Tucker got 3 month photos on his 3 month birthday! Mother's day was right around the corner and I wanted to give my mom and Mrs. Pam some photos of this sweet boy...not to mention I wanted some photos for myself.  

I purchased a few photos, but I just couldn't get them all, obviously.  They sent me home with a CD and I was able to upload from the CD onto the computer, so here are a few that I actually didn't purchase but love!

 

Here are a few more- I have these in actual photos:

This one was especially for daddy! He loved it.

Hope your Memorial Day is memorable!

Cloth Diapering my way

Don't think I'm crazy, but I love my cloth diapers!  I had researched them a whole lot while I was pregnant and told J that it would be something that I would like to try.  He was resistant at first, but I think he is now glad that we did them as well.  I thought I would tell you a little about what I have found about the diapers that I have chosen and how they are cared for.

I honestly thought cloth diapering was a dying bread until I started researching them, and it's amazing how innovative and cute cloth diapers have become! I had convinced myself that the g-diapers would be the best option for us - mainly because they were SO cute!  That was my main focus on why I liked them.  They also had an option to put in a disposable insert when we were out, which I thought would make them more convenient.  I did not actually start using the cloth diapers until Tucker was almost 12 pounds.  I had several packs of disposable diapers I had received and thought that it might be too much of an overload if I started when I first came home with him - in hind sight I wish I had just jumped in full force about a week after we brought him home.

You will see the photos below of the G-diapers.  I loved that they had a "G" on the booty- like for Golding!  For us they were just not as easy to use as the other insert diapers, and I only used the ones I purchased maybe 4 times each.  They leaked within 20 minutes of me putting them on him.  Now I also have to say that the smalls, which is what I purchased, only go up to 14 lbs, and then you have to change to the mediums, large, and then x-large.  He may have just been too chunky to wear the size smalls that I had, but I got annoyed with having to change him and his outfit literally minutes after putting it on him.

The photos aren't the best, but you get the idea of what they looked like on him - I thought they were just adorable.  The last photo is how they work.  They are on the www.gdiaper.com website.  If you are wanting to cloth diaper, check them out! They are so cute, but they didn't work for us.  There are several reviews that I read though about people loving these more than any other diapers they had.

The diapers that I actually use every day are the Bumgenious 4.0 and the Charlie Banana one size.  I purchased the Charlie Banana as a last minute whim from Target.com.  They are very similar to the Bumgenious in that they also come with inserts for newborn and one for older children.  I have 12 Charlie Banana diapers and I have 8 Bumgenious.  This way I can do laundry each night and have enough ready for the next day as well.  

**I will confess that I didn't realize I have been using the newborn inserts for my Charlie Banana diapers instead of the correct ones and they were sometimes leaking on me - I'm very glad to have figured out my mistake!

I love my Bumgenious much more than my Charlie Banana's, and I can't really give you a reason why.  They are both so functional and I really love the fact that I can cloth diaper all my children with the diapers I currently have!  What an amazing relief it is.  The Bumgenious come with the option of snaps or with Velcro.  I purchased 2 Velcro ones thinking they might be easier to figure out (from a scared beginner mom's point of view), but then realized that these probably won't last more than one baby, so when I purchased more, I went with the snaps.  I think they are so cute on him and I really like the snaps the best of all.  My Bumgenious have still yet to leak for me - that's pretty amazing!  These are all just my preference on the diapers and I know there are several other types of brands out there.  I was told by a friend of mine about Sun babies, and they look identical to the Bumgenious, but MUCH cheaper - I would really like to try these as well.  There are also so many other options out there -- If you are wanting to start cloth diapering, research several different types and figure out what works best for your family.

Cleaning -

To clean all the diapers, I run them through a cold rinse (dirty and all- this can be done until they start solids).  I then run a hot/cold wash and this is when I add detergent. I use Charlie's Soap which you can order online.  I occasionally add vinegar in the final cold rinse about every 3 or 4 times I wash them -- this keeps them stripped and smelling fresh.  I also throw a little Oxy Clean into the washes sometimes - I think it helps get them a little cleaner.  They are very easy to wash, and when Tucker start's solids, I have a diaper sprayer hooked to the toilet that I will spray down the diapers and then add to the dirty diaper pail. 

One thing I didn't learn until too late was that you can't use just any type of diaper rash cream for cloth diapers - especially AD&D, Desitin, or Butt Paste.  I use California Baby, which is safe for the baby and the diapers.

I have to leave you with this final picture - I think it might be my favorite!  He was so sweet and happy to be out and about early on a Friday morning with his mommy!!  Hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Bath Time

Tucker loves bath time.  When we first brought him home, I didn't put him in the bath until his um-biblical cord fell off, which took about 8 days.  His first two baths he screamed like we were trying to drown him (which we obviously were not!), and he would cry from the time he touched the water until 5 minutes after we had him out and dressed.  I couldn't handle that - it made me so frazzled, so I waited until J got home one night and asked him to help me.  Amazingly, J was the key.  Tucker just sat there as J spoke to him and made him smile and laugh.  I decided that day that daddy was the official bath giver at our house. 

He loves bath time now and just smiles and kicks his legs- I know that when he gets in the big tub for the first time we probably won't be able to get him out!  Here are a few photos of our bath time.

Weather

Wednesday's weather here was terrible!  Tucker and I made a palate in the closet and played there most of the morning...it was raining so hard that I couldn't even see out our window in our bedroom - he never knew the difference!  When I got out of the closet and looked out our front window this is what I saw...and this was actually pictures I took about 15 minutes after I got out - because J asked me to send him one so he would know what to expect when he got home.  I was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get to us because the water was up so high and it looked like it had completely wiped out our driveway over the creek, but thankfully it did not, but there were some amazing photos from it.  Our entire front and side yard was pretty much under water.  It burst our water line and I heard something pop in the house - thinking it was a water line inside, I turned off the water supply in the house and that's when I went out and saw this...the craziest thing I've seen in a long time.  Thankfully we had no problems and the water line was an easy fix, so we had water back on late last night.  I'm so glad I have a handy man to fix things around our house!  My dad came out before J got home, and when J got off, he and Mr. Mike came to look at everything and see what needed to be done.  The main problem was that we had several really large limbs stuck in our culvert, and our sweet neighbor, Mr. Dowdie came over with his tractor and helped pull them out with his front loader.  It was great because as soon as they got a few limbs out, it really started to clear out the debris and we realized that it was a tire stopping everything up.   

We also have 4 fields that back up to our property line and run the length of the main street to our house.  They were all completely underwater and looked like a lake. I meant to take a photo of them but when I remembered this morning, they are already back down.  It was so much rain that there was just no where for it all to go.  See the photos below - thankfully this was not too bad of a storm and everyone was safe.

I can't believe how terrible it was for so many other people though.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.

I didn't last long...

So I knew that going back to work was going to be tough, but I had no idea.  I work an hour from my house, so having to leave, drop off Tucker, and get to work (with a feeding in between) was taking me over an hour and a half.  Doing this both ways is a total of 3 hours driving along with 9 hours at work = 12 hours without my little man.  Needless to say I didn't last long. 

I put my two weeks in and I'm actually working until the middle of May two days a week just to help them out until they find someone.  I enjoyed what I have been doing over the past year, but it's just not justifyable in staying for many different reasons.  But, I have to say that I truly admire you working moms -  I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT.  It wears me out doing it just two days a week.  I can't imagine how useless I would be doing it 5 days.  It's so different when you are up for night time feedings, and then working during the day, and coming home to take care of a family, and cooking dinner.  I have a whole new respect for moms who work full time and care for a family full time...Thanks mom!

I am thankful that Jonathan agrees that it will all work out with me staying home - and I know that it is going to be tough, but that's exactly what we will be doing - Staying Home!  I won't be going and coming a lot - we will be coming up with fun activities to do around our house and enjoying our time together as our children grow up.

It's amazing just how quickly Tucker is growing...this past weekend (April 16th) he found his tongue.  He obviously had it all the time, but he has realized that it does cool things and that he can stick it out, which makes him laugh.  It's so fun to see all the little changes, but they are all coming so quickly - I wish time could slow down just a little!  He is also finding that his fingers have more than just one fist - and they actually come apart.  It's hilarious to see him catch a glimpse of his hand as it goes by and start starring at it like he's never seen it before.  He has started sucking the fingers separately and really likes having them in his mouth.  I just want to freeze time so we can remember all these fun little things he does!

Also, last Friday, April 22nd, we held something for the first time!  He was in his carseat because we were eating dinner with a friend, and he reached over and picked this up from me! It was so sweet and I couldn't believe just how big he is getting.  I think he looks a lot like me here - but that's just an every once in a while thing.  The bigger he is getting the more I truly see his daddy in him.  What a sweet boy!

The Week of First's

This has definitely been a week of firsts for us! On Friday we had our first outing, Sunday was our first day at church (with Tucker), Monday was my first day of work, and Tuesday we had our first set of shots (our 2 month check up).

Last week was Mrs. Pam's birthday, so we went to Savannah to shop and have lunch- there were several of us who went - Mrs. Pam, Grandmother, Katherine, myself and Tucker, and then also Aunt Nancy, Jenny, Lauran, and her two girls, Emmie and Ellie. We had a great time - shopped and ate at Uptown Cafe. Here are a few photos from lunch. It was Tucker's first official outing, so I wanted to make sure we had photos to document it.

I had not planned on keeping him infor so long, but Emmie got RSV and I decided we shouldnt chance it. The only places Tucker had been before then were the Gilland's, the Golding's, and the Clark's.

Sunday we took Tucker to class with us. We have been going the past few weeks, but knew we couldn't take him just yet, so Mrs. Pam offered to keep him in the car because she does not have a class at 8am, so she kept him and then went to service once we were out of our life group class. It was neat to get to take him, but I think I was so worried that he was bothering people. I'm going to have to get over this though - he was very quiet and I don't really want to put him into the nursery until 12 weeks, so he'll be with us the next 4 weeks in class and service....hopefully it will go smoothly!

He was in the sweetest little church outfit - I just loved it! He is just so handsome...

 Tuesday we had his two month check up. He had to have his vaccination shots, so it was a rough visit. He also was weighed - he is 14 lbs and 7 oz. He is also in the 76th percentile for his height and 51st for his head growth. He is growing up so quickly! I just can't believe it. I asked the doctor about his acid reflux because he seems to really be spitting up a lot and choking on it...which obviously makes me very nervous. She said it's probably just that he isn't burping enough and is very hesitant to give him anything for it - which I'm glad. So I will be really trying to wake him up and burp him after every feeding instead of trying and giving up and letting him sleep when he doesn't burp. He also received all those sad shots today. He was so good - he obviously cried when she gave them to him, but as soon as I picked him up he stopped. I nursed him and he went straight to sleep and slept for a good while. Here are a few photos to document his visit: