Life on the Road

Our family is featured on the home page of the Yahoo Group Teens and Tots!

Click over just to see a cute picture of me with Nick and Jewel (last summer at “The Home Place” at the Land Between the Lakes preserve in Tennessee), but if you find yourself with two distinct ages of kids you might want to check the group out, as well…  

Sorting and unpacking revealed a treasure-trove of girl clothes I was saving for the next one…  But since I don’t think *he* will want them, I want to sell or trade them.  After posting to one group and contemplating posting to another, it occured to me that it would be far easier to post the info here and just refer to it from other places.

Soon-to-follow posts will include the gender-neutral and boy clothes R.T. is so speedily outgrowing.

I’ve photo’d them in size groupings, mostly (click thumbnail pics to see a larger view).  I’d love to get rid of whole chunks rather than piece by piece, but will take whatever I can get.  We can negotiate a price, and/or see my “ISO” list at the end.

Obviously, I can give you more details about anything, as needed. 

Thanks!

Cute winter things.  Snowsuit says 6-12 mos.  Reversible jacket has no tags - I want to say 2T?  Cute suede/furry boots (Ugg knock-off).

Newborn:

12 mos.

18 mos.

24 mos./2T

TAKEN:
Pink turtleneck

TAKEN:
Black longsleeved dress
Blue longsleeved dress
Pink w/bows dress

TAKEN:
Sleeveless floral dress (top center)

3T

TAKEN:
All 3 dresses

Shorts overalls with hat, 5; 2 pairs of pants, 6

Girly socks

Shoes - new & like new - I got rid of the ones she actually wore…

In Search Of – Just a random list of things I’d be willing to trade for.  Try me on others! 

• Medium-long or Large Diapers, gender-neutral or boyish (fitteds, wool covers/shorties/etc.)
• Cool diaper bag
• Family cloth?
• Modest swimwear / swimwear fabrics (lycra, Taslan (?), ??)
• Wool for dipes (fresh or recycled)
• Handcrafted gifts/toys/household goods
• Modest apparel – clothing for a tall mama & girl (size 6-ish); papa & son (men’s L) and baby (12 mos. and up)
• Modest apparel – fabric & patterns for the whole family
• Fabric & notions
• Snaps (ployacetyl resin (”plastic”), size 20)
• Crochet supplies ? (we’re just learning)
• Books (kids ages 0, 3, 14; Christian fiction)
• Fun food stuff / kitchen stuff
• Old-school homemaking stuff

Nick turned 14, and we haven’t really had a party, but…

We spread out the fun by allowing him to open one present each hour.

We took him to Cici’s for an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet, which is pretty much his idea of nirvana.

And Papa got up to his cake decorating tricks again.  I baked a cake using the same Wonder Woman cake pan we’d used for Jewel’s birthday cake, but he decorated it up as Nick’s bud, Wolverine!

Pretty clever guy, eh? 

It’s hard to believe Nick is 14 and starting High School…  Where does the time go?

I just finished reading a book about tandem nursing (Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond), and although I would highly recommend it, after four months it didn’t really have a lot to say on the subject that was news to me.

I was fascinated to learn, however, that a mama kangaroo makes different milk in each teat!  She makes baby milk on one side for the tiny joey finishing his development in her pouch, and “toddler” milk on the other side for baby’s older sibling who will still stick his head in and nurse.  What a great trick!  Doesn’t God think up cool stuff?

And kangaroos have it down pat for carrying the kids around, of course.  We even name a parenting philosophy/practice after them: Kangaroo Care.

If you’d like to see some lovely photos of mamas in other cultures “wearing” their babies, check out this babywearing slideshow.

Sorry, but that’s all for today.  We’re all sick, so I’m even more behind than usual… 

Last night we FINALLY had Jewel’s birthday party - I caved and did Chuck E.Cheese, since the weather is either too hot to bear and/or thunderstorms all the time. 

I hate that place - so noisy, so overpriced, bleah!  And the kids all go running off to play, so Jewel didn’t really spend time with them - although SHE was perfectly happy with it, as she also went running off to play (with Papa in tow).

We did a “Super Hero” theme (to include the boys), since Jewel is such a Wonder Woman fan.

The stars of the show were Jewel (in her “everyday” version of her WW costume), and the Wonder Woman cake we made for her:

I saw this cake pan on Kristin’s Etsy site, Ropa Vieja, and knew we had to have it.  Later, in looking for decorating details from Wilton, I discovered that it originally came with a plastic face!  Off I went to eBay, and hunted one down with the face and original instruction booklet. 

Anyone want to buy an extra Wonder Woman cake pan?

So I got the pan, accumulated all the decorating equipment we needed, and laid all the plans.  But in the end, between R.T. and not feeling well, it was Wolf who stepped up and made her lovely.  What a guy!

