Happy Halloween!

I am at work. No costume. There was a time when there were costume contests here and lots of pressure to dress up. Now? Just lots of apathy.

We have a pirate and a cowgirl costume for Sophie. Based on her wishes over the last several months. We even found a pumpkin suit thingy that she liked this morning. However, she keeps telling everyone she's going to be a kitty cat...

We initiated "Operation Convince Sophie to Wear the Cowgirl Costume" this morning by acting all excited about the Chaps! and the Vest! and the Hat! And by putting on Toy Story 2 when she asked to watch Dora. She was wearing the pumpkin but then decided she wanted to wear the cowgirl stuff.

Except she ONLY wanted to wear the chaps and the vest. No pants. No shirt. Not going to fly at daycare when it's 40 degrees outside. Obviously. We (okay, I) tried talking to her using her Jessie doll, but no dice.

So, I called them when I got to work and told Aaron that I was going to talk like Jessie. I could hear him in the background: "Sophie! It's Jessie! She wants to wish you a Happy Halloween!"

She gets on the phone: "Hi Jessie."

In my best cowgirl voice: "Hi Sophie, it's Jessie! I heard you were going to dress up as a cowgirl for Halloween! Do you have a hat? And a vest? How fun!"

Sophie: breathing, not answering.

Aaron in the background: "Sophie, is that Jessie?"

Sophie: "No, is Mommy."

Busted!

So, she's at daycare wearing tights and a long-sleeved onesie. Aaron couldn't get her to wear pants, so they compromised on tights. Hopefully we can add some of the cowgirl stuff to the ensemble before we head out tonight.

A good mom always has a Plan B (or is it Plan D at this point?), right? A coworker lent me her cat ears. Just in case.

More Lead in Toys

Except none of these have been recalled at this point.

Thank goodness someone is looking out for our kids. No, not the companies - a consumer group.

U.S. consumer group flags more toys with lead

"Our lab tests detected lead at widely varying levels in samples of dishware, jewelry, glue stick caps, vinyl backpacks, children's ceramic tea sets and other toys and items not on any federal recall list," the group wrote in a magazine report.

Consumers Union said some of the products it tested included a Fisher-Price blood pressure cuff from a toy medical kit, caps from seven Elmer's Glue Sticks and some duck-shaped backpacks.

"We detected the highest concentration of total lead, more than 10,000 parts per million, in a cuff that a child had regularly played with for the past two years," the group wrote.

Another Brick in the Wall

I'm sick. Sophie's sick. She just called me at work (Aaron dialed), very upset that we didn't have any grapes.

We had our tag sale this weekend and it was, um, not exactly the money-maker I'd planned. A friend joined me with her kids and that was fun. Not fun was all the work and the cold wind and the being sick. I made about $60 for weeks of work. Yuck. Remind me of this the next time I want to do a tag sale.

We had our first frost Sunday night. It was so, so cold when we got up in the morning. I had to scramble to find my gloves and coat to drive to work.

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

Does this count as the most boring post ever? I think so.

Happy Birthday to Me!

At approximately 5:30 a.m., I turned 36. Holy hell that feels old. I'm over the hump, going down the hill toward....toward...see, my memory is already failing me.

I tried to tell Sophie that today is Mommy's birthday but she's got birthday fever and she insisted it was her birthday. "No, Mommy, is my birthday...'cause..I need to blow out candles...'cause...I eat cake...'cause...you sing Happy Birthday to Sophie, okay?"

Aaron has to work late tonight so it's just me and Sophie for birthday dinner.

I had a long-overdue doctor's appointment this morning to check on my thyroid and high blood pressure. It's been about a year since the last appointment so I had blood drawn to look at my thyroid and check on my kidney. Also, to check on my wonky finger knuckle*. Apparently I'm suffering from early signs of osteo-arthritis and I need to take glucosamine twice a day. Sweet! Just hand me a cane and call it a day.

Just to keep myself honest, here are some numbers from today's visit:

I weighed in at 148.8 (was 151 about a year ago). So, it went down but is a lot higher than I thought. My doctor said that their scale weighs heavy and that I should really just use it as a comparison to previous visits.

Still, gotta work on that.

(It's crazy to consider that I spent about 2+ years in high school/college not letting myself get above 100 pounds. Bulimic - I loved to eat but didn't want to "be fat". Also, my psycho ex-boyfriend told me my head looked big when I wore v-neck shirts. It's taken a lot for me to look in the mirror and be, mostly, okay with the way I look.)

My blood pressure was 130/90. High. Again. I haven't been exercising as much as I should and I need to work on that. She also suggested seeing if my health insurance covers acupuncture. She doesn't want to put me on blood pressure medication until after I have our next baby. (NO, I'm not pregnant, but we do plan on having one more at some point) I can't be pregnant and be on blood pressure medication.

My sitting pulse was 65.

I'm getting a cold.

I like my doctor. A lot. She's young, has two young girls - one is 7 months and one is 2 1/2.

She suggested another possibility for daycare/preschool in the area that might keep Sophie a bit more stimulated then her current one. We like her daycare, it's just that she's the only talker and we're concerned that she's not going to continue at the same learning pace if she's not inspired. A couple of the very clever older kids have moved onto preschool/kindergarten and now Sophie's left with the less talkative ones. Nice boys, just not the same environment.

Anyhoo, that's the state of things. High blood pressure, heavier than I thought, malfunctioning thyroid and possible arthritis. Woo! 36 rocks!

*Have I mentioned my wonky finger knuckle? I think the culprit was my roller-ball mouse at work. In addition to the early arthritis. The knuckle on my right-hand index finger has been getting bigger and bigger and it was getting harder to bend my finger. And then when it got knocked or bumped I would have shooting pain in my finger. I switched that mouse with another and things seem to be improving. The knuckle is still enlarged, but the pain is mostly going down.

Sophie says...

Our little chatterbox. She loves to talk and talk and talk. There is a running commentary of the day. And she's added "'cause" to the repertoire: "Mommy, I need to go downstairs, um, 'cause...my socks are dirty and I need to wash my hands, 'cause they dirty and, umm..., Knuffle Bunny is in the washing machine."

No, it doesn't make sense sometimes. But she just wants to keep using all her words and "'cause" is a great stringer word.

She also loves to enunciate words. "Dirty" is best said with lots of facial movement and emphasis. "Downstairs" is another good one.

One of her favorite books at the moment is "Ella Sarah Gets Dressed" and she knows pretty much all the words. Not content to just quietly "read" the book with me, she yells all the words she knows. "I WANT TO WEAR MY PINK POLKA DOT PANTS, MY DRESS WITH THE ORANGE AND GREEN FLOWERS..." It's hard not to crack up while she's doing it. Lots of enunciating and facial gymnastics.

Too cute.

Sophie is TWO today!

(photo courtesy of my talented sister)

Where did the time go? It is so cliche, but I can't imagine what life was like without Sophie. She's such a tour-de-force, a whirlwind of fantasticness, a strong and cuddly silly wiggle.

My family came up for an early party on Sunday and it was a huge success. We lucked out with the weather - it was quite warm and pleasant and everyone could spend a lot of time outside. The leaves are in full autumn splendor and it was just a great, great day.

Back to Sophie. Here's a little peek into why two is so wonderful: Sunday morning we woke up and it was still a bit dark outside. The night light in our room was casting shadows on the ceiling. Sophie said: "Look Mommy! A Hippo-pus!" Half-asleep, I said, "oh yes, I see a Hippo, too." "Mommy - he has popcorn for me! And stawbewwies. Oh, and, um, some petzels. Tank you, Hippo, so much! I so happy!"

I so happy, too, Sophie.

I just found Aaron's Halloween costume

I'm sure he'll thank me for the inspiration: Disco!

It seemed like a good idea at the time

So funny. Maybe you want to take a photo with your pets, but did you stop and ask what they thought? (via Best Week Ever)

In which I remember I have a website

Oy. I'd like to say I've been busy. Which I have been, but I'm also feeling like I'm drowning in things to do. It's busy at work, busy at home.

Aaron's working a lot later at school to try and keep up with things and that means that 90% of the feeding and putting to bed of Sophie is on my shoulders. Not that I mind, it can just get kind of tiring.

