One Million Campaign

World Breastfeeding Week 2009

Its We the People Who Can Bring Change: Lets ACT NOW!!

World Breastfeeding Week starts on August 1, (1-7 August). The theme is Breastfeeding, A Vital Emergency Response: Are You Ready?

You can find out more download materials and find events at: http://www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org/

UNICEF and WHO have made statements in support of the week, which is coordinated by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action.

UNICEF's statement includes: "Around 9 million children under five die every year, largely from preventable causes... According to the Lancet, optimal breastfeeding in the first two years of life, especially exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, can have the single largest impact on child survival of all preventative interventions, with the potential to prevent 12 to 15% of all under age 5 deaths in the developing world... This year's World Breastfeeding Week provides an opportunity to sensitize policy-makers, donors, implementing partners and the general public to the benefits of breastfeeding, to its particular importance in emergency situations, and to the need to protect and support mothers to breastfeeding during emergencies."

You can find the full UNICEF and WHO statements via links at:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2009/07/wbw-2009.htm

One country facing an emergency is Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, where 13% of the populations is infected with HIV.

In conditions of poverty, infants have a better chance of escaping HIV and being protected from other infections if they are exclusively breastfed. Yet in Malawi, Nestlé is promoting its formula with a logo claiming that it 'protects'. Formula is very expensive and those that believe the claim that the formula 'protects' may well use it alongside breastfeeding - mixed feeding is the worst possible scenario for the transmission of the virus.

It is a government requirement that tins have warnings that breastmilk is best for babies, but Nestlé refused to translate these into Chichewa, despite a government request to do so, because of 'cost restraints'. It took a Baby Milk Action campaign that led to Mark Thomas highlighting this irresponsible marketing on UK television, to change Nestlé's minds, and further campaigning to persuade Nestlé to show cup feeding, rather than bottle feeding, in line with government policies. See:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/CEM/compfeb00.html

So campaigning works. Now we need to persuade Nestlé to remove the 'protect' logo from labels in Malawi and elsewhere in the world. You can help by sending a message to Nestlé. You will find the information you need to do so on our July Campaign for Ethical Marketing action sheet, which is now available on our website at: http://www.babymilkaction.org/cem/cemjuly09.html

Also featured on the action sheet is a call on Danone/Milupa to stop using claims for its formula that have been found to be untrue in a ruling last week from the UK Advertising Standards Authority. Although these breach the advertising code's clauses on substantiation, truthfulness and comparisons, the code is voluntary and it remains to be seen whether similar claims will be removed from labels and other promotion stopped. There is also a call for Mead Johnson to stop making untrue claims about its formula.

If politicians fulfilled their responsibility to implement the baby food marketing standards adopted by the World Health Assembly, then public campaigns would not be necessary and there would be progress towards stopping the millions of preventable under-5 deaths.

You can help put pressure on politicians by signing the ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN petition. If you have already signed, visit the campaign website to see what action you can take to encourage friends and colleagues to sign up. See: http://www.onemillioncampaign.org

Action Alert

1. Make an opportunity to call upon companies and your leaders to END ALL KINDS OF PROMTIONS of Baby Foods by 2015.

2. If you would like to submit the One Million Campaign Petition to your Head of the State, please use the opportunity to do so.

At this link http://www.onemillioncampaign.org/press-release1.aspx you can find the Petition letter, and petition submitted to the President of the World Health Assembly in May 2009.

Another link http://www.onemillioncampaign.org/doc/draft-letter.doc provides a draft for you to use to write to your Head of State.


Thanks!

Team ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN- Support Women to Breastfeed

http://www.onemillioncampaign.org

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Year Book Yourself

Want to make a good picture of yourself? http://www.yearbookyourself.com/ LOL! FUNNY STUFF!

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

The focus should be on support! YAY! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32234145/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/#storyContinued Read it...good info! Ban the bags and aggressive marketing is step one, in my opinion! :) Claire is 2 and still nursing....I can't believe we made it!!! She only nursed yesterday at wake-up, nap, and bed...haha...I say "ONLY"...yesterday was an exception! Today she's been making up for it!

