Not Sitting 'Well'

Many of you have heard the numerous news stories about the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. Is it just me or does the news get exponentially worse every day? We get new information daily, even hourly, that says there's more oil leaking than originally thought. I keep thinking surely they will get a handle on this, right? Then I read a script about how BP's latest effort to contain the gush of oil has failed. On top of that, I have the ability to watch a 24-hour live feed of the camera positioned on the floor of the Gulf at the heart of the leak. It plays continuously in our newsroom. It's quite depressing and disturbing to watch.





Here's a link to PBS, they have a live video feed online.

What do you guys think? How are you affected by this? Does it make you think twice about stopping at a BP gas station?

I'd love to hear from you.

Amanda
akrenz@myabc5.com

ABC5 Baby Shower and a QUESTION

The gals from work had a shower for me last weekend. Sorry, no pictures, I forgot my camera and apparently so did everybody else. We had brunch at Granite City, played games and opened gifts. Christina Palladino organized everything and was a wonderful host. I have to show off one of my gifts, even though they were all cute and VERY appreciated. Have you heard of a diaper cake?

I've seen them before, but was so excited to get one. Christina and a couple other gals ordered one for me. Here's a photo from the website where they ordered it, I didn't think to snap a picture of mine before I dismantled it but you get idea, what a great gift!

Here's my question:

Should I get a double stroller? I will have a newborn and a three-year-old and can't decide if this is something we would use. I think about how handy it would be to go on walks or take to the mall, but they just look so cumbersome. So, I'm gladly taking thoughts, opinions and suggestions.

Amanda

akrenz@myabc5.com

Big Weekend

(picture above, my brother Mitchell's 19th birthday, yes that's me in curlers)

This weekend was a big weekend for our family. We left for Wisconsin on Friday. Saturday is when all the festivities began. My mom Jenny, graduated magna cum laude from University of Wisconsin Eau Claire with an art degree. All of her six children and three grandchildren got to see her walk across the stage and cheer her on, we are so proud of her.
Right after her graduation we ended up taking Lydia to the ER after a rash spread all over her face, turns out she has dermatitis. It's common and they treated it with hydrocortisone cream. I guess we are "those" parents. Oh well better safe than sorry.
On Sunday morning we all had a huge breakfast cooked up by my dad and then had a 19th birthday party for my brother Mitchell. The real excitement happened after church. We had to spin all kinds of lies to get my dad to leave church right away and then get him back there an hour later for his huge surprise retirement party. His students past and present, parents, friends and family worked for months to put on the surprise. And boy did we get him! He was shocked, humbled and overwhelmed by the 400 plus people that showed up! He's retiring from teaching Russian and Algebra for years at my Alma Mater Chippewa Falls Senior High School. When he retires the Russian program will also be ending. The paper and TV stations all did stories on him and the program ending.

So it was a really fun, eventful weekend and by the time we got back on Tuesday afternoon we were beat!

Rachel Pierce
(Picture above, my mom walking to her seat, picture below my dad getting a quilt with pictures of some of his students.)


(Picture above, folks gathering right before they surprised my dad, below is my brother Mitchell holding my daughter Lydia.)

Play Date

Love at first site, okay maybe not but it was a fun afternoon for us moms. Lydia is only four weeks old so I won't give her too hard of a time for not being that great of a host. She had her first play date with our church friend Caleb, who is exactly one week older. So maybe the babies just slept in our arms the entire time and it was more of a play date for the moms. It was great to chat with Caleb's mom Amanda about everything babies since we are going through the exact same things right now. We are even both using cloth diapers. We swapped stories and just enjoyed a nice afternoon together taking care of our lil' ones. Soon the kidos will enjoy the play dates too.

Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com

My First Mother's Day

Today was my first Mother's Day, it was very special. It started with dozens of my friends and family sending me text messages wishing me a happy Mother's Day. Then we went to church for baby dedication Sunday. Lydia along with three other babies in the church were dedicated. Then we went out to lunch. This was Lydia's first time in a restaurant, she did okay.
When we got home my husband and sister surprised me my favorite ice cream cake! After that I spent the day just relaxing. My husband and I took the baby and dogs for a walk, played scrabble and now we're going to watch a movie. My kind of day! I hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day too! I sure feel blessed!

Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com

Tulip Time

We have lived here in Iowa for almost two years and I've been trying to get to Tulip Time in Pella each year. Well this year we made it happen. We bundled up our three week old baby and took the hour drive to see the sites.
We were there for about two hours. In that time we made our way through all the delicious foods booths, great shops and went to the top of the huge windmill. The parade was fun, I just love all the costumes!
I, of course, left with a half dozen Dutch letters along with numerous other pastries...boy do I love Pella! Even though it was very chilly it was so worth it!
Thank you to my sister Natalie for taking these pictures.

Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com

Great Grandma

My grandmother Hazel is now 89 years old, my grandfather Harold passed away last year. It's hard to talk about but we know my grandma's time here on earth is short. So with that in mind my husband, our new daughter, my sister and I headed up to Wisconsin to see my grandma. Traveling with a two week old in a car for five plus hours is not fun. I felt like we were packing up the entire house for our four days away. It was worth it for Lydia and her great grandmother to meet.
The trip up was a little rough but once we got to my parents house in Wisconsin it was pretty easy. There were so many hands to help with Lydia; my parents, my sisters Jessica and Natalie and my hubby and I. The trip back to Iowa was better but we were all beat by the time we made it home.

Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com

Pampers Problem

My husband and I swear by Pampers diapers, until now. Our son barely had a single diaper rash as a baby and they seemed to fit him the best.

However, after Christina's story on ABC5, and now a federal investigation into the new "Dry Max" Pampers, I think I'll reconsider brands for my new baby boy.

In my ideal world I'd love to do cloth diapers, but realistically I won't. I hear and read the statistics about what percentage of landfills are made up of disposable diapers and it's appalling. Is there a compromise here? What other suggestions do you have for diapers? I'm going to do some research of my own and hopefully find some that are somewhat more environmentally friendly, yet convenient.

Please pass along your suggestions.

Amanda

akrenz@myabc5.com

What would you do?

One of my first posts on this blog was about a massive crib recall. I was so happy the crib we had at home was NOT the kind that was being recalled. Well, today I got some bad news:


From http://www.cpsc.gov/:


"The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is announcing the recall of all Simplicity full-size cribs with tubular metal mattress-support frames....


CPSC has received a report of a one-year-old child from North Attleboro, Mass. who suffocated when he became entrapped between the crib mattress and the crib frame in April 2008. CPSC is aware of 13 additional incidents involving the recalled cribs collapsing due to the metal mattress- support frame bending or detaching, including one child entrapment that did not result in injury, and one child who suffered minor cuts to his head when his mattress collapsed and he fell out of the crib.


CPSC staff urges parents and caregivers to stop using these cribs immediately and find an alternative, safe sleeping environment for their baby. Do not attempt to fix these cribs."


Guess what? My son slept in a crib like this for three years (it converts to a toddler bed). We now have it set up in our nursery for our new baby expected in about a month.


Part of me feels like it's a sturdy crib, we've been so pleased with it and have coordinated all the other nursery furniture around it. But what's more important? I guess we'll be shopping around for a new crib. Just what we wanted to do six weeks before I'm due.


What would you do?


Amanda
akrenz@myabc5.com