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| Infodump time! Gacked from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nightxade: My Little Darth Vader and the other pony toys bizarrely transformed by movie fan - These are AWESOME, and be sure to check out the artist's gallery too.Of 'Greenwash' and Image Management - interesting article about varying levels of truth in eco-marketing. Rocket Fuel Ingredient Found in Powder - as in, infant formula powder. Yum. This is so wrong. A few weeks ago I was listening to a science podcast and they were talking about how anti-evolutionists like to name ten or a dozen scientists who don't believe in evolution, citing that as reason enough to doubt the theory. Well, the science community's response is to be able to list 1000 scientists that do believe in evolution...all of whom are named Steve (or some variant thereof, including feminine and non-Anglo). I laughed out loud when I heard that! See Project Steve for more info. PBX Hell: 50-Plus Hacks and Tips to Get to a Real Person at Any Corporation in 10 Seconds or Less - Some are more potentially useful than others, but a good list if you hate waiting on hold. A FLEET of UFOs in formation has been photographed - on Google. - Hahahaha, it's a tabloid, don't get too excited. It alleges that Google's street view in London shows some UFOs. Well, really, after the Daleks and then the Cybermen and then the Daleks vs Cybermen and all of the other alien-trashing of London that I've seen on that documentary about that time-travelling fellow, I suppose some flying saucers is probably just routine to Londoners now, eh? Here's something potentially useful to other cooks out there: What To Do With Egg Whites Left Over Egg Yolks In each case, what can be done in terms of storage and recipes with the leftover portions of egg after you've used the other bit. I actually find that I avoid recipes that want me to use only part of an egg unless the other part comes in later, but now that I know I can freeze them...hmm... | ||||||
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Blatherings
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April 9th, 2009
January 3rd, 2009
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| I'd like to officially declare for the purposes of anyone searching for info on cloth diapering that front loaders SUCK ASS for cloth diapers. I had no problem dumping my nylon bags down into the top loader. Dump, set, close, done. Barely got my hands dirty. But shoving a bagful of smelly diapers* in sideways, even using the bag as a sort of glove, shoving from the bottom to pop them out, almost always results in at least one bit of filth or other trying to flop out of the washer. And the second bag almost always tries to spill out, all while I'm trying not to breathe from the smell. I have ended up with shit and piss up to my elbow. You all know I try very hard to be ultra-eco-mama. I'm all about the environmental goodness all over the place. I know that front loaders are more water and energy efficient, which is why we bought one. But seriously? Fuck the environment - I strongly advise anyone into cloth diapering to stick with a top-loader. It is possible that if we had it up on one of those box-riser thingies under the washer, this would be slightly better insofar as I wouldn't be quite so bent over or on my knees while doing it. But until they invent a loader that tips so I can dump instead of shove, I will continue to loathe front loading for nappy purposes. Not a big fan of the fact that it has to be left open to avoid growing mold in the front rubber gasket either. Even Consumer Reports recommends that for all front loaders. Oh, and that rubber lip traps poopy bits that have to be cleaned out between the first cold wash of the diapers and the second hot wash. I really, really just *love* picking wet shit out of there. Mmm, good times. And that's while using rice liners so 99% of the poop is actually lifted off and goes into the toilet...that's just the remnants. Oh boy, oh joy. I would not be the cloth diapering fan that I am if I had had this nonsense as my first experiences with it. And yes, I do still prefer cloth diapers because of environmental, frugal, and health reasons. It's the washer that sucks, not the diapers. And the washer is okay for other stuff (except for the having to leave the door open part). * Sidenote: in dry dry Vegas, our nappy bin rarely smelled. It was too dry for bacteria to get much hold. Here, it REEKS and all attempts to stop it have failed, including using every tip and product advised by the experts at Austin Baby. Before posting this, I almost passed out from the acrid cloud of pee-stink that came out when I opened the bag to put the nappies in the wash. My lungs actually hurt and I can taste pee-rot-stink in my mouth. Fun. I don't want to even contemplate how bad it'd be in high humidity like Louisiana or something. Meep. | ||||||
