Now we have two rollers, tooth count is officially 2-0 in favor of Luke, and everyone's a little crabby today. I am a little crabby because I stayed up WAY past my bedtime. I went to Singin' in the Rain with my family last night. It was fabulous, but I didn't get home until midnight! The boys are crabby because they had shots - 6 month shots! - yesterday and I think they're still feeling the effects. Plus, Luke cut his second tooth yesterday and has had a pretty rough couple of days... Poor kid.
It's times like these I wish I had a much bigger lap or arm span at least...
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
a few of my favorite things
If you know me, you know I love my cloth diapers (which are getting washed right now as a matter of fact!). I found something that makes my cloth diapers EVEN BETTER!! For all you CDers - this is a must-have! Flushable Diaper Liners!
These are papery liners that come in a roll (mine are from Imse Vimse), and were $11.60 for 2 rolls of 200 sheets per roll (on jilliansdrawers.com). Me, being the cheapie that I am, have cut them in 1/2 and use one half sheet per suspected poopy diaper. Once the boys have done their business for the day, I'm done using them for the day. So, I put this little paper in the diaper between the tushie and the diaper and it catches the poo! (maybe tmi?)
Not only do these fabulous little papers make clean up a breeze, they are also flushable, biodegradable, safe for septic systems and there is virtually NOTHING on the diaper! My diapers smell better and are SO much easier to clean up!
I thought I'd list some other of my favorite baby things right now:
Beaba (duh - told you about this before)
Hotsling (Luke aka "crazy guy" falls asleep within 3 minutes of being put in this thing)
Jumper (Luke can almost launch himself right out of this!)
Swing (Andrew's favorite place to sleep)
Black garbage bag (put over the window in the boys' room so the light doesn't wake them up at 4:45am!)
Is that enough for you to look at today?
P.S. One more thing for you Mom's trying to learn about cloth diapering. Go here for more info and an inexpensive trial!
These are papery liners that come in a roll (mine are from Imse Vimse), and were $11.60 for 2 rolls of 200 sheets per roll (on jilliansdrawers.com). Me, being the cheapie that I am, have cut them in 1/2 and use one half sheet per suspected poopy diaper. Once the boys have done their business for the day, I'm done using them for the day. So, I put this little paper in the diaper between the tushie and the diaper and it catches the poo! (maybe tmi?)
Not only do these fabulous little papers make clean up a breeze, they are also flushable, biodegradable, safe for septic systems and there is virtually NOTHING on the diaper! My diapers smell better and are SO much easier to clean up!
I thought I'd list some other of my favorite baby things right now:
Beaba (duh - told you about this before)
Hotsling (Luke aka "crazy guy" falls asleep within 3 minutes of being put in this thing)
Jumper (Luke can almost launch himself right out of this!)
Swing (Andrew's favorite place to sleep)
Black garbage bag (put over the window in the boys' room so the light doesn't wake them up at 4:45am!)
Is that enough for you to look at today?
P.S. One more thing for you Mom's trying to learn about cloth diapering. Go here for more info and an inexpensive trial!
Monday, June 22, 2009
houston, we have a tooth
Wow. Last week was a rough one. Luke was screaming and wouldn't take a nap most of the days. Wednesday was about the worst, and at one point I called my mom who said "I've never heard a baby scream like that before." So, he was in pain. I tried everything; teethers, frozen washcloths, cold washcloths, my hand, and nothing was helping so I finally broke down and gave the kid some Tylenol. I don't use medication much, so I'm trying not to give it to my kids unless absolutely necessary, and this was ABSOLUTELY necessary. After a half hour, he felt better and sure enough, the next morning, his brand new shiny tooth was visible! He has 4 more that seem to be coming in, so we'll see what happens next!
Andrew on the other hand has no signs of teething yet. Not surprising, he's been exactly 2 weeks behind Luke from the beginning, so I'm sure they'll come soon!
On another note, in my attempt to be "green" I bought a giant jug of vinegar to use for cleaning. So today, while reaching for my trusty comet and rubber gloves (I need the gloves because I hate cleaning with chemicals because I always think I am inhaling them or inadvertently ingesting them and for about an hour after cleaning I ask Adam if he thinks I'm going to die because I ate poison. He humors me and tells me I'm fine - what a good guy to put up with a crazy lady...) I noticed my jug o' vinegar and decide today is a good day to try cleaning my sink with baking soda/vinegar/lemon juice.
I found this site that tells how to make natural cleaning supplies, and although I am interested, especially since soon I'll have crawlers (yes, Luke is close to crawling already!) and I don't want them to get chemicals in their little bodies.
