Halloween 2009

Saturday night, North dressed up as Clifford, the Big Red Dog and hit the town for some evening fun.

First, we stopped by Daddy's work to see him.

Then, we went to a Halloween carnival. North saw an old (young?) friend.

At the carnival there were games to play and decorative balloons to punch.

Sky even stayed awake for the party!

Did I mention that North makes a cute Clifford?

Changing

North and I have been talking about the autumn a lot recently. Well, I have been talking anyway.

When we go for a walk, I show him the leaves on the street and the changing colors of the trees. I tell him that the trees are getting ready to go to sleep, soon it will be winter. When we find dead bugs, I tell him that the bugs are dying because the air is getting colder. We are reading Halloween books, apple books and pumpkin books. It is fun guiding North into an understanding of the cycling seasons.

In the past two weeks, we have been eating a lot of cabbage. Our veggies from Eddy have included green cabbage, red cabbage, and savory cabbage. Mostly I have added the cabbage into a mixture of sauteed vegetables, but I also made a 24-hour refrigerated cabbage relish as well as steaming the leaves with pepper and salt. This week we got a few squash, I roasted winter squash and made soup as well as cubing and eating it warm.

I feel as though my body is storing up nutrients in preparation for the coming cold months. Since the spring, I have been consuming a much wider variety of produce as well a larger quantity. My meat and processed food intake is much lower.

I wouldn't call myself Sunny Sunshine yet, but I am working on it. Having a better nourished body is making my ability to stay positive much easier. It is so easy to get caught up in eating sugar, surrounding oneself with people who thrive on drama, not drinking enough water, getting exercise; all negative things that will affect mood and energy.

I can't promise I will feel warm and fuzzy everyday in January, but the intent is to try. Who wants to be around a grumpy person? (My inventory includes for blogs too. I realized I was spending too much time reading about other people's never-changing, ending problems. "Grow up already! Change and move forward!" In the meantime, I am over it.) Toss out the dust, move on to things that are meaningful.

Like my family.

Actually? Did you just say "actually?"

North and I were putting on shoes before going out for a walk around the neighborhood. North asked, "my shoes?"

I said, "These are North's shoes"

To which he replied, "Actually, these are Eli's shoes. (the shoes were hand-me-downs)


Later after waking up from a nap he informed me, "I need a rag to wipe my nose."

Sky has a grumpy day...Maybe he doesn't like the pumpkin patch?

Sunday afternoon, Reed and I napped the kids early so we could go to the pumpkin patch before the next rain storm. Although most of the pictures show Sky scowling and North being carried by Reed, we really did have a great time. We lucked out with the weather in addition to finding two great pumpkins. This year we are waiting to carve our pumpkins until the week of Halloween. Last year, the faces caved in from an abundance of mold. (Don't laugh, Leslie!)

I promise you that Sky was rested during this picture. Maybe he doesn't like the color orange?

North was fascinated by the rotting pumpkins. After about 19 pumpkin probes, I finally convinced him to use his boot to poke the decaying flesh.

Then His Royal Highness decided he needed a ride back to the tractor. Daddy got to prove how strong he really is.

After the pumpkin selection and tractor ride, North got his face painted, ate a corn dog and apple cider (shh, don't tell his Mama), and played in the hay maze.

Let's check on Skyler. Yup, still grumpy.

"Life is a mixture"

The above line comes from a lecture Sky and I attended last night given by Dr. Sandra Steingraber. Her intent was to better help us understand the vast array of chemical toxins currently residing in our environment as well as furthering our awareness to the impact those toxins have on our bodies, from pre-pregnancy through old age. Dr. Steingraber is a biologist by trade with an specialty in studies relating to the influence of chemical toxins in our environment. She had bladder cancer at a young age; I speculate that this has led to her ability to humanize and clearly explain in her writing as to how our bodies are being affected by the chemicals we consume throughout our daily living. She wrote two books of interest to me, Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment and Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood

In her talk last night, Dr. Steingraber began by talking about the current chemical regulation system and their guidelines used when determining a "safe level of toxicity." The example used for this lecture was Altrazine, a common pesticide used in California agriculture. She outlined how this pesticide interrupts the photosynthesis of common weeds in addition to being highly water-soluble (to be better able to get into the inner workings of the cells of the weeds), thus also easily crossing into a local water supply in addition to being highly absorbable into our own bodies. Dr. Steingraber explained that this particular toxin is a hormone disruptor; changing normal human cell function by way of making a human body create too much estrogen. If I remember the numbers right, she said that the accepted toxicity level was 3 parts per billion. My question after hearing this was, how many combined parts per billion do all the fertilizers and pesticides residing in our bodies add up too? What is happening to our bodies, the bodies of our children, as all these "safe levels" of chemical toxins mix up inside us?

Then she went on to describe the effects of specific chemical toxins on a growing fetus. From the chemical influences on a woman's individual egg and a man's sperm potency to the hormonal influences interrupting implantation; each step is beginning to be closely studied as more and more pregnancies are being challenged by the increasing numbers and amounts of chemical toxins. Of interest to me was the subject of the placenta acting as a magnifier when transporting energy to the baby. Dr. Steingraber used the example of mercury. She cited studies showing when scientists compared an amount of mercury in a mother's bloodstream after consuming a tuna fish sandwich, something that is very well known to contain measurable amounts of mercury, to the amount of mercury in the umbilical blood cord, the umbilical blood amount will always be higher then the mother's own blood count. Dr. Steingraber attributed this magnification to the placenta falsely recognizing mercury to be an essential element, similar to iodine or calcium, thus believing it to be important to pass onto the growing baby.

The lecture I attended was partially sponsored by Planned Parenthood. So there were many right to choosers in the crowd. I think I speak for many of us when I say that Dr. Steingraber cleverly brought both sides of the abortion discussion together by pointing out that many cases of pregnancy are abruptly ended because either a mother's pregnancy hormones have been negatively affected at a critical point in a pregnancy or a embryo has been prevented from successful implantation with a result of an unwelcome spontaneous abortion. Dr. Steingraber pointed out that all women deserve the right to choose to be pregnant and not to be prevented from successfully completing a healthy pregnancy by the growing amounts of chemicals in our living environment.

Another point of interest to me was the information she gave about the infant blood/brain barrier. A human body is very good at circulating food, waste, and other various things throughout the whole system, but if blood containing very strong toxic chemicals directly infuses with brain tissue, then neurons and pathways become harmed. Therefore, our body grows a barrier between the circulatory system and brain tissue to protect our developing intelligence. However, this barrier does not fully complete its development until a human is about six months old. In the meantime, all kinds of substances have full access to a child's growing intelligence. I think this is interesting when viewed in combination with a growing parenting consensus that most babies should not receive solid foods until they are closer to 6 months, rather then the old thought of 4 months. Not only is a babies' digestive tract more ready to absorb the nutrients and the motor skills of the mouth and throat more organized, but now we can also say that a baby is better able to fend off the influx of chemicals that so much of our un-organic food now contains.

I enjoyed this lecture very much. I had read Having Faith when I was pregnant with Sky. I admired how well Dr. Steingraber was able to unite so much scientific lingo with a very creative writing style. Her book was very well researched, yet also very interesting to read. Sky attended this lecture with me and I think he enjoyed himself as well. We were out well past his normal bedtime, yet he was very active as he looked around at all the people. Once Dr. Steingraber began her talk, I walked around the back of the room with him in the sling until he fell asleep and I could return to my seat (also near the back).

Today while reading books

Me: "North, are you happy?"

North: "No."

Me: "Are you sad?"

North: "I am North."

...and that about sums up a feeling of self-esteem I would wish upon anyone.

Not a birth story link!

Health care information.

Pictures from our trip to the valley