Wordless Wednesday: First Longies, Finished At Last!

They need to be washed, lanolized and blocked and then I can get some action shots of Ella wearing them. I learned so much making these, so experienced knitters please don't cringe at my flaws! Oh, and this is wool from Beemer Knits. So pretty!

*Edited to add action shots! I couldn't wait to see how they fit, so I put them on her before I washed them. ADORABLE!*

Repeat this a dozen times a day...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Gotta love the victory dance at the top! :)

Ella Roo, 8 Months Old

Time is just whipping on by and my little stinker is already 8 months old now. She is such a sweet baby, so smiley and good natured. She wakes up happy, puts up with her brothers' noise and doesn't mind going with the flow.

She is knee-deep in seperation anxiety, but is okay if she can see mama. It's hard not to laugh when she bursts into tears just because I walk away to go get a drink. I try to keep her happy and cart her along with me where ever I go.

She is just loving feeding her self! I can't express how well Baby Led Weaning has worked for us. I am so glad I am not fighting to get a spoonful of runny, sloppy baby food in her mouth. I'm not worrying if she didn't eat x amount of said sloppy food. I'm glad that I don't have to stress out because we don't have a certain baby food on hand for her. She eats what we eat, as long as it is healthy for her. No nuts/milk/eggs/honey yet, not til after 1 year old or later on most of those. She's tried a little yogurt, but she wrinkled her nose at it. I have a cute video of her eating asparagus to post when I can get it loaded on my computer.

Eleanor is quite the acrobatic breastfeeder. And going through the distracted nurser stage. Mama is not allowed to talk when Ella Roo is nursing or she will pop off and give me the stink eye. She is easily distracted by her brothers or any other interesting noises in the room. Luckily she has been going easy on the biting while nursing, she quickly learned that mommy doesn't like that! She still has just two teeth, but those little toothers can hurt.

She is getting very mobile. She can army crawl, twist, turn and scoot to where she wants to go. She has started figuring out hands-knees crawling and I think will be speed crawling within the next month. She is trying to pull herself up to things, but then takes an abrupt fall over when she wants down. So she has officially given herself several noggin bruises.

I took her to get photos done to mail out in Easter cards. Unfotunately I was running about a week behind so they won't get out before Easter. Ella wore a knit bonnet and sweater set that was made for my aunt when she was a baby (some 60+ years ago.) Ella was a wonderful little model and had many cute photos for me to choose from. So, I will end this post with a few favorites from her session.

Too funny- The Doobie Diaper!

Ok, ok, so yes cloth diapering is good for babies and good for the environment. But is also fun. Collecting cute diapers to use makes the task of cleaning bottoms entertaining. In the CD community there is always a "hot new diaper" that everyone wants to get and try. This year it has been Goodmama fitted diapers. I even admit to owning a few that I bought a much lower price second hand.

Anyway, today I was reading along about the latest GM buzz and had to LOL about an apparent oopsie they made! They released a diaper in a fabric they called SK8 4VR (skate forever) which they intended to be a hip, boy-ish look like this:


Unfortunately, they didn't look too closely at the whole bolt of fabric and missed out on other details of the design! It is sprinkled with drug images: joints and cocaine references (the eight ball and razor blade.) Just what every hip baby wants to wear! You can buy the rare Doobie Dipe here! $95.00!


When asked about the diaper, the company representative said:

When we purchased this fabric, we did not know those were drug-related images. To be perfectly honest, none of us here at goodmama are familiar with drug symbolism. To us, the supposed marijuana image looked like a pool stick, which went in hand with what we thought was just a normal 8 ball. We were highly embarrassed to discover this fabric had not-so-innocent representations. We were notified by customers of our gaffe, and have since offered a full refund no questions asked on these diapers. Trust me when I say we do not in any way support the drug industry. Some people however do not want to return them and find them a subject of intense humor at our expense :/ You can be sure that from here on out we are being extra careful about the fabrics we select. We stopped production on this particular fabric, but unfortunately we cannot force everyone to return the diaper. Many have, but as you can see on hyenacart, not everyone felt that returning it for a refund would be nearly as fun as showing off our mistake.

Oh man, I can't imagine a company that designs clothing for infants making such a huge error. This was really one of the funniest things I've seen in awhile.

Pictures of the Week

For some reason, my camera is no longer reading the USB cord so I haven't been able to upload pics at home. Doug has had the joy of ferrying the memory card back in forth to the office and emailing me my photos. So, here's this week's batch of pics!

It began with Sean, passed out on the living room floor on Puke Monday.

