If one hair bow is good...

Then five bows are WAY better...

One good thing about being alone right now...

I can enjoy my Starbucks java chip frappuchino without any help. Yum. The last time I attempted to drink this around Carrie she started screaming at the airport gate because I wouldn't let her suck the entire thing down. I had to throw away my 99% full grande Java Chip Frappuchino because of that incident. I'll admit I was a little teary-eyed.

p.s. As you can see I've finally realized how to make words hot-links so I can be cool like my friend Anne :)

I miss my kids.

This sucks. I've been out of town for approximately 62 hours now, and I am just counting down the hours till I get back to Savannah (that would be approximately 48 more hours). I'm in Atlanta for a conference. I got here at 8am on Sunday, and will be back on Thursday evening. This is the longest I've been away from Carrie since she was born. I was very conflicted about coming to this conference in the first place. I mean, before it was sort of a treat to travel for work. I never did it very much at all, so when I did, I looked forward to going somewhere different, staying in a hotel, and getting some "me" time all at the same time. And I was sort of looking forward to that with this trip as well, but I was over that by about 8pm on Sunday evening when I realized Carrie was probably sitting in her "Carrie" chair throwing back her nightly milk, and I was missing it. I'm not kidding when I say I almost lost it yesterday at the Georgia World Congress Center. I came out of a session and almost walked right into a woman who had her baby girl laid out on the floor getting her diaper changed. She must have been right around the same age as Carrie. I got tears in my eyes and had to go call Jerry just to see how everyone was doing. Carrie of course chose that time to actually say Mama - perfect timing, kiddo.

I miss Jerry & Bailey too. I think I've called Jerry no less than about 10 times in the past two days. To add insult to injury, I get home around lunchtime on Thursday...just about the time he'll be leaving to drive up to Atlanta for his MBA class. And I'm sad that I haven't seen Bailey come flying up the driveway to greet me when I get home.

I keep going back and forth with this - one second, I'm so thrilled at the idea that I can eat a meal without having to share mine and tear it up into little bits, then the next second I realize there's no way I can eat all of the food I got because I'm not tearing it up into little bits and sharing. One second I'm excited that I can read a book that has no pictures in it, then the next second I'm reciting "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to myself.

So I guess since it's 7:30 and I'm done for the day I'll go finish eating my dinner, watch an episode of Lost that I've missed, and try to ignore that, right at this very moment, I'm missing bathtime.

Walking

So I'm gonna talk about two types of walking here...one about my kid, and one about another "kid" I know.

First, my kid. It seems we may be entering the walking phase of Carrie's life. Good lord, hold on everyone. She's almost 14 months old, so obviously taking her sweet time. I have no problem with that due to the fact that a) she doesn't seem to have any physical problem keeping her from walking for me to worry about, and b) I'm frankly not over the moon about having to keep up with her running amok from this point forward. At least I had a chance with the crawling. Not so with the walking. She took a couple of what I call "accidental" steps on Memorial Day. I didn't really count them because I don't think she quite knew what she was doing, and Jerry wasn't there to witness it. But there we were, in my grandmother's den, and she thought it would be fun to try to take a couple of steps closer to Lady to chase her down. She took about a step and a half, face-planted on the floor, and took off crawling. We all gasped because I was sure she'd start screaming bloody murder, but she just hauled across the floor after Lady. My first thought was "Oh my God, she just took a step." My second thought was "Oh my God, do I tell Jerry?" I didn't want him to think he'd missed something, but told him anyways. I am not a good secret-keeper, generally speaking.

This was followed up by more fun in the pool this past Sunday. She hadn't tried to walk any more since Memorial Day. However, we were hanging out in the kiddie pool at Oldfield (which had to be a sight, by the way - 5 grown adults and one child in the kiddie pool. Yeah, we were hogging it but I didn't care). It was me, Jerry, Rhett, Alston & Nick who witnessed Carrie's realization that this whole walking thing was WAY easier when water can help you out. She took lots of steps in the pool, generally chasing after me. She'd take a step or two, then sort of lunge into my arms, usually getting a face full of water at the time. Luckily, due to Jerry's unorthodox bathtime methods of just dumping water over her head to get her wet, she thought it was great and didn't have issues with the water in the face thing. I cried, I think Jerry got a little teary, and I think Alston/Nick/Rhett just thought it was cool to witness this milestone. Now, if we can only get her to do it on land, our world will once again be turned upside down...

