I wonder if after you have a certain number of kids you start to suffer from the Peter Pan syndrome. Meaning that they never grow up in your eyes. I can remember when Monkey was a baby how I could see her growing and getting bigger. I watched her change from an infant to a toddler to a young girl. I never felt like we were stuck in one moment of time.
Now with Toots and Baby Girl I look at them and still see them as little ones. Course the fact that Toots is almost 2yrs old and is still pretty tiny for his age probably doesn't help. At his 18 month check he was 22lbs. I can still get him into some of his 6-9 month onsies. Anything bigger than 12 months in shorts and they fall right off of him or look like high water pants. Thats even in cloth diapers where it's expected to wear a size up to accomodate the diaper.
Baby Girl will be 3 months old in less than a week and I still see her as an infant. Yes I can see where she has grown a bit and she is developing in other ways. She smiles all the time and coo's/talks to us. We even got her to start giggling which is the best sound ever. But when I look at her I still see a baby face.
What made me think of it is I recently saw another baby who is less than 2 weeks older than Baby Girl and it seemed like she actually looked like an older baby. So I started actually paying attention to other babies/toddlers and they all do. They just have a more "grown up" look to them then when I think of my own.
So I'm wondering if I suffer from a sort of Peter Pan syndrome where in my eyes my kiddo's will never grow up. Course we know they will but I still, how long will they be babies in my eyes? Forever??
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Happy Daddy's Day!!
I know it's now almost 10pm but I figured better late than never right??? So HAPPY DADDY'S DAY!! This goes out to my dad, my hubby, and all the other daddy's out there.
Unfortunately my hubby wasn't able to spend the day with us so that we could pamper him. The boat managed to steal him away yet again. Such is the life I'm told. We did get to talk to him briefly this evening which was better than nothing I suppose. Oh well, at least we got to take him out to dinner last night to celebrate.
Unfortunately my hubby wasn't able to spend the day with us so that we could pamper him. The boat managed to steal him away yet again. Such is the life I'm told. We did get to talk to him briefly this evening which was better than nothing I suppose. Oh well, at least we got to take him out to dinner last night to celebrate.
My latest Project
I'm always looking for new things to try and make and tonights was rather interesting. It took me forever cause I was trying to plan it as I went. Overall though I like how it turned out!
I've been making and selling wetbags for a little while now. We cloth diaper and they come in handy for when we are out and about. Rather than using a plastic bag I can use this reusable one that is waterproof and keeps the smell in. Plus I can make them so it's super cheap to have several of mine own.
Tonight a friend suggested making one in a backpack style. We frequent the beach and water country and having one we can just carry on our back seems like a great idea. So I took on the challenge and came up with this.
This is it opened up and showing the straps.
A close up and the straps shortened. See how the bottom folds up and makes it shorter in eneral. Great for if you only have a couple things to carry.
And finally me wearing it. I stuffed 3 regular size towels inside and there is still plenty of room for swim suits or changes of clothes.
I have a couple change I'd like to make. Like having the zipper more on the front of hte bag instead of at the very top. Just have to work out placement. Other than that It's a nifty bag to have! And isn't the print just too cute!
If it was only a week...
Brandi over at Excess Baggage posed the question "Only one week to live...where would you go?" on her blog.
Where would I go? My first thought is to say home but well, we all know I don't really care for home. There isn't much to see really in the good ole 'Fort. Well there is the children's zoo but thats not exactly a high priority when you only have one week left.
Hmm...Maybe Europe?? I've always wanted to go to Italy. Then again it just seems like way to much work even to get there because you know I'd be dragging Mr. X and the kiddo's along with me.
No, I think I'd rather stay right near the water. We would get a cottage with a bedroom whose window overlooks the ocean so that every morning I could wake up with my hubby to watch the sunrise. I'd spend my days laying beside Mr. X while watching the kids play and laugh in the sand and water. We would eat anything and everything our heart desired. The idea being to totally live in the moment and savoring each and every single one. For once there would be no cellphone or laptop. My hubby and my kids would have my undivided attention.
Just like Brandi I'd want to be right there with my family, enjoying them, savoring them, loving them.
Where would I go? My first thought is to say home but well, we all know I don't really care for home. There isn't much to see really in the good ole 'Fort. Well there is the children's zoo but thats not exactly a high priority when you only have one week left.
Hmm...Maybe Europe?? I've always wanted to go to Italy. Then again it just seems like way to much work even to get there because you know I'd be dragging Mr. X and the kiddo's along with me.
