The dangers of a pacifier!!

Teagan never took a pacifier, she had her thumb and thats all she needed. Harper however will on occasion take a pacifier so we have a few around for her.

When you start to think of all the dangers in your household and choking hazards I have always thought about the steps, and the cleaning supplies, the medicine cabinet, the outlets, bumpers in your crib, etc.....

Never did I think a pacifier would a danger to my crawling 7 month old daughter Harper. A pacifier is made for babies right?? It should not be a choking hazard right?? Well guess what your wrong!! Harper managed to stuff the whole pacifier in her mouth plastic part and all and let me tell you her red, gagging, CHOKING face scared me!!!

Fortunately the pacifier is not small enough to get into her airway but I did have a little bit of trouble getting it out of her mouth. So yes she is ok, but now she can no longer have a pacifier without extremely close supervision!!

Only my child would choke on a pacifier made for babies!!

Sick of the H1N1

H1N1 its out there and its everywhere!!!

So I'm pretty sure my kids have been sick every week with something different since about oh September. Its getting really old and the season has just started. So what do you do?? Should we just lock ourselves in our house for the rest of the winter and don't go anywhere?? Should we all just quit working so we don't catch something for our co-workers?? I don't know what the answer is but I'm sure sick of all the media on the H1N1!!!!!!

As an ER nurse I see about 10 cases a day of H1N1 so yes I know its out there and I know that its really scary when you or your child has a temp of 104 but there is not much we can do about it at the doctors office or in the ER. Now some doctors are saying no to the Tamiflu and some are passing it out like candy to anyone who has a sniffle. So who's right and who's wrong??? I don't have the answer but somebody is wrong here.

I have never been much of a germ-a-phob and I don't carry around a shopping cover to put in the cart when I take Harper and Teagan to the store. But if your one of those moms more power to ya I just can't imagine having to carry around one more thing in my car!! Plus I kind of figure I'm building my kids immune systems :)

A few things I have tried to make more of an effort on is washing my hands and Teagan and Harper's hands more often. I'm not real good with the hand sanitizer but I do carry some in the bag and trying to use it more often.

My conclusion is H1N1 is the flu, its not fun, its scary, kids are dying, and it sucks!! However, its not the first time there has been a new disease, and eventually the media will find something else to talk about, and for now wash your hands and if your sick STAY HOME, push fluids, tylenol, and motrin and it too will soon pass!!

I pray that we don't get H1N1 here, and for everyone else to stay healthy too!!

I am starting to wonder when we decided that our kids need everything and anything they want. It is starting younger and younger that people think kids need the right clothes, the right games, the right vehicle to ride in, and the right house. I suppose every parent is trying to "keep up with the Jones". But I hate to break it to the "Jones" but I don't want to keep up with you!!! The Jones are the people who have to work 80 hours a week to pay for grocery's and the Jones are the ones that are getting phone calls at work to pay their bills, and the Jone's are the ones that have their house up for sale because other wise the bank is going to foreclose on their house.....That's just not me, I don't want to be the Jones.

I think a lot of times its the parents trying to keep up with other parents, and the kids don't even know whats going on. For example: Today Teagan has on a shirt that I got for a quarter and a pair of jeans I got for a dollar at a garage sale, and I have to say she still looks pretty darn cute and she is pretty happy. However she didn't take a nap today for me at all, so maybe she is upset about her outfit for $1.25 :) Now I am fully aware that when she gets in to school and there are other kids wearing brand new name brand clothes she might want the Gap jeans and the Nike shoes brand new but until then garage sale finds are GREAT!! Plus when she gets older she may have to learn the lesson money doesn't grow on trees and its ok to wear hand me down jeans :)

Ok so where is this blog going?? When we bought our house we were fully aware that we needed to remodel the upstairs and that we wanted to have the girls have their bedrooms up there. We have had a couple contractors come in to give us a bid and they have some good ideas. No bids yet but a few of them think we are crazy to think we can remodel the upstairs on our budget. When we start to talking to a few of them they want to change the whole lay out, each bedroom needs a large closet, and the bathroom needs to be in a good location, and they need more head room. (There are slants in the ceilings).

Whoa Whoa Whoa.....now for those of you that have been to my parents house my room consisted of a small closet a dresser and a twin size bed with little floor space and some crazy paint on the walls :) and for the most part I was pretty happy. And before that house I had to share yes SHARE a room with my sister!! (That's just crazy huh??!)

I also remember the stories my mom used to say about living in the old farm house, they would close the upstairs for the winter and sleep downstairs and I know there were a lot of families that did that "back then" (or maybe they just say that like how they used to have to walk to school 10 miles uphill both ways in the snow). So we live in an old farm house with poor insulation and maybe in the winter the girls might have to sleep in the living room, you make it work if that's all you can afford. I probably wont be making them walk the 3 miles to Parkersburg to go to school though so they should feel lucky :)

Yes I want our kids to have great memories of growing up and I hope they know how much they are loved, But I would much rather work less and spend as much time with them as possible than to have the fancy car and the fancy house with the fancy clothes. Being together is all we NEED!! I hope they realize that growing up but if not they will some day when they are 25 and have kids of their own.

Thanks Mom and Dad I know we had to ride in that embarrassing station wagon but I have some great memories of riding in the station wagon to go get a Christmas tree and spending time with my family!!

The contractor today said it was his job to show me the Cadillac of the remodel (The dream) and then we can go from there. I thought in my head: "Sir, you can show me the Cadillac, but do you see these two kids running around me screaming and wanting to be held?? We just need the cheap station wagon that gets us from A to B."