My new love

My new love is the new cloth diapers I have:) I guess it's been 2 months or so since I bought them, but it takes that long to get around to bragging about diapers when you have two kids. Anyway, If you would have asked me 6 months ago if cloth diapers were worth the effort I would have said no. I was using gDiapers. Which are SOOOOO cute. That's really why I bought them, not going to lie. But they were not very absorbent, they had too many parts, and they leaked a lot. Washing was a pain because of all the parts (really it's only three parts but you have to wash them separately). I reminded myself of the money I was saving, but at the same time I always wondered if it was worth the headache.
I was about to throw in the towel when I talked with a good friend about her cloth diapers and she really loved hers. It didn't seem like hers were a huge burden like mine were. So I got a couple of the kind she has: Flip Diapers, by cotton babies. Man, what a difference! These things are almost as absorbent as disposables. The outer shell is water resistant (unlike my dumb gDiapers) so they rarely ever leak even when the inside diaper is soaked. They are much thicker than a disposable and my g's were, but they still fit under his clothes so it's not a huge deal. Basically I love them and I never wonder if cloth diapering is worth it any more. I can throw everything (covers and diapers) in the wash together and I wash them twice a week. I just throw them in the dryer with other loads of regular laundry so it's not like I'm doing more folding or laundering than normal. It's like a dream. I spent $100 and won't have to buy any more diapers ever. It would have cost more if I didn't keep the g cloth that I have. I did get rid of some but I will still use those ones sometimes. I basically sold all but the cloth inserts of my g's and that paid for my flips.
And with some early potty (or should I say poop) training of Noah I haven't had to dip a diaper in the toilet in 4 days. You really get over the grossness of that quickly, but a lot of time I don't even dip them anyway. I just shake the big clumps off and throw the diaper in the pail.
Just wanted to share. These things are great and totally worth it!

Mary's Tonsils

About 6 months ago Mary started having chronic ear and throat infections and was basically sick the whole winter. She'd been doing pretty well for the past month besides her nose constantly running and the occasional cough. About a month ago we met with her ear, nose, and throat doctor again and he suggested that our other options had run out and we should probably get her tonsils out. So last Friday we took Mary to Childrens and got her gigantic tonsils taken out. I was so very proud of Mary. She hadn't eaten in the longest time, but she didn't complain. She asked for a snack once but after I told her no she let it go. She let the doctors examine her and even practiced putting her mask on that they used for anesthesia:

All the nurses said how good she was doing for a two year old. I was mostly glad she took everything in stride because I'm sure Ian and I would have broken down in tears and called it off if she'd been a mess. Here she is about 45 minutes after surgery:

She was groggy and upset at first, but once she heard a little baby crying across the room she sat up and said, "let's get him a bottle." Then she said, "I want to go see Noah." I think she might have thought the baby was Noah?? They were probably close in age. Once she was sitting up the nurse asked if she wanted a Popsicle and of course Mary was all over that. The doctor told me she probably wouldn't want to eat anything for a few days afterward, but the whole time I was thinking, 'man you're about to see something special...because my kid likes to eat!'

She started to feel pretty tired once we got up to her room. So we ordered her food and let her sleep for a bit. She ate over half the food they brought her and the nurse couldn't believe it. Mary will endure pain to eat. She loves it that much. Later that night we found a place to play:

And painted toe nails:

She did OK during the night. I think once all the anesthesia medicine was out of her system she started hurting a bit more. She woke a few times and it was hard to see her so upset and be mostly unable to explain it to her. But she woke up smiling and talking in the morning:

She did a little better last night and is mostly happy now. You wouldn't even know she just had surgery unless you knew her well and could see that she's more irritable than normal. I think kids handle pain and sickness much better than adults do. Either that, or Mary was just so used to her throat hurting that this pain is not that out of the norm.

I'm glad we're past surgery! We're praising God for answering our prayers for her safety and for guiding the doctors. Here's to a quick recovery!

Mothers Day

This mother's day was probably my favorite one yet (that I've celebrated as an actual mother). We had a fun time at church and then visited some family. God has blessed me greatly with two beautiful and loving kids, and it has been a privilege to raise them so far.

Baby Boy Noah

My baby is almost not a baby. He is 10 months old now! We call him many things: nono, Noski, little Noah man, nono pants, chubs, etc. It is always funniest when Mary says those nick names. She will point at him and say very excitedly, "There's a little Noah man!" And he always lights up when she says it. He is in constant motion even when you are holding him! His favorite things to do are try to fit in small spaces, beat his hands on anything that will make noise, and yell strange sounds in harmony with Mary. He is doing much better with finger foods (to mommy's delight), and he got two more teeth in since his 9 month post. Here is my handsome little prince:

Recent videos

We've taken a couple videos recently and it's taken a while to get them on the computer. But finally I am sitting down to do this! Here is Mary doing her new favorite thing:


Noah showing off his newest skill:


And another one:


Last but not least, we have Mary copying daddy, which she is very good at:


Noah is 10 months old today! I will post pictures from his "photo shoot" sometime soon:)

We have needs

In our culture weakness is not looked well upon. People don't want to show need or ask for help. This is very sad to me. The truth is we ALL need help. We all go through hard times. At our church we help a lot of people and sometimes it's hard for them to accept that help. What I always tell them is that everyone needs help at different times. Sometimes people need help getting groceries. Sometimes people need a hug. We all have needs.

This is especially true of parents who have just had a child, especially their first. My heart is really for people in this period of life right now. Maybe because I'm in that period or maybe that's a heart God has given me. Not sure which. But I'm trying to decide so that I can know whether I want to pursue becoming a Doula more seriously. Anyway, a quote from a book I'm reading now says,
"While almost all societies have a system for helping parents through this period (the postpartum period), in the United States the lack of widely accepted cultural tradition for giving the necessary support to families after childbirth is a major deficiency."
I agree. I think it stems from people wanting to seem "strong" or that they have it all together. Who are we kidding??? None of us have it all together.

I think this quote shows the need of the Doula. Doula's are support people. Mostly used during labor, but how valuable is that help after birth as well. I personally think every woman should have access to a Doula during her labor, and someone to help her for the first 3-6 months after birth as well. It's too bad our hospitals don't have programs in place for this because it can be expensive to hire a Doula. Maybe I'll do it for free:)

Random fun

Last weekend we went to two birthday parties and it was overall just a really great day. The first party was at a park and it was to celebrate 1 year of life for our little friend. Here he is enjoying his cake:

If that picture doesn't make you smile I don't know what will! Here are some other pictures from the party:





And here is Mary when we tried to wake her up to go to the second party. She is snoring and completely asleep in this picture. When she is tired she is just done!

Rainy Days

I've been told a couple times lately that some day I will miss when my kids are this young. That's hard to believe, but I'm trying to savor my days with my little ones. Since it's been SOOO rainy around here I decided to carry my camera around with me one day and document what life is like an your average day so I can remember this when they get older!
Off we go...