Archive for June, 2008

Well first, you might want to consider getting one of those…and now onto the diaper questions.  I use BumGenius pocket diapers, which I love, love, love.  At least as much as you can love cloth whose sole purpose is to absorb pee and poop.  Here’s the low-down… I use them mainly around the house.  When we travel, I switch to disposables because storing dirty cloth diapers when on the move is a royal pain.  I have friends who use all cloth, all the time.  They carry wet bags with them and store the diapers in these.  I do this for short trips in town, but anything longer than a few hours and I’m packing a disposable.  But, around the house cloth are not difficult to deal with.  Because they are pocket diapers, at each diaper change I have to pull out the insert.  This involves minimal touching of wet/dirty diaper.  The worst part is the poop, as you mentioned.  I usually just dump the solids in the toilet and then dunk the diaper in the toilet water to rinse it.  This isn’t bad at all and I have yet to get really messy.  They make handy “sprayers” that are supposed to make this chore a breeze, but since I have a two year old who would love to spray down our bathroom with such a tiny little water toy…I have avoided this method.  At the end of the day, I wash a load of diapers.  I do this pretty much everyday because I only have about 12 diapers and because they stink if you let them sit too long. I’ll tell you the worst part of cloth diapering is not being able to use the diaper to wipe the baby’s butt when dirty (you know where you take the end of the diaper and use it as a wipe…).  That, and they are bulkier than disposables.  So, as you might be able to see in the photos, your baby will look like she’s got a serious booty…That’s OK, it matches the baby chub and is cute! It doesn’t interfere with walking or movement, just their “diaperline”. If you are thinking about trying cloth diapers, I say “Go for it”.  Alot of daycares are even accepting them now.  And, some of the diaper sites will allow you to try it for a few days and send it back if you don’t like it.

With a piece of equipment.  And no, it’s not Dave’s.  I bought myself a new lens for my camera.  And because I don’t read the instruction manual obsessively before trying an object (like another adult who lives in our Sasser household), I immediately busted the thing out of its box upon arrival and began shooting away.  I LOVE it!  Just what I needed to break out of my photo rut.  Ava was napping, which left my youngest daughter to act as guinea pig.  She did a great job!  This lens is so much faster than my kit lenses.  I didn’t really believe all the reviews I had been reading, but those fools ain’t lyin’.  Fast, crisp, sharp.  And that was just in the first thirty minutes.  Think what life will be like after I read the instruction manual.

Home again…we spent the day just regrouping and doing laundry and grocery shopping.  All those things.  I am feeling like my photos have just been really blah and more blah lately.  I took a class awhile back and was so jazzed to do bigger and better things with photography.  But, between the kids, the house, the gardening projects and my job…it just isn’t happening.  I need to get out of this rut.  HHhhmmmm.  Anyways, here are a couple that I took yesterday around the house.  Olivia is SOOOO close to walking.  She will stand by herself and even squat down to pick things up and then stand again, but she won’t take a step yet.

And because it is rare form to have these two together, smiling and holding each other…I’m including this one even though it is not a great photo.  Sometimes not great is good enough, I guess.

Bring on the tablefood…

While driving down to Port Aransas, we passed this tiny little church.  It was in the middle of nowhere, fenced in next to a large farmhouse and farm.  I made Dave pull over so I could snap a few photos.  Turns out, it is a historical site for Texas.  One of the oldest known Catholic churches in Texas.  Built sometime in late 1800s.  It was restored in 1896 after a hurricane came through.  Very sweet.  I love old buildings like this.

We just got back in town from a little vacation to Port Aransas, TX.  It was great, great fun.  We went with two of my longest-known friends and their families.  Lauren, Christine, and I met in high school in Singapore.  We all went our separate ways but have kept in touch since then, and Christine and I even lived together for a short time during college.  We all have our own families now and we all live in Texas.  We decided these things were too close to ignore and we rented a big beach house and all piled in.  We had a blast and our kids did too!  I took a TON of pictures that need to be sorted, but here are a couple.

My friend Allie is selling these cute little tutus (and also the headband below). I had to get some, even if just for pictures. Ava loves hers. Olivia is too small to know what the heck is going on…but she put up with it. Of course, my good friend Amanda (who detests anything resembling pink princess attire) is going to be inheriting these for her coming-this-fall daughter. Because, I just KNOW that her daughter is going to be the most pink-loving, princess-loving, girly-girl ever born. Isn’t that how life works? And really, every girl should have a pink tutu in her closet, even if just for emergencies.

We have started a new thing with Ava. To help her develop some, let’s just say…better life skills. Don’t judge the pictures too harshly. God knows I couldn’t draw them, so I tried cutting them out of magazines. You try finding a picture of people “playing nicely”. When I showed Ava the chart and we went through the rules, I said, “And what’s this one?” She said, “We have to play with all our teddy bears.” “Hhhhhmmm, close”, I said, as I quickly added the picture of three smiling little girls and explained that they were having a blast playing nicely with each other. So here’s the gig. She gets a star for following the house rules listed on the chart I made.If she is not able to follow the rules, she loses a star. When she wants to watch a TV show or something special like that, she has to have all the stars on the chart. So far, so good. I guess this means I have to start following all the rules too…

I mentioned that Dave and I got away for a kid-free weekend while Helen and Michael babysat (thank you). We went to Austin to hang out with my family since both my brother-in-law, Jeff, and my little sis Sara are heading to Iraq. For those of you who don’t know, Jeff and Sara both fly blackhawks and met in pilot training. They were married last year and are in separate units, so their deployments will be separated by about 6 months. This means they have to spend their first few years as newlyweds far apart (or perhaps passing each other in the skies over Iraq). Jeff is leaving next week. Sara, this fall. It was great to see them both and just hang a little before their journey begins. God speed guys. Come home safe and sound, and until then we’ll be sending lots of thoughts, prayers, good vibes, and general mojo your way! We love you!

I happened to be taking photos of the little headband above (made by one of my friends) when I caught the action in the lower two photos. Yes, Olivia standing on her own…lusting after Ava’s blueberries. If I hadn’t had my camera, I would have never caught it because she only lasted about 20 seconds. Still, we have a couple shots for the photo album. And yes, she did manage to swipe some blueberries…don’t underestimate those little ones.