My friend Miwaza just told me about Blurb, where you can publish your own books and photos in softcover or hardcover. (Guess which I’m getting. LOL.) I’m so excited! I wanted to make a baby book but I’ve never done scrapbooking before and I’ve thought what a pity to put all that work into making a scrapbook and only have one copy to show for it in the end. Here’s the perfect solution!

Even better, I can publish my own books for my babies to study from instead of writing everything out by hand onto notebooks and sketchbooks. I’ve been planning and laying out a scrapbook for Rinah with all the basic stuff we’re working on now (like Genesis 1, 10 Commandments, Apostles Creed, Te Deum, Magnificat, etc., etc.) and trying to practice calligraphy with a little tot running around the room or squirming in my lap and it was NOT working.

Now I just need to upload pictures and text and hit “publish” and I’m done! And it will look better than anything I try to do by hand. And I will be all done before the next baby is here! And my babies will each have their own copies! Ooooh, maaaan. I can’t wait to start! Thank you, Miwaza!

Type in a name and get an instant graph of how popular it was from the 1880s to now.

Baby Name Wizard NameVoyager

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) just announced that phthlates (pronounced “thah-lates”) are bad for you and tells parents to avoid them.

Phthalates are widely used chemicals that recent studies suggest may have toxic effects on the developing endocrine and reproductive systems. A new study found evidence that infants may be absorbing these chemicals through commonly used baby products. (Read the rest.)

Mudlark says,

In the study conducted, phthalate levels were highest, and most disturbing, in infants 8 months and younger. Their immature immune systems and rapid organ development make phthalates a major concern. According to the AAP, parents of infants as well as young children should limit their use of lotions and powders in general, and scale back on baby shampoo. But that’s not the only place your baby is likely to be exposed. Anything that contains artificial fragrance is likely to use phthalates - baby wipes, diaper creams, toothpastes, baby washes, laundry products, etc. When shopping for these products, look for the fragrance-free versions, as they’re less likely to contain phthalates.

For more info, see the Baby Center article on phthlates.

I was happy to see that the products I use every day, Burt’s Bees, Tom’s of Maine and Earth Mama Angel Baby, are safe to use. (Click here to see hundreds of companies that are also safe to buy from.)

Lush is one of the “safe” companies and I’m so glad because it’s one of my favourites. They have bath bombs that are beautifully and wonderfully made and smell heavenly, and jiggly soap that looks like jello, and massage bars that look like heart-shaped candles with sparkles in them which melt when you rub it on your skin and then you smell nice and get all sparkly. And I love sparkles. Oooooh, this is the perfect time to start using Lush ’cause there is one down the street from my parents’ house. Yay! The closest one by my house is almost 4 hours away. Where is the closest one to you?

Rinah loves to brush her teeth and gets excited about sucking all the toothpaste off her toothbrush every night. She is using Tom’s of Maine’s Silly Strawberry. And whenever she needs a bath or a butt wash after a poopy diaper, I use Angel Baby Shampoo & Body Wash (thank you, Aunt Kathy!!) to keep her little butt silky soft. It foams nicely and smells wonderful. Wow. I just checked Amazon and it sells them for a discount so I’m going to start buying them online instead of paying full price at our local store.

The synthetic fragrances don’t smell anywhere near as nice as the real thing anyway. I remember feeling extremely nauseated by a cheap perfume someone gave me as a present in my mid-teens. Then, I discovered essential oils and fell in love with them. I made my own facial sprays, room fresheners, mouthwash, and lotions for myself and my family. I haven’t done that the last couple years and I really want to get back into it. Someday, I want to make everything we use myself … soap, creams, candles, and perfumes. I can dream, can’t I?

The only thing that I don’t like is the natural deodorant. I can’t find one that works. Or maybe I just stink too much. I wish I could go to Thailand again for a couple weeks. Fasting for a week, doing 3 or 4 hours of yoga, and an hour and a half of massage every day cleaned me out so well I had no body odor or back pain for a few months after I got back. Then I got married and got pregnant. End of radiantly healthy story and return to chronic back pain and body odor.

The phthalates with all their poisons remind me of Frankenstein and the Tower of Babel. Instead of remembering that we are God’s image and worshipping Him with what He gave us, men try to make their own version and claim the glory for themselves to their own destruction … and ours. It’s kinda like worshipping Him with praise songs where you repeat 2 lines 20 times instead of singing the Psalms.

I’m not saying that we should get rid of labs and research and scientists. I just wish the scientists would worshipfully work with creation instead creating their own poisonous versions of what God has already made for us to use. C’mon! Make perfumes with essential oils instead of synthetic fragrances! I love my perfumes, but I know they have all kinds of stuff in them that’s bad for my babies.

What is the cost of making everything so cheaply so people can buy cartloads of cheap crap at WalMart? American people are disgustingly obese and sick. Why not eat less food that’s good instead of a ton of bad food? They drive everywhere anyway so it’s not like they need all those calories. Any given day I leave the house, I see more obese people in a few hours than I see in a whole year in Tokyo … and Tokyo has 200 times the population of the Tri Cities.

I am really enjoying the fact I can walk 2 minutes to the 7-Eleven here (or almost anywhere else) and buy yummy fast food and snacks with no preservatives and food colouring and artificial junk. I got a couple more weeks of bliss and we’re back to wandering the organic aisles at Fred Meyer, lamenting the high prices and the lack of variety in healthy food.

That picture of the triangular thingy is an onigiri with karashi mentaiko in it which I have craved EVERY DAY of both pregnancies and am eating EVERY DAY while I’m here.

