Night Time Changes

Once upon a time Emily would go to sleep without a problem, without barely a peep.  We'd go through our bedtime routine, and she'd be out, sleeping like - as they say - a baby.  Then she turned 1 and, we've realized, all bets are off.

Some time in the past week she went from peacefully falling asleep to reacting to us putting her in her crib like we're putting her in a medieval torture device, and we're slowly - and anxiously - trying to figure out how to deal with it.   

Tonight, for the third night in a row, she cried - more like, wailed - for 25 straight minutes after we put her in her crib for the evening.  We've been assured that she's fine, that she's only crying because of separation anxiety, and that she'll eventually learn that crying doesn't get her anywhere so she'll stop.  And we know if we went in to get her she'd just continue the cycle and end up overtired and crabby.  So, we've chosen to let her cry.  I'd say it's easier said than done, but it's neither.  So, as we did the past couple nights, we shut the door, we paced nervously, we stopped each other numerous times from going into her room to console her, and finally we both had a glass of wine to try to ease our minds and to drown out the noise.  And then it stopped.

I just hope this gets better soon.  It's only been three nights but it feels like three months.  Three LONG months. 

Get the facts

When doing some online research about the presidential candidates the other day, I found a great Web site called FactCheck.org.  According to the site, run by the non-profit Annenberg Political Policy Center, the goal is to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics by monitoring the factual accuracy of what is said.

Once I delved into the site and saw how many articles were posted debunking attack ads, politically-charged emails and statements, it opened my eyes.  To see how many lies are being told from either side is maddening, but at least this site is a place to go to get through it all. 

Check it out today.

New BPA study...even more reasons to avoid it

Yet another study came out today which found that the chemical BPA, found in many plastics and all sorts of food containers, may lead to serious health problems:  this time, it's linked to heart disease and diabetes.  Very scary.  And the FDA still says it's safe, despite all kinds of studies to the contrary.  Kind of like how the government said lead paint was safe many years ago while kids played with lead-painted toys and people lived in lead-painted homes, I guess.  Click here and here to read more.  I'm not so sure how much longer the FDA can turn a blind eye without seeming totally irresponsible. 

Baby's got a new pair of shoes

Today was a big day for Emily, as we took her to get her first pair of shoes.  She's been working on walking for the past month, and now has it pretty well down, so it was time.  

We headed out to the shoe store with camera in-hand wondering how she'd react, as she's never had more than socks on her feet.  I imagined walking in and telling the clerk at the fun, kids-themed shoe store that we were there to buy Emily's first official pair of shoes, and the clerk would share our excitement, even giving Emily a sticker or balloon to celebrate.  Well, it wasn't quite like that, but that was okay.  We got her shoes, a very stylin' pair of pink Stride Rite gym shoes with velcro (thanks to Pat for pointing out that laces would have been a real pain), and I did get a photo, but the clerk was all business and we were in and out of the store in 15 minutes flat with very little fanfare.   

It was cute to see how Emily reacted to the shoes.  Once they put them on her feet, you could tell she was really confused.  Normally we can't stop her from walking, but when we tried to get her to walk this time she refused and just sat on the floor, nervously chewing on a toy:

I figure the shoes probably feel like we just put rocks on her feet, so I can understand why she'd be a little wierded out by them.  We were reassured that she will eventually get used to them, and since neither Pat nor I knew anyone in grade school who still refused to wear shoes, I guess we'll be ok.  Thinking it might help, I also told Emily that although she might not like shoes now, there's a good chance she'll really love them one day and want to buy many, many pairs when she's older...but she didn't seem to make the connection. :)

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Many of you know that Pat works Sunday through Thursday, so Fridays are technically the weekend for us.  Because I work from home, my schedule is flexible so I try to keep my Fridays open so I can enjoy the "weekend" with Pat - although lately, more times than not, I've had to work or attend meetings on Fridays while Pat watches Emily.  I was free and clear today, so we were able to meet up with Pat's mom for a very nice lunch. 

We went to a great restaurant near Grandma Regan's house, with fantastic sweet potato fries - my newest favorite menu item.  I love that even though they're fried, I can still convince myself that they're healthy.  The perfect food!

 

Random thoughts

- Emily does not like the elevator in our condo building. The second the elevator door closes, she starts crying. When it opens, she stops and looks relieved. She did this every time we took the elevator yesterday and today. This has never happened before, but it’s been at least a couple months since she was on an elevator. She does the same thing when she is near the loud motor on the McKeons’ boat. Maybe the sound of the elevator scares her, or maybe she’s claustrophobic?

- I had a tuna sandwhich yesterday for the first time in at least a year. It was good. Need to order that more often.

- Prediction: Iowa 30, Iowa State 13

Da Bears

The Bears played their first game of the season tonight, upsetting the Colts 29-13. Pat believes it’s a clear sign that the Bears are a lock for the Super Bowl. He quickly changed into this outfit following the game and loudly declared, “Da Super Bowl is ourss, my friendss,” as he smacked his gum, then scarfed down a polish sausage.



