It’s a big weekend in our household, as the Boston College Eagles (Pete’s team) take on the University of North Carolina Tar Heels (my team). We’re headed to the game tomorrow.

 My husband and I thoroughly discussed this prior to having children, because yes this is a big deal.  I joke that I wouldn’t have married my man if I had known BC would be joining the Atlantic Coastal Conference a few years later.  But, alas, several times a year–in football season, then again in basketball season–the battle lines are drawn in our house. 

(Shhhhhhh….Secretly, Charlie is a Tar Heel fan)  Pete and I made an agreement a while back that Charlie could cheer on the Eagles during football season and the ‘Heels during basketball season. 

Here’s my plan though…. I’m going to get up with Charlie tomorrow morning and (wink, wink) let Pete sleep in…  and since I’ll be dressing him, he’ll be donning his Tar Heel shirt.  It’s war, baby.

How do you mesh a nearly-1-year-old and a Christmas Tree and have both survive the holiday season?  I can’t fathom NOT putting up a tree this year, but I also envision constantly chasing after my speed-crawler and worrying that he’ll tip the tree over, choke on one of those ornament hooks, get tangled in the lights and any number of other hairy situations.

Moms, Dads, Grandmas… somebody… what’s the secret?

Those that know me, know I am a closet holiday music lover.  Looks like my little guy takes after me, too!  (Please excuse the dark and grainy cell phone video)

The extremely popular and reputable stroller company Maclaren is set to issue a massive recall tomorrow.  Here’s the story from the CBS Early Show this morning:

(CBS)  A major stroller manufacturer is set to make a massive recall Tuesday over concerns that children can have their fingertips sliced in a hinge.
Maclaren will recall all strollers dating back to 1999 – one million in total – a source tells the New York Daily News.
“Parents should stop using these strollers right away,” the source told the newspaper.
Twelve children who allegedly had their fingertips chopped off after getting caught in the hinge sparked the recall, the newspaper reports.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which plans to announce the recall Tuesday, declined to comment.

Yikes!  ALL STROLLERS!  My hubby and I just bought a Maclaren Quest last week!!  I’m going to be safe-guarding my little munchkins digits until then.  Apparently Maclaren has designed a cover to go over the faulty hinge which will protect those precious fingers.

There’s a push to get better screening and testing done of common household chemicals, and now mommies can get on board. 

The company, Seventh Generation, has an internet campaign called the Million Baby Crawl where you can sign up to support toxic chemical reform.  According to Seventh Generation’s website, the Environmental Protection Agency requires safety testing on only 200 of the more than 800,000 chemicals on the market.  The hope is to get a million babies signed up to support legislation that will be presented to congress for a stronger chemical law to keep our families safe and healthy.  Sounds good to me!!

While I don’t always use Seventh Generation products, I have become more conscious of the cleaning products that I use around the house.  I’ve tried to ”go green” with most of the products.  For example, I use good ’ole vinegar water to clean Charlie’s high chair, etc.   It’s simple and cheap!

It only took 4 nights, but it appears my 9month old’s internal clock is finally back to Eastern Standard Time.   He woke up at 6am this morning.  Yay!  Yes–that’s a big improvement from earlier in the week, when he was happily babbling “dada dada” at 5am. 

So I have another item to add to my list of things every new mother should know:  The joys of “falling back” and getting an extra hour of sleep when Daylight Saving Time comes to an end now represents having a few very early mornings and cranky evenings with your infant as you try to reset their internal clock. And if anyone could use an extra hour of sleep, it’s a mom!

Something inside me fires up when it comes to my little guy…. an instinct stronger than any other to protect him.  It brings out a pushy side of me I haven’t seen too often. 

So when I heard my son’s pediatrician’s office got a shipment of the H1N1 vaccine on Friday afternoon–it was pure luck that we happened to be there for his 9month healthy check-up– I made sure he received one of the shots.  Seeing as he’s an asthmatic infant, we were towards the top of the list anyway.  But I’ve learned that sometimes you have to be a little pushy, and on Friday I wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

I couldn’t believe it, though, when his pediatrician told me 1) she’s pregnant! 2) she hasn’t been able to get the H1N1 vaccine yet.  Can you imagine being coughed and sneezed on all day by sick kiddos and at a high risk of complications due to pregnancy and NOT be able to get the shot? Scary. 

I’ve heard many stories similar to mine from people who were able to get the vaccines through a little luck and persistence.  A pregnant co-worker called her OB’s office every morning until she called the day they got a shipment of the vaccine in.  She dropped everything she was doing and headed straight to the office.  You gotta do what you gotta do, right?

