Monday, May 28, 2012

So much to say, so little time.

I think the title says it all. So much happens everyday and it just seems like I can never find the time to make a post. I am so in love with our precious kiddos but I had no idea how much more work it was going to be with two than it was with one. I'm sure at some point when they can actually play together it will get a bit easier but right now, when they both want 100% of my attention 100% of the day, it's REALLY tiring. I *still* have stuff in boxes in pretty much every room of the house and I don't think that's going to change unless I can get a weekend to finish the unpacking already. It's making me nuts. I really don't like not knowing where our stuff is located and just general disorganization is my number one enemy.

Let's see, since my last post several cool things have happened. One of the big ones is I've switched from disposable diapers to cloth diapers and I totally love them! Some very good friends of ours gave us a ton of their old diaper boxes when we were moving (and thank goodness for them!!!) but as I surveyed this huge mountain of diaper boxes I thought to myself, "that's a TON of money" and they were only up to size 3 diapers. I started thinking about how much money we spend in diapers from birth to being potty trained and the numbers are staggering. Plus there's the environmental factor of all of those diapers going into the landfills. The plastic lining on those things never biodegrades. Anyway, I did a TON of research trying to figure out what kind will be the best for us and our situation and I tried a few different kinds. I ended up going with the Bum Genius 4.0 snaps and I really love them. They have a soft, waterproof outer fabric and are lined on the inside with fleece to wick the moisture away from baby's skin. A microfiber insert fits into the fleece pocket and holds all the liquid. This past weekend we went to visit with family and friends and stayed with my father-in-law. I decided not to bring our cloth diapers because I would have had to wash some of them while we were there and God bless him, he has his hot water heater set to "inferno hot". I was concerned the diapers would get ruined in those temperatures so I used up some of the size 3 Huggies we already owned. It seemed so strange to be back putting disposable diapers on my girl. For me, putting actual cloth on my baby is so much nicer than the paper-feeling disposables. There is definitely more of an up front cost (each diaper costs $17.95) and there is an increase in laundry (I have enough that I can go two days before I have to do wash) but it's so worth it to me. And seriously, they look super cute on her tushie ;)

**UPDATE**
Here is a link with information about our cloth diapering experience.
Here is a link about using cloth baby wipes.
Here is a link to a comparison between the BumGenius 4.0 One-Size Pocket diapers and the FuzziBunz One-Size Elite Pocket Diapers.


Next we celebrated Mother's Day - my first with Little E and my fourth with Kbear (that hardly seems possible).
Me and my girls :)  I'm wearing my new Mother's Day necklace. It has all of our names around the circle and a pearl
hangs in the middle to represent the June birthstone for our little Angel Baby.

The Mommies

The Daddies (except for the Hubs who had to stay home and study for his test)

We've also joined (for the second year) "Kids Bowl Free". It's a cool program that allows the children to bowl two free games every single day for the entire summer. Last year I think we only went twice because the bowling alley where we signed up never had the ramps available for us to use and even the lightest ball is still too heavy for Kbear to roll it all of the way down the alley, even with the bumpers up. This new alley is great and we have had a ramp every time we've gone so far, which is twice. We'll go again tomorrow. It's been really fun because after we bowl we go out to lunch together and it's very nice having a lunch date with my big girl. I'm so proud of her =D
Setting up on the ramp.

Giving the ball a good hard push.

Smiles for the camera :)

Little E is growing by leaps and bounds. She is very capable of grabbing her hanging toys, flipping over (especially from her back to her stomach when I'm trying to change her diaper), and scooching on her back, backwards, halfway across the great room (and believe me, it's a big room!) She is as smiley and beautiful as ever and her big sister loves her so very much. We are truly blessed!
She has learned she has feet and is very fascinated by them.

Smiley girl

She has always had very strong neck and core muscles so she has been able to hold her head up from
day one. She is the only baby I know who actually enjoys tummy time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, May 7, 2012

A bit of catching up to do

I've been a bad blogger. I've been meaning to post night after night but I always end up choosing sleep over posting. I'm sure you understand. Anyway, I decided that tonight is the night to finally share some cute pictures of the girls that we've taken lately. I have a bunch more (big shocker, I know) but I'll save those for another post.

For Arbor Day this year we went to, very appropriately, an amazing Arboretum near our house that was having a very
cool kids program that day. Let's just say that before we went home, we ended up becoming members. It's a cool place!

K did her part in helping plant a tree that we can come visit every time we go to the Arboretum. Each kid got to shovel
on a scoop of dirt and sprinkle in a watering can of water. There were a lot of kids there but she waited patiently.

The guest of honor was none other than Curious George! He is obviously a fan of lambs because he scooped up Lilly
and gave her a hug. I wasn't sure what K would do about that since that is her VERY special lamb but she must have
been ok with it because she gave him a hug (once she had Lilly back safely) and by the time we went on the Nature Hike
K was by his side, holding his hand, the entire time.

The following day we went to another beautiful park to celebrate Earth Day (which was kind of funny since the actual
Earth Day was a week before this celebration, but whatever.) They had free pony rides there and K went twice!

The last time we encountered the chance for a free pony ride she was a bit too nervous to try it so I wasn't sure if she
would want to this time but she absolutely loved it! She rode Lucky once and before we left, hopped on Thunder for one
more go around. I'm so proud of how brave she is becoming as she gets older.

E's wonderful aunt sent us a very sweet package of adorable clothes and she was wondering if the smallest outfit would
still fit her. This is proof that it does (and that we love it!)  I never get over how expressive our sweet little girl is already.

And while things aren't always all sunshine and roses...

...it's very rare that we see her without a smile on her face.