The Pea Chronicles

Score!

2009-02-04T16:01:00.002-05:00

We did it!

CPSC grants one year stay of testing and certification requirements for certain products.

Good job guys!

Evil birth plan?

2009-01-26T14:40:00.005-05:00

So I am currently 7 months pregnant with pea #2 and have been thinking a lot about the whole birth process, hospital stay, blah blah - and I came up with an idea last night. When my water broke with pea #1, we called everyone on earth on our way to the hospital to let them know our son was on the way. Of course we had a whole entourage waiting at the hospital when we finally got there, it was very overwhelming, people were waiting, coming and going and of course my son didn't show up til 12 hours later. So last night, I was sitting on the couch watching Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels (don't laugh, you know you watch it!) and for some reason in the middle of half naked bimbos vomiting into various hotel toilets, I came up with my idea for pea #2's birth. I ran it by my husband who half paid attention (see above, half naked bimbos) but he seemed to really like the idea. So here it is - Instead of calling everyone and their brother when I go into labor, we keep it quiet, get to the hospital, have pea #2, then do the calling and announce that he has arrived. To me, this seems to make the whole process more intimate and involves only the immediate people that need to be involved; mainly my husband, myself and our son. That, unfortunately is where the problem lies as well. We have a 3.5 year old son and while I want him to be involved in as much as possible with his brothers' birth, I do not want him in the room during the whole pushing process. Personally, I don't even want to be in the room, but I have no choice. :) So we either will have to call 1 person to come watch him during that particular moment, or my husband won't be able to be in the room either. We haven't quite figured that part out yet, but we're working on it. Of course, there is also the ever-looming possibility that something could go wrong and the labor could last for 3 days, or I need a c-section, etc. etc. There isn't much you can plan when the inevitable happens.

So has anyone every done this before? Is it a totally evil thing to do to our family members, or are we justified in doing whatever the hell we want?

Please Help Save Handmade!

2009-01-07T14:29:00.002-05:00

Click here to go to Cool Mom Picks and read up on how to keep Congress from passing the new Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act. This is going to hurt so many people if it passes. So spread the word!

Hi! I want this please....

2008-11-14T15:56:00.005-05:00

How cool is this? I'm sure the price tag is outrageous, but I can still look right?

Recall on Mylicon Gas Relief Drops

2008-11-13T17:08:00.002-05:00

I stopped using these about 2 years ago, but I remember how often they saved my son from misery. I read today that there is a recall on 12,000 bottles of the stuff because some of the bottles could contain metal fragments generated during the manufacturing process. Scary. Read all about it on Mylicons' recall page. Check your medicine cabinets!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-11-12T14:21:00.009-05:00

Fun with Viruses

2008-11-09T16:28:00.009-05:00

So now that November is here, it's time for all the fun viruses and colds to come back out and of course my son had to catch a weird one. He was sick all last week with 103 degree fever which meant lots of sleepless nights and stuck in the house days. The fever finally broke around midnight Friday night in a drenching sweat and I thought we were in the clear. So I woke up this morning and noticed when he was changing shirts, that he had a really weird rash all over his stomach and chest. They were bunches of little red dots everywhere that didn't itch and weren't at all raised. Of course some internet searching turned up the culprit. Roseola - never heard of it or seen it but my son has it. Apparently the rash doesn't show up until after the fever breaks and that's when you figure out you have it. The rash disappears on its' own hours or days after it makes its' appearance. Strange, but now I've learned something new to use on the new kid. 1 virus down, 14 million to go!

I tried to take a picture of it but I don't think it turned out too well. I brought the brightness way down so it would show up better but it probably didn't help much. If you look at the bottom part under the belly button, you can kind of make out some of the spots. Anyway, maybe this post will help another mom searching for "weird rash on stomach and chest."

Proud to be American

2008-11-05T16:38:00.003-05:00

As I watched history unfold last night, it was the first time in a long time I felt proud to be an American. Now is the time for everyone to come together - you may or may not be happy with what has happened but it's time to move forward as one. I feel as though my voice was heard and I am so proud to have exercised my right to vote. Godspeed to Barack Obama and his beautiful family!

Vote

2008-11-04T15:21:00.002-05:00

I did it - did you?

It takes a village....

