Sadly, I cannot get the video option to work for the videos I'd like to post of Sweet P. So you'll just have to listen to my raves about her new tricks and take my word for it. Although it's much cuter to watch/listen to her do it. Stay tuned...
Broken Promises
The May posts were supposed to be Health Challenge posts. Then they were supposed to be all about Sweet P. What a terrible blogger I am. Making broken promises like that. Health Challenge will be moved to a later date (I'm not telling you when!) and I will be bragging about my daughter for the next couple of posts.
Farm Day
Yesterday was a farm day! Time to see the bloomed peonies and lilies! And time to harvest some of our veggies.
Here's what we've got so far:
A variety of lettuces
Bok choy
Spinach
Swiss chard
Radishes
Kale
Arugula
Last night we had a fabulous salad full of our new lettuces and spicy arugula (it even smells hot!). It was the first time I got to pick vegetables and I was really excited. Sadly, I left the farm sunburned. Ouch, but don't worry. Sweet P was fully covered with SPF 60! Here are the greens we picked!
Swiss chard up top, spinach on the left, bokchoy on the right with arugula underneath
Summer Saturdays
The crazy busy Farmer's Market
We started at the Farmer's Market with yummy breakfast. Crepes with Nutella, banana and whip cream for me and samosas and an Indian wrap for the Farmer. (Sweet P had a banana). Um, let's talk about Nutella for a minute. I was completely unaware of the powers of Nutella until about a week ago. While shopping with Auntie K, I bought Nutella as an impulse buy. We were buying organic peanut butter and it kept staring at me.
Where has Nutella been all my life!? Why have I been living in the dark? I love it...all of it's chocolatey, hazelnutty, goodness. So yummy. So needless to say that crepe was great. But it has not become my staple. I'm still on the hunt for my breakfast of the summer.
After the FM, we came home and did some yard work. (Yes, mom. You heard correctly, I did yard work.) Sweet P fell asleep and soon after, the Farmer headed to his substate playoff soccer game. Sadly, the game did not end well...and ended the season. But the Farmer kept his head up and we walked to church from our house that afternoon. It honestly takes us just as long to walk as it did to drive from our old apartment!
We ended the day with pizza at a friend's house. We sat outside and Sweet P played with their daughter, L. It was the perfect end to a not so-perfect (considering the loss) day. Oh, how I love summer Saturdays.
Making Do
So I have said before that Auntie Rosita received most of the creativity in our family, but eeeevery once in awhile I come up with something that just makes me shine with excitement when it's complete. Let me list the few things that have made me do just that: my own homemade t-shirt quilt, my homemade hooter hider and my sister's t-shirt quilt that I made her for Christmas (which she loved...or at least said she did). That is the extent of my sewing projects! So when I come up with one and it actually works, I am nothing less than thrilled to the bone.
So what is it this time? I thought you'd never ask.
When we moved into our house we quickly realized that something was going to need to happen with the window in the bathtub/shower. Yep. A real, honest to goodness see-it-all-while-you're-naked-showering window. Because our move was so quick (closed on April 26th, in by May 1st) we didn't have time to think of many options before we moved in. As embarrassing as it is, we showered with a trash bag over the window for um, a few weeks. We originally purchased blinds for that window (along with all the rest of them), but learned pretty quick that wooden blinds weren't going to hack it in the shower. We also learned that we needed to get something in there to save the window from the water (who puts a window in a shower?!@#). I wanted a curtain, but couldn't find a vinyl, shower curtain-type curtain. So while at Target with Auntie K one day, I saw a shower curtain that matched our color scheme for only $9.99 and bought it hoping I could do something with it.
With the encouragement of the aunties and the Farmer, I decided I would make the curtain! So I cut the shower curtain ever so carefully. After doing a test with the sewing machine and butchering the leftovers, I moved on to seeing what would happen with the iron. I thought maybe I could heat seal a seam to hang it from. Uh. No.
I finally decided I would hand stitch and even though it took awhile, I am pleased with the result. And voila! we have a window curtain for our bathroom and no longer live with a trash bag on our window.
