happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! To celebrate Halloween, we took Brooke to a children's Halloween parade, put on the by the fire department. There were a lot of kids there, and I posted pics. Before we left I tried to take some pics but Brooke was NOT a happy camper!

Poor kid was angry because I put her hood up on her costume.

Summer was a lot more cooperative in her Halloween outfit :o)

At the parade. You can see Summer peeking out from my pouch.

Brooke had a blast at the parade, she just loved walking around with all the other kids. She was a chatterbox, and tried to give a lot of people hugs.

After the parade we took her trick or treating for a bit, but we only went to four houses. She was very cute and polite, always thanking the people when she got the candy. She will be trading in her candy for a toy....no need for all that sugar ;o).

Well that's it...have a good night!

 

HELLOOOO?

HELLOOOOOO! Does anyone even read this, or is it just an echo I hear?

You want to cut what off?!?!

Well most people that know me know that I would never circumcise my sons (if I had any) unless there was a legitimate reason. I believe circumcision is a personal decision that all parents make, much like whether or not to vaccinate. However, if I were to choose sides in the circumcision debate, I would choose the non-circ'd side. So, I thought this story was interesting. A judge ruled that circumcism is not a necessary procedure. This ruling occurred concerning a case where a mother wanted her son circumcised, but the father did not. Since the father had say in all non-emergency medical decisions, and since circumcism is not a medical emergency, the judge ruled in favor of the father. I do believe this is the first court ruling that has stated circumcism is medically unnecessary.

Judge rules boy's circumcision not medically necessary - Blogging Baby

Judge rules boy's circumcision not medically necessary

Posted Oct 26th 2006 9:30AM by J.D. Griffioen
Filed under: Child Development, Health and Safety, Lifestyle, Pregnancy and Birth, Divorce

A decision has come down in an important Illinois case that has been carefully watched by both sides of the circumcision debate, and a judge has issued a written opinion stating that a 9-year-old boy need not be circumcised for medial reasons as asserted by his mother. The mother has sole custody, but her 2003 parenting agreement gave her ex-husband (the boy's father) a say in non-emergency medical decisions.

That fact may make this different from other situations, but intactivists are celebrating this case as a major victory for their cause. As the only legal challenge to the medical necessity of circumcision to reach this level in any American court, all other judges who consider the issue will look to this decision for guidance. Circuit Judge Jordan Kaplan wrote, "this court finds that the medical evidence as provided by the testimony of the expert witnesses ... is inconclusive as to the medical benefits or non-benefits of circumcision as it relates to the 9-year-old child. . . the injury to the child as a result of an unnecessary circumcision would be irreversible," adding that his order would remain in effect until the boy turns 18 and can decide for himself whether or not he wants to undergo the procedure. The boy had issued a written statement to the court that he did not want to be circumcised.

This case will almost certainly set up the next challenge: spouses who will choose to litigate such a dispute when the child is a newborn.

From "family bed" to "family air mattress..."

Tonight Jason and I are taking the kiddos back to Wally World so we can pick up an air mattress. Four people squished together in one bed just isn't working well right now. I can only sleep in one position, which is the pain in the butt because my body falls asleep and I can't move. Jason experiences back pain. So we decided, that for now, we are going to get an air mattress to place next to our bed. Summer and I will sleep on the air mattress and Brooke and Jason will remain on the bed. That way we will still be cosleeping but everyone will have enough room to be happy. Not the ideal co sleeping situation that I would have liked, but close enough. I really don't want to kick Brooke out of the bed just yet because I really want to wait until she decides that she is ready, and I also don't want to make it seem like Summer has taken her place. For Christmas we are planning on buying Brooke a really cute Dora bed set, to get her all excited about her new "big girl" bed. Which we will place next to our bed, so we can slowly begin to transition her to sleeping in her own room. I really don't care if it goes so slowly it takes a year, as long as we don't push her before she is ready. I just want to give her small, baby nudges.

Brooke has once again changed her nap schedule. Yesterday she didn't take one at all and went to bed at 7:30 instead of the usual 9:30/10. I have yet to see if she is going to continue skipping them or just start taking them later in the day. To be honest, I think I would prefer if she just skipped them and went to bed earlier. I got more time to clean and excercise, and I had more flexibillity in my day, with not having to worry about being home in time for her nap. Only time will tell what she is going to do.

Well I am going to take the kiddos to the mall as soon as Summer wakes up and I feed her so I am off to get myself ready. Ciao!

Tadem mothering at its best..

The past two days the girls and I have gone out and about. That's right, I finally worked up the courage to take both girls out all by myself. It went really well. Yesterday I took the girls to the mall, to both walk around and get excercize and also to look for some new shoes for me. We walked around for about two hours, and although I didn't find a pair of shoes that I liked and was in my price range, I did get some excercise. I put Brookie in the stroller and Summer in the pouch and we started off. Summer spent half an hour looking around then decided she wanted to sleep the rest of the time, and I gave Brookie a rice cake and a fruit smoothie, so she was content in her stroller. I love my new pouch, she loves being in it and I can carry her around all day with no back pain. I got lots of compliments, on both the kiddos and the pouch.

Today I took the kiddos to Wally world to pick up a few things. Again, Brooke went in the carriage and Summer in the pouch. Spent about an hour there, and Summer once again slept the whole time. Brooke was a little cranky because she skipped her nap, but nothing major.

Yesterday we also gave Summer her first bottle of expressed breast milk. Not sure how I feel about that, but since I plan on working it had to be done.

Tomorrow I am hitting up a different mall to look for shoes again. Wish me luck!

And the leaves keep falling...

Today Jason decided to start raking up all the leaves in the yard and Brookie decided to help. Of course, her version of helping is to scoop up armful of leaves and dump them where Jason just finished raking, so needless to say, he didn't get much done. But they had a lot of fun playing together and that is the important thing.

Miss "Helpful" scooping up her next armful

Summer loves to be held, she really does. If she's awake, she wants to be held. If she falls asleep in your arms and you put her down she will wake up and want to be held. There is one block of time each day that I can actually put her down and she will sleep for a good three hours, but other than that she is in my arms. And I'm loving it. I've been wearing her a lot in my adjustable pouch from kangarookorner.com, so wearing her isn't difficult. I can carry her and wash the dishes at the same time, so I am still getting all my housework done, and I had intended to baby wear her anyways. I joined a baby wearing group for moms in the area and we are working on getting together and just hanging out with our babies in their slings :o)

Today I sterilized and put together my new breast pump, the Medela Pump in Style. I sat down, totally loving the cute little carrying bag with the cute cooler and bottles. I pumped for 15 minutes.

I got 11 oz of breastmilk.

In 15 minutes of pumping.

Wow.

To put this into perspective, with my old pump I would sit and pump for 30 minutes....and get 6 oz if I was very lucky. I would also have to realllly concentrate in order to stimulate my let down and really get any milk. With the PIS, my let down was stimulated immediately. And I had the pump on the lowest setting. I wonder how much I can pump when it is on the higher settings?

Tomorrow I think I am taking the kiddos to Wally world, I have a TON of pictures that I need to develope. It will really depend on how Brooke is acting. And after Jason gets home I am going to go shoe shopping, I really need to get myself a pair of shoes that fit properly.

That's it,have a good night!

New pictures

This morning Jason decided to have some fun with the camera. I posted the pics he took...some pics of the girls laying together in our bed, of Summer holding her head up(!) and Brookie watching TV. Also a nursing pic. These two are my favorites:

She is soo strong! She held her head up for quite a while, I was impressed!

I love this nursing pic. First nursing of the morning, the sun shining through the blinds....everything peaceful and serene. :o)