Big Adventure Calling

Trick for Cleaning a High Chair

2012-01-18T12:30:00.002-05:00

I'm linking up with We Are That Family today. I used to participate in Works for Me Wednesday more often, but I never think about it on the right days. Last night when I was cleaning spinach out of the high chair seams, I realized I had both a solution and the right day to share.

We sort of skipped puree baby foods and went straight into table food with Oliver. He caught on really quick and has a pincer like no other. And I'm not just saying that as a proud mom. He has been picking up his own food (even small pieces) for months. That's when we started giving him food actually - when he had developed the skill to feed himself. We wanted him to have as much breastmilk as possible so I nursed exclusively until he was 7+ months old. Around 8 months old, we started feeding him a meal of solids at dinner on a consistent basis and only in the last couple weeks have we started giving him a second meal of solids during the day. Anyway... since he's been feeding himself for months, our high chair has seen its share of disaster. When I realized that the seams of the plastic collected food like a magnet on steroids, Chandler suggested I use toothpicks to clean it. Brilliant. I probably wouldn't have thought of this for a long time.

(Before)

(After)

It works for me.

11 Months!

2012-01-11T21:44:00.001-05:00

Oliver is 11 months!!!

Weight: 18.5 lbs officially (dr appt for a cough last week)

Height: 27.5" officially

Teeth: 5 completely and two half way, another is just behind those two

Diapers: Had trouble with sizing our FuzziBunz this month. It's the first time I've changed them really and it has not been fun! Lots of leakage around here folks. I think we've got it now. We're still doing a mix of cloth and disposable and in those he's still in a size 3. He may always be a size 3!

Clothes: He still has a couple pair of 3-6m Gymboree pants and a few 3-6m shirts from there too but for the most part he's in 9m and 12m shirts. His shoe size is 3.5 infant.

(His hair has grown SO much in the last few weeks, it's over his ears - I keep it tucked behind them.)

What he's up to...

-When he's tired of something or is generally displeased he shakes his head. It's so funny because neither of us have taught this to him!

-Likewise, he will also swipe things away that he's done playing with or that he perceives as in his way. I have a laser pointer that Nola likes to chase and if you put it on Oliver's leg he tries to wipe it off - it is so funny!

-He loves wheels - anything with wheels. When we're changing his diaper in the back of the car he has a fit to reach over and play with the stroller wheels. Any new truck or play vehicle he gets has its wheels inspected before he will do anything else with it, good wheels are a must. I've become a pro at hunting for toys that have independent wheels.

-Nola is still a highlight for him. I took a video of the two of them playing the other day and he was watching it with me and laughed so hard - it's really cute. She could be growling and he'd think it was hilarious. Speaking of which, we had some issues with her that started when she was two and she basically turned into a gator, but Oliver seems to have calmed her down quite a bit for some reason. He's good therapy for her and I often find her sleeping in his nursery during his naps. Sweetness!

More wheels!

-He nurses several times/day. It varies day to day, but he nurses at least five times each day with some comfort nursing in between. He is eating a big meal of solids at night and a meal of solids sometime in the morning hours. Today it was closer to noon when he ate. It varies day to day. He eats anything we give him and really doesn't dislike anything so far. He continues to eat table food and not really any puree foods. Last night he ate two snack packs of cinnamon applesauce. Steamed broccoli is hit or miss.

-He enjoys jumping.

-He dances when he hears music. We didn't teach him this either - it's really neat to see what he comes up with on his own.

-He can clap! He clapped for the first time ~~tonight~~ on January 10th, at 11 months exactly, in the bathtub. I'd been showing him clapping for a week or so on and off - so proud! We're working on where his nose/tummy/toes are... he thinks it's funny when you point to his nose. It's so funny that I'm so enthralled with these little things. When I would babysit and parents would flip out that their child could do these things I had the mentality of, 'Duh, all kids do that.' Having my own, I get it. So sorry dear parents! I think it takes having your own to understand how fun and neat it is to see your child learn something you taught them.

-He naps an hour or so in the mornings and three hours in the afternoon. Solid naps. The morning nap occurs after he's been up for about two hours so usually between 8:30 and 9:00 AM. Some days he'll sleep til 11 or 11:30 if I let him. His afternoon nap is around 12:30/1:00 and he's up around 4 PM.

-Just today he stood by himself for several seconds. He's done this a handful of times but ~~today~~ Tuesday was the longest!

-He says mama and dada well. He doesn't quite get bye-bye although he can say it. I think it's coincidence that it's a word. We think he's beginning to associate mama with me. Mama is currently his favorite word. Sometimes he'll say what sounds like, 'Mama, my mama.' Melt. my. heart. Dada was his favorite word for a while. Often he'll say what sounds like 'Dad' - so cute!

-He is really into cause and effect. He knows his Kindermusik eggs are shakers and he goes for them and immediately shakes them. He knows that the tempo sticks are for hitting together. He got a ball thing for Christmas and you put the balls in the hole and they roll down and around the toy... he isn't strong enough to push the balls down so we showed him how to put the ball on the angled part and he picked it up immediately to do it. He is fascinated with this task.

Overall, he is really coming into his own person this month. Last month is still my least favorite month. I'm just being honest. This month is one of my favorites. He is so incredibly silly. He loves to laugh and play games. Some of my favorite time with him is when he nurses. Sometimes he'll just lay there and I'll tickle him and he just just so sweet! He loves to smile and is always on the go.

Hello 11 months!

xoxo

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-04T13:07:00.002-05:00

So we're four days late... we party hard around here!

Happy, happy new year!

Christmas Gifts

2011-12-29T15:43:00.000-05:00

This year, gift giving was easy thanks to Oliver. Everyone got very personal gifts from us. I've been excited to share my most favorite though... and now that everyone has received their gift, I can post pictures!!!

We went to a paint-your-own-pottery place and thank goodness teeny tiny was asleep because it was so helpful during the process. We painted 8 plates and 4 mugs assembly style. My sister met me there and she was in charge of both rocking the boy so he would stay asleep and keeping track of which plate/mug had which layer of paint so we'd know which one needed to be painted next.

When Oliver woke up I let him finger paint a plate - so. much. fun.

Without further chatter... behold, our penguin plates! I. love. them. They turned out so much better than I'd hoped! The white was really hard to work with and a few ended up a little wonky like the one below, but overall I was SO pleased with them. I kept adding to them, i.e. black rim, snow in the rim... a little part of me wanted to write something cute like 'Happy Feet' or something, but I decided to stop while I was ahead!

(pic taken from my phone - will try to get a better one later)

... it seemed only fitting to have footprint bags for the plates. :)

They were a hit and I think everyone loved them as much as we did! We will definitely be doing something like this every year. It was so funny at the paint place, so many people looked at me like I was a nut since I was painting black footprints. One lady even commented that she'd seen another person make a plate but they used a light blue for their baby - I had to laugh before telling her that I was making it into a penguin. I showed her the picture I'd seen on Pinterest that someone had done on paper and she then said, 'Oooh.' Ha!

As I was painting, I did have to wonder - at what age is a footprint not cute anymore? Maybe when it's too big to fit on the plate? I plan to move on to hand prints as soon as he's old enough to understand what it means to 'keep your hand open,' but until then I'm stuck with the feet. And don't even try to tell me that foot prints are never not cute because I highly doubt my mom would be excited about a platter with my foot print painted on it! :)

Ten Things - Miscellany

2011-12-29T13:34:00.000-05:00

For no reason at all other than I need to muster some motivation to pick up the clutter that covers our ~~floor counter couch garage~~ entire house right now.

1.) I don't like to walk on carpet that I just vacuumed. When I'm vacuuming and you walk on the fresh lines, I feel a strong need to vacuum where you just walked (again). This also applies to a crawling baby, despite how cute he may be.

Side note, we got a Dyson Animal in July (Merry Christmas to me from Chandler) and it is every bit as good as what people say. I love it. I use it no less than every other day. The stairs attachment is dumb though, with three animals, we use the regular head and don't bother with the silly attachments.

2.) When I'm loading dishes in the dishwasher I turn the water on and keep it running whether I need to rinse things or not. I know it's a horrible waste, but I feel like I need the water.

3.) We signed up for Amazon Prime in April because I needed a stroller that the car seat could snap into ASAP. We thought we'd cancel the free trial, but decided we really liked it. We use it a lot. In the eight and a half months we've had it, we've placed 68 orders. 36.8 weeks in 8.5 months - about two orders each week. CRAZY! We love it. I dare you to try it.

4.) These are the best fingernail clippers ever. Buy them. You won't be sorry.

5.) Lots of friends posted mobile pics of their sweet babies at Christmas and when I clicked through the pictures some would loop back to older pics from the previous Christmas. They had gotten so big. When I think of that being us next year and Oliver being almost two, it makes me want to throw up. Seriously, time needs to stop.

6.) Nola often throws up yellow stomach bile - I don't know what causes dogs to do this. Did that gross you out even more than me wanting to throw up because my baby is growing so fast? I'll stop with the grossness.

7.) Sunkist and Cheezits are great together. Keebler Giant Fudge Sticks and Ocean Spray Cran-Tan(gerine) are also great together.

8.) I devoured The Secret Life of the American Teenager when Oliver was teeny tiny and wanted to nurse all.day.long. I am sad Netflix is behind on the seasons.

9.) I spend way too much time on the computer when I should be cleaning up the house.

If you haven't ordered those fingernail clippers, you're missing out. They are soooo good. Way better than the Revlon ones at the grocery store. That link is not an affiliate link or anything, I just really love them.

10.) I talk to my friend Katie just about every day and Chandler thinks we are ridiculous because he doesn't understand.

Off to pick up the junk that is scattered around................ I know your day is much more complete after reading this! :)

Then & Now - Green Shirt Edition

2011-12-27T17:40:00.000-05:00

There have been only a couple things I've loved enough to buy two sizes in, but this is the same shirt (3-6m) in each picture. It feels like he never wears my favorite things for long, but then I look back and realize he did get a good six plus months out of some things and I don't feel so sad.

An exception to the norm for most babies, but I love it.

4 months - June 3rd

10 months - December 15th

First Christmas

2011-12-25T14:04:00.003-05:00

Love this! So glad we ordered it.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T14:04:00.001-05:00

...from my phone to your screen!

Mr. Personality

2011-12-20T22:12:00.001-05:00

This about sums it up right now. Silly, silly boy.

(P)inspired Pictures

2011-12-19T21:19:00.000-05:00

I posted a Pinterest inspired picture of Oliver in lights last week and thought I'd post a few more. The first two are from the first session we tried originally and the others are from our second attempt when my parents came to town. I've not edited any so I may be able to get them looking better. Maybe one day when I have some extra time to play.

We gave him a couple of presents early. Mainly, his keys. I found a cute key set at Barnes and Noble after Thanksgiving and scooped it up on sale. I also ordered him a set of Kleynimals. They're stainless animal shaped keys that clink like car keys. He loves them! I am SO glad because they were a little pricey for what they are. He shook them for no less than forty-five minutes last night.

10 Months!!!

2011-12-19T14:19:00.000-05:00

Oliver is 10 months old!!!

I am incredibly behind in posting this... we are busy around here.

At 10 months, Oliver is busier than ever. He is funny, sweet, fast, and always on the go. So far, every month that has gone by, as much as I've missed the previous, the new month has been my favorite. Well this month that stopped being the case. This is my least favorite stage. He is into everything. It's that really busy stage between being happy sitting and running around. Wild, wild, wild! I know when he's walking, I'll miss when he was smaller because once he walks, that's it for the real 'baby' aspects. But he's so fast, that sometimes I find myself reaching to put him down as if he could stand and just walk. Oops. Not so. I always have to laugh at that, but he's so crazy fast (did I mention that?) that I forget he can't walk. I love every thing about him right now though! He is curious, smart, and loves to learn. He's increasingly impatient and has the standard short attention span of most his age. He's starting to lose his baby-ness and is taking on more and more toddler traits. If you'd told me when he was smaller just how fast this would happen, I wouldn't have believed it.

When I think about me having a baby, I still see me with a small less-than-5-month old - or just a newborn. I felt like that would last longer. As if the days would magically turn into months and the weeks would be years. There's no way to grasp how fast these last few months have flown by. June? It seems like yesterday. February, wasn't that this morning? I know it's the middle of December, but I still find myself wondering how it really came to be.

Moving on..............

At 10 months old, Oliver weighs 18.4lbs (he's holding strong to 18lbs... he feels WAY heavier though!).

He is still wearing all the same sizes as last month - which were the same sizes from the summer probably! Some 3-6 month stuff from Gymboree (he's actually in a 3-6m shirt from Gymboree today paired with a 9m Carter's onesie and 9m Carter's pants). I share the brand for anyone who may be curious about how sizes run for different companies. He's wearing a size 2-3 shoe. His 3.5 sized shoes from Stride Rite are way too big and his size 2 shoes from Carter's are just right. He has a few slip on crib shoes and the 0-6m fit really well right now, but we recently got a couple pairs of 6-12m so they'll last a while.

The diaper situation is the same. Mixed pockets and disposables (nighttime).

I love that now that he's older, we don't have to take a fifteen pound diaper bag around all of the time. I had a great Petunia Pickle Bottom one that I LOVED and bought before he was born, but it was so not functional. The straps were awful. It's my work bag now and is perfect for that along with a few diapers and wipes and a toy or two. Mom bought me a Skip Hop bag and it's by far the bestest kind out there as far as I'm concerned. Awesome in every way. Right now though, I use my tiny Patagonia day bag because it's most functional. Anything that doesn't fit stays in the car because let's face it, I'm not going to put him on one of those ook, grimey, plastic bathroom flip downs so we'd be trekking back to the car anyway. I used to just use my lap if we were out, or the stroller when we had it with us - sometimes those options still work depending on our whereabouts.

I don't know how I got off on that bag tangent... I love bags. Love them. I have way too many. I don't care to part with a single one though. Bags and jackets.

Here are a few pictures from the park that's in the back of our neighborhood. There's also deep water access, tennis courts, disc golf courses, hiking trails, skating ramps... it will be a lot of fun for Rover when he's older. For now, we enjoy the swings and sometimes the slide. It's also fun to find a bench to watch boats and kayaks.

Oliver.

He's such a mess! What is he up to these days? Wheels. He loves wheels! There are two toys he has a particular attachment to - one is a blue bamboo vehicle (no idea what it is!) that has independent wheels, which he loves because it can be on one side and the wheels will still rotate. The other is a little wooden plane that has a propeller on the front that he loves to spin. He can be found playing with those about 70% of the time that he's in the playroom. He also loves balls. Especially the cats' balls. He'll chase a little ping pong ball around on the floor for minutes (that's basically like saying hours for grown up time). Every other toy just gets a few seconds so one that will last minutes is a big hit around here!

He still nurses like a champ. He gets solids at dinner and he eats just about anything. There really isn't anything we've given him that he didn't like. He gets Cheerios as a snack occasionally during the day, mid morning and late afternoon. We will probably be in a good routine of breakfast solids sometime in the near future as the one year mark approaches. For now, we're still going slow. Some of his favorite foods include macaroni and cheese, peas, avocado, and apples. Particularly macaroni though. He also really likes veggie dogs. Recently, he figured out how to use his zippy cup. It's still pretty hit or miss, but we give it to him with dinner just in case he decides to really catch on.

He naps about an hour in the mornings and a solid three hours in the afternoons. His schedule is very routine, which I love.

His hair has gotten really long in the last several weeks. When I look at pictures from September and October, it's amazing how much more hair he has! He still has five teeth, three on the bottom and two on top. No sign of any new ones in the last couple of weeks. My guess is that the next one will be the bottom as well. He's done great with nursing and hasn't bitten hard. Sometimes he'll pull off using his teeth, but it's more irritating and just a small 'ouch' compared to a real bite.

Still says the same words, 'mama,' 'dada,' 'bye bye.' He will often look at us while he says those, but we still don't think he's making associations quite yet. I have noticed that when he wants to nurse he says 'nananana.' I'm not sure if that's just what comes out when he's hungry/frustrated/sleepy, or if it's what he's going to call it. If we don't want him to touch something and we put our hand over whatever it is, he'll make an attempt to swipe our hand away. Little personality.

His smile lights up a room. He has one dimple on his left cheek. When he's playing, he'll often crawl over to sit in your lap just to check in for a minute before heading back to play. Gentle reassurance is so sweet. Nola continues to be a source of giggles and laughter. She is really starting to enjoy his amusement too!

A few photos from Thanksgiving...

Christmas Kindness: Days 12-16

2011-12-16T13:50:00.000-05:00

Day 12: We left a Christmas card and bag of Hershey's Kisses for our mail delivery person.

Day 13: I ordered magazine subscriptions for a couple of sweet friends!

Day 14: We sent Christmas cards to strangers.

Day 15: We bought lunch for the person in line behind us at Burger King.