I might just be a farmer's wife after all.
Our Cloth Diaper Adventure
Here are the cute cover pictures as promised! The other one I have is white so I didn't feel the need to take a picture of it. I got it so it would look good under light colored clothes. It drives me crazy that you can see the patterns of diapers through so many baby clothes. But the Blackbird pattern was too cute to pass up. I'm a sucker for trees and bird prints. Our adventure is still going strong. I bought a small trash can with a lid for her diapers and have noticed a TERRIBLE smell from some of the pee diapers, but it can't possibly be the liners. They've only been washed twice so I don't know what the deal is. I'll have to figure it out.
I've only been using them for about 3 diaper changes a day since I don't have very many, yet. I like the Thirsties covers and thought the inserts did a good job, but they are now waiting to be washed so I am using prefolds. They do okay, but I think I need to buy ones with more ply. She hasn't slept in one overnight yet, because she's a night pooper. And let's be honest, I'm down right scared. So maybe I'll buy in AIO to try at night since I'm afraid the insert in a cover won't do the job she needs!
Please feel free to leave suggestions on what cloth diapers work best for you!
Making Memories Monday
This is actually from last Monday, but I can't believe it's already been a week so I'm posting it today. Have you ever seen such a cutie patootie? She's hammin' it up for Auntie K during dinner time. Love her!
It's my party...
And I'll brag if I want to! Have I ever bragged about Auntie Rosita? Probably, but let's talk about her again. Sweet P's fabulous decorations came courtesy of Rosita Designs. What sweet decor it was too! She also made the super cute invitations...which were a fiasco once they made it to me. We'll just say my memory wasn't so great in the middle of moving. 
Auntie Rosita made the banner, the cupcake decorations and the tags for the party favor bags at home and brought them along. She put together the tissue paper balls once she got here. Have I mentioned that she was born with the creative bones in the family? The cupcake pieces can be used in Sweet P's scrapbook and if we wanted, we could reuse the banner and balls for birthdays to come. She also made Sweet P this sweet little hat!
What? What's that you say? How can you get a hold of these cute decorations? Just visit Rosita Designs and tell Rosita what you want! Is it bad that I'm already planning for next year's party?
Our Cloth Diaper Adventure
Yep. We have started our cloth diaper adventure.
I wanted to cloth diaper Sweet P when she was born, but I quickly realized that with the washing machine we had...it wasn't gonna happen. Instead, I dreamed about the days of getting a new washing machine and eventually trying out cloth diapers. You would think that during that time I'd be doing some research and figuring out what diaper I would choose once that miraculous day came (apparently, I didn't really do any). Don't get me wrong, I looked at cloth diapers online and in person and even had a salesperson give me the entire lowdown on which ones to use and what works best (if you think that stayed in my brain you are sadly mistaken).
Well, on May 4th my dream came true when a brand new front load washer was installed in my basement. Right next to it's twin, our new dryer. If they weren't made of metal I might hug them. I was in love, smitten, on cloud 9. But enough of that, back to the diapers.
On Tuesday while strolling around Valley Junction with Nana Nancy and Auntie K, we walked passed Little Padded Seats. I'd been thinking about my cloth diaper adventure, but hadn't really thought about when I was going to start. We walked a few more steps when I said, "I want to go in here."
Little Padded Seats is just about the neatest little diaper shop there is. They have everything you could possibly need for cloth diapering. Lauri and her husband Tommy own the store and offer classes to help you get started with cloth. (I will be signing up for those classes because I'm a bit lost). When we walked into the store I decided I was going to buy some supplies and get started. What a great birthday present for Sweet P!
Lauri was so helpful because even though I've looked at tons of sites and stuff about cloth diapers, I am utterly clueless! I bought 2 Thirsties covers and 2 hemp Thirsties inserts since I have prefolds at home from when I thought I was going to cloth diaper. Lauri mentioned that the prefolds I have may not be thick enough (and after a few goes I think she's right).
