Lately, I have been discovering vinegar is good for almost everything around the house and even the yard. With limited money and a baby who licks things, I’m glad to have such a cheap, non-hazardous cleaning solution. (Oh, ho! Cleaning solution. Get it? Haha. OK, my baby brain makes me find even the simplest puns very funny. 70 days to go till we have another bawling bundle of blessing!)

For counters, floors, windows, tables, toilets, everything, I use a half water, half vinegar solution with a few drops of essential oils in it. And I’ve been having lots of fun experimenting with different essential oils. So far, I’ve tried tea tree, eucalyptus, orange, lavender, and cinnamon. I want to try peppermint next. So far I like the eucalyptus and lavendar the best. Cinnamon is OK.

When I mentioned to a friend that I didn’t know what to do with all the weeds that are multiplying at a dizzying rate all over the yard and I didn’t want to use harsh chemicals to kill them off if I’m going to have babies running and crawling around, she sent me this.

Kill weeds dead with a good shot of vinegar. For best results, don’t dilute with water and choose a time to spray weeds when there’s no sign of rain. Household vinegar is around 5% acetic acid concentration which will do the trick for baby weeds. If you can find a stronger vinegar (like pickling which is about 9%), that will give better results for more mature (and stubborn) weeds. (From TipNut.)

And this morning, when the fumes from the diaper load were a little much for my pregnant nose to handle, I went to one of my new favourite sites, Broomhuggers, where I found this treasure trove of vinegary wisdom. Then I got my trusty WalMart vinegar-cinnamon-water spray bottle and voila! … Bad smells were banished.

Go here to find out how to do the following using vinegar.

• Kill bacteria in meats.
• Dissolve warts.
• Grow beautiful azaleas.
• Kill unwanted grass.
• Deodorize the air.
• Relieve itching, a sore throat, a cold, or a cough.
• Relieve arthritis.
• Cure an upset stomach.
• Turn a chicken bone into rubber.
• Condition dry hair.
• Repel ants.
• Keep drains open.
• Remove decals or bumper stickers.
• Prevent lint from clinging to clothes.
• Prevent ice from forming on a car windshield overnight.
• Prolong the life of flowers in a vase.
• Prevent soapy film on glassware.
• Unclog a shower head.

So, I drove out of the Tri Cities today for the first time. It’s the first time I drove longer than half an hour, just me and my babies. Ball & Cross Books in Moscow is closing its store so I went there to use a couple hundred dollars of store credit a friend (who owed me money) left for me.

It took me about 3 hours to get there. The last hour, Rinah was screaming so hard I could hear her throwing up and choking on it but there was nowhere to pull over so I just had to listen and pray. She was crying like she was scared. When I finally pulled over, her lips were purply-blue and she was shaking all over. I held her and tried to comfort her a bit before getting back on the road.

While I was in Moscow, I got to meet some friends I hadn’t seen in way too long, Rinah’s lovely godmother, and the wonderful family I boarded with. It was great but I only got to spend a few minutes with each of them. Not enough time at all. I wanted to stay longer because there were so many more people I wanted to see, but I left so I could get home before dark.

My sweet little girl, who is usually so calm, cried for over 2 hours on the way home. Not just cried. Screamed. It didn’t help that she’s teething. All her molars, top and bottom, right and left, are cutting through her gums. So I was speeding and I got pulled over and got a HUGE ticket. It cost as much as my “free” books. At least the policeman was really nice. His last name was Smith. Ben just told me our car insurance is going up because of this.

Now I hate cars (and myself) more than ever. If we were in a train in Tokyo, I could have been holding her, playing with her, reading to her, nursing, walking around, pretty much whatever I wanted. I think this means I am not meant to get out of the the Tri Cities … especially with another one coming so soon. AUGH. One baby screaming is bad enough. I can’t imagine how horrible it is to listen to 2 babies screaming in the back seat.

Except for meeting some friends, today was just a really, really bad day … 6.5 hours of driving and almost 3.5 hours of screaming. I miss everyday life in Mitaka and Kichijoji so much. Here are some pictures of a really good day we had last summer in Mitaka, 40 pounds ago. She has her daddy’s wrinkly forehead and my nose-wrinkly smile.

We’re back home and she’s back to her happy self, running around, giggling, singing, babbling, dancing, and playing with daddy. She is going to be a really talkative little girl. Actually, she already is, I just have no idea what she’s saying most of the time.

You can tell I’m back home now from the dearth of blog posts. This is because I am too busy reading blogs or chasing down my busy tot. What is going to happen with two? Or more? I need to live closer to my mother so I can blog more often.

Every time we take a bath, for the last few months, we play with the foam alphabet and numbers, saying all the names and sounds, wetting them in the water, and sticking them on the bathroom wall. She loves it and tries to repeat everything. Her favourite letters are A, E, I and X. She really likes X. LOL.

