One toddler's trash...

... is our families "treasure." This morning we were getting ready to head out to Cincinnati and Dayton when we realized that our GPS was missing. We had used it on Wednesday, and I was almost 100% positive I had put it in the diaper bag. We searched the car, the closet, and the entire house. I called where we had been the last few days. Mike and I were beginning to think that it was gone forever when I remembered something that had happened a few days ago.

I was making dinner when Avery came into the kitchen, went to our recycling can, opened the lid and stuck her hand in. I thought she was trying to get something out of it. I told her no, it was trash and closed the lid. A few minutes later, she was back, doing the same thing. This time however, there was more urgency to her digging. I opened the lid, and pulled out a bracelet of mine that had been in the diaper bag. I told her not to throw things away, and didn't think more of it.

So we decided to do a little digging. Mike pulled out the recycling (which is the bigger trash can in our house) and started digging around. Sure enough, he pulled out the GPS and our camera case. We laughed, but only because we had found it. Now I'm wondering what else Avery has thrown away. I guess it must not be too important if we didn't notice.

I suppose we'll have to do a quick search in the recycling now before we take it out. Avery is officially a toddler.

State of the Waters

I guess it's time for a new post.

I have lots of pictures to post, but that will have to wait. Last night, for the first time in her entire life, Avery slept through the entire night. That's right, from the time she went down at 7:15 until she woke up at 6:45.

However, poor Bailey was up half the night throwing up. She woke up early and threw up again. Yeah. Luckily, Mike is still on vacation, and did clean-up duty. I cannot clean up throw up. I think I have thrown up so many times that my stomach is super super super sensitive and the slightest smell would send me to the toilet.

Maybe someday I'll get an uninterrupted night's sleep...

Crib recalls and tainted milk

Today, two news stories caught my attention. One was the big crib recall, and the other was how China executed two men in connection with the melamine tainted milk. First, I checked and double checked our crib to make sure it had not been recalled. Thankfully, it is supposedly safe. Then, I really started thinking about the endless safety issues that parents face.

I admit, I never really thought about the crib my baby sleeps in as a potentially dangerous place. A classmate of Mike's had a baby suffocate in a crib because of a space between the crib and the railing. (This separation is why many cribs are recalled). How can I feel safe putting my baby to bed? Even though it is deemed "safe" now, in six months someone's precious baby may die and the crib will be recalled.

Along the same lines, I found the story from China interesting. At first, I was really surprised. Execution? For a mistake that might have been out of their control? As I kept reading, I learned that a company put melamine in the milk on purpose to boost it's protein content. Six babies died, and countless others were made ill. I think that if indeed they did that on purpose, their execution is just.

So, what do we do about companies the keep producing fatal baby products like cribs? Is it an innocent accident? Or did they not do enough testing on their cribs to make sure they are safe? How can we know? I'm sure that they didn't purposely make bad cribs, but they might have rushed planning them. Are they accountable?

Needless to say, this makes me an even bigger worrier. I feel like I can't buy cribs, toys, formula, bottles or anything without doing my research. Even then, it's not guaranteed.

I am realizing that there are a million things that are out of my control. I can buy the BPA free bottles and toys, but I can't protect them from some other toxin yet to be discovered in the plastic. I can't worry about the things that are out of my control, even though I'm tempted too. I would go crazy. I can only make the best choice I can with the knowledge that is there. I can make my voice heard that I want safe, non-toxic products for my children and my family. And I can hope that cooperations will make that their top priority.

Happy Birthday to me!

This year, as a birthday present to myself, I ran my first half marathon. I trained for about six weeks with my friends, Fran and Sherrida. I don't think I could have done it by myself- running for 2+ hours gets boring with just music for company. We ran the Monumental Half-Marathon in Indianapolis, meeting up with a friend who moved from our ward last year.

Here we are, getting ready for the race. I had butterflies in my stomach!

And we're off. By that, I mean we walked to the start line. I was amazed at how many people were there- over 6,000. Here are the good little babies, patiently, or not so patiently, waiting.

Our husbands were such troopers. We had to get up at 4:15 am to drive there. Then they had to take care of tired, and maybe bored kids for two and half hours. Luckily, Bailey had a friend, Savannah, to keep her entertained. In this picture they are playing on a monument in the middle of Indianapolis which we ran around.

Here's us, after the race. I almost finished in my goal time, just two minutes over. Mike did get a picture of me as I crossed the finish line on his phone, but I couldn't figure out how to get in on the computer. Oh well.

A few miles before the end, the chip fell off the shoe. I carried it across the finish line, but it didn't read it. So, sadly, I don't have an officially chip time.

It felt good to set a goal, work towards it, and accomplish it. Now I am working to run another half marathon in May, with a much faster finish time.

Here's what everyone else is up to:

• Mike applied to 49 orthopedic surgery programs. So far, he has five interviews scheduled, and has had about 5 rejections. He's starting to get really nervous, since he thought he'd have more interviews by now. We are praying really hard and are hoping the interviews start rolling it. Only half of the people who have had five interviews have matched in the past. Not a good number...
• Avery is finally walking. She definitely is not as daring as her sister. She hates falling, and cries about the tiniest things.
• Bailey is getting so grown up. Her big thing right now is knock-knock jokes. All day long, everywhere we go, all the time. The first knock-knock joke I told was "orange you glad you're not a banana," and now all of her jokes are "something, aren't you glad you're not something else." They are usually somehow related, like the light post outside and the car sitting next to it. Bailey has told so many, and demanded so many, that even Avery knows how to say, "Who's there?"

Halloween 2009

This year we got all halloweened out. We went to a Halloween party, trunk or treat, trick or treating and boo and the zoo. Bailey also got to wear her costume to preschool. I finally put all the candy up (saving it for stockings) after Bailey decided that she didn't like any fruit or vegetable.

Bailey was a "good" witch for Halloween, and Avery was her black cat. She came up with that idea all by herself. They were a cute pair.

Can you guess what Mike and I were??

In case you can't tell, we were Bella and Edward, from "Twilight." I think we went a little overboard with the white make-up on Mike, but he was very glittery. I watched youtube videos on how Bella does her hair and make-up in the movie. I think it's funny that people are that obsessed with her.

Looking at our pictures, I realize that I didn't get any of just Bailey in her costume. We kept thinking we still had so many opportunities to get pictures, and then we never did. I tried to get her to put on her costume now so I could get pictures, but she wasn't interested. Oh well.

Here is a picture of our Halloween family:

Circle S Farms 2009

Still catching up...

I guess there's not a whole lot to say about Circle S Farms. This was our third and last year visiting there. We had a great time. Bailey decided that it was more fun to play with her friends than stay around boring old mom and dad.

Avery thought it was fun to make "hay angels."

Apple Orchard with Grandma

We had such a fun time at the orchard, we took Mike's mom, Windy, when she came out to visit us. There were only a few days left of apple picking, but we still made a haul. In fact, we still have a ton of apples. Any good apple recipes??

Bailey and Avery were apple picking pros. Avery could hardly see an apple and not pick it. She was in apple picking heaven.

Instead of a sand box, they had a corn box. I guess it's a good thing Avery doesn't like food when it comes to playing in a corn box...

We got a few cute shots of the girls in the miniature hay maze. They both loved this little "peek a boo" hole.

Afterwards, Windy made a delicious and giant apple pie with the girls. What could be better then an apple pie made with just picked apples?