Some news!

It's high time I stopped abandoning this blog.  Especially when there are some majorly exciting things happening in our house these days!  The first is that I now am the proud mother of a 2 year old!  When did that happen?!?!  Oh yeah, last Saturday.  But seriously, the past two years have just flown by.  My little boy has gone from a snuggly, cuddly newborn to a rip roaring, sports obsessed toddler.  And I'm loving every minute of it.

The second bit of exciting news I have to share is that...

We are having another baby due in November!!!

Yes, it's another miracle.  A surprise miracle actually.  But a miracle nonetheless.  We were shocked, but couldn't be happier.  It took me awhile to share the news as with our past infertility issues, I wasn't sure it was going to be really.  But, I'm almost twenty weeks along, everything is looking great and we found out we are having another little boy!  I'm over the moon.  Such blessings.

I'll add some creepy ultrasound photos later- blogger isn't letting me upload anything for some reason.  More to come!!

Sneak peek!

I'm so behind on my blog!  I apologize!  I've got a ton going on right now with work and life and I have a million things I need to blog about.  Fear not, I'll play some catchup this week and will have a few recaps and thoughts.  Stay tuned!  For now, how about just a few photos of Jude at his first birthday party last weekend at Mama's Pizza with the family.  It was a very informal night with grandparents, uncles, and cousins with some pizza and birthday cake.  He wasn't sure about it at first.....but then a whole sugary world opened up for him!  Enjoy and I'll be talking to you all again very soon!

What the....?  Hmmmm...

I'm not sure about this.  Not sure at all.

Here, Dad, try some first, make sure it's not poison.

Oh MAN, how come I've never had this before!

Here we go!

My first cloth diaper purchases are all ready to go!  I currently have about one day's worth of dipes.  So far, I have an assortment since we're not sure what diaper(s) is going to work best for Jude.  Another amazing bonus of cloth diapering is the resale value.  Anything that doesn't work out for us we can always resell at a diaper swap or Craigslist.  Score! 

Here is what we have so far:  Bumgenius 3.0 (light blue), Fuzzi Bunz pocket (red), Happy Heinys pocket (butter), Thirsties Duo (mango), Thirsties cover (green), a Rumparooz G2 pocket (monsters), Monkey Snuggles fitted (skull stripe), and a Monkey Snuggles overnight (chocolate chip cookies).

 
I also got 8 organic prefolds with snappis to try out.  There's no turning back now! 

I spent all of tonight prepping the diapers for our first official day of cloth diapering Jude tomorrow.  The biggest time consumer was prepping the prefolds.  I boiled them for about half an hour and then ran them through several wash and dry cycles in order to get maximum absorbency once they are on the little boy's bum.

Wish us luck!

And the cloth diapering journey begins...

Well readers, we're doing it.  We are jumping right in to cloth diapering starting this weekend.  Oh, first and foremost, a HUGE thank you to my friend Hannah over at The Swoboda Family for schooling me in all my newbie questions in regards to cloth diapering.  Hannah and I went to high school together ten years ago (yikes!).  I was looking at pictures on facebook of her ADORABLE (no seriously, this kid is something else) daughter and saw that she loved to babywear like we did so we started talking about fun baby stuff! She is a clothdiapering guru and I'm sure I'll be bugging her for many more weeks until I get this thing down.  Anyways, where was I?

Yesterday was an important day.

I received my first fluffy mail!  That's right, the 'fluff' I speak of was none other than my first cloth diaper order!  I've been stalking Jillian's Drawers for some time now and finally made the plunge.  I ordered a three pack of different brands of pocket diapers: A Bumgenius 3.0, a Happy Heinys, and a Fuzzibunz.  They are just so stinking cute. 

I've been frustrated in that the only cloth diaper store that is closest to me is 60 miles away.  Ugh.  My city has a huge need for a cloth diapering store.  Lo and behold, I found a couple who operates a cloth diapering boutique out of their home and they have an awesome selection online!  So, I spent my lunch yesterday eating Whole Foods to go food and shopping on their website, Top to Bottom Baby Boutique. I know it's local so I wasn't expecing a huge selection, but oh my gosh- their selection surprised me and I, in typical Erin fashion, went nuts.  A dipe with stripes and skulls on it and overnight cloth diaper with chocolate chip cookies all over it?  Yes, please!  I'm going to pick up my new stash later this afternoon.  Expect a post tonight or this weekend that will be photo-heavy.

If you would've told me a few years ago I would be THIS excited about cloth diapers, I would've told you that you were nuts.  Now it looks like I'm the one who is nuts.

Mother's Day and The Mama Necklace

My Mother's Day rocked.

Jude woke up at 5 am (oh yeah, and he slept through the night- he must've known it was Mother's Day) and I brought him in to bed with us.  He chattered and giggled away until Phil got up with him so I could sleep in, which I didn't think I could do.  Then I woke up at 9am to the smell of a Skinny Vanilla Starbucks latte, a bouquet of beautiful flowers, a card and a beautiful little wrapped gift.

