green things we sow, green things we grow

today i did a bit of investigating into the vegetable seeds my little babe and i planted not so long ago, hoping for a sign of progress. i was not disappointed in the sprouts that have exploded through the soil! reaching for the light and lending green to their pots, out seeds are springing forth and promising eatables and edibles for our plates once harvest time is here.

among the green things we are growing, i am doing a small part for the greener good of our lovely planet, too. strange as i sound, nothing makes me happier than a laundry basket topped with cloth diapers and covers. today, with the morning sun, i finally got to hang my cloth to bleach in the bright rays. i often get confused looks or joking comments about our use of cloth diapers at home, but the truth must come out that i find it simpler to do cloth than i do disposable. we still keep our disposable supply for night time dryness and going out of the house, but at home i am happy to fold a prefold, secure it on little c with a snappi, and strap on a kissaluvs marvel or bummis super brite cover. when the day is through, depending on how many soiled diapers i have hanging in my wet bag, i fill the washer with cold water, add some biokleen and borax, shake the poo into the toilet (easier with the consumption of solid foods), toss the diapers, sans covers, in, and soak overnight. in the morning i run a rinse cycle, turn the dial to hot/cold wash with two rinse cycles, add a little more borax and tide free & gentle (same ingredients as our beloved dreft but $5 cheaper!), toss in the covers and wet bags, and off they go. hang them dry, fluff them in the dryer, bleach them in the sun and they are good for use. no need for a wet pail (gross?!), or expensive or fancy cleaners. i plan to invest in a sprayer to attach to the toilet for more efficient cleaning before soaking, but my diapers are clean, fresh, and *mostly* stain free. what stains i have encountered have disappeared in the sunshine. a little vinegar in the rinse cycle has prevented any smells (precautionary measure, but i want to avoid the possibility) and i have also heard lemon juice can do the same but have not tried it. all in all, i love my cloth and my little one in a colorful diaper cover looks cute to boot!

inviting teeth to tea

pictured above, my mom has been loving being 'grammy,' and now requests she have her grandson for a sleepover once a month since the last one went so well. i see no reason to object!

in five days, i am only now realizing, our wee wren turns seven months old. yesterday we saw the signs of his third tooth poking out of his top front gums. though i have known of his teething for a few weeks, i had yet to see any real signs until e pointed out the small white pearl while little c was laughing hysterically at being tickled. there it was, just peeking out at us. being early at everything (save for being born) has been our wee bean's forte, but this does not ease a mother's nerves as she watches her babe grow too-fast before her eyes!

the tooth is only the beginning of new things, the list is growing with each day. not only are teeth on the table, but pushing himself to sitting while on his tummy, as well as 'hopping' along on all fours. not quite up to speed on crawling, he sort of jumps his little legs forward while on hands and knees, but has yet to get his hands to move forward in rhythm. and, at lease for me, the biggest hurtle has been conquered for over a week: sleeping through the night! after many weeks of waking two and three times a night, crying, tantrums, and asking to be fed, my darling e and i were desperate for a solution. unsure of what to do, my exhausted brain was begging for the relief of sleep. finally, one evening, e came home from work and marched straight to me exclaiming 'i know what to do!' his solution? A LATER BEDTIME. why on earth had we not considered this before? we have been putting c to bed at 7:00 p.m. on the dot for months without much thought as to whether he was truly tired enough by that point. his waking again at 11:00 p.m. most nights should have been our first clue. so that night we pushed our little one's bedtime back to 9:00 p.m. and though keeping him awake so late was a bit tough that first time, he slept soundly through the night until 6:30 a.m. the following night we did the same, only lessening the time by half an hour. at 8:30 p.m. we put him to bed and only woke to hear his stirring and fussing at 4:30 a.m. but instead of rising to get him, i waited and listened. after 15 minutes he fell soundly to sleep and did not rise until 8:30 a.m. and so this has continued, allowing me some much deserved rest.

lastly, but not the least of things, is that he now says 'mumma' very clearly and is working on other words and sounds much more lately. the babble is starting to really come out and i find myself amazed and in awe of the things i hear coming from my wee one's lips. will not be long before i hear his first sentences!

green thumbs

as things have progressed with the interior of our house, my goal this year was to make changes on the exterior as well. with sunny days leading the way, i have set out to accomplish some yard work, baby in tow. strapping little c in the moby wrap on my back, i grabbed gloves, shovels, rakes, soil, seeds, plants, and my watering can and got to work.