2008-07-22T14:41:00.003-04:00

You know the old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child..." blah, blah. I can totally understand where people come from when they say that. Hell, I only have 1 child and I dream of days where I hire a fabulous nanny to the stars to take over when I just don't feel like it anymore. Then, of course she sleeps with my husband and goes all Hand that Rocks the Cradle on me. But I digress.

Enter my new neighbors. We have recently moved to a nicer neighborhood in the past 5 months and I figured all of my problems with roaming/barking animals was in the past. I was right about the animals; now we have children. That's right - roaming children. We have neighbors that live across the street from us with 3 kids, ages 6,4, and 2 and yes, they roam the neighborhood ALONE. A 6 year old, I can kind of see. But a 4 year old? A 2 year old? This is a new phenomenon that I have been lucky to have not witnessed in the past. I was shocked in my last neighborhood when people would let their dogs out in the front yard and leave them to fend for themselves. Not even an electric fence mind you. Not only do the kids wander the neighborhood, they sometimes wander it on one of their various electric riding toys, one of which is a 4 wheeler that I wouldn't get on. The 4 year old zooms it up and down the street, sans helmet and sometimes clothes and into other peoples driveways, yards, etc. My latest witnessing was of the 4 year old (boy) stripping his clothes off and peeing in one of the neighbors yards. Is this where the village should step in and raise the child? Is there a certain age where the world stops being a public restroom or have things changed and I just haven't caught up? When is the proper age to allow your child to roam the neighborhood free or should I start investing in child collars and leashes?

RIP Estelle Getty

2008-07-22T14:33:00.002-04:00

Yeah, I'll admit it - The Golden Girls was and is still one of my favorite shows ever. So I was saddened to read a few minutes ago that Estelle Getty or "Sophia" passed away this morning at the age of 84. I knew she had been failing for a while but it's still sad to see. So rest in peace Sophia.

Trying to break out of slacker hell...

2008-04-22T22:57:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to make a comeback, I swear. We are finally all moved into the new crib, settling in, furnishing and I need to give my blog some love. I'll be back soon - I have some reviews to write, life to update, blah, blah.

Where the Hell Have I Been?

2008-02-11T20:58:00.002-05:00

Wow! I just happened to click over to my blog today on a whim and saw that it has been exactly 2 months since I have been here. What a slacker I have been! It's all been a blur since Christmas...we had our house on the market, found a new house, took our house off the market, ended up selling it anyway and now we are moving into our new house this weekend. It has been insane. We had a huge garage sale this past weekend and ended up making over $850 which I never expected. So now our main focus is moving and decorating the new house. It's exciting and exhausting all at the same time and a lot for our 2 1/2 year old son to take in. He's handling it much better that I thought he would.

A few tidbits that I have found interesting this week - Target is introducing a line from Dwell Studio on the 24th. If you have never seen any of Dwells' beautiful line of bedding (as well as crazy expensive) you should head to their site and check them out. I may actually be able to afford them at Target. They have already stocked some things from Dwell Baby which I checked out today. Very cute!!

Target is also carrying Converse shoes, but for some reason they are not stocking them in toddler sizes. Why?

So I'm back now and I'm going to try really hard to keep this blog up to date. Bear with me through our big move!

Digital Diet Anyone?

2007-12-17T18:07:00.000-05:00

Apparently Britney Spears has resorted to digital dieting for her most recent video. This pisses me off on so many levels...main one being, was she fat to begin with? For god sakes, I should hope to look that good after having 2 kids. And because of todays' society, she felt it necessary to digitally alter her body for all of the assholes out there who call her fat? Like it isn't hard enough on girls today to have the so called "perfect body"? I don't know how many times I've heard my rail thin, never eating niece call herself fat and my gorgeous willowy cousin say she has a big butt and had to hold myself back from wanting to slap a hamburger into their mouth. When is this obsession going to end?

**rant over**

Are You Ready for a Baby?

2007-12-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

Cross posted from Love Shak, Baby ....

I thought this was such a wonderful post, I had to steal some of it and post it here. Check out the entire post here.

