Thursday, November 5, 2009

Halloween, Shmalloween


Once again, our Halloween was very un-Halloweeny. Perhaps even less this year than last. I did make a costume for Anne, but she did not wear it. Neither Scott nor I dressed up either. As I am writing this post, Scott says, "This whole Halloween thing is pretty traumatic for you, isn't it?"

Yes. It is.

I used to have like, 3 costumes per Halloween. One for the school party, one for the church party, and one for the actual night of trick-or-treating. I could do this because my mom loved to help us create unique costumes and also because we had a very good stash of random dress-ups to work with (also because of my mom). Here in PA, however, where there are weird regulations about when you can and can't go trick-or-treating (as in it's definitely restricted to a few specific hours and is NEVER actually on Halloween) we had nowhere to go. So, who wants to be all dressed up with nowhere to go?

Maybe that supports the idea that the only reason to dress up is to be seen, and maybe so. Instead of anything with pumpkins besides the pumpkin cookies I made on Friday, we drove to D.C. for a trip to the temple and some museum time with our friends Alan and Lyanna. They discovered, while so graciously watching Anne so we could go to the temple, that Anne is able to drink from a bottle, but only if she is the one holding it. She likes to play with it and poke it into her eye, then nose, then mouth and finally take a few sucks. Hooray!

My favorite thing about the weekend was trying a few of Georgetown Cupcake's cupcakes. WOW! I realize that cupcakes are kind of ridiculously faddish right now, but if ever a confection had reason to be cool, these ones have it. They were flavorful, fresh, dense, moist, and beautiful. My favorite was the lemon berry that tasted exactly like the best raspberry lemonade you ever drank. Aah. Sugar is what Halloween is about. Hope yours was happy!

Oh, and if you visit Georgetown cupcake's website, you'll have a fun time. Their branding is chic and the opening site is a place to play!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

this is a gem

So Anne is really having fun with smiling and laughing. We think that she is a bit ticklish too. This was one of those late night giggle sessions in the family and we thought that it would be fun to share with everybody.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Right Now

Scott is at Scouts being a good scout master.

Anne is falling asleep in her crib. She was looking super sleepy—eye rubbing, yawning, and the like.

I am blogging. Duh. And I also have plans to edit pictures, shop for next semester's text books, design Christmas cards (anyone need a Christmas card?), and maybe even clean up the front room.

You should go read my article on embodyingwomanhood.com. My friend Laura started this online journal to be a repository and source for articles that "glory in our essentially-gendered divine nature and purpose as women." I love the other articles and poems so far. I'm so honored to be a contributor. If you are a woman who has something to express in poetry, essay, a scholarly article, or art, you should submit! If you are a man who has something to express in those forms, you should submit! If you are a woman or a man who is interested in understanding what it means to be "essentially-gendered" and wants to learn more, you should READ the beautiful submissions on her site. I love that my talented friend with a graduate degree in women's studies is using her time to produce such a lovely resource for faithful discussion of gender issues.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Fun videos of Anne

So Anne is doing plenty of new stuff these days. She is really fun and we are loving her so much. Life is busy, though she makes it worth it for Nancy and I.
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This second video is of Anne and another one of her first ever, you have to be patient to see it, though this one is classic.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My Baby Won't Take a Bottle


It's so frustrating. If I didn't have classes two nights a week, this would not be a problem. However, instead of gulping down a bottle of breastmilk or formula as she used to do on a nearly nightly basis when she was 3 weeks old, Anne will NOT take anything from a bottle. HELP!

If you have any ideas, please let me know. We'd really like to be able to leave Anne for even a little while with a trusted friend and not worry that she'll starve in the interim. I'd really like to leave Scott with Anne at night for class and not worry that she'll scream and scream and starve in the interim. I'd really like her to not freak out when I try to give her a bottle of "the good stuff" that I painstakingly pumped.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Cloth Diapering 101

When people hear or see that we are doing cloth diapers I usually get one of two questions:

"How's that going for you?" or "How do you like that?"

My responses are : "It's going great" and "It's actually kinda fun"

I wrote this up for my friend Becca who is going to do cloth diapers. It's not how everyone does it, and it's not maybe even the best way, but it's a pretty cheap way to diaper (and if you avoid our mistakes, it would be even cheaper) and we like that we don't have to constantly buy diapers and throw away plastic.

