Bath time!
Blueberry muffins for breakfast....(check out Tristan eyeing his hopeful breakfast)
My favorite view....
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
And we're back....
Some pictures of me and my boy having a picnic at the zoo....
Bath time!
Blueberry muffins for breakfast....(check out Tristan eyeing his hopeful breakfast)
My favorite view....
Bath time!
Blueberry muffins for breakfast....(check out Tristan eyeing his hopeful breakfast)
My favorite view....
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Time to lighten things up around here
Okay that last post was depressing me, so decided to go with some of the latest pics on my phone...
Welp, nevermind....I'm getting this weird message that my pics can't be uploaded and I've tried twice, so now I give up because I have Mountain St. Hunton on my living room couch (what I call loads of clean laundry) and a sleeping baby so not going to waste anymore time. Looks like we just all have to be depressed...
Welp, nevermind....I'm getting this weird message that my pics can't be uploaded and I've tried twice, so now I give up because I have Mountain St. Hunton on my living room couch (what I call loads of clean laundry) and a sleeping baby so not going to waste anymore time. Looks like we just all have to be depressed...
Friday, April 11, 2008
Sad study report for our generation and the next....
This morning, I came across this report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I've copied the story below, but a new study by the CDC says that 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have suffered from neglect or abuse within the first week of life. Neglect is defined by not meeting the basic needs of a child such as shelter, clothing, feeding and access to medical care. A large percentage of these infants were cases of newborn drug addiction and in part may reflect the lack of health care/prenatal care/education available to their parents.
This breaks my heart. That an innocent child, just like Adler, would be born into a situation completely out of their control and not have access to the same care and treatment from doctors as Adler had. What can we do to change this?
ATLANTA — About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or abused, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.
Nearly a third of the victims were one week old or younger when the maltreatment was reported, government researchers said Thursday. The study focused on children younger than 1.
Most of these cases involved neglect, not physical abuse. In the case of the newborns, experts said the data suggests drug abuse by the mother may have been the cause for reports of neglect, but they couldn't be certain.
Maternal drug abuse is often discovered through blood tests while newborns are still in the hospital, CDC researchers and others said.
"That is the story here," said Dr. Howard Dubowitz, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and neglect during the study period Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006. About 30,000 of those cases were newborns aged one week or younger.
The information came from a national database of cases verified by protective services agencies in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Other studies have looked at national child abuse and neglect cases, but this is believed to be the first to focus on infants, said study co-author Rebecca Leeb, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The results mirror what a study in Canada found, said Leeb, a CDC epidemiologist.
"We certainly were distressed" by the study's results, said Ileana Arias, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
"It's a picture you don't want to imagine — that this number of infants is being mistreated," Arias added.
Only about 13 percent of the newborn cases were counted as physical abuse, meaning the large majority involved neglect. Federal officials define neglect as a failure to meet a child's basic needs, including housing, clothing, feeding and access to medical care.
The counted cases did not include new parents stumbling their way through breast-feeding or making other rookie mistakes.
"Things like abandonment and newborn drug addiction would qualify as neglect, not things like parents learning how to be parents," Leeb said.
Medical professionals identified about 65 percent of the maltreated newborns to protective services staff. The others came from law enforcement, relatives, friends, neighbors and from protective services staff.
The neglect cases include situations in which medical professionals conclude that a child got sick or didn't correctly develop because parents didn't get recommended medical care. Those cases were not necessarily life-threatening, noted David Finkelhor, who directs the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
Finkelhor said the cases might in part reflect families who don't have adequate health insurance. The study's authors said they don't have information to verify that theory.
Both Finkelhor and Dubowitz have worked with the same database the researchers used. But Dubowitz pointed to data showing that most of the neglect cases in newborns were reported in the first two days of life.
That is a time when results from blood tests of mother and child come back and are often shared with protective services. Such tests would indicate whether the mother was abusing drugs.
However, Dubowitz said data on potential explanations behind neglect cases is skimpy, so it is difficult to draw conclusions.
