October Really?

  I know it is October but boy it does not feel like it.  Yesterday I was about to put on shorts.  Now it was  like 75 degrees, which is not bad at all, but it was so humid.  Everything felt wet.  I almost put the A.C on just to drop the humidity.  Not a normal end of October day.  Well today I found this in the flower box on my back deck.

 What a true reminder of Spring not fall.  I love Gerber daisies but I was surprise to find it blooming in the end of October.

The battle has happened/ Ask Momma Wednesday

 So I have been using cloth diapers now for about 6 months.  I have read a lot about them and how to care for them.  I love using them and have been so happy that my baby has not really had a rash since the switch.  I also love the money I am saving.  Now in all of my reading I have read about diapers getting stinky and all the different reasons why.  Well I have the stinks.  The battle has begun.
   I was doing well, I thought, although I do find myself stripping quit often.  I am not sure if it is my detergent or the fact that I have a HE washer.  I did a lot of detergent research and I was looking for something that did not cost much and that I could get locally; I really would like to make a detergent but I am nervous about going there.  So I found one that was on the many list as ok for cloth diapers.  It has been doing a ok job I guess.  I do have stinky diapers so it can't be doing great.
   With that being said I have the samples Rockin Green in the mail on the way to my house.  I have read great things about this stuff and also not so good stories so we will see how it works.  I plan on doing a soak and really nice long soak.  I am not sure how I am going to do it since some people say do it in the bath tube while others say not to.  I feel like I don't have my washer figured out and there is not enough water in it for a soak.  I just want my stinky diapers to not be stinky.  Luckily Little B has not had any rashes from this or worse yet ammonia burns.  I really want to avoid this from happening.
  I am looking into other detergents also.  Lulu's in the fluff is another one I have read about and may try before I make a commitement to using a new detergent.  So the battle has begun.  The stinky diaper battle and I hope that I win.  We will see.

  So I have two questions for my mommy readers who also use cloth diapers:
1.  What detergent do you use for your diapers or do you make a detergent that works?
2.  Do you have any suggestions for me to help me win the battle of stinky diapers?
        
                                                                          Thanks for your help,
                                                                                                   Jill

Just thoughts

   Yesterday at lunch I was talking to the hubby and we were discussing how fun it is to do things as a family.  It really got me thinking about my family and how much I enjoy them. In the discussion I was saying how the addition of Little B has been so great and that I really enjoy things even more with both boys.  I guess it is like seeing things through two different sets of eyes now.  I so enjoy being a mom!  It sometimes surprises me how much I like it. 
    My boys are changing so fast.  I always try to be in the moment and focus on what is going on at that time but boy have they grown in just the last 6 months.

  Look Little B can stand up.  Well I did hold him up so he could play with his brother but once he was up there is no one holding him there.  He is getting such a personality and I discovered just today that he loves pumpkin. 

  O is getting to be such a big boy.  Every day he is doing something new and so big boy like.  He cracks me up with the things he says and when he talks to his imaginary friends.  The boy is learning so much and learning to use his imagination which I love.  I love the fact that he does like to watch the T.V. but after about 30 minutes he will turn it off and say I have had enough.  That is his mommy in him.  He may look like his daddy but there is mommy in him.  It was just the other day when he just wanted to stay in his P.J's and play most of the day.  I love this boy!   I love my family, I really do.  People will ask me how I like being "off" from work or staying home, I think they are looking to see if I find it boring or am looking to go back to teaching, and I simply say I love it.  I love my work here at home.  I love being with my boys and teaching them.  I feel like I am so busy now that I do not miss teaching at all.  There may be a time that I will want to go back to the classroom and teach or even a time that I will need to, but for now my classroom is my home and my students are my boys.  I love it.

Wordless Wednesday

Jumping hay bails!  Oh it is fall and that means lots of new, fun things to do.

A great fall day!

 This weekend was one big fall family weekend for us.  We did lots of fall activities.  One of them was a great hay ride.  Now O has really learned to like hay rides so he was up for it even after we took both boys to get their flue shots.  It was on this hay ride that I took a moment to really think and look at the farm that we were riding through.  It was this time that I thought about how cool fall really is and how lucky I am to be able to see views like these.

The day was perfect, there was not a cloud in the sky, it was not to cold but not to warm and the colors just seemed to pop out at you.  It has been a while since I have had a chance to see landscapes that look like these.  We had a great time.

Mommy and Me Photo Challenge

  Thats right here we are and Little B has his hands in his mouth, but I love the picture of just the two of us.  It is simple and  we were having such a fun time.

Wordless Wednesday First face painting

Wordless Wednesday link ups: Acting Balanced, The Adventures of Goober Gape & Monkey Man, Get Out and Play, My Life in Jenga

Oh what a busy fall weekend

   It really hit me over the weekend that fall is here.  We had beautiful weather and a jam packed weekend.  Friday we headed out to get our pumpkins.