The tragic news of the healthy 12-year old Bristol, RI girl who died this week from a suspected case of the H1N1 flu has sent this concerned mom into a downright panic.   How did a healthy, active little girl succomb to the flu?  How did she get so sick, so fast?  How do we prevent this from happening again?  My heart aches for her family, her friends and her neighbors in my town of Bristol. 

I’m sure I was not alone when I held my baby a little tighter last night and gave him an extra kiss good night.  Nor, I’m sure, was I alone in feeling a sense of fear and unknown about this flu season… looking at the calendar and seeing the long winter months that still lay ahead of us.  I keep wondering what else I can do to protect him and keep him healthy.  I have the added concern of having an infant recently diagnosed with asthma, which puts him in the high risk category for possible severe complications if he were to contract H1N1.  I’m frustrated that he doesn’t have access to the H1N1 vaccine.  I’m frustrated that our company just cancelled it’s flu clinic for next month because of a shortage of regular flu shots for adults.  I’ve been contemplating whether I should pull him out of his home daycare and pay for a nanny to watch him at our house instead.

Can you really truly protect them from the germs that are everywhere?  You can be clean and cautious, but they will still be exposed to them. 

I have almost daily discussions with my co-anchor, Vince, about whether the media is blowing the H1N1 flu pandemic out of proportion.  The big question is, is it worse than the regular flu?  From research I’ve done, it appears that majority of cases are no more severe than the regular flu.  But, there’s still that small subset of the population that will have a major complication from it…. healthy, young people who suddenly find their lungs under attack and end up fighting for their lives.  And that’s what is scary.

My little Charlie is 9months old today… happy day baby boy!!  It got me thinking about all the things no one ever tells you when you’re contemplating bringing another life into this world.  So here’s my list of things every new parent should know:

1. Sleeping in will be 7am.  You’ll try not to think about those lazy Saturdays of days gone by when you awoke at 10am and went straight to the couch to watch “Jon and Kate Plus 8″ marathons on TLC. 

2. You and your spouse will talk at length each day about your baby’s bowel movements… how many he had, what they looked like, were they contained or part of a “blow out”.

3. Work will be your “down time”.  You won’t bat an eye at going from a 9hr day at the office to your next shift as mom, collapse into your bed for a “replenishing” 4hrs of sleep just to turn around and do it again tomorrow. 

4.  You’ll forego television in the evening to watch your baby sleep on your color, flat screen video monitor that you dutifully take from room to room lest you miss a single wimper.  How did any parent survive without it?

5.  You’ll laugh deliriously at the term, “sleeping like a baby”.  Who came up with that phrase?  Babies don’t sleep.  And they certainly don’t sleep soundly. 

6. Your baby will look like a million bucks when you run to the grocery store, but only after you leave the store will you realize that you have make-up streaking down your face, a piece of carrot in your hair and spit up on your shirt. 

7. You’ll immediately have people asking when you’re going to have your next baby.  Seriously?!  Don’t ask a mom this question until her baby has been sleeping through the night for at least 6months. 

8. Your “first baby”, the furry, barking kind that your swore would never become background noise, has indeed been demoted to a dog.  You still love ‘em, but more often than not they will be what sends you over the edge when your emotional state is hanging in the balance.  Something along these lines:  THE DOG IS PUKING ON THE CARPET RIGHT NOW AND THE BABY IS SPEED CRAWLING RIGHT FOR IT!

9. You’ll feel like your heart is going to burst when you tiptoe into your baby’s room to watch him sleeping in his crib.  There is nothing sweeter in the world. 

10. In a blink of an eye your baby will be sitting up, feeding himself, crawling, trying to walk and approaching his first birthday… then his 16th.   And you’ll say… it feels like yesterday.

With Charlie on the move, it’s time to baby-proof our home… check out today’s segment on the Rhode Show, as local mom blogger, Audrey McClelland, helps me find the hidden dangers in our home.  Plus, she shows us some of the latest tools in baby-proofing.

I am so excited about the new movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  This is my all-time favorite book to read to kiddos when I visit schools, and I can’t wait to read it to Charlie.  It’s the perfect children’s book for TV meteorologists… about a town called Chewandswallow, where everything that falls from the sky is food.  I watched the trailer this morning and it looks very cute–though I can already see that the producers took some liberties with the plot.  Big surprise. 

Here’s the trailer if you want to check it out: