Produce Box

I have been accused of being a produce snob. I mean, I'll eat pretty much anything... but I frequently find myself looking down my nose at our grocery-store produce and secretly wishing we would up our grocery budget enough to just buy all of it at the farmers market. I think growing up with corn and green beans and berries from my Grandpa's farm has made me leery of vegetables of dubious origin. Dubious origin meaning -- I don't know where it came from or how it got on my plate.

Canned corn freaks me out a little. It's just... too yellow, and too perfectly kerneled. Y'all, real corn doesn't look like that, I promise. I have distinct childhood memories of shedding tears over the bright yellow corn at school, and the bright green green beans in frozen kiddie meals. And it was not because I didn't like vegetables... I just knew that something wasn't right about those vegetables. No corn or green beans should be that perfect. And shiny. I mean, ew. (Before you think I'm crazy, I promise my brother and sister were in total agreement. And yes, that is sound reasoning. The three of us together are the anti-crazy, didn't you know? Don't question me on
this, ok? Just go with it.)

Anyway.

Suffice it to say, I like fresh produce. So does Mark (I have a sneaking suspicion that it was my Grandpa's green beans that convinced him to eat vegetables in the first place).

So in the interest of getting some really good quality produce, and broadening Nathan's our whole family's vegetable horizons, and making an investment in our community, we decided to buy a farm share this year. I kept hearing good things about CSA programs, so we're getting on board. Basically we're buying a "share" of a local farm, and in return we get a box of their produce every week. I'm excited to get some really fresh veggies and fruits, and to try new things I would otherwise be scared to buy because I don't know how to cook or eat them. And maybe (maybe) I'll get Nathan to eat something that doesn't resemble a carbohydrate in any way. Maybe even something (gasp!) green.

There are tons of CSA options out there -- you can buy shares that include meat, or dairy, or eggs, or just veggies and fruit, or some combination. There are even some options where you can get your share for a lower price, in exchange for some farm work (this appeals to me, for some reason... weird?)... but for now we decided to go the simplest route possible: We'll have a weekly box of fruit and veggies that they (mostly) will choose for us, and it gets delivered right to our front door.

Tummy Time

I'm still adjusting to the fact that I now have a kid who willingly does tummy time several times a day, every day. Because Nathan hat.ed. it. He must have had an inkling that he wouldn't feel like walking or crawling for a loooong time to come, because he was not even a little bit motivated to do anything that might strengthen his muscles or let him improve his gross motor skillz. He was very busy with big plans to lie flat on his back, kick his feet, and watch his fists hovering overhead. Fascinating. And tummy time didn't mesh with those plans.

But I digress.

Anneliese actually does like tummy time. So she gets a lot of it. Ironically, it's probably Nathan's presence that makes her so willing to do it.

He loves to come in her room and play with her, read to her, share his toys with her, and lie down on his tummy next to her. And she can't get enough of her big brother... she just stares at him in awe, and listens intently, as if she really does care about all the differences between his armored truck and his city bus and the noises they make and which one is going to the airport when (they're all going to the airport at some point, didn't you know? that's all trucks and vehicles do -- go to and from the airport all day, duh).Having a fun big brother like that might even make me want to get down on the floor and do a baby workout. Well, maybe not. ;-)

Another Future World Traveler in Our Ranks

I'm fairly sure that if you're pretty even in your passport, then you must be a special kind of beautiful.

Exhibit A:

Admittedly, I used a picture I already had and liked, instead of trying to take one on the spot like I did with Nathan (if you've never applied for a baby passport, you should be allowed to continue to live in blissful ignorance of the disastrous process). But still -- I don't know any other people who look this sweet in their passport pictures. Not one.

In other passport news, I finally got a new one myself... with my married name on it. And it only took seven years. In case you're curious, my passport picture is not as cute as Anneliese's. But it's not as bad as Mark's either (he perfected his crazy eyes for that particular photo shoot).

...So now we're ready to travel the world! It's been forever since we've been on a real vacation,* so we're feeling the itch again. Anyone with cool ideas (or the urge to take care of our children for a week so we can do a grownup trip), let us know.

*real vacation = airplane and passport required.

Were Space Bags Made for This?

My mom is going to see my brother in St. Croix next week, and she's bringing a bunch of stuff down for his new apartment (and also because she missed the whole travel light! memo and in general doesn't know how to leave the house without weighing herself down like a pack mule).

So for all the stuff she wanted to bring, she bought one of those as seen on tv! space bags to pack as much stuff as possible into her 62 allowed inches for checked baggage on her flight.

Want to know what she packed in it?

Two thick pillows, double bed sheets and pillow cases, a thick mattress pad, a comforter, a bed skirt, a dish drainer, a drainer pad, a hot pot, two bottles of sunscreen,* two bathroom rugs, a beach towel, a bath towel, a cotton blanket, a microfleece throw, two extra pillowcases, a T-shirt, a jar of peanut butter, a can of chili, and a can of mixed nuts.

Wait, did you catch that? A CAN OF CHILI.

Because one of them might starve this week if they don't have that American grocery-store canned chili she stuffed into a space bag and vacuum-sealed for the journey. It's necessary, no -- imperative -- for any trip to the virgin islands, didn't you know? Just the one can, but you'd better squeeze it into your checked luggage at all costs. Oh! And don't forget your hot pot! Can't go on vacation without that!

Hello random.

This is where I get my crazy.

*Sunscreen double sealed in plastic and wrapped in one of the towels in case they explode. Because that makes this whole scenario more rational. [shakes head]

Sick Weekend

Both of our children are under the weather this weekend, with something Dr. Marmie suspects might be croup. Needless to say, they're unhappy. This is what our weekend has looked like:

Not pictured are the hours between dusk and dawn while we all play magical beds. We've had kids in our bed, kids dozing in our arms in recliners and gliders, and Mark actually ended up spending most of the night in a sleeping bag on Nathan's bedroom floor.

Pray for healing and patience. And sleep.

Pipe Dream Washing Machine

I thought it was time to write a post to inform/fill in/catch you up on our family's Issue o' the Week. A couple of you have already read most of this via email (sorry about that), but... if you hadn't heard yet, earlier this week Mark and I suddenly found ourselves in the market for a new washing machine. Ours died about two hours after our living room rug was hauled out to the dumpster after another Simon + poop = poopy vomit on the rug incident... oh yeah it was a great night.

My original plan was to just switch the kids to disposable diapers for a few days/few weeks until we could get a new machine in place, and do a few loads at my neighbors' houses in the meantime. But on day one, I had Anneliese in disposables all day and it was a disaster: she had blowouts on like three outfits (since when does Anneliese poop three times in one day anyway? once again she proves herself the Queen of Bad Timing) and I was in and out of my neighbor's house all day. I'm pretty sure I was driving her nuts, since I had only originally asked to finish up the one load that was in the washer when it broke. Anyway, I realized it was easier just to use cloth diapers (which manage not to leak all over what Anneliese is wearing and sitting on) and schedule some laundry dates with friends, than do surprise loads every few hours. Because here's the thing: poop in a diaper is contained, I have a system for it, I can manage it. Poop on the car seat... not so much. So anyway I am now putting Nathan mostly in disposables, and Anneliese in disposables only if she's not due for a poop, and doing laundry every few days with friends. Yes, even with no washer I am continuing with cloth. I am That Mom.

Washing machine shopping was frustrating. I went to an appliance store (both kids in tow) recommended to me by some people at my church, but it was a big fail because the people working there didn't know very much about washing machines, despite the fact that selling washing machines is their job. I have worked in sales, and they were just... not good at sales. Not informed about their products, not really interested in what my needs were in a washer, didn't even ask for my budget, just tried to get me to buy the most expensive one with the selling point of "if there's any model that can do what you want, it's this one." Um, hello not helpful. Peace out.

They made it seem like what I was looking for (1- doing a cold soak, hot wash with cold rinse, and extra rinse -- all without having to go back into the laundry room, 2- avoiding that central agitating post like old-fashioned washers, 3- at least 4 cubic feet of space, 4- a super spinner, and 5- paying less than $800) was a pipe dream.

But they were wrong; it does exist (we found it somewhere else, needless to say), and was even well within our budget. But we found a nice high-efficiency top-loader that does almost as much stuff, for several hundred dollars less. Meet the newest member of our family:

GE Profile Energy Star Colossal Capacity High-Efficiency Washer

Yes, I know it needs a better name.

If I want to soak and wash at different temps, I do need to make one extra trip into the laundry room, but if I am ok soaking and washing at the same temp, then I can do my whole diaper load in one trip. Since my laundry room is about ten feet from my couch, I figured it wasn't worth it to spend a couple hundred more dollars just to save that one extra trip. It does have the HE energy star rating, and doesn't have the center pole agitator, so it's like a front-load option turned on its side. And it spins really hard (I might or might not have said "spins like a mother effer" when I was telling a friend about it). So that means I don't need to use the dryer much (if at all), which is the more important factor for cutting down on energy bills.

Even better news: although I had scheduled the delivery for next Saturday, they called Mark's phone and asked him to confirm delivery for this Saturday. Like, today. So... he did. Which means our washer should be here in just a few hours!

After all the effort that went into replacing our old washer, and as much time as I will be spending with our new machine (at least until the youngest is potty-trained), I think it needs a (better) name. Send me suggestions, please! (Bonus points if the word "colossal" is still included; Mark finds that bit particularly hilarious.)

