Christmas Pictures

We had our Christmas photos done in November by Stephanie Knowles of Jaiden Photography. They turned out great and we love them!

Firsts

The past two days have been big days in our house. Yesterday, Jace's first tooth finally broke through, it's on his bottom left.

 And today, he said "Mama" and he hasn't stopped saying it! That's all he will say and I love it! He's also trying to crawl as hard as he can! It won't be long!

Santa!

Mom and I took the kids to see Santa last weekend. Jace did good, although he wasn't too sure what was going on. He wouldn't smile, he'd just look at us with a serious look on his face. At the end, after the pictures, he looked up at Santa and got a huge frown on his face. Avaree asked for a Nintendo DS.

 

Diaper Stash & Wash Routine

It's been a while since I posted about our cloth diaper stash.  Since then, I've sold things that we didn't care for and purchased new ones! So, here's what we have now:
4 Perfect Size Medium FuzziBunz
4 One-Size FuzziBunz
1 One-Size BabyKicks 3G Bumboo
1 Medium Bumgenius All-in-One
7 One-Size Bumgenius 3.0
4 One-size Bumgenius 4.0 (snap)
4 One-Size Tweedlebugs
2 One-Size Happy Heinys (snap)
3 One-Size SmartiPants
3 Flip Diapers and 7 Stay Dry Flip Inserts
2 Econobum
12 Kawaii (our daycare diapers)
(There are a few diapers listed that are not pictured)

We keep our daycare diapers and extra inserts in this drawer.

We are using cloth wipes also. I was hesitant to try them but I love them! I still have over a case of disposable wipes that were given to me at my shower but I guess we'll use them for other things. We have flannel wipes and they clean so much bettter than disposable ones. We have a wipe solution, Punkin Booty Bits, that we keep in my peri-bottle and we just wet the wipes as we need them. Also in this drawer is a sample of CJ's BUTTer diaper ointment. If he ever gets a little red, this clears it right up. We also have some diaper liners that we use for daycare (more about those later) and two of our wetbags (Planet Wise-small and medium).

One of the main things that was so overwhelming to me when researching cloth diapers was the wash cycle. There's just so much information out there and I did not want to mess up the diapers. When it's time for a diaper change, we take the diaper off of him, fasten the laundry tabs (if it's a velcro diaper), remove the insert and throw it in the diaper pail. We just use a trash can with a lid and a pail liner. If it is a dirty diaper, we'll take it to the bathroom and shake the solids into the toilet and rinse it off if it needs it with a diaper sprayer.

We normally wash every two to three days. We just bring the full pail liner to the washer, dump everything in and throw in the pail liner to wash also. First, we just do a cold rinse with no detergent. Once that is done, I add the detergent. We use 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of Rockin' Green, which is excellent for cloth diapers. Then run a hot wash cycle. After that cycle is complete, we do an extra cold rinse.

Once they're done washing, everything is hung on a drying rack. Usually they dry in the kitchen (because I wash at night), but I try to put them outside to dry at least once a week (on the weekends). The sun is great for sanitizing and bleaching cloth diapers. If there are any stains, the best way to get them out is to sun the diapers. It's amazing how well it works.

Once the diapers and inserts are all dry, I go ahead and stuff them all so they're ready to use again. Cloth diapers are so easy and I'd recommend them to anyone!

Thanksgiving Rewind

This should have been done a couple of weeks ago, but late is better than never, right? We had a great Thanksgiving, most of our family from Albany came down so it was really nice to see all of them! James was sick though so he didn't really have a Thanksgiving. We kept him quarantined at home while we were at Mom's.

 After eating all day and making our annual trip to K-Mart, we relaxed for a little while and then started our Black Friday shopping! We love this day and look forward to it all year long! Mom, Jenn, and I started at Wal-Mart at midnight, then Jenn and I hit up Target (in line around 2:15 for the store to open at 4) and then Wal-Mart again (for the 5am sale).

 We didn't get home (well, back to Mom's) until around 6am but we got everything we went for (and a little more). We napped for about an hour and then we were up with the family. We did a little shopping later as well. Thankfully James was only sick for a couple of days so he did get to visit with the family a little.

6 Month Shots

Jace had his 6 month check-up today. He was 18 pounds and 1 ounce (75th percentile), 27 3/4 inches long (95th percentile), and his head was 17 1/4 inches (50th percentile). Everything looked good, he got 3 shots and the rotavirus vaccine by mouth. He would've gotten four shots but they were out of the flu shot. This was the worst he's been with the shots, he screamed and pitched a fit! I felt so bad for the poor little guy. He got a little nervous when the doctor started to listen to him breathe and she said this is the age that separation anxiety usually starts. I hope he doesn't have it too bad!
Jace was a little busy body while waiting for the doctor. He was tearing the paper off the table and trying to eat it!

 

 

 

6 months!

Happy 6 Months Little Man!

Half a year...that just doesn't seem right. We'll be celebrating his first birthday before we know it! Jace is just as sweet as ever and is growing like a weed. I think he's a little over 18 pounds. We'll find out for sure tomorrow at his 6 month appointment. He fits best in 6-9 months or 9 months clothes and he's in the medium setting on all his diapers. He's taking 5 ounce bottles (ever since he was sick) every 3 hours and eats 2 solid meals (stage 2) a day, a fruit in the morning and a veggie in the evening. He loves to eat!

 He is the happiest baby and is still no trouble at all. He still has no teeth but I'm sure it won't be long, his gums are looking a little puffy. He's a rolling machine now and is all over his bed during the night. He loves to sleep on his tummy like his Mommy. We can usually lay him in his bed at night and he'll go to sleep on his own.

 Jace loves to talk and makes all kinds of letter sounds. He's said dada but just when he's jabbering, he doesn't relate that to Daddy. It also sounds like he's saying 'hey' all the time and he's even said something that sounded like 'Avaree' a few times. It wouldn't surprise me if that was his first real word. He LOVES his big sister!

 I tried giving him a Mum Mum the other day but he didn't like it. I'm going to keep trying though. I also mashed up some banana--he didn't like that either, although he does like baby food bananas.

 I think he's starting to look more like me now...a few people have told me that too.   :)