A bridge fell down.

This evening the I-35 bridge that crosses over the Mississippi River connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul fell into the water. My family is okay, and I am posting because I know the phones are down. Please pray for all the people here who are not okay. I am praying for them to all to have kisses and blankies.

Breakfast conversation

Sammy: Mommy, your butt.
Me: Yep, I have a butt.
Sammy: You sit on it.
Me: Yep, they're handy that way.

All this in front of Grandma. Sending her home with only the best memories.... :)

Couple of funny things Sammy has said lately...

When he's hungry he tells me his belly is "growling like a bear."

He's invented a new name for Cal's two dogs. Their real names are Tootie and Lola. In the car today Sammy was saying their names, but exaggerated - "Toooteeee and Looolaaaa" - and then came up with "Toooo-laa!" He then laughed at his cleverness.(Incidentally, I think that was the name of the bride-to-be in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.)

Rolling!

At three months old (today - and, WOW already!!!) Freddie is officially rolling over. He can get from his back to his belly, but not back the other way. I'm sure he'll be there by, um, tomorrow. :)

g Diapers, update 1

Cost Comparison - .27 cents (Pampers) v. .40 cents (g Diapers)

We used Pampers Swaddlers previously. Freddie is current in a size 2-3, and each diaper costs .27 cents. (64 diapers for $17.49 at Target) As the child's diaper size increase, the number of diapers in the package decrease, so when he's as big as Sammy (size 6) diapers run about .32 cents each.

In g Diapers each flushable from now until he's out of diapers will cost .40 cents a diaper. (32 packs of diapers available at Whole Foods for 12.99. I've heard you can order them by the case from Whole Foods for a 10 percent discount.)


Convenience

They are both easy, it’s just that I was so used to the disposable, and there is a bit of a learning curve. But. I feel like once I hit my stride it will all even out.

I wanted to do cloth but never did because of all the cost up front and all the washing. The washing was the biggie - I just know I wouldn’t do the poop right and things would get very unhygienic at my house.

There is a little bit of laundry with the g’s - throwing the little g pants into the laundry with the baby clothes, and washing the lliner either in the machine or sink, but so far it seems minor. (I’ll have to update post-solid foods poop.)

Day 1
Overnight worked fine. A little leak, but he’d been in the diaper for almost 12 hours, which is exaclty how I push a disposable and we’ve had leaks with those, so no biggie.

Freddie decided to poop three times on our first day in the g. I didn’t have enough experience with them for this kind of elimination. I clogged our toilet trying to flush the third diaper by not getting all the filler out of the liner. It may still be plugged, I don’t know. I’ve beenusing the upstairs bathroom since yesterday - !

I washed all theliners and both of his little g pants that day out of necessity, but it was good to learn the process and see how easy/difficult that was going to be. During the washing I realized that one of the pants from our starter kit was a Large, which no doubt contributed to the leaking I was experiencing. (He’s a Medium)

Day 2
A little more leaking due to improper installation on child. I didn’t g it overnight because the Medium one suffered a late-day leak and I couldn’t get it washed in time. I also didn’t flush any becuase of the aforementioned toilet fiasco. (Jacob spent about an hour trying to plunge, and was very vocal about his displeasure... I called the g Customer Serice and Kim herself called me back and offered a tip for breaking up the diaper in the pipe. Again, I don’t know if worked because I’ve been avoiding that toilet.)

Day 3 (today)
First thing we had a poopsplosion and it did go up the back and out of the diaper. Would have happened in a disposable, too, the only difference is that I don’t have a ruined onsie becuase the liner and the little g pant took most of the hit. I rinsed them out and sprayed with Shout, and hopefully the tiny bit that got on the little g pant won’t be there after a spin in the washer. I’m reallly hoping that my friend Gina will be able to give me a diapering tutorial so that I’ll have the “seal” of the liner perfected and avoid future blow-outs. (As much as that is possible.) I think it’s just challenging achieving the perfect seal on a squirmy-wormy 12-week-old with lots and lots of folds.

More updates to come, I’m sure....

Lunch today

during which we consumed Nature Sweet Tomatoes.

Me: *sigh* I love Miss Leah's tomatoes.
Sammy: (enthusiastically) Me, too! Let's go get some!

We can't wait til next year when some of our green-thumbed friends and family can help us grow edible goodness.

g Diapers

We've embarked on a new adventure with Freddie - the g Diaper.



