To Vegan or Not To Vegan, That is the Question!

Photos: June 2007

I had a most disturbing thought today.
It was enough to question the fact that I am an omnivore.
This small fact alone may be grounds for me to give up meat all together, forever.
I may be looking at a life as a strict herbivore.
That's right people, I'm talking vegan here!
As I was walking on my treadmill this morning I overheard Beano and Doodle and Dubs discussing the nasty little eight legged home invader they had just slain on my behalf.
They started to talk about the fact that said arachnid had been full of babies when the assassination occurred (remember my factoid about spiders moving indoors when it starts to get chilly in order to brood?).
Gross!
Beyond gross, nasty beyond description or imagination. The thing was absolutely massive.
Moving on...
Doodle commented on how it was a good thing we killed it when we did or her babies would have been born alive.
*faints*
Then Dubs carried that thought on and pointed out that their babies would have babies and that those babies would have babies and on and on forever and ever.
Then Beano verbalized my worst nightmare.
"Then the whole world would be covered with spiders!"
*Gasp*

My self defense kicked right in and I pointed out that the pretty birds I was watching from the window as I walked would take care of all those nasty buggers.
There were 5 or 6 magpies on the lawn savaging for their breakfast.
At that moment I had never been happier to see a flock of birds in all my life.
I then blurted out that
spiders and all bugs are nature's bird food.
I would have been fine if my brain had stopped there, but it didn't.

Chickens are birds.
Chickens eat bugs and *gulp* spiders!
And then we eat chickens.
So that means....
In a round about way we eat spiders!
(excuse me while I barf!)
That thought makes my skin crawl. I can just feel them on me right now.
I don't know if I can do it anymore.
I only eat beef once in a very great while.
We stick to mostly chicken and turkey around here.
Turkeys have the same problem.
Again with the spiders.
I just can't do it anymore.
I can no longer unknowingly eat spiders.
I guess I better start eating a lot more beans.

Take Cover!

Just look at this cute, cute baby!

He sure dose love the tubby. He knows just how to make mom give him a bath, too.

As I was busy getting dinner ready and the kids fed before Doodle's dance class this evening Doodle screamed from the top of the stairs,

"The baby exploded!"
I waited a second expecting her to finish her sentence.
The baby exploded a tube of toothpaste.
The baby exploded a roll of toilet paper in the toilet.
The baby exploded a tube of makeup all over the bathroom.
You see, I knew the problem was bathroom oriented because that is where he always is when he does his damage.
I was half right, he was in the bathroom.
Doodle went on, "Well, at least he was near the toilet when he exploded."
You guessed it, he had a massive poo explosion, the likes of which we have not seen since he was a newborn.
It was all the way up to his neck and down his legs.
It even dripped a big steamy blob on the floor.
*gasp*
Thank heavens for linoleum.
I know, I know you did not need to know this.
I posted this experience for one person only.
OK, two people.
Josh and Tiffany, congratulations on your pregnancy!
We hope you enjoy every minute of parenthood!
We sure do love you guys.

Toilet Talk

Hello toilet!

How are you toady?

Can you come and play with me?

I swear these are the first thoughts my baby has every morning.

He gets out of bed and makes a bee line for the pot.

Disgusting, hug?

Anytime anyone leaves the bathroom door open and the lid up there is a baby in the pot.

He loves nothing more than to dip his ever so small fingers in the refreshingly cold water and to slurp the excess drippy water in a noisy slobbery gulp.

I guess he's thirsty.

*nauseous*

It's a miracle he has not died from some sort of nasty bacterial infection.

See the toys in there?

Actually one is a sock (not poop, thank goodness) and the other is a toy.

He has also dunked books, Lego's, hot wheels, a Barbie, cups, the list goes on and on.

If he has it in his hand when he finds the throne, in it goes.

I think he's doing a life long experiment on things that float and things that sink and things that make mommy's head explode.

It's his second favorite thing, to throw strange things in there and watch mommy come running freaking out.

He looks at me like it's the best show he's had in a long time.

Lucky for me I have a knight in shining armour.

Beano will usually fish out whatever is in and dump it directly in the garbage for me.

Isn't he the best?

I have not even gotten to worst part yet.

He has been corrupting other innocent children. We were at my sister's house the other day and he showed her 2 year old how much fun it is to play in the toilet water.