Here's the 411 about our cloth diapers. Bum Genius are great. I also really recommend G-diapers. They're nice because as hybrids they can be stuffed with cloth (both prefolds or they have cloth inserts they sell) or with their disposable inserts for when you travel.

We have about 30 cloth diapers (the pre-folds like people make into burp cloths). We also have 5 G-diaper covers (little g-pants) and 5 Bum Genius. For the daytime and going out, we use the pre-folds stuffed into the g-diaper covers. If they get super wet or poopy (the plastic part, that is) we have a few extra plastic inserts that we can swap out. There are prefolds that are a lot more absorbent than the Gerber ones you get at local stores. Find these online at places like diapersetc.

We have a big covered trash can (new, rubbermaid) that we put all our soiled and wet diapers into as well as the used wipes. We use cloth wipes, and they are easy to make, they're great. These are just flannel squares from old receiving blankets that I've sewn the edges so they don't unravel. Scott donated a few of his t-shirts and even sewed some wipes himself. At home we have a wipe warmer that keeps the wipes wet—we soak them in water then ring them out so they aren't drippy, and Anne gets a warm, wet cloth on her bum all day long.

When we're out, we have a wipe spray that we use. You spray their bum or the wipe then wipe as usual. The wipe spray is just water, some baby soap, and essential oils. I haven't made any yet cause we got some with a diaper order, but it wouldn't be hard. You can also buy them online. For transporting wet soiled diapers, we use one of those plastic zippered bags that linens come in. You know, you buy a blanket and it's all wrapped up in a plastic pouch? It's a real zipper, too, like with a pull and everything. It's worked great. If you want to be more discreet or whatever, they do sell "wet bags" which have a waterproof lining and are also washable, so you just toss it all in the wash together with its contents.

Washing the diapers: We wash diapers every other day. At the beginning, we were doing it every day cause she just went through so many diapers. But we're down to every other day, maybe every 3 days if we stretch it. We don rubber gloves and then sort through the diaper pail sticking the ones she only peed in as well as all the wipes into the washing machine. The poopy ones we rinse out in the toilet to get as much of the poo off of them. Then, these too go into the wash. We do two washes. One cold with some soap (not much soap, and it is supposed to be enzyme free, fragrance free, whitener free, basic basic, simple simple soap) then a second wash with hot water. The items that can be dried then go into the drier. The Bum Genius covers are line dried (or in our case, laid out in front of the fan that stays on all night while Anne sleeps for the white noise), all parts of the g-diapers are line dried. Everything else gets dried in the drier until they're dry. You could rinse the poopy ones out as you go, which would make diaper duty less stressful, but we find it easier to do it all at once rather than stop your day all the time to go rinse out a diaper.

Night time: Anne wears a Bum Genius at night and sometimes at the end of other excursions so we don't have to worry about leaks or her feeling wet. The Bum Genius hold a lot of stuff and generally won't leak. They also stay pretty dry next to skin, which is a total plus.

And, I think that's about it. You can buy lots of diaper stuff to make it easier and cuter. You can also keep it really simple. It's actually a lot of fun, I think. In a place like PA where there is no shortage of water, it makes a lot of sense to just wash the diapers rather than use plastic and toss 'em all the time. So there you go.

Here are some good resources I've found:

http://www.zany-zebra.com/ this one is good to find patterns and general info

http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/ this one is good for product reviews

http://ezinearticles.com/?Make-Your-Own-Wipe-Solution&id=118618 this one is for wipe solution recipes

http://www.diapersetc.com/ this site sells everything you'd need and gives you an idea of what is out there

http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=handmade&search_query=wet+bag&order=date_desc&ship_to= this is just to show you how cute and diverse wet bags can be and how many people make them

Happy Diapering!

Video Time

Good weekend. Nice and rainy and cold, but eventually Scott came home from his wet camp out in Gettysburg and we had a nice relaxing Sunday.

Anne is being so fun. She was super giggly a few times this week. It's so fascinating and fun to hear her little laugh and to watch her big, toothless mouth open into a smile.

I don't have a lot to say except that I hope it doesn't rain again next weekend. Or, let's just schedule the rain for the nighttime and keep the sun for the day time.

And now for an Anne video. It's tricky to catch her laughing; she's so camera conscious. Happy Monday!
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