A Little Bug

Our little Lily Bug has caught a little cold bug. I went into the CBU yesterday to help out so Kevin stayed and worked from home. She looks happy but it only lasts for about an hour. We introduced the soft top sippy cup last night. Because of the fever I wanted to make sure she stayed hydrated. She is still nursing well so I am not worried. She mostly used the cup as a teething toy.

The picture above was as we were getting ready to go to a friends house last night for dinner. We never made it. She proceeded to have a coughing fit, gagged, and spit up most of her last feeding.

This was after gagging all over me 15 minutes before. So I had changed my outfit, and now I needed to change her pjs. Once changed, she proceeded to have a very disgusting diaper and although no leaks, she didn't want to get undressed again. I had to call last minute to cancel our plans.

One (and probably the only) good thing about my independent little girl being sick is that she becomes a cuddler. Lily has never been a great cuddler. She falls asleep in her crib; that's it. She doesn't like to be rocked. She doesn't want to be held. She wants to spread out and go to sleep on her own. So to our delight, she simply wants to be held, put her head down, and suck her thumb; something normally reserved for bedtime only.

Another thing new today is her Eskimo kisses. She would lean in to put her forehead to Daddy's, and simply touch noses, a giant smile on her face. She did this over and over. She initiated and we have never seen her do this before. It melted my heart. It was simply precious and I was slightly jealous that it was with Daddy and not me.

Of all weekends, it was a pretty good choice to get sick. We have no plans for this three day weekend due to the rain. We have napped, cuddled, had soup, and watched lots of movies. Unfortunately, I, too, got sick last night, and Kevin is on his way to getting the cold. Yay! for family bonding.

Eskimo Kisses

Some Cuddle Time

Lily and Her Valentine

Happy Late Valentines Day!

Kevin brought home Old Spaghetti Factory last night. He offered to take me out but I can't stand the crowds. We had a nice date night at home. You actually get quite a few of those when your daughter goes to bed at 7:00 every night. Kevin and Bug hung out on the floor for quite a while. I love how she watches him. She gave her Daddy a valentine they spent the evening laughing and chatting. He is wrapped around her little finger . . . and he loves it.

Kitchen Repair - Part Five

Today they finished the dry wall and addded a coat of primer. The doorway was reframed and the baseboards were intstalled.

Kitchen Repair - Part Four

We have insulation, drywall, and texture.

Kitchen Repair - Part Three

The tents are down and not much remains of the kitchen. The cupboards are gone. The tile is gone. The dry wall is gone. The floor is gone. The MOLD IS GONE!

And now we wait . . .

We have agree to go with the company that our insurance company recommended; we have liked them so far. We signed a contract which holds our place in line of projects but the guys that spoke to Kevin on Friday said the earliest they could get started on our house was the 24th. They still have to put together a contract with AAA of how much everything will cost. It is going to be a long time without a sink. One positive is that I have my microwave and oven back. I am hesitant to cook anything stove top as it is difficult to wash dishes in the shallow bathroom sink. So we eat out. And I'm already tired of it. Earlier this week I made a roast and carrots in the crock pot with crock pot liners and made instant mashed potatoes using hot water from my Mrs. Tea pot. We went to grill tonight and I realized that the lighters for the BBQ were in a box somewhere. I will head to the store tomorrow to keep some easy to grab food and snacks on hand. . . as well as another lighter.

I leave you with a picture of my new kitchen, formally the playroom.

My Cloth Diapers

Kevin and I are very aware of how we spend our money (a.k.a. cheap). So far, Lily has made very little to no change on our monthly budget (except for the whole me quitting my job thing.) I have been fortunate enough to be able to breastfeed for this long and am still going strong. Besides formula, diapers can be another huge expense for Baby. I did a little bit of research and talked to a few friends and decided I was going to do cloth diapers. Kevin took a little bit of convincing but ultimately told me it would be my decision since I would be the one washing them. I would have loved to have a diaper service, but again, our main reason for doing cloth was the cost, not the environment (sorry). While I was working, we did a combo of cloth and paper, and still found it helped out tremendously with the cost of diapers. Now, we are cloth most of the time.

I found a few new cloth diapers on ebay but they came directly from China. I was a little hesitant as to the quality. So I began looking at some name brands and where they were manufactured; China. So ebay it was. I bought 3 at first to try out to see if I liked them. I loved them. I ended up with 18; buying them one or 2 at a time as I bid on them. Total cost, around $100. I went with an adjustable diaper that will grow and change with Lily. I chose snaps because I had read that the velcro tends to wear out and collect lint. I also chose a pocket diaper as oppossed to a complete all in one. This allows me to use one inset during the day and 2 inserts for her 12 hours of sleep each night. I have had pee leaks as the cloth can only absorb so much. But the leaks have typically been because I didn't do a double at night, or forgot to change her before her nap. I have never had a poop leak which I often did in paper diapers. I use just as many cloth a day as I do paper.

Here is one of the inerts and diapers all opened up. The liner is basically a couple of layers of terry cloth (it's difficult to see in the picture.) We have 2 girly diapers, the rest are neutral so we can use them for multiple children (again, cheap-cheap.) But even if I had to buy another set, the cost is worth it. The diaper adjusts both in width and length. We still use paper when we go out or if someone else is watching her. In my defense though, they aren't difficult at all. We have gone out in cloth and it that hard to bring the wet ones home. I wash three times a week. When it isn't too cold, I hang the diapers out on the line (as I do with a lot of my laundry). You shouldn't dry the covers anyway because of the vinyl covering. Did you know that poop stains fade, and often disapear) in the sun? Someone told me that years ago, but I didn't beleive it until I tried it myself.

Here she is at around 8 weeks in a cloth diaper. We used paper for the first couple of months because she was so small and newborns poop ALL the time.

Here she is more recently. Clothes do fit differently over cloth, but it isn't inconvenient. She hardly wears denium though; it just doesn't stretch the same.

Cloth isn't for the faint of heart. I find myself breathing through my mouth to avoid the smell when I start a load of diapers. And yes, you might get a little pee on your hands as you pull the insert out to be washed, but you should wash your hands after starting any load of laundry. You do find that your own kid's poop and pee is different, though. I would never wash your kid's poopy diapers.

Kitchen Repair - Part Two

The crew started work on the house today. The cabinets have been pulled away from the walls and the tent set up. We no longer have access to anything in the kitchen.

Here is the family room. You can see the sink on the floor. The tent has been attached to the sliding glass door. The dogs have to get to the backyard through the garage; which doesn't really work very well. They saved the drawers, cabinet doors, and frame. But when we looked at it today, some of the frames were cracked. We are hoping to replace the sink while they have it out.The tent entrance in the living room.We could hang out in this small portion of the living room, but we spend most of our time in our bedroom. The three of us hung out, had dinner, and watched Bill Engvall from our bed. The crew used the toilet in my "kitchen", and even though I knew they would, they left the seat up. At least they didn't pee in my backyard.

Five Months

The photo shoot did not go so well this morning. Because we are using month stickers, you only get one shot, and you never know if you are going to have a happy baby until you start clicking pictures. We never did get a true smile. She is so concerned about the decal on her shirt and loves the noise it makes when she scratches her fingernails on it. In fact she likes to make noise with her finger nails on any surface; especially the corduroy couch, the Boppy, and daddy's facial hair.

We were able to get a partial sitting up picture. She is doing better and better every day. Unfortunately, she would now prefer to be on her belly so she can get a closer look at whatever she is intrigued by; patterns on blankets, toys, puppies, etc. Now that I think about it, she might be near-sighted. . . Time will tell. Even the best of us wear glasses and Kevin got his pretty young.

Lily loves her cereal . . . most of the time. We have been eating earlier in the evening so she is less tired. This week we have added another feeding right before bed at 7:00 and dropped the dream-feed at 1o. A win-win situation; she still has 5 feedings a day, and still sleeps for 12 hours at night. Then Mommy and Daddy get to have the evening to have dinner and hang out. It's a wonderful schedule.

She is finally starting to roll over more, now from her back to her tummy. She really just hasn't felt the need to go anywhere. She is pushing up higher with her arms and getting stronger every day.

As far as I can tell, Lily loves having Mommy home every day. Daddy gets her up before he leaves for work and then plays with her as soon as he gets home before bed. They still enjoy their Thursday date nights when Mommy goes to bible study.

It's a lot more of the same and we are still enjoying being parents. We usually spend Saturdays running errands and hanging out as a family, and football Sundays. Who knows what we'll do after the Superbowl this Sunday. We had some warm weather, but are looking forward to spring when we can get out more and take walks and such.

Had to give you one shot from the back to show you she still has her bald spot and I am still finding her hair all over her sheet. Friends think her hair is turning lighter but I am convinced it is turning loose and she'll be bald in 6 months.

Kitchen Repair - Part One

On January 12, two days before I become unemployed, we notice that water is coming out from underneath our kitchen floor; on the other side of the room from the pipes. Not good. We check under the sink and all seems fine. But as my head is in the cabinet, I hear a faint drip . . . drip . . .drip. Kevin pulls the dishwasher out from underneath the cabinet to discover an inch of standing water. Ugh. The next day we begin making calls; home warranty and then home owners insurance.

Our insurance company sent out a restoration company to take a look at our situation. The lady at AAA went back an forth on a decision for our claim. At first it was going to be covered, and then when they found mold in our baseboards they decided it was a long standing issue and they weren't going to cover it. Finally they sent the restoration company out to tear open the wall so AAA could see how long the issue had been there. When a piece of the drywall was removed, we found particle board all the way up. This meant that the wood had been soaking up the water, now two and a half feet up the wall, and it AAA made a decision in our favor.

Here is a picture of the wall before it was covered up with plastic and duct tape. Wet.

The restoration company brought in two dehumidifiers to suck the moisture out. By the time they pulled them out of the house, I was going crazy from the noise. They weren't so much loud and just constant noise. Here I am being sly with my camera phone getting Joe checking the mold behind the baseboard in the dining room.

Here was my kitchen for 3 weeks. Dishwasher and dehumidifier in the middle of the room. You don't realize how much you use your dishwasher until it is useless; I am so tired of doing dishes.


Yesterday, they moved my dishwasher and refrigerator out of the kitchen. Today they came and packed up everything in my lower cabinets and drawers. So I have plates to eat off of, but no flatware or cookware.

The living room now holds my refrigerator. Convenient for entertaining. Not so great for smells.
And my family room has become a storage unit holding my dishwasher and everything from my kitchen.

I was able to do some cooking on Monday and Tuesday so we had some food for the rest of the week; casserole, quiche, enchiladas, granola, bread, and the much needed chocolate chip cookies.

Hang on ladies and gentlemen, we are in for a ride.