I sliced my thumb with a pair of scissors (was trying to wipe off some adhesive goo from cutting stick-on Velcro) and now I can't knit for a while because it's so sore. Phooey.

My sis and her crew will be arriving here at approx. 6:00 PM tomorrow (er...I mean today). Yay!!!! I talked to her after they had pulled off to sleep at a hotel about 9 hours from here. The kids (ages 6, 4, and 2) are all on a "vacation high" and are in rare form. Whenever I talk to my 6 year old niece on the phone, she can't stop talking about how they're going to get to stay in a hotel on the way down. I think she's more excited about the hotel stays than coming to our house.

I can remember that feeling when I was little. Road trips were so awesome. I feel bad for everyone that had to ride long distances with me back then. Man, was I an annoyingly exuberant chatterbox during our trips to Disney World, Myrtle Beach, and Sanibel Island! I can picture it now..... My sister and cousin and I all sitting in the back of the van listening to Paula Abdul cassette tapes, wearing matching spandex biker shorts (black trimmed with those hideous neon colors that were popular back then) with our oversized New Kids on the Block tee shirts and crisp new Keds, talking about boys and eating oatmeal creme pies.

Wanna know something cool? My sis is borrowing my grandma's big 1988 Chevy conversion van (ya know, the kind with the wood console and track lighting? So very pimp.) for their trip down here. It is the very same van that we all piled into for road trips when I was younger. I was 8 years old when my grandpa got that particular van. He had another uglier and bigger one that I also have many memories of prior to that. My family was always big on yearly vacations. The van (it really needs a name - it's like part of the family!) is in great condition because it has only ever been used for road trips. My uncle takes it out of my grandma's garage for a spin and routine maintainance every now and then so it doesn't just sit there and rot. Every time someone in the family takes a road trip, my grandma calls and gets a temporary insurance policy on it and has my uncle take it to get serviced. It would make my grandpa happy to know that his grown granddaughters are still enjoying his prized vacation van today.

Hhmm...weird that my late grandpa has popped into 2 posts in a row and I've never mentioned him before this. Maybe he's trying to wave hello or something. Hi, Papa!!!

Labels: family, reminiscing about childhood

I rearranged Scout's bedroom today. My sis, her husband, and their 3 kids are all going to stay in our bedroom when they visit. (I know that seems like it would be cramped quarters, but our bedroom is gigantic.) We moved Scout's crib (where she has never slept) into our bedroom for my 2 year old nephew. My sis and her hubby are sleeping in our king size mattress and I laid a full size mattress that came out of our old hide-a-bed couch on the floor as well. I asked my sis if she'll mind being crammed into one room, but she said it won't bother them a bit. I will sleep with Scout on the queen size mattress in her room and DH will sleep on the couch back in his office/family room. (He ends up crashing there a lot anyway). This makes more sense than making my sis and her husband sleep in the family room because DH might have to stay up late and do computer nerd stuff and that is his work area. The kids can't sleep in the front living room because you have to walk through it to get to the kitchen and I figured it would too hard not to wake them up if we needed to go in and out of the kitchen after their bedtime at 8:30 PM.

Here are pics of Scout's room: (I know I've shown some pics of it before, but just humor me :)









Some details about the room:
- My late grandpa made the wooden doll cradle where we store Scout's diapers. I thought that was a cute idea.
- I know it's weird and pointless to have a crib mobile attached to the doll cradle, but I love it and couldn't make myself pack it away after we moved the crib out of the room.
- Scout's potty is parked under the big stuffed elephant. It fits nicely between his legs and it is in reach for when I need it to hold Scout over the potty first thing in the morning.

Labels: family, my house, pics of scout

Scout is getting more and more mobile. Last night I slept with her in the queen size bed in the nursery. I woke up because her body was perpendicular to mine and her little jammie-clad feet were thumping me in the chin. We got up and moved to our king bed early this morning. I nursed her and we both fell back to sleep. I woke up to her army-crawling over to my cell phone that was laying on the opposite corner of the bed. She can pivot herself around really well too, because when mommy's mean ol' hand swooped down to grab the phone and rescue it from a waterfall of drool, she scooted her whole body around to see where it went. I dozed in and out of sleep for a little while, as she talked to the pillow and scooted herself all over the bed. Usually when she "talks", it's because she's bored and is trying to entertain herself. She almost never makes her cute little gaa-ba-la-eeeee-tha-tha sounds when other people are around.

