Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Growing up so fast

This morning my little girl just actually said "Good Bye" clear as day.

Her daddy was getting ready to leave for work and she insisted on being picked up and gave him a big hug. I gave him a hug too and she pushed me away, hugged him tighter and said "good bye" in the saddest tone ever.

It brought tears to my eyes... but it's probably just the pregnancy hormones. Hah.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Vaccine information...

It's rare that I post about anything that could be controversial but articles about the skyrocketing rate of people not vaccinating their children often stun me with their misinformation. While I do vaccinate I have a healthy skepticism about vaccines, and choose not to get the flu vaccine for a myriad of reasons I am not going into right now.

Here's an example of the misinformation:

From Wired magazine http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/2/
"...while nonprofit health care provider Kaiser Permanente reported that unvaccinated children were 23 times more likely to get pertussis, a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes violent coughing and is potentially lethal to infants. In the June issue of the journal Pediatrics, Jason Glanz, an epidemiologist at Kaiser’s Institute for Health Research, revealed that the number of reported pertussis cases jumped from 1,000 in 1976 to 26,000 in 2004. A disease that vaccines made rare, in other words, is making a comeback."

What they do NOT mention is that part of the reason for the comeback is the vaccine itself. You see a few years back my college health center informed me that I probably had pertussis (aka whooping cough) when I said "No, that can't be right, I had the vaccine like every other kid my age" they informed me that I was wrong. Not that I didn't get the vaccine but that it didn't protect me. The outbreaks had been happening as a result of people travelling and picking up whooping cough in countries that do not vaccinate as much. The reason that travelers are picking it up? Because the vaccine "wears off." They are finding that many vaccines do NOT confer lifelong immunities and actually need boosters throughout adulthood. Not enough research has been done to find out how often people need boosters but the best guess is every 5-10 years.

This article is from the American Academy of Family Medicine, but there are many more like it http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/media/releases/newsreleases-statements-2009/whoopingcoug-adults.html

Just what is my point here?

Arguments for vaccines need to be written without this kind of misleading information. You want people to get vaccinated, leaving this sort of things in there will make some people discount the whole article. Why aren't the editors catching this sort of stuff?
Argue away about the necessity of vaccines, but please pick your arguments wisely people.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Technical Difficulties

I'm still working on Lorelei's costume.. slowly but surely. Bodysuit and tights dyed, silk for her skirt dyed, some little flowers for embellishments made, wings made...

I'm having a bit of trouble with the wings though. The trial run revealed a droopy problem.

I didn't think about the fact they wouldn't stay up as well on a onesie as they would on a dress, or maybe they are heavier than they are supposed to be? Who knows.... I think I will be sewing some ribbon on them and tying them on that way along with the velcro.

She still looks awful cute though even with the droopiness!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Ready for Halloween?

I'm not! Ive been working on Lorelei's costume, but I may be overestimating my abilities and time... because I also need to make my own costume, and my boyfriend's too. His will be simple, but I have big plans for mine.

Luckily I also have the tights and onesie dyed for the toddler costume, and have everything for her skirt I just need to assemble it :)

Here's my progress as of this afternoon...
Can you tell what she's gonna be?

She already loves the practice skirt I made up ... she brings it to me and then lifts a foot up for me to put it on her, and prances around the room in it. I don't know if it's the bright colors or the softness of the silk, but hopefully she will like the not-just-for-practice one too.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Caturday, on a BOAT!



We seem to have some new strays, and at least one of them likes our (OMG when are we ever going to find time to work on it) boat.


Handsome guy

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Blog blips

So I went to schedule a Caturday post and somehow I can't figure out how to schedule posts anymore... which makes no sense because I've done it more than once and ever had a problem before.

And theres some issue with the comments too.

Argh...