Brotherly love

Now I always new that O would learn to love his brother, but I guess I did not know what to expect or how it would look.  O loves his brother and is always giving him hugs, kisses and "pats".  He gets this patting thing from the Mucci side of the family.  We don't hug or kiss we "pat" which really looks like a hit.  I do remind him not to do it or not as hard but I have to remember that he gets it from me.  Now B has really started to watch O and he will even coo at him.  I think O really likes the fact that his brother "talks" to him and watches him.  O calls B his buddy.

The Beach

     Oh the beach.  We just got back from three days at the beach.  Now I am not a beach girl.  I don't like the sand all over everything and I am not all about the ocean.  I am a swimmer just not in the ocean to many waves.  But I go to the beach for my family and I do enjoy it.  This was a good trip.  O is getting old enough that he can enjoy it.  I sucked it up this year and took O into the ocean swimming.  We went way out and jumped the waves.  He had a great time.  We  made sand castels and dug big holes.  Rob did most of the digging.  The first night we were at the beach O went walking to look for shells.  It was only a matter of minutes untill he found two shells and said they were for Grandma Mucci.  Now she told him a couple of days before the trip that she wanted two shells.  I could not believe that he remembered.  O had a great time and so did I. 
     Now B, he just hung out.  We made the wagon into a little bed for him when he was sleeping.  B did seem to like the pool, he would splash and smile when he was in it. I think over all it was a great family trip.

Stay at home

    So today I moved my classroom home.  I will be staying home to take care of the boys at least for a year.  We are going to take it one year at a time and see how things go and what is best for our family.  So this week I have made a couple of trips up to the school to pack my things us and today I brought it all home.  Being at the school and seeing the teacher's stressed faces reminded me why I want to stay home.  I just don't think that I can be a great teacher and a great mommy.  Right now being a great mommy is what I chose to do.  Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do with all this stuff.  My boys are worth it.

Cloth Diapers, Softbums

     With baby number two and the thought of staying home I decided to look into cloth diapers.  Now I did a lot of research, there is so much out there on cloth diapers and so many different kinds, and a lot of thinking to decide to give it a try.  I will have to say that so far it is not that hard, after all the research, and I like it.  Both my boys have very sensitive skin; with B I have found that his skin is doing so much better with cloth diapers.  He has not had a but rash at all and I find that when I have used disposables he is all red down there, but not with the cloth diapers.  I am very happy with them.
     The diapers I decided to use are called softbums.  They are an one - size diaper, so they fit from birth to potty training.  I really only wanted to have to make this diaper investment one time not every time my child out grew the diaper.  This diaper is an all - in - two diaper so you can remove the insides and use the shell again.  I found the web site for the diaper very helpful, there is even a book that you can read all about the different kinds of diapers and how to care for them.  It was a great web site.  http://www.softbums.com/ 

    So after deciding on the diaper I started the hunt for the diaper.  I ended up buying my stash used.  I received 52 diapers, 15 doublers and 15 shells.  They all seemed in good shape when I got them.  I started using them with B when he was about 2 weeks old.  I used the doublers as inserts.  My problem was that he would pee so much that I had leaks and needed to use 2 doublers at a time.  This made my stash of diaper very small.  But once he was about 4 weeks he was big enough that I started using the regular inserts and I have not gone back to disposables since.  It has taken me a little while to figure out the fit and get everything just right, but I have been very happy with the diapers.  I have ordered new shells and I have found that I have an easier time getting the fit with the newer shells.  I think it is the elastic in the legs, some of the old ones are just all stretched out.  From talking to others who cloth diaper this seems to happen after about a year.  I still use the shells and I find that if I have a leak it seems to be with one of the older shells.  Now I don't have any other diapers other than softbums so I can not compare them to anything; I just know that I am happy with what I have now.  They are cute and my little guy always gets complements on his little cloth diapers.

A masters and a mom

     Just the other day I received my master degree in the mail.  I completed my masters in education focusing in reading.  I just found it to be funny that less than a week after it was delivered I completed my papers to leave my teaching position to stay at home.  So now I have a master's degree and I am staying home to be a mom.  It is funny how life changes.  Even just a year ago I did not see myself staying home.  I talked about it and how I think it would be great but I never pictured myself doing it.  But when I got pregnant my goal was to get the masters complete so that I could have my family and not have to worry about it.  As the time went on I thought and thought about staying home.I just found my family to be more important than my job and with daycare I was hardly going to be bringing home any money.  So here I am with a masters and I just gave up my teaching position.  For now it is just for a year, but we will see how things go.  Teaching is a job that you have to be so dedicated to that I did not see being able to do both.  My family is so much more important.  So now that I have started my new "job"  we will see were life takes me and my family.  This could be interesting.

So my pictures for this post are of my degree, which I am proud of, and my boys.  They are both part of my life no matter which way it takes me.