To all the mothers

Check this out: Mothers - I am Momma, Hear me Roar

No, you are not alone. And yes, it is worth it!
A little inspiration when mothering (or parenting) can feel tough!


Thanks Mom!

Shh...baby sleeping?

We purchased a baby cradle from someone on Craigslist a month or so ago, and it needs a couple of fixes, and a place to go until the end of may... so it has been sitting in our room for the time being. I decided since it was sitting there, it might as well look cute with the bedding and an animal or two in it.

But, this afternoon I looked over and saw another animal in the cradle!

We will have to make sure that Leonard knows it is the baby's cradle, not his!

The second life of cloth

We've been using the bumGenius diapers since a few days after we brought H home from the hospital, and a couple of months ago a few of them started leaking a little. I finally figured out that the elastic had stretched out too much (and the Velcro tabs had worn down a little leading to the dreaded diaper chain coming out of the wash!). So, I ordered some bG fix it kits (for $1 each and free shipping - a great deal), and put it off for as long as I could. With all of our holiday traveling, I found that car rides were a great time to take off the old Velcro and elastic, and then when I got home I could put in the new. This has definitely solved the leak problems, and will give these cloth diapers a second life with baby number two - which also means that the savings of using cloth will be even more!!!

It was a very tedious process, which seemed to take about 45 minutes with the first few, but by the time I was on to diapers 20-36, it only took me about 10 minutes to sew each one.

I am thinking that if we need to replace the Velcro again, I may just purchase a snap machine and convert them all to snap diapers - no need to replace snaps ever!

We have and still love using cloth, and will look forward to doing so with our future children. One thing that I admire other cloth families for doing is traveling with cloth. We always use disposables - both for ease, and that is a lot less to travel with if we don't have to pack up all of our fluff and bring it too. Do the people who travel with cloth bring their diaper sprayer also??? I think that is the only way that I am willing to clean a stinky diaper....

H in his bG's playing with his shape sorter:

(He has learned how to cheat with this game - if he gets frustrated with a shape that just won't go in, he pulls up the door and throws it in....)

All done!

SweetHart made

Right now, H is slumbering peacefully, N is on a trip, I'm sipping some Xiao's blend teas, some whole wheat bread is on it's second rise, and some peaceful guitar music is playing, a baby is kicking pleasantly in my tummy.... does it get any better than that?

Today it was warm enough to finally go outside and play! Not just bundle up and go for a brisk walk, or quickly make it to the car, but play! Walk around, visit the neighborhood animals, blow bubbles and do sidewalk chalk!!!

I am finally including some pictures of the cute hat that SweetHart made for H for Christmas.

Isn't it cute?

And a few more pictures just because I think H is cute too!

Mama is also wearing a "SweetHart made" hat. So warm! I realized a few weeks ago that it matches a scarf that she made me a few years ago.

"FLY"

wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

Eating a raisin on his scooter (a $5 Goodwill purchase)
H gets raisins after he goes tee-tee on the potty! So far the most he's gotten in one day is eight!!! He doesn't tell us when he needs to go yet, but every time we sit him down on the potty he goes. I'm hoping to have him mostly potty trained by the time his baby brother arrives in May/June.

I think he was ready for naptime after all of the playing!

On H's little blankie (that SweetHart made) there is a thread that worked it's way out in the wash. It used to lay flat. Now whenever H has the blankie, he likes to hold on to the thread, so now it always sticks straight out.


This is from a few nights ago. We are trying to decide when to move H up to a big boy bed, and then I come and find him falling out of his crib and decide he's not ready yet! Eventually little brother will need this crib, so we are trying to decide if we should graduate H before or after the baby comes.
Decisions, decisions.....

Alabama, part 2

Tonight we went over to N's sister, Jennifer's home. H was trying to say Jennifer, but the closest he could get was "huwafwur." Her girls and granddaughter, Stella were there. It was an exciting and wonderful time - just enough pretty girls and excitement to keep a little boy who would not take a nap today in a good mood.

H and Stella getting reacquainted while sharing some bread together.

After that, they started hugging and playing and hugging some more!

H would not let Jennifer out of her sight while she was making juice.

H really wanted some!

