Sunday, May 31, 2009

Memorial Day

Yeah, I know. I'm a week late. But my friend Kristen posted a conversation she had with her daughters about the significance of the day, and I wanted to share it. Too many adults don't "get it" the way these young girls did. They view Memorial Day as the start of summer or a day for cookouts or a holiday from work--not a day to honor the memory of soldiers who have died to secure our freedom.

http://cliffnkristensblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/not-forgotten.html

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

even more pictures.

Because I'm determined to single-handedly bust the stereotype "No one ever takes pictures of the second child." ;)







way. too. many. photos.

I'm serious; way too many. I went to get pictures off the camera, and there were more than 65.

Just this week.

And it's only Wednesday.

Oops.

So now I have to figure out which pictures are blog-worthy. And Natalie is smiling, so how the heck do you choose just one or two of the best pictures?

And do you think the grandparents will ever forgive me for not posting all 65+? ;)

Oh, well. Here goes!





















And now I have apparently hit my limit for photos for this post. But I'm not done yet. So I'm going to open another post and share more pictures! It's my blog! I can do what I want!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

battle of the bulge

I have about two and a half dozen cloth diapers. About half a dozen of them are these handy fitted diapers that snap. I love them, and they are convenient. But I don't have many. Mostly I have the old-fashioned pre-fold diapers. I used these when I cloth diapered Sarah, until she outgrew them. Somehow I never got around to buying a bigger size; we switched to disposables when Sarah outgrew the pre-folds I had bought up.

I was excited to cloth diaper Natalie, and Sarah has been eagerly anticipating it as well (since I was slow in healing from the c-section, and since we had been given gobs and gobs of disposables, I put off getting out the cloth until I felt recovered enough to tackle the laundry). A few days ago, I brought out the cloth diapers. Naturally I started out with the cute, easy-to-use fitted ones. :) Naturally, they got soiled rather quickly! Time to switch to the pre-folds until I had used enough diapers to make a laundry load. Unfortunately, I encountered two problems here.

Problem number one is that Sarah LOVES the cloth diapers. She just loves them. And she kept walking off with them so that she could play with them. (I bet moms who use disposables never encounter this problem.) I finally convinced her to leave the diapers alone, but when I went to grab a pre-fold this morning my Snappis were gone! Don't know what a Snappi is? Well, in the olden days one had to use diaper pins to fasten a pre-fold. I don't believe in diaper pins. I use Snappis instead.

I quizzed Sarah. Sure enough, she had made off with the Snappis. Only she couldn't remember where she had left them! It took the whole morning to locate the darn things (Natalie was back in disposables until we tracked them down). And then we encountered problem number two.

Natalie weighs about the same as Sarah did as an infant. But she's built differently. She carries all her weight in her belly. I can't really describe it adequately, but it's like a baby Buddha belly. In proportion to the rest of her, it's big. And I couldn't get the pre-fold around her properly because of it! There was no way. I would have ended up having to squish her to force the thing around her.

Sigh. So now I have about two dozen pre-fold diapers that I'm not sure what to do with. I want more of the handy-dandy fitted kind (and those actually fit Natalie's bulging belly!), but it is a large outlay at first, and I feel guilty spending the money right now. So I'm going to have think about this. Anyone have any clever suggestions for me?

Monday, May 11, 2009

views from the deck...and other photos

One of our favorite things about living here is the lovely views we have. Our front deck looks out over a valley, and we can watch glorious sunsets or random wildlife. It was rainy much of last week, but on Friday evening the sun came out for a few minutes. It was still raining a bit (the devil was beating his wife), but Sarah went out on the deck (it's covered) to enjoy the bit of sunshine. Suddenly I heard her excitedly exclaim, "Mommy, it's a rainbow!" Nelson headed out with the camera and got a couple of shots.

You can just barely see it in this photo, but it was actually a double rainbow on Friday.






On Sunday, we got another photo opportunity for a photo shoot off the deck. We have seen deer several times here, but Nelson was able to get some pictures of our visitors on Sunday evening.







Finally, a couple of older shots. These were taken at my grandmother's. Sarah loves to play photographer, and that's what she's doing here.







To close, a picture of Natalie. :)


Wednesday, May 6, 2009

overdue updates

First of all, apologies for the long silence. Life with a newborn doesn't leave a whole lot of free time anyway, and then we got discouraging news with which to cope on top of it. I've not really felt like posting much here, to be honest.

I did post a cathartic entry on Facebook, and those who are on my friends list there have responded with an overwhelming amount of love, support, and understanding. I always knew I was very blessed to have the family and friends I have. I am reminded once again of just HOW blessed I truly am.

For those not on Facebook: Nelson is one of the many facing unemployment right now. He is actively applying for jobs, as well as "putting out his shingle" for free lance work. We have been down this road before, so we know the drill. It's just a bit disheartening to be facing it again. Still, God is providing for us already, and we are hanging in there.

Natalie is healthy and growing. She sleeps a slightly longer stretch at night now, which is nice. :) She is alert and appears to study things intently. Sometimes I think I'll never be able to fill her up. She eats often and eagerly. She's quite impatient when she's hungry!

Sarah is adjusting to big sisterhood well for the most part. She loves Natalie and is eager to find ways to help out. She's proud to be a big sister. Still, it IS an adjustment. I hear her crying in her sleep sometimes, and she is generally easier to upset than she used to be. She has fears that she didn't have before. But she is coping as best as she can to all the changes that have come her way recently. And she has never tried to hurt Natalie or anything like that.

I have had a bit harder time recovering from this birth. I have been slow in healing, and I am exhausted--physically, mentally, emotionally. I have been slightly depressed as well. At first it was standard baby blues, related to hormones. Now it more because of circumstances. But God is faithful, and I am starting to hope again.

Okay, enough heavy stuff! Let's have pictures!


Natalie isn't the happiest camper in this photo, is she? But hey, it's a unposed, true-to-life picture!




On Saturday, my parents took us to Olive Garden. When the waitress asked Sarah what she wanted to drink. Sarah responded, "Coffee!" The waitress was surprised but obligingly brought Sarah a cup of decaf. Sarah had a fabulous time adding cream and sugar. She even ended up asking for a refill!




See? The girl loves coffee!




Natalie isn't ready for coffee yet. She's happier with milk.




That's it for now!