a few weeks ago i dug flower beds along the entire front of our home. equipped with my spade, i turned over each patch of grass and shook the dirt from the roots before piling the grassy clumps to be transplanted in the backyard. after the beds were turned up and raked out, i planted my various wild flowers, phlox, dianthus, geranium, zinnia, aster, sweet william, marigold, cosmos, and transplanted a section of our peony which has been rooted at the base of our large spruce tree for much longer than i have lived here, for sure.

after the front beds had been completed and successfully growing for a few weeks, i decided i felt confident enough in my green thumb to tackle the backyard. again, strapping my string bean to my back, i dug the large bare patch that never grows grass next to our porch and adorned it with iris and tiger lily and some bluebells from my mother's own gardens. i then dug out the corner by our porch steps, which was full of clay and rock, and lovingly planted a wild rose and a few miscellaneous purple and pink carpet flowers. skirting the edge of the corner bed with small stones i uncovered while digging, i stepped back to admire my work. little c soon grew tired and required a nap, so i put him to bed, snatched up the baby monitor, and headed back outside determined to complete far more.

grabbing up the large pots that have been lying dormant in the garage, and the overlarge bag of potting soil, which required all of my efforts to carry to the back porch, i set to the task of planting a pot with some early girl tomatoes which my mother had an abundance of and passed on to me. never having planted them myself, i took a few tips from her as i put the four tomato plants in the designated pot. covering them with soil and fertilizer, i moved to my next pot. i decided this should be my herb pot as i had a few misfit plants in need of permanent housing. with the large (and rather ragged looking) lemon balm my neighbor sweetly left on my doorstep, some basil i had originally sprouted in a wet paper towel, and some sad little dill which had not fared as well as the basil, along with a mystery herb i suspect to be coriander, i created a clay pot of herbal lovelies and placed in next to our front step in the small white rocking chair that will someday be caleb's to play in. not to stop there, i sowed seeds into my other large pot in which a blend of salad edibles will grow. radish, chive, lettuce, and cucumber will hopefully be peaking out of the soil very soon and growing into tasty treats for our summer salads.

once all were planted, i filled my watering can to the brim and watered all of my fresh plantings well. since my babe was taking an extra long nap, i even made to hose down the driveway of all the debris and fir needles that had never been swept away this spring. with a clean driveway, newly planted flowers and eatables ready for summer weather, i am feeling even more inspired and hope to pick up a few more plants for growing. even better yet are the plans for landscaping our backyard this year. e bought a trimmer and edger to clear cut the weeds and overgrowth that's always been a hassle so that we may take back our yard and sculpt it into something amazing. the potential has always been there, but now we are motivated and able to get to it! i was raised to, and as a result am a firm believer in, appreciate and care for what you have. preservation of beloved things is something i do well (make a note of the 18-year-old four poster bed and dresser set that was a gift for my 8th birthday..) and i so look forward to tending what we have here. it may not be grandiose, but that says nothing for what it is or can be with our TLC.

competing with thunder

 today began with sunshine and birds, but quickly changed it's outfit to sport downpours and thunderstorms. so, while my wee wren tried to figure out what all of the racket was about, i decided to let him make a little of his own. how did we accomplish this? good ol' fashioned pots n' pans drumset! pulling out an assortment of our old pots and pans, strainers, sifters, and wooden utensils (all of which we have many varieties), i placed them on the floor of the living room in a half circle and plunked c down in the middle of it. after handing him the spoons, he was off mastering his drum solo with great flair. now, here we sit an hour later, and my mini-drummer is still banging away happily on his makeshift drumset. what a rocking way to spend our rainy afternoon!

a rash of trouble

with our little string bean eating solid foods now (string beans included), we've found that the transition has been... less than simple. for about four days we found c was quite..backed up. adding a little more to his misery is that the introduction of food also caused him some diaper rash, which we very, very rarely encounter. over the week it continued to get progressively worse until his poor bum was so red and raw that he cried in discomfort. fear not, momma to the rescue! i hopped online and began researching the better acclaimed home remedies for treating diaper rash, and after ruling out many, i narrowed it down to a few things to try:

