Ah, internets!! We're on vacation in Mississippi visiting my husband's family and childhood friends. It's the deep south! I was worried that Brendon might start really talking and end up with a southern drawl, but I don't think that's very likely. But anyways, the town we're staying in doesn't have high speed internets, or 3G coverage to use my phone. I mamnage to skimp along for email and facebook and reading blogs, but that's it. We went to some other town for a get-together and this town gas 3G! I've got so much to say, so I'd better get started before the 3G goes away. I'll wrote tidbits now, so I remember what I want to say when we get back home.
First, I was brave and travelled with cloth diapers. I pondered over it for a long time: do I bring them all; do I bring my laundry soap or just stick to vinegar and baking soda; do I chicken out and use disposables; do I put BAM in cloth diapers to travel in; is there a washer and drier handy? That washer/drier was a deal buster. If there was not, then no go. But there is one here and the vinegar baking soda is working great (with arm & hammer detergent). We went half the way in cloth, but I didn't want to have to stop so often so my clothies don't leak. And I'm still using disposables at night, but that might change. I found affordable cloth diapers! Like less than $10 for an all in one!
So far it's going really well. I like the most recent cover I made. It's wider in the crotch, so the prefolds sit inside the PUL rather than on top. Does that make sense? I'd have made another one, but I'm out of Velcro :( I brought my fleecies, and even had a chance to use them on my niece. She had a poopy diaper and her mommy and daddy were gone. I looked for those diapers as much as I could without peeking through their suitcases. So I grabbed the newest one of Brendon's and a fleecie. At first she didn't care, but after a while, she stated checking to see what that thing was between her legs.
Man, I misses posting this while we still had 3G. Meh, might as well keep going, huh.

One more thing, I'm working on Tata's quilt during the kids naptime, and it's going well. The binding (hand stitched binding!!) is about 1/2 of the way done. Then I just need to machine quilt the squares. I might send it to mom to do that. She offered to help, just depends if she has her machine around.

That's it. Until 3G again!

Tom's of Maine: Natural Toothpaste and Mouthwash

This post brought to you by Toms of Maine. All opinions are 100% mine.

I once overheard someone saying that if you don't want to eat it, why would you put it on your body. She was referring to deodorant and lotion and such. That makes sense, because even though you're not ingesting it, whatever you apply to your body does get absorbed. Tom's Of Maine has dedicated themselves to producing natural personal care products.

They carry deodorant, mouthwash, toothpaste, soap and dental floss. I never thought about dental floss as something that needs to be natural, but they have it!

When I checked out their website, the first think i noticed was the pictures. They look very personal, but I kept going. I checked out their toothpaste. I'm super picky about my toothpaste. I've used toothpaste that seems to only make your mouth taste slightly minty, and I've used toothpaste that leaves you feeling like an atomic bomb went off in there. Tom's of Maine claims to fix that. Their Wicked Fresh!™ Long-lasting Fresh Breath Toothpaste gives you cavity protection and uses powerful natural flavor oils and a patent-pending botanical extract to provide long-lasting fresh breath. So, no worries for atomic burn or slightly minty. :D

Tom's of Maine also makes some great mouthwash, that helps stop bad breath without the burn. Tom's of Maine's great tasting Wicked Fresh!™ Mouthwash refreshing mint flavors leave your whole mouth feeling clean. Again, no atomic bomb going off in your mouth!

Perhaps you've heard of and tried Tom's of Maine? If so, you'll want to check this out. You can share your Wicked Fresh moments for a chance to win Wicked Fresh!™ Prizes at the That's Wicked Fresh contest page.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to try it, I'm still waiting for Tom's of Maine to get back to me, but I'm really excited to be able to try it. I'll let you know if I do get some and if I like it as much as I think I will. :)

To keep yourself updated with what Tom's of Maine is doing, I advise you to follow Tom’s of Maine on Facebook and on Twitter @TomsofMaine.You never know what you might find!