After we were up and around, I laid her on the floor of the nursery on a blanket, as I went through her sock drawer to weed out the teeny-tiny ones that keep pissing me off when the slide off of her chunky feet. She was all over the place! Forget trying to keep her on the blanket. She was off rolling and scooting across the carpet in no time. Gosh. It really seems this whole scooting thing happened over night! She is napping on the king mattress on the floor of our bedroom right now. I'm on my way to the nursery to take that mattress off of the frame and box springs and put it on the floor.

I think I forgot to mention that she can roll both ways now. She started off being able to roll back-to-tummy (which is opposite of how most babies do it) and DH informed me recently that she can roll tummy-to-back now. I hadn't even noticed. But sure enough....yes, she can!

Labels: firsts

Labels: pics of scout

A reader had asked about my sister's surrogate pregnancy and how it all went down, so I thought I'd retell the story and update y'all.

About 5 weeks after I got pregnant, she was implanted w/ 4 embryos of a couple who live across the country from her that can't have children naturally. Only one embryo "took" and she gave birth to the couple's beautiful baby boy in May. My sis really has a heart for couples that need surrogates to have their own babies. In that particular case, the couple had had 2 surrogate pregnancies prior to finding my sis and 2 beautiful children as a result. They had 4 embryos leftover from the previous transfers and they felt that it would be immoral to leave them frozen or destroy them. I guess they also decided that they couldn't bring themselves to donate them because they felt that they were already their children.

When my sister first decided to become a surrogate, she went through an agency, but couldn't seem to find the right couple for her. Most of them had stipulations in their contracts where she would have to agree to terminating the pregnancy in case of "unwanted multiples" (too many of the implanted embryos surviving) or in case of birth defects and abnormalities that might be diagnosed during the pregnancy. She was NOT willing to agree to such things. She met this couple, who share similar beliefs and she became very close with them. She ended up carrying their child for them FOR FREE. Can you believe that??? Now, that is selflessness! Of course, all of her medical expenses and travel were paid for. The baby's mom would frequently send my sis boxes of "goodies" and slip a $100 into an envelope and send it to her now and then. She also took her shopping for maternity clothes. The problem was, this couple had already spent their life savings on their 2 previous surrogate pregnancies and had absolutely no money left, but felt heartbroken that their embryos were just sitting in a freezer. My sister just felt it in her heart that she was meant to give these embryos a chance. My sis has remained in contact with the family and they are all great long-distance buddies.

In fact, I live about 3.5 hours away from this family and when my sister comes down to visit (she's getting here this Saturday! Yay!), we are all going to drive over there and spend a couple days with that family and see my sister's "surro-babe", as she refers to him. I've seen pics. He's a cutie.....and a monster!! He weighs 2 lbs more than Scout and he is 5 weeks younger than her!

My sister's husband was a real trooper through the whole thing. He wasn't really on board at first, but came around eventually. My sister wants to DO THIS AGAIN! This time, she is going through an agency and will get paid. She just let the agency know that she is not willing to terminate and they will look for a couple with the same beliefs. She's hoping to find a couple soon and do an embryo transfer after the first of the year. Her husband seems like he is more on board with this next go-round and admitted that he sort of felt left out of the whole process last time and would like to have a more active roll next time.

She has 3 children of her own and has had her tubes tied, so they are done having kiddos. They feel like their family is complete, but my sister says that she just thinks her body was made to have children (all 4 of her pregnancies were healthy and quite uneventful) and that it is a gift that God gave her so she can help people that can't have children naturally.

Many people in my family were not fond of the idea. I was supportive, but I was also afraid that my sis was being taken advantage of and that she would regret doing such a huge selfless thing for free. It all worked out in the end, but I'm glad she is opting to get paid for her services next time. It is such a huge thing to share your body with a family, providing a place for their baby to grow for 9 months....I think it deserves A LOT of monetary compensation!

It's funny how many people she had asking her throughout the pregnancy, "Won't you have a hard time giving the baby up?" I guess they just didn't understand that the baby was in no way biologically related to her. It was made from that couple's sperm and egg and was essentially a baby before it was even implanted into her womb. She was just the "oven", so to speak. She still gets people asking her if she has had separation issues and if she is upset about giving the baby away. She gets really annoyed by that. "Gees, haven't you people ever watched Friends??" is her frustrated reaction to their ignorance. LOL :)

Labels: family, surrogacy

Sorry if I am repeating myself here. I just can't remember if I have described our current sleeping arrangements to you yet.