A couple days ago, Rinah started singing the ABC song, except she says, “Ah, beh, sah, deh” instead of “A, B, C, D.” My heart stops overcome by sheer cuteness. She loves playing with the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics® Magnetic Set I picked up at Walmart a couple months ago.

There is a red button that sings the alphabet song and when you push a magnetic letter into the thing, it sings a little song about the sounds it makes … “B says buh, B says buh, every letter makes a sound, B says buh.” For letters with more than one sound it goes, “C says kh, and C says sssss, every letter makes a sound, C says kh, and sssss.” When she plays with it too long and it gets obnoxiously repetitive, then I turn the sound down. There are two levels, loud and soft. She’s also learning about shapes because the letters only fit right side up. It’s one of the best toys I’ve bought her so far, twenty bucks well spent.

While we were in Tokyo, I started showing her one of the Japanese alphabets (called hiragana) and got some flash cards, board books and posters for her. My mother and I were amazed that she seems to recognize the difference between English and Japanese writing. She says “A, B, C, D” when she sees a book in English and “A, I, U, E, O” when she sees something in Japanese.

She also started playing with some baby crayons I found while I was in Tokyo and really loves them. She sits and stacks them in various colour configurations, takes them apart, and starts all over again. I’ve showed her how to write with them, but she hasn’t caught on yet and that’s fine. She looks at me like I’m weird and then reaches for a pen or a pencil. I have no idea what the product name is in English, but I see Sarah has her kids playing with them, too.

These crayons are designed to be easy for chubby hands to hold, fun to play with as blocks, withstand lots of abuse without breaking, safe to suck on, and washable if they get on clothing. All in all, an amazing baby product.

AAAAAAAAAAARGH. I just stepped on the dark green one with my shoes on and it crumbled. Rinah has thrown them, dropped them, chewed on them, and they were fine but of course nothing can hold up my freakanormous weight. I’m so sad. *sob sob sob* I know if Ben stepped on it and broke it I would have been so mad.

I remember when I was little and I broke a dish or a cup, my mother would get back angry. Then one week, I remember I couldn’t understand why she didn’t get angry when she broke cups a couple days in a row. She was very quiet and just cleaned up. What am I supposed to do? I finished the cleaning up the pieces quietly part. I think I’m going to go beat myself up. *whack thwack, more sobs*

And now I really need to know where Sarah got hers. Her set has more colours than mine does. Yippee! She just let me know I can get the same thing at Amazon.

Except for crabbiness and crying when she’s sleepy or teething and pooping massive amounts daily, half in diaper, half in potty, Rinah is a sweet little girl and living up to her name: Joy and Song of the Covenant. She likes to walk around singing, talking, and coming up to me to give me a smile and a hug … sometimes, even a kiss or two or twenty.

She also pats herself on a job well-done after peeing in the potty and walks around nodding to herself, “Good girl, good girl.” This also happened once after peeing in her panties onto the floor. ROTFLOL.

A couple days after we got to Tokyo, my parents took me to a baby store nearby where I found this. It was an experimental purchase that turned out to be so amazingly good I’m going back to get another one this weekend so I can keep one in my bedside table and one in the diaper bag. This is available at various drug stores and baby stores in Japan and also at Amazon.jp (but not Amazon.com). It’s available from me, too. Just lemme know if you want one.

Traditionally, Japanese people would suck their babies’ snot out with their mouths. One night a few months ago when Rinah was having trouble sleeping because of a stuffed nose and I couldn’t clear out anything with the snot sucker we had, I remembered what some of my Japanese church friends did with their babies and I considered it, but was too grossed out to actually try. This product is the alternative for people too squeamish to suck and spit. The several bulbous snot suckers we have collected do not work and after I’m done using one, she’s screaming and her nose is still stuffed.

She hates this new one, too, but at the end of the ordeal, the little container has gobs and gobs of gooey yuckiness. The best part of all is that she can sleep through the night instead of waking up and crying because her nose is too stuffed to breathe. During the day, after a snot-sucking session, I don’t need to wipe her nose for at least an hour or two which means I don’t have a baby running around with snot running out of her nose or smeared all over her face and a rough red patch under her nose from too much wiping. Also, no more latching on, nursing for just a little bit, then coming up for air, and latching back on again, over and over and over.

Here’s a closeup of the thingy (click to see full size) and a pic of how to use it. You’re gonna have to settle for the manufacturer’s picture ’cause I have my hands full when I’m using it. I know if looks gross but it works really well and the snot all goes in the bottle part, not your mouth.

Apparently, there is something similar made in Sweden called the Nosefrida that comes recommended by lots of magazines and Dr. Sears, but I haven’t tried it so I don’t know how well it works in comparison.

(HT: Chris Witmer)

Rapists in the ranks
Sexual assaults are frequent, and frequently ignored, in the armed services.
By Jane Harman

The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.

These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken.

Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern. In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported — 73% more than in 2004. The DOD’s newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007, but a recent shift from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting makes comparisons with data from previous years much more difficult.

Read rest of article….

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.