first i began airing out the area. now, with a six month little boy who no longer lies stationary (two days ago he began rocking up onto his hands and knees in an attempt to crawl!), i at first laid a few cloth diapers on the floor and let him hang out on them, but after getting on his hands and knees and rolling around on his back a few times while playing, i knew this was a recipe for disaster. so, i strapped on a cloth diaper with a snappi and left the cover off so air could continue to flow through it.
later i steeped a bath with a few bags of chamomile tea and a cloth full of oatmeal to create a soothing soak for his poor tush. after letting him play and sit in the warm bath for a while (about twenty minutes), i took him out and let his bottom air dry again and then applied our favorite remedy, passed down from my parents, bag balm. bag balm is a lanolin based ointment and does wonders for chapped, raw, dry skin. i repeated my cloth diaper sans cover routine, snapped the ends of his long sleeve onesie around his middle to keep the ends dry,  put on his legwarmers to keep his wee legs warm, and let him play on the floor some more. when he was wet or soiled, i discarded our usual wipes and patted him down with a warm wet cloth and let air dry each time before reapplying a small amount of the bag balm. at nap times, i simply put on a diaper cover.

the rash seemed a bit better by the day's end, and thanks to e picking us up some sea salt, i made our wee wren a second bath with the salts as praised by our favorite mother of twins. again i let him soak in the bath for as long as he would happily stay in and air dried his bum before bed and applied more ointment before bed. when he awoke in the night, i changed his diaper and noticed an improvement already. so this morning i will repeat yesterday's remedies and hope to see a vast improvement by tomorrow. here's hoping for a rash free buttocks soon!

paint me happy

yesterday, little c and i made our way to the home of our dear friends for some rainy afternoon playtime. on the agenda for the day: finger painting!

we always enjoy our visits with the twins, while i partake in much enjoyed chit chat with their awesome momma, and yesterday my wee wren got his fingers (and everywhere else..) dirty with his first finger painting experience. the girls, who are finger painting professionals by this point, showed us how it was done as they skillfully dragged their little fingers across their canvases in an array of colored splendor. little c was not to be outdone as he dove in and worked his paint heavily into the canvas to create a glorious brown. by the time they were all done, finger, arms, mouths, hair, legs, tummies, and even toes were covered in good ol' crayola *washable non-toxic* paint. must admit i am thankful for these features as my sweet child reached around in his joy and grabbed a handful of my shirt, adorning it with tiny red hand prints. being that it was such fun and that e and i are both avid painters, i think that i will add finger painting to my regular activities with my bitty bean. as our entry porch is now an art gallery for e & my artwork, i shall need to make room to display c's new creations, too.

halfway there!

today our wee wren turns six months old, and what an adventure we've been having on our way to this day!

amazing that the time can go so quickly, but the more impressive fact is the changes that are made from newborn to six month old infant. i remember holding my sweet boy in my arms for the first time and thinking 'you've belonged here all along.' the newness of him was intoxicating, and, even amid some sleepless nights, we were in awe of his darling baby magic. all babies seem to posses this magic, and we were hopelessly under his spell. with night feedings slowly becoming a thing of the past, i look back on those first weeks with little c home and remember feeding him in the early morning hours, long before the sun, and waking later to find we had dozed off together; c on the boppy pillow and me sitting upright with protective arms around him.

today our boy is motivated and ready to move. now able to roll over both ways and push himself up on his hands, he's been making attempts at crawling. though he's yet figured out how to get his arms and legs to work together and propel him forward, he's trying all sorts of new things to see what works best. his preference, however, is to stand and 'walk' (while we hold his hands or under his arms). he gets so excited when was take a stroll around the house, and squeals in delight as the dogs dance around him. i estimate he'll be moving and shaking on his own within a few months.

newest to our baby experiences are cloth diapers. having purchased them nearly two months ago based on our wee wren's weight, i found that he was just too skinny to wear them. even with several different folds of the cloth, i was unable to get them small enough to allow him to continue with his sitting and rolling over; all he could do was lie on his back! so, as patiently as i could, i waited until he grew a bit bigger and yesterday i strapped one on him to see where we were with the size. thankfully, despite still being quite bulky on his lean frame, he is able to sit and roll over in them now. the diaper covers are still far too big, but, using the 'twist fold' on his prefolds and folding a little extra down in front while securing the sides with pins, i am finding that we can make it work. i am already discovering ways to improve our experience with them (snappies instead of diaper pins will help keep this fold in place with less hassle, and the ingenius diaper sprayer for easy-off poo cleaning!). so i have a few things to order, but even without the added accessories i am pleased that we are at last in cloth!

with solid foods on the menu (last night c was delighted over the introduction of carrots mixed into his rice cereal) and cloth on his behind, our growing boy has arrived at six months in style. the journey here has been both wonderful with it's fair share of challenges, but even that mixture can't spoil the batter. i still find our wee wren's personal quirks to be quite tasty! i am so looking forward to the next six months as we make our way toward his first birthday.