We're getting there!

I was pretty convinced Koda would be going to college in diapers. He just had no interest in the potty. He had had a potty since he turned two. For over a year it collected dust, occasionally used as a seat to watch a show.

We started making a TINY bit of progress about a month and a half ago. I would say maybe 20% of the time he would use the potty, but only if we asked (read that to say bribed).

This week it is just clicking with him. It isn't perfect at all, and he would rather be in a pullup and not think about it, but if we leave him in big boy undies he will go and today he kept going without being asked and without expecting any sort of prize.

Now for pottying in the potty....well, we'll just celebrate the success we've had and have faith that in good time he will master that too.

I can't wait to cross pull ups off my grocery list!!

Seeing Red (Red Dye 40 that is)

A mommy on a message board posted a topic a while ago about red dye 40 and how she found her son acted hyper once he ate something that contained the dye.

Curiously, I started doing some digging. Did you know they don't even allow it in Europe anymore?

Anecdotal evidence (meaning lots of moms) find that by eliminating the dye, behavior dramatically improves. It is thought that some children have a sensitivity to the dye, which can trigger hyperactivity, outbursts, tantrums, dizziness, upset stomach, difficulty in attention span, etc. Some are saying kids are being misdiagnosed with ADHD who may simply be overly sensitive to Red Dye 40.

Upon doing some reading, I thought "well, we'll just stop eating anything with red 40 in it". Do me a favor and look through your pantry sometime. SOOOO much stuff has red 40 in it. In two minutes I found the items in the picture below. Two minutes! What makes me angry are the medications, flinstone vitamins, the pedialyte... heck even pudding? Geesh. And Koda spent pretty much a whole year refusing to eat anything but cereal bars. Any guesses about just what those contain? Red Dye 40? In the verbage of that wise one Sarah Palin... "You betchya!"

Koda is 3, meaning we deal with A LOT of tantrums. I try not to assume that it is food, or this, or that. However, if there is even a chance that it could affect him, on something that isn't even NEEDED in his diet, why on earth would I choose to give it to him? Did you know yellow 5 is derived from coal tar?? Come on! What are these food companies thinking?

I think Travis might be a little slower to join me on my latest granola/tree hugging/natural-wannabe crusade to eliminate this dye from the kids diets, but we are at the very least much more conscious and hopefully moving towards a red dye free lifestyle.

For more information (keep in mind this is all pretty anecdotal right now, but I will take the word of a boat load of mommies anyday over our underfunded, understaffed, and perhaps corrupt FDA !) check out these links:

Probably the best article I found was in Medical News today about a watchdog group asking the FDA to ban Red 40 and other artificial dyes. It gives some good history and a good general overview of the concerns.

This is a VERY general overview

This post talks about one mom's journey in figuring out that red dye 40 was the culprit for her son. Very dedicated!

Dr. Spock's site is a little more neutral on the subject.

A decent piece from the LA Times that talks a little more about Eurpose banning the dyes.

Freaked out by the economy

No cute story today. I'm watching the DOW from my work desktop and can't help but be a little freaked out with all that has happened and continues to happen in the economy.

I don't even care who broke it anymore.

I was watching Saturday Night Live on Thursday last night, and the comic economist had it right on.

"FIX IT...FIX IT....FIX IT!!!!!!!!"

Yes, please.

Voted Early Today!!

*Caution...this post contains political opinion. Continue at your own risk ;) Today is early voting on campus. Early Voting has been going on for a while at the town office, but today the town office came to campus. I sit on a non-partisan committee for the university to try and get out the vote. The town hopes to get 200 people through today. I hope they are successful.

It was really important to me that I bring Koda with me, even though I knew it would be a whole lot more work. Forunately, I don't go to work until 1pm on Thursdays, so after breakfast and a daily dose of Little Einsteins, we bundled up for the walk over to the Union, packed some snacks, toys, and in a momentary act of brialliance, Travis's cellphone that has a Backyardigans episode uploaded to it.

The process itself was really painless. The line was shorter than I expected. We got there about 15 minutes before they opened. Keep in mind I am registered in a ward that is pretty much 99.9% college students. I stood out a little with my double stroller, bottles, cheerios, and a now singing/shrieking cell phone "we're back yard friends...the backyardigans...". For the first time in my voting life, I felt a lump in my throat. I'm an admitted political junky through and through, but for the first time my vote wasn't about me. It was about the drooly kids sitting in the stroller who were currently dropping cookie crumbs all over the hall.

Earlier this morning I was trying to explain to Koda what were going to do today, and why it was important. I interupted his third round of "Kwinkle Kwinkle wittle star" sung/yelled from the top of the slide to tell him today we were voting for the president of the United States.

Koda: Pwesent?
Me: No honey, we are voting for President. Mommy is voting for President and is voting for Obama.
Koda: We go get a Pwesent Obama?

I just laughed and we continued on our morning. A few hour laters I thought how smart my little democrat is. Why yes Koda, today I got to vote for Senator Obama, and that is, in my belief, a huge gift to our country. What a great "pwesent" Obama will be.