We have a king size mattress on the floor of our bedroom. Perfect for co-sleeping with a baby. There's plenty of room between daddy and baby, so daddy's bony elbows aren't a threat. And it's only a few inches off of the ground, so if she ever rolled off, it wouldn't be a big deal. Perfect, except baby hardly ever sleeps in that bed.

When we got the king mattress, we moved our queen size bed into Scout's nursery. We figured it would be nice to have it double as sort of a guest room, since Scout never slept in there. For probably a couple months now, I 've been nursing Scout to sleep on the queen bed in the nursery for naps and for the first stretch of sleep at night because it is quieter back there. Our bedroom is close to the front of the house and even with the door shut, the sound of people going in and out of the front door and the dog growling at the mailman were disrupting her sleep.

When I first started doing this, Scout would go to bed at around 9 PM and I would stay up until her first night-waking around 1:30 or 2 AM and then I'd bring her to our bed with me. Gradually, her first waking got later and later. I found myself staying up until 3:30 AM a few times because I didn't want to wake her, but I also didn't want to go to bed without her. So, I started sleeping in her bed until her first waking at which point we might join DH in the king size bed.

I've noticed for a while now that she sleeps for much longer stretches if no one is in the bed with her. The other night, she was being a booger and didn't go to sleep until midnight. I fell asleep in the recliner in the living room around 2 AM with the baby monitor next to me. I woke up at 9:30 AM and realized that she hadn't fussed for me at all during the night. I was a little startled and went in her room to check on her. Of course, she was just snoozing away. She didn't get up until a little after 10 AM, and that's only because we woke her up to go to church.

This would make most parents happy. But it makes me sad. I love sleeping with my husband and baby all in one big bed.

Last night, I crawled into bed with her around midnight. She woke up at 2 AM to nurse and she nursed for a long time. I was kind of groggy so I'm not sure how many times exactly, but it seems like she woke up quite a few times last night. Sometimes, she does a good job of finding the boob on her own, but most of the time she fully wakes up and is all bright-eyed and kicking around when she wakes up to eat and I have to position her to nurse and it takes her a while to calm back down and fall asleep again. I got out of bed at 6 AM because it seemed like as long as I was laying next to her, she would keep waking up to nurse. She's still sleeping peacefully right now and I bet you a million dollars that she will stay asleep until I wake her up at 9:00 to go to her hearing test appointment.

I suppose I should be happy that I'd probably be free to sleep 8 hours or more in my own bed without her if I wanted to. But I'm not.

DH asked why couldn't we just put her crib in our bedroom with us. In theory, this is a great idea, but since she is a very light sleeper, I doubt that she would stay asleep if I tried to pick her up and put her in the crib after nursing her down on the bed. It seems that a co-sleeper bassinet would come in handy in this situation, but even that didn't work for us. Before I sold ours, we never used it because just scooting her a few inches over into the bassinet would wake her up. She is such a light sleeper. Sometimes she even wakes up if I pull a blanket up over her legs.

I suppose another solution would be having both the queen bed and the king mattress in our bedroom so she has her own separate space where I can nurse her to sleep, but still be in the same room with us. The only problem with that setup is the noise factor in our bedroom. (And it wouldn't work if we switched bedrooms, because her nursery is not big enough for a king and a queen bed. )

I don't really mind sleeping in her bed, but it's obvious that she can't have peaceful uninterrupted sleep when she can feel my presence in the bed with her. On the other hand, I have read that it's perfectly normal for babies to get most of their nutrition at night, so maybe it's not a bad thing that she wakes up to nurse when I'm lying next to her, I dunno.

I would also like to be able to sleep next to DH every now and then.

I guess I need to think about this a little more and come up with a solution.

Until then, here is a pic of our little sweetie playing in the floor.

Labels: baby sleep, pics of scout, the family bed

Here's a pic of me and my little girl. As you can see, she totally soaks her clothes in drool. After it dawned on me that I've been changing her out of her sopping-wet clothes like 6 times a day, I decided that it's time for her to wear a bib on a full time basis. Duh, mom. Why didn't you think of that before??



Unlike her mommy, Scout loves to get her picture taken.



Well, we thought long and hard about giving her solids and decided to just feed her plastic dishes instead.



Actually, my sister, her husband, and their 3 kids are coming to visit in a week and my little 6 -year-old niece wants to feed Scout sooooo bad. I thought it would be okay if I pureed a little bit of sweet potato and let my niece spoon a tiny bit into her mouth, just to make her feel special. If we keep offering her solids after that cute little ceremonial Scout's-first-solids-fed-to-her-by-her-cousin bit, we will go more towards the self-feeding route.

I'm very excited about my sis and her family coming to visit. She is a little less than 2 years younger than me and we've always been extremely close. We shared a room until I was 13 years old. We were in all of the same extracurricular activities through school and often hung out with the same friends. She is my only biological sibling. I have lots of step brothers and sisters, but they all came into my life when they were already adults and I was in my late teens. I moved 900 miles away from my entire family when I was 19, so I guess I never really had a chance to get close to any of my step siblings.

My sister and I had always dreamed about growing up and having kids and living next door to each other. Our kids would be the best of friends and have sleep-overs and we'd all get together and cook hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill on the weekends. It didn't work out that way, which makes me a little sad. But that just makes the time I do get to spend with my sister even more fun. We talk on the phone almost every day and we get to see eachother "in real life" about twice a year. It's just not enough.

They get to stay for 2 weeks, but I know it'll just fly by.

Labels: family, firsts, food, pics of scout

We ended up going to see the pediatrician today instead of yesterday because my car died on the way there yesterday. Even though it was inconvenient, I couldn't have asked for more favorable conditions for having car trouble. DH was with me because he had a dental appointment near the pediatrician's office. About halfway into our 45 minute drive, we pulled into a Wal-Mart gas station to fill up and then the car wouldn't start after that. If you're gonna get stranded somewhere, the best place for it to happen is Wal-Mart. DH was able to buy tools to remove the battery and take the battery over to the tire & lube to get it tested. It was still good, so DH figured the starter had gone bad. He remembered an old trick that a mechanic friend had taught him. For some reason, if you crawl up under the car and whack the starter with a wrench as hard as you can while someone else turns the ignition, it will probably start back up again. It worked, so we were able to get some errands done and pick up a new starter.

Scout was a trooper through the whole thing and didn't protest too much during the almost 3.5 consecutive hours we were in car. We took a nursing break and got to walk around a bit while DH was figuring out what was wrong with the car, so I think that appeased her.

Anyway, the visit with the pediatrician went well. He was Mr. No-personality and hardly cracked a smile the whole time we were there, but I still liked him better than the last guy we saw at her one-week check. I like that he is an older gentleman....reminds me of the doc my sis and I went to from the time we were born until we were 18 years old.

At this office, she will see the same doc every time, as opposed to the last place, where there were 9 docs and a couple of nurse practitioners. I didn't like the fact that you could request to see a specific doc if you wanted to, but 9 times out of 10 your request was was futile and getting the one you requested was a crap shoot. (according to a friend who used to take her child there)

This new doc seemed unphased with the fact that we are either going to delay vaccinations or skip them entirely and only told me his opinion after I asked him. He told me that he doesn't deny that there are some risks involved with immunizations, but he feels than the benefits outweigh the risks. I figured that would be his stance and that's fine. The nurse or MA or whatever she was, who had walked us back to the exam room and took Scout's temp, weight, etc, was a little less understanding about us forgoing shots. It didn't bother me. She was very young and didn't have a very professional demeanor anyway.

Her: So, did she get her Hep B shot in the hospital?
Me: No, we declined all injections while we were there.
Her: (with an astonished look) So, you're not getting any shots at all?
Me: No.
Her: (frowning and confused) Then, why are you here?
Me: She hasn't had a check-up since she was a week old. I thought it would be a good idea to bring her in for a well-baby visit.

I guess in her mind, it's only worth bringing your kid in for a check-up if shots are involved. Weird.

I told the pediatrician that we were thinking about starting Scout on solids pretty soon and that we plan on mashing up fresh fruits and veggies for her to taste (one at a time, of course). His response was that he normally recommends starting babies out on rice cereal at 3 months of age. Hhhmm...

That is contrary to what I've been hearing at LLL mettings and reading on breastfeeding info web sites. Here is an excert from Kellymom.com:

"Cereal is not at all necessary, particularly the baby cereals. Regular (whole grain) oatmeal is more nutritious for your baby. Many doctors recommend iron-fortified rice cereal as baby's first food because it is less likely to cause an allergic reaction and because most babies sometime after the 6th month require an additional iron source other than mother's milk. If your baby starts solids around 6 months or later, there is much less chance of allergic reaction to foods. It's debatable whether healthy breastfed babies need the extra iron (you can get baby's iron levels checked if you're worried about this). In addition, infants need lots of protein and cereal has a low protein-calorie ratio (even lower when mixed with water or fruit). Many experts (including LLL) suggest giving meat or other foods naturally rich in iron instead of foods with added iron. For more information on iron, see Is Iron-Supplementation Necessary? "

I know that you can't trust everything you read on the internet. Some pages out there can be downright flaky, but I tend to trust most of what Kellymom has to say about breastfeeding and nutrition because they always provide lots of links to studies and sources for their info at the bottom of the page. They're not just pulling it out of thin air, as far as I can tell.

