What is Twitter?

What is twitter? Well I am not the an expert but it is a great way to keep in touch and follow what people are doing and well have people follow and want to know what you are doing. My husband finds lots of education and information links through his followers and who he follows. I am trying to convince my father to go on twitter and keep up with the now. The video above is on the Ellen show today where she talked about twitter and was hilarious. When my husband first talked about going on twitter and tweeting it sounded very funny. We had a few chuckles about it. We are often on the computer at the same time and tweeting each other. I would like to find more moms to follow and follow me on twitter but still looking and hoping. My twitter name is germannjaime.

Understanding Death

How do we teach our kids what death is?

My grandma of 93 years passed away February 1st. We will all miss her very much and know that she lived a very full life. I am very blessed that both my kids were able to meet and spend time with their Great-Grandma. Peyton and Rayna are quite blessed. They have two sets of Grandparents, two Great-Grandma's, one Great-Grandpa and one Great-Great Grandpa who is 105.

I was trying to explain to Peyton, who is 31/2 years old, that his great-grandma, my grandma, had passed away . He either didn't have the attention span to listen to what I was saying or had no understanding of what I was trying to tell him.

I am noticing now in the last couple weeks since the passing of my Grandma that Peyton has been using the word die... a lot. He uses it so freely and doesn't quite understand the meaning of the word die or dead. I would like to find some way to help him understand or maybe he is just to young.

My cousin has a boy the same age as my son and her son seems to definitely understand the meaning of death. This maybe because his Grandpa passed away two years ago and his passing has had a direct impact on his life since he spent a lot of time with his Grandma and Grandpa.

Maybe Peyton can't understand it because Grandma's death doesn't really relate to him. He had spent some time with her but only about 3 - 5 times a year. I am trying my best to help to understand but most of the time he just makes me laugh because he is soooooo not listening to what I have to say. The craziness that comes out of his mouth has nothing to do with dieing or understanding death at all.

I was explaining the dangers of balloons to him today and how putting them in your mouth is not safe at all. I was telling him that he can't put them in his mouth because he could swallow the balloon and choke on it. I was trying to explain that Mom and Dad would be very scared and he could die from choking. I don't know if his lack of understanding and silliness is because he is trying to avoid and get out of the conversation or he really doesn't have the capabilities to understand what I am trying to explain to him.

Is my son ready to understand what death is?
Does he not want to talk about it and tries to be silly to avoid the conversation?
Should I want him to understand what death is or try to keep his innocence for longer?
Does the understanding of heaven make it easier for kids to understand what death is?
How do you teach about death but not scare them?

Autism and Immunizations

I just recently watched an episode of Private Practice on television and was quite taken with the content. The episode was about a young boy who contacted measles. His older brother has Autism and he had not been immunized because his mother felt that immunizing in some part caused her oldest son's Autism. I will not spoil the story for you but I had tears. As a parent, I never questioned getting my children immunized. I thought to myself I am not a doctor or nurse they know more about that kind of stuff than I would. How many parents choose not to give their children immunizations? I am one of the people who choose to give my children vaccinations. I would like to here from other parents and how they fill on this issue.

1. Should we vaccinate our kids?
2. Is the risk of not getting vaccinated way worse than the alternative?
3. Is there a link between vaccination and autism?
4. Should it be mandated that we all are immunized?

I have done some searching and found a lot of information on the web. Here are the first I searched and briefly scanned.

1. An article at CTV.ca supporting the issue that autism is not caused by immunizations.
2. A site in which parents of autistic children discuss their change in their children after immunizations called Think Twice.

Before seeing this episode on Private Practice I also have seen Jenny McCarthy on several television shows speaking about her son's autism. She speaks out about her struggle with parenting and autism.

I don't know what my final decision is on this matter but I am interested to hear what other parents have to say about it.

I put out a message on Twitter and received two messages back. Thank you for sending back some links.
1. Vaccination News or Age of Autism - Website based on the Autism Epidemic.
After skimming over the site it seems to me that I should try to become more informed since my son Peyton has had 10 febrile seizures starting just before his first birthday. I am glad to say that his seizures have caused him no known affects as we can see right now.

Play Your Guitar With Murray!

Eldon and I spent a good day and a half making this spiderman guitar for Peyton. Of course Rayna would love it too but not able to ask for it. The Wiggles have a song called Play Your Guitar With Murray and Peyton really wanted to have a guitar to play with soooo of course, we had to make it. We were just as excited about making it as Peyton was about playing it. I hope you enjoy the slideshow and love the wiggles as much as we do.

No Snow November Slide Show

Karaoke Germann Style

I love my kids! We have too much fun together. Eldon and I set up the Karaoke Machine and let the kids sing their hearts out. We encouraged them and well tried to have the tame it down a little bit. Rayna was very sensitive about everything and Peyton was a little too expressive with his singing. Rayna has the dance moves of a future pop singer and Peyton is a true rocker. Eldon fixed up the video and edited it. Sometimes it is a little crazy on the vocals but it is very entertaining. If you love to rock out to the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star watch this video.

Peyton's Camera Pics