Eleven Months

Post-Weekend (and Then Some)

This girl partied harder than I did on my birthday. She woke up the next morning in her crib, still wearing her clothes from the night before, and had no idea how she got there. (She fell asleep in the car on our way home from a friend's house.  We got her unbuckled, up the stairs, into our apartment, took off her snowsuit, zipped her in her sleep sack, and put her in bed, all without her waking up.)

Usually this is what bedtime looks like around here:

HAHAHA!!!  I'm not going to bed without a fight, suckers!

This is what bedtime does not look like:

That, my friends, is a rare moment of Caden not in action.  Confine him to a chair and the embrace of your arms will you?  No way, dude, he's going to crazy squirm and wiggle and give you some awesome backflip action outta there.  Unless you have a Touchy-Feely (Tyson and me: hee hee hee) book.  Kid loves those things.

(P.s.  I was looking for more Usborne Touchy-Feely books earlier today, and found two called "That's Not My Baby" (one for a boy and one for a girl).  I thought, "Oh, how cute! They love those books!  I'll buy them for Valentine's Day or their birthday or something." NOPE.  These books have been like discontinued or something, and are now commanding upwards of seventy-frigging-dollars on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and virtually everywhere else I checked (besides the used ones, which, if other people's kids are anything like mine, they're chewed all to hell and the book won't even close properly anymore). WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND IS SPENDING THAT MUCH ON A BOOK FOR A BABY (see: chewing, etc. above)?!?  Forget investing in Beanie Babies, like everyone was trying to do when I was in fourth grade.  Should've gotten in on some Touchy-Feely books.)

Cloth Diapering Twins (Part II)

When I last left off in my rambles with cloth diapering, everything was rainbows, glitter, puppies, and unicorns.  Everything worked, dammit.

Enter solid food.

In fact, here's one of the last things I said:

     "There's a lot more (WAY more) out there in the cloth-diapering world...pocket diapers, flat diapers, doublers/inserts, diaper liners, creams, diaper pails, not to mention that everything will probably change when they start eating solids...but, like I said, this is what works for us now, and it works well."

Yup.

So...

We have now entered the world of:

• Disposables at night.  This actually happened within a couple weeks of writing that first post (because of course).  They just...pee a lot.  Especially since we don't change them at night anymore...12-13 hours is a long time in one diaper.  I tried some inserts, and even ordered these after reading the rave reviews that they worked oh so well as an overnight diaper, even for people with their so-called "heavy wetters".  The first night they wore them, with the included insert, and the included doubler, Caden peed through his.  By 2 am.  Since I didn't want to spend every night trying something new and change a wet, unhappy baby, (not to mention that part of doing cloth diapers in the first place is to save money and I can't keep dropping $50 on diapers hoping something will work), enter: disposables.  One Pampers overnight diaper lasts us the night.  Boom.  Done.  No problem.  (And considering that on an average day we go through a whopping two disposable diapers, a case of diapers still lasts us...a very long time.)
• Doublers/inserts.  I mentioned above that I tried an insert at night, and that the "overnight" diapers I tried came with both a doubler and an insert.  (Which means that purchasing these diapers isn't a total loss since I still use these during the day, and sometimes the diapers themselves.)  Caden especially wets so much (apparently boys pee more than girls...even the lady at the diaper store said so!) that he gets an insert with each diaper change.  They each get an insert or doubler when they go down for a nap for extra protection.  Right now I have a couple hemp and a few bamboo ones, and I prefer the bamboo, though they both work fine.
• Solid food.  Yup, we're gonna talk about poop.  It's...not pleasant.  While they had "explosions" much more frequently when they were exclusively breast-fed (we were dealing with at least one per day at one point), they weren't that bad, and easy to rinse out.  Now when we have leakage it is...much more disgusting. However, we only have a really bad explosion maybe once every 2-3 weeks. While I know many people use diaper sprayers to spray the solids off into their toilet, we use flushable diaper liners and really like them.  99% of the time they contain things very well, and it's really not so bad to pick the liner out of the diaper and flush it down the toilet.  Physically spraying the poo off their diapers sounds much more disgusting to me, not to mention that I would have two very curious babies trying to get in the bathroom with me to see what I was doing. (Though I will confess that there was one particularly nasty explosion a couple of weeks ago that was definitely NOT contained to the diaper liner...it was the one time I wished for a sprayer and I actually threw the entire mess of a cloth diaper away rather than deal with the carnage.  *Hangs head in shame*)
• Squirmy babies.  Like most babies at this age, they HATE having their diaper changed.  What?!?  You want me to hold still for 1.35 WHOLE MINUTES! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!1!!  Cloth diapers just aren't as quick to change as a disposable, so we have to employ some distraction tools with them on the changing table.  Some things that have worked for us: singing, books, or giving them something to hold that they only get while on the changing table, such as their comb, brush, or even the little container of pacifiers.

(The EYEBROWS!)

What's (mostly) stayed the same:

• Prefolds and wool covers.  We still love the prefolds and wool covers, in particular, the Sustainablebabyish Underwoolies.  We've been using the medium size prefolds for about six months, and should be able to continue using them for a long time.  That's $58 for the past six months of diapers (excluding our overnight disposables, of course).  I just recently purhcased two of the size two Underwoolies as well (which, holy crap, look HUUUUGGEEE).  The size two fits them so much better now, and we don't even have to wash them as much as before, since they very rarely get pooped on.
• Washing.  We now run a load of diapers about every other day.  I really don't like to go longer than that since it seems like a long time for some (pretty nasty) diapers to sit.  We're washing slightly less than before since they go through less diapers during the day in general, and the inserts/doublers help a single diaper last for a longer amount of time.
• Cloth wipes.  Still love 'em.  Still just wet them with water.  Still hippies.  We actually go through way less of them since they're only necessary for a dirty (not wet) diaper, and each baby only has those once or twice a day.
• Disposables when we go out or travel.  Enough said.

