Kanoa's new game, the library and grocery shopping

Kanoa was in the bath tub today and played a new game with me. He put his toy dolphin and sea lion in the bowl of water (which was in the tub) or on the drain or near the drain and then held out his hands as if he were saying, "Where did it go?" I said "Where's the dolphin? (or sea lion or humpback). He then picked up the toy animal(s) and I'd say "There they are! or There's the dolphin (or sea lion or humpback)! We did this over and over! We both enjoyed playing this so much!

Kanoa really enjoyed the library today. He checked out all the toys - traintable, boat to sit in, puzzles, fish tank, magnetic letters (which he took off the magnetic board and spread all over the room almost faster than I could put them back), puppets (I stuck my hand in the ape and played with him), farm house and animals, crawled through the lighthouse (to my surprise), and Katie showed him the light blinking. He made lots of happy baby exploring sounds. Glad he liked it there!

Katie might join the Maine students book award club (or something like that). You read any book from a list of varied books (all kinds...graphic novels, historical fiction, etc) and then eat pizza and go around talking about the books stating what they liked and didn't like, etc. If you read three bks or more from the 39 or so bks on the list, you can enter your favorite ones for recognition (or something like that). Anyway, she is interested and is also looking fwd to the pizza! The only thing I didn't like is that there is a chart hanging in the library where you sign up and then put a sticker by the books you read. It feels like the stickers are a prize (and we all know prizes aren't good things to reward people with!). If this were an adult group I wonder if someone would actually keep track of all the books being read by people with stickers on a wall in the library where everyone could see it. Maybe it would be the same? I wonder. Anyway, if these were younger kids, stickers and competetion might become the focus instead of the reading. However, these are fourth through 8th graders, so I bet the focus is the books and pizza! I feel sort of guilty finding fault with such a good thing...but, that's the way I am....I analyze everything! Even though I wrote all that, I am so pleased that Katie wants to join this book club and I bet she'll love it! And I am so glad my kids love going to the library!

Our day today was this: Katie got up, then Li, then me and Kanoa, then Makana. Li and Katie were downstairs. I showered (so hard to do so since Kanoa was up!) I tried to take a quick one and Kana tried to look at books by the bathroom doorway with Kanoa while I rushed. Kanoa came into the bathroom and pulled the curtain and water came out (it's okay! had a rug there and could wipe up afterward..no big deal). I was worried he'd try to climb into the bath and asked Kana to pick up the see-through Little People Farm page that got torn off. She did and he went right back to her. I finished up (but not without him doing the same one more time). We normally would've eaten, but KK called about picking up the coop order. I asked if 1:30 pm would work. That was fine. So we decided to hit the library to drop off books afterward. But now the kids wanted to stay there a bit. Had to balance chkbk and gather bks before heading to Lanita's. Picked up coop order. Came home and Katie and I put it away while others stayed in car. Went to library. Went grocery shopping. Came home. Li decided and I agreed that it was better for him to skip karate as he has a hoarse voice and was not feeling 100%. (good enough to go out - no runny nose or cough or anything, but not okay for that close contact and energy needed in karate..and he decided that on his own... wanted to stay in and eat and watch movies and chill out today - good for him listening to his body!)

When we left the grocery store, I asked Katie to take Makana's hand, but she squeezed it as they were walking....she said she was still mad at Makana for something from before! What?!? I told Katie that was NOT okay and told Kana she could hold onto the cart instead. So Kana jumped onto the side of the cart and began having a fun ride with me pulling it (and Li pushing it ...I asked him to help push it while I steer and hold baby). Kana waved and smiled at people all the way to the car. One lady waved and smiled back! Kana and Katie got into the car first. I put baby into his seat. Katie talked to Kanoa to help him feel okay in the seat (she is good at that!). Li put the groceries in the car ..all on his own...by the time I was done putting baby in there, he was practically done and then asked if he could put the cart away by himself. Okay! Thanks!! On the way home Katie said she was sorry, but didn't feel well enough to help bring in the groceries and needed to use the bathroom, but she'd bring in the library books. Li and I brought in the groceries. We left baby in the car (he was sleeping). We left the van door open and the garage and house doors open too in case he woke up. We unpacked and put away and started Amy's spinach pizza, spud puppies and mac cheese (comfort foods we hadn't had in a while and we were all starving!) and then Li even helped me with various things as I made fried chicken cutlets (he never would have done that in the past as he used to be grossed out by meat and is a vegetarian...he did make a few comments about the poultry...but he was still willing to stand by me and watch and be there if I needed a pan or whatever - so nice). Li said, "I better go check on Bub!" (such a great person to care so much for Kanoa and babies in general). He ran out the door with his socks still on and shut the van door to help keep baby warmer as I asked. I finished a minute or two later and brought baby in. Baby was fine and woke up when I brought him in. He was toasty warm. Food was cooking which is what Katie needed (wish I had brought food with us downtown - usually we do). We all ate and felt good!