Day 16: We left $1 bills in random places in the grocery store. This was a really fun one! The dollar is in the top left of the photo below. I was trying to be quick so it's not the best picture. We had a good time loitering in the aisles looking for fun places to hide money.

Christmas Decor 2011

2011-12-15T15:35:00.000-05:00

We pulled down our Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving this year since we knew things would get hectic with travel. Because of how early we put things together, I kept saying 'I'll finish it later.' Needless to say, it's now December 15th and I didn't finish. It's not going to happen this year.

Case in point:

(we never plugged the mantle lights behind the TV)

We're okay with it that way... our only guests have been my father-in-law and my parents.

Close-up of a few random ornaments in a box:

This is our first year not having a real tree. We knew having a ten-month old meant more pine needles to clean up so we bought a pre lit fake tree on sale after Christmas last year. I. love. it. Why haven't we done this before now?! It's amazing. I do miss going to the tree farms, but I feel like this is a much more eco-friendly option and it's so much easier to keep the floors clean!

More miscellaneous ornaments scattered.

Our favorite Christmas display:

(Our Pinterest inspired photo-with-lights didn't go quite as planned... :))

Christmas Kindness: Days 9, 10 & 11

2011-12-11T14:15:00.001-05:00

(source)

Disclaimer: Oliver has been so, so sick this weekend... his temp this morning was still 100.4. He slept ten hours straight last night (from 6pm to 4am, woke up to eat/play for an hour and slept another two hours until 7:20a). Very unlike him. He slept two hours at his morning nap and has been asleep for about half an hour already this afternoon. All that to say, we haven't left the house much so Christmas Kindness has been low key.

Day 9: We had to pick up a few things at Sam's (namely shatterproof Christmas tree balls) and it was around dinner so as we were leaving and packing the car with our things I decided to run back in and grab a snack for the Salvation Army bell ringer. I know, we did this already, but this was a new store and different girl. I was hoping they had hot chocolate - what is it with places not having that?! - but they didn't so I got her a drink and chips. I took the healthy route indeed. Actually, I did get water because I wasn't sure what fountain drink to get so half healthy counts. Anyway, I said the DUMBEST thing ever. What I wanted and meant to say was 'I thought you could use a snack.' What came out was, 'I thought you looked hungry.' WHAAA?! OMG as soon as I said it I wanted to slap myself. 'What? Did you seriously just say that? Why yes you did.' Ugh. I felt awful! I knew I would just stumble like a fool if I went on so I just stopped, said Merry Christmas and left. I am such a moron. Seriously. Oh well. I hope she didn't take it the wrong way. Chandler got a kick out of it. Who does that?! Who says that to someone?! Me. I do. But you, please don't. You're welcome.

Day 10: Another crazy baby-is-sick day. I told Chan it was up to him to be kind. He said he dumped all of his money into a bucket. Hm. I'm not really sure this counts. Technically, in my book, it does not. For participatory purposes however, we're counting it.

Day 11: Sick baby day again. I went through my closets and pulled out some things to donate to a shelter. Good stuff too and not just things that are totally out of style. I even included a green leather jacket that I used to love from Gap. That, admittedly, is out of style but I felt like someone could rejuvenate it. Certainly not me, but someone could. With a cute scarf, skinny jeans and riding boots - it would look SO cute. I couldn't pull that look of in the least though.

I have hopes that next week will be much better than this weekend.

Sick boy.

2011-12-10T18:02:00.000-05:00

We have a sick boy. A kid coughed in his face on Thursday and lo and behold, the sick started Friday night. Ugh. I hate when he is sick. No one got sleep the first night because O just couldn't breath and was up trying to get back to sleep numerous times. Last night, he went to bed early and I put him in the swing so he was at an angle and all the gunk could drain. I didn't think things through well though because we don't have a monitor and he usually sleeps beside me - literally - and I didn't want him to have to cry hard enough that I would hear him down the hall with him not feeling well, so I decided to camp out on the floor in his bedroom.

Then it occurred to me that there was a perfectly good bed in his room and it would be much quieter to just hop into that bed instead of making one on the floor.

That's right. I slept in the crib. It was comfy. And to everyone who says it wasn't getting any use - ha!

Oliver slept here.

We were a cozy pair. He actually slept the entire night and only stirred once, but not enough for me to even get up. He's in the swing again tonight, but we're using the one on our bedroom instead. Poor boy.

Rover Picasso

2011-12-09T13:29:00.000-05:00

Oliver Paints!

Rover's first time finger painting on paper!

He made two pictures that now grace our refrigerator.

One of these will likely move to the playroom as soon as I have a final arrangement figured out.

Christmas Kindness: Days 7 & 8

2011-12-09T10:57:00.001-05:00

Day 7 has been my favorite day so far!! We went to Starbucks and I decided on the way there that I'd buy coffee for the person behind me. For a few minutes it was looking like no one would drive up, but then a couple cars came so game was on. At the window, I told the person to please charge my card for the order of the person behind me. She didn't hesitate and ran my card. I told her if the woman asked to let her know no, she didn't know me and that I said 'Merry Christmas, pass it on.' The woman behind me had money in her hand on the steering wheel and was ready with it when she pulled up. I'd slowed down to toss some garbage into the fun trash cans they have with the extra long shoot you can reach from your window so I saw her face... it was priceless! Loved it. She was so funny and dumbfounded. It was great!

I also had to run to Walmart to pick up a couple things I realized we needed for the dinner that I was hoping to have ready in oh thirty minutes. Good planning on my part, very good planning... ha! Anyway, I grabbed my handful of things and headed to a short line, 20-item-or-less register and noticed a young guy behind me with a box of crackers and a can of cheese. He stepped away to get a drink from one of those short fridges near the check out lines and I told the cashier to ring his items quick! It was fun! I kind of felt bad that I didn't get his drink too, but I didn't want it to be weird or awkward so I just paid for his things and walked out while she waited for him to get his drink. As I was exiting the store he caught up with me b/c I felt someone lightly brush my shoulder. 'Ma'am, thank you.' I felt like of the few people I've encountered in this project, it probably meant the most to him. I know this was two things in one day, but in an effort to truly get into the habit of looking for opportunities to share kindness, I wanted to be in the moment.

Completely opposite of earlier in the project.

And in case you are wondering, this doesn't get us 'off the hook' for another day. :)

Day 8 is a secret. There may be days sprinkled here and there that I choose not to share for one reason or another. It's not because I don't want to share with you though! :)

Did you do anything this week? Would love to hear it! Or do you have any ideas for us?

Christmas Kindness: Days 5 & 6

2011-12-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

Day 5: I ran to the grocery store (I swear I don't go there every day!) to pick up a couple things and again, I knew it would be the only time I left the house. I had no plan whatsoever for my Christmas Kindness of the day and saw a Salvation Army bell ringer standing outside. Putting money in the bucket didn't really count so I decided to get her a snack. Naturally, I thought of this standing in the check out line so she got a Pepsi and pack of M&Ms. I would have been a bit more creative and healthy, but again - thought of it standing in line with a child who was about to be done with the grocery store. I was giddy thinking about how fun it would be to surprise her! I put money in the bucket and handed her the small bag and said 'Hi, we got you a snack!' She was on her cell phone and she took the bag and mumbled 'Thanks.' Not 'Thanks!' just 'thanks,' very flatly. I started to walk away and then turned and said 'We weren't sure if you got a break so we just wanted to get you a snack!' (I'm super cheery about this...) - Another learning curve? I think so. Part of me really wanted a warm reception. Part of me wanted her to say, 'Aw, that was so kind, thank you!' To be honest, more than part of me wanted that. All of me wanted that. What was her deal? It was almost like that was just as expected as putting money in the bucket, like ten other people had given her snacks. Maybe I should have picked up chicken and macaroni from the deli? I walked back to the car unsure of what to think. That is definitely not the way I'd imagined this activity to go... I doubt most people read the comments, but check out the story my friend Kate shared on Christmas Kindness: Day 4. THAT is the way I imagined this to go down. And actually, I'd thought that I would get the bell ringer a coffee or hot chocolate since there's a Starbucks in the grocery store, but it was 75 degrees so that's when I went for a Pepsi.

Lesson - this project is not about me. It's not about my feelings, my expectations, or my joy. It's easy to do random acts of kindness when you get to see someone really appreciate your gesture. But what about when they don't? How do you feel? The joy just isn't the same. I don't know her story. I do know she has one - we all do, and she impacted mine yesterday. (Well, we'll see if she impacted mine, I actually just felt like that was a nice, poetic feel to the end of day 5, ha!)

Day 6: Nothing exciting today... simple. I had a meeting this afternoon at work and when I walked down the hallway I noticed an older gentleman sitting in the waiting room. He looked a little tired and sighed heavily and smiled when I walked by. We exchanged greetings and I got back to my desk and took him a water bottle I had in my bag. I don't know how long he'd been waiting, but he said something kind and thanked me. It was nice. He was a gentle soul. (That was for poetic purposes too - just to keep you feeling warm and fuzzy - you know, for the spirit of the project and all.) I kind of felt like I was slack today but I know that technically this counted. I have often given out my water bottles. When I was pregnant I only used Klean Kanteen and refused plastic bottles, but I barely have time to do much in the mornings like fill a bottle (Judge away, mornings are rough. Filling a bottle takes like a whole 45 seconds that I would prefer to spend grabbing cookies or carrots or something. Mom, carrots were for you. Usually it's cookies. I mean, carrots.) Anyway, I usually grab three or four bottles (I'm nursing, you know...) and don't always need them all so in the summer I'd often give them to patients who were waiting for the bus as I walked to my car. I make it sound like I only do it in the summer... it was just so hot! Seems most people wait inside now that it's cooler and so I don't always see folks out there.

So... that's day five and six. What did you do this week???

Christmas Kindness: Day 4

2011-12-04T20:42:00.000-05:00

I wish I had a better name for this project. Something about 'Christmas Kindness' just doesn't flow well... anyway... I had to run out to pick up cheese for breakfast this morning (I was making a recipe from Pintrest this morning before my father-in-law left) and I knew it would be the only time I left the house so I had to find something while I was out. As I was leaving the store, I saw a barrel for food donations and ran back in the store to grab several boxes of Cheerios in honor of babies like Oliver.

There was also a learning moment today. I was so focused on finding something and 'doing' that I missed a perfect opportunity to exemplify the purpose of this project. I didn't realize it until I was getting in the car... I looked and saw the man who was behind me in line and he was carrying a single box of cereal and banana. Had I paid any attention to others around me in line, I would have seen a great opportunity to buy his groceries. Shoot! I was so mad at myself I almost ran back in to just hang out until someone was in line (very few people shop at 7am!) but realized how strange that would be, plus I needed to cook. I'm glad this happened early on because it has taught me to slow down and be more observant of others around me. Funny because in my taekwondo days I was so aware of everyone and everything around me always planning what I'd do if someone came at me from any direction - so funny!

New playroom

2011-12-03T23:22:00.001-05:00

We've swapped some rooms around to make space for a playroom and this weekend, Christmas came early when Grandaddy H brought shelves for Rover's new space.

Christmas Kindness: Days 2 & 3

2011-12-03T20:35:00.000-05:00

Day 2: We picked up and delivered donuts to a free clinic's volunteer party... it was a half hour drive there and a little more than that back home since it was just after 5pm on a Friday.

Day 3: I had to run into the grocery store for one thing and left a $1 bill in a beverage machine with a note that said, 'Enjoy a drink! Merry Christmas!'

New art

2011-12-03T16:24:00.001-05:00

...and we love it!

Christmas Kindness: Day 1

2011-12-01T21:44:00.001-05:00

***Updated 12/2/11 to include Daily Bread Blog

I know I wasn't going to post every day, but this is fun!!!

... and apparently it's a popular thing to do. Not that I thought it was original and we were the first... as I was looking for a good Advent calendar I saw where a lot of people make their own and use random acts of kindness (or I guess not so random) and do something each day. Neat spin on it too. Although my friend Jill just posted about how it's nice to not have a tradition and to be spontaneous - I loved her post. I think that her blog ~~is private~~ is called Daily Bread, check it out! Oooh! I should have Jill guest post on how she (insert pretty much anything here). She is such an inspiration to me in the way she lives. Chandler loves her too because she has recently inspired me to ~~get rid of tons of junk that I've held onto for way too long that probably has mold growing on it in the bottom of my closet~~ de-clutter. :)

Anyway... so we may investigate all of this later, but as baby Rover grows, I get giddy thinking about ways to teach him to give and love and serve others.

Earlier today I realized that I hadn't gone out of my way to do anything today. I helped someone at work make some baskets for an auction even though I was super busy with my own projects and didn't have the spare time, but I didn't really feel like that counted. I called Chan to see what he'd done and he said that he (along with two other guys at work) had taken a guy to lunch who doesn't really get out much and it was kind of a big thing. I asked how much he spent and he said they all went dutch so just getting him out of the office didn't really count so much... I had a back-up act of kindness that falls under the category of wifely duty (snicker) but at dinner we realized we were out of puffs for Oliver and that led to a conversation about how now that he's crawling he's officially old enough for Gerber's crawling snacks (not that we've played by the rules, but...) and longer story a littler shorter, we ended up going to the grocery store and bought lottery tickets for the cashier. The look on her face was priceless! I love this!

December Days of Christmas Kindness

2011-12-01T14:17:00.000-05:00

To follow up from my post earlier this week... a couple of friends posted some great links to articles about Santa and Jesus. Instead of regurgitating a lot of similarities, I'll just post the links. We will be doing something similar. I just need some good children's books on St. Nicholas. If they don't exist, I'll need an illustrator to partner with me so I can write one of my own. Hmm... :)

What We Tell Our Kids About Santa (this is most similar to how we plan to teach Santa)

Smackdown: Santa vs Jesus

Moving on to our December project for 2011.
December Days of Christmas Kindness
The Plan: One random act of kindness every day for the month of December.
-Oliver is too small to really do a lot of actions with love other than grab your face and try to eat it kiss style yet we still wanted to do something for others to share in the spirit of giving this season. We came up with the idea to do one act of kindness every day and made a list of things to do if we didn't see an opportunity.

The Budget: $86.34
-We didn't think of this until just a couple weeks ago and we'd already spent or budgeted our Christmas allowance so we decided to use two pots of money. The first was incredibly fitting - the second was our jar of spare change we had just sitting around. Ok so the first pot of money is from Oliver's Blessing Bank. (If you haven't read about Blessing Banks on my blog, I'd encourage you to read the posts I linked just now, it's a really neat story!) I've been putting change and paper money in Oliver's bank (we use that instead of a traditional 'piggy bank') since I was pregnant so it was full. Next year we will plan this better and will hopefully have learned from this year how much we want to allocate for this project.

The deets: Both Chandler and I will be carrying out the project, but since he works full time, I'll be doing most of the days. We'll report back each day with what we did and how much we may have spent. I am so, so excited to do this!!! We have a list of about forty-five random acts of kindness that we pulled from around the internet and came up with one night while up talking in bed. I'm hoping that there will be some things that arise naturally and we won't have to pull too much from the list. To keep us on track and accountable, I'll be keeping a log of what we did (as a plus, I'll be adding that to a page in Project Life). I would love to be able to post what we did each day, but my track record stinks lately so I'll plan to post weekly at a minimum and more often if I have time and think about it.

I would LOVE if you would participate too! If a month is a little much for you, try a week - or perhaps do the Twelve Days of Christmas, Kindness style! :) If you do, let me know - I'd love to hear how it went for you. If you have a favorite act of kindness we'd love to hear it!

...and a few pictures

2011-11-29T23:23:00.002-05:00

Love the way babies eat!

Black Friday @ Barnes and Noble with Nonny. Pretty sure this was the 4th time we were there that day.

Did I mention he's like a rabbit on crack?

Still on trip #4 at the bookstore.

My favorite time of day. Quiet and snuggly... Mmmm

Trouble!

On Christmas

2011-11-29T23:19:00.000-05:00

(My so-excited-favorite part of this post is at the end... )

BACKGROUND
I've shared this before, but a couple years ago a sweet friend posted about an outing with her daughters where they saw a bell ringer collecting money. The person asked the girls if they were excited about Santa coming and the oldest remarked that the didn't do Santa, they did baby Jesus. I'm sure my friend had no idea what impact sharing that story would have - but it created a tremendous shift for me.

Before Oliver was born, I started thinking about how I wanted Christmas to look like for him. I grew up with Santa and loved it. Santa still comes to my parents house and leaves treats and I still make requests for him since he continues to stop by... :) I don't want to take away the fun of Christmas. What I do want to do however, is to create a Christmas that teaches him the meaning of the season. I want him to know it is a day we celebrate because it's the day Jesus was born. So... I know lots of people want this and I would love to hear how you do this in your family. Please share!!