"Kids will break your heart like you never imagined. They'll make you angrier than you have ever been in your life. They'll make you think you need to take a trip to the funny farm. They will embarrass you so badly you'll want to be struck dead on the spot. They'll gross you out so badly you'll run to the bathroom, gagging.
But kids will make your heart soar to heights you didn't know existed. They'll make you laugh harder than you have ever laughed in your life and they will make you sing with pure joy. And they'll make you dance- even if that dancing is because you had to take a 5:51 dance break because they're driving you nuts.
Kids will spend all your money, eat all your food, steal all your favorite toys and demand more. And they'll give you flowers from grubby little hands and they'll draw you pictures that are more beautiful than the Mona Lisa. Even if you're not sure what, exactly, it was that they drew.
They'll give themselves a haircut right before you take your Christmas pictures and pick out the most garish outfit you have ever seen to wear to preschool. And you'll think they look adorable anyway.
Prepare to never sleep again. They'll wake up 42 times a night as babies and crawl into your bed, sick when they're preschoolers and then pee in your bed. They'll wake you in the middle of the night when they're in grade school and tell you they puked on the floor. They'll keep you up past your bedtime in middle school, working on a school project they've known about for three weeks but is due tomorrow. Then they'll come in after their curfew when they're teenagers and you'll be pacing the floor, picturing fiery car accidents when really, they just lost track of time. And you'll buy them a watch and they'll lose that watch. And then, when you think you'll finally get some sleep, you'll send them off to college and you'll lay in bed late at night, hoping they're not at some frat party. And then they will become parents and they'll call you at 3 AM worrying about their own babies. Oh, no, you'll never sleep again.
Little kids will make you feel like the smartest person on earth and that will scare you to death because you don't realize how little you DO know until you have kids. And then you'll try to share your wisdom with your teenagers and they'll tell you that you know nothing. And that will scare you to death because you know what will happen, but you have to give them the gift of letting them make their own mistakes.
Yep, having a kid is going to change you like you never imagined. But it's a good kind of change. Except the not-sleeping part, that is."

All I Wanted was Clean Teeth!

2007-12-11T15:41:00.000-05:00

I went to the dentist today for a check up and teeth cleaning and walked out 3.5 hours later and $2200 lighter. I knew I had cavities that I had been neglecting since I had stopped going to the dentist for 2 years after I became pregnant and had the Pea. I finally went back when my teeth began to hurt and discovered that I had not 1, not 3, not 5, but 10 cavities!! I swear to you that I do brush my teeth and practice good hygiene. Apparently I am lucky enough to have very groovy teeth; and that doesn't mean they wear little tie dye shirts and smoke weed - they have lots of grooves and indentions that bacteria can lurk in and a regular toothbrush can't do much about it. I also still had my wisdom teeth that were nice enough to be growing in sideways and trying to kill of the teeth beside them. Because of that, I had to get those suckers removed before my dentist would do any of the cavity work. You can read about that here.
I did all that crap, which was loads of fun and went back in today for what I thought was going to be an innocent cleaning and subsequent scheduling of appointment for all of the little cavities scattered around. Well one of said cavities had been very busy and eaten a hole into my tooth down to the nerve. So yep - I had to get the sucker drilled. It actually wasn't bad at all. The worst part is the god awful screeching of the drill on your tooth and the bill you have to pay afterwards. Anyway, I have a nice little temporary cap on my tooth and a lot less money but my teeth are otherwise in good shape. Next month I get to go in and get the rest of those suckers filled. Great Christmas present huh?

Question of the Week

2007-12-10T21:59:00.000-05:00

Vanilla or chocolate?
I'm lazy today and I love vanilla.

Non Toxic Tots

2007-12-07T14:46:00.000-05:00

I subscribe to the Non Toxic Times Newsletter from Seventh Generation which is a very interesting read. I am obsessed with all of the toxins that go into skin care, shampoo, and especially things that are used on The Pea so when the Environmental Working Group sent me a survey a few months ago asking about every product I used on my son, I jumped on it. They have since released their findings which I found out about on Seventh Generations' newsletter and you can read about them here. It covers everything from baby shampoo to diaper rash cream. You even have the option to print the entire thing out for reference. It's amazing all of the crap some companies put into stuff especially the stuff that goes on our body! You can go to the database and search everything here.

Finally!

2007-12-07T14:43:00.000-05:00

I got my Wii - I am a happy dork. If anyone is curious, this is how I found it: go to wiialerts.com .
They will email you or send you a text on your cell phone and let you know when and where a wii will be available. Go ahead...I know I'm a dork; are you?

