Smartphones, The Internet and Our Kids

We live in a technology-filled world.  I've mentioned this before a few times, and even talked about being a social media addict in a recent post, with the intention of backing off.  And I've done a pretty decent job at the backing off part.  The first few days I only signed onto Facebook two, maybe three times a day for less than 10 minutes each time, and I didn't touch my phone at all after climbing into bed.  Then we spent a weekend at a cabin with some friends, and I spent way more time than I should have on my smartphone out of pure laziness, which kind of rekindled the fire to be "connected".  So this week I've had to work on backing off again.  And I'm getting there.

It's not that I am anti-technology.  It's not that I despise the internet or the invention of social media or texting or any of that.  I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.  I just don't want it to take over my life like it has done with so many people.  I want to live in the moment.  I want to smell the roses and bask in the sunshine and enjoy my family and spend QUALITY time doing QUALITY things.  And although my computer and/or smartphone can keep me connected and updated with the world, I don't feel like it is time well spent (unless, of course, I am actually doing something productive, which would be an exception).

Interesting concept.....

I say all that (again) to talk about this.......I get Parents Magazine, and I've been reading a lot of articles and parenting blogs about the need that parents have nowadays to capture every. single. moment. of their child's life.  There are even commercials for it.

George Carlin even did a skit about parents who aren't really watching their children because they're too busy trying to capture the moment on their smartphones.  His advice?  Get the phone out of your face and actually WATCH your child.  And some of the parents' blogs I've read have talked about how they, too, have suffered from wanting to capture every cute and adorable moment so much that they have had to take a step back and actually LOOK at what they were really accomplishing.  They were collecting photos and videos of their child, but they weren't actually SEEING what was behind the lens.  If they didn't have those photos/videos, if for some reason they were erased, they wouldn't have actually seen a thing.

And I agree.  Granted, I am guilty of taking a billion pictures of Delano being cute and taking videos of him during funny or "milestone" moments.  And these pictures/videos often get posted on Facebook so that everyone else can ooh and ahh over his cuteness as well.  But I try not to live with my phone in front of my face, and I hope to consciously keep that at bay in the future as well.  And maybe this will be something that my kids can help decide on in the future - whether they want me to record any of what they're doing or whether they want me to leave my phone alone.  I don't know how it will all go down.  I will just have to wait and see what life is like when the time comes!

myphonemd.net posted this.....is that like WebMD?

Another internet-related issue regarding children that I've been reading a lot about lately is the fact that the photos/videos you post of your child could end up ANYWHERE.  In this blog post, one mom talks about how a potty-training picture of her child ended up on a child pornography website.  And another article was floating around a few months ago about how people can use the GPS tracking system attached to (some) photos to find out exactly where the picture was taken......as in, find out where you live, where you work, where your child plays, etc.  THE BAD GUYS CAN FIND YOU. 

I don't know anything about tracking a photo to its location, but I do know that when I use Google Images to find quirky things for my blog, I come across everything from commercialized photos to funny memes to personal photos linked to other websites/blogs that happen to mention whatever keyword I typed in.  For me (NOT a bad guy), this is often an awesome perk because I get to stumble across other mom blogs that I would have never known existed before.  And it's fun to think that maybe other moms out there stumble across mine and like it as well.  YAY FOLLOWERS!!  But on the negative side, this is really scary.  I want to share my photos and videos with my family, friends and followers, but in NO WAY do I want to put my family in danger all because of the convenience of the internet.  Some parents have opted out of posting pictures of their kids altogether.  And I get it, I understand it, but I also think that may be placing things in the "too paranoid" category.  Those children probably aren't allowed to do ANYTHING for fear that something bad could happen.  And I don't want to be like that.  I want to protect my children (which at times WILL require me watching them like a hawk), but I also want them to live life and I want my friends and family to be involved in our lives and feel like they KNOW us, even if they've never met us.  So I just have to be careful.

My next blog post will be more upbeat - I promise!  Back to pregnant bellies and babies.  The fun stuff.  :)

Which reminds me that I am 3 days late in taking my 27 week belly photo of Baby #2!  I'll go do that now.  Otherwise I will continue to forget!!

