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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Makayla and some green living tips


Do you think this is how Makayla feels?
LOL.

Oh well...since I don't write in a baby book for her, this is the next best thing :)  Yesterday Makayla turned 11 months old, yikes! She is growing and growing.  This past week, her morning naps were 3-4 hours long and then late afternoon naps were about 2 hours.  Can't complain!  We also started giving her finger foods to feed herself.  I'm sure if I read the baby book, I could have done this a couple months ago...but, ya know, she only has 2 teeth and I just thought she needed more to be able to eat stuff?  She proved me wrong.  This morning she had a whole wheat pancake with blueberries and didn't skip a beat trying to get the pieces in her mouth.  Now mommy on the other hand is having a hard time with it.  I watch her like a hawk thinking with every bite she is going to start choking and I will need to do the heimlach on her.  It makes me a nervous wreck?!  Why can't i just puree her food until she's like 13 and has all her permanent teeth? Oh i'm a fun mom aren't I?

Last year at this time, I was looking like this....



HUGE!!! lol...look at that belly!


The size large mens tshirts were getting a bit short towards the end there(don't mind the picture back ground...obviously was at the doctors for a check up!)

So I'm on this organic/all natural kick...and I've been meaning to blog about some of the changes we are doing in the Thomas household to live a little greener.  I have to give Cornell credit, he's been pretty open and supportive of my thoughts and ideas so far.  Although tonight when I told him I wasn't going to wear deodarant anymore, just a little baking soda rubbed on my armpits, he looked at me weird.  haha.  More on that later.

So the first change we have made is the easiest.  RECYCLE.  Unlike in some states(ie MN) we don't have a recycle truck that comes to collect our recyclables every week.  Here, you actually have to choose to recycle on your own and then bring it somewhere that can take it for you.  We found that just bringing it to Walmart and doing it ourselves works best.

Next change was our laundry detergent.  I had been buying dreft for Makayla and Tide for us.  Well I found an earth friendly detergent online that is safe for us(no toxic chemicals) and the environment, and ordered it.  So far so good.  It keeps our clothes clean and soft(don't have to use fabric softener), smells pretty good, affordable, and it works for all 3 of us.  I got it on Amazon for $24.00(4 bottles total) but it looks like it went up in price for right now...
















Next change is switching to Organic whole milk from 1 percent milk.  I don't drink glasses of milk during the day...I put some in my cereal in the morning and then have maybe a small cup with lunch or dinner.  So I figure, why not have the most nutrient rich form?  I've read about all the hormones they inject in milk-producing cows to get them to produce more milk faster, and it disturbs me to think about ingesting those hormones into my body.  Plus Makayla will be drinking milk next month and I want her to have what's best.  I really, truely still think that the chemicals(from the fertilizier in the grass the cows eat) and hormones in our milk are contributing to young girls getting their periods at 7, 8, 9 years old.  That's SO young!  I've also heard great things about almond milk, anybody ever try it?

The fourth change...buying organic berries.  I found a local berry farm that took their extra berries from last season and frozen them all.  They were thrilled to have me interested in buying a few.  I ended up getting HUGE freezer size ziploc bags of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.  Yummmm.  Super great for making Makaylas baby food.

There are more changes that include homemade lotion and cleaner but we haven't used them long enough to give a good review...I will keep you updated(if your even interested)! :)