Cool Find

I found this blog through Diaperswappers, its called BabyHalfoff. It has a lot of natural/cloth diaper baby products, as well as, lots of baby stuff in general. All of the products featured on the blog are half off, which is great savings!!! Check it out!

BabyHalfOff

15 months old

Bennett had his 15 month check up today at the doctor's office. Here is what we got:

Weight: 21lbs 10.4oz (10%th)
Height: 30 inches (25th%)
Head Circumference: 46 1/4 cm (50%th)

So pretty much he's going to be short and stocky, but smart! :) (kidding!)

The doc said that he looked really good and was impressed by his words and motor skills. She said his percentage in weight went down a little from 12 months, but she said that was normal when kids start walking. I seriously thought he would weight more than that. At the urgent care the other week he was 23lbs 5oz, but I guess that was fully clothed and right after dinner while his appointment today was first thing in the morning. He just seems so heavy to me right now when I carry him and he has a gut that hangs over his diaper! Oh well, such is life. I still love him to pieces and love his little gut. :)

my *must haves*

I know that sometimes when you describe yourself as "crunchy" people don't always know what that means. Frankly, there can be different kinds of "crunchy" and it all depends on how you view yourself and your lifestyle. Personally, I think I am kind of in the middle somewhere. I'm too weird to be "mainstream" and not hardcore enough to be "super crunchy." Here are some of the weird "crunchy" things that we do in our lives: cloth diaper, use unpaper towels, use natural cleaners as much as possible, extended breastfeeding, extended rearfacing, babywearing, buy organic or all natural as much as possible, and drink raw milk. We try to reuse or not use at all for a lot of things, such a unpaper towels. We don't buy paper towels because to me it is a waste of money (I'm just going to throw it in the trash anyways) and it helps preserve the environment. I use cloths to clean with and then just wash them and reuse them. For this same reason, we also use cloth diapers and cloth wipes. I make my own wipe solution and just wet each wipe as I need it, then I wash with my diapers.

Some of my favorite "crunchy" products are as follows:

Babyganics Stain Remover
I love this stuff! I use it on my carpet, on clothes, just about anywhere that you have a stain that you need out. It won't harm your carpet, clothes, children, or pets! P.S. They have it on sale at TRU!

Babyganics Floors to Adore in Lavender scentAgain, will clean your floors and wont harm your children or pets.

Small Wonders Wipes
This is what we use for our wipes and I also use them for wash clothes, wiping noses and hands. We have the velour/velour wipes in a rainbow of colors. They are super soft and scrumptious! We also have some that are velour/sherpa and I love those for the poo diapers. Its gets all the gross stuff off the bum. Love them!

Sweet Slings hanging wetbag
This is called a wetbag. It has a cute print outer and a waterproof inner. This hanging one is what we use for our diapers, wipes, and unpaper towels. It keeps all the yucky stuff contained and is smell free. When I wash, I just unzip and dump into the washing machine, bag and all. We also have 3 smaller ones for the diaper bag to send to the babysitters, etc.

So those are just a few things that we use around the house to help save money and the environment. What are some of the things that you use around your house?

Changes

I'll start this off with talking about the kiddos. We are coming to a new phase in our lives being parents.....preschool. It's like picking out a child care provider, but a little more complicated. It's researching all of the different schools out there and then looking at your child and their personality and deciding which one is going to provide the most benefit for them. For Peytonn, he is a very active kid, there is no way that he could sit all morning long and attempt to learn and listen. I realize that one day he is going to have to learn how to do that, but right now in his life, that is just not him. So, we chose a school that is child led and more of a play learning than structured learning. It is a very good school in our area and usually has a long wait list. I put him on the wait list today for the fall semester and I hope to be able to get him into the 7 week summer class to allow him some transition time. In the Fall, he will be going 4 days per week from 8:15am-11:15am. This allows me to take him and pick him up mid day and take him to the babysitter. Then he can eat lunch with the other kids and still take his afternoon nap. This seemed like the least restrictive and most consistent to the schedule he follows already.

As for Bennett, he is growing so fast and learning so much. He can say "mama," "dada," "more," "all done," uh oh," and "nana" for banana. He is talking much more than Peytonn did at his age. Peytonn was a very late talker and really didn't call me "mama" consistently until about age 2. Bennett is walking very steady now and even runs a little when he gets excited. He is excellent at climbing the stairs and basically anything he can get his leg up on. The kid will eat just about anything that I put on his tray and he even eats more than his big brother does.