(Ok, up onto my soapbox for a second: I strongly feel that many health issues that we deal with on a daily basis are linked to chemicals, pollutants, preservatives, and other great inventions that have become widely used in the past 30 years. I look around at the kids I work with with autism and developmental issues and undoubtedly those would still be prevalent, but to what degree? Would so many kids have these concerns? I look at MANY of my friends who have difficulty getting pregnant (myself included) and wonder how this can be such a problem for young and otherwise healthy women? Ok, off soap box.)
Back to my story...Baking soda worked GREAT for scrubbing stains! It actually worked better than my Comet. I scrubbed the sink with a half of a lemon I had leftover and it smells terrific! I'm sold! I'll just have to try some other mixtures now...
Andrew on the other hand has no signs of teething yet. Not surprising, he's been exactly 2 weeks behind Luke from the beginning, so I'm sure they'll come soon!
On another note, in my attempt to be "green" I bought a giant jug of vinegar to use for cleaning. So today, while reaching for my trusty comet and rubber gloves (I need the gloves because I hate cleaning with chemicals because I always think I am inhaling them or inadvertently ingesting them and for about an hour after cleaning I ask Adam if he thinks I'm going to die because I ate poison. He humors me and tells me I'm fine - what a good guy to put up with a crazy lady...) I noticed my jug o' vinegar and decide today is a good day to try cleaning my sink with baking soda/vinegar/lemon juice.
I found this site that tells how to make natural cleaning supplies, and although I am interested, especially since soon I'll have crawlers (yes, Luke is close to crawling already!) and I don't want them to get chemicals in their little bodies.
(Ok, up onto my soapbox for a second: I strongly feel that many health issues that we deal with on a daily basis are linked to chemicals, pollutants, preservatives, and other great inventions that have become widely used in the past 30 years. I look around at the kids I work with with autism and developmental issues and undoubtedly those would still be prevalent, but to what degree? Would so many kids have these concerns? I look at MANY of my friends who have difficulty getting pregnant (myself included) and wonder how this can be such a problem for young and otherwise healthy women? Ok, off soap box.)
Back to my story...Baking soda worked GREAT for scrubbing stains! It actually worked better than my Comet. I scrubbed the sink with a half of a lemon I had leftover and it smells terrific! I'm sold! I'll just have to try some other mixtures now...
Monday, June 15, 2009
pictures as promised
We've been so busy around here just doing daily things and I can't believe how much these guys are growing up! Luke is rolling, everyone's eating and Luke started sitting up, too! Here are some new pictures of the crazy kids:
Andrew fell over in this position - getting ready for senior pictures, I guess!
Andrew fell over in this position - getting ready for senior pictures, I guess!We were laughing really hard.
Luke putting on a show for Andrew. This picture defines them better than anything: Lucas has an audience and Andrew is perfectly happy to comply. Does it sound like anyone to you?
(It's the same relationship their parents have :) )
All of the guys on the couch
Cute outfits, don't you think?
He sleeps (thank goodness!)
Playing together... only Luke steals all the toys...
Andrew
Playing together again (I tried to get them both to smile)
Andrew's favorite: hugging his blanket in his swing
Luke's favorite: jumping like a crazy man and drooling
Look who can sit! (It's Luke)
We are just having the best time getting to know these two boys! Can you believe that next week they'll be 6 months old!?! How did that happen?? Seriously, sometimes I look at them and wonder where my tiny little babies went. (sniffle) They grow up so fast! (sniffle)
Andrew's favorite: hugging his blanket in his swingLuke's favorite: jumping like a crazy man and drooling
Look who can sit! (It's Luke)We are just having the best time getting to know these two boys! Can you believe that next week they'll be 6 months old!?! How did that happen?? Seriously, sometimes I look at them and wonder where my tiny little babies went. (sniffle) They grow up so fast! (sniffle)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Best of Both Worlds
No, I'm not channeling Hannah Montana, I'm just thinking of how lucky I am to be able to work for a while and now I get to be a "stay at home mom"! I really liked going back to work. I love my job, and although I missed my boys, I got to spend the day with some pretty cool kids. I kept busy (boy did I ever!) and got to see some adults for part of the day. The first week back to work was pretty rough - I was really tired from my new routine, and wanted to take a nap when I got home which was neither possible nor really that tempting because I wanted to play with my kids even more.
And now, I get to stay home all day with my boys! We just finished our first week and had so much fun! Luke had a busy week. He started rolling over on Sunday, and hasn't stopped since! He can roll back again, but sometimes lays facedown crying until someone helps him (we don't leave him too long, but we do let him try by himself first). We have noticed that when we are a little farther away, he will roll around on his own, but when we're close, he'd rather not have to work so hard. What a little stinker!
Andrew is not rolling yet, but primarily wants to stand anyway and has caught onto his brother's trick about crying to get attention. We will hear screams coming from him and look over and he'll be smiling at us. Luke's been doing that for months, now Andrew is catching on. Needless to say, it's pretty noisy around here lately! They are both to the point now where they want us to watch them jump in their toys and they love being praised. They get such proud looks on their faces - super cute!
