While I was pregnant, my good friend Heather sent me an interesting book called “Diaper Free“, which explains the philosophy of natural infant hygiene, which is essentially beginning potty training from birth. Before my daughter was even born, I bought her a potty and planned on starting potty training my wonderful bundle of joy shortly after she was born…Unfortunately things don’t usually go as planned when you have children and poor Sydney was SO colicky for the first 4 months that I was not about to sit her on a potty and try and teach her anything while she cried her little eyes out.

When Sydney was around 5 1/2 months, I started my own form of potty training. The diaper free philosophy is pretty simple: Whenever your baby is pooping or peeping, use a word or sound that they will eventually associate with doing their business. After a while, when you say the magic word (or sound) they will pee and/or poop on command. For example, ever since Sydney was born, whenever I noticed that she was pooping, I would say “Poopoo”. Now, whenever I take off her diaper for a diaper change, I sit her on her little potty and ask her: “Do you have to go poopoo or peepee?”. I’ll say it a couple of times and if nothing happens after a minute or two, I’ll put her back on the changing table and put a new diaper on her.

Well, guess what happened today?! I put Sydney on her potty, asked the magic question (“Do you have to go poopoo or peepee?”) and she pooped in her potty! Syndey is 7.5 months old. It will be interesting to see if this is a case of impeccable timing, or if she is starting to understand the concept of using the potty. My main goal is to just get her used to sitting on a potty, rather then to just spring it on her when she is 2, but hey, if this leads to early potty training, I’m all for it!

Update (2/26): It wasn’t a fluke! Sydney pooped and peed in her potty again today, immediately after I sat her on it and said the magic words. Cool!

I (used to) love Wired magazine. It is normally filled with excellent, intelligent and interesting articles, but after receiving their November 2009 issue, with the cute baby on the cover with “FEAR” written across it’s body, with the tag line: “Vaccines don’t cause autism. But some panicked parents are skipping their baby’s shots. Why that bad decision endangers us all.”

Since I’ve recently had a baby and had to deal with the serious influence of what EVERYONE else thinks that I should have injected into my baby, I immediately flipped to the Wired vaccine article, expecting to read something important and interesting. Instead I wasted my time reading a bunch of crap about a single man (Paul Offit) that is the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine (so he is a man that has made multi-millions off of it) and how he does not think that vaccines cause autism. Well that’s nice. OH, the guy that made the vaccine and has made millions (billions?) of dollars off of it says that he thinks it is safe for your child. Well, okay. End of story! Off to the vaccination clinic for me!!!

A quote from the Wired vaccine article:

“(counterintuitively, higher rates of non-vaccination often correspond with higher levels of education and wealth)”

“Counterintuitively”?! Oh really? Yeah, well there is a reason why people that choose to educate themselves and actually do a little research are choosing not to vaccinate their children.

I could spend days ranting about vaccines, quoting articles and explaining why I have chosen not to vaccinate my baby, but how about this: Let’s just stick to the facts for now.

Let’s start with the most commonly talked about and most common childhood vaccine. The MMR vaccine. This vaccine is to immunize your child against measles, mumps and rubella (german measles).

The Measles – What happens if you get the measles: You’ll have a rash, fever, red eyes, sore joints. What you should do if you get the measles: Nothing. Most patients with uncomplicated measles will recover with rest and supportive treatment. Cases of measles in the USA in 2009: 70.

The Mumps: What happens if you get the mumps: You’ll have swelling, fever, headache. Could possibly have dry mouth, sore face, temporary loss of voice and/or inflammation of the testicles (in males past puberty). What you should do if you get the measles: Nothing. The disease is self-limiting (the condition would run its course without the need of external influence, especially any medical treatment), and general outcome is good, even if other organs are involved. Cases of mumps in the USA in 2009: 179.

Rubella: What happens if you get rubella: You’ll have a rash, fever, headache, swollen glands and red eyes. What you should do if you get rubella: Nothing. The disease is self-limiting (the condition would run its course without the need of external influence, especially any medical treatment). Rubella infection of children and adults is usually mild, self-limiting and often asymptomatic. Cases of rubella in the USA in 2009: 11.

Okay, so let’s weigh the risk of your child getting the measles, mumps or rubella versus the risk of getting the MMR vaccine. The chances of getting the measles, mumps or rubella is very very very slim. If your child did end up getting one of these diseases, 99% of the time these illnesses require no medical care, as they are self-limiting (the condition would run its course without the need of external influence, especially any medical treatment) and there are no long term effects. So in trying to prevent a child from getting a disease that he/she will most likely not contract and that is easily curable and requires no medical intervention, we are injecting them with a vaccine that admittedly could cause the following:

- Fever
- Panniculitis (tender skin nodules and systemic signs such as weight loss and fatigue)
- Atypical measles
- Malaise (a feeling of general discomfort or uneasiness)
- Syncope (loss of consciousness)
- Vasculitis (a heterogeneous group of disorders that are characterized by inflammatory destruction of blood vessels)
- Irritability
- Dizziness
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Mild rash
- Swelling
- Seizure
- Pain & stiffness in the joints
- Temporary low platelet count, which can cause a bleeding disorder
- Serious allergic reaction
- Deafness
- Long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness
- Permanent brain damage

Shall I go on? Because there are many more possible side effects of the MMR vaccine. Don’t believe it? Read the insert to the MMR vaccine insert from Merck.