Now on to the other "kid" and walking...Rhett graduated from high school last night. Talk about a reality check. She was 8 when I first met her. Jerry and I drove down to Savannah for SCDS' homecoming in the fall of 1998 because Alston was on the Homecoming Court (I'm sure she'll kill me for publishing that - sorry!!). We were driving back to Okatie after the game, and Rhett rode with me and Jerry, and she was curled up in the backseat asleep, 8 years old. Now, she's a high school graduate and off to Sewanee in the fall. She's turned into such an amazing young woman; I'd consider myself extremely lucky if Carrie turns out to be anything like her or Alston. Honestly, both of my sisters-in-law are totally amazing women. They probably don't realize it, but they've both taught me a lot about life and opened my eyes to things I may have never considered for myself.

Enough sap. I'm done!

Fun stuff!!

So I figured I'd post about some fun stuff instead of just blasting people over vaccines :)

Carrie's still not walking, but I'm okay with that. She just turned 13 months, and frankly, as long as everything's okay with her, I'm not in a terribly hurry to have to chase her butt all over creation. I mean, it's hard enough to keep up with her with how fast she can crawl these days. When she's on all fours it's all we can do to keep her from hurtling herself down the stairs (she's good at going up them, not so much going down) or hauling it into the pantry area where she enjoys activities such as pulling out koozies and throwing them everywhere or stacking and unstacking cans of veggies.

We're going on our first ever airplane ride tomorrow evening. Pray for me. We're flying from Savannah to Atlanta to visit my parents. I was supposed to get to go up there for my cousin's graduation on 5/10, but my surgery sort of put the kibosh on that jaunt. So I traded in my one day ticket to go fly up tomorrow and return on Monday. At least Carrie's first airplane ride will be a short one since it only takes about 30-45 minutes to fly Savannah-Atlanta. I apparently was NOT paying attention when booking the flights, though. Our plane tomorrow leaves at 6:30pm...right in the middle of dinner...great. We arrive and will be leaving the ATL airport around 8 or so....right around bedtime...great. Then, just for giggles, I scheduled our return flight on Monday at 7pm. Still right in the middle of the whole eat dinner-go to bed routine, which is bad enough, but we'll have to be at the airport around 5pm. This is when the Princess is usually waking up from her nap. I figure I'll have a little monster on my hands, but oh well. Should be interesting - check back next week for the gory details.

Carrie continues to eat like a little piglet. I have no clue where it all goes, honestly. The kid is maybe 19 lbs soaking wet at 13 months old. Currently the only thing she doesn't really care for are green veggies (except broccoli)...last night she took one look at a butter bean and wrinkled her nose up and swiped it to the side of her tray. Of course, it was also meatloaf night, and I swear that kid can eat her weight in meatloaf. She had a ton of meatloaf, some bites of mashed potatoes, a few cubes of cantaloupe...oh yeah, and a bottle of milk before bed. It's no wonder she sleeps through the night - she's in a food coma.

One thing we're trying to work on is naming everything and emphasizing "please." She has this habit of pointing and whining to get something. She very obviously knows what the different items are, because when you ask her "where's the _____" she points right to it. I'm taking my grandmother's lead on this, because she said she had the same issue with one of my uncles; he'd just point to get what he wanted, and wouldn't use words until she just stopped getting him whatever he pointed towards. Yes, I realize she's only a year and probably doesn't have the ability to say "Mom - can you please hand me that hunk of steak off your plate? I'd really like to eat it, regardless of the fact that it's your dinner" but hopefully by starting early we can curb the incessant whining/pointing pattern. If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears.

Call me alarmist...

Or call me what you will, but it's stories like these that give me pause about all of these damn vaccines that the docs insist must be pumped into a child's body all at one time before the kid is two. I swear I NEVER thought I'd be this "granola" about this sort of stuff. I always thought "of course my kid will get all of her necessary vaccines and on the exact schedule the pediatrician recommends, no question!" I mean, yes, if the child is sick and this will save his or her life, then of course go forward. But my child isn't in daycare yet...what's the rationalization for shoving all those meds into her system in a very compact schedule, other than to maximize the throughput in the pediatrician's office?

