she cut her own hair

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Remember this cute little girl with the long flowing hair?

On Saturday, as we were preparing to leave for a meeting, I discovered Elizabeth sitting on the floor in the office, with this beside her:

I exclaimed, "Are you serious?!?"  I was not amused. At least, not for the first minute or so. I couldn't not take pictures.  I just had to not smile when I was explaining the seriousness of cutting one's own hair, and the consequence of no scissors for a while.

Since we were gone all day Saturday, and Elizabeth was spending the day with her aunt and uncle, We couldn't get her hair cut until Monday.

She wasn't amused.

After the initial fuss and cry, she sat silently.  The stylist gave her a lollipop, and she gripped it tightly the whole time.  The only time Elizabeth said a word to the stylist was as we were leaving: "Bye!"

The result of our visit:

Posing for Mama.

 

You can still see where she cut her hair, but this style still keeps it feminine while masking the missing pieces.  It'll grow back.  Right?

one

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(I started writing this post on the 19th, but alas, chasing a toddler can be distracting).)

©2010 Jude Vickery

As of 1:01 this morning, Nathanael is one year old!

I posted about his birth not too long after he was born. Well, maybe a week. It took forever to decide on a name!

So today we celebrate, although tomorrow will be the big to-do. Not that the boy gets it, really.

My baby is a toddler! He's walking full time!

His official stats are 19.5 lbs and 29.5 inches. How he's grown!

More on the party later!

a birthday in review (E turns 3)

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Since we're almost a month past Elizabeth's birthday, I thought I should get around to posting some details on the event.


Wearing her princess crown.


I think Elizabeth really enjoyed her birthday party. We made a layered pink round cake, with a crown on the top (because she loves princesses right now!).




She totally walked away with a huge pile of gifts from friends and family.



She exclaimed, "My Favorite!" upon opening each and every present. It was hard to keep her on track (for the sake of the adults who were present).



Even Nathanael thinks the new toys are great. Elizabeth did not think it was great that he kept stealing the spoons.









And of course, Nathanael can't help but be cute. He was attempting to get to the camera.


And smile for the camera.






Objective achieved! Now for the picture he took:


Thanks, son. We know what you're thinking about.

Now, back to the girl. Here she is, enjoying several of her presents all at once. The tea set. The movie. The Barbie. The wand.

minigarden

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I'm in a new home, but I can't dig a garden in the yard because I rent.

O, what is a girl to do?

Use containers!! Yes, we're going to attempt a container garden. I have a brown thumb, and we tend to be away for a week at a time during the summer, so this might prove to be a futile attempt at gardening. But still, we persevere.

The garden will be small - just one or two plants of any given variety.

I intend to plant tomato, pole beans, peas, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, bell pepper. I might throw in some other stuff, to (from a plan in a container gardening book) but if I can have a plant or two of each of those, we'll be set!

Since we don't have any trees or overhanging roof to block the sun's rays, we should have plenty of light out on our porch.

I'm working on determining exactly how many pots I need, and of which sizes. I also need to figure out which plants I'm starting from seed, and if they need to be started now, get them growing.

Unfortunately, I'll have a large outlay of cash to purchase supplies, so I can't pretend this will be saving me money this year. I'm mostly hoping to figure out how to keep plants alive. Hopefully, my kids will get a kick out of watering plants and picking veggies right from our porch!

dangerouscrayon+ front load washer = forever

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I has been several months since we purchased our front load washer and dryer set. It's high time we report back on it!

I still love this set for cloth diapers, perhaps more than I had realized I would. After several weeks of logging my routine, here's what I have settled on (with ocassional variations):

I have a "My favorites" setting programmed to the "whites" option, with added pre-wash, stain, and extra rinse settings. It washes on hot, rinses cold, set at the heaviest soil setting, and at a medium spin. This setting takes about an hour and 23 minutes. I use one tablespoon of Country Save HE detergent (powdered form) and I put it into the dispense slot. I usually run about 27 or so diaper items (not including wipes), so I wash about every other day. Some days I have to split the bag of diapers into two loads. After the initial cycle with detergent, I usually run a second cycle, just like the first one. Everything usually comes out smelling great. I rarely have ammonia stink when the kids are wearing the diapers (although, I admit, I have been using disposable diapers for overnight, so I have not had as many opportunities to see if ammonia smell or burn develops overnight, which had been an issue in the past - hence disposable diapers at night).

I pull the pocket diapers and covers out of the washer and hang them to dry on our drying rack, and I toss the inserts, wipes and prefolds into the dryer for a timed dry cycle of 75 minutes on a medium temperature setting.

To wash and dry a load of diaper, I spend about 10 minutes, and the washer and dryer work for about 4 hours. Not bad compared to my previous washing experience.

Today I'm doing a more thorough wash of diapers - smaller batches, and doing 2 washes with detergent, then rinsing until I see no bubbles. I had some very minor stink problems when the diapers came right out of the dryer, so I wanted to make sure everything was clean.

The washer is working very well for our other clothes, too. It was hard for me to believe that so little water and detergent could actually get the job done. But, when we put in some of Jude's muddy work clothes, and they came out looking clean and smelling fresh, I figured that it works well enough.

one small step for boy...

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The boy is become a toddler. The past three days have been pretty remarkable, and an exciting thing to observe. Until recently, Nathanael has used crawling as his primary mode of transportation. He would walk a few feet between adults, but only with much encouragement. He would cruise along furniture, and push objects around the kitchen (chairs, benches, boxes).



Then Thursday. Jude and I are sitting in our respective chairs, Nathanael is playing on the floor by my desk. He has an object in his hand that he doesn't want to release. He see somewhere else he wants to go. So, he lets go of the desk he was leaning on, an toddles across the floor (about 4 feet) to a file cabinet near Jude's desk. We both saw him. We gave each other a Look of "did you see that?!?" Nathanael acts like it's nothing.

Friday. More of the same, covering 4-5 feet at a time. Loosing his balance when he changes floor surface or bumps something with his feet.

Saturday. Definitely walking. He will walk several feet, turn a bit to reorient to his objective, and continues on. His balance is even better!

I wouldn't yet say that walking is his primary mode of transportation, as he will still crawl if he happens to fall down, or if he's chasing after Elizabeth.

But still!! There was a definite turning point. He's not a baby anymore, he's a toddler!

my children

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By the time I get around to making time to post something these days, I always forget all the things I had to post about.

And so, I'm posting about the feeling of everything happening all at once, too fast, and passing before I can remember to write anything down.

So before they grow up and move away:

My children are
Super-great
Super-cute
Way smart
Funny
Cuddly
Warm and squishy
All knees and elbows
Wise
Silly
Innocent
Mischievous
Precious
Wonderful.