K's Big Girl Carseat and Extended Rear Facing

This is a HUGE subject for me.

After doing some research, I have decided that K will be rear facing as long as her carseat allows. Extended rear facing is something that's not so popular around my area. People I know turn their kids around right at a year, or even before.

Keeping your child rear facing is 500% safer than foward facing. No lie. A child's neck just doesn't have the strength to protect it during a wreck. A simple fender bender can snap a child's neck if they are foward facing.

I know, I know. I've been told by more than one person that I'm being stupid.

Here are the "excuses":

"She'll get bored." Yeah. I have the high maitenence child that hates the car. She screams from point A to point B 98% of the time. She never sleeps in her carseat. But, I'm not sure when and how happiness trumps safety.

"Her legs will have nowhere to go" - Yes, when you ERF, there is less leg room. However, it is so natural for a toddler to sit "indian style" (no, I don't know the politically correct way to say this, so my apologies.) I've been told that sitting like that will break her leg if we get in a wreck. Well, then so be it. I'd much rather have a broken leg than a snapped neck.

That's just 2 of the responses I've gotten so far. There's more, but those are the 2 most stated.

When I had K, I became a lot more outspoken about some of my opinions. This, is not an opinion. It is so much safer to rear face your infant/toddler. It's a fact.  The law states that an infant must be 1 year and 20 lbs, but it is in the process of being changed to 2 years and 30lbs.

It's really not a hard decision if you stop and think for a second.

Here is a video that explains it all a little better. Take a few minutes and check it out.

and for good measure, here is K in her new carseat. =]

Playdate with Miss A.

After we went swimming, we hung out at R&B's house. They have a 6 year old daughter, D, and a 10 month old daughter, A.

K and A were so amused with each other. Neither are old enough to actually "play" but we got some good photos. =]

A was trying to share her paci

First Swim

In August, we went to a friend's house to go swimming. I was really excited about taking K swimming. She loves bath time, so I figured swimming would be a huge hit.

K's first swimsuit from Hawaii!! Thank you Phelp family!!

First moment in the pool.

Relaxing

She loved the ball. We may have a future athlete.

She kept trying to put her face in the water, so finally I told B to let her. She blew bubbles!!

It's hard to tell, but she was smiling so big right here

Mommy and K

All in all I think it was a success. She loved it, and we will definitely be signing up for swimming lessons next summer. It is so important to me that she knows how to swim and float. Love my little water bug!!

Cereal and messes.

At the end of July, early August, we started cereal with K. We used rice at first, but it seemed to upset her tummy pretty bad, so she's eating oatmeal now.  She did really well for eating solids the first time. Dr. J. warned us that more might end up on her than in her tummy, but she did fantastic! I fixed a tablespoon and she ate all(most!) of it.

"I'm not so sure about this Mommy!"

Success!!

She is now eating a variety of veggies, and we just started fruit today. She does so well. It makes me sad thinking about how fast she's growing!!



Baseball!!

Ok, so for the record, I am neglecting any and all housework today in order to try and catch up on my blogging. Darn.

Alright! In July, Jake and I went on a "mini-vaca". We were supposed to go to the Condo with my parents, but Jake got a promotion (**side note: Jake got a promotion!! He is now a corporal!! Yay! So proud of him. He's already got his sights set on sgt. =] ) Anyways, Jake got a promotion, so he couldn't take that many days off work. Boo.

But, we decided to go to Dallas, do some shopping, and of course, go to 2 Ranger games. =] This was the longest I'd been away from K. So let me tell you, I was a little nervous. Alright, way more than a little. Jake's mom came to our house to watch K, and bless her heart, I left her 238572385720 pages of notes. At this point, K had been diagnosed with colic, so she was a little touchy. Things had to be done a certain way, or the night could turn disastrous.

We had a great time! I can't tell you how nice it was to get 10 hours of sleep in a row. That was the best part. Forget the shopping, forget the baseball, sleep was the best part.

Here's  a few pics from the weekend. All baseball. =]

This is Jake, waiting for batting practice. He looks excited, huh?

Mmmmm CJ Wilson. I may or may not think he's a HUGE hottie. =]

Got to watch Tommy Hunter throw before the game.

One of my favorite parts of Ranger games. The dot race!! =]

Ok, so. I suck at blogging.

Really, this is terrible. It's been 4? months since I've updated. I feel like I'm making a blank promise when I say I'm going to keep up with this. It's like my grade school diary, I only right in it when I'm supposed to be cleaning, or it's raining. Well, it's raining, and the dishes are stacking up, so I'm 2 for 2, guess it's time to write.

Let's see. I'm going to try to go in order here, but it's really probably going to be a free for all. =]

In June, we went to visit Jake's very sweet Great Grandmother Johnson. She is in the nursing home after having a bad fall at her house. I will be totally honest here, and say that I was more than a little wary about taking K to a nursing home. She was not even 3 months old and hadn't had any vaccinations yet. The paranoid me was afraid of her catching something dangerous. But, we went, and I am so very grateful we did. Here is the first moment:

Kori wasn't so sure about meeting someone new. She made this terribly sad face where her bottom lip stuck out. I thought she was going to boo-hoo. Let me just tell you also, she is a very "scheduled" baby. If she misses her nap, the whole state of Texas hears it. I was so scared of her having a meltdown in the nursing home, but she did fantastic!!

She was smiling and talking the whole time!! This next picture just made me tear up. We walked in, got to talking, and I looked over and saw this:

She had that picture of K next to her bed, and next to her Bible. It took everything I had in me to not cry right then and there. Yeah. I'm about to cry just looking at the picture.

Here, Great Great Grandmother Johnson was telling Kori something important. I can't even begin to remember what it was, but it was a life lesson. Can you see how serious the conversation is? =]

Here, is 5 generations of Johnsons/Papenthiens. Amazing. From left to right: Great Grandpa Don, Great Great Grandmother Johnson, Princess K, Grammy, and Daddy.

This is SO amazing to me. I never knew my Great Grandmother, much less my Great Great Grandmother, so I am so glad we have these photos.