Yes this is 7 Quick Takes “Friday”, but I am posting this one day early, in the evening on Thursday, because I am hoping to have a post about Taste of Dallas late in the day on Friday.

In case you were wondering about the ridiculous 7-day gap in posting earlier this week, that was because my husband was out of town for 4 days. Leaving me to do mornings and evenings alone. I wrote about it on Dallas Moms Blog, but that was the most writing I was able to do while he was gone.

I thought I would end up relying more on the TV than I did. I’m proud to say we didn’t really go above the normal amount of TV for the kids until the very last day, and even then not much. I realize the fact that my kids watch TV at all kicks me out of the “natural parenting” club for some people, but labels suck anyway. My kids do watch TV, although they are terrible at it. We don’t have cable anymore but they do watch PBS kids, shows on Netflix, and DVDs that we borrow from the library. I say they are terrible at it because they tend to start watching and then get distracted and wander off or start fighting with each other while the show is going on. Actually, my 2.5 year old is getting better at being zombie-like for longer periods of time. Which is unfortunate for his brain and all that, but it’s making me optimistic about our upcoming airline flights – yay, iPad!

Speaking of things that would get me kicked out of the “green” community, I finally went through all our doctors’ receipts and compiled what I believe is an accurate record of all my kids’ vaccinations. Because yes, we vaccinate. I don’t care if you do or you don’t. This is the decision we made and I am completely OK with anyone who made a different one. The point of mentioning this is that my doctor charges $15 per child per form to fill out forms for our Mother’s Day Out and preschool programs. Since I am not rich, I went through and filled out all of that stuff myself and I hope I got it right. Our doctor also charges $30 per child for their full medical records, which is what we would need if we change insurance companies any time soon (which I hope we do – we buy our own private health insurance and it’s ridiculously expensive). I would also need those records if we finally move to holistic/naturopath pediatrician.

I understand it’s laborious for the pediatrician to put together the paperwork and if everyone asked for all their paperwork all the time it would be prohibitively time-consuming. So I realize that is why they charge me for my own children’s records. I guess what they are assuming is that I should be keeping track of this stuff myself. Which is yet another thing I had no idea I was supposed to be doing when it comes to my kids. What class did I miss that taught me about these things I was supposed to be doing all along and I am just now figuring out after 2.5 years of not doing it?

I am, as always, on the fence about whether to find a more holistic/naturopathic pediatrician. I really feel like our pedi, while pretty conventional, is great about not over-prescribing meds. And all the holistic/naturopaths I know of are quite a drive away. What do you do for an after-hours emergency with a naturopath? CareNow doesn’t do holistic! And what about insurance? Our insurance, being private insurance, pays for pretty much nothing. I had to take Little Lady in once and they ran a test to rule out strep throat – our insurance wouldn’t pay for it. Our insurance pretty much only pays what the law requires it to pay for: vaccinations. {retracted political comment}

I can hear my husband singing They Might Be Giants songs to my son in the other room. As it should be.

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Well that’s all for this week, be sure to visit Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Fridays.