cans for comments

Celebrating the season of giving!

From December 1-10 we are doing cans for comments! Make a comment on any of my posts between Dec 1 and 10 and I will donate a non perishable food item to the Shepherds of Good Hope in Ottawa. 10 comments=10 cans! It's that simple :)

Share the love! Check out these other participants:
Carol-Ann Photography
Fulton Photography
Worth a tri
101 things in 1001 days
Luv Monkee
Ruby Pickles
Tutu FabooJenn M
My Little Big Life
Kenzie Prudhomme Photography
Mon Petit Amour
Ryan & Michelle
The Life of a Modern Housewife
Rambling Renovators
Cans for Comments

intervention needed!

Please help! The sprout is addicted to Sophie the Giraffe baby crack.

It all starts when I hold Sophie in front of him. Those deep penetrating black eyes unwaveringly staring back at him as if to say, "C'mon, boy! Just take one little nibble! My ears are very tasty! You'll regret it if you don't." How can he resist? He's only a baby. He hasn't developed willpower yet. And his chubby fingers reach out to grab the smooth rubber. He throttles gently caresses her neck before shoving an ear into his mouth. For a moment there is a satisfying gnawing sound almost like the volume has been turned down on someone scratching his nails on a chalk board. Then he whips Sophie out of his mouth and holds her up, giggling as if to say, "Oh yeah! That's the stuff!" And then right back into his mouth she goes, only this time he chooses to nibble on her nose. Meanwhile his legs are going a mile a minute, the excitement so blatantly evident, infecting every inch of his little body.

I can't help but smile. The euphoria that such a simple toy brings to the sprout is so infectious.

But then it all starts to go downhill. No longer satisfied with her facial features the sprout decides to nibble Sophie's rump. Only his chubby 5 month old hands don't have the dexterity to to maneuver her. Down down down she falls, all 3 and a half inches to the floor. There she lies, motionless, nose to the floor. Forlorn, almost forgotten, except for the big huge pout that has arisen on the sprout's face. "SOPHIE!" He whimpers. "I need my Sophie!" The excitement is gone. The twenty dollar cheap thrill over. His legs heavy, he rests them on the floor, floor supporting his weight. For those few moments before out of sight out of mind kicks in he is so sad, so lonely. It's pathetic, but my heart aches for him.

So I pick Sophie up and hold her out for the sprout to take again. As she squeak squeaks a smile slowly spreads back on to the sprout's face. His eyes light up and he squeals. Sophie, stoic, ever spotted stares back. The black abyss of her eyes taunting him, teasing him, patiently waiting for her next foray into the sprout's mouth.

sitting pretty

It's a big day for a little man! The sprout got a new highchair today. A fancy Handysitt highchair. Not that he's actually eating real food yet. That would mean I'd have to share the feeding duties. And I don't wanna. At least not yet. However, we thought we'd try it out.

I'll take one boob, straight up please!

I Parent By Nature

When I signed up for this parenting ‘thing’ I’m not sure I really knew what I was getting into. Sure, I knew there would be crying and diaper changes. I looked forward to the smiles, the giggles, the cuddles and the cute little feet, but I’m not sure back then what I really thought parenting would be like.

I certainly don’t remember anyone telling me I’d be this tired. Still, when I picked the Sprout up this morning he gave me a big gummy smile and my heart melted. The bad, sleepless night forgotten, I kissed his sweet smelling chubby cheeks and tears of happiness started to well up in my eyes. Seriously, I’m like a drippy tap these days.

And then…

He let out an unholy noise. Before he even finished filling his diaper I groaned inwardly. Okay, maybe a little outwardly too, because, really, who enjoys changing poopy diapers? At least I knew, taking off his PJ’s, that I wasn’t going to find any surprises waiting for me. We’ve never had a blow out with cloth diapers.

I remember people telling me we were nuts to cloth diaper. However, we always knew we were going to use cloth. It was actually my husband that said it first. For us it was an environmental choice, a cost effective choice, and one that we knew would limit the Sprout’s exposure to chemicals and dyes. Something we were concerned about since my husband and I both have problems with skin allergies and eczema.

However, cloth diapering didn’t start out so smoothly. When the Sprout was days old I found myself standing in the diaper aisle at the local store staring at the wall of plastic wrapped disposable diapers. I was feeling incredibly lost. We hadn’t expected to have a miniature 5lb baby that didn’t fit into any of the cloth diapers we owned. But what brought me to this place? I had never stood in the diaper aisle before because I never intended to use the products here. I had no idea what to look for in a disposable diaper. What was the difference between the yellow and the blue packaging? I remember thinking to myself, what am I doing here? It was a moment of panic (I needed to find something to put on his bum!) that led me there, and five bewildered minutes before I realized I didn’t belong. The next day we went to a cloth diaper store to buy a dozen prefolds and we have never looked back.

I now have fun telling people we cloth diaper. It’s worth it just to see their reactions. We intimidate a lot of people until they see me change the Sprout’s bum. “That’s it?” I guess they are expecting to see me perform advanced origami and have diaper changes take 10 minutes. When we tell them how much we’ve spent, total, on cloth diapers their eyes tend to bug out. “That’s it?” Yep, that’s it. The thing is, we could have spent about half of what we spent and still outfit our baby in cloth.

So, do I think we’re nuts to cloth diaper? Nope! All it took was a bit of confidence in what we wanted to do to make it work – and a desire to prove the sceptics wrong. I certainly wouldn’t change anything. I love his great big bubble butt.

Click here to find out about the Parenting By Nature Blog to Inspire Contest!

Etsy envy

If I had all the time in the world I would make the sprout a whole set of felt play food from umecrafts on Etsy. Can you say way cool? That artichoke makes me want to go out and buy a real one just so I can find something to make with it so that when the sprout is old enough he'll copy me making the artichoke recipe! And the fruit sections? What a great way to safely teach the sprout to use a knife so he'll be able to make me supper in, errr... a few years :D

I adore the variety of the felt food patterns this seller has to offer and the fact that they look so realistic. le sigh. I am off to get poor on Etsy!