Friday, July 29, 2011

Renaming my Baby...

Pumpkin, soon to be known as "Chompy," has learned a new word since yesterday:  "Naughty!"You may remember my post on pinching. Well... he's not really pinching that much anymore.  It's worse.

We had a friend over yesterday whose son got bitten twice by "Chompy."  I don't know what to do with this boy.   I wouldn't have blamed my friend if she grabbed her little boy and ran out of my house but she was amazingly cool about it. 

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Hot Cars + Children = Very bad things!

It's  hot as, well, you know where today. When I went out to my car I was reminded of just HOW hot it was. It also reminded me of  one particular summer day last year when I came out of the local Babies R Us with my little Honeybee. It was actually 103 degrees (which is not a typical summer day here in the New England.)  So I had turned on the car and was blasting the air conditioner to cool the car down a bit before we got it.  After loading Honeybee into her car seat I turned around and noticed there was a child in the back seat of the car next to us.  I knew he hadn't been there long as the other passengers had left the car as I was getting to mine, but it doesn't take long for a car to heat up in the summer sun.

According to Jan Null, CCM from the Department of Geosciences, SFSU there are on average 38 deaths per year due to children being left or trapped inside hot cars. While this seems like a small number this is a very avoidable death. According to this study, within 10 minutes the temperature in the car rose almost 20 degrees, and by 60 minutes the temperature rose 43 degrees.  "Cracking" the windows had little effect. Add that to a 90 degree day...not a good scenario.


In many cases these deaths have occurred not because of negligent parenting but by sheer accident. As families get busier and busier, we need to remember to take a minute to make sure that our precious children are not left in the car when we leave it.  There are many ways to remind ourselves  such as putting a toy in the front seat to remind us when a child is in the car. There are window stickers you can get to remind you too. 


Here are some safety recommendations courtesy of Null's Study
  • NEVER LEAVE A CHILD UNATTENDED IN A VEHICLE.  NOT EVEN FOR A MINUTE !
  • IF YOU SEE A CHILD UNATTENDED IN A HOT VEHICLE CALL 9-1-1.
  • Be sure that all occupants leave the vehicle when unloading. Don't overlook sleeping babies.
  • Always lock your car and ensure children do not have access to keys or remote entry devices.  IF A CHILD IS MISSING, ALWAYS CHECK THE POOL FIRST, AND THEN THE CAR, INCLUDING THE TRUNK. Teach your children that vehicles are never to be used as a play area. 
  • Keep a stuffed animal in the carseat and when the child is put in the seat place the animal in the front with the driver.
  • Or place your purse or briefcase in the back seat as a reminder that you have your child in the car.
  • Make "look before you leave" a routine whenever you get out of the car.
  • Have a plan that your childcare provider will call you if your child does not show up for school.

Bottom line. NEVER leave your child in the car even for a moment as it only takes minutes for a tragedy to occur


ps: in case you were wondering how my story ends: After trying all the doors on the car (which were locked)I ended up unpacking honeybee from the car and going back into the store and reporting this to the woman at the customer service desk. They called 911 and were able to quickly locate the parents so tragedy in this case was averted.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Baby Hugo Naturals Diaper Cream

photo courtesy of   http://www.hugonaturals.com/
My older son got diaper rash probably 2 times in his all of the 2 years and 10 months he was in diapers.  Pumpkin, on the other hand, went through a phase where he just kept getting diaper rash regardless of what I tried.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July!!


To those of you Celebrating today- Have a wonderful Independance Day!  I plan to spend it with my Family and  one of my bestest of friends that is visiting from Canada this month.  Shut the computer down today and go outside and enjoy!