little butterfly

Daddy and our little witch

Gram and Magoo at bedtime

Magoo declared these her "dragon" boots and dress

getting ready for the cold

Jr's hat and Mommy's shoes

She got a big-girl bed for her birthday.

birthday ring and silk crown

toadstool cupcakes

I've been living part Paleo, part Neo for the last year or so, and I'm feeling like it's time to give up the grain for good and truly practice what I preach.  So here's to it:

Paleo specific sites I read:

• Robb Wolf
• Whole9
• Everyday Paleo
• Feasting On Fitness
• Hunt.Gather.Love

Krist Amory (of Feasting on Fitness) also has a Resources link that is useful

I'm a fan of The Food Renegade, (which, while not 'Paleo' per se, has a load of useful links and recipes that qualify as Paleo) and Mark's Daily Apple, also not precisely Paleo, but has a LARGE number of recipes that, if not Paleo, can be easily modified.

I'm also looking at flexing my Amazon Prime muscle a bit and getting some shipments of coconut products (milk and shredded) if I can find the appropriate quality, otherwise, it will be down to the co-op with me.

In case I haven't said it recently, I love you.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family tree search - Vintage photos

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

The stats
weight: 22lb 4oz
height: 30in

Likes
taking baths
drinking from Mom's cup
playing on Sister's bed
her Pup

Dislikes
sitting still for a change
crawling on the grass
anyone else getting Mom's attention

Some accomplishments
some new signs: help, bath, horse, phone, bear
some new words: uck, some, dat (that), neigh neigh
She is cruising and climbing and just got three new teeth in the past month. She initiates games like peek-s-boo and chase and likes to "honk" your nose.

Some recent pictures

first birthday

An epidemiologist might be seriously concerned with these growth numbers.  A virologist would probably question what the CDC is doing to stop the growth of such a rampant disease and health care workers everywhere might be in a panic over treatability and isolation.

A Weighty Issue: Mass. Schools' 'Fat' Report Cards Crossing the Line?

So, first of all, the school district shouldn't be allowed to classify a child as obese until they can prove that it's not their deadly food and lack of physical education that are the main contributors.

In it's current accept usage,  BMI is improperly referenced as a measure of obesity rather than an observational starting point for individual data collection and analysis. To suggest that BMI is the MEASURE by which a child is called "fat" is scientifically improper as it describes a scale along a statistical norm and NOT the basis of individual measure. The only way I would accept BMI as a data point is if it was corroborated with correlating individual data, eg. Body Fat % and Lean Body Mass. "Because Shelby's BMI was observed to be on the high side of normal for her age group, we tested her body composition (caliper method) and determined that she was 23% body fat, which is high for a child her age[...]" 

Personally, I would argue to tell the school nurse (who should know this already) that BMI is irrelevant and useless without corroborating, individually unique data. The only body composition numbers that are important for measuring health and fitness for an INDIVIDUAL are Body Fat Percentage and Lean Muscle Mass.

While everyone SHOULD be upset with this gross misconduct, the story is pomp and bluster, and I believe that they are 'angry' for the wrong reasons. While the patterns for healthy eating habits and fitness start at home, our children spend 80% of their time at school, and the environment is toxic and sedentary. IF FoxNews and the parents were REALLY upset there would be a LARGE outcry against the irrelevance of the measurement and the environment that put them all in this situation, instead of politically charged BS about 'who's invading/violating whose rights.'

I would say that a healthy country (in just about any sense of the word) starts with a healthy family. Our schools should not be the enforcers regarding our kids health, but they should definitely be the primary benefactor. Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. The prevalence of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% in 1980 to 19.6% in 2008. The prevalence of obesity among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 18.1%. [1]

What's the financial impact on our Health Care Industry when there is a pediatric load on the system with adult issues (High blood sugar, type II diabetes, high cholesterol, and all the other hyperinsulinemia induced diseases)? When the cost of a patient over a lifetime can almost TRIPLE because of the childhood onset of obesity related diseases (which doesn't even CONSIDER the rise of 'elective' treatments related to obesity on the rise with teens) , I think this is actually one of the easiest to solve issues taxing the entire system, and America is to much a coward to fix it.

Americans dig their own graves with their teeth.

Consider it's national security impact.  ABC news carried a story about an opinion from Mission: Readiness (a think tank of retired military officers)called “Too Fat To Fight” (check out the Counter Think Comic) detailing a new report that says that more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.

All this to say that while I don't think a school should be testing kids for obesity without being a MAJOR contributor to the solution, I also think we all need to take responsibility for the health and wellness of our children, lead by example and stop killing our kids with bad information, poisonous food and no motivation.

She needs a hug, needs a favor, needs to go to the bathroom, absolutely needs to go nudie-feet.  She's finicky, strong willed, strong tempered and strong headed, and when she falls, she's “all right!”

She loves her bobby (her silky blanket), her buddy (her eeyore doll), her sister, her momma, her daddy, and the neighbor, Tyler, who just moved in. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, but won't eat her lunch, she'll run to her bedroom because she needs to go pee and will pop into a headstand on a whim. She's all butter fly wings and lightning bolts

She call's the song “She was the prize” “Daddy's Girl” because I changed the words to describe her. She's pink, powerful, blue eyed, brown haired and mine.

You've made it through another year successfully, Sara.  I love you, I miss you more every day, and I'm honored that you choose to spend your years with me.

She has several good friends that she "loves."
She can dress herself and is finally potty trained. Whew.
Rachel sings "Right Into Love" while she brushes her teeth.
She's been having bad dreams. It's really sad.
She loves to go "nudie feet." In fact, she loves to go nudie buns too.
Rachel enjoys playing outside every chance she gets and has been known to escape the house without permission.
I think she spends half the day in a headstand.
She loves it when I tell her stories at night.
She LOVES her Lisa.
She sits on the toilet backward to go pee.
Rachel can climb the cupboards, open all the childproof locks, and even open childproof caps on the medicine (that was scary to find out).
She's excited to go to school in the fall.
Rachel loves going to the pool and the splash park.

self portrait

relaxing

ready for the pool

Rachel and her Lisa

my Magoo