We have an unholy love for cranberry sauce around here. I made 2 big bowls of it for Thanksgiving. Since those are long gone, it was time to make some more. The one on the left is my blind attempt at orange cranberry sauce. I didn't even bother to look up a recipe. I just figured adding oranges to the ingredients of original cranberry sauce would be sufficient. We'll see.



We have a bunch of peanut oil leftover from our fry-fest on Thanksgiving, so we are getting together with some friends tomorrow and having fry-fest, the sequel. We bought some frozen chicken pot pies and sweet potato cakes to fry. Not sure what else DH will find to emerse in the oil, but surely there will be more.

Other than a little bit of cranberry sauce, I will not be partaking, as I am back on the Weight Watchers wagon after falling off on Thanksgiving Day. At last night's weigh-in, I had gained 0.8 lbs. Shoot. But the woman that weighed me said that was actually very good for a post-holiday weigh-in. The way everyone was talking at the meeting, I don't think many people actually lost weight. The leader said that a good goal to have for this time of year is to just maintain your current weight and not worry about losing. I am going to be REALLY good these next few weeks between now and Christmas because I know that my visit with my family the week of Christmas will not be very Weight Watchers friendly.

Oh, by the way, I started out at 238.6 lbs when I started Weight Watchers 6 weeks ago and am at 226.2 as of yesterday.

Labels: family, food, weight loss

...Scout decides to start her day at 4:30 AM. And it's not like she went to bed early or anything. I think it was 10 or 10:30 last night. It wouldn't be so bad if she would've slept all the way through from 10:30 to 4:30. But believe me. She didn't.

Labels: baby sleep

Lookie what I got today!



My MIL bought it for me. She knows I've been wanting a new serger to replace my old crappy broken one for a long time. She made sure it has all the features I need and then ordered it the day before yesterday. Sure, many people think that Wal-Mart is evil, but dang they're fast with their online orders! I am really grateful. It was so sweet of my MIL to do that for me!

I haven't sat down to piddle with it yet. I've been organizing my sewing space and taking inventory of my fabric so I can figure out what my first project should be. The machine comes pre-threaded, but got all wonky and tangled during shipment. That's just as well, because I need to learn how to thread it on my own anyway.

Something else I received in the mail the other day:



It's a Bummi's Super Whisper Wrap diaper cover in the Flower print. I have a couple used plain white BSWW's that fit Scout really well, so I just couldn't resist this cute print. Scout seems happy about it. (don't ask me what she's wearing)



I am starting to get over my fear of Scout feeding herself. Since we started giving her solids at 6 months, we've been spoon-feeding purees and putting pieces of fruit in her mesh feeders. I do believe that there are a lot of benefits to letting babies feed themselves and wanted to go that route with Scout...but I just have not been able to get over the fear of choking. I know that proponents of baby-led feeding say that infants are much more likely to choke on purees than pieces of food that they bring to their own mouths and bite off (because "the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag"), but I just have a hard time wrapping my mind around that.

I recently steamed a butternut squash and gave Scout some chunks that she could easily fist and bring to her mouth. She probably only managed to get one or two bites in her mouth, but had fun playing in it and examining the texture. Tonight, DH and I watched as she brought chunk after chunk of squash up to her mouth to lick and take tiny bites. It was cute. She would poke the pieces on the table with her index finger, enjoying the squishiness. A few times, she got some big pieces in her mouth that made me a little nervous, but she spit them right out. We video taped part of it. Maybe I'll post that later.

Labels: cloth diapering, family, firsts, food, pics of scout, sewing, tough parenting decisions

I recently thought that Scout had a yeast rash, but it turns out that her girlie parts are sensitive to the polyester fleece that's in all the pocket diapers she's been wearing. I ruled out detergent build-up as a problem because the rash was happening with new and old pockets alike. Plus, I "stripped" all of our diapers with crazy-hot water and that didn't seem to work either.

I was sad, because I thought I was going to have to get rid of all of our recently acquired BumGenius and Fuzzibunz. But I found a great solution. For some reason, the fleece doesn't bother her bum or surrounding skin - just the front region. I have been laying 100% cotton prefolds inside of her Fuzzibunz and BumGenius dipes instead of stuffing the pockets, and the rash is gone!

We've also been doing a lot of snappi'd or pinned prefolds, fitteds, and wool.

Here's a pic of a dyed premium size prefold fastened with a snappi. Not the trimmest option, but very economical.


