oh La!

I discovered the wonder that is Pandora Radio a few weeks ago and figured I'd pass the joy along. Basically, Pandora magically creates stations for you based on your favorite songs and/or artists. Some of the selections are predictable-- like the fact that John Mayer and Jack Johnson both show up on each other's stations.



But some aren't so predictable, and that's where the magic begins. I set up an Edith Piaf station expecting some vintage, or at least European music, but it turns out that half of the artists that show up there sing good ol' fashioned Soul (a combination I never would have made on my own, but it makes complete sense). Which is how I was introduced to Ms. Etta James-- my new very favorite singer. You may have heard her version of "At Last". If not, go search for this on Playlist. Right now. I'm pretty sure it's one of the best songs EVER.



Anyhow, I'm totally digging Pandora for it's freshness and variety. I liked Playlist for being able to find specific songs, but got sick of listening to the same thing over and over. Solution found. Your ears will thank you.

my old school man

Joe turned 30 last Sunday, and it was a great day. First off, many of his super early morning meetings were coincidentally cancelled, so he didn't have to get up at his normal crazy hour. After church, we headed up to Brigham City for a fabulous birthday bash-- planned by the birthday boy himself. His requests were simple: a meal made up of his favorite foods (cocktail shrimp, pulled pork, garlic mashed potatoes, fruit salad, fresh rolls and honey butter, raspberry lemonade and banana cake) and an original poem from everyone in attendance. Those Hadfields happen to be a bunch of great poets. I was amazed at the sweetness and love that I read in their words. Sort of put my poem to shame.

"Roses are red, violets are blue.
Your dad's an old man, and now you are too."

Happy Valentine's Day!!

bad mommy...

My sister Kaley kindly pointed out that I did a birthday post for Lincoln and not for Daniel. (he turned three on January 19th)

"Oh, MAN!!"

Fortunately, Daniel is not a regular reader of this blog, and hasn't been offended by this terrible oversight.

I should add that we didn't forget to celebrate Daniel's 3rd birthday. It was tons-o-fun. He wanted to go swimming, so we headed on over to the Springville Pool and had a grand old time. AND they had life jackets, so he thought he was swimming all by himself. Last year, he kept getting mad at us when we wouldn't let go of him in the deep water...

Daniel is a delightful member of our family-- a huge kid with a heart of gold. He's quite the entertainer and loves to say/do things to make us laugh. Alas, most of his comedic genius is in the delivery, so a lot of the stuff we find fall-on-the-floor-funny just doesn't translate well to the blog. I guess you'll just have to visit him in person and see for yourself, eh?

We were pretty freaked out when we discovered he was going to join our family so soon after Lincoln (they're exactly 53 weeks apart), and I'm sure that many of you were freaked out on our behalf. Sure, we've had our rough patches here and there, but those are bound to happen no matter how far apart your children are spaced. Today, our boys are best friends and spend most of their time playing well together with little or no interference from Joe and I. That's an enormous blessing for this very pregnant mama and I know it'll pay off big time when the new baby comes.

Moral of the story: Sometimes our scariest surprises turn out to be our biggest blessings.

Joe, Lincoln, and three day old Daniel.

Daniel at about 5 months (ignore the time stamp on the photo-- my mom never quite figured that feature out on her camera). Can you BELIEVE what a chunk this kid was?

And Daniel today. We love you Danny Boy!

fun-in-a-box

Ok, not really in a box, but we've been reading a lot of Cat in the Hat lately, and Daniel loves to say, "fun-in-a-box" (as well as, "up, up, up with a fish").

