Small Things

Gluttony

I finally joined the Y two weeks ago and have been working out almost every day since then. I need it, I love it, my goal is to lose 20 lbs. by Easter.

I just ate a sleeve and a half of Thin Mints.

Damn the Girl Scouts and their devil cookies!

10 adorable somethings about Mary

Yes, I am going to gratuitously dote on my baby girl. (She's 18 months now.)

10. She pats my back when she hugs me, and calls me Mom-mom.

9. When Jimmy cries (because he fell, or is in trouble, or Mary whacked him with a Mega-blok), Mary will scrunch up her face and fake sympathy-cry with him.

8. When she nods her head, she has to concentrate, and continues the nod long past usefulness, I think because it's hard to stop the momentum.

7. When she comes into a room I'm in, she gets excited and says, Iseeyouuu! I seeouuu!

6. When she first sees Jimmy in the morning, she waves vigorously and says, Hi! Hi!

5. After consistent prompting from me, she now spontaneously says Thank you when I hand her a snack or a drink. It sounds like 'Day Dih"

4. She loves Elmo.

3. If she breaks something, she brings it to me, saying Oh no! Oh no!

2. When I prompt her to say Please, she says YES.

1. She never lets us forget to say grace. We might start eating, but soon she will drop her spoon, touch the top of her head (to start the sign of the cross) and then fold her hands, waiting for me. Today, we were putting a babydoll down for a nap, and Mary touched her head and folded her hands for bedtime prayers, then kissed her doll night night. She is a cherub! She is too good for us.

Would you vaccinate your daughter against STDs?

I knew this HPV vaccine was going to be controversial. I heard discussions about it on NPR first, where everyone was pro-mandatory-vaccine, they were just discussing what age to vaccinate. And whether it's worth the cost to vaccinate boys. But as states begin to review legislation requiring girls to be vaccinated, there are many who are arguing: Bill to require HPV vaccine stirs concern.

I am torn, maybe in different ways. First, I said last week I have some skepticism toward all vaccines. And I strongly object to making them mandatory, I think each parent should be able to make an informed decision.

But I guess I have a bit of a puritanical streak in me, or in my case it's Catholicism, because something in me recoils from exposing my daughter to a vaccine she SHOULDN'T need. Not the most logical reason to object, I know. But I guess I just refuse to imagine that my daughter would need to be protected from any STD.

Although this may be TMI, my husband and I have never had any risk for STDs, to the point that when our babies are born we sign the waiver to refuse the eyedrops they give all babies at birth that prevent syphilis. Not an issue for us. And a part of me is offended, I guess, that any doctor would assume that my daughter might engage in activities that put her at risk.

But there are reasonable arguments that I can't deny. She will of course make her own decisions, which I can influence, but are ultimately out of my control. And say she does everything right and waits til her one Mr. Right, what's to say that he has been waiting? And then there are other dangers, and while I definitely refuse to imagine my daughter the victim of a crime, it makes sense to protect her, right?

It just doesn't sit well with me. And of course, there's the safety and side effects of the vaccine to investigate. They don't vaccinate until age 11, so fortunately I have ten years or so to get used to the idea.

Whooping cough outbreak and vaccinations

Three babies have come down with whooping cough in a San Fransisco area child care center. Yes, whooping cough is the common name for pertussis, which is the "P" in the DTaP vaccine that babies and children are supposed to receive in several doses.  It is also the disease I have most often thought about on those nights when my baby was sick and coughing so deeply it made my heart hurt.

I have a healthy skepticism toward the number and frequency of infant vaccinations. When I was a new mom, I read many a scary article or website suggesting all kinds of consequences for the overload of vaccinations new babies get, from autism to Crohn's disease to ADD.

I found this great resource, The Vaccine Guide, to read more about it, and ultimately decided I did want my child vaccinated, but not at the speedy rate of the "recommended schedule." All those viruses, acellular or not, attacking my baby's system at once just does not sit well with me. Serious reactions may be rare, but what if my baby were the rare one? So I always tell my kids' doctors I prefer to slow down the shots. I would rather come back every two months to get them done, then shoot my baby up with 12 different vaccines in one day.

I especially hate when the doctors offer some new super-cocktail, with 8 diseases in one! As if that will put me at ease, since my baby will only be stuck once. My kids have been great about getting their shots, that's not my chief concern.

The vaccine issue has been the best test of whether I will trust a doctor or not (well, that and also how encouraging they are when I tell them my 18 month is still nursing.) My favorite doctors have been happy to work out a slower schedule that decreases the risk of side effects. Or one that at least humors me. The most recent one argued with me in circles until I finally just nodded along. Fortunately, in a military hospital, you go to a special "immunization" clinic down the hall, and that's where I tell the corpsman which shots we are really getting that day.

The newest controversy in vaccinations is the recommendation that all adolescent girls be vaccinated for the sexually transmitted Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Moms, how do you feel about that?