My goodness...I hope I don't hurt myself getting off of my soapbox :)


Georgia family challenges federal vaccine law


By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 05/20/08

Stefan Ferrari got his required vaccines before he was 18 months old. At the time, his parents said, he was a healthy, verbal boy.

But after his last round of booster shots, Stefan stopped speaking and, now 10 years old, he has not spoken since.

Stefan's parents, Marcelo and Carolyn Ferrari of Atlanta, filed suit, alleging the vaccines caused neurological damage to their young son. On Tuesday, the family's lawyer asked the Georgia Supreme Court to let the case against two vaccine manufacturers, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline, go forward.

Lawyer Lanny Bridgers told the court it was bad timing when Stefan received his last shots. A year later, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that thimerosal, a preservative used for multi-dose vaccine vials, be removed from childhood vaccines. The Ferraris contend that manufacturers should have made vaccines without thimerosal before Stefan was vaccinated.

But a lawyer arguing on behalf of the manufacturers told the state high court that the suit is barred by the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act.

The law says no vaccine maker shall be held liable in a civil action for damages arising from an injury or death caused by vaccines given after Oct. 1, 1988.

The exceptions are if the vaccine was improperly prepared or contained improper directions or warnings. Neither of these were involved in Stefan's case, Daniel Thomasch, a lawyer for the manufacturers, told the court.

"It was the clear intent of Congress to pre-empt precisely the claims that are at issue here," he argued.

Congress passed the law after hundreds of lawsuits were filed against vaccine manufacturers. The litigation increased insurance costs, drove out some manufacturers and threatened the continued production of some vaccines, even though the lawsuits were largely unsuccessful, Thomasch said.

"It has been a remarkably successful program," he said of the 1986 law. "This wasn't a rescue of the industry. It was an important step to make sure vaccines remained available in the United States."

Seven of eight courts to consider challenges to the 1986 act have ruled in favor of the manufacturers. Last year, the Georgia Court of Appeals became the first court in the nation to rule the act did not pre-empt state law allowing such lawsuits. The manufacturers are appealing that decision to the state Supreme Court.

Bridgers, the Ferraris' lawyer, told the justices that courts should review vaccine challenges on a case-by-case basis, not bar them completely. Otherwise, complaints must be brought in Washington before the U.S. Court of Claims where there are restrictions on the amount of awards, he said.

"Did Congress really intend to create an opt-out provision that allows the child to be thrown out of court?" Bridgers asked the justices. "I think not."

YUCK

I can't believe it's taken over a year for this to happen, but it finally did last night. Let me set the scene for you: Bathtime is always Daddy-daughter time. I'm not kidding when I say Carrie generally flips her lid whenever I'm around for bathtime. Sometimes I'm allowed in, but not always. It's like she suddenly gets pissed that I'm interrupting, or else wants me to pick her up, but we've found if I enter the bathroom during the process all hell breaks loose. So I usually just stay just outside of her visual field and put away laundry, etc. Last night I was folding her freshly laundred clothes and chatting with Jerry, when all of a sudden I hear "What are you doing - OH NO!!!!" coming from the bathroom.

Carrie decided the bathtub was as good a place as any to go to the bathroom. And we aren't talking #1 here, folks. (of course we aren't - would I be posting if she simply peed in the tub? Not nearly as funny).

So I fished her out of the tub, then Jerry drained, rinsed, and repeated. I took all the bath toys to be washed off in scalding hot water. Usually Jerry's such a good sport about stuff like this, but I think after having to deal with me and my issue last week, the pooping in the tub episode was just too much.

I post about it only because I know he'll be able to look back in a few years and think it's hilarious :)

On another note, the first birthday party was a success!! Here's a picture of her cake - Publix did a fantastic job, and I was so excited. They also gave her a smash cake, which would be what's all over her little face in the next picture. The weather was perfect, the company was perfect, and we couldn't have asked for a better first birthday party for the munchkin.