Summer is here!

The last day of school/teaching was June 15. There are only 8 weeks of summer break, so I am trying to savor every day with Tanner. So far, it has been awesome!

This is a new pass time for Tanner. He dumps all the books off the shelf, then digs through to find one he wants to read. Then, he will peruse through the book, usually turning the pages from right to left! He points to things on the pages and sometimes will gasp with excitement at a new page. With thicker books like the scriptures, he will flip through the pages quickly by holding a chunk of pages with his thumb and index finger, letting the pages flip past his thumb.

 I brought this drum home from school. He loves it!

What a good Captain America face!

 We go outside everyday. It's the best way to keep the house clean. :)  It also gives us a chance to air out Tanner's helmet and his head, which get pretty sweaty in the warmer weather.

Yes, this rice formed mold in every color of the rainbow. It stayed in the fridge a few too many weeks- yes, weeks. This was mostly because I didn't want to wash the tupperware dish (we don't have a dishwasher).

Jeremy and I play a lot of ball games on the stairs. They mostly consist of throwing the ball up the stairs and watching it bounce back down. Tanner watches every time. Last week, Jeremy heard Tanner by the stairs, came over and found him trying to throw his ball up the stairs. It mostly just got shoved into the stair above his head, but we were really excited that he was trying our game!

 A couple of days ago we went to the beach with my friend Marci and her son. We live in the same neighborhood and have become great friends through church. The boys loved playing in the sand together! We witnessed the boys' first moment of jealousy. They both wanted the green shovel, and neither of us had ever seen our boys get jealous like that before!

Rockford hated his beach hat, and Tanner didn't like Rockford wearing it either because he couldn't see his face! So it was funny that both of them were trying to get Rockford's hat off.

Tanner was the bravest he's been at the beach. He crawled far and wide along the sand. Rockford soon tagged along!

 Baby in a suit & tie equals CUTE!

 I got the pants, shirt and vest for $3. Our neighbor was selling all her baby stuff for cheap!

 We're getting ready for 4th of July!!! Tanner and I have several outfits for the season. It's my favorite holiday other than Easter. Yesterday, we got a bunch of decorations from the 99cent store! I'm getting so excited!!!

I introduced flags to Tanner. At first he just watched it blow around. Then I gave it to him to hold, but he let it fall out of his hands, a little nervous. Now he loves them, waves them around, jiggles them, grabs and wrinkles them. He held and waved a smaller flag the entire time we were in the 99cent store, which was a good 35 minutes!

The Vaccine Book

Vaccines can be a good thing. They obviously have reduced many harmful illnesses in our country. But when I started taking Tanner to his baby check-ups, I had a lot of questions and concerns. Needless to say, vaccines have become a great point of “discussion” in our household.

Now, don’t get me wrong! I am not anti-vaccine at all!! And just for the record--No, I don’t believe that vaccines cause Autism. And No- I'm not afraid to puncture my kid with a needle. In fact, Tanner hardly gives a whimper when he's gotten his shots. He's made of steel! 

I just really wanted to know WHAT was in the vaccines, HOW they work in the body, WHICH vaccines are the most necessary, and what long-term RISKS, if any, does my child have for each type of vaccine. I wasn’t getting specific answers from the AAP and CDC websites or my pediatrician. And all the anti-vaccine websites were hugely biased too.So I decided to be prayerful about this. I felt a strong conviction to only give Tanner one certain vaccine until I learned more. Later, Jeremy found The Vaccine Book by Robert W. Sears, MD, FAAP. This was a real answer to prayer!

I highly recommend this book to any parent that wants to be more educated about their child’s health. It gives all sides of the argument for every vaccine and goes into detail about all the research out there. The book also tells you exactly WHAT is in each vaccine, HOW it works in the body and what OPTIONS exist when taking the vaccines.  

Here’s a few REALLY INTERESTING things that I learned from the book:

·       Nearly every vaccine has more than one brand. This is great news because it means that you can ask your doctor for a brand that contains less of the yucky stuff (i.e. aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG). For example, some brands have tons of aluminum and other brands for the same vaccine have none! 

·      Many vaccines are made by harvesting the virus in human fetal lung cells, monkey kidney cells, and/or chicken embryos. I had no idea! I’m not really convinced this is a bad thing, it’s just very interesting to know the process! I also learned that this is why some people decline vaccines based on religious reasons; people feel it conflicts with beliefs regarding cloning, abortion, and consuming animals.  

