego photo of MommyKnows'. I had no idea that Legos came in those colors; they are still choking hazards for my kids. The super cool part is that the photo has a link to MommyKnows' blog and that has an post where she is giving away $10 Starbucks gift cards. Woot! Doubling my entry by telling you about it. Go comment and get in the drawing.

Buddy Walk!!!

It's this weekend in our part of the world. Come join us!

Sponsor me!

Join our team (Biscuit Patrol)!

Learn more about the local group your dollars will be supporting!

Find a Buddy Walk in your area!


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.