Part of me kind of hopes the Bears aren't good this year because I can't stand the thought of spending the next six months listening to Pat talk like he's one of these guys:

I should add that although I don't really want my husband to talk like a Superfan on a daily basis, this IS one of my all-time favorite skits ever on SNL.   Classic.

To BPA? NOT to BPA, thank you...

Having a child has opened my eyes to many things, for good (true selflessness and unconditional love) and for bad (chemicals in plastics that I never knew were there, nor cared much about before having a child). About a month after Emily was born, I read a news article talking about a chemical called BPA, used for years in much of the plastic products on the market today, and at the time, used in nearly all baby bottles. The article outlined the dangers of the chemical, citing several studies linking it to reproductive problems in lab animals, and a variety of other possible health issues, especially when the plastic is heated. I had never heard of this chemical, nor any issues with baby bottles, but quickly found out that Emily’s Playtex bottles – which I heated up nearly every day - contained BPA.  All it took was a quick Google search on BPA to tell me all I needed to know to get rid of those baby bottles: how most baby bottles and many baby toys contain it and how manufacturers insist the products are safe even in the face of hundreds of independent research studies dispelling its safety.  I went out that day and bought Emily some bottles specifically labeled BPA-free, which were difficult to find then, and are still relatively hard to locate.

That was September 2007, and things are slowly changing for the better.  Earlier this year, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services admitted that BPA might alter an infant's development, just last week announcing there was some concern the chemical could disrupt development of the prostate gland and brain, and cause behavioral problems for infants and children (although the FDA still claims that it's totally harmless?!), and in April, Canada banned the use of BPA in baby bottles sold there.  BPA has been all over the news lately - the Chicago Tribune did a series of stories recently on the prevalence of the chemical in all kinds of baby products in the face of research studies dispelling its safety – and many retailers, no doubt prompted by the heightened awareness among consumers, have vowed to stop selling the product by 2009.  Target, Wal-Mart and Babies R’Us are some of those stores, yet even now it’s hard to find any products that are BPA-free at the stores, and the only one of those stores that sells the bottles I use (and that I think are pretty popular among BPA-free bottles), Born Free, is Babies R’Us. The only problem is that Babies R’Us isn’t that prevalent –  there are only a handful of stores in the Chicagoland area.

But today, I was so excited to see that Target - with 1,500 stores+ in the U.S. to Babies R' Us' 250 - is now selling my favorite Born Free bottles. Even though Emily is about to graduate from the bottle, I applaud Target for raising awareness and giving even more moms and dads access to truly safe products for their babies. Hopefully more mass market retailers (ahem, Wal-Mart?) will do the same. 

For anyone looking for more information on BPA and an easy-to-use list of safe products, check out one of my favorite blogs, ZRecommends at zrecs.blogspot.com.   It's been a huge help in helping me figure out which products are safe for Emily.

Who's Your Daddy?

We're trying to teach Emily to say "mama" and "dada" and show her that's who we are. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. The other day Pat was repeating over and over to her, "Where's Mama? Where's Mama?" Emily's response was to point at Pat, walk over to him and sit on his lap. Pat was not amused.

So here we go!

It's the first official online day of blogging with the Regans, and I think I'm up for the task.  I may not update it daily as I had hoped, but I hope to update it on a semi-regular basis. 

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For those of you who I haven't caught up with lately, Emily is now walking, albeit cautiously!  It was only a few weeks ago that she stood up by herself and took three steps, and now she's walking all over the place with only a few spills in between.  Very exciting for us, and I think for her - she seems so proud of herself when she walks, with a big smile on her face every time. 

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She's 1!

We celebrated Emily's 1st birthday party up at my parents house in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin on August 23, her actual birthday.   It was a small family party, the weather was perfect and we all had a good time.  To go along with the cupcake theme, I made my first official birthday cake, a yellow cake with vanilla and strawberry frosting, shaped like a giant cupcake.

 

And Pat, not to be outdone, made some killer kabobs. They looked so professional I had to take a photo:

Being her first birthday and all, Emily had to try some cake, and Pat and I were dying to see what she'd do with it, thinking (hoping?) she'd do something dramatic like smashing it in her face.  Instead, she wasn't quite sure about it.   She picked it up very daintily and smushed the frosting in her fingers for what seemed like an eternity before putting any in her mouth.  If you can't picture it, we've provided the visual.  Here's Emily right after tasting her first piece of birthday cake:

Not being the frosting lover myself, I can relate to this face - it's probably the same one I make when I accidentally bite into a piece of icing.  

It wasn't the exact Kodak moment we were looking for, but it was adorable nonetheless.    Pat and I both can't believe the year went by so quickly, when just a year ago she looked like this:

Here are some additional photos from the day:

Slowly but surely

I'm working on jumping into this blog thing, and I think I've at least got the formatting figured out.   To prove it, here's a photo underneath some text, with some text underneath.  I wasn't able to do this before today.

Voila!