MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over

Eat Dirt

Mar 12, 2009 Books, Environment, Family and Friends, Parenting and More

image from stock.xchng: lusi Cute Toy

I recall a friend telling me before I had my first child that with your first child you sanitize everything, that nothing gets put in babies mouth without a deep wash, and that bottles are boiled after each use. With the second child she said you stick everything in the dishwasher, and toys that fall on the floor are wiped clean with a pant leg or a wet wipe if you have one handy. By the third you rinse things in the sink, make sure there are no grimy bits and toys are handed back to baby after a stint on the floor.

I have never been a big proponent of  “sanitize everything”. We had a bottle sanitizer that we used for about three weeks, and after that bottles went into the dishwasher, or they were washed by hand if I was short on dishes. Toys, get laundered somewhat frequently when I think about it, or when baby goobers on them with peas – but I admit to picking up toys from the floor wiping them on my pants and handing them back to them (and this was with my first child and second- no discrimination!). I always felt that a little dirt couldn’t hurt them. The fact is – it is easy to monitor a baby but what happens when they are two? three? four? I know my nearly four year old often touches some pretty gross things, and puts gross stuff in his mouth when I am not looking (I have caught him chewing the side of those grocery carts shaped like Cars) – so if his immune system broke down at every germ – he would be sick all the time! When I was growing up my parents didn’t Purel their hands every step of the way, or disinfect my toys every 24 hours in case of a stray germ. Guess what, I am a healthy 30-something (seriously, I have to do math to figure my age out – every time!) and growing up I wasn’t sick any more than any other kid. I also don’t have any currently known allergies.

Today I see mom’s carry around hand sanitizer in their diaper bags and purses. Whipping them out at every cough, sneeze or breath. Anti-bacterial wipes are swiped across every surface their baby might dare touch, and then there are the blankets or cart draps that parents sit their kid in at the grocery store. They wash their floors, tables, toys, and even fabrics with anti-bacterial cleaners (yes- Febreeze now has Anti-bacterial spray); and they ensure that NO ONE touches their baby without a scrub down first. I may be slightly exhaggerating the situation, but I find some people are absolutely paranoid – and I kept thinking that all his “clean” can not be good for a growing child’s immune system.

Playing in Dirt

It seems that I may be right, an article in the Ottawa Citizen – Honey, Eat Your Dirt points to new research that proves that cleanliness CAN lead to illness. Everything in moderation people! Even too much hygiene is a problem. According to the article, which references a new book titled Why Dirt is Good by Mary Ruebush, a baby’s immune system is “like a computer that is hasn’t been programmed. It needs to practise responding to bacteria and viruses and other things found in dirt to learn what it should fight and what it should ignore.” Further to this a New York Times article states recent studies and epidemiological observations “seem to explain why immune system disorders like multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma and allergies have risen significantly in the United States and other developed countries.” So essentially kids raised in an ultraclean environment are not being given the chance to develop appropriate immune systems and will suffer later in life because of it.  Dr. Ruebush says that the current fetish for the many  (well-marketed) antibacterial products may just be a false sense of security and could “actually foster the development of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing bacteria.” (NYTimes)

So if you are a Hand Sanitizer-toting, germaphobic, anti-bacterial obsessed parent – what should you do? According to these articles just use less anti-bacterial products. Soap and water is all you need, and a little dirt . So, go – eat dirt. I dare ya.

Popularity: 72% [?]

Tags: family, Health, Immune system, kids, Ottawa Citizen, Why Dirt Is Good: How Our Obsession With Killing Germs Is Making Us Sick

Sleep Like a Baby

Feb 12, 2009 Family and Friends, Parenting and More, Sleep

I’m done.  I am sick of the guilt. I am tired of the rules. Parenthood sucks. Well ok. It has it’s upsides : ) A lot of them. But, there are some deep valleys too. Like the morass of rules: “rule books”, rules of thumbs, and parental unwritten rules.  Want examples?