This morning Jewel’s enjoying playing with her Play Doh birthday gifts … who knew a 3 year-old could spend 5 hours doing something?!

Let me start off by saying that my local La Leche League leader is just really cool!  (Check out her website: Kristin Jayd - belly masks, organic produce, photography…).

She recycles old wool sweaters into the most gorgeous diaper covers…  She sells her “booty sweaters” on her Etsy site, Booty Boutique, but check out the one she made for RT (and his Papa, Wolf!):

And furthermore, I also always thought of wool as hot…  maybe that’s just because I’ve typically seen it in sweaters.  :)  Actually, as a breathable natural fiber, it keeps R.T.’s skin much cooler in our tropical weather than the modern “waterproof” fabric diaper stuff we have.

In case you missed it, I am now a huge fan of wool.  I tried raiding our local Goodwill for wool sweaters, to learn the “booty sweater” craft for myself, but I guess in this climate people just don’t have ‘em.

If you happen to be cleaning out your closet, remember us!

We were very sad yesterday to say goodbye to one of our “fearsome foursome” of kittens, when Jesus took Miss Nicki home.  (Please, no theological debate…)

If you missed the story of how they were orphaned, saved from fumigation, and came to invade our home, there’s words and pictures posted from last summer.

They’re only about 8 months old, so losing her to a wasting illness was not what we’d imagined for the immediate future.  She passed peacefully in her sleep.

 Jewel is really having a hard time coping.  However much she does or doesn’t understand, she’s hysterically certain that she is not okay with Nicki being any kind of “gone.”

Here are the most recent photos of the gang, watching “Cat TV” out the screen door - Nicki is second from right.  She was the most beautiful of the three calico girls, and the most classically “cat” personality of all six of our feline houseguests.

And seven months ago, the furball that came into our lives:

.

Goodbye, Nicki.  We will miss you…

I’m not as crunchy as all that, but organic cotton baby clothes are SO soft and yummy…

I’ve gotten three baby gifts full of the stuff, two of which were Under the Nile brand.  This little shirt is the cutest thing, and a neat wrap style (and came with pants):

(click to enlarge)  

There’s a great selection at one of my favorite online baby stores, Babynut. 

(Proving that my business networking groups serve a useful purpose even when I’m not really “business networking”: I discovered Babynut by meeting the owner in one, as well as receiving the second adorable gift from her store from someone else in the group!)

Writing up the birth story is not going as fast as one might hope…  Ah, well.  At least you can see Mr. Handsome now! 

(Click on the thumbnail to view them full size)

Here’s the whole family:

Mr. RT:

Our three Blessings:

…and my favorite photo of the bunch:

Not only transitioning to using them, but making them, too.  I guess I’ve never been one to do anything by half measures, but… whew!

I was lucky enough to be referred to a great online group of diaper seamstresses, so I was able to get a lot of information and a lot of specific questions answered in short order.

As I mentioned in my last diaper post, I got my hands on some fabric and a couple of patterns, so all that was left was to take the plunge.

The first “plunge” involved getting the sewing machine out, cleaning it up, and figuring out how to use it again (it’s been… six years, at least?).  Kudos to Viking, it runs like a champ (although I’m sure somewhere in its little sewing machine brain it’s wishing I would take it in for a maintenance service appointment).

For my first attempt, I used a pattern called the “FattyCakes Diaper”, designed by one of the ladies on the sewing forum, made up as a cover (rather than a “diaper” per se).  I used white PUL (the waterproof stuff) for the outer layer, and purplish suedecloth for a lining.  You can make them with just the waterproof layer, but with Jewel’s sensitive skin I thought that wouldn’t be wise.  This is a sized piece, so it was made for J.

Here’s the result after the bulk of the work is done (no fasteners yet):

And here’s the way it looks in use, over a prefold diaper on a 2.5 year old - who, I might add, was delighted with the idea that Mama had made a special diaper just for her!

Although I had some questions about where to place the fasteners, since it was designed for snaps rather than hook and loop, I have to say that for a first attempt I consider it a big success.

The next plunge was getting the serger unpacked, cleaned up, and ready for use.  This proved trickier, as it was much dirtier, had many more moving parts, and was somewhat the worse for wear.  But this, too, was accomplished.

To practice serging, I cut up a Goodwill shirt from Nick’s outgrown pile  (100% cotton waffle weave), and serged the edges to make cloth wipes - a whole bunch of ‘em:

But now it’s back to diapers.  I’m going to put together an adjustable-sized pocket diaper from the KCK One pattern, which claims it will be usable on both Baby Blessing and Jewel - and of course, therefore, be usable throughout Baby’s diapering career.

Got to keep getting as much sewing done as I can…  Things are going better, but there’s still no telling when Baby will decide to make her appearance!