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September 25th, 2008
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| geekiest stroller ever And no, I don't particularly want one, even if the battery is powered via the motion of the stroller, which is cool (and makes me wish I could charge other things via stroller power). My Maclaren, Peo's single most expensive piece of baby equipment, is just lovely and I have no desire to give it up. But hey, it's nifty... | ||||||
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June 17th, 2008
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| WTF? Who in their right mind uses lead on CHILDREN'S CLOTHING?!! GAHHHH! The Children’s Place Recalls Camouflage Pajama Sets Due to Excessive Lead | ||||||
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May 29th, 2008
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| Took me awhile to get around to sharing this, but I did hear back from Avent regarding the letter I sent them about bisphenol A in their baby bottles. Since I said in my letter I'd be sharing their response publicly, below are scans of their response: ( Read more... ) I'm not particularly impressed with this response. It doesn't deliver any of the guarantees of safety, just a lot of blah-blah about tests that other news reports say are deemed questionable. The only saving grace as far as I'm concerned is that they've got this supposed alternative line of products, but then again, if they can make some products without BPA, why can't they say, "Okay parents, just in case this stuff is dangerous, we're going to take the high road and eliminate it from our entire product line so you, as busy parents, never have to worry when you're in the store with a crying baby over your shoulder as to which products are safe and which are iffy." In other words, I believe Avent has dropped the ball here. They could have used this issue to stand out as champions of non-toxic products, but instead they've chosen to rely on waffle words and entirely consumer-inconvenient sales practices. I am planning a response after I've dealt with the friendlocked issue, probably late this summer. I'm not letting this go with a weenie response like this. I've seen even more articles lately, including in Consumer Reports, but I haven't had time to post them all. | ||||||
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May 24th, 2008
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| Busy busy busy, but this is worth taking time to post... A warning seen on my playgroup's message board: WARNING to Nursing Moms The Food and Drug Administration on Friday warned women not to use or purchase Mommy's Bliss Nipple Cream, marketed by MOM Enterprises Inc. of San Rafael, Calif. The cream, promoted to nursing mothers to help soothe dry or cracked nipples, contains ingredients that may cause respiratory distress, vomiting and diarrhea in infants, the agency said. The potentially harmful ingredients in the cream are chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol. | ||||||
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April 19th, 2008
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| Momsrising.org petition regarding BPA in baby bottles There have been a bunch of stories in the news in the last week or so regarding this issue but I'm too swamped to sort through them and post them right now. No response from the letter I sent to Avent yet. | ||||||
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March 17th, 2008
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| After it took about three weeks for Avent to get back to me with their postal address (despite autoresponders that say email will be answered much sooner than that), I finally got around to sending them a letter regarding bisphenol A in the baby bottles. It is an open letter (which I state in the letter) and I will post any response I get. When I post a response, I'll add an edit note to the bottom of this post. If there is no edit note linking to a response, then assume no response has yet been received. Letter is behind the cut. Bold text appears bold in the actual letter as well. ( Read more... ) eta...response received, see this post for more | ||||||
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March 9th, 2008
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| Lego wants to build business with girls Hrrrm...seems a bit dumb to me, like they're missing the point by hitting all around where they want to be and not getting why that doesn't work. I'm betting they'd have more success with girls if they got the girls into it sooner, like we've done with Peo. | ||||||
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February 9th, 2008
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Are Plastic Baby Bottles Harmful?