No, I think I'd rather stay right near the water. We would get a cottage with a bedroom whose window overlooks the ocean so that every morning I could wake up with my hubby to watch the sunrise. I'd spend my days laying beside Mr. X while watching the kids play and laugh in the sand and water. We would eat anything and everything our heart desired. The idea being to totally live in the moment and savoring each and every single one. For once there would be no cellphone or laptop. My hubby and my kids would have my undivided attention.
Just like Brandi I'd want to be right there with my family, enjoying them, savoring them, loving them.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Trying Not To
Ever since we saw the specialist on Monday I find myself constantly inspecting Baby Girl's eyes looking for any change. I told myself after the appointment that I wouldn't focus on that because I don't want to imagine something that isn't there. It's like when you take a pregnancy test, if you stare at it long enough your gonna see a line. Even if it is an imaginary one. In my case....I really don't want to see it.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Cloth Diapering Savings
I've been asked if cloth diapering really does save money and is it really worth it. I think a lot of people, like myself at one time, can't get past the initial start up cost while doing cloth diapering. I mean spending a couple hundred $$ at once on diapers when a box of Huggies is $20 at Walmart can be hard to get past. What they also may not know is that there are cheaper ways to start up rather than going all gung ho with the big name brand diapers.
So here is how I figure the breakdown of savings for us. Currently I have 2 kiddo's in cloth diapers exclusively. There's not a single disposable in my house that doesn't belong to one of the daycare kiddo's. Starting up I have spent just under $250 which gives me enough diapers for both kids and allows me to do the washings every other day. I prefer the pocket diapers with the occasional personally made cover with a prefold. My pockets consist of Bum Genius, Nubunz, and a handful of Kawaii Baby. The nubunz were bought brand new but the others were bought 2nd hand or off ebay at a discounted price. Surprisingly cloth diapers have a really good resell value.
Now, with 2 in diapers I'm estimating we would have spent approximately $80 a month on disposables. In addition based on our most recent water bill with the extra washes there was an increase of $5 per month. Nothing else in our life changed in the last month so I'm pretty sure thats from the extra laundry loads. Based on those numbers in just over 3 months we would have broke even. That means going into month 4 we would be having a savings of $75 a month. In a years time (I'm pretty sure Toots won't be potty training anytime soon) that is a savings of $900. Now this isn't taking into account swim diapers or the fact that we probably won't need diaper rash cream since rashes aren't common in cloth. Plus they are well made diapers so they last a long time so I'll be able to use them for baby #4 if we are blessed with one so the savings just continues.
Is it worth it?? For me it is. Cloth diapering really isn't that difficult. Yes it means I have a couple extra loads of laundry to do each week and but really how hard is that? You wash them, hang them to dry and your done. Even Mr. X has not found it too difficult to deal with of course I do all the stuffing for him and take care of the poopy dipes but still, its no different than a disposable to him he just doesn't throw them away. And quite honestly, one benefit is I have actually kept on top of the regular laundry instead of letting it pile up and doing it all in one day. Thats one thing Mr. X definetely won't complain about now.
So here is how I figure the breakdown of savings for us. Currently I have 2 kiddo's in cloth diapers exclusively. There's not a single disposable in my house that doesn't belong to one of the daycare kiddo's. Starting up I have spent just under $250 which gives me enough diapers for both kids and allows me to do the washings every other day. I prefer the pocket diapers with the occasional personally made cover with a prefold. My pockets consist of Bum Genius, Nubunz, and a handful of Kawaii Baby. The nubunz were bought brand new but the others were bought 2nd hand or off ebay at a discounted price. Surprisingly cloth diapers have a really good resell value.
Now, with 2 in diapers I'm estimating we would have spent approximately $80 a month on disposables. In addition based on our most recent water bill with the extra washes there was an increase of $5 per month. Nothing else in our life changed in the last month so I'm pretty sure thats from the extra laundry loads. Based on those numbers in just over 3 months we would have broke even. That means going into month 4 we would be having a savings of $75 a month. In a years time (I'm pretty sure Toots won't be potty training anytime soon) that is a savings of $900. Now this isn't taking into account swim diapers or the fact that we probably won't need diaper rash cream since rashes aren't common in cloth. Plus they are well made diapers so they last a long time so I'll be able to use them for baby #4 if we are blessed with one so the savings just continues.
Is it worth it?? For me it is. Cloth diapering really isn't that difficult. Yes it means I have a couple extra loads of laundry to do each week and but really how hard is that? You wash them, hang them to dry and your done. Even Mr. X has not found it too difficult to deal with of course I do all the stuffing for him and take care of the poopy dipes but still, its no different than a disposable to him he just doesn't throw them away. And quite honestly, one benefit is I have actually kept on top of the regular laundry instead of letting it pile up and doing it all in one day. Thats one thing Mr. X definetely won't complain about now.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Her Beautiful Eyes
First for the easy stuff. Baby girl had her 2 month well check today and she is getting to be a big girl! She is now 11lbs 5oz and 23 1/4 inches long.