But more prenatal care and drug treatment services would seem like a wise way to address the problem, he added.
The study didn't include data on fatal abuse and neglect. But federal officials said about 500 infants under age 1 died of abuse or neglect during the study period.
The CDC collaborated on the study with the federal Administration for Children and Families. The research was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
This breaks my heart. That an innocent child, just like Adler, would be born into a situation completely out of their control and not have access to the same care and treatment from doctors as Adler had. What can we do to change this?
ATLANTA — About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or abused, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.
Nearly a third of the victims were one week old or younger when the maltreatment was reported, government researchers said Thursday. The study focused on children younger than 1.
Most of these cases involved neglect, not physical abuse. In the case of the newborns, experts said the data suggests drug abuse by the mother may have been the cause for reports of neglect, but they couldn't be certain.
Maternal drug abuse is often discovered through blood tests while newborns are still in the hospital, CDC researchers and others said.
"That is the story here," said Dr. Howard Dubowitz, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and neglect during the study period Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006. About 30,000 of those cases were newborns aged one week or younger.
The information came from a national database of cases verified by protective services agencies in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Other studies have looked at national child abuse and neglect cases, but this is believed to be the first to focus on infants, said study co-author Rebecca Leeb, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The results mirror what a study in Canada found, said Leeb, a CDC epidemiologist.
"We certainly were distressed" by the study's results, said Ileana Arias, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
"It's a picture you don't want to imagine — that this number of infants is being mistreated," Arias added.
Only about 13 percent of the newborn cases were counted as physical abuse, meaning the large majority involved neglect. Federal officials define neglect as a failure to meet a child's basic needs, including housing, clothing, feeding and access to medical care.
The counted cases did not include new parents stumbling their way through breast-feeding or making other rookie mistakes.
"Things like abandonment and newborn drug addiction would qualify as neglect, not things like parents learning how to be parents," Leeb said.
Medical professionals identified about 65 percent of the maltreated newborns to protective services staff. The others came from law enforcement, relatives, friends, neighbors and from protective services staff.
The neglect cases include situations in which medical professionals conclude that a child got sick or didn't correctly develop because parents didn't get recommended medical care. Those cases were not necessarily life-threatening, noted David Finkelhor, who directs the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
Finkelhor said the cases might in part reflect families who don't have adequate health insurance. The study's authors said they don't have information to verify that theory.
Both Finkelhor and Dubowitz have worked with the same database the researchers used. But Dubowitz pointed to data showing that most of the neglect cases in newborns were reported in the first two days of life.
That is a time when results from blood tests of mother and child come back and are often shared with protective services. Such tests would indicate whether the mother was abusing drugs.
However, Dubowitz said data on potential explanations behind neglect cases is skimpy, so it is difficult to draw conclusions.
But more prenatal care and drug treatment services would seem like a wise way to address the problem, he added.
The study didn't include data on fatal abuse and neglect. But federal officials said about 500 infants under age 1 died of abuse or neglect during the study period.
The CDC collaborated on the study with the federal Administration for Children and Families. The research was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Nothing lasts forever
If there is one thing I have learned in my pregnancy and year and a half of having a child, it's that nothing lasts forever. I hope I can always remember this through each stage, challenge, joy of having children. Adler has taught me so much about cherishing each moment. Even the times I feel like "is this stage ever going to end?". Like when Adler would only sleep in his swing, I thought he would be 18 and I would be carrying in his Papasan baby swing into his dorm room. Turns out it was only a couple weeks. Good thing too-this was a close one. Then, it was I could only get him to sleep by bouncing him sideways, with a pacifier in his mouth. Then, only when upright and patting his back. Then a book and a song. Now only a book.
He doesn't even want the song any more. I mean, I know I don't have the best voice or anything, but when I start singing, he starts reaching for the crib. Now he just goes to bed with no real demands other than reading a couple books. The voice must be worse than I realize....
