Baby Talk

Kyle's new word yesterday was "ack", for "snack".  He can almost say "milk", he get's the "ilk" really good...and Josh said yesterday morning Kyle said "m....ilk."  Kyle says "out" (he wants to go outside ALL the time!).  Other "words" include... "at" for "cat", and "up" for "cup" (although he uses that one for the word "up" as it is intended, also).  "At" is a universal word as well.  He uses that when he points at things, either saying, "what is that?", or "look at that.".  He makes it very clear whether he is talking about the cat, wants you to tell him what something is, or if he is just trying to get your attention to look at something that maybe he wants.  Very smart fellow!  He also tries to say "eat."  He's learning new words every day.  :)

He also says "ock" for "rock"...he is an avid rock collector!!!  Everywhere we go, he has to find a new rock to hold on to.  Perhaps a little geologist has been born....lol!

I'll try to keep you posted on Kyle's latest and greatest baby words as they develop.

Pumpkins At The Zoo

"Don't worry, I got it!"

Kyle and I went to the zoo today with our friends Michelle (mom) and son James, and Amanda (mom) and daughter Maggie.  We all met each other during swim classes at Sunshine Swim School, and became friends.  (I don't recommend classes there, by the way.)  There were pumpkins everywhere at the zoo, and lots of cute Halloween decorations!  We had fun taking a few pictures of the kids.  (If you click on the photos, you can view a larger image.)  I hope you enjoy them!

Here are all of us!

 

LOL, this is what you get when you put together a 12 month old, 13 month old, and 15 month old and try to take a picture.... no one looking at the camera, and one unhappy baby!

Kyle crawling through a fake log.

Peek a boo James and Kyle!

Maggie and Kyle

We had a fun visit today at the zoo, and the kids had a fun time playing together.  They all play so nice with each other, and us ladies have a nice time socializing together and sharing mommy ideas and stories!

15 Month Well Check

Today Kyle is 15 months old!  Happy Birthday little guy!  Kyle went for his 15 month well check today, and came out with a clean bill of health!  He is 25 lbs. 1oz., and 33.5" tall.  He is in the 50-75% for weight, and the 97% for height.  His numbers have always been off the charts since he was born, so these are "normal" numbers for him.  He's a big boy!

Today we told the doctor that we have decided to stop vaccinating Kyle.  I was very anxious today, not knowing what kind of a response to expect.  I know that some pediatricians will literally kick you out of their practice if you do not vaccinate, and there have even been accounts of pediatricians calling Child Protective Services for child abuse...for not vaccinating your child.  How obserd!  Parents should be able to make an informed decision and not be made to feel guilty for doing so.  Our doctor is very nice, and I didn't expect there to be any drama...but I wasn't sure...

The Dr. was very nice about the whole thing.  He listened to our concerns, and didn't make us feel bad for our decision.  He understood that we had valid concerns, although he still held his position of recommending the vaccinations.  I respect his recommendation, but we have decided not to take it.  He was honest and said he didn't have a response when I mentioned that the people who are recommending these vaccinations (CDC, FDA, and the manufactures) have done some shady things in the past with contaminated vaccinations.  My point about it was...what contaminants might be in these vaccines now that we won't find out about for another 10 years that are harmful...?  He couldn't answer that question...nor did I expect him to!  But, it's a valid concern.  He said that honestly these diseases we are vaccinating for are rare, but of course can (not will) have complications if you get them.  He basically told us that we have to weigh the benefits and risks both ways, and decide which risk to take.  Are the vaccines a bigger risk, or getting a not so common disease that could have complications...?  Of course we told him that we thought the risks of the vaccines were higher.  He could tell that I had done my homework, and there was no talking us out of our decision.

He didn't fight us at all, or make us feel stupid for our choice.  We actually discussed the topic a bit, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be after all!  The Dr. was very respectful, and had me sign a form saying that I was declining the vaccinations for Kyle today.  He was supposed to get a DPaT booster, and a Hep A vaccine today.  He also recommended the flu vaccine, which we also declined.  I assume that every visit where vaccines are routine, I will have to sign that form declining the vaccines.