Like Daddy

Nathan has spent a lot of time this week trying to be like Daddy. We've long noticed a pattern of him wanting to do whatever Mark does, but it's even more amusing when he explicitly says that he's trying to be like Daddy. Do it like Daddy has been Nathan's phrase of the week.

First he wanted to wear big shoes like Daddy. No matter that these are actually not Mark's shoes, but mine. He still had fun putting them on. Although not so much walking in them. He was exactly coordinated enough to tip over pretty much as soon as he stood up. Yeah we kind of knew that would happen. :) I think we have officially entered The World of Dress-Up. Hurrah.

Whenever we're in the car and Mark or I put our sunglasses on, Nathan asks to wear glasses too?... and then he grins the whole time he has them on. I have no idea why he thinks this is so fun. Volunteers to get him a second pair so we can have them in both cars?

On Thursday at school, Nathan's class made a "cloud" with shaving cream foam. His teachers said they weren't really expecting him to touch it or be too interested in it because normally he doesn't like to get all dirty and sticky. But then he played in it and even rubbed it on his face. He kept saying do it like Daddy and they couldn't figure out what he wanted so they tried to clean him up, and he got frustrated and went and got a piece of chalk from the easel and touched it to his face. Yup, he was trying to shave. Whoa dang Nathan, don't grow up too fast!


He has also been spending a lot of time nurturing his stuffed animals. This actually started around the time Anneliese came home (don't doubt for a second that Mark and I encouraged the heck out of it!)... this week he has been all about tucking the hippo into the bumbo seat. He makes him sit there and says things like put your bottom down, Hippo and time to read a book, Hippo. Then he hugs it and kisses it and makes sure the blanket is wrapped around him. I might be biased but it's ridiculously cute. Is it wrong that a hippo wrapped in a baby blanket is already getting my hopes up for grandkids? I can't wait to see Nathan as a Daddy. (If that's what he wants, of course, of course, but I'm still hoping it will happen.)

Water

Last year our pastor gave a great sermon on Ash Wednesday about the whole "giving stuff up for Lent" thing. I think his main point was that giving something up isn't really the point, the point is to do something. And if you give something up, then each time you go without it, in theory you think about the sacrifice of Jesus, and therefore about how you can also make a sacrifice that also helps the world (not just for your own self-improvement or whatever, although I'm not knocking that either; we can all improve, right?).... anyway Mark and I talked a lot about it, and realized that his approach to Lent was something that really resonated with both of us.

So we did some reading and thinking and praying, and decided that this year we will be drinking only water during Lent. Yes, it will be healthier for us (hello, self-improvement). Yes, it will be a fast-like sacrifice that will be a pretty constant reminder of the sacrifice we have in Jesus. But also, at our pastor's encouragement, it will do something. At Easter, we'll give the money we would have spent on sodas, wine, kool-aid, milk, etc to The Water Project.They dig wells in Africa and India so that people living in underdeveloped areas have access to clean water. Which is a basic necessity that I tend to take for granted (case in point: my bad attitude about not having a washing machine the last two days and next two weeks).

Yes, you are reading this correctly: Mark will not be drinking milk for like two months. Except maybe on Sundays, since they don't technically count as Lent. Should we let ourselves drink stuff other than water on Sundays? The jury's still out on that one.

The Glamour in Homemaking

Even though most days I feel confident in our family's decision to have me leave my job and work full-time at taking care of the kids and our home, there are still days when I feel that my work here is trite and unproductive, and I worry that society looks at me and sees someone useless. And I know, I know, that creating a happy home to parent my children is far from useless. I also know that no one told me it would be glamorous. Furthermore, I know I shouldn't care what society thinks, especially considering my family is so much happier and so much less stressed in my current home executive job position.

But these are the things that have been swimming in my brain this week:

1.) The whole SAHM circuit here in Raleigh is starting to wear me down a little. Why do I have so much trouble making mom friends around here? The ones with jobs are awesome but usually don't have time to be friends with me. Yet many of the ones who do have time (home with their kids like I am)... well, I have a hard time relating to a lot of them, honestly. I know it sounds weird but I just don't feel like I have that much in common with them. Yes, I left my job. Yes, I am breastfeeding. Yes, it reduces me to tears if my kids have to cry in their cribs. Yes, I put my kids in cloth diapers. But no, you absolutely may not call me a crunchy mama. I find myself leaning more and more on a handful of online friends (both friends in real life who live far away, and friends I only know through the internet... yes, I have friends I know only through the internet and seeing as it's now 2010, that's not creepy, I promise) as my support system. These are moms who don't look down their nose at me for doing "crazy" things like vaccinating my kids or shopping at wal-mart or (gasp!) getting an epidural to help manage pain during my (gasp!) hospital births -- even if those friends made different decisions themselves. I really need some people in Raleigh I can relate to as well. My friends here in town seem much more career-oriented than I am... which is great, except for that whole career thing getting in the way of the hours I want to hang out. :) That, or some of you online buddies need to high-tail your relocation to the Triangle, mmmkay? You know who you are.