She had never done such a thing in her life, up that point.

Leave it to my baby to corrupt the sweet mind of his little blond delicate cousin.

There is nothing worse than finding your baby teaching another kid naughty things, and then having to clean up nasty toilet water and two toilet water babies.

*GAG*

I know the best answer would be to just keep the bathroom door shut.

Done, problem solved.

But what about the other heathens that go potty and can hardly remember to wash their hands and flush the pot, let alone shut the door on their way out.

I could stand guard on the potty all day long to make sure it gets shut, but alas, we have 3 bathrooms. I really wish I could be 3 places at once but I have not figured that one out yet.

So if any of you have any advise on how to end the madness I'd be forever grateful.

Cause honestly, I'm at my whits end.

Into the Darkness

How do I start this post?Do I just lay it all out on the line with no apologies?

Do I tip toe around the issue and hope you get the point by the end?

Nope, I think I'll just jump right in.

You all know I'm a bit crazy anyway, and I'm sure after this post you'll think I've gone around the corner to the loony bin.

All that aside, I can't keep my mouth shut.

This is too important to just hope you understand what I'm saying.

So here it is.

I have been poising my children, and likely, so have you.

I have found out the truth about artificial food coloring and preservatives.

And once you know the truth, it's really hard to not live by it.

Do you want to know the truth too?

If not, stop reading this now, cuz here it is, the totally unabashed truth about food color and artificial preservatives, no apologies.

And it's not pretty.

I am still new to this, but already I see how bad this stuff is. Here are a few things I have read on the Internet, some things are even right on the FDA website.

"Those pretty colors that make the fruit punch red, the gelatin green and the oatmeal blue are made from petroleum (crude oil) which is also the source for gasoline."

And what about artificial preservatives?

Here is a quote from http://www.feingold.org/

"They are combinations of many chemicals, both natural and synthetic. An artificial flavoring may be composed of hundreds of separate chemicals, and there is no restriction on what a company can use to flavor food."

Here are some scary words being associated with all this artificialness,

Neuro toxins

ADD

ADHD

Autism

Dyslexia

Headaches

Irritability

Bed Wetting

Ear Infections

Hives

Learning Disorders

Asthma

Eczema

OCD

Bi Polar Disorder

Sadly, the list goes on and on.

What happens is that some people, especially children, are super sensitive to these toxins and they end up being stored in their brains. The result is undesirable behaviors such as bed wetting, ADD, Autism, etc.

In our society, too often when these symptom occur we don't realize what the cause is. Our doctors tell us we can manage the behavior with medication and we trust them.

After all, they are the experts.

Now, I am not a doctor and don't presume to say that every case of autism and ADD is caused by artificial food additives, but can it be sheer coincidence that the occurrences of these childhood disorders are growing exponentially as are the amounts of these items in the American diet?

I think not.

Here is a chart of how drastically our diet has changed in the last 60 years, again, from the feingold website.
What the child growing up in the U.S. in the 1940's got:
What the child growing up in the U.S. today gets:
White toothpaste
Multi-colored toothpaste, perhaps with sparkles
Oatmeal
Sea Treasures Instant Oatmeal (turns milk blue)
Corn flakes
Fruity Pebbles
Toast & butter, jam
Pop Tarts
Cocoa made with natural ingredients
Cocoa made with artificial flavoring, & some with dyes.
Whipped cream
Cool Whip
No vitamins (or perhaps cod liver oil)
Flintstone vitamins with coloring & flavoring
White powder or bad-tasting liquid medicine
Bright pink, bubble-gum flavored chewable or liquid medicine
Sample school lunch:Meat loaf, freshly made mashed potatoes, vegetable. Milk, cupcake made from scratch.
Sample school lunch: Highly processed foods loaded with synthetic additives, no vegetable. Chocolate milk with artificial flavor.
Sample school beverage: Water from the drinking fountain
Sample school beverage: Soft drink with artificial color, flavor, caffeine, aspartame, etc.
Candy in the classroom a few times a year at class parties.
Candy (with synthetic additives) given frequently.

So how is it that the FDA can allow all this poisonous stuff in our food, the food we feed our babies?

Here is the scariest part, and it's right on the FDA website for the whole world to see.

