"I didn't ride in a car seat, and I turned out fine."

"I didn't ride in a car seat, and I turned out fine." What an infuriating response to the topic of car seat safety for kids. It occurs to me that the children who didn't ride in car seats and DIDN'T turn out fine may not be here today to make such remarks. It's very sad to say, but it's true. The resistance to car seat safety is something I have never been able to understand. Our children grow up so quickly and move on to so many new things. Before we know it they're off doing their own thing with their own people. Sometimes we have frighteningly little control over their safety in the world. One simple thing we can do as parents, though, is provide a safe, modern, expert-approved car seat that will hold them in the safest possible way in the case of an accident. Of course an accident could happen and they could be fine in the wrong sized seat, or in no seat at all, but is that something you want to take a gamble with or is that something you want to take every precaution with? Personally, I'm not taking any chances with my children's lives. Bug is comfortably riding in a five point harness at the age of 5 1/2 years, and BooBoo is rear-facing at 22 months. They both know that they're riding in the safest way for their size.

The staying power of New Years Non-Resolutions.

It's been several years since I've made a genuine, publicly announced New Years resolution. This year I broke from that and made a resolution to send hand-written cards to people I love, and I'm sad to report that it's now January 17 and I have yet to mail one out. I actually regret making it an "official" resolution, and I'm going to excuse myself from it and downgrade it to my list of Non-Resolutions.

Happy Birth Day to my life-long best friend.

Today is the day that my best friend since 10 years old became a mom. I've spent all day checking Facebook for the latest pictures of her and her brand new baby girl. She is absolutely gorgeous and she looks just like her beautiful Mama, and even though I'm 3,000 miles away I'm already completely in love with her.

My perfect birth song.

Before my home birth with BooBoo I spent a lot of time putting together a playlist of all different kinds of music on my iPod, so I could listen to anything that I felt like and zone out into my headphones while laboring. It turned out that there was only one song I actually wanted to listen to.

Pregnancy care is all wrong.

We're doing it wrong when it comes to prenatal care. I've never understood why, at the very beginning of the pregnancy when there is so much opportunity for learning and preparation for growth (literally AND figuratively!) prenatal appointments are often skipped entirely during the first trimester, once a month at best during the second trimester, and once a week or even more often in the final few weeks. To me, this is completely backwards from how it ought to work. If I were in charge of pregnancy "policy" for our country (oh, what a different prenatal and birthing environment we'd have...) I'd have the highest frequency of appointments at the beginning of the pregnancy, and then leave the huge, tired pregnant lady alone to prepare for her labor in the third trimester, unless she specifically requests more appointments or there is a problem that requires monitoring.

Forget about "that time of the month."

I'm trying out this new self-respect and self-love thing, and finding (the more I learn about my body) that this self-love even extends to my monthly cycle. This sounds crazy, especially to anyone with an irregular or difficult period, I'm sure. But have you ever considered how much our emotions are tied in with our hormones, which are (obviously)  involved in our monthly cycles? Many of us are aware of our tendency to become, how you say, "psychotic" or "a basket case" or "a raging bitch" during our periods, but what about the rest of the month?

Yoga time.

The Man has been really wonderful lately and has been taking BooBoo to the playground to burn off some energy every morning after he drops Bug off at school. (He's been working closing shifts at work, so he doesn't have to go in until 10:30.) I've had my necessary amount of coffee, now I'm going to pour myself a nice glass of water, put on a bra, and turn on the TV. Never in a million years did I think I'd love our Wii Fit so much when we decided to buy our Wii. The yoga especially is really helpful for my lower back, which has really been bothering me lately.

Do you do yoga? Any other kind of workout? Do you take a class, use a video, a Wii or Kinect, or maybe an exercise machine? What is your absolute favorite way to work out?

Why don't I drink more water?

My gut tells me that most of the problems I deal with, physically have to do with not being well hydrated. I'm a healthy and active person, and I feel good (most of the time) but when I don't drink enough water I feel tired, get a dull headache, dry skin, sore joints. When I'm conscious about increasing my water intake I feel better almost immediately, so you would think I'd train myself to simply drink more water more often.

3500 mile drive in pictures.

The night before the Yard Sale To End All Yard Sales.  

The trailer! Next step: Fill it with everything we have left.

Looks good, but I think we can still squeeze a few things in.

"I WAS JUST WHISPERING THIS QUIETLY."

There's nothing like thinking I've gotten off easy with a quick bedtime for the kids, when I quietly slide off the bed where BooBoo is sleeping quietly, and...

CRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCH!! goes the giant paper bag that has mysteriously moved all the way from the living room to the floor right next to BooBoo's bed. It just gets worse - everywhere I step to get away from it, it's still there. I step backwards and catch myself abruptly with a quick jolt of my lower back as my foot finds the stray chess piece, the single piece that didn't make it back into the box. How does a bedroom that's actually pretty clean and tidy develop such a disaster zone at the foot of the very bed I need to sneak out of most quietly? The whole time I'm crashing and crunching around on this darn paper bag I'm vaguely aware of Bug's dramatic stage whisper, although of course I can't understand a word he's saying.

The power of placentas and menstruation.

I just had an interesting conversation with some good friends about placentas, and whether or not it is weird to make "placenta art" in the shapes of hearts, call them "lovely" and "beautiful" and make other such emotional connections with this organ. It's funny that this is the conversation that happened when I was stewing over a post about how my menstrual cycle makes me feel like Super Woman.

Reflection.

It's a new year, time for new beginnings and fresh starts. Here's to a new adventure. <3