Thursday's Thing- Baby Carriers

i have used this picture before, but it goes with my thursday thing, and i just love this picture.

this is my mama. she is a domestic goddess. she cooks the most amazing food, and can do so for the largest of crowds. i think one of her personal bests was a party that we had at her house in toronto, and about 100 people came through our door at various points of the day, and all of them came to EAT.

anyhoo, today's post is not about my mom, but about baby carriers. she is sporting a crazy-korean thing which is basically a blanket with two ties and you wrap the crap out of yourself and the child on your back. i could not do this. even with her help. she throws it on by herself, and topher is in heaven. he gets to see all the action (dishes being washed, food being cooked) up close. which is the beauty of carrying your baby in a carrier. Topher, being my second baby, was in a sling A LOT. lily- not so much. slings are a 2nd mama's best friend.

my girlfriends (pretty much all of whom have had a baby in the last three months) are big on pouch slings. ring slings are best since you can adjust how you wear your baby, and who can wear your baby. and because it comes with extra material, you can also do a little private nursing while your baby is in the sling. ring slings are also good cause then dad, as well as mom can take turns carrying baby. i tried the HotSling for a little while, but Topher was not a big fan, which made me not a big fan. he was a squirmy one, and tried to push out of it on occassion, which wasn't that hard to do. but these types of baby carriers come in supercute fabrics and patterns, and can be found at your local target for $30 - $60. their selection of baby slings is amazing, so much more than when Lily was a newborn only two years ago! their brands range from Hotsling to Balboa Baby, which a little while ago you could only get at specialty stores or online. way to go target! i love you.

i have tried the Moby wrap ($40 at Target), and it was NOT for me. i tried it at the store (a specialty baby store that has since closed down a la recession), but it was nice to have the store owner show me exactly how to use it and let me try it on my own a few times. if you get yours from Target, you will really have to watch the video, srudy it, maybe take notes. but this contraption is basically a gigantic piece of fabric that you wrap around yourself in an assortment of different ways, and then you somehow stuff your baby in there. i know there are a lot of moms who love this thing, and those moms are patient, and have patient children. not so for me, so let's move on.

THE BEST ONE IN THE UNIVERSE: The Ergo Baby

check out their website at http://www.ergobabycarriers.com/

these are like the Baby Bjorn carriers, only it has a really thick hip strap that made all the difference for me. and actually, some Baby Bjorns are about the same price, but you can only carry a child up to about 6 months or a year. you can use the Ergo till your kid is 5. and this may sound ridiculous to some of you, but have you ever been to the zoo, or at the mall and seen parents lugging around giant children who are not wanting anything to do with their strollers, or don't even have a stroller at all?

this carrier looks like a backpack, and all the straps are adjustable so Chris and I were both able to use it very comfortably, and you can also use it on your front or back. another great feature on this carrier is a head covering flap so that your baby can be protected from the sun if you are out on a walk, or to keep your baby hidden if your baby is taking a nap. Topher fell asleep in this almost everytime i used it, which also allowed me to get a lot of work done on the computer (when i went to work.)

i started using it when Jeehon moved in with us (cause it was hers!) which made Topher about 2 months old, and i used it very regularly till he was about 10 months old. it made shopping, hanging out with Lily, doing the dishes, etc, a lot easier. and best of all, it provided a lot of snuggle time for me and my little baby in the midst of busyness and trying to keep up with life! Jeehon used it with Sungu, who is a heavy piece of kid, when she would travel. it was especially handy at the airport since you have to completely dismantle your stroller and get it up on the xray machine thing.

these bad boys run for about $105, but i think that they are worth every penny.

anyway, i strongly suggest to any new mama, and especially to moms who are about to have their second! i didn't really use a baby carrier with Lily, except the Baby Bjorn that I got as a hand-me-down. but i didn't love it, so i didn't use it that much. but now you have a world of options out there, so i suggest you dive in, cause having an extra pair of hands (even if they are your own) is the best thing that you get when you invest in a baby carrier.

Ghetto-Fabulous Halloween

Here is our family at our Small Group's Halloween party that was this last Saturday. We went crazy ghetto this year because of the recession. Every year, Halloween is a pretty big deal in our household. Chris just loves to get dressed up and make people laugh. If I were on our other computer, I would show you the progression of Halloween costumes he has had over the last couple years. And the amount of money spent on costumes have ranged from $100 (pre-marriage!) to about $30. Last year was the $30, when we bought material to make all of the Wizard of Oz costumes. That was $30 and about 20 hours of labor! FRom both Jeehon and myself! This year we spent a whopping $4.79. Money was not necessarily the issue, it was more of a heart matter- I just didn't really care this year! And neither did Chris. In fact, Mr. Halloween himself did NOT have a costume idea three hours before the party. (Which, by the way, we were in the van driving back from Sierra Vista. Long day!) Two hours before, he ran to the closest costume store and bought a Phantom of the Opera mask for $4. And he also picked up a black make-up pen for Topher's mustache. $.79.

