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Thanks to a comment on this post I am now just a tad BPA paranoid. After Wendy’s comment I checked out the type of plastic on the yummy fruit bowls and was sad to find that they were a number 7 plastic. She has a good point about recycling that type of plastic. Also, number 7 plastic is the plastic to avoid because of BPA.

I was reminded of this when I got my Seventh Generation email newsletter that featured this article: My Body Burden, Part 2: BPA

When N came home that night I shared the article with him and we went and checked all the plastic in our kitchen. We are purging all number 7 plastics and any plastic that is not numbered. This unfortunately includes my favorite water bottle. We are also going to be looking out for what kinds of preserved foods we buy.

We were bummed to find out that canned foods and beverages also can contain BPA due to the lining material of many cans. Then I leaned that BPA can and does pass through breast milk to babies so now I am super paranoid about my own BPA exposure.

The post BPA and Bloggy Makeovers… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Now that I am taking over 100 photos of E a week Ive got lots of material to share. Here we go!

She slept in her crib for the first time ever over the weekend. It was just a tiny nap in the crib on her tummy while N and I worked on stuff in the office but it was a milestone since she isn’t to crazy about independent sleep.

It turns out we picked the perfect bedding set because she is crazy about animal print for some reason. There is zebra print on her playmat that she loves to look at. On our couch I have a tiger striped throw that she stares at and now she’s got the bedding set that is full of animal print!

She’s been much more alert and is getting so strong now. She’s just over 5 weeks as of yesterday and we are constantly amazed at how much she is growing. You can see in her eyes how she is starting to understand and analyze the world around her.

She is still so adorable and is sporting the red hair still. I can’t believe she is ours and the we have actually become parents. We love her so much.

She is almost always in cloth diapers but she isn’t too good at signaling me when she needs a change. They say babies will let you know when they need to be changed or fed right? Well, I am not so convinced of this with her.

When she is on her side she’ll have a “blowout” if she naps for many hours straight. At night when we are expecting her to sleep for several hours straight I double up the diaper inserts to prevent diaper leakage and it works well.

When I am not expecting a long nap, like in this photo, and she sleeps for a long time she’s bound to leak. Can you see the pee ring on the sheets around her bum? Those sheets were just changed too, LOL.

Last night she was all diapered, fed and ready for sleep but she wasn’t feeling secure or independent so daddy comforted her all night. She likes to sit and watch him while he is talking to her, it gives me a nice break from her and it gives them good bonding time.

She’s also surprisingly good at holding her head up. When we are burping her or when she is sitting looking at us she insists on lifting her head or she’ll lean back away from our support. She likes to be in control of her own head it seems and she is very strong and good at it. Like I said we love her, she is amazing!

The post Less-words Wednesday: Baby Everly is 5 weeks old appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Interestingly enough out of the 3 blogs I upgraded to WordPress 2.5 one of them is having issues adding images to the blog posts now. I did all 3 upgrades from the same computer and have troubleshooted the image adding issue on the same computer so I suspect it is a database issue or perhaps a server compatibility issue. If you are having this issue I am creating a separate post about it that you can read for more info. The post is called: Unable to insert image after upgrading to WordPress 2.5?

On a positive WordPress note- I really like how the widgets have been updated, add for lots of flexibility and consistency between themes if your theme is widgetized. Unfortunately, my current theme (Heaven9 1.0 by Michael Dunn) is not set up for widgets. Also, the footer is broken and has been since I first installed it.

I am dragging my feet on trying a new theme because it took me forever to edit the header image (in adobe photoshop) to include my blog name when I first switched to this theme.

I am reading about widigetizing themes right now but the instructions aren’t working for this particular theme so I am not sure what I want to do next.

Oh, I am on day 7 of high temperatures after ovulation (DPO) and am keeping my fingers crossed that my temps will stay high for long enough. I have had as few as 6 DPO (only six days of high temps after ovulation), this is not good for getting pregnant and can be a sign of a progesterone issue.. So I am stoked that I made it past day 6 and hope that my temps stay up and that we made a baby…

In other news I got my replacement Blue Girl rose bush yesterday and am excited that the thing is not dead like the last one I received. I planted it yesterday in a pot and I actually have a unfurled rose I am enjoying right now!

How has your Tuesday afternoon been?

The post Been a busy gal! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

It is actually free for 1 year from the date of registration (you will need to buy your own hosting plan separate from the domain if you wish to use it), the catch is that they want your credit card information on the account so that when the free year is up they can charge you for a second year and so on. They charge $35.00 for 1 year domain registration!! What a rip off!

I actually do not recommend register.com’s hosting plans to anyone who wishes to have control over their site/ SEO. I used them back in the day and was grossly disappointed. I don’t even recommend them for domain registration because it is way over priced but with a free domain why not use them?

The key is to transfer the domain to another registrar at the end of the year and THEN pay for the next years registration. This is what I plan to do!

I got my free domain registration for customgiftsbytalina.com, I will redirect it to my business site (www.craftedcustomgifts.com) thus reserving my business name as a domain so nobody else can use it and misrepresent the business.

A free domain name could be benificial to you as a blogger. Getting a domain registered and buying a hosting plan means you own your blog. It wont be hosted at a free blogging site (like blogger.com, wordpress.com or MSN spaces) which increases your chance for making money off that blog, plus you have more control!

Free blogs often cannot use all the nifty little plugins (like comment luv) that exist because they are unable to edit template files and so on. Free blogs are free so the capabilities and benefits are often limited. If you are a serious blogger this free domain name offer can launch you into the world of professional blogging/ owning your own site!

If you want ot claim your free domain head over to their promotion page (http://www.register.com/promo/acquisitions_lp_1.rcmx?trkID=EMAoFkNb1W) and get started.. The offer is only good for the week so don’t wait if you want one.

Then mark your calendar and remember to transfer the domain registration to another registrar of your choice before it expires next year!

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