We've also had a trying month dealing with a recurring fever. It started around New Year's and has lasted pretty much the entire month, off and on. At one point, it got up to 103.6 degrees. I was finally fed up with whatever was causing this and took him to urgent care this past Wednesday. His temp was 102.2 degrees, he weighed in at 23lbs 5oz, they tested him for strep, and gave us a prescription for Amoxicillin and sent us on our way. The next day the nurse called and said that his strep test was negative but continue with the antibiotics for 7 days. On Friday, Bennett broke out in hives all over his chest, tummy, and back. So, I called the nurse back and they said to stop the antibiotics and just do Benadryl. Finally today the hives have gone away and he seems fine. After all of this, I still think he is teething. After a month, Peytonn has not gotten sick or had a fever at any time and he used to get fevers in the 102's when he was teething. So, after all of that, who really knows what is going on or what the cause of the recurrent fevers are.

So, that pretty much sums up our lives this past month.

A yummy snack for the kids

Since my children adore every kind of Cheerios there are, I decided to look for a recipe that used Cheerios. This also helps use up those half eaten, stuffed in the back of the pantry boxes. I found this recipe: Honey & Nut Cheerios Squares

I used half regular Cheerios and half Multi-grain Cheerios. I also used Natural creamy peanut butter.They are really yummy and the kids like them.

New Furniture

I blogged earlier about looking for new furniture. I dreaded doing this by myself with two children. So, I bribed a friend with a home cooked meal and she came along with me to help me corral the children and pick out something good.

We went to every furniture store in town and at the end of the day went back to the first one. This store had the most selection and the best prices. We ended up getting a chocolate brown sectional couch and a new king size mattress. They were delivered on Tuesday of this week and I just love them.
The boys definitely tested out the couch pretty well at the store and it will be easy to clean if milk gets spilled on it, etc. The back cushions are sewn to the back so my child can no longer rip them off and if the dog gets on the couch (which drives me crazy!) I won't have to vacuum it, just brush it off. Also, it comes in pieces so I could decide how big it was going to be.

The bed is super comfy but weighs about the equivalent of a semi. No joke! It has a pillow top and its HUGE! As you can see from the picture, with the pillows on it comes awfully close to the top of the headboard. I literally have to jump to get up into it. However, the dog can no longer get on our bed.....super plus!! :)

Pulverized

Is how I felt when I woke up this morning. I started Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred yesterday and now my entire body aches. It's painful but a feeling that only means good things. Thankfully, the workouts are only 20 minutes long and there are three levels of difficulty. (Obviously I am on level 1 and it kicked my butt) I have started Weight Watchers again and I hope to be a little slimmer before my hubby comes home for a visit next month. I would also like to be slimmer before having another baby. (which will be at least another 11 months before we start trying) I already know chasing around two little ones can be tiring, but with a third I will need all of the energy that I can get.

Speaking of two little ones, yesterday I moved Bennett into Peytonn's room, so they are now roomies. I turned Bennett's old room back into an office and sewing room, which will allow us more storage for miscellaneous items. It seems like we are busting at the seams already in our house. It would be so much better if we had a basement where we could store things. I desperately need to finish going through the baby clothes and get rid of some more. I have already gotten rid of two containers worth of 0-12 month stuff to friends who were having boys. But I still feel like we have a ton of stuff left. It also seems like the boys are getting closer in sizes. Peytonn just moved up to 3T clothes and I have been taking the 24month/2T clothes out of his closet and setting them aside. But now, Bennett has completely outgrown all 12 month clothes and has moved to 18 month stuff. I feel like putting Peytonn's 24 month stuff in storage will be pointless if Bennett is going to start wearing them in the next 6 months or so. But then again, it will make things more organized and less cluttered. I also need to put Bennett's outgrown clothes into the storage container and clean out his closet so I can move his clothes to his new room.

I was nervous about how bedtime was going to go last night with the two of them in the same room. Usually Bennett goes to bed around 7pm and Peytonn goes to bed at 7:30pm. Finally, around 8pm they both were snoozing and I had to wake Bennett up at 7am this morning. He didn't wake up once last night, which is rare. It's also nice to only have one baby monitor now instead of two.

I also changed our bedroom furniture around. It has been the same since we moved into our house 2 years ago. It was time for a change. Our bedroom is quite large and we have a king size bed, so I wanted to play around with the arrangement. I ended up putting the bed at an angle in one of the corners of the room, which really opens up the other side of the room and makes it look even bigger. It would look really nice to get a chase lounge chair to put in the empty corner of the room and have a sitting area (or clothes collector). We plan to get a new mattress when the hubby is home and I am super excited about that (so is my back!). I really want something I can just sink into and relax, instead of tossing and turning a million times to find a comfortable position. We would also like to get a new couch for the living room. The one we have in there currently my husband bought when we met (so 6 years ago) and it has been beaten up. Its time for a new couch down there! I have been good about saving money since the hubby has been gone and I am proud to say that we can pay cash for both the new mattress and the couch! These two items are things we have waited a long time to replace.

I am going to try and take pictures of the new rearranged rooms once I get them all organized. Maybe some of you can give me some designing/decorating pointers or suggestions. :)