Swimming

I love this picture. The last time we were in San Antonio, we heated the pool and took a little "dip". Michael has on one of the girls' swim caps and he kept it on the whole swim. I love how happy all of the kids look in swimming pictures. There's something about swimming that melts away the gray and brings out the brightest most vibrant "colors" of life. I remember some of the happiest childhood moments were spent in the pool. The worst moment of those days was the one where mom said "it's time to get out!" and we all pretended we couldn't hear her anymore and suddenly lived on the bottom of the pool, emerging only for short breaths, trying to keep just our lips above as we savored the teeny tiny last moments of pool time. The next best thing to the pool was how darn hungry swimming makes you and the after pool snack. YUMMMMM. That was the best tasting food in the whole world....still is.

Teething....again....

Teething with all of the kids has been sort of a non-issue. Sometimes when I talk to moms I can tell they think their children are in some sort of immense pain and need drugs, but for the most part, it's a fleeting few hours and boom, they pop in. After five, I've finally begun to recognize the signs and not get too freaked out about the moodiness. With this one, she got six teeth in a period of 4 or 5 days...maybe more like two weeks, and then she got nothing for two months. Her mouth has been dry. no drooling. It's been really nice. All of a sudden, she started drooling and chewing a finger and I realized, here comes another tooth. The main thing teething seems to affect is sleep. It's hard for them to sleep sometimes because of the irritation and that's where I think moms find the comfort of Tylenol, well, comforting. This time around I approached it a little differently than in the past and had GREAT results. I just don't let her nap much at all. She can't really nap anyway, so I let her lie down about mid-day, but other than that, i just keep her really busy with food and toys and walks and more. She's not crying the whole time, just a little fussy, so I keep her up and as busy as possible. I did this last time and it worked well with the six teeth, and now, it worked just as well. Last night she was so tired she fell asleep at the breast. She hasn't done that in a couple of months it seems. I put her down, and the boys were wild and woke her up about an hour later, but I let her cry for 20 mins. or so and she slept through the night. This morning, her tooth was there...it had pushed all the way through and was cute and newly budded. Hurray! Her nap would have been perfect today, no fussiness, had I not smothered her with wool socks, wool blankets, and robeez shoes. I'm always over-blanketing my kids....

Another easy cure...Castor Oil...Eczema and More

I just wanted to blog on castor oil for a minute because I've recently researched a tiny bit and it's worth mentioning. It's cheap. Get it and have it on hand. It's for insomnia, eczema, and more....you can use it on pets or humans and you make a pack out of it and apply it externally. You just take a piece of fabric, soak it in the oil, cover the area affected (extreme bruising, swollen joints, varicose veins, moles, upset stomach, constipation, pink eye, just google it to find out more), cover the cloth with plastic wrap, and then put a hot water bottle on top of the plastic wrap. This will heat up the pad and make the castor oil go in through the skin. I have not tried this remedy myself yet...but after reading all of the testimonies on both vitacost.com and amazon and a site called earthclinic.com, I realized it was worth looking at. I stumbled on it accidentally as I am working on some shaving soap and castor oil is highly recommended.

Soap Nuts Update and Cloth Diapering Revisited

Well, I've washed some diapers with the new soap nuts and I have to say. They are fresh, clean, and soft. YES! Tide is about .20 per load, soap nuts are about .07 per load. This sounds little until you are doing 4 loads per day. Now, we are talking .80 cents versus .28 cents per day.

The instructions say to let the bag dry out between washes, but I'm washing so often that I don't think I fall into that "group". I did buy extra muslin bags in case I need them or something. If you did not read the last article, my midwife recommended soap nuts for washing your clothes as opposed to detergent. I ordered a bag from naturoli and they really work! I know they really work, because my diaper load smells like a funky skunk on a bad day, and even on the 2 hour front loader wash, I often have to wash them twice to get them clean. Today, with a single wash and some soap nuts, they smelled fresh.

On another note, I have to revisit cloth diapering. For those of you who may not know, I used to have a cloth diapering company. Therefore, I am very fond of cloth diapering and actually prefer it over disposables. I have fallen to the wayside a couple of times and used disposables, but, I always come back. When Miley was first born, we moved to Branson, and I was so overwhelmed with everything, that I immediately cut the cloth out and started both Michael and Miley in disposables. (actually, Michael was already in them), to help with laundry. This was nice for about 6 weeks, and then I had some real leakage issues at night with Miley. Disposables seem easier until you are washing sheets daily...hence, the time savings reverses.

In the meantime, I got a new assistant who has been really diligent with the laundry and helping me get it put away every day. I realized that I was o.k. plopping down tens and twenties for diapers....for about 6 weeks, and then it started eating on me. I just don't like spending money on trash. The main issue was not Miley, the main issue was Michael. When babies get to be toddlers, their poops get HORRIBLE and sometimes they will poop five times a day. When they hit that point, I switch to disposables, and I think it's worth every penny. But all of my babies potty trained between 1.5 years and 2 years old.

Michael (now 2 and 1/2 years old) proudly airs his bum full of poop and acts as if this is a lifetime habit. He (of all my children) never really liked the idea of "Infant potty training" AT ALL, so it looks as if it might be a few more months of laying down the tens and twenties. Alas, I had to come up with a backup plan....I'm not cheap, but I'm not dumb, either. I'd rather have dark chocolate goji berries in my grocery cart than huggies....so with determination in my soul, and my face set like flint, I have darkened the shadowy, grim corridor of cloth diapering a toddler once again. And, actually, it hasn't been too bad. Aside from secretly wanting a fireman's garb and mask as I rinse out the poopy cloth diaper, I have actually enjoyed cloth diapering him. I don't know what it is about cloth diapers...for me, the whole thing is sort of baby therapy. The clean cotton, the tight wrap that I do, and the pretty perfect capability of my diapers to hold everything just makes me feel good. Like, I'm doing the right thing.

Anyway, the way I deal with Michael is as follows. I have a great big countertop in the laundry room with a sprayer. I keep a changing pad in there and when it's poopy, I march him straight to the laundry room, lay him down on the counter, and start taking off the layers. His poops are so nasty that even top layers of clothing will retain the smell for days...so all of it goes in the washer. I toss the pajama bottoms and tops in the washer and carefully pull down his pull-up pants (these are on sale by the way at www.Bumkins.com...look in the clearance section...normally they are $14.99 and they are on sale for $9.50 or so....my favorite covers by far). THEN, I examine the situation. If his bottom needs no less than 50 wipes, he needs to be hosed off before I take care of the diaper. I turn the water faucet on the very coldest it can possibly be (which, in Branson in the wintertime is FRIGID). I then put him in the laundry sink and use a rag to help me while I hose him down. If the diaper has raised my blood pressure, I just hose extra body parts to get even. I hose him in the front, in the back, in the front, in the back, in the front, in the back, with sufficient LOUD screaming all in between, as the water is VERY frigid. Then, I use the rag to make sure he's all clean. Finally, he gets to lay back down on the changing pad and I don the extra thick blue gloves from Lowe's. I now turn my attention to the diaper that one would be tempted to burn in the fireplace, and I rinse it as well as I can. I use my gloved fingers to sort of push everything down the drain, and then take the wet soppy diaper ball and throw it in the washer. I let it hang out in there for hours sometimes as I gather more whites from around the house.

It's very therapeutic. You save money. You help the environment. You make your child pay for every slimy outgassing poop that you've had to change. And best of all, you secretly know that if your child has the smarts of a donkey, he will one day very soon wake up and realize that the potty is the most attractive appliance in the home, and he will want to make friends and share moments of intimacy with the porcelain throne.