I was so happy that Katie helped me with the groceries from Lanita's. And I was so happy that Li helped me with the store groceries and cooking! It felt so good that the kids helped so much...and I didn't even ask Li to do all he did except push the cart when were leaving the store (and shut the van door since he was going to chk on Bub)!

A nice day to feel grateful! A great day overall!

Kana's funny words today

This morning Kana was playing with a stuffed animal, a black cat she calls Gink. I suggested she tie a string around him so it could be like a leash and she could pull him around. I just thought she'd enjoy doing that. She specifically asked for blue yarn. I got it. She asked me to tie it around him. I began to do so. She said not to tie it around his feet or he couldn't move. I asked if she wanted it tied around his neck and she said yes. I started tying it around his neck, but mentioned that if we tied it around his neck, he might not be able to breathe. She said, "Oh Mommy, he doesn't really breathe. He's just a stuffed animal!"

Funny how she was so thoughtful about his legs/being able to move, but totally disregarded his neck/breathing!

Thanksgiving 11/26/2009

We had a relaxing day at home. Baby was up very late last night, so we slept quite late (been like this for a while now).

Mom called before she headed out to Neil's sister for Thanksgiving. Spoke to Dad in Florida who just went to a big Thanksgiving buffet with Jeannie and some friends and overate.

Jim cooked our turkey (13.48 lbs this yr) for 4 1/2 hrs. He pretty much did all the cooking with me doing a tiny bit here and there.

Walked with kids...Kanoa in stroller, Li with brightly colored headress on carrying a bow, and Katie made a turkey thing (what is the name of that thing that hangs down from the turkey's neck again). So funny! Ran into Tom Jones and he said something about them being dressed for Halloween, lol! We finished our walk with me whistling Christmas carols and Katie singing along loudly.

We ate around 6pm. Will post a picture of the bird.

Rosie, Matt, Ben, Leo and Josiah came over for dessert and to hang out. Played charades a bit.

Mom B called back, but only spoke quickly to Li. Tried to call her back, but line was busy. Called Mom W. to see how her day was. Too late to call Jeff.

Misc Things I've meant to write about

Wed 7/22/09 - Li said "We are all born free." I loved this. We had been talking about me not even knowing about homeschooling when I was a kid and that I just went like everyone else I knew. I was forced to go just like every other child I knew. We also had been talking about other families we knew who have or didn't have freedoms for things like dating, etc. Interesting that Li ponders things so much. I do too, so I do understand. I like that about him.

7/22/09 (approx)- Recently Kana asked when karate was and I said tomorrow and she said, "Is tomorrow after this day?" I said, "Yes." Okay, so I thought she understood when tomorrow was. But....We were at the beach running along the shore and I mentioned that Kanoa will be running with her next year. Kana said, "Is next year afther this day?" Well, guess she doesn't yet comprehend how we refer to different times just yet. It's so funny how sometimes I think she understands something and then realize that she doesn't yet. As of now (11/6), she still talks about "the day after this day" instead of saying "tomorrow." She's still figuring it all out.

11/6 - Kana says "stake" for "mistake"
She used to say "fishermen" for a "fisher," but now does call it a "fisher."
Kana calls a vampire a "bampire" and a "grrr" for "girl" (although those are also getting a little more articulate over time.)

Kanoa - Crawling for sure as of 8/17/09

8/18/09 - Kanoa began pulling off his summer hat. (None of my kids leave them on.)

8/20/09 - Li said he was going to be as strong as Popye because he eats tofu.

