Here’s where I get all cliche on you and say something like, “Holy crap, life happens incredibly fast lately. I blink, and a week has passed.”
No joke, though. That’s honestly what it feels like.
All week, I’ve had plans to write. I have what seems like a thousand ideas floating in my head, but these ideas flit in and out while I do Life Things, and by the end of the day, when I’m lying in bed, thankful for silence and time to rest, I think, “OH CRAP. I was going to write about _______. I’ll do it tomorrow.”
Then tomorrow comes, Life Things happen, and I find myself back in bed, exhausted and thinking the same thing.
Things I want to tell you about:
Thebabiestoddlerskids(what am I supposed to call them now that they aren’t technically babies?) Eleanor, Toby and Callista finally had their one-year well-child checkups (delayed because we switched pediatrician practices) on Tuesday. The doctor exclaimed, “I can’t find anything wrong with them!” at one point, giving us verbal high fives for maintaining healthy, happy, well-developing premature triplets. Eleanor weighs 16 lb 15.5 oz & is 28.5″ long; Toby weighs 17 lb 12 oz and is 29″ long; and Callista weighs 19 lb .5 oz and is 29.5″ long. They’ve multiplied their birth weights by close to nine times, and they’re close to twice as long as they were at birth.- Doctor’s offices need to allow patients to control the temperature in exam rooms. I don’t know about kids you know, but mine turn into little furnaces when they get upset. The room was already warm, but then you add in all the contained activity needed to
control three thrashing toddlerskeep three toddlers happy – Rob, my mom and I could have all used showers after that checkup. - Yes, that’s right. We visited the doctor in a six-person posse. I normally bring just my mom, but I wanted man-to-man defense for this multi-vaccination visit – one lap per child. It’s just so much easier.
- Yes, I’m still breastfeeding and pumping. My immediate goal is to close out cold/flu/RSV season to give my preemies the best chance at avoiding illness and hospitalization. Beyond that, I just don’t know. They’ve grown and developed so well – far above anyone’s expectations – and without knowing how much credit can be given to the components of breast milk … well, I hesitate to take away something that has done so well for them. So, we’ll see.
- I made this really awesome, really easy cake: http://getcrocked.com/2011/08/18/crock-pot-hot-fudge-cake/
- Peanut Butter Jelly Time, our March for Babies team is starting to grind squeaky gears and get ready to crank up the speed. I really need to find time to get organized.
- Speaking of time, I started a new thing this week. I constantly chase my tail on just about everything – it’s part of any busy life – but one thing I struggle with is keeping on top of housecleaning before it’s on top of me. I much prefer to clean a little more frequently than clean a lot less frequently, but … you know. So I’m trying a schedule. I separated my house into five parts, one for each weekday: living room (including our foyer), kitchen (I picked the most-lived-in-aka-dirtiest spots for the beginning of the week, (allegedly) before I’m burned out), guest bath/hall/laundry room, babies’ room/office, master bed/bath. My plan is to tidy and dust each room/group on its scheduled day and rotate a woodwork/floor washing schedule every other week so I don’t have to wash floors every day of the week. One week in, and it’s working out, including a necessary day swap because I didn’t have time for the kitchen on the Doctor Visit Day. There’s a bit more to the schedule, but you that’s the quick-and-dirty rundown.
- Speaking of dirty, I have a confession. Rob thinks it’s gross, and is probably gagging reading this confession. I’ve been washing my hair for more than a month now with nothing more than baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Short story: Something has changed my hair – be it pregnancy, postpartum whatnot, breastfeeding, I don’t know what, but – it’s different now. I’ve got a double whammy of thick hair – I have a lot of it, and the strands are all thick and mostly textured. I have never been able to wash it every day, but for a while now, it’s needed it. Except washing it every day didn’t help the gross feeling, the greasy feeling, the general ick. I tried a bunch of different shampoos and conditioners and had fancier stuff on my Christmas list, but I got frustrated and threw up my hands one day, desperate for a fix. I ran across the baking soda/vinegar suggestion again (I’ve seen this several places), and figured, “Why the hell not?” I mean, what did I have to lose? I’d have to wash my hair again if it didn’t work. Big deal, right? IT WORKED. It works. My hair is back to its regular self, if not better. It’s clean, it’s not overly dried, it’s not overly greasy. It’s lovely. And guess what: I spend maybe $2 a month on my hair products. WIN.
- We’re in nap limbo. The kiddos have been napping twice a day under the 2-3-4 school of thought since October-ish. Now, they sometimes skip their afternoon nap or have one really short nap, but when I tried keeping them up for one mid-day nap, they melted down and got that sleep-killing second wind before they could eat lunch, then all naps for the day got blown to pieces. They just aren’t ready to give up their morning nap, and they can’t make it to the end of the day on that one alone, so we are doing the Marla Hooch, dancing in and out of the batter’s box while I scratch my head. Oh, well, right? AT LEAST THEY SLEEP.
- One month after Eleanor, Toby and Callista are now walking more and more. They’re finally getting more balanced and brave. Toby is about even on his walking and crawling time. Callista is definitely walking more than crawling, though she still breaks out her trusty slithering crawl if she wants some speed. Eleanor? Well, she’s working on running now.
- I’m trying to get more use from my iPad apps. Paprika is my new favorite, an awesome app used to search for and store popular-site recipes. My kiddos freak their freak over a Bubbles app, complete with mimicking the popping-bubbles noise when they spot my iPad. I love Camera+ and diptic for photography stuff, and my Nook/iBooks/Kindle apps are all itching to be filled with books. What are some of your favorites/must haves?
- KINDLE. Speaking of that, I read an AMAZING book this week. It’s my first non-picture-book read since giving birth, and I couldn’t have chosen a better book to reignite my passion for reading. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was released last week. John Green is easily one of my favorite authors. His characters always have such a familiar dry wit to them that makes me want to snatch them from the pages so we can hang out and be smart and funny and awesome together. I realize I sound like a drooling fangirl fool over here, but I literally hug books I love, and this one got a big hug, even if it was an eBook. I can’t yet put together a good review or recommendation that isn’t so full of bias, so I recommend you look at Amazon’s description if your interest is at all piqued.
Right! On that note, I’m off to stuff food down my gullet before my three mooches wake and demand I share my food with them.
(Seriously, it’s Friday? Are you sure?)
pinkflipflops, that’s you, my dear! Check your e-mail for info on how to claim your prize!
Thank you all for entering, and a big thank you to Carrie from Grandma’s Tap Shoes for sponsoring this giveaway. I think you’ve gained some new fans this week, and I look forward to seeing more prints!
The prints Carrie Campbell designs for her Etsy shop, Grandma’s Tap Shoes, are designed with sweet, fresh-smelling, cozy nurseries in mind, but honestly anyone who loves books (or college sports!) would be happy to see these prints displayed in their home, office or classroom.
The majority of Carrie’s prints focus on a short passage or quote from beloved writing – from Harry Potter (my favorite!) to Les Miserables, Carrie covers the spectrum for all reading fans.
(As for college sports – we won’t discuss how she has a University of Michigan print but not one for The Ohio State University.)
If you don’t see something that tickles your fancy or if you’re looking for something in particular that Carrie hasn’t yet designed, she also offers custom prints with quotes (or teams) of your choice.
And, people. The prices are totally right. You won’t pay an arm, leg and left pinkie for these prints – they start at an affordable $8.
Carrie is giving away a print this week to my readers, one I chose for you!
From J.M. Barrie’s novel, “Peter Pan,” this 11×14 print comes on glossy cardstock, ready for to frame and hang anywhere you need a reminder of the fun and whimsy of Never Never Land.
Entering this giveaway is easy peasy. Check out Grandma’s Tap Shoes and come back here to share with us your favorite of Carrie’s available prints. If you don’t see something you love, leave us a comment here with the quote or team you’d like to see in a Grandma’s Tap Shoes print.
I’ll accept entries until 9 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 12, at which time Random.org will choose a winner for me. The winner will be announced the following morning.
Good luck, and happy browsing!
I’ve been asked by several people to give an update on our adventures in cloth diapering. I’ll be honest – not much has changed. As with most things in our triplety world, we slowly evolve to adapt, tweaking one thing here, another thing there, moving pieces around until we have something that works. For now.