• Breastfeeding exclusively is best for baby the first 6 months, and in conjunction with solids for 12 months.
• Introduce solids at six months- not any earlier.
• Baby should have three naps a day.
• Baby will have two long naps and one optional third nap late in the day or into the early evening
• Introduce solids when baby shows interest by grabbing at your food, can hold and move is head away if he is not hungry,  loss of tongue reflex and ability to sit up on his own.
• Don’t put baby down at the top of the stairs unattended.
• Allow baby to cry she must learn to sleep on her own.
• Never allow a baby to cry alone in her crib, always check to see that limbs are not caught in bars or that baby isn’t tied up in the blankets
• Never allow baby to play with knives.
• Use Jumpers and Walkers sparingly limited to 15-20 minutes at a time.
• Don’t allow baby to fall asleep in swing, car seat or bouncy/rocker.
• Don’t rock, walk, sing baby to sleep it will set negative associations to sleep and will not help them learn to fall asleep on their own.

You got the point right. Some rules are obviously required, such as “never allow baby to play with knives”.   But, some rules are contradicted by others. Parenting information seems to be a big industry and there is a book out there on every possible angle of sleeping, feeding, guiding behaviour, and development.  And, there are even more moms out there willing to give away advice for free, and unasked.  Why do you think there are so many mommy blogs, mommy forums, mommy communities….because we all love to give our opinion, and admittedly we rely on each other too. Even if it means feeding the guilt.

Guilt.  I think all moms suffer from it. Every piece of neglected advice subjects you with a certain level parental guilt – as you wonder whether you chose the right course of action – the right rule.

With my first son I read every book, took every “Calling New Parents” seminar and spent time reading other advice from moms. When my first son woke every night, we tried all of the tips and hints. Pick-up, put-down. Rock. Swaddle, cry-it-out. And, in the end he refused to be trained. And, yes, we were consistent. We would try everything for four to six weeks. Most of the books claimed in a short time you would be able to “train” them to sleep through the night. Right. Didn’t work for him.

Then one night, a week before I went back to work – he slept through the night. Boom, just like that. At that time we had given up on training. My three year old is now an amazing sleeper. He goes to bed at 8 and gets up in the morning at 8. We can put him in his room, and he will either go straight to sleep – or read a book and then lie down and go to sleep. In the morning, he will either come into my room and say “Mommy it’s wake-e time”, or he will play quietly in his own room until I come to find him.

My second son is now 6 months old. Once again he seems to have Bear’s disease of waking up every two hours…and sometimes every hour. Another mom suggested reading a book by the Sleep Lady…so once again I am “sleep training”. I swore this time I wouldn’t fall for the guilt, the self-help mania, and oodles of mommy advice. But, 6 months of sleepless nights and I am willing to try ANYTHING.

All this to say, if you find my blog a little quiet these days – it is due to being up for hours on end “sh-sh-sh” my son, and standing in my “Shuffle” position for the “Sleep Lady Shuffle”. Currently, dear husband is on duty and I can hear via the monitor the boy ” wah wah wahing” and husband “sh-sh-shing”.  The good news is that naps are going really well – he sleeps for 1 1/2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon – almost like clock-work. And, putting him down during the day is simple – put him in crib (in postioner – he likes to sleep on his side only) and then walk away. He cries for a moment – for as long as it takes you to walk to the stairs – and then silence. Night times are tougher. He cries a lot before he finally succumbs to sleep.  The first week I ws often up for an hour at a time, sitting in his room doing the shuffle. Now, two weeks later once asleep he is thankfully (knock-on-wood) sleeping relatively well. Most nights he wakes up once or twice, and more often just needs you to shift him in the positioner. In this case, “sleep training” worked. Just like all parenting rules some make sense, some don’t. Some work. some don’t. Some are good for some kids, and not for others.

I hope to be back and blogging regularly quite soon! Thanks for sticking around.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Tags: babies, family, parenting, sleep

Getting Me a New Wardrobe This Christmas

Dec 22, 2008 A Good Laugh, Family and Friends, Parenting and More

My husband is very handy around the house. A month ago he finished our basement. Looks great, doesn’t it?

Finally, a place for all those toys! Although, for some reason there are still toys in my living room. Including one exersaucer, one baby swing, one baby gym, one Thomas train with tracks, one puzzle set and one LeapFrog thing-a-magig which hasn’t been touched in months.

