Christmas Decorating: Year Two

I can't believe we decorated for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It was far too early to decorate for this family, but we did! And I'm sure you've been waiting all year for the reveal of this year's Christmas tree.

[Background on the tree - we decided to start a tradition of creating a Christmas tree every year.  For the full details, head over to last year's decorating post.]

This year's tree was inspired by... my child.  I thought it would be really fun to have a tree she could play with, as a way to start being involved in the Christmas season.

cost: $20

supplies: felt, embroidery floss, buttons, velcro

inspiration: here and here

So this one was definitely more expensive than last year's practically-free-tree.  This is largely due to my jumping in maybe a little too far to this project. *Wink*  Originally the plan was to just stick a 2D felt tree to the wall with ornament shaped felt pieces for her to mess with to her heart's content, but then I saw THIS.

And I had to make one myself.

Three weeks later, it's done.  And it's almost everything I dreamed it would be.

It's cute. 

Kiddo loves playing with it.

Unfortunately, so does the cat.

As a whole, I am really pleased with how this year's tree turned out.  While it did take three times as long to make as I had planned, the end result was something that was worth the pain both figuratively and literally.  The buttons have turned out to be a little advanced for Kiddo's fine motor skills, but I'm going to assume that won't be the case next year. This tree is definitely something that will be coming out each Christmas until it gets destroyed - hopefully by small children loving it to death and not by the cat jumping out from under it to scare the dogs.  

Cloth Diapers at 18 - 21 Months

I had the plan of slowing down these diaper posts, because I assumed that after a while, I would just be repeating myself with the same old boring nonsense.  And then the last three months happened.

So our child.   She is busy.  She is growing up.  I thought the time of rapid development was over once she turned 1 1/2, but I guess I was wrong.

Talking.  A lot.  Over the last month she has spoken at least one new word a day. Granted, most of them require some sort of translation, but hey!  Another job skill I get to add to my parenting resume.

Growing.  She finally is big enough to register weight on our scale at home.  So far she's gotten to a whopping 23 pounds.  She's also starting to fit in 2T size clothes.  [I believe this is the first she's ever been ahead in clothing sizes.]

giving the cat a good wipe down

Activity.  She loves to climb. on. everything. Unfortunately, she is still too short for most things in the house, but she has taken to climbing up and down the one chair she can for 20 minute stints on a daily basis.  I don't complain.  She also has taken to slides, and finally figured out how to scramble [slowly] up playgrounds and down slides all by her little lonesome.  Again, no complaints.  One thing we know for sure - she is not gifted in the area of physical prowess.  Slow and awkward is the name of this game.

bringing dinner to some friends.

Mimicking.  She wants to do everything I do.  Put dishes away, carry groceries in, pick up dog poo.  [I'm not kidding.  She was wandering around the house with a grocery sack pretending to pick up imaginary poo this morning.  Hilarious.]  Its made some things more fun, like singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider"and "Wheels on the Bus," but other things not so fun, like chasing me to the bathroom yelling, "Potty! Potty!"

Speaking of Potty.  I've sort of started the potty training process.  I think I got a little gung-ho about it when I read about moms completely potty training their 20 month old genius babies in a weekend.  We do have a potty, and I do have her sit on it regularly in hopes that sometime she'll accidentally potty in it, and then magically decide to potty train herself in a weekend.  I'll be happy to supply the bribery and wipes.

helping pin laundry

Cloth Diapers.  This kid has started soaking through diapers quite a bit.  I am storing away a couple brands [Fuzzibunz is the big one] because she leaks through them within an hour.  Night time leaking is a consistent issue.  We use the most absorbent diaper we own and stuff it with two hemp inserts in order to keep her sheets dry in the morning. Unfortunately, that system only covers one night of each wash cycle.

So we're starting to use disposables for the other two nights.  Maybe over Christmas we'll ask for more inserts to get back to completely cloth diapering.

Or maybe our kid will be potty trained by then.

In your dreams.

Adelle - 18, 19, 20 & 21 Months 

# of Children: 1

Gender: female

Size: 23 lbs, 32 inches tall

Average # of Diapers a day: 7

Laundry Schedule: Every three days.

Routine: pre-folds used during awake times [changed every 1.5-2 hours], all-in-ones during nap, all-in-ones with two hemp inserts at night or disposables

Diaper Size: One size diapers - middle/large settings, Thirsties covers - size 2, middle setting, Disposables - size  4

Leaking?: At night, sometimes during naps, and sometimes if she's in a diaper for too long.  We've worked through some solutions, including more regular changes, extra inserts, and using disposables, if need be.

How's the Poo?: Wildly variant, thanks to a couple colds and some weird meals her mother made her eat.  I've also had a few unscheduled bathroom clean-ups due to an over-pressured diaper sprayer and bad positioning on my part [if you catch my drift.  If you don't, its for the better.]

Did you Use Disposables?: Yes, two out of every three nights, and whenever she rashes up really badly.  Currently, we are fighting eczema around her lower back, which happens to sit right at the elastic on her cloth diapers.  Unfortunately, we have no choice but to put her in disposables until it completely clears.

Any Changes: She grew a whole lot, and because of that all of her diapers have gotten readjusted.  Did I mention she pees a lot more too?

Any Issues: Leaking. Ha.

Still Like Cloth?: Indeed.  Sometimes the leaking and the stinking and the changing sheets and pants gets old, but, man, I sure like not having to budget for diapers every couple of weeks.

Flying with a One Year Old

So an important part to note about the surprise weekend was that we flew up to Colorado, instead of driving [which is our usual mode of transportation. Smarter?  Not sure.  But it does allow us to bring more baby-necessary junk.].  Last time we flew, it was with an almost 4 month old.

It was possibly the worst flight of my life.

Not that the whole flight was all that bad - just the first 6 hours.  Really, most of the trauma came before we actually took off.  Like trying to change our child in her car seat a couple hours before going to the airport, which she peed all over.  Then trying to rinse and clean a car seat in a mall bathroom. Then dragging six suitcases around the airport with an over-tired infant. And her screaming the entire way through the busy check-in line.  And trying to change her in the airport. And trying to change ourselves in the airport.  And trying to convince her to fall asleep three hours after her usual bedtime.  And breaking down on the plane for the first hour because she just. wouldn't. fall. asleep.

Then she did, and all was well for the rest of that flight.

And I do apologize if I somehow scare you out of ever flying with an infant.  I don't think our experience is a normal one.  For one, we were moving from Hawaii back to the mainland [a 6 hour overnight flight], therefore dealing with a lot of extraneous circumstances - like being homeless for the afternoon leading up to the flight and carrying three months worth of living necessities in those six suitcases.

Anyway, with that experience in mind, this flight had me a little nervous.  However, this flight was much, much shorter.  And this time we had a toddler with some basic understanding of rules under her belt.

So I went to work looking up ways to prevent another worst flight ever.  I found this helpful post about flying with a toddler, along with good old Google and some advice from friends.

The three biggest tips I took from all my super-academic research were these:

[1] Wear them out before the flight.  Meaning, let them walk and run and climb until you step foot on the plane.  Dellie preferred climbing up and down the seats at the gate, which was both great for keeping her contained and for the amusement of everyone around us.

[2] Snacks are your friend.  Snacks kept her more occupied than any toys we had on the flight. We were recommended to finger snacks that would take a while to eat and weren't too messy.  Some were great [goldfish crackers], some were less great [lollipops and fruit roll ups turned out to be messier than I expected - silly me].

[3] Teach your child to sit in your lap without wiggling or climbing.  I know this is a hard one to teach a one year old, but having her understand and be able to sit still for even a couple of minutes made a world of a difference during the flight, especially during take-off and landing.

And what toys did we bring?

Books, play doh, small doll house pieces, a mess-free writing pad, the Jan Brett animal matching game [from the busy bag swap I did earlier this year], and her softie [not pictured].  I found the backpack [which is actually a lunch box] on clearance for a couple of dollars, and just let its size determine how much I packed up.  For a 1 1/2 hours flight, this amount was plenty.  In fact, we didn't pull the backpack out until the flight home - she was happy to eat and mess with the tray table the entire first flight.

Dellie was a lap child for the flight, which on one hand was a bummer - both flights were completely full, so no extra space - but on the other hand was nice, because we didn't have to try and explain why she needed to stay buckled and keep her tray up when the signs were lit.  Unfortunately, this will probably be the last time we get to fly with her in our laps.  We're becoming a real family that actually has to pay for tickets for each person!

Surprise Weekend Back Home

Last weekend, we went home to Colorado.

And we surprised everyone except my Mom [plus a couple other very good secret-keepers].

Why?  Because it was my Dad's 60th birthday.

waiting to get picked up

Dells with the birthday Grampa [left] and uncle John [right]

checking out the new lawn

a little big city lovin'

It was a very short weekend - only about 48 hours - and a little epic at points, but it was so much fun to surprise my Dad, see some beautiful mountain fall colors, and hang out with both our families for a couple of days.

Epic, you ask?  Why yes.  Our child, in typical fashion, knocked her head on the church steps while crawling around on Sunday.  However, she over-reacted to the pain, couldn't catch her breath, and held it for so long that she passed out.  Scariest three seconds of my life.  I think I suffered from it more than she did, though, and in the end, we still flew out that evening, no one the worse for it.