Now for the harder stuff. I have been putting off telling people about baby girl's eyes because I wanted to know what was going to happen first. I figured it would be easier that way plus I would have some answers of my own instead of having to say "I don't know".
Going back a bit when she was born she had a lot of dark spots on her eyes and forhead. We had figured that it was bruising because she was rather large and born pretty fast. At her 2 week follow up though the spots over her eyes had not faded away as a bruise would have and showed no sign of doing so. The pediatrician referred us to a specialist just to be safe. She had her first appointment with him a month ago and he confirmed there was definetely something going on. What though was the question. He said that he thought it was a hemangioma which is a growth. You will see these on other parts of the body mostly. Since it's around her eyes it would have to be treated or she would likely have vision damage. The decision was made to wait a month and watch how it grows to see which would be the best way to treat it, either laser or steroids.
Today we had our 2nd appointment with the specialist and it didn't go at all like I had thought. At this appointment he said that in fact it does not look like a hemangioma, that it is actually a vascular malformity. I think I spelled that right. Anyways, what it boils down to is she will have to have surgery. He wants to try and put it off until she is closer to 5 or 6 months since she will have to be put under and should handle the procedure better than if we were to do it now. Plus she will have more skin and area to work with so it will be easier for the surgeon to do what he has to do. He also said that if it is not obstructing or causing visible problems then he may want to wait a little longer than that and take it month by month.
So again we wait. We'll get a call in the next week for when she will need to go in for a CT scan. This will tell them just how deep it is and an idea of size and what they are dealing with. She'll then be scheduled for sometime in August when she is 4 months to see the specialist again so he can check the growth progression again and then make the decision from there.
In the mean time while at home we just have to keep an eye on it. If her eyelid starts drooping, looking like it's puffier, or if her eye itself doesn't move as it should we'll have to take her in right away and the whole process will get moved up. The other side of it is once they do the surgery it won't be the end of it. She'll have to have check ups for awhile afterwards to make sure that they got it all and that it doesn't start to grow again.
Whats really sad is it's very likely that Mr. X won't be here when she gets the procedure done. So goes the military life I suppose. I'm thankful though that I have several very good friends who I know will be there for us if he isn't able to. I know he'll be worried about his little girl though and hopefully there won't be a huge delay in communication for us. We shall see though.
Now for the harder stuff. I have been putting off telling people about baby girl's eyes because I wanted to know what was going to happen first. I figured it would be easier that way plus I would have some answers of my own instead of having to say "I don't know".
Going back a bit when she was born she had a lot of dark spots on her eyes and forhead. We had figured that it was bruising because she was rather large and born pretty fast. At her 2 week follow up though the spots over her eyes had not faded away as a bruise would have and showed no sign of doing so. The pediatrician referred us to a specialist just to be safe. She had her first appointment with him a month ago and he confirmed there was definetely something going on. What though was the question. He said that he thought it was a hemangioma which is a growth. You will see these on other parts of the body mostly. Since it's around her eyes it would have to be treated or she would likely have vision damage. The decision was made to wait a month and watch how it grows to see which would be the best way to treat it, either laser or steroids.
Today we had our 2nd appointment with the specialist and it didn't go at all like I had thought. At this appointment he said that in fact it does not look like a hemangioma, that it is actually a vascular malformity. I think I spelled that right. Anyways, what it boils down to is she will have to have surgery. He wants to try and put it off until she is closer to 5 or 6 months since she will have to be put under and should handle the procedure better than if we were to do it now. Plus she will have more skin and area to work with so it will be easier for the surgeon to do what he has to do. He also said that if it is not obstructing or causing visible problems then he may want to wait a little longer than that and take it month by month.
So again we wait. We'll get a call in the next week for when she will need to go in for a CT scan. This will tell them just how deep it is and an idea of size and what they are dealing with. She'll then be scheduled for sometime in August when she is 4 months to see the specialist again so he can check the growth progression again and then make the decision from there.
In the mean time while at home we just have to keep an eye on it. If her eyelid starts drooping, looking like it's puffier, or if her eye itself doesn't move as it should we'll have to take her in right away and the whole process will get moved up. The other side of it is once they do the surgery it won't be the end of it. She'll have to have check ups for awhile afterwards to make sure that they got it all and that it doesn't start to grow again.
Whats really sad is it's very likely that Mr. X won't be here when she gets the procedure done. So goes the military life I suppose. I'm thankful though that I have several very good friends who I know will be there for us if he isn't able to. I know he'll be worried about his little girl though and hopefully there won't be a huge delay in communication for us. We shall see though.
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