Out and About

My parents are in town, and they are not the type of people who like to just sit around and do nothing, thankfully. Also, thankfully, we are not very far from one of Parent's Magazine's top 10 cities for babies which means there is great stuff to do within an hour of our house. Today we checked out the Children's Museum for the first time, and I have to say, I'm impressed. Jeb LOVED it. Not like rode in the stroller and didn't fuss while he looked around loved it, but on the floor, running from thing to thing, playing all through his normal afternoon nap time loved it. I think this might be the best place we've visited since we lived here. I loved that there was a mock up of Mr. Rodger's Studio, and we got to see some of the original puppets. It brought back fond memories of my childhood. Its nice to be able to share that with my little guy. I would certainly recommend it.

He really loved this Daniel Tiger puppet.

We were able to feed my addiction for souvenir pennies on our trip. I picked the one that featured the trolley to the Neighborhood of Make Believe. There is a website that lists locations of machines and I think I might have to start a check list.

We also spent time in the Strip District just wandering some of the shops. I love it, but I honestly think I favor going there during busy holiday times (Christmas Eve day was a fun visit) and I definitely favor baby wearing. This is the second time we've navigated with the stroller, and it was difficult, even on a not so crowded day.

The rest of the week should be pretty low key. The folks are leaving tomorrow, and the weather isn't looking to promising with Hurricane Irene looming. I have mountains of laundry to catch up on, so it should be okay to just hang out inside.

Silent Sunday

Blogging love

So I haven't really been giving the blogging thing a whole lotta love at all. I'm going to try to be more diligent in posting things. I mean I have time to whine about my situation, time to pin all sorts of visual goodies on Pintrest, time to just sit around and mope, etc. So I think I need to make time to blog more often. I find it therapeutic. I enjoy spewing text on pages. I hope I'll meet some nice folks if I keep it up. After all, wasn't I just whining about how hard it is for me to meet people?

I think maybe starting out with some good standards might be an appropriate jumping off point, and yeah I'm straying from my focus that I'd decided on, but attaining a VBAC, or even being pregnant at this point are so far out of reach, that I might as well write whatever the heck I choose. This is MY blog after all.


I'm taking a queue from this blog and I'm going to start doing Silent Sundays. A picture without words, just to be posting more often. I think it has the potential to be a lovely thing and a nice way to capture some memories.

As Jeb gets older I'm hoping I'll be able to doMuffin Tin Monday as well. He's just a little too young right now to appreciate the work that goes into being a muffin tin tot.

So there it is. I also have some subjects that I want to cover in the blog, I just have to get around to it.
Sooner, rather than later. I hope.

CDing, and a giveaway.

So, I've mentioned that I'm a little crunchy, right? Well, one of my favorite things that has greened my life is using cloth diapers on Jeb. I don't know how we would afford to cover his bottom otherwise.

My hands down favorite diaper is SmartiPants. It makes up the majority of our stash (by majority, I mean we only have three other diapers that we use that are not Smartis).  I love that they're affordable! I love that they will fit Jeb from the time we started CDing at 3 months until the time he is using the potty full time. I love that they're holding up so well they'll be good for the next bambino whenever he or she decides to come along. Naturally, with all the Smarti love in the air, when I saw this giveaway on Letters from Momma, I knew I had to get in the game. She is offering the chance to win one SmartiPants in the color of your choice. I need some Hot Chocolate love for my baby's bum, so I've completed all of the generous opportunities to enter  on her website. You should too!

Many thanks to Letters from Momma for this giveaway!


Just to be clear, I've not been sponsored by SmartiPants or Letters from Momma for the content offered within this, or any blog post.

It's August

Where on earth has this summer gone. We've spent a lot of time in the car in the past two weeks or so, and are finally back in our own place, catching up on yard work and enjoying time spent in a normal routine. I never realized how much of a routine junkie I've become. Travel has really messed with it and I had been left craving the house, the house work, the yard work, and  some good old normalcy.

We spent a week at my parents house in SEPA preparing for and celebrating the little guy's first birthday party. Wednesday to Wednesday. We got to see our families, hang out with some friends and enjoy the benefits of being less than 300 miles away from everyone we care about for a while. Josiah's party went off really well.  It was hot, but there was a little kiddy pool and the breeze that came through the pavilion we used was a real blessing. A big thank you to all of our parents for renting the pavilion, bringing food, fans, decorating, baking and all of that good stuff. Thank you to Erin, of Open Shutter Photography for taking all of the pictures I've seen so far. I didn't take a single shot. I was determined to enjoy my day.

 Here is the birthday boy enjoying his caterpillar on his caterpillar quilt.

Not too much planned for the rest of the month. We have house guests possibly coming during the ides of August and then again 10 days later. We shall see. There's been a lot of injury going around, so I don't know if everyone expected will make it out.

I had set a goal to lose 30 lb. by September, but I don't think that is going to happen despite being quite a bit more active  lately. I'm still holding on at 10 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. I am frustrated, and know I need to change more about my lifestyle, but I'm not sure how. I found some simple exercise plans on pintrest that I think I can do, they just don't seem like enough. Oh well, there are three levels, I can tackle level one and see how things have gone.

I know I have diverged a little bit from what I'd envisioned this blog being about, however, I feel the need to let the words spill from my fingers and brain and lay where they fall. I'll be trying to blog more and update my progress more accurately in the near future.