In attempting to prevent your child from the slim to no risk of contacting a mild disease that just simply goes away without treatment, you are injecting them with something that ADMITTEDLY can cause serious debilitating and life threatening side effects. Why? Because Merck (the drug company that makes this vaccine) makes BILLIONS of dollars a year selling it to you. And they spend millions of dollars marketing these drugs/vaccines to you, to make you think that you need them. I can almost guarantee that you have seen a Merck advertisement and you probably had no idea it was an advertisement rather then some important medical announcement. Amazing.

So, okay, the drug companies won’t admit that vaccines can cause autism. But they do admit that they can cause brain damage (I don’t really see the big difference). I really wish people would educate themselves about any drug or vaccine that they give their child (or themselves for that matter) before doing so. Injecting your baby with all of these “recommended” vaccines without researching the possible side effects and weighing the risks is foolish, in my opinion. And if you are so frightened about the possibility that your child could get the measles that you are willing to risk giving them brain damage, then by all means, be my guest.

Nadya Suleman (if you havn’t heard about her already…) is a California women that recently gave birth to octuplets. She has been deemed “The Octumom” by the media and she conceived her 8 most recent children via invitro fertilization despite the fact that she is single, on welfare and ALREADY HAD 6 YOUNG CHILDREN.

There is no way that this women is sane, yet a doctor decided it was in her best interest (ie: he got paid) to have more children?

Nadya then had her PR people (people on welfare have PR people. I love California!) announce the birth of octuplets to the media, then kept her identity hidden while she phished for $2million from the media for her exclusive 1st interview. She didn’t get $2million, but she did have her exclusive interview with Ann Curry on “The Today Show”

Making matters worse, everything that comes out of this womens mouth is a lie! She claimed she was not on public assistance (she collects food stamps and disability for three of her older children that have ADD and autism), she claims that she receives aid from her church (when contacted by the media, the church had no knowledge of Nadya attending their fellowship, let alone receiving “aid”), she denied ever having plastic surgery (yeah, right, here are the before and after pictures), she denied having an interest in Angelina Jolie (it’s since been discovered that Nadya sent Angelina Jolie letters for over a year), etc. Nadya’s real name isn’t even Nadya! It’s Natalie!

Essentially, it appears that Nadya Suleman had this master plan to make millions off of her babies (she was demanding $2 million for her first interview AND wanted a TV show) and it is slowly crumbing before her as she is revealed to be a sociopathic liar. So now, she has 14 kids that she can’t possibly care for, no job, no money and guess who gets to pay her millions of dollars in hospital bills and pay for care for her children? ME! And the rest of the California tax payers!

Oh, and if you are wondering how a women on welfare affords plastic surgery and manicures, she’s on workers compensation and has collected over $160,000 for a “work-related back injury”. How a women with a debilitating back injury goes through several pregnancies, including carrying 8 babies in one pregnancy, totally escapes logic. Don’t ya think?

Every where I turn I hear another news story about big businesses laying off thousands of workers because of “the recession”. My mom works for Sony and she is wondering if she is going to have a job after wave after wave of layoffs. Because, you know, poor Sony must be on the brink of bankruptcy because of this crazy “recession”! There only choice is to fire (or force into retirement) thousands of their loyal employees. Right? Well, according to Sony, profits will now come in at a mere $1.54 billion for the fiscal year ending in March 2009. Yes, Sony profited $1.54 BILLION dollars. As in, after they paid all of their employees and expenses, they walked away with $1.54 billion dollars last year. Good thing they laid all those people off! Otherwise, they would have only made like $1,539,000,000.00.

Now I’m sure you’ve seen Caterpillar splashed across the news because they have been “forced” by “the recession” to lay off tens of thousands of their employees. Caterpillar reported revenue of $2.9 billion for 2008 (after expenses and taxes, they profited $385,000,000). Poor, poor Caterpillar !

Now why would businesses like Sony and Caterpillar use a supposed recession as an excuse to lay off employees? Because that way people feel sorry for Caterpillar, rather then become outraged that they would lay off “lifers” (employees that have worked their entire lives there), so that the company can look better on paper. Look shareholders! Profits are up $2million from last year (because we fired a bunch of loyal employees)! Yippy!

I understand that companies (mine included) need to constantly restructure and “cut the fat” so to speak, but I just don’t appreciate them blaming their greed on the recession.