On Wednesday, I put Sweet P in a cloth diaper for the first time! I have to be honest I was really scared she was gonna poop. She didn't and I successfully changed 2 wet cloth diapers.
Today was a different story. She spent most of the day with the Farmer while Auntie K and I ran errands and when we got home I changed her diaper and put on a cloth diaper. I had a feeling poop was on it's way and when we went to change her into her pajamas...I learned I was right. YIKES! This is definitely going to take some getting used to. Honestly, it's a little inconvenient and it's going to take work. But I want to make it work. And Auntie Rosita doesn't think it's going to...so now I REALLY want it to work.
Our adventure has begun and while I'm not going to post a video of me putting on a cloth diaper (it took me about 10 minutes today, Sweet P was highly annoyed), I will keep you posted on our progress. So far, I really like the Thirsties cover and will try out the inserts tomorrow since they've been washed a few times.
Maybe I can talk a few of you into cloth diapering, too! And hopefully, pretty soon I'll be saying if I can do it, anyone can do it!
Pictures of the cute covers to come later...
The Reason I Love Summer Saturdays
High above the crowds on Auntie K's shoulders
I love the Des Moines Downtown Farmer's Market. We don't even buy any produce anymore because we grow our own, but I love the atmosphere and the people watching. And now that Sweet P is 1, I love it even more because she LOVES dogs. And everyone knows there are plenty of dogs at the DTFM.
My first time this year was with my family last weekend. I have to admit the raspberry whole wheat cinnamon roll wasn't as fabulous as I remembered so it might be time to find a new favorite.
Gammie tried a pupusa (can't go wrong there) and I thought maybe I should start getting one of those. But then I remembered that was the Farmer's poison (and he's funny about ordering the same thing).
Auntie Rosita had french toast and I only contemplated that for a second before I remembered how much I dislike soggy bread.
Sweet P can't wait to try kettle corn, can you tell? We bought two large bags and one was gone before the day was over.
So I'm on a mission to find a new breakfast favorite at the Farmer's Market. In 2008 it was breakfast burritos, last year it was raspberry whole wheat cinnamon rolls. What will this year bring? I guess I'll just have to go again next weekend to find out! And while we won't be participating at the DTFM, we will hopefully be making our first farmer's market debut this year...I'll keep you posted.
A Series of Unfortunate Events with Good Endings
Meet my family.
Auntie Rosita hails from Seattle.
Auntie K goes is a senior at LSU.
Gammie lives in Dallas, TX and Nana (the Farmer's mama) lives in New Mexico.
All of these peeps were trying to get here for Sweet P's 1st birthday party. It was put on hold so that Auntie K could make it since we all know finals don't end until mid-May. So the party was set for May 15th with everyone getting here by May 14th. Ha.
Wednesday: Nana and Auntie Rosita were scheduled to get in around 11pm. Nana arrived at 11pm, Auntie Rosita got stuck in Chicago after her flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues after she left Washington 3 hours late. And even though she only spent 4 hours in her room, they put her up at the Crowne Plaza and gave her free Dunkin' Donuts (can't beat that).
Thursday: She was supposed to arrive at 7:45am in time to go with me to a workout class. At 8:45am, Auntie Rosita finally touched down in Des Moines.
Friday: Auntie K and Gammie's flight was leaving Dallas at 2pm and arriving at 4:20pm. We'd head for an early dinner after that. 2pm came and went and at 3:30pm, their flight was also cancelled. Grrrrr. There were 2 flights to DSM cancelled. One more flight was leaving at 7pm and all of the people from those two flights were desperate to get on that last flight out. Needless to say, Gammie and Auntie K were not on that flight. The closest they got was Kansas City. After searching high and low for a rental car under 160$ (uhhh, no thank you), Auntie Rosita and I packed up Sweet P and drove to KC. (Not in the plan for the weekend). Their baggage ended up in Des Moines on the last flight. So on our way into town at 1am (yep, 1 am), we swung by the airport and picked up the bags. We fell into bed at 2am.