 The farm was not what I expected it to be so I was a little disappointed.  But we had a good time, got some great pictures and two good pumpkins for carving.  O and Little B seemed to enjoy them selves.

 O thought this tracker was cool.  I think if I would have let him he would have removed the scarecrow and tried to drive it himself.

I love this one of the boys and the pumpkins

    Then on Saturday we headed to the local park for a fall fest.  We had such a good time.  We took Little B on his first tractor ride, I would say hay ride but there was no hay.

We had a picnic lunch next to the playground and Little B played with O's sippy cup.

O got his face pained for the first time, I could not believe he let someone paint his face.  He never lets anyone new near him so this was a big step.  He really has become a big boy and surprising me a lot lately.

We had such a great time doing all the different fall activities; making it really feel like fall.  It is so much fun to see the boys enjoy the different activities and do new things.  This is such a fun time of year.

I am also doing some blog hopping today.  Happy Columbus day!

Before/After blog hop

I thought I would give this a try. I have been playing around with my photos lately.

SOOC:

Edit:

I just used my sony point and shot camra, and did the edits in Microsoft Digital Image suit.  Not the best shot but it is the shot I wanted to carry on a family tradition.  It works.

Not so Wordless Wednesday/ He is 6 months old

  Yes it is true my baby is 6 months old today!  Little B is 20 lbs 14 oz and 29 inches long.  One big boy.  He just had his first tooth come through and the next one is on its way.  He is sitting, not well but sitting.  The big boy car seat is out and clean and ready to go in since he has out grown the infant "bucket".  Oh where has 6 months gone? 
Happy 6 months little man!!!!!

A day with the fire trucks

  On Saturday the city of Annapolis put on a fire expo. Now O loves fire trucks so we pack up and headed down town for all the fun and to see the fire trucks.  Now just like any other thing we do it always takes O a while to warm up.  Even though he loves fire trucks he will not walk up to one or even get into one right away, he needs time to warm up to it.  O is this way with anything new or any kind of change.  So this is how we started our day.

O wanted to be in the stroller, which I am glad I brought, and refused to talk or look at anything.  I forgot to bring Little B's pack so he to was in the stroller and I was hoping for him to be able to hold it together without the pack. (I do a lot of baby wearing instead of strolling)  After a few laps around the fire trucks and looking at all the different tables O did start to warm up.

He got into a fire truck and even let the fireman help him in and out.  As you can see though he is still not to sure about it.  But after a few more minutes and a few more laps around O was inside and driving.

He was all smiles and we could not get him out.  Another favorite spot of his was the hose station.  O loves to play with the hose.  He will play with a hose for hours if we let him.  In fact playing with the hose was one of the rewards we used during potty training.  Everyone in the neighborhood knew when O used the potty because rain or shine he was out front playing with the hose.  So this station was a highlight for him.

He got to use a real fire hose and put out a "fire".  I think we must have gone to this station about 20 times.  This one was better than the moon bounce. 

O found the bomb robot to be interesting also.  I am not sure that he really understood what it was but it was cool to look at.

So all in all we had a good day.  As always I am not sure at the start of a day like this how it will go.  I am always almost positive that O will warm up and have a good time but it always sits in the back of my mind that he won't.  Today he did and we had to drag him away.  Here is how we ended the day.

I wish I had video taped him, he was not stop talking about the fire trucks.  So I day started with him in a ball not looking at the fire trucks, to him standing on the front of one non-stop talking about them and not wanting to go home.  A good day!

Good by baby bed

  Today my mom came to pick up the bassinet. It was kind of bitter sweet. I have been dieing to get it out of my room but it also meant that my baby is no longer tinny.  I know he is almost 6 months and has not slept in it for months but it was sad to see it go.  It is going to my mom's house because it has been in the family for almost 70 years.  My mom's uncle's slept in it along with all of her cousins.  My mom and both her brothers used it as well as my brother and I.  So there was no thinking about it when O came, both he and Little B have slept in it. 

Now it will go back into storage and wait for the next little baby in the family, I am not sure if that baby will be mine or not.  

     Not only did the bassinet leave today but the convertible car seats are out and cleaned.  They are ready to be installed.  I know that Little B is not even 6 months old but what can I say I have big kids and he is just about reach the max weight and height for the infant car seat.  I did not get the in the cars today but that will get done this week.  My little baby is growing up way way to fast.

Going Crabbing

   This little boy just has his ways of cracking me up.  The other day he was playing with his trucks.  I look over and this is what I see.

When I asked him what he was doing, he said "I'm cooking crabs".  Now the pots are filled with his little people and I guess the truck is the stove.  Don't ask me what he is doing with his foot.

He just cracks me up when he does stuff like this.  The thing he comes up with just amaze me.  The funny thing is, he reminds me of the crabbers I have come across in the little working towns around the bay.  Sitting in their rocking chairs cooking crabs after a hard days work.  It must be in his blood since he has never seen anyone sit like this and cook crabs.

To my mommy friends out there, what do your children do that just cracks you up?