Manufacturers pay the FDA per pound of artificial crap they put in our food.

The bottom line, they are being paid to allow this crap in our food supply.

I do not apologize for my strong language, this really gets to me and makes me angry.

The manufacturers want to use this crap because it is cheaper than natural, healthy preservatives and coloring.

I could go on and on about this. The scary part is that these items are in practically EVERYTHING we consume.

Take one random item out of your pantry and read the label.

If that item was OK, take another.

I bet you can not look at 3 different items in your pantry and not find artificial something in at least one of them.

Scary, huh?

We are poisoning our children, and ourselves.

The good news?

The buck stops here.

I will no longer buy or consume foods with these ingredients in them.

I will not!

My kids will not eat them anymore.

If this means I need to make our food from scratch, so be it.

If this means we make a huge shift in the way our family eats, so be it.

If this means I spend 5 hours a day cooking instead of 2, so be it.

If this means saying goodbye to our favorite treats, so be it.

If this means we dye our Easter eggs this year with spinach and raspberries and blueberries, so be it.

If this means feeling better and having my 7 year old child stop wetting her bed every night, bring it on!

I am so ready for this.

I am excited to try new foods and to feel better.

I am excited to be healthy.

I am excited!

The best news?

Feingold has done tons of research on items sold in the US and they have a list that is pages and pages long of many foods maufactured in the US and Cananda and which ones are considered "safe" and which are not.

Surprisingly, there are some safe manufactured foods.

They key is to know the difference. Knowledge is power.

You have to visit http://www.feingold.org/ and read more about this. Read some of the studies done on lab rats and mice and find out which items they compare to alcohol and tobacco.

Sadly, these items are found in many of the foods we give our smallest children.

It really breaks my heart.

As parents we try everything we can to nurture and protect our babies.

How can we let these things be given to them without knowing?

We can't!

So who's with me?

In the next few weeks, and maybe forever, I will be posting yummy recipes I have found using no artificial anything. We have 2 birthdays coming up in the next 2 weeks. I'll show my ideas on how to still make cute cakes using blueberries and raspberries to make our homemade cakes look and taste just as fancy as ever!

Wish me luck, I'm entering uncharted territory!

The Perfect Mess

In this corner we have

The Three Year Old

eating and spilling chocolate milk mix.

(Look at that face? How can anyone get mad at that face?)

In this corner we have

The One Year Old

playing in a sipie cup full of spilt milk.

I don't know how he figured out how to get the lid off, but he did.

What can I say, he's a genius.

That little heathen was having way more fun sitting and splashing in the milk than we was drinking it.

Now for the ironic part. These two incidents happened within 2 minutes of each other.

Chocolate milk anyone?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Mr Bird was only about 6 feet away from them.

I will not tell you where I was...
To see what everyone else is chatting about this ice blue Tuesday

Visit The Lazy Organizer

Ringing in the New Year!

What did you do for New Year's Eve?

Did you kiss your lover at midnight?

I did!

We had big plans for New Year's Eve.

We planned on painting our vacant rental house to get it ready for new tenants.

Yipee, Happy New Year's to me!

Mr Bird has been painting and fixing and tinkering for a week straight, he took the week between Christmas and New Year's off.

He spent more time working on that silly rental than he would have logged hours at work.

We knew he had to get it done before he had to work again on Friday so we got a sitter for the day time so we could get massive amounts of painting done. Then we planned to go home around 6 pm, spend the evening vegging in front of the T.V. and hoped to be in bed before 10pm.

Sounds exciting right?

Well, that's not how it turned out after all. As we were leaving to go to the rental our good friend Matt called and asked if we needed help painting.
Um, YES!
He was so great to come and help paint our silly walls. We got so much more done than we could have on our own. Thanks Matt!!!
As we painted we started talking about our New Year's plans and he said we should come over to play games. He said we'd ring in the New Year at 10pm (Midnight Eastern time) and we could still get home at a semi decent hour.


We played Cranium, boys against girls.
Who won you ask?
The girls of course! Was there really any question.
Actually, we creamed them.
It felt good, it felt really, really good!

Here is Matt's cute wife Kerilyn and her ever growing baby belly.

This is their 4th.

All of our children were being totally ignored while they played upstairs during our game.

They made quite the mess of the bedroom.