CURRENT PLAN
This is our current plan... the first year Chandler and I dated we made a birthday cake for Jesus - (it was chocolate because we're sure Jesus would like chocolate!) - and I'd like to keep this tradition. When Oliver is older, I can totally see us having a birthday party for Jesus where we invite his friends over for cake and ice cream. I would also want to involve a project like maybe each child would bring a gift or warm coat and we could take them to a shelter, school or other place of need. At the party I could see us making Christmas cards and then going to a nursing home or other facility to sing carols and deliver the cards. I'm sure I'll find more ideas and change plans a hundred times between now and when it's time to plan, but I'm stoked about the possibilities!

I guess technically, the above isn't 'current' since Rover can't walk yet so some other plans include...
-three gifts to symbolize the gifts from the wise men to Jesus
-a stocking from 'Santa' because our parents are having a hard time with not doing Santa and there are only so many things I will fight
-choosing a service project to do as a family
-choosing three alternative gifts again to symbolize the gifts from the wise men

ON SANTA
Up until very recently I took my non-Santa to the extreme and didn't want any Santa books, no Santa clothes... I realized I'd become anti-Santa and didn't want to be. Plus, it's really hard to be against a happy, jolly man that everyone loves. I consulted my sweet friend and she shared how they handled Santa and well, it made my world jolly again. It makes sense to include Santa in Christmas for many reasons, mainly because it just can't be avoided. I think Santa is cute too! I don't want to be against him. I do want to limit his importance though. I am looking for a good book about Saint Nicholas, if you know any, I'd love it if you shared it with me. More than anything, I want to instill a spirit of giving and the ultimate reason for Christmas - Jesus.

This year will definitely be, as Chan says, a learning year. I know there will be things we'll have to address later, like Santa being real and things of that nature. We want 'Santa' to be a fun thing for him as long as he will let it, but I imagine that when he is old enough to ask if he is real, it will be our cue to share with him that he is not and then address how we don't talk about it so he's not the kid in class that spoils it for everyone else. Another friend is exploring similar things for her daughter (who is a bit older than Oliver) and she is thinking about going with the idea that 'Santa' is what you sign when you don't want someone to know the gift is from you. I like the anonymity, but I'm not sure how we'd still fill his stocking (note to self: order stocking this week!) using that - I did want to share it though because a few people have asked about how we will 'do' Christmas and I thought that was a terrific idea.

CHRISTMAS 2011
Three gifts for Oliver.
Alternative gifts.
Birthday cake for Jesus.
Lots of Christmas books celebrating Jesus' birth.

My FAVORITE part... there is a strong possibility our project could become a tradition. I am SO, SO excited to share this!!!

Since Oliver is small and we can't really do a lot with him in terms of a project we've put our heads together and this year we've decided that we'll do a random act of kindness every day. I am giddy thinking about it!!! I can't wait for Thursday!! We made a list of forty or so ideas and while we will pull from them, it's my hope that we will see opportunities each day and can just do something! I would love to post each day, but considering my track record lately I plan to try to post weekly. I plan to share a more about this tomorrow.

Don't forget though... if you have traditions or ideas about sharing Jesus, book suggestions - please share! I'll be sharing some of my favorite books this month too.

December 2011

2011-11-29T15:39:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been ten days since I last posted... ugh. I'm really excited to share our plans for celebrating Christmas. We've been talking about how we want this season to look and feel like for our family and I am stoked about what we've come up with so far. We figure this and the next couple years will be learning years while Oliver is still little, but I'm so, so excited about what we have planned for 2011. It may or may not become a tradition for us, but I would really love for it to. SO excited to share! I hope it will inspire others to do something similar... can't wait to tell you more! I should post our decorations too... more soon!

Some recent phone pics

2011-11-19T17:19:00.001-05:00

9 Months

2011-11-15T16:14:00.000-05:00

Oliver is 9 months!

He has officially been in the world longer than he was in the womb. It's bittersweet seeing him grow up so fast. I know, I know... it only goes faster. I got it.

-At 9 months (and five days) he weighs 17lbs and is 26" long. This is the 25th percentile which he's stayed in since he was tiny so he was proclaimed a 'smaller boy' today at the doctor.

-He is in a combo of cloth diapers and disposable diapers. Mainly because I am not so committed to cloth that I really want to carry around stinky poop until I'm home. When he nursed exclusively it was not a problem even in the middle of summer, but now - nothankyou. If I'm totally honest, if I know he's going to poop soon, we use disposable. The sprayer is amazing, but his poop is a mix of well, I won't go there, but it's not pretty since he still nurses 90% of the time with a little solids mixed in during the day. Anyway... I'm back to bG AOIs because they're easier to spray. For disposables, we're using Huggies Pure and Natural and honestly, I like them better than Earth's Best and 7th Generation. They are so much softer inside and they have the wet indicator line. He's in a size 3, but I think he could do a 2. At night we use Huggies Overnites and they do the trick for the most part. We've been using disposables at night for a while because cloth seemed to leak pretty much every night. I'm happy with our diapering routine for now.

-... and speaking of... see this face? See his hands? No? Yeah. He found his penis. He found it a couple months ago (a few now maybe?), but it's only been recent that he realized it was a fun thing to hold. Usually he will play with his toys but if they happen to float away and I don't catch them in time, penis seems fair game.

-We went to Maryland in October for Henry's 1st birthday party - so much fun!! Oliver had a blast playing with Henry! They hadn't seen each other since July so it was fun to get together again.

-He wears 3-6m and 6-12m in Gymboree and 6m and 9m in Carters clothes. I'm mostly buying 9m sizes for him to wear now and 12m sizes for later in the winter. I hope that doesn't bite me like summer clothes did. I bought 6-12m size things for late summer and he's just now able to fit in them. Nice. I wish clothing companies would size their product by weight instead of age. Some put the weight specs on the tags but most don't and it's incredibly annoying. He has one 12-18m long sleeve t-shirt that is big on him, but not so big that he can't wear it with the sleeves rolled up.

-Wheels are still super fun to play with and spin - maybe this will be the month he learns that wheels roll and not just spin!

-Since he never took to a bottle, I'm determined to get the sippy cup down. We've tried six different kinds and of those, three seem to be acceptable. He plays with it and gets water out occasionally, not not often enough to know how to do it yet. We're hopeful he'll learn soon!

-He loves his toys. Toys. Toys. Remote Controls. Toys. Phones. Toys. Toys. Toys. And he's into everything. Seriously, this kid is like a rabbit on crack. He's everywhere. We recently rearranged a few rooms and that made space for a playroom and boy am I glad we did that when we did. The child is always on the go and the playroom has created a nice, safe place for him. We still have to get some furniture for storage in there, but it's a great space for now. This is our downstairs set up in the living room.

-He says 'mama,' 'dada,' and 'bye-bye' really well, but doesn't make any associations with them yet. He also waves, but again, doesn't really associate 'bye bye' with the waving. His 9m appointment was fun today. We saw a new doctor and it was also the developmental appointment so we talked a lot about what he was doing, skills, words, etc... Dr. P also commented on his smile :)

-He nurses 4-5x/day and eats solids 1x/day at dinner and we'll probably keep it that way as long as possible. He eats just about everything now and so far doesn't dislike anything. He didn't care for yogurt at first try, but I realized it's because it was so cold so I let it sit on the counter a few minutes and he eats it fine. If we go out to eat we give him solids so every now and then he gets more than just solids once/day, but that's usually just on weekends.

-He just got his 5th tooth and so far I haven't been bitten. He's tested pressure but nothing that really hurt. That said, it was enough pressure that I jumped - but not enough that I yelped. I learned early on that the key to no biting was to watch for him to be done nursing. Gone are the days where he could just hang out and coo, smiling and playing with my hair or fingers. Now, while it's still enjoyable, it's more about protecting the nipples. That's all I have to say about that.

-Did I mention he's like a rabbit on crack? He's everywhere. He's crawling and pulling up and tasting debris and dragging clothes out of drawers and throwing laundry out of baskets and pulling cat tails and if you're not careful he will try to eat your face. Don't think I'm kidding.

-He takes a morning nap that's anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and then sleeps two and a half to three hours in the afternoons. It's bliss! And it allows me to get some good work done! He is pretty good about independent play and loves finding things so I plant toys in random places and watch him delight in discovering wheels under a pillow or a light up key in a box. The time change was not fun for us. I'd anticipated the early wake up on the first morning of the new time, but it was almost a week before we got the schedule down. He's normally up around 6:30 AM and usually goes to bed before 8 PM. He gets a bath every night, I think it helps him settle and it's good routine in that he knows it's almost bedtime. He goes to sleep pretty easily.

-He is so much fun right now! Crack rabbit jokes aside - I love that he's such an explorer. We took him to the park so he could swing and he seemed to like it. We have three parks within walking distance and I'm excited to take him there as he gets bigger. He is such a good baby and is turning into a really fun little boy.

Summer fun

2011-11-07T14:33:00.000-05:00

I scanned this months ago to post and forgot until I was going through old files on my desktop. Oops. I think Oliver was 4 or 5 months old when we did this at the mall. We need to do it again soon!

Rover's 1st Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:09:00.001-04:00

Here's a sneak of his costume...

It should be known that I had no plans of purchasing a costume for the babe, but I happened to find this one at Children's Place for $2.99. No joke. I had been looking at a black t-shirt that had glow-in-the-dark bones (rib cage, etc...) that was $6 on sale from $10.95 and I griped to the sales person about the price and she said, 'There may be some things on the rack over there; everything's under $3.' So, I did it. For $2.99.

He was born in the year of the dragon so it's perfect!

How did he like his first Halloween?

Then & Now -Striped Pants

2011-10-20T22:50:00.000-04:00

(Feb. 24th)

(Oct. 5th)

The What-When of Solids

2011-10-20T22:38:00.000-04:00

As a breast only baby, we decided to wait until around nine months to start solids. The older Oliver got though, the more interested in food he became. It didn't help that I would give him tastes of things with a finger dip. What can I say? I'm so used to sharing pieces with Nola, it just seemed natural. Oops. We chatted about it and decided that when his teeth started coming in and when he could reasonably feed himself, then we'd give him food, yet I still felt like it would be eight or nine months. There are too many benefits of breast milk only in the first year and we wanted him to get as much as he could. (Especially since it's apparently frowned upon by Chandler to cook with breast milk. Yes I did. No you couldn't tell. Yes we can chat about it further if you'd like.)

Seven months is when we took the plunge. There were so many reasons not to, mainly selfish ones: change in poop, the need to diversify food options, and honestly- just plain laziness. I loved being able to do anything and go anywhere and not have to worry about what to bring because I knew I could just whip it out.

Anyway.... he became increasingly interested in food and I knew it was time. His first foods were avocado and pear. He loved both. We didn't go the recommended route though. I think you're supposed to start with cereal. We didn't. We also didn't do the one new food each week thing. Nor did we start with puree. His first foods were chunks. We'd read about baby-led weaning, which is the idea that you give your child pieces of food large enough to hold in their hand and chew the tops and their gag reflex keeps them from choking. We were slightly nervous about that, but he hasn't choked yet. Now that he has a good pincer grip, I give him small bits instead of larger pieces, but we don't really do purees. I did buy some rice cereal and sweet potato cereal and sometimes I'll mix in a puree, but for the most part, he eats whatever we are eating. To be completely open and honest, the cereal and purees are really for me, because it's kind of fun to feed him. He much prefers to feed himself though and will often shriek at the spoon to get more regular food. Can't blame him. I've tasted all of his baby mush and it's not great.

As with his nursing, I can't tell you how much he eats. I've never really measured it out or thought much about it. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes not so much. I probably should pay more attention to how much he eats, but he nurses the same amount as before solids so I'm not really worried about it for now. I understand some people are concerned with iron intake as breast milk doesn't have as much iron after six months, but our pediatrician is not worried about that for now.

He is still eating just one meal of solids each day - dinner. A typical dinner for him may consist of whole grain macaroni tossed with a tiny bit of butter and breast milk, green beans, and peaches or veggie hot dogs, peas, carrots, and pears. Bananas, avocado, and sweet potatoes are high on his list as well. I would imagine that by nine months we'll probably be feeding him another meal of solids at breakfast.

If you're holding him and eating something, you better have something to share or all heck will break loose. He likes Gerber Graduates puff snacks in all the flavors and I try to keep some around just in case we're out and need a snack. Only this week has he started to show interest in a sippy cup. He never took to a bottle and I'm determined to get him to take a sippy cup. I had a little milk in the freezer that I was using but it was getting wasted and I like to have it on reserve (you know, in case I'm making muffins and realize we're out of milk or something...) so now we just use water. There's a neat sippy that you can squeeze and the liquid goes into their mouth so they know something is inside - it's amazing. He also likes a soft Nuk one.

So that's solids. He thinks he's big stuff sitting in his high chair feeding himself. He's really good at it too and isn't near as messy as I'd anticipated.

Questions?

Read and Share

2011-10-12T13:29:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've done a review of Thomas Nelson books... I've had one for a while, Read and Share Stories about Jesus. I'm pretty sure I've had this since before Oliver was born, but it could have possibly arrived shortly after just as well. This is a large board book that has a short parable with a cartoon-style picture on each page. There isn't a ton to write about this book since it is just short Bible stories accompanied by a picture, but I will say that it's for an older child. I would say more of a 3-6 year old. A two-year old might sit still if you could point out things in the picture for them to find or look for as you read, but it isn't as engaging as other books like this I've seen.

8 Months

2011-10-11T17:57:00.000-04:00

Oliver is 8 months!

He is sweet, silly and busy!

-He weighs 17lbs unofficially (just barely 17lbs!)

-He still wears size 3-6m in Gymboree (If anyone's counting, yes that is now six months of this size!) and Gap and 6m and 9m in Carter's. His winter clothes are all 9m with a few 12m sprinkled in for the later months.

-He takes a short morning nap (an hour max) and a nice, long afternoon nap (2 hours). He wakes up anywhere between 6:30 and 8:00am and is asleep by 7:30 or 8:00pm. Our evening routine is dinner at 5:30 followed by clean-up/playtime, bath around 7:00 and stories, rock to sleep around 8:00. He continues to sleep with us and that means I go to bed early as well. I actually love being in bed that early. I love snuggling with him and having lots of quiet time at night.

-We're still going strong with cloth diapers. When we first started solids, I liked bGs and GroVia, now I'm back to FuzziBunz. We still use disposable at night and after some snafus with 7th Generation and not being able to find Earth's Best while traveling, we discovered Huggies Pure & Natural. Now, they're my favorites. They are super soft and feel like cotton inside. He's in a size 3 with lots of room. We could probably swing a 2 in Huggies, but I fear we'd be stuck with extras so 3s it is.

-It's also worth mentioning that sometimes, I cheat and use disposable because of his clothes... 3-6m still fits as long as he's in disposable. In cloth, they start to pull just enough to look not so fitting. I also use disposable when we leave the house just because I ~~have a very sensitive sense of smell~~ am lazy and... did I mention he eats solids now?

-He has two bottom teeth that took a good three weeks to finally come through and he has two top teeth that are just below the gum. At 8 months exactly (yesterday) I noticed his gum had opened beneath one tooth so we'll probably have four teeth soon.

-Nola is Oliver's bestest friend. He loves to watch her and she is surprisingly tolerant of him.

-At 7 months he started to 'inch worm' on his belly to move around, now he's figured out how to actually crawl without his belly touching the floor. He just started this a day or so ago (basically right at the 8 month mark) so he's still somewhat easy and in one place. I fear that will all change by the end of the week. Note to self: use the jumper. Do not place baby on the floor just in case he practices crawling. :P

-He has been standing for months upon months. Since he was born really. So it was no surprise to us that he'd figure out how to pull himself up sooner than later. He did this before he figured out crawling. For a while I thought he might not even crawl, but he has zero balance so I'm no longer in that camp.

-He continues to nurse well. We introduced solids last month (more on that later) and he nurses the same amount as before. His schedule is, wake up-nurse, 11a nurse, early-afternoon-before-nap nurse, wake-up-from-nap nurse, quick nurse before dinner, 5:30 solids, stories-rock-to-sleep-before-bed nurse. He's up a couple times at night some, but doesn't nurse long if you can even consider it nursing. So far, the teeth have been okay. I fear the worst with the top two, but I remain positive. He recently became interested in what nursing was all about and decided to investigate with his hands, HILARIOUS. Especially when he squirts himself in the face. Enter lots of laughing from both of us (see silly boy below).

(This picture is for those of you who think he's always smiling, ha!)

-Solids are going well. He pretty much eats just about anything now. I'll write another post just on solids because I've had a lot of people ask me about that. He loves to feed himself and it's become a challenge for us to eat healthier so we're all eating the same thing. I refuse to make multiple dinners, it's just not my style.

-Did I mention he is silly? Really silly. I can make him laugh simply by laughing and he giggles before breaking out a full on belly laugh. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen!

-He's saying 'ma ma ma ma ma' and 'da da da da da.' He also says something that sounds like 'byebyebye' and 'ba ba ba ba.' At least, those are the latest. A lot of times it sounds like he says 'mom' very clearly. Same for 'dad.' Even though it's not the case, we still find it enjoyable.