That pile of toys in picture two, makes me wonder why the kids need more this Christmas. Maybe Santa should save his money, and buy me a new wardrobe…

There is going to be one hell of a garage sale here next summer.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tags: christmas, family, kids, toys

Christmas Cookies

Dec 20, 2008 Cooking Together, Family and Friends, New, Parenting and More

We were planning on enjoying the fresh snow today. But the -13 degree weather turned us off from that plan. Instead we made some Double Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Tags: cookies, cooking, family, kids, slideshow

Sun, Sand and Fred Flinstone

Dec 3, 2008 New, Parenting and More

Last year we went on vacation with another couple and their son. This year we went away again, same time, same place. This time we travelled with 9 adults, three pre-schoolers and two babies!

I find traveling with a group far more enjoyable than just as a solo family. I love my husband but when it comes to how we enjoy our time on vacation – we are very different. He would prefer to swim, play sports on the beach, Scuba Dive. I would prefer to relax, shop, read a good book, sun-tan, site-see (if there is something worthwhile), and of course socialize with others. When we went to Mexico by ourselves we compromised a lot, and both spent some time bored out of our minds as the other enjoyed their preferred activity. By going with a group – chances are someone else might share your enthusiasm for a day at the beach, spa, shopping or a night of dancing at the “disco”.

A group is an added bonus when you have your kids with you. An extra set of eyes, a play-mate for the kids, a helping hand when you need it. The kids entertain each other instead of needing you to do it all day, and when you need to make a “potty-break” there is someone to watch the little ones.

There can be down-sides to group travel if there isn’t the freedom to run your own schedule, or to not feel scheduled at all. With so many kids, chances are someone will always be crying, squawking, pushing and hitting. Dinner can be a pain in the butt when one starts crying, causing a domino effect on the other cranky-no-nap-today-because-having-too-much-fun-playing-at pool-kids.

This was our first time traveling with the kids to a resort, and the first time with such a large group.

I would do a few things different:

A half an hour massage at the spa

Popularity: 10% [?]

Tags: dominican republic, family, fred flinstone, group travel, kids, parenting, sand, swimming, travel, vacations

The Big Boo!

Nov 11, 2008 A Good Laugh, Family and Friends, Parenting and More

My family gets serious about Halloween!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Tags: costumes, family, fun, halloween

AllRecipes.com – Cooking Made Easy (ier)

Sep 17, 2008 Blogs, Family and Friends, Parenting and More, Social Media, social networks

Despite, or perhaps in spite of working for Cuisinart, I generally dislike cooking. I don’t have the creative ability to pull random ingredients together into a tasty meal. I get frustrated just by the task of thinking about “what will I make for dinner?” I can cook, and would not mind doing it, if someone would just tell me what to cook and gave me the ingredients.

Luckily, I married a man who enjoys cooking. He loves the Food Network. In fact, one day I came home to deep-fried beer-battered everything (cheese, zucchini and chicken!) because he had just seen a episode on deep frying. Unfortunately, now I am on mat leave…and since I don’t have anything better to do (other than look after two kids – which is oh-so easy! wink, wink!) I get to do the cooking too. Yikes.

The first couple weeks were frustrating. I made my usual meal choices, after much aggravation and back and forth to the grocery store for missing ingredients. Then I read this post on meal planning from Beck on Urbanmoms.ca (she also writes at Frog and Toad Are Still Friends ). [Disclosure- this is the Cuisinart sponsored blog]. I was inspired. Only problem was I only had a small selection of recipes that I had memorized “recipes” and a few others that were written on random pieces of paper thrown in my cupboard. Inspired…yet unorganized!

This is when I found AllRecipes.com. I was able to set up an online profile and recipe box. So I pulled down my random pieces of paper and typed them into the online form, filed each one to a category (pre-selected or write your own), and saved them for later.  Then I was able to search the site for other recipes (all rated, and reviewed by other home chefs!) and add them to my recipe box. So, now I have recipes and they are organized.

Next step was to plan the meals. Unfortunately, a shortcoming of AllRecipes.com is that there is no area where you can set up your meal plans. There is an online shopping list, but I use my Blackberry for that since I take it to the grocery store – and not the laptop and Internet connection! So, I used Google Docs for writing out my meal plans. By using this online tool I am able to access it from any computer, and from anywhere. I made a five week rotation (for now) and planned the weeks so there is a mix of chicken, meat, fish and veggies. I took into consideration the likes and many dislikes of my family, and tried to have options for my three-year old on certain days.