2.) I am having milk supply issues. For the first tme in almost three years, I am making too little, instead of too much. I'm assuming this has something to do with Anneliese now drinking a bottle a day, and the pump (which I use to replace any milk she drinks, so my body gets the memo about that meal) just isn't stimulating milk production in the same way her mouth would. Fortunately I have a freezer full of milk, so it's not like I'm going to run out or anything (see exhibit A, to the right), but I don't like it when she latches on and off and can't get all she wants and gets frustrated. Which happens pretty much every day, by evening time. I went to Whole Foods yesterday and found some tea with fenugreek which should help (according to some of the scariest sites I have ever seen on the internet... for all the praises I can sing about my own great online friends, there is also a very large population of crazymommies out there and they're mostly lurking in forums on breastfeeding and how to do diaper laundry, turning simple questions into political platforms... consider yourself warned). Anyway I had to get some tea and mach schnell out of the store before they thought I was one of Them. :)

3.) Nathan has his Valentine's Day party at school last week when we were out of town, so today they sent us home with a bag of cards and goodies from his classmates. In that bag was a blow-pop. A blow-pop. In case you forgot, those have gum at the center. Can two-year-olds chew gum now? Is that a massively inappropriate treat for a toddler, or do I live under some kind of naive-parent rock? And these didn't come from some ill-informed-but-well-meaning loved one, they came from the parents of another two-year-old. I'm not sure what to make of this.

4.) Our neighbors sold one of their cars last week and Nathan has been very concerned about where it went. He asks about it every day. Drew's car? Drew's car went to work. Drew's car is at the ressah-dront (restaurant, in case you're curious). Drew's car is all gone. Mommy, where'd it go? It's kind of sweet, except I know he's not nearly that concerned when *I* am away.

5.) I did some good shopping today. Spent lots of time with men's dress shirts, then got a bunch of kids' clothes (12 things for $40 - yes, I am a rock star, thank you for asking) and a new purse for myself. When I got home I traded a gift card for a Rumparooz diaper, and also traded for another Goodmama diaper. Even though it sounds trite and banal, shopping for bum fluff actually always makes me happy. These diapers are still new and exciting for me, as dorky as that sounds. :)

And there you have it: a week's thoughts and worries from the exciting-in-the-most-mundane-way-possible world of a home executive. From another perspective, if these are the biggest things weighing on my mind right now, then my life is pretty ok.

Pretty. Darned. Ok.

Our Future (NotSoMuch) Olympian

We have had the Olympics broadcasting into our living room pretty much constantly all weekend. Oh yeah we're exercising vicariously through those athletes, you'd better believe it.

Nathan is having fun watching the events... go by skis!... look at all the snow!... go by skates!... he's goin' fast!... she's goin' downhill! and so on. His favorites seem to be the skiing and the speed-skating.

On Saturday afternoon he started running circles around the den, pumping his arm up and down. We couldn't quite figure out what he was doing, but then he said did you skate? and we realized that he was pretending to speed-skate through our living room. Which made us both burst out laughing because it's the most hilarious thing that has happened in our house in a long time:

(click here if you can't see the embedded video below)

This might be the most athletic thing he ever does with his (lack of) motor skills.

The Dutch are particularly crazy for speed skating, in case you hadn't noticed. (Don't believe me? Read this and watch this or just turn on any speed skating event and watch for the orange and the marching bands.) So this must be Nathan's way of rediscovering his heritage. I'm sure his Opa and his Tante Digna and his Oom Maarten are very proud right now. :)

Oreos in Almond Bark

This whole cooking with Nathan thing is supposed to be getting him to branch out and be interested in more types of foods. In an ideal situation, more types of healthy foods.

But I saw this idea at Blissfully Domestic (yes, I am domestic enough to read that site, thankyouverymuch) and it looked fun and simple, and even though he's already pretty good about trying foods from the "cookies and sweets" food group, I decided to give it a go.

Y'all, this is was really good idea.

Oreos in Almond Bark
- almond bark
- oreos
- wax paper
- sprinkles or food coloring, if you want

1.) Melt the almond bark. If you're dividing it and doing a couple of different colors, estimate about 2 squares of bark per 12 cookies.

2.) Add food coloring. Light colors work best because apparently the more food coloring you add, the less dippable the bark gets. Skip the red on this one; pink works better.

3.) Dip the oreos, and set on wax paper to cool. If you're adding sprinkles, add them before the bark gets hard (duh).

I made these for our bell choir to enjoy as a valentine treat between church services this morning. I did some pink ones, some white with rainbow sprinkles, and some white with hagelslag, since that's what we had in the house.

