Where's the Beef? Right Here!

My beef right now: I just viewed this video about how the flight attendants association is getting miffed about all the carry-on baggage and the fact that they are sustaining injuries from people incorrectly using the carry-on bag to pack everything. I don't disagree with that. Especially since I'm pretty much a SouthWest airlines convert. Hello, traveling with a baby requires a TON of stuff. Two free bags per ticketed passenger? Hell yes. That combined with SouthWest's Wanna Get Away fares and you really can't beat it. Even with driving from here to Denver to get the cheaper fare - even with driving and parking, I'm still saving money. Sorry, I got sidetracked.

Back to the video content. This "reporter" is saying that with the baggage fees, more and more people are carrying everything they can on (Duh! Have you seen unemployment rates??). But she made a comment about people carrying on things like coats and food and that those things make for an unsafe flight. Really? My breakfast bagel creates an unsafe flight? Are you effing kidding me? So, if I fly from Denver, and I have a layover of, say, an hour before catching my second flight to my final destination, I have to eat in the airport? But what if my first flight is late? You want, me, a nursing mother, to go six hours without eating during the day when my child is nursing more? You're on crack. You complain about people having bad attitudes on flights? Has anybody thought that maybe everyone is suffering from massively low blood sugar? And that is compounded by the problem that most airlines offer NOTHING snack-wise on board anymore. No wonder everyone hates flying - everyone has low blood sugar and had to walk around on the gross airport floor with no shoes and their pants sagging because they had to have their belt scanned. Thank you so much, TSA, for subjecting us to security theater. That's right. I said it. Obviously, scanning my belt and my .05 ounces of hand sanitizer and my chap stick have prevented people like this guy from trying to blow up his own crotch on a plane. Oh, and that 76-year-old lady you just chose for extra screening probably has an explosive in the beaded chain holding her glasses around her neck.

Seven Quick Rants

One: I was bored the other day, so I clicked on the Next Blog >> link at the top of the page and read through some random blogs. But OMG you guys - do you have any idea how many running blogs there are? How many people need to blog about running? Is it really all that different? Or am I just ignorant? (Seriously, click the next blog link at the top of the page. Tell me how many running blogs you come across in 15 clicks.)

Two: Learn the different between there, their, and they're. They are not interchangeable. There is a preposition (it shows location). Their is possessive (my cat, their dog). They're is a contraction of they are. The same goes for your and you're. Your is possessive (my cat, your bird). You're is a contraction of you are.

Three: Punctuation is important. You wouldnt really want to read this blog if I never used any punctuation now would you see it all becomes one run on sentence and you cant separate the ideas punctuation serves a very important purpose you should try it sometime

Four: The rules of the road apply to bicyclists too. I'm pretty sure this is only a regional problem - God knows I never had the issue when I lived in Michigan. But nothing burns me more than when some idiot @$$hole on a bike disregards traffic laws, lights, signs, and courtesies. Guess what? I'm driving a car. In a battle of wills, I will ultimately win, and you will splat.

Five: Ads that are like 12 times louder than the program I'm watching. Thank God for DVR. I rarely watch live tv anymore.

Six: Inconsiderate people. The other day, I was in line at the grocery store. In the regular line, not my customary self-checkout line. This old lady in line in front of me had a big cart, but only three items. She loaded her three items on the belt and proceeded to turn her cart sideways to BLOCK ME OUT OF THE LINE. WTF lady? I had to move her cart and my cart, which was loaded to the brim and also had Wylie in his infant carrier seat in it. @$$.

Seven: The Sock Monster who lives in the dryer.

Reasons Why I Don't Believe I'll Ever Truly Be an Adult

When I was getting ready to graduate from first high school and then college, the looming Adult World kind of freaked me out. I mean, my God, I'd have to pay bills! But in college, paying bills didn't seem to be such the Scary Event I thought it would be. But the biggest marker of adulthood, Paying Taxes, that STILL seems daunting. And do you know, I've never had to do my own taxes? My parents always had a CPA do theirs (at least as long as I can remember), and they still claimed me as a dependent while I was in college, ergo they did my taxes for me while I was in college. And then, when I was facing my first ever time to have to pay my own taxes, Chad and I got married. Thankfully, he took econ classes in the business college at WMU and knows about Accounting and Banking Things, so he's taken care of our taxes for me. As I was ruminating on this randomly, I started to think of reasons why I won't ever earn my Official Adulthood Membership Card. And so, I give you my list...