Also this week, the boys started eating oatmeal for breakfast. Guess who loved it right away? Luke was making sounds like "yumm yumm" - he probably wasn't saying that, but it sure sounded like it and it was really cute. Andrew wouldn't open his mouth the first day, but now on day 5, he smiled the whole time!
I think it's time to start "real" foods too. According to everything I've read, you shouldn't start until babies are around 6 months old, but we're only a week away and last night Adam and I were eating and Luke was sitting in his high chair (Andrew was sleeping in the swing) and the entire time we ate, Luke was smacking his lips. It was so sad and funny all at the same time. I wished I could feed him something - he was watching us so closely, and just smacking away. So, we're starting with fruits and vegetables this week!
I have this wonderful device that my mother-in-law got for me. It's called a Beaba and it's a steamer, blender, and defroster all in one. So far I've made carrots and green beans in it. We had extra and instead of letting them spoil, I cooked them and made them into ice cubes of vegetables, so now we have poopsicles (frozen prune juice), carrotsicles and beansicles in our freezer! So back to my Beaba. It's really easy to use, you just put water into the steam chamber, turn it on and it turns off when it's done. Then you either dump out the water or save it to puree the food in (depending on nitrates - for example carrots have nitrates - don't puree in the water - but green beans don't - yes, puree in the water). Then I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it. When it's frozen I put the cubes into baggies, label them and they're ready to go. Each cube is about 1 oz. of baby food. When it's time to eat, I can either thaw the cubes in the microwave or put them back into the Beaba with a little water and defrost them. So, yes, I'm making my own baby food - it's easier, healthier, and cheaper. What could be better than that?
Back to our first week home. We went on 2 outings with just Mom and the boys! The first one was to Erica's house to play with Grant and have lunch. I started getting Luke in his carseat at 10:30 and by 10:50 we were all pulling out of the driveway. Only 20 min. to load both babies and get them out to the car (plus I had to get the stroller in the car). We got to Erica's and she made me a good lunch, the boys enjoyed terrorizing all of Grant's toys, while he played quietly and watched it all go down. Then Luke and Andrew ate and took a little nap and all 5 of us went for a walk with the strollers around Erica's neighborhood. It was fun and it went well and we were home by 2:30. Then on Friday, I had to run to my church in Big Lake and I hauled the boys along. That was even easier, and the boys did great in the car. I hope I can get out some more with them now that they're a little older. We just need places to go! It's pretty hard to go grocery shopping with them because once they're in the cart, there's no room for anything else. It's hard to take them to a restaurant because there's not much room for 2 highchairs near any table. It's hard to take them somewhere their stroller won't fit, because there is NO WAY I can carry those 2 lugs (who are 16 and 17 pounds last time we checked!) plus their bulky and heavy carseats... So, I'll be waiting for invitations!
P.S. Pictures coming soon...
And now, I get to stay home all day with my boys! We just finished our first week and had so much fun! Luke had a busy week. He started rolling over on Sunday, and hasn't stopped since! He can roll back again, but sometimes lays facedown crying until someone helps him (we don't leave him too long, but we do let him try by himself first). We have noticed that when we are a little farther away, he will roll around on his own, but when we're close, he'd rather not have to work so hard. What a little stinker!
Andrew is not rolling yet, but primarily wants to stand anyway and has caught onto his brother's trick about crying to get attention. We will hear screams coming from him and look over and he'll be smiling at us. Luke's been doing that for months, now Andrew is catching on. Needless to say, it's pretty noisy around here lately! They are both to the point now where they want us to watch them jump in their toys and they love being praised. They get such proud looks on their faces - super cute!
Also this week, the boys started eating oatmeal for breakfast. Guess who loved it right away? Luke was making sounds like "yumm yumm" - he probably wasn't saying that, but it sure sounded like it and it was really cute. Andrew wouldn't open his mouth the first day, but now on day 5, he smiled the whole time!
I think it's time to start "real" foods too. According to everything I've read, you shouldn't start until babies are around 6 months old, but we're only a week away and last night Adam and I were eating and Luke was sitting in his high chair (Andrew was sleeping in the swing) and the entire time we ate, Luke was smacking his lips. It was so sad and funny all at the same time. I wished I could feed him something - he was watching us so closely, and just smacking away. So, we're starting with fruits and vegetables this week!
I have this wonderful device that my mother-in-law got for me. It's called a Beaba and it's a steamer, blender, and defroster all in one. So far I've made carrots and green beans in it. We had extra and instead of letting them spoil, I cooked them and made them into ice cubes of vegetables, so now we have poopsicles (frozen prune juice), carrotsicles and beansicles in our freezer! So back to my Beaba. It's really easy to use, you just put water into the steam chamber, turn it on and it turns off when it's done. Then you either dump out the water or save it to puree the food in (depending on nitrates - for example carrots have nitrates - don't puree in the water - but green beans don't - yes, puree in the water). Then I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it. When it's frozen I put the cubes into baggies, label them and they're ready to go. Each cube is about 1 oz. of baby food. When it's time to eat, I can either thaw the cubes in the microwave or put them back into the Beaba with a little water and defrost them. So, yes, I'm making my own baby food - it's easier, healthier, and cheaper. What could be better than that?