He told us flat out that some practices kick patients out who decide not to vaccinate, but this practice has decided that the kids that don't vaccinate need a doctor too.  So, they try to support the decision, even though it goes against their recommendation.  It makes me feel good that this is their position, and that they genuinely care for the kids!  It clearly isn't all about money at this office, which is really nice to confirm!  Our doctor said that if we ever change our mind and decide to vaccinate, they can do it at any time.

It was a good day, and I have a happy and healthy baby!  It was really nice coming home with a healthy baby today...one who wasn't fussy, or running a fever from shots!  What a relief!  :)

Tray of Snacks

I tried something new with Kyle this morning, and it worked out fabulous!  I got this idea from The Baby Book, by Dr. Sears.  I took an ice cube tray and put different snacks in the little trays.  This morning I put grapes, pears, peas, corn, cheerios, and graham crackers.  I put it on Kyle's little picnic table in the living room, where he could "graze" and play.  He actually sat at his table and ate all of it but a few peas and corn.  He played a little in-between eating.  (Yesterday I set peas out in the morning and he ate them all up, so I guess he just wasn't in the veggie mood this morning.  lol)  He knew to keep the tray on the table and sit in his seat.  Very cute!  We are moving up in the baby world...watch out!

 

 

When he was winding down for his nap time, he let me know he was ready to sit in his high chair and have a little breakfast.  He didn't eat too much more, but that's okay.  :)  He then had a cup of goat milk, and went down for his nap.  Hurray!

I think we've finally gotten the morning routine down, and I have a much happier baby...that isn't throwing food all over the place!  Happy Mommy!!

A Day In The Desert

Yesterday we took a family trip to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  We had a nice day together.   Kyle got to run around, play in dirt, collect rocks, and watch the mountain lion on the prowl!  We got some really nice photos of Kyle today, so I thought I would share a few.  He is such a happy baby, so getting shots of him smiling is never a problem, as you will see!  :)  Enjoy the photos!

 

 

 

And the mountain lion, of course....

Leo the Lion

Last year Kyle was a frog for Halloween.  The costume only stayed on long enough to take pictures because it was so hot that day...that was about 5 minutes.  Kyle was 3 months old.  And look how big he was!

Today Josh and I took Kyle to Bookman's for their free Halloween Party.  Kyle is a lion this year for Halloween. After we got the lion costume we realized that Kyle's astrological sign is Leo, which is a lion.  :)  So, the costume is fitting for our little Leo.  When you ask him "what does the lion say?", he gives a little growl.  Hee, hee, it's so cute!  We think his face is perfect for the lion costume.  He got oogled over at the party, of course!  :)  Enjoy the pictures!

Daddy and Kyle arriving at the party

Hi little lion!

What a cute little tail!

 

Walking around visiting with all the kids.

 

Roaaaaaaaar!

 

Trick or Treat!  How could you turn this cute face away?!!

Chickenpox Vaccine

First off I want to say that never in a million years did I imagine I would be sitting here writing about vaccines!  I never thought I would take this position about them either!  I have had my share of vaccinations in my life.  (Although, I'm not sure that in my whole life I have had as many vaccinations as Kyle has had in his one year of life!)  If you haven't already read about how I got to this anti-vaccine position, you can read some of my older entries.  The one titled "What Do We Do? - The Vaccine Controversy," is were it starts (in the October 2009 archive folder).  Hope you find some of my banter useful, or at least entertaining if nothing else.  :)

So, I've been wanting to write this entry for a couple days now, but I needed to take a breather from the vaccine stuff.  All this reading and research is exhausting!  Anyway, this entry will hopefully educate you a little bit about the chickenpox vaccine, so that you can make an educated decision on whether to do it or not for your kids.

The chickenpox vaccine, in my opinion, is one of the most ridiculous vaccines!  Kyle was given the chickenpox vaccine at his 12 month well check, and I am so mad now about it!  By the end of this entry, hopefully you will understand why.  Of course I can't dwell on the past, and all I can do is make decisions for the future based off of the information I now have.  I hope you will find the following information useful, and for convenience of writing I will make a numbered reference guide on the left side bar (you may have to scroll down a bit to get to it), so that I don't have to write the title of every book I have referenced, every time.