1. I still watch cartoons.
2. I still like to play games.
3. I like to color.
4. Sometimes my imagination gets the best of me. So much so, that
5. I'm afraid of the dark (not all the time, and not truly, but every once in a while...)
6. I want to skip dinner in favor of dessert (I don't actually do this because I know I shouldn't. But it doesn't stop me from really, really wanting to.)
7. I could never have a Big Girl Job, working at a corporation or behind a desk.
8. I have no idea how to choose a retirement plan (which is why I never started saving for my retirement while I was at HSD2. Oops!)
9. I get distracted by bright colors.
10. I still play video games.

There. Now that I've confessed my deepest, darkest secrets, what's one thing about you that isn't very adult like?

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Okay, I don't know how many of you are Craigslisters. I'm sure some of you (cough, My Parents) probably don't even know what Craigslist is. Well, I'm here to confess to you, that, well... I'm hooked! I sold that stupid monstrosity that the imbeciles we bought the house from left us (a.k.a. the basketball hoop) on there in less than 24 hours after posting it. I bought $75 worth of baby toys from a lady on there for $15. I sold the Wii Guitar controller for $25 yesterday. I'm selling my beat-up suitcase on there for $10, and I'm going to purchase two $30 planters for $25 total. I'm also looking at getting a cedar chest for $100. I'm also hoping to sell my golf clubs (thank you Tyler, you douchebag, for buying them for me so I can now sell them) and my stereo system. And you know what? If these things don't sell, I can just take them to Goodwill. Sweet.

And you know what? Yes, I'm cheap. I'm not afraid to admit it. But seriously? Baby things? They don't get used for that long, so if you can wash it or disinfect it, why not? And the cedar chest? Really? My parents have a cedar chest and I love the idea, but they are sooo expensive new (the one I'm looking at is $350 new, they're selling for $100!). So, yes. I Craigslist. And yes, I may have a problem. So there.

On a related Lacey-is-cheap note: I also signed up to go to the Just Between Friends sale this April. If you have not heard of Just Between Friends, let me enlighten you. It is a community of moms who get together twice a year and sell all of their no-longer-needed child-related things. From newborn to pre-teen. Clothes, strollers, toys, etc. And this isn't just a Colorado Springs thing. Click on the link, check it out. See if there's one near you. I'm totally going to look for a jogging stroller. Why? Those of you who know me know that I don't jog. However, jogging strollers have tires instead of little wheels. And there is this awesome trail that runs alongside a creek right by my house. But I can't go down this lovely trail with Wylie because the stroller doesn't go off-roading well. So I'm hoping to find a decent jogging stroller for like $50 at the sale. And baby toys. Maybe some kind of walker-push toy for Wylie for when he starts along the being-mobile path.

So, here are my questions to you: Are you cheap? Do other people tell you you're cheap but you disagree? Do you pretend that frugal sounds better than cheap? Do you Craigslist? (Because if you don't, you should.)

Back to the Crib

Well, I'm trying Wylie in his crib for a nap again. And so far, he's approaching the half-hour mark. I've discovered that if I stand by the side of the crib or the pack'n'play where he can see me, he usually drops off pretty quickly. Of course, that's only when I put him down still pretty awake. You know, he's at the point where he's tired enough to laugh-cry and rub his eyes, but his eyes aren't droopy. So I rocked him a little bit, then I swaddled him up TIGHTLY, popped the paci in his mouth, and turned on his seahorse. I stood where he could see me and watched as the eyelids got very heavy and then slammed shut. Poor baby. So tired.

So the plan is to try the rest of his naps today in the crib, and then maybe leg one of nighttime sleep. It'll be weird when he's no longer sleeping in our room with me. Ah, there he is now, just shy of a forty-minute nap. Off I go to get the baby. :)

The Much-Awaited Rolling-Over Video

Here it is folks - the much awaited video evidence of my peanut's newfound skill! Also, for future use, if you want to search for my videos on YouTube, please use the following email address: MrsLThorner@gmail.com. However, please don't email me at this address - it is used exclusively for communicating with my former students. Thanks!

Edited to ask: Are you getting choppy playback on the video? Please respond - I need to know if my new camera is having issues or if it's my computer. Thanks.

Edited again to add: I had the original post as a YouTube video, but this one is loaded through blogger and seems to play better on my computer. I still want to know about the choppiness though. And, if it's not too much to ask, if you want to check out the video on youtube HERE and see if that one is choppy, that would be awesome too!