Sorry guys.

Kerilyn's parentals joined us for the evening as well, they are so fun and they love their cute grand kids so much.

As it turns out 10 pm came and went while we finished our game. We decided to wait until 11 to celebrate. Dubs stayed awake the whole time!

Doesn't he look chipper?

Like a deer caught in the headlights!

Baby Cakes was not quite so alert. He knocked out around 10:30. That's pretty good for him, he's used to being in bed by 8 pm, every night, without fail.

We all drank our cider and said what we were going to resolve to do, I will write another post about that later. I will say that one of my resolutions had to do with more patience.

That resolution was tested almost immediately. We left for home around 11:20 and got home right around midnight. We rushed the kids off to bed and crashed in our own.

A few short hours later I could hear Dubs trying to unzip his footy jammies and crying in frustration. I got up to help him unzip and get on the potty.

As soon as I got his jammies off and his unders down it was too late, he could not hold it any longer. His poor little bladder just could not wait the 2 more seconds it would have taken to get on the potty and he proceeded to pee all over ME! Not on the floor or the bath mat.

He peed on me.

At 2 am.

Why do these things always happen at 2 am?

If being peed on within the first few hours of a New Year is considered good luck, I have a feeling it's going to be a very, very good year.

Where oh Where have my Brain cells Gone?

Oh, where oh where could they be?

I have posted in the past about funny things I hear the kids say.

Well, in the past day or two I have turned the microscope on myself.

And what did I see, you ask?

It turns out motherhood makes you say some pretty funny things, taken out of context of course.

For instance, the other day I caught myself saying,

"broccoli tastes better than boogers."

Do any of your kids eat boogers?

Oh good, Mine either...

In my dreams.

You can't imagine how embarrassing it is to have your child digging and eating at the most inopportune times.

Family Christmas parties, while reciting a poem in front of her peers, on the stand during the Primary Sacrament Program and countless other times.

Sometimes I wish I could duct tape her hands to her sides.

It's just so, so, so...

*disgusting*

Anyway as you can imagine I looked over as we were eating dinner the other night to the familiar sight of the finger up the nose. I could not help myself. My eyes went to her plate full of good food to eat.

I could not help but wonder why on earth she would choose boogers over all that healthy delicious food.

Then the next day I was caught saying,

"Wake up, or you'll never get any sleep!"

Makes perfect sense, right?

Well, it does if you are saying it to a 3 year old that has fallen asleep on the floor at 5:30pm.

It makes even more sense if said 3 year old has been waking up before 6 am every morning and you are trying desperately to faze out naps so he'll sleep better at night.

And guess what?

It worked.

He slept in until 7:30 this morning.

*Hallelujah*

Don't worry, I'm really not losing all my brain cells,

I Hope!

Baby's First...

Can you guess what 'first' I am referring to?

First step?

Nope.

First words.

Not yet.

First Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich perhaps?

Wrong again.

Baby Cakes got his very first stomach virus last night. Since he is technically one year old I could feed him our family lunchtime favorite, but alas, he is sick-o.

Dubs started off the puke fest around 11 pm and Baby Cakes joined in the party around midnight.

Poor baby, he puked every 10-15 minutes until almost 2am. Here is something how our night went. Puke sounds, mom and dad come running, one cleans kid, the other cleans bed. Put baby back to bed, Lysol everything we touched, wash hands, go back to bed, repeat, again and again and again.

The washer was running non stop all night, and I still have a load waiting for me to rinse so I can start it.

Do I have to? Why me?

Oh ya, I almost forgot, cuz I'm the mom.

* yipee for me*

Why does it seem we end up with the stomach virus every December? I am always hoping it will leave as soon as possible so none of us have to be sick on Christmas. Now that we have so many people living here one of these years I know it will last the whole month and Christmas will be ruined.

I don't want to clean up puke on Christmas!!!

I want to be busy opening presents and eating fresh baked cinnamon rolls and taking a nice peaceful nap and visiting family and singing Christmas songs and eating fudge, without having to scrub it out of the carpet at 2 am!

Is that too much to ask for? I almost want to let the other kids drink from their cups so they'll hurry up and get it before Christmas comes. Is that mean? Or just plain disgusting?

Hey, I never said I was going to, it was just a temptation.

