Life Updates as of July 2011

Well, I haven't blogged in a while. The main reason has been my little man and his great desire to explore. But here it goes with what we are up to at this point...

In May, Don, Jaxon and I all flew to Lynchburg for Don to interview at Orthopaedic Center of Central Virginia and Liberty University. This was definitely a God thing. About a week and half prior, we had no idea where we were moving and had no job...we were just going to be without a home come June 30th. After a few telephone calls and many many prayers, Don received two job offers in the same day! So we were planning to move to Lynchburg!! Crazy how I said I would never move back here while I went to school in Lynchburg. God really has a sense of humor...

In June, I packed and I packed and I packed!! The whole time, Jaxon unpacked and untaped boxes while I tried to put stuff in them. I would not recommend moving with a young toddler. They can make the process quite a bit longer. We also took some time to visit a few places in the city and see a few friends. Had a great night eating dinner at X2O with Patrick and Cheryl. Fabulous dinner and wonderful company (thought I would send a shout out if you are reading this)!! Jaxon also decided he would take his first steps this month. At 8 months old, I have a (sort of) walking baby - crazy!! At the end of the month, we packed up another U-haul for another move. We moved to "Downtown" Lynchburg into a building built in the 1800's. Pretty cool building. I will post pictures once we have a few less boxes taking up space.

Then just as quickly as June came and went, July was here. Off we went again. Jaxon and I left our house in boxes and went to Knoxville for 2 weeks. Spent some time with family and friends. I also have to add that it was extremely hot, so we spent a lot of time in the house. Right at the end of this trip, Jaxon decided he would get Roseola. Not fun!!! He had a fever ranging from 101-104 for about 5 days. Then the fever completely stopped one day just to discover a full body dotted little rash. He was one irritable little guy for the ride home. We spent one week here and then left for Durham. While Don was busy in a conference for 2 days, I spent time with great old friends that I haven't seen in a very long time. Great lunch with Kelly, seeing all my co-workers from Duke; and of course, the time spent with the Hambricks.

Well that is all for now. Stay tuned for more important announcements from this broadcasting family...

Make it Pretty

Well, since no one responded to my Earth Day post; I am going to write another! Earth Day is this coming Friday. It doesn't matter is you believe that the polar ice caps are melting or if you believe that Al Gore is a quack. It doesn't matter if you drive a Toyota Prius or a Ford F-350 extended cab truck. The fact is, we can all make our planet a little cleaner and a little prettier just by implementing a few changes in our routines.

The fact is that we humans make a smaller carbon footprint than cows. Cows emit a damaging and startling amount of methane gas which will probably cause our children to need SPF 1000 and our ozone layer to be a doily of decoration.

So here is what I propose: make some change by reusing an old object, repurpose something bound for the trash, recycle an old article of clothing into something trendy, reduce the amount of paper and plastic in your household or simply just change your habits. Some examples would be to use cloth diapers or go diaper free for a short while each day to reduce the amount of disposable diapers in landfills. Reduce the amount of plastic you use to pack your child's lunch. Have your kids create recycling bins that they can collect recyclables in and get money for. Walk, ride your bike or ride public transit to work while the weather is warm enough to walk but cool enough to tolerate. All those old flannel baby blankets, turn them into cleaning rags. Change your cleaning products out for more eco friendly solutions.

There are so many different things that you can do for Earth Day. Brainstorm with your kids to come up with ideas that they are excited to help with. Let me know your ideas. Sharing may spur some others with changes that they can make!!

Happy Earth Day 2011!!!

The Earth Day Upcycle

Well, this blog has a two part purpose. The first is, of course, our responsibility to be good stewards of what has been given to us...ie: the earth. The second is our entry to win this giveaway.