In addition to house updates, yard updates, etc., Sophie's 2 year birthday party is Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! We're hosting a little family birthday party at our house before everyone has to head back south to their homes. Little party, but there is still planning involved. Cake stuff, food stuff, cleaning stuff, decorating stuff.

Crap, I still need to get her a present, don't I?

(If future-Sophie is reading this, I love giving you presents. It's just finding the time to get something perfect has not been factored into this week's lunch breaks.)

Luckily, I work close to home and close to good-enough stores. This week? Library, post office, toy store, grocery store (once I figure out food), health food store (need new face cleanser since I threw out all the paraben-loaded ones) (and new hand soap for same reason).

Sophie likes to help clean a bit after daycare, but with my family coming, I need to do more than push dust around.

We did accompllish a few big garden things this weekend: I planted a new bulb bed with crocuses and snowdrops and anemones and a fernleaf peony bulb (present from my lovely coworker and my former landlord). We dug down a little around the lampost in the yard and then I used the "Lasagna Gardening" tip of just laying wet newspaper (weed barrier), and then layering up compost with peat moss until you reach the depth you need. It looks like a fantastic soil mixture and I'm excited to see what happens in the Spring.

We also finally mowed the lawn - Aaron did the backyard and I did the front. It looks manicured and lush. Amazing what mowing will do. The new/refurbished lawnmower worked great. I also mulched the lilac bed with the woodchip mixture from our trees.

I have a ton of pictures of our progress but they are on our home computer and I'm at....let's just say I'm not at home.

I'd like to get a couple more planting beds started before winter but I'm not sure when I'm going to get them done. This weekend is Sophie's party and next weekend we are having a dual-family tag sale. I guess the following weekend? Except that is right near my brother-in-law's birthday so I'm not sure if everyone is headed south to visit him. (K - are we?).

Maybe I'll just start putting grass/leaf clippings on the spots where I eventually want beds and add more next spring. I'd also like to start some veggie garden boxes but I guess they'll have to wait until spring as well.

Oh yeah, and l can't plant anything around the house yet because the bush stumps are still there. We have someone coming to tell us if they can yank them but we haven't scheduled that yet.

Whew.

Off to lunch and the post office and the library and the toy store.

Cowgirl

Sophie has been enthralled with Toy Story 2. The Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl character, in particular. We have Jessie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Zurg dolls, thanks to my sister's hand-me-downs.

For Halloween, we were originally thinking of a pirate costume until I found a cowboy costume at the local consignment shop. It has a vest, a bandana for around her neck and cow print chaps. Sophie was beyond excited when I showed it to her and she wore it for the whole rest of the day. She even showed the costume to her Jessie doll: "Jessie! Look at me! I cowgirl!" and to Woody and to Buzz. And she attempted yodeling: "Yo dee hee hoo!"

One of my coworkers lent us a purple cowboy hat and a horse-on-a-stick (what are these called?) and those were brought home to her last night. The hat, especially, was a hit and she insisted on putting on the whole costume. She kept saying, over and over again, "I root-est, toot-est cowgirl in wild, wild west!" While dancing and saying "Hee-haw!" Unfortunately I couldn't get her to do it when the camera was on. We'll work on it.

When she was little and upset about something, the fastest way to calm her down was to sing "I've been working on the railroad". Now, I just have to yodel a little and sing a made-up version of the yodeling song from "Sound of Music" (I really need to learn the words to that) and the crying stops.

Sophie says...

Aaron took Sophie to the grocery store yesterday before dropping her off at daycare. She handles the grocery store really well in the morning and was in an especially jovial mood.

Also, up until very recently, she hasn't become attached to any of her toys. All of a sudden, Frog and Duck are very important. Blanket (a striped dishtowel) must also be near her. Monday saw the addition of Moose. Last night, Rabbit was added to her entourage. The menagerie is called her "guys". As in: "Where my guys?"

Frog, Duck and Blanket took the trip to the grocery store and everything was all fine until they got back to the car and discovered that Duck was missing. It then became an adventure to go back and find Duck after the groceries were loaded into the car. She was more excited than upset.

As soon as the doors opened to the store, Sophie yelled at the top of her lungs: "Ducky! Where are you?!"

(He was found very quickly and lots of "I so worried about you! Are you okay?" and kisses and hugs followed)

Fluoride

Well, now I'm switching all of us to fluoride-free toothpaste. Luckily, our water is not fluoridated around here.

