The Dirty Dozen

What is the dirty dozen?
In 2006, the Environmental Working Group released an updated report that identified foods in the conventional, non-organic food supply that contained the highest number of pesticide residues. The worst offenders, which were nicknamed the "dirty dozen," included:
Apples
Bell peppers
Celery
Cherries
Grapes (imported)
Lettuce
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Spinach
Strawberries


I was recently told by our water softer technician that non-organic strawberries were full of pesticides. I had been buying baskets a week from a local berry farm. Anyway, I did a little research on what fruits and veggies were high in pesticides and the results were very disturbing. We try and buy organic when available, but i would stay away from the above list unless organic...
If you want to read more about what pesticides can do to you and your system check out drgreene.com

My favorite cuties..

Will is turning into such a character! He can say over 40 words and make several animal sounds and has discovered the joy of chocolate...thanks, Dad.

Ah, Paris...

Paris was wonderful...but, freeezing. Blaise and I had both been to Paris before, but this was our first time together and we thouroughly enjoyed the FOOD the architecture and the sights. We will be posting all of our pics from Europe on Kodak.com soon and will send out a link. Blaise wrote a twelve page write up on our trip (very detailed) if anyone cares to read it let me know and I will send the file...I think his true calling in life is to be a travel writer....:) He often laments that he is a "supressed traveler." Welcome to the life of having a small child... We are looking forward to Hawaii later this year.

Europe cont...

We had a great time in Italy and France! The only thing that was missing was Will. Theese two pictures were taken by the Arno in Florence near our hotel.

Europe pics...

Update...

It has been a few weeks since I have updated our blog. We got back from italy/france yesterday and have been relaxing in Alabama with Blaise's family until we get back on Saturday. We had a blast! I will update with photos and more soon!

Laura

Nightime Activities

Will loves books! He loves to look at the pictures and turn the pages. His favorite thing to do these days is to hand us a book and then back his fanny into our laps. He signs more as soon as we finish a book, to make sure we get the message to keep going. His favorite books are the Fisher Price Little People flap books.

He has picked up quite a few new words. He can say shoe, ear, eye, ball, book, baby, balloon, da da, ma ma, bye bye, hi, dance, thank you, ba ba (bottle), cheese, uh oh, mmm (tasty), oo oo oo (sound of a monkey), and no. He can do the baby signs for no, more, cookie, bottle, bye bye, dog, and baby.

Will is pretty fearless. This picture is an impressive illustration of his daring prowess. I'm still not sure how he kept from falling and hurting himself here. He loves to climb up and down stairs all by himself. We tried to teach him to go down backwards to be safe, but he won't have any of it. He thinks he should go down the same way we do. Fortunately, his falls in this learning process have been minor. He can now go all the way down the stairs by himself without falling by holding on the rail and walking down like a grown-up.