Friday, January 29, 2010

Good Stuff

The Kids:

Great news today! The dietitian came to check up on Naomi and she gained 10 ounces in a month. This puts her at 16 pounds, 15 ounces. Her goal is supposed to be 11-14 ounces, but the dietitian didn't seem overly concerned because she gained almost 2 inches in length in 2 months. Gaining length is good. Also, Naomi's activity level has picked up quite a bit in the past month. If any of you have seen her lately, you know she is rolling around everywhere. And she's very fast, too. This could be the reason her weight gain wasn't more. The dietitian was very happy to hear about all of the new table foods Naomi is eating. She was ecstatic that Naomi is self feeding most of her meals, except the occasional jar of baby food. So, overall good news for us and for Naomi. Lord knows we've been working hard this month!

Naomi is still not quite crawling yet, but we've seen her up on all fours rocking back and forth. She's almost there!!! Seriously it will be any day now! In one of the pics below, she is on all fours...trying so hard. She's so close, yet so far away!









In Maria news...she's doing pretty good. She is still going to pre-school every Tuesday and we're even thinking about sending her another day during the week. She loves it there and does really well. She's been coming home every week this month with a new craft having something to do with snowmen, or snow flakes. She tells me how she played with the rings in the gym (since it's been too cold to go outside on the playground)and how she drank chocolate milk at lunch time. She tells me about playing with her friends Libby and Head (his name is Ed, but that's what she calls him) and how they got to play in the shaving cream. She smells so good on the days they play with shaving cream...he he! She also loves to have "Jesus Time" and play Ring Around The Snowman.

The past couple of weeks her teachers have mentioned that Maria has been sitting on the potty. She likes to sit there, but doesn't actually go. She sees a lot of her friends going on the potty, so I think that's helping her interest in it.

Maria got her second hair cut last week. She sat in the chair all by herself and LOVED wearing the polka dot cape. My stylist, Ginny, only took about 2 inches off, but it looks really cute! Maria was so good, Ginny gave her a sucker when she was finished!








Cloth Diaper Update:

So, we've been using the cloth diapers exclusively for the past few weeks and it's going well. Maria has only leaked a few times and the new Hemp liners work great. Why they didn't just make them with the Hemp liners to begin with, I'll never know. But that would've been the smart thing to do.

We still aren't using the cloth diapers when we go out. The diaper bag just isn't big enough to fit all the diapers we need plus everything else we take. Besides that, I don't want to worry about Maria leaking when we're out in public and I can't find a good place to change her clothes, or worry about it getting on the stroller or car seat. It's just too much for us right now. So, we'll just stick with using them when we're at home.

Other Random Stuff:

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but Gerry's brother, Bobb, and his wife Laura, found out they are having a boy! Little Dominic will be here in June. We are so excited that we're going to have a baby boy around. And I think Gerry's sister Karen is even more excited to have a little ring bearer in her wedding.

Gerry began taking another Yoga class at work. He does it on Tuesdays or Thursdays during his lunch hour. He loves it and I am jealous that I can't do it, too. I am happy for him though. He comes home and shows me all of the cool moves that he learned that day.


Although the snow is nice, we can't wait for it to warm up! I am really excited to take the girls to the park this spring. I have been craving the warm sun so much that I even decided to purchase a few jackets that are recommended by the Skin Cancer Foundation, from a place called Coolibar. They have an SPF of 50 in the material and they are pretty cute.

Check back soon for pics or video of Naomi crawling....

Friday, January 22, 2010

Double Digits!

I am so excited to announce that the number of followers I have is officially in the DOUBLE DIGITS!! Whoo Hooo!!!! That's right, people! I have 10 followers! Now if all those people who "say" they read the blog would just create a Google account and follow me, that would be great!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Cloth Diapers - Take 2!

Okay...so I admit it. I've been using disposable diapers for about 3 months. I know I went on and on about cloth diapers and how awesome they are - the environment, the health benefits, the cost, etc. And overall, I really liked using them. Gerry, on the other hand, has told me in a few creative ways, that they are the worst purchase we have ever made.

Let me explain by saying that my husband hates poop. He hates it! With a passion!