Fresh stack of diapers:



Scout likes to "help" me fold diapers:



And just because I think it's cute, here is her minky Blueberry one-size pocket diaper:

Labels: cloth diapering, pics of scout

Still tweaking my site. Please excuse the mess. I am thinking about trying to figure out a way to get my blog switched over to WordPress because DH is really familiar with it now that he's had to do a bunch of work-related WordPress stuff and could help me get my blog exactly the way I want it.
*****
It's a little late, but I thought I'd fill you in on our Thanksgiving. It was pretty nice. We went way overboard and deep fried 2 huge turkeys....and there were only 4 adults at our little get-together. Silly, I know. But now we have a bunch of delicious leftovers. Since we had the fryer going and all of that expensive peanut oil, we (I mean, the guys) decided to fry everything in sight. We fried Twinkies, candy bars, oreos, chicken pot pies, and even black licorice. All coated in a crispy funnel cake batter. Totally disgusting...yet somehow yummy. (Well, the black licorice was not yummy. I didn't try any, but DH did and he spit it out...and he's usually a fan of black licorice)

Of all the random fried things, I enjoyed the Oreos the most. Here is a pic of an Oreo and a Snickers:



Sweet potato fries:



Simmering turkey necks for the gravy:



It was difficult for me to fully relax and have a good time. We were over at some friends' house and I knew that Scout would not nap well while there. She is not the kind of baby that can just sleep anywhere. Sometimes I wish I could just lay her down in a Pack-n-Play and she would drift to sleep peacefully while sucking a pacifier. But that is not how she operates. The bedroom where I tried to lay her down for a nap was close to the kitchen, (small house - the other bedroom would've been just as noisy) and the sun was shining through the curtains, making the entire room glow. On top of that, was pretty warm in there. Scout is used to a cool, quiet, dark room when she goes to sleep. When I finally got her down, she stayed asleep for maybe 15 minutes....just long enough for me to fix my plate and sit down. (sigh) Needless to say, she was pretty cranky for the rest of our visit. We went home earlier than our friends really wanted us to, but Scout needed a nap so bad. When we got home, she only slept for 45 minutes. I don't know what her deal was.

Believe it or not, this pic was taken on the way to the festivities, BEFORE she got cranky:

Labels: food, general complaining, holidays, pics of scout

Under Construction

Wow. I have joined the 21st century and finally uploaded a video to YouTube. I'm an idiot and had totally forgotten that I can capture video with our digital camera. Our "camcorder" is kind of ancient, so we haven't gotten ambitious enough to convert that footage into the right format.

Labels: video of scout

Jae tagged me for this meme. I really enjoyed reading hers. Now, I'll try to scrounge up some interesting facts about myself!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

1. I HATE long fingernails on guys. I mean, it makes my skin crawl and turns my stomach. I have no idea why. It just grosses me out. Have you ever seen those infomercials or segments on the Home Shopping Network with Esteban the guitarist? He plays flamenco style guitar and has super long fingernails on his right hand for picking and strumming the strings. I can't stand to watch him. I could barely stand going to his website to grab the link. Ick! I'm pretty sure my husband is aware of my disdain for long fingernails on men, but he still lets his get WAY longer than he should sometimes. Stop it, DH!

2. Most of you probably already know this, but I drive a really ghetto car.

3. I was my high school class valedictorian. And just look at me now....a perfect picture of career drive and motivation.

4. My husband and I met online. On Yahoo Personals, to be exact. I tried to do a search on my previous posts to see if I have mentioned this before, but I couldn't find anything. I could've sworn that I've posted the whole story here before. Maybe not.

5. If you want to make me mad, do things that will wake up my baby. It makes steam shoot out of my ears. I have been known to kick and cuss at the dog for barking during Scout's naps. Not something I'm proud of, but true. If you are a guest in my house and you are talking too loud or you shut the bathroom door too hard while Scout is asleep, I will tell you to shut your pie-hole and smack you in the face.

6. I am a serious night-eater. I have problems. It's better now that I am on Weight Watchers but I used to eat everything in sight late at night while watching t.v. I still have those tendencies, only I just make sure I have plenty of points to use past 9:00 pm.

7. I own 2 pairs of shoes that I have had since I was in the 8th grade and I still wear them. They are both Converse Chuck Taylors, one blue pair and one burgundy pair.

I am tagging:
Two Lines on a Stick
Parenting in Progress
And Then There Were Four
Just Plain Blessed
ShooFlyPieAndGrits
Gladiator's Mommy
Well Mannered Frivolity

And anyone else who wants to join in. If I tagged you, please don't feel obligated to participate. If you don't though, you will have bad luck for seven year and get scabby boils all over your butt. I'm just sayin'.

Labels: me-me

BTW, Scout is 7 months old today!! In ways it has flown by. In other ways, it seems like so long ago that she was living in my body.

I have to say that I love love love being her mommy. It's especially enjoyable now that she is into playing and even exploring a little. Yesterday she was in the play room/my office and I was right next door in the kitchen. It's a nice set-up because I can see her from the kitchen and watch her play while I cook (I mean heat things up or open a box and dump it out) and clean.

She started out on one end of the room and rolled/scooted her way over to the toy bin and tipped it over so all the toys spilled out in front of her. She laid there on her tummy, picking toys out of the pile one by one. She would slobber on one, then lay it aside. Then she would grab another one and bang it on the toy bin and lay it aside. She would yell at the toys or just "talk" to them in a sing-song kind of way. This went on for a long time.

After that, she "helped" me fold laundry. She sat in the floor of our bedroom and gnawed on the laundry basket while I put socks and undies away. She loved reaching into the basket and carefully selecting a socks to pull out onto the floor. Occasionally, she would wave one in the air triumphantly.

Labels: being sappy, random thoughts

I got tagged by Jae, so I will work on that meme and get it posted it later :)

In the meantime, here are some pics to hold you over.

Labels: pics of scout

Scout has her first cold. I feel very blessed that as of tomorrow, she will be 7 months old, and she has never even had so much as the sniffles until now. But I still hate that my sweet little girl is all snorkly and gurgly. Poor thing HATES having her nose wiped. So on top of feeling crummy, she has to deal with mommy coming at her nose every 10 minutes with a wash cloth. Even more than getting her nose wiped, she despises the nasal aspirator.

I know it looks absolutely ridiculous, but I am seriously considering ordering a product I first saw featured at Thingamababy:

The Nosefrida Nasal Aspirator



If I do, I'm sure it will arrive when her cold is past the nose-full-of-snot phase, but after reading the rave reviews, I think it would be worth it to have one on hand for future snot-sucking.

Because I am cheap...er..I mean, innovative, I tried fashioning my own hill-billy Noefrida by taking the bulb off of a large baby medicine dropper and sucking the snot out that way. The shape and size of the medicine dispenser is pretty similar to that of the Nosefrida - the only things missing are the long tube and the snot filter. (I'm really not afraid of a little bit of baby snot getting in my mouth. I guess I'm just gross like that) I only tried it once before I decided that is was a bad idea. First of all, I don't like it that my face was 2 inches away from her face while I'm performing this highly irritating and maddening thing on her. If I'm going to make her that made, I don't want her to only view to be a close-up of mommy's face attached to the device that is torturing her. Seems like that would be disturbing. Second, I'm sure that the Nosefrida is designed the way it is designed for a reason. The fact that there is a long tube probably prevents the parent from sucking too forcefully.

Babies are expensive. We just bought a humidifier for her room last night and now I want this fancy Norwegian mucous collector? Gees. I guess we just love you that much, Scout.

Labels: baby gear, firsts, health

I am turning most of Scout's onesies into tee shirts. She has a long torso and has outgrown them by length (even some of the 9 month ones!), but the shoulders and tummy still fit great. I am not good at sewing knits, so they all have a ruffly looking hem. After playing with the stitch length and tension and whatnot, I decided not to fight it and pretend that I meant for them to have a decorative "lettuce edge". Good thing I don't have a boy, or all of his tee shirts would have ruffles. I did buy some onesie extenders a while back, but I just don't like the way they look if I don't put pants on over the onesie. When paired with a big fluffy cloth diaper, it reminds me of a thong. Thongs are never cute. Especially on a baby.

Labels: clothes, sewing

Scout has become a little clingy lately and it's kind of cute. She doesn't like anyone but her mommy and daddy to hold her. From what I've read and heard from other parents, that's pretty normal at her age.

I find myself getting irritated with the comments people at church make about her clinginess and crankiness. It just so happens that the Sunday morning service is right around the time that she usually takes her morning nap. Understandably so, sometimes she is not on her best game during that time. The Sunday evening service is a little better at the beginning, but as her bedtime approaches, her mood goes downhill fast. Apparently, people at church just think she should be all smiles all the time because I get a lot of comments on her moodiness. Okay, maybe not a lot, but enough for me to take notice and be annoyed with these stupid expections people seem to have.

