Drop-side cribs banned...

Drop-side cribs kill 46 kids over the past 10 years and they ban them (millions upon millions of them), while the CDC reports that 77 children aged 1-3 died between 2000 and 2007 from accidental firearm discharges and every American is still allowed to own a gun... Why not put the onus on the companies that manufacture the sub-par rails and guides to provide quality parts, perhaps by getting rid of the cheap plastic and go back to good old fashioned metal? And where does a parent's responsibility end? We had a guide break on our crib (right around the time of the recall, and after 3 kids had already outgrown it) because I leaned on it with most of my weight while trying to get Rebekah out of the back corner. What did we do about it? Took the side with the broken rail off, used the crib as a toddler bed and ordered a replacement part for when the next baby came along... There are so many things wrong with this new "initiative" that I'm not even sure where to start...

1. We have recently been considering our impact on our world and have begun following The Story of Stuff and I can't help but think that somewhere, somebody is more worried about how they can force people to buy new cribs instead of buying them from garage sales, hanging on to them for generations, or passing them on to other new parents
2. I also am forced to think about how widely the same poor quality plastics that created the broken guide dilemma are used in other consumer products and how much of a backlash it would cause if they forced crib manufacturers to use a higher-quality (read as more expensive) replacement, both in terms of increased manufacturing costs and in terms of consumers realizing that there are options to the cheap plastics that have become pervasive in consumer goods...
3. Wondering about the intelligence of forcing new parents (who already may be struggling to make ends meet) to go buy a brand new crib because they can't get a used one any more...

Summer 2010

Our summer started with Sara-Lyn's 4th birthday in June at Riley park. We had a pit of confusion to start with as the pool we had initially chosen was under renovations. But it all got sorted out and we had a great time wading in the pool and then playing at the part. Thanks to everybody who came out to celebrate her birthday with us.

I'm in a bit of shock that Sara is 4 already. I am not ready for her to be starting her second year of preschool already. Her speech has been doing great and she is loving her gymnastics. Her first year of preschool went great and she is sad that it is over and that she has to say goodbye to her teacher.

Summer was very busy for us, I can't even remember everything we did. I made a few trips to the farm with just me and the kids, and we made a trip to the lake as a family. It was a busy summer but a memorable one.

Fall is now here and everybody has started school again. Hannah is in grade one and doing great. In fact she is doing better about it then I am. I am having a hard time with her being gone all day. Some days I am glad for the quite but I wish I had the opportunity to spend a little more time with her. But she likes her teacher and the friends she has made. She is also making huge progress in Reading and Writing French and English. In fact now we can send the other kids to her to have a book read :)

Sara-Lyn is loving her pre-school again. She goes 3 afternoons a week, and wants to go everyday. She is also taking speech through her preschool. They've gone on their first field trip already to the Calgary corn maze, and Sara was in heaven to get to ride a school bus like the other kids.

M has been doing really great as well. She is going to a special needs preschool 5 days a week and has been really enjoying that. In fact she probably asks twice a day on the weekends when her bus is coming. She is getting help with socializing and speech here at the house once every two weeks. She has been making a lot of progress with expressing herself.

Rebekah is going to gymnastics along with the other kids, while she would like to go everyday I'm afraid she is stuck with just once a week. She wants to go to her own preschool, and we've made a deal that when she pees in the potty she can go to school. Her speech is amazing she has such a big vocabulary. Unfortunately many of her words are difficult to understand and she may have some of the same problems as Sara-Lyn. At this point I'm not going to worry too much as I'm confident she isn't as bad as Sara was. She is also my very stubborn girl, who definitely likes being the baby of the family. After all everybody has to cater to her every whim. While she likes to be the baby she is also very determined to be a big girl, she swings in the big swings, goes down the big slides and tries to climb everything at the park. There is no holding her back.

Our newest addition J came to us in July and he was 6 months old. He is now 10 months old. He is crawling, and getting ready to start walking. Hopefully he will be moving on from our home to his forever home in the next few weeks. This would be very exciting for him and we are all waiting anxiously to find out what the plan for him will be.

Happy Birthday Rebekah

2 years old already... It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we welcomed our third bundle of joy into this world, but alas, it has.

Rebekah seems to be growing up a little more each day. She now has enough words that she can effectively communicate most basic needs and wants, which is a welcome relief. I think her favorite work right now is probably "HEY!", which we hear whenever something she wants get put away, or whenever she wants something another kid has, or when somebody new walks into the room

30 years in the making

Well, it's official. I'm no longer a twenty-something. Looking back on the last 10 years, I can definitely say that I am happy with how things have turned out so far. I have been married to the love of my life for nearly 7 years, have 4 beautiful children, am working at a job that never seems to run out of new and interesting challenges, and am living in one of the most amazing, family-friendly cities in the country. As my 30th year on this world begins, I remember how I felt 5 years ago on my 25th birthday, when I was far less happy about getting another year older. I had begun to realize that time was passing at that my childhood (and what I thought of as my youth) was officially over. 5 years later, I have come to grips with the fact that, like it or not, I am now an adult, but also that "youth" is not something that can be tracked on a calendar. It is how we feel about ourselves. It is about how we interact with the world around us. We choose to feel old. As my children begin going to school, and we move into yet another new phase in our family, I am looking forward to the challenges ahead.