Carseats

Ok so those of you who know me know that there are a few things that I am very passionate about. Breastfeeding being one but I will do a blog on that another time. This one is on carseats. Im sure all of us know WHY a child needs to be in a carseat. But is your child in the Right carseat? Yes there is a right and wrong carseat for your child. First off I am NO expert in carseat and carseat saftey but I have done my research. This board has many men and women who are much more educated then I am on carseat safety and if you have ANY questions I highy recomend going to them and they will be more then happy to help you. http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a7645/car_seat_questions

As a general rule a child MUST be in a rear facing car seat / infant car seat until 1 year old and 20 lbs. Front facing car seat until 4 years old and 40 lbs. Booster seat until 8 years old and 80 lbs. They keywords there are AND it does not say or. You can check for yourself what YOUR state says about carseats by going to: http://www.elitecarseats.com/custserv/custserv.jsp?pageName=car_seat_laws.

HOWEVER those are just the laws for your state. What about the maximum SAFTEY of your child?? Sure it might be easier to put your 1 year old who weighs 25 lbs in a forward facing seat. Sure it might be easier to put your 4 year old who weighs 40 lbs in a booster seat with just the carseat holding them in.

BUT research has shown that a child is SAFER to be rearward facing until the maximum of the carseat. WHICH most convertables do until 30 or 35 lbs. A child should be rearfacing until the limits of their car seat hieght or weight whichever comes first. The general rule is if your childs head is 1 inch above the top of the carseat she is to big for it. I do not have a video YET on the importance of extended rearfacing besides this one...its a little old and I am currently working on making a new one. But for those first time parents or even parents with more then 1 child who think its okay to make the switch before 1 AND 20 I suggest watching this. It is what helped me make my decision. My oldest went forward facing at 9 months...thank god nothing ever happened.

Now for the bennifit of extend harnassing....all i will do for this is post a video. Because of this video my oldest is now harnassed...again. And will continue to do so until she is to big height wise which at that point I will buy a new carseat. The video is a tear jerker so please have a tissue handy if your like me and cry easily.


In end PLEASE do your research when purchising a carseat for your child. When making a transition from one car seat to the next. It is very important! AND especially remember to go and get your carseat imspected by professionals! To find YOUR local place go to this website and type in your zip code! http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/CPS/CPSFitting/index.cfm

My "baby" turned 2 today

waiting for to doctor (yes shes in a sposie we wear them sometimes now as we've grown out of cloth)

she decided to lay down and wait

getting her hieght and weight checked

playing in the waiting room before going into the docs office

my 2 year old!!

Man its so hard to believe that Charle is 2 years old already! This time 2 years ago we were in the hospital...getting ready to check out and go home with our 6 lb 9oz baby girl. She was so small her carseat swallowed her! Now she's "huge". LOL well shes huge compared to what she was then but she is still very small. Today she had aher 2 year well baby check up and she is doing great! She is weighing in at 18lbs 14 ozs and she is 31 inchs long! So she is still VERY small for her age but she is gaining weight! We LOVE our doctor. He is a family practice doctor with Western Washington Medical Group by the name of Dr. Grossman. He really listens to me and hears my requests. He is just so awesome! ANYONE looking for a family practice doctor I totally recomend him. He is supportive of me still breastfeeding hasnt said ANYTHING about me needing to stop! Charle really likes him to which is a major plus! We had no shots today because my old pediatrician office didnt send her full immunization record over. He said usually at 2 he doesnt give shots anyways. Im going to have to find out how to get her records...allthough I have been debating still the whole imunization thing...but thats a whole different blog :P

Rachel is in her last year of preschool

This is Rachel's last official year of preschool. She has grown so much since starting. She has had so much fun! Above are the pictures we took before she got on the school bus on picture day. Shes a little ham and loves having her picture taken. Most of the poses she said "Mommy take it like this!" She is pretty funny :D And she is a total girly girl. She is all about wearing dresses and skirts. If I let her wear makeup she would in a heartbeat!

This is her official school picture from this year. Itll be neat to see how much she will change by the end of the school year!

Charle's 2nd birthday party

We had Charle's birthday at Alfy's Pizza this year. It was a lot of fun and we are so greatful to those who were able to atend! Here is a video of her party. She got a lot of really great gifts! Thanks again to all who came :D

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Halloween

This year for Halloween we are going with a Wizard of Oz theme. Little Miss Charle is gunna be the Cowardly Lion. She isnt so sure about her costume but I was able to get her to wear it for 5 minutes last night for pictures...I think when trick or treating she will be much more excited and she will wear it longer. Here she is in her costume:


And what Wizard of Oz wouldnt be complete with out Dorothy and Toto! Rachel's hair is a little short but thats okay! She still looks really cute as Dorothy! And she loves carrying Toto in his basket :D We even have the ruby red sparkly shoes, from Target! Here is Rachel as Dorothy:


Then here is Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion together. We are deffiitly excited for trick or treating.


My girls OFFICIALLY have the coolest trick or treat bags though! They were made just for them by their Granny! i dont have any pictures of them right now but they are SUPER cool. We are very lucky to have such a talented Granny!

Family Fun at the pumpkin patch!

We went on a trip to the local Pumpkin Patch! It was a lot of fun and the girls had a great tiem playing and getting pumpkins :D Here's a little slideshow I took so many pictures there is NO WAY i can download them all :D We are very excited for halloween this year :) And even more excited to carve our pumpkins I think. Karlene says its her first time ever carving a pumpkin :) I think we'll just let Charle draw on hers I duno I might carve it for her... I havent decided yet :P

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My baby is turning 2

My little Charle is turning 2 years old. I cant believe how quickly time has flown by. Its really amazing. She has grown so much in the past 2 years. Granted shes still very small for her age but she is deffintly a character. I am so proud of her! She amazes me more and more every day.

Making a sticker chart

So I have been given a challenge. I need to make a sticker chart for my girls. Now its not a chores chart necessarily but a chart to get them to do behaviors I want. The behavior I have decided to do:

Rachel is: Doing what told when told. So what will happen is everytime she does something as soon as she is told to she will get a sticker. Once she gets 5 stickers she will get a special prize.

Charle is: Sharing her toys. So everytime I see her share a toy with a friend or her sister she will get a sticker.With her once she gets 3 stickers she will get a special prize.

If they dont do what I want they simply wont get a sticker but I also wont be taking one away. We are starting it in the morning so we will see how it goes! Im really excited to see how they do with it :D