Cabin Trips and Climbing Stairs

This past weekend Lucas and I spent time with friends up in a cabin in the Nantahala Gorge between Andrews and Bryson City, North Carolina, which is only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Chattanooga.  The boys went fly fishing while the girls relaxed with the kiddos.  It was a GORGEOUS weekend with perfect weather and perfect temperatures.  We had BLTs for dinner Friday night (by default - the only restaurant in town closed before we got there, so we ate our Saturday lunch for dinner and ate there for lunch Saturday instead) and grilled steaks for dinner Saturday night.  Lucas opted out of fishing on Sunday, so he and I took Delano on a short hike to a nearby waterfall instead before we packed up and hit the road.

P.S.  The hike to the waterfall was straight down, and therefore straight up on the way back.  With steps built into the steep portions.  GOOD LAWD this pregnant lady thought she was going to die!

Staring at each other.

One thing I didn't even THINK about for this trip was the possible need for baby gates.  I thought to bring a portable high chair, but not any baby gates.  So of course one of the first things Delano did Saturday morning was CLIMB UP AN ENTIRE FLIGHT OF STAIRS.  This was a first, as he hasn't had access to the stairs in our house to try them out.  And then of course after that first time he wanted to climb the stairs over and over and over again.  I had to push a giant lounge chair in front of the base of the stairs to keep him from climbing them, as well as lay a dining room chair down in front of the stairs leading to the lower level to keep him from trying to go down, since there wasn't a door I could close.  It was successful, but every once in a while he would pitch a fit that his staircase was blocked.  Because life is hard and unfair when you're little.

Note to self:  Next time, pack the baby gate!

What?  Lily's trying to eat?

Another new concept that appears to have been added to Delano's life lately is the attachment to a "blankie".  The only item Delano has ever shown any attachment to so far has been his pacifier.  But a few days ago, while I was getting him out of his crib, he reached down, grabbed his soft blanket, shoved it onto my chest and laid his head down on it.  And now when he's tired he walks around holding it up to his ear, or wants me to put it on my chest while I hold him.  He doesn't cry for it (and he actually doesn't cry for his pacifier either right now), but if it's there, he's all about it.  Which means I should probably find another one to stash away as a backup in case this one ever goes missing!

Sleepy baby!

So the minivan is officially tagged and titled, and the tags on my Rav4 expire on October 31st.  So by the end of the month, I'll be a full-time minivan-driving mom.  I'm terrified of driving the van because it's so much bigger than my car (parking that monster = ahhhhhh!), but I'm super excited about all the space I'm going to have!  The stroller isn't going to take up the ENTIRE back space anymore, especially since I'll be carting around a double stroller.  And I'm excited about the keyless entry and electric doors.  And I'm excited about the heat/air vents throughout the back.  And I'm excited about how much easier it is to get Delano in and out.  I'm excited for EVERYTHING about it except driving it!  But ah well.  I guess I'll learn and it will become old hat in no time.  Right, minivan moms???  Driving it like a pro WILL happen, right???

It was never my dream to drive a minivan - I was definitely one of those people who said I would NEVER own a minivan - but it WAS my dream to have a bunch of kids, which is actively a work in progress.  :)

I have a week and one day left before I am officially in my 3rd trimester!  And I've been chewing Tums like candy for weeks.  Which I also did the first time around - I just don't remember when the heartburn started.  I'd have to check my journal, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't until I was well into the 3rd trimester.  But I definitely remember that it was BAD there towards the end.  As in REAL BAD.  My insides were ON FIRE from all the heartburn I was having, and the only thing I could pinpoint it to was the fact that I was existing (and pregnant).  I would have to sleep partially upright, because if I laid all the way down I would burp up what seemed like pure acid in my mouth.  It was horrible.  And I totally anticipate that it will be just as horrible this time around.  OH THE FUN.

P.S.  I just checked my journal from the first pregnancy.   It looks like I started to get horrible heartburn at night between 29 and 31 weeks, but never had to deal with it during the day. 

I'm ready for Baby #2 to get here!!  Well, I'm sort of ready.  I haven't gotten everything done quite yet that I know will be harder to do with two kiddos in the house (like getting the guest bedroom moved into the office), but minus my to-do list, I'm ready!  I enjoy being pregnant, but I'm ready to not be so exhausted anymore.  You moms of multiple children out there just laughed and I know why......obviously two young children versus one young child is going to be exhausting!  What I meant by that was that I'm tired of being physically exhausted, as in being out of breath after walking up just three stairs.  I'm ready to be back in shape and on the move again.  I'm ready to run!

How Does One Shop For A Pillow, Anyway?

I need a new pillow, because I don't like my pillow.  Problem is, I don't really know how to shop for a pillow since I don't know exactly what I want.  When I bought the pillow I have now, I thought it was what I wanted.  And before this one, I bought one of those flat (non-contoured) memory foam pillows, thinking that's what I wanted.  But it didn't really do anything for me, either.

The chiropractor I saw a while back wouldn't approve of ANY pillow bought at the store.  According to him, they are all bad for your neck and in turn bad for your back.  The pillow he recommended was like the one below, and you actually measure yourself for the right size so that it's at the right height to support your head while not hurting your neck.

I didn't order one.  They're pretty pricey at about $70.  But in retrospect, I guess for the amount I've spent on standard pillows over the years trying to find the "right fit", I could have bought one of these from the start.  Of course, I don't know if it's what I want/need, either!

So how does one shop for a pillow, anyway?  I get that it's easy if you know what you like.  You like a soft standard pillow?  Easy enough to pick out.  You like a firm feather pillow?  Just pick up the feather pillow that says "firm" on the package and go home.  But if you're not sure......what do you do?  I've tried laying my head on pillows on the shelf.  I've tried laying on them on the display beds.  Problem with that is that they all feel okay in the store.  I need to SLEEP with it to know if I like it. 

(My 13-year-old self just giggled.)

So my son has discovered his peepee, though he can't really see it due to his massive belly.  But now while in the bathtub he plays with it and pulls on it trying to check it out.  And my favorite part is when his hand shoots down to grab it when I'm changing his diaper.  Especially if his diaper is super nasty.  Fun times, people.  I try to tell him that there's no need to be groping at something he can't even see or understand right now, because he'll be spending a good portion of his lifetime playing with it and have AMPLE opportunities to check it out, but he doesn't care.  It's his peepee and he wants to play with it NOW.

Speaking of pee pee (the liquid kind now), for the first week of using the woolie diaper covers for overnight, we were still having occasional issues with leaks.  The woolie itself would be dry (because wool is crazy like that), but D's pajamas would still be wet.  Well, Lucas added a gdiaper cloth insert (which has hemp on one side and microfleece on the other) between D's cotton overnight diaper and the woolie cover and WHAM BAM not a leak since!  D's cotton overnight diaper and the added insert are always both soaked in the mornings as expected, but the woolie and his pajamas are now bone dry!  So I think (at least for now) we've finally found our perfect, successful overnight diaper combination!

I own a bunch of different diaper options and have more than I need, but HOLY COW.  The sad part is, I would be giddy knowing I had a closet full of that many options!

I found that pic above from a blog post called Signs of a Cloth Diaper Addict.  Pretty funny.  And obviously true for the person above.  Though I'm still jealous.

Something else Delano has been playing with lately is his imagination.  He stirs imaginary food in pots and his little kitchen dishes (granted, he's watched me do it so he's probably just imitating me and not really "stirring imaginary food") but what really made me smile yesterday was that all on his own he completely pretended that a block was a car, and he was "driving" it around and making car noises with it.  I didn't think that the imagination part of his brain......the part of pretending......came until much later.  He typically only associates items with exactly what he knows (or at least thinks) they are.  So I was pretty surprised to see him driving a block around.  But that's what we did right then - drove blocks around!

Finally - Delano has definitely decided I FEED MYSELF!  He still likes and wants pureed food along with table food, but he will FIGHT the spoon out of your hand to do it himself.  I always have to bring two spoons to the table now....one for him to use and another for me to use to scoop up all the food that drips off his chin to actually get it IN his mouth.  And sometimes he even wins the second spoon.  And just like any other kid learning to eat out there, he is MESSY.  At home, this isn't any big deal, because I just wipe down everything afterwards while he runs around and then either rinse him off in the sink or toss him in the tub (if it's more than the kitchen rag can handle).  But while we're out and about, it's a little more difficult.  I don't care that he drops/tosses food or gets messy.....I pick up his mess and am fine with him being dirty.  But I'd really rather not have pureed pears slung everywhere within a 5-foot radius at a restaurant, where strangers and furniture are likely targets.  And since I can't just take him out of the highchair and let him go while I clean up his mess, it's like trying to clean while holding an angry worm who wants DOWN.  Because now that he can walk, he always wants DOWN.  LET.  ME.  DOWN.

The picture does NO JUSTICE to show the amount of cereal that was everywhere, but he is covered in it from head to toe!

Country Music Half Marathon, Here I Come! And Budgets - Gross.

I am OFFICIALLY REGISTERED for the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon that I've only mentioned about 18 times in 18 different blog posts.

Yay!

So now it's real.  Well sort of.  It's still a long ways away.  And I haven't had this baby yet and therefore I have no current knowledge of how my training will go.  But at least it's in the books!  So I'll be there, even if I'm not ready for it!

Yesterday was Day 1 of my semi-sorta Facebook hiatus.  I allowed myself 10 minutes to browse Facebook in the morning, then when Delano went down for a nap I hopped back on ONLY to answer a Facebook message I had received requesting some information about a bartending job, in the late afternoon I hopped back on only to check my messages again to see if she had responded back (which she had), and then right before bed I allowed myself about 10 minutes to browse again.  I only browsed through Facebook from my phone when I hopped on last night, so I didn't once use my phone to check it all day.  Though I did post a picture to Facebook straight from my phone's photo gallery......that doesn't count, does it? 

I shared this one of D rocking his footie pajamas and tennis shoes.

It was difficult!!  I am SO used to browsing Facebook throughout the day, so it took some REAL EFFORT not to pick up my phone and check in.  I kinda feel left out already!  But on the plus side, leaving Facebook alone caused me to be more "present" throughout the day, which was nice.  Now I'm on Day 2, have already been up an hour and a half, and haven't yet looked at it once.  I'll give myself my allotted 10 minutes here in a bit, probably during D's nap.  I'm hoping that after a few days (maybe a week max), the oddness of not being on Facebook all day will wear off and I won't care.  :)

On a more sour note and total change of subject, I've come to the realization that my seriously SERIOUS budget requirements are now a reality.  I've talked about my future of serious budgeting in a previous post (I couldn't find which one it was to link it), given that once Baby #2 gets here I'll be even more of a stay-at-home mom than I am now, which means even less money coming in from my end of the money train. 

Whose budget jar has hundred dollar bills in it?  Not mine.

And it's not that I mind as much, believe it or not, that I won't have a bunch of money to blow.  I'm not much of a shopper (I just tend to eat out way more than I need to), and Delano and I do free stuff all the time.  As I mentioned in my last post, D and I love to go for walks and go to the park and spend time at the grandparents' house.  None of those activities cost any money, though I do eventually have to put gas in the car.  And yes I DID pay money for our memberships to the Creative Discovery Museum and the Tennessee Aquarium, but those memberships give us an option of something to do for an entire year and pay for themselves after about 2-3 visits.  So if we're ever searching for something to do, we can go to either one of those places for "free" (minus parking, unless we get lucky).  We could go every day if we wanted to.  But Mommy definitely doesn't want to.

What I mind the most is that my two debts aren't paid off, and that I won't be pulling in any major money to really put much of a dent in them anytime soon.  The first debt (the smaller of the two) is my credit card.  I paid it off several months ago, but it has gradually built its "you owe me, bitch" list back up.  Granted, when you look at the posted transactions from the past several months, the list looks a lot like this:

- vacation house rental deposit (no regrets there!!)
- vet
- gas
- vet
- vet
- flea medicine (ordered from Doctors Foster and Smith, which is the cheapest)
- heartworm medicine (vet)
- winter clothes for Delano (consignment)
- groceries
- gas
- insulin and needles (vet)
- vet
- gas
- vet
- a few more winter clothes for Delano (still from consignment)

There seems to be a theme.

The second debt is my school loan.  I still owe quite a large chunk on that one.  Not as much as some other former students out there, but enough that there's still no light visible at the end of the tunnel anytime in the super near future.  Unless I win the lottery or discover some long lost inheritance.

So basically, debt stinks and I wish I didn't have any.  The end.

I try to tell myself that it's just money and that now I just have to be more careful with it.  Live optimistically!!

Right? 

I Feel Like I Need to Disconnect.

Social media has only been around for a few years.  I take that back......being able to communicate via chat rooms and bulletin boards and what not has been around for quite some time.  But the current popular social media sites like MySpace and Facebook haven't been around all that long.  MySpace started in 2003 and Facebook started in 2004.  There have been others (Friendster is/was one), but these two were the ones that really hit the mainstream and made it big.

Maybe I should take that back, too........MySpace isn't exactly popular anymore, is it?

Oh and of course now there's also Twitter, which took off in 2006.

There seems to be a color theme........

I joined MySpace first, back in 2005.  And I became a SLAVE to it.  I loved sharing pictures and videos, updating my status, searching for people and reconnecting with old friends, playing with my background and layout, filling out surveys, changing the song on my page and finding cool things to put on my page (that would now be referred to as "apps").  A coworker of mine down in Florida told me about Facebook, and so I created my Facebook page at some point after that.  I can't even remember when that happened - 2006 or 2007, I guess.  And at first I didn't like Facebook, because it SO WASN'T MYSPACE.  But eventually Facebook won out and my MySpace page became obsolete, sometime between 2007 and 2008.

And I do have a Twitter account that I started maybe 2 or 3 years ago, but I never really joined the craze of Twitter like the celebrities and pretty much everyone else.  Every blue moon I get on there and tweet something.....usually about how I haven't tweeted in 6 months.  But then I forget about it and don't sign on for another 6 months........

P.S.  People get MEAN via Twitter.  Sheesh.  They get that way on Facebook, too, but not like on Twitter.  Twitter is a mecca for meanness.  HERE'S WHY I THINK YOU SUCK AND HERE'S HOW I'M GOING TO PUBLICLY ACT LIKE A CHILD ABOUT IT......hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag......good grief the hashtag craze is ridiculous and insane.  Some people hashtag the crap out of everything and I want to just be like, JUST CUT IT OUT ALREADY.  Or go ahead and hashtag, but pick one.  Not 40. #your5000hashtagsmakemeinsane

If you haven't seen the Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake Hashtag Video, check it out.  It's funny.  I posted it in a blog post because YouTube (social media strikes again!!) gave me that option.

Celebrities even end up on the NEWS for their tweets and hashtags.  If that's not ridiculous, then I don't know what is.

TMZ said that, ironically, Jimmy Kimmel's spoof about Kanye was over the fact that he acts like a child.  Oh and I'm sure Kim really appreciated the third tweet from the bottom in particular.

What was life like before social media???  It wasn't that long ago that it wasn't around, and yet I already don't remember what it was like not to have it at my fingertips.

So I've been feeling the need to disconnect lately.  I don't mean turn off all my electronics and move into the woods with nothing but a roll of toilet paper and a book of matches.  I just mean I need to stop feeling the need to check Facebook throughout the day all day every day.  I need to go on a diet from social media, basically.  From Facebook directly.  I don't have a MySpace or Twitter problem.

This is a real book.  I think it would be a good read!  Maybe it's at McKay's.....

I don't want to quit Facebook for good, because I use it for much more than just checking in on what my friends are up to (and look at their adorable baby pics).  I use it to network animals, whether they're lost, found or just in dire need of a home.  I also network stories of animal abuse, to try to get people to open their eyes and not be silent and at least contact someone (the cops, a shelter, a local rescue, etc) if they think/know abuse is happening somewhere near them.  And I don't want to stop doing my part of networking in that way, because networking animals REALLY saves a lot of lives that otherwise would never make it.

But I do think I need a break from social media, or at least teach myself how to check in once and then leave it alone.  Because as much "good" as social media can provide and accomplish, there's also an overload of drama and negativity and gossip and crap associated with it that I really could do without.

Social media is here to stay, and I know that.  And like I said, its networking capabilities have done a WORLD of good in so many ways.  But it's definitely an addiction, and devices like smart phones and iPads just feed right into it.  It's like how you used to drive an hour to buy your heroin......then your heroin became available right across town.....then it moved to just right down the street......then you were able to order it right from your computer......and now you can blink your eyes and have it appear right in your hand, because there's an app for it.  How convenient!

There are things I need to do on a regular, almost daily basis that require the internet.  I need to check my email.  I need to balance my checkbook.  I need to pay bills.  I need to blog (because writing/typing is therapeutic for me).  And I also need to work from my computer when I've been assigned a project.  I HAVE to have access to technology on a regular basis.  I CAN'T QUIT YOU, LAPTOP.

And I DO make an effort to focus on my son when he is awake.....I try really hard not to be browsing Facebook when he's interacting with me, though I do catch myself doing it during times when he is entertaining himself.  And Delano and I DO get out of the house and go outside.  We go for walks and swing at the park and play in the water fountains and run errands and do all sorts of things to get out of the house.  We're even members of both the Creative Discovery Museum and the Tennessee Aquarium so that we have fun indoor options for rainy days.  In fact, we leave the house just about every day of the week, even if all we do is go hang out at my mom's house for a few hours.  And on the few days we don't leave the house, we watch cartoons and Sesame Street and we hang out and we play with ALL the toys in the living room and ALL the toys in the bedroom and we definitely read ALL the books.  Parents know that you read ALL the books ALL the time. ALL. THE. BOOKS.

I'm not trying to sound like Mom of the Year, nor am I trying to brag about being involved with my child (or make anyone feel any less about what they do with their children).  Some moms ROCK SOCKS when it comes to arts and crafts activities, as if they were born with a Pinterest chip implanted into their brains.  I have YET to do anything artsy or crafty with my child, because he's currently satisfied playing with the same toys on a daily basis and I'M typically the one who gets stir-crazy and wants to leave the house for a change of scenery and/or conversation (I'm sure that will only come with time with Delano).  Plus that would mean I'd have to become crafty.  And other moms rock their socks off earning a paycheck all day and then come home and play Mom.  I'm simply pointing out that even though Delano and I ARE active and mobile almost daily, I STILL battle the Facebook addiction.

So it's time to quit you, Facebook.  At least those periods extending for more than a few minutes a day.  And I need to leave my laptop/phone ALONE when I don't have a purpose (like balancing my checkbook or writing a blog post).  And I definitely need to stop lying in bed browsing Facebook for an hour after I've gone to bed.  It just needs to stop.  And I know that I am going to have to go through withdrawal.  It's going to be HARD to not know what everybody's up to all the time.  It's going to be difficult knowing that I'm not crossposting all the animals I could be networking.  And I'm going to have to be okay with the feeling that I might be missing something good.  Because quite honestly, I'd really rather not care.  But that's something I'm going to have to learn.

Like any addict, even though "the addiction" typically convinces me that IT is what I'd like to be doing at any given time when there are other options, there are actually things I mentally know I'd RATHER be doing during my down time when Delano's napping/sleeping.

- I'd rather be sleeping.
- I'd rather be snuggling with the hubby.
- I'd rather be paying attention to the TV show/movie.
- I'd rather be organizing the future guest bedroom to get it DONE.
- I'd rather be re-velcroing the gDiaper covers I intend to sell, SO THAT I CAN SELL THEM.
- I'd rather be reading a book.
- I'd rather be working on reading my stack of magazines, SO THAT I CAN GET RID OF THEM.
- I'd rather be spending some time outside playing with the dogs.
- I'd rather be walking/running on the treadmill.
- I'd rather be getting life ready for Baby #2.
- I'd rather be doing many other things I can't think of at the moment, I'm sure.......

So I think October 1st will be my goal date to take a step back from the social media outlet and live my life, as one friend put it a while back, "more oblivious".

I like it.  :)

"#Hashtag" with Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake

Woolie Woolie.....Oh No, Me Gotta Go....Aye-Yi-Yi-Yi, I Said.....

Monday:

MY WOOLIE DIAPERS ARRIVED TODAY!!  YAY!!!!!

Just look at how cute they are!

I bought them off of Etsy from a shop called Lily's Dreams.  My hopes and dreams (possibly the same as Lily's dreams?) are that they solve all of Delano's nighttime leak problems.  I paid her to go ahead and lanolize them so that they'd be ready to go when they got here.  Delano's wearing one of them over his cotton Dream Eze nighttime diaper now, so we'll find out in the morning if I have a dry baby!

Tuesday:

It was success with the woolie!!!  Yay!!  He wore the one with the duck on the butt last night.  This morning the front of the waistband was damp from where it had tucked itself into his cotton diaper, but everywhere else was bone dry.  NO LEAKS!!  I think if he had had footie pajamas on (instead of just a shirt and the diapers), the waistband may not have scrunched its way down into his nighttime diaper.  The other diaper has a thicker waistband on it, so I think it is much less likely to bunch down.  But regardless of a little damp waistband, I'm impressed so far!!  Too bad I'm not crafty, because otherwise I could totally make my own wool covers.  But I'm not, so I buy ones other people have made.  I'm thinking Delano may "need" a pair or two of "longies" for the winter.  :)

Longies made by Lily's Dreams.

YES.

Delano and I visited the Tennessee Aquarium yesterday with my friend Amanda, her daughter Lily and her friend Eric who was visiting from Florida.  Delano really enjoyed it (THANK GOODNESS FOR SNACKS OR ELSE IT MAY HAVE BEEN A WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME) and also surprised me by flashing the sign for "turtle", which I hadn't even realized he had successfully picked up.  His sign isn't exactly right yet, but it's super close and I knew exactly what he was telling me!

For "turtle" you slide you hand back and forth over your thumb like a turtle head poking out of its shell.

I ended up buying an annual membership because it made sense.  I thought I'd have to invest in a family membership, but it turns out that since Delano (and future Baby #2) are under the age of 3, I only needed to buy an individual membership, which gets in me, the kids and ANY extra single guest (Lucas, my mom, a friend, a stranger) for only $85/year.  So for the next two years, we've got the hookup!

Delano's face when he saw the first fish tank.

How we spent the last portion of the day after the crackers ran out.

So a while back I talked about how I had been using cloth diapers and cloth wipes at home, but cloth diapers with disposable wipes on the go.  And I decided that since I use cloth diapers on the go, it didn't really make sense that I would use disposable wipes.  And I said that I was going to switch to cloth wipes.

Well I don't think I ever shared this info, but I switched.  Like the next day.  I went to Target and purchased a mini spray bottle from the travel-size section, mixed some wipe solution up in the bottle and stuffed a bunch of my cloth wipes into one of my medium Re-Pac Bags that I purchased with a Groupon last year.  As anticipated, when you're a cloth diapering mom, cloth wipes aren't any big deal to use on the go.  The only downside is that it takes a LOT of squirts from that mini spray bottle to get my wipe good and wet.  It's pretty much just easier to squirt the baby's butt instead of the wipe!  And I do have to admit, I still carry around disposable wipes.  They're just way more effective for cleaning food off of his hands and face since they're so much wetter.  But on the plus side, these are what I buy:

Of course, some people store their cloth wipes at home in a container full of wipe solution, so their wipes are always fully wet.  I don't need to do that at home because my spray bottle is really efficient, but if I could figure out how to successfully carry around pre-soaked wipes for on the go (in something that didn't leak or weigh 10 pounds), I could fully eliminate the disposable ones.  Hmm.......

I noticed today, while sitting in the floor facing the mirror in Delano's room, that my Old Navy maternity capri jeans have several holes in the crotch.  I wear these capris ALL THE TIME so it was inevitable that they would eventually wear out, but I was hoping they'd at least make it through this baby belly.  I went to buy another pair (I've got a $10 coupon AND I could have gotten 30% off today) but apparently capris are out of season.  So now I have to go so I can mend my crotch before bed.  Good times.  :)