Yay. Peo used, and still occasionally uses, Avent, which is on the list. Gahhhhh. Here's the thing: I've read about this bisphenol A thing on the various crunchy boards for a few months, but the links were always to highly-crackpotty sites with dubious citations (if any) and a lot of ridiculous rhetoric. I never knew what I should or shouldn't believe on those sites, most of which have a general atmosphere of wanting to return us to the dark ages, but in some magical way where infant mortality and lifestyle conveniences will remain at modern levels. In the face of such alarmism without backup fact, I chose to ignore the warnings, because if I ascribed to everything on such sites I couldn't even live in this house, what with its paint and carpet and other potentially toxic elements. And now I get to find out that maybe there's something to this particular issue. Well, not only does that piss me off because I trusted these products to be safe for my baby, but also because now the crackpotty sites will use this to say that EVERYTHING they've ever said is OBVIOUSLY true, even the ultra-ridiculous stuff that has been disproved. This will make it even harder to separate fact from hysteria in the future. I also can't wait for the holier-than-thou-isms that will be pouring out. I've already stopped reading most of the crunchy boards/lists I'm on lately because the hysteria and misinformation was getting to me and wasting too much of my time (seriously, one list had folks posting about how The Pill is eeeeeevil for all women (they haven't read any history of what it did for the feminist movement, apparently) and that it doesn't actually work as a contraceptive because so-and-so's OB/GYN told her that if you menstruate, you've ALWAYS ovulated, and The Pill actually prevents implantation and has nothing to do with conception...I wasted a half hour correcting them...). I think I'll just back away from all of them for a good long while because teh stoopid, it burrrnzz, and it burns even worse when they've got an actual truth to wave around. Meanwhile I get to stress out wondering whether or not I've permanently fucked up Peo's reproductive system (and with my genes, it's not like she was going to be guaranteed a good ride on that anyway) in having given her breastmilk occasionally out of these bottles, and later juice and water. Here I did breastfeeding for over two years to spare her the inferiority of formula only to find out that there was poison in all of it thanks to the bottles. So I can't trust the manufacturers, who have been steadfastly defending their products with what now appears to be lies for some time, and I can't trust the crunchy crackpots because just because they got it right once doesn't justify the sheer volume of nonsense posted regularly on that side (if you read it online, it must be true!), and not being a research scientist I can't very well test this stuff for myself...so I guess I should just accept being hosed on all sides? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. | ||||||
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February 4th, 2008
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| Political though I am, you can tell where my priorities lie in that what makes tomorrow Super Tuesday to me is it's the day the They Might Be Giants Here Come the 123s CD/DVD FINALLY comes out so we can get it for Peo! OMG, she's seen teasers before Wiggles episodes and she's utterly, utterly obsessed with the Zero song. If there's a Pi song, she might explode.dididdlyi, rest assured Peo's cousins will have their copies ordered at the same time. :) We're not preordering because we've had some bad experiences with Amazon's preordering lately, as have some friends, but we're planning to place an order tomorrow night for that and some other stuff. | ||||||
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January 6th, 2008
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| http://hyenacart.com/FernandFaerie/inde Pattern for recycling old cloth into cloth diaper covers. Brilliant idea! | ||||||
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November 21st, 2007
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| I signed up for the CPSC recall mailing list a few weeks ago and it's been kinda creepy how every day there are more recalls about lead paint on toys. However, they're generally things I wouldn't buy for Peo anyway, until today: Slipcovers Used With Boppy Pillows Recalled Due to Choking Hazard and Risk of Lead Exposure Aiiiieeee! Actually, the one I have isn't in the recall. But holy frickity frick, how bad have things gotten when zippers on nursing pillows have lead paint?! Boppy is one of the most purchased infant products these days. This could seriously disrupt their business. What a dumbass move. Gahhhh. BTW, if you haven't heard, some Chinese manufacturers are suing Mattel for making it seem like China can't produce a safe product after Mattel admitted that a significant number of the recent recalls on their products were due to their own design flaws. I read it nightxade's journal awhile back...here's the link: http://www.business-standard.com/coThis shit has gotten RIDICULOUS. I'm so glad the majority of Peo's Christmas gifts are vintage Fisher Price Little People (and yes I check each piece to make sure it's solid and not going to break into a choking hazard) so I don't have to worry about these new-fangled toys of death. | ||||||
