We have snow this weekend! Here are some pictures I shot and you can see more on Flickr. Wishing everyone a joyous time with their kiddos this weekend.

I want to give a shout out to the latest podcast from Whole Foods Market. It is all about supplements …various benefits and forms of supplements, things to know about regulation and explains a few terms that are often confusing. I applaud that the show really let us know that healthy diet is the KEY but that since there are 40 vitamins and minerals that are essential to life functions we may need some extra help. Diet first…supplements second.

Malia Curran talks about how you need to know the source company too and that you can’t trust the labels which I feel is excellent advice. It is only 6.5 minutes long so give it a listen…they always have informative podcasts. Perfect for a little health talk radio while you read your email!

And next month the topic is “Libido” for Valentine’s so you can look forward to learning about “Horny Goat Weed” and other zesty herbal approaches to passion building. Sounds like it could be a good one. :)

TGIF! Have an awesome weekend everyone!

As an update to my post about my youngest son and his speech issues I just wanted to mention that I am having him tested by a speech pathologist. I am just waiting on a time and place from them but I figure there is no harm in testing. If he has a problem then we will discuss recommendations at that time. So that will be a big relief for me to have that done.

Hopefully this weekend I will start planting the seeds for potty training. I am kind of lost when it comes to this since I didn’t potty train my other two kids actually. My mom did, although I can’t exactly recall the circumstances or the reason, LOL. I just know I had to do bupkiss to train them. I have asked her if she wants to make the third time the charm but she has declined to train “the one that can’t even talk”.

Okay on to interesting links:

My friend Cara at The Household Helper has a contest going on that I thought you all might like to know about. Her site is a treasure trove of info for running a frugal, organized home. And today she has added a FREE report that addresses Uses For Vinegar, Baking Soda and Salt: Tried & Tested Uses For Health and Home and contains 60 uses for each! So if you want to know how you can use these pantry items as more than just food check that out. She is also giving away two cleaning kits! Each kit contains three sponges, a couple rags, cleaning gloves, a spray bottle and a box of baking soda in a handy-dandy caddy. These tools will help you get started cleaning with the recipes in her free report.

If you are looking for a reason to get crafty this winter might I suggest crafting for a cause? Candace recently sent me a link to a project she did with her daughter and it is part of a bigger crafting project that will benefit a holocaust museum in Texas. 1,500,000 innocent children perished in the Holocaust. In an effort to remember them, Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies. The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition, currently scheduled for Spring 2012, for all to remember. So take a couple hours to craft some butterflies for a good cause. We will be. :)

Another link I loved recently was this tutorial for taking boring white burp cloths and embellishing them with quilt binding, ribbon, or Ric Rac. This same procedure could be used on prefold cloth diapers which is actually what was used for this project. So cute!

I am always on the lookout for good anti-vaccine info and I found this link really interesting. If you have ever wondered if vaccination may cause allergies like a peanut or egg allergy you may be on to something. It shows how certain vaccines are actually used to cause anaphylaxis (allergic reaction) in laboratory animals. The stuff we are giving to our babies is then a substance KNOWN to cause allergic reactions in animals. It is NUTS! This link was passed on to me by a mom had her child vaccinated only to have him become allergic to eggs immediately after.

And lastly I loved this article from Jennifer Lance about how a British study found that adults who choose vegetarianism had higher IQs as children, leading us to conclude that Smart Kids Become Vegetarian Adults.

Have a weekend all!

Here I go getting all controversial again. ;) I don’t think I have ever talked about this subject in depth before..other than to say I am opposed to circumcision. But this article about how Denmark is considering a ban on circumcision got my attention.

I have strong feelings on this issue. It is medically unnecessary and it is traumatic for baby boys so I don’t/won’t do it. Well, scratch that… actually I can’t say that I have always felt this way. Let’s just say that when I had my first boy over 11 years ago I did not feel one way or the other about circumcision. I based my decision then on the incredibly dumb idea that my son should look like his father or the other boys in the locker room. I now see it is like having my 7 year old daughter go through a nose job or the like so that she can fit in. The idea of a surgical “vanity” procedure on a baby now seems outrageous to me but I didn’t always think so. I didn’t “think” about it at all and that is a shame. And no this is not the same as a cleft palate surgery or a surgery to repair a heart defect…I am talking about a completely NORMAL, functioning body part.

