The Pledge of Allegiance

Logan learned something new at school this past month.  Take a look.  Sorry it's so dark.

Pumpkin Patch 2012

Normally at this time of year, we make a trip down to Sweet Berry Farm to get pictures with the pumpkins and to have a little fun.  But, with Logan's gym class on Saturday mornings and the very warm weekends we have had, we opted not to go this year.  It was just gonna be too hot to go in the afternoons.

Instead, Mommy took Logan and Scarlet to St. Richard's Episcopal Church's pumpkin patch.  We pass the patch every day on our way to and from school.  They always seem to have a huge selection of pumpkins.  So, I figured it would be a great place to go.  It was!!!

Logan found a great mound of pumpkins to climb in--he LOVES to climb.  We found a nice place for Scarlet to sit and have a few shots taken of her.  Getting pictures of the both of them was hard as Logan didn't really want to sit still with his sister. 

We found ourselves a wagon and Logan picked out 5 pumpkins--one for each of us:  Daddy, Mommy, Logan, Scarlet, and Chico.  We haven't carved them yet.  Hopefully we will today.

Stripping Diapers in a front loader

I never stripped Logan's diapers.  I boiled them in bleach a couple of times when we thought he had a yeast rash.  But I did that on the stove in a large pot.  His diapers were easy to do that with.  I mean really, flips are like pre-folds.

Scarlet's diapers are different.  She uses pocket diapers.  I feel if I boiled them like I did Logan's it would take 3X's as long.  So, I want to strip them in the traditional way.

Why am I stripping them?  She is getting a rash lately.  I am sure some of it has to do with the introduction of food and the unbalanced pH in her poop.  But, some could be from detergent build-up and rash ointment build-up.  They don't stink, and they are not repelling, but I rather just do it for my piece of mind.

I tried to do some research, and I have been told to use blue Dawn.  Well, in my search, I found I should NOT use dawn in our front loader as the large amount of bubbles could damage the machine and void our warranty.  Don't want to do that.  So, here's what I did instead.  It wasn't too hard, but it was awfully hot.

I cleaned my sink and filled it half-way with very, very hot water.  I put in several diapers at a time and let them sit for a couple of minutes.  I then put on gloves because the water was that hot.  I squirted a bit of Dawn on each diaper and scrubbed.  I then rinsed each diaper to get the soap out.  For the inserts, I swished in the sudsy water.  I figured they didn't need the scrubbing since technically they don't touch Sweetpea's little tushie.  Currently all the diapers are in the washing machine rinsing until I feel there is no soap left in them.

I hope this works.  I have about 20 more diapers to do.  I will get to them maybe tomorrow.

Catching up on some posts...

I have missed some posts over the past few months.  I could blame it on being a new mom, and I would be fully within my right to do so.  So, that is what I am going to blame it on.

As I add new posts, I am posting them under their original date, and I don't think it will show up as a new post.  So, I will update here with the dates so you can go and check them out.

Today I added:
APRIL 21, 2012: TRUCK-A-PALOOZA...
APRIL 23, 2012: FEEDING THE DUCKS AND THE TURTLES

Potty Training Logan, week 2

Logan did fairly well the first week with the pull-ups.  However, I felt that just taking him to the potty every hour wasn't really helping.  I don't think he felt wet in pull-ups.  So, on Sunday, I put him in underwear.  He fought it at first, but Kevin and I triumphed and he spent the day in Lightning McQueen underwear.  And by the day, I mean he wore the same pair all day--minus the few hours he spent napping.  We felt it was best to be in pull-ups for naps.

Day one of big boy underwear was a success.  Once, Kevin said he said "mama" and Kevin thought he wanted to tell us he had to go, so Kevin took him in and he went.  He also did a small poop.  That is next--doing #2 on the pot.  I hope Logan continues to keep his underwear dry.  We are still taking him every 45 min-1 hour, but we tell him to let us know if he feels wet or he has to go.  Occasionally I do check him and praise him for staying dry.

Potty Training Logan, part deux

Now that Logan is 3, we decided, well I decided it was time to try to get Logan to use the potty and finally ditch those pull-ups.  We are not going about it like last time.  This time we are taking a more laid back approach.

It has been 3 days now.  He is doing well.  I started by reading this blog.  I then catered it to meet my desires and laziness.  We are still in pull-ups.  Logan refused to put on the underpants I bought for him.  I tried, but he took them off.  He is getting a "treat" every time he goes in the potty, with the exception of the one right before bed.  He gets 2 M&M's as his treat.  At this time, we are not working on pooping in the potty--only peeing.

Day 1 was Sunday.  Every half hour we took Logan to sit on his potty.  He had to stay until he went pee-pee or the 2 minute time went off.  We were doing great.  I think we went through maybe 3 diapers all day. 

Day 2.  I upped the time to 45 minutes.  Again.  He did great.  He didn't always have to go, but he rarely went in his pull-up.

Day 3.  I upped the time again to 1 hour.  He did well.  At the beginning of the day we had to find our rhythm.  He did go in his pull-ups 2 times before we got into our rhythm.  Today I was working with him to realize that pee goes in the potty, not in his pull-ups.

We will continue the 1 hour between sittings for a couple of days then I will up the time more.  I am hoping that next week we can ditch the pull-ups and try the underwear.  I will put on pull-ups for nap time and overnight.  (And probably for going out until I feel he is ready.)  I also hope that this will get us on track for the pooping in the potty too.

It is my goal, although not necessary, to have him potty trained by the time we go back to school in August.  It would be so great for me to only have to worry about having 1 in diapers again. 

Scarlet's Nursery

Back in June, I "finished" the nursery.  And by finished, I mean that it's basically done except it is missing some of the letter canvases I handed out.  Hopefully soon, perhaps before she enters kindergarten, I will have gotten them all back.  (And curtains--it needs some curtains.)

It was a long road to get here.  We had the color for the lower half of the walls picked out and painted.  However, Kevin and I could not agree on a color for the wall above the chair rail.  Good thing that Home Depot has started to carry those small sample jars of paint again because we literally had 6 different color samples on the wall and could not agree on any of them.  Finally, I said that I think we should try a light red-violet. (Sounds better than pink--don't you think? And there is a difference between a tint of red and a tint of red-violet.  One pink is way better than the other.)  Most of you know that I am not a "pink" person.  Kevin agreed.  We liked the first one we tried--YAY!!  It did take a coat of primer and 2 coats of pink for the stripes from Logan's nursery to disappear.  But, now, you can't even tell they were ever there.

We didn't get any "new" furniture for Scarlet.  She is using the hand-me-downs from Logan.  The blue bookcase is "new" to her, but is from my sister.  I believe my father made it and both of us used it growing up and then her sons used it growing up.  I like that it is still around and being used; AND that my dad made it.  Maybe one day I will re-paint it.

There are still a couple of things I would like to do.  I still have to come up with curtains, but I can't figure out what I want.  I could make them, but having priced out fabric for Logan's curtains, it would cost the same to just buy some panels and then I wouldn't have to find time to sew them.  Anyway.  So, for now, for the most part, I am done with the nursery. 

The letter walls.  As you can see several are missing.  I have let spots for them.  When I have them all, I will do a post show casing them all.  I am really glad my friends agreed to my idea of helping me create them.

Alphabet quilt my mom made for Scarlet.

Looking in from the doorway.

Closet wall.

Cozy corner to read to her in.

Close-up of crayon name art.

Close-up of felt butterfly mobile I made.

Close-up of bee painting.

Close-up of hand-made clothing tags.

Clothing tags in use.  It has really helped me see what clothes she has for the future.  They were easy to make.