Tuesday he was a bit better, so we had a little O.T. time involving Mommy's lifeblood coffee and some noodles. Sean was not interested in letting Ella work on her fine motor skills, so we also got to work on S.T. as he repeated "NO, Ella!"


Wednesday, I got some long-awaited fluffy mail. Custom knit shorties for Ella Bean to wear this summer. Unfortunately, I think I sized up way too big as they make excellent capri pants on her.


Sean is always trying to put on her yummy soft woolies, so he was so happy that we finally have ones that fit him. LOL

Thursday, I finished up Sean's school carnival project. The theme is Under the Sea; Doug and I made the backdrop for the putt putt game. That's a whole lotta whale!

Today I sent Sean to school and Doug delivered the whale, only to find out that due to this freak spring snow storm we are having that the carnival has been postponed until April. Oh well, now we can't procrastinate any longer. Aidan's school called and said they were closing at 1:00 today, so we are all staying tucked indoors. Crazy weather!

Picture Tag!

Jennifer tagged me and I am tagging Sarah at RumTum Crafts because she hasn't blogged since Valentine's Day. Hee hee!

I'm supposed to post the 4th photo in my 4th folder and write a description of it. My forth folder is "Diapers" where I hord pics of our cds and action shots for future re-sell use.

Here is Ella Roo sporting a Wiggle Worm Bottoms cover and her momma made babylegs. Baby got back! ;)

Ella hearts Nana!

The Singer Sessions; Vol II: A Special Gift for a Special Baby

I had a extra motivation for practicing my sewing this week. A friend and fellow La Leche League member gave birth on New Year's Day to her son, Micah. Amy had told me during her pregnancy that she was interested in trying prefold cloth diapers with her new baby. In the past she had used pocket diapers or fitted diapers. I mentioned that I would hold on the Ella's as she outgrew them to pass them along. Amy also asked if I knew someone that would dye them, as she loves bright colors.

A seed was planted in my head and I was happy to see it grow into a finished project tonight.

Last week, I dyed the diapers and a baby t-shirt using Dylon permanent dyes. After washing them several times to make sure the excess dye was washed out, I started embellishing them. I used the Freezer Paper Stencil process to paint a hot air balloon on the shirt, spelling out Micah's name. Unfortunately one of my paint colors is very close to the shirt color so the contrast isn't that great on one letter. Doug teased me that it reads "Mich" instead of "Micah." Hopefully it doesn't look that bad in person!

When shopping for fabric for the prefolds, I knew that I wanted something very colorful and hopefully in rainbow motif without being girly. I was so happy to find the hot air balloon fabric! Just right for Micah.

See, Micah is known in pregnancy and birth loss groups as a Rainbow Child.

A rainbow represents promise and hope. In Genesis, the story of Noah and a flood that destroyed the earth is described. It rained for 40 days and nights and only Noah and his family were saved because of their obedience the God. They listened and tried to warn others to no avail. Well, when it was all over and the water began to recede a rainbow appeared in the sky as God's promise to never destroy the earth by flood again. It gave them hope that they were safe and that the future would be bright in a sense.

Essentially the "promise" would be a living child and hope that it can and will happen for all of those that want it so badly.

Micah is the beautiful rainbow following his sister's death. Emily was such a precious little girl, so loved and adored by her family. I remember Amy bringing newborn Emily to meetings. Her passing was so sad for everyone. I hope Micah brings hope, healing and happiness to his family.

I should see Amy and Micah tomorrow night at our LLL meeting and give her my colorful gift. I hope she likes it!

Kickin' it Old School

Looking adorable in her "old school" prefold with 1981 style rainbows.

Blueberry Models

My favorite pocket diaper company, Blueberry Diapers, is having a contest! The prize is a $25 gift certificate to their store, so of course I had to enter. Luckily, they let you enter as many photos as you want and each one that the choose gets a gift certificate. It would be so fun if one of my photos won! Here's what I sent:








They look pretty darn cute to me and how cool would it be to see a cutie with Down syndrome selling dipes!

Keeping Warm and Welcoming Santa

Our weather has taken a turn into winter this week. I discovered on Friday, thanks to the 23 degree weather, that Sean has outgrown his winter coat from last year. I also discovered that we apparently skipped the 3T size for Aidan and went right to 4T, which of course is way too big for Sean. Looks like I will get to do a little coat shopping this week.

Saturday was the city's Christmas Parade, so I was determined to get everyone bundled up to go watch it. The boys wore jeans, long sleeve shirts & sweatshirts under coats, and hats. Ella was dressed in layers, tucked into the Moby Wrap, under as much of my coat as I could stretch around her and I put a blanket on top of her for good measure. It was about 40 degrees out when the parade started, not too bad I thought. Well, apparently the kids didn't think the parade was worth the cold, so after Aidan filled my pocket up with candy and Santa went by, they decided we should leave. Managed to take a few photos before we wimped out.