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August 31st, 2007
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| I've spent a huge amount of time over the past few days researching and doing preliminary shopping for Peo's second birthday party. I want to do something low-key but fun, eco-friendly and thrifty but not to the point of boredom for the kids. Eco-friendly can be hard, but I've got some reusable plastic plates, we can use our existing plastic cutlery (mostly Ikea, but other saved bits and pieces), and instead of disposable loot bags I'm evaluating options of either doing up some small canvas bags with the kids names on them or seeing if I can successfully convert some of our vast loads of #5 polypropylene yogurt tubs into something slightly prettier to serve as little goodie tubs (I have read up on how to glue PP plastic and my hot glue sticks might do the trick if they have PP in them as well, so I'll do a test on the weekend...whatever I do has to be little-kid-safe so that's an extra challenge but I'd be tickled pink to reuse the plastic tubs we can't recycle here). But in looking for actual loot to put in those things, I'm running up against a problem aside from trying to avoid junky plastic crap (I have no problem with cool/fun little plastic toys, but a lot of the loot stuff is CRAP)...that's the age thing. At the party store today (Peo has learned to say, "MY BIRFDAY!" and "Need purple punkin sippy cup wif black straw!" and "Need more onagen* balloons!" * = onagen is how she says orange), they had a small selection of stuff for a one-year-old party, all with big fat 1s on it so it can't be adapted, and then they had gobs and gobs of stuff in various themes for other parties but most of that stuff is marked "Warning: choking hazard, suitable for ages 3 and up." So...um...wtf are the 2 year olds supposed to do? I asked at the counter. They suggested bubbles. The bubble bottles all say the same warning. And while Peo loves bubbles, if you hand her the wand, she doesn't quite get how to blow and ends up sticking the soapy stuff in her mouth and getting frustrated. She's very much in the "Peo a big girl! Do it myself!" stage. They also suggested their wide bouncing balls, but they were $3.99 each and not great quality, and all had licensed characters that Peo hasn't heard of (she's got some Dora slippers that our neighbour gave us but she's never seen Dora on TV, so she calls them "dolly shoes" and kept pointing out the Dora stuff at the store as "More dolly from shoes!"). So while I've got some awesome edible treats planned for the loot bags (let's just say that I've got some cool chocolate moulds from ebay), there doesn't seem to be much in the way of sensible, eco-friendly, safe, reasonably-priced toy options. Well, there were lots of bouncy eyeballs. We got some for us, of course (it's convenient having a child whose birthday comes near Halloween so I have an excuse to go into the stores that sell eyeballs), but other parents might not approve of eyeballs in a birthday loot bag. If I had time I might knit them all a little something, but I'm not sure that I do...I've only just finished the requested cookie monster and big bird, and now I'm working on a gift for another little girl whose birthday is the day after Peo's, and then the long list of family birthday/Christmas knitting needs to get started, plus there's the other birthday prep anyway... Gah, someone smart needs to fill this niche. Don't suppose anyone out there has any fab ideas for a two-year-old party in general, especially loot bags? The other guests will range in age from 15 months to just over three years, boys and girls in about equal numbers, parents who are both crunchy and non-crunchy. Hrm...maybe I should look into using the moulds to make some soap (unscented because of my allergies), or maybe soap crayons that I've been meaning to try...but gahhh, the time these things take! eta: I should specify that this is a "no gifts please" party...Peo has tons of toys and since we're fussy about what we let her play with (ie almost nothing electronic, definitely nothing that makes the imaginative noises for her), we'll be telling guests to save their money and if they reeeeallly feel like they have to spend, we'll be suggesting some charities to donate to instead. So part of why I don't want to spend a fortune on loot bags is it's not exactly like we're equalizing out to what people have spent on Peo. | ||||||
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June 10th, 2007
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| Why I love resale kiddie clothes... ( two pics behind the cut ) | ||||||
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April 30th, 2007
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| Gahhhhhhh.... Any parents out there want to share tips on how to get a poopy swim diaper off without getting poo all over the baby and everything else nearby? They don't open up like regular diapers so we're having a huge problem getting them off without inadvertently dumping poo everywhere and streaking Peo's legs on the pull down. eta: AHA! I went to the store where we bought some of our supplies and there is an opening type, but I didn't see it on a Google search: http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/swi Will order some soon. :D | ||||||
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January 6th, 2007
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| Oh, and another thing that I'll stick in its own post... We searched the drug store for a sugar-free infant pain relief medication today and could not find one. One type had sucrose instead of corn syrup, but given that our problem is that we don't give Peo much sugar so sugar in medicine makes her go insane (and thus not sleep), sucrose isn't much of an improvement. We asked the pharmacist and he agreed that it's an entirely sensible idea that there should be such a thing, but that he'd never heard of any. He searched the shelf himself and found nothing either. I just did some Googling and it looks like there are a few brands in the UK of sugar-free Paracetamol-based infant suspensions, but I'm not getting any hits for anything in North America. So...do any of you out there know of a North American source for such a thing? Or dididdlyi, are such things available in Australia, because if we do end up coming down there in February (which seems like it might happen after all, maybe), perhaps we should grab some? The most common brand I'm seeing is called Calpol, and also occasionally something called Disprol.This is crazy. What do diabetic or other sugar-intolerant kids take? | ||||||
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October 29th, 2006
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| Attention parents of infants and parents-to-be in the US (and possibly Canada)... Corran spotted an excellent bargain we wholly recommend at Costco. The Maclaren Techno Classic stroller is on for a huge discount (Corran should email me or post the exact price, he took a photo with his phone), close to half of what we paid for ours (about US$300). This stroller is AWESOME and while it was worth every penny we paid, if you can get it cheaper, do so! I can't sing the praises of this stroller enough. It's lightweight but sturdy. It's got great support. It fully reclines so it's appropriate for newborns, but it's also built to last for something like up to at least four years of age. It's got a built-in collapsing hood for sun/rain protection plus it comes with a full out rain shield, and a leg warmer piece as well, so it's good for all weather. It turns on a dime, handles with ease even one-handed, collapses easily and quite small (unlike those Graco-style monstrosities), has cargo space, etc etc etc. It's the most expensive thing we bought for Peo and we are still extremely happy with it. So if you're in the market for a stroller, we definitely urge you to check out Costco for this amazing deal. Even if you have to pay the yearly membership fee you'll still be saving gobs of money on a super-amazing baby product. | ||||||
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June 28th, 2006
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| I gave Peo a valved sippy cup for the first time today. We'd previously tried her on the cheapie IKEA sippy cup we got before she was born, but it has no valve so she just spilled stuff everywhere with that. This sippy cup is a Playtex one that came free from Juicy Juice. I'm all for free stuff even if I have no intention of buying the product it promotes. :D Anyway, she seems to love it. She's not good at holding it up far enough to keep fluid in the spout, but she likes it when I hold it for her to start and then she takes over. There was only water in it but she seemed to think it was fun to get the water out. She did have to learn that she had to suck, not chew, which frankly is a good lesson since I don't like her chewing on ME. She still doesn't have teeth but she can gum hard! When we get a chance, Corran and I will go get her sippy versions of the Avent bottles we already use as part of the breast pump system. We already have handles for bottles but she sees those as more of a toy than anything else. | ||||||||
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![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/loxocosmic/lumplings/exhausted.gif){kind=small}
tiredJune 25th, 2006
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| Massive picture post here, mostly because the piccies keep piling up and I have so little time to deal with them more often. As always, I don't expect people to look at piles of pics of my kid. These are largely for overseas relatives. The rest of you are welcome to look or not as you like. :) ( 81 pictures behind the cut...told you it was massive! ) | ||||||
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Blatherings
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