Temptations are only sins if you act on them.

I won't, I won't that is just gross and wrong.

...Maybe

No Words

This is my nephew Josh and his cute Fiance, Tiffany. They are going to school in Cedar City but decided to make a trip home this week end just to see me and my kids.

Wasn't that nice?

Josh's parents live here too and I'm sure it was not sheer torture to see them, since they were here, but we all know he came to see my kids. After all, my kids are the

cutest and the funnest.

No offence Laura, Steve, Mike and Lisa. It's just one of those facts of life we have all accepted and we have moved on.

Let's take a closer look shall we?

Notice anything unusual about this photo?

Besides the fact that they are not her parents.

Besides the fact that Doodle looks exactly like a mini Mr Bird, complete with crooked smile and steel blue eyes.

I'll give you a hint, look at Doodle's teeth.

Got it?

Lots of little baby teeth that are getting too small for her ever growing mouth.

Now take a look at this picture that was taken less than 2 hours later.

That's right! Doodle lost her first top tooth!

Her tooth has been loose for a while, but just barely. The last couple of days it has gotten loser, but still not loose enough to pull out. This afternoon we were watching General Conference. Doodle was playing with her tooth as she sat next to me (more like on top of me) on the love sac.

She kept wanting me to wiggle it. Now mind you I have a weak stomach when it comes to things like this. I very gently wiggled it, making sure it would not go too far and, heaven forbid, come out in my fingers.

*gag*

Then she wanted me to try to pull it out. Again, very gingerly I gave it a weak tug. Then Beano who had come over to see the excitement piped up and said with a sparkle in his eye,

"Let me try!"

I thought surely he was not strong enough to do any damage.

Boy was I wrong.

He got a good grip on that tooth and yanked with all his might. Even as Doodle was screaming he held fast to that tooth.

The next thing I know Doodle is up like a flash and running in the bathroom for a tissue. She put it to her mouth and a strange look came over her face.

She moved the tissue away from her mouth and said with a thrill in her voice, "Beano pulled my tooth out!"

Then she said, "Thanks Beano! But I'm never letting you do that AGAIN!"

Sure enough, in that bloody (*gag*) tissue was a tiny baby tooth.

Suddenly her whole babyness flashed before my eyes. I felt so sad. My Doodle is growing up. I remember when she got that cute baby tooth. It was her third to come in and now her third to come out (she has lost her 2 bottom teeth as well, her grown up teeth have already come in down there).

She just will not listen to me when I tell her to stop growing.

Doesn't she know life only gets harder? She should want to be my little girl forever.

But alas, my baby girl, my only little princess is growing and changing.

I wish I could describe how that feels.

There are just no words.

Now for your viewing pleasure, enjoy this clip of Doodle trying to learn to talk with a gap in her teeth. (Don't forget to scroll all the way down to the bottom of my blog and turn off the music so you can hear the video)

Through the Nose Holes

Doodle has been fascinated with Ancient Egypt and pyramids and mummies this week. It started with a book we have been reading called

The Story of the World: History for the classical Child.

The section on King Tut is very intriguing. Then yesterday we watched a Reading Rainbow about mummies. That got her all fired up. Apparently she pictured mummies as looking just like real people. Watching Reading Rainbow showed her a real mummy for the first time. She was intrigued.

This morning for school we got on the Internet and looked at pictures of King Tut and his treasures, the pyramids and other ancient Egyptian artifacts. Think about it, real live hidden treasure in the sands of Egypt. I wonder if there are more out there we just have not found yet.

So today I'm talking about ancient Egypt. Click here for a video about King Tut and what they think killed him. Click here for more information about the process of making a mummy. Here are a few other fun facts for you.

* Female mummies have gold plated finger nails and toe nails (remind you of nail polish? We just had to paint our nails in honor of the Egyptians)

* King Tut's Tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. He started working in Egypt as an archaeologist at age 17. He found King Tut a whopping 31 years later.

* Tut became Pharaoh of Egypt at age 9 and died at age 19.

* King Tut's full name is Tutankhamen

* Archaeologists have discovered two baby girl mummies in King Tut's tomb who are thought to have been his daughters.

* King Tut's mummy was buried in 7 coffins (like nesting dolls). Each one was wood plated in gold, except the last one. It was solid gold. That was typical for Pharaohs.