Today Barack Obama is being inaugurated into his new job as President of the United States of America. Ever since he announced that he was running, America was all abuzz with talk about the possibility of a black president. And after learning about Barack’s family history (I saw an awesome biography on his life on a Jetblue flight…) I got to thinking…Why is everyone calling him “black”? His mom is white and his dad is black, so since he’s half white, half black, why is he automatically “black”. Is it because he identifies himself as a black man (which he probably learned through being identified by others as being black), or is there some sort of rule that as soon as white genes are “tainted” with any black genes, you are automatically “black”? My cousin Chelsea’s mom is white and her dad is black, but I don’t identify her as “my black cousin”. If people ask about her ethnicity, I just tell them that her mom is white and her dad is black. I thought that was called mulato (which is someone of mixed race), but apparently that is not politically correct anymore? With the USA being so overly politically correct, I have to wonder why there hasn’t been some sort of genetic standard set up to positively identify races, so as to avoid any confusion…haha.

I guess I just think it’s stupid that any black genes and you are automatically black. If Barack Obama identified himself as a white man, people would scoff and say that he is not a white man, even though he is just as white as he is black. All because he is slightly tanner then the average white person?

For something that the government is so anxious to categorize everyone with (race), it seems stupid that you can make up your own ethnicity. Both my parents are white, but I can mark “black” as my ethnicity on my job applications/college apps/etc, if I “identify” with that race. Does that seem stupid to you? I think it’s the governments way of getting around being racist. Why do any of these institutions need to know what race you are anyways? Besides the fact that they need to enroll/hire a certain amount of each race to prove that they are not racist…

…you build an elaborate tunnel system in your home, out of trash, get lost in said tunnel and die of dehydration?

“An eccentric loner is believed to have died of thirst after becoming trapped in a bizarre and intricate network of tunnels built from rubbish in his home.

Investigators believe the labyrinth was so complicated that Gordon Stewart, 74, may have become lost inside it. It is thought he may have died as a result of dehydration, after becoming unable to find his way out of the stinking mass.

Neighbours had become concerned that they had not seen him for several days and raised the alarm.”

The full story at: The Daily Mail

Do you ever wonder what washed up porn stars do after they turn 40? I highly doubt Busty Heart saved up for retirement, because rather then retiring to live her golden years on a golf course in Leisure Town, instead she’s come up with a circus freak act: Using her saggy breast implants to crush objects. Like watermelons.

Yikes. Tell me that isn’t painful?!

Blogger is pretty lame, if you ask me. I am going to switch over to WordPress soon. Then I will blog more, I promise .

Let me be the 1st to tell you that I hate politics/politicians. I have never voted in a political election, nor have I even bothered to register to vote. Not because I’m lazy, but no presidential hopeful has EVER struck me as being worthy of my vote.

(Thanks for the vid, Bulbboy

With that being said, I registered to vote today. I honestly think that Barack Obama can change America for the better.

I saw a “life story” type documentary on Barack Obama’s childhood and I wish I could find it to post here. Obama has so much more to bring to the table then someone coming from the typical affluent, rich, white, family (like every other US President).

The only thing I don’t like about Barack is his logo…It reminds me of the Pepsi logo …

Don’t you love it when you email a customer service department, wait a few days for a response and the response has nothing to do with what you are inquiring about? It’s kinda like no one even bothers to read your email before going into some longwinded response. The latest example is compliments of the stellar customer service department at Adobe.com. Here is the email I sent:

“Hello, I just purchased an upgrade for Fireworks, since Fireworks MX does not work on my Macintosh (operating system: Leopard). Unfortunately the upgrade I purchased does not work with the education version of Fireworks MX that I have. Please cancel/refund this order. Thanks.“

And here is Adobe.com’s response:

“Hello Summer,

Thank you for contacting Adobe Customer Service.

Due to the Support Portal being closed on weekends, we were unable to respond to your e-mail. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your patience.

I understand that you want to return your Adobe Fireworks CS3 upgrade order (Order Number AD001450636) and claim refund, since you are unable to install the previous version, Fireworks MX on the Leopard operating system due to compatibility issue.

Summer, this is to inform you that it is not necessary to install the previous version, Fireworks MX on the Leopard operating system, in order to install the Fireworks CS3 upgrade version.

While install Fireworks CS3 upgrade version, you will be asked to enter the previous version name and Serial Number. Please follow the steps prompted and you will be able to install the upgrade successfully. However, if you are unable to install the upgrade, please contact our Customer Service at the below mentioned number and our representatives will assist you in unlocking and installation of your Fireworks CS3 upgrade.

Since the unlocking process must be completed in real time, please call Customer Service at (800) 833-6687 to speak to a representative. We are available 7 days a week, 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Pacific Time.

Please be at your computer when you call, and have the serial numbers of your previous version and the upgrade version available.

Summer, however, if the previous version, Fireworks MX was part of a suite product like Studio MX, you will be unable to upgrade it to Fireworks CS3. In this situation, please return the product and claim refund.

For more information on Adobe’s return policy, please visit us at:

http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_15327

Summer, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.“

The problem I’m having has nothing to do with operating systems, it has to do with the fact that I was sold an upgrade that does not work with the version of Fireworks that I have. Oh, and the return policy that they reference tells you to email customer service (which is what triggered this amazing response to my return/refund request).

I’m so sick of people wasting my time. I emailed them back that perhaps they should re-read my original email and if a refund is not posted to my credit card by the end of the week, I will simply file a chargeback with my credit card company.