A Chicago Wedding Weekend

So, my cousin Holly (really Chad's cousin, but I love her like my own, so I've totally adopted her) is getting married in October.  I'm really excited because it's promising to be quite the affair.  However, my mother-in-law brought up a good point - won't we want to have some kind of babysitter there to watch Wylie so we (and by we, I mean me, not Chad, since he's not truly the primary caregiver, you know, since he just left to spend 6 months overseas, courtesy of the army) can have a good time??  And the answer?  A resounding, "YES!"  So my MIL started throwing out possibilities.  Her niece's daughter could bring a friend to hang out with during the day and the friend could watch Wylie during the evening activities and during the wedding.  Okay, yes, that would work.  But honestly?  The only people who have taken care of my baby without me anywhere around in the vicinity, outside of Chad of course, are my mother and his mother.  And I'm sure that my MIL's niece's daughter (who is 17) wouldn't bring a complete moron.  But I'm not totally comfortable with the idea of someone who I do not know AT ALL taking care of my baby.  So I was really hoping my mom would come to Chicago (with my dad, por supuesto) and take care of the baby during the evenings and during the ceremony.  After all, I know that she's a reliable caregiver (hello, I'm walking proof) and she's already taken care of him before.  Plus, what grandparent doesn't want to spend some quality time with their adorable infant grandchild?  So, after a very heartfelt and pleading email, my parents agreed to come to Chicago and take care of the baby.  But Internet, you don't truly understand this triumph of a parent-looking-for-a-reliable-and-trustworthy babysitter if you don't understand that my father HATES Chicago traffic.  And, since my mother has to ride through Chicago traffic with my father (who is not a good heavy traffic driver in a mostly unfamiliar city), she hates navigating through Chicago as well.  But they still agreed to come!  Yay!!

I'm hoping that during the day we can head to some of the attractions with Wylie, who will be almost one year old (!).  Places like Navy Pier and the Children's Museum or Shedd Aquarium.  I think the aquarium would be awesome as a little guy - it's definitely one of my favorite places, so I'm really excited to take him there.  It should be awesome.  It promises to be a great, new experience, for him, and for me.  I wonder what it will feel like to watch him explore the aquarium, to see the look on his face.

And, speaking of new experiences, Holly is going to be having a Hindu blessing on the Sunday after the wedding, which will be awesome to see.  I've never seen any Hindu ceremonies, so I'm really interested to take part in this blessing.  It's called a Satyanarayan Puja.  So hopefully I will have some great new experiences to blog about after that weekend.

Good friends, good times

So went up to Denver today to go to my friend and former mentor's baby shower.  It was so great to see her!  It's been almost a year, maybe more, since I last saw her.  She had gotten a different job during last school year, so she was at a different school.  Then her father up in Denver got really sick and died suddenly so she and her hubby moved in with her mother to help with the house payment (her father didn't have life insurance).  So it's been quite some time since I've seen her.  It was awesome to see her and her sisters and mother today.  But it kind of made me sad.  I wish that I could see her more, but since she's an administrator now, her work schedule is crazy.  Not to mention, you know, that she lives in Denver.  But hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch better.  I really do miss having her here in town - she was the person I was closest to here outside of Chadley.

But, I digress - it was so nice to be at her baby shower.  She received so many beautiful, handmade gifts.  She also received lots of little helpful things, like the fold 'n' go diaper kit or the forehead scanner thermometer.  She got a ton of other things too.  It was nice to see so many people there to celebrate her and the baby.  But I do have to say, Jenn is hilarious.  She is clueless about babies and baby stuff!  She held up a package of onesies and paused because she couldn't tell what they were.  I guess she let her husband do most of the registry.  Most people would say that's a bad thing, but you don't know her hubby - he's really the feminine personality in the relationship.  And he did good, let me tell you from having scanned the registry.

So, out of all of these handy dandy gifts, what did I get her?  Well, I got her a diaper cake.  That I made. It's wasn't totally pretty, I don't think, but I guess it was pretty good for a first effort.  You decide:

Meanwhile, I totally haven't posted any of the pictures from our Wisconsin trip.  So, here are photos of my adorable baby!

Meanwhile, there aren't any viable pictures of the teeth yet, nor is there viable video of the little tyke rolling over.  Oh yeah, did I mention that Chad bought me a Kodak Zi8?  So as soon as there is viable video, you can bet that I'll be sharing it!  Hope you enjoyed the photos, Internet!

