This & That

The very first weekend in March, we had fabulous weather, so we decided to try out the Mickelson Trail by Hill City. It used to be a train line, but they removed the tracks, and now there's a wide, almost level gravel path that runs over 100 miles in the black hills. I think we'll definitely be going back this summer. We had more great weather for most of this week too (today it was cold again). So, the kids and I have been at the park and/or riding bikes (Eden). It was nice to get outside for a while, and we can't wait for the weather to turn nice again!

Sometime earlier this week, Andrew got up and decided he was a superhero (I don't remember which one exactly). Well, we went downstairs a little earlier than normal because he said he was hungry, but this is what happened instead of breakfast. Apparently, his elbow and knee pads are now part of his superhero costumes, and superheros also need to have a horse. The next day he did the same thing, and wanted me to take his picture again, then Eden woke up and wanted to be in a picture too.

And on a completely different subject (I guess I'm catching up for being such a lazy blogger lately), I've seen some people share their favorite baby gear items on their blogs, so I've decided to share my favorite maternity find: THE SECRET FIT BELLY STYLE pants from Motherhood Maternity. They are not actually perfect, they still slide down a little bit (well, not so much anymore given my huge belly, but when I bought them back in Jan/Feb they did) but not nearly so much as the other styles of pants I have, and they are really comfortable standing or sitting since they use the new "seamless technology".

I'm still looking for these:

• The perfect or nearly-perfect nursing bra. I hated the ones I had with Eden and only had one I semi-liked with Andrew. This part of my body doesn't get super-huge, so you'd think it wouldn't be difficult, but it is. So, if you have any suggestions, please share.


• Input on the moby wrap or other carrier that is good for newborns (I'm thinking mostly of how I'll get through the grocery store with three kids)



• Input on whether or not to get a sit-n-stand stroller. The big tandem double I got with Andrew was not worth it (it was huge and took up too much space in the car, and I used it only a little bit- being able to snap the carseat in was nice). We replaced it with a pretty sturdy umbrella-style stroller, which was great most of the time, but there were times when I carried Andrew (or let him walk when he got older), and let Eden have a turn in the stroller. Andrew will be older than Eden was, so I'm leaning towards forgoing this expenditure, but I can't quite decide for sure (just today I carried him halfway home from dropping something off at a neighbor's house about 5 or 6 houses away).


• Also, thanks for the input on the diapers, we are going to give the cloth a try, so we'll let you all know how it goes in a few months.

Cloth Diapers???

One night when I just couldn't sleep, I found myself reading up on cloth diapers (on the internet, of course). From what research I've done so far it seems that we could really save some money over the course of 2-3 years, especially since we wouldn't be paying for the water or energy used to wash the diapers (that cost was usually included in the estimates comparing disposable and cloth). That's the main benefit I see, there may or may not be some other benefits like earlier potty-training and doing less harm to the environment. There's even one variety whose reviews say they stop the runny blow-outs of breast-fed infants better than disposables because it uses a terry cotton fabric. From what I've read, many modern cloth diapers are as easy to use on the baby as disposables. The main negative I see is the extra laundry- you're supposed to do a load (or more) of not more than 2 dozen every 2-3 days and there are some pretty specific care instructions- but I think that is something I could get used to. I even found a website that will let you try a variety of cloth diapers (I had no idea what a huge variety is available!) for three weeks for $10 (plus $9 for shipping). So right now, I'm thinking we'll give it a try. Scott's not sold on the idea... yet. Tell me what you think, or if you have any experience with cloth diapers, please share! I even created a poll (see left side), the quote is something I actually read in one of the articles I found.

Baby Belly

I know some of you have just been dying to see my big belly. I finally let Eden take some pictures of me this afternoon, so here it is, my almost-25-week baby belly (I had to go look at the calendar to get that right). I've never taken a whole series of "belly shots" with any of my pregnancies, so I don't have real documentation, but I definitely feel much bigger than I did with Eden or Andrew.
This was the first shot Eden took after I told her that I wanted a picture of "the baby belly."

What Eden has been up to lately

working hard!

I did it!

"Eden-money"

Since my last real post was all about Andrew's recent accomplishments (still a work in progress, by the way), I thought I'd share some of what Eden's been up to lately. The first couple pictures are from her latest swim lesson. She's been going for a while, first at the YMCA and now at the city swim center, and she's made some real progress. She really doesn't like to get water in her face, but she's starting to put her face in the water and she's getting confident enough to float (assisted by the instructor), which means she finally has been passed on from the Preschool I level to the Preschool II level! At this swim lesson, she even did two really great jumps from the edge of the pool without the instructor holding her hands. For the longest time, she wouldn't really jump, she would crouch down until her bottom was just about touching the edge, then she would sort of scoot/flop into the pool, and she would usually have to be hanging on to the instructor during this whole time. But these jumps were great- water splashed up in her face and everything (she didn't like getting the water in her face, but she was so proud of herself)! Of course as my luck would have it, the battery died right before I could get pictures of her jumping. But, I'll try to catch it again in the future.