I got very angry one morning when I was in the church nursery with Scout and a lady came in (who doesn't have any small children - I think she was just being a snoopy busybody and looking to paw some babies) while I was playing with Scout in the floor and hanging out with some other young mommies. Scout made a few pouty unhappy faces and fussed a few times while she was in there and she kept making comments (in a half-joking passive aggressive way) about how Scout is "picky" baby and is cranky, etc. I didn't say much except that she was just sleepy and needed a nap. She just went ON AND ON about how finicky Scout is and was making her out to be such a bratty prima dona.

Last night at choir practice, Scout was smiling and flapping her arms and having a good time and someone said, "Wow, she's actually in a good mood tonight!"

She gets overstimulated very easily. There are only so many times she can take a stranger getting close to her face and touching her hands and saying sweet things to her. They mean well, but it must be very exhausting and for her and can even get a little scary. We were at a local coffee shop and someone we know from church was in there and tried to shake her hand and talk to her and she started crying and acted very scared. I think it sort of offended him and he was like, "Gees, you need to take her out in public more often."

I'm not sure why all of these comments me so mad or why I take it so personally. I'm sure that people just don't think before they speak. Maybe one of the reasons why I find it so irritating is because people at my church are big on the idea that words carry much power. Meaning, if you keep labeling a situation a certain way, it will eventually mimic your speech. We've heard it preached a billion times: Life and death are in the power of the tongue. So thanks, folks, for continually slapping a "bad/fussy/cranky/picky baby" label on my little one!

Okay, and another gripe that is somewhat related...

Last night at choir practice (I don't even want to be in choir, but that's another post in of itself) a friend offered to hold Scout while I had to remain on stage with the other section leaders for a bit. I was perfectly content to hold her (like I had been all evening) and Scout was content too, but I thought it was nice to offer and my back was needing a break anyway.

When she asked, I said, "Sure! That would be great...if she'll go to you."
She was fine for a few seconds until my friend walked away and other people started getting up in her face trying to talk to her and make silly faces at her. She got really scared and distressed and started screaming loudly, so I immediately walked over to get her. My friend took a step back and said, "She's fine, I don't mind. You can go ahead. I can handle her."

I reached out my arms and took her and said, "That's okay. Thanks, though"
She laughed and said, "Sucker!" and some other people around her also chuckled at my eagerness to grab my baby up as soon as she started crying. I wish I wouldn't have said it like this, but for some reason, I laughed nervously and said, "I just can't let my baby cry like that." They all got a good laugh out of that and rolled their eyes as if to say, "Oh, you're one of THOSE moms."

I think that I may be in the minority of moms at my church who do not believe that a baby's cries should be ignored for the sake of getting them "used to" other people holding them. I just don't see the point or the benefit in letting my (nearly) 7 month old daughter stay scared and upset on purpose. I know there will be plenty of things that DH and I will have to do for her own good that will make her upset and cry throughout her childhood. She gets upset when I clip her finger nails. She throws a fit sometimes when I wash her hair. Lately, she's not a big fan of diaper changes. I'm sure she'll have her share of tantrums when we don't allow her to do things like touch electrical outlets or pull the dog's tail. When she's older, she might cry when we don't allow her to eat a bucket full of candy. Her heart will be broken when we tell her that she's not getting that $100 pair of jeans she wants. She'll probably be upset when we say "no" to letting her drive with 4 other teenagers in the car. Even though I don't enjoy upsetting her, there are certainly good reasons for doing all of those things.

But I can't think of a single reason why I should let my little baby be terrified just so a friend or acquaintance can hold her. I've heard several times from some of the older women (and by older, I mean women whose children are grown or nearly grown), "Oh, let her cry. It's good for her". Baloney. Babies need mommy and daddy. Even when I might know that she is perfectly safe in the arms of a friend, SHE doesn't know she's safe. If adults would just think about how it feels when THEY feel unsafe and vulerable and confused...maybe they wouldn't think it's okay cause their babies to feel that way.

I understand that there are times when parents need to leave their babies in the care of others and that transition can be difficult for both the parents and the child. But if I were in the position where I needed to start leaving Scout with a sitter, I would try to gently get her used to being with that person. If it meant her starting out spending just a few minutes at a time with that person so they could slowly build up a raport, I think it would be worth trying to avoid her feeling scared and abandoned. In my opinion, that's different than putting her in the arms of someone who is a stranger as far as she is concerned and walking away and letting her cry because "she needs to get used to being without mommy and daddy".