Christmas tree, presents, diaper

I thought I'd share a picture of Brendon's Christmas diaper. I've had this one waiting so it'd be clean for tonight for ever!

Side note: I still don't like blogger's picture loader thingy. Ugh. 

Happier note: I love my baby's fluffy butt!

Merry Christmas

One of my favorite Christmas songs, sung by an a capella group called Glad:

In the First Light

In the first light of a new day no one knew he had arrived
Things continued as they had been while a newborn softly cried
But the heavens wrapped in wonder knew the meaning of his birth
In the weakness of a baby they knew God had come to earth

As his mother held him closely it was hard to understand
That her baby, not yet speaking, was the word of God to man
He would tell them of his kingdom but their hearts would not believe
They would hate him and in anger they would nail him to a tree

But the sadness would be broken as the song of life arose
And the firstborn of creation would ascend and take his throne
He had left it to redeem us but before his life began
He knew he'd come back, not as a baby, but as the Lord of every man

Hear the angels as they're singing on the morning of his birth
But how much greater will our song be when he comes again to earth
Hear the angels as they're singing on the morning of his birth
But how much greater will our song be when he comes to rule the earth!

It gets me every time I hear it. Oh, I need a tissue... 
{happiness}

I'm a big kid now!

So, Brendon's crib is no longer a crib, but a toddler bed. He actually did really good with bedtime. He went down with no fuss at all, and I crossed my fingers that he would fall asleep quickly. I was down stairs when I heard the pitter-patter of feet and the creak of the door. *sigh* at least there's a baby gate in front of his doorway, so he won't get loose, and I baby toddler Brendon-proofed his room this afternoon. I kept waiting for him to cry to throw his pacifier over the gate, but he never did. I started up the steps then I heard *little feet running*. I peeked in on him and told him he needed to stay in bed and go to sleep. Back down stairs I went.
We repeated this once or twice more. I thought it was so cute that he didn't even whimper, he just stood there. I have no clue what he was trying to do, but every time I went upstairs he'd run back into bed. So I stayed upstairs on the bed.
He got up once more, this time I let him stand there. He stood there silently for about 10 minutes, then for about 5 minutes, he whimpered a little. Not crying/whining, but more of a grunting with his pacifier in his mouth. It started to get worse, so I knew he was getting tired. I would be too! I led him back to bed with a little persuasion. He stayed in bed for a while longer and was so quiet, I thought he had finally fallen asleep, so I went downstairs. I guess the creaky stairs reminded him that he was still awake, and he creeped back out. *creak* went the door. I went up stairs and had a "discussion" with him, and he ended up crying big sobbing tears, so I knew he was so tired. It'd been an hour at this point.
So I took him back to bed and dried his tears and climbed in to bed with him. I facebooked and messaged a friend about this and that while he lied next to me falling asleep. Oh, I was texting Mark too, about where I might be when he came home. FINALLY he was drowsy enough for me to slip away without him caring. There's a mattress next to his bed, toys in the off position, babygate at his doorway, and a towel to keep the door from latching just awaiting his arousal in the morning. I fear he might wake early and be too excited to put himself back to sleep.
But we have embarked on a journey that is not to be undone. Wish us luck! Next mountain, pacifier free! Coming early 2011!

No, there's no physical problems why we are moving our baby-turned-big-boy from all these baby associated items. We just feel that somethings are ready to move on. Brendon was climbing up and down the couches, doing steps up and down, so we felt as if he would safely sleep in a toddler bed. That's all.

Christmas Blessings

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and encouragement during these past few days. I did miscarry the baby and our angel is back in the arms of Jesus. I had written this post and planned to publish it with an entirely different mood, but God's thoughts are better than mine and has better plans. At the doctor's office, my doctor said something that is kinda hit me a little, but it's true. She goes, "Once you start talking about miscarriages, you find out that more people have had them then you know. No one talks about them, because it sucks." And it does, but I know I have a great web of friends and family around me, just waiting if we need anything. Thank you, all, again. {love}


On December 5th, I wrote:

our Christmas blessing

I'm writing this at the beginning of December, but I'm not actually going to post it until after January. Why? Because I don't want to spoil it, and because announcing one's pregnancy via blog to family is probably not going to get on their good side.
Yup, Brendon is going to be a big brother by the middle of August. I'm picking out "the shirt" for him to wear around Mark's parents, and I think I'll buy a present for my parents to open while we video chat with them.
I just hope it all works out and turns out cool rather than dorky.