Sidenote:  Thanks to the blogosphere and mommy blogs, I fell in love with The Mama Necklace from ripegoods (etsy love!).  I showed Phil months ago and then assumed he forgot.  He didn't. 

I love the 'concept' of mother necklaces.  The only issue I have with them is that most you find in stores are just cheesy.  That's not for me.  This has that earthy, hippy, artsy vibe that I love in jewelry.  And it's eco-friendly.  What is there not to love?

The day was awesome.  I was spoiled by my two favorite guys.  I'm a lucky, lucky lady.

He says "Ball"!

That's right.  He doesn't say "Mama" and the jury is still out on the word "Dada" (although Phil claims he's saying "Dad", it sounds more like "Datttt" and he says it to everything whether its his father, the dog, or the blinds in his room).  I thought I first heard him say "ball" ("bah") in church on Sunday.  He has this book that associates things with animals and on the first page shows a picture of a brightly colored ball.  The moment he saw the page he said "BAH!".  I thought maybe it was a coincidence and he didn't say it again when I showed him the page a few minutes later.  This afternoon, we were playing up in his room and one of his favorite toys is one of those cheap large plastic bouncy balls you see in giant bins in the grocery store for $1.79.  I'm sure it's manufactured in China using every questionable chemical known to man, but he just loves it so much.  Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I should search for a more earth-friendly, non chemical-laden one seeing as how he also loves to put his mouth all over it. ::cringe:: Anyways, he's learned that if he rolls it back to you, you roll it back to him and so on, and he just gets such a kick out of it.  I brought the ball down from the shelf to play with it and he grinned and said "BAH!  BAH!" excitedly.  Now, I wonder where the word "Mama" will be on this list.  Whenever I encourage him to say it, he looks at me like I'm crazy and then says "Datttt".  Sigh.

A Lovely Little Saturday

Let me just start off by saying that I most look forward to Saturdays with my little family.

Jude usually rouses for the day around 6:30/7 am.  Phil willingly gets up with Jude and takes him downstairs so I can catch up on some zzzzz's (since I'm the one that handles all nightwakings during the week).  Phil will then bring Jude back upstairs around 9 or so and we all catch a morning snooze in bed as a family.  It's glorious, truly.  We usually get up around 10, pack Jude and his accessories in the car, and make our first stop: Starbucks.  Now, since I'm breastfeeding, I try to limit my caffeine to one cup of coffee in the mornings and a soda in the afternoons.  Jude hasn't seemed to have any aversion to me drinking caffeine, but why push the envelope.  I used to be an awful caffeine junkie.  Seriously.  I couldn't function if I didn't have 2-3 cans of Diet Mountain Dew in the morning and at least 3-4 Diet Cokes in the evening/afternoon.  I can't even imagine that now.  I get a total buzz from my Grande White Chocolate Mocha on Saturday mornings.  It is truly the perfect ending to my week.  The first sweet sip of satisfaction.  Ahhhh.

Anyways, where were we?

Right, Saturdays.  So, after our fix of Starbucks, we'll run errands.  Usually Target is involved.  Sidenote on Target:  why is it that even if I stop in for freaking dental floss, I can never leave without spending at least $50.  Does that happen to anyone else or is it just me?  Ugh.  Target, why can't I quit you?

Well, this Saturday we were on a mission:

Get Jude an Easter outfit.

That's right, we were those people who hadn't yet gotten their little one a spanking new outfit for church on Easter Sunday.  So we headed to our favorite place in the whole wide world for children's clothing:  Village Pointe.  Where else can you find a Janie & Jack, Carter's, and Baby Gap all within a stone's throw of each other?  It's like a new parents' dream that actually came true!  If any of you know my husband, you'll know that I have a rare breed indeed:  one that LOVES to shop for kid clothes!  Seriously.  The man will drop hundreds of dollars in one afternoon if he were allowed to.  I wish I were kidding.  He gets this glazed look in his eye when he is coordinating outfits for the kid and doesn't even glance at the price tag.  Thank God he has the good sense to shop with me so I can reel him in, otherwise, I fear that we would be living on the streets.....but at least our kid would look cute.

As you can see, we had fun buying outfits for Jude and spending the day out in the sun as a family.  It's the simple days that are always the most poignant for me.  From kisses in bed for Mama to modeling some of the new couture out in the backyard at the end of the day, it was another Saturday I don't want to ever forget.

There really is no better way to wake up than your sweet baby nuzzling your cheek.

I don't want the paparazzi to recognize me if we lunch somewhere.  Oh, right, Mom's the paparazzi.  Nevermind.

Looking at hats (what else?) at Janie and Jack

Dad's..er...Jude's favorite store

Enjoying the outdoors

Surveying the sweater vests

Getting bored, but hanging in there like a champ.

Sale signs at Baby Gap never bode well for our wallets.

Carters, we salute you.

The workaholic checks the Crackberry.

Trying on a new shirt with his trusty cap.  It's all in a day's work.

15 Week Belly Pic!

My first belly picture taken at 15 weeks. So exciting!