-Over the weekend we moved the crib down. Mr. TopHeavy(BigBrain) was pulling up and leaning. Sigh. Not that he spends a lot of time in the crib, but I didn't want to feel like I couldn't use it if I wanted to, so we took it apart and lowered the mattress. It was delightful.

-At 8 months, I've finally accepted that he's not a tiny baby anymore. I was sad to see his teeth; sad to see him crawl. I mourned the loss of my newborn. Despite that, I've loved each new month and his personality, it was just sad that he was growing so fast. I'm over the newborn thing now. I still miss it - I miss him being new, and tiny, and floppy... but I love who he is and have so much fun with him! He's big enough that we can take him running and not worry about his neck; big enough to sit in the shopping cart; big enough to toss in the air and catch as we hear giant belly laughs... he plays games, he finds humor, he has likes and dislikes, and best of all, he loves. Oh how he loves. (Shout out! David Crowder Band lyric ;)) He is so affectionate and I love how he loves us. So here's to growing up and finding fun in the journey. I almost wrote 'bring on month 9' but I don't want to get too ahead of myself...it will basically be here tomorrow so for now, we will enjoy every bit of month eight.

Fun at the farm!

2011-10-09T21:40:00.000-04:00

We have had the busiest weekend! It started at 3:01 AM Friday when I got up to order a new phone. Later that morning, we had ~~Nola's~~ a fence installed and headed to Home Depot where I scored a chandelier for $17.25. Exciting stuff. As we were leaving Home Depot, there was a huge pile of pumpkins and I decided we had to get some pictures. By 'we' I mean me and Oliver because apparently Chandler is too cool to take pictures in front of Home Depot. A sweet older couple stopped to dote on Rover and told me about a farm that wasn't far from our house. Saturday morning we went and had so much fun!

It was mainly a pumpkin patch with hayrides and a produce stand, but there were also a couple of goats, peacocks, a pen full of chickens (and one rooster named Henry who was an oopsie in their chicken order!) and a very loud, but entertaining goose.

Rover was more interested in the hay bale than anything else and I got zero good pictures after he discovered them.

This will definitely be an annual place to go if we're still here. We left with a 51 cent pumpkin and a handful of pictures. :)

Fall already?!

2011-10-07T15:55:00.001-04:00

We are having so much fun playing outside these cool, crisp days. Tomorrow we may try to stop by a local farm. Any fun things your way?

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Cheese!

2011-09-20T19:46:00.001-04:00

I put this on facebook but since some of you aren't there I thought I'd post it here too. We do a lot of puzzles and they seem to rank much higher than books... this is a typical of an afternoon post nap.

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Chomp!

2011-09-19T22:24:00.000-04:00

Can you see them??? In the last couple of days, they've come up even more. Slowly, they are coming all the way through. On August 29th, I saw two slits in the bottom of his gums. Ugh. He'd had a runny nose and I thought it was either a cold or possibly teeth. Deep down, I'd hoped he wouldn't get teeth until closer to 12 months. Biting scares me to death and I want him to stay a baby forever. I have no problem admitting that out loud. Sue me. I also want to be pregnant with him again. Not with another baby. And I want to be in the hospital having him again. Yes, I do. I want him to be pink and wrinkly and tiny and new. Forever. You could be right if you think I would change my mind one day, but right now, I want my baby to stay just that.

Someone at work recently said that most people want their first child to do everything soon (i.e. crawl, talk, eat, walk, etc...) and then the second child is the one they want to keep small. Not me. I want Oliver to stay tiny. He'll always be my baby, sure. But I want him to be just that. A baby forever. I really, really do. Tell me I don't all day long, but you're wrong. WRONG!

(Mom, typing in all caps means you are yelling. I yelled that.)

Should I mention that I watched videos of him when he was tiny earlier tonight? I did. I cried. He is so big now! Look at these teeth!! TWO teeth! I'd say it happened over night, but it's been three weeks. :)

Three weeks of less sleep than the regression we were already challenged with... three weeks of trying to find a new routine through the discomfort. (We didn't find it by the way.) Three weeks and he's taken to pacis. Ones with handles to be exact. Just today he actually figured out how to keep it in his mouth. He mostly just chews on it and holds it like it's forever friend (...but it won't be. Boobs are his forever friend... have you met this child? For real.).

Actually, I've been meaning to chat about his necklace so since I'm posting about his teeth... I'd read about Baltic amber and its healing properties and how necklaces made from the amber can help reduce pain from teething. I was really skeptical, but ended up ordering one because I really didn't want to have to use medicine. Aside from obvious discomfort at night, I really didn't, and still don't notice Oliver being in pain from his teeth. So I kind of doubted that the necklace did much.

I decided to order one for myself. I didn't blog about it, but a couple weeks ago I had a horrible pain in my ribs. It was so bad and so sudden that I thought I may have pleurisy. I'd been coughing from a cold for weeks and didn't want to chance anything so I went to the doctor. Xrays showed nothing so they said it was a muscle. It was horrible pain and hurt to breathe even. Anyway... after wearing my necklace for just two days, I noticed a huge difference. I am convinced that Baltic amber works. How it's helped Oliver is still questionable, but I do believe that it has healing properties and I'm glad I got his necklace. We both wear it every day and take it off for bath/shower and at bedtime.

And another thing... I'm not one to take herbs and when I have in the past, they didn't really work, (Except peppermint oil for tension headaches, breathe it in deeply and headache is gone for 20 minutes!) but a month or so ago ~~Chandler drove all over Virginia on a Sunday morning trying to find~~ I bought Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle (and Mother's Milk Tea) to boost my milk supply after Oliver was sick. After just a week I noticed a difference and now swear by using that combination. Initially the tea was a little ick, but after a little sugar (ok, a whole spoonful), it was really good.

So.... in a nut shell.... my baby disappeared and has been replaced by a giant child with teeth. I kid. He's actually quite small for his age. BabyCenter has him ranked in the 10th percentile. I like him small. It means he can wear the same clothes he wore five months ago. They were big on him then. They are not quite too small now, but are pushing it.

Teeth. TEETH!

7 Months

2011-09-18T15:47:00.000-04:00

7 (SEVEN) months!

We've been busy with ~~laundry~~ life. Oliver is now SEVEN months and eight days old. Sigh.

In the last few weeks he's started to think about crawling (this is the most he does though)!

We've not had his 6 month appointment yet, but on our scale at home he is right around 16lbs. I don't attempt to check his length. I'm sure it's no more than 26" though. I'll be sure to post when he has his appointment this week (at 7.5 months, that's just how we roll 'round these parts lately).

Speaking of rolling - we love this weather! Safe to say we hate the fact that the sun goes down earlier, but we have so enjoyed going for a walk in the evenings after dinner.

Oliver is (surprise, surprise) still wearing 3-6 months clothes along with 6m and 9m sizes. I should take the time to post pictures of him at 2 months and now at 7 months in the same outfits. It's really funny to see a tiny baby and a big baby in the same outfit! Of course, it was big on him then and fits fine now, but still cute to compare the difference. He is wearing 3-6m in Gymboree and 6m and 9m in Carters. 9m is really too big, but not so big that he can't wear it. He looks somewhat ridiculous in some 9m because it really is that big on him.

We're still going strong with our cloth diapers - although admittedly, I took a week break when we introduced solids (more on that in a minute). We're still using a disposable at night and we've switched to Earth's Best (separate post on why we're not using 7th Generation). He can do a size 2, but we've made the switch to a size 3 just to be safe. Now that stools have changed, I've found that I like bumGenius and GroVia better. Go figure. Something about the fibers seem to wash off better. We have to use a sprayer now. Sigh. I hate solid poop diapers. Thankfully he doesn't go but once or twice a day at most, but still. Yucko. I can't imagine NOT having the sprayer. Thank goodness for the sprayer.

A typical day now includes a morning nap that is about an hour or so, along with a nice, long 2-3 hour afternoon nap. He's getting up pretty consistently at 7:30 AM and we start the bath, pajama, book routine between 7 and 8pm. Dinner is usually around 5:30 and then we go for a walk. (I realize that last part was totally out of sequence.)

Oliver experienced his first hurricane this month. These are the pictures for documentation purposes...

We had no electricity for a few days... and this was during the storm so the light was horrible upstairs. He wouldn't stay still so I used the flash... see photo below:

HA! Proof I never use a flash. His face cracks me up! He had NO idea what was going on with the camera flashed - it was SO funny!!! I had the timer set to take a few pictures and his face is like this in every single one of them. We laughed SO hard when we looked at them.

We caved and bought a generator. It was horribly hot and the lack of well, everything, was making us a little nuts. Our rain barrel was overflowing and the garden didn't make it. Boo!

At 7 months, Oliver is LOVING his toys! He is having a great time finding new pieces to each toy. He's really into wheels and puzzles right now. He will sit and play with toys for quite a while by himself. I love that he is able to have some independent play time. I love playing with him, but it's important that he's able to entertain himself for short periods too. As long as he can see me, he's fine for about 15 minutes at a time.

What else is new at 7 months? FOOD! He'd shown every sign that he was ready and while I would have been a-okay waiting another month, I had to admit that it was time. We started with avocado. Yum!

I thought it was yum at least. He actually liked it. :) This is a photo from the rice cereal. We are doing a combination of finger foods and mush. We weren't going to do mush at all, however he seemed a little picky and I knew this to be untrue based on little bits of things I'd given him tastes of - we use the rice cereal to serve as a base to mix small amounts of other things in before he gets a regular amount.

So far he has had too many things to list. He loves sweet potato, avocado and pears. He's not a fan of bananas, but I'm kind of okay with that because they stain worse than sweet potato and other rich-in-color foods. Go figure. He loves playing with pear chunks and is a great eater. He also loves Baby Mum Mums and the Gerber puff things. He eats banana flavor in both of those - deep down, he likes banana. It's been a challenge to plan our meals so there is something he can eat with us that doesn't require extra steps to cook. I'm a big fan of family meal times and we always eat together at the table. So far, so good.

Another big milestone at 7 months - TEETH!

I noticed a runny nose a week before he turned 7 months and thought, okay - a cold or teeth. The next day, I saw two little slits in his gum. :( It was kind of sad for me. A physical sign that he is a big boy. I won't lie either, I was also fearful for my nips. So far so good though. One friend said when she noticed her baby teething, the teeth were up by the next morning. Another friend said about 36 hours. Oliver? It's now been more than three full weeks and his teeth are still not all the way up. They're about half way though, if that. There are two more that I suspect will be starting to show soon on either side of the bottom two middle ones. No signs of any from the top yet - although his nose started to run just today so I'll be checking those daily now. You know, for safety's sake.

To help with teething, we ordered a Baltic amber necklace. I went back and forth about ordering and just a few days before I saw his teeth, we ordered one. I just wasn't sure if he could pull it off. I couldn't tell a huge difference so we used tylenol a couple times at night when he was obviously uncomfortable. Since then though, I ordered a necklace for myself. I am convinced, hands down, that it helps! I'd pulled a muscle over my ribs so bad that I was at the doctor getting x-rays because we thought it could be pleurisy from a lingering cough I'd had. Yeah, that bad. It was so painful. Anyway - after two days of wearing my necklace, I could tell a HUGE difference in the pain. So while I still don't notice a big difference in Oliver, I do believe it makes a difference and am all for Baltic amber.

We go to the library once/month and get anywhere from 30-40 books. On this particular day, we brought a bag of books and toys outside to celebrate cool weather!

He still won't take a bottle and I've packed them up along with the pump. Oh well. Maybe next time. We've bought a few different types of sippy cups and will try those. I stopped wasting milk in them though and now use water. He's gotten about a teaspoon from one once.

Did I mention he loves toys? And is really into wheels?!

Yoga baby? I think so!

I feel like I'm forgetting something I usually mention during his monthly posts. He is still the sweetest baby. Since having teeth, he's enjoying chewing on washcloths and pacis. Although he still won't suck on a paci. Fine by me. He does look pretty cute with it in his mouth, but it doesn't stay in long. He's still a mama's boy and is increasingly snuggly at night. Now that he's bigger, he is very intentional on where he sleeps and will often roll until he's right in the crook of my arm. It's so sweet!

He is pulling up on everything. He'll scoot on his belly towards us and then pull up on our legs. While he's assumed the crawling position, I wouldn't be surprised if he just pulled up and walked in a few months, skipping the traditional crawl all together. If he does crawl, something tells me it won't be long before he's walking. I can't believe I'm talking about MY baby walking. He often goes from sitting to laying on his belly, but can't go from his belly to sitting up quite yet. I've not even seen him try to maneuver that.

In honor of the sprayer and solids - we bought a new diaper. GroVia with planes! I'd been eyeing it for some time and finally turned in my stash cash for one. I definitely prefer the hook and loop on GroVia. The snaps are backwards and I just don't like it as well as the other style. I'll probably order another hook and loop version of the planes.

HAPPY 7 MONTHS BABY BOY!

2011-09-18T14:42:00.001-04:00

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Nurse walking/Walking nurse

2011-09-18T14:41:00.001-04:00

...this is the equivalent of a drive thru for babies. Yay for low zipping tops and snuggly warm babies when its chilly outside.

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My love...

2011-09-08T21:28:00.002-04:00

... my sweet, sweet love is getting so big.

Ollie's Molly

2011-08-31T22:39:00.000-04:00

I'd like to introduce you to Molly - isn't she beautiful?! We kind of love her around here. So much in fact, that Oliver would like to formally announce his intention to make her his forever girl. I've known Molly's mom (and dad) for seven/eight years (really?! has it been that long??) and they're good people so we're comfortable with Oliver's decision. Wedding invitations to follow... ;)

Ollie & Molly 4ever

Mmm...

2011-08-30T22:46:00.001-04:00

It seems celery is a fun treat...

Things aren't always what they seem.
:)

No cover?!

2011-08-30T22:36:00.001-04:00

...that's right, sans buggy cover...and yes I think I'm still me. I can't believe it either.

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Goose

2011-08-23T21:00:00.000-04:00

Silly Goose that is...

Monday, Monday

2011-08-22T17:04:00.001-04:00

We are loving the smoke-free, humidity-free day. After Rover's long afternoon nap, I finished working and we hit up the 'hood for a walk. Dinner is in the crock pot (Do you say slow cooker? I think I prefer that word better.) and we are ready for some chow down!

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Rosie, Daisy (Thor) & Friday

2011-08-19T22:39:00.001-04:00

We have a deer family that lives across the street. Normally there are eight, but lately we've only seen a female and two babies. Last week, we got to 'meet' the two babies! We named them Rosie and Daisy (Thor). Rosie got her name because we found her munching on our ~~knockoff~~ knockout roses and we thought Daisy was a nice sister name. We call Daisy 'Daisy Thor' just in case she's a he. Their names are also interchangeable since they are identical twin deer for all concerned purposes.

This is Rosie (Daisy(Thor)) caught in action. What's funny is that I'd looked at the roses thinking that I needed to cut them back some, yet they looked sort of okay at the same time. I knew it'd been a while since I last trimmed them up, but they just didn't look right. When we saw Rosie (Daisy(Thor)) munching on them, it all made sense. Chandler said he thought I'd just done a really bad job trimming them! It was so funny. Right after I took this picture, she (he) saw me move the curtain and high tailed it back across the street.

I've had a horrible cold this week and didn't want to get out of bed this morning. I finally got up around 8:30 and jumped in the shower, hoping that would help me feel better. (It didn't really.)

Today was definitely one of those days I wished I knew someone up here to come help me with Oliver. Even an hour would have been SO nice. Heck, I'd take a 20 minute nap and be happy. Sigh.

I decided I just didn't have the energy to play like we normally do on Friday mornings, so I pulled out an old quilt and laid on the floor while Oliver played with a rather large assortment of toys.

Since he's not completely mobile yet, I was secretly hoping I would drift into one of those semi-conscious sleeps for a few minutes, but it didn't happen (so stop freaking mom, I don't even want to hear it). Nola came to join in on the fun, which provided some amusement from Rover.

He has a thing for Clifford. I think it's because he knows he has the coolest red dog of all. He is all about some Nola girl! Nola and Clifford are by far two of his most favorites.

(I finally feel a little better... all the smoke up here doesn't help though! The wildfire smoke (6,000+ acres, it's ~5-10 sky miles from us) has been so thick at times that highways have closed and the air quality is code purple. Zero visibility, it's just been awful this week!)

6 months!

2011-08-10T21:22:00.000-04:00

At 6 months old...

-Oliver weighs 14lbs 13oz and is 25" long (these stats are official due to our recent visit to the doctor's office).

-He is so, so sweet! He has the cutest laugh and thinks it's funny to laugh when he sees us laughing even if he doesn't know what's going on. It's so funny! A couple weeks ago I was reading while he nursed and whatever it was made me laugh and he started laughing at me so much he had to stop nursing to laugh!!