Nathan's favorite parts:
- stirring the bark and watching it turn pink
- sprinkling dumping sprinkles on top of the cookies
(warning... toddler + sprinkles = hot mess)
- dipping the cookies in the bark
(remember he is a fan of dipping anything in anything else)
- eating the finished product
- licking the bark spatula
- so yeah he pretty much loved all of it...

This is definitely toddler-friendly "baking" at its finest -- no measuring, no ovens... and lots of stirring and dipping!

(Bonus: it makes dads happy too! Especially when you let them eat the actual cookies and not just look at a picture of them, which I was sorely tempted to do.)

Clearly I deserve some sort of award in food photography, don't you think?

Happy Valentine's Day!

My Favorite Things at Four Months

Anneliese is four months old today!

That's like, almost six months. Which is almost one. Which is almost a toddler. How is she growing up so fast??? But I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Here are some of my favorite things about Anneliese right now:

1.) Her fuzzy head. Sure, she looks bald. But if you get really (really really) close, you can see that she actually has a little bit of fuzz going on, and it feels so soft. I love rubbing her little fuzzy baldness while she's nursing. And Mark loves it when he hugs her and she rubs her head up under his chin. So sweet. :)

2.) Her cloth diapers. It's been exactly a month since we started, and it's going really well. Mostly I am loving knowing I don't need to buy diapers anymore, and I'm loving how our grocery budget has been adjusted downward accordingly.

3.) Her bottles. Yep, that's right -- she's finally taking bottles better. We decided a few weeks ago that we needed to try and give her one every day so she stays in practice. And it took about ten days before she would take it without fussing, but she's doing much better with them now. I won't say she takes it well, but she takes it. Which is huge progress compared to where she was a month ago. And even though it's a pain to schedule a bottle feeding every day, it's worth it to me to know I can rely on her to eat when I'm not around. It's really important for my sanity.

4.) Her dark eyes. It's true, I still can't get enough of that deep blue-gray, and I'm trying to memorize the color since it's already getting lighter and lighter by the week. I love how her eyes get all wide when she looks serious or pensive, which is most of the day. And I love even more how they shine when she grins!

Other things Anneliese has been up to this month:
- still a thumb addict; still the left thumb, always
- rolling easily from front to back, and occasionally from back to front
- reaching for (and grabbing!) toys on her car seat and bouncy seat
- making lots more cooing (and growling!) noises
- lots of giggling
- still sleeping great -- about 13 hours at night, plus three naps
- loving tummy time (strange but true)
- sitting (and almost jumping) in her jumperoo
- growing big!... haven't had her checkup yet so I don't know exactly how big, but she's in mostly 6-9m clothes already!

Happy four months, little lady! We love you!

Highlights from the Queen City

We've been having a busy but fun week on our road trip. Our home base has been my mom's house in Huntersville, but we've actually been all over the Charlotte area and beyond...

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I took Nathan and Anneliese to get some pictures made together (for the first time). The shoot itself was sort of a nightmare; it might be better attempted when they're a little older and Anneliese can sit up on her own. But I did get some free prints out of the frustration and with a price tag of free, I am pretty pleased with how they came out. I really love how happy these two make each other. Seeing them enjoying each other gives me a kind of giddy-mommy feeling. :)

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I got my hair cut and highlighted. I briefly considered going brunette but then chickened out. Poll: should I go darker this fall?

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I went with my sister and her bff to look at wedding dresses. Which, because Ashley is Ashley, meant nothing too bridal or wedding-y. She found one she liked but didn't want to spend the money on, so we walked away without a dress... but still we had fun laughing together and it made me really excited about her upcoming nuptials.

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We got to visit with the Mauneys yesterday. Betsy and I decided that we should take our husbands, daughters, and sons on a lunch date. So... we did. The food was great and the company was even better. :)

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Mark went to the Clemson basketball game with a friend on Wednesday night (and had great seats -- pictures here), so I rode along with him as far as Spartanburg (yes, we took a road trip from our road trip) to see Kelley in the hospital, where she has been in an observation unit while waiting to deliver her twin boys. We didn't manage to take any pictures together, but here is Kelley, as pregnant as she ever got with her babies. And I had quite the adventure leaving the hospital, when a power outage in the neighborhood meant that a bunch of elevators in the hospital were out of commission. I had to abandon my stroller, do a bunch of stairs with Anneliese in her car seat, then leave the car seat in the car, put Anneliese in the bjorn, and go back for the stroller! In the dark. In the cold and wind. With a screaming (barefooted) baby. At 10pm. Ahhh, good times, good times. But it's funny now, and all that pales in comparison to the fact that her babies are now here -- she delivered today! Happy Birthday Rhys and Owen!!

