Two Days of Grace, and an update

Yesterday (Day 16)
1. Making Scrambled eggs, I haven't forgotten how to cook completely
2. Owen coming home early because he finished his mid-terms
3. Going to Splash Town with Owen and Emery
4. I got to take a looooooooooooooong shower!
5. Early bedtime for all


Today (Day 17)
1. Early chillax time with Emery cause he was soooo fussy this morning (the molars are almost through!)
2. Getting prettied up cause today...
3. I had an interview!!!!
4. Mother in-law watched E for me while I went to be questioned.
5. Emery napping with Owen so I can blog.


After typing all this out, I realized that I haven't been updating regularly about Emery and what he's been up to lately.

He's a walking machine! He's practically running, and he can climb like nobody's business.
He signs more, eat, flower, dog and bath. He says: hello, no-no, mama, apo(apple), da(dad), guh(grandma), guh-da(grandad), kee(kitty), bah(ball), dah(dog), wah(water), shoe, go, bee-buh(bellybutton), and up. He also blows kisses and waves to anyone he sees when we leave a place, or a room. Very cute, yet unnerving when he's waving and blowing kisses to strangers. I love every minute of it! Wow. 15 words, that's impressive!
He's also showing interest in potty training. He almost never poops in his diaper, and most of the time we catch him before he pees in his diaper. As far as breastfeedign goes..... he nurses a lot in the morning, and when he falls asleep at night. Sometimes he'll wake up to nurse around 4 in the am. His daytime nursing is down to naps, and ouchies. I think he's well on his way to weaning. :(

Two weeks to go...

It's March so we are officially out of here in two weeks. Oops. Two weeks? We have soooo much to do! Has anyone seen Emery? I know he's around here somewhere.....

February has come and gone. I love February. I guess it's because it's my Birthday month, and it's the shortest month so that makes it unique. Alot happened in February. Emery turned 10 months old. The next day he took two steps, that hasn't happened since, but I know he can do it. He outgrew all of his 9 month clothes and the majority of his 12 month clothes. He learned how to say kitty, and cat. He also learned how to wave bye-bye, sign "more" (but he doesn't always use it), drink from a straw, climb (and he climbs quickly and well!), and make the Indian noise (I'll post a video later).

Valentine's Day was wonderful! Owen made Duck ala L'orange for the main course, and for dessert, flambeed strawberries and cherries over melted cheesecake. Yum!

I had a great Birthday. I got to sleep in, and I had a luxuriously long shower, and I soaked my feet in some amazing mineral salts. I took a long nap. It was a good day!
Owen made me a triple layer fudge cake with buttercream icing with chocolate ganache glaze.

We went out to dinner at Red Robin with friends. I was embarrassed royally when they made me where balloons around my head while they serenaded me.

So, yeah, if all this happened in the shortest month of the year, what will happen in the next two weeks?!

Valentine's Day the G(diaper)reen way

So next weekend, Valentine's Day to be exact, Emery and I have a date.

We will two of the newest gDiaper unofficial spokespeople. The Everything Green Oregon Expo will be hosting a gDiaper booth. Emery and I will volunteering at this booth.

I'm now a gMum.

I figured that since we've used gDiapers from Day 1, (seriously, that was the first type of diaper that Emery wore, see the picture?) it's about time I started giving back a bit. Admittedly we aren't exclusive gDiaper users, but that's all the more reason to shout to the world the greatness of them!




Since we EC we use mostly an EC belt and a prefold. When we go out however, the majority of the time we are using a newborn prefold stuffed inside a gDiaper 'little g' pants. This works really well for us.

On our recent trip we used gDiapers the way they were intended to be used about 90% of the time (and a combo of cloth and a cornbased disposable the rest). I loved it! There was no guilt about throwing away the used ones. Thanks to the fact thatat they are a Cradle to Cradle certified company, I knew that they wouldn't be hanging around in a landfill for the next 500 years.


Enough about diapers, just come see us on Valentine's Day okay?! It's free!


It's the stuff like this that I'll miss when we move to Spring. I guess I'll just have to plug in there huh?

(This one is cloth filled......)

Here are some pants that I made for Mr. E out of an thrift store wool sweater. It was a men's XL. I felted it, then cut off the sleeves, and voila. Of course there is more too it than that, but I digress.

Wanna know how I did it? Go here.













In some circles they are known as wool longies. Wool is one of those magical fibers that draws moisture away from the skin and absorbs odor, so it makes wonderful diaper covers for cloth diapers. These pants are amazing! Since we EC, they are perfect for those "misses" that inevitably happen (and they have definitely been happening more lately!).

I would love to make about 7 more pairs so he has one for every day of the week. So, in short....all I really want for christmas is some thrift store wool sweaters (at least 30% wool please!).

Not only is wool great for diaper covers and longies, but you can make really awesome felted toys and other nifty things out of it! :) For example, I am in the process of making Emery some shoes like this out of felted wool. (which I think may have broken my machine :( nuts!)

I also made a pair of split crotch pants but I don't have a picture of those yet. I didn't use wool for these, but I'm considering it once my machine is in working order again. Hmmph.

Three teeth and pee in the sink

October 15th is the halfway mark. Six months of being Emery's mom and dad.
Through these past months I've come to realize that I consider myself an Attachment Parent. This has opened up a whole new world of attire, which has led to us collecting a large array of baby-wearing paraphernalia. (3 slings, 1 front carrier, 1 mei-tai, and I want more...check out my wishlist!) This fits in so well with the way we live our lives, it really just makes sense. However, parenting itself really has had it's ups and downs.

First was the breastfeeding fiasco. Emery is a champ when it comes to nursing, however, two weeks into our breastfeeding relationship, I developed what I thought was thrush. After self-treating myself with every natural remedy you could think of, I took myself to the doctor. I was sent to a Lactation Consultant who confirmed for me that it was indeed thrush. Unfortunately, I had to go back to the Doctor to get the prescribed APNO. After another three weeks of excruciating pain, I went back to the doctor and had a culture done of my nipple and milk. Horror of horrors! It wasn't thrush but a nasty staph infection, ie: mastitis. Three doses of antibiotics later, I'm good as new, and our breastfeeding relationship has never been better.

Next came the EC adventure! EC: Elimination Communication, Natural Infant Hygiene, Diaper free

We started with Emery at around three months. I saw a potty at Ikea and bought it on a whim. Emery peed on it the very first time I sat him on it. We haven't looked back since. Nearly three months later we have had a few problems caused by teething and learning how to roll over and push up for crawling, but now he signals pretty clearly, and prefers to pee in the sink as opposed to the potty. (It's totally normal and expected in the EC culture) Really, it's the only way to get him to go otherwise. ;)

Teething, ah the teething. He started around 2 months. By the 5th month he had worked his first little tooth through. Two weeks later out popped number 2, and literally overnight he sprung number 3. I think he may actually be working on number 4 as I type.

This brings us to solid foods. I've already given Mr. Emery rice cereal, strained carrots, and strained peas. Then I read about baby led feeding . Now he's had bananas, pear, apple, and pluot.


Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone who's reading this a primer on how we got to the point we're at now. Hope that you're caught up now, happy reading! Do you have any questions?