Lotsa Excitement

So here I am in Wisconsin visiting the in-laws.  Well, actually, right at this particular moment, I'm actually in Sheboygan visiting with friends, but we're going back to the in-laws tomorrow.  Wylie has already accumulated like 10 more outfits between Grandma Sharon and Great Aunt Patty.  And you guys, these outfits are ADORABLE!  One of them, my favorite, is a St. Pat's sleeper with little clovers all over it and a ginormo clover on the butt that says, "My 1st St. Patty's Day".  Sigh.  Too cute.  And will probably never fit another kid, unless I can time a pregnancy just right that the next one (or the one after that) will be wearing 6 mos. clothes at St. Pat's day.  But I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Let me backtrack...

Thursday was terrible.  Absolutely awful.  Chad had to climb Pike's Peak on Wednesday.  In one day.  Carrying a 38 + pounds pack.  And he didn't wear sunscreen.  Oh yeah, and they all ran out of water with about 6 miles left.  And they started at 3 am.  So when he got home, he slept 11 hours straight.  In the guest room, because frankly, he STANK.  And when he got up, he had AMS.  So he was useless (his words, not mine) all Thursday.  Thursday, the day that I had to wash all of the laundry, do all of the dishes, pack my bag, Wylie's bag, and my carry-on/backpack/Wylie's-travel-diaper bag.  And take care of Wylie.  And Chad.  And make something for dinner that would help to speed Chad's recovery (read: protein).  And, Internet, this is the worst part - I had to wake up at 2 am the following morning to get ready to leave at 3 am for the Denver International Airport.  Of course, since Chad was still suffering from AMS, I had to drive.  To the DIA, which I swear to you is damn near located in Kansas.  And our flight from Denver to Las Vegas was delayed by about 45 minutes, which severely cut into our time in the Vegas airport (I didn't get any slots time, dammit!), meaning we almost missed our Vegas-Milwaukee flight.  Wylie did pretty well on the planes, considering the fact that he woke up at 2 am, with only one catastrophic diaper failure (on the plane, mind you), which necessitated a Wardrobe Change.

So we landed in Milwaukee, and, miracle of miracles, our bags made it too!  We were fully expecting to be spending the night without our bags, considering how closely our time was cut.  But, thank God, someone at Southwest airlines has actual, honest-to-God, good ideas - the put a neon pink tag on your bag is it's a transfer.  Bless you, Southwest.  Bless you for your transfer tags and for two free checked bags per ticketed passenger.  Bless you for your affordable fairs.  So here we are in Wisconsin having a good time.  Wylie is chewing on my finger, like he always does these days, you know, since he's teething.  Except now, it's a lot more painful.  I mean A LOT.  So I run my finger along his lower gum, and lo-and-behold, there is a sharp tooth-ridge poking through his gum!  Where have the last 19 weeks gone?

(Did I mention that I started Wylie on cereal this week?  No?  Well, I'm mentioning it now, in this aside.  Chad took pictures, and as soon as I can steal them from him, I will post them here, promise.  At first, he did not enjoy the cereal.  He only ate about a teaspoon of the tablespoon I had prepared for him, so I put the rest in the fridge and tried it again later, with MUCH success.  And on Thursday, he ate about 2 teaspoons of the 1 tablespoon I prepped.  My plan right now is just to make him one tablespoon at a time until he's eating a full tablespoon at a time.  We'll up serving size as he gets more used to actually eating.)

So amid my joy in my son's newest accomplishments and at visiting with family and friends, I received a devestating blow today.  I received a text from my cousin that they've placed my grandmother on Aricept.
I guess that she's not doing as well as I thought she was.  They haven't officially diagnosed her with Alzheimer's, but that's what the drug treats, so....

Edited to add: originally written on Saturday, March 20.  Posted later...

To-do Mania

Well, Wylie's rolled over about umpteen times since his first successful solo roll.  Chad finally saw him roll over last night (he didn't cooperate for daddy the night before), so he was really happy about that!  Wylie's also still working on those bottom teeth, and when I was feeling his gums for a progress-check, I discovered that gum tissue on his upper gums is feeling pretty rough now too.  Could he be getting ready to cut his top two front teeth shortly after he finishes his bottom ones??  Yikes.  Hopefully he's not a rough teether.  We've been pretty blessed so far.