Rinah, Baby, and I are in Tokyo now. Flowers are blooming here and there and everywhere. These flowers are especially fragrant and I have loved them since childhood. When I smell them, I know it is spring. They have a very strong, sweet smell that carries quite far in soft spring breezes. My brothers and I always got some for my mother every year and this year has been no different. Even though I’ve moved to America, I still have managed to come back in time for them every year. Apparently they are called daphne odora. I know them as chinchouge. I’m going to buy some next month.

Even though it has been 7 months since we last visited Tokyo, it really seems Rinah remembers some of the people. It’s uncanny how quickly she has warmed up to everyone and laughs and plays with my family and friends. Or maybe it’s just because I’m so relaxed here and she’s picking up on it. Whatever the reason, it’s good to be back. Here we are at Ootoya, where my friend Kudo-san took us out for lunch because it’s one of my favourite places to eat. It’s not the best picture of either of us, but we’re pretty happy anyway.

Ben will be joining us next week from California after he finishes up his week-long Sharepoint training and certification exam. It sounds like interesting software except it’s a M$ product so I’m guessing it’s awfully bloated. I’m praying that the cherry blossoms don’t bloom till he gets here. My parents live on a street famous for its cherry trees which make an umbrella over the road and “snow” on everyone who walks by. (Click for more of my cherry blossom pics.)

I’m not even in my third trimester yet and I’m having trouble walking because my back hurts so much. And this baby has already kicked more than his sister did the entire pregnancy. I’m afraid he’s going to come running out of the womb and tear the house apart.

The TSA site tells us … “Transportation Security Administration (TSA) protects the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.”

The night before I left for Chicago, I finished all my packing and was trying to sleep but kept tossing and turning because I just knew I was forgetting something and could not remember what. I figured maybe it was my paranoid self getting the better of me and finally drifted off. The next morning, when we were almost at the airport in Portland, over 3 hours from home, I realized I forgot to bring any kind of ID with me. I left my driver’s licence in my regular bag, not my traveling bag. I panicked but if we went home then to get it I would have missed my flight so we kept going.

Guess what … you don’t need any form of ID to get on a plane! You just need to go through special security where your baby’s shoes are checked for explosives and you are good to go. It was great going through the special security because it’s an express line. I didn’t have to wait for the 200 people ahead of me in the normal security line. They opened and checked all my bags and that was it. Whoo hoo!

I could have been anybody, say a terrrrr-ist flying using someone else’s ticket. They had no way of identyfying who I was but they let me through anyway. I figured next time we have a ticket and want to send someone else instead, we should just show up without any ID. TSA security is a joke. A bad joke.

Also TSA employees are usually lazy, obese, and rude but these particular guys were all amazingly polite and kind to me and my baby. Thank you, God.

The first couple days were an adjustment. She wouldn’t let anyone touch her and she screamed a lot which made me want to pull out all my hair. But she got to know everyone and was happy … for the most part, anyway. She took naps on Aunt Sally’s back and Matthew’s back (that’s her under the blanket on his back) in my brand new custom-made Babyhawk mei tai.

Tofu, Aunt Sally’s beautiful fluffy Maltese puppy, put up with a lot of enthusiastic petting and whacking from Rinah. The poor dog got so stressed out from her yelling and chasing, but first thing every morning, he would come looking for her anyway. She learned to feed him her Kix and he liked that a lot. By the end of the trip they were almost inseparable.

She learned a lot on this trip, put on underpants half-way by herself, walked to the bathroom and tried to put on the potty seat by herself.

She met her Great Uncle Leo and Great Aunt Sally and all my boy cousins who are her cousins once removed. We also got together with Great Aunt Kathy and my cousin Kristi and daughter Emily, who is her second cousin. It took us a while to figure it out but we finally did, thanks to Wikipedia, which is where we got this interesting tidbit about cousins.

George W. Bush and John Kerry shared a common ancestral couple in the 1500s … [they are] ninth cousins, two times removed. Also, in 2007, it was revealed that U.S. vice president Dick Cheney and senator Barack Obama are eighth cousins.

We went to Woodfield, a humonginormous mall with hundreds and hundreds of stores, where I found the cutest baby boy clothes I have ever seen at Janie and Jack. I was really excited to go to a real live Hanna Andersson store for the first time where I got some organic cotton training panties and matching outfits for my babies. Aunt Sally gave me a gift card to Lord and Taylor where there were some absolutely adorable Ralph Lauren baby clothes on clearance. The shopping out here is SO much better than the Tri Cities. *big sigh, mumble grumble*

Before we left, we went to the Coldstone Creamery and got some custom made ice cream. Mmmm. Yummy yummy.

We didn’t make it to the Illuminations store there, or the Apple store, or Godiva, but that’s OK. There’s always next time.

By Michael Graham, Boston Herald

They’re watching you right now. They counted every beer you drank during last night’s game. They see you sneaking out to the garage for a smoke. They know if you’ve got a gun, and where you keep it. They’re your kids, and they’re the National Security Agency of the Nanny State.

I found this out after my 13-year-old daughter’s annual checkup. Her pediatrician grilled her about alcohol and drug abuse. Not my daughter’s boozing. Mine.

Read the rest of this post »

Playing with Aunt Sally and the boys all day and late into the night, every day and every night, she doubled her vocabulary in little over a week!

• kix - oh, man, did she eat a lot of these
• dog - the whole trip, she said this about every 5 seconds, pointing at Tofu
• fish - she fed the fish with Matthew several times and really enjoyed it
• maaa - Matthew
• crackers - Annie’s Bunny Grahams
• kiss - so far, she will only kiss me and nobody else
• sleep
• good night
• nice
• gentle
• oww
• no
• shower
• bird
• relax
• dropped
• yuck - except she says “duck” … so cute!
• ah-choo