It is Friday, so I am working from home with Ms. Reese today.
A few minutes ago as I sat on our couch with my computer in my lap, she toddled over, graham cracker in hand, pointed to this picture on my computer screen and said, “Dada.”
Category Archives: home
Holler At Us Nemo
We spent this past weekend snowed in at Gammy and Grandpa’s house thanks to winter storm Nemo (hilarious name.)
It felt pretty good to not have anything to do except to visit with aunties and grandparents, eat, eat and eat, and play in the snow.
We showed off all of our tricks. “Where’s your nose, Reese?” “Where’s Grandpa’s nose?”
Auntie Elyse put her wine aside for a few minutes to play with me! Miles supervised.
There were walks in the woods.
I played with TJ. Check out my “Squirrel” pants!
I inspected Gammy’s produce.
We kind of wish everyone weekend was like this. Maybe without the 25 inches of snow though.
Our Fav New Toy
Growing up, one of our most beloved toys was the play kitchen in our basement. It had a mini fridge and a sink with a red checkered “backsplash” complete with a picture of a window and outdoor scenery. It was the focal point for many games of “house” and “restaurant” and it’s still the first thing that comes to mind when I picture our childhood playroom in the basement of my parents’ house. So when my parents asked if they could get Reese a play kitchen for her first birthday, we were all excited.
We chose the Melissa & Doug Cook’s Corner play kitchen. The kitchen is wooden, which I wanted, and is one of the smaller sets I found, which is also good for us because we don’t have a ton of room. It was delivered to us back in October but I didn’t get around to assembling it until a few weeks ago. I am taking full advantage of procrastination while I still can.
The assembly was a biatch but somehow I put the whole thing together myself (almost.) After incorrectly attaching them (twice), I sought help from Andrew in putting the hinges on the oven and refrigerator doors.
So far, Reese is having a ball opening the doors and putting rando stuff inside the “oven” and “refrigerator” (her shoes and socks, blocks, her bowl etc.) Turning the oven and stove knobs, setting the timer (then forgetting it is on and crying when it goes off) are also exciting new activities.
Like most sane people, I think she still prefers the real fridge to the toy fridge (she loves taking the condiments out of the bottom shelf on the refrigerator door) but I know as she gets older she’ll get more into it.
In the pictures above the kitchen is shown in our living room, but it now sits in the corner of our kitchen so Reese can “cook” in the proper setting. I am not one to comment on other people’s ideas of cooking, but I do know that it shouldn’t involve roasting your sippy cup or boiling your socks, so I think we still have some work to do.
Girls’ Week
Our main man was away in California on business last week, so Reese, Miles and I were left to hold down the fort.
It was only the second time Andrew has traveled for more than one night since Reese was born and despite the fact that she is now running around, it seemed to be a little bit easier this time around than it was five months ago.
Four whole nights to myself (once Reese was in bed) meant lots of “me time.” I used this time wisely, laying on the couch watching trashy reality tv that Andrew does not tolerate. I caught up on Real Housewives, Teen Mom and the Bachelor and was even introduced to the embarrassingly addicting world of “Married to a Jonas” (I love you Danielle; don’t listen to the haters.) It also meant doing all the chores I normally do PLUS the boy chores (shoveling snow, taking out the trash, etc.) It was only 4 days but it reinforced my belief that single moms are not to be messed with. Working all day and then coming home to take care of a one year-old solo is no joke.
Without Andrew, even our nightly ritual of walking the dog turned into a major production, and it ended up taking me almost a half an hour to get the three of us out of the house. Getting Reese bundled up, Miles leashed and back-packed (more on this later; but yes, our dog wears a backpack), the stroller out the door and down the steps, and locking up, all while holding a 24 lb toddler and trying to avoid tripping over a 50 lb dog was comedic. The fact that we live on a very busy street (right at an intersection to be exact) means that there is always a live audience of people in their cars watching/judging as I awkwardly toss the stroller down the stairs and try to keep Miles from running out the gate while I strap Reese in. Never far from my mind is the fact that I know if I was in those cars, I would be laughing at me.
Come Thursday evening, the three of us were looking forward to having Dada back.