Is Fluoride Really As Safe As You are Told?

What would you do if you suddenly found out that fluoride was not safe at all, but was actually a carcinogenic industrial waste?

What would you think if you suddenly found out that fluoride doesn't stop tooth decay at all, but actually causes teeth to rot and crumble, and by the same mechanism also causes osteoporosis?

And after you found out all this, would it surprise you that all federal health agencies have known these facts for years, but have been controlled by the political interests of the nuclear arms, aluminum, and phosphate manufacturers to keep it a secret?

Why would they do that? So that, in the total absence of scientific proofs, a toxic industrial waste could be passed off on the public as a nutrient with necessary health benefits, to the tune of $10 billion per year. Or more.

and then there's this:

This has nothing to do with fluoride or fluoridation. The fluoride added to 90% of drinking water is hydrofluoric acid which is a compound of fluorine that is a chemical byproduct of aluminum, steel, cement, phosphate, and nuclear weapons manufacturing.

Such fluoride is manmade. In this form, fluoride has no nutrient value whatsoever. It is one of the most caustic of industrial chemicals. Fluoride is the active toxin in rat poisons and cockroach powder.

Hydrofluoric acid is used to refine high octane gasoline, to make fluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons for freezers and air conditioners, and to manufacture computer screens, fluorescent light bulbs, semiconductors, plastics, herbicides, -- and toothpaste.

It also has the ability to burn flesh to the bone, destroy eyes, and sear lungs so that victims drown in their own body fluid.

Still not convinced?

Taylor Study, University of Austin: fluoride concentration of 1PPM (parts per million) increases tumor growth rate by 25%

Fluoride is more poisonous than lead, and just less poisonous than arsenic - Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products -- 1984

"A seven ounce tube of toothpaste, theoretically at least, contains enough fluoride to kill a small child." - Procter&Gamble, quoted in Fluoride the Aging Factor p14

Fluoride supplements should not be given to children under three years old - 1992 Canadian Dental Association Proposed Fluoride Guidelines, Dr. Limeback

And, osteoporosis and brittle bones:

DR Y cites the 1990 study of 541,000 cases of osteoporosis that found a definite connection between hip fractures in women over 65 and fluoride levels. The study was written up in JAMA. Several other major studies are cited, massive amounts of research, again all reaching the same conclusion -

the undeniable correlation of fluoridation with osteoporosis and hip fracture in the elderly.

And cancer:

Austrian and Japanese researchers both found that a concentration of 1 PPM fluoride causes disruption of the body's ability to repair its own DNA. Without this most basic cell function, cancer is promoted, and tumor growth is accelerated.

That's standard fluoride level in US city water: one part per million.

On p. 65 of his book, Dr. Yiamouyiannis provides an amazing chart of some 19 major scientific studies conducted in universities all over the world, together proving beyond a doubt that fluoride causes genetic damage.

Why, why, why?

Here's the short version: fluoride is a toxic byproduct in the manufacture of nuclear arms, aluminum, cement, steel, and phosphates.

Millions of tons of this poison are produced every year. Imagine the cost of containing and disposing of those mountains of waste every year. It's in the billions.

But what if lobbyists from these industries could present "scientific studies" paid for by the industries, and provide for a continual stream of media presentations about the health benefits of fluoride, and create unimaginably lucrative positions for "research" and "education" within the American Dental Association and the AMA, and do all these things in a consistent and unending way, year after year?

What are the economic advantages of that? Simple: instead of paying money to dispose of toxic waste, money could now be made by selling fluoride to the water companies of the nation.

They'll use the public water supply as a sewer for industrial wastes. And now with these new billions added instead of subtracted, there's plenty to go around, for everyone involved. Out of the Red, into the Black.

The Players: ALCOA Aluminum, mega-giant producer of aluminum, was founded by Andrew Mellon, who was also appointed Secretary of Treasury, since he seemed to know something about money.

ALCOA funded a top research facility known as the Mellon Institute. In 1931, a Mellon Institute report by Gerald Cox suggested that 1 PPM fluoride added to drinking water would be good for the teeth. That was it. No studies, no comparisons, no data. All previous research studies had shown that fluoride was toxic.

