Daddy's birthday

Daddy's birthday is a great day.  First of all my prize came in from Peter Rabbit Organics.  I got to play with the backpack before Mommy put it away. AND I got to eat chocolate cake and ice cream.  Chocolate cake makes me WILD!  Mommy says it must be the sugar. That cake stuff is gooooood. I'll be watching for it again.

Mommy WON!!!!!

Mommy entered another Baby food contest and SHE WON!!!!  I get to sample a bunch of Peter Rabbit Organic baby food! And I get my first back pack!   This is a really cool brand, and I've only got to sample one thing, but I really liked it! Peter Rabbit Organic Website and their facebook page.  We are so excited!!!

And they didn't know she was a blogger when she won.  Yea for me!!!

Finding my voice- A vaccine advocate in the making!

I never expected to start along the road of a vaccine advocate, just to be a mom.   Honestly, when I had my daughter 11 years ago I just vaccinated because that is what the Doctors told us to do.  It wasn't until I was pregnant with my son last year that I learned there was a anti vaccine movement out there, claiming that vaccines did more harm than good.  That made pay attention! I went on a few of their support sites, on Facebook and began reading, following the links that they posted to support their claims all the way to the end, reading the actual scientific studies and articles. If there was no science behind their claim, I discounted it. Researching the articles often taught me that the actual science that was out there supported vaccination and the anti vaccination theories have been dis-proven again and again.  They claim the same things over and over, but when you try to argue, you are automatically assumed to be working for "big Pharma", or Merek.  They don't listen when you argue that anything in inappropriate quantities is toxic, or deadly.  Inject air into your veins and you'll die, drinking to much water at once can kill you as well.


Then I noticed that a lot of the anti vaccine self proclaimed "experts" were conspiracy theorists. They essentially claim that disease isn't so bad. Most of it can be cured with homeopathic treatments.  Just last night I was SHOCKED  to see someone suggest on a Facebook page that polio is curable with homeopathy and vitamin C injections. So don't vaccinate against that.  Another tread was saying, if your child gets measles, let the fever burn. Treat with oregano oil, and don't worry about that.  And yet another mother was saying that her child got rota-virus, was in the hospital, but she is still glad that she didn't have the child vaccinated because now he is immune.  One google search taught me that you can get rota-virus more than once, and you can even catch a mild case of it if you are vaccinated, and I'm sorry, but when my daughter was in the hospital as an infant with RSV, I'd have done anything to spare her that! This page will delete any comment that doesn't support their views! So the 17 year old mother who posted the question walks away thinking that disease isn't so bad.

Many of the most active anti-vaxers spout off about government conspiracy. And that every government in the world is in on this, and the scientists and that any of us who are against them, must be from "big pharma". Yet, they are often the ones with no profile pictures, and obviously fake names. (Or parents with a wicked sense of humor.) Wild and crazy accusations, such as "they are injecting us with transmitters so that they can track us all by satellite." (Umm... what??) 

There is one page in particular on Facebook that will delete any comment that doesn't support their anti-vaccination views. No discussion, if you don't support us, then we will delete your comment.  I don't understand that thinking at all! There are people on that page believing them because everyone else does!!  Yet they preface every post with :

"All information is provided on an as-is basis. "REMOVED THE PAGE NAME" does not take any responsibility for comments published by its readers. Readers publish comments at their own risk.

Verified Official by facebook©

This page or the owners/founders of it are not liable or responsible in any way for your actions or inactions. Use your head and your own discretion.

Please check with your medical professional ( MD, ND, Midwife, Chiropractor, DC, etc..) before taking medical advice from someone on this page. this page holds NO responsibility for illness, allergy, etc if you take a supplement/etc because someone on the "internet " told you to.
Be wise..don't immunize, but also don't take something or give your kid something because you read it on the computer :)"

And yet, they are the worst at deleting any comment that doesn't agree with their views.   They advise people on how to lie on exemption forms, and how to get around the rules. One mother was putting her un-vaccinated child into a state funded day care and wanted to know how to get around the state required rule of sending out letters to the other parents informing them that there were un-vaccinated children in their class.  Thank god for that law, because I would want to know! 


One tactic I personally love is when they start with the wild assumptions about you, calling you uneducated, or attacking your diet, are saying you must love to take medication.  They don't like hearing that my degree isn't in Google, and that I delivered two children, one 9lb 8oz, the next 9lb 12oz, with no pain medication.  I don't run them to the Dr for antibiotics, and I know what CSA's are, support farm to table, and use ingredients when I cook.  That when my daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, I researched and chose not
to medicate and instead chose diet and therapy to treat her.  They really get mad when I respond to their "Well, she wouldn't have ADHD if you didn't vaccinate." with "Then explain to me why she was re tested 4 years later, and 5 months after her 4 booster shots for middle school and found to no longer have ADHD. Diet and therapy worked."

Many articles that I have read are suggesting that the un-vaccinated are actually putting the rest of us at risk by allowing the diseases to mutate enough so that the vaccines are not working.  I have read shocking statistics that were summarized by Parenting Magazine: 1 child dies of a vaccine preventable illness every 20 seconds.  1 in 600 un-vaccinated children will be hospitalized with a vaccine preventable illness.  There are vaccine reactions, but they are much less common and range from mild, say a fever, to a more severe reaction, are 1 in 100,000. 

