Nothing in Particular

Nothing really to report here right now. Tomorrow the little man is five months old! There will be pics at some point in the next week or so. Probably.

We just had a rough couple of days at our house. At the tail end of all three of us being sick for about a week, Nathan had to go to Midland for work and I was a single parent for a little over 48 hours. For that 48 hours, I slept very little, I discovered multiple places where Kona had decided to "water" things in the house (including my dry clean only drapes), I got a surprise visit from the pest control man (which is a whole story in itself and mildly entertaining because it involves me running around wearing only a towel AND trying to feed Milo all while trying to figure out what's going on with this guy being outside my house, but it's not entertaining enough to go into further detail here, I'll just let that mental picture marinate for a while), Milo went on a sleeping strike, I dropped my wedding ring perilously close to the toilet (it rolled behind a shelf where I was eventually able to contort myself enough to retrieve it) and then, for the grand finale, I dropped my less than three month old phone not close to, but actually IN the toilet. A bowl of rice and 12 hours later, it seems to be doing alright. I suppose only time will tell. Needless to say, we were glad to have the Daddy back home!

I do have a cloth diaper update. We recently invested in a Bottoms Up reusable wipes set. I wasn't sure about it at first but now I LOVE it. The set is around $60 and includes 25 wipes, one "clean" tub, one "dirty" tub, a "clean" and a "dirty" essential oils blend, and a little travel bag to take them with you when you are out and about. You put a little water in each tub, add a few drops of the appropriate essential oils blend to each, and you're all set. Then when it's time to do laundry, just take the "dirty" tub and dump it, wipes, water and all, in the wash with the diapers and that's it! Here's our setup (the orange tray is one I bought to put the tubs on and protect the dresser from stray water droplets):

Things I love about them:

• I can use only one and get him CLEAN, a feat that I am usually unable to accomplish with disposable wipes.
• The essential oil blends smell good, keep the water/wipes from smelling mildewy, and the "clean" blend has something in it (tea tree oil maybe?) that is helpful if we have a little bit of red bottom.
• We are cutting WAY down on the amount of trash we have by using these and since we're already washing diapers, it's not an extra step!
• We're saving money!

My only complaint is the ease of use of the tubs. (I should probably clarify here that by "tubs" I mean plastic containers that are around 6-8 in. square - "tubs" makes them sound huge...they are not.) The lids snap on with a little latch on each of the four sides and if you are surprised by a dirty diaper and don't have them already open, it's a little difficult to do one-handed (while you're holding said dirty diaper in place and trying to keep little hands and feet out of the mess). However, this is NOT a big enough inconvenience to make me not use them. The benefits far outweigh this minor issue.

I'm currently reading the Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight. We're trying to get Milo sleeping good, and sleeping through the night. After yesterday I was ready to throw in the towel and just let him sleep with us so I could get ANY amount of sleep. Today things are better though - he's napping like he's supposed to, went to sleep on his own with ZERO crying (I tried letting him cry it out for exactly 20 minutes one night and that was WAY too long for me), and has been in such a good mood today - I think it's because Daddy is home now. Anyway, the book seems good so far. A happy medium between crying it out and running to pick them up every time they whimper.

And finally, for today, a little sneak peek at our Christmas cards. We received them yesterday and will hopefully get them in the mail in the next week, but first we have to get our Christmas decorations finalized (and buy and decorate a tree) by Sunday because we're hosting the college group from church Sunday morning. Yikes! Lots to do. So I will go get busy while it's still naptime. Pics of Christmas decorations and five month pics coming soon!