Our family theme was Movie Characters. We borrowed a suit from Sungu so that Topher could be Charlie Chaplin. A ghetto Charlie Chaplin. I got this idea from Topher who occassionally acts like the silent, quirky, comedic actor. Then last year Kim got a rat costume on clearance for about $5 so that made Lily 'Ratatouille'. She is holding a spoon for effect. It cost a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie to get her into the dang thing, and as soon as she finished eating it, the costume came off. At least we got one pic! As for myself, I went as Juno, from the movie of same name. But in reality, I looked like myself from the time I was pregnant with Lily to the time that Lily was one year and a week old. Except I wore a skirt over my jeans, which Juno did, and I did not. But you can't see it in this picture.

Anyhoo, here are some pics of my little man being as cute as cute can be. Chris and I will very unfortunately not be taking our kids trick or treating this year, as we will be driving back from El Paso (this is the main reason for Chris' and my lethargy in getting dressed up this year), but the babes will be with their Nana and Papa, so I'm sure I will have awesome new pics next week. And we are still trying to think of a costume that Lily will actually wear...


Topher is wearing track pants with his suit jacket. The suit pants were too big on him and he doesn't have a baby belt, and so while he was walking around the house before the party, his pants were around his ankles. Poor skinny kid...

Looking dapper in his borrowed hat (Charlie Chaplin's looked different, but this one was free so we took it!) And he is wearing one of Chris' ties that i was going to cut, but instead tucked into his sweatpants!

At the end of the night, our poor little guy was spent. And possibly drunk... This may be what he is going to look like in 40 years...

Happy Free-Candy-Getting Folks!

Everything In It's Place

Lily has been extra hilarious lately. Yesterday we were hanging out at Robert and Lindsay's, and Chris was shooting these little basketballs into Gabe's toy basketball hoop across the room. After one particularly wayward shot that nearly knocked two pictures off of the wall, Lily looked at her dad and yelled " 'O More!" And when her dad chose not to listen to her and threw another terrible shot, Lily looked at him and said very sternly "NO! 'O more!" Funny that she can say 'no' but not 'no more'. Kids! I don't understand their brains, and that's probably why I love them so much- so much mystery!

Another thing that is important to Lily- right up there with not destroying other people's houses, is for things to be where they belong, even if she is the only one who knows where things 'belong'. This doesn't mean that she is always clean and tidy, but everything is where it belongs in her world. And when she sees an animal- whether in real life, or in a book, she yells at it to go to it's mommy. Cause that's where they belong- with their mommies. For someone who is such a daddy's girl, I am glad to know that in her heart she knows she also belongs by my side.

Then this week we went down to Tucson to hang out with Chris, who was doing some training thing there all week. We went down on Thursday afternoon, hung out and waited for him to finish up on Friday morning, then took a trip to see Chris' uncle in seriously-south-Tucson, which was on the way to ridiculously-south-Sierr Vista, where we hung out with the Malloys till Saturday. Anyhoo, Lily saw pine cones on the ground for the first time, outside of our hotel room, and I told her and Topher that they fell out of the trees. This was unacceptable for Little Miss Lils. They needed to go back where they belonged. If only she could figure out how to get the sad little pine cones back into the trees from which they had fallen...

Lily and Topher nursing, and taking inventory of the hurt pine cones.

This first picture is kinda dark, but I'm no Erin or Jenny, so pretend that you can see Lily standing under the giant tree, hoping the pine cones will flutter up to their homes.

Finally! A little help from dad! Though the pine cones still did not end up where they were supposed to be, Lily was back with her dad, and that was good enough for her. All in a day's work.

More New Girlfriends for Lily!

lily has some more friends to hang out with! last year was definitely the year of the boys. we had gabe, topher, and grady, and they all fight over cambry, the only girl in our posse born in '08. but this year has provided a better mix, with corban and greyson being the men of '09, followed by gretta, zoe, and now brielle, and colbie- who are cousins born two days apart!

brielle is the miracle baby we have been praying for over the last two years. she was born to mike and cindy on oct 7th in an overly ecstatic, and relatively sickening manner (just joking. kinda. cindy just really loved birthing her child, and that's not even almost common to hear. check out the FULL account of every amazing moment on her blog: MC Brantons, on the sidebar.) she was a ridiculous 5lbs 7 oz, which officially makes her the smallest baby i have ever held. i mean i have 'held' babies that small before, they just happened to be in my frickin womb.
the brantons are doing SO AWESOME and we just praise Jesus for that.

colbie is a miracle as well, because i think we all now know that having a healthy and beautiful baby is a miracle! and this little lady, like her older sister cambry, has amazing hair and LOVES TO SLEEP! four hour stints from the get-go. thank you Jesus for that serious blessing! christin is doing surprisingly quite well for having birthed this amazing girl at a hefty 8lbs 4oz. she beat lily by an ounce! and so because i know what that feels like- my hat goes off to you christin.

i went over to bring the brantons and roberts' food on monday, but i forgot to take a picture of everyone together! so here are some pictures i had, and stole off of facebook. but i would just like to say that when i went over with my kids, lily and cambry were actually playing Together, not just playing with toys in the same room like they used to do! there was a moment where lily had her head on cambry's lap, and cambry was stroking her hair. I LOVE IT! thanks cindy and christin for making even more fun friends for lily to hang out with!

here is an amazing picture of cindy and her teeny tiny baby! (that i stole off of facebook)
so happy for you guys! so gorgeous- both of you.

here are pics of jeehon and i visiting christin and colbie. yes, christin just had a baby and she looks better than me. whatev...

jeehon just happened to be in town that weekend, and we missed the brantons by 2 hours! the cousins were in the hospital at the same time! precious!!!

Progress. For Me, Not Lily...

as i have mentioned before, motherhood is ridiculous cause you and your 'personal' time are nothing compared to the time that BELONGS to your kids. and sometimes i am good at dealing with this, and sometimes i cheat. but when i cheat- don't worry, i get burned. for example, this morning i stayed in bed till about 8am. it was glorious. lily was definitely in my room with me, and she probably woke up around 7:30, but she let me lay down and drift in and out of consciousness. what a nice girl. i could also hear topher down the hall at about 7:45, but i just kept right on staying where i was at. and then i remembered that i was going to go to church for MOPS, cause they were having a panel of dads come in to speak, and Robert, my annointed-speaker-teacher-pastor brother-in-law, was going to represent a 'new dad'.

MOPS was at 9, and it was already 8. and as close as we live to church, it still takes us about twenty minutes to get there. so then it was hustle time. i got the kids up and into the living room with their morning cups of milk. i ran back to my room to get ready. i kinda had a nose bleed last night (dryness) so then i had blood in the back of my throat. gross, and probably too much info, but it will kinda explain the immensely stupid thing i did next. i started to get my contact lenses out, so i unscrewed the case, and then i started to gargle and spit out into the sink, and all of a sudden there was a contact lens in my mouth. what the heck. i finally slowed down to assess what the heck was going on here. as i stood at the sink, with a contact lens in my mouth, and my empty contact lens case in my hand, i realized that i had opened the dang thing up, poured it (contact solution and lenses and all) into my mouth to gargle. what the heck???? i guess even waking up at 8am was not enough sleep for me...

so last night went alright with putting Lily down for bed. the first night i had to sit outside of her room for about 20-30 minutes. not bad, especially since I decided to use that time productively by reading The Bible. you can't get mad at a kid for not sleeping while you are reading the Bible. then the next night was super-easy cause Lily hadn't napped that day, so even though she tried to fight sleep, she lost. i sat outside of her room for 10 minutes, even though she fell asleep after 2, just so i could finish the chapter i was on. then last night i was in front of her room for 40 minutes, and i finished a book that i had started a long time ago in preparation for a leader's retreat i was supposed to go to. finishing that book marked the first book i had finished reading in two years! YOWSERS. i am going to try to start reading books again- and finishing them! and i might do all of that in front of Lily's room.

so here's the progress i have been showing. i was never a big fan of this 'sitting in front of the room' business, because i was 'so busy'. always so many dishes to do, toys to pick up, numbers to input (for my 'half-of-kinda-part time job), e-mails to write, blogs to blog... etc. so instead it was easier (and my pediatrician even recommended it to me, so it wasn't entirely my laziness people!) to lock Lily into her room and have her scream and cry. i guess my demanding that after 8pm was my time, and no longer Lily-time burned both her, and myself.

and even though this new regiment we have going on is A LOT more time consuming, it is actually a lot less stressful since i have a new attitude about it. i don't sit there and think about how Lily is 'wasting my time' anymore, which i used to when i would have to go up and down the stairs to yell at her to stop screaming and go to sleep. i am plenty good at wasting my own time thank you very much. but now since i am using that time to read, i actually enjoy, and look forward to our nightly routine. Lily sometimes gets out of bed to grab another book off of her shelf, and if she loiters too long, i gently tell her to go back to bed. sometimes she comes over just for a hug and a kiss, and then i tell her i love her, and she goes back into bed. trauma and drama have been replaced with gentleness and kisses. cheesy, but true.

for now, this is working for us. i feel like Lily's been calmer lately, but maybe she is that way cause maybe i am calmer too. she and i kind of have the chicken-and-the-egg thing going, i know i obviously came before her, but i usually blame my hysteria on her hysteria, but maybe it's my disgruntled-tiredness that makes her disgruntled and full of tantrums, which then leads me to be angry-yelling mom (who i hate by the way, as Lily does as well) which she counters with sad and mad and hysterical Lily. i guess being the adult in the relationship, i will change my ways, and continue on this path of calm, patient, and kind mama, and see how that continues to change the Lilster too.

New Remedy for Same Old Problem...

Guess what? Lily isn't sleeping well. Again. She is the most sensitive little lady I know (and trust me- I know A LOT of sensitive ladies!) I have read that things like vacations, schedule changes, really any kind of change can affect a child's sleep. And all those things and more affect my little Lilster. Obviously our two-part-month-long move has affected her some. I will give her that. Then she's had to sleep in different beds on a few different occassions- like when the Malloys were here last weekend. But I feel like she has had to deal with so much change in the last couple of months, that it should be normal by now, and exhausting, and therefore she should be sleeping like a champ. But alas. Not the case here.

So we have been here for almost four weeks now. And Lily has crawled into bed with Chris and I every night except once. Which is not that big a deal to me, for the most part, I just thought it would bother Chris, since sometimes she sleeps like a fish out of water, and he doesn't always get a ton of sleep when he is working. But he says it doesn't bother him, and he would rather that she just 'grow out' of wanting/needing to come to our room, rather than us locking her out of it. Fine by me. For the most part.

So Chris' schedule has been a bit hectic recently. And by recently, I mean the last six monts or so. But Lily is kinda acting like this is a new thing. So she is extra clingy when he is around, and will not go down to sleep if he puts her down for a nap or sleeping at night. She just follows him around like a little lost puppy. It's kinda cute, and kinda ridiculous. But then when I put her down for sleep or a nap, there isn't as much attachment, which honestly doesn't bother me at all. I need my space girl! Go ahead and adore your dada. But I guess with the lack of consistency, she has not been wanting to go to sleep when I put her to bed at night now. And since we live at an apartment now, I don't feel that letting her scream at the top of her lungs for over an hour is much of an option anymore. For the sake of people not calling the cops on me.

I have read tons of parents' articles on different methods of getting kids to sleep, and there is a 'no-cry' book out, that lists lots of different 'tricks' to try on your kids. I can't remember if this one is from the book, or just froma nother articla I read, but I am going with the 'sit at the open bedroom door of your child's room so they can see you and wait for them to fall asleep.' I was never interested in this one cause it seemed so time consuming before, but I have come to the conclusion that parenting is time consuming, and what's an extra ten minutes to an hour sitting in front of Lily's door gonna hurt? I've actually gotten some reading done the last few nights!

So we've been doing this for three nights, and it's going pretty well. I think that eventually the kid is supposed to just be ok with sleeping in their room and not needing you to sit there till forever and a day. We'll see if and when that happens. But for now, this is the new 'game plan' we are working on with our sleep-detesting daughter.

Thursday's Thing- Lexus vs. Toyota, or Great vs Very Good Diapers

Today's topic of discussion is diapers. Lots of moms have their favorite brand and will only stick to that brand. That's ok, but I just have to say don't knock it till you've tried it. And I have tried plenty of diapers, like wipes. I don't actually have a favorite diaper, but since one of my favorite things is money, I try to keep mine by buying the cheapest thing available. This is easy to do since my kids are older and not prone to blow-outs the way they were as wee little things. But to be honest, I really love the Pampers swaddlers for newborns and infants. Once my kids got into the Size 2 diapers, they had a bit more control of their bowels (read:less explosive diahrea) and so the kind of diapers they wore became a lot less of an issue. Their butts just needed to be covered, and if I could do it for less than 20cents a changing, that was good enough for me!

So for the sake of efficiency, I am going to share with you my thoughts, and the prices of size 1 and size 4 diapers from my three major shopping locales: Target, Walmart, and Costco.

Pampers Swaddlers Diapers-
These are THE BEST diapers for newborns, and infants. I LOVED these diapers so very very much when my kids were babies. They use them at the hospital, so you are already sucked into using them, but they use them at the hospital because they are awesome. They are soft, and have a nice and faint baby aroma to them. Nothing too abbrasive, especially since newborns being as cute as they are manage to make the nastiest messes. First you have the black tar poop, then you have that psychotic yellow-curry juicy-grossness mess. But the sweet Pampers keeps all that crap on the inside, as best as it possibly can.
And Big Bird and his Sesame Street friends grace these wonderous diapers, giving you an encouraging smile while you change your newborn for the 15th time in the same hour, and the hour happens to be 3am.
Size 1:At Target- 216 diapers for $42 puts you at 19.4cents a butt-cover. They are $2 cheaper, according to the Walmart website, which puts you at 18.5cents a diaper.

Luvs Premium Stretch Diapers-
These diapers are 'pretty good'. They are made by the same company as Pampers (Proctor&Gamble), so think Lexus when you are using Pampers, and Toyota when you are using Luvs. My beef with Luvs is that I find them to be a bit too thin, which is kind of one of their selling points, though I don't really understand why. Are we, as a society, already trying to get our babies to be body-conscious? A big diaper does not help or hurt a baby's blob of a frame. They are just a blob with a giant head on top! And another thing that kind of gets to me is the smell. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. But some people buy Luvs cause they love the smell the most. To each his own. And if you happen to be a big Blues Clues fan, then these diapers will have you coming back for more.
At Target- size 1s are 264/$39. That puts you at 14cents a diaper, which is great, but I actually prefered to pay 5cents more for the Lexus of newborn/infant diapers. size 4s are 21cents, since you pay the same price for the box, but you only get 180.
At Walmart they are.. I don't know cause the Walmart website is still sucking... But look for coupons people! Cause P&G is pretty good about putting those out there.

Huggies Snug & Dry-
You can't go wrong with Huggies products, but they are so far superior that I ever go out of my way to buy their products. And even with coupons, and when they are on sale, they are not cheaper than the cheapest kind out there. Sure these are cute, with little Mickey Mouse characters on them, but if my kids want to see Mickey Mouse, I will just turn the tv on for them since we pay to have cable.
For size 1s- get them at Target cause they are 228/$39, which puts you at 17cents a diaper, as opposed to 18cents at Walmart. For Size 4s though, go to WAlmart for 140/$35, which puts you at 25cents a diaper. It's the same price per unit, but if you go to Costco you can get a box of 200/$50.

Parents Choice-
Again, only at Walmart. And I know I really hated on them last week for their sucky wipes, but I am all about their diapers. They are cheap and they do the trick. The only trick they don't do is tell you what size they are. This truly stinks if you have two kids who are a year apart and not wearing the same size. (Lots of people do that, right? Have kids reallyclose together? It's the cool thing to do, right!??)... Anyway, that was annoying, but Topher and Lily have both been wearing size 4s for a while now, so that's no longer an issue. These daipers also have no cute characters on their package, which is probably why they are cheaper than the rest, and that's fine for me cause I pay enough for cable, I don't need to pay more for characters that my kids can pee on.
These diapers are about 15cents a piece, which is why they are my diaper of choice. I don't have exact figures for you, but I believe I a box of 82 goes for about $14.

Apartment Living- The Not-So Good...

My main problems with the apartment are mostly found with the appliances. I know I need to call the apartment people and I am sure they will fix our problems, but let me just blog about them before they are no longer issues!



First of all, our dryer has a weird thing where it grabs onto minimally one unlucky item during the cycle and gets it stuck somewhere above the door. This has caused there to be a black burn/grease mark on one, sometimes two items every time I have used the dryer- and if you read my previous post- I have been a laundry doing fiend! It has only caused one hole, but of course it was my newest shirt that I bought pre-shopping fast.



Secondly, our gas oven is crazy. Mostly because Prometheus lives in there with the ball of fire that he stole from the gods. I suddenly cannot bake anything to save my life. I have to cover everything with foil, so that it doesn't burn on the top, cause the ball of fire is actually more like a strip of fire on the top of the oven. But there is no heat coming from anywhere else in the oven, so getting things to cook and bake evenly is a joke. A not-funny joke. If you have a gas oven and have any helpful hints for me, I would really appreciate them! I cannot go a whole year with burnt yet uncooked cinnamon rolls, cakes, brownies, lasagnas, etc...



And I guess my last issue with the apartment is that we live on the first floor, so it's hard to keep the windows open. One for privacy sake, but also for safety reasons too. Lily could easily crawl out of her window if we left it (and the flimsy screen) open. (Obviously we wouldn't open the screen too, but you understand what I am trying to say, right?) And someone could also crawl in. All bad thoughts. Plus people are out talking and walking their dogs while the kids are sleeping, so it already sounds like there is a party in their rooms even with the windows closed. That's a shame since it's so nice and cool out and I would love to have the windows open! But I demanded that we have a first floor apartment because I could not imagine having to go up and down a flight of concrete stairs with Lily, Topher, and groceries. I guess living with stuffy quarters is easier to live with than a cracked skull or broken legs (which crazy Topher would surely have if we lived upstairs.)

Apartment Living- The Good

We are now at week 3 of apartment life- and we are still loving it! Last night Chris commented on how I have been the laundry champ. Laundry was not my job at the other house, because Jeehon called it, which meant I was the dishes lady. It all worked out pretty great. Except when Jeehon would go on vacation for weeks on end. Then I would have to do the laundry. Boo. So I would pretty much procrastinate till Chris had no boxers, socks or undershirts. And this is pretty pathetic since Chris has a drawer full of undershirts- I think there's almost twenty in there. But living at the small apartment has given me more time to do stuff- I do laundry more frequently, the dishes don't pile up as high as they used to, and I even have more time to blog!

And even though it's a lot smaller here (just a hair under 1200 sq ft), we had our first weekend guests here, and no one killed anyone else- success! Because of good ol' Columbus Day, James had a 4-day weekend, so the Malloys came up on Thursday and left yesterday. They slept in Topher's room where there is a queen size bed, and Topher's crib, and still room enough on the floor for a mat for Sungu. Then Topher was supposed to sleep in a pack n play in our room, but the first night was a disaster and he woke us up at 3am and was excited to have roommates so he just wanted to play. We moved him into Lily's room and that's where he stayed. Lily has been crawling into bed with us still, so she is a pro at sleeping on our bed, so we kept her.

The weekend was filled with much eating, and hanging out, and going to the zoo, and even watching movies. It is so great to have live-in babysitters! Friday night James and Jeehon went on a date, and Sunday night Chris and I went out to watch 'Couples Retreat'.

Here are some pics of our weekend together:

Here are the Malloys posing while we were on our walk/bike ride around the apartment complex.

Lily and Topher on thier bikes like big kids! Even if Topher is being 'guided' by his dad.

Topher guiding his own dang bike thank you very much!

Chilling on our patio. Eating frozen Gogurts.

Lily trying to feed the giraffe at the zoo, but wimping out at the last second. That is a gross looking tongue. Sungu fed his giraffe and so was not ashamed to pose for a picture afterwards. Not so for Lily.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada

today is columbus day here in the great u.s. of a. it is thanksgiving in canada. and it is my oldest brother's 30th birthday all over the world. though he is celebrating this momentous milestone birthday at home with a bunch of turkeys (read:my younger brothers and yummy turkey) in toronto.
i just wanted to wish my fellow canadians out there a happy thanksgiving. thanksgiving in canada is celebrated on the 2nd monday of october. it is a celebration to mark the end of the harvest season. something like that. and happy columbus day to my american friends and family. this day commemorates christopher columbus' arrival in america in 1492.
there's a little trivia for all y'alls.
i really feel like eating turkey today, but i do not feel like making one. but in my heart i am celebrating this holiday with canada and find myself overflowing with thanks for lots and lots of great things and people in my life. have a great october 12th folks, no matter what you may be celebrating today.

Thursday's Thing- Wipes

Once a week (hopefully on Thursdays) I am going to try to put up a post of my favorite kids things. Today I am going to talk about Wipes. The kind that you use to wipe babies' butts. And occassionally to clean the floor. I am a fairly cheap woman, no, Frugal, that sounds better, so I have tried quite a few different kinds of wipes cause 1. they are always having a sale on something different! and 2. i have come accross a wipe or two that I have not enjoyed, so I am going to share that with you today!

For the most part I will be comparing wipes on the cost (and I will do bulk sizes, since those are more cost effective anyway) and ability to get the job done (read:remove poo from the crime scene.)

BEST WIPES-

"Up&Up Sensitive Skin Baby Wipes". This is the Target brand wipe and it is currently my favorite! You can buy a box of 704 wipes for $11.49. That puts you at 1.63 cents a wipe. They are not too thick, and not too thin, and have no scent, and are also wet enough to get the job done. They are amazing for what you are paying for! Plus you have to go to Target to get them, and any reason for me to go to Target is awesome. If this post were actually a high school yearbook, then I would vote these wipes: "most likeable, most likely to succeed, and best dressed."

WORST WIPES-

"Parents Coice Unscented Wipes" This is a brand that they carry at Walmart and these wipes suck. (I really like their diapers so I am not hating on 'Parents Choice as a whole, just in part because of their wipes. Diapers will be my post for next week!) They seem thick at first, until you are REALLY wiping poop off of a kid's butt. Then your finger pokes through the wipe and all of a sudden you have a poop-popsicle finger. DISGUSTING. They just feel dry and gross- and I've never even used it on my butt- just my fingers. They are legitamitly 'unscented', which is a bonus, but that's pretty much all they have going for them.

And my girlfriend Erin was just complaining about them to me today, and her issue with them is that the next one doesn't pop out to greet you when you need it. Bad wipes! Rude and ineffective. I would tell you how much they are per wipe, but I am also having a fight with the Walmart website and can't find that information. Another big 'x' on you bad wipes.

here are some other wipes that have come through the Watson door, and therefore accross some Watson bottoms:

-"Kirkland Unscented Signature Wipes". These are the Costco brand wipes and they are also a personal fave. BUT, they seem to have raised their price, and that kinda stinks. You can get a box of 900 wipes for $27.99, which puts you at 3.11 cents per wipe. These are, again, truly 'unscented', which is nice cause you usually have a lot of other scents going on when you are using wipes. And they never seem to lose their moistness. I used to leave some of these in the car as emergency wipes, and they were always still wet. So kudos to the packaging folks. Though these wipes are kinda expensive, they are so good at getting the job done (read:wiping up poop) that you really use less of them, as opposed to the cheaper ones where you have to use a bunch of wipes to clean up the poop on the baby bottom and your finger.

-"Huggies Naturally Refreshing Baby Wipes". I find that as a mother, I just want to buy Huggies, cause it's a name you know and trust. But that trust comes at a price folks. And that price at Costco is 1000 wipes for 34.97, which puts you at 3.49 cents a wipe. Kind of a hefty price for something that you use to smear feces all over. Huggies is really good about sending out coupons, but even with a dollar, or even two dollars off, that's still over 3cents a wipe. Huggies wipes are thick and moist, but I actually find them to be a bit TOO thick. And the scent of the 'refreshing' wipes are a blend of cucumber and green tea, which seems nice. Until your kid has chronic diahrea, or you have three kids butts that you are constantly wiping, and then all of a sudden you associate cucumbers with poops, and then you have ruined eating salads for yourself for the rest of your life. Or until you switch wipes.

Zoe Lynn Watson

pretend with me, if you will, that it is 09.18.09, or sometime closer to that date than it is right now... i have a new niece! and her name is Zoe Lynn Watson! and she is so cute! and i am a TERRIBLE aunt!... no. that's enough self-loathing... i am a 'busy' aunt. i cannot believe that i have not yet written a post about this precious new addition to our family yet. but better late than never! (wait, so should i still be working on thank you cards for my wedding gifts?...)

Zoe is Justin (Chris' brother) and Jen's (my beautiful sister-in-law) precious gift from Jesus. she was born at 5:47pm via planned c-section, because she just did not like the idea of hanging out upside down, waiting to fall through the birth canal- can't blame you little one! your cousin lily had a SERIOUS cone head for the longest time!

the beautiful little family is doing really well- including their 2 grayhounds, german shepherd, and 90 cats (ok, i think they might have 3. but if you have 3, you might as well have 90 in my allergic-to-cats opinion.) Zoe has the most beautiful hair color- light brown with blond highlights, and already has her mother's sweet and quiet disposition. she also fortunately looks nothing like her father (just joking Justin!), though she has the classic Watson dimpled chin! precious!

here's the newest little Watson!

What a beautiful family!

Some Perspective Please

i have to admit that things have been crazy for a while lately, and therefore i have been crazy lately. i couldn't stop crying yesterday, but mostly cause lily wouldn't stop crying. my nerves were shot. i couldn't handle any extra noise, which included crying, screaming, and really even just talking. chris was home in the morning, which was good cause i really needed him to be an adult while i continued being the giant baby that has babies. part of my sadness/frustration was from lily and her NOISE, and from lily not being the perfect, obedient, sweet, even-tempered little girl i thought she would be, and from me not being the perfect, sweet, even-tempered mom i was so certain i would be! and every time chris tried to comfort me/understand what the heck was wrong with me, it made me cry more cause there was a good part of me that felt like i had failed him as a wife and mom to his kids. and he assured me over and over again that i was just straight up loco. i love that guy.

this did not all stem from the potty training misfire we experienced this week. or at least i don't think it did. i guess we've just had a ton going on these last few weeks/months. but i really did have a moment of clarity in the car the other day ago that this whole potty training thing was the BIGGEST problem in our lives- what a blessing!

and then i got an e-mail from wonderful Grandma Watson yesterday. grandma gets a lot of e-mails, and sends out lots of forwards and e-mails. she is very technologically savvy, and even has her own blog. i admit i don't often read all her forwards anymore, but when there is an untitled e-mail, it's usually personal and wonderful. except for this e-mail yesterday.

her son matt, who is the CPA of Watson & Watson CPA (where i 'work'/loiter), was just diagnosed with Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, a rare and of course, aggressive form of cancer. what the heck?!?!? and my life this week was all about peepees on the potty. thanks for the reality check Jesus! matt actually had surgery to get a hernia removed about a week or two ago, and that's when they discovered something that didn't look right. the whole family has never praised Jesus for a hernia before, but we are thanking Him for this one now!

matt is actually doing quite well, cause he's awesome and a fighter. in his 'old age' (haha, some time in his forties) he decided he was going to start running marathons with his awesome wife syria. so in the last 3 or 4 years, they have run the PF Chang marathon twice, and have done a buttload of half-marathons. he has also started cycling, and has fallen off his expensive bike a handful of times, and one of those times had him in a canal. he may not be the best bike rider, but he is a great accountant, dad, husband, and uncle-in-law!

i am just writing for you to please pray for-
1. MATT! he is getting a PET scan on monday, and starts chemo on thursday.
2. Syria! she is a tough cookie, but even tough cookies need to be lifted up in prayer.
3. their two sons, ben and matt, and grandma, and grandpa, and really the whole Watson crew. cause no one wants their dad to have cancer, no one wants their son to have cancer, no one wants their brother to have cancer. truth be told- no one wants anyone to have cancer, but cancer doesn't care. but Jesus cares! and i pray that His glory will be seen in the midst of all this.
thanks in advance for your prayers, and if you want to know more about matt's cancer, you can check out this link:
http://www.lymphoma.org/

Potty Training- Day 3... Forget it...

I didn't post yesterday for a plethora of reasons. The main one being that we were out all evening at Wes and Kim's watching Josh's nationally televised college football game, where his team- the underdog UAB Blazers, beat the favored Southern Mississippi something or others. Josh is the kicker for his team, though he is a freshman, and he was beyond awesome yesterday! He made a 51 yard field goal, and made all of his other attempts as well. That'a boy Joshy!

I also didn't post yesterday because it was not a good day for me. Yesterday was Day2 Part II and it was a disaster on all fronts. I am officially waving the white flag (or white training pants) in defeat.
The major victories of yesterday were-
1. Lily did NOT pee in her car seat while we were out for about an hour.
2. Lily did NOT pee in her bed when she took a nap with her training pants on.

But the major failures were-
1. Lily cried every time I tried to put her on the potty, and by the end of the day M&Ms and a baby stroller were no longer enough to motivate her to sit on the can.
2. I cried a couple times and proved to be the most immature person in our home, even with a one and a half year old and a two and a half year old living there.
3. Lily did NOT pee on the potty at all yesterday, only soiling herself once, but almost giving herself a urinary tract infection. Or at least I was afraid she was going to.

Which I actually called the pediatrician for some advice, and they thought there was a possibility that Lily did have a UTI, and told me I should come in and check it out. But before going, I decided to test Lily out and see if she wasn't peeing cause it hurt too much, so I reluctantly put a diaper on the girl (her first day time diaper in two days) and she filled that puppy up with pee pee like it was going out of style! No tears, no screams.
Needless to say we didn't go to the doctor (that diaper saved me from a $20 co-pay and hours of sitting in the waiting room!) and we are putting potty training on hold for everyone's sake. I am praying for more patience and wisdom for the next time that we do this, and I am praying for Lily who has all the physical signs of readiness, but not the emotional ones?
After I took Lily's pee-filled diaper off of her, I asked her if she just wanted to sit on the toilet, no pressure to pee or anything as she could see that I was going to put another diaper on her, and she got up, ran to the bathroom, sat on the toilet (againa, no tears or screams) and patiently waited for her chocolate treat. And I guess that was a mini-victory at the end of a long long long day. Did I feel the effects of defeat and failure? Of course. But did I also feel a tremendous weight being lifted off of my shoulders when Chris suggested we put this project on hold? You betcha!
So stay tuned folks, cause I may have lost this portion of the potty battle, but the war shall be mine! Lily will not graduate high school in diapers!