August 21, 2009

It's Official!

I got the paperwork from the state saying SON up till SON down Designs can be open for business, and that I can charge sales tax for the state of Iowa. I can't believe how fast I got the OK! Now I really have to get my butt in gear!! I made a one size fitted diaper yesterday during nap time, and have an AI2 started (John Deere per Trevor's request). PUL and bamboo velour arrived in the mail yesterday, I am quite excited to use it all up and oh my is that velour ever so soft! 
Just finished Trevor's (and Ethan's) John Deere AI2

August 19, 2009

More diaper talk ...

I have been keeping quite busy. In my quest to be a stay at home mom, but also help out a little bit financially as well as have something I can call my own I have come up with SON up till SON down Designs. My love for being crafty and sewing combined with my silly obsession of cloth diapers is what brought this on. I have been taking care of my boys and my house and when I get a bit of free time I am sewing diapers. I have been trying out different patters and am a tester for a one size pattern right now. I hope to get that test diaper made today. I have created a website for my business and hope to find (and license if need be) a diaper pattern that I really love soon. I am really liking the Hippy Hippy Snap pattern, but I have a few more to try out before I make a final decision. I would love some feedback on my website, as it is a work in progress and any advise to make it better is much appreciated. Here is the link: http://web.me.com/sonupdesigns

These are my latest diapers I have sewn:

Hippy Hippy Snap, size small fitted
Super Front Snap, size small AIO
Super Front Snap, size Medium AIO

Yesterday was laundry day (diaper laundry day!), and here are my lovely dipes hanging out to dry:



August 14, 2009

Quick Work-Out

Ted has been working on a pretty big project at work, so I missed out on 2 days of kettlebells this week. I decided to do a quick workout at home today, and thought I would share in case anyone else would like to try it out. It is only 15 minutes, so everyone has enough time to do this workout!

Set your timer for 15 minutes and do as many rounds of these 5 exercises as you can:

1) 10 push-ups
2) 10 v-ups (or any type of sit-up you prefer)
3) 20 mountain climbers (10/leg)
4) 10 burpees
5) 10 sqauts

Now go work-out!

Wanted to add that I got 8 rounds in, your body can do amazing things IF you set your mind to do it...

Cookie Monster

I haven't really blogged about Trevor, so I want to write down something he said that gave me a good smile the other day. The title of the blog is Trevor's alter ego, he is most certainly the 'cookie monster'! He has a sweet tooth like I have never seen before. He will scale the pantry to get to the cookies that I try to keep out of reach. I just had to explain about Trevor's tremendous sweet tooth, otherwise what he said would probably be cute but you wouldn't really find it funny.

It was Monday morning and Ted was off to work before the boys woke up. They ALWAYS want to know where daddy is when they wake up. Landon asks were he was and I explain that it is Monday and that daddy works on Monday. Landon then asks me what days daddy doesn't work. I explain to him that Saturday and Sunday daddy stays home and does not work. Trevor is listening and chimes in "cookie dough sunday!" I love it, the cookie monster strikes again! I honestly think he thinks about candy, cookies, icecream...SUGAR...about 70% of the day, the other 30% he is thinking about tractors, lawn mowers, hay mowers, and combines.

One big turd, and lots of little turds

I have been meaning to blog about this for a few days now. It is a little on the 'eeww' side of things, but I find it just too funny to not write about it. Landon has been going on the potty for almost 6 months now. He does it all on his own, but likes to get some help wiping after he goes number two. I will ask him if he is done, usually he says no. When he finally is done I will go in and help him wipe and he needs to use the spray to make it smell good, because he starts gagging. Gagging to the point where I think he might puke. Then he says, "Mom, I did one big turd, and lots of little turds." You can tell by the way he says it that he is quite pleased with himself. 

We were over at my cousin Bree's the other day for a fun play date and Landon had to go poop. He comes out and tells Bree in a 'I'm too cool' type of voice, "I did one big turd and lots of little turds." How can you not laugh about that!!

What a BEAUTIFUL sound!


My baby boy laughed for the first time today! It was one of the sweetest sounds I have ever heard. So crazy that hearing my children laugh can actually brings tears of joy to my eyes. It is just such a pure and innocent sound that is filled with 100% happiness. It really doesn't get much better than that!
I will add pictures of the little man latter today, because he is officially 12 weeks old today! Here are the pictures (so far), and of course my cloth diaper obsession took over and I decided to take one of him at every diaper change today (I didn't get his first diaper change of the day, but he was wearing a green gro baby):
Size small Bottombumper AI2
Bumgenius Organic AIO
Gro Baby
Size small Bumgenius AIO
Another size small Bottombumper AI2





August 12, 2009

The Power of the Sun

I started cloth diapering in the toddler stage, so I was not familiar with exclusively breast fed poo and how easy it is to clean and how easy it is to cloth diaper a baby that is exclusively breast fed. I was familiar with how easily it stained! I had heard about sunning in the ever so addicting Diaper Swappers forums, so I tried it on my toddlers diapers to find it didn't really get the stains out. I thought I must not be doing this right and there certainly must be some type of trick to this sunning thing.

Then Ethan came and so did those big yellow, breast fed poop stains. I tried the sunning thing again, and this time was amazed at what the sun could do! Now when I notice a stain in my clean diapers that are out of the dryer I just lay them out in the sun and they vanish! Just to give you all a visual of this miracle check out these two pictures taken only about an hour apart (and yes this is the same diaper insert):

August 11, 2009

Sewing

I really enjoy sewing. I was one of those little girls that would sew outfits for her barbies and baby dolls. I have always enjoyed crafts, drawing, pretty much anything artistic. Around when Landon was born I got into quilting and enjoyed it very much, I still have 'quilts in progress' that I haven't touched in about 2 years. I am now trying to do projects that don't take a lot of set up or create a mess that needs to be cleaned up every time I do it, quilting tends to be this way. This is one of the reasons that I picked up knitting and crocheting. I can easily pick up whatever I am working on and crochet or knit for 10 minutes and set it right down any time my boys are in need of attention. The other reason I started knitting and crocheting was to make covers for my boys' cloth diapers.

That brings me back to sewing. I finally sewed my first cloth diapers! One night after the boys were all sleeping I got a hankering to cut some fabric that I have had sitting around for over a year to sew my own diapers. I had no pattern so I basically just winged it and drew my own. Then I cut out about  ten of these. When I got a little time yesterday I set up the sewing machine and just started sewing how I thought it should be sewn. I don't have any PUL or waterproof fabric so the diapers I made are fitted diapers and they will need a cover. They actually turned out pretty decent. The first one I made was just a bit too small for Ethan (probably would fit if I put snaps on it, but I don't have a snap press or snaps), but the second and third actually fit him quite nicely. Not to mention that I think they are pretty cute! Trevor saw them on the table and got all excited saying, "New didies!" and then proceeded to take a diaper off of the table and lay down on the floor for me to put it on him. I think I better get a few in his size sewn up, because these ones I just made are way to small of him.

August 10, 2009

9 to 5

The title of this blog entry does not pertain to daytime hours, but night time hours. This has been Ethan's sleep schedule the last 3 days, and .... it .... is .... AWESOME (for lack of a better word)!!! This little guy makes my life too easy, but I will take it in a heartbeat. Of course there is always a drawback to Ethan taking 8 hour stretches of sleep. What drawbacks could their possible be, you ask. Um, well if you have ever nursed a child you probably know what this drawback is. I woke up the first night just soaked and in pain at about 3 am, so I was awake on and off for about two hours before Ethan woke up. I had not had to wear pads at night (I never wear them during the day, and am contributing this to my breast shells...man I love those things), so that first night my shirt was soaked and I was laying in a small pool in my bed. On top of that I was in pain, and the girls were hard as rocks.

The next night comes around and I remember to put pads in right before I went to bed. I had gerber light flow ones in my bedroom, so that is what I used. Again around 3 am, I woke up  and was quite wet and leaking milk. The light flow pads didn't even really touch this kind of flow. Last night was the third night of Ethan sleeping from 9pm to 5am, and this time I used some heavy flow pads. They helped but I still leaked. Oh, and I don't think I mentioned that Ethan only eats on one side at a time. That means that it is actually about 10 hours between feedings for 'the girls'. 

I will take this type of pain any day. Both Landon and Trevor never slept like this until they were about a year old. Trevor would nurse three times a night still at 6 months old, so with Ethan only nursing once, and technically sleeping through the night I feel quite lucky!

August 6, 2009

Wow, 4 Years!



Four years ago, on this date, I married my soul mate. It has been almost eleven years since our first date. I was a mere fourteen years old on that date, and by fifteen I was madly in love. With our busy day to day lives, I don't tell Ted enough how incredible he is. So today, on our anniversary, I am taking the time to let him know just that.

Ted,

Thank you for so many things. Thank you for loving me so unconditionally. Thank you for being my rock, the one person that I can always lean on and let all my guards down. Thank you for always believing in me and encouraging me. Thank you for all of the hard work you do to provide for me and our sons. Thank you for coming home from a long day at work and then cleaning the kitchen (you know how much I despise doing dishes!). Thank you for telling me 'I Love You' every morning and every night. Thank you for being an amazing father. You are my best friend, my true love and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for choosing to share this life with me.

Love Always,
Nic

August 3, 2009

Mmmm, MILK!

My little Ethan is a booby baby. I make milk, he drinks it. This is going great and I truly am thankful for him being such a good nurser. But this blog entry is not about Ethan, it's about Landon. First I must start out by explaining how I came across these Avent Breast Shells while I was pregnant with Ethan, naturally I thought I must try them. They collect milk on one side as I feed Ethan on the other. They are truly amazing, and a must in my book but that is a completely different blog entry to write about.

Back to Landon. It turns out he really enjoys breast milk. You read correctly, he has taken a liking to 'your (as in my) milk' as he calls it. If I set the breast shell down and turn my back, when I turn back I see Landon drinking it. He has become a breast milk snatcher! Here are a few things he has said over the matter:

"Mmm, that's some good milk you make Mom"

"Can you make more of your milk for me?"

"Your milk is good for me"

I'm not exactly sure what to do about this, so far I just get some good laughs out of it. Oh, and of course little brother sees big brother and wants to do the same. Meaning Trevor wants to drink it too. Landon drinks it all and then hands it to Trevor so he gets the last drop. Just another ordinary day at home. I feed Ethan, go do something quick, go back to get the shell to put the milk in a container and into the fridge, find the milk is gone and Landon asking for more.