On a roll...

First, I am really on a roll with blog updates. Six in one month? That may be a record, or at least a tie.

Second, Jacob is on a roll. He is rolling all over the place these days. If you put him down on his back, he immediately rolls to his tummy. If you put him on his tummy, he is all of the sudden on his back. He will go from one side of the rug in the living room to the other pretty quickly, so I have to watch him like a hawk! Before I know it, he is going to be crawling and then walking. Soon my little baby won't be a baby anymore.

Extended Rear Facing

A lot of people have asked me, "Can't you turn Myers' car seat forward facing yet?" According to the laws of Georgia, we absolutely could. In fact, we could have turned him forward facing on his first birthday since he was over 20lbs. We have chosen not to though, and I thought I should explain why.

When Myers was born, George and I had never heard of extended rear facing. We assumed that we would buy a forward facing seat for him when he turned one and that was it. Then I read a magazine article in Parents magazine. It shared that rear facing is 5 times safer for children under two, and that in countries like Sweden, they routinely rear face their kids until 4 or 5 years old. This got us thinking, and so we started to do our own research. We read articles about the benefits of extended rear facing. We watched crash tests on youtube (some of which are chilling). We decided that we would rear face our kids as long as possible.

These are some facts about extended rear facing from Car-safety.org:

- Rear-facing is safest for both adults and children, but especially for babies, who would face a greater risk of spinal cord injury in a front-facing car seat during a frontal crash.
- Rear-facing car seats spread frontal crash forces over the whole area of a child's back, head and neck; they also prevent the head from snapping relative to the body in a frontal crash.
- Rear-facing car seats may not be quite as effective in a rear end crash, but severe frontal and frontal offset crashes are far more frequent and far more severe than severe rear end crashes.
- Rear-facing car seats are NOT a safety risk just because a child's legs are bent at the knees or because they can touch/kick the vehicle seat. (Myers often crosses his legs or props them up on the back of the seat)
- Rear-facing as long as possible is the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatricians, and can reduce injuries and deaths. Motor vehicle crashes are the #1 overall cause of death for children 14 and under.

Another question I have been asked is, "Doesn't Myers complain?" He has never been in a forward facing car seat, so he doesn't know the difference. Also, a rear facing car seat is slightly more reclined which makes long car trips and napping in the car more comfortable.

The fact is, riding in a car is by far the most dangerous part of our day to day lives. George and I have found a way to keep our kids a little bit safer for a little bit longer. Extended rear facing may not be the norm for most people, but George and I have never been the type of people to follow the crowd.

Here is a video on youtube about the importance of rear facing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psmUWg7QrC8

P.S. We also plan to keep our boys harnessed for longer than average, so expect a blog on that one at some point in the future!

And so it begins...

Myers is helping his little brother develop a healthy love of all things Disney. Yesterday morning, I laid Jacob on the floor in the living room to play. Myers laid his monorail next to Jacob and turned it on. "Please stay clear of the doors. On behalf of the cast of the Walt Disney World Resort, welcome to the Magic Kingdom. No smoking please. Please hold on to the handrails." To bad it doesn't also say "Por favor, mantenganse alejado des las puertas."

Jacob's Baptism

Jacob and Dr. Joe Peabody

Our little family

Jacob was baptized yesterday at Mt. Zion UMC. He wore the McCown family baptismal gown that was made in 1904. After the baptism, we had the family over for a fried chicken lunch.
Jacob did great during the baptism. He was very alert and aware during and no crying from him! Myers was quite verbal during the baptism and told everyone in the church that he wanted to go back to the nursery!

Brothers

These two brothers love each other! Jacob laughs at everything Myers does and loves to watch him play. Myers loves to help Jacob and will entertain him while I am making dinner or folding laundry. In this picture, Myers is "helping" Jacob do tummy time!

Easter

It has only taken me several weeks to get around to this post, but we had a wonderful Easter. On Friday night, Myers and I dyed Easter Eggs. Some of them came out funky colors because Myers wanted to dip them in every color dye! The boys got an Easter wheelbarrow filled with goodies instead of Easter baskets. Now the boys have a wheelbarrow just like Daddy's to use in the garden!

After church on Sunday, we went to Jackie's house for Easter lunch. We had some delicious food and spent time in Jackie's gorgeous backyard. All the flowers were blooming and the foliage was so green. Unfortunately, I never did get a picture of the boys together or the 4 of us together, so you will have to just enjoy pictures of the boys by themselves.