Catch up!

Here are some of our recent summer adventures.

For Father's Day, Adam got a new grill. He has been dreaming of one for quite a while. I tried to surprise him, but he ended up seeing it through the kitchen window late at night getting Caleb a drink of milk. He said he was so excited, he couldn't go back to sleep for almost an hour.



As you can see, Adam is standing on the deck that he built. I haven't taken any official finished pictures but you can see the demolishing pictures in a previous post. He did such a good job and it is so much nicer than it used to be. Yay Adam.

Caleb is now in a big boy bed. The transition has been surprisingly easy. He fell off only once into the toys at the foot of his bed. When he doesn't want to be asleep yet, he gets up and plays for a bit, but he never falls asleep on the floor. He so far has always climbed into bed and falls asleep curled up in some funny position.



We go on morning walks a couple of times a week and then are outside a bit as well. Caleb has gotten plenty of sun as his feet show. Those are the tan lines from his sandals.



We went down to St. George for a family reunion on Adam's side. It was super fun. We went four wheeling and spent a lot of time playing games or swimming. Caleb had mixed emotions over the dinner his dad was trying to feed him.



But he loved the four wheeler!



Lucy spent her time either being held by many family members (and her mom), sitting in her stroller, or sitting in her car seat. The life of a baby. The one in her car seat was taken under a big red umbrella. She looks sunburnt but she really isn't, I promise.










There is a small park in St. George that has some fountains similar to those at the Gateway in Salt Lake. It was SO HOT, so we thought we would stop by and check it out. I think Adam enjoyed it a lot more than Caleb. ha ha ha







Caleb and Lucy are still recuperating from a napless, hot, over stimulating weekend. But it was definitely worth it. Adam's mom has seven siblings and this weekend was the first time all of them were able to attend the temple together. Because of cranky babies, I wasn't able to attend but it still was a special experience to be able to spend time with everyone there.

Vaccines Take 2

Ok, per some requests I am posting my vaccine schedule. Keep in mind, this is not set in stone and I also have not run this past a doctor, but I will explain my reasoning for all of it.

Birth: None
2 Mos: DTaP, Hib, PNC
4 Mos: DTaP, Hib, PNC
6 Mos: DTaP, Hib, PNC
12 Mos: None
15-18 Mos: Hib, PNC
2 yrs: None
3 yrs: IPV
4 yrs: IPV, DTaP
5 yrs: IPV, MMR
6 yrs: MMRV, Start Hep B and Hep A

For the actual chart, here it is. It is hard to read unless you click on it.



Here, also is the Utah recommended immunization schedule.



My reasoning is as follows. DTaP, Hib, and PNC all take care of diseases from which babies are at risk from dying or being severely damaged. Case in point, pertussis or whooping cough which I wrote about previously. Haemophilus Influenza type B click here for more info or click here for info on pneumococcal. Both are potentially scary.

I decided to push IPV, or the polio vaccine back because that disease is basically eradicated from the united states, but not quite yet. See here . Because it is not totally extinct, I think it is important to keep vaccinating. I just want to do it later on when they are bigger.

Now, the MMR is the most controversial vaccine from what I understand. In most publications about the MMR vaccine, they have an appendix of some kind saying that the vaccine has not been linked to autism so I guess a lot of people say it is. Click here for a site of one explanation of why people are afraid. Measles is a little scary because there are outbreaks currently and apparently it spreads VERY easily. See here for an overview. Mumps is only vaccinated from what I understand because it causes sterility in men as does chicken pox. Rubella or German Measles has no serious side effects except for that it causes birth defects if a pregnant woman gets sick. My ASL teacher in college was deaf because her mom caught rubella while pregnant. I put the MMR later because in the past, all three diseases have not been very common, but if measles keeps spreading, I might move it up. I put the MMRV very last because I would honestly rather have my kid get chicken pox than the vaccine. I and most people I know caught chicken pox and it was just fine. However, with the vaccine, the disease seems to be dying down and if the off chance they don't catch the disease while they're young, I would like them to be vaccinated.

Hepatitis A and B I feel for my family are very unnecessary. My doctor told me the reason they immunize the babies for Hepatitis B is because they can't get them to come in as teenagers when they are sleeping around and using intravenous drugs. Although I cannot guarantee that my kids will not doing any of that when they grow up, I can guarantee that they will not be doing that as babies. Can't they make it a requirement for like 6th or 7th grade? Hepatitis A comes from contaminated food or water, which I'm pretty sure my baby will not be getting unless we travel somewhere very remote like the jungles of Africa or something.

So there you go. If you have any suggestions to what I have scheduled, I would appreciate hearing them. One thing I have learned as I have been studying this even more is that, it's a good thing to think about, but it is really easy to freak yourself out. So, don't worry too much. Be informed but in more cases than not, vaccines are a very good thing. Caleb is caught up to where he should be on the Utah schedule, and I feel very confident that he is safe from some scary diseases out there. Have a happy and healthy day!

Tagged

Ok, I was tagged awhile ago, sorry it's taken me so long Jess.

5 things I need to do this week:

1. Clean the bathrooms
2. Plant some flowers and the rest of the veggies (I can't believe it's been so cold for so long; June and 50 degree weather)
3. Go on a date with Adam
4. Vacuum
5. Laundry

5 snacks I enjoy

1. Tostitos Corn Chips
2. Cheese
3. Nibs
4. Nature's Valley Fruit and Nut Granola Bars
5. 7 Layer Dip

5 Places I have lived

1. Utah
2. Pennsylvania
3. Ukraine
4. England
5. Ogden (down town Ogden seemed a very different place than all the other cities in Utah I have lived in so I will count it as different (: )

5 Jobs I've had

1. Brick Oven Restaurant, Hostess
2. ATL Technology (various very boring positions)
3. BYU School of Music, Receptionist
4. MTC, Russian Teacher
5. Barnes Banking Co., Loan Processor and New Accounts

5 Things you may not know about me

1. I have double jointed thumbs, kind of
2. I love lip gloss and can't handle just plain lip stick
3. I'm deathly afraid of sharks
4. I don't like cake and ice cream together
5. I am now, thanks to Jess, distantly related to Napolean Dynamite (ha ha ha)

5 Favorite Musicians or Bands

1. Sting
2. Rascal Flatts
3. BYU Choirs (I know, a bit cliche, but they have the best music and sound the best especially because Suzanne is on a few albums (:...)
4. Garth Brooks
5. Dixie Chicks

I tag whoever wants to be tagged. I don't know if you hate these or not but just do it if you want to. I'd love to read about it.

Two Months

Lucy turned two months and we took some pictures of her. What a doll, even with baby acne.






Also, two month old time means doctor's appointment as well as vaccines!!! What a controversial topic now-a-days, huh. Well, ever since Caleb was born I've tried to do my own little bit of research as well as feel out what is best for my own kids and their health.

Talking to doctors, they of course are 100% pro-vaccines and will down play any worries or theories you have heard about vaccines being connected with autism. I understand their point of view and I appreciate that they are doing what they believe is best for their patients. I also have had personal relationships with a few mothers who are adamant that their child was mentally damaged from their vaccinations. Their child was fine and within a day or a week, they just transformed over night. I really appreciate their motherly instinct and I don't doubt them either.

From what I understand, there were some theories about mercury or thimerosal causing the damage. And, it is actually just this year the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conceded that thimerosal did cause autism in the case of one child from Virginia. But, thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines as of 1999 I think. Another theory that a mother of a disabled child (whom she believes was hurt by vaccines he received) told me is that autistic children have weak immune systems or are already disposed to be hurt by vaccines and so the introduction of so many inoculations at one time pushes them over the edge.

Even more, autism covers such a broad spectrum of symptoms that from what I understand, many people are misdiagnosed as autistic which throws off confidence in the studies people are conducting.

So the debate still continues. It seems there is proof on both sides of the argument (if you google vaccines and autism you get a lot of articles). It is understandably a very charged issue, especially for mothers and even more, mother's of autistic children.

From my own personal experience, my youngest sister at the age of two months caught pertussis or whooping cough. She hadn't been immunized yet because she was too young. Let me tell you, it was a scary ordeal to live through even for me as an 11 year old sister. I remember babysitting when she first became sick and I didn't know she had whooping cough. We were all down stairs watching T.V. when she started to cough. She coughed and coughed out and out and her little body just shook. Then she stopped breathing and her lips started to turn a little purple. Finally, she took in this huge breath (hence the name whooping cough) and began to cry. We all were shocked and had no idea what happened. My older brother Bryan, being the wise 12 year old he was, tried to convince me that maybe she had swallowed her tongue. (: My mom says that she would cough like this many times a day and there was nothing she could do but pat her back and hold her through it. We all had to take some medicine to prevent use from getting it and spreading it some more. Luckily, Anna Marie has no lasting side effects from it.

When I took Caleb to our pediatrician for the first time, (he is also my pediatrician I had growing up) he told me he remembers the outbreak of whooping cough the year my sister had it. He said at that time, he had a three year old patient who had not been immunized who caught it. He said that the boy had it so bad that it caused brain damage and he is now severely disabled because of whooping cough.

This experience for me is enough reason to be pro-immunizing. To make a long post end short, I've decided to immunize my kids early for the diseases they could potentially get, such as whooping cough or meningitis. For example, they are not going to get Hepatitis A or B (my doctor said they push immunizing babies because they can't drug using and promiscuous teenagers to come in so they get them while they are young) so I'm going to wait a few years for that. I will immunize for pertussis as well as a few others. They will eventually meet the Utah immunization requirements for entering Kindergarten but I will spread out their immunizations over longer periods of time and do more at ages 3 and 4 as opposed to doing 5 immunizations in one sitting when they are only 6 months old. I have a whole chart mapping out what vaccines I plan on giving them and at what ages. I hope that can make a difference.

Anyway, that's my two cents on the topic.

BEEEEAR!.......

We had a family trip to the zoo and it was wonderful! Because we have lived our whole married life close to our parents, we rarely venture out to do fun things just as a small family. We are so busy having fun with extended family, we kind of forget. So, we decided to do something fun just us, and it was great.

Caleb's favorite animal to say is "bear" and he growls like a bear. He says it with a very long "ee" so it kind of sounds like "beer" and he usually says it long and excited. What a cutie pie. Here are some fun pics from our day.






Here is the BEEEEEEEEEEAR!



Saying hi to the giraffe.



Lucy is chilling in the background hidden in our stroller (see a couple of posts ago for details on our awesome stroller). Tons of kids loved this lion drinking fountain. There was always a herd of children climbing all over the lion and playing in the water.





When I finally took a drink I had to close my eyes; all the grime and thoughts of thousands of little dirty hands just grossed me out.

Krystal

We had Lucy's blessing on Sunday. It was wonderful. We decided she needed a middle name. I thought it was no big deal when she was born, but I grew up without a middle name and always felt a little left out without one. I figure why pass up the chance to give your child more meaning in their life. I was named after the movie "Dr. Zhivago" which I didn't see until I was in college. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed that I was named after a floozy (she sleeps with quite a few men). Mom always said the actress was just so beautiful and she loved the spelling. In my Russian Novel class at BYU I learned that everything in the book/movie is symbolic, and learning Russian helped (the word "zhiv" or "zhivat" means life or to live) and Lara symbolizes the soul of the Russian people blah blah blah... Anyway, I decided it would be good to give Lucy a name of someone we love to honor them and also give her a role model she can look to. So we gave her Adam's mother's name, Krystal. I was worried the process of legally changing would be really complicated, but since she is under a year, we just had to go down to the county building and fill out a form. Krystal is really an amazing lady and I'm very blessed to have such a great mother-in-law. We didn't tell her before the meeting and she was very surprised.




To make it even more special, Lucy wore the baby shoes that Krystal wore when she was blessed as a baby. I didn't get a good picture of her dress but it was so beautiful, silk with pearl beading up top and a very long skirt that goes like 4 inches past her feet. She was perfect angel during the meeting . It was a really special day.