More party pictures!

We have a 2-year-old! Where did the time go!

Playing with some of her friends at her party!

Blowing out her candle with a little help from me!

Opening presents! This year she did a good job ripping and tearing off paper!

She got the idea that there was something inside of the bags or paper!

A new watermelon hat that she got for her birthday! :)
Claire and I with Catrece (10 months younger) and Christy

Stephanie and Pierce (3 months older) and Claire and I

Birthday Party Time!

For her birthday party, Claire wore the dress that she wore as a flower girl in Holly's wedding. Her little crown was one I found at Babies R Us, and she wore it last year as well. This is the only picture I managed to snap of her alone!
Here is Claire playing at the party. I wasn't organized enough to actually have any organized games at the party. Plus, most of the kids were too young!

Claire knew that the cake was for her. She took her little toy shovel on over to help her reach it better. Yum!

Yes, she has quite the reach on her! Look how far she can reach! Nothing is safe from this little girl. Especially if it tastes good!

For her party I decided to do Sesame Street and Elmo. Yay for commercializing childhood! :) Last year was Winnie-the-Pooh. The little cake on top was for her to eat/destroy as she saw fit. She loved her "ELMO CAKE!"

My baby is TWO. I still can't believe I have a kid sometimes...lol! :)

World Breastfeeding Week

Next week is World Breastfeeding week. Are you on Twitter? Then add this to your profile pix to help spread awareness: http://twibbon.com/join/World-Breastfeeding-Week Thanks!

Beads for Baby!

While I was in VA Beach, Josh went camping at a biker rally. Apparently it's a lot like Mardi Gras...not that I've been...but from what I've heard. So there was a lot of drinking and beads involved. Like any good Daddy, Josh brought home some beads for Claire!
She had lot of fun taking them on and off and on and off. She now wants to make sure I see everything. She will say "Gookie Mommy!" for LOOKIE!

"I SHOW YOU!" "I SHOW YOU MY BEADS!"

Claire's Current Favorite Questions:

• I sleep with it? (Wants to know if she can sleep with something like a book, toy, etc)
• I take it with? (Wants to know if she can bring a book, toy, etc. to the store or wherever)
• I keep it? (Wants to know if she has to give it back!)
• MINE!?! (See above!)
• Gum?!? GUM!? (She always wants to chew gum. All. Day.)
• Daddy home?
  

Terrific Twos!!

I can't believe that I have a two-year-old already! WOW! She is getting so tall, too! She is very tall like Mommy!
This is one of my new favorite pictures of her. She is going to be so tall like mommy! At her 2 year check, Dr. W said they have a formula for determining how tall a child will be. She is projected to be 5'11. YAY! That is a good inch shorter than me. See, I don't fit in the "Talls" like at JCPenneys. I don't even fit in their "Ultra-Talls" which go to 5'11. I have to go to TALL GIRL where they make their clothes with a 36 inch inseam. I'm superfreaky like that. Hopefully Claire will stop at 5'11. Because really, that's quite tall enough.

Last night we went bike-riding. Holly was running since she runs her mini-marathon next weekend. Claire enjoyed saying "Go Holly!" And "Holly running!" She also wanted to get out and run with Holly. She kept saying, "I stuck! I stuck!" So I got off my bike to see what was stuck. I thought her foot was twisted goofy or her arm was wrapped around the seatbelt strange. So I asked her what was stuck. She said, "I stuck IN BABYSEAT!" Haha...yeah...the buckles work! :) So I would get off the bike to push it up a hill...hills are hard with an extra 29 lbs on the back of the bike...and Claire would get mad. She would say "Mommy back on seat! Go! Mommy back on! Now!" We did well over an hour. Holly mapquested the course when we got home, and I did about 6 miles. That's the longest I've ridden with Claire on the baby bike seat.