Anyway, I also showed him Scout's diaper rash and told him that I'm paranoid that it could be yeast. I had read that yeast feeds on cornstarch and if you use a corn starch-based baby powder and it causes the rash to flare up, then it is more than likely yeast. It seems like it did get more inflamed after I used powder on her, but it's hard to tell because the rash comes and goes, whether or not I'm using cream or powder, or just leaving it alone. He looked at the rash and said, "Oh, that's nothing. Just put some Desitin on it." I guess I will force myself to trust him and assume that he knows what a yeast infection looks like...but it just seems like he totally dismissed what I said about the yeast-cornstarch connection. I'm really tempted to take matters into my own hands and just put some OTC yeast infection cream on the rash to see what happens. Another thing that makes me suspicious is that when she has her diaper off, she sometimes reaches down and scratches it. But she may just be curious about how her diaperless hoo-ha feels, I dunno.

Scout weighed in at 15 lbs 12 oz, which is lighter than what I thought she'd be. I weighed her at last month's LLL meeting and she weighed over 16 lbs. Then again, when I weigh her at the LLL meetings, she usually has clothes on. There is another LLL meeting tomorrow and I plan on stripping her down to a clean dry diaper like when she was at the doc's office to see how much their scales differ.

The doc said her weight, height, head circumference, etc all looked great. I didn't bother to ask about percentiles. I guess I don't care. As long as she seems healthy and is growing fine, I don't see the point in comparing her to other babies.

We never had a hearing test done on her because the hearing tester thingamajig at the hospital where I delivered her was on the fritz and I never scheduled an appointment to get it tested. I know, that's horrible. The doc's office called and got us in to see an audiologist to get it tested on the 24th. I've never had any cause for concern because she has always startled at loud (and not-so-loud) noises and constantly turns her head in the direction of sounds. It's better to be safe than sorry, though.

Labels: health

My edges are getting A LOT neater. I really enjoyed doing this little practice piece. I used this pattern, but I kind of goofed after making 2 rows of the blocks..... I accidentally started making them 4 stitches wide and 6 stitches tall (as opposed to 4 x 4, like they're supposed to be). I liked the way the 4 x 6 blocks looked better, so I just went with it. I ended with 2 rows of 4 x4 blocks to make it look like I did it on purpose. I think I may actually turn this little swatch into something practical, like a coin purse. I'll just fold it in half and sew up the sides. I think I have a little scrap of satin to make a lining...and I may even have a zipper (although, probably not the right length). I'd like to embellish it somehow, but not sure with what. It would look darling with some little felted flowers or something, but I don't know how to do that yet.





Yesterday, I took our shower door down and replaced it with a shower curtain. For one thing, I hate the noise that the shower doors make when they're rolling on the tracks. I know, that's pretty stupid. But it's just not a pleasant sound. Another reason I hated having sliding shower doors was that they are not conducive to bathing a baby. Our toilet is right beside the tub, on the side closest to the faucet. Even though Scout is far from being able to sit up in the tub by herself, I know that the day will come when bending over the toilet to reach the faucet all twisted-like because the sliding door is in the way will NOT be fun.

Scraping the caulk that lined the door off of the tub and tiles was a pretty tedious job, but the results were worth it. It looks a lot more light and airy in there now. One side of the sliding shower door was a mirror, so when you were in the shower, it was pretty dark. Now, there is an opaque curtain that lets plenty of light in.