10/10/09 - Li - Are girls allowed to be sumo wrestlers?
Jim - Said something about Japanese culture being very strict and that they couldn't be, etc, etc.
Li - Caus if they could, Edie should be one. (He is concerned about her being overweight. Sometimes we talk about obesity running in the family.)

Some good reads lately: Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar by James Marcus Bach (my book)

10/3 - Got to see Camden Film Festivals's film called "A Chemical Reaction" - Check out Safelawns or Paul Tukey for more info. Baby slept through the whole thing! And I got to hang out with Molly afterward. Nice evening!

Beg Oct - Ordered Sandra Dodd's Big Book of Unschooling - Still reading it as time allows. Love how I can complete a small section at a time..good for Mom's with small kids as that's all I get unless everyone is asleep and I am awake enough to read!

Oct or late Sept - Kana began to love "The Dog Prince" - she has asked me to read it over and over. She loves it too! Good for ages 4 - 10 even...and I really love it too!!

10/9/09 - Li tried sleeping over the Speno's house, but when everyone else fell asleep (and only Ben ended up being downstairs on the couch, Leo and Josiah were upstairs), Li called me to ask what he should do and if he could come home. He said he wasn't ready to sleep over after all. (We all expected this, so it was no problem for us or Rosie/Matt). We asked Li to tell Rosie upstairs and then Jim came and got him. After he came home and fell asleeep, Katie needed me to lay next to her as her stomach felt very queasy. She said she thought it was from being overtired. I snuggled next to her (keeping an ear and eye out for baby in the next bed) and she fell asleep peacefully. It truly meant something to be NEXT to her. She needed me to be there physically and mentally.

I have a note to myself to upload video 1042..someday I'll try that!

October - I had a note to myself to call Chipper and thank her (which I did sometime in October finally) because on 8/20 she tried to help Katie untangle her hair. And Katie had forgotten to bring food with her and Chipper fed her too. I have this thing about Katie's uncombed hair...I try so hard not to fuss too much about her brushing it, but *I* do feel embarrassed when she wears her clothes with holes in them (although I know she has other ones and those ones are her most comfortable ones she chooses to wear again and again) or when she doesn't brush her hair and says she feels okay about that. It is no big deal to her. It is *my* issue. So..most of the time I just deal with it. And sometimes she does just brush it as she cares sometimes. Guess I should be grateful she isn't vain! But sometimes I do say we are going to xyz and I'd really feel better if her hair were combed. She usually does it or asks me to help. Anyway, I appreciated Chipper trying to help her get out some of those tangles! I asked Katie if she ever wanted dreadlocks and she said no. To top off Chipper's niceness, she even brought Katie home.

8/31/09 - Li - Do 100 dimes make ten dollars? So then 1000 dimes make 100 dollars.
And 5 $20 dollar bills is 100 bucks. (All this in his head..he really is quick at processing numbers this way.)

October - Katie began writing a countdown to Halloween on a chalkboard. Li began calculating it too and can do it in his head.

October - Kanoa - Enjoys Peekaboo, crawls great, took some steps at the end of October...just at the very end of his 9th month. Took more steps and more steps from then until now (11/6). Today I think he did 8 steps!!!

November Happennings

11/3/09 - Jim is off from work this week (yeah!) Photo: Burying (finally) my placenta from Kanoa's birth. We kept forgetting to do it, but the changing weather motivated us to remember. An anise plant was put on top. Li has a forsynthia plant on top of his and Kana had a rose bush (but it died this past winter).

Thursday 11/5/09 - Was going to go to Augusta for vaccine support of the No Mandatory Vaccine bill appealed. However, we stayed up very late last night and slept in and I had plans to get together with Amy, Lily, Will and Olivia. Called Amy to check in and see if we were still on, but couldn't get in touch with her. So we hung out at home a bit and then decided to go to Target in Augusta so Katie could get jeans. Of course we ended up spending more than we wished, but that's how it goes. The coolest thing was that it was snowing inland and the ground actually had a layer of snow. We watched the Honda's "outside temperature" reading go from 35 (or around there) down to 31 on the way there. On the way back it went from 31 to 33. Amazing! When we got home, I made cheesy rice and cleaned the bathrooms. The kids preferred leftovers. Li and I made brownies and Katie and I packaged them up so they could be sold. Yes, Li created a baking business where he sells brownies and Katie made business cards and Katie, Li and Kana all decorated the cards. Very cool!

