Ila's bathroom talents

Ila likes to brush her teeth...

And read on the potty:)

thanks to mysterious bib giver

To the mysterious person who mailed Ila a Dr. Seuss bib with sleeves, thank you! She wore it while she ate her cake.

ode to Ila, on her birthday

lint, she eats it
nails, she has them
shoes, she loses them
showers, she hates them

the scary vacuum
haunts her dreams
she is sad.
alas.

her favorite thing
climbing on mom
she loves it.
squeals.

the boo girl
she so cute
we love her
happy first birthday!

Cloth Diapers

So I just realized I have never posted anything about cloth diapers. I've been using them on Ila for 6 months now, and they are great. I've been working on the same box of 200 disposables all that time. I put a disposable diaper on Ila when we will be gone for more than a couple hours, like church or at family stuff. It works.

I use Clotheez prefolds and Thirsties covers, from this website that is so informative and helpful. (I also bought a diaper sprayer on amazon, which is very essential for easy cleaning and long term cloth diapering). I spent a while looking at the info when I was pregnant, but then didn't end up buying diapers for a few months until life settled down. Also, Ila had a rash so I decided to try cloth at that time for that reason (and it helped so much. Her rashes are only ever very mild when using cloth-nothing like the evil and nasty red thing she had before).
I bought the covers new, and about half the diapers new. The used ones I got on diaperswappers.com, where they have a forum with lots of categories depending on the diaper style. I also got some hemp doublers on it so we have extra protection at night. You can also post there and ask questions, or look through the archives since people post issues/questions of all kinds there related to cloth (and parenting in general).

I do feel like I am saving money, since I've gotten past the point where they paid for themselves (by not buying so many disposables). The covers will need to be replaced eventually since the lining wears down, but the diapers last forever. The covers/diapers match about size 3 diaper which she was nearly at when I bought the dipes, so she might need a bigger size someday. Which is fine with me, but I know there are some one-size covers and all-in-ones out there that adjust to fit various sizes by folding/snapping.

Anyway, that's my secret. Or not so much now, but if you happen to notice some colorful diaper cover in a picture of her, that's because she uses cloth!

first word

DH and I have wondered how you know whether to count something as a first word. Ila has certainly said lots of things in the past, but we didn't think she knew what she was saying.

Until last thursday.

Ila says Hi. :)

another father daughter song...

I don't know how David comes up with this stuff.  He is a big oldies fan, and both songs I've posted on here lately are western themed.

DH and boo present: Mule Train (original song click here)

this old cowpoke

DH loves to sing and dance with this boo girl. Here is one of many to come, I'm sure. Ila's lack of facial expression is pretty great here.

By the way, this boo girl is crawling. Woo!

the cutest sleeper

I like her a lot. And the gnome.

Just like someone else I know:

the daily question

Where is your sock?

this post

So clearly I have not been blogging. In the 3-4 or so hours in the day when Ila is sleeping, I am either sleeping, exercising, showering, reading, working, and even occasionally cleaning and cooking (though very rare). I probably clean as much as I used to. Which is hardly anything. The dishes when mandatory, the bathroom when mandatory. My cooking now consists of buying ready food or making semi-homemade things. Or nothing. I often do nothing. How do mothers cook and clean with a baby? I may never know.

I have been posting pictures of Ila on facebook once a month. Nothing much on the blog though. But here is a token cute picture:

Am I supposed to be blogging more about baby? I never wrote about babies before. I don't feel inclined to share her poop schedule though. I know some of you may be disappointed.

I am still training for a half marathon in June. Next week is mile 8. I do my long run on the weekends alone, and do short runs with Ila in the running stroller on weekdays. This races motto: I may run slow, but at least I am doing it.

introducing: the boo

We call her Ila. But much of the time she is The Boo. How do these names evolve?

The origin is unknown except that it was the work of David. However, here is a midpoint in its development:

David called her "chicky poo" in the first week, which my sister Juliana thought was "chicken poop." Um, no. Not.

And from there it became boo, and then The Boo. Boo has no relation to Boo Radley, yet I can't help but think of that name all the time.

the oob

meet ali

a-l-i: pronouced as in aladdin. Except it is princess ali, fabulous she.

ila

ila

ila & laura

ila & david

ila

ali

newsletter

I posted our family newsletter on my facebook wall on Feb 9. Take a look if you haven't seen it! It is not quite a christmas newsletter, but I have every excuse in the world for the delay:)

the end.

The Obligatory Child Birth Post

It occurred to me that I have been remiss in following the blogging tradition of giving a detailed account of child birth.

Here are the facts, which may or may not be detailed.

I was induced at 41 weeks along at my doctors recommendation. I arrived at the hospital the afternoon of December 26th, and left the morning of December 30th. I had dinner on on the 26th, but didn't eat for the next 36 hours, which was not very fun. Labor technically began on monday night with the first induction part (cervidil) but not really in earnest until early the next morning when the pitocin drip started. I did get an epidural even though I really didn't want to, but it was mostly worn off by the time baby arrived. I'm hoping for spontaneous labor and a natural delivery next time around.

Labor hurts a lot. During labor I enjoyed these activities: eating ice chips, listening to David read, playing a card game with David, attempting to move around to manage pain but being put back in bed because the baby heart monitor would not cooperate, getting my water manually broken (which made labor much more painful I might add), and arguing with David about why he should go to the cafeteria and buy breakfast, then lunch, then dinner for himself. I think I won the breakfast and dinner argument, but not lunch. Poor David ate some granola bars instead. Also, I enjoyed dragging the IV stand around with me to and from the bathroom an infinite number of times.

Labor was around 20 hours (starting from the pitocin) including 3.5 hours of pushing, ending in a forceps delivery (which I was grateful for since the alternative was a c-section!). And then the baby came out and she was HUGE and no wonder her head got stuck! My first observation was my stomach deflated quite dramatically. My first question was whether she was really a girl (I did not totally trust the ultrasound..), but was ignored and I had to ask twice.

And then a lot more stuff happened and I was beyond tired and a complete basketcase for the next week or so.

But it turns out I had a really cute baby. And I love her. And she has AWESOME hair.

the end.

Reija's Rapunzelness and pink-like things

I was struck recently by the parallelism between two photos.

In this shot, I am wearing Reija's hair. I look quite dashing. It seems Rapunzel-like to me the way I am using her hair.

And here is little Ila wearing the baby blanket Reija made. Which is very long and Rapunzel-like.

Both blanket and hair come from Reija, and both are long and pink-like. (Pink-like indicating that Reija'a hair is actually red, not pink, and is only pink-like for the purpose of this paragraph.)

And in the spirit of pink hair (which Reija does NOT have), here are some pictures from David's 26th birthday party that I threw for him while we were dating:

Which of David's hats do you like best?

And of course I must include Karren's scandalous moment with pink hair and a bottle of (root?) beer:

Ila Miriam

12.28.2011

9.0 lbs & 20 inches