Blah blah blah....Sorry..... Like you really want to hear about my bathroom :)

Tomorrow is Scout's second ever appointment with a pediatrician. (oops - I mean, today...I'm up way too late!) She hasn't been since she was a week old. She will be 5 months old in 2 days. I'm nervous and I'm not sure why. I heard from an acquaintance that this particular doctor is very respectful of (but probably not in favor of, I'm assuming) the decision not to vaccinate or delaying/selectively vaccinating. I'm not sure what to say when it comes up or if it will even be an issue. I don't want to totally dismiss his thoughts on it and I definitely don't want to send out the "To hell with what you think, Doc" vibe...but I also want to stand my ground and not let anyone pressure me into giving my daughter injections that I'm not totally convinced are safe.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Labels: health, knitting

It was a little chilly this morning, so I put some legwarmers on Scout while I was changing her diaper. I was too lazy to go to the other room to get an outfit, so I grabbed a shirt out of a pile of 12 month and 2T size clothes my mom sent me because it was within reach. We went out on the front porch so Scout could watch the cars go by (that's one of her favorite things to do). It was a bit windy, so we ran back inside and I saw that the only sweater she owns that would fit over her huge toddler shirt is a big teal crochet sweater that was mine when I was a baby. I tossed it on her and we went back outside. As we were sitting there, I looked at her and realized that she looked like a clown.....albeit, an adorable little clown.

Labels: clothes, pics of scout

I can tell I'm going to really like this whole knitting thing. I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like I've been doing it my whole life. And I haven't. I don't think I had ever even touched a knitting needle before this. I'm not saying that I feel like I've knitted before because I'm great at it or something...because I'm NOT...but just because the needles just feel natural in my hands.

I'm a little frustrated with how my edges have been turning out. One edge of my practice sample seems relatively neat and tidy, while the other is a train wreck. Also, there are some wonky stitches smack dab in the middle of my pretty stitches and it's just irking me that I don't know how to correct them. It's not like this is a project or anything...I'm just practicing...but I'm anal retentive and want my practice pieces to look absolutely flawless just 3 days after picking up the needles for the first time. I know. Ain't gonna happen. I wish I lived closer to one of you knitting mommas because I really NEED a real life knitting mentor to take me under her wing. The one person in my life who is a fantastic knitter is someone I only see once every 6 months or so....and she is more of an acquaintance. Actually, fantastic knitter or not, she's the only one I know.

Hhhmmm...I wonder about knitting lessons at the yarn store where said acquaintance works part time? Definitely worth looking into. Will DH go for it? I don't know. He might, if I present it as part of my business plan (which it is). It is my dream to eventually make and sell high-quality cloth diapers, and now if I get good enough at knitting, wool baby items as well. It almost seems unatainable, but I feel more determined about this path than I have about any of the other hairbrained business venture we've ever come up with. It's probably because I am passionate about cloth diapers (shut up, I know I'm a loser) and I've ALWAYS wanted to earn a living selling the fruit of my hands in some way, shape, or form. I need a couple of really nice machines and some quality fabrics and dyes to mess around with so I can come up with a product. The business end of things overwhelms me...but I think having a Hyena Cart or an Etsy page would be so wonderful.

Here are pics of my discombobulated knitting:




If you're wondering if my title is a Flight of the Conchords reference, it is...and you are cool for knowing that.

Labels: knitting, wahm business

Funny story - Scout and I went over to a friend's house today. She had a couple mommas from church and some other homeschooling mommas over to make cookies and hang out and teach the older kids how to make friendship bracelets. Anyway, one of my older friends (well, not really THAT old....maybe 45-ish) was holding Scout and she said "Awe, you wanna get down in the floor and play with those big kids, don't you?"

So she got down in the floor and sat Scout down and just LET GO!!!!! Of course, Scout immediately flopped forward and did a face-plant into the floor, since she can't sit up by herself yet. She cried for a second, but after the lady grabbed her up very quickly and comforted her, she seemed unphased and happy-go-lucky. The lady felt so embarassed. It happened too quick for me to react. I just kind of chuckled and said, "Oops...yeah .... she can't sit unassisted yet. I should've warned you." The thing that is weird to me is that she has 2 children of her own.

I know they are almost grown, but it seems that she would've known that most almost-5-month-olds can't sit up by themselves. I guess she forgot. She also asked me if she is crawling and standing up on her own. Ummm...No. Poor baby. I guess I know now not to assume that all mommas know how to handle a small baby :)

Labels: outings

So far, I've learned how to cast on, how to knit, and how to bind off. Here's a pic of my little practice strip I was working on last night:



Not pictured: The crazy lumpy stitches that looked like I was knitting while smoking crack.

Today, I'm going to work on learning how to purl so I can combine that with what I already know and end up with a stockinette stitch. Woot.

I feel like I'm catching on pretty quickly, except I don't really have any concept of WHAT I'm doing. I mean, I am following the instructions in the books Wendy sent me, and I'm benefitting from watching the videos on Knittinghelp.com....but if some stitches slide off of the needle or I lose my place and forget what I'm doing, I can't recover from it. Hence, the aforementioned crazy crack pipe stitches. I'm sure it'll all click and I'll eventally realize the mechanics of it all.