This morning Holly and I hit up Tall Girl at the Castleton Mall. We actually refer to it as "The Tall Girl Mall" because really, 99.9% of the time, that is the only store we go into! :) Haha! Holly got some great clothes for going back to to school teaching in the fall. I scored some cute new jammies and socks...you know, my official stay-at-home-mom wardrobe. Man, I do not miss teaching at all. I don't have time. I love being at home so much! Josh's goal is to be a "stay at home dad" one day. We can both sit around and watch movies all day. :) Sounds like a great plan to me. Claire had fun at Tall Girls too. She enjoyed smearing fingerprints all over the mirrors and hiding in the clothes.

Then Holly and I hit up the Cheesecake factory. Claire was getting a little cranky by this point, but I ordered her some chocolate milk, which she loves. Haha. I got the Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp which is a (HUGE!) spicy Thai dish with coconut and veggies and yummy curry sauce. I need to start making some curry dishes at home...I love curry! I took home my leftovers and when I put it on my regular plates I use at home for dinner it was another really huge plateful of food.

So then Holly headed out. It's kind of ironic that I just visited Holly and then she just came her for the past 4 days. It's just the way it worked out!

Claire crashed hard on the way home from Castleton and got a good nap in. I just pull into the garage, roll down all the windows, and do something in the kitchen until she wakes up. It's nice and dark and warm. But she will usually freak out when she wakes up because it is REALLY dark in there. If I move her I risk waking her up, and it is so not worth it. Then she gets no more nap in.

We went on a nice walk today! I love this cool summer weather. It was sooo sunny too. I then enjoyed watering my tomatoes and peppers. Today I picked my first jalapeno and 2 tomatoes. I'm excited that they are doing well. I also watered all the new flowers. Holly helped me all day on Friday to weed and mulch around our house to get it in shape for Claire's party on Saturday. I paid her. :) Nobody would want to tackle the mess we had going on here for free! Haha! We got 20 bags of mulch from Home Depot as well as some hanging baskets and wave petunias that she planted in the ground. I got one purple balloon flower and a potted arrangement that has sea grass in it. I like that sea grass looks different, so we'll see how it does.

Claire had a blast at her birthday yesterday and totally got into it. I have an overload of pictures and videos that I need to get around to posting....but you know how that goes.

Born Too Soon

A very touching story about super preemies: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/07/25/lovely_life/index.html Check it out.

Claire-Bear's Songs!

Claire has started singing around the house. She will ask me to turn on her CD that has popular toddler tunes on it like the Barney theme song and Elmo's song. If you don't know Elmo's song, check it out here:




Claire keeps singing the line "Elmo's song, La La La La" OVER AND OVER. Then she will stick in whatever toy and sing "Baby doll's song, La La La La"--but tonight was the cutest because she said "Claire-Bear Song! La La La La."

Among other songs she likes to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Lil' Star" over and over as well as "Jesus loves ME!" She almost always screams the ME. Those would be the only lines from the songs she sings as well. :)

She is also discovering a sense of humor. While in VA Beach she started calling Holly a poo-poo head. Lovely. Then when we came home she kept saying it and started saying poop and pee behind anything because she thinks it's funny. Oh, and on the plane I took the book "Once Upon A Potty" with...bad idea. She was yelling POOP! PEE MISS POTTY! on the page where the poop and pee are on the floor next to the potty. It's her favorite page. Well, actually her favorite page is the one where the little child is bent over and you can see the anus. She likes to point at it and say "BUTTHOLE MAKE POOP!" This is not such a good book to take on a plane. She kept yelling BUTTHOLE. If I ignored it, she got louder. If I shushed her, it got louder. She was such a little stinker. It's a very good book for potty training though, and would advise buying it or checking it out at the library.

She has her puzzle with the alphabet. She kept saying ABC's PEE! I thought she was just saying random letters until she started saying ABC'S POOP. I guess she is discovering what is "funny"--hmm...what do I do? Ignore? Act normal?

