3rd Birthday Party

Irina is into Toy Story and her party was Buzz themed, she had a blast flying around with her cape and hugged her Buzz balloon non-stop. She isn't as girly as I would like but she is Irina and I love her and her Buzz obsession!

Irina is 3!

My baby girl is 3! I just cant believe how fast the time has flown, every birthday I love her more and more. We had a great day together and her daddy took half a day off work to spend with her. She loves her daddy so. I love this little girl with all my heart, she is my favorite daughter. I wrote a little something for her about 3mths after I had her and I thought I would share.


NO ONE SEES WHAT I SEE:

no one else sees the crooked dimple in your chin

no one else sees the squiggly vein on the left side of your nose, that hasnt faded or moved since the day you were born

no one else sees the crooked smile you smile when you're being coy

no one else sees themselves in your eyes the way i do

no one else sees the look on your face when you learn something for the first time

no one on this Earth loves you more than i do

On the move!

Crew starting doing this military crawl the other day, I think it started this past Saturday to be exact. It was really surprising to me, he had been moving around the floor for a while now and I just assumes he was rolling everywhere. I finally got it on video, he is really good at it!

NaturalNews exclusive: International Medical Council on Vaccination refutes vaccine propaganda with myth-busting report

NaturalNews exclusive: International Medical Council on Vaccination refutes vaccine propaganda with myth-busting report

Whether or not you choose to vaccinate yourself or your children, you owe it to yourself to hear both side of the story before making a decision...obviously my blog is one sided so of course get INFORMED! We do so much research on all the things we buy for our home such as the best t.v., which stroller has good reviews, why a PC over MAC and the list just goes on and on. So why do we just take our doctors word on medicines and vaccines that are being put into our kids bodies? I started doing research on vaccines when Irina was about 1 1/2, at this age she was pretty much current on her shots and was only missing a few of them. Her pediatrician was ok with staggering the monthly doses so long as we got them all, and so we did what we thought was best for her. I wish I would have gone deeper into ALL research and not just the one-sided blogs/forums/sites bashing the "hippie" theorists. After reading and working hard to understand how vaccines are made and why they were implemented we decided to stop vaccinating her. It wasn't a big deal at the time because like I said earlier- she was only missing a couple. When we had Crew we knew we would not vaccinate and as a result our pediatrician refused to him AND Irina. We received a letter in the mail signed by every physician practicing there, explaining we were no longer welcome in the building due to difference in philosophy regarding the practice of medicine. The letter hurt my feelings a great deal because they were literally rejecting both my kids; Irina was included because she is exposed daily to her non-vaccinated brother. Craig and I stand firm in our decision and continue to read anything that crosses our path that pertains to our kids, especially their health. We want to make the best choices for them and that calls for us to be EDUCATED and INFORMED. Know why you do or don't do something, they cant read these articles so we need to do it for them.

CARSEAT SAFETY

I have to post this because of a situation that happened to me the other day. A friend offered me her infant car seat for Crew so that I could have one in my husbands car. I thought that was so nice of her and was excited to have a car seat that was bought new and had never been in accident. But I started doing some math and realized her baby was only 9mths old, kids are supposed to be rear-facing till age of 1 AND 22lbs (not one or the other but BOTH) by law. I thought for sure she was going to get a convertible car seat and rear-face her baby but she said that her daughter weighed 23lbs and was really big for her age. I kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything to her, is it really my business to inform her of the law? No, it is not. However, as a mother I love to hear anything that relates to keeping my kids safer, healthier, happier and I'll be honest- quiet! So I sent the link below to her in an email in hopes that she will rethink her decision. One thing I will be doing from now on is taking off Irinas bulky sweaters and jackets, I will have a blanket in the car ready for her to cover up with instead. I'm glad I read that!

http://thestir.cafemom.com/baby/108322/9_lifesaving_car_seat_rules

Busy Lady

Every day Craig and I have "couch time", this is something we've been doing for about 2yrs or so and love what it does for our family. When he gets home from work, he greets me and the kids and then we head to the couch to catch up on each of our days. The kids stay in the living room with some toys on the floor but do not join us on the couch or in our conversation. The daily exercise helps our kids take note of the importance of marriage and communication. Craig and I get to talk uninterrupted for a few mins, the other day he stopped me mid sentence and said "what play date did you have today"? and I said, "ugh! aren't you listening,..MOPS"! The next day he asked the same question and I replied with the same tone "...my HAND meeting"!, the day after that I said "...TCBN meeting". After a couple of these talks, I realized he was confused because I have SO MANY things that I take part in. I mean, I am really busy and usually booked for the week with all kinds of play dates, meetings, church events, and the list just go on.

Here is the the official list of the things the kids and I do:
Playgroup- neighborhood playgroup meets every Monday at someones house or off site places also
MOPS- ( Mothers Of Pre-schoolers) we meet at our awesome church on the 1st & 3rd Wed of the month, I'm a member and no longer on the steering committee
HAND- (Home birth Association of North Dallas) we meet in Fort Worth the 1st Mon of the month,
MoFo- (MOthers FOrever) we meet randomly but usually weekly at night when our kids are asleep at each others homes to eat"naughty" food such as pizza and ice cream
Real Healthy Housewives of Tarrant County- we share healthy recipe ideas
Praying Wives- we meet weekly on Tues mornings to pray for our husbands
DFW Moms Around Town- random meetings with moms to talk about breast feeding, EC, baby wearing and home birthing
Holistic Moms Network- we meet monthly to talk about holistic health and green living
GEMS- (Godly Encouragement for Mothers)- meetings are once every 3mths I think, great meetings on parenting and marriage

I do attend these groups on a regular basis, I cant believe I was getting annoyed that Craig "wasn't listening" to me. The poor guy was just confused! Seeing it all on here, I can totally see why, I'm exhausted just typing it out! whew!

Crew 4 & 5mths pics

4mths and 5mths (5mth pic w/ pattern rug underneath)

My little man is just getting bigger and bigger, I'm really glad I kept up with taking his growth photos. He has recently started to do all kids of fun stuff, scooting like an worm one inch at a time, talking his baby babble more, rolling non stop and on Saturday, Jan 30th I noticed his first tooth breaking through his gum line! It is exciting and a little sad to me, it means the end of gummy smiles :(

Crayon Rocks

A couple of weeks ago we visited one of my new favorite stores http://thegreenergood.com/. We were very "green" about our trip there too; we fit 3 adults and 4 kids into one car! Yes, of course all the kids were in each of their car seats and safely secured. The kids were great in the car and we had lunch at Chick Fil A after. Anyway, the store has so much cool eco-friendly stuff there, we will definitely be going back. I bought some crayon rocks that are naturally non-toxic, irina and i both love these! She has had so much fun coloring (before they were taken away, see blog titled "Story of Toys" for details). It makes me not worry about the chemicals that are in her crayons, they're directly on her hands which sometimes go in her brothers mouth. We've been slowly removing toxic chemicals, plastics, toys and so many other harmful things from our home and it feels great.