Kanoa really doesn't like car rides. He manages not to cry because Jim sits next to him and talks and plays with him. When Jim's not there, Katie does the best she can. Usually we get by and luckily he does fall asleep much of the time.

He is 10 months old now (as of 10/28/09) and is beginning to take his first steps (as of last week...or was it now the week before??) He can take between 1 and 4 steps at a time. Usually 1. (As of 11-6 he took 8 steps once this day!!)

Li and Katie call Kanoa "Bub" frequently. Love that!

Kana seems jealous of him much of the time. I am trying to spend more time with her and that is helping somewhat.

Daddy loves playing horsie with Kanoa and observing everything Kanoa takes in. He is always amazed at how much Kanoa does and learns and watches. Kids are like sponges!

Li is still very interested in earning money. He was going to rake the leaves outside today, but the leaves were wet, so another day maybe. Hard to find things for him to earn money for when we are short on cash and we don't pay our kids for chores. But I had to come up with something where he could earn money, so we spoke about the leaves and thought that would work. He came up with the sale of brownies in the neighborhood on his own. Good for him!

Jim is off this week, so it has been good for everyone to be together lots. Li and Jim bonded the other day going to the dump (believe it or not! Had a nice experience of Li getting out of the car and asking Jim about how to sort the garbage and learning about the types of plastic and how to tell them apart and sort them, etc) and then went to the barbers for haircuts together. Li had brought goodie bags for each of the Jones Brothers (Roger and Lowell) that had a couple sweeties in them and a piece of paper that said "Good Luck." Nice. Oh...a while ago (like last year or two yrs ago) Pat McLean came into the barbers to take photos for a book she was making as she wanted to include the two barbers who are known characters and have been cutting hair in Camden for ages! Li and Jim were there when she had come in to photograph and Li's reflection and maybe Jim's too are included in the book! Neat! The book is called "Maine Street."


11/5 - Being goofy and having fun!
11/5 - The photo on the business cards. Li's bakery! He decided to make a business baking sweeties and will hand out business cards. If you have a party to go to, but no time to bake, call Li! Or email him at LisBakery@gmail.com! (Katie set him up with that gmail address too!)
11/5 - Here are Li's business cards, brownies (all wrapped up individually and in tupperwear ready for tomorrow) and a box for money.
11/5 - Katie helped Li make business cards. Li, Kana and Katie decorated them together. So nice to see them all working on something that means so much to Li and them.
11/6 - Me and Kate on the ice.
11/6 - Great Katie photo! She enjoys skating very much!
11/6 - Daddy and Kanoa at the ice rink.

11/6 -Kana shows off her feet on the wall trick. She is so proud of herself! We call her spider girl as she can walk on the wall with her feet too!

















11-8-09 Sunday (And what a warm beautiful day it was!!) Kt, Li and Kana built towers for Kanoa to knock down.

Here's Kanoa's scrunched up grin that he has been making (btw, he loved knocking down the towers).

Charlesbridge, a publisher in MA, has several math adventure books that my kids love. We already knew about the Sir Cumference books and enjoyed them over and over. But now, we found out about a whole bunch of other books. Li really enjoys math and so loves the books for that reason as well as that they're interesting stories. Kana enjoys them too, so does Katie, and so do I. Very clever books!!

Here's the website if you want to check them out: http://www.charlesbridge.com/showproducts.cfm?FullCat=144

Here are some that we enjoyed recently:
A Very Improbable Story
Multiplying Menace The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin
Equal Shmequal

This is the pattern I made - lw 11/11/09





Katie began painting this sleigh for the holiday season. 11/11/09






11/14/09 - Kanoa was enjoying walking around following the balloons which were hard to grasp, esp when he tried to get more than one at once! Then, the vacuum cleaner handle seemed attractive and he was investigating it.







11/14/09 - Ahhh....Balloons!!!






Li made this for Jim a long while ago (not sure how old it is). It is very special to Jim and we see it often in the kitchen - it brings a smile to our faces! It's the simple things that mean so much!







11/15/09 - Awwww! Two cute fellows!! I love this picture!!







