A bunch of posts worth reading

The posts here are partially for my reference and partially for your reading educational pleasure...

Top 10 Green Living Myths

The Serious Need For Play

How Dangerous is PVC In Toys

Eco-Friendly Cleaning

Where we went on our cruise

This is a record more for myself than for anyone else.

Boston, Massachusetts:

• Quincy Market
• Old State House
• Not much happened at this port. It was really cold, and it started snowing. Not a good combo with a baby

Portland, Maine:

• Victoria Mansion
• We left this port early, so we didn't see much. At least it didn't snow

Halifax, Nova Scotia

• Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
• Citadel Hill

Quebec City, Quebec

• Chateau Frontenac
• The Citadel
• Basilique-cathedrale Notre-Dame-de-Quebec
• Also snowed here and was very cold

Charlottetown, PEI

• Founders Hall
• Cavendish Beach and
  
• Anne of Green Gables House (near Cavendish)
  
• New Glasgow

Sydney, Nova Scotia

• Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Park

Saint John, NB

• Loyalist house

What's been happening lately...

This past month has been interesting. Here's a lowdown of what's been happening.

Cruise

I was quite looking forward to the cruise. We visited New England and Eastern Canada. Specifically, Boston, Portland (Maine), Halifax, Charlottetown, Quebec City, Sidney (NS), St John (NB). We started and ended in New Jersey, with a quick stop into New York City for a few hours before heading back home.

Eating. Well, the day we left Vancouver to drive down to Seattle was the day BabyL decided to have teething issues. By that I mean his gums were so sore that he refused to suck. Period. He wouldn't suck on the boob, he wouldn't suck on the bottle and he wouldn't even suck his own finger. We ended up spoon feeding him breast milk, formula and solids. I think once or twice we even use a medical syringe. I was so stressed that this was going to go on for the rest of the vacation, that I wanted to cry. Fortunately, this only happened for two days. BabyL either got used to the pain or it had lessened, but he started sucking again.

Sleep. The plan was to keep BabyL on PST even though we were in EST/Atlantic time, because I'd realized that once BabyL went to bed, we had to go to bed. Sleep went into the toilet because BabyL was in a strange environment, and despite the fact that I tried to keep the same routine, it wasn't enough for him. For the entire trip, someone had to hold him to sleep, so Hubby and I didn't get as much sleep as we wanted to. My mom offered to switch rooms with us one night, and even though I ended up sleeping on a crappier bed, I had the best sleep during the whole trip that night.

Bingo. About the third or fourth day, I played bingo. And won the big prize. Normally when they play bingo, they allow all players to check their cards against the numbers, and not take the first person who yells bingo, so sometimes there are more than one bingo winner per game. Well, this time, we couldn't share the big prize, so we had to play a tie-breaker game between the five winners. You cannot believe the shock I felt when I was the only one standing. And the prize: a free upgrade to one of the Royal Suites on the ship (it's the second largest stateroom on the ship). So we went from a 200+ sq ft room to a 700+ sq ft room, with a separate large bedroom, walk-in closet, large bathroom with jacuzzi tub, living area, dining area, a balcony with yet another hot tub and a butler! Whoo hoo! However, as much as we enjoyed the suite, it really helped us out with the sleep situation. We could put BabyL down for naps or for bedtime, and still allowed us to move around the suite without waking him up.

Fame!
Although there were a few people on board under the age of 18, BabyL apparently was the only baby on board, so it's safe to say that EVERYONE noticed him, particularly since he's so cute! We had people come up to us to pinch his cheeks or play with him. Both crew and passengers alike recognized him. They only recognized us as "the family with the baby who one the Royal Suite at bingo" because I was asked a few times how the suite was. It was a constant "Hello Baby!" or "Hey BabyL!" from everyone. BabyL certainly loved the attention!

All in all, despite all that, and the semi-crappy weather we had in a few of the cities, we had a pretty good time. I swear that BabyL grew an inch during the trip, even one of the passengers who sat next at the table next to us at dinner commented on it. I can tell you though, I was never happier sleeping in my own bed, and BabyL didn't have any problems falling asleep on his own like I feared once we got back home. He also has a tooth to show for his teething pains too!

Illness

Unfortunately, after we got home, I got sick. I had some GI thing, and an ear infection. Both Hubby and I had a bit of a cold during our trip. Hubby was allowed to take drugs. I couldn't take drugs, except for regular Tylenol, because I was breastfeeding, so I was left to suffer. My ear infection was probably from the cold. It took close to a week for it to clear. In the meantime, I had to contend with puking, feeling rotten and having the room constantly spin.

While this was happening, life kept marching on outside of my little bubble I was apparently living in. We came back to news that they had already started H1N1 vaccinations. I was bombarded with news of ever shifting priority lists, and 3 hour waits at clinics. It took me a few days before I had gotten myself together enough to call BabyL's doctor; apparently he didn't have enough vaccines, so that meant I had to go to a clinic. I was prepared for the worst, but apparently, the big rush happened the first couple of days. We were in and out within 45 mins. I'm just glad that BabyL never got sick amidst all this craziness and people constantly touching him, I don't know how I would have handled a sick baby.

Life marches on...

6 months old!

Today my baby turned 6 months! I can't believe he's already half a year old! I could talk to you about how he loves to watch EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE. Or how he loves to jump. Or how blowing very wet raspberries is one of his favourite pastimes. Or how great it is to watch him giggle and laugh. Or how he's already a solid-feeding champ.

All those things are great, yes they are. But I will tell you how he decided to mark the occasion. He pooed. Now that's not a big deal in the long run, but this is solid-log-type poo. He pooed three times. The first and third time were little poos, and they didn't bother him. In fact, I didn't even know that he pooed until I opened the diaper.

However, the second poo was HUGE! I think because he was experiencing a big solid poo for the first time, and because he was tired (I was getting him ready for his nap), it scared him, and he cried and cried. He also peed, but he's already peed over everything. I was more worried about the poo as this was something new for me, and throwing in cloth diapers into the mix made it much more interesting.

I saw some poo in his bum, then he had a meltdown. As I was trying to take care of that poo, I dropped it on the floor. BabyL kept crying and pooing. Then he started peeing. And continue pooing. I grabbed the flushable bioliners that I had and just caught the poo that way. It was a lot of poo. Finally, when he slowed down, I flushed what I had in my hands down the toilet. Going back to BabyL, he was still at it! And crying. And there were little puddle of pee everywhere. I caught the rest of the poo, and flushed it down the toilet, washed my hands, then cleaned up BabyL and mopped up as much pee as I could, washed my hands again, and put him in a clean diaper. Then I proceeded to put him down for his nap. After that, I brought out my antibacterial cleaners and gave the floor a good scrub.

Priorities people!

Solid poo really changes everything now. Yikes!

Yet another article about BPA exposure and kids

Do you think the media is making a big deal out of this whole BPA thing? After all, we keep seeing another report day after day after day....

Clicky!

Are household products making kids fat?

I read this article and found it very interesting. Now not only do I have to worry about chemicals that will effeminate my son, but I have to try to have him avoid as many chemicals as he can so he doesn't get fat. Will this never end?

Toxic Baby Bibs

I found this article about toxic baby bibs. BabyL loves to eat his bib. I looked up the bib that he's wearing right now, and according to their website, they've tested it and it's safe. The other two bibs I have for him are leather, and they're hard for him to put in his mouth, plus, they are CPSIA safety approved, so we should be okay (hopefully!).