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And in other baby news, Mark and Anneliese and I got to meet our new nephew Jeb this morning! It was really fun to see Emily as a mom, and to see Anneliese with her little cousin. We decided to let Nathan miss this first visit and keep his out-of-town germs away from the newest baby, although Anneliese might have smeared them all over Jeb anyway. But when all three of them get together, we decided it will probably be a complete free-for-all with the cameras. In the meantime, here's just one of Anneliese and Jeb getting to know each other.

If you want more (Oma), feel free to click on Emily with both babies, below. :)

by mgoetts

Pink Day

Today was pink day in Nathan's class at school. Everyone wore something pink, they played with pink play-dough, they had a pink snack, and drew pink pictures. They'll do a different color each day for a month. I'm pretty sure that would be a darn cool way to teach colors to these kids... if they didn't already know their colors. Which they do. But no matter -- it gives them something to talk to each other about, and I guess any interaction at this age is helping their social skills.

Just uploaded this pic and noticed he's somewhat desperate for a haircut...

So Nathan borrowed one of Anneliese's (future) shirts to wear to school today. And then wanted to wear it all day. Which bodes well for a future of sharing things with his sister, don't you think?

But when I was picking him up, I overheard two parents talking about how they wouldn't want their sons to wear pink, so they hadn't participated. Why does that annoy me so much? Nathan loved wearing Anneliese's shirt, and he was very excited to tell me about Ben's pink shirt too!, and Kristian's pink shirt too!, and Sasha's pink shirt too! Ugh, those people weren't making their kids more manly or something, they were just being insecure jerks whose kids got left out of something that could have been really fun.

Anyway.

When we got to Huntersville (where we are for the week) my mom didn't love the pink on him either, but she bit her tongue at first "in case he's a budding metrosexual." No, I am not kidding. How awesome is my mom?? :)

Anneliese let us know how she felt about Nathan borrowing her shirt for Pink Day by spilling* all over another pink shirt. Nice, huh?

No, those are not *supposed* to be capris. Again with the giant baby. :)

Happy Pink Day!

*spilling = Goettsch lingy-loo for spitting up. Thanks for the increase in our family's lexicon, Nathan.

Two Fluffy Bums

Cloth diapering update, for those of you who are hanging on the edges of your seats:

1.) With 15 diapers in my stash, it turns out I still couldn't quite make it two days between washings. But since Nathan uses fewer diapers than Anneliese, I do have just enough to cloth diaper both kids full-time... as long as I do laundry every day. So... both kids are now in cloth. Yep, that makes two fluffy bums in our house these days. And no, I did not order any extra diapers in boyish colors for Nathan -- we just took a few from Anneliese's stash and (un)snapped them to his size. And no, he's not using all the blue ones. I let him pick, and he went with a light blue one, an orange one, a dark green and a yellow. And yes, it would have been fine with me (and yes, Mark too) if he had chosen pink. 2.) About ten minutes after I put Nathan in his first cloth diaper, he came and told me it was wet. He told me his diaper was wet. I'm pretty sure that's step one towards potty training, folks. I'm thinking we're onto something here. Never mind that he hasn't done it since. :)

3.) My main hesitation with starting Nathan in cloth was total intimidation by his toddler poops. But it really hasn't been that bad. (Even in a week with lots of blueberry poops. And you know blueberry poops are the worst of all the toddler poops.) Don't get me wrong, I am definitely ready for my new diaper sprayer to be installed so I can just rinse into the toilet with ease... but in the meantime it's still very manageable using just tp or a wipe or something. Which gives me confidence about keeping him in cloth when we're on the road without a sprayer and the other conveniences of our system at home (this week will be a test! wish us luck). Bonus: he loves taking his dirty diaper into the bathroom and flushing his poop. I think it might be making him a little less scared of the toilet. If nothing else, it's reinforcing the idea that poop goes in the potty.

4.) Nathan is still sleeping in disposables, since he hasn't been doing so well at night and we want to wait until that gets settled out before switching up his nighttime routine. And he is still wearing disposables to school as well. Although, since they don't really ever have to change diapers except for poops (it's only three hours), I did send him to school once in a cloth diaper since I knew he had already pooped that morning. And his teachers thought it was super-cute -- they thought maybe he was wearing underwear when they saw the green peeking out from his jeans, so they checked out the situation and were pretty impressed at how far cloth diapers have come in the last fifteen years.5.) I wanted a few diapers for Anneliese's diaper bag (which I like to leave packed pretty much all the time, so it's ready to go when I am). I wanted enough for 2 or 3 changes, but I didn't want to spend the money (or space) on 2 or 3 extra BumGenius diapers if they're going to live in a backpack most of the time. So I decided on the gro-baby system for the diaper bag. (That's what she's wearing in the picture above.) These are like a nicer version of the flip diapers that I trialed earlier. It has a cover that closes with really soft velcro, and inserts that snap in and out (so they stay in place really well!)... The good part is I don't need to change the cover, just the inserts (unless she poops). I don't think I would want this system all the time, but for a compact alternative, it works great for an on-the-go diaper. And the even better part is I traded Target store credit for a secondhand one from Merritt. Yay for having friends to trade with! And technically the addition of the gro-baby brought my stash to 16 (plus 2 extra inserts for 2 extra changes).

