It has been another great month of Natalie. She has gotten much more expressive. She seems to enjoy playing, stories, songs, and kicking:
While Kate unfortunately has a broken arm, she is still able to hold her girl. Unfortunately, multitasking has become more difficult. Here is Kate holding Natalie before her broken arm (notice the knitting):
Here is the more recent picture:
Below are some of the recent pictures we have taken (you can also find the pictures here):
Unfortunately, Kate broke her arm on Wednesday, while standing on a chair to reach for something in the kitchen. It is actually quite close to the place where I broke my arm last year (and we even visited the same emergency room), but it seems that Kate will not need surgery -- she will visit the same orthopedist that I visited a week from Monday.
In other news, Natalie continues to be adorable, and her visit to the doctor yesterday found her in good health. Here are a few videos of her (we will post pictures and stats from the doctor's office later today).
In this first video, we managed to briefly capture Natalie's beautiful laugh on the video camera (usually she stops laughing when the camera comes out):
In the second video, we Natalie plays with some rattles, puts them in her mouth, and demonstrates some of her kicks:
So I've been planning to write this blog entry for a long time - but it never seemed as important or time-sensitive as other events in our lives.
We've been cloth-diapering now for about two months. Before Natalie was born, people warned me we'd never stick with cloth diapers, or that once the baby started eating solid food everything would change. I don't doubt the latter is true, but as for the former, well, we're doing okay so far and we plan to keep using cloth.
So how does it work in our house? First, let me clarify what I mean when I say "cloth diapers." I don't mean the flat traditional-style cloth diapers of several generations ago that took pins and folding. Today's cloth diapers are nothing like that! (Of course, they also don't come cheap, but we'll get to that).
We have several varieties of cloth diapers: Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heinys, Bum Genius, Econappi, Haute Pockets. All in all, we have about 28 diapers.These are all "pocket diapers". This means that they have a waterproof outer layer (which is a bright, cute color). On the inside, there is a fleece layer that comes in contact with the baby's bottom; this layer forms a pocket into which one stuffs an absorbent terry-cloth insert. Here's a picture from the Bum Genius website, but, basically, they all work on a similar model. All our diapers are one-size diapers, which means they should be good pretty much until potty-training time. The rise on the diapers adjusts either with snaps or with elastic buttonholes. Likewise, it is also possible to adjust the waist size and the leg-hole sizing. I'm not under some illusion that all diapers will fit every baby, but they are pretty adjustable. We've had some leaks - but all diapers leak - and most of these I can chalk up to (my) operator error.
Each diaper costs between $14-16. I haven't done the math to see when we'll break even; my understanding is that it's generally around the 8-month mark (this would probably be sooner if we switched to cloth wipes, but, well, we're not there yet). Of course, it isn't really all about the money (although I'm not opposed to saving money, if you get my drift.....); I also do it for the environmental benefit. I admit that washing at home does use more water and energy, but I feel like I can economize on water and energy in other areas of my life and offset my use a little.
So how does it work in practice? Well, we put Natalie in a diaper, just like normal (the only catch is if she has a diaper rash [something we've only had to deal with once]. Diaper cream interferes with the absorbency of cloth, so in those instances, we use disposables). When the diaper needs to be changed, we change it. If we're at home and the diaper is wet, it goes straight into our hybrid diaper pail. In this pail we have both a regular trash bag (for disposable wipes and those instances when we use disposable diapers) and a waterproof wet bag. Into this latter, we put all the cloth diapers. This bag has a little tag where you can dab some essential oil (we use orange) to prevent any smells from getting too bad. If the diaper is dirty, we spray it first over the toilet using our diaper sprayer. The diaper sprayer is just a little sprayer (sort of like you might have near your kitchen sink) that attaches to the toilet. The water actually comes out with a fair amount of pressure, so it does a good job pre-cleaning the diaper.
If we're out, I have a miniature version of our waterproof cloth diaper laundry bag. that hangs out in the diaper bag. This wet bag is about the size of gallon freezer bag and it has a zip top. So I just put the whole diaper in there, and deal with it as above when we get home. No worries.
Every 3-4 days, I wash diapers. I take the whole bag into the laundry room. At this point I pullout all the inserts from the pockets and dump them and the diapers into my top-loading washing machine. I also put the bag(s) that has/have been holding the diapers in the wash. I run a hot wash, cool rinse, preceded by a 30 minute soak. I then do a second cold rinse (my machine has a setting for this, so I'm really just in the laundry room once, to start the whole process).
I use Charlie's Soap. The key with the cloth diapers is to use something that won't irritate the baby's skin (thus I avoid detergents that have enzymatic cleaners that start working on contact with moisture) and that doesn't have a lot of extraneous stuff (brighteners, fragrence etc.) that would lead to build-up on the diapers and thus cause them to repel and leak. So Charlie's Soap is perfect - it is totally biodegradable, scent-free, hypoallergenic, and rinses clean (blah, blah, I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but the soap really is working well for us).
Just for good measure, and to really insure that things rinse clean, I use a downy ball (like for fabric softener) filled with a little vinegar. The ball theoretically releases the vinegar during the first rinse cycle, and the vinegar removes any residual soap that might still be hanging around plus it acts as an additional deodorizer.
When the machine is done, I dry everything outside on my clothesline. Mike built me this clothesline in the corner of our yard for just this purpose! In the summer, diapers dry in an hour or so. Now that it's a bit cooler, I find that the outer shells are drying quickly, but that it sometimes takes a little longer for the inserts (which look like little mini-towels) to dry; I suppose I could toss them in the dryer, but just set them on my indoor drying rack and they're always dry by morning.
This really isn't that hard or complicated or that much extra work once you get into a rhythm with it. I fear that in my desire to make it all seem clear and transparent, I've made this seem like a Herculean undertaking. It so isn't.
Natalie still uses disposables most nights - we have a theory that they keep her drier longer, and so that she sleeps a little longer. This is, of course, only a theory and we've had good nights where she's fallen asleep in a cloth diaper and bad nights where she's been wearing a disposable. So who knows? We also use disposables when we travel.
And now for something totally different . . . since the theme of this post is sort of "new things", I thought I'd share with you my massive craigslist patio furniture score: I got us a table and five chairs all for $40. Check it out! I realize that in many other parts of the country, people are pulling in their patio furniture and putting on their wool hats. Here in Texas it's perfect sitting outside weather - this was lunch today:And, last, I'm very happy to say that I'm (finally!) writing from my own computer! It took me months to decide what I wanted, but I finally went with a nice Dell laptop. I love it!
Last week Mike's mom came for a short visit. She got some good Natalie cuddling in:And here's a video of them reading together:
Bubbe Brenda was here for both Halloween (see below) and Mike's birthday. For the birthday boy, I made carrot cake. This cake was a new recipe for us - and we liked it so much that this may become our regular recipe!(The design credit goes to my grad school friend Erin - of course Erin always candied the carrot peel, and I was much too lazy to figure out how to scale down all the candied carrot peel recipes I found in order to candy just enough to garnish this cake)
For Mike's birthday, I debated photographing him with a sign stating his age just like we do for Natalie each month, but I figured that was cuter the younger one is. Anyway, here's the birthday boy with Natalie:And here's our friend Lucia practicing her magic sleeping baby hold:Here are a few more of our recent favorite pictures: The whole album is below (also here):
Other than periods of torrential rain, the last few days have been pretty quiet around here. Not quiet-quiet (in the sense of being asleep at 4am), but quiet-ordinary (in the sense of nothing unexpected happening).
On the good-news front, last weekend my friend Marianne (also known as Miso) was in town. Marianne came here for a conference, but was luckily able to tack on a few extra days for some hanging out fun. Marianne arrived, of course, with beautiful knitted gifts.(This is yarn that Marianne spun herself!)
We were able to give Marianne a good tour of our local culinary delights, including Tex-Mex, BBQ, and burgers. Here's a picture of Marianne at the same BBQ place I took my mother and brother. As an aside, I know that they smoke the BBQ with real wood, and that that's how it's supposed to be done and all, but every time we drive up to this place and I smell the burning wood, the Californian in me thinks "Forest Fire!"
Marianne and I also did a little baking, of course. We made cupcakes from Cook's Illustrated. We topped them with bits of toffee, and they were supremely yummy!We also baked up a batch of my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. [For those concerned about our waistlines, Marianne took some of the cookies home to Peso, and a big amount of the remainder we took to a dinner party, leaving us only a handful to eat.]
Here are a few of my favorite recent Natalie pictures:The whole album is below (also, here):
Also, for added cuteness, our friends recently got a super-sweet puppy. Here are a few pictures of Ponyo:
Natalie is three months old today! Before she was born, I heard talk about "the fourth trimester" - those first three months wherein babies are still sort of incubating and realizing that they live in the outside world. I don't know about the scientific veracity of this, but I do know that Natalie has, of course, changed a lot in these first three months.
Obviously, she's bigger. We've now had to put away almost all of the newborn clothes (we're in the three months size now, natch), and we've moved up to size two diapers (when we buy disposables, that is - other than last weekend in Austin and at night, we're pretty much using cloth diapers all the time [and, yes, the promised post about that is still coming]).She can now pretty reliably hold her head up on her own, which is exciting. She's also started babbling: sometimes in the morning we wake up to her making the most adorable sounds. This is far and above the best way to start the day (even if it happens around 5am). We often try to bring her to bed for a snuggle with us, but Natalie wakes up hungry and has only one thing on her mind! Most nights, Natalie does have a long stretch of sleep that actually corresponds closely, although not exactly, to what the rest of us would call "night." During the day, though, she will only sleep on one of us. Those extra snuggles are very sweet and adorable, but do interfere with getting other things done. The trade-off, though, is well worth it.Sometimes she laughs or giggles, but this doesn't really seem to be in response to anything in particular yet. Natalie does smile in response to sounds you make (the horse whinny, for example), songs you sing (Mike sings her a Japanese song with words "kuru, kuru" in it), or if you smile at her. Occasionally when she's done nursing, she'll push herself off the breast, roll on her back, look up at me with those big brown eyes and babble and smile. Melts my heart. Every single time.Natalie is also learning to like the bath - we've had several baths with no screaming whatsoever. The other day she even joined me in the big-girl bathtub, and she seemed to like it. The new thing she dislikes is "tummy time". I try to put her on her stomach and get down near her and sing to her and distract her. This lasts all of twelve seconds. So we are definitely figuring out the ways in which the angry cry sounds different from the hungry/other types of cries.As the weather has cooled down a bit and we've been able to take more walks outside, we realize that she doesn't like wind or breezes. I realize that to her it must seem that we are in control of everything: we make her bed vibrate, we play music, we change her clothes, etc. But we cannot make the wind stop blowing! (Although we do our best to shield her, this isn't always easy when she's in her stroller)At this point, Natalie has lots of nicknames: kitten, Sweet Peterson (a take-off on sweet pea, coined by her father), Rear Admiral Poopypants, baby human, little one-zel, and tiny. What we call her depends on the situation - I'm hoping this is good for her cognitive development, not just confusing the heck out of her.
Here's the latest set of pictures (also available here):
This weekend we took our first trip with Natalie. I was really nervous about the journey, and had actually was debating not going right up until the night before. A few weeks ago, Natalie and I (and Mike and SYL) had had, like, the roughest car trip EVER. It ended with both Natalie and I crying hysterically (also driving through the countryside - lost - in the pitch black night. And do you how dark it is once you leave the city limits? Dark, I tell you, dark).
So that earlier trip hung heavy in my mind as we set off on Friday morning. When Natalie fell asleep shortly after her morning feeding, we seized the opportunity, skipped breakfast, and jumped in the car (we did a Starbucks drive-thru, though - first pumpkin spice latte of the season - yum!). Natalie slept for about an hour and we got a good start on the drive. When she woke up unhappy, we stopped at a rest stop and changed her. We drove a little more, she was unhappy again, so we stopped at another Starbucks (Mike's turn to get coffee this time) and fed her in their parking lot. I had brought along my special breastfeeding pillow and my little cover-cape-thingy, so feeding in the car was no problem at all. We then drove on, and when she fussed again, we gave her a break by stopping at a restaurant to have lunch ourselves. After that, we were able to drive the remaining hour or so without stopping. When Natalie was unhappy in the car, we tried singing to her, wiggling her seat, and showing her her toys. But you know what really saved us? The white noise iphone app! Nerdy as it sounds, getting our phone to broadcast the loud sound of falling rain was a total lifesaver. Overall, the 3 hour trip took us closer to 5 hours, but the gain in sanity was well worth it!
And Austin was amazing. We had a great time! The hotel was super-nice, and the beds were very comfy:(this last picture was taken early in the morning ["four-four-four," according to Mike] when Natalie woke us up. We did succeed in putting her back to bed, though])
We arrived early enough on Friday afternoon to take a little walk near campus.Saturday morning we had delicious crepes from a Airstream trailer (what is it with Austin and yummy food from trailers?)Saturday lunch and afternoon Mike had to go do his conference thing, so Natalie and I set out to conquer the town. We didn't get very far before we needed a break, though. Luckily, the grounds of the statehouse were nearby, with plenty of benches and shady trees. (First, the view of the state house from our hotel room, taken through the window):And here's Natalie at the state house.Her interest in seeing the building and surrounding statues? Not great.
After a small rest at the state house, Natalie and I soldiered on in search of our ultimate goal which was.......(wait for it).......(extra points if you know how this will end).........a cupcake! Unfortunately, no pictures, but you'll just have to imagine. I got an oreo one, and I brought Mike back a red velvet one. They were yummy!
While buying my cupcakes, I asked the clerk if she knew of somewhere where I could get lunch with Natalie. She mentioned a cafe around the corner, but then said it might be crowded since that street had been all blocked off since they were doing an event there. "What kind of event?" I asked. "Barkitecture - a contest where architects build dog houses and then display them to the public."
I was sold. Of course we were going! And I loved it!(this is a dog house made from cigar boxes, in case you couldn't tell)
Saturday evening, post-conference, we all headed out again. First, we had some yummy pizza (we've discovered that pizza restaurants generally have a baby-friendly level of ambient noise, plus the food is still good if we have to take turns with the baby, and, thus, eat the food once it has cooled). After pizza, we stopped in at the second-best bookstore I've been to in a long time (It was no Portland gem, but still....).
On Sunday, alas, we had to leave. And face the drive again. Before doing that, I was determined to seek out one more Austin spot: a yummy bakery. This was, like, the most perfect spot ever: dog-friendly patio, super-hot coffee, and delicious treats. Natalie slept while we ate, which made for an even nicer breakfast.
Then we set off for home. Again, we didn't get far before needing to stop. Luckily (for me, not so for Mike), there is an outlet mall located not far from Austin. When we popped Natalie out of her carseat to attend to her diaper and gustatory needs, she actually seemed happy. So we strolled around the mall for a bit, then fed her and changed her. And then we started driving. And then she slept. And slept. And slept. The. Whole. Way. Home.
Here's the whole album of recent photos (also available here):
This is the story of a young couple from Seattle. They started this blog when they moved to Japan for year in 2005. Since then, the blog has become a record of their lives, friends, cooking, and travels. Follow along at home as they discover a new foreign country: Texas, where they moved in 2008. In July of 2009, the couple added a native Texan, Natalie Beth, to their family. In January of 2013, another native Texan, Jacob Samuel, joined the team.
So I've been planning to write this blog entry for a long time - but it never seemed as important or time-sensitive as other events in our lives.
These are all "pocket diapers". This means that they have a waterproof outer layer (which is a bright, cute color). On the inside, there is a fleece layer that comes in contact with the baby's bottom; this layer forms a pocket into which one stuffs an absorbent terry-cloth insert. Here's a picture from the Bum Genius website, but, basically, they all work on a similar model.
Mike built me this clothesline in the corner of our yard for just this purpose! In the summer, diapers dry in an hour or so. Now that it's a bit cooler, I find that the outer shells are drying quickly, but that it sometimes takes a little longer for the inserts (which look like little mini-towels) to dry; I suppose I could toss them in the dryer, but just set them on my indoor drying rack and they're always dry by morning.
And, last, I'm very happy to say that I'm (finally!) writing from my own computer! It took me months to decide what I wanted, but I finally went with a nice Dell laptop. I love it!
And here's a video of them reading together:
(The design credit goes to my grad school friend Erin - of course Erin always candied the carrot peel, and I was much too lazy to figure out how to scale down all the candied carrot peel recipes I found in order to candy just enough to garnish this cake)
And here's our friend Lucia practicing her magic sleeping baby hold:
The whole album is below (also here):
A pea pod!
A sweet pea, of course!
An organic one!
Marianne came here for a conference, but was luckily able to tack on a few extra days for some hanging out fun. Marianne arrived, of course, with beautiful knitted gifts.
(This is yarn that Marianne spun herself!)
We also baked up a batch of my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. [For those concerned about our waistlines, Marianne took some of the cookies home to Peso, and a big amount of the remainder we took to a dinner party, leaving us only a handful to eat.]
The whole album is below (also, here):
Natalie is three months old today! Before she was born, I heard talk about "the fourth trimester" - those first three months wherein babies are still sort of incubating and realizing that they live in the outside world. I don't know about the scientific veracity of this, but I do know that Natalie has, of course, changed a lot in these first three months.
She can now pretty reliably hold her head up on her own, which is exciting. She's also started babbling: sometimes in the morning we wake up to her making the most adorable sounds. This is far and above the best way to start the day (even if it happens around 5am). We often try to bring her to bed for a snuggle with us, but Natalie wakes up hungry and has only one thing on her mind! Most nights, Natalie does have a long stretch of sleep that actually corresponds closely, although not exactly, to what the rest of us would call "night." During the day, though, she will only sleep on one of us. Those extra snuggles are very sweet and adorable, but do interfere with getting other things done. The trade-off, though, is well worth it.
Sometimes she laughs or giggles, but this doesn't really seem to be in response to anything in particular yet. Natalie does smile in response to sounds you make (the horse whinny, for example), songs you sing (Mike sings her a Japanese song with words "kuru, kuru" in it), or if you smile at her. Occasionally when she's done nursing, she'll push herself off the breast, roll on her back, look up at me with those big brown eyes and babble and smile. Melts my heart. Every single time.
Natalie is also learning to like the bath - we've had several baths with no screaming whatsoever. The other day she even joined me in the big-girl bathtub, and she seemed to like it. The new thing she dislikes is "tummy time". I try to put her on her stomach and get down near her and sing to her and distract her. This lasts all of twelve seconds. So we are definitely figuring out the ways in which the angry cry sounds different from the hungry/other types of cries.
As the weather has cooled down a bit and we've been able to take more walks outside, we realize that she doesn't like wind or breezes. I realize that to her it must seem that we are in control of everything: we make her bed vibrate, we play music, we change her clothes, etc. But we cannot make the wind stop blowing! (Although we do our best to shield her, this isn't always easy when she's in her stroller)
At this point, Natalie has lots of nicknames: kitten, Sweet Peterson (a take-off on sweet pea, coined by her father), Rear Admiral Poopypants, baby human, little one-zel, and tiny. What we call her depends on the situation - I'm hoping this is good for her cognitive development, not just confusing the heck out of her.
(this last picture was taken early in the morning ["four-four-four," according to Mike] when Natalie woke us up. We did succeed in putting her back to bed, though])
Saturday morning we had delicious crepes from a Airstream trailer (what is it with Austin and yummy food from trailers?)
Saturday lunch and afternoon Mike had to go do his conference thing, so Natalie and I set out to conquer the town. We didn't get very far before we needed a break, though. Luckily, the grounds of the statehouse were nearby, with plenty of benches and shady trees.
And here's Natalie at the state house.
Her interest in seeing the building and surrounding statues? Not great.
(this is a dog house made from cigar boxes, in case you couldn't tell)
