Okay, okay, enough new posts today...

But seriously, what IS the etiquette for when you get a gift you don't want, or doesn't fit, or whatever? I kinda thought you smiled, said "Thank you", and went and exchanged it, or returned it, no?

We had an interesting exchange where half of the gifts ended up remaining with us, as OUR responsibility to return/exchange. Frankly, I'm not sure what to do with them... especially since I'd checked sizes before hand, and now the items are no longer in stock in ANY size (they were pretty popular, I guess), and one of the items was just "repetitious" to something they already had... and it's not too big a deal to return it, but I don't know what else it is I'm supposed to come up with to replace it now - I kind of thought the point was that if they returned it they could pick out something THEY liked.

Am I missing something?

p.s. Speaking of tapas recipes, anyone know any GREAT ones that they can send me before tomorrow when I go shopping?!? Just hit the "comment" button below...

:-)

I'm laughing. We got the girls walkie-talkies for Christmas. Phoebe is now old enough that she and Piper can go outside without us, and play around the neighborhood. However, our neighbourhood has just enough twists and turns that you can't then walk out and yell for them when you're ready for them. Other neighbors, in response to this exact issue, had gotten their kids walkie-talkies as well. So now, they go out with one end, and we keep the other. It's brilliant.

Actually, one of my neighbors had been sending their girls out with the dad's cell-phone, until they forgot to turn on the ringer and couldn't find them when they wanted them.

So how have we been using these walkie-talkies? Today Phil is outside with the girls, and I'm inside... well, posting here... (really, I'm cleaning up the kitchen, shhhh, don't tell!!!) and we're going back and forth about tapas recipes for tomorrow (New Years Eve) evening's get-together.

Yup, right, we got them for the girls.

One of Phoebe's earliest allergy signs is eczema. So we're primed and ready for the ensuing asthma, and can start treating her early.

We spent a while finding what helped Phoebe's eczema the most. I usually try to go with the least interventive thing, and work up as that doesn't work - at least in cases such as this (non life-or-livelihood threatening, where she's generally okay with what's going on, and further hates treating it anyway). So we started with Aquaphor alone. Then we tried Aquaphor with baking soda, etc etc. Ultimately we came on using hydrocortisone and then locking it in with Aquaphor. The results were magical.

I don't love automatically jumping to a steroid cream, but it works, and it works quickly. After one night, she's generally significantly improved, and after night two, it's pretty much completely gone.

Now, to catch the asthma before she requires prednisone...

For Christmas we got SIGG bottles for ourselves and the girls. We also got ceramic mugs, and are pulling out our plastic cup supply. I need to find some cute ceramic bowls so we can get rid of the plastic bowl supply as well.

I, for one, LOVE my SIGG bottle, and use it all the time. Phil hasn't gotten the hang of his yet. The place these bottles are most valuable for the girls is as their bedside water - where sippy cups would sit with water for days, and then be refilled as needed. This is one great way to end up with phthalate leaching into their water.

We've got enough allergies and asthma in our family, and the potential for hormone disruption in our society is pretty great. We'll do our best to keep our girls healthy, even if it's something small like this.

Other easy changes, short of swapping out ones entire plastic supply:

1. NO plastic wrap to warm food - and don't warm (microwave) in plastic storage containers, place into ceramic dishware, and cover with ceramic plate and then heat.

2. Let food cool before putting it into plastic storage containers.

3. Don't thaw food in plastic or styrofoam containers - transfer, once it can be separated from that container, into a ceramic container.

4. No warm drinks in plastic or styrofoam containers.