11/15/09 - Kanoa smiling -









We recently read this mystery book where part of a puzzle was solved by holding the page in front of a mirror to read the words correctly. Li wanted to see if he could write like that. It took him a couple of tries, but he learned how to write so he could only read CAT in the mirror! Love how he loves to investigate things!










I went shopping in Kana's store and wrote up the amount for each item I purchased. Li and I were showing each other how we added up the numbers. Me by carrying over. Li by adding up the cents first and then adding that amount to the dollar amount. The bottom was another game we were playing involving letters.











Here we were playing a game where the letters had to be unscrambled to spell words. Li and I took turns doing the scrambling.











Li wrote down some numbers and added them.










More addition. He likes to write and solve math problems and does this of his own accord.










More words that Li learned how to spell...he likes to makes lists of some words he knows or just learned. And another math problem..fractions this time.












Oh, I can't remember what this was...it was something Li was asking me to do and wanted to know *when* I'd be ready to do it. The W was for when. I wrote back that I'd be ready when Daddy was ready.













The tick that bit Kana. She got bit on the 15th (a Sunday). She said her ear hurt her (behind her ear she said) and I checked and was surprised. We had just hiked in the woods by Seabright Park along the Megunticook River. The next day (the 16th), I took pics of the tick and sent it to Igenex in CA to see if the tick carried lyme disease and two other co-infections. It turned out that the tick was positive for lyme!! Yikes! I did get it out fairly easily, although I crushed the body which killed the tick. So I do wonder if the lyme transmitted or not. The only possible symptom Kana might have is swollen toe joints (see pics below). I noticed the swollen toe joints (one big toe on one foot and one pinkie toe on the other foot...sort of the side of the pinkie toe where it sticks out). Today is 12/12/09 and she still has the swollen areas. They don't hurt her at all and she runs fine. She had a Western Blot (so did I) and the test showed neg for lyme. I have the PCR test from Igenex which is more sensitive...so if we feel we should do that at some point, we can.













Kana named five of her favorite doggies these names on this paper. So cute! Love the names she calls them! Bony (because of the bones on the scarf around his neck), Little Black Dog (because it is a little black dog!), Brownie (the brown dog), Pug (her fav pug dog), and Huggy Puppy (the soft, floppy dog that is very hugable - think she got that name from Ben who named his dog something like that or even maybe it was the same name and she just liked it).












11/17/09 - There's Li!













11/20/09 - Love the way baby Kanoa greets Daddy! And Daddy loves it too! It lifts our hearts!











11/21/09 - Kana's Right toe joint and Kana's left pinkie joint are swollen. These are the pics I was talking about.














Close-up pic of Kana's right toe joint.




















Kana's right toe joint again. See..it is swollen! The pinkie area (where an older person might get a bunion) is reddish and swollen too....harder to notice I think.

11/22/09 - Sunday - Writing down some things that have happenned recently.
Been to Portland for a dental chkup for Li and Makana with Dr. Susan. All went well and the kids had fine check ups. (No cavities!!) Katie and I had checkups with our local dentist Dr. Pier. I said no xrays for Kt or me this time. Funny how the hygienist talks..as if I had no say of whether or not I wanted to radiate my head. She went on to say that she'd check my record to see if we were watching any spots and talk to me about how I was taking care of my mouth and then she'd talk this over with Dr. Pier to see if it would be "acceptable" to not take the xrays. As if it would be up to the dentist as to whether or not radiating my head would be "acceptable" to him or not. What?! Another instance where our society thinks that the "professionals" and "experts" know best and we should just follow their advice. This is just one example of people just going along with what is easiest and what is typically done without questioning anything. Do people really believe that humans are that unintelligent that they can't do research and ask questions and consider decisions and make the best decision for themselves? I guess so. Sad. But I do feel empowered as I feel I am capable of researching most subjects to my satisfaction and I feel okay about leaving any practice that can not meet my wants and needs as a customer.

