how she sleeps

I've put lots of pictures up (blog, facebook) recently about how much of a bed hog Xaris is. It's impossible to get much sleep with her next to you, so I rarely share the bed with her, but there are occasions when she just has trouble falling asleep, or wakes up just a bit too early and will snuggle in bed for another hour or so.

I don't believe I've shown anyone yet how she falls asleep though. This is her new habit--she does it most nights to fall asleep!

Yep! Folded hands! Every night!

Most of the time the last thing we have done before she falls asleep is pray, so it could be for that reason. I kind of think it's just because it's something she's learned how to do recently and has made it her habit. Anyway, I think it's sweet. She often wants me to hold her feet while she's holding her hands so she can fall asleep.

If I ever need a picture of a little girl praying, I'll just rotate and crop this one!

new skill

X has shown that she is perfectly capable of blowing her own bubbles. Now if she could only manage to hold the bubble container without spilling it all...

DFW-STL-IND-DFW (part 3)

Indianapolis!

Since Indy is only about 3 or 4 hour drive from St. Louis, and my friend Kay (from missionary in Chile days) is on home assignment this year with her family, we took advantage of being only a few hours apart instead of a 13 hour plane ride apart! Xaris and I hitched a ride from another pastor who was driving through Indianapolis after the conference, and stayed with Kay and Leo, their two kids Sofia and Ben, and Kay's parents (Jane and Bill) until Tuesday afternoon. It was a wonderful time!! Sofia is 2 months younger than Xaris, and they had only met via Skype.

We got a bit spoiled too, wonderful home-cooked meals, a trip to the Indianapolis Children's museum for the girls, and Xaris got a bath-time buddy! Plus Kay and I got to do a lot of catching up.

Xaris also got to sleep in a big-girl bed (one open side) for the first time! The first night she didn't sleep well, but that was also because she had woken up on the floor and was fussing so I took her downstairs so she wouldn't wake up Sofia and Ben (next room over)...and that woke her up more. She ended up only wanting to sleep in my arms for the next several hours--neither of us got great sleep that night! Next night she did just fine.

The girls got lots of fun bath time together

Pouring and dumping...

And smiling and giggling. Xaris' trademark finger-in-bellybutton in this shot...

The Children's museum was a lot of fun. For some reason we only got really serious faces for a lot of pictures--maybe the girls were just so focused on play? Because they did play! They enjoyed it, even if the pictures don't show it!

Water tables!

Rock-Climbing!

Sand Tables!!

Babies in a box! (glimpse of smiles here--they loved banging on it)

Sharing

X's first time on a carousel. She stared the whole time, not even cracking the tiniest glimpse of a smile--SOOOO serious. But as soon as it ended she was asking for more and didn't want to get off.

And Here's a Smile! There was a Dora and Diego exhibit at the museum--so she ran right over to Boots!

Playing together with their new toys (we got them each the same Dora doll for their upcoming birthdays--so they'll have the same toy when they are continents apart).

Bye Sofia!! We love you! (you too Kay, and Leo, and Ben)

DFW-STL-IND-DFW (part 2)

Playdate in St. Louis!

Keren and Charlie were able to come pick us up and take us to the zoo and a park and then dinner during free time on Saturday! It was wonderful to spend the time catching up--as Keren said "This is what it's supposed to be like" (or something like that..."this is what it should be?" you get the point, right?)

Made me wish even more that I lived so much closer to dear friends so playdates like these could happen all the time.

Keren had a great system for getting two toddlers in a single-jogging stroller!

Exploring the yucky gum stuck in the turtle statue...

I really didn't have a lot of shots from our play time unfortunately!

Did you get any good ones Keren?

Thanks for playing with us Charlie!

DFW-STL-IND-DFW (part 1)

Our trip was great! Here are highlights. I didn't bring the camera since I was traveling by myself with Xaris. Car seat, Suitcase, toddler, and carryon bag was plenty to worry about, so I tried to pack as light as possible. I did take a lot of cell phone pictures though, so here's our trip!

