Rear Facing Car Seats Until Age TWO?!?

Just some information I thought I'd pass along to all you Mothers out there. We had a class at church taught by a car seat safety professional from Phoenix Children's Hospital. She made us aware of the following information given by the American Academy of Pediatrics as of April 2009. As you can read in the "update" at the bottom of the article, it is not yet an official "recommendation". I'd rather Emma be cranky and frustrated than paralyzed or worse. Food for thought.

AAP Changing Rear-Facing Car Seat Recommendations?
Thursday April 2, 2009
Although the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and most other car seat safety advocates already recommend keeping baby rear-facing until he or she reaches the limits of the car seat, AAP may soon upgrade their minimum "1 year and 20 pounds" recommendation to two full years of rear-facing if possible. A recent AAP News release preps parents for the potential change, which is based on new research that shows toddlers are more than five times safer if they remain rear-facing until age two.

With rear-facing weight limits on convertible car seats up to 35 pounds, most toddlers should be able to stay rear-facing until at least age two. If the toddler is larger, the best option is to keep your little one rear-facing to the limits of the car seat. Rear-facing car seats are outgrown by the weight limit, or when there is less than an inch of shell above baby's head. A toddler's legs hanging over the car seat edge do not play into outgrowing the car seat at all.

Update: It appears that, though the new information about improved safety with extended rear-facing was made available in an AAP publication, and the information was directed at parents, the group is not updating their official recommendation right now. In an email to child passenger safety advocates, an AAP representative said, "A Parent Plus box in the April 2009 issue of AAP News appears to contain a revised AAP recommendation on how long babies and young children should ride rear-facing. However, Parent Plus boxes and AAP News articles do not constitute AAP policy." The email also says "AAP's recommendation has not changed at this time."

You can find the offical AAP press release here: http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/12-a

70 pounds of food LATER...

40 pounds of apples + 30 pounds of chicken =
22 pints of diced and cooked chicken breast
7 quarts of sliced apples ready for desserts
12 pints of applesauce
2 VERY sore feet from standing in the kitchen

No, I am not sponsored by "Kid to Kid" (children's consignment store)... but can I just tell you how much I LOVE THIS STORE?

Emma desperately needed some new summer clothes as the billion degree Arizona summer has hit us in FULL FORCE. Went to K2K and found all of these darling outfits and pajamas for $50. That includes the darling Fisher Price Farm pictured in the corner, which is now her VERY favorite toy of all time. I love ME a good deal, especially when they make my darling daughter look even darling-er. :)

Who needs toys for toddlers when your child prefers the INFANT stuff? Seriously child.

My daughter has become obsessed with shoes.

I mean truly obsessed.

She insists on putting them on FIRST thing in the morning, and when she sees another pair of her shoes lying around, she insists that I take off the current pair and replace them with her new find.

When she sees them on other people, she incessantly shouts, "shoe, shoe, shoe, shoe, shoe, shoe, etc..." until you show her that she too is wearing shoes.

I am a VERY practical shoe woman, with various GENERAL styles to match most outfits and I have been known to super glue my shoes together to help them last yet another season. Where did my daughter come up with this obsession?

In this picture she has tried her feet in Daddy's shoes.

Pretty big shoes to fill Emma. In more ways than one.

Welcome Home Elder Chucky!

On Tuesday, in the span of approximately 12 hours, my sister, my daughter and myself flew to LA and back to Phoenix. Why, you ask? My brother, Chuck, returned from his 2 year LDS church mission in Fiji and had a layover in LA. How could we possibly miss an opportunity to see him before the rest of the family? :)

We told him that Laura was coming, so that he knew to expect someone at the airport, but we kept Emma and I a surprise! Obviously, from the picture below Emma was just BUSTING with excitement and energy. :) This was actually the only sleep she got all day, and it was for a whopping 30 minutes. Poor little thing.
Chuck was such an excellent missionary in Fiji! We are so proud of him and his hard work. But...it is sure nice to have him home now!!