Tyson and I are both glad that we've stuck with the cloth diapers.  It's definitely saved us money in the short (and long) run, and it's amazing to think how many diapers we would have otherwise sent to a landfill.  We also feel like it's better for the babies.  That said, we're not fanatics about it.  We clearly don't mind using disposables when it's more practical to do so.  Some days we use nothing but  disposables around here, like when they or we are sick, just because it's a little faster and easier and one less thing to deal with.

While I foresee us sticking with cloth diapers for the near future, that could change.  One thing that is annoying is needing to have two sets of clothing (at least pants) on hand: one for staying home and one for going out.  That cloth diaper bubble butt just can't fit in the the same size pants that they can while wearing only a disposable.  They are usually a size up in pants while in cloth, though right now we are in that sweet spot of being able to wear one size most of the time (9-month, though some of their 6-month pants still fit pretty well over a disposable).

Or, y'know.  You can just go pants-less...

(Probably found a stray Cheerio.)

(Love that bubble butt!)

Life, Lately

When we dropped Caden and Brooklyn off at the nursery for church this weekend, it was fun to see the teenage volunteers fight over who got to hold them, because they are "such good babies".  (Clearly they have never seen them around bedtime...)  They are obviously favorites with the volunteers, which makes me think...hey!  Potential babysitters!

+++++

When we picked them up from the nursery, the volunteer in charge said that they moved Caden to the other side (There are two sides to the baby room-one for crawlers and younger babies, and one for walkers or older babies.  So far they've stayed on the crawler side.) because he "seemed bored".  Why?  "He kept trying to crawl into the cupboards."  Sounds about right.

+++++

This kept them occupied for at least a solid 20 minutes the other day when I got home from the store:

Yup.  A package of toilet paper.  And they randomly continued to play with it throughout the day.  All I'm saying is, don't be surprised if you come over here and see packages of toilet paper as part of my living room decor.  It works.

+++++

This also works.

Baby jail.  I vaccuumed our entire place today while they watched and pointed from their confinement, (because the vaccuum is sooooooo interesting), and once I put the vaccuum away (which was a good half hour later) they were still content to stay put and play with their toys.  Brooklyn actually gets a smile on her face when I put her in the Pack and Play, (even before I get the toys in there!), and as long as I set them right next to each other, they are pretty content to play, chatter, and pass toys back and forth nicely steal each other's toys.

+++++

Yesterday Brooklyn and I were reading her Fancy Nancy book.  She was really into it, patting the pages and pointing to different things in the illustrations.  We got to one page, where there was quite a bit going on, and she pointed directly to Fancy Nancy, then turned to the cover, and pointed to the Fancy Nancy there.  Then turned back to the page we were on, and pointed again to Fancy Nancy, and back again to the cover to point at Fancy Nancy.  Back and forth, back and forth.  She did this for a few minutes, clearly understanding that the girl on the cover and the one in the picture were one and the same.  It was super adorable, and I was impressed.

+++++

If you say "Pat-a-Cake" they will both start to clap.  It's like watching a silent film, though, since they don't really make any noise when they clap.  It's more of a gentle motioning of their hands together.  It's also super adorable, and I'm again impressed.  (Of course I can't get a video of it, since as soon as the phone comes out it's all, "Electronic device!  Yes!  Let's point at it and/or stare blankly like deer in the headlights!  Whatever the case, let's stop diong the funny and adorable thing we were just doing for minutes on end!")

+++++

I turn 28 tomorrow.  That's really all I have to say about it.  Usually I'm big on birthdays, but this year I'm kind of...eh.  Another year closer to 30.  Nothing really exciting when you're 28.  No real plans.  Tyson will watch the babies for a little bit tomorrow so I can go do, well, whatever it is that I decide to go do, then we have Life Group tomorrow night, which is going to be more of a let's-hang-out night, not a let's-talk-in-depth-about-this-week's-sermon night (and I hear there might be cake!).  Tyson and I are going to try to get out sometime in the next couple of weeks.  That's about it.  I usually really like that my birthday is in January, it's something to look forward to after all the excitement of the holidays and everything, but this year it just seems like, all of a sudden.  Oh.  Tomorrow.  My birthday.  Okay.  Maybe next year we'll have to do something special to celebrate that both Tyson and I will be (*gulp*) in the last year of our twenties?

+++++

I may have just said, "That's really all I have to say about it" and then gone on for another 166 words.  Sounds about right.

Blocks are the Best! (To Knock Over)

The tower:

A challenger appears...

Oh, just kidding.  She's a spectator.

Look!  She brought a blue cup to snack on and everything.

Here comes the real challenger of the day hour minute:

I did it.  I knocked them over.

But wait!  There's more.  The demolition is not complete.

Sizing up the situation...

Caden: 1  Blocks: 0

And then...

Another challenger!  For real this time!  No more spectating for her.

(She always pauses right before the structure to look at you with a grin.  Like, is this for me?  Are you watching?  I'm going to do it!  It's all going to be knocked over!)

(Note: she didn't blink in this picture.  Those are her eyes scrunched tight lest any blocks come ricocheting towards her face.)

Brooklyn: 1  Blocks: 0  Seems the blocks just can't get a break today.  (Another note: they never do.)

Usually it's good enough for Caden to just knock the tower over in general, even if there are some blocks left standing.  Brooklyn?  The whole dang structure is going to be demolished, foundation and everything.  No block is left unturned.

Also, because cute:

Also-also:

Brooklyn photobomb!

Nicely played, girl, nicely played.