Ella's obviously been enjoying her wool longies lately.


Aidan and I decided to warm up the house by baking cookies yesterday. He's a singing baker, instead of a singing waiter....


A few updates:

I got a letter excusing me from jury duty!

I never did hear from the original winner of my book giveaway, so if Terri of Believing in Miracles still needs a copy, I'd like to send it to you! Email me, click on my profile and it's listed on that page.

A Lump of Things

Just some random things to blog about today.

First, My friend Mandi brought Eleanor's longies over this week and I just adore them! They are so soft and sweet. Ella wore them one day, then I left them on the changing table. Yesterday, Sean started calling for me and I went to find him and HE was wearing them! OMG, it was too funny! Of course, thankfully he couldn't get up past his thighs so they didn't get all stretched out. I think they look cuter on Ella.


Here's the cute kitty hat that Mandi made!


Also, a couple of weeks ago, the priest from our church emailed me and asked if he could run my Sean the Episcopalian post in the church newsletter. Just got a copy of it in the mail a couple days ago and it was the headline story! He also included a photo from Eleanor's baptism, so we are so very famous now.

I want to thank everyone that has been entering my blog give away! It so cool to see new names in my comments, especially our foreign visitors. I also added a sitemeter so I can check out how people find my blog. It's been so funny to see a few of the google searches! One was a search for "hog gene" that led to this post. Another one wanted to find german chocolate advent calenders and landed here. And another lucky reader found this gem while searching for the Kitty Cat song.

Have a great day!

Woolies coming soon!

My friend Mandi just sent me a pic of Ella's first pair of woolies! I'm so excited to get these! I bought the yarn a year ago and asked my mom to make Sean a pair of woolies, but she never found a pattern she liked. Along comes Mandi and her awesome needle skillz! Since she had extra yarn, she whipped up a hat, too. Woo hoo!!

Guitar Hero

I wanna ROCK!


Daddy taught me how to play a mean air guitar.


Thank ya. Thank ya very much.


Do us a favor, momma. Don't sing.


That's all folks. Show's over.

Work that Bubble Butt!

So stinkin cute! She's 7 weeks old today!

BTW, the red mark on her eyelid is not a scratch and is not bleeding. It showed up when she was 2 weeks old and hasn't disappeared. Might be a birth mark? I dunno. I plan on asking her Ped about it at our next appt.

The OMG Grossest Post Ever....

aka "Why Cloth Diapers Rock and Sposies Suck" post.

So last night I had one of the nastiest experiences of my mothering life. Doug was working on the deck (as usual) and I popped outside for a few minutes to offer my opinions. Sean was watching Ice Age for the millionth time and Aidan was probably bothering him or on the computer.

As I open the door to come in, Aidan is rushing towards me, with his friend T that stopped by to play, and says "Seanie's poopy and he took his diaper off! He's on the stairs."

"Oh no!" says I, as I rush to find out where Mr Poopy is. What I encountered is a nightmare that stops me in my tracks. Sean has half way up the stairs, naked, with poop covered hands, feet and belly. I carefully made my way up to him, careful not to step in the trail leading to him, and carry him at arm's length to the upstairs tub. Sean, so proud, says "Uh oh! Poo Poo?"

Oh yes, uh oh is right! I stand him in the tub and rinse/scrub the mess off of him. Then I scrub out the tub & fill it with clean soapy bath water. This boy's gonna need some soak time to get the stink off.

Meanwhile, I fill up a bucket with Pine Sol and water, grab a rag and start scrubbing the trail to where I found him. I couldn't tell if he took it off upstairs then went down or downstairs then went up. Nevertheless, every stair got a scrubbing. Once I got to the mid staircase landing I saw the horrible truth. There lie the disposable diaper.

But wait! Where's the poo? It had skid marks but no pile? I carried it up to the trash, changed the water and went back for more. As I was descending the stairs I found the missing pile.

No, not on the stairs.
No, not on the landing.
There it was! Stuck like a flying poop bomb on the sheer curtain on the balcony door!

Oh.My.God.

I held the bucket below it, flipped it loose with the rag & plop it went into my Pine Sol solution.

Back up the stairs and flushed down the potty.

Sean is happily playing in the tub, amazingly (and probably because he is darn smart enough to know that Momma ain't happy) he isn't dumping cupfuls of water out of the tub.

