Half Price at the Aquarium!

Okay, this is how you know you've been blogging for a year... Today we went to the Jenkinson's Aquarium at Point Pleasant Beach. During the month of January, admission is half price. Last year, we went with Jason at this time. It was like a whole new experience for T, though, as we hadn't been back since then. The freaky white thing is called an Axototl. Endangered species... perhaps that's why I've never heard of it???









Notice the one finger touching...








Gotta love the pics at the end of T on the beach. There was no wind, and it was actually quite mild. Pt. Pleasant is a friendly family town. Lots of people were walking on the boardwalk, but none on the beach!

P.S. In other news, Trenton did #2 on the potty today for the first time! Yee haw!

Caught the Bug

Ahh, so it is here. Fitting, as we didn't have much going on this weekend or this week, that Trenton should get sick. He started vomiting at 4:30AM on Saturday. We thought it may have been from the milkshake he had in the car on the way back from VA. But it was happening every hour or so, and continued all day and night long. The next day (above) he was much better. But then it started coming out the other end... yuck! Needless to say, I spent all day today cleaning up and disinfecting.

After having a few too many blow-outs, we switched him to paper diapers. Guess what? Nothing can contain this! So we told him to sit on the potty for awhile. And there he sat. Coloring.

To make matters worse, Jim caught it last night. Poor guy had to call in sick to work today as his stomach kept him up all night long, too. "Don't take my picture" is the direct quote for this one.

Hopefully we will be well soon, and I don't get it, too, as I'm trying my best to care for both of 'em right now. Well, not RIGHT now. Both are napping.... peace! My class has started for this semester so I spent time reading and typing my reflection today. It is great-- an online course. I will have to do one project that requires me to work in and with a classroom. That should be fun:)

Kids in Motion

Took a quick trip to VA last week to see the Bluesteens. Here are some videos of the kids at an indoor playplace called Kids N Motion. The video of them playing outside is actually from New Year's week, but we've just posted it now.

CDing in the News Again & Getting Out the Vote

I was at the gym today, watching the Today show. They had a bit about buying organic/bamboo/"green" eco-friendly clothing. I actually thought for a minute, "I wonder if people are sick of all this by now?" meaning, is there just too much of this out there? I hope it won't be a fad, that goes out of style in the future. But most of the stuff featured is so expensive!

There is one way moms can go green that doesn't require too much money: cloth diapering! You've heard me blog about it before, but I wanted to bring it up again because it is in the news. Here is an article featured in Time magazine: Diapers Go Green. It mentions Cotton Babies (a website I've ordered from before) and bumGenius diapers (my favorite brand). Too cool!
This slideshow is very powerful. It is about female circumcision practiced in parts of our world. I just don't see how there can be public outcry against this practice being done with little girls but not the same reaction when it is performed on boys.

Finally, if you are registered to vote in NJ, know that you can confidently go to the polls on Feb. 5th and make a worthy contribution! I've had people ask me about whether or not they can vote in a certain party without previously declaring their affiliation. The answer (in New Jersey) is that if you HAVEN'T voted in a primary as a dem or a rep in the past, you can go in and choose one or the other this time around. If you have already voted as a dem/rep, you must stick with that line for this election. Please note, you can switch party affiliations easily, but the date to do so was about a month ago.

Great stuff on NPR this morning about Barack Obama's senate record. They are doing 1 hour on each candidate this week (Hillary, Edwards, and Kucinich) and then the Republican candidates next week. You can listen to it online whenever you'd like. Try the link above. I love Brian Lehrer and seriously think that one of the reasons why I like going to swim class on Monday mornings with T is so that I can listen to his program in the car!

Visiting Gabe at CHOP

Today we took a trip to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to see our friend Gabe. Recently, Gabe had to have some surgery done. Thankfully, everything turned out well and the boys were up for a playdate! The hospital is wonderful and had lot of windows and a playroom for the kids to use.

Although Gabe was still in some pain, it was great to see his positive reaction to Trenton's visit. Trenton felt good about it, too. As he left, he gave Gabe a kiss on the hand. It must have meant something to him, because after we got home and he woke up from his nap, he said to me, "Gabe hand? Kiss it?" We hope to see Gabe again soon when he is home a feeling better. :)

Tickling Daddy

Two guys. Two belly buttons.

One guy checking out the other guy's belly button.

"I can stand on that!"

"I did it!"

Eating Snow

The Business of Being Born

(not even a day old!)

Some of you may know that I had a pretty specific way that I wanted to deliver Trenton. No drugs, with a midwife, in a hospital, and in water. I was so glad to be able to get 3 out of 4 of those wishes! (Too fast for the water ;)

I know that not every mom can have a quick labor that helps one manage the pain successfully. But I also know that, after speaking to a lot of moms I knew, many did not realize that they had a choice when it came to birthing. And it was OKAY to feel pain while in labor. And to love the feeling of personal success and adrenaline that came afterwards.

There is a new documentary out, primarily created by Riki Lake. It is called The Business of Being Born. If you've ever wondered about things like increased C-section rates, encouragement of epidural drugs, Pitocin to bring on contractions (that were probably slowed by epidurals), why people would use midwives (um, worldwide this is a pretty common practice), or what I was thinking when I made my choices, watch the trailer for the film. Or the film if you can. They didn't have this film around two years ago when I was doing my research into birthing. I was lucky enough to read the powerful book Misconceptions by Naomi Wolf. Although most of it scared the hell out of me at the time, I came to realize that birthing has been done FOREVER and that the medical industry does view it as a business nowadays. I chose to by-pass that and get personal care from a great group of midwives. And I grunted and moaned like you wouldn't believe, but never lost focus. Okay, I did need oxygen at the end (stopped breathing-- kept pushing!) and during the crowning the pain was incredible...

Just getting you, my readers, to think about this important issue once again ;)

P.S. Check out this story on cloth diapers... My favorite place has opened a retail store in Ithaca!

Celebrating '08 with Family

This Saturday we went to my Uncle Dave's house in South Jersey to celebrate Christmas. I think it's great that they do it in January, as most family members don't have other plans and can make it. Great food and a great chance to see some special people that we don't see too often.

Above, Great Aunt Mary gives Trenton a gift. He scored with some great Fisher-Price cars that you shake and then they speed off. He loves them!

That's four out of six siblings (the rest are living further south). On the left is my Uncle Al (who performs his guitar/singing gigs regularly), my Uncle Dave (still truckin' after 40 years), mom (who looks FANTASTIC), and Aunt Arlene (the Mary Kay expert!)

Above, Arlene's son Billy plays with the dog. Some of you may remember him as the ring bearer at our wedding!

One, Two, Three Like a Bird I Sing!

I was feeding Trenton a snack today at around 10:45 when he started pointing to the radio and saying "One, two, three, bird I sing!" I knew that he was making a reference to the Tim McGraw song "Last Dollar" and I tried to tell him that you couldn't just plead with the radio to get a song that you wanted to hear. But then I rethought that... and called in the request. They taped our conversation and dedicated it to Sheryl and Trenton and played it during the lunch request hour! Listen carefully to this one. ;)

70 Degrees and January

The third day of this nice weather. Soon to leave us... too bad!