Question of the Week

From the Cloth Diaper Whisperer:
Do you ever coordinate cloth diapers with clothing?

Head over to the Cloth Diaper Whisperer and leave your answer before Thursday, Dec.23rd at 7pm EST for a chance to win a FuzziBunz!

I'll love you forever

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

Wednesday night was the Christmas story at church. Not "the Christmas story" story, but a story pertaining to Christmas. Pastor sits in the front in a story-time type chair, and his wife sits next to him, kinda like Grandma/Grandpa. This year it was a story about how the Christmas tree came to be.
All the kids, from college age to newborn goes up front and sits around their feet, around the Christmas tree and listens. Brendon and I walked up there, and he found his friends, Paul and Jesse (maybe 10 and 14, I'm horrible at guesstimating ages or even remembering!) and sat with them.
He left me alone, sitting on the pew. I felt like he's so grown up. I was thinking how last year I held him in my arms as he just flopped around and this night he left me. About 3/4 of the way through the story, he looked back at me and saw me and I saw my baby boy.

He's 1 1/2 years old. We've already had the discussion where he promises to always be my baby, no matter how old he gets and how many other kids we have after him. I think it's time for I'll love you forever.

"The baby grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off the shelves. He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and he took his mother's watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes his mother would say, "this kid is driving me CRAZY!"

But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet, she opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed; and if he was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

~Robert Munsch

Paper or Plas--nope and no paper, either

I was wrapping our presents the other day. Well, "their" presents, because I don't wrap my present--never mind, I remember I did. ha! Anyways, I was wrapping presents, Brendon was "helping," as always. He saw the thing I was wrapping, a pillow pet, for BEE (a bee for BEE!! ha!) and Brendon thought it was interesting for about 2.3 seconds, so I figured he was done with it, and I started to wrap it up.
BIG MISTAKE! Brendon started to cry, not just whine-whimper-I-want-it-back-sniff, but BLOODY-WHAT-ARE-YOU-DOING-TO-ME!-SCREAM.
I was seriously shocked. I pulled off the paper, hadn't taped it yet, and he laughed and pointed to hit. So, I did the whole "say good bye," thing, and started again. He actually pushed the paper off of it. Eventually I got it wrapped, and it wasn't easy. Not just because of Brendon, though. Go ball up a soft fluffy blanket in a loose pile, and attempt to wrap it with just enough paper. Go ahead, I'll wait, I've got time.

Yeah, wasn't that hard? Thought so.

I thought that he just didn't like things he liked disappearing. After that, I wrapped a front end loader that has buttons and makes noises and stuff. Brendon fussed over that too. And that one was for him. [[What? it's not like he's going to remember -- "oh yeah, I already saw that one, I don't need to push that button again." Come on, he's a toddler and a boy, he lives for button pushing!]] So, the next one I wrapped a boring bottle of puzzle glue, you know, for when the puzzle is finished and you want to make sure you can show it off. All that work, all those hours, the squinting, and loss of hair were not in vain! So, he didn't even bat an eyelash when he picked it up. I started to wrap it. He went ballistic again! I showed it too him, and he pointed to it, but made it very clear that he didn't like this items being suffocated in their paper wrappings.
Eh, he'll get over it. Either that, or one day, all our presents will be presented to us on a platter. Maybe some greenery for distraction and garnish...

Christmas pictures!!

I might not have Christmas pictures taken, but I've got the photo cards planned out!

