Wednesday, August 22, 2007

August 22-a very important day

Two things make today a very special day. One, it's been exactly one year since we got Dylan's referral and I first saw my baby's sweet face. Here's the post I made last August 22.

Two, today marks the day when Dylan has been with us longer than he was in the orphanage. He was in the orphanage for 257 days, and has been with his mommy and daddy 258 days. What an amazing coincidence for both of these things to fall on the same day.

I've been thinking a lot today about how lucky we are to have Dylan as our son. How blessed we are to be such a close, loving family of three. And how excited we are to become a family of four.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Painting and Brownies!

We had lots of fun this weekend. We painted Maddie's nursery during Dylan's nap times and after he went to bed at night. We got that part done. Next weekend we'll do the trim (chair rail). It's starting to look like a little girl's room!


Yesterday, Dylan and I made brownies. It was so much fun. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.












Today is Dylan's first day at his new daycare. He did really well this morning. I had to stay a little while, but once they brought in breakfast, he jumped right down off my lap, ran to the table, turned to me, waving and said, "Bye-bye!" LOL. Food will distract him any time. The boy is an eating machine!


His teachers seem really nice and I'm waiting on the webcam to start working. I'm excited about that.

More miscellaneous pictures:











Wednesday, August 15, 2007

We're almost there!

August 22 will be the one year anniversary of the day we got Dylan's referral. Ironically, it will also be the day that he has been with us longer than he was in the orphanage. That's pretty awesome.

Things are going well. We're loving the cloth diapering. Daycare is doing it, too, without a problem.

We're still #8 on the list, but we're hoping for a referral within a month or so.

Our vacation in Gatlinburg was a dream. It went so smooth! He fell asleep easily and slept all night, right between us like at home. We went to the aquarium, Ober, and walked around alot. He really enjoyed it.

Here's some new pictures!






















Thursday, August 02, 2007

Our new venture

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I have some exciting news. We're going to start cloth-diapering (CD'ing)! I've ordered several diapers and plan to start as soon as I get them all in and washed.

So now you're thinking, why in the world would you cloth diaper?? Let me tell you. The biggest reason is comfort. Dylan has never gotten diaper rash, but the plastic really bothers him. He's always scratching at the elastic around his legs, and his lower back. I want to make him more comfortable.

Second is cost. Start-up costs of CD'ing is pretty expensive ($200-$500, depending on the 'system' you go with), but long term it's cheaper. Add in another baby in diapers, and we'll be saving big bucks on disposibles.

Third, they're SO cute! And they're not that much more trouble than 'sposies. People imagine a rectangle of cloth and pins. Well, that's certainly an option, but most CD'ers use pocket diapers (with velcro or snaps and an absorbent insert with a waterproof outer layer), all-in-ones (insert is built-in), fitteds with a cover, or pre-folds and a cover. We're trying a few of each, but I imagine we'll like the pockets and AIOs best.

Lastly, it helps the environment. Those who know me, know I'm not big into the whole environment thing, but it does help, so there's a reason to CD.

Everyone wonders about the poop factor. Here's the deal-for solid poops, you just roll it into the toilet and flush. For more messy poops, we have a toilet sprayer (like the sprayers on kitchen sinks, but next to the toilet) to spray off any sticky stuff. Then it just goes in the washing machine. Easy as pie (so I've heard-I hadn't had to do it yet!).

I'm not sure if I can convince daycare to use them yet. He starts his new daycare on Aug. 21, so I'm not even going to bother with trying it with his current provider.

On another note, we're going to Gatlinburg this weekend for one night. We need to test the hotel issue again and get him used to it before we travel. He had quite the difficult time with sleeping at home over the past few weeks, but we've gotten that under control now, so we're ready to give the hotel a shot. I'll have lots of pics from this weekend, I'm sure. We're planning on visiting the aquarium, and riding the sky tram to Ober.

Here are some pics, including the cloth diapers. Never in my life would I have thought I'd be a co-sleeping, breast-feeding, cloth-diapering, baby-wearing mama. I'm really loving the mom thing even more than I ever imagined.

Dylan playing with my brother's puppy that is actually a friendly stray:
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Bedtime (the dog moves when I come to bed):
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What Dylan thinks about his new diaper:
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Checking out our new lizard (bearded dragon):
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