That's not to say that I love poop. It just doesn't bother me. I worked for 8 years as a dog groomer..cleaning up everything that came out of sick, or old or nervous dogs. I cleaned poop off of the dogs, out of the cages and off of myself. I worked in a daycare for 7 years cleaning up after children that weren't even mine. I not only dealt with their poop, but their puke, too! I spent most of my time working in the "official potty training room." I've spent many a day cleaning up the floors, rinsing out little undies and wiping down those little poop machines!

Needless to say, I don't really mind cleaning poop from children that ARE mine. However, changing a poopy cloth diaper is a different experience than changing a disposable one. It requires dumping out the solid poo from the cloth diaper into the toilet, spraying on some stuff that helps with the odor, folding the cloth diaper up and putting in in a pail. This procedure grosses my husband out. He hates it and complains about it on on a regular basis.

When we used them exclusively..I always did the laundry. It was pretty gross to open the diaper pail with 2 days worth of smelly diapers in it, open each one, take them apart, then wash them once in cold water, once in hot water, and add an extra rinse cycle. After drying them, it is kind of a pain to stuff and fold the diapers so they are ready to use again. I washed them religiously every other day. (And to give my husband credit...he did help me with the stuffing and folding part.)

After all of this talk of poop and laundry, those are still not the reasons we stopped using them. I was prepared for all of that stuff, and I didn't mind doing it. What I wasn't prepared for was Maria leaking out of them at least twice a day. I got tired of changing her bed sheets, washing her clothes and wiping off the couch every time this happened. I was aware that the diapers are not as absorbent at disposables, but it's not practical to change her more than every hour and a half - 2 hours. It's not even possible.

After speaking to the lovely people at Cotton Babies, their solution was for me to purchase hemp liners to place in the diaper as well, which provide an extra level of absorbency.

Great.

Spend more money.

Just what I wanted to hear.

Can't wait to tell my husband that!

The second reason we went on a cloth diaper hiatus was because I soon discovered 13 of the diapers we purchased had velcro tabs that were defective. I thought I was doing something wrong during the laundering process because every time I would take them out of the washer, they would all be stuck together. Turns out they had a bad batch. Do you think they would've put a message on their website or notified their customers in any way? No. Fortunately, we were able to exchange the covers with brand new ones...no questions asked.

Gerry went ahead and purchased 5 hemp liners to be put in under the regular liners...only after you wash and dry them 3 times in a row. Apparently, the more you wash them, the more absorbent they become. Oh, the things we do for our kids!

So, we've re-dedicated ourselves to the cloth diapers. We have already spent so much money on them, I didn't really want to quit. Between us cutting way back on Maria's milk intake, and using the hemp liners she has only leaked once, and it was when she woke up in the morning. Hopefully this works out and might even help Maria with the potty training process! I'm crossing my fingers!

Monday, January 11, 2010

My Mom Always Said....

NEVER SAY NEVER!


You know that list of things you said you would NEVER do BEFORE you were a parent? You know the one...

The list full of things you saw other parents doing...things that disgusted you, things that made you internally judge others on their parenting...things that made you think friends, relatives, or people in the store were despicable because they did these things?

When I worked at the daycare, I would come home and complain about certain things the parents did and my mom would say "You better make a list of all these things you swear you're never going to...because I guarantee you're going to do some of them one day!"

I would just walk away laughing.

Admittingly, I have done a few. Some, I haven't, but whose to say I never will, huh?

Here is my list of things I said I would NEVER do as a parent...but already have:

(I'd love to hear of things you've done that were on your list)

1)Put my kids on a leash (okay, I haven't exactly done this, yet, but I bought one and we've brought it with us...just never had to use it yet)

2) Let my kids use a pacifier for a long period of time. I didn't want them to use one at all, but Maria took hers until she was 1.

3)Give my kids something to eat or drink, just to get them to be quiet.

4)Let my kids eat hot dogs, bologna, or other disgusting processed meat.

5)Let my kid watch hours of TV, while I am trying to "get stuff done".

6)Bribery. (most of the time, it doesn't even work)

7)When I worked at the daycare in the 2 year old room, I couldn't stand the idea of kids wearing pull-ups as a potty training device. I thought they were expensive, they were just like a diaper, and were ineffective. "Put them in underwear," I would say to the parents. What did I care if they peed on the tile floor of the classroom? It could easily be mopped up and I didn't have to do their laundry. I couldn't understand why parents wouldn't want to get them potty trained ASAP. And in everything I observed, pull ups didn't work.

