The boys are their daddy have a game called Mailbox Monster. Mailbox Monster brings about tons of giggles. We keep trying to catch the giggles on video but it is very difficult, because as soon as the camera comes out they want the camera! Here is our best attempt at catching the game and all its giggles:
MVI 5911 from Stephanie Adams on Vimeo.
Whenever someone posts something on their blog or facebook that I disagree with I try to be open minded about it. I know I don’t have it all figured out and that in some things my own opinions could be misguided. I also know that everyone has a right to their own opinion, but a recent facebook status update frustrated me:
WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Press 1 for English. Press 2 to disconnect until you learn to speak English. And remember only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, JESUS CHRIST. And the AMERICAN SOLIDER. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom. If you agree… copy and paste in your status
I am sorry but if your profess to be a Christian that implies you follow Christ. In my opinion the above quote is not in any way Christlike. I think it is actually in direct contradiction to the second greatest commandment according to Jesus (Matthew 22: 36-40):
36″Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[a] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
If you are truly following this command you would be showing compassion to your neighbors. The above facebook status in my opinion does not show compassion.
Please stop to think why they might not yet know English. Maybe they have fled a dangerous situation and are just now getting settled. Maybe there is no English class near them or they have no reliable transportation. Maybe they don’t have money for a class. Maybe there is not enough volunteer tutors. Maybe they are trying really hard and it just isn’t sticking, learning a foreign language isn’t easy. Do you think they are refusing to learn English to spite you?
I do understand that there are some immigrants in this country that have lived here for a long time and simply do not want to learn English (I assume they are afraid of losing their culture). The vast majority are trying to learn our language, our culture, and how to fit in. Over the summer I watched a documentary on the Lost Boys, they had to learn everything about America, even how to use electricity. Please keep in mind that most people that immigrate here come from a third world country and they have a lot to learn, not just English.
The boys are (thankfully) still at the age where pickiness hasn’t yet developed. I am hoping to head off some of the toddler pickiness by adding lots and lots of variety now. They do have some food items they clearly love more than others, some healthy (oranges, carrots, sweet potatoes, applesauce) some more questionable (pizza, graham crackers, bratwurst). I wanted to add more fruit variety to their diet, and knowing how much they love applesauce, I knew it was a good place to start. I also didn’t want to spend every day peeling and dicing fruits, I do plenty of food prep around here and didn’t want to add too much more, plus when they are hungry they are HUNGRY. So I purchased a whole bunch of frozen fruit and spent about 30 minutes one day (with toddler help) and pureed it all up and placed it in these handy freezer containers, wrote on some removable labels, and presto I have lots of easy to grab pureed fruit to add to applesauce or anything else, like say yogurt (currently they aren’t eating). I also add a little whole grain baby cereal to the applesauce. It makes for a yummy, healthy treat.
Noah was dancing away yesterday so I tried to catch it on video, but of course he knew what I was up to and stopped. I did manage to get some video of him crawling and I think it is pretty cute.
MVI 5752 from Stephanie Adams on Vimeo.
14 months actually marks a big moment for us. The boys have now officially been with us longer than without. 🙂
I am noticing I have not been taking as many pictures of them, I think it is due to the fact that I can no longer leave the camera in easy to grab places. The boys are really into exploring the house right now and find all sorts of stuff to get into.
They both mastered the art of the snack cup this past month and are now a little obsessed.
Ezra is practically running now and hardly ever crawls anymore. Noah is working on learning to walk, he does great with your hands or a push toy, but isn’t willing to try balancing yet. He can do it though, he took a couple of steps the other day, but then he was mad about it!
Clapping and peek-a-boo are still two of our favorite activities. They also love books. The joy of unloading kitchen cabinets was discovered this last month and my kitchen floor is a disaster each and ever day, but at least they let me cook or wash dishes while they make the mess.
No new teeth this month. I suspect Ez might be working on his molars though, somedays he is really chewing on his finger in that area. He is not a happy teether. If Noah is working on any new teeth, we have no clue, he doesn’t let us know like his brother.
They really love to make noise, when they are awake there is no silence. They make all sorts of noises with their mouths, they bang on everything, and they like to drop things on the tile to see how it sounds.
They do almost everything together, but they are complete opposites. Noah is much more contemplative and Ezra is all action. Ezra thinks everything is hilarious, but with Noah you have to earn your giggles.
We have a ton of fun together and the action almost never stops, and we don’t want it any other way.
I couldn’t bring myself to do a Wordless Wednesday post. My heart is breaking for the people of Haiti today. I pray that the estimates of 100,000 dead are wrong. I pray for all those living in chaos right now, with no where to go because their city is flattened. Praying is not enough though, so I encourage you to act, donate, volunteer, or whatever you can do, just do it, and if all you can do is pray then please do. CNN has a page set up with organizations that are looking for donations or volunteers, its not a complete list, but it is a start for those who don’t know where to look.
The voting ends tomorrow and Noah is in a very close contest with Emma.
So please hope over to totrags and vote for Noah! We love our totrag bibs and could always use more bibs.
I have been using cloth diapers ever since we came home with the boys and I have to say I love it. It isn’t hard at all and the diapers are super cute. I promised Tegan a review of cloth diapers months ago, so in honor of her (and Greg’s) recent referral I am finally going to do it!
I could go into detail about all the different types of cloth diapers, but I personally think Tara wrote a darn good post about it so why would I bother? I will instead focus on the four types of diapers I personally own.
