Love your Blue Eyes!

As soon as we are in the parking lot after church Joel's tie comes off! He and Laura looked SOOO good together in their dark blue. I love the dress, thanks Gamze for sharing your clothes with Laura! And oh, what cute hair bows. Well thank you. I whipped them up Sunday morning when I realized that she didn't have any bows to match her dress!

Thanksgiving in Arrowhead

I wish I had been here for Thanksgiving, Joel and I missed the Polar Bear Plunge! Last year Joel braved the frigid waters of Lake Arrowhead with my aunts and uncles to do a plunge in the lake and swim to the shore! (I was pregnant so I had a GREAT excuse!) Joel had to work Fri and Sat so laura and I came up by ourselves. We heard that there was a 30% chance of snow, but no one belived it! Look what we woke up to!



We had a fun time putting up the Christmas lights, Laura was so bundled up!

Pumpkin Pie

Here is my first Pumpkin Pie! I had a little dough from the pie crust left over, so I used the mini pie cutters in Pumpkin, Leaf 1 and Leaf 2 for a decorative topping. I think it looked great! Just waiting to eat it!

Ditto

Ha Ha! This reminds me of our Christmas pictures we took last year. We drove around with our friend Liz Pollock and stopped at cool houses that were well lit. We jumped out, sat on their lawn, took some pictures, and drove away before they had time to come outside! We ended up with two favorites and so half of our friends and family got one picture, and the other half got the second picture. We would have DEFINATELY stopped at the left house for photos! Thanks again Liz!

Bundled Up

It was freaky cold last week, so while Joel got Laura dressed in the morning he picked out very warm clothes and a great hat! She was so excited! She loves to practice her standing!

Halloween Party

We had our ward halloween party last night. It was so fun! Laura had a great time! When we got home and put on her pjs, she curled up in my arms, tired out and ready for bed!

I hate to say I told you so...

The following is an article from Mira Jacob regarding the Disney recall of the baby Einstein videos. The super fabulous book "Babywise" went against the conventional grain when the authors asked that parents NOT let their children 2 and under watch tv. (Their defination of tv also includes movies and computer screens. See Becoming Baby Wise Vol 2) Children 2 and under who watch tv have a greater risk of developing ADHD and having a shorter attention span. Joel and I have tried not to let Laura watch any tv, which is difficult at times, especially if we want to watch a show and Laura is playing with her toys in the same room. But reading this makes me want to redouble my efforts!

The great Baby Einstein scam

by Mira Jacob, Shine staff

Of course it was too good to be true.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Disney is offering a refund to buyers of its ubiquitous “Baby Einstein” videos, which did not, as promised, turn babies into wunderkinds. Apparently, all those puppets, bright colors, and songs were what we had feared all along—a mind-numbing way to occupy infants.
This news has rocked the parenting world, which had embraced the videos as a miraculous child-rearing staple. Videos that make your kid smarter while you prepare dinner? Genius!
Or not. According to the article, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two years old stay away from watching screens. In the letter threatening Disney with a class-action lawsuit for "deceptive advertising," public health lawyers hired by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood cited a study which found a link between early television exposure and later problems with attention span.
For many parents, this was the most unsettling of "duh" moments, and a confirmation that nothing, when it comes to child-rearing, is as ever easy as we'd like to make it. So why were we so quick to seize on Baby Einstein videos as technological tutors?
Call it the perfect storm of parenting. Who doesn’t want to believe that there is a magical, wondrous, no-parental-guidance-required product that will turn their kids into Mensa members? The combination of our lack of time, our paranoia over our kids performance, and our faith in technology primed this generation of parents to accept the clever advertising around "Baby Einstein" as truth, just as parents before us have seized on corporal punishment, or the teachings of Dr. Spock.
Still, the idea that a caper this big could be pulled off (according to the Times, in “a 2003 study, a third of all American babies from 6 months to 2 years old had at least one 'Baby Einstein' video") is mind-boggling. Disney’s refund is about as close as we’re going to get to an actual admission that we were sold snake oil, and it casts a pall over the other "educational" toys out there.