Water fight! and bath time...

Today was a great, fun day. Michael and I got to spend a lot of time together (with Caroline) and we had such a good time.
We must have been in a silly mood, though, because Caroline's bath time turned into a water fight when Michael decided he wanted be crazy and squirt me with one of Caroline's toys. I of course retaliated. This is the end result:



See the water behind us on the wall?


Haha! Meanwhile, Caroline was enjoying her bath and being cute.


Michael always puts toys on her head


Pretty eyes


She drinks while she bathes.....uh, don't ask.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Also, at dinner she ate with a fork for the first time and did pretty good.

Another late night

Ahhh! I'm up at 2:45 AM again, but I'm SEW SO excited. I finished a little package of matching gifts for a friend. It's kind of a surprise, but she may be reading this, so SURPRISE!

I won't go in to detail but I'm so elated because I DIDN'T MESS UP! Sorry for the caps, but this is a huge success for me- I always mess up something in every project that I do. Yeah yeah yeah! Praise the Lord!

Here are the pics, from start to finish.
First, I had to make a sling for the same friend.....



Then Caroline wanted down....


Then I finished it all up after she went to sleep and here it is- a purse, a diaper/wipes holder and a key fob. w00t!!


Pearl snap on both bags



Goodnight!

Dancin' to the music

Go, Caroline!

Another PL'ing success....

Well, this has been an interesting morning. I was dead set on "catching" a pee (ugh- does anyone have a better word for that?) today, so started watching Caroline. I think I missed my first chance earlier because before I knew it she said (and signed) "diaper" and she was wet already. Okay, no problem. So I stripped her down to her birthday suit. Then I started asking her about every five-10 minutes if she need to go to the restroom. She would say "no" and then I would ask if she needed a diaper. She also said "no" to that. This went on for an hour. Her walking around the house butt-naked and me following her very closely. She didn't wet at all! Finally it was time for lunch so I put a PF on her without a cover. See how cute she looks?


What a nice action pic, eh?




Trying to show how it fits on her legs and back...




Just as I expected, she wet during lunch. So I put a new PF on her, this time with a cover. I started doing the dishes and decided that I would be very happy if I could just catch the BMs- the pee's would be icing on the cake.
So, five minutes later she starts grunting and I drop the dishes, pick her up and fly to the bathroom. I rip her diaper off while I'm flying and set her on the toilet. I say a few que words/noises to her and ta-da! again she has a BM in the toilet!
Needless to say, I'm just happy for the two poopy diapers that I didn't have to change! So we'll keep working on the wets, but for the now I'm loving PL'ing already!

A little video, as always....

How labor should be...

I just can't get enough of this video. Watch to about 2:28, and you'll see when she has a contraction. Wow- I get all teary-eyed every time.

Gentle Potty Learning begins....

Today I went to a very informative meeting. It was through LLL and the topic was Elimination Communication, AKA infant potty teaching. Notice I didn't say "potty training" since this is a very different idea, method, and practice (see links at end of post for more info). EC usually starts soon after birth, so Caroline and I had missed that window, but I learned that I could start Early Potty Learning with her now. So as soon as we got home I held her on the toilet to try and let her use the restroom. She just kind of looked at me funny, which I expected.
Then about a minute later she started her tell-tell grunting so I scooped her up and tried again and TA-DA! She had a BM in the toilet!
So the next step is for me to watch her cues and help get her on the toilet when I think she's about to wet or have a BM. This is just an extension of what I've done since she was born: she cried, I comforted her; she rooted around, I nursed her; she grunts or squirms, I put her on the toilet.
On to what everyone loves- pictures! This meeting was at Angela's house- she is a co-leader of the LLL of Henry Co. that I'm a part of.





Caroline had so much fun with all the babies.




Angela


I had to take a picture of this bread- read the label! (click to make it bigger)

And a little movie of all the craziness. The baby at the very end is a sweet 10-month old who was wearing real underwear!


Here are some resources with lots of information if you're interested in PL or EC.
Books
Diaper Free – The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene, Ingrid Bauer
The Diaper Free Baby, Christine Gross-Loh
Infant Potty Training, Laurie Bouke
Articles
November/December 2006 New Beginnings (p. 266-267) http://www.llli.org/NB/NBNovDec06p266.html
Websites:
http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/articles/potty-infant.htm
http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/articles/potty-infant.htm
http://www.freewebs.com/freetoec/http://www.theecstore.com/

For the love of babywearing...

I just had to let everyone know- I still love babywearing! More specifically, I had to tell you all that even though I love my Beco, there is still always a time and place for a great German style woven wrap. Twice this week I have used my Didymos. It does at least one thing (okay, let's be honest- about 10) that the Beco can't do. The one that I needed it for was a high back carry. So I popped lil' one up and here she is, peeking over my shoulder.


Then while I was cooking....




So, in conclusion, I still love my Didy, Diddy! ;)

Memorial Day Memories

Any day off is a fun day in my book. So Memorial Day was especially great. We spent the first half of the day working at the house, then at 4 pm we headed over to Michael's parent's house. Here is Caroline in her patriotic outfit.


We had a great time with our nieces and Laura, Mark, Grandmommy and Granddaddy.
Courtney


Two of the desserts I brought- chocolate chip cookies and chocolate Skittles....oh yeah.


See me running to save Caroline?


Emily, Caroline, Molly


We spent a good bit of time outside, too. First, the funniest video of Michael I've seen in a long time.



And pictures from outside...










This is where I put Caroline when I'm outside and I forget her shoes. She loves it!



And finally, Caroline saying "Go, go". You have to listen close.


I realize that the pics are small! I'll keep trying to get something that works better.

I can snap!

No, not with my fingers- I learned that ages ago. But with a hammer, lots of towels and some metal pieces! I took two cloths I had already finished and added snaps. It was very easy and I think it looks professional. Yeah! Just had to share.

Drinking watermilk

Caroline drank milk! I tried it really warm with a cereal bar crumbled up and she hated it. So I poured it in a cup with ice and then diluted it with water and she drank it! Not the whole cup or anything, but a LOT more than usual (which is one sip that runs back out of her mouth).

A busy, BuSy day...

Sundays always start out busy because it's the only day of the week that Caroline and I are both out of the door before 9 a.m. Don't hate me, it's just true.
So we headed to church and Caroline wore a little clip in her hair.....it was so cute. Anyway, totally not the point.

At 4 p.m. we had the Young Married's Class, so we left Caroline with Michael's parents while we headed back to church. Most of the older kids are watched by our teens and singles, and this is what they were doing while they waited for the children to come.
Some of the boys (and Michael) being, um, manly?


Me and Ashley being pretty (she just can't help it!)


More manly men


And pretty girls


Then we had a great lesson, food, and fellowship (and creme puffs....yummmmm), but I totally forgot to take any more pictures. Sorry, Steph. :)

Once we were back home and Caroline was asleep I headed downstairs to make four more cloths for a friend of mine. She said she needed them asap, so here they are!

All with wings and velcro, all pillow-sham style, and all with "inserts". I actually made little templates, too, so hopefully now I can start to make things that are a little more uniform.

I headed upstairs to go to bed and decided I wanted to post all this on here first, since tomorrow is Memorial day and will be crazy/fun. Then I realized that the dipes were in the washer, ready to be hung up. (Hung, right Heather? since it's an object? no, that's backwards...IDK). Anyway, here is my very first diaper mobile....I have to say it was very fun.


Then all of them together.


Then I realized that it's late. Really late. Later than I thought it was. So late that I'm really going to regret this in the morning late. (Does this remind anyone of a yogurt commercial that I hate? Really hate.)
This is how late it was before I started posting...


And now it's 2:36 a.m. Goodnight!!