All of this to say, nothing lasts forever. I almost wish I had a little bit more time with him tonight. Have him fall asleep on my shoulder, listen to his breathing. I know I did cherish those night times together because I knew in just a few short years, I wouldn't have the chance to put him to bed this way. I guess I didn't realize that the short years were really short months. I hope I can keep this perspective through potty training, discipline, and everything else a head of us. I love Adler so much. Watching him grow up is so bitter sweet. But mostly sweet.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Adler and his friends
Remember the crying-face-picture post of Adler from his nursery? Well, after an entire semester of going to the nursery (now that we only have one more class left), Adler loves the nursery. Today, he actually reached out for the care-taker and didn't cry, fuss or even look back at me. I had to take these pictures of him sitting down like a big boy at the class table for his morning snack. It was just too cute! We start Mother's Morning Out in May!
D's Bachelorette Party
Just got back from a blast of a weekend with my best friends in Texas. We all met up in Austin to celebrate Deanna's wedding coming up in May! We had the best time by the Four Season's pool, dinner at ZTejas, dancing at Union Corner, and brunch at Moonshine Grill. I've got pictures to upload from my point-and -shoot and will post those later. Here's one of me and D in the bathroom at ZTejas.
Making the switch
Good-bye old friend. You served me well late nights in college - on crackers, banana or just straight for the jar. But you are no good for me. I can do better. So, this is it for us. I hope we can still be friends. But there is someone else. It just feels more Natural. See, it's not you, it's me. I'm trying to make better choices for the other people in my life. You are just going to have to take your fully hydrogenated vegetable oils somewhere else. See ya 'round...
Catching up old pics
I've been behind on my blogging, but here are some pics from when Shelley and Miles came to visit from Asheville. We had to make a trip to Trader Joe's so Shelley could stock up on some of her favorites she can't get in NC. It was a great weekend and had such a great visit with the Masons.
You know you're a mom when....
Your morning routine consists of powdering the oil out of your head so you can go another day without a shower
Monday, April 07, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
I'm leavin', on a jet plane....
I'm headed for Austin, Texas today for my BFF's bachelorette party! Stephen is having a boys' weekend with Adler! This will be their first "real" weekend together and I know they will have a blast! I'll be seeing all my best friends from Texas this weekend and I can't wait! I'll post pics later. Have a great weekend!
Thursday, April 03, 2008
One of my All-Time Favorite Pics
I love this pic. I think my all time favorite is the black and white one below from Easter (the shirtless one in the window)
Hiking with Adler
We took Adler hiking a couple weeks ago to Sweetwater Park. I think I blogged about it, but here are the pics...
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Jasmine Hill Gardens
Stephen has all the pictures from Easter, so we'll post them later, but here are some pictures from a trip I took to Jasmine HIll Gardens and Outdoor Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. I went there on Tuesday to visit Katie and Emma at Katie's mom's house. It was a short trip, but fun to get to hang out and let the kids run around together. We went to this museum on Wednesday and it was absolutely gorgeous! Everything was in bloom, they opened the grounds for us and one other group, so it felt very exclusive. Almost like "the Secret Garden". I could have stayed there all day. Adler loved running around while I chased him. Luckily, he wore himself out and slept all the way back to Atlanta.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Flying to Texas!
Catching a flight to Texas tomorrow morning. Please say a prayer for our family! Adler has his own seat! I think he will do awesome! Thanks for your prayers!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Other things we are practicing
Wearing our Easter outfit with knee high socks....he looks so cute! I'm having to come up with a different shirt to wear under his suit because the one that goes with the outfit doesn't fit him anymore. Yes, the outfit a 2T, yes my son is only 16 months. It's like buttoning him up into a straight jacket...so I'm trying to be creative to find something to go underneath that still looks right. Any suggestions?
Practice makes almost perfect
We have been practicing eating dinner at the table as a family for the past week....all the while with good manners. Using a plate, silver ware, and no food throwing (Adler that is). I was so surprised to see how much a week of hard work would pay off when we went out to eat on Saturday night. Adler was such a big boy and did such a great job and we barely left any mess for the restaurant! That was one good night, we'll see how the next night goes!
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