Then my mother asked about Helen Keller. Would she have chosen vaccination with that risk, or what happened to her.  

So Thank You anti vaccination crowd. You have pushed me to do serious research.  I am now a vaccine advocate.  I will ask every parent, before allowing a playdate, "is your child current on their vaccinations?" because that is MY right. It is MY right to protect my children to the best of my ability.  I'm not sorry if I hurt your feelings, and you can tell me over and over "if your child is vaccinated, you have nothing to worry about." I know that is BS because you and your friends have forced me to do enough research to where I also know that vaccines are not perfect. You can still catch something that you have been vaccinated for, you'll just generally get a less severe case. And to be quite frank, I dread having to tell my kids that one of their friends has died because their parents went along with a fad, therefore I won't encourage, and will discourage that friendship, no matter how nice a person you are on the surface.

And my education continues. A group I am in on Facebook also includes one of the Authors of "Your Babies Best Shot: Why Vaccines are Safe and Save Lives" .  A book I will be ordering and reading cover to cover.  

And before you tell me that Facebook isn't a viable source of research, remember I am following actual links- to actual articles written and published by medical experts, scientists etc, and I have a safe forum to go to now that will help me understand the few things that are way over my head, and help me to put the context of the article into a whole report, without pulling out one or two lines that support my bias view. 

(Like the woman who told me that you can't catch HIV from donor milk - and posted an article from Fox news that said that- with a link that I followed to an actual report that quite clearly stated that you COULD catch HIV that way unless you were on antivirals. But that is an entirely other argument!)

** Commenting is turned off for now. This blog is public, and children of friends read it. I won't publish hate speech and foul language. To be honest, I have had enough of that on my Facebook page and messages!**

*Update 9/5, I was banned from the Proud Parents of UnVaccinated Children. page on Facebook. ROFL- I told them that I wouldn't risk the lives of my children on a FAD and they banned me from commenting anymore. I find it both HILARIOUS and SAD that the admins of that page will ban someone for speaking their mind, but yet let people spread outright lies and garbage about vaccinations. They removed the entire post that got me worked up- it was a picture of pen caps. It said that there were more deaths from choking on pen caps than from whooping cough.  What an outright lie.

*Product Review* Nuby Super Spout Easy Gripper Cup

Nuby sent me a cup to review, and although I wasn't too sure at first, now I like it. Mommy puts ice water in it when I eat a meal.  I like how cold that stuff is, and I'm getting pretty darn good at drinking from this cup, if I do say so myself.  The Nuby Cup has a soft spout, kind of like my bottle nipple.  At first I just chewed on it, because that felt so good on my sore gums. Then I figured out that stuff came out of it, and that was kind of shocking. It was COLD! Now I make mommy give it to me when I want it while I am eating. I gotta wash that food down with something.  I also like that it has a smaller middle, so I can hold it easier by myself and get it to my mouth without any help.  Did you know that when you throw things on the floor your mommy will pick them up?  A new mealtime game!!  I throw it down a lot, and no spills!! I admit I'm a little disappointed in that feature.  Nothing wrong with a mess!


**Mommy says**   We've been working on sippy cups for a while, so I've been holding off on this review to be fair and make sure he got it the concept of a cup.  We have 3 different types, and Keigan and I both like this cup the best!  The Super Spout Easy Gripper has a unique one piece No-Spill™ soft silicone spout that is easy to use, easy to clean.  The others that we have, Avent for one, frustrated him.  Either they were harder to get the liquid out, or much to easy. Some of them have, in my opinion, a weird spout shape. This one has a valve that opens with a little pressure, he started out just biting on it and and water came out- then the first few real sucks made him throw out his arms in shock! Ice water is shockingly cold!. I think he likes it because the spout is silicone and most like a bottle nipple, and I like it because it is a leak resistant spout. 

Mommy tip  **lets face it people, these are leak resistant, not leak proof. If you leave it laying on its side, there will be a slow leak. But when thrown on the floor, it's no spill.  For us, it's a win- and I'll be ordering more of these!!  You can order at buybabydirect.com and they are $5.99 a two pack!

I did not receive any compensation for this post, although as part of this program I may receive items to sample or review.  These opinions are my own.

Plum Tots- Fruit and Grain mish mash - apple cinnamon oats and quinoa

To be honest- mommy is not sure that I like cinnamon.  I've had it a few times with less than stellar results.  Ehh- it was pretty good I guess. I ate it.  Then I ate my goldfish crackers. Now people, those are GOOD!

Beech Nut Fruities- Apple, mango and carrot puree

So I was playing while mommy mixed this up- sometimes the woman is slow, I gotta say it.  She was messing around and putting oatmeal into my food so I was playing with my new hat.  I like this thing.

The food was super good too! And it was so PRETTY smeared all over my tray. Mommy should really get a picture of that for you.  I make a big mess, and have even learned to drop some over onto the floor and lean over to look at it alot.  I make sure she has to WORK to get me to eat. But this stuff was yummy and I ate it!

Ella's Kitchen- very, very tasty Vegetable Bake with lentils!

MMM!! This tasted as good as it smelled!!! I loved every last bite of it!  I did take a little time to smear some of it around, but that's what happens now that I am eating here 3 times a day!  Ella's is all organic, and has lots of good ingredients in it like- tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, onions, leeks, peppercorns,sweet potatoes, red lentils, red peppers, oregano, cumin and olive oil! This is more like what the big people eat!!