Stay with me now. The US Public Health Service (USPHS) at that time was under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Treasury - Andrew Mellon, who also owned ALCOA.

The USPHS sponsored some research put out by their own Dr. HT Dean, manipulating data so that it "proved" that this same figure of 1 PPM resulted in reduction of tooth decay. So now there were two studies, one by Cox and one by Dean, both funded by agencies controlled by ALCOA, both supporting this arbitrary figure of 1 PPM fluoride that should be added to the water to lower tooth decay.

The Absurdities of Fluoridation:

If fluoride was necessary for strong teeth one would expect to find it in breast milk, but the level there is 0.01 ppm, which is 100 times LESS than in fluoridated tap water (IOM, 1997).

4) The largest survey conducted in the U.S. showed only a minute difference in tooth decay between children who had lived all their lives in fluoridated compared to non-fluoridated communities. The difference was not clinically significant nor shown to be statistically significant (Brunelle & Carlos, 1990).

5) The worst tooth decay in the U.S. occurs in the poor neighborhoods of our largest cities, the vast majority of which have been fluoridated for decades.

6) When fluoridation has been halted in communities in Finland, former East Germany, Cuba and Canada, tooth decay did not go up but continued to go down (Maupome et al, 2001; Kunzel and Fischer, 1997, 2000; Kunzel et al, 2000 and Seppa et al, 2000).

Still not convinced? Here's a page with a whole bunch of links about fluoride.

Sources of fluoride exposure for children. It's not just the toothpaste and the water, people.

Happy Birthday Erin!

It's Erin's birthday today. Woo hoo! Happy Birthday to one of the funniest people on the internets.

Man, this took quite a few takes to get something resembling a "Happy Birthday!" In hindsight, perhaps I should try to capture video when mass amounts of peanut butter are not involved.

I think Sophie is saying she has a present for Erin. Hopefully the pointing at her tush is merely a coincidence.

The "braaains" at the end is a belated thank you to Erin for the fantastic zombie sock monsters. If you haven't bought one of these yet, you are missing out. It's okay, they mostly attack other socks.

There was also confusion over the name "Erin" - since Sophie knows her Daddy's name is Aaron. (Aaron was sitting on the couch in the other room)

And, finally, one more cute zombie "brrraaains" (with a little sprinkle of pirate thrown in) video.

Overdue Weekend Recap

I've had trouble logging in to post. Something seems to have been fixed, so here I am.

We went up to visit my Mom on Saturday. She just got home from the hospital after knee surgery and we helped organize the house a little more for her while she needs to use the walker.

Sunday a coworker came over to help Aaron demo our basement. Or at least start preparing for when the plumbers come (if they ever call me back with an estimate...) so that most of the walls and strangeness is removed and the plumbers don't have to charge us to do it. The basement looks so much bigger now! We got the washing machine and dryer situated and were actually able to do laundry. Whew, it was getting a little out of control. I actually wore a suit to work because I was running out of casual clothes. It's a very casual environment here so a suit stands out amongst the jeans and t-shirts.

And while they were in the basement cutting and chopping and hammering, Sophie and I played outside all day. She helped with pulling all the crabgrass and weeds on the street-side of the boxwood hedge and then we raked and swept and made everything pretty. All the overgrown grass and weeds and little maples and oak sprouts were bugging me. There is a very pretty wildflower growing up through the boxwood. It turns out it is a local aster. Light blue; very pretty. The bees love it. So it stayed.

Now that the big hedges by the house are gone, it is much more obvious that front steps need repair and painting. They were camoflauged pretty effectively by the hedges. Also, I'm having a hard time getting the hedge stumps out of the ground. Tenacious Yew! I want to get them all out so that I can plant there.

Also, I ordered some trees from the National Arbor Day Foundation. They should arrive early November so I can plant them before the ground freezes. I ordered a Red Dogwood, an Eastern Redbud, a Fragrant Lilac and I got a free Red Maple with my order. All for $32.00. Not bad. Now I need to figure out where to plant them.

I'm excited about having my own space, but all the steps along the way are daunting.

Oooh, and the lovely Ellen and Sophie sent my Sophie an early birthday present! A great music CD and some homemade Playdough! So much fun. Thank you!