-He's still wearing 3-6 month and 6m clothes. We have a few 9 month PJs, but they are so long that his legs end up in one leg opening. Six month Carter's onesies still have a good inch of space when he's in a disposable diaper. In a cloth diaper they fit perfect.

-Speaking of diapers... we're still going strong with cloth. On some of these hot days I'll often use disposables when we're running errands though just because I don't want to leave dirty diapers in the car to grow funky microbes and I usually don't carry a diaper bag around all the time so it's just easier to not use cloth when we're out for long periods of time. Our local store ran out of 7th Generation so we tried Earth's Best. I like them. I may post about them separately at some point. I've also started using a disposable at night because we have had a lot of leaks with just about ever cloth combo I've tried. I don't mind using disposable at night. We also use disposable when we travel because washing machines always have a learning curve to what works best with cloth diapers and after a few not so great washes in other machines, I've decided to just stop traveling with cloth unless its a machine similar to ours. We're just using FuzziBunz and bumGenius Elementals right now. He outgrew our size one Thirsties and as much as I want(ed) to buy the next size, we really don't need more diapers. We have 24 and it's a good amount for a couple of days (we still wash every other day). Every now and then I run out, but I also don't wait to change as soon as he's wet. Oh! He is in between size 2 and 3 in disposable so we use both depending on what the store has in stock. Right now we have size 3 and they work so we likely will just stay with 3 from here on out.

(At work with mama for an evening photo shoot.)

(Too cute for our photographer to pass up ;))

-Milestones? Oliver is sitting up better and better! He is still wobbly and needs support, but he's almost there. He has recently started to go from sitting (tripod) to gently sliding onto his belly. He can also roll back to front now! He finally figured out how to get his arm out of the way. It's so cute to watch him roll both ways when he plays.

-His favorite toys right now are those Lamaze stroller toys that have lots of sensory touch points and a Playskool gear toy. He's also recently found tags (the materials/made in USA/X type of tags). He loves to hold tags between his thumb and first finger. He is fascinated by them. Since he's still wobbly when he sits up, we use his crib to have some play time. He enjoys being able to sit up and move around and I like that he's contained and won't hurt himself when he falls. This is about all we use the crib for right now... I love that we are using it even if only for play time.

(Peek-a-boo!)

-He LOVES Nola. She is guaranteed to make him laugh, cheer him up, or otherwise brighten his day. Anyone who knows me (and her) knows how much I love this!!

-I recently noticed his feet... they stink! Boys...

Total side note...

I've been wanting to get some pictures of Oliver in his newborn hat for the longest time... it was too big for him in his newborn pictures and I wanted a shot of him on his dresser. This is how it went down...

(interested...)

(appeasing mom...)

(complete and utter meltdown.)

(a few apologetic stories and a breeze through the snack bar later and he was fine.)

(nap yet?)

-He continues to nurse on demand. He is so efficient and is often done eating in about 5 minutes. He eats four or five times each day, but sometimes it's more often depending on his mood, amount of sleep he's had, and genuine hunger. We have not started solids yet and plan to wait a bit longer. He's become very fidgety when he nurses and is no longer satisfied with the single act of eating so I try to keep a semi small soft toy around so he's not completely destroying whatever necklace I may be wearing. I have a nursing necklace that has also seemed to help a little. It can be a teether later... we'll see how that works. We have a LifeFactory teething ring that he likes to hold so that along with the nursing necklace seem to do the trick. He also kicks his leg out while he nurses... it's like he's kicking something, but there's nothing there so it's just flailing about - this is a new thing and it's so funny! He'll do it with is arm sometimes, but it's mostly with his leg(s). I also love that he's big enough to find his own meal and I don't have to guide him to me anymore. I forgot to mention this a couple months ago. I think he started doing doing that around four months. He's gotten better and better about it though.

He's also getting harder to nurse while walking. I'll often nurse him while we're out and usually just carry him in my arms while he nurses since he's still so small... because he fidgets with my shirt though, he's starting to leave me hanging out more than I'd like and I'm constantly fighting him to keep my shirt down enough for both my comfort and public comfort! So far, no one has glared, stared or complained so as long as he's light enough to hold and nurse, I'll still do it. I sometimes use a carrier to nurse him in, but usually I'm just holding him because it's supposed (key word) to be a quick trip in and out of somewhere.

-He is becoming more and more independent, but we are still very much a unit.

(Talking to Aunt B)

-He is SO close to saying 'mama' and has a host of other babbles. He actually says something that is 'mamamamama' but I don't really count it as 'mama.' Maybe next month! :)

-He cries when we take things he shouldn't have. We are gently redirecting him to other things but every now and then he will grab a USB or something of the likes and we'll have to take it quickly.

-He had a week where he would wake up several times at night, but it only lasted about five days. He's back to sleeping through the night. Our evening routine is playtime/bath around 7:30 followed by nursing then sleep. Sometimes he'll nurse for a few minutes, take a quick nap, and then be ready to play... when he does that we let him chat in bed. He's usually asleep between 9:30 and 10 if not before then. He wakes consistently between 7 and 7:30 AM.

-He loves to play with his feet and is getting better and better with his hand/eye coordination.

(The cake should have said 'Happy 6 months Oliver' instead, the nice young girl at Sam's wrote 'Happy 6 monther Oliver.' What the heck?!)

le photo booth

2011-08-09T19:47:00.000-04:00

We have a thing for photo booths.

I can't find the post with our other booth pics...

It's taken us almost six months to actually have $3 in cash when we're at the mall.

Car seat break down... literally!

2011-08-08T23:06:00.000-04:00

Ever wondered what's inside a car seat? We found out last week. Oliver and I were rear-ended on the way to work last Tuesday. We're okay. We went straight to the pediatrician's office right after the police left though, just to be sure. It was by far the scariest day of my life. (Just after being in labor. ... and flying.)

The speed limit was 45 MPH and the car slammed on brakes - we still estimate she was going at least 30 MPH though if not a bit more. It was quite a jolt since we were completely stopped. After waiting for what seemed like forever for the officer to arrive, going through the awkward silence with the other driver, and then being told we all had to go to court since it was wreck less driving (on her part)... it definitely made for a long week. I wasn't really able to take any time off from work and was very sore for a few days, and it was slightly uncomfortable driving around with a car seat that wasn't deemed safe by the child safety/highway groups. Ugh!

After finally getting our new car seat (thankyouverymuchamazonprime) I called a friend from the health department back in NC to figure out what to do with the old seat. I had planned to take it to the fire station, but apparently they don't do that here (go figure... they also don't really do child seats). She suggested I just make sure no one would use it. That's when I decided to take it a part.

Since we ordered the same seat in a different fabric, I first took all the fabric off the old seat to save it for the new seat. Fashion sake, you know. (Or blow-outs.)

I was a little surprised at how simple the seat was underneath. Just styrofoam. Nothing fancy. And under the styrofoam? Not a thing.

Since I'd already dismantled the seat, I decided to take it a bit further and destroyed it as much as possible. In addition to clipping the plastic that attached the handle at the back, I also cut the strap seen below. I didn't want anyone to find the seat and try to use it. As far as I'm concerned, if it's not safe enough for my kid, it's not safe enough for yours either.

I kind of miss the gray cubes we had before, but the green is a nice change too. We'll probably upgrade to a convertible seat at the end of the year though so I'm not too concerned with changing out the fabric.

I also want to point out the extra head support... we'd actually taken this out when we removed the infant insert (that was out when he was 11lbs). Then, our friend Henry came to visit and we had a big discussion about the head support pillow thing and decided to put it back in... Henry's seat had a stationary one and we all decided it was probably best to have. I am SO glad we put it back in. Even though Oliver is rear facing, I felt so much better about his safety with that little bit of extra support. I had been so tempted to take it out because it's been so awfully hot, but I am thankful it was there.

Our seat is a Chicco Keyfit 30. We did a good amount of research before registering for it and found it to be one of the best. After the accident, I did the same research and came to the same conclusion. As much as I wanted to upgrade, I realized there really wasn't anything to upgrade to - as far as we were concerned at least. We did consider a Peg Perego, but the colors didn't do much for me. There was one combo we liked, but since my car interior is gray and our strollers are gray (and green actually), AND since the old fabric could be used, we decided to stick with what we had. Call me vain, but I like it when things match. It makes me happy. (Yep, that means that nine times out of ten, Oliver's diaper matches his outfit too. I'm just that way. I've gotten better - my pajamas used to have to match my sheets. Mom, remember that?!)

We have a totally fresh perspective on safety.

...and while on the topic...

Did you know that most fire stations have someone who is trained to install child safety seats? I say most loosely... coming from NC where we have an awesome public health network, I was SO disappointed in the VA counterparts. When we went to have our seat checked, they acted as if we were a spectacle. Seriously. One guy went to get another guy who then had an audience of everyone else who worked there. On top of that, they told me our seat had to be on one side or the other and not in the middle because of the arm rest. What?! I felt like they were wrong so I called my people... my people were right. I read the owner's manual to the car (duh) and it clearly stated that the seat was fine in the middle.

While in NC in June we stopped by the fire station and had the Safe Kids team check our seat. More than 45 minutes and a pool noodle later, we were set. I think the seat was probably fine the way I had it, but they thought the noodle helped so I went with it, after all, they do this WAY more often than I do.

Since we've had to replace the seat (and base), I'll probably have them check our seat again. I used to think I knew how to install a car seat, then Oliver was born. I would much prefer to eat some humble pie and have someone check my work than to jeopardize his safety and I am SO glad I did. I'd recommend everyone have their seat checked, but when/if you do, be sure the people checking it know what they're talking about.

In honor of...

2011-08-07T21:46:00.000-04:00

World Breastfeeding Week...

(and because I told a friend I'd post this!)... I share with you my nurse-in-public-with-your-boob-hanging-out-yet-no-one-sees tool - also known as an Ergo. I don't actually love my Ergo. It's big; it's wide; and did I mention big? It's just not my favorite. I like it for nursing though because Oliver is still small enough to sink down into it and there's plenty of room inside. Technically, I should be using an insert since it's not quite 15lbs, but I don't. I used to use an Eeyore stuffed animal, but that thing is just hot! When we have to run errands during a not entirely convenient time, I keep the Ergo on hand in case my boy needs a snack. With a button down or open top shirt, I can easily pop one out and continue with my biz and no one has a clue what's going on. I'm pretty sure I can do this with my Gemini too since the top (they call it a head rest) will flip up and further hide what's going on inside.

What more can I say about breastfeeding? My initial thoughts were that it hurt and it was boring. My mother gasps at that. Let's just say that during the first couple (few) weeks, I totally understand why some people stop. Oliver would nurse for hours. I would seriously nurse the child for an entire day and that was all I accomplished. To say he was attached is an understatement. My husband would argue that he is still attached and I wouldn't be able to argue. :) The boy likes his juice.

I could go on and on about nursing. There are things I haven't written about that I'd love to share, but I really just wanted to post the picture I promised and then realized I didn't write about breastfeeding week... I did want to share though that when Oliver was sick, he wasn't nursing as well and part of that I realize now was me. I knew that whatever he took in was going to come back up and I felt like why bother when he wasn't getting anything out of it. Well... for supply purposes for one. My supply dropped a little after that. It's back to normal now, but in the week following him being sick I worked hard to get my supply back up to what it was. I nursed as much as we could, pumped some here and there, ate oatmeal, drank tons of water, you name it. I even had Chandler (sweet, sweet Chandler!) run all over the place looking for fenugreek. He came home with fenugreek, blessed thistle and mother's milk tea. THAT my friends is love! :)

Anyway... it was a little scary to think that my supply dropped and I might have to find another way to feed my child. I realized that I took nursing for granted and I also realized how special it was. Now when O nurses, I take time to cherish the moment (shout out Jess!) because one day, when he's ready - he will no longer choose to nurse. Happy world breastfeeding week - all two hours and 15 minutes that's left over here on the east coast! :)

Garden goodness

2011-08-05T09:35:00.001-04:00

I really should blog our garden. I have pictures since we planted the seeds and I still haven't gotten a post up. Its been a learning year and we are both excited and ready for next year's garden already!

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Gemini

2011-07-26T22:32:00.002-04:00

Last week, my friend Emily posted a link to PaxBaby on Facebook. It is the coolest site! Along with the link, she shared that she'd rented a Beco Gemini. I love (LOVE) our Beco Butterfly, so I decided to read more about the Gemini. I should also share that I take Emily's likes to heart... years ago I was at her house and she had the most amazing candle ever (pineapple cilantro) and long story short, she basically got me hooked on this candle company called Illuminations. Fo' real. Real as in, I won't even think of a candle from another company. Except, she recently mentioned another company, oh brother...

Back to the Gemini...

My friend Shelley is who originally introduced me to Beco. We were pregnant at the same time and would often swap thoughts, tips, etc... She had great things to say about the Butterfly, so when Oliver was too small to use our other carriers, I got the Butterfly too. I have really enjoyed it. I also have an Ergo Performance. I got it because it was mesh and I thought it would be much cooler than the organic cotton Beco. The problem with the Ergo is that while he doesn't need the infant insert anymore (which I didn't order, I just used an Eeyore stuffed animal at the bottom!), he's still a little too small for it. Bummer.

For some reason, I thought I'd done a pretty thorough review on our collection of carriers, but when I pulled the post, it was lacking. Oops. I guess Oliver was only a couple weeks old then so that was a lot for me to write at that point! I need to do a better post now that he's older and we've been using them for a while. And when I say 'a while' I mean every day.

All this to say... I checked out PaxBaby and found that you could rent a carrier for two weeks for - get this, NINE dollars! Nine bones. Nueve. Score! I had to try it. Click, click - done! The confirmation email mentioned that they only had a few loaners so they'd let me know when one was ready for me. What?! Being impatient, I decided to just order one from Amazon. Gotta love Prime! Choosing the color was such a challenge for me. The Butterfly is espresso so I decided to go with black for this one. When it came the next day though, I decided that I needed another brown so I ordered espresso and sent the black one back. WHEW!

Can I just say - I loooooove this carrier! I thought I loved the Butterfly - and I totally still do, but the Gemini does so much more! Who knew?!

Here it is with the hip carry - I've not even had it for a week, but I use this position the most:

(front view)

(side view)

(back view)

This is the front facing out position (second most used):

(front view)

(back view)

The biggest challenge for me with Gemini as opposed to Butterfly is that the waist belt/hip clip is their special two handed clip and it's not easy to take off while holding a baby. Butterfly has a regular clip there and the special double clip on the upper part of the carrier so it's not too difficult. I've used the back carry with the Butterfly only once and it was easy because Oliver was securely fastened in the middle piece, but since Gemini doesn't have that, I don't see myself using back carry at all until he's much older.

Butterfly came with a CD and was pretty thorough in how to use the carrier. Gemini came with a folded pamphlet that left a lot of questions. It took a couple times before I got the hang of the hip carry. Also different is that I can keep my Butterfly straps the same all the time, Gemini's straps are constantly changing because of the different carries so you can never really wrap the excess webbing because as soon as you wrap it, you're ready to switch it up and will need the length you just wrapped.

Chandler seems to think we have a lot of carriers. We do. However - I think they each have a strength and I'm glad we have each one as I use them for different things. The reason I bought the Butterfly was because Oliver was too small for the other carriers we had. Honestly, because of its design with the infant insert, I still like it for small babies. The Gemini is a long body and even at five months, in the front carry, it still covers Oliver's face when he faces out and is plenty high in the back when he faces front (me) even folded down. Oh - also on that note... when he's facing out I use one of the drool pads or a small burp cloth over the front or else I'd end up with a giant puddle of drool. :)

One more thing - Butterfly's literature said to wash it before first use since it was organic dye and would/could come off on clothing. I did that, but when Oliver drools, a little color still gets on light clothing. It washes out, but still a pain. The Gemini is the same color and they didn't say to wash it - so far the drool hasn't caused the color to get on clothing. I'm thinking I should have used vinegar in the wash to seal the color... if I need to wash the Gemini I'll do that.

Wow. I didn't plan to write this much... my friend Jill normally reads all my posts, but I bet she tuned out by now. Jill, if you're still reading - shout out to you! ;) Chandler is a post skimmer. I bet he's long gone. Chan, if you're still here I'll write a special post just for you! xo

PS - I emailed PaxBaby to cancel my rental and not only did they refund my nine bones, the owner, Jillian, was SO helpful! Dialogue with her is what ultimately made me realize that I really did want brown over black. She was so friendly and I would encourage anyone who is interested in trying a different type of carrier to check out their site.

Blue Eye. Green Eye. Red Eye? White Eye?

2011-07-22T16:45:00.000-04:00

People who have lightly colored eyes (i.e. blue, green) tend to have more red eye in photos. It's annoying to have to use the delay flash to take the red eye reflex out of the picture and equally as annoying to have to edit lots of red eye photos once downloaded. Normally, I don't use flash when taking pictures as I shoot in program mode or more recently, manual. Sometimes however, I'll use a point and shoot that has an auto flash and have to take red eye out later.