It's kind of like what I've heard DH say about playing bass guitar. He knows how to play several songs because he's good at memorizing them...but when it comes to actually knowing WHY he's hitting those notes and being able to improvize and go off and play in the key of E or something, he's oblivious.

I have laundry and other things that need done, but all I want to do is sit here and learn how to knit. Have I mentioned that I have an addictive personality?

Labels: knitting

Putting Scout to bed at 7:00 last night backfired in my face because she was up and ready to face the day at 4:30 AM. Yikes. I laid in bed next to her for a long time as she rolled around and pinched my boob and pulled my hair. That must mean, "Wake up, mommy!" in baby language. Actually, what initially woke me up was that she was giving me a hickey (no joke!) on the side of my booby. She had rolled onto her tummy and lifted herself up to suck on random spots of mommy's arm and chest. I kept trying to nurse her back to sleep, but she wasn't sleepy at all. It wouldn't have been so bad, but my night-owl self went to bed after 2:00 AM.

I got up and let her roll around on the floor as ate a bowl of cereal and sat at the computer. when it was time to start getting ready for church, I decided that it would be a bad idea to leave the house since I was a zombie and Scout was ready for a nap. DH went off to church and the baby and I went back to bed around 10:30 and got up at 1:30 in the afternoon. Ahhh. Refreshed!

She took an hour nap right before we went to the evening service at church and now she's a little sleepy, but not quite ready for bed (I tried). I bet she'll go to sleep around 10:00 or so.

Here's a pick I just snapped of her. Pretty chipper for 9:00 at night, eh?



BTW, that red bump on her forehead is a mosquito (or some sort of bug) bite. Ick!

Labels: baby sleep

First cast-on, y'all.



Scout went to bed at 7:00 pm because her nap schedule got all wonky today. After that, I made grilled cheese and roast beef sandwiches, baked beans, and a spinach salad for dinner. After we ate, I learned how to cast on while DH and I sat in the family room and watched the making of Metallica's Black Album.

Yeah, Saturday nights are wild around here. We know how to party like rock stars.

Labels: knitting

I just received a package full of knitting supplies in the mail from Wendy over at Well Mannered Frivolity today. What a sweetheart! I was whining about how I want to learn how to knit, but am too broke to buy stuff to get me started. I really have the best bloggy pals. Oh yeah, and what's a beginner's knitting kit without Hello Kitty lip gloss and a box of Chinese rice candy? She thought of everything.

Labels: gifts, knitting

I've been wanting to start sewing diapers again and I found a great pattern to get me back into the swing of things: Rita's Rump Pockets is a totally free pattern for a one-size fitted pocket diaper. It has no fasteners and is not waterproof, which can either be good or bad things, depending on what you prefer. I actually like that it has no fasteners. Velcro gets on my nerves for some reason (maybe because it always ends up looking dingy and lint-covered) and snaps that are diaper-worthy are only possible to put on with a fancy expensive snap press (which I don't have....yet) Being able to pin it with just one diaper pin in the front makes changes fast and the fit is totally customizable. For smaller babies, flip the wings/back edge of diaper down to make the rise shorter. I often have Scout in a coverless fitted diaper around the house to allow her skin to breathe, so I don't mind diapers that do not have a waterproof barrier. It doesn't have any sort of absorbant layers attached to it, either. (Okay, so it's more like a "shell" than a diaper) You can stuff the pocket with whatever you desire....an infant prefold, a microfiber towel, a dish cloth, a couple of dirty socks...

Here are a couple pics:





I think it turned out pretty decent, considering that it was my first time following this particular pattern. The inner and outer are both flannel. I would love to get some minky, microfleece, or cotton velour for the inner next time....maybe even some bamboo. I'd also like to try my luck at using some old t-shirts for outers...although, I'm sort of nervous about using a knit because working with t-shirt knits tends to piss me off a little.

I don't really stuff my diapers with dirty socks, by the way. They are almost always clean.

Labels: cloth diapering, sewing

Here are some pics of my little sweetie. I was inspired by the darling clips of Bailey over at twolinesonastick to try and figure out how to rip footage from our video camera onto the computer and onto YouTube so I can share some scenes of Scout bathing, playing, etc. Our video camera is somewhat of a dinosaur though (I can't complain - it was given to us) and is not very accomodating when it comes to doing fancy computery things....like uploading video. DH is downloading some software that will hopefully take care of all that.

