apron strings

(wordless wednesday) cate's first trip to the mountains. where she *naturally* looks for bears.

 i love pumpkins.

 

do i smell a bear?

(i sure do like the leaves.)

 must quit hibernating and look for bears!!

oh you silly bear you do not fool me.

finally! i found a bear!! take a picture!

 

ahhhhhhhh! sweet peace in the arms of a bear.

with a bottom like that, it's gotta be cloth.

Cloth diapers rock. They are cute, cost effective and environmentally savvy. 

I knew we would use cloth before we even got pregnant. Because well when it takes YEARS you find time on your hands.

When it finally happened I read a few articles about cloth diapering and talked to the parents we knew. Everyone in real life thought we were insane.  We were told that they would be messy, hard to wash, wouldn't keep baby dry and would, in general, be annoying to use.

We were also told that disposables were just as environmentally savvy as cloth. Because you have to use water to wash cloth. Which, not surprisingly, research does not bear out.  Sure, *some * disposables are 'biodegradable,' but since ours would not go into a mile-high compost in the back yard, but into a trashcan a later a landfill, I am thinking all those biodegradable diapers sure would make a big pile. Plus, a day's worth of diapers is half a load of laundry and with a newborn, you do laundry everyday anyway.

We chose to use bumgenius 3.0 pocket diapers because she did. ('she' is a long time internet buddy who is even more anal retentive than myself and had already done 1000 hours of cloth diaper research I would have done). There are all kinds of cloth diapers and most are pretty good, some are awful, and these are great.

At first, because newborns have to be changed every 4.5 seconds, washing them was obnoxious. So, we spent another $70.00 and bought 6 more. Now, if we wanted we could go three days without washing any. In fact, we just used all cloth for a weekend trip and all went well.

Cloth is cost-effective. We probably spent $500.00 or so on diapers to get started. But we won’t spend more because they are reusable. We could use them and will, god or the universe willing, for another child. We figured out that we would have spent about that during the first few months of diapers were we using sposies. And these diapers grow with Cate, so that we won’t have to buy different sizes.

Cloth is so good for Cate. These diapers keep her very dry. I have to take them off to see if they are wet, because it's hard to tell from just feeling the inside of it. And get this? Cate has NEVER had diaper rash. Plus, like her father, she has sensitive skin, so I can wash these with organic as possible detergent, and know that her bum is exposed to as little as possible chemicals.

So, that's all. We like cloth diapers. All the warnings we got didn't bear fruit. And that's a great thing for the environment and cute butts everywhere.

(these are random pictures i have on the computer).  

don't forget me santa! (wordless wednesday. )

 

on how i ended up topless. on the front porch.

for the second time.[1]

so, at three in the a.m. cate woke up for a feeding. i grabbed her, woke up enough to negotiate the two flights of stairs in our house.

i got all hooked up in "my breast friend"[2] and removed my top[3]and she, as always, got the biggest grin on her face.[4] she latched and off we went.

i saw outside our picture window that the wind was very strong.

all of sudden i heard the front glass doors bang open and the alarm went off. i jumped up, breast friend still strapped on, with cate still latched and feeding. i ran to the front door, with cate still on the pillow. why you ask, because of course an intruder can be fought of with a breast friend. then, i saw his shadow. i screamed "GET OUT OF OUR HOUSE!" Naturally. i followed him onto the front porch. and promptly realized that the intruder's shadow was merely a shadow from the chair on the front porch. that the doors had blown open because we failed to lock them the night before.

K having heard the commotion jumped out of bed and started coming downstairs. luckily, i realized that i was insane, that there was no shadow. no intruder. cate still at the breast nursing like there was nothing going on. and she was right.

my poor neighbors.[5]

---

[1] when my water broke, I took off all of my clothes because they were soaked. I dripping, and with mop in hand decided to call the dogs in so that we could leave. Apparently in the confusion and chaos I forgot that I was wholly nude with a mop, yelling for the dogs on the deck.

[2] What a cheesy name for a pillow. But I love it. Much better than the boppie.

[3] I cannot for the life of me nurse with a top on.

[4] Cate smiles when she sees my (,)(,)’s. it’s slightly unsettling, but very, very funny.

[5] There is, apparently, a bit of nudity in our neighborhood. Me and a man, we all refer to us “naked guy.” His bathroom faces the street and he has no curtains. We have all seen all his goods in the early a.m. Trust me, there are a few things you’d like to see in the a.m. and this man’s pee pee isn’t one of them.

wordless wednesday; so much already.

one month.

two months.

SPOKEN SUNDAY.

me: "I'm glad you're off today, because i have got to get work done and you can help get us ready for our trip"

k: "it'not like we have that much to do."

me: "um, yeah we do.  and if we don't get it done, there will be no trip."

k: "you're so dramatic, i mean what is there really to do. some bottle's and her coat."

me: "#!#!!***. are you crazy? we need bottles, stuff to sterilize them with. ,y pump, her clothes, my clothes, your clothes, somewhere for her to sleep, diapers, a stroller......"

k: "ok! do we really need all that? can't you do it tonight?"

me: "aghghghghghhghhhhh! help me! for pete's sake, i am going to work for hours and hours today. remember, i am an attorney. i'd reeeeeallllly like to not get disbarred."

k: "where are the bottles?" "

me:  "                            ."

life goes on.

Dear dad,

So far my day has been ok. I refused a morning nap. Why? I am not sure. It just seemed like fun.

Mom gave me a bath because she discovered some serious neck cheese. I really liked the bath. I made a lot of noise and flailed all of my limbs. I like bath bear a lot, though he seems to ignore me. I got super flirty with him…you know, cooing and cooing and blinking my eyes. He stood silent despite my best efforts.

Then mom put me down for a late morning nap. I slept for about 15 minutes. Which gave mom about 5 minutes to pump. I waited just until she had gotten all milk. Then I realized I was VERY hungry. I ate for two minutes. Then mom put me down for another long nap. This time I slept for 10 minutes. Mom was nice and rocked me and put me down again. Then rinse and repeat.

 I continued to scream while mom frantically did everything to me to try to get me to stop. Finally she put me, screaming, into a carrier. I calmed down and so far have slept for 15 minutes. Which is good because mom is scarffing down a hastily cooked box of mac and cheese because, well, that’s all there is to eat in the house. She is eating so fast that she has dropped a few pieces onto my sleeping head. I am super snuggled in because mom’s boobs are heavy with milk that needs to be pumped. Ha,ha. Cate is funee. And mom reeeeallllly smells. She hasn’t managed a shower and I spit up on her numerous times.

I am trying to stay asleep even though I apparently (if you know what I mean) have aaaaa lllllotttt of gas and can’t seem to stop grunting.

I am glad that mom loves me so much and that she doesn’t have time to turn off the alarm,. Because I am pretty sure she’d throw me out of the window.

Mom says she loves you and to hurry home.

cate

it worked out.

thank goodness.

isn't she lovely? our cate is a cat.

(we interrupt this post with an announcement: cate is one cute cat. see for yourself.)

  hello kitty caty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

one cool cate.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

fraidy cate.

how was your halloween? whaddya do? did you dress up? i'd love to know.