We have found some "fun-from-the-printer" though. The Toymaker is a delightful website with a wonderful assortment of free, printable toys. We chose the color your own race car and it bought me about an hour of peace and calm. They loved it so much they were begging for more. I figured that a new paper toy once a week would be cost effective (I'm trying to stretch our cardstock supply) and keep the novelty factor going. So, the boys decided that Friday would be our paper toy day. Hmmm, what to print next...

tough lessons

Lincoln accidentally scratched our new neighbors' car. What a great first impression, eh? He felt pretty bad, and it took him a while to get up the courage to apologize, but he did it. This is what he came up with:

fluff stash

I've finally got our cloth diaper stash all put together and ready to go for this baby and couldn't resist showing off a picture. Have no idea what you're looking at? Here's a bit of an explanation:

Top left corner, pile of flat rectangles. These are newborn prefolds (24 total), which make up the majority of our stash. They're the likely the same type of diapers your mom used on you. Not much has changed there in 30 years. Prefolds are easy to wash and cheap, which is important for that newborn stage when babies grow in the blink of an eye (and poop a zillion times a day!). Ours are from Green Mountain Diapers. Those colorful T-shaped thingies on top of the prefolds are Snappis-- awesome little diaper fasteners used in place of pins. We plan on using prefolds at home during the day.

Top right corner, cute fabrics. These are wetbags. Pretty simple concept: a zippered, water-proof bag used to bring home wet/soiled diapers after diaper changes on-the-go. You throw them in the wash right along with your diapers and they come out as good as new. They also make great carriers for wet swim suits. (by the way, the zipper does work to keep smells in-- I've never had a problem with a stinky diaper bag)

Middle row, far left. These are water-proof diaper covers. Made out of vinyl-coated fabric and meant to be worn over prefolds or fitted diapers.

Middle, middle (orange and green diapers). These are Bumgenius one-sized pocket diapers, meaning that the waterproof layer is included as part of the diaper and there's a pocket where you stuff microfiber inserts to provide the absorbancy-- you can add more if you've got a super heavy wetter. My favorite part of these is that they're adjustable, so they'll fit newborns through toddlers. In fact, Daniel just barely outgrew these as his night time diaper and he weighs 39 lbs.! We've got 6 right now, and I'd like to add another 6 as we go along. We plan on using these for when we go out, babysitters, and night time.

Middle, far right. Baby washcloths we use as wipes. We used disposable wipes for a while and realized that if we're washing diapers, we might as well wash our wipes too-- beats trying to pick a disposable wipe out of a nasty diaper mess. You can make or buy special solutions to use with your wipes, but we found that plain water works just fine. I keep a tiny squirt bottle in our diaper bag in case we need it for a change-on-the-go.

Just below the wipes. Roll of Bummis disposable diaper liners. Some parents use these at every diaper change, as an easy way of managing poop. I prefer to use a diaper sprayer. I bought these suckers to protect our diapers from meconium stains in the first few days, and to protect our diapers if we ever need to use rash cream (which can damage cloth diapers).

Bottom row. Our woolens. Surprisingly, wool makes a fabulous diaper cover. It is somehow absorbant and water-resistant at the same time, antibacterial, and breathable-- which means fewer leaks and rashes. My favorite thing about wool is that it only needs to be washed every couple of weeks or so-- just when it starts to smell, and then obviously spot cleaned when it gets poop leaked on it. You'd think it would be too hot for summer use, but since it's breathable, it's actually cooler than the vinyl-coated alternatives. I knitted up a pair of leggings, a couple of covers and a kick sack, and am in the process of making a couple of kick sacks from a really really soft old sweater (the orange cabled ones).

I know lots of people who have really strong opinions in favor of and against cloth diapers. I certianly don't think they're for everyone, but I do think that lots of parents would be surprised to find out how easy and (gasp!) enjoyable they are to use. We use them to save money-- they're a costly initial investment, but much, much less expensive in the long run, and you can even turn around and sell them when you're through with them! I also feel much better about keeping a few tons of disposable diapers out of the landfill.

If you've ever wanted to try cloth diapers, but don't want to shell out a lot of cash because you're not sure whether or not you'll like it, Jillians's Drawers has a cloth diaper trial program you might be interested in. You pay a deposit, get an assortment of diapers and try them out for 3 weeks. After the trial period is over, you keep what you like and can return what you don't. If you return all the diapers, you'll get everything but $10 back. If you keep all of the diapers, you get a $10 refund! Not bad, eh? And if you're interested in a little online research, www.diaperswappers.com and www.diaperpin.com are two of my favorite sites.

***If you hate even the idea of cloth diapers, I'm cool with that. I know they're not for everyone, and I'm not out to send anyone on a guilt trip.***