The study just confirms what anyone with eyes can see: kids are growing up too fast. Literally. This has always worried me, especially in regards to when The Little Empress will start puberty. I hit puberty around 11 years old and got my period at 12. The idea of a child hitting puberty at 7… I can’t even fathom how a child of that age can even begin to process the changes.

Even though her pre-teen years are still far, far away, they’ll be here before we know it. I just hope that she’ll be able to enjoy being a little girl for as long as possible.

A friend of mine just linked an article about a McD’s hamburger: 1996 McDonalds Hamburger

The post was originally published in 2008 but honestly, the message speaks for itself. That just ain’t natural.

It also makes my heart hurt that in America, there are thousands, if not millions of Americans, who have had to decide between being able to keep food on their tables or buy the medicine that will allow them to live.

We went for years without health insurance. Why? Because our jobs neither offered it nor could we afford what it would take from our checks if it could. Fresh out of college, struggling to make ends meet, every penny meant the difference between a roof over our head or none. At that point in our lives, health insurance was a luxury that we simply couldn’t afford. Heaven forbid that we go to the doctor when sick. A doctor’s office visit without insurance? Close to $100. That doesn’t include non-insurance covered prescriptions, even a generic could cost more than $20. Follow up visit? Another $100. And no insurance meant that everything was due at time of service.  And that doesn’t include any lost wages from missing a day of work.

And surgery without insurance? Oh dear god. Before we were married, The Hubs had to have surgery. This simple outpatient surgery would have cost us everything we had and then some. Only due to an extremely generous family contribution were we able to pay for the surgery and even then, I had to nearly empty my 401k to pay the remainder.

There are so many Americans out there who have been denied health care because of pre-existing conditions.  Maybe I’m thinking too logically here but folks with pre-existing conditions may need that insurance most of all to help them with their health care costs.

And how can we call ourselves a civilized country when you can survive cancer but lose your home because your medical bills have bankrupt you?

So yeah, for the record — I am glad health care reform passed. It may not be a perfect bill but it is a step in the right direction. I fail to see how universal health care is anything but a boon to our society.

Children were born at home for thousands of years before modern obstetrics so a return to this makes sense to me. While I personally would not consider homebirth for myself — I labored for 24+ hours at home, without pain relief and by the time I got to the hospital, I was literally crying for some relief at 5cm. I <3′ed my epidural, yes I did. — I would gladly defend any other woman’s right to do so.

Toddler Sampler Platter

At nearly two years old,  I’m rather lucky that The Little Empress isn’t actually picky about what she eats. She loves all types of fruits, veggies, cheese and the like. She’s never met a noodle she didn’t like. Like her Daddy, she loves pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) so much that she’ll happily slurp the last of his noodles from his bowl, no matter how red with Sriracha it is. Honestly, she has a better palate than some adults I know!

Despite her adventurous palate, she’s not much of an eater. On good days, we can encourage her to eat more than a few bites of her meal before she’s off to explore again. On bad days, I swear she survives off of nursing and air. I know, I know — toddlers don’t require nearly as many calories as adults but she’s such a delicate little thing that I can’t help but worry that she’s getting enough food. At her last well child check, she tipped the scales (fully clothed) at just under 22lbs which was at the tail end of growth curve. The doctor wasn’t really worried since she hadn’t actually slipped down where she normally is on the curve but still encouraged us to let her eat as much as she wants. He even gave us the green light to let her have things like milkshakes and hamburgers which could help her gain some much needed weight.

For better or worse, TLE isn’t overly interested in fast food or other “calorie dense” foods though she does like things like milkshakes and soda. Instead of encouraging her to prefer foods she shouldn’t like, we’ve opted to just allow her to graze throughout the day on healthier options. I try to set out a sampler plate full of fun foods that I know she likes, with a few healthier “calorie dense” options.