Back to our first week home. We went on 2 outings with just Mom and the boys! The first one was to Erica's house to play with Grant and have lunch. I started getting Luke in his carseat at 10:30 and by 10:50 we were all pulling out of the driveway. Only 20 min. to load both babies and get them out to the car (plus I had to get the stroller in the car). We got to Erica's and she made me a good lunch, the boys enjoyed terrorizing all of Grant's toys, while he played quietly and watched it all go down. Then Luke and Andrew ate and took a little nap and all 5 of us went for a walk with the strollers around Erica's neighborhood. It was fun and it went well and we were home by 2:30. Then on Friday, I had to run to my church in Big Lake and I hauled the boys along. That was even easier, and the boys did great in the car. I hope I can get out some more with them now that they're a little older. We just need places to go! It's pretty hard to go grocery shopping with them because once they're in the cart, there's no room for anything else. It's hard to take them to a restaurant because there's not much room for 2 highchairs near any table. It's hard to take them somewhere their stroller won't fit, because there is NO WAY I can carry those 2 lugs (who are 16 and 17 pounds last time we checked!) plus their bulky and heavy carseats... So, I'll be waiting for invitations!
P.S. Pictures coming soon...
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Summer's Almost HERE!!!
And I can't wait!
I have one more week of school, and then I get summer vacation!! I've had a very stressful couple of weeks at school. If you don't know, next year I'm switching jobs - not really switching, just moving to the high school and birth to 3 program (half of my time spent with each part). I'm pretty excited about trying something new, but I've had so much paperwork to finish and organize before I move on! Plus, I'm packing up my classroom, and that's quite a task in itself! So I've been busy. I've also been gone a lot in the evenings and I feel really guilty about missing time with the boys, but the end of the school year usually comes with many activities - parties, golfing, running club random mystery prize drawings, more parties.... One night I came home in time to help feed the boys and put them to bed, and I asked Adam what happened when I was gone. He told me that Luke's in college now, and Andrew got a job. Very funny. What REALLY happened was even funnier. Luke and Andrew lay on the floor together and like to look at each other. It's really cute. They'll grab each other's clothing, arm rolls, eye sockets, whatever they can get their hands on, and laugh at each other. Well, they were laying on the floor looking at each other, and Andrew started crying all of a sudden. Luke was pinching him and laughing at him while he was crying. Oh boy! Here we go - already picking on each other (but I bet it was pretty cute in a mean sort of way!) Enough with the words, get to the pictures... Here's some new pictures of the 5 month olds!!
I have one more week of school, and then I get summer vacation!! I've had a very stressful couple of weeks at school. If you don't know, next year I'm switching jobs - not really switching, just moving to the high school and birth to 3 program (half of my time spent with each part). I'm pretty excited about trying something new, but I've had so much paperwork to finish and organize before I move on! Plus, I'm packing up my classroom, and that's quite a task in itself! So I've been busy. I've also been gone a lot in the evenings and I feel really guilty about missing time with the boys, but the end of the school year usually comes with many activities - parties, golfing, running club random mystery prize drawings, more parties.... One night I came home in time to help feed the boys and put them to bed, and I asked Adam what happened when I was gone. He told me that Luke's in college now, and Andrew got a job. Very funny. What REALLY happened was even funnier. Luke and Andrew lay on the floor together and like to look at each other. It's really cute. They'll grab each other's clothing, arm rolls, eye sockets, whatever they can get their hands on, and laugh at each other. Well, they were laying on the floor looking at each other, and Andrew started crying all of a sudden. Luke was pinching him and laughing at him while he was crying. Oh boy! Here we go - already picking on each other (but I bet it was pretty cute in a mean sort of way!) Enough with the words, get to the pictures... Here's some new pictures of the 5 month olds!!
Luke
Andrew
Luke wearing his hat
Andrew with his hat too
Babies watching American Idol - no I'm not kidding
Mom and Andrew
Dad dressed Luke - no I'm not kidding :)
Saturday, May 16, 2009
New Pictures
Just a few new pictures of the boys...
We've been busy as you can see:
Luke's spinning on his back
The boys are looking spiffy
Luke is sleeping with Dad
We've been reading books.
Luke found a new friend.
We've been busy as you can see:
Luke's spinning on his back
The boys are looking spiffy
Luke is sleeping with Dad
We've been reading books.
Luke found a new friend.He loves his cow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)