When we heard Andrew’s car pulling in the driveway, I brought Reese into the kitchen and she stood against the door peering out the window; hair still wet from her bath and her feet covered in fleece pajamas. She bounced up and down when she heard his feet on the deck stairs and when he appeared in the doorway she began her dance of joy (this consists of rapid arm flapping, heavy breathing, more bouncing up and down, and sometimes, ironically enough, ends with a slap to the face.)
Despite the potential slap, it really is the best kind of greeting after days away.
Thirteen Month Update: Us as Parents
And now an update on us after 13 months of parenting.
On occasion, we’ve had a few mishaps which made us question our parental abilities. There was the time that Reese fell out of the bottom of the stroller as we were wheeling it down our steps because she hadn’t been strapped in, an incident with a bee while on a walk that caused me to briefly run away from the stroller, leaving Reese, so I could save myself from the bee; or the time Reese was being “changed”and the dirty diaper was put back on her instead of a clean one. I could go on. But I won’t. Mainly because I am too afraid of what people will think of us.
We are still learning and I feel like we will always be learning; no matter how many kids we have or how old they get. Most days, I still think it’s pretty hilarious that I am somebody’s parent, and I don’t think it will ever stop feeling like a job for which I am severely underqualified.
We have been parents for thirteen months and sixteen days and our list of questions is long. What do we do when Reese starts hitting us? How do we teach her to share? Is there a way to get her to stop chucking her food and her cup around the kitchen? What’s with the biting??
Things I do know: we have a healthy, beautiful daughter who smiles, laughs, gives lots of hugs and kisses and seems to have a thing for us. This makes me think we are doing something right.
Reese’s First Birthday Party
We celebrated Reese’s first birthday a couple of weeks ago on a snowy Saturday afternoon with friends and family at our house. It was the first birthday party I have ever thrown (not counting one for Andrew that was at a bar) and I had high expectations for myself. Pinterest will do that to you.
I’m neither crafty nor culinary, which I am just going to have to accept and move on, but I did the best that I could. We kept it as simple as possible with pizzas, mac and cheese, meatballs, rice and apps. My sister and I made chocolate and red velvet cupcakes with raspberries and mint leaves for dessert. We used a Duncan Hines box mix after I tried (and failed) to make cupcakes from scratch a couple of days earlier (they turned out chewy and bland and I couldn’t even fool Reese into eating them.)
Decorations were also simple due to my uncraftiness. I made a few paper chains out of printed paper from Michael’s, hung huge paper flowers (Martha Stewart, from AC Moore), some sparkly garland (also Martha Stewart from AC Moore), put out some flowers from Trader Joe’s and some pictures of Reese and called it a day.
Luckily, this was Reese’s first birthday party ever, so she didn’t have much to compare it to, but I know that her day was full of potato chips, naps, hugs, and chocolate cupcakes. What more can a girl ask for?
On Your First Birthday
Today is your first birthday.
Can’t believe it has been a year since we first met you. The nine months we waited for you felt like forever and now your first year has gone by in what seems like an instant. It’s all a little fast for me. You have changed our thoughts on just about everything and these days the only “good times” we talk about are those that include you.
Thank you little one, for showing us a different kind of happy and a new kind of love.
Happy birthday sweet girl!
Bum Genius Cloth Diaper Review
Sadly, I am not really a “green” person. I love paper towels and use them much too often, I didn’t start recycling until I first lived with Andrew and he made me, I prefer AC to windows and I almost always prefer driving to walking.
Don’t judge.
Despite the fact that my daily life would probably make most environmentally conscious folks cringe, I am a huge fan of cloth diapers. My motivation for cloth diapering was more economical than environmental, but it is still a nice little bonus to know that we are not contributing to the billions of pounds of diaper trash that sit in landfills each year.
Originally, I was skeptical about this business. I pictured the saggy looking cloth diapers I remember my little sister wearing, which consisted of giant pins (for real) and a rag, and I wasn’t feeling it. After doing some research and seeing my sister cloth diaper her little one, I found that for me, the pros (saving $, better for baby’s skin, never having to worry about not having diapers etc.) outweighed the cons (more work on our part, and literally, more poop on our hands.)
A few months before Reese was due I added bumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers to my shower gift registry. I was attracted to these diapers because they were one-size-fits-all so I could use them from birth until she was potty trained, thanks to the adjustable snaps. I’ll have to see how well they hold up but I hope to use them for future children as well.