Here is my menu for the first week:

Monday
Asparagus, Chicken and Pasta Dish (recipe from Allrecipes.com) + salad
Tuesday
SuperBowl Chili and Dinner Rolls
Wednesday
Quesidillas and Salsa Rice
Thursday
Whole Chicken, Carrots and Potatoes
Friday
Salmon with Teriyaki and PC Memories of Thailand Sauce (fish sticks for Owen)
Side Dish – left over Pasta from Monday (frozen)

And, since I work for Cuisinart and I have so many wonderful, beautiful and useful products I am able to make the meals quick. No processed, high-in-fat, loaded in sodium meals for us! On Tuesday, I used the Slow Cooker, on Wednesday the Rice Cooker, and on Thursday the Pressure Cooker! I found for me to enjoy cooking I needed to plan ahead. This means I know what I am making ahead of time, I don’t need to stress over what to make, and I don’t need to make multiple trips to the grocery store with two kids (ugh!).

AllRecipes.com was a saviour for organizing my recipes, and allows me to find other recipes that are quick, healthy and easy. I do, however, wish that I could “friend” people on the site so that I could share my recipes with my mom, and other friends. It would be nice to know what recipes people I know are using and be able to easily share ones that I like. I gave my mom my password and user ID so that she could add a few of my child-hood favourites to my profile and so she could see the ones I had. But, sadly, this seems to be the only way to share recipe boxes.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Multi-Tasking Dad

Sep 17, 2008 A Good Laugh, Family and Friends, Parenting and More

This is how my husband deals when I go to the grocery store. One child has bottle stuffed in mouth, the other sits on dad’s lap. And, in my husbands right hand…well that is a Wii Remote.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Kids say the funniest things…

Sep 10, 2008 A Good Laugh, Consumer Brands, Family and Friends, Parenting and More

Warning: Originally Posted on my other blog, not marketing related – but still might make you laugh!

Kids say and do the cutest things. I try and make a point of writing the really “good” ones down.  I know I have forgotten quite a few, but here are some that did make it to paper (or rather to Google Docs!)

No Storks,  Just go to Florida

In April we went to Florida to visit with Owen’s grandparents. At the time I was five month pregnant. Two months later Owen was still talking about the trip and of course was anxious to go back to “visit Bobbe and Papa Gordon”. I use quotations because I suspect in his head, going back to Florida meant going to Disney World to see Mickey Mouse.  This particular discussion was quite lengthy as Owen was trying to get me to agree to go to Florida (“on Saturday” – the only day of the week he knew at the time) and he was giving me the reasons we should go. One, he wanted to go on an airplane. A big airplane. To Florida to see Bobbe and Papa Gordon. And, we could see Mickey Mouse (he says all of this with great big head nods, and yups and hmm-hmms), and we could also pick up the baby from Florida. Yes, apparently our baby was coming to us – direct from Florida.

Where is God?

Every night Owen gets to pick three books. One night he picked Bible Stories off of the shelf and my husband began to read him the story of Noah.  In the story it says ” And God said to Noah…”, but on the picture there is just a image of Noah, his ark and a bunch of animals. Owen looks at his dad, points to the picture and says, “Daddy, where is God?”

Where is my mind?

Owen loves music. I listen to Z103.5 which plays Hip-Hop, Dance and Pop music and when Owen began to sing to Acon and Kardinal Offishall’s Dangerous song it crossed my mind that perhaps I should be listening to Raffi in the car. But, it was terribly funny one day when he was with my husband in the car listening to the Edge (Rock/Alternative station) listening to a Pixies song. Well, he picked that song up quite quickly – singing “where is my mind, where is my mind” frequently and on cue.

Look mom, Look at my Poop!

A few weeks ago I was called urgently to the bathroom. I imagined a mess like the last time I was called to attend him immediately in the washroom. This time however, I was greeted with ” Look mom!” (pointing in toilet) “My poop made an “O”!”

My husband has a new name…

My son thinks he is a comedian.  When he calls his dad up from the basement, or bellows for him to bring him something he will yell, ” Hon!…”

One day, just to see what he would say, I asked him what his dad’s name was. He got it right, didn’t actually say “hon”, but I also asked him where daddy lived and he said ” at work”.

Hair Expert

My mom has very curly hair. To my dismay, and my father’s she spends hours straightening and flattening it. I have often suggested that I like it curly so I suspect when this incident happened she thought I put Owen up to it. But it was all pure Owen. We were talking on Skype one day, obviously before my mother got around to the flat-iron routine. Owen says “I like your hair, Bobbe!”