As I said in the past, we choose to use cloth diapers as a money saver. Because of this, we try to use as little variety in our arsenal of butt covers as humanly possible. It saves time on laundry, and it makes the diapering process (x3) a breeze. Everything works together, and we never have to match certain brands with certain accessories and/or pieces.
Behold, the characters:
We currently use two sizes of diapers (Green Mountain Diapers Cloth-Eez prefolds in unbleached cotton) – red-edge diapers are for daytime use, and yellow-edge diapers are for nighttime (they’re smaller and are a better fit for our bulky overnight system).
During the day, we use an angel-wing fold and fasten with a Snappi.
At night, we tri-fold (like a brochure) the diaper and sandwich it between a microfiber insert on bottom (for extra absorbency), and a fleece insert (cut from an unused blanket) against the skin. Because fluids run through fleece without absorbing, it keeps their skin dry all night.
Nighttime diapering has been the biggest challenge in this adventure. We tried a double fold, but found it was too bulky. We tried using the cotton inserts rather than a second prefold instead, but we found it was too wet. Finally, we realized we only needed to soak up overnight pee (daytime poopers ftw!), so we modified the overnight double fold and found a method that was super absorbent AND dry against the skin.
We’re currently scratching our heads over whether Toby needs something different, but for now, we change him once overnight with no hassle (he wakes once most nights to nurse and be cuddled).
Aside from that (and up until recently for Toby), the girls have no issue going 12-13 hours with our current overnight system.
Now, the big, stinky details. Poop.
POOOOOOOOOOOOOOP.
Now that we got that out of our 12-year-old-sense-of-humor systems, let’s move on.
My 13-month-olds eat pretty much anything we eat, so … you can imagine the situation in their diapers.
After some traumatizing but necessary dunk-and-swish incidents, I told Rob we NEEDED a diaper sprayer. Him being a DIY marvel (Tim The Toolman Taylor would be proud), and me being a stubborn penny pincher, I sent Rob a YouTube link, and he set off for our local home-improvement store. We now have a diaper sprayer that cost less than half of what Bum Genius sells theirs for.
Not a bidet.
Some diaper treasures dump right out and into the toilet with nothing more than a little shake. Some need more help, and the sprayer is absolutely perfect. There is rarely overspray (the disgusting reason I didn’t want one), and the water supply to the sprayer can be shut off when we have curious small folk wandering about in the bathroom.
Edit to add: The only change to our laundry routine comes with the diaper sprayer. Before, we sprayed each deuced diaper with a 50-50 water/Biokleen Bac Out mix. Since we started using the sprayer, we ditched the Bac Out spray and started adding it, undiluted to the second wash cycle. I pour a bit into my fabric softener tray, and it works its funky-smell-removing miracles during that second cycle. (Refer back to the original entry for my laundry routine.)
See? Not much has changed. Let me know if you have any questions I may be able to answer!
Unmentioned but necessary, could-not-live-without supplies:
Covers: I found 15 WonderWraps on clearance after they’d been discontinued. We’ve used these exclusively for several months with minimal wear and tear. As one-size-fits all, we hope to use these for the duration of our diapering days. GroVia’s hybrid shells are the most similar option currently manufactured.
Diaper cream: We swear by Northern Essence‘s All Natural Diaper Rash Salve and Better Butt(er) Cream.
Detergent: Again with the thrifty, we use a homemade recipe from The Eco-Friendly Family.
While giving the babies toddlers lunch one day, Callista sneezed a couple times, so I said, “God bless you!” after each sneeze – something I do with every sneeze. Eleanor suddenly started making these little exhalations, pausing after each to look at me with this precious look of expecting hope. I had no clue what she was doing, so, on a whim, I said, “God bless you?”
The grin that spread across her little face was hilarious. She “sneezed” again and waited for my delivered blessing.
We’ve had fake coughers for some time, either wanting to join in their siblings’ “fun” or just wanting to share the attention, but I had no idea they’d come up with fake sneezes, too.
Eleanor now fake-sneezes when prompted with “Achoo! Oh, God bless you!” or you know, when she’s just feeling bored and in need of a little attention.