Her other funny thing is she will say "UNCLE" in front of everything. Like tonight she was overtired when I laid down with her to go to sleep. She kept saying "Night night Uncle Pillow"; "Night night Uncle My bed" ; "Night night Uncle mommy's shirt" ; "Night night Uncle Jammie pocket!" and of course after each one she would giggle like it was the funniest thing she had ever thought of. I don't know where she picked that Uncle funny-ness from.

VA BEACH & TURNING 2

We just went to VA Beach to visit my sister Holly and her hubbie Mark. Plus I wanted to see their cute place all decorated! Just Claire and I flew out there for about a week. Check out the pictures on Facebook I posted while we were out there. I am not re-uploading them because I'm lazy. :) So if you're not my friend on Facebook, then friend me! We had a blast! Claire did super-great on both flights to and from and at the airports (layovers both ways!)!

Since we've been back we have been to her 2 year-old well-check. She was 29 lbs. (It was actually bouncing from 27-29 and then the nurse said...well I saw 29!) That is about the 70th percentile. She is 36 inches tall. That's 3 feet! That's as tall as a yardstick! And for the height she is about the 95th percentile. I don't remember her head measurements, but it was fine. She's back to growing on her own curve well. We don't have to return until she is THREE! WOW! We also went to the Health Department and got her lead check to see if she has any lead poisoning (a standard test). Last time at 12 months, her level was 1 which is the lowest it can be. 10 indicates lead poisoning. So unless she has been chewing on some wacky toy with lead in it she should be fine. Results take a few weeks.

This morning we went to her last Mother Goose Story time. It was a little bit sad when they sang the good-bye song. The next session that starts up she will be with the Toddler Group! It was fun to see her doing all the motions to the "Wheels on the Bus" and "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" every week. I am excited about her being the "littlest" kid in the next age group again, because that's fun too! :) And of course after story time we play at the library. She loves the block table and the little wooden play house. It has real cloth curtains that she likes to play peek-a-boo with.

Well I can't believe that she's two! And I can't believe that I'm still nursing a 2 year old! Those first several weeks I didn't think I'd last another minute!

23 months!

In one week from today exactly, Claire will turn the big TWO! WOW! She has become such an incredible little person. But along the same line, she has changed me so much. I wasn't the same person. I wasn't a Mommy before. Now I see the world with Mommy eyes. Everything looks more dangerous...AHH!
Claire still loves her car. She loves playing with her little toy cars too. Actually, she loves pretty much all her toys. Well, except for stuffed animals. I even try to play with them with her, and she doesn't dig them. I wonder if she'll get into them more when she's older or if they were invented as Goodwill fodder.

CHEESE! Claire will push her car over to the door and knock on it and say "CAR! OUTSIDE! NOW!"

Last night we went to the local fair. It was interesting. First of all...the fair is really super tiny. There are like 4 food booths...the parking is free...and it's free to get in. So basically these things tell you the fair will be what you pay for it. Crappy! The parking lots are jammed and muddy. There is nobody directing traffic. There is no place to park. Since it's free everyone goes there. We parked in an ultra-muddy spot. Yay for gas-guzzling SUVs...they are good to park in the spot where little cars can't park. So we wanted to go to show Claire the 4-H animals, which she totally loved.

We saw geese, chickens, rabbits, llamas, cows, calves, sheep, pigs, and lots of interesting humans. I think the carnies should count right in with the interesting ones. I also enjoy looking at the 4-H displays. The 4-H hall is really tiny, too. You can't even see half of the stuff because they have it all piled on top of each other.

We walked through the "commercial" area...Claire got a sucker and a free balloon. We walked around the rides as well, but decided Claire would probably freak out on them. We tried to put her on a ride at the store recently. She loved sitting on it until we put the money in to get it moving. Then she freaked out. I even tried to sit on it with her, but she was not having it. So maybe by next summer she will be begging to go on them. She didn't even seem interesting in trying to go on the rides. I was pointed at them and asking her if she wanted to ride them, but she just clung to me tighter.