Labels: pics of scout

I just took inventory of our diaper stash last night. Here's what we have:

DIAPERS
+++++++++

6 Tinkle Traps prefitteds(2 purple serged, 2 pink serged, 2 rainbow serged)*
6 Regular unbleached indian prefolds
1 PeeWell fitted (pink geometric print)
1 Mother-ease one-size organic
1 Mother-ease one-size dry
18 Baby BeeHinds Bamboo one-size fitteds (1 blue, 2 purple, 2 orange, 13 pink)
1 Baby BeeHinds Hemp one-size fitted (rainbow serged)

1 BumGenius one-size 2.0 pocket (butter yellow)
1 SnuggleButtz AIO (baby pink w/ flower embroidery)
1 Sumbuns pocket (baby purple w/ dragonfly embroidery)*
1 Jollybums AI2 (baby pink)*
1 Bottom Bumpers AI2 (chocolate w/ flower peace sign embroidery)
1 JamTots Berry Plush AI2 (lavendar)*

COVERS
++++++++

1 Mother-ease Airflow (butter yellow)
1 Bummis Super Whisper Wrap (white)
1 Baby BeeHinds PUL wrap (hot pink)
1 Wiggle Worms Bottoms snap wrap (retro cherries on blue)
1 Loveybums wool jersey wrap (teal w/purple inner)
1 Loveybums wool interlock wrap (natural w/mint serging)
1 Baby BeeHinds wool wrap (natural)
1 Stacinator stretch wool wrap (sage)

EXTRAS
++++++++
2 Mother-ease Dry doublers
2 Cotton Babies microfiber inserts
1 Sumbuns microfiber towel*
8 homemade terry/flannel inserts
6 Jollybums velour wipes (hot pink)*
2 dozen cheap-o baby wash cloths
1 dozen flat gauze cloths
2 JMBS PUL drawstring wetbags (which I hate)

If you're wondering what happened to all the AIO's I made, I really can't use them now. They are sitting in my laundry room closet and I may harvest the PUL fabric from them to make some mama cloth. I made 6 or 7 AIO's for a friend who thought she wanted to use cloth diapers. She decided it wasn't for her and she gave them back. I guess since I am obsessed with cloth diapers and know all about how to care for them, I wrongly assumed that other people do too. When she gave them back to me, they were all moldy-smelling because she hadn't been getting them all the way dry in the dryer. Yuck. They also smelled like really perfumey detergent. In her defense, my design was pretty poor. I had sewn too much material into in the hidden soaker layer and they took eons to dry. I ended up not using the ones I had made for Scout very often because of that, and now she has outgrown them. Oh well. You live and learn.

Oh yeah, the items in my list marked with an asterisk are things I have ordered recently and are on the way. I LOVE fluffy mail!!! I sold off 7 of our 26 Baby BeeHinds bamboo diapers so I could diversify our stash a little. We needed a few good pockets and AIOs for the diaper bag, even though I think my favorite system right now is fitteds w/ wool.

I am DYING to buy some wool longies and shorties for Scout. It's just not in the budget. I've been visiting KnittingHelp.com quite frequently lately, just peeking at the instructional videos and wondering if I should try to learn how to knit. I'd really LOVE to eventually have the skills to make our own knit wool diaper covers. Even buying some beginner knitting supplies just isn't in our budget right now. Uugh.

I just have to brag on Tammy at Tinkle Traps. I scored a custom prefold-to-fitted conversion slot off of her hyenacart. I mailed her 6 unbleached indian prefolds and she turned them into this:




She took these pics and e-mailed them to me with the invoice before she mailed them back. I think that is a nice way to do business. She is great at keeping her customers up to date on what's going on with their orders at all stages of the game.

I love to sew and I know that I have the capabilities to turn prefolds into fitteds, but my serger sucks and chews my projects up and spits them out. I never got a new one like I had planned. Even if I did have a decent machine, I doubt that it would be one that could create stitching as professional-looking as Tammy's.....and by the time I purchased the fancy variegated thread and hemp and velour fabrics to make the soakers, I'd be out a lot more money than what I paid to have them made. That, and I'm lazy.

Here's Scout modeling the embroidered SnuggleButtz diaper:




Well, I think I hear her waking up in the other room, so I'd better stop blathering on about cloth diapers. Have a great weekend!

Labels: cloth diapering