g.q.'s mommy . . . the life of a real housewife

Monday, May 21, 2012

take me out to the ball game...

Opening day for our baseball season was Saturday. It was a gorgeous day...maybe a touch on the hot side, but weather was ball game perfect!

GQ has grown into a good little ball player. His is quite the slugger, a 2 for 3 record on Saturday. (If you're like me and not sure what that means or are slowly learning, it means he got two hits and made it to base of the three times he was up.) I would say he was 3 for 3, because he hit all three times, just didn't make it to 1st base in time on one hit, but the husband tells me that's not correct statistics. Those are mom statistics. :)

There is still lots of room for improvement for the little bug, he still needs to feel more comfortable knowing where the play is and how to play his position, but that will come with time. It was the first game and for only about four practices, with a gang of 12-13 first and second graders, they did a fantastic job. And huge cudos to his coach and the other parent volunteers (including the husband) for helping teach the kiddos!

Here is my very favorite picture from Saturday's game... it shows what this game is all about:

FUN! Look at the smile on his face... priceless!

Photo credits to my father-in-law, thanks for shooting the game.

Monday, April 23, 2012

car seat check...

Mommy and daddy friends, the American Academy of Pediatrics has changed their guidelines for car seats. Much to my little bugs dismay, the AAP's guidelines are closer to mine. I told GQ he'd be in a car seat until high school if I had anything to say about it. Now the AAP is recommending they're in a high-back booster until their 4'9" tall (8-12 years old.) So not high school, but junior high, I guess. :)

AAP's new car seat guidelines change rear facing & booster rules

By The_Stir | Work + Money – Mon, Mar 21, 2011 4:48 PM EDT

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Everything you thought you knew about car seats is wrong. Okay, not everything, but things have changed and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced new guidelines today. And it's big news! The recommendation is that children rear face longer and they also changed the details for kids in boosters.

More from The Stir: 7 Rules for Buying & Installing a Car Seat

It was believed that 1 year and 20 pounds was the benchmark for forward facing babies in car seats, despite evidence elsewhere that that was still dangerously early. Now, hopefully, with new guidelines, parents and doctors can get on board and spread the word about the safest practices for children. Here are the details.

New Rear-facing Recommendation: Parents are to keep children rear-facing until 2 years old, or until they reach the maximum height and weight for the seat as noted in the manual.

Safe Kids agrees. Two years is a goal easily met, considering even some of the lowest cost seats now rear-face until 40 pounds. When your baby outgrows their infant carrier, that is when you buy a convertible seat that rear-faces longer, not a forward-facing seat, which you can put upright up to 30 degrees when kids are bigger with better head control, often making them take up less space than infant seats.

New Boostering Recommendation: Children should ride in a belt-positioning booster (that means a high-back!) until they are at least 4 foot, 9 inches, AND 8-12 years old.

Jennifer Hoekstra, the Safe Kids Program Coordinator at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, shared:

In working with parents, we educate them beyond the law and share with them the best practice for keeping their child safe. We strongly agree with the new AAP policy and support the extended rear-facing limits as well as the new booster seat advice.

It's best to keep children in their harnessed seat until they outgrow it, which is into elementary years with the height and weight of most convertible seats and even harness-to-booster seats these days. But they will outgrow it and go into a booster, and eventually they need to meet all points in a 5-point test before they're ready to sit in a car's seat without a booster of any kind. Remember that these belts are designed to fit an average adult. Best practice is also waiting until children are 80-100 pounds as well.

More from The Stir: The Forward-Facing Car Seat Controversy Continued

Beyond that, all kids need to stay out of the front until they're at least 13 years old.

While 2 years or 8 years may now be the minimums, we don't parent by minimums, do we? Buying a high quality (not necessarily high cost!) seat to start, after you do all your research to choose the best seat for your child, can easily help you meet these recommendations.

Make sure you're using the car seats correctly, too. There's a lot of intricacies for both harnessed seats and boosters. When in doubt, find a Safe Kids inspection station or event and get checked out by a tech. And hopefully more and more pediatricians, with these new recommendations, will be on board as well, and we can maybe put an end to vehicle related-injuries being the number one cause of death in kids ages 2-14.

Are you glad the recommendations are finally being updated across the board?

Image via MelanieLouise/CafeMom

Written by Christie Haskell for CafeMom's blog, The Stir.

nothing cuter...

than a group of 1st and 2nd graders at their first baseball practice of the season. The team is filled with kids that are naturally talented, those that don't care how well they play but they want to play and have fun and those that aren't so sure they want to play...they're testing the waters to see if they like the game they're going to learn. Seeing them out in the field w/their ill-fitting hats, new cleats that aren't quite broken in and holding their mitt open ready to catch a ball that is coming at their face, wondering if maybe they should just step aside and let it fall or see if it hits the mitt.

Can't wait to see how the season goes....hoping it's filled with lots of friends, games, and lessons about winning gracefully and losing gracefully.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

a new chapter...

My photo a day challenge didn't work out like I had planned. I thought I could make it all the way through to the end of the month, but it just didn't work out. Crazy life happenings got in the way and pictures didn't get taken. I will try this again though, when life calms a bit.

Why is life crazy? Because it's currently boxed up and on a truck from the west coast making it's way to Ohio. We've moved over GQ's spring break back to Ohio, back to family and friends, back to cold weather and rain. I would say I love rain, because I do and I missed it living in the desert, but the welcome rain we received included hail, and I'm not a fan of hail. I like a nice steady rain, preferably when it's warm and I can sit and enjoy the smell and sound.

The move has been good, but we're still figuring things out...finding that something we thought would be fine on the moving truck might have been better in our suitcase, but what can you do? Nothing really, except wait for the moving truck to arrive. GQ is missing his Legos but enjoying grandma and grandpa and knowing that we get to see more family on Sunday! And all the stuff GQ is missing now will seem like a big box of new stuff when it arrives and he unpacks...exciting all over again.

Being close to family is going to be an adjustment of sorts for us, but it's going to be a good one! Since we've been a family we've always lived at least two hours in the car away, if not states and time zones away. It's something I've been looking forward to and I think GQ, too. Hubby is going to miss the warmer temps a bit, he seriously dislikes Ohio winters, but hoping next winter is as mild as what they had this year. And hubby being close to his sports cities should make the pain of winter's bitter-cold wind a little less painful.

Tomorrow begins the unpacking phase, then Wednesday begins GQ's new school. Lots of excitement and change going on. And with family so close now, I would like to get back to working, so a job search begins, too. I miss working but loved the seven years I had at home with my bug. Worth every sacrifice we made.

And so we begin, a new chapter in life...

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

photo a day... 18, 19 and 20

day 18 - a corner of your home

a very important corner of my home

day 19 and 20 - funny and before & after
I missed day 19 (funny) so I combined with before & after
thanks to my pooch, my before & after is funny and she's a big nerd
this is what happens if we don't remember to close the bathroom door and leave the house

Saturday, March 17, 2012

photo a day... 14, 15, 16 and 17

day 14 - clouds

the sun beginning it's decent, behind the clouds and soon to be behind the mountains

day 15 & 16 - car and sunglasses
i missed a day and i'm killing two birds w/one stone...gq made a car w/a sunglasses wearing policeman for me

day 17 - green
a little leprechaun stopped by our house last night. gq couldn't catch him but he left a note, a clue and a painting w/some chocolate treats for him.