The Placenta Pill

If you have a weak stomach, you might want to skip reading this. You've been warned! In yesterday's GO section of the Hamilton Spectator there was an article about eating your placenta after you've given birth. Disgusting right? I've heard of people taking the placenta home and planting a tree on top of it (it's supposed to be good luck or something like that). Well, actually there is someone in Hamilton who will come and pick up your placenta right after you've delivered your new bundle of joy, take it home and clean it before "steaming it with some lemon, ginger and hot pepper. Then it goes in a dehydrator for up to 12 hours. When dried, it's ground into powder and put in capsules, 90-160 depending on the size of the placenta." taken from the Hamilton Spectator, Feb. 23, 2012

And what is the purpose of ingesting your placenta you may ask? It's supposed to "reduce postpartum depression symptoms and bleeding, give more energy and increase milk supply". But take note of the "supposed". There are very few studies done on this practice to actually prove any truth to it. But I'm guessing it's going to become the new "thing" to do. Apparently this a common practice in some cultures (I have never heard of it before this).

The lady in Hamilton who makes the pills for others has had mixed reactions from her clients. Some rave about the benefits while others were not sure they felt any change. One of the arguments used to promote this practice is that mammals eat their placentas, why not us? I asked Chris what his thoughts were on the subject and he was very much against the idea. With cows, he explained, they will eat the placenta if it is left there for them. But the reason for doing so is that when they lived in the "wild", any traces of blood left around would attract predators. Eating up the placenta and licking up any traces of blood would prevent unwelcome visitors. It's natural for them~ an instinct. (I have instincts too and eating a placenta is not one of them!) It's rare for a cow (a milking cow anyways, don't know about beef cows) to eat its placenta now of days. Farmers usally try to prevent them from doing so. Chris said that it has happened on the farm here before, but only to have the cow puke it up several weeks later because it couldn't digest it properly. He said it was pretty nasty :( Anyways, I'm pretty sure that if we're to be blessed with more children that I won't be eating my placenta.

birthday continued

Nathan was very excited to use his new cup, plate and bowl from his Uncle Mark, Aunt Bethany and cousin Mikayla.

I can't believe he loves cream of wheat! With no sugar, I might add :0
And today his last birthday wish had come true...

He got a garbage truck from Aunt Amanda & Uncle Kevin!

Nathan turns 4

It's hard to believe that my little boy is now 4 years old! Where has time gone? We started the big day off with presents from us after breakfast.

He's been talking for weeks about his birthday and getting a combine :)

Someone was not too happy that the gifts were not for her.

Nathan was a sweet big brother and let Mary Beth open one of his gifts!

Finally, the combine!!!

He played with it all morning until the guests arrived.

We've been singing "Happy Birthday" for weeks to prepare for the big day but of course as soon as we started singing, Nathan got all shy and embarrassed.

We had a "green" themed party. These kermit the frog cupcakes were my inspiration :)

Me and my 4 year old!!!

Everyone wore something green (except for Grandma, Junior & Camilla- they forgot :)

Even the youngest guest wore green!

When We Had Snow

This has been the year of the "non" winter. I think we had snow 3 or 4 times and it's already the second week of February! It just doesn't seem like winter. But when we did have snow back in January, Mary Beth LOVED it! Nathan, not so much. It takes him awhile to get used to something "new". These were taken before my camera went in to get fixed.

wearing snowpants and boots makes it hard to walk!

And difficult to get up!

Nathan stayed close to the house, waiting to back inside :)

Decided

Okay, so I finally made up my mind as what to do with the bedroom furniture. After all the hemming and hawing, I just trucked it all upstairs (well, Chris helped me with the dresser) and set it up as is. And I must say it looks pretty good! Unfortunately I have no pictures to share. My camera has been sent off to get fixed :( Not looking forward to the bill for that! And my little point and shoot just doesn't cut it anymore, so I'll just have to wait (6-8 weeks!!!) till the camera is back in my hands to take any new pictures. It really sucks not having a camera. Nathan's birthday is in 18 days and I most likely won't be able to take pictures of the excitement on his face when he opens his gifts and blows out the candles. I think I'll have to borrow one.

We also bought a second bed off of Kijiji, this one for Mary Beth. Yes, I went a little nuts, buying 2 beds in 4 days, but it too was a great deal and I absolutely LOVE this one! I also found bedding at Ikea that matches her walls perfectly. I can't wait until she's big enough to sleep in it. It might be awhile though. Mary Beth does not want to sleep in the toddler bed. I tried laying her down on it this evening and she freaked! This could take some time....

Undecided

I still can't seem to make up my mind as to what I should do with the bedroom set. I probably will end up refinishing it, despite all the work. We did buy a palm sander a couple years ago when we did reno's upstairs, so that will definitely help out with the sanding! While I do like white furniture, I don't think it would work for a boys room. I was thinking brown, but wonder if it will be too brown with the closet doors and window blind being brown already. Maybe I should just bring the night table up to Nathan's room and see how it looks in there before I do anything drastic :)

I examined the furniture closer and discovered that it indeed is laminate (Andrea, it is more of a grey colour [white washed oak?]- my camera flash isn't working so the colour looked off in that last picture). So what do you do when you don't know what's best for painting laminate? You google it of course :) And I ended up finding a cool blog called livingwithlindsay.com and she has step by step instructions here on how to paint laminate furinture. At the bottom of the post she has an update about a new product you can find here to use for refinishing cupboards and furniture. I'm not sure if it's available in Canada though. I can't find it on the Home Depot or Lowes websites :( If you want to redo your kitchen cupboards, you'll definitely want to look into Rust-Oleum! The demo makes it look so easy and the results are amazing.

So for now I still have a dining room full of bedroom furniture. Good thing we aren't having company this weekend!

Decorating Dilema

So I picked up a bedroom set (well, Chris was the one to go pick it up) from Kijiji yesterday for Nathan. Mary Beth is getting to the point that she could sleep in the toddler bed soon so I searched for a single/twin size bed for Nathan. I ended up finding a complete set for a good price, mattress included. But now I'm torn as to whether I should refinish it or not. There is some damage to the furniture (see bottom picture) and what I think is nail polish stains on a couple of spots. I'm thinking that since it's just in the bedroom and the only people going in there are the kids, it's not a big deal to leave it the way it is, especially since it will probably just get dinged up some more as time goes on and the kids get older.

I also don't really feel like doing the work... but part of me does too :). I love looking at before and afters. And I love painting, it's the prep work of sanding that I don't feel like doing. Plus I'm going to have to do it in the dining room (I would in the basement but I don't think we'll be able to get the dresser down there), meaning the kids will be around, getting into trouble while I'm trying to paint.
What should I do? If I do paint it, what colour should I do? Nathan's room is a soft yellow with white trim and dark brown doors and blinds. Any suggestions??? You can see pictures of his room here http://annekenaves.blogspot.com/2010/11/before-and-afters.html Some of the damage