Question of the Week

2007-12-03T15:41:00.000-05:00

Ok, so here is my stupid question of the week:
Where in the crap can I get a Wii and is it really worth all of this hysteria? I am not standing in line at Best Buy for 4 hours to get one of these things!

Santa got dissed

2007-12-03T15:30:00.001-05:00

I'm sure the guy is used to getting the snub from hundreds of kids but that still didn't keep me from feeling bad when the Pea gave him the cold shoulder this weekend. We got up Saturday with great plans of going to sit on Santa's lap (my son, not me) and telling him the long list of things that were wanted for Christmas. Pea even picked out the clothes he wanted to wear when we saw Santa and got dressed, talking about Santa the whole time. He started to get a little worried then but got over it when we reminded him of all the things he wanted for Christmas. So we made it to the mall and stood in the short line and that's when I knew it wasn't going to happen. He wouldn't even look at Santa or wave to him and told my husband that he didn't like Santa and didn't care if he got nothing for Christmas. When we finally got to the end of the line, we walked to Santa and Pea grabbed onto my husbands' neck with the strength of a 20 year old and would not let go. I refuse to be one of those parents that force a screaming child onto the poor guys' lap so we got a Santa coloring book and hightailed it out of there. Poor Santa - you gotta give a guy props that can sit there for 8 hours a day and hold screaming children in his lap and still smile at the camera. We love you Santa!

Blog Tag, I'm It!

2007-11-26T18:20:00.000-05:00

So I have been tagged in a game of blog tag - I logged on to Blogger to find this in one of my comments: You are IT in a game of blog tag! Find out the details of the game by visiting the post that you were tagged in http://www.loveshakbaby.com/2007/11/i-turned-on-my.html
Looking forward to seeing your blog tag post!
So this is how it works:

"Post these rules on your blog.
List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag seven random [?] people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting on comment on their blog."

Let's see....
1. I am a huge makeup addict even though I hardly ever wear the stuff. I'll go on Sephora and spend $100 easily but I won't wear half of it. I have a huge drawer full of makeup that has never been worn, yet I still keep shopping and buying!

2. I have a slight case of OCD. Very slight, but it's there. For instance, when I wash my face I have to rinse a total of 10 times but if I feel like my face needs more rinsing, I increase it to 12 or 14...it has to end on an even number. Also, when I put deodorant on I have to swipe it the same number of times on each underarm. I promise I'm not a freak.

3. I'm a huge germaphobe - public restrooms frighten me. Purell is my friend.

4. I am terrified of clowns. Any kind - if the face is painted, I'm running in the opposite direction. Just the word clown makes me nauseous. I get shaky, sick to my stomach and feel like crying if I see one.

5. I simply cannot fall asleep before 10 p.m. Early bedtime for me is 10:30. I'm usually up til 11 or 11:30.

6. If I had the nerve, I would dye my hair black and blue. I've always wanted to do that but never did get up the nerve. Now I'm probably past the age where it would be acceptable.

7. I have 4 tattoos and I'm going back for more!!

Go check out the cool people I tagged:

blkitalianpride75 at http://blkitalianpride75.blogspot.com/

PB&junk at http://www.pbnjunk.com/

Mommy of the Record at http://mommyofftherecord.blogspot.com/

blondemomblog at http://www.blondemomblog.com/

Dallas Meow at http://listentomeandlistengood.blogspot.com/

Stephanie at http://www.1badmom.blogspot.com/

Super Mommy at http://www.super-mommy.com/wordpress/

Question of the Week

2007-11-26T18:18:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate way too much food like I did. So here is my question: Have you started your shopping yet? Are you doing most of it online or do you prefer brick & mortar? I think I'm going half and half.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-21T16:55:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Old School Sesame Street

2007-11-20T22:00:00.000-05:00

I came across an interesting article in The New York Times today about Sesame Street in it's first years, the pre-Elmo time when smoking a pipe meant you were cool. We all remember the rumors that Bert and Ernie were gay, but a diabetic Cookie Monster? Depressed Oscar the Grouch? Hallucinating Big Bird? Yep, it's all there in season 1 and 2 of Old School Sesame Street, straight out of the slums where the group all lived.
You can check out the entire article here. It makes for a pretty entertaining read.