Corny Baby

He may be a little young to eat corn on the cob. He probably should have a few teeth first, but this kept our little man so happy at Joe's Crab Shack. And you have to admit, he is adorable!!

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Valentines Photos

These are a bit late to my blog, but I wanted to get them here...

We've been going to a beautiful baby store in Redlands lately to purchase cloth diapers called Kissui. We happened to be there one day when Patrice Gaspard-Nelson was doing a fundraiser for the people of Haiti. For a $5 donation she would take valentines photos and give you an 8x10. Well, this mama is a bit slow at getting #3 to a professional photographer, so I thought I'd try it out. It was a rainy day and she was taking photos just outside the shop. My babe was sleeping, but she had me lay him on a little rug she had on a door step to an empty shop next door. The results were amazing!!



I'm so happy I asked her to take another of my three kids. It too turned out beautiful.


I am so happy with these results and happy to have been at the right place at the right time.

This moment...

A moment I want to savor...Sleepy Happy Baby in his favorite spot wrapped to mama.

5 Things I'm Thankful For

Here is a quick list of 5 things I'm thankful for right now...


These three precious children


This playful man.


These chunky hands.


Our beautiful rainy weather this month.


These kids and their mamas.

Just 5 of the many things I have to be thankful for.

A New BMX'er

We have a new BMX'er in the house. Emma tried her hand at our local BMX track last week and loved it. She did an awesome job too. She only fell once, and got right up and tried again. She really surprised me.


I stood at the gate with her (with Luke in his wrap) and held her bike until the gate dropped and then let go... which was not easy for this mama. Here I stood at the top of this huge hill letting go of my four year old baby girl on a dirt bike (with all sorts of safety gear on) to peddle around a dirt track that is raced on by professional BMX riders. Dan stood at the bottom of the first hill so he could assist her in getting up the next one. She only needed a little push and then she continued around the track with Daddy running after her and assisting on the bigger hills. Yes, Dan got quite the workout!! By the end of the night there were only two hills she needed help getting up. AND by the end of the night I could tell she was hooked and we had another BMX'er in the family.

This is not a bad thing : )!!!!

On the Needles

I have a very long boring project on the needles right now. I've been working on it for several months. It promises to be very cute once it is done, but in the mean time it's basically one stitch over and over and over.... get the point? Actually it has been a great project right now, since I am still learning how to breastfeed and knit at the same time. I don't have to worry about counting stitches too!

The pattern is the Twirly Skirt by Barefootknit. It is a free pattern on their website. It is so cute in the picture I had to start it up for my little girl.

I broke my rule about starting another project while one is still going, but who am I to stay within my own rules. I have a dear friend who has a baby due next month. His little feet just needed the baby booties from Knitting for Baby. Of course I gifted them before I shot a photo, but maybe I can get one when they are on his sweet little feet. : )

Fluff

I promised more on the cloth diapering, and here's where we are so far...

I'm in love!! I've found cloth diapering to be surprisingly easy, and it feels so good to be putting cloth on my babe instead of paper/plastic. But, best of all, the cloth diapers I've used so far laugh at my babe's explosive poops!! "Not getting by me", the cloth diaper says to the poo. Seriously though, it's been really amazing.

I've been experimenting with two different diapers so far: the Bumgenius 3.0 One Size Diaper and the Gro Baby diaper. Both of these diapers are adjustable to fit an infant, baby, or toddler. I like them both, for different reasons.


First, the Bumgenius. It is a pocket diaper, meaning the soaker pad is in an "envelope" in the diaper. Each time you change a diaper you must wash the shell and the soaker pad. I am amazed at how long my babe can wear this diaper with two soaker pads (which come with the diaper) in it. He goes through the night with no leaks. With a disposible, we would change him at 5:00 am or wake up with a wet baby next to us (which meant a wet me, wet sheets, wet baby jammies, bath for us all, and way too much laundry). He has also throughly tested this diaper with breastfed baby poo, which has the tendency to get everywhere. My babe has a way of shooting it right up and out the back of his disposables. The Bumgenius has always held it in, even when soaked from an all-nighter. Amazing! This diaper is a little bulky, which doesn't really bother me.


As for the Gro Baby diaper, we use that more during the day and when we go out on the town. The difference with the Gro Baby is that it has it's soaker snaped into the shell, and lays on top of the shell. When changing the baby you can unsnap the soaker and toss it into the diaper pail and re-use the shell. I've found that the shell does get a little wet, so I usually rotate between two shells during the day, leaving the one just used on the diaper table to dry for the next changing. The soaker rarely holds in the explosive baby poops, although the shell always does. If we have a poop, I just toss both the soaker and the shell into the diaper pail.

I'm a newby at all of this, but I am finding it very doable and actually enjoying it. We have collected 5 cloth diapers all together so far, plus 4 extra soakers for the Gro Baby. This usually gets us through a whole day. Obviously I need to purchase more so we can go a few days between washings. From a cost standpoint I am curious to try the good old fashion flat diapers that my mom used with the plastic pants when me and my sib's were little. There are all sorts of new covers you can use with these that make them easier too. To get more information on all this I recently joined a cloth diapering group. I am also looking forward to a cloth diapering 101 class this week. (Are you amazed there is so much info on cloth diapering? I certainly am!!) I figure after this class I should have enough information to purchase several more diapers.

So, after thinking I knew it all now that I am on my third little one, I find there are still many things to learn... even in the diapering world. But Ohhhh my, he is so worth it : )!