I don't think H had ever seen a TV that big and was really mesmerized

Watching the big girls dance to a wii game

Playing with Stella and Katelyn (N's niece who H wouldn't stop flirting with)



While we are traveling, we use N's laptop, so there are pictures from some of our other trips on it. I was deleting some of the bad pictures and this cute one popped up:

What a cute, chubby and bald little baby!

It's hard to believe that he is the same little boy!

Alabama, part 1

Before N heads back to school/work after his long break, we decided to squeeze in one more quick trip to visit his family in Alabama.

"C'mon' Daddy!"

Gigi gives good kisses!

Purple, orange, you!
(Drawing with Aunt Bekah)


"X, he-here"
(H's version of "the x goes right here" )
Puzzles with Uncle Duane




Cool!

A few happenings

We haven't taken too many new pictures lately - we've just been enjoying being together and staying warm! Here are a few snapshots of just a few of the things that H has been up to lately.

Enjoying his train table -

I had envisioned him playing by standing next to the table, not sitting on the table....

Enjoying the 'fall' leaves on Sunday



Waiting on Mama and Daddy to get ready to go to Alabama

Yummy soup

Italian Sausage, white bean and spinach soup

1/2 lb Italian Sausage
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can Italian style diced tomatoes
2 cans white beans, drained
3 C chicken broth
1/2 a bag of frozen spinach
salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste

Saute sausage, onion and garlic until meat is cooked and onions are tender. Add all other ingredients. Stir, simmer about 30 minutes and season to taste.

Serve with a little grated Parmesan and Cheese toast (optional)

(All ingredients can be increased or decreased according to taste or what you have on hand. I don't measure anything anyhow...so it always comes out a little differently.)


We made this when we got back from our trip and the ground was covered in snow - it hit the spot!

A few made items

A family tree.

I have been wanting to do this for a little while. I cut out all of the pieces (tree, leaves, and letters) on the Silhouette and wrote in all of the names and dates on the leaves. I found the frame at Goodwill for $2! It took a little figuring to get the leaves in the right places to have the family tree part make sense, but I also drew in some vines to help connect everyone in the right place.

A family portrait.
Looks like us, right? (Don't answer that!)
I made this early this fall, and just never got around to posting about it. I had seen these on Etsy and thought they were cute, only now I need to go in and add a new little baby brother...

A weekly menu
We loosely follow this throughout the week. It helps me not feel too overwhelmed with thinking up meals, and helps keep us on budget with our groceries. I made stencils for the days and the scroll design with the Silhouette machine and then painted them in. It is black chalkboard paint, so I can easily change the meals if need be. The only problem with our menu - we have gotten tired of homemade pizza on Fridays. Any suggestions?

A little spice rack and salt and pepper shaker for H's play kitchen.

He doesn't really know what to do with salt and pepper yet, but he likes to shake them (they have little beads inside) and stack them. One day he will learn the art of seasoning - he does have Cajun in his blood after all! Again, I made stencils with the Silhouette and painted them.

Yogurt!

Made with the crockpot. I think I have posted about making yogurt before - but it is great tasting and very cost efficient. It has been awhile since I made it - the first few months of pregnancy I couldn't stand the thought/smell of it, so this is the first time I've made it since then. I made a yogurt/mango/banana smoothie this morning for H and I to share and he was in love!

Gettin' n' fightin'

Mama (SweetHart) has told me many times about when my Daddy (Pop) would come home from work he would go change from his work clothes into his home clothes and Karen (KK) and I would be waiting and ready to "get and fight." We were ready to wrestle!!!


When N and I returned from our date to SF, I loved to find these pictures on my camera:

H and Pop had a good 'get and fight' session.

And it reminded me of this picture from about 26 years ago:

Look familiar?
(I'm the little one in pink)


We love you Daddy/Pop!

Snow!!!

Right before we left to go to CA, it was cold but sunny in Oxford.
When we came back, our house looked like this:

We were so excited to come back to a white home.

We got back when it was dark last night, so the first time H saw the snow was this morning. He looked out his window and said "happened?" Like what happened to bring all of this white stuff here. He calls the snow "no." I think he has a hard time with s-n sounds, so he likes to "nuggle" (snuggle) with N and I after having his "nack" (snack) in the "no" (snow).

This morning we thought we would head out and play awhile in it,

But this is what H thought of our plan.