Most all health arguments in favor of circumcision have been debunked. If there are any medical benefits they are tiny…like better hygiene or a the small chance that it may be harder for them to contract STDs. Both of these issues can be resolved with education from the parental units so no need to go cutting off our body parts for that silliness. I believe that the American Academy of Pediatrics now admits that circumcision is an unnecessary procedure. Many insurance companies are no longer covering this procedure either since the medical community has by and large declared it has no medical benefit.

Of course there is also the religious aspect but I find that bogus too. Not religion…just the argument that the pursuit of religious freedom should entail being able to mutilate a human being. Most people feel that female circumcision is heinous and wrong on all levels. There are many organizations that are fighting to stop this monstrous practice and they come up against the religion argument all the time. But I don’t think the religion of the people in Africa should give them a pass to take an eight year old girl and cut off her genitals. Do you? Well, it doesn’t make a difference if it is a boy or a girl. It is cutting off a portion of a very sensitive, sexual organ without any consideration of the child’s wishes and many times without any consideration for pain. Yes, male circumcision is often done without ANY pain medication.

Last year I watched a video at COSI of a circumcision and if you have never seen one actually performed… let me tell you it is one of the most disgusting things I ever saw. I think all parents should be made to sit and watch it if they are considering this procedure. I wish I had seen it 11 years ago.

I won’t even go into the argument that one looks better than the other. It goes back to my nose job argument. Is cutting into your baby so they can meet your standards of beauty acceptable?

On the other hand, foreskin does have a purpose.

The foreskin has three known functions: protective, sensory, and sexual.

During infancy, the foreskin is attached to the glans and protects it from urine, feces, and abrasions from diapers. Throughout life, the foreskin keeps the glans soft and moist and protects it from trauma and injury. Without this protection, the glans becomes dry, calloused, and desensitized from exposure and chafing.

Ultimately I think circumcision is a personal choice that the individual who OWNS that body part should have a say in. They should get to decide if “looks” or the risk of STDs or religious standards, are worth that sacrifice. Here is to keeping our boys in tact and letting them decide. They are worth it.

You may also want to read: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision: Untold Facts on America’s Most Widely Performed-and Most Unnecessary-Surgery

Also Natural Family Living: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Parenting has a chapter on this subject and why natural, attached parents are saying NO.

I have been concerned for awhile now about my youngest son having speech delay issues. For many months I just decided to play the wait and see game. Then at 30ish months old I did talk to his pediatrician about it but he ended being no help at all. He was in fact waiting until the end of the visit to spring it on me that he was dropping us as patients because we are a non-vaccinating family. I lost a lot of trust in the medical community at that point and I didn’t have much to begin with. Since my kids rarely get sick I thought I would wait until we relocated to the city to find another pediatrician but then I stumbled across an old article online that made me sit up can take notice. This part in particular caught my attention:

2 to 2 1/2 years		Vocabulary of 400 words, including names; two- to three-word phrases; use of pronouns; diminishing echolalia; 75% of speech understood by strangers
2 1/2 to 3 years		Use of plurals and past tense; knows age and sex; counts three objects correctly; three to five words per sentence; 80% to 90% of speech understood by strangers

Uh say what? My son will turn 3 in just a few days and he knows: mom, okay, apple, cookie, chocolate, night, shoe, cup, eye, nose, hair, ear, teeth, drink, eaten, dog, cat, and a half dozen other small words. I have heard a sentence maybe 4-5 times total so far. NO WHERE near 400 words. Do they put this stuff out there to scare the crap out of parents? He also has a habit of adding an “en” after words like night-en, or eat-en, or dog-en.

Even though his speech is limited his comprehension is awesome. I talk to him like I talk to an adult and he understands everything and will follow directions. He just doesn’t communicate and it is getting frustrating that he cannot tell me what he wants or needs most times. This is going to make potty training VERY interesting.

Anyway, I need to decide if I should in fact take him to see a speech pathologist. I wonder if I can just go straight to them and not get a referral. I don’t want to set us up with another ignorant, small town doctor like the last one. But honestly even if they tell us he needs speech therapy I cannot see him sitting for any length of time for a therapy session. And another wrinkle is that our inurance will not cover any type of speech therapy…nice.

So does anyone have experience with this? I have had some moms tell me to get it done ASAP and then others tell me that they went that route and regretted it when their perfectly normal children ended up getting labeled as developmentally delayed. What do you think?