Magic Marker Feet

I went out to a nail salon with a few girlfriends the other night for a friends “goodbye to singledom”.  I had a mani-pedi. When Owen saw my red toes, he said “You coloured your feet red mommy! It looks pretty”

There are of course things I would rather not here from my three year old:

Why?
No thank you! (emphasis on NO- said in a particular tone!)
Don’t talk to me like that
I don’t like that
Phew (tongue out)
Jesus! (only once and then he seemed to have forgotten this one)

Popularity: 4% [?]

Baby! Baby!

Aug 27, 2008 Blogs, Family and Friends, Parenting and More

I am embarrassed to see that it has been one month since my last post. I could once again list my excuses:

• Still haven’t found an option to Live Writer (ahem…haven’t attempted again to set up the two solutions suggested to me after my last post!)
• Up until August 11, I was tired due to pregnancy
• After August 11, I was tired due to new baby

Or I could admit defeat for August, and hope for a better fall of blogging. If it makes my faithful readers feel any better I have been neglectful of Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook as well. I have no idea what my real friends are up to on Facebook, or my social media friends are doing and writing about on Twitter and FriendFeed.  So, I will aim to do better this fall. I normally attempt to write to Blogs -  this one MEGOAgain dedicated to work, marketing, social media and general business; and Okbabybear a blog about my family. I am not sure I will have time to keep up both, so you may see a few joint posts (like this one!) – I hope that they won’t bore anyone.

So baby is here.  And below is the story of his arrival, and of course some pictures!

My first son was determined to beat his due date, and arrived three days early, in what I thought was a quick labour. My second son, apparently was willing to wait until his due date but wanted to one-up his older brother by coming into the world at a super-fast speed.

The week prior to Zachary’s birth I went for walks, ate spicy foods, did some gardening (this worked with Owen!) – anything to move things along. Two days before my due date the doc said I was 2-3 cm dilated, and I could go into labour the next day or stay that way for a week! Great.

So his due date- August 10 passed with no arrival. At around 12:45 I had my first contraction. The first three were 9 minutes apart, and lasted only 30 seconds.  No need to rush to the hospital. Generally they don’t want to see you until they are five minutes apart and last a minute. So we called my in-laws so that they could start heading over to watch Owen (they had a bit of a drive in the middle of the night!). Within an hour my contractions had gone from 9 minutes apart, to 8 minutes apart, to 7 minutes apart, to five minutes apart. We called a friend to come over since my husbands parents would still be a couple hours. At 2:17 (according to my Tweet I logged in on the drive to the hospital) we were on our way to the hospital. During the short drive I had three contractions, including one at the door to Emergency.

Signed in to stay at hospital. Oddly at this point the contractions all but stop.  That is until the Doctor visits, at which point I have a contraction that is literally off the chart.  8 cm dilated.

Can someone get me an Epidural? Morphine? Something?

The nurse tells me it is likely too late. I will need to start pushing soon, and they won’t have time to do some blood work and get the doctor in the room to administer. Anyone, who knows me – knows I had very serious plans to have the Epidural. I dislike pain, and my first birth was a breeze due to the wonderful Epidural.

4 am. Time to push. At this point I won’t continue any details. Needless to say I never want to go through that again. Unbelievable pain. Felt like it went on forever! However, if you look at the below picture at the time on the wall – you will see that it couldn’t have lasted long. (yes, that is right the clock should read 4:17, Zachary was born at 4:16)

These wonderful birth photos were taken by my friend, who also happens to be a fantastic photographer – www.digitalheirlooms.ca. Yes, I had a someone taking pictures at the birth other than my husband. I had never thought of having a photographer at an event like this, but when Karina showed some beautiful examples – I thought it would be a wonderful keepsake.  Having gone through one birth, I knew how easy it was to forget what had gone on, the memory of your first look at your baby disappears (just as you easily forget the pain…). It turned out that having another mom at the birth was a bonus in itself! Husbands are wonderful – mine makes a terrific coach, “breathe, remember you need to breathe” “ok hold your breath and push!” – but another mom shares your experience.

So here is Zachary.

And this, was my first son at the same age:

Popularity: 4% [?]