Confusion and Delay

Good new this morning on the CPSIA front. A friend of mine emailed me a link to this LA Times article. The CPSC has "deferred" the February 10th deadline for lead (and phthalate) testing for one year to give everyone more time to figure out the "how to" of this law.

I sure wish I was a constituent of the Senator that seems to have actually listened to all those calls and emails. According to the article Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina was "planning to introduce legislation next week to exempt some small businesses from the law..." I hope Senator DeMint will still do so because I would love to see an exemption for small businesses.

I was also glad to read this:

"The commission has been bombarded with thousands of calls, e-mails, letters and visits from people upset about the law, Martyak said. Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) and Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) and Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) also sent the commission a seven-page letter chastising it for the "great deal of confusion and misinformation" that had arisen over the law."

Notice you don't see any Wisconsin senators or representatives listed as doing anything helpful. The bottom line is the deferred date is not really an answer to the CPSIA issue, but a delay at this point is better than nothing.
-----------------------------------------------
Bonus Trivia: What character talks about causing "confusion and delay"? If you have little boys you better know!!

On the Road to Potty Training?

We use cloth diapers. Well, I take that back...we recently started using cloth diapers again. For purely economic reasons, we used them exclusively with Wesley and almost exclusively with the twins. Hayden was in them a good part of his little life as well. But when we put the old house up for sale in September 2007 we had four in diapers so we decided to take a little break for convenience and aesthetics. Plus, at that time I was getting diapers for free or nearly free with coupon deals at Walgreens and CVS.

In the last month or so I finally depleted my diaper stockpile and there are no good diaper deals to be found! So I decided to make the switch back. Every 5 cloth diapers I use instead of a disposable saves me about a dollar. Even with "only" two in diapers, that is definitely worth it to me. JD doesn't seem to mind. Hayden, however, has made his displeasure known! He obviously has no memory of the cloth diapers and repeatedly asks to be put in an "old" (disposable) diaper. He has even cried, begging: "Please don't put me in a new diaper. Pleeeaaaasssse put me in an old diaper!"

I told him, "If you don't like these diapers you know what you can do? You can go on the potty!". He seemed interested. I was so encouraged! Maybe potty training for Hayden will be quick and easy. He is a pretty bright kid. Encouraged by his big brother's examples he seems a bit ahead of his brothers at the same age. He has made other transitions (like crib to bed) without the difficulty some of the others experienced. So, I got out the potty chair. He sat on it for one minute once and hasn't sat on it again since. I offered big boy underwear. Nope. A treat? Nope. Guess those "new" diapers aren't so bad after all!

Well Visit?

This morning I took Eli, Justus, and JD in for their well checks with our pediatrician. Wesley and Hayden came along for the ride. Overall, they are a healthy bunch. Eli is 3 pounds heavier and an inch taller than Justus. Can you tell Eli is a much better eater!?! It's not that big of difference but "on the charts" Eli is in the high 30th percentile and Justus is only in the 16th. Both have come a long way considering they started out at 3 pounds!

We learned at last years well check that Justus has a slight heart murmur. This year the doctor said she can only hear it when he is laying down and that it's nothing to be concerned about. He will probably outgrow it and since he had an echocardiogram after he was born it probably isn't something structural.

JD appears to have an intolerance (allergy?) to peanuts. So a good portion of our visit was spent talking about that. The first time he tried peanut butter his eyes got all red, swollen, and itchy so I didn't give it to him again for 6 months. A week or two ago I tried again and it was the same thing. The doctor said to avoid peanut products altogether and if I notice the reaction again give him liquid Zyrtec.

If we want to know for certain if it is an allergy or just an intolerance we can have a blood test. I'm guessing we'll just go ahead and do the blood test at his 2 year well check so we can know for sure. The doctor also gave me a prescription for an EpiPen just in case he has a more severe reaction. Fortunately, at this time he doesn't seem to be bothered if peanut products are in the house or near him. I pray that never happens. Of course, we would do it but eliminating peanut products would be very hard for this peanut butter loving family.