If you're at all curious how we survived the grueling hour and a half flight [that's a joke], I have a post to let you in on all our professional secrets [also a joke] in the works for the next couple of days.

Um, Hi.

Been awhile, it seems.

No excuses, really.  Life got busy and I'm pretty sure everyone in the house got sick repeatedly over the last couple months, and I honestly kind of enjoyed not bothering with this whole blogging thing.

But I'm back, and in the spirit of productivity thought I would share with you a couple of things [by which I mean, videos] that we [by which, I mean mostly my husband] made over the hiatus.

Without further ado, "Dudes" episodes 2 & 3.





If you're wondering about episode 1, it does exist.  Different actor for Harry, same character.  You know how pilots are. ;)

Cloth Diapers at 17 Months

This month's big announcement: our child no longer takes two naps.  About 2 weeks ago, she got really sick, and for days after she would not nap in the afternoon for anything.  I thought it was post-sickness-and-I-might-be-teething nonsense, but a friend of mine mentioned that our child might actually be done with two naps [since most kids are at this age].  I fought and fought and fought that our child still needs two naps .  She loves to sleep!  She is so happy when she's awake!  She usually goes down for naps perfectly! It's just teething!

Two nap-less afternoons later, Josh sweetly mentioned again that we should consider just trying one nap for the day.  If it doesn't work, so be it.

Turns out, Friend was right. Josh was also right.  We switched Kiddo to one nap and have never looked back.  This kid was so ready that it wasn't even a transition down to one.  For her, that is.  I've had to transition to early morning showers and actually getting up before my child wakes [terrible, I know].

In all seriousness, going down to one nap has been a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I was honestly terrified that I would lose what little time I used to have to myself in the mornings.  Instead, I've had to just shift it to before 7. And she still naps for a total of 4 hours in the day, its just now all in one chunk.  I think I can live with that.

Aaaaand...this actually does somewhat relate to our cloth diaper routine because the number we use in a day has changed.  We still use about 6 prefolds during the awake times, but now we only use 2 all-in-ones for 1 nap + 1 night. There has been some adjusting of the stash and all that and it has worked out pretty well.

Adelle - 17 Months 

# of Children: 1

Gender: female

Size: 20 lbs 12 oz, 31.25 inches tall

Average # of Diapers a day: 8

Laundry Schedule: Every three days.

Routine: pre-folds used during awake times [changed every 1.5 hours], all-in-ones during nap, all-in-ones with hemp insert at night

Diaper Size: One size diapers - middle settings, Thirsties covers - size 2, second smallest setting, Disposables - size  4

Leaking?: Two times - and it was really weird.  The covers were damp and stinky after being worn, like they had lost their waterproof-ness, and kiddo's pants got damp because of it.  Hasn't happened since, but I'm keeping a wary eye out.

How's the Poo?: Same, same. Gross and stinky and they always seem to show in the middle of nap.

Did you Use Disposables?: Yes, for a nasty rash that took a couple days to go away.

Any Changes: I feel like our child may be a weird size for some cloth diapers. A lot of her diapers wear low [like you can see things in front low] but still are loose-ish around the legs.  She is a pretty skinny kiddo, so it makes some sense why it happens.  Because of it, though, I do find myself messing with the snaps on a pretty regular basis now to try and find the right settings.

Any Issues: Last month I wrote that the laundry schedule was extending beyond what I was comfortable with [4 days of stink is tooooo much]. I did some re-organizing of diapers, and that along with the new sleep schedule has worked itself back into 3 days, on the dot. We now have a surplus of diapers, so the plan is to put our lesser favorites into storage.

Still Like Cloth?: Oh, sure.  You know I do.

The Week's Menu: Small Group Edition

This round of foodies is brought to you by: our church small group.  Read below to find out why.

Seven Layer Dip

The seven layer dip. Great for parties, the Super Bowl, and any night you're hoping to gain a few extra pounds.  We were the bringers of this delicious bowl for our small group a few weeks ago.  Easy, and gluten-free - all you need to do is layer guacamole, refried beans, sour cream, salsa, some tomatoes, olives, and cheese.  Don't forget the chips.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This dinner menu was inspired by [you guessed it] small group.  A turkey version was served for snack one week, and I like them enough I decided that I needed to give them another try.  After a weekend of family visiting [resulting in a full fridge!] I had just about everything to make my own lettuce wraps. I found the recipe linked above, which is supposed to be just like the wraps from P.F. Changs.  I don't know if its true, being that I've never had their wraps, but this stuff tastes pretty authentic restaurant. Josh claims its the secret ingredient in the sauce - ketchup. To make sure this recipe is gluten-free, use Tamari instead of soy sauce.  I also found that stir-frying the chicken/veggie mix in the special sauce worked better than spooning it over at the end.

To each their own, I suppose.

Enjoy!