·      Some vaccines work better under certain circumstances. For example, the MMR is recommended 12-18 months of age, and it’s usually given at the 12 month check-up. But the statistics show that the vaccine works better when taken closer to 18 months. 

·      Booster shots for Polio, MMR, DTaP and Chickenpox are given at 5 years of age. But you can ask your doctor for a blood test beforehand to see if your child already has enough immunity to these diseases. If so, the booster is unnecessary!! Most pediatricians don’t even mention this option because it takes more time and they would rather have everyone just take the boosters. I was grateful to learn that I have yet another option before giving my child more shots!

·      There are many options with taking vaccines. You don’t have to give your child all 4, 5, or sometimes 6 vaccinations in one check-up just because the AAP schedule recommends it. You can take a slower schedule that will still get your child all the vaccines recommended, but allow the body to properly gain immunity to one virus/illness at a time. This was incredibly important to me!

The last point in the list above is the main reason why I have a hard time with vaccines. I think it’s very silly how doctors barely bat an eye at the rigorous vaccine schedule, hardly concerned with how it exposes babies to multiple illnesses at once, sometimes exposing 4 live viruses at one time (which no human being naturally encounters at once), not to mention all the unnatural gunk inside each vaccine which scientists have yet to sufficiently prove is safe. But then when it comes to giving our children wholesome food, doctors will stress over how many natural fruits or vegetables we introduce into the baby’s diet, saying that we should separate each food by 7-10 days. Does anyone else see the irony in this!?!

That is why I was so happy to find The Vaccine Book. It confirmed many of my concerns and helped me calm down about others. In fact, some vaccines that I didn't want to give Tanner I now feel much more comfortable giving him. Now I can go to Tanner’s vaccine appointments knowing that I am better educated about what I am giving (or not giving) my child.

A Week for Tanner

For my last week of teaching this school year, MomZ, DadZ and Matt came down to take care of Tanner. This saved us a week of daycare costs! It was super fun to have them with us. 

 Tanner is such a good eater! Here, he's eating pasta with spinach. Tanner loves real ravioli, tortalini and any other type of real pasta. He hates the baby food kind, but he'll gobble down the real stuff. 

Swimming in our neighborhood pool with Grampz and Uncle Matt.

Tanner didn't really like getting thrown in the air. But he is okay with leaning off the edge of the pool (from a sitting position) and landing in our arms.

Grampz is so silly!

I like this photo below. It's a look of earnestness to be with mommy while simultaneously sucking on his lip to feel his teeth coming in.

During the week, the family did lots with Tanner. He played all over the house, learned how to wave bye bye, went to Knott's Berry Farm and Universal Studios. The family also went deep sea fishing and to the filming of an ABC TV sit-com series, but Tanner didn't go to those. In the evenings, we all hung out together and laughed a lot, mostly at Tanner. I even made yummy Dominican food one night. 

On Friday night, our 3 visitors were in LA late for the TV filming. So Jeremy, Tanner and I celebrated my last day of school. I really wanted to go to Chilis to get a chocolate lava cake, but we didn't have any coupons or gift cards. Then, I decided to open a few of the cards I got from my students. The first one I opened had a gift card in it for Chilis! How cool is that!?! So we went and had the yummiest lava cake.

Another gift from my students was some chocolates, so I let Tanner have a hard piece to gnaw on. He loved it!

On Sat morning, Jeremy and Matt went boogie boarding at the beach. Then, we all piled in our cars and headed to San Diego. There was some crazy traffic, so we only had time to go to the Mormon Battalion exhibit center. I was really surprised at how cool it was! The tour had multi-media things that interacted with the audience. I learned a lot of neat stuff about our church history. At the end, there was pining for gold, looking for ancestors, and making bricks.

For dinner in San Diego, we went to a special restaurant that DadZ found online. The line took forever, but the food was great!

Jeremy's first Father's Day! Tanner brought him gummy worms for breakfast in a big bowl with a spoon. It was great to be with DadZ on Father's day, too.

We had to say goodbye after church. It was sooooo wonderful to have our family stay with us this past week!! Thank you Gramz, Grampz and Uncle Matt for taking a week out of your summer to watch Tanner! He had a super time, and he truly loves you so much.