Labels: general complaining, tough parenting decisions

Scout just bit me on the boob for the first time. Oh my gosh. It. Hurt. Bad.
I was nursing her down for a nap, but the 15 minutes that she was asleep in her car seat on the way back from breakfast this morning must've refreshed her, because she was flailing her arms and and kicking toward the end of the feeding and I knew she wasn't going to fall asleep. Just as the thought, "She's just playing now" popped into my head, she bit down hard but let go fast. I gasped pretty loud, but I don't even think she noticed. She rolled onto her tummy and was ready to play. Gosh, those two little teeth are sharp!!

Danielle, you were so right. I guess it was inevitable and (sadly) it probably won't be the last time it happens.

Labels: firsts

So, pottying has not been going as well as it was when we first started. I used to catch almost every single poop and now, she is going in her diaper a lot. Her poops have gotten pretty unpredictable. She used to poop after her 2nd nap of the day like clockwork. Now, I have no clue when she is pooping - even WHILE she's pooping. She is a stealth pooper. I know the whole point of elimination communication is to read your baby's cues to know when they need to go potty, but I guess I haven't picked up on her signals just yet. She farts really big every time I sit her on the potty, so at least it's good for relieving gas!

DH just installed our new diaper sprayer and I love it! That thing blasts the poo into oblivion! No dunking and swishing for me, thanks. It was relatively inexpensive and I didn't have to pay for shipping. (Abby's Lane has free shipping on all orders until this Saturday) The box calls it a sanitary bidet and diaper sprayer. Whoa. I don't know that I would enjoy a fire-hose-blast of freezing cold toilet water shooting on my rear. But then, I've never tried it. Maybe I would.

Okay, well, you can adjust the preasure with the valve, so I bet it would've provided some post partum hurting hoo-ha relief. Oh, jet of cold refreshing water, where were you when my girlie parts needed you?? I can't wait to have another baby so I can try it. Just kidding.

Labels: cloth diapering, elimination communication

Here's Scout posing in one of the soakers (AKA wool diaper covers, for those not familiar w/ cloth diapering) that Annika made for her:



It's so soft and comfy. She wore the other one during her nap earlier and it worked great! The diaper inside was soaked, but outside, everything was bone dry. You know, before I started cloth diapering I never really pondered how people diapered their babies before the age of prefolds and plastic pants. I don't know much about the history of diapers, but I bet they just wrapped whatever cloth they had handy around the baby and covered it with some sort of homemade wool cover.

I'm off to waste time Googling about diapering in the olden days....

Labels: cloth diapering

I forgot to post a pic of Scout in her Halloween costume. We didn't have anything special to do on Halloween and it was a church night, so we didn't stay home and pass out candy. But I thought it would be sad if she didn't get dressed up at all for her first Halloween, so I threw a hand-me-down Humpty Dumpty costume on her and took a few quick pics. She hates getting dressed and undressed sometimes, so I didn't want to press my luck by fiddling with the costume too much.

Looks like Humpty lost an arm in the Great Fall.

Labels: firsts, holidays, pics of scout

In the spirit of this post, I just ordered a couple of 100% natural rubber pacifiers for Scout. She has never liked pacifiers (despite my best efforts to get her to try them during her fussy first month), but she has recently taken to chewing on them. She loves to bite down hard and scrape her teeth on the pacifier as she yanks it out of her mouth. (Oh Lord, please don't ever let her do such mean things to mommy's nipples!) I think she likes the squeeky noise as her tiny teeth bounce off of the paci with each bite. She also likes to hold the nipple part of the paci and gnaw on the handle. Once in a while she will actually use it for its intended purpose for about 5 seconds.

But, if I'm going to such great pains to replace her cheap plastic play things with more natural alternatives, then it's pretty silly of me to let her chomp on a piece of plastic and silicone/latex all day long.

These Natursutten pacifiers are kind of expensive at $5.99 + shipping. And only after I hit the "confirm and place order" button did I notice that the item descriptions states that these pacifiers should be replaced every 4-5 weeks due to their natural quality.

But the ones I'm ordering will hardly be subjected to any rigorous sucking (if at all), so I'm wondering if I could push the limits on the suggested "expiration" date. I am not familiar with natural rubber, so I don't know what it does if used past 4-5 weeks. Maybe it turns into a pumpkin.

Oh yeah, and (not that she uses them very often anyway, but) I'm trashing all of her polycarbonate bottles (Avent Naturally), which contain the icky plasticizer bisophenol-A and recently replaced them with Gerber Clear View bottles, which are made of a safer material called polyproylene.

Labels: baby gear, health, safety