I get another bucket of clean water & Pine Sol and head back down to remove the curtain & finish scrubbing the lower half of the stairs. As I get to the bottom, Doug comes in to see what is going on. I tell him what happened and say, "There, I think I got it all. Can you run this curtain back to the washer and bring me a clean CLOTH diaper to put on Sean. I'm ready to get him out of the tub."

He said, "You want to know something funny??????"
...
....
.....
......

"I put the sposie on him because I figured he was going to poop soon and it would be easier to clean up."

No.
No, it wasn't easier.

You see, Sean can remove clothes and sposies in 1 minute flat. The cloth diapers I use are a whole 'nother story. He can't unsnap those suckers now matter how hard he tries! That's why I switched our entire cloth stash to Side Snapping Blueberry Diapers. Worth every penny! And I would much rather flip a turd from a cloth diaper into a potty & flush it than scrub a child, a staircase and a curtain. Thankyouverymuch.

After his brilliant words of irony, Doug said, "Huh, looks like he got the tv too." Sure enough, Mr Poopy Artist smeared every inch of the flat screen with his lovely paint. I told Doug he could join in the fun and handle the clean up on that one himself.

Once everything was clean and the boy was safely contained in cloth and jammies, Doug mentioned that it still smelled a bit.

I think all the Pine Sol maybe made the house smell like a bear pooped in the forest.

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

I have a love for cloth diapers. A love so great I am compelled to share it with others!

I became interested in using cloth diapers with Aidan was born and I met other moms online that cloth diapered. I would cruise through diaper sites trying to figure out what everything was & how to use it. The choices for cloth diapers are endless now, it is so different from the plain white flat diapers & rubber pants my mom used on her three daughters. I ended up not using cloth with Aidan, because he went to work with us every day until he was almost 10 months old, then he went to daycare. At the time, I didn't think cloth diapering would work unless you were at home, able to do frequent changes & run the washer often.

I re-visited the idea when Sean was born. I managed to convince Doug to let me buy a small amount to try out to see if it was something that would work for us. I thought it would be a good investment, we had two in diapers and the expense of buying disposibles was not appealing. I had read that children with Down syndrome often do not potty train until over the age of 4. I also read that using cloth helps the child potty train because they can feel being wet easier and get changed more frequently so they are not used to be left in a wet diaper for long periods of time.

When Sean was four months old, we finally got started out using cloth with 6 Fuzzi Bunz Pocket Diapers and 3 Kushie All-In-One Diapers. My dear friend Jane sent me a few other diapers to try as well. I found that I liked using the cloth diapers and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Sean started going to daycare when he was six months old and I never thought to ask if they'd use the cloth (I just assumed they wouldn't.) I tried to use it at home, but eventually I quit because it just didn't seem like we were using it often enough. I sold off the diapers we had and went back to sposies.

A year ago, we decided that it would be best for the boys if I quit working and was home with them. After being home a couple of months, I suggested to Doug that we again give cloth diapers a go. I figured it would save money in the long run and there was not any reason why it should work out this time since I'd be home all the time. This time, I bought 5 Very Baby All-In-One Diapers and a few Fuzzi Bunz. I read about a new cloth diaper that seemed to be revolutionizing the diaper world. I bought my first BumGenius Diaper to try out and quickly fell in love. Doug loves using the BumGenius diapers, they are called the Daddy Dipes by many. I sold the Very Baby diapers because I didn't like how long they took to dry and invested in more BumGenius.

Over the past year, I am occassionally enticed by new or different diapers so our diaper stash has changed from time to time. When Sean became the Master of Velcro, I re-vamped the stash to consist of diapers that have snap closures. Blueberry Pocket Diapers are now the bulk of what we use. I have even found love for the classic prefold diapers like my mom used! We use them with adorable & durable Wiggle Worm Bottoms Covers. No yucky rubber pants for my boy!

Now my love of cloth diapering is trying to branch out to others. On October 25th I am hosting a class on cloth diapering for my local La Leche League group. I bought an adorable all-in-one Nanas Bottoms diaper to give as a door prize. I also found 3 matching wipes by Miss Mindi to include with the diaper.



I also bought 18 cloth wipes for the class, made by a WAHM, Miss Mindi. I plan on pinning a fact about the benefits of cloth diapering onto each wipe and giving one to each parent that attends the class. We will discuss the benefit & then they get to keep the wipe!



Also, I did a little birthday shopping for my niece, Mackenzie. She loves Sean's cloth diapers and wanted some for her dolls. I had these cute ones made out of Minkee fabric by another WAHM, Stacey. Since I don't have any dolls, I had Mr Brown Bear try them on.






It may be a long road before Sean is using the potty full time, but in the meantime using cloth diapers sure makes the baby stage a lot more fun!