What is Chickenpox?

"Chickenpox, or varicella, is a contagious disease caused by a virus.  The technical name for this virus is varicella-zoster, a member of the herpes virus family.  Chickenpox is considered by many experts to be a relatively harmless childhood disease.  Symptoms include a fever, runny nose, sore throat, and an itchy skin rash which can appear anywhere on the body.  The rash and disease usually disappear after one or two weeks.  The disease confers permanent immunity, the child will not contract it again." (1)

Okay...I had chickenpox when I was little, and yes it sucked.  But, it was short lived, and now I have immunity for life.  The vaccine does not provide immunity for life, in fact, no one even knows yet how effective the vaccine is, because it is so new.  The FDA thinks that they are at least effective for the first 5 years, until the next booster shot, but aren't sure yet.

"...the FDA does not know how long beyond the five years immunity will last.  "The only way to sort that out is going to be to see what happens after the vaccine is introduced," said Philip Krause, M.D., a senior research investigator in the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.  The FDA asked Merck to follow several thousand vaccinated children for fifteen years to determine the long-term effects of the vaccine and to see if there would be a need for a booster shot.  Unfortunately, the results of that research will not be available until at least 2010."  (2)

"According to the vaccine manufacturer, "The duration of protection...is unknown." (5)

Not only does that mean that we don't know how long it will last, but we don't know what the long term effects of the vaccine itself are.  Essentially, our children right now are the experiment subjects for this vaccine!

"No one knows the possible effects of latent vaccine virus stored within the nervous system.  Varicella-zoster virus may be a cause of cancer.  This association has never been proven, though varicella-zoster-invected human cells have transformed mouse cells to cancerous cells in a laboratory setting and varicella-zoster virus-infected cells produced cancers when inoculated into hamsters, which also developed viral antibodies.  ..... The possible long-term effects of this herpesvirus vaccine remain unknown." (4)

How is the Varicella vaccine made?

 "The virus was taken from an infected individual decades ago and placed in a culture of lung cells from human embryos.  The virus used the lung cells to multiply.  The viruses were then removed and placed in a culture of guinea pig embryo cells for further growth.  Finally, they were put in a culture of human diploid cells (in human tissue) to multiply even more.  These viruses were then taken to Merck's laboratories.  Merck keeps the virus replicating in a different human diploid cell culture nourished with serum from a cow fetus (the liquid part of the cow fetus's blood) and removes batches of the virus to go into the vaccine.  The viruses are put into a solution of saline, sugar, electrolytes, MSG, and gelatin.  The virus is whole and living when injected, so it can potentially cause chickenpox."  (3)

"In other words, children vaccinated with the chickenpox shot are mobile carriers of the virus, and can spread this highly contagious disease to every susceptible person they come into contact with." (1)

"The DNA and proteins from the human cells are an unavoidable byproduct of this particular manufacturing process.  These aren't known to be harmful, but some parents find it a little odd to inject unknown human DNA into a baby."  (3)

Personally I think this is gross!  And "unknown human DNA" is being put into my baby...?  I wonder if most people know how the vaccine is made and that their kids are carrying the disease around just from the injection...?  Do parents of this generation realize that their kid is a guinea pig for this relatively new vaccination...?  I didn't have a clue when we vaccinated Kyle!  These things aren't discussed in the doctor's visit, unfortunately.

The next set of information is most disturbing to me.  This disease is usually harmless for young children, but can be very serious and even deadly for teens and adults.  That's why parents used to have "chickenpox parties" to get their kids sick when they were young, so that they would have lifelong immunity and not get sick when they were older (and it was more dangerous or deadly!).  The vaccine was originally created because chickenpox can be especially dangerous for children who have a weakened immune system, such as those who have leukemia or other cancers.  But, here is the bottom line of why we are all required today to give our kids this vaccine (whether they are healthy or compromised).....