St. Louis.

View from our hotel room!

Started the trip out right--nap time!

Loaded up with snacks and stickers and books, she's ready for the first plenary session

X really did a remarkable job. I was able to attend the entire time for 4 of the plenary sessions (about 2 hours each?) plus 1 whole and 1 half workshop. She was incredible!

Really...incredible!

So we skipped one workshop and went across the street to run around the arch.

reunion

Xaris got to play with Marshall and Jack again last month!

We've missed Marshy and his parents (and brand new baby sister we just got to meet!) since they moved about 5 hours away. It was lovely that they came back for a visit during their spring break and we all met up at Jack's house for pizza and playtime.

Let's all run around crazy!

We actually got a pretty cute picture of the three of them! (you should see how many failed attempts are on our camera).

Marshall's still about double X's weight, although she's catching up in height (finally!)

Hugs on my head from Marshall?

X doesn't look too sure about those head hugs from Marshy...

He's certainly full of love, what a sweet boy! (both of them, actually). We miss you Marshy!

sick again

Yep...we got the crud again. This time round I was a little more aggressive with getting treatment for all of us. When Xaris had to change antibiotic again this time I had words with her pediatrician about not letting her illnesses linger, at least while I'm pregnant and have very little options for treating it when I get it. I can totally understand why it's important to not go to the strongest drugs first unless it's absolutely necessary--but this is twice in a row that Cephalexin hasn't worked for her. If she gets sick again, I'm refusing it for another antibiotic so hopefully she'll get healthy and we'll stay healthy.

When Ric and I got sick, we went to CareNow instead of our own Dr. SOO much better. I was in and out in less than an hour, instead of the long waits and 2 visits that my Dr. seemed to require in order to take care of my bug. Ricardo left CareNow with an antibiotic, cough meds, and steroids, and within a day he was feeling better--instead of the 3 days of missed work last time around.

Now--it could be that this is a lesser infection than what we got last time around? But sick feels like sick, and I'm not being very gracious anymore--I think it's time to change Drs!

We're back on the road to health...X is sleeping well again and obviously feeling better by her amount of energy and her playing. Ric's been at work all week, and I have too, although I'm still lagging behind in my recovery. I was the last to get sick though, so the last to start the antibiotics.

Anyway...Hopefully we'll be back to good FOR GOOD soon. I'd like to post pictures from a dinner we had with our friends John, Debra (and Marshall and Lucy!) and Mark, Leslie (and Jack), but we left our camera at Mark and Leslie's house, so it'll have to wait.

Instead, I'll put up a poll--it looks like I'll have an ultrasound around the end of April, so you can post your votes now about gender. I'm not giving you any hints yet :) Maybe I'll post some later on!

on the condition of cloth diapers

So here's a question:

for all of you using cloth diapers, how are they holding up?

Now that we're approaching the 2 year birthday of several of our bumgenius 3.0, I'm starting to notice their age and wear, particularly in the velcro. So I started wondering about how everyone else's are holding up? And what routines do you follow for the cleaning, laundering, care of these diapers?

Now that Boo-Rod 2 is on the way, the plan is have X totally out of diapers before baby's arrival. And most of the diapers are holding up pretty well, but the laundry tabs (where you fasten the velcro to wash the diapers) are shot, so each load I do I end up pulling diapers apart from each other, making the velcro fuzzier and fuzzier. There are a couple that I'll probably replace. Or if there's something totally revolutionary and new out there that you have discovered, please share!!

Here's our diaper care routine:

Wet, dirty diapers go in pail in bathroom (if it's dirty, we spray it off with diaper sprayer, then spray on a little bac-out).

Every other day, all diapers get washed, first in a cold soaker wash with bleach and either All Free, or Charlie's soap, and lots of water.

Second round: hot water + a little more soap.

Third round: hot water rinse. Sometimes I do this twice.

Dry on low heat (in summer, they dry on the line).

Then I pull out a tangled, velcro-y mess of diapers and begin to pull them all apart and fold them together.

Any suggestions or variations in your results??