Meanwhile, we're getting ready to head to Wisconsin next Friday and I just realized that I have a TON of laundry to do in preparation for that - all three of us are going to need clothes to wear, after all, and on top of that, Wylie's going to need bedding and towels.  Hopefully Chad's parents' friends can loan us some baby stuff while we're there so we don't have to cart everything through the airports with us.  Still waiting to hear back from her, but she offered, so I'm guessing we're in the clear with that.  After we get back from Wisconsin, Chad will have one day at home and then he leaves.  It's crazy - it totally snuck up on us.

Well, the baby calls, so it's time to get him up and feed him and change him so I can start on the out-of-house to-do list today.  Among those things are buying the supplies to make a diaper cake (wish me luck!).

Children's Chapter Books

Okay, so to continue my last thought from my previous post, I'm really looking forward to Wylie being able to enjoy being read a chapter from a book at night before going to bed.  That said, I don't want him to grow up.  LOL  I love him being a little guy and wanting to cuddle when he gets tired.  I hope that he doesn't outgrow that.

Meanwhile, back to the books.  There are several chapter books that I enjoyed when I was younger.  I know it'll be a while before I can enjoy these again with Wylie, but I got to thinking about them nonetheless.  I just thought that I would share some of these with you because I always liked them.

• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (which was also made into a live action/animated film by Chuck Jones)
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• The Cricket in Times Square by George Seldon
• The Farthest-Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks
• I, Houdini: The Autobiography of a Self-Educated Hamster by Lynne Reid Banks
• The Indian in the Cupboard series by Lynne Reid Banks
• The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
• The Fudge Series by Judy Blume
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• The Sideways Stories from Wayside School series by Louis Sachar

There are more, I'm sure, but I just don't remember them right now.  What chapter books did you enjoy when you were younger?  Or which authors were your favorites?

Rolly Poly Pudding Pie

Well, today Wylie rolled over for the first time completely on his own!  He rolled from his back to his stomach and he looked so proud afterward!

He spent the rest of the day rolling back and forth from his back to his stomach and vice versa.  I can't believe it.  He is growing so quickly.  He's exclusively in 6 month clothes now and he's very close to sitting up on his own.

Yesterday at Target (which, P.S., is having a sale on two-packs of Gerber first foods for $.94), we got him some veggies and fruits and some single-grain cereal.  I can hardly believe that he's almost ready for food!  We're going to wait until he starts showing some serious interest in food, but I believe that he's almost there.  He's started grabbing for forks and plates when he's sitting on your lap at the table, but I don't think he's yet truly interested in the food on the said forks and plates.

I've also started thinking about some of the chapter books that I enjoyed reading when I was younger and would like to read to Wylie as he's growing up.  I already have one of them: The Phantom Tollbooth.  There are several others, which I will have to detail at a later date as he just woke up.  :)  Night all!

Award Tag

 I was tagged by Christina at Butterfly Lights for this award: "This award means you're really going places, Baby. You'll still be blogging about your great adventures 10 years from now, and I'll still be reading them."

The Rules:

• Link back to the blogger who sent you this award
• Post where you would like to be in 10 years
• Pass it on to 10 other special bloggers!

Well, I don't even know 10 bloggers, so I guess that I'll just have to tag as many as I can:

• Emily @ Not That You Asked...
• Jenn @ Reflections
• And those are the only bloggers I know that haven't been named already by my cousin!

Now, as for where I will be in 10 years, that's kind of come up for debate.  I'll be a mom of at least two (hopefully!) and probably back to teaching.  As to location, that's the part that's come up for debate - there are several options available, but I'm still hoping for the Chicago area.

I Like Dr. Watson

Well, since Wylie's doctor's appointment Thursday, we've had a little bit of diarrhea going on.  It's a reaction to the rotavirus vaccine, and it's pretty common.  Poor little guy has been just a little irritable though.  I mean, in comparison to some kids, he's still really easygoing.  But for him, he's a little irritable.  But that's not what I really wanted to write about.

Friday evening at 7:30 pm, I was getting dinner ready when my phone rang.  It was a number that belongs to someplace on post or at the clinic where we go, so I answered it.  Usually I don't answer phone calls from numbers I don't already have in my phone, but I did.  It was Wylie's pediatrician.  She said that she was making a note in his folder about his appointment and got to thinking that since he has a cyst in his lung, maybe he would benefit from getting the rsv vaccine.  She said that ordinarily, if we weren't on army healthcare, he wouldn't qualify for the vaccine because he's simply been too healthy.  Also, since he didn't go to the NICU, he didn't receive his first dosage at that time.  But she spoke to someone and had it preapproved so he's covered during RSV season.  She said that if we were on civilian insurance and wanted to have him vaccinated, we would have to pay for it out of pocket and they are $1000 each.  So that's pretty awesome that he's covered under TriCare.

Okay.  I think that's about it.  Kind of a lame post.  But there you have it.  I really like Wylie's doctor because she takes the time to think about things beyond the basics of the appointments.  And she works late!  :)

4 Month Well Baby Check-up

Well, we had the 4-month well baby visit today and it went really well. Other than the fact that the doctor was running behind. But as far as I'm concerned, if you're not the first two appointments of the day, the doctor is pretty much always running behind. That's what comes from trying to squeeze too many patients into too few doctors' schedules. Okay, that's enough of the soapbox.

Anyway, they weighed and measured Wylie (after everyone exclaiming what a Big Boy he is!), and then we waited for the doctor. He weighs 15 lbs 1.5 ounces, is 25 1/4 inches long, and has a 15 inch head. So that means he's in the 65th percentile for height and weight and the 75th for head size (that means that he is bigger in height and weight than 65 average babies his age and his head is bigger and 75 average babies his age). What that means is he's healthy! Yay!

He really didn't like being poked and prodded today, but really, that's the doctor's fault - she was running late so she ran into his naptime; he was VERY cranky. Last time, he just went along with her testing of his limbs and reflexes and laughed the whole time. But then came the really awful part - the shots. Sigh. I hate hearing him cry!! But at least he stops crying pretty much as soon as I pick him up right after they're finished. Some of the other infants cry and cry and cry afterwards. My mom said that I did pretty much the same thing - I would cry as they were giving me the shots and then as soon as she'd pick me up, I was over it. So we have to go back in 8 weeks for his 6 month check-up.


She also checked in his mouth and commented, "Man, he's really working on cutting those two bottom teeth!"  You're telling me!  I thought he was going to crack my knuckle like a walnut chewing on it!

I also got the schedule for when to start giving him which foods, based on when he shows interest. Some people start giving food as soon as the little one reaches 4 months - I don't prescribe to that school. I'll start giving him food as soon as he starts showing an interest in it (aka when he starts looking at us longingly as we eat big people food in front of him). The doc also gave me a cream for his super-dry skin - Johnson's baby lotion and baby oil hasn't taken care of it so far, so she busted out the VaniCream. We'll give it a try and see how we like it. Okay - I think that's about it!

Why I Love the NoseFrida

A couple of weeks ago, Wylie had a really stuffy nose.  Like terribly stuffy.  As I put him to my breast to feed him, he pushed his head into me, sealing off his breathing for a split second.  That was all it took to put him into full meltdown mode.  I grabbed the bulb aspirator to clear out his nasal passages, but it barely fits into his little nostrils and it took Chad and I at least a full five minutes to get his boogies out so we could start calming him down.  And after all the work with the bulb aspirator, I pretty much just wound up picking his nose to get the boogers out.  This was a couple of days after I'd placed my order with Amazon.com for the NoseFrida.

The NoseFrida is a test-tube looking thing with a long piece of tubing attached.  The adult places the red piece in the mouth and the end of the test-tube looking part near baby's nostril.  Then you suck.  You don't have to invade the nose cavity, and there is absolutely no way that you can inhale the snot and boogers (if you look closely, you'll see a darker blue piece at the opposite end of the of the part you place against the nostril - that's a filter and it keeps anything from entering your mouth).

Now, let me just tell you that I just used the NoseFrida again this morning for like the 30th time since I bought it.  I was able to quickly clear Wylie's nasal passages of their morning accumulations without him twisting his head and jabbing himself in the nose with the bulb aspirator.  It's also much easier to clean - the long portion of the blue reservoir detaches from the end where the tubing is and you can easily run hot water through it.  You can also see when you've cleared all of the nose junk from it, as it's clear.  Lastly, you can change the little filter there easily as well to ensure you don't suck up snot and boogers.

I never want to hear my son crying and screaming the way he did that morning a few weeks ago.  It was awful, and it definitely shook Chad and myself up.  The $15 I paid for the NoseFrida (plus a couple extra dollars for extra filters to have on hand instead of having to order later) was totally worth it.  I know my son isn't snuffy and can breathe freely.  If you know someone who is having a baby or you have a baby yourself, I highly recommend it.  It's so much easier and safer to use.  Seriously.  I got mine through Amazon.com, but they also sell them online at Target and Babies-R-Us.  I guess that they also sell them in Whole Foods Market stores.  (Not too sure on that one though.)

Okay, that's my unsolicited product review.  :)