So I'm a Terrible Blogger

But I swear it's for a good reason.

Updates

Jason officially was picked up for staff so we won't be moving any time soon.  Poor guys having a hard time getting checkouts though because the staff is like, "You don't need to know this as a student, but you'll have to know it in a few months so go learn it now."  He was the only person on his crew to be selected as staff though, so I'm pretty proud of him.  His "friend" also applied, but she didn't even get an interview.  I know, I'm a bitch, but that makes me smile just a little.  She's getting a divorce though, so I'm not really enjoying her misery to the full extent because I'm not that mean.  I did spend the morning in happy tears because a guy who's made life really sucky for the whole crew got really crappy orders when almost everyone else got what they wanted.  Karma, baby! 

Our toilet is broken and no amount of plunging seems to fix it.  We put in a request form with the housing office, but they suck.  Apparently a non-flushing toilet isn't high priority.  Yeah, they're going to like it when I wake up at 2 in the morning and forget it's broken and water seeps through to the bottom floor.  I absolutely love my house, but hate the company we rent from (yet, they are still better than Balfour Beatty who privatized base housing.)

Kaelin starts Mother of Divine Grace homeschool on Monday.  We're pretty excited.  I'm a bit nervous because I'm not sure I should be teaching her Latin or Catholic catechism but it's got to be better than the crap excuse for public school here.  Also, there isn't a Catholic school in town.  Blarg.

Harper is NUTS.  This kid can crawl - hands and knees belly off the floor type crawl.  I mean one end of the room to the other in the 10 seconds it takes to pull out her baby jail Pack & Play.  Also, notice how they aren't called playpens anymore?  I guess people didn't like the idea of putting their kids in a pen.  Anyways, I sit her in her bedroom floor to get pjs out of the closet and she'll be under her crib before I turn around.  She really likes it under her crib.  And under Jason's desk.  And under the coffee table. 

She's in gDiapers now.  I love them.  They are so much lighter than our prefolds/cover combination.  Maybe that's why she's able to get around so fast now.  We also discovered Harps could be a baby model.  Scout's also coming around to her.  It's not like he didn't like her, but now he lets her crawl up and pet him. 

Seriously, aren't I cuter than the babies on the packs of diapers?

Still no teeth, though.

My April marathon has been canceled.  No clue why.  It was on the website one day, then not the next.  I can't justify going to Kansas just to run a half so maybe it is a good time to try for Baby MacGyver Chuck Norris Thundercats Snake Eyes Picard.  Not that we are having any luck with that yet.  I guess I'm going to have to find another race, but since I don't know if it will take us a month or a year to get pregnant, I don't want to lock myself in, you know?

I need a new camera.  I love that my iPhone has a video camera and it takes AMAZING pictures outside in full light.  But if it's not 100% bright in the house, the pictures come out grainy.  Suggestions?

6 Months

Today, my baby is closer to being a toddler than a newborn.  What the hell, time?  You had no problem stretching six months out while I was anxious to meet my baby.  You had no problem slowing the clock down when I spent weeks at a time hunched over the toilet.  But now?  Now that things are getting fun, you're speeding up. 

And it's not fair.

My tiny 8 lb 10 oz baby is 16 pounds now.  She no longer fits in her adorable newborn sleepers.  Rather, she's wearing people clothes, size 9 months.  Instead of staying still in one place looking all cute she's scurrying around the house chewing on cords (still cute, though.) 

Please slow down. 

At least until we hit the terrible twos.

5 Months

This is Why I'm a Mom

Baby Butt Woes

Before Harps was born, we decided to cloth diaper -- we didn't want chemicals sitting on her skin 23 hours a day.  But when we came home from the hospital, we were overwhelmed.  There are so many different styles and brands of cloth diapers.  We poured over the internet, but we still didn't know what we should buy. 

So for the first few weeks of her life, we used disposable diapers.  We splurged and bought the most expensive Huggies organic cotton diapers thinking that they'd be the friendliest to her sensitive little butt.  Her bottom got red.  We switched and tried Pampers Dry Max.  Her bottom looked like we had sat her in lye.  (Check out this other Pampers test.)  Since the most expensive disposable diapers we could buy were bothering Harper's butt, we tried Luvs.  Her bottom would be perfect, then within 10 minutes of having a diaper on, it would be red.

We broke down and bought cloth diapers.  We decided on prefolds and a mix of Thirsties and Bummis covers.

And we loved them.

Seriously, have you ever seen a cuter little butt?

Harper's butt was perfect.  The cloth diapers were so much cuter (and cheaper) than disposables.  They take all of 5 extra minutes a week to wash and haven't made any impact on our water or electric bills.  For three months, we went about our business and Harper's rear was as cute as ever.

Until this month.  Harper had a rash, and not just a my-butt's-red-from-the-diaper-rash.  We followed all the advice google could offer.  Harper started spending hours naked so her butt could air out.  I washed her diapers with superhot water.  We slathered her little bum with ointments, but it made no difference.  We put her back into the absolutely cheapest disposables we could find so we wouldn't ruin her cloth diapers with Desitin.

Harper's rash before treatment.

We finally took her to the doctor's and we were informed it was a yeast rash and given an antifungal.  She said she hadn't seen a baby in the last two weeks without a yeast rash just because it was so hot and humid.  She assured us that we were doing nothing wrong and that after a couple days with the medicine, Harper's butt would be as good as new. 

I went back to the internet and looked up all I could about cloth diapers and yeast.  The consensus was that I would have to boil the diapers then rinse them with vinegar so any yeast would be killed.  Obviously, I didn't want to reinfect her while we were trying to get rid of her rash.  We continued to use the $4/pack diapers while I sanitized every cloth diaper we had.  After a few days, her rash went away.  We happily put her newly cleaned cloth diapers back on her.  But two days later, the rash is back.

Harper's rash as of last night.

I don't know if it's because of the cloth diapers or because we spent the day outside in the heat and humidity. 

I really hope it's not the cloth diapers.  I love cloth diapering.  I could try to reboil/rewash all of her diapers and wipes and see if that helps, but I don't know what boiling them a second time will do if it didn't help the first time.  She's never had a problem with the cloth before.  I don't know why she would be sensitive to it now.  She was back in cloth a couple days before the rash reappeared.  Could it be that her diapers are fine, but what remained of her rash flared back up as soon as her butt hit the humidity? 

Do you guys have any tips for a yeast diaper rash?  How do you wash your diapers?

Summer Lovin'

Continuing with the trend of late posts...

Last week, we took the kids downtown to do a little sightseeing and buy Jason a new pair of shoes.  (Good Lord, he needed new shoes.)  The day started with Harper's 4 month check-up and shots, followed by a lot of errands, then we finally made it into Charleston.  I have to say I was pretty impressed with Harper.  Even though shots usually make her grumpy, she only cried once and we were gone for a long time.  Kaelin even kept the complaining to a minimum.  It seemed like everything was working out in our favor. 

Except the weather.

Weather guy said it was supposed to be sunny.

I checked the forecast before we left.  I checked it again on our way.  Sunny, hot, and humid (completely the norm for South Carolina).  Of course, as soon as we get downtown the clouds rolled in and the thunder started.  We had lunch, Jason got his shoes (the guy at the running store was an ass, btw) and decided to walk down King St to the water.  It's only about a mile each way, but it starting misting a few block into our walk.  Not knowing if it was going to stop or start all-out raining, we turned back.  I have to say, I was really disappointed.

This is the view we were missing out on.

Since we couldn't walk to the water, we decided to drive by and at least look at it.  But there was a parking spot!  Right there on the battery!  Yay!  We parked, got the stroller back out and walked along the river.  It was way too hot.  It was way too humid.  There was so much static electricity that our hair was standing up!

Lightning so would have struck her.

We were completely wiped by the time we got home, but it was definitely worth it!  I can't wait until our next outing.  Maybe the aquarium?  The beach?  A museum? 

Kaelin enjoyed it.

Harper wasn't nearly as impressed.

The single picture of all four of us together.

Love and Happiness

I know I haven’t been posting much on her because, well, I’ve been enjoying my family. I would apologize, but no offense to my wonderful readers, I’d much rather be hanging with the kids than sitting on the computer with you.

;-)

In all seriousness, the last few weeks have been great. Jason’s been crazy busy at work, but it’s made us appreciate the time we have with him all that much more. Kaelin’s out of school now and we’ve been having a blast with our mini summer homeschooling session. Plus, Harper’s getting to a really fun age (instead of the eat, sleep, poop newborn phase). So, I have lots to update about when I get a few minutes.

I also checked my blog stats this morning — and people are reading this blog! I mean, obviously, I don’t have the kind of readership that my favorite mommy blogs have, but it just amazes me that people are reading what I’m saying. Two Embrys started out as a blog for my family to see pictures of the kids so I get absolutely giddy everytime I log on and have a new comment. Seriously, if you are reading… leave a comment (unless you’re just going to tell me how much I suck)! I love the advice and information I’ve been getting from you guys. Thanks for reading and putting a smile on my face.

Until next time, I’ll leave you with some pure cuteness — a picture of Kaelin at 4.5 months (the same age Harper is now!)

Front facing car seat?  Oh, what I've learned in 8 years...

P.S. If you like my writing, feel free to mosey on over to my fitness blog, KUrunner. I try to keep most of the mommy stuff over here, but honestly, what mom doesn’t want to live a healthy lifestyle? (Yes, this is shameless self-promotion here. Sorry!)

P.P.S I think it’s safe to say that I might be over my little episode of depression! Yay!

4 Months

Brand New Jumperoo!

Not sure what I'm supposed to do here...

Hey, I can spin it!

Thank you, Daddy!

3 Months

2 Months

1 Month

Storm of the Century

Well, not quite, but Charleston, South Carolina actually has snow.  Not just flurries, but actual accumulation.  It's not much and I'm sure it will be gone by the afternoon.  Get this though -- the roads are COMPLETELY clear, yet everywhere is closed.  I really wanted Chick-fil-A for breakfast, too.

Check out the snow falling last night!

This might make it onto our Xmas cards.

Playing in the snow.

Scout didn't have nearly as much fun as Kaelin.