Fall is here!

Shaun is sitting up to the table in a booster seat now! I can’t believe he is getting so big. I still put him in the high chair for breakfast, but for the most part he is eating dinner with us at the table. Also, Shaun is starting into the copying stage; both in words and actions. It is so cute when he watches the Wiggles. He tries to do all the actions and dancing that they are doing on the show. Shaun will also repeat words after you say them, even if you are not meaning for him to say it! We have to be very careful now what we say (not that we say bad words, but some words sound bad coming out of a toddler’s mouth) and what is on the television! Regarding our infertility journey; we have decided to wait a couple months, but are still keeping our options open.

Big boy!

3rd annual apple sauce party!
The three of us girls and the 2 little boys got together for the 3rd annual applesauce making party on the 10th. We had enough apples from our trees to make one batch and then Renae brought enough apples to make 2 more batches. So we each went home with 4 tupperwares full of applesauce! Shaun has been loving it! Shaun was playing baby while we were there too. He saw Antonio on his mat when we first got there. Then, a little while later when Antonio was elsewhere, Shaun went and laid on Antonio’s mat! He did that quite a bit.

Finished product!

Antonio likes it, so it must be fun!

Finished swim for the season
We finished our Saturday fall swim lessons. I decided not to sign up for the second session that would be Nov-Dec because it is kind of hard to get motivated to go swimming when it is so rainy (or worse) outside. We will start up again in April twice a week. He was having a great time at the last class. He loved to jump in and kick all around. One more season of tiny tots and then he is in the preschool swim class without mom, yay!

Pumpkin patch
We went with Shaun’s toddler class to a pumpkin patch. I took a couple hours off work and joined them. Shaun loved to look at all the animals, including ducks, goats, pigs and a kitty. He also loved the tractor ride out to the pumpkins, and picking out a pumpkin (although he calls them apples); kind of cute. Everything round is either a ball or an apple. He seems to have them in the right category though as far as maybe being edible or not.

Halloween
We had a dress up playgroup again this year. All of Shaun’s buddies are pretty cute. Some of the others liked Shaun’s outfit, because Elmo came to the party! We also went to Grandma’s work , who was having a Halloween event for kids. Grandma liked showing him off to her coworkers that were there too with their kids or grandkids.

Does somebody like Elmo?

An attempt at getting a group photo.....

Sounders first season: playoffs!
We have been Sounders (soccer) fans this whole first season. We haven’t missed a game; however we have watched most of them on our DVR and not live. The regular season came to an end on 10/24, and they made it to the playoffs!! It is the first time that an expansion team has done that in 11 years. Pretty cool. The first playoff game was on the 29th. It ended in a 0-0 tie. The second game is on November 5th. It is not who wins the games, but who scores the most goals between the 2 games. So we’ll see how the 2nd game goes! The team with the most goals scored is the winner of that round. We’ve got our fingers crossed! And, the final is in Seattle no matter who plays in it.

Planning trip to Vegas in 11 days!
We are planning Shaun’s first airplane trip, to Vegas on November 11th! Our first thought was to go the week between Christmas & New Year’s, but the airfare is so much cheaper before the holidays. One more little person sure adds a bunch more logistics to traveling. We are going to visit some of Bill’s family: Dad, step mom, Grandparents on mom’s side, plus maybe some more aunts, uncles and cousins. Shaun has not met any of this family yet, so I think everyone will be glad to meet! We will be there for a week. We are looking forward to going back to summer weather as Bill’s dad says it’s usually about 70-80 degrees in November! We will report back next month on how the travels went! Wish us luck!

Free H1N1 vaccination clinics in Snohomish County this Saturday, 10/31 for priority groups!

http://www.flucentralwa.mystateusa.com/

There were clinics last Saturday and they gave out approximately 5,000 out of 17,000 vaccines available, so they are doing it again this Saturday. They said we will be given documentation so it can be taken to the doc office and to get the second dose in a month (because Shaun is under 9).

Priority Groups:
Pregnant women
Health care workers and emergency workers
Caregivers of infants younger than 6 months old
School teachers and professional childcare providers
All people ages 6 months to 24 years
People ages 25 to 64 years with medical conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, or heart disease (check website for complete list)

More Flu prevention advice

I received some more flu prevention advice that I thought I would pass along. Here is an email forward that I received today:

Prevent Swine Flu - Good Advice
Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital , Bombay Hospital , Saifee Hospital , Tata Memorial etc. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W) India.

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to not come into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions.

Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is. While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat or bathe).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good way to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids (Tea, coffee, etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

Keep in mind that the target population is the younger crowd, so pass this on to your kids and grandkids.