"Prior to licensing the chickenpox vaccine, an important study concluded that a national chickenpox vaccination campaign would shift the age distribution of chickenpox cases from children, who are not likely to experience problems with this disease, to teenagers and adults, who have higher complication rates.  Yet, this did not stop authorities from licensing and mandating this vaccine, because "the U.S. could save five times as much as it would spend" on this shot by avoiding the costs incurred by moms and dads who stay home to care for their sick children." (1)

This fact was mentioned in every 5 of the books I have referenced (although in different wording of course).  I am not siting from anti-vaccine books, by the way.  Most of these books are written by doctors who are simply giving the facts (and for both sides).  Just wanted to make that clear.  Anyway... 

I am a stay at home mom!  If the whole reason why parents are pushed to vaccinate for the varicella virus is to save money so that mom's and dad's don't have to miss work...then Kyle should never have had that vaccine!  I am home to take care of him if he gets sick!  Why is this not a discussion at the doctor's office prior to vaccinating?  It is "routine" to get this vaccination at 12 months of age, and again at 5 years.  Why...?  Oh yeah, because it makes a lot more money for the manufacturer if you give it to all children, and not just those who have compromised immune systems!

Now knowing how it is made, and really thinking about all the information I have shared with you...it makes me furious that Kyle was vaccinated...I know, I authorized them to do it!  I should have looked into this more before it was time for the vaccine!  I just trusted our doctor, and that he is pointing us in the right direction.  But that is all water under the bridge, and Kyle will not get the booster shot at 5 years.

"...adults are 10 times more likely to require hospitalization and 25 times more likely to die from chickenpox than children.  Yet, this did not stop authorities from licensing and mandating this vaccine.

Before the vaccine became available, more than 90 percent of people entering their 20's were immune to varicella, mainly due to natural chickenpox infection.  Thus, very few adults contracted this disease.  Infants were usually protected as well because their mothers, who contracted chickenpox as children, had protective antibodies that they passed on to their babies in utero (during pregnancy).  However, as more children receive the vaccine and lose the opportunity to acquire natural immunity, moms will no longer be able to protect their babies and the disease is likely to shift to infants, another age group at greater risk for complications.  Anyone who doubts this possibility merely has to look at what officials did with measles.  Before the vaccine was introduced, less than one-half of one percent of all babies contracted measles.  Today, following years of mass immunizations, about 30 percent of all measles cases now occur in babies under one year of age."  (5)

What makes me so mad is that we are keeping our kids from getting sick with the disease while they are little (and it is mild).  This makes it possible for them to potentially get seriously ill or die from the disease in their teen or adult years (because they do not have the life long immunity)!  Again, the reason for this vaccination (like many others) is to save $$$.  Other than that, it is actually doing harm by pushing the disease into the later years, and who knows what other side effects will come to the surface from the vaccine itself.  Not to mention that there are already lots of reports of adverse reactions and even death from the vaccine.  Then there is the whole discussion about giving several vaccines at the same time.  I won't get into that in this entry, you can read more about that if you wish to do so.  And finally there is the issue of long term problems and diseases from the crap that is in the vaccines, that we have yet to discover in the years to come.  There's just too much to even mention in this one little blog entry!

For those of you with little girls, you need to think even more about this one.  It is very dangerous for a woman to get chickenpox when she is pregnant.  (You can do more reading on your own if you are curious about the details.)  I didn't have to even think about this when I got pregnant, because I did have chickenpox when I was a little girl.  Also, if a pregnant woman hasn't received the natural immunity to the disease, they can not pass on the antibodies to their babies.  Again, something I didn't even have to think about when I got pregnant.  But, unfortunately this new generation of girls are going to have to think about all these things as they get older and come of child bearing age!

Just a few things to think about moms and dads!  Start researching these vaccines and asking more questions!  The information is out there, but unfortunately you have to go looking for it on your own.  :(

Bottom line...we don't know that the varicella vaccine is safe or effective long term...and it is not necessary!!!  I do hope that despite the vaccine, Kyle will get chickenpox naturally while he is young, so that I don't have to worry about him getting older and having no immunity to it.  I know it will be a rough week or two for all of us if he does get it...but long term it's worth it!