It truly would behoove our doctor offices if they would follow the footsteps of Dr. Hafner in NJ. You'd walk into his practice and he'd say, "What can I do for you today?" At first I was taken aback by his questions. I wanted him to check out my mouth to make sure that there were no cavities and I wanted to know about any spots he saw that I might take better care of and I wanted to know if there were any special things I could do to take good care of myself and my dental health. I also enjoyed listening to him discuss holistic care as well. I enjoyed the health related books in his office and how he suggested using homeopathy and products from the health food store to maintain dental hygiene and overall care of our bodies. I liked learning about the different chemicals to use to fill the teeth or to buy time until the kids were older. He told me about them and asked me which I preferred. I always had questions. He provided more information and he used the product I chose. If he knew one was best for whatever reason, he told me about it and I typically agreed. He was a one in a million doctor. I totally respected him and his opinion and wished we lived closer as now this is what I want from any doctor or health professional. What a way to empower people! By treating people like they are intelligent and capable of making choices, people will know they have the responsibility of taking care of themselves and they will want to know more details and ask questions and research and make the best decision for themselves. This is very different from how society works though. In schools, we are told that people know what is best for us to learn. Our elders know best too, for they have more experience. Oh, and therefore they deserve our respect. Wow. If only people released that everyone is deserving of respect, especially our little people. And if only people treated each other as if they were capable of making decisions for themselves. How different could our lives and our society be?

During Katie's exam, the dentist noticed her last baby tooth. (Her second to last tooth had come out Monday night, the night before our Tuesday afternoon appointment. And she was sad that she was almost grown up...she thought of losing her teeth as a sign of losing her childhood. I reasurred her that she'd always be my child...even an adult child is still a child. And I told her my Dad still calls me Mouse sometimes and that I'm always going to be his child no matter my age. But that yes, she is getting older and I understood what she meant. And I still loved her so much and will always!) The dentist said quietly to me that he thought the tooth should come out. That sometimes parents have to make choices that their children don't like for their own good. That he'd use numbing stickers for ten minutes and she would hardly feel the prick of the needle. That this would be necessary in his opinion because sometimes when part of the children's tooth's roots are out and one piece of children's tooth's root is still in the gum, waiting might cause problems with the adult tooth. He said that she'd need the novacaine because the root was still attached/far enough in the gum to cause pain if it were pulled out. It would be like pulling a piece of dead skin off that has live skin attached to it. It would hurt. We talked about Katie feeling pain MORE than most people. He said he already gathered that from his interactions with her. He said that she was 12 now and was ready to begin making decisions about her dental care/treatment. He said that he "didn't want to play games." (Was he referring to the time when I supported Li when he was five and couldn't sit for the filling of the cavity. Maybe he felt I should have made Li get that cavity filled?? Did he think that was a game? Or does he just simply not want Katie to bring a Nintendo DS to play if she chooses to get her tooth pulled? (yes, I am being sarcastic - because he is not supportive of young people being able to make choices for themselves if they differ from his expert opinion and he thinks parents should make their kids do things they don't want to do for dental treatment rather than work with their child..maybe in a different practice ...to find a solution that is agreeable and comfortable for the child. It is aggravating.)

Anyway, I do like that office. I don't like or respect what Dr. Pier said this time about Katie. I like that they now are touting the benefits of xylitol...finally! (Hopefully we won't find in the future that it was "bad" in some way. The jury will be out for decades!! But I am glad it is offerred now to customers as a way to help teeth.) I wonder (and will re-research) the sugar gum chewing as he said sugar gum was really bad for teeth. I said I heard any gum chewing was good as it stimulated saliva flow. I said that I thought raising were harmful as they are sticky on the teeth. He said but at least they are good for you. (I disagree on this, but let it go as they are what gave Katie her cavities I think. She used to have them as snacks frequently.) I like that they offer MI Paste. But the flouride-free one has saccharin in it. I bought it, along with xylitol mints, but will return it as I don't want to ingest saccharin and will show him the remineralization power (ecodent) that my health book suggested. Well, I did speak to Katie and she says her body tells her that the tooth is getting looser everyday and will shortly come out. She says she feels comfortable waiting. I asked her if she wanted to investigate with me what possible could happen to her adult tooth if the baby one hangs on for some time more. I said that it might be a good idea to just look into the possibility that Dr. Pier was right when he said it could be troublesome or cause problems later. She agreed. But for the moment, she is comfortable waiting and trusting her body to get rid of the baby roots in its own time.

Other that that, the office was clean and besides me having a root exposed at the gumline, all was well with me and Katie.
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Kanoa - This morning we went by a pot of boiling water and Kanoa stuck out his hand and said HOT (sounded like Haaaa).