6.) The owner of Diaper Junction has been so awesome and so helpful and I am so in favor of the way they do their test drive program (which is way better than other companies I looked into) that I decided to be an affiliate for her store. That means I am officially sending business their way. So if you need supplies or want to do a test drive on cloth diapers, you should totally link to them from here. You'll be giving your business to a great family-run company in Virginia, and making me look good in the process. :) Also she gave me a discount code (AFL550) that I can give to as many people as I want (one use per person) for $5 off a $50 purchase. (Or you can spend $75 and get free shipping, and 10% off your entire purchase by joining their mailing list, but still link to them from here, mmmkay?)

7.) Anneliese has not had one single blowout or explosive poop since we switched to cloth. That's right, zero poop on the clothes. That's a bonus I was hopeful about but didn't want to bank on, and now I am frankly in some sort of strange and wonderful new world where all poop is contained in the diapers. It's like... a blissful poop nirvana.

8.) With one of my recent orders, I got some free cloth wipes. They're like double-layered washcloths with a jersey material on one side and a fleece material on the other. They are so much nicer than the ones I made from a cut-up receiving blanket, which are now at the very bottom of my stack. (Those do work fine, but when they fray in the wash the little strings get stuck in the diaper velcro, which is kind of annoying.) The "real" cloth wipes are something I would never have bought, but since I have them I have to admit I really do like them much better.

9.) Mark seems totally on board about the whole cloth diaper thing now. He was apprehensive at first, but now that we've been able to reduce our monthly grocery budget pretty substantially (no longer buying diapers or wipes), and now that he trusts that I really can stay on top of the laundry (I needed to learn that too!), he agrees that it's working out great. His favorite part? Not taking out stinky trash from the kids' rooms every day!

10.) I had to know what all the hype was about with Goodmama diapers -- seriously there is a black market for these things, apparently. So I found a secondhand one and bought it. And let me tell you... I totally understand the hype. I wouldn't want a whole stash of these, since they're pretty pricey to buy new (and sometimes even used!)... but man, is this diaper nice. It combines a lot of my favorite things from other diapers: the user-friendliness of an all-in-one, an insert that snaps in, and the adjustability of a one-size diaper. But most of all, this thing is posh. It is so incredibly soft -- the insides are bamboo, which is really squishy... and then it's lined with velour. Velour. Anneliese is living in the butt of luxury when she's wearing this thing. Click that picture below to make it bigger and you'll see the plush softness I'm talking about. I almost feel bad that she poops on it. And my own butt might or might not be somewhat jealous. The only thing I don't love is that it closes with snaps instead of velcro. But there are a ton of snap settings so it's still really easy to get a good fit. And it's very trim in the back, as you can see by the lack of "back" in the picture above. :)

So the goodmama brings my stash to 17, which is enough to do laundry every other day with Anneliese... but seeing as we're now saving money by using them on Nathan as well, I'm willing to keep doing laundry more often and keep him in cloth, in the hopes that this will get him potty-trained sooner. (Fingers crossed.)Bonus points for anyone who is still reading this post. Especially considering the number of times I used the word poop.

Vehicle Deja Vu

Nathan loves to line up his cars and talk about them. Wait, he's been known to do this before, right? I'll not make you listen to the list again, so here's the video thumbnail instead of a whole new video. :)

Clearly some things never change around here. Yet, it's still possible to find this amusing.

(Also, that whole put-everything-in-a-straight-line thing? He gets the type-A from both of us, but he got that particular compulsion from Mark. He's about two months from lining them up in color order. I can see it coming.)

Anneliese's Theme "Color"

In Nathan's infancy, I was really attracted to brown clothes and brown things for his room. (I still kind of am.) So many brown things caught my eye that I started thinking of brown as some sort of theme color for Nathan himself. Is that weird? (I have heard other moms say there are certain colors they associate with each of their children, so even if it's weird, I know I'm not alone.)

So I have been waiting and watching for a pattern to emerge in the things I'm drawn to for Anneliese. At first I was thinking yellow, or maybe a darker pink (oh how I love those two colors together!)... but then I started getting excited about some of her purple things... and even navy blue, which reminds me of her dark eyes, and turquise, which makes her eyes stand out. So basically she's almost four months old and she doesn't have a theme color yet.

[Aside: When you're not gainfully employed and you're at home all day child-rearing, things like (gasp!) my child doesn't have a theme color! can consume a lot of your thinking. Take my word for it. Oh yeah my life is glamorous.]

But I did notice one pattern emerging. Not a color, but... elephants. That's right, elephants.

