Baby Fever and What's New!

Now that Sprout is almost 14 months ( I can't believe I have a toddler!!!) I have been thinking how much I have been missing the squish stage of life! You know the Little ball of newbie cuteness. That sweet smell of little baby... The feeling of your heart melting as you feed your baby and get the connection with one another. The cute little clothes, the seemingly way to tiny diapers ( How was Sprout ever that small!!!) 

Ok I admit it!!! I am starting to get baby fever!!! Well kind of. ;)

I LOVE the age Sprout is and watching her learn new things. Every day is a new adventure for us! She is starting to do so much. Today while still half asleep she blew Cody a kiss goodbye because he was going to work. HOW STINKIN' CUTE IS THAT?!?!?! She is trying to put on shoes now and she is now trying to run! It's not working so well for her right now but I know soon enough she will be running me in circles! 

In my March Mom group we have so many moms that are pregnant and a few who have just had babies!!! The adorable squishy-ness is able to get anyone in baby fever! I really enjoyed being pregnant until the end when all the scary things were happening to me! 

So I keep going back and forth on wanting to try getting pregnant again soon or waiting till Sprout is a bit older so she can help out. Since I will be having a repeat C-section I hope it will not be like my last C-section!!! I also want more time wit her alone... But then again I also want her and her future sibling to be close in age. There are so many decisions to make when thinking about having a second baby! 

Ok so now that I have made you all board here are a few new things Sprout and I did this week!

While we go to the post office usually once or twice a week, we are usually always there in the after noon and it is always pretty busy. Today we had to go to see if they could track a missing package and we went in the morning. We basically had the post office to ourselves so  I let her down on the ground to wander around while they were searching.... She had tons of fun and started to try and run! 

We also go to the grocery store usually once or twice a week and she loves saying HI to people .... the only issue is she loves to whisper it so they can't here and then when they say hi to her she gets all shy! She cracks me up daily! 

Sprout has been blowing kisses lately... She was into the movies and I called her name in a warning and as if on cue she turned around and blew me a kiss... I started cracking up! She is also doling out the kisses very frequently these days.

I swear she has been saying love you lately as well but that is not a common thing yet! 

So Sprout's last class for swimming is tomorrow... I have had so much fun taking her and I am sure Cody has enjoyed it as well! I hope to keep her enrolled in the next session which starts in two weeks!!

New headband that I made! 

Well it is late and I need to go to bed! Night all!

5 things I love about Sprout!

1. How you need me! You will not always need to rely on me for your every need. You will grow and become much more independent and take care of yourself. You will never need me like you need me today. You count on me to take care of you and teach you new things about the crazy world we live in.

2. Your voice! Your voice is one of the sweetest things in the world to me! Your voice is a high pitched little call from up above. When you say "Hi Mama!" My soul just melts with happiness. I love our car rides where all you do is say Hi the whole trip! You say so much more about your Dad right now... You said Daddy for the first time the other day. Your dad and I both looked at each other in shock!

Singing along with Peg + Cat

3. Your laugh. From your little random giggles that I hear through out the day to your full on belly laugh, I love hearing you be SO happy and enjoying life! 90% of the time your laugh makes me laugh and then you laugh even more. But one of the laughs that I LOVE the most is when you are playing with your dad! It is one of the sweetest sounds I could ever hear. Also when you laugh my heart just melts in a giant puddle!

4. Your little hands. I love how your little hands grab my finger as we walk through a store. How they grab my face so you can turn it to give me a kiss. How your little hands search out for me in your sleep and finally, how those little hands work so hard to learn new things every day!

5. Your.... Independence/ stubbornness. As much as some days you push every single button I have, I love how you wont give in if something is important enough to you! I hope you never lose that part of you. It will lead you well in your life! I love that you won't give up when trying to figure something out. you try and try and try until you get it right.

There is so much more that I love about you. I could go on for days! But right now I will keep it to just 5.

A week in review!

So a mom friend of mine has started to do this a week in review and I though I would give it a try!

So Saturday we had swim class and I took here again. We had so much fun! She has started to get the concept of kicking! She also like to "Jump" off the edge of the pool. She sits on the edge and leans until she falls in. She is so eager to get in the water I Have to hold her back so she doesn't crawl/walk to get in by herself!

We bought a new grill this weekend and I finally got to use it for the first time! A new thing I have learned about Ginny is that we have entered a new phase of life... The " You Can't Walk Away, Turn Away, Leave Me To Go Put Food On The Grill (even though I can see you) phase of life.... I will cry until you come back This is not so much for Mom!

Since having tubes put in her ears, Sprout has been having a huge verbal explosion! She now say Hi, Bye- Bye, Mama, Dada, All Done, Uh-Oh, Cheese, Grandma, Grampa, Nana, and Papa, and a few sentences as well... Of course they all deal with Dad. They are Hi Dada, Bye Dada, and Dada Bye-bye.

She is learning so much! She knows where her head is, she can blow kisses, and has started singing along when I sing songs! She is walking SO much more and just loves to "help" me when I am making banners!

Thursday we went out to Cody's parents and we got to see the cows and of course Edward and Moko! But I think the animal Sprout LOVES the most is Snicky... the cat! She was trying so hard to get to her but Snicky is just way to quick and nimble for Sprout!

 Here are a few new products in my Etsy Shop Growing Up Sprout

Cloth Diapering!

Now before I go in to my topic for this post I know everyone is wondering how Sprout is doing and what she is up to! She is pretty darn amazing!She is walking more and more everyday! She goes down the stairs by herself. She will climb in her highchair when it is time to eat. She says thank you ALL the time! I love how sweet she is! She LOVES swim class! I took her last week and we had SO much fun! She loves putting things from one place to another and then back where they were. Now for the "bad" (I say bad because they are not things I would like to stay around forever) things going on. All of a sudden I can not go up/downstairs with out her, No matter how cold that basement floor is! She will freak out if I am on a different floor... She now screams along with her cry all the while throwing herself backwards when she is mad. (We are in a new lovely LEEP) She has suddenly decided that her bed and being all alone in it to go to bed really sucks and will not go to sleep unless she is in our room on Daddy's side. I know all of these things are just phases and she will quickly grow out of them but right now when I am on only 4 hours of sleep and I have been up since before 8, the tunnel seems VERY dark. But all in all She is doing great, learning tons and is happy and health!

Ok so on to my real post! Cloth Diapering!!!! I LOVE IT! I love that my baby doesn't have to wear pants and she still looks like she is fully dressed. I love that I am SAVING SO MUCH MONEY!! I love that she LOVES to play with them and pick which one she wears next. I love that they are SO EASY!!! Here are a few pictures of some of my stash! 

My few non BumGenius Diapers

Night time diapers... These are much more fluffy for being on the bum for 12 hours

Some of my beautiful BumGenius Diapers

Don't you just love the colors! I have more colors but they were getting washed. One day I will have a full stash shot!

When I told my family that we decided we were going to cloth diaper I am sure they though I was crazy and looked at me like I had 3 heads. But what every one was remembering was the prefolds with safety pins and plastic pants... the soaking you had to do to was the diapers and just how much harder it was back then. 

So when my aunt's and uncles surprised Cody and I with our sprinkle on Christmas and I opened my over night diapers I was very excited to get one opened and show them what it was all about! They soon realized how AWESOME and EASY it is now to cloth diaper! For the most part they work just like disposables you just throw them in your washer instead!

I use mostly pocket diapers or All-in-One diapers called Freetime. The pocket diapers look like this on the inside:

The left is a pocket not stuffed and the right is one that is stuffed! 

This is the insert that I use to stuff my diapers... really absorbant! 

Now the Diapers I use are One sized diapers. This means that I can use them from the time baby is 9 lbs until they are potty trained. The wight limit is 35 lbs I believe!! That is pretty awesome in my books! The one on the left is for when baby is older and the left is for when baby is just a newbie! 

Now they come in either snaps (left) or in Velcro(right) I really like Velcro because you can get any kind of fit you need. What I don't like about Velcro is that little Miss Sprout has figured out how to pull them off!!! I really like Snap as well since she can not pull them apart and it does take a bit of effort to undo them! I am going to convert all my Velcro to snaps here soon! 

Now this lovely diaper is a All-in-One diaper. As its name indicates eveything you need for a diaper change is all in this one diaper! There is no stuffing or pulling out pee soaked inserts when washing! You just throw it in the washer and let it go! 

All folded up.

What it looks like when it is open. You fold over the two layers and put it on baby!

Now to the part that seems to gross the most people out washing the diapers! For me I am really lucky since Sprout is now pooping on the potty I no longer have poppy diapers! But when I did have poppy diapers you just get as much of the poop off of them and then they go in the was as well. 

My wash routine goes like so! I do a cold rinse cycle then a hot wash cycle and 2-3 rinse cycles after the was. It is really easy! I use Rockin Green Laundry soap since you can only use certain detergents on cloth diapers. I have enough diapers to last me about 2 days so I do diaper laundry every two days or so! See easy- peasy! 

Life is getting busy!!

I am finding it really hard to find time to write this past month. I am hoping to make up for that this month. Things have been going crazy for my banners! I have had 2 orders from people I don't know at all! I am so excited about that! I really enjoy making these banners and being a part of these babies birthdays! So here are a few new banners that I have made lately.

Sprout has been doing so much lately! A few days after her birthday she took her first step! We are now up to about 10 steps in a row. That is still a rarity at the moment but I am sure she it wont be long. She also has 3 new teeth coming through. This has been causing some serious issues at night! Last night was easily the roughest night we have had in a VERY long time. She would only sleep for about 2 hours before screaming! And nothing would comfort her. Tonight thankfully she has been asleep since 7.

Sleeping in her couch that we got her for her first birthday!

We started swimming lessons 2 weeks ago. As usual Sprout is ahead of most of the others! She is a water bug just like her mom! This past class every time Cody would put her on the ledge to get ready to get out, she would just lean in and slide back in! I am taking her this week and am excited to get in the water with her. There is a family swim after our class so I may just stay a while longer.

Since Ginny had her tubes put in about 3 weeks ago, her hearing has been amazing! She is starting to pick up new words like crazy! Her newest one is uh-oh... but she doesn't really say uh-oh it's more like ah-uh. A very cute version if I may say so myself!

Another new thing is that we have been going poop on the potty for about 2 weeks now! And today she gave me an added surprise of actually peeing on the potty too! I am not potty training her right now and in all reality she is not ready to be "Trained" but I see no harm in getting her used to the potty now so that when it is time to really train her it will be hopefully pretty easy!

Finally, ever since just before she turned one, Sprout has been showing her displeasure in the most annoying way. You all know it, The Tantrum! She will throw herself backwards and end up hitting her head on the floor and then actually be hurt. Normally I just ignore this since she will eventually learn that she will not get what she wants when she acts that way. For now I just have to grit my teeth and teach her what she should be doing or not getting in to, or not standing on her new couch, or her personal favorite, emptying the draws and cupboards(that are locked!). Or this new favorite, unrolling a whole roll of toilet paper!

Now off to bed because my child does not know what sleeping in is... her internal clock is 7am. If I am lucky I can stall her till 7:30 by putting a few toys in her crib to play with.

Just wearing my pearls while playing, No big deal.