Saturday: We slept in. JUST kidding. No sleeping in around here. I was up and at em at 6am, freaking out because I only had 5 eggs and needed 6. It all worked out (thank goodness for 24 hour grocers) and those cupcakes got made (and were pretty darn good). And out to the Farmer's Market we went. No rest for the weary. More on the Farmer's Market to come.
Despite the craziness (it runs in our family), everyone made it safe and sound in time for the birthday. And I'm sure they'll all get out on time. That always happens when you're hoping for just a little bit more time.
Sweet Sunday
What a fabulous day we had yesterday. Sweet P did so great at her birthday party and had a blast with her friends and carrot cake cupcake. More on the recipe for that, the fun we had and photos to come soon. Enjoying Auntie and Grandma time for a few more days.
Walking the Walk
Last Sunday (on Mother's Day), Sweet P took her first steps. Before that she hadn't even stood for more than 2 seconds on her own so it was a pretty sweet Mother's Day present. Sadly, the Farmer was at the farm (imagine that), so he missed it. But I got it on video!
I love that her hands are up and how cautious she looks. My sweet girl is on her way! She has walked a bit more since, but is still having trouble letting go and braving the walk from a piece of furniture on her own.
We're lovin' the attention from Nana and Auntie Rosita, can't wait for Auntie K and Gammie to get here tonight! Stay tuned for pictures from Sweet P's birthday party later this weekend.
Feeding Kids
Let's talk for a minute about feeding kids. We'll start with the very first time you put a spoon in their mouth. Before that moment all they have ever tasted is breastmilk or formula. They don't know that oatmeal tastes better with sugar or that avocado tastes better with salt. And if they aren't exposed to it, they'll stay in the dark for a long time. Here's where the problem comes in. Somewhere around 15 months, they start to realize that if you aren't feeding them what you are eating...they are eating something different. And they start to wonder why. And to want what you have. Or what anyone else around them has. (This personally has not yet happened to me, she just turned 1 remember?). So yesterday, the Farmer and I decided that as she begins to realize we are eating something different we are going to have problems. Especially if we tell her she can't have what we have. How do you solve that problem? You may not like this answer.
But if you want your kids to eat healthy or healthier than you do, you have to eat healthy, too. Sorry. That's just the way it is. And while the Farmer and I eat pretty darn healthy, we both have a heckuva sweet tooth (I used to joke that I was a health nut with a sweet tooth problem). So in the coming months, the Farmer family will be saying goodbye to any sugary, processed food this Farmer's wife sometimes brings home from the store (I'm only human! that time of the month really does a number on me). Don't get me wrong, if you went to our pantry, you wouldn't see boxes of crap every where. Sometimes we buy candy or ice cream, but I'd like those things to be a rarity for my children. So that means, OUT they go!
Join us on our challenge to start eating more raw, fresh foods and less sugary foods. This is a great time to start because it's Farmer's Market season and farm season (for our own veggies!). And remember, healthy eating starts with you. (Geez, do I sound like an after school special or what?). I look forward to sharing our canning experiences with you!
March for Babies Morning
This post was written on Saturday...I just had to upload pictures!
Today I participated in the March of Dimes March for Babies 3 mile walk. I had originally wanted a large team of mom friends to do it together, but when I realized I only had 1.5 months until the walk...reality hit. I did walk with one friend (thanks Sarah!) and we had a great time walking and chatting.
It was cold. Really cold. Like 40 degrees kind of cold with a nice wind chill going on. But it was worth it. Knowing that we were walking for a great cause and walking for all the babies who should have a fighting chance. Sweet P didn't walk with me because I didn't want her out in the wind, but she and the Farmer met us at the finish line.
Thank you to those friends and family who supported me in my walk. Sarah and I are hoping that next year we'll have a much bigger team and much better weather.
And we're back!
We're up and running here at our new home! Still won't be posting much in the next few days as we continue to unpack and get situated. When we are back for good, the posts will be all about Sweet P since it's Sweet P's birthday month and she is full of good things to post about.
We'll see you soon!
(And Sweet P had a very nice 1st birthday, but the bday party isn't until next week.)
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