So we had fun, but didn't spend a dime. Claire let go of her balloon and was sad...I'll have to get her some helium ones for her birthday. I was asking her about the animals today when I was getting her dressed (something I like to talk to her about in the morning...what did we do yesterday?) and all she kept saying was, "Balloon, bye-bye! Up in sky! All gone!"

So speaking of talking about stuff, she is just saying all sorts of location names now...now she is saying bathroom "Bafroom"; office; carpet; driveway; patio; porch; hallway; kitchen "Kitch-en"; "MY ROOM!" She also says "baby gate." Yesterday, she said "I OPEN BABY GATE" behind me...sure enough...she was halfway down the stairs...unaccompanied. YIKES!

She has caught on to not only verbs, but how to use them with the -ing and -ed to a degree.

She might say: "I see boy mow" or "I seeing boy mow" or "I see-ed boy mow." It amazes me how she is picking up on this. I am still trying to do some baby signs with her because everything I've read has told me physically doing the sign helps them reinforce their language skills even more...plus I just think it's fun! She loves to move, especially with all her songs that require motion. Some of her favorite songs are the one involving movements...think "Wheels on the Bus"; "Itsy-bitsy Spider"...etc.

I am always working on manners with her. She is consistently saying "No thank you" and "Please" as well as "Pretty Please". Now I am trying to teach her "Yes please" instead of just "YES!" She is so fun to talk to, and I feel like I can have a real conversation with her.

When Daddy comes home, she tells him immediately the most important things. "I FALL DOWN (by) STOVE!" She wanted to tell him that she got hurt and wanted to make sure that Daddy knew!

She totally has her favorite books...still those involving people or animals! She is very interesting in those portraying sad babies...ESPECIALLY if they have tears. She will kiss the picture then hug the book to her chest and say "BABY HAPPY!" Then she will turn to the next page and smile and pat the happy face. She has such an interest in crying, too. If we are in a store, she will say "Baby crying!" Sometimes it's way off in the distance and I won't even notice it until she tells me.

She is also in love with airplanes, trucks, and cars! She gets excited to see "big trucks" like semis if we are on the highway. She also tells me every day when the mail comes. She has great little ears for the mail truck. She also gets a special kick out of the garbage truck when it comes weekly. One day I left the car door open to go to the end of the driveway to get the mail. Normally she will just get on her little bike or follow me. Well, she climbed into the car, climbed over the seat and sat in the drivers seat.

It was hilarious. She patted the steering wheel and said "I drive Mommy car! I DRIVING!!! I DRIVING" Then she wiggled the steering wheel back and forth. She always wants to go bye-bye. Of course, it's because anywhere we go is usually fun! Well...I can't believe she is going to be 2 next week. TIME IS FLYING!

Oh, and she is cutting another tooth on the bottom! Her teeth have been late at coming in. Last year at this time...she had only 2!!!

PATIO! ALL DONE!

Claire is so excited that she can put on these velcro dress shoes herself. If I let her, she would probably spend all day in the laundry room playing with her shoes. We also call this the pantry, but I don't actually keep any food in here...it's all in the cupboards in the kitchen!
Wrong foot! She doesn't seem to care about getting them on the right foot yet!

She loves to play with this squishy orange ball!

Dirty footprints! YIKES! Well we have a big mud ring around the edge now.

She loves the patio already!

Notice my tomato plants? I have 3 and 1 pepper plant!

Next Step!

So it's pretty much done by this step! The extra black powder stuff which was a finisher was washed off with the power washer. Then it dried again...from the washing.

Then it was time for sealant. It then had to dry again between coats. Then it was re-sealed with a second coat. Then that had to dry.

Then there were lines cut into it to prevent cracking. If you see cracks in sidewalks or driveways sometimes the sections were too big.

Step Six: LET IT DRY!