Anyone know where the "chickenpox party" is being held this week...?

8th tooth!

Kyle's 8th tooth is poking out!  I saw it tonight while I was brushing his teeth.  It is a couple teeth back from his front teeth (on the bottom right side), so it wasn't blatantly obvious.  This kid does not let you look in his mouth for anything!  So...you've got to be creative.  Anyway, he has 8 teeth now!

I can't believe how fast he is growing!  He is more mature every day (in body and soul)!  I couldn't help but feel my heart explode with love every time I looked at him today, he is just so wonderful!  He just has the sweetest spirit!  He is so kind hearted to everyone and everything, and it just warms my mommy heart more and more every day.  He is the cutest little boy I have ever seen!!!  I am so proud, and I just love him so much!

Good night little Kyle.  Sleep tight, and sweet dreams!

Mommy's New Trick...?

So, Kyle has not been very interested in eating lately.  I think at first it started because of teething.  His 7th tooth broke thru, and we've still been struggling with getting food down him.  So, I was thinking that there may be more teeth on their way (and there very well may be...who know...he won't let me look in his mouth!).  But this morning I decided to try something.  Yes - I just now figured this one out!

So, I went in and got one of Kyle's plastic bowls and put a few cheerios in it.  I brought it to the living room, where Kyle was playing.  He kept playing, but in between his busyness he would come over and take a cheerio, and then go play again.  He did this until they were all gone.  I let him play for a while, and then he let me know when he was ready to sit down for breakfast!  This was a miracle!  He went in his high chair without a fight, and actually ate!

I think that in the morning he just needs some time to wake up, and he is too busy playing to be interested in eating.  But, I also think that without the snack he actually gets too hungry and then is cranky when we sit down to eat.  Thus, throwing his food on the floor, and not eating very well.

I'll try it again tomorrow.  Snack during his morning play time, and then breakfast at the table.  Here's hoping mommy has this one figured out!  :)

Balls In The Bucket & Donut Rolls

I took Kyle to his gymnastics class this morning at the Little Gym.  We usually go on Saturday morning, all three of us...but we missed last Saturday, so I took Kyle this morning for his make-up class.  He was a little shy at first because there were new parents and new kids there that he's never met before.  We did see a couple familiar faces, but we made new friends today.  :)

Kyle walked the balance beam (I held his hands of course), and he explored all the equipment.  They set the gym up differently every week, so the kids always have new things to explore, and it never looks the same.  It's a good thing...it keeps Kyle interested...otherwise he would get bored of it.  We played with the shakers, and popped bubbles with our fingers.  Kyle did backwards flips with mommy, and rolls with mommy.  It was a lot of fun, and both of us were smiling and laughing!

They have this big blow up mat that they call an "air track" at the gym.  It's like a jumping castle but with no walls.  They take it out every now and again, but not every week.  Today we played on the air track.  Kyle was a little nervous about riding it today while it inflated (he didn't throw a fit or anything, he was just a little apprehensive about being on there while it filled up).  He is usually fine about riding it while it fills up, but I think with all the new people today for some reason he wasn't so sure.  He did somersaults and crawled around on the air track, and then when it was time to put it away, all the parents and kids sat together on top to take a ride down while it deflated.  Kyle was fine sitting with me for that part.  :)

Every week they dump out a big bin full of balls for the kids to play with.  It's one of Kyle's favorite parts of gym I think.  He is starting to get the idea of kicking the balls, but it's still a work in progress.  When Miss Kristy (the teacher) put the big garbage can back out to put the balls away, Kyle walked right over and put his ball in the can, before any directions were even given.  He's got the routine down for sure!  Ha, ha!


For the "skill of the week", Kyle stood up next to a big "donut" (circular mat), and with Miss Kristy and I spotting his arms and legs, he rolled up and around over the top, and when he came back down (head first)...he put his hands down, tucked his head, and did a somersault.  He wasn't so sure about the whole thing when he was going up and around the top (he gave a couple tiny wiggles, but never said a word), but then when we got to the somersault part he realized he was fine.  Silly little guy!


We go again for class this Saturday, and I can't wait to see what new things he will learn!