Here they are.
And these are the inserts that come with them, a newborn insert and a regular sized insert. These get stuffed into the pocket at the back of the diap. At night we use both inserts, but during the day the regular sized insert works fine.
These bad boys aren’t cheap at $17 a pop (diapers.com) but when I decided that I was going to do this, I was committed. I made up my mind made up that we would not be using disposables at home if we could help it.
I received about 10 diapers as gifts and bought seven more on my own. The website recommends having 24 diapers for one baby, but that is crazy expensive and in my opinion, definitely not necessary. With 17 diapers, we have to wash them about every other day in order to assure that she always has a clean diap.
Reese has been wearing these diapers for about a year now and overall we are very happy with them and with the cloth diapering process in general. However, there are definitely some things to think about before making the investment.
Things to Consider
I must confess that I get a LOT of help with the diaper laundering and I know it would be much more difficult to do on my own, so that is something for moms to consider. My mother-in-law washes, folds and puts away the diapers every other day while she is home with Reese so we just have to take care of them Fri-Sunday. The washing process includes a pre-rinse, a wash and then dry in the dryer. I will say that the directions recommend that the covers be line dried but I only do this when time permits, which is pretty much never. Directions also recommend two rinse cycles, one before the wash and one after. I have found that one rinse cycle in the beginning is fine.
When we travel I usually use disposable diapers. It is easier to be able to throw away a dirty diap than to carry it around in your bag all day.
Snaps > velcro. The velcro takes a beating in the wash.
Cloth diapers are extra bulky and they make Reese look like she has a mayjah booty. I think it’s cute but it’s something to consider when buying baby clothes; sometimes she busts out of the pajamas that button from foot to crotch if they aren’t one size bigger.
This part is kind of gross.
We have a diaper sprayer that attaches to the side of our toilet. We use this to spray off the poop diapers after we dump the poop in the toilet. I know this sounds crazy, but it helps with keeping the diapers clean. I have noticed a few times when the diapers weren’t sprayed that the poop stains didn’t come out as well.
Isn’t it beautiful?
$$$. Word is that most people spend $1500-$2000 on diapers for one child before he/she is potty trained. Thus far we have spent (even though some were gifts, I’ll just assume we bought all of our diapers) $289 on diapers. I’m not going to lie and say I actually went back and checked our electric and water bills to see how much they increased since we started cloth diapering, but I will tell you that I pay those bills and I haven’t noticed a major change.
In short, we’re giving them two thumbs up.
Baby Monitors: They’re Not Just For Babies Anymore
This afternoon I received a text from Andrew containing the picture below with the message “Operation Dig Your Own Grave has commenced.”
Andrew and I (who am I kidding; only Andrew) has spent a lot of time working on our lawn. We have a good sized backyard and he has worked hard to keep the grass neatly mowed and watered, to make sure it stays green, and to fill in bare spots. Last year, our dog Miles began digging gigantic holes while she was outside. Andrew filled them in, planted new grass, and Miles seemed to have lost interest in digging.
Recently she has started digging again and we can’t figure out how to make her stop. We are never able to catch her in the act of digging the hole. We only see the holes long after they are dug, when it would be too late to reprimand her.
This morning as I was leaving for work Andrew told me that he was going to take the baby monitor (we have a video monitor) and train it on the backyard to try to catch Miles in the act; so he could tell her “No!” right as she was digging.
I’m not gonna lie, I thought this was a pretty good idea. I’m sick of falling in those holes.
Our Summer Infant Babytouch Video Monitor has been the source of much amusement for us over the past few months. Through it, we have caught glimpses of Reese passed out on her back with both feet sticking through the rails of her crib, asleep sitting up (hilarious), and once, after letting her cry for a few minutes until she eventually fell asleep, we turned it on to be greeted by the sight of just her butt in the air, as if she was showing us exactly what she thought of our cry it out method.
99% of the time, we use the monitor for its intended purpose (to monitor our baby, obvi) but there is that other 1% of the time when it serves other more creative purposes. Such as today.
I’ll keep you updated on how this Operation plays out. Luckily, Miles doesn’t seem to suspect a thing
Letters To Reesie 
