Let's talk, Turkey!

My *sniff* baby is learning to talk. Granted, she's no great conversationalist, but she is a lot of fun to talk to. She thinks she's having a serious discussion, with the back-and-forth banter. My favorite is when you ask her what she wants and she says "Ummm, . . . . blaah!" (*insert huge grin*).

• Zoe's new favorite word is "Aaaaaid-yen". But it must be said at maximum volume.

• She's known some signs for while, although most have been greatly modified (or zo-ified). For instance, the sign for drink is this:

• Zoe's sign for drink looks more like this: coupled with the bellowing of the word "MOM!!!!!". Sadly, I'm not just trying to be funny. She really does this!
  

• Some days I fear she has turrets syndrome because when she's mad, it sounds like she's screaming obscenities in a foreign language. It makes my ears burn!
  

• On a side note, Zoe gives great kisses. If the queen deems you worthy she will shower you with kisses. If she considers you a peasant, foget about it! For you poor suckers who have never experienced one of her wet ones, simply press your face to the screen and imagine waterfalls, rivers, rain, etc. It's not the same, but it'll have to do.

• 

I'm a believer!

Toy Story is real people! How else would you explain this??



Can you guess where I found poor Luke? He must think he's been banished to the ice world Hoth.

Tough love vs. spanking

A friend sent this via email. I think it's a good idea and I fully intend to implement it. What do you think?
........................
Tough Love vs. Spanking

Most of America's population think its improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of "those moments."

One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

They usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together.

I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.

Sincerely,
A Friend



I think this will work with grandchildren, also.

I about busted a gut when I saw this!!!

**Twins?

I get asked by strangers all the time if my boys are twins (usually by the same people who, upon seeing me attempt to grocery shop with 4 wild little monkies comment, "boy you've got your hands full!" Oh, ya think?!) . Most of the time, I just politely reply, "actually they're two years apart" and silently wonder what they've been smoking. I guess as their mom it's easy to see their vast differences.

This morning the boys were sitting so sweetly on the couch in their jammies, reading a book. I grabbed the camera to catch the moment . . .


Ok, I get the twins comment now. Of course those mushrooms I ate on my omelet could have been a little funny. Who knows?

(p.s. these last two pictures had me giggling so hard this morning I was crying and had to remind myself to breathe. Classic Jonah and Aiden!!!)

...................................................
While on the subject of jammies (didn't you catch that reference up there?) Check out Zoe's adorable p.j.s

I've been fired!

My pediatrician fired me yesterday.

****
Kuzco: Oh, and by the way, you're fired.
Yzma: Fired? W-W-What do you mean, "fired"?
[Kuzco snaps his finger and a servant comes in and writes down Yzma's "pink slip"]
Kuzco: Um, how else can I say it? "You're being let go." "Your department's being downsized." "You're part of an outplacement." "We're going in a different direction." "We're not picking up your option." Take your pick. I got more.
****
I really like her, she's a wonderful, caring person who I felt was very supportive during my "my baby screams bloody murder at me 12 hours out of the day" phase. She's very sweet with the monkeys--she talks to them, not over their heads at me about them. In a different situation, I think we could be friends. But there's an issue that's like a wall between us that we can't seem to get past.

We've been going back and forth about immunizations for almost a year now. She thinks they are the be-all, end-all of modern civilization and that vaccinations will save the world. She refuses to acknowledge that my baby, within an hour of receiving her 4 month shots, turned blue and stopped breathing! and that it has anything to do with the shots. We, on the other hand, have heard so much negative information about vaccinations that we're still trying to sort through the benefits and risks. That, coupled with Zoe's experience, we are just not willing to submit our children to potentially life-altering or life-taking harm until we know we are doing the right thing. While she respects that we, as Zoe's parents, have the right to make that decision, her thinking is so far in the camp of "every child must be fully vaccinated in a timely fashion" that she told me she could no longer see my kids in her office.

In her defense, she was very thoughtful about it (no sarcasm intended). She knew that her office manager would be sending me discharge papers for my kids files and she wanted to call me first and warn me so it wasn't a shock when I got it. She also said she was sad to lose my kids as patients, that she loved them and that they were beautiful. But that she just couldn't in good conscience treat them if we were not going to fully vaccinate them. I knew this was coming so I totally took it all in stride, but it still stinks to have to find a new, open to us not wanting to vaccinate our children, doctor.

Any suggestions? Anybody have a holistic pediatrician in the DFW area?


For more information on why we are choosing not to fully vaccinate, check out these sites:
Mercola.com

Immunization Risks are too serious to be ignored

Vaccination risk awareness

Lethal Vaccine Injection

or simply type "immunization risks" into google and you'll get an eyeful from both camps.

The world through Aiden colored glasses

Aiden, upon finding a colorful post-it note on the floor could be heard to say, "Hmm, I wonder what this says. It says: Please touch this. Yours." Chris and I got a good giggle out of it.

**Ah, the good life!

My Jonah and Kolbi are now in school full-swing. I enjoy the three hours they're both gone (Kolbi is all day, Jonah is half-day) to pretend I have only two kids. Zoe, Aiden and I skip off to the store together, go to the playground, and take naps *yea right!*. I can't believe how incredibly easy two monkies at the store is compared to four. I didn't realize how very spoiled I was back in the day. The other day the three of us went to the park and I caught some great pics of all the fun. (please bear in mind the day was overcast so the pictures are a bit dark.)

Don't you wish you were there? It was lots of fun until I realized what time it was and I had to RUN all the way home,THROW the mini monkeys in the car, and SPEED (who me?) over to the school to pick up the bigger monkeys from school. I was a sweaty mess, but it was worth it.