Find out more at:




Updates to follow on our experience with the g's.

still smiley

Freddie Freds = the smiliest baby I've ever seen....







He's also very pretty for a boy...

MCM - "George the Monkey" exhibit

The newest exhibit at the Children's Museum is Curious George. It's very well done - great variety, lots of things to do and discover. As you can tell from the pictures, Sammy was having too much fun to stand still and smile. Also, it's taken me a while to post pictures - these are from our visit a week and a half ago!

Just some of the fun:

climbing up a rocket and sliding down


talking on the phone in the Man in the Yellow Hat's office


golfing

Mommy's contribution???

So while Sammy enjoyed his Mr. Bubble bathtime tonight, he was going over each of our roles at "our concert." Daddy is to play the bass (of course) and Sammy is to play the drums. When asked if Mommy would sing, Sammy gave one of his trademark "Home Alone" facial expressions and said "Oh no! Mommy can just sit and watch." I can now rest assured my first born can tell the difference between singing in tune/on the beat and not.

Jacob

synchronized snoring

At this very moment in my bedroom both Jacob and Freddie are snoring, in the exact same tempo and nearly identical sounds. Seriously they are a little snoring duet. I am cracking up, y'all.

My little flasher

Today Sammy was playing with the flashlight, shining it around the room to see the "polka dot" of light on different objects. He'd put Caillou in Freddie's bassinet earlier and soon enough the light found him, too. Sammy excitedly tells me, "I'm flashing Caillou!" Then asks, "Mommy, wanna flash Freddie?"

Paying for it.

This is reallly Jacob's story, but since he takes forever to blog stuff or forgets I'm going to tell it because it's pretty cute.

Sammy has started to pretend to pay for things, and he actually has a genius and fairly acurate system set up in his playroom: he takes one of his (empty) Target gift cards, pretends to slide it across the side of his Magnadoodledoo (as Sammy calls it, ha ha ha) and then uses the Magnadoole pen to sign.

FYI: he does a lot of paying after he gasses up his little red car.

"Your hair is everywhere..."

This morning Sammy was on his way upstairs for something and he comes back down, diverted. He tells me, "I found a piece of Emma." I wasn't going to post this because, yes, there was a huge chunk of dog hair on our stairs. Huge.

Boys are boys, I guess.

So, during lunch Jacob was going back and forth from the table to the TV and watching (part of) the Live Earth concert. At one point he says, "Whoa! That girl's [booty] is on TV!"

Sammy replies, "I want to go see it!" and climbs down from the table.

"Nate's wedding"

Sammy's friend Nate (from the Jacob's Well band) married Audrey at sunset on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007, and our family traveled to Northern Minnesota to join in the festivities. Sammy tried to set himself on fire with one of the tiki torches during the ceremony, and *really* wanted to investigate the port-a-potty, but overall both Sammy and Freddie behaved spectacularly for the event. Freddie spent most of his time shuffling between the wonderful people of Jacob's Well - thanks to all who held and loved on him, especially Haley (see below!) and Joe who spent most of the ceremony bouncing him while I kept Sammy off the dock and away from the fire and band (where Jacob and Graham were playing)! Here are a few pictures of the fun:


Sammy stayed up so late! Here he is playing in the dark with Jacob and his other favorite JW band member and swimming buddy, Graham.


Haley - you've been blogged! Thanks so much for hanging with me and the boys before, during and after the wedding. You're awesome!


Babies Freddie and Gabby (born 19 hours apart) on their third date. :) Oh, and Jess and Gina, too.


Sammy shaking his booty on the dance floor with Nate (the groom) and Jacob, post-ceremony.

Happy 4th of July!

Codes-n-Ash and a visit to Duluth

This weekend our family traveled to Duluth to visit with our very good friends Cody and Ashley. It is a beautiful Minnesota town located off Lake Superior, and Codes-n-Ash were there for a job interview and to see if it might be a place they'd like to move to when Cody completes his residency. We had lots of fun exploring the touristy parts of the city during our short visit.


Cody and Ashley


Us, minus the little hooligan.


Me and my mom, and the rocks and Lake Superior.


it really is a fantastic view


the rocks are pretty cool, too

So. Much. Fun. !!!!

We went to the pool Tuesday morning. Then the question was, when do we go back? Answer: Wednesday morning!


Sammy


Cal


Hannah


A GREAT picture pirated from Cal and Ike's blog. Thanks, Leah, for your superb toddler photography skills :)

My three sons

Freddie, Caillou and Sammy