Early on, I noticed that in red eye pictures, Oliver had one white eye. I noticed it, but didn't really think much of it. A simple 'hmm' and I was over it. Fast forward a month or so and we saw a clip on the news about Relay for Life (American Cancer Society's annual fundraiser/awareness event). The piece featured a mom and her son who had both had the same type of cancer. At the end of the clip, the mom said something to the effect of, 'I knew he had retinoblastoma because his eye was white in the photo, just like mine was before I was diagnosed.' They showed a photo of a little boy not yet one-year old with one red eye and one white eye.

(I know this is blurry - I don't use this type of camera often.)

It felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I felt so sick. If you're not familiar with the term 'blastoma' it's a cancer word. Related to the 'c' word. The hard to say, never want to hear word.

The following morning, I called the pediatric ophthalmologist's office and set up an appointment. The receptionist gave me a date three weeks away. As she was finishing her questions, she asked the reason for our visit and upon telling her, she asked if we could come in at 10 that morning. I pulled it together enough to call Chandler to see if he could come home to make it and I hurried to get ready.

Nothing has ever been more terrifying to me than the thought of Oliver being sick.

We saw an amazing doctor and we are so, so thankful to live in an area that has a pediatric specialist in just about every field of medicine. We are doubly thankful to have great insurance that doesn't require a referral or pre-authorization. The technician dilated Oliver's eyes after doing a few exercises with him. Our doctor said he did NOT see any tumors, however he also did not see as much pigment as he'd like to see. He also found that both retinas were underdeveloped. Being that Oliver was so young, he asked to see him again in six weeks.

That follow up appointment was yesterday. There is slightly more pigment this time, but still not as much as he'd like to see. His retinas are still underdeveloped, but have improved since last time. Down the road, we could end up with a diagnosis of ocular albinism, but for now, he's holding off on any formal diagnosis. The good news is that there are still NO tumors.

They did the same things as in our original appointment and found that the right eye is slightly stronger than the left eye. To help strengthen his left eye, we will use a patch over the right eye for an hour each day. So far, Oliver has tolerated the patch as much as we can expect. We try to play a lot and show him new things so it stays as interesting as possible. Our next appointment is in October.

Honestly, I didn't plan to blog about this. I was afraid - afraid to admit it to myself that we could be faced with something big. Through this however, I have come to appreciate being Oliver's mom. I have also had to realize that while he is my baby, he is God's child and ultimately, God will decide his life. I am here to raise him, teach him, guide him and love him. It is a privilege to be his mom and I have to remind myself of this when my fears try to keep me from relying on the Word to get through rough times.

I decided to share our story because had someone else's story not been shared, we wouldn't have known to have it checked out. And to make this full circle - yes, we emailed the reporter who covered the story and thanked her for the piece and asked that she also express our thanks to the producer for not cutting out the last few seconds that included showing the photo. With our permission, the reporter passed our email to the mother in the story, who also emailed us. :)

The Sick Mat

2011-07-17T19:04:00.000-04:00

(photo taken today - slowly on the mend)

On Friday, Oliver threw up. As in vomit. Not spit up. I thought it was just a wet burp that turned into a little more, however when it happened a couple more times we realized he was sick. Poor boy. Thankfully, it isn't standard vomit and is more like a massive spit up, but it's still bad.

We've had 11 vomits and 6 diarrheas so far and as it's my first time dealing with him sick, I've taken some notes. First, I am SO glad I double sheet our bed (if you're new here, he sleeps with us... and I'm okay that you might not be okay with that). I keep quilted dry pads in between each layer just in case a diaper leaks and last night, I was thankful it had migrated a little higher. It made changing the sheets of our king bed a lot easier at 2am. There was still a little too much that had gotten on the second layer of sheets so when Oliver fell asleep in the small swing upstairs, I just slept on the floor with him.

It just so happened that I'd had him in zippered pajamas, which made changing him a lot easier too. When I realized this, I was SO glad I'd changed my mind. Originally I'd had another pair of pjs that snapped around the legs and ick - that would have been so gross. To prep for our second sick night, I had a stack of snap/zipper front pjs for Oliver and a stack of t-shirts for me, along with towels, a few sheets, and the sick mat.

On Saturday Chandler yelled that there was more throw up. On. the. floor. Ugh. Nothing a little water and Country Save couldn't take care of, but gross nonetheless. I then decided that since he would be awake and potentially throwing up more, I needed something to keep him on so there wouldn't be more throw up all over the place. I thought about the quilted dry pads, but they don't really absorb liquid. I decided a towel would be a great to put around it. We only had a couple old ones so I used one to make a pillow case type cover.

Meet - the sick mat! I had Chandler run to Walmart to pick up a couple of really cheap towels & Velcro to make two more for if/when this one is ready to be tossed in the wash. The cheap ones are best because they're not as plush and I don't have to change out the foot on my machine.

I also thought I'd share a tip from the nurse I talked to this morning. Pick up saltine crackers, soup, Gatorade/ginger-ale and whatever else you may need when you get sick b/c if it is a virus and we get it, we won't feel like going to the store to pick up sick food. Maybe this is just a parent trick? How brilliant! So now we're stocked with sick parental supplies. Oh - and Pedialyte just in case we need it for Rover.

I'd love to know your sick child tips!

Oliver & Brown Bear

2011-07-11T17:44:00.001-04:00

The first picture is 3 days old and the second is about a month old then the third is from June. I think the fourth one is actually from May, and the last one is from today. I should really be more consistent with taking pictures. You'd think that since I was so on top of the belly pics, I'd be really good about baby pictures, but alas, not the case. Bummer. I wish I could go back and take a picture each day or at least each week, but I didn't even think about it! Go figure. I do have thousands of other pictures of him though so there's no lack of photos!

5 Months!

2011-07-10T23:41:00.000-04:00

Oliver - you are 5 months old!

BIG BOY!

(Doesn't he look so big now?! He is already starting to lose his baby-ness and is looking more and more like a little boy.)

Oliver is 5 months today!

At 5 months, I find myself wondering what happened to my newborn! I was not prepared for how quickly the first few months would pass - seriously! He is so far from a newborn now and is beginning to explore his world.

-He delights in grabbing everything he can get his hands on! More times than not, those things go directly into his mouth. We recently ordered some new small take-along toys from Amazon so he wouldn't play with our keys, phones, etc...

-Nola has become one of his most favorite friends. He love to watch her play and he is quick to laugh when she runs around shaking her toys. It's hilarious to watch him enjoy her so much! Speaking of Big Sister, she is doing phenomenal with Oliver! This is in part because we set her up to win. When she's grumpy and stressed, we keep Oliver away from her. Soon, we will move her food to the front (sewing/craft) room so there will be no temptations for Oliver when he becomes mobile (gasp!).

Some stats:
-Oliver unofficially weighs right around 15lbs.

-I just packed up his last 0-3m clothes. He is comfortably still wearing 3-6m and 6m outfits.

-He is still wearing cloth diapers. He's outgrown his Thirsties and because he's using less each day, I've decided not to replenish those (you're welcome Chan). That leaves FuzziBunz pocket for daytime and bumGenius AIO (and 1 GroVia) for nighttime. I still wash every other day. Because I have less free time on my hands, I don't always get to stuff all the diapers at once and usually have inserts and covers in a pile for the grab-n-go method. Every now and then we make all-day trips out and because it is so incredibly hot outside, I will use 7th Generation disposables so we don't have to haul around dirty diapers with us or keep them in the car. He's still in a size 2 for these, but I think I am going to order size 3 soon simply because I think he could wear either and I don't want to be stuck with leftover size 2s since no one I know uses that brand.

-He still sleeps in bed with us and continues to sleep through the night. Sometimes he will stir between 4a and 6a, but I think it's more for comfort because he'll snuggle close and nurse for not even ten seconds before falling asleep again. He goes to bed for the night between 8:30 and 10. Big gap, I know. It depends on what his day has been like. If it's 10 when he goes to bed, it's because he didn't get his full afternoon nap and fell asleep around 6 or 7 for a little while. Other than a few odd off days, he keeps a pretty predictable schedule. This is a wonderful thing since I work half of my part-time job from home.

-He still nurses on demand still refuses a bottle. Just yesterday I packed up the pump. I hadn't used it in a long time so there was no point in keeping it down stairs. I have who knows how much milk in the freezer that I will likely have to toss. I tried putting some in a 4m trainer sippy cup and it was also a no-go. I tasted some out of the freezer and yuck. I can't blame him for not wanting that junk. It definitely didn't taste like fresh milk.

-He is SO sweet when he nurses. When he's really sleepy or very hungry, he'll do this cute little 'Mmmmmmm' while he nurses. He also likes to hold my hand and play with my fingers. He will also rub my face while he nurses - I love it. He is incredibly sweet!

-I noticed too how he kneads his hands on my chest as he nurses. Having a baby has made me realize so many things in instinct - sometimes, very primal, animal-like instinct. It's easy to forget that as humans, we too are animals. Puppies and kittens knead their mamas when they nurse and so do humans. Anyway - it's really sweet. And sometimes funny to see his face buried in my breast with a hand on either side. Nom nom nom!

-He still won't take a paci, but we keep a few hanging around because he enjoys gumming them and I'm still not sure how to store them for future bambinos.

-He has three happy places.
1) with his mama
2) outside
3) in the bathtub

-He's gotten better about riding in the car. He still has trouble with finding his happy place on long trips. I can't blame him there. I've become the anti-traveler over recent years.

-He has shown a big interest in food. I've let him taste a few things and (oops) now he'll open his mouth when we're holding him an eating at the same time. I'm hoping I can stay firm in my plan to keep him exclusively on breast milk until 6 months. He's just so cute with his mouth open! He has tasted quite a few things, but not more than a finger's dip worth. He still sucks more than swallows though so I think his reflex still has a tiny bit more development before he's ready. I do think he'll be a great eater. Not only that, I need to mentally prepare for the change in diapers. It's going to stink (pun intended) having to add another step to the wash routine. (For those that don't use cloth, with breastfed babies you can toss soiled diapers (yep, poop and all) directly in the washer, but when you start solids, you have to rinse them.) Anticipating this change, the diaper sprayer has been purchased and we are just trying to decide which toilet to use.

(This picture was taken when we got his cake... he is such a baby bird with food! And yes, that is icing on his face. We had to share since the cake was technically for his 5 month day!)

-We got him a highchair a couple weeks ago because he likes to be with us at dinnertime. He's enjoyed sitting in his chair playing with toys while we eat. He is really into his toys lately.

-Oliver has been standing (with help of course) since he was 6 or 7 weeks old. It was so early that I asked our pediatrician if it was okay. I'd remembered hearing about how it was bad for babies to stand and put weight on their legs. Apparently it doesn't matter. So he's been standing and putting weight on his legs since then and still does. Now, he's learning to jump (oh brother!) and since we didn't have an exersaucer, we decided to get a bouncy one. He loves it!

(I love that he has is sleepy face in this picture. He'd only been up for a little while.)

-He is rolling more and more from front to back, but only makes it to his side from back to front.

-He is very intent when he reaches for things. I have a video I need to upload that shows him reaching and getting frustrated. It's fun to see him make these associations.

-Our BIG milestone this month?

Do you see it?

Ok wait, there's more...

BIG boy!

(Mom, do you love that your old sheet made the picture? This was mom's sheet from college that's on the bed for Nola.)

He will sit by himself unassisted for a few seconds before tumbling over. The boppy really doesn't do much to help in my opinion, but I enjoyed lounging on it while he played. ;)

-He's just started laying his head on my shoulder when he's sleepy and just a few days ago he reached his arms out for me. So big!!!

-He's babbling a lot more and has several recurring sounds - 'Mm, Ga, Ba, Pa, Oh, Woah, Ah, Why, Booo, Eww, High.' He's also started squealing.

-He kicks his legs and squeals when he's excited.

-His hair has gotten thicker and is still light!

-He laughs a lot!

-He is an absolute JOY to be around just when I can't imagine loving him more - I do.

Oliver & Henry

2011-07-03T23:03:00.000-04:00

Oliver's buddy Henry came to visit!!!

They had SO much fun together! This was right after their bath.

Oliver was a little upset it was time for bed because he knew Henry was leaving the next day. Henry was so sweet and told him it was okay because they would see each other again soon.

We did a tour of a guided missile destroyer, the USS Arleigh Burke. It was really neat - the boys LOVED it! Oliver fell asleep as we walked on board, and Henry kept his sweet baby eyes out of the sun most of the time. If that isn't exciting display, I don't know what is. Actually - the ship was really fun to see. They had small tents set up and a sailor at each one telling passersby different pieces of boat trivia (Chandler is having a cow over my terminology I'm sure). So we're all sort of close, but often at different stations and a few of us ended up at the same one. At this particular one the sailor is standing beside a really big gun (Chan says it's a machine gun) and it's attached to the ship. I was actually looking forward to learning about this spot since they do pirate trials in our area and that's kinda big here.

We're just standing there waiting for the guy to turn around and he completely ignored us. All of the sailors were super nice so this guy was a major jerk in comparison. We just kind of looked at each other. Chan came over after a couple minutes and asked what we were doing. Someone indicated that we wanted to learn about the big gun. Chan laughed and said that the guy was on duty and couldn't even acknowledge us. HA! It was so funny! We guessed he had a tent just for people like us who needed shade b/c apparently he normally wouldn't have the luxury of a tent (it was SO hot on board).

There were also two sailors that were circling the ship. It's their job to do that and I still can't stop thinking about how dizzy they must get. They had to have circled more than 20 times in the small hour we were there.

After all the boating fun, the boys took a dip in the pool.

Henry is three and a half months older than Oliver - they had a big time playing this morning.

Bye Henry! Thanks for coming to see us - we can't wait to see you again!!!

xoxo

Completely Random Photos/Captions

2011-06-29T23:37:00.000-04:00

I love free stuff. I'm just now getting to the point that I will turn down free stuff when I know I can't use it, but in the past, I would still take it. You know, 'cuz it was free. When I worked at the med school I would get shamefully excited when our drug reps came. When I completed the diabetes fellowship, I won't admit to how many reps I'd befriended and whose leftover free stuff I got to take back to my office (for patients of course).

My point: I decided to use a free code to get a photo book from Shutterfly. I've used other codes with other companies, but never from Shutterfly - shocking since they do it so often. Have you ever ordered a Shutterfly book? It's amazing! I looove it! It doesn't even compare to some others I have. The book above contains mostly photos of Oliver's birth with a few belly pics and before-baby prep sprinkled in here and there. I didn't write a lot, but wanted an album to put things for him to have one day (should he ever have the strength to pry it away from me). Bottom line - if you find a code for a free book, do it. It's totally worth it. I added 16 pages to mine (20 came free) so with shipping I still spent ~$20, but it was well worth it. Next time, I'll try to stay within the limits of the code.

When I was still pregnant, I'd sit in Oliver's nursery with the closet door open and it was so surreal to look around and imagine that there would be a little boy sleeping in there. I would sit in his glider for the longest time and just think about him. What he would look like, what colors I'd like him to wear, what stories would be his favorite, what toys he'd prefer... He hasn't slept in his room yet, but I love taking him in there to play.

When ~~it's cool~~ there's no humidity at night, we tend to migrate outside and hang in the backyard until it's time for bath/showers. Oliver loves being outside and we enjoy watching our neighbors ride their bikes, walk the dog, take family strolls.

The 'rents came to visit this past weekend and we went to the library one afternoon. It was SO nice to have Nonny there to entertain Oliver while I picked books. Normally I am in a rush and we end up taking half the books back because they're too long or just not good. We ended up with about 30 and so far they are all good!

First time at the pool! (Actually, this was his second time. We'd be the day before too, but he only got in the baby pool b/c I didn't have my bathing suit on - so this is his first time in the big pool.) He enjoyed it, but he has more fun in the bathtub. His buddy Henry is coming to visit this weekend and I'm really excited about taking them to the pool to splash, but I have a feeling they'll be happier just hanging in the bathtub where they can splash a little more.

Post-pool walk home.

WHY does my 4-month old look like a little boy already?! I know, I know... I could put him in more baby-ish outfits, but he looks like such a pansy in some. Seriously. I put this really cute little alligator outfit on him and me and Chan both laughed (that's right, didn't say Chan and I)... he looked ridiculous. I feel like with girls, the clothes stay the same until tween age when it has potential to get a little out of control. With boys, their clothes change drastically. You can't get away with the same things at 4 that you could at 2. Even now, when he was 2 months old he could totally rock the alligator outfit. Now, it's cutting it close. Maybe it's me. I'm just so used to putting him in shorts and tshirts. I love it on him. He sports it well. Part of me feels like I have the rest of his childhood life to put him in shorts and I need to pick the baby-ish outfits now, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Why do I get the feeling that comments on this post will refer to this section?! :)

Giraffe riding didn't go so well, so we tried Nola. I'd say 'poor girl,' but she was indifferent. We've been so careful with her, giving her LOTS of attention, since Oliver has been here, that she's been over the moon. Silly dog. (Gasp, I've referred to her as an animal and called her a dog. No worries, the love is the same as before child.)

