Diaper Saga

Haven't had much to say lately, but our dramas do continue. The Biscuit gave us a sign yesterday that he might be ready to start potty training: he pooped in his diaper then removed it, running around the play area with poop still hanging from his cute little butt. I have now determined that the sleeping bag we use as a giant floor cushion in that room does in fact fit in our washer and that the little flimsy drying rack I have can hold the weight of about 1/3 of said sleeping bag (the rest of it laying over the deck railing). Thankfully, (HA!) it was 101 degrees yesterday so the sleeping bag dried pretty fast.

On a side note, I'm now kicking myself that we rented a house with no a/c. I remember thinking that it was no big deal because it's freaking Oregon and since it's an older house there are all sorts of windows that we can open to get a breeze from whatever direction it is coming. Which *would* work great if a good half of the windows weren't painted shut! [kick, kick!]

We have been having a problem with The Biscuit's diapers leaking overnight so switched to a nighttime pull-up. Yeah, just because Kimberly-Clark says that it's just for nighttime doesn't mean it's strong enough to take him and all his milk drinking. I've gone ahead and ordered a custom-made $50 diaper for him through Tallulah Baby. That is a fully-loaded for nighttime, with some special adjustments for his particular body shape, diaper and a cover (and shipping). I'm looking forward to it!

We are using gDiapers with The Cupcake almost all of the time now. I'm going to invest in some prefolds (unbleached India prefolds if I can find them for a good price) to use as inserts in them instead of the gDiaper flushables that we are buying now. The next step is some BumGenius diapers which should fit both kids so that even when The Biscuit is fully potty-trained they will still work on The Cupcake. Trying hard here to make a wise investment, before taking reselling them on eBay into consideration. Somewhere in there we get to buy cloth wipes too. From what I've heard (and experienced with the gDiapers) it's extra yukky to try to separate those non-flushable baby wipes from what you are flushing and washing. I'm not ready to switch to the flushable toddler wipes yet, so I think we are just going to go ahead and go the cloth route. From what I hear flannel receiving blankets make great ones when cut down and the edges are serged, so that will be my first serger project. Just as soon as I get some power to my sewing area. Ah, old houses.

Oh, and for the people who are curious about diapers piling up and smelling, I can say that I am already over-caught up with laundry like never before. Basically I have the opposite problem in that I am usually wanting to wash diapers and scouring the house for things to wash with them. I've never been more on top of the laundry than I have since we started using the gDiapers for The Cupcake. So I really do think that's a fear, not an actual issue. Maybe it's left over from diaper service days, when you kept the diapers for someone else to pick up and wash?

Updated to add links. Doh!

Homeschooling/Unschooling

I sent my husband an email and then realized it should be a blog post.

I joined a Yahoo group for unschoolers pretty soon after we moved. Not that I know what that means, but I wanted to learn. I'm one of those weird products of public school that loves learning. Go figure!

Anyway, a blog that I had been avoiding because I knew I would get hooked on it sucked me into its web today. Jessica, formerly Very Mom and Kerflop, has a new blog about her homeschooling/unschooling adventure called Balancing Everything.

None of the posts are long. These two I found especially fascinating since I am someone who also wants to take the plunge.

This one talks about her LDS-based reasons for homeschooling. While I am not of that religious persuasion I still think it is worth reading for parents whose children fall under the category of Special Education. Don't forget that "gifted and talented" students are part of Special Ed (at least that's what they called us in the 70's and 80's).

There is a post that gave me a new perspective on public school, mostly because that was not my experience. And that may very well be because I was part of the whole Gifted thing. Huh, just dawned on me that I was not mainstreamed for English and Math from second grade on.

Two more posts reminded me of me. One of my laziness and the other of how I'm trying so hard not to post things that will let scary people do bad things to us.

Then she gets to the hopeful part and the beginning of a plan.

Proof they are learning!

There's more, but not much as of yet. But I'm really inspired. And that's why I wanted to share. Now go read!

Happy Early Mother's Day to the Congresswoman from Washington State

Here is this year's message and, just because it touched my heart, here is last year's introduction of her son, Cole. He's really grown!

Of to go cry more, because it's so good that this caucus exists and because I wish my son was talking that much.

