Cutting costs and teeth. Awesome.

So, first can I just say, that teething is an ugly whore.  My normally happy, sweet baby is now a slobbering, snotty, fuss pot.  We have an amber necklace and some natural remedies.  It isn't as bad with those things and I get my normal baby back.  OH and he has learned to sit by himself.  Yeah, we are moving on up.  Developmentally he is on a 9 month old level at 6 months old.  He is a bit of an over achiever.  That means I need to step up the game on baby-proofing our death trap of a house as he will probably start crawling OR walking anytime.  That is an adventure for another day. 

Here is a picture that his Aunt Sarah took of him today after all of our shopping adventures.  We are lucky to have her around :)

Today I decided to continue with the "money saving plans".  We have been meal planning and building a shopping list around that.  So far, we have spent under $100/week for all meals, snacks and extras along with the base parts of meals for the next 3 weeks.  So essentially, we are spending around $40/ week on food when you break down all of the Costco stuff.  Also wine.  Wine is a grocery item that must be budgeted for.  For sanity purposes.  

Anywho, today I found a recipe for a make your own laundry detergent that is based around cloth diapers.  For a $30 investment I now have a TON of detergent that I will only use 1-2 tablespoons per load.  Here is the link: The Eco Friendly Family Cloth Diaper Detergent.

I got the ingredients 

Then proceeded to make my detergent

That is a 24 quart tub.  I am super excited to try this and let you know how I like it.  Yes, it contains Borax which has some controversy around it.  I have done some research, and as long as you double rinse it should be ok.  I will rate it after some use.  

I am really looking forward to the changes we are making in our everyday lives to help cut costs and live a little more responsibly.  We want to raise our kids a certain way, and this will help make that happen. 

On a side note, I am not 12lbs away from goal weight.  I have stopped weighing myself everyday, and cut down to once a week.  I am much happier now that I am not pressuring myself.  It's frankly, just not worth it.  

I am making a lovely Autumn Chicken and Pumpkin soup tonight for dinner that I must go see to now.  It looks very promising.  I spent $11 on the ingredients today so that makes it super awesome.  Here is the recipe for that: Autumn Chicken and Butternut Squash Stew.

  Also, there is a glass of wine calling my name.  Relax time.  

Until next time

Adventures in Baby Travel Part 2 Stage 2

Can I start by saying I had to look back and see what the heck I named this series of posts like 3 times before I remembered?  Crazy, I know.

So where did I leave off?  We made it to Ohio, Gabe was awesome.  We ordered pizza, hubby of the year went and picked up wine and we watched Big Bang and Glee.  Thursday done.

Friday...we wake up to Gabe crying, super unhappy, not himself.  His right eye is red, the area around it is red, there is something wrong with my baby.

I take him into the shower and rinse off thinking maybe it is an irritant.  It seems to help, he calms down so we move on.

We go get the tuxes and lunch with the crew, then the "guys" go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  I have to say, I really enjoyed it.  So did Gabe.  I did get some awesomely awkward looks while breastfeeding there by the guys walking around in jerseys talking about their fantasy leagues.  :)  Then we have the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Let me tell you about the rehearsal dinner location.  It was 356 Fighter Group.  A restaurant that is set up like a WWII bunker, sandbags and all!  In the bathroom they were playing propaganda recordings and there were plane pieces and memorabilia everywhere!  IT WAS SO COOL!  I realized how nerdy I am, and how much like my dad I am.  I could not have thought of a cooler place for a rehearsal dinner.  If we lived in Canton, Ohio we would have had our reception there.  Gabe fell asleep in his car seat while we were there and everything was pretty mellow.

Went back to the hotel, Hubster went out with the guys and I am proud to say, stayed out until 2:45am!  I really think sometimes he needs his guys.  This man moved out here to be with me and didn't have anyone other than me.  He has made some great friends, but I know that he misses his college buddies.  They are an amazing group of people and we are lucky to have some coming to visit this month :).

Anywho, Saturday, wedding day.  I fully expect Gabe to have some sort of breakdown during the prayer, or scream bloody murder when they are announced as husband and wife.  This has all gone way too easily.  How is this going to come back to bite me in the butt?  I have to say, my son yet again impressed me.  He was a perfect angel the entire time.  Got a little fidgety toward the end of the ceremony, but was fine.  Partied the night away at the reception and slept really well on the way home Sunday.

Seriously, it was an awesome weekend, but pretty uneventful on the traveling with baby front.  I know this post has been fairly boring, thanks for sticking with me.  I will have much better stuff to talk about next time.  We have some juicy stuff coming up... promise.....

Adventures in Baby Travel Part 2 Stage 1

Let me start by saying, my husband is my hero.  He not only puts up with my level of crazy ( which lets face it, kind of a big part of the "for better or worse" thing), but he takes amazing care of both myself and our son.  He was prepared to take this trip with a screaming baby, motion sick wife, and would never have thought to do it differently.  He, by far, does not get enough credit for what we put him through or what he does for us. So to Dan, thank you and I love you.

Now, on to the fun stuff.

My son is a rock star.  Not only was the 8 hour total trip out to Ohio completed with only 1 poop explosion, and 30 minutes total of unhappy, but, he went through 4 days of nothing close to his normal schedule, not getting to bed until late every night, AND a wedding with almost no issue, not to mention the trip back home where he slept most of the way!

This blew my mind!

Lets start with the trip out,  we wanted to leave by 9.  We left around 11:30.  We slept later than usual and said eff it, we will leave when we leave.  Our newest doggie son got out and we spent a significant amount of time looking for him.  Where was he?  At my parents house a half mile away, sitting in the driveway with a look of " took you long enough".  I am sure there will be posts later about his shenanigans.

We finally get on the road.  I am all set with a series of toys to cycle through as we go so that G doesn't get bored.  Plan worked like a charm!  He would start getting bored with a toy, I would switch it for a new and more exciting toy ( colored linked rings, something that lights up and plays music, etc).  He loved it!  Plus he could see out the back glass and would look at everything as we went.

We get into PA and realize we grownups needed a bathroom break and to refill our brita water bottles.  So in we go.  I am carrying G and keep smelling poop, not unusual for us, so I think nothing of it.   Meander into the bathroom, start changing the child, who has not made a peep at this point, and open up the unholy poop bomb.

For those unfamiliar with infant poop, very liquidy.  Very easily gets into places. Such as the back of onesies.  Typically we cloth diaper and have no such issues with poop, but as we are traveling and I can't do laundry, we had to use disposables. Now this would have been a poop that at home required naked time in a sink.  We are talking, all up the back,  But we are in a rest stop bathroom and homey don't play that.  I used up almost every wipe we had in the diaper bag ( had back stock for when we got there, no worries) and take the only dressed in a diaper baby out to Dan who is waiting for the pass off so I could go pee.  He instead hears, we need a new onesie.

Had I been a better planner, I would have had more in the diaper bag, but no, instead they are all in the suitcase, in the trunk, under everything else we packed.  So, we take things out, open the suitcase and are putting a onesie on G, in the trunk, in the suitcase.  We got looks.  We had people next to us jokingly (I hope) tell us that we shouldn't put the baby in the trunk.  We finally got the baby dressed and the car re packed.  Yes, I did put more onesies into the diaper bag then.  Then I think, if this was so bad in the onesie that I had to clean poop out of my kids hair (yeah, it was that bad) then what does the car seat look like?  I prayed the entire way to the seat.  Dear Lord, please oh please don't let it be as bad as I am expecting.  I get there, I look slowly.  There is poop.  It could be worse.  I clean as best I can with wipes and eventually throw a burp cloth over the infected area and call it good enough.  Parent of the year right here guys.

After poop outfit change( yay windmills)

Now I can FINALLY go pee and grab a coffee.  We get back on the road.  From there it was fairly uneventful to the hotel, G got tired of being in the car, hell, I got tired of being in the car.  We get there, check in, and my hero husband goes out, gets a bottle of wine, we order pizza and relax to Big Bang and Glee while sipping our vino, very classy like, out of paper cups.

Day 1-Done.

I will continue the story in part 2 stage 2 tomorrow.  Right now, I need to spend some time with my family.




                                        Gabe chillin in the bed, sittin like a boss

Adventures In Baby Travel Part 1

Friends, this Thursday, we are leaving for a wedding.  A 4 day long trip, 6.5 hours away by car.  With.a.baby......  Now, I know my son pretty well at this point.  I know once we get there he will be fine.  The issue in all of this is the dreaded car ride.

Most NORMAL babies are soothed and rocked to sleep by the gentle movement of the vehicle.  My kid? HELL NO! THERE IS STUFF TO SEE OUT THERE!  Therefore, we must gab to the trees, sing to the birds, chat with the clouds, and scream bloody effing murder when we realize mom and dad are in the front and not paying attention! ( I realize that was a lot of exclamation marks, yes they are necessary).

My child is wonderful in every way and I truly would not change a thing about him.  I am working on figuring out how to keep an almost 6 month old (holy cow when did that happen) baby occupied for a trip that I would have trouble staying occupied on.  Any suggestions from other moms/dads/grandparents/teachers would be SO helpful.  We have colored ring links that he adores, his tiger, an interactive moose  named Mortimer and as simple as it is, he loves playing with burp cloths.  Most of the time he gets the clean ones.  We have looked at books with him, and he loves that, when we are doing it with him.

Here is the second part to this, I get car sick.  I didn't have an issue with this ever before being pregnant, and now if I am in a car for more than 30 minutes, I feel like death.  It is 100 times worse sitting in the back seat. I am looking into any sort of natural, breast feeding safe way of handling this to make the trip not so terrible for my poor husband.  Any advice on that would be amazing again.

Once we get to our destination, I know things will go well.  I even got a new dress for this and frankly, I feel like I look good in it.  That is a big deal for me.

Now we come to the third part of this post.  Finding G something to wear to a wedding.  We have a lovely blue shirt/ khaki pant combo for the rehearsal dinner, but the tux I ordered for him is HUGE!  It says 3-6 month size on it, but I think it is closer to 12 month.  And the jacket would fit a toddler.  Plus, when I pulled it out of the bag, one of the buttons fell off of the vest, so it's poorly made on top of being large.  I had stupidly put all of my eggs in that basket, so to speak.  Now I am running around looking for something to dress my child in for this wedding and online at least, stores only carry the most ridiculous looking dress clothes for boys.  Girls have millions of dresses of all caliber, but boys?  Unless you want your wee one dressed as a sailor, newsie, or some sort of pastel short/overall type thing that I can't even identify as regular clothing, you should give up hope.  Oh, that is unless you want to spend $60 on a shirt he will wear all of maybe twice.  I am going to scour some more stores today.  Ross and TJ MAXX were a bust yesterday.

On a lighter, completely unrelated note, we have added to our family.  We now have a wonderful Airedale terrier mix named Tucker, who will officially be adopted today.  We started out fostering and he has fit in so well that we decided to keep him.

Look out next week for the part 2 of this adventure.  The drive to Ohio.  Wish us luck!