New app take 2

2011-06-25T18:01:00.001-04:00

Hahahaha

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Sweet baby...

2011-06-25T17:59:00.001-04:00

Bunny! Oliver decided to have a nursing marathon so while he fought sleep I found some new apps to keep me occupied. What are your favorite apps? I also downloaded RedLaser but haven't used it yet. I hope its good. It got good reviews.

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FOUR Months!

2011-06-20T23:20:00.000-04:00

Oliver is FOUR (4) MONTHS!

Oliver was four months on Friday, June 10th.

This post is ten days late because I have a FOUR month old!

At 4 months, Oliver officially weighs 14lbs 3oz and is 23.5" long. He is in the 50% percentile for weight and the 25th for height.

-He wears 3m, 3-6m, and 6m sizes. Most of his clothes are 3-6m but a few are 6m.

-He continues to nurse on demand and I'm finally able to predict when he will be hungry. Before, it was random and now he will eat every 2.5-3 hours. (With some comfort nursing in between as needed of course.) I love how quick he eats! When he was tiny, I can remember nursing him for HOURS (sometimes three or more!), but now he's done in 10-15 minutes tops.

-Diapers: He wears FuzziBunz during the day & BumGenius (or GroVia) AIO at night. When we travel to NC, we use 7th Generation disposables until the next to last day, then we switch back to cloth. We tried using cloth and washing the diapers when we travel, but because of different washing machines, we found it easier to just use 7th Gen and wash diapers at home.

-15 weeks was a BIG week for us; he laughed (belly laugh!) for the first time in response to something he found funny. He rolled over (front to back); and he found his feet.

-He loves to stand up is very active. He reaches for toys and they're starting to go directly into his mouth.

-He still sleeps through the night, although every once in a while he'll wake up around 4a for a quick snack.

-He is so funny! He makes the funniest growl; it's his favorite vocalization.

-He still loves to splash in the bathtub and gets a bath every day - it's his happy place.

-He's had a handful of play dates, most notably with his buddies Riley (who is just 13 days younger)

and Henry (who is about 4 months older).

I can already tell Oliver is going to be into EVERYTHING in a few months. He is so much fun and has so much energy already. He is so incredibly sweet and makes everyone laugh. I will definitely be faster getting next month's post up because I already feel like it's right around the corner. How is it possible for the weeks to go by so fast after you have a baby? Just about every mother on the planet will tell you how fast babies grow. And it's such an obvious thing, but until you have your own, you really can't comprehend it. I probably have said this in every month post, but we talk about it all the time - we can't imagine life without him, yet it seems like yesterday that he was born. How is that?! Happy four months sweet boy!!!!

Good Morning!

2011-06-19T07:35:00.001-04:00

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4m

2011-06-18T15:14:00.001-04:00

Oliver's four month check up. His 4 month post is coming!

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Morning Play

2011-06-06T10:39:00.000-04:00

love.

2011-06-05T22:21:00.000-04:00

my sweet, sweet love.

White Pizza

2011-06-03T23:01:00.001-04:00

Why haven't I made this before now?! Easy and delish. Had to share!

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Memorial Day 2011

2011-06-01T22:48:00.000-04:00

Fun times.

Day in the Life - Tuesday

2011-05-18T22:37:00.002-04:00

I did this last year and it was a lot of fun. A couple of friends recently did it and I was reminded of the fun. Here's our Tuesday (and yes, it's taken me until now to get it posted!)

8am - Chandler leaves for work (like our fancy 70's sheet we keep on the bed for the animals?)

9am - Me and the kids (speaking grammar is used 'round these parts) move downstairs for breakfast.

9:30am - Rover plays.

10am - We run to Babies R Us to pick up the final part of a baby gift for a friend. I didn't get a picture in the store because I forgot my camera.

11am - Chan comes home for lunch; Oliver dangles his dingle and airs his bottom in the warm sun.

11:30am - I work on meal planning for the next couple of weeks.

12:15pm - Rover settles for an afternoon nap...

...and I pull out my work for the afternoon.

12:20pm - I quickly run upstairs to put our comforter cover in the dryer. Someone unknowingly sprayed it with a tiny fountain while dangling the dingle earlier in the day (scroll back up to 8am)...

...I also realize the diaper pail is full so I toss those in the wash while I'm upstairs.

2pm - After working for a while I keep thinking of things that I need to do so I finally make a list. I love lists. I love lists with check boxes even more. I don't hesitate to draw lines through the same items, even though I've already checked the box. It makes me happy.

2:40pm - Someone wakes up. I'm none too pleased, we walk around the block...

...didn't work. It would have had there been more time, but 15 minutes was all I had so I resorted to Veggie Tales. I get back to work and notice he's back asleep.

4pm - Still working.

7pm - More playtime - for both kids.

8pm - We all hang out on the couch to watch Biggest Loser.

8:30p - I was talking to a friend around 6pm (hence the lack of a photo) who mentioned having to make cookies for work the following day. This conversation turned into how to get around making cookies from scratch and then led to cake balls, which reminded me that I had cake mix. We had cake while we watched Biggest Loser.

9pm - Hanging out.

9:30pm - I decide we need a family picture...

...and because someone was still going strong, more playtime.

10:30pm - Time for bed.

Good night!

THREE Months!

2011-05-14T18:03:00.000-04:00

At three (3!) months....

(yes, posting late, he was three months on May 10th)

-Oliver is unofficially 13.5lbs.

-He can still wear some 0-3m clothes from Gymboree and 3m from Carter's, however with his cloth diapers adding some extra bulk, I normally put him in 6m Carter's and 3-6m Gymboree. Those brands are 99% of his wardrobe.

-He is in cloth diapers (FuzziBunz, Thirsties, BumGenius & GroVia) more than 90% of the time. We predominently use FuzziBunz and Thirsties, but have been using BumGenius AIOs at night as they seem to hold more and therefore not leak. We use disposables when we travel and have switched to 7th Generation chlorine free - size 2, as we realized Pampers were the culprit of his rash.

-He continues to nurse on demand and nurse well. He has started to talk and make noises periodically while eating and even though it prolongs his meal, it's so funny to see his personality really come out. He's a character for sure!

-At 9 weeks, he found his hands and they've been in his mouth ever since! He also laughed while awake at 9 weeks, but hasn't done it since. (He did laugh two more times in his sleep.) At 9 weeks he also acts like he's pretending to be bashful and plays more with his faces and expressions.

-Between 10 and 11 weeks, he started to make different sounds and now has five or six different vocalizations.

-At 12 weeks, he realized he could make sounds while he nursed and that turned into a growl. It cracks me up when he does it, half because it tickles and half because his face gets really serious.

-At 12 weeks exactly, Oliver slept through the night and has done so ever since (so almost 10 days now). This was also when he went from newborn to infant.

-Oliver was baptized at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church on May 8th. This was also our anniversary and Mother's Day. It was a special service as the bishop was visiting and he was the only baby being baptized. At our church, they use a seashell to pour water over the candidate's head followed by a special oil (that smells really good!). Each person gets to keep their shell - this was especially meaningful to us since we were married at the beach and it was our anniversary. We had 30 family members attend the baptism service.

(anniversary picture)

(mother's day picture)

-He loves to splash in the bathtub and hates riding in the car.

(don't let this picture fool you, his Nonny was sitting beside him!)

-Morning is his happiest time. He normally wakes up around 5a to nurse, then sleeps until 7:30 or 8a when he finishes nursing. Sometimes I will get up then and shower, and he'll catnap for 30minutes or so, other times, we'll both stay in bed and sleep until 9 or 9:30. Once up, we wash his face, get him dressed and then play and read stories until he takes another catnap in the late morning. Daddy comes home from work for lunch and Oliver nurses. He takes his long nap from 1:00 until around 5:00 (yes, I am blessed with an amazing sleeping baby!). After dinner, if it's nice outside, we walk around the neighborhood before it's time for a bath. He normally falls asleep sometime between 9 and 11 depending on the day. I would guess he eats six to eight times a day but I don't really keep track of it and it could vary day to day.

-We've noticed that he's really into his toys lately and he also likes to watch cartoons (oy!). We've put a few shows in Netflix for him and he enjoys watching the colors. He might watch ten minutes maybe twice/week on average. It's cute now, but we don't want to have a lot of TV watching.

-I just asked Chandler what differences he's noticed from 2 months to 3 months and he said, 'more personality; louder (ha!); and crying when he has his diaper changed at night.' That is definitely new - if he does happen to wake up at night and I change him, he screams. I think it's because he's just stirring and not waking, but since he's not sleeping soundly, I change his diaper anyway so it doesn't leak. Thankfully, he goes right back to sleep, but still - it's loud.

-As hard as it is to watch him grow, it's equally as exciting because he is just so, so sweet and loving and it's fun to see his personality develop.

Oliver and Mr. Bear

2011-05-14T17:25:00.000-04:00

1 week

12 weeks

May 8th

2011-05-09T19:38:00.000-04:00

Last year, a little after 11:00am on May 8th we said our vows.

The Blessing of the Marraige

O God, you have so consecrated the covenant of marriage that in it is represented the spiritual unity between Christ and his church: Send therefore your blessing upon these your servnats, that they may so love, honor, and cherish each other in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and true godliness, that their home may be a haven of blessing and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

This year, just after 11:00am on May 8th, our son was sealed by the Holy Spirit in holy baptism.

(A wonderful first Mother's Day!)

The Baptism

Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon him your servant the forgiveness of sin, have raised him to the new life of grace. Sustain him, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give him an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to perservere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen

Mini We

2011-05-04T21:53:00.001-04:00

As a follow-up, I think it's clear there's no mistaking my baby daddy.

Although, it does appear he has my ears.

Sigh...

Giraffe Riding

2011-05-04T20:38:00.002-04:00

(2 days old)

(10 weeks old)

...apparently it's just not fun.

Here I grow!

2011-05-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

Almost 2 weeks and almost 8 weeks.

Wedding!

2011-04-29T07:02:00.002-04:00

We watched the royal wedding in style!

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Pregnant? Just had a baby? - A MUST READ!

2011-04-28T13:46:00.001-04:00

If you're pregnant, just had a baby, or are remotely interested in thinking about getting pregnant and having a baby - YOU MUST READ (that's right, I screamed) the Pregnant Chicken. Oh my sweet heavens I have been sitting here for an undisclosed amount of time reading this blog. Hysterical doesn't even come close to some of her posts.

You can thank me later. Or fuss because you spent too much precious time that you won't get back and you didn't get squat done in the meantime... regardless, read it. I do caution the language though. I personally think she could have done without it, yet at the same time I can't say I didn't think some of those things at one point or another when I heard comments from people while I was pregnant. So.... go! It's so funny - but if you are pregnant and have had trouble while laughing well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Pregnant Chicken.

Magic Diaper Rash Cream

2011-04-27T16:07:00.002-04:00

The best diaper rash cream - in my opinion.

Ingredients:

-Desitin: Maximum Strength (purple tube) - 40% zinc oxide
-Lotrimin (can also substitute Cortisone cream)
-Maalox

Pre-heat oven to - just kidding.

Mix equal parts Desitin and Lotrimin then add Maalox until you have a toothpaste-like consistency. Apply liberally at each change. We dangle (diaper free) as much as possible when there's a rash and at least 15 minutes after a change if there's not enough time to dangle the dingle and the tush.

When we do use disposable, I use A&D (I like Target's Up&Up brand best) as a preventative and if there is a rash I use the above cream. Note that no diaper rash cream can be used with cloth diapers unless it specifically states such on the packaging (most commercial diaper rash creams cannot be used) - you will need to order cloth specific cream from a cloth diaper distributor/retailer.

Shout out to Cassie - her husband is an allergist and this was what they used on pink hineys. I frantically messaged her a few months ago so I would be armed with the ingredients just in case Oliver developed a rash. We've since determined that he has sensitive skin and he's prone to rash, which is why we go diaper-less as often as possible. ... and we have a variety of creams at each of our four common changing areas.

***Updated to add that since most diaper rash creams can't be used with cloth diapers (due to ruining the absorbency) I had to get creative if I still wanted to use cloth and fight the rash without buying more cream(s). It occurred to me that when you start breastfeeding, a lot of natural sources say to use expressed breast milk on sore nipples and allow it to dry... I decided that chapped was chapped and did the same for Rover's hiney cheeks. Honestly - I shouldn't have been surprised that it worked. After all, it did wonders for my nips - was way better than lanolin... and it didn't leave grease stains! Anyway, so now I recommend trying that. It's free, fast, and you always have it handy!

The Cloth Diaper Post

2011-04-26T18:51:00.000-04:00

Lots of people have asked me how cloth diapers are going for us.

Without further ado, I present you with:

The Cloth Diaper Post

(Thirsties Duo Wrap Pocket - Easter morning!)

I was four months pregnant when we decided that we would use cloth diapers. (I've since learned that 'cloth diaper' can also be used as a verb, so I could have written, I was four months pregnant when we decided to cloth diaper our child.') Interesting, right? There's more. After all kinds of crazy research, bumGenius' Elemental All in One (AIO) One Size (OS) seemed to be the best fit for us. There weren't lots of parts to deal with, they came in super cute colors, and they would fit him from birth until he didn't need them anymore. To start with, I only ordered six. I wanted enough to try but not too many that if they didn't work, we weren't out too much money.

When Oliver was born I was SO excited to use our diapers. They were really big, but I decided it was because he was small (he was 6lbs 10oz when we came home) and bumGenius claimed they would fit most babies between 7 and 35lbs. I tried them on him once a week to see if they'd fit and finally when he was a little more than 10lbs, they seemed to fit - only they gaped at the leg and well, poop didn't always stay inside the diaper. At 25 bucks a pop I was quite disappointed. I read more and more about cloth diapers and know what? I didn't know squat.

(bumGenius Pocket)

What I learned from the new world of cloth was that the one size diapers don't really fit until babies are at least 12lbs. Now that Oliver is about 13lbs, they do fit him much better, but they're still the last diapers I grab and because I've accumulated quite a stash, I've not used them in a couple weeks. But back to the story...

A couple friends had mentioned Jillian's Drawers. Jillian's has a program where you can try cloth for $10. The deal is, you pay $165 up front and they send you around a dozen different types of [new] cloth diapers (the most popular ones). If you don't like them, hate them, changed your mind about wanting to use cloth, or whatever - you send them back after three weeks (21 days!) and they refund you all but your ten bones. I did it. I didn't even have to convince Chandler. He was game. He'll do anything for his tiny boy's tush.

I was probably too excited than what should be considered 'normal' for something like this and found that we had a diaper retailer somewhat close to us. SCORE! Since I was only familiar with the AIOs, I decided I should check out some other diapers before ours came and I was lost. I called Diaper Junction and they said we could come to their office/warehouse. Chan and I decided we would get a couple diapers and set aside some cash for shopping. When we got there, the owner came out and talked to us about the different diapers and pros/cons of them. I told her I'd ordered the Jillian's trial and that I wanted to buy a couple diapers but she recommended we wait on buying anything since I didn't know what I liked yet. It was the equivalent of a child finding out that they were going to FAO Schwartz but that they couldn't pick out a toy. I felt silly for not taking her advice and still made a purchase. We left with a Flip pack (two shells and liners) and one bumGenius 4.0 (pocket style).

Oh how right she was. The bumGenius is just not my favorite diaper - at all. And the Flip? I kinda hate it. It's probably great for bigger kids who made solid waste, but definitely not the best choice for a tiny baby. Lesson learned.

Our Jillian's order arrived the next day and I eagerly read every single word on the diaper packaging. Seriously - way too excited! I washed, prepped and used each diaper and found exactly what I liked and didn't like. I think it's great they give you 21 days, but I didn't need that at all. In fact, we mailed our diapers back over a week early because we stopped using them after just a couple washes.

(FuzziBunz OS)

Before I spill our favorites - some cloth diaper lingo:
-AIO: All in one - the inside and outside of the diaper are connected and there's no prep to put it together, baby poops, you toss the entire diaper into the wash and voila.

-Pocket: These diapers have a soft layer that is sewn to the outer waterproof part and there is a slit at one or both ends where you stuff a thicker insert into it to make it absorbent. When the diaper is dirty, you shake the insert out and then wash both parts (you can't wash it with the insert still inside).

-Prefold/Flats: Your mama's cloth diapers. These are the old school diapers that most of us use as burp cloths or rags these days. You can fold them as a trifold or like a kite and use a Snappi, pins, or nothing to keep them in place. Some people also use them to add extra to the pocket diapers. They require a waterproof cover.