The last picture is of "Eden-money" that she made. I had moved my things to a different wallet, so Eden wanted my old one. It just wasn't complete without some paper money in addition to the few coins I gave her. Since I wouldn't give here any real money, she decided to make her own. I cut out the paper, and she studied the money and this is what she had when I came to check on her a little while later. She was getting frustrated with the letters at the top (notice they start getting bigger), so I told her I would finish the writing. She didn't include a face, and the building (I feel silly not knowing what building it is, I guess I'm probably not smarter than a fifth grader) came from the back of a smashed penny she was also looking at. But, I thought it was pretty impressive the way she paid attention to details like the serial number and all the other letters on the bill. She made a couple more, but on those, she only drew the pictures, and I did all the writing. This was her first one, and she did most of it all by herself!

Charlie bit my finger

My sister sent this to me, it is pretty funny. What a nice big brother (that he didn't smack Charlie, like my kids might have). I thought I'd share since I haven't posted anything very recently.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/charlie-bit-my-finger/611022180

Henry, a "Really Useful Engine"

*This may be more information than some of you want, so consider yourselves warned.*

Andrew is finally potty training! With Eden, we tried so many different things (stickers, candy, potty party with a doll that can produce #1, etc.), but nothing worked for more than a day at the most. We even bought a couple books about little girls learning to use the toilet. She finally decided she wanted to when she went to sunbeams and realized that most of her friends were using the toilet, she was getting close to 3 1/2. Once she decided using the toilet was something she wanted to, it was only a couple days and she hardly had any accidents- only one in the bed. After that experience, I realized it just wasn't worth the battle unless the kid actually could be convince they wanted to use the toilet, and I swore I would never try potty-training again until age 3. I guess I'd rather change a diaper than clean up lots of "accidents."

But, Andrew started acting interested around September (before he was 3), so we started by bribing him just to sit on the toilet for a certain amount of time. We usually read one of the two books we bought about little boys potty-training. Andrew always acted excited when we talked about using the toilet, but he just was always too busy (he hardly walks anywhere, he's always RUNNING) to notice when he needed too. We were just starting to make some progress when I got hit hard with morning sickness and the kids kept getting the stomach flu, needless to say, potty-training wasn't even on the list of things to do. Then the holidays came, we started up again after our trip to Minneapolis at the beginning of January (so he was already 3), and he actually did #1 in the toilet a few times (without me prompting him!), but still was not at all consistent. He only noticed at times when he wasn't 'busy.'

I was just getting ready to try an idea my mom saw on the show "Jon & Kate + 8". They potty-trained the boys by lining up a little potty for each boy and making them sit on it until they produced something. Since Andrew obviously knew how to use the toilet, he needed something to make it more important to him. But, finding a stretch of days when I could stay at home with Andrew to enforce this training was proving difficult. Then a friend gave me the idea to have a special toy that he gets to play with if he produces something on the toilet and keeps his pants clean, but when he makes his pants dirty/wet, the toy gets put away until the next time he goes on the toilet and keeps his pants clean. He picked out a "Henry" train from the store on Friday and on Saturday morning he got to play with it for the first time.

He still wears a pull-up, but so far hasn't had more than one wet/dirty one in a day. (I wasn't going to use pull-ups again, just make him use a diaper until he was ready for underpants, but a while ago, I sent Scott to buy diapers, and he came back with pull-ups instead, so we had them just sitting in the basement. They can be even more pricey than diapers, but these are the generic Safeway brand and they hold up just fine, and there are definitely advantages to pull-ups if the child is actually using the toilet.) He didn't get to wear pull-ups until the second day, since he did so well on Saturday. And I probably won't put him in underwear until he says completely clean/dry for a few days at a time.

He stays clean/dry pretty well (all day on Wednesday!), except if he has a friend over or goes to a friends house (both of which happened more than usual for him this week). He's definitely much more conscious of using the toilet than he used to be. I think he'll probably have more accidents than Eden did, but he wakes up dry more often than not. I ask him quite a bit "Do you need to go potty?" but, he hardly ever goes when I ask him. He usually tells me he needs to go, then we go to the bathroom together since he still wants quite a bit of help. He's even used toilets at other places (ie. church, store) but not as consistently. I think he's made great progress, and I'm confident I won't have to be changing two diapers when this next baby comes!

In Memory of President Hinckley

I really like this short tribute from Glenn Beck, but didn't get around to sharing it until today.
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/200/5127/