Eli checked out fine at the pediatricians office. I took him back later in the day for a vision re-check with the optometrist. The doctor had been hoping that his glasses alone would improve the vision in his bad (right) eye but it looks like he'll need a bit of additional therapy. So he will be wearing an eye patch for 2 hours each day to help improve his vision. He has a lazy eye, but not the kind where the eye actually wanders. It is literally lazy in that is just isn't trying.

Apparently, while my sister had a true lazy eye (with surgery to fix it), I had the kind of lazy eye that Eli has and if I had worn a patch as a child I wouldn't even need glasses. I had dreams of one day getting Lasik and ditching my glasses but the eye doctor told me that my eye structure isn't the problem it's the actual wiring from my eye to my brain. There's nothing you can do to fix that once you're past about age 1o or so. In Eli's case, he won't ever see well enough to not need glasses but the patching should help improve his vision by forcing that brain-to-eye wiring. How much and how soon it will work remains to be seen.

And You Just Thought It Was a TV Show!

You all know I only watch one show on TV. Well, if you didn't, you know now! LOST is that show. I think when the series comes to an end I'll just toss the TV. I won't need it anymore anyway. I'll just spend the rest of my life re-watching old LOST episodes on DVD and digging deeper into the hidden meanings of the show. What hidden meanings you say? It's just a show! There is nothing deep about it...

Read this blog post to change your mind. Literary references abound in this show where main characters are named after famous philosophers (John Locke, Hume, Rousseau) and episode titles are also books (Through the Looking Glass, Stranger in a Strange Land, Catch-22). The author of the above mentioned blog post, book guru J. Wood, has written a book about Lost. If you don't want to get the book, he writes a weekly post (like the one linked above) about the show that will make you feel stupid with a capital S. I was shocked the first time I read one of his posts. I wondered if I had even been watching the same show.

If you're like me and love to read, just reading the books referenced or seen on the show will take a good long time. Books...that Sawyer read, that lined the shelves of the hatch, and that the Others had a club to discuss! When you're done with those you can move on to reading the books that the writers used for inspiration. It could take years. At least I know I'll have something to do when the show ends!

CPSIA

Jerry pointed out to me this morning that even the blogs he reads are starting to cover the CPSIA. I guess today is even "CPSIA blog day". This is really not just about children's toys. Actually, with the "failing economy", I am shocked that something hasn't been done about this yet. And I'm quite dissatisfied at the response that I personally have gotten from the people in the Senate and the House that are supposed to be representing me. Some replies don't even make sense. I'm not sure if these government representatives are deaf or dumb or both. I've said I all I have to say on the subject but here are a few other links in case you want to read them.

Birthday Boys!

It's a big day! Eli and Justus are half way to 10...a quarter of the way to 20...the big FIVE! I can now say we have more children over age 5 than under!!

We had a little party last night. I let the boys choose the food...mostly. On the menu at their request: hot dogs, puffed corn, cheetos, chips, and fruit! To round things out for the rest of us: coleslaw and beans. Oh and cake of course!

They enjoyed opening their gifts. Justus' gift enthusiasm was still going strong. Eli was so excited to get a weather DVD that he feigned fainting! It was pretty funny! The big hit, with all the kids, was a mini-trampoline from GGS and gang in Arizona. Everyone had to take a turn. The adults were placing bets on the first injury while the kids were j-u-m-p-i-n-g away! I think it will be a great way to get the winter wiggles out! I'm not too worried about injuries. My kids break bones jumping off desk chairs, dislocate elbows sliding off furniture, and get teeth knocked out just walking past a swing set...yet rarely get hurt when it's most likely!

Here are some pictures of the birthday boys this morning:
Here are some pictures from yesterday's festivities:

Future Storm Chaser Eli with his cake

Justus opening gifts

Blowing out the candles

Last year, I posted pictures of the boys from the day they were born. I thought this year I'd post their birth story! A day or so after each of the boys were born , I took a bit of time to write down the story of their birth for their baby books and so I wouldn't forget. (I didn't do it with Roz. I wish I would have!) You'd think one wouldn't forget such important details, but each time I re-read one of these stories I remember things I've forgotten. If you're interested and want to read the twin's birth story, click here.