He goes "Vroooom, Vrooom" when he plays with cars.

He played Peek-a-boo with Jim in the car yesterday on our way back from Shaws. He put a blanket over his head and Jim said "Where's Kanoa?" and he pulled the blanket away and showed his face as Jim said "There he is!"

Kanoa progressed to walking 4, then 8, then 10, then 15, then 18, then 20 steps in the matter of a couple days. He now walks all over the place and is hard to keep an eye on if I am trying to do something and make sure he is safe!

Li helps out watching Kanoa sometimes and plays calm, interesting things with him. Katie watches him frequently if I'm trying to get dinner made or clean up dishes. I love her helping and appreciate it so much, but she plays loud games with him and sometimes I feel guilty asking her to help as sometimes I think she would rather be doing something else and is helping me out of kindness. Now there are many times when the kids just do play with Kanoa for the joy of playing with him. I usually hold him when I do things with the other kids. So he gets to see what is going on most of the time like babes in arms do.

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What do we do late at night?
Read, go on the internet (to play games, write stories, read stories, write science books, look stuff up), watch a favorite show, play ball (games where you keep score and earn points depending on which pillow you hit), practice volleyball serving and hitting, play with Kanoa, put legos together, experiment with electronics kit, draw, paint, color, all the typical stuff we do during the day. Anything pretty much goes depending on how much energy we have. We eat late, so add in cleaning up and general tidying up the house. Also, there is likely a late night snack, known as "second dinner" in our house. Right now this works for us. In time I expect the baby's schedule to change and us to get to sleep earlier. But as long as we are healthy and happy, who cares! But...one glitch...a big one...I think Jim needs to get more sleep so he can better function during the day. We are still tweaking and figuring this one out! If he could just get an hour or two more sleep, that would be better for him. Luckly he goes into work later and works later. (Not as late as when he is doing tons of overtime, but later to make up for going in late...and sometimes a little more as well.)

Epidemic! The Battle Against Polio

Just finished reading "Epidemic! The Battle Against Polio" by Stephanie True Peters last night.

Some interesting facts from the book:

There are three kinds of polio virus, Type I is called Brunhilde, after a chimpanzee. Type II is called Lansing, after a town in Michigan. Lansing was the hometown of a man who died of polio. Type III is called Leon, after an 11 yro old boy from LA. The vaccine contains all three strains as antibodies that fight against one strain do not protect against the other two strains.

Wild Polio - Polio caught from the environment (not from another person) (my note/question/thought: Might it always be from another person and maybe appears to come from the environment, but we just don't know this yet?)

1979 was the last case of wild polio in the United States (that was recorded).
1991 was the last case of wild polio in the Western Hemisphere (that was recorded...and as of the writing of this book which was 2005).

1952 was the latest big polio epidemic in the US.


Dr. Jonas Salk, developed the first effective polio vaccine in the form of a killed virus given via shot.

Salk did two secret experiments on humans to test out his killed poliovirus vaccine - the first (spring 1952) was done on kids just outside of Pittsburgh who lived in the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children. Only the subjects (who had polio before) and the staff knew. The experiment was a total success as the blood samples from the kids had increased antibodies after getting the polio shot. The second trial (date? who were the subjects?) was conducted on humans who never had polio before. Luckily it too was a success as the people's antibody levels rose and they did not contract the virus.

In 1953, Salk got support from the research community and conducted his trials using a few hundred subjects at a time. Each trial produced positive outcomes.

In 1954, the National Federation of Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) sponsored a nationwide vaccination program using Salk's vaccine. It cost about 9 million dollars (back then!!) for 27 million doses of the vaccine. Of about two million children, 1/2 were given the vaccine and 1/2 were given a placebo. The trials were a success. In 1955, Salk received a license to market his vaccine. Doctors around the world could now vaccinate people.

Unfortunately, in April 1955, Cutter Laboratories in California made a batch of vaccine that mistakenly contained some lives viruses. 204 children contracted polio. Of those 204, 153 became paralyzed and 11 died. Note that some kids got it not via the shot, but by contracting it through those who received the shot. This made other manufacturers more careful, but it did not halt the vaccination campaign for polio.