KCK One Pocket diaper (one size). These are my least favorite diapers for two reasons, not the most absorbent (means you have to change more frequently and when you are changing two bums that is a downer) and they do not fit as nicely as other diapers underneath clothing. These are velcro (snap is better) but the way the velcro is done on these is great and it is holding up very well. I purchased these because I could get cute designs on the bums (like Pittsburg Penguins for Matt). The etsy seller I purchased them from is fast and willing to do special requests. I still use them every day and they work just fine, I just don’t put them on right before a bottle.
Swaddlebees All-In-One (sized diaper). These are again not some of my favorites. The fit is great and they work wonderfully under clothes, but they are not super absorbent, so I have been doubling them ever since the boys came home. Not a huge deal but I refuse to fish the doubler out of these before I wash (tight squeeze for your hand) and they never come out in the wash, so the doublers don’t always get thoroughly washed. These all-in-ones also take a ridiculous amount of time to dry even over the other all-in ones I own.
bumGenius One Size Pocket Diaper. I like these diapers a lot. The fit is great, the absorbency is great, and they are easy to use. My one complaint, they only come in velcro and the velcro does not seem to be holding up that well, plus I have caught a couple little boys getting very close to getting them undone.
bumGenius Organic All-In-One (one size). These are my favorites. They are ridiculously easy, come in snaps, absorbency is good, and the fit is great. They are also the most expensive, we just have a few and we use them mostly for going out and about. They do take a long time to dry, but overall they are worth it.
bumGenius does have a new product out, Flip Diapers, and they have washable inserts, similar to the G Diaper system, but washable. These come in snap and are more affordable then their all-in-ones. I would give them a try if I needed any more.
A couple of accesories that you would most like want:
Diaper Pail Liner. I have two of these because I throw them in the wash every time I wash diapers, you could get away with one if you wanted to, but it is easier having two.
Wet Bags. Useful whether you cloth diaper or not, you can use them if your baby has an accident and you don’t want to throw the yucky clothes in the diaper bag. I again have two, you can get by with one, but again I like to wash frequently.
The two things that scare people away from cloth diapering seem to be the washing and the initial investment. I will say that washing diapers every other day is not among my favorite things to do, but it isn’t that bad (hey I line dry and I can say that!). I use the No Soak method from diaperpin.com, yes this does require two washes, but I have a high efficiency washer and soaking my diapers wasn’t going to happen.
Now let’s talk cost. We are going to pretend I actually counted my diapers and kept track of how much they were. I think we have 40 diapers and I am going to say the average cost per diaper is $22, so $880 in diapers (remember I have twins, if you have one baby you won’t need so many). Accessories (doublers, cloth wipes, wet bags) let’s say I spent $250 on miscellaneous stuff to go with the diapers some of which you might not need (probably an over estimate). I use cloth wipes, I think they are easy, but you might choose not to and that’s okay. So that is $1,130 total. I will say we did not spend that much, we received some as gifts. Now let’s pretend I didn’t purchase cloth and I was purchasing disposable. Let’s say it was these disposables, I estimate at least 8 diapers a day per baby so that is 36.5 packs per year. In one year that is $1,387. Obviously we will need diapers longer than a year so the savings will continue to add up. Of course, I am not factoring in the cost of washing the cloth diapers, I have no idea how much it costs to run my washer per load (it can’t be too much the amount of laundry we do has increased exponentially since the boys, but our water bill is pretty much the same and electric bill is just up a little). I am going to say overall we are still saving money and a whole lot of landfill space. At least 5,840 diapers worth of space in one year!
Night time diapering can be a bit of a challenge. We were managing to cloth diaper the boys and they were making it through the night without leaking (very fat diapers though!), but we had a persistent diaper rash, so we switched to disposables at night. The diaper rash cleared up and all is well. So we do use two disposables a day.
I prefer goals over resolutions, goals seem more concrete and have a finish line.
First let’s visit how last year’s goals finished up.
1. Started as running a 5k then I decided I would rather do a duathlon. I participated in a duathlon but relay style, I did not do the whole thing, but I did run a 5k. So goal semi-accomplished and I am happy I tried.
2. Focus more on Reduce and Reuse. I am doing this, and I am doing it more and more. I almost made my commitment to buying used/hand made clothing for myself, but right before we went to Ethiopia I purchase a couple of new tops because I was having difficulty finding used ones that were appropriate for travel (due to the fact that I live in the desert I own a lot of sleeveless tops!).
3. More gardening and preserving. I hit a bump on this one, two little precious angels put gardening and preserving on the back-burner.
4. Continue my goals from 2008. I am continuing to improve in those areas. We eat mostly vegetarian. We did have some issues with food waste, but it is getting better. Water usage per person is down, adding two more persons helped. I don’t have final numbers yet so I can’t say if we met our goal of 75 gallons/person, but I can say in the months since the boys have been home we have been below that goal number, which is quite the feat considering how much laundry I am doing!
2010 Goals
1. I like to keep on with the running thing. Matt and I are doing the off-road duathlon again and I am hoping to do a duathlon all by myself this year. For sure I am going to run my first 10k in the fall.
2. Get more organized. This is mostly pertaining to being a wife, mom, and household manager. I need to find a routine that works for keeping this house running smoothly. I am currently putting everything into ical so I have set days for certain laundry items, vacuuming, etc.
3. Gardening. I need to refocus in this area and hopefully have a good spring/summer harvest. I don’t really know of a concrete goal to set in this area, because saying I would like to harvest so many pounds would just set me up for failure, since not everything is in my control. I am going to dedicate one day a week to make sure I get out there and do some gardening.