Glow In The Woods

I've pondered what to write other than, "Go read. Bear witness. Say their children's names. Learn how to be a help instead of making them feel invisible." Really that should be enough. You should go. But instead I've been pondering why it is so important to me. Why do I feel so drawn to this group?

Two things came to me this afternoon:

1. My dad's aunt and uncle, who raised him and his brother, had a son of their own who died of SIDS. As the story goes, one Easter morning they got up and the baby was blue.
2. My mom's mom either had one or two babies before my eldest uncle (depends on who is telling the story). As it is there is an 18-year gap between the oldest and the youngest of my aunts/uncles. If the first baby had lived there would have been 20 years.
   

So the loss that draws me to these women's stories is not just the grieving for the perfect son that I thought we had for 2 days, but there is also a desire to understand these two women that were such a big part of my life.

What are you doing for Mother's Day?

I have decided that for my Mother's Day I would like to join Standing Women. Go check out their story and see if there will be a group standing in a park that you would like to join.

Update: I found the page about the original book this idea is based on. The author also has a blog, but it seems to stop in 2007 and doesn't have any updates about the 2008 event.

"Jim Never Asks for Seconds at Home"

I know. Stupid line from Airplane taken from stupider instant coffee ads in my childhood. But I was so happy that my husband boyfriend* wants me to make more bread! I tried it once and it turned out very delicious. When he asked me to bake some again this line popped into my head.

Sadly, it's taken me about 24 hours to find the recipe again. I knew that it was from a link in a comment on Daring Young Mom. I knew that there were 3 pages of comments on the site that actually had the recipe. And I knew that I had combed those for necessary changes and had made a text file with the original recipe (which made 2 loaves) and the changes from the comments. Then I had a second text file with my 1 loaf version. How hard could it be to find a text file?

Well it turns out that the recipe (and so my file name) is "Outrageously Easy Big Bread" so all my searching under "bread" and "easy" yielded nothing. I gave up and started searching through DYM's archives. At least we haven't been in this house long and I knew I'd made the bread here. Luckily she tagged it "food" and it was in the third post I read! Yahoo!

I know this wasn't that interesting, but I don't want to lose the recipe again. So I shall share it with you. First the credits:

Daring Young Mom's post
The comment by Slawebb
The link that Slawebb included in her comment

And here is my version for only 1 loaf (advice and comments in parenthesis are from the original link):

Ingredients:

1 packet of yeast
2 T warm water
1 C hot water
1.5 T sugar
0.5 t salt
1.5 C flour
2T + 2t vegetable or corn oil
1.5 C flour



Directions:

Note: This recipe works best if all ingredients are set out, ready to go, in advance.

Pour warm water into a small ceramic bowl and add the yeast, but DO NOT STIR. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, pour hot water over the sugar and salt, then stir with a wooden spoon to completely dissolve. Combine 1.5 cups flour with the water mixture. Pour the oil on top of the dough mixture then add the yeast mixture on top of that, but DO NOT STIR. Top with the remaining 1.5 cups of flour and mix well. (I begin mixing with the wooden spoon but I very quickly have to move into squishing the dough with my hands.) At this point, the dough should be pliant and moist, but not gooey. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set aside to rise for at least 45 minutes. (I've left it for almost two hours.)

Knead the dough if you want. Flatten it into roughly an oval/rounded rectangular shape, about 1/2- to 3/4-inch thickness; then roll the dough lengthwise and place on an ungreased, but very BIG, cookie sheet. Cover the dough with a moist towel and set aside to rise again for another 45 minutes (or longer).

After the dough has risen the second time, preheat the oven to 375 and bake for exactly 23 minutes. If you can keep everyone from digging in right away, allow to cool for about 15 minutes and then enjoy.

Enjoy!


*He's decided that it was more fun to be boyfriend/girlfriend.

He is ours and that is that.

I was getting caught up on Sweet|Salty Kate and that led my brain to this:

I get comments like "How do you do it?" and I wonder that these people think I had a choice. The Biscuit is who we got. He is ours and that is that. Then I run across a woman who is adopting a boy with Down syndrome because his bio parents decided to only take home the typical twin from the hospital. It makes me wonder what that NICU nurse who mentioned there are waiting lists of people that want to adopt a baby with Down syndrome was really trying to say; was she offering me a choice?


(Edited to fix a spelling error.)