The NFIP is now called the March of Dimes. This organization was created by FDR who contracted polio as an adult before becoming President and during a stay in Campobello Island in Canada in 1921. And today ..some doctors and scientists think that FDR actually had Gulliane-Barre syndrome, not polio. Other doctors and scientists still think he had polio.

- Intermission -
My own thoughts.....
.....With the use of Salk's (shot) vaccine, there is a chance that some virus might still be alive as per the incidence at Cuter Labs in April 1955. Guess those taking the shot choose to take the risk that the lab that made their vaccine batch used utmost care and sanitation. Page 56 of "Epidemic! The Battle Against Polio" book says, "Yet not everybody agreed that the Salk vaccine was the best. Some pointed to the Cutter Laboratories incident as proof that using a killed strain of the virus could be dangerous, since, they argued, ther was no way of knowing whether all the viruses had been killed. One person who raised his voice in loud opposition to Salk was Dr. Albert Sabin." And yet if a person gets the Sabin vaccine (live oral virus), it offers better protection, but more chance (maybe?....it depends on how careful those labs are making the killed virus I suppose) that one will contract the virus from the vaccine. Hmmm. Tough call. I got the live vaccine as a child. I remember being grateful it was an oral vaccine as I feared shots. I am so glad I did not contract the virus. What would people do if the virus resurfaced? If an epidemic broke out and I was not vaccinated, I would seriously consider either vaccine - both have their pros and cons as mentioned above. As of now, if I were unvaccinated for polio and stayed in the USA, I'd feel comfortable. However, if I were to travel to another country, I would research whether it would be wise to get the vaccine. Prudent decisions or not? Only time will tell. And each of these decisions are so very personal and should be decided by each individual - or they should be up to each individual!!.


- Back to the story....introducing Dr. Albert Sabin
and his live oral polio vaccine -

Dr. Albert Sabin believed live viruses to be better than killed virus for a polio vaccine. He found evidence that poliovirus entered the body through the mouth and created a live atttenuated oral vaccine. (attenuated virus means a weakened virus) He did his testing and further research overseas and finally got the attention of the World Health Organization(WHO). In 1957, WHO authorized the mass vaccination of children living in areas with polio epidemics, especiall Russia. By 1959, 4.5 millions of Russians had received the oral vaccine and polio had declined. This success got the attention of the United States and in 1960 Sabin's live polio vaccine was licensed in the USA. By 1965, oral vaccine was used most often all over the world. Polio in the USA decreased from 37,000 cases during 1951-1955 to approximately 600 cases in the early 1960's.

Oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) is responsible for causing vaccine-associated paralytic polio in one out of every 2.2 to 3.5 million people. Therefore, in 1999, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommended the Salk vaccine (shot of killed virus) instead of the Sabin OPV. However, in countries where wild polio still causes the disease (afghanistan, Pakistan, India, etc), OPV is still used and even preferred as OPV creates antibodies in the blood and blocks the virus from replicating in the intestinal tract. Because Salk's vaccine is injected, it does not enter the digestive tract and can allow the virus to replicate in the intestines.

It was once thought that polio was not even a virus. In 1908, Dr. Karl J. Landsteiner and Erwin Popper said that it was a virus. Yet in 1916, people still had crazy ideas (maybe due to the epidemic....they were fearful and panic stricken) - some thought animals passed it, others thought mosquitos passed it. Some even thought tarantulas injected the virus into bananas! It took time to discover that poliovirus enters through the mouth and replicates in the gut and is transferred via fecal matter. Usually a person caught the virus by drinking or swimming in contaminated water. (My note: But since it is a virus, I'd assume that any transmission of the virus to another person's mouth could obviously transmit it.)

Sister Kenny ("sister" means nurse in Austrailia), an Australian, invented a way to help polio victims. Because her ways were different than conventional treatments, doctors were not interested in her therapy. She wrote once that "the extraordinary attitude of the medical world in its readiness to condemn anything that smacked of reform or that ran contrary to approved methods of practice." She once wondered "how many promising discoveries have been consigned to oblivion without being given an opportunity to prove their worth." She later did come to the US, had great success here and was even invited to lunch with FDR! (I must read more about her!)

Since 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a joint venture of the WHO, CDC, UNICEF and Rotary International has been active in eradicating the disease.

10/20/2009 Native American Program at Damariscotta River Association