So, there I was at Wal-Mart on Saturday morning...strolling down the diaper isle. I couldn't believe I was actually considering purchasing a box of pull ups for Maria. I've tried underwear on her with the plastic pants over ...but it still gets all over the floor. We just bought new couches and my fear is that she will pee all over them. She seems somewhat interested in using the potty, but there are days when she won't even sit on it. (here's where the bribery came in...and didn't work)

So, now I'm considering, yet, one more thing I said I would NEVER do.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Naomi is 8 Months Old!!!

Eight months have flown by so fast! I can't believe everything our little baby girl is doing since last month. Here is a list of her big accomplishments:

- Sitting up on her own
- Rolling all over the place...and she's fast, too!
- Eating foods that we didn't let Maria touch until she was WAY older than 8 months.
- She's clapping when we tell her to, or when we say "YAYYYY"
- Drinking from a sippy cup like a pro
- Her two bottom teeth are all the way in
- Sleeping on her side and her stomach (yes...this is a big accomplishment for her and us!)


If you are wondering if she is sleeping through the night, the answer is KIND OF. She is taking more formula during the day which is causing her not to be as hungry in the middle of the night. She still wakes up sometimes, but if it's before 5 am, we usually just run in and stick her pacifier back in her mouth. If it's after 5 am, Gerry usually gets up and feeds her a bottle, then she has been going back to sleep until 7-ish. Those days are nice because then I get to sleep in a little bit!

As far as the food she's been eating...she gets a taste of almost everything we are eating for dinner (unless it's like White Castle's, or something) She loves mashed avocado, banana, noodles, mashed green beans, peas, baked potato, mac n cheese, mostaccioli, ravioli, bread, toast, chicken, carrots, rice, mandarin oranges, peaches, pears...the list goes on and on! She's even had graham crackers. Yes, I know. Hard to believe I would let her munch on one of those...Believe me...I was sweating the entire time!!!

She is doing an amazing job picking up her food and getting it into her mouth. It's so fun to watch her! She is also interacting with Maria a lot. Maria will get down on the floor and roll around with her. They are silly girls!

Some might say she is days away from crawling, but I think she is happy just rolling around everywhere! No matter what means of transportation she's using, she definitely knows how to get somewhere!


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

We're officially sitting up...and 2 teeth!!!

Wow! We've had a busy week! Naomi started sitting up! She can't get there on her own, yet, but she will stay if we put her on her bottom. She's learning to brace herself if she falls to the side, but hasn't figured out how to keep from falling backwards!

In other big news: Naomi has 2 teeth! Both of her front bottom ones are in. It's funny to see them both because Maria's came in one at a time. My brother and Kelly started a tradition when Hailey got her first two teeth...they named them. It was kind of a joke, but it was cute. Hailey's teeth were called "Spike" and "Tim-Tim." So, when Maria got hers in, we named them "Horatio and Ben Hur". Naomi's teeth????
"Napoleon and Aristotle". Gerry named them...I had nothing to do with it. Thank goodness it's only a tradition to name their first two. :)


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In other news:

At my dermatology appointment last week, I had to have another suspicious looking spot removed from my back. The doctor said he wasn't worried, by the looks of it, but he wanted to be sure. He did a punch biopsy, which means they numbed it a little and punched a little cylinder right through the center of it. So instead of removing the whole thing, they just took a sample. I got the results back yesterday with good news: it was benign! Awesome! I love that word! It's not pre-cancerous, it's not abnormal...it's benign! Which means nothing to worry about! Praise God!

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Yesterday, Naomi rolled herself over to the air vent (while it was running). Her expression and her hair were priceless so I had to take some pics! Check it out!

I also posted some pics of her sitting up and one of her teeth...look closely - she's not very happy about this one. Maria also wanted me to take a picture of her and her scrambled eggs, so enjoy!

















Friday, January 1, 2010

Welcome 2010!!!


We spent our New Year's Eve doing what we hope will be the start of a new family tradition....making pizzas! Gerry had this idea a few weeks ago. Think - every pizza topping imaginable, add Gerry's parents, my good buddy Erin and you've got yourself a New Year's Pizza Party!!!

We had a blast and the pizzas were awesome!

We wish the everyone a wonderful and blessed 2010!!!
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