He got all of the married couples these really cool masks with our name scratched into the bottom. Maybe it can be Emma's Halloween costume this year? She seems to like it!

It took Emma a bit to warm up to Uncle Chucky, but within 10 minutes she was crawling and climbing all over him while screaming, "Kuck, Kuck, Kuck". She sure is lucky to have so many fun uncles to play with her!

We are not able to go to Kentucky for his homecoming, but seeing him in LA, even for a few short hours was SO GREAT!! We now look forward to seeing him again at our family reunion in June! YIPPY!! For those few family members out there... here is the video of Chuck coming off the plane.

Got Piano?

Arizona pals -

Want this hot mama/talented/great with kids sister of mine to teach your children piano?

Act NOW and your dream could come true!

My darling sister, Laura, will be teaching ARIZONA piano lessons for young children starting in the Fall. She has a minor in Music from BYU and has been playing herself for many, many years. In addition, she is a teacher of special ed children and is really great with kids.
Check out her piano lesson blog for more information: http://www.laurakrebspiano.blogspot.com/

She is seriously so great and is a wonderful teacher. If you want your children (or children you know) to participate, better schedule quick because she is sure to fill up FAST.

We're EXPECTING!!

We're expecting... a tighter budget now that Greg's salary has been cut by 8%. His law firm cut the salaries of ALL attorneys so that they could avoid additional lay offs. Greg and I are very grateful that we still have 92% of his salary and feel blessed that we have listened to wise counsel and live well within our means so this doesn't hurt too horribly.

We're expecting... that Mr. Scorpion here will not be sleeping in our bed again. He took FOUR bites out of Greg two nights ago, but I smashed and smeared him to pieces to show him who was really boss.

We're expecting... many more years of wedded bliss. We celebrated our 6th anniversary last weekend by taking a getaway trip to my grandparents cabin. Here is my handsome hubby showing you just how HAPPY he is. (Really a fun little camera trick... try it some time... shake your head furiously back and forth and have someone snap a pic of you. Hysterical results.)

We're expecting... that little Miss THANG will just keep getting cuter. Although, she is at quite an adorable stage right now. Here she is belly laughing about something silly, I'm sure.

We're expecting... to complete a TRIATHLON on Thanksgiving Day this year. Thanks to the amazing ladies pictured here (thanks Alyson, Dixie and Jenny!)... we have become inspired to train for a sprint triathlon in November in Goodyear, AZ (400m swim, 2 mile run, 12 mile bike). We have 6 months, so PLENTY of time to get ourselves in shape. My sister Laura is joining our group prep and ANY of you out there are welcome to join the fun! If you have any tips for us and our training, PLEASE pass them along. We need all the help we can get.

We're expecting... that you all had WONDERFUL Mother's Day, as we did. Here is Emma pictured with my Mom, who I am eternally indebted to. We are also so grateful for Greg's Mom and the love she shows us. Greg bought me a NEW camera for Mother's Day, as you will remember our latest was a casualty to Emma's sippy cup. It is AMAZING! And so is my husband!

We're expecting... that Emma will need to fall off the swing before she realizes that she can not let go and reach for us, mid-stride. No more baby swings for this one, she wants the BIG swings only. YIKES.

We're expecting... that our garden is going to turn into a JUNGLE soon. I think I may have gotten over zealous with my planting and we may run out of room very shortly. Squash anyone?

We're expecting... to get an apology note (and insurance information) ANY DAY now from the JERK who ran into my car at Costco yesterday and just drove away with no note or information. Seriously, who are these people and how can they sleep at night? We should send our scorpion friend over to their bed. :)

We're expecting... a wonderfully happy day in June where we can see Jeff (Greg's bro) and Michelle sealed for time and all eternity in the Mesa Arizona Temple. We just LOVE Michelle to pieces and feel so lucky to have her in our family!

WHAT?!? Why are you looking at me like that? What did YOU think we were expecting?