-Snappi: Before having one, I couldn't figure out what this thing was. Diaper Junction showed it to me and had they not, I would have been totally lost. It's like an ace bandage teethy thing that has three ends so you can secure a prefold on the hips and crotch (I hate that word) of your baby.

-OS: One size. Ideally, this diaper should fit babies from birth to potty training. What I learned from the cloth diaper world that isn't so secret but that I couldn't find before I needed it is that one size diapers are not really one size unless your baby is ginormous - and in that case, let me know and I'll say a special prayer for you because oh my ouch!

-Fitted: This style of diaper is just soft, there's no waterproof outer layer so you have to use a cover.

-Hook and Loop: Velcro. I guess 'hook' and 'loop' refer to the tiny pieces on the Velcro and because 'Velcro' is a brand they can't use that term? Go figure. Another term for hook and loop is aplix.

-AI2: All in two diapers are two parts, an outer shell and an inside that either attaches to the shell or just lays inside. There's no pocket to stuff so it takes much less time to put together.

-Hybrid: These diapers are often the same as AI2 but you can often use different liners, fabric or disposable/flushable.

The diapers we tried were:
-Smartipants
-2 bumGenius 4.0
-Thirsties Duo Wrap Pocket
-Thirsties Duo Fab Fitted
-Thirsties Duo Wrap Cover
-Fuzzibunz OS
-2 types of prefolds (2 of each) and a Snappi
-GroVia

(FuzziBunz OS)

Our experience/my thoughts...

-The Smartipants looked too big on Oliver. They fit great around the legs and waist and never leaked, but had a lot of extra fabric due to the limited adjustablility. I loved that the pocket was open on both sides and it was easy to stuff. I would have kept this one for nighttime use but the color they sent was periwinkle and it was a little too feminine for my guy.

-bumGenius just isn't my favorite. I hear it's the 'cream of the crop' in cloth, but it just doesn't float my boat. I'm getting fancy with my words - I hope you are still with me here... With the 4.0 there are two options on the front closure, 'hook at loop' and snaps. We tried one of each and I didn't really care for them. I love the diaper alone, but it's very bulky under clothes and I would only put this diaper on him when we were at home. Never had a leak and it fit much, much better around the leg than the AIO Elementals that I have.

-Thirsties Duo Wrap Pocket - I love this diaper! It's really compact, adjustable AND has an extra gusset in the leg to prevent leaks. For the record, when I reference leaks in this post, it's about poop. If you didn't breastfeed or don't know, breastfed babies have a gooey/liquidy poop. Urine is absorbed into the liner so the only way urine would leak is if the diaper was so soaked that it was sponging out of the sides.

-Thirsties Duo Fab Fitted - I used this diaper twice. Once alone while we were at home so I'd be able to change him as soon as it was dirty and once with the cover mentioned above. With the cover it was too bulky and without the cover, I didn't see why I'd use it.

-Thirsties Duo Wrap Cover/Prefolds are not my favorite. I only used the prefolds a couple of times. Even with the Snappi, they didn't really stay in place. I don't mind them, but I prefer a better, easier to use combination. I use the prefolds alone more than I use them with the cover to help air out his bottom.

-FuzziBunz were by far the favorite! They are trim, have fleece inside, and fit great around the legs. They also have more places to adjust - which could be a con, but I think it makes for a better fit. The elastic in the legs can be adjusted and there's also an adjustable elastic in the waist to adjust in addition to the outer snaps on the front. I found that the waist was fine and I just snap the diaper as tight as it will snap since it's easier to adjust the snaps than the back elastic for later. So for us, we use a 1 on the waist (the way they come), a 3 on all the leg elastics (four places) and I snap the tightest top waist and use the 3rd snap around the leg. Confusing? It's not as bad as it sounds.

I did have some trouble with three of my FuzziBunz. The PUL (polyurethane liner) that lines the inside of the diaper that makes it waterproof was so sticky it was difficult to get my inserts inside. I figured out that it was the ones made in Turkey and the ones made in China were smooth. I contacted the company and they were aware of the problem. There was rumor that they were going to pull out of Turkey but after speaking with them I learned that they felt Turkey's textiles to be superior and it was not the case at all. They were aware of problems and offered to replace my diapers. I have since ordered more diapers that were also from Turkey after not finding anymore from China and they don't have the problem so I am guessing it was just a bad lot. I'm still pleased with this diaper and it's still one of my favorites.

(Note: FuzziBunz come in two types, OS and sized. I have both - I bought a few sized b/c I read that they fit trim and so I got some smalls. This was not the case for us and they are much more bulky than the OS - go figure. The crotch area is much wider in the sized variety and because of the bulk, I only use them at night. I would never buy sized ones again.)

-GroVia's are different. I like the snap-in shell, and the design on the sides to keep spills in, but for some reason I don't grab this diaper very often. I love the extra grippy velcro (that's right, Velcro is a general term for me so even though it's not technically Velcro - it pretty much is - even though the stuff GroVia uses is really cool and of all the diapers, this is the least like Velcro). This diaper is much trimmer than the bG or Smartipants and it's also a OS so you can use it for many months (years?).

Want to know what I kept? All four prefolds, the Snappi, Thirsties Duo Pocket and the cover, FuzziBunz, and GroVia. I sent back the Thirsties Fitted and now I wish I'd kept it. I'm not crushed because its color was mango and we've recently established that orange is not the best look for Oliver. I wish I had it because now I realize that the fitteds are great for airing out the bottom while still catching anything that might come out during that air-out process.

Because I tend to go all out when I like something, my diaper stash now includes:
-20 FuzziBunz (16 OS and 4 Smalls)
-10 Thirsties Duo Wrap Pocket
-6 bumGenius Elemental AIO
-2 Flip
-1 GroVia
-1 bumGenius 4.0 Snap
-1 Thirsties Duo Wrap Cover
-1 GroVia diaper pail liner
-1 GroVia wet bag (travel/diaper bag)

I change Oliver as soon as he wets (or poops) so he still goes through around 15 diapers/day. Therefore, I wash mostly every day. With so many diapers, I don't have to wash daily, but I do. It's nice because I have enough diapers that I don't have to panic if there's no time to stuff them all after they're clean.

And speaking of clean - let's take a quick minute to chat about washing. I used All Free & Clear because I read in several places that it was better than some detergents. I also read a lot of 'if you use commercial soap' followed by how much to use. Well - WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Oliver started to get a bit rashy while in cloth, which I found interesting since cloth bottoms don't usually get a rash. Immediately though, I knew it was the detergent. I talked to Diaper Junction (they rock by the way and if you cloth diaper (see how I used it as a verb there? hahaha), you must check them out) and they suggested it may be detergent build up. I washed my diapers three times on hot water with no detergent, then used Country Save. Problem solved. We've not had any issues so far (other than just acidic poop and it's obvious when that's the problem).

(While he had his rash, I made two sided wipes (flannel on one side, fleece on the other) and used water with just a tiny bit of Aveeno Baby Wash to wipe his bottom.)
We have HE machines and this is our routine:
-Cold Rinse and Spin: 18 minutes; no soap
-Hot Wash/Cold Rinse with Extra Rinse and Water Boost: 1 hour 22 minutes; 1/16 cup Country Save

(One $12 box of Country Save will last you more than 150 loads of cloth diaper washes!)

I toss the liners in the dryer on low heat and hang the diaper itself. If I need more diapers I toss them in the dryer, but I try to let them hang dry as much as possible. Because Oliver is exclusively breastfed, his poop is water soluble. When we have dirty diapers, I shake the insert out into the pail (Why do cloth diaper people call it a pail? Our 'pail' is a simple 8 gallon plastic trash can that we'll change up once we move to solid foods and have more smell), then drop the diaper itself in too. The 'pail' is lined with a wet bag with a cinch cord (that I never use b/c I wash them every day). I just toss them all (along with the bag) into the washer without rinsing and wash away. I do a tub clean for the washer every week just to prevent any yuck and we also clean the filter twice/month and so far we haven't had any problems.

I haven't had much trouble with stains; the few times I have had them I placed my inserts outside in the sun and in about an hour they were bleached and stain free. It's magical. I've since started putting any poop stained onesies out there too!

Remember how I said I was really excited to use our cloth diapers on Oliver and then he was too small for them? Well, then I got used to disposables and after using them for several weeks I was REALLY nervous about making the switch to cloth. So nervous that I decided I would only use cloth part time because it was going to be a lot of work. And he looked cute in his Pampers. And I liked that they had the yellow stripe that turned green when they were wet. BUT - now that I have cloth diapers I like and that work, I LOVE them. I love that when I change Oliver his skin is flawless. When he wears Pampers, he has red marks all over him. They go away, sure. But why are they there in the first place??? He doesn't have them at all with cloth. Hmm.

That said, I hate that cloth is bulky. However, FuzziBunz are much trimmer than most diapers and Thirsties are even trimmer than our FuzziBunz. Every now and then I'll use Pampers so we can wear an outfit that might be on it's last wear before it's time to pack it up. Overall, I'm really pleased with cloth. I'd say that we use cloth more than 90% of the time. If we're going to be out and about much of the day (especially now that it's getting warmer) I use Pampers and when we travel I use Pampers just because I don't want to dirty up someone else's washing machine.

Now I'm anxious about when he transitions to solids and I have to spray out his diapers before washing (yuck!). There is definitely a diaper sprayer in my future. And some diaper liners! (You can use these thin liner things over the inside of the diaper and just toss that with the solid poop into the toilet to flush away - it's supposed to mean that you spray the diaper out less).

Wow - this might be the longest post yet - and it's about poop.

I have a diaper rash recipe that I was planning to share, but for the sake of being able to find it, I'll post that separately. Because you can't use regular diaper rash cream with cloth, if we do have any sort of rash, I let Oliver dangle (aka go diaper free) for as long as I can and put him on a soft waterproof mat with a prefold draped over him and then use my special creme with a Pampers for a few hours. That usually does the trick. When we do have to use Pampers, I always coat his bottom with squirt Vaseline or A&D (usually Target's Up&Up brand b/c it's softer and cheaper) as rash prevention. Normally it does the trick unless it's an acidic poop and then I use the special stuff.

Bottom line:
-I love cloth. I love it for many reasons I didn't even mention due to the length of this post already!
-If you're at all considering it, find a company that offers a trial program like Jillian's Drawers or Diaper Junction.

If you've made it this far you should comment so I know you're my bestest friend! And if you want to read more, check out my friend Hope's blog about her experience/take on cloth....and see her cute baby!

Guess what?!

2011-04-25T07:14:00.001-04:00

I slept through the night! ...and not just a 5-hour night, a real 7-hour night!

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What a difference a year makes...

2011-04-24T20:35:00.000-04:00

The last twelve months have been crazy busy! We built a house, moved to a new state, planned a wedding, started new jobs, said 'I do,' got pregnant, had a baby...and somehow managed to ~~survive~~ thrive without the slightest breakdown. I love looking back at last year's April picture - even more, I love this year's...

Happy Easter!

Look ma...

2011-04-17T14:44:00.001-04:00

...no infant insert!

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Today...

2011-04-15T12:56:00.001-04:00

Outside my window…the sun is shining, I hear birds singing, the neighborhood is quiet...

I am thinking... I'm incredibly blessed...

My heart is…overflowing...

I am thankful for… my sweet, sweet Oliver...

From the front door... walks my incredible Chandler...

From the kitchen... the smell of warm, homemade bread...

I am reading…'Panda, Panda What Do You See?'...

I am hoping…that I can find a way to stretch time so I'm sure to soak up my sweet baby...

I am hearing… birds sing, a baby's quiet, sleeping hum, and snaps from onesies tumble in the dryer...

Around the house… the animals are nestled in their beds, diapers sit ready to be stuffed, the dishwasher sits ready to be emptied, the windows are open,

One of my favorite things… family...

I feel... joy.

Fuzzibunz

2011-04-13T17:06:00.001-04:00

...sweetest buns!

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Thirsties

2011-04-12T09:34:00.001-04:00

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TWO Months!

2011-04-11T15:48:00.001-04:00

At TWO months old....

-Oliver is 11lbs 14oz and 21.5 inches long

-He still wears 0-3 month in Gymboree and 3 month in Carters. There are a few 3m sizes in Carters that are still too big. I'm not sure if he will wear them since they're winter clothes and it's getting warmer, but I'm trying to put him in some of those things when the temps are in the 50s simply so he can wear them.

-We're doing a mix of Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive size 1 diapers and cloth. His bumGenius AIO/OS are still a little big. I have a diaper post coming soon!

-He gets a bath every other day or every third day depending on what we've been up to and how fussy he is. I started putting him in the bath with me and Chan will come read us stories. It's nice family time.

-He continues to nurse well and is still eating on demand.

-He wakes up around 7:30a to nurse and will take a two-ish hour nap in the morning followed by a longer 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon. Sometimes he'll combine these into one long 5 hour nap. He has started going to sleep for the night around 11p.

-After some kind suggestions, we started using Gripe water for his gas and it's made all the difference! Thanks :)

-He can follow people and objects with his eyes and he loves to look at himself in the mirror!

-Around 6 weeks he really started to coo a lot. He started with 'owww' and I heard 'gewww' earlier this week.

-He is very responsive now. When we smile at him, he smiles back - he also likes to be tickled on his face and his arm.

-A week ago I felt like he looked a little high in his car seat so after reading the manual I realized that he shouldn't have the bottom infant insert in the seat and removed it. He's such a big boy now!

-He is so much fun and is the sweetest baby! He loves to talk when he's laying down for a diaper change. He smiles a lot when he nurses and often will pull himself off to just look up and smile.

There are times when I look at him and he looks tiny and other times he looks so big. I feel like he should only be about a month old, not two months. Although he'll technically be a newborn for a few more weeks, he already looks like a 'baby' to me. Happy two months Oliver! xoxoxo

(written 4.10.11/posted 4.11.11)

DIY Nursing Pads

2011-04-09T12:51:00.000-04:00

Aren't these the cutest?

HA! Kidding.

A few weeks ago I was messaging with one of my moms...

Side note: Did you know that when you have babies, your mom's breastfeeding friends from 30 years ago become your mom too? Indeed they do. Some background... my mom was active with the local La Leche group when I was born and well, we won't get into how long she breastfed me - we'll just say that my sister needed them and leave it at that. ;) Mom was lots of help when we came home from the hospital with Rover and in the first few days I frequently called to ask her question about boobs. Because she stopped going to La Leche meetings after weaning her babes, she had forgotten some of the things I needed help with... some of her friends were still involved though and this is when I learned a few things about moms and boobs.

1) Moms who breastfed (or breastfeed) love to help others make it happen.

2) They become like your mom because you can and do call them just as often for help.

3) They are boob nazis. (Mom didn't care for this at first, but she's embraced it now.)

("Did he eat? How much? When? How long? Which boob? Tickle his feet. He needs to stay awake and eat. Your nipples will be fine. Did he poop? What color was it? Did it look seedy? He should eat again in two hours. Do you need someone to wake you up or will you set your alarm?" -Boob nazi)

... so a few weeks ago I was messaging with one of my moms because I was still very sore and the lanolin didn't seem to be helping anymore. She was telling me that some breast pads will actually keep you moist instead of dry and suggested I make my own pads. Well, she first said to hang loose, (that did help lots) then she said to make my own pads so that moisture would be sure to wick away from my skin. Hmm, maybe I could convince Smartwool to make nursing pads?!

She said her daughter, my friend Hope, had recently made some and after messaging with Hope, she agreed to send me instructions. (Thanks again Hope!!!) They were so simple! I had my mom send me some flannel and terry cloth because I knew I couldn't get to JoAnn's for a while (it's a good 30-45mins away). I whipped up four pads in about 15 minutes - including prep time.

If you're interested in making your own, Hope recently posted instructions on her blog. Definitely check it out! They're very easy and you can modify them as needed. She mentions that she made them about 4" in diameter and wishes she'd made them bigger, so I made mine a little bigger but I think I could still use a slightly bigger size so I'd say maybe starting with 5-5.5" diameter. I used a plastic cup as a stencil and then cut a little wider around it. I also didn't add as many darts because we were heading out soon and I had to hurry. Also, it's cold this time of year and I knew I'd be layering my shirts so it wouldn't matter if they didn't sit perfectly under my clothes. These actually look fine with regular shirts now that it's April and much warmer.

I used one layer of flannel on the outside and one layer of terry on the inside. If you make these, definitely be sure to pre-wash your fabrics in HOT water and dry on the hottest setting on your dryer. I recommend washing twice as I washed once and my pads still shrunk a little after I finished them.

Here's a picture that shows the size a little better and my stitches.

Now that Rover is on a pretty good schedule, I don't really use pads when I'm at home and I only wear them when we leave the house as a back up. I will often use them a few days until they are actually 'used' and need to be washed. I do advise a mesh bag for washing though since they're small.