Because why wouldn't a large, mostly bald, somewhat dirty, trumpeting, and very cute pachyderm remind me of my child? I mean, it sounds and awful lot like Anneliese, if we're being honest.

I think maybe the pattern started with the oh-so-pretty elephant lamp I got at my baby shower, which has always been one of my favorite parts of Anneliese's room. And she has a ton of clothes and PJs with elephants too. Most of them were gifts, several were hand-me-downs, and a couple of things I bought myself (like her Indian tunic top, which came from the glamorous South Asian region known as Baby Gap).

So I have therefore decided, in the absence of a real color pattern, that her theme "color" is probably going to be a nice shade of elephant.

Three Crying Beasts

I am not normally much of a conspiracy theorist, but I am pretty sure that my children have worked out a schedule to never let me sleep in again. Remember a month ago when Anneliese would sleep until like 9 and Nathan would wake up and play in his room for hours and hours before he needed us? Remember that? Yeah, that's long gone. I think what happened is that Nathan and Anneliese put their heads together and managed to sync up their schedules so that between the hours of 5 and 7am, at least one of them is always upset. For the last week, they have been alternating who gets up at 5am each day. Seriously.

Yesterday Mark got up at 4-something in the morning for work, and left the house at 5:15 (he had parked his car out near a main road the day before since we figured driving on snow in the middle of the day would be way easier than driving on the next morning's ice in the pitch darkness... but that means he had to walk quite a ways to his car at 5am... which just proves that clearly he will do anything to provide for his family, so it's kind of hot in a martyr-ish icy kind of way... but I digress) and about 30 seconds after he closed the door, when I was almost back to sleep, Anneliese started fussing. I turned the monitor down for 10 minutes (DO NOT JUDGE ME) in the hopes that she would settle herself down and save me from having to wake all the way back up and listen to her scream, but... no dice.

So I went down to get her, changed her, and brought her back upstairs since I thought she might eat and then doze off with me in bed (and in doing so, keep all the loud chaos upstairs and maybe let Nathan keep sleeping). Um, hahaha. Not so much.

But she did finally fall back asleep at like 6:15, immediately before Nathan woke up. (Because they have their timing worked out that well. Impressive huh?) And he didn't wake up talking about trucks or snow, but crying. Not the kind of crying that you can tune out for a few minutes while he settles himself back down, but the kind of crying that you have to attend to. Mommy hold you, want Mommy crying. At least he was asking for me instead of Mark and I'm not one to ignore that. :)

But anyway I went down to get him and of course as soon as I moved an inch of my body away from my now-sleeping daughter, she woke right back up. Ugh. So I thought while everyone was awake, I might as well just bring the dogs down and feed them and get that whole ruckus out of the way... so that maybe after that, we could all get back in bed and sleep in after all. For some reason, I absolutely refused to give up on the idea of more sleep. I just couldn't let it go.

So I put Anneliese in her crib and let her start working on that back-to-sleep thing, and I got this optimistic feeling when I put her down and the thumb went straight into her mouth with no tears or fussing. But... you know where this is going, right?

So Nathan is in his room, still crying. And I was patiently (or not so much) waiting for the pups to find the perfect place to make yellow snow, so I could close the house back up and get warm again. But Simon was in the backyard and would not come upstairs. He was just standing at the bottom of the deck looking timid and unsure on the snow. Finally I got a little snippity and yelled at him. Being a good mom and all. So he came up the icy deck stairs, legs splaying all over the place on the ice, and wouldn't you know one foot slipped off the back of the step and he was stuck.

I should say now that Simon is kind of a baby and his cry is so loud. It sounds like someone is torturing him. Are you wondering if it woke Anneliese up? Because of course it did. HE WAS HOWLING.

Of course I had bare feet, and I couldn't go out in the snow and rescue him like that. So I had to run through the house to find some shoes, and at that point *I* started crying because I was just so tired and drained (getting Nathan to sleep the night before hadn't been an easy task either).

So at that point I had a toddler in one room crying for me, a baby in a another room screaming from exhaustion and frustration, and a puppy outside howling because he is stuck in -- quite literally in -- the deck, and in case you're keeping count, that's three beasts crying at once... and one exhausted mommy sobbing right along with them. And this was all before 7am.

But the good news is that Simon is fine, I was able to get him out of the deck and he isn't broken or anything. Anneliese did go right back to sleep once the chaos stopped. (And no neighbors came over the strangle me or anything.) And a few minutes of snuggling helped Nathan feel better (and who am I kidding? I hate it when he feels bad but I love that it makes him want to snuggle with me... again DON'T JUDGE ME). And Simon slept the rest of the afternoon away, putting on his pitiful face in order to get a sympathy pat whenever I walked by. Which totally worked.

And Mark and I had an awesome date last night, so even though my day had a rough start, it ended up pretty darned good.