On the plate above, I’ve got two cut up strawberries, half a clementine, a stick of cheese and whole grain mini-sandwiches filled with Nutella. I refill the plate as needed, letting her pick and choose what she’ll eat for any given amount of time. This system seems to work out well for us. She loves having a choice for finger foods and it helps give me peace of mind that she’s eating a (fairly) balanced diet.

What tricks do you use to get your picky little one to eat? Tell me in the comments!

“I don’t want my kid catching H1N1 yet I refuse to get them the very vaccination that my prevent it.” Does that line of thinking make sense to you? It doesn’t to me.

For what it’s worth, I think it is in every parents’ nature to be wary of anything that is being put into their child. It is a parents’ job to advocate for their children when they are too small to do so for themselves.

That being said, will The Little Empress receive the H1N1 vaccine? I don’t know — I’ll be asking her doctor what he thinks and then making a judgment call. At the moment, I’m leaning towards yes because while I don’t think that H1N1 is the Killer Flu that everyone seems to be afraid it is (THANKS MEDIA HYPE), it does sound pretty nasty and if I can spare TLE the misery of being sick, why not?

And another thing that just doesn’t make sense to me — parents that carry around anti-bacterials everywhere to “guard against the cold and the flu.” Buh? Hello — the cold and flu are caused by VIRUSES. Anti-bacterial gel won’t stop a virus. Just saying.

Scarily, it also made it nearly impossible to properly care for The Little Empress who is a very mobile, climbing toddler. Luckily, The Hubster ™ was home along with my sister and a guest so I did have some help.  Still, being rendered temporarily immobile was my worst nightmare come true.

Having struggled with my weight for years and knowing that health problems are on the horizon if not already here, I’ve always worried about my ability to keep up with an increasingly mobile, energetic toddler. As she’s learned to walk, run and climb, I’ve found myself hard pressed to keep up with her. I am tired, almost exhausted, much of the time. Sometimes it is hard to run after her.

But being practically immobile for much of the weekend was a very harsh wakeup call. I could barely move to help her get what she wanted or needed, much less to pick her up or do things with her. I could barely kneel down to change her diaper and there were more than a few times this weekend that I’ve seen her climb into a potentially dangerous situation and I could barely stop her.

While I don’t necessarily know that whatever I sprained was caused by my being overweight, I know that being overweight certainly didn’t help. I feel unhealthy and I worry about the health problems I’ll face. I know I need to get healthy so I can continue to be The Little Empress’ protector, to keep her safe from harm and play with her all the time. I couldn’t do that this weekend and that hurt so badly. I need to get healthy so it won’t happen again.

Calorie King is also another favorite of online dieters. I used this back around 2002 or 2003. I loved it back then because I had a Palm based PDA and Calorie King also had a Palm application. As I remember it, it was a great program and easy to use. The downside is that it is also a paid site and paid program.

SparkPeople is the site that I’ve used since about 2007 and I love it. I has a very comprehensive and easy to use food and exercise logging system with a huge community. A plus that they added within the past year or so is the ability to create custom meals, ie. if you eat smaller meals rather than three large meals a day. For iPhone users, there is also an iPhone app which is great for on the go though it doesn’t detect the extra custom meals if you’ve added them. SparkPeople also has a sister site called BabyFit which is geared towards pregnant women and post-partum mothers to help establish healthy eating and safe exercise habits during those important months. Best of all, both sites are FREE.

Why am I mentioning all this? Despite being feverish and suffering from a bout of bronchitis, The Little Empress is hell bent on being mobile and getting into absolutely everything imaginable. And Mommy is having a tough time keeping up. I have zero energy by the afternoon and that’s when TLE is just getting started. I have about 60lbs to lose and I know if I lose even 15lbs that will make a difference with my energy level. I can’t let myself be the Mommy that can’t play with her little girl because she is too tired! So I’ve decided to start up my Spark People account again, keep track of my food, exercise and try to stay motivated.

So if anyone is interested, my SparkPeople page is here. My SP blog feed is available on the Mommy Misadventures sidebar or here.