* The pyramids were build for tombs for the Pharaohs.

* Solid gold statues of King Tut were found in his tomb

* The eyes of the mummies look disgusting (Doodle is helping me remember things).

* Before a mummy was made they removed the lungs and other organs and the brain was removed through the nose holes (you should have seen my children's faces when they learned that fun fact! CLASSIC!)

* King Tut has really flat feet

* Over 5,000 people visit King Tut's tomb every year (Someday, I will be one of them!)

So what fun fact have you learned today?

To see what others are talking about this First Tuesday of fall visit the lazy organizer.

What's that smell?

Baby Cakes is 6 1/2 months old. Oh, where has the time gone? He was my sweet little new born, all warm and cozy and snugly. When I did not feel like facing the world and all the things going on I did not have to. I had a sweet little bundle to snuggle with me on the couch. I could let days pass that way. Now he thinks he is so big. When I try to snuggle him he acts as if he's being attacked and pushes those sweet little arms against me and screams. So sad. Unless he's tired and there are no other kids around to distract him. Then he'll snuggle his cute little face right next to my cheek and let me just kiss and sniff his soft smooshy skin. I live for those moments. Nothing in the world could be sweeter. Look at him, he sits all by himself now. He's been doing it for a few weeks now, but he'd tip over after a few seconds. Now he has the balancing thing down. I can leave him sitting with a toy and come back and he's still there, playing.
He went in for his 6 month check up last week. He weighs in at 16 lb 2 oz and is 27 inches long. That puts him in the 25% for weight and 75% for height. He is still deciding if he likes baby food and still nurses 6 times a day. The last few days have been better... or is it worse? What goes in must come out. I was cleaning up breakfast today and walked past Baby Cakes and Dubs playing on the floor. I caught a whiff that you can only imagine. My first thought was that Dubs must have gas. So I did what any good mother would do and questioned him about his bodily misfirings. He unequivocally denied the presence of any gas. Then I thought "Oh on, he pooped his pants, I thought we were past that!" When asked about this, again he denied. I did not believe him so I took matters into my own hands. A quick peek reveled he was truthful. Another whiff caught my nose. I looked at Baby Cakes who was grinning from ear to ear. Could it be? No, he's too little to be the author of that horrible stench. Still, it was possible, so I peeked. Low and behold stink had found it's way into my sweet little baby's poop! Things will never be the same again!!!

Potty Train CHOO CHOO!!!

I officially declare potty training the worst and hardest and most frustrating part of motherhood!!

I HATE IT

We are in the middle of potty training Dubs and it is not going well.

He turned three in March. We decided before Baby Cakes was born in December to give him time after everything settled down to start potty training. He showed interest in the potty, was waking up dry, would tell me when he was pottying in his diaper. So we thought now is the time. We made a huge deal about it. We called it his Potty Party. We put his diapers that were left (like 4 of them) in a mailing envelope for the mail man to take to kids who are not big enough to use the potty yet. This was great because sometimes we get free diaper samples in the mail. Then we went to Wally World and he picked out his very own brand new unders,

Lightening McQueen ones.

He picked out snacks and juice and root beer for after he had success. The first few days were awesome. He loved it. He did not poop though. He usually is a 2 to 3 times a day-er.

So I was getting a little concerned.

Then finally poop success.

He was even going on his own without us asking if he needed to go.

Then one day we were out and about and he pooped in his unders. We dealt with it and moved on. He still would poop but now only every other day.

Then suddenly he stopped pooping in the potty.

It has been over a week since he has pooped in the potty.

What do I do???

And don't even tell me stickers.

They have never worked long term with any of my kids. We always put the poop in the potty and talk about where poop belongs after his accidents. He tells me he will poop in the potty

next time.

BUT HE NEVER DOES.

Beano (age4 now) had a similar problem so we bought a pack of 20 Hot wheels and put them on the fridge so he could see them. Every time he pooped in the potty he got a car. By the end of the pack of cars he was a pro and never looked back.

I have not found anything that works like that for Dubs. We have tried Hot wheels again and chips and candy.

Candy didn't even work.

So what now?!?!?!

My dream for today is having all four of my childern potty trained. A little far fetched, I know, considering Baby Cakes is only 5 1/2 months old. Maybe someday...