First day of day care

Today marks the first day that I am officially self-employed.  Sproutlings Child Care will be enrolling two kiddos today (and possibly only for a week unless their mom gets notice that her job is not ending).  I think we have the house ready to go and Everett's excited to have "friends" come over to play.
Meal plan for this week gets to include lunch too!

Dinners for May 30-June 5
Monday, May 30 –  Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
Tuesday, May 31 –  stuffed green peppers
Wednesday, June 1 – chicken noodle casserole
Thursday, June 2 – freezer dinner
Friday, June 3 – pasties
Saturday, June 4 – leftovers/eat out
Sunday, June 5 – chicken pot pie

Lunches for May 31-June 3
Monday, May 30 - grilled veggie and hummus tart
Tuesday, May 31 – Leftover spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
Wednesday, June 1 – mac n cheese with hot dogs, veggie
Thursday, June 2 –  chicken noodle casserole leftovers
Friday, June 3 – fish sticks, rice, veggies, fruit

You may notice that the effort that goes into the dinners drops off drastically halfway through the week. This is because Brian will be heading off for a guys mountain bike excursion to Copper Harbor on Thursday and I don't feel like cooking while he's gone.

This weekend's camping trip was fun but buggy. We borrowed a pop-up camper but the mosquitoes still got us pretty good. There were swarms of them. It stunk. But Ev did get to go fishing and pull lots of little fishies out of the water and then let them go again. Callum was a perfect little camper the whole time, while big brother had some issues with scary mosquitoes, scary thunder, sleeping alone.....yeah....two year olds....

Anyway. I need to go pull up the "gonkey game!" for Everett on our new snazzy tablet that we got for our anniversary from Bri's parents. Now to decide if I want my new phone to be another android device or go for the iphone...

3 Months

I figured it out.  That time when your squishy little newborn, all wrinkly and funny-looking but infinitely huggable and fit perfectly when they sleep on your chest, disappears.  At 3 months, my tiny (well, if he ever was tiny...) squishy newborn is gone.  Instead, I have a rolly, smiley, laughing baby boy.

His cheeks are now the most kissable things in the world, but I cannot believe my eyes that he is this big already.  Wasn't it just yesterday that he was kicking around in my belly, driving me crazy because he decided he'd give me contractions for a month and come 2 days after his due date?  If I were going back to work, I would have returned this past Monday and I cannot fathom it.  I can't imagine handing over my changing-by-the-minute scrumptious little guy to some other woman to care for, only to pick him up at the crankiest time of day and have a couple hours to get all my snuggles in before he's crashes for the night.  I am extremely grateful that I have this opportunity to stay at home with my boys and watch them grow.  I get to make sure they get good, healthy food prepared from whole ingredients.  I get to attempt to limit their screen time :). I get to change all those really cute cloth diapers.  I'm not sure how I'll feel once I have some kids here in addition to my little guys (starting next week!  eek!), but if we're ever going to be able to replace our 11-year-old car, I kind of need to help out in some way.

Anyways.  Back to scrumptious 3 month olds.  Our little stinkerbug now weighs about 14 pounds (Everett was 15 pounds at 4 months) and is firmly in his 3-6 month clothes.  He's on the second setting of his size 1 diaper covers, about to move up to the highest setting (they're supposed to fit 0-9 months....).  His yellow-edged prefolds, designed to fit up to 6 months and 15 pounds, are getting a bit snug.  He's getting good head control and tries to lean into your face if he's upright and talking to you.  He absolutely adores his big brother and smiles at him all the time.  Just yesterday, he started squealing to get your attention.  Everett was already very vocal by this age, yelling at us and all, so I still think Callum's just going to be more laid back and easy-going.  Huge and calm.  :)
Cally still loves to be worn and I'm looking at a new wrap for my anniversary present.  Ideally, something like a Didymos wrap, but even used, these things sell at a high price, so I'll likely end up with a much cheaper brand.

Well, we need to get moving because we have the last Fun n Run playgroup today and then we're meeting friends at the park for lunch.  And I need to pack us a lunch.  And get the stroller outside.  And it's in 12 minutes.  Ummm....yeah.

I didn't wash my hair for two weeks

Ok, not really, but sort of.  Really, I didn't shampoo my hair for two weeks.  There are tons of articles on going "no-poo" for the health of your hair and I read too many of them and decided I had to try it.  I didn't want to start out mentioning it for fear that everyone would then look at my greasy hair and shake their heads in pity.  But after two weeks of no shampoo, my hair looked better and healthier than it ever has before!
Not shampooing does not mean that I neglected to wash my hair.  I'm not that gross, guys.  Instead of shampoo, I use baking soda.  1 Tbsp of baking soda mixed with warm water is used to clean the hair and you scrub it into the scalp just like shampoo.  Instead of conditioner, I use apple cider vinegar.  Yes, this does make it smell like you're dying easter eggs in the shower, but the smell goes away as soon as your hair is dry.  My hair was a bit more oily for about the first week, but now I'm back to my every other day washing and it really doesn't look bad on the non-washing days.  Yes, there are never any pictures of me, but look!  I found one!
 Shiiiny hair.  And a giant grizzly bear.  You know.
When we were in Grand Rapids, I hadn't felt like packing up baking soda and vinegar, so I just used the hotel shampoo and conditioner.  Icky.  My hair dried to a frizzy, yucky mess.  That made the final decision right there.  No more shampoo unless I run into a problem with the soda/ACV routine.  Upon returning home, I went back to my every other day soda/ACV washing and my hair honestly has more body and shine than ever before.  Hooray for getting more more chemical/carcinogen-laden product out of my life!  In case you're wondering, Brian still uses shampoo for his luscious locks.  The boys will get a weekly or bi-weekly shampooing with either Johnson's natural baby shampoo or Dr. Bronner's castile soap.  Aiming to use up the Johnson's and then be done with that for them too.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

We're back from Grand Rapids, the laundry is done, the house is picked up, the pets are fed, the plants are watered, and we're ready to get back to our regular routines (plus accepting day care enrollees - eek!  Have to make some calls back for messages left last week....).

We're going to try and get out in the intermittent sunshine today for a walk and do our grocery shopping.  After so much eating out this week, we're trying to avoid a bunch of meat and grease-filled foods, so our meal plan reflects that.

Here it is:

Dinners for May 22-29

Sunday, May 22 – homemade vegetarian pizza

Monday, May 23 –  French dip sandwiches

Tuesday, May 24 – Barley Casserole

Wednesday, May 25 – Grilled vegetable and hummus tart  (make extra hummus for Friday)

Thursday, May 26 –  leftovers

Friday, May 27 – Tabbouleh and Pitas with hummus

Saturday, May 28 – Breakfast bake for dinner

Sunday, May 29 – chicken pot pie

Life on an off week

You may have noticed there is no meal plan this week.  No?  I'm the only one who pays attention?  Oh.  Right then.  Anyway.  There is no meal plan this week because we are having quite the abnormal week.  Brian's off at a class for the week in Minnesota and aunties are visiting from Topeka and La Crosse before heading off to Barbados and...La Crosse.... :)  We heart you, Jell!
As a result of this, I have no desire to cook and the boys and I have been nomming at Grrrma and Gunka's house or out to eat.  It has been fun hanging out with the girls, but still absolutely no fun having daddy away.  Strangely, I've had to do a lot more chores and the house is a lot more cluttered.  And we won't even go into the great fish feeding fiasco of Monday morning....
Oh yes, and top that all off with Callum being in a three month growth spurt.  The kid's only 11 weeks old, but he's decided that it's growing time so he was up every three hours last night and is generally quite cantankerous when awake.
Sooo....tomorrow after playgroup, we are going to go join daddy in Minnesota.  He's got a king suite all to himself with some rumored dual-head shower.  And a kiddy pool with slide.  So we're going to make stop in Duluth mid-day to go to....TARGET!!!....and then continue on the rest of the way to have fun at the hotel.  I'm not entirely convinced that I want to drive three hours one way with two little boys in the car, but I'm hoping that the way I'm planning to break it up will mean a couple nice little naps for them and quiet time for me.
This logically means that I should have all our bags packed and ready to go tonight.  Ha!  Oh, sorry.  I really should make sure we have swimsuits, diapers, clothes, all possible skin creams and first aid materials, a pack n play, required blankies and stuffed animals, books, laptop, etc....and what am I doing?  Sitting in the living room with a cup of tea and not a single thing packed.  Yeah.  Maybe we won't make it to playgroup....

Mother's Day and Meals

I had an excellent mother's day with all my boys yesterday.  Even though Everett "ruined" the surprises, it was still the nicest mother's day I've had.  On Friday morning, as soon as he woke up, Everett ran to me and said, "mama!  make card you!"  Surprise #1 blown.  :)  But it was a much cooler card than I expected.  I'll take a picture later.  Sunday morning, as soon as I came downstairs (I slept in with Cal), Everett told me, "mama!  got flowers you.  County Market!"  Surprise #2 blown.   Oops.  They were still beautiful.  We went to the black cat for breakfast and worked on our new fence for the rest of the day.  We stopped and dropped off cards for grandmas and then had dinner of pizza from The Alley and fresh pineapple with Brian's parents and grandma.
I loved spending the day with my two little boys (even though I do that everyday) and my one big guy too.

Meals for the week:

Dinners for May 9-15

Monday, May 9 – green chicken nuggets, rice

Tuesday, May 10 – meatloaf and red potatoes

Wednesday, May 11 – black bean burritos

Thursday, May 12 –  leftovers (Garage sale set-up tonight)

Friday, May 13 – pizza and pineapple  (Garage sale tonight 3-7)  - get rump roast out for tomorrow

Saturday, May 14 –  French dip sandwiches

Sunday, May 15 – chicken pot pie

Ev's new girl

I got my new mother's day present this week and I'm already glad I have it! I adore my Canon Rebel xsi, but it's so big and expensive, I don't always carry it around. So in comes my new Panasonic Lumix
They had it on woot.com on easter for an awesome price, so I nabbed one for myself...errr....the boys carefully considered and picked it out for me as a mother's day gift.... :)

Already, because I have this awesome little thing, I've managed to nab these pictures:

This would be my lovely two year old son.  Holding hands.  With a girl.
A younger girl (she's not quite 2 yet).  They kind of love each other.

And this would be my lovely two year old son, contemplating life.

Then there's baby boy.  He is not very good at working out his neck muscles and despises tummy time.  Instead of working out, he'll either lie his head down and rest or lie his head down and scream.  Sooo, out comes the bumbo.  Take that, baby brother!  I don't nearly trust him to sit there and hold his head up alone, but in between instances of me helping him hold up his head, he was doing a good job of holding it up and trying to look around.  Go Cally!

 And yes, I do see that his eyes are getting lighter.  Three blue-eyed boys for me, I guess!
Oh yeah, and the very rare "picture of mama with boy":

A few of my favorite (baby) things

I've seen this on several other blogs and I thought it would be fun to do my own.  Since I am an old pro now that I have two babies, you know.  Here are some products that I love.

General

My newest find - the Woombie.  This is the best swaddler I've discovered.  We tried the SwaddleMe and that worked okay, but Everett (and now Callum) could always get his arms out.  Kind of the point of a swaddle, no?  We also tried the Halo Sleepsack Swaddle.  That one is nice.  It's more of a wearable blanket with a swaddle wrap that is attached on some velcro loops.  My favorite so far though, has been the woombie.  It has an awesome double zipper (so diaper changes are easy peasy), holds baby nice and snug, and there is no way a kid is sneaking an arm out and waking himself up.  If they would bring the price down a little, I'd give them an A+.

Aden + Anais swaddle blankets.  I know, another swaddle thing.  These blankets are good for swaddling, but they are also very awesome for other uses.  They are super lightweight so they are great for covering baby when nursing in public, shading baby outside without overheating (if it would ever get warm here), and snuggling with indoors.  They get softer after each wash and come in some very cute patterns.  Again, the price issue...., so B+.

Playtex Drop-Ins.  I've tried several types of bottles in the past two years or so.  It might have something to do with picky boys, but the drop-ins have been the winner with both.  (The Ventaire is also just fine, it just has more pieces and we only have one.)  The nipple on these bottles is the best I've found and simulates breastfeeding much better than the stupid First Years Breastflow bottle.  That thing always managed to collect milk between the two nipple pieces and drive me up the wall.  Once C can manage a faster flow, I'm excited to use our new stainless steel bottles!

Mam pacifiers.  This is really all baby's preference, but my boys loved Mam pacis and no others.  Tried soothies - No go from Everett.  Nuks got the same reaction from Callum.  Neither cared for an orthodontic playtex one either.  You really just have to try a few types to see what baby will like (if any).

Fisher Price Soothe and Glow Seahorse.  Callum's not really that into his yet, but Everett still sleeps with his.  It plays nice songs, lowers the volume as it goes and plays for the perfect length of time.  Also, portable.  So you can have your bedtime music and light wherever you need to go at bedtime.

Gilligan and O'Malley Nursing Tanks.  I LIVE in nursing tanks.  Only one of these has had a clasp break on me and it was my oldest one.  And I just kind of forced it back together and still use it on a daily basis.  For this price, I can buy several and not look like I'm wearing the exact same thing EVERY day.  They are a bit baggy in the torso area, especially the long style.  So for that, they get an A-.

Sony Baby Call Monitor.  A great sound-only monitor.  I kind of would like a video monitor, but this thing is pretty great.  It has both a setting for on always and a voice activated setting so you don't hear anything until baby starts squirming.  The volume control does seem a little touchy, so I generally keep it turned up pretty high.


Baby-wearing


Ergo.  The best baby carrier for those past the newborn stage.  Hands down.  Lower the price and get some cuter patterns, please!

Moby wrap.  Awesome for the newborn stage.  A little cumbersome to get on, especially while out and about, but so comfy for mom (or dad!) and baby!  Not a sized carrier so mom and dad can both use it even if mom is 5'3" and dad is 6'4".

Baby K'tan.  My first nice baby carrier!  I got this as a gift before Everett was born and he kind of lived in it.  It's a lot like the Moby and really only good until they're about 20 pounds (even though they say 30 I think).  It is much easier to put on than the Moby and does pretty much the same holds.  You don't have to worry about it dragging on the ground while putting it on.  Downside?  It's sized.  So only I can use it.  For that, A-.

Diapering
I'm a major cheapskate when it comes to diapers, so I don't have the latest and greatest and I buy most things used.  My absolute LOVES are these:

Thirsties Duo Wraps.  These are polyurethane laminate (PUL) covers that you put on over an absorbent cotton diaper (prefolds, fitteds, etc.)  These came out after Everett was born, so we started out with regular sized covers for him.  The duo wraps make it so you only need to buy two sizes of covers, newborn to potty training.  Yes, they did work on my newborn on the smallest setting, but he was over 8lbs at birth.

Thirsties Duo Diapers.  These came out once Everett was bigger but I have two for Callum.  I adore them.  They are just like the thirsties covers, but they also have a fleece stay-dry liner sewn in and come with an awesome insert.  It is seven layers of microfiber terry and hemp in two pieces that snap together.  Super absorbent, stay-dry, pretty much leak-proof.

Green Mountain Diaper prefolds.  These are slightly different dimensions than regular prefolds and they are excellent because of it.  Using natural cotton diapers means they are much easier to wash, much more difficult to wreck, and easier to avoid stink, staining, and the like.  http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/diapers.htm

Meals for May, well, the first week at least

All's going well.  Brian's working on building me a fence, Everett's totally potty-trained and being very polite (and a handful, but you know...), Callum's sleeping well and is over the horror of getting shots.  I really need to get back into running (I've been too sleep deprived to drag myself out of bed at 6 am) and sign up for a membership at the gym (we figured out if we pay for a full year, it's only $15 more/month than Brian currently pays and both of us will be able to go).  We also finally got our tomatoes and peppers started (a bit late....oops!).

I officially have my daycare certificate now and just need to get signed up for county subsidies and food reimbursement and then I'm good to go.  I've come up with weekly themes and now I need daily routines and activities.

Here are the meals for the week!

Dinners for May 2-8

Monday, May 2 – Shepherd’s pie with leftover roast and frozen veggies

Tuesday, May 3 – Tofu and veggies in jalfrezi sauce with naan

Wednesday, May 4 – roast chicken, smashed potatoes, veggies

Thursday, May 5 – green chicken nuggets, rice

Friday, May 6 – local fish and fries

Saturday, May 7 –  leftovers, eat out, pizza, etc.

Sunday, May 8 – veggie pasta bake