Fall in Maine

Fall is my absolute favorite season. I love the crisp mornings, and pulling out the sweatshirts and sweaters for another season. Here are a few shots from a couple weekends ago at Grampy Allen's. Happy Wednesday :)

What I Do For A Living

People are usually beyond shocked when I tell them I still live on campus. The initial panicked look is "dang, it is taking you 12 years to finish your degree?!" Nope. I got my degree in the now atypical four year span back in 1996-2000. I went on to get my Masters in Highed Education. In what? Higher Education. Basically, the study of college students, university settings, leadership, etc. Seriously, it is a degree, and an amazing one at that. After my masters I went on to work at Hiram College in Ohio. Never heard of it you say? That is what makes it great. TINY village, two stoplights, and one convenience store. It was wonderful. We continued to live on campus there while I began my career, a career I continue today.

So what is an average day as a community coordinator? That is what I love. There are no average days. Last night I had meetings with two different students, I ran a staff meeting, and watched the Red Sox. The Red Sox was a legit part of my job. Us New Englanders can get silly at a big win, like with bonfires. (Un)Fortunately, they lost, so with a cuss all my student went to sleep, as did I. Today, I had only one student meeting. I did gobs of administrative paperwork, but ended my day with arts and crafts. I made a whole bunch of banners for upcoming programs with paint markers. I even pretended to be a marketing expert and put my (lacking) computer skills to the test with media design.

What else? Well, tonight I will type up interview questions for a meeting tomorrow. Next week I need to run to the store to buy 25+ pumpkins for the students to carve. On the 30th I will be dressing up like Tigger and handing out candy to the students rooms.

Some days, my job is hard. The day, two years ago, that I had to tell a group of friends their friend was killed by an 11 time drunk driver. Or, the days I need to tell someone that I think they are a remarkable person, but that the choices they are making mean they can't keep being a college student right now. Or the parent, who in all good intentions, intervenes on behalf of their 21 year old and never lets that 21 year old develop their own conflict mediation skills. Or the days that my students are really upset about something, and I just can't make it better.

Foruntately, even on those days there is a program to plan, a banner to paint, or a costume to wear. I can't really tell you what I do for a living, I just hope that I make my students experiences just a little bit better everyday in mostly ways they will never know. Now, where did I put those paint markers...

Money Is Like Coffee, Just Another Sunday

Our family has been attending a church in town since last Spring. Well, maybe not so much in the summer, but we are back in routine.

Travis and I fight over very little. Actually, I can count the number of true arguments we have had. Two. One on our honeymoon about where we were going to eat. It was ridiculous, and attributable to too much sun and very low blood sugar on both our parts. The second was over timeliness. Travis and I will look at the same clock and I will see five minutes until we are late, and he sees 5 minutes to spare. We are just apples and oranges.

So, after rushing out the door this morning, hair still wet, dropping the kids off in the nursery, we just make it in the pew. Or, if you ask Travis, we timed it just right so we were seated just as the opening prayer begun. It takes me about half the service to come down off my timliness gumpiness, right around the time for our minster's sermon. Today it was timely, and a good reminder for us all. The gospel was about money as is mentioned in over 800 places in the bible. Her point, it is just money. It comes, and it goes. As she put it...

"Every morning a man goes to get his coffee and immidiately walks to the bathroom to dump it in the toilet stating "There, I'm not the middle man"." Oddest thing you'll ever hear in church, and yet spot on. It will come and it will go. It is the REST of what is here that matters.

Maybe I will go apologize to Travis for being a bit snappy when we were late this morning. Right in time perhaps for him to comment how great it was that we were there right on time today.

Happy Sunday!

Reading Books With Koda

This week I had a moment most moms can relate to. I walked in to find my three year old Koda had emptied an entire bottle of Elmer's Glue on three carpets. With a proud grin he handed me the now empty bottle. One look at my face and he must have realized it wasn't quite the accomplishment he wanted and he ran to his room to get away.

After prying the glue cap out of my one year olds mouth, I spent the next 40 minutes scrubbing carpets imagining the bill from the univerisity if I didn't get it out. Thinking grumpy thoughts I counted the minutes until Travis got home and let him read the boys their night time story while I walked into our bedroom, crossing a now crunchy carpet, reminding myself that 4 can't be to far way.

The following day Koda asked for me to read to him his goodnight story. He is recently obsessed with a terrible story about a Jester that has lost his Jingle. I find myself skipping sentences, paragraphs, when he doesn't notice even pages, to get through the awful tale. Koda starts out in bed listening to the story. He moves to the edge of the bed. Soon, he scoots off the bed to sit by my side, and before I know it, Koda is leaning against me- head on my shoulder, listening to the twisted tale of the Jester. He reaches out his hand to put on top of mine and when I finish he looks up with a toothpaste dribbled face and says "I wuv you mommy".

With that I've turned the page from the many glue incidents and remind myself that my 3 year old will only be 3 for so long, and soon enough he will think the Jester book is as bad as I do. Next time, I think I'll read the full book while he still lets me.