I decided to upcycle something that would help us in the big picture of our EC journey. Since we are trying to not use as many diapers, I thought this would be the perfect project. Instead of purchasing new training pants for Jaxon, I decided to turn his old prefolds into new training pants. Now, as I don't have these skills myself; I enlisted a great Etsy store owner for help. Here is our project in picture form:

So our journey of EC continues to be healthier for Jaxon and the earth as we continue to reduce our water usage for diaper washing and our product usage to make diapers. I helped out the small business model by employing a SAHM for this project. I also got some really cool looking cloth training pants out of it. I would have loved to have made them myself, but my skills are just not there yet.

So now I challenge you, what is your project going to be for Earth Day? Get your kids involved and recycle/upcycle/plant/reuse for a good cause! Pay it forward and do something for a cause that makes the earth a prettier place!!

Happy Half Birthday

Jaxon is officially half way through his first year of life. It is crazy to think how quickly it has gone. We are so truly gracious to have been blessed with such a wonderful baby. No, he is not perfect by any stretch of the means; but he definitely is a great little dude to have around!! Here is where we were to where we are now:

Happy Half Birthday!!! I love you, little man!!

The Journey Continues

Here is where we are in our diaper free world. We have made some great progress. Jaxon's signals have changed so much from when we first started our journey. He now gets quite fussy and audible when he needs to pee or poo. He will get very squirmy when being held and not be consolable if he is playing on the floor by himself. It is so nice to understand almost all of his cries and fussiness. I can meet his needs so much quicker which increases our relationship exponentially.

I don't like to focus on catches and misses, but he has been doing exceptionally well the past couple of weeks. We had a rough few weeks during his and my sicknesses. Needless to say, we weren't communicating very well. As he started to get better, our communication picked right back up. He has not had a poo diaper (minus one because I didn't get out of bed in time) in about 2 weeks!! I still probably miss about 30% of his pees. Sometimes those misses are a small tinkle before he makes it to the bathroom.

A few funny things that have happened include:

I wouldn't consider this incident a true "miss", but we didn't quite hit the toilet. He woke up one morning and was quite squirmy. I got him undressed and headed for the bathroom. We got just inside the bathroom door and started to position for the toilet seat when he poo'd all over the bathroom floor. Mind you, he was in my arms...so this was quite a distance from the floor. Yeah, we had high velocity splatter! I don't think I was quick enough on the draw for him that morning.

Another thing is his noticeable excitement for pooing. I make a "psss" noise when he pees and say "poo" when he poos. He has a little grunt for poo, waits for me to say "poo" then smiles and laughs at what he has done. It is really cute and I can't help but laugh.

Our journey is good! We have some upcoming new things like more teething and creeping and crawling have commenced! We will see what new excitement this brings!

Suggested EC Reads

My Little Joey

My first topic of choice is babywearing. Babywearing is the practice of wearing or carrying a child in sling, wrap or other form of carrier. It is a practice that has been done for centuries in cultures around the globe, but has really only become popular in our society more recently. Advocates such as Dr. Sears have brought the practice into everyday living here in America. It is widely popular among attachment parenting folks.

I love babywearing. We started early with traditional babywearing known as kangaroo care. It is named this after, well, kangaroos or marsupials. The little joeys are born "premature", and rely on being carried in their mother's pouch for care and survival.

We continue to babywear with wraps and soft structure carriers. I prefer wraps for the versatility that they provide. Don prefers the soft structure carrier so that he looks more "manly". My next plan is to get a mei tai, though. It promotes an amazing amount of bonding. You can read much more about babywearing here or here. You can also learn how to use many of the wraps here.

Some of the great benefits that I have personally found include: increased breastfeeding on demand, freedom of having both hands to get tasks accomplished, less crying and irritability because I am able to answer needs quicker, ease of communication between Jaxon and I (especially helpful with EC), more mobility and less fret of stairs that comes with having a stroller, increased socialization of Jaxon because he is face to face with everything that I do, strengthened core muscles without having to stress about tummy time, and a good way to keep warm!!

Don't take my word for it. I encourage anyone to spend some time babywearing. I think you will quickly be sold!

What are your babywearing experiences? What are you favorite carrier or wraps? Any pictures?