I thought Shutterfly was just about getting photos printed and maybe a mug or a mouse pad as a gift. Let me tell you, my eyes have been opened! Ha.
I went over to their site, since we're getting Christmas/family pictures taken this weekend by our friend. You know, I needed to have something to send out to show off how big/adorable/whatever Brendon is getting :) I think I found the design I wanted. We're planning on wearing color-coordinating fleeces/shirts and light-wash blue jeans. I don't care for the traditional type of Christmas cards, or anything, I like stuff different. Shutterfly has what I want. So, my top pick, THIS one.

Believe me, it was tough. There were about 600 CHRISTMAS card styles! A big thing for us, is to have the card say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" or something generic.

Another thing I really want to order for a family member (can't say who because they might read this, and plus I might be too lazy to get it before Christmas) are these Snap books. I mean, we aren't the kind of family to have the picture book sitting on the coffee table, but I know grandparents especially like things like this. Our walls are covered in pictures of Brendon, and he's our only one. I can't imagine having several to have to display! Heh. I'd need a shrine. And don't forget, there's all sorts of other gift ideas.

Shutterfly doesn't stop there. Oh no. They have birthday invitations (and baby everything), and that's my favorite. EEK! They have business/calling cards, I feel the urge to order some for my diapers, but I'll wait until I have more orders. I don't want to get a head of the game.

I know it's a lot of choices in one little website. I could spend an entire movie time on the site and end up with a shopping cart well over $100. But, my wallet isn't THAT big, so I'll settle for some Christmas cards, for now. I mean, we have to get them somewhere, right? and Shutterfly is always having some yummy deal going on. So, win-win!

NOTE: I'm participating in a promotion (http://bit.ly/sfly2010). I entered to blog for them, and in return, if they like it, I'll get 50 free Christmas cards. These opinions are all my own, and my wishes, too. If there's still time, the promotion goes until the end of today, Friday, December 10th.

I think this SnotFest 2010 needs to end right now. I only have approximately 5% of breathing capacity through my nose. My head feels like lead and I think my ears are pretending I'm flying at an insane altitude. Oh, and Brendon's bottom molars are coming through.
Speaking of Brendon, he has had some nasty gas today. I'll be right back, he's going up the stairs to go to bed without me. I guess I should go put him in his crib! Heh.
I'm back.
I'm not doing much these days. Sewing when I can, blogging when I remember.
We looked at a house Monday. From the price, I was expecting something on the nice side. It was a joke. The inside of the house looked like it had been a puzzle in a previous life. One room used to have an indoor hot tub, and it was so musty. The room had no open-able windows, so it just kinda...stewed. The master bedroom was added on the back, and the original outside brick was the inside wall. It was cold and drafty, true the heat was not on, but it was colder than the rest of the house. The "master bathroom" was the size of a closet, standing room only between the toilet and the shower stall, not even a tub!
So, it was a no go.
I am taking my phlegm filled body and climbing into bed, swallowing a few benadryl before I do.

Oh, hi, I knew I was forgetting something

So, it's the same old "I got too busy, had some great blurbs in my head, didn't feel like writing them down" stuff that I write every once in a while. Really, I do have great ideas and little witty things pop into my head quite often. It's usually while I'm in the shower or driving or some such activity that renders me incapable of jotting it down. So I then forget about it. And I leave you hanging for 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS! I wish some other 2 weeks go faster that it does when I'm not blogging. Heh.

Thanksgiving: it was a mad-house. It was packed, like 17 people in a 3 bedroom (converted into 4) house. Five kids aged 3 and under. Three teenagers, one 20 year old (who could be grouped with the teens, but would get her panties in a wad!), and four couples. Ok, 16. Marine-boy couldn't make it. Sadness.

But guess what I did not do the entire weekend...yup, I did not take a single picture. Oh, I brought my camera with a charged battery and empty memory card and left it in the diaper bag all Thanksgiving long.

I did go out shopping for Black Friday. Not much, and not super early. We went about 6, and it really wasn't swarming with people. Yes, it was more busy than usual, and we did skip the high traffic stores, but I think we did rather well.