Free Printable Invitation Templates

I am already planning Penelope's 1st birthday party and I came across this awesome site that offers free invitation templates to download. I was super excited to find this site and find this invitation. It is exactly what I was looking for and the designer even posted that anyone could email her if they needed a different color. I need one in hot pink, purple, orange and green. I am already so excited for her party!! Last month, Micheal's was having a half off sale on their gross grain ribbon and I got a crap ton in those four colors. I am bound and determined to have an affordable, but beautiful 1st Birthday for Penelope!

The Birth Wars

I love the first paragraph of this article:

"Mention that you are planning a home birth and it might be as if you had just brought up Sarah Palin or Palestine: brace for family feuds, public denunciations, and offhand remarks that imply you are selfish and stupid, your midwife is a quack, and your unborn child is a victim already in need of social services."

It resonated with me, because an all out family war practically started when we announced we were having a home birth. My aunt was the most un-supportive, she herself having two cesarean births for "big babies." Only after I birthed Penelope, all 9 pounds, 1 ounce of her, safely and WITHOUT tearing, did she say she may possibly rethink her stance on whether home birth is safe. The rest of our family came around while I was pregnant, partly because the numerous emails I sent them referencing all the studies that show that home birth is safe for healthy, low-risk pregnancies.

I also got lots of "wow, you are so BRAVE!" and I thought that was interesting too. I didn't feel that I had an extra amount of courage than the average woman. I didn't feel like I had special powers that others did not. This is another article I like, titled Home Birth: Brave Has Nothing To Do With It.

What your experience like if you planned a home birth?

Baby Yoga: In and Out

Yoga is a huge part of my life and I hope that it will be a part of Penelope's life as well. I started doing baby yoga with Penelope when she was just 4 weeks old.

This pose is called In and Out and is a great first yoga pose for babies. It helps them pass gas!

First, you place baby on their back, as you can see we are just on the floor, but you can use a yoga mat if you want.

Always ask your baby if they want to do yoga first. They understand way more than we give them credit for, and they will let us know if they are not in the mood.

Then you start by holding onto their legs, anywhere that feels comfortable to both of you. And then you bring their legs to their chest, like so and gently press into their stomach...the combination of the pressure and movement helps them pass gas.




















Then you extend their legs out like this. You say what you are doing as you are doing it. As you bring their legs in, say Iinnnnn! And as you bring their legs out, say Ouuuuuttt! You want to say in a sing-songy fun voice. Sooner than later, they will learn to associate the word you are saying with the movement, and thus you are also helping them with their language development!

Do In and Out several times, till your baby wants to do something else!

You can find this yoga pose and more in the awesome book by Helen Garabedian.

Our Edible Backyard

Well, it would be an edible back yard if we could figure out how to keep the birds from eating our strawberries, blueberries and plums. This is a picture of one of our 8 blueberry bushes. Almost ready!




















One of our plum trees. This was the first year we really had a good amount of plums, but we still haven't eaten one yet. The birds always get to them first.




















First of the ripe tomatoes! I remember the first home grown tomato I ever ate, a couple of years ago when I first started gardening, I called my Dad and said "It tastes NOTHING like the ones at the grocery store!" I couldn't believe how delicious they were.

These guys are coming along. Big thanks to Peter for actually getting these guys in the ground. He has pretty much taken over the Cornais Family Farm and these are now "his" tomatoes. I love him for that!

Oil Reaches Louisana Shores

Here's the article and pictures.

This makes my heart hurt. I have been putting my head in the sand all month regarding the oil spill. For some reason, now that I am mother, the wrongs of the world seem even more painful. Maybe I am just still hormonal and emotional. So to compensate, I have tried to create a little happy bubble for myself and not think of anything but the blessings in my life. But I forced myself to look at these pictures. Tallahassee has been my home for 10 years now and the Gulf has become a part of my roots. Penelope was born here and the Panhandle and Gulf are certainly a part of her story. I have to look. If I am not a part of the solution, I am a part of the problem.

To be honest, I am not even sure what to do about it. I firmly believe that the BP executives need to be held accountable with real prison time. In my opinion, they committed murder and need to be tried and convicted as if it were a street crime murder. But how does one go about making sure that happens?

The other thing that needs to be done, is reduce our consumption of oil. I already do a lot, much more than the average American, but there has got to be more that I can do. The first thing that comes to mind, maybe insignificant, but I want to stop using ziploc bags. I use them like they are going out of style, like candy. I use them for EVERYTHING. I told Peter the other day that I wanted to stop using them (and paper towels for that matter) and he said "Good God, woman, don't we do enough already??" No, we don't. Now that I can sew a bit better, I think am going to try and make these. And also start taking 5 extra seconds to use a glass container for food storage in the fridge.

Wait to Cut the Cord

This is a great article about why parents should wait to cut the cord, if they can. It's short and sweet and easy to read.

We waited to cut Penelope's cord and it was one of the coolest things I have experienced. While I was holding my newborn daughter, staring into her eyes and basking in her glory, I was also holding her umbilical cord in between my thumb and first finger to feel the blood pulsing into her. When I stopped being able to feel it anymore, a moment later, Peter cut the cord. I am not sure how much time had passed, which reminds me to ask my midwife to see my birth record-my memory is so fuzzy about exact time of when things happened during my labor that I want to see my file. Looking back, I will probably wait even longer next time. Maybe once the placenta is out and I am out of the birth tub. Even though we waited, it all happened so fast!

Has anyone else done this? How long did you wait?

Recycle, Reuse...Refashion!

This is cute top that I bought while I was living in Spain, my sophomore year of college. Its been a long time since it fit, but I can't bare to give it away. With my new post-partum mommy boobs, there is NO way it's ever going to fit again, so I decided to cut it up and give it a new life through Penelope. Peter said to me the other day, "man, you really like cutting stuff up now, huh?" Yup, I do. I am not sure what has come over me, but every spare second I have I am in the dinning room sewing or getting ready to sew!




















First I cut off the sleeves. Then I turned it inside out and took in the sides a bit to make it more of an A-line dress shape.



















Then I sewed on hot pink bias tape to finish the armholes and make the straps. Here is a good tutorial on how to use bias tape. And Ta Da! Super cute toddler sized dress. I was so proud of myself for this one, I came up with the idea all on my own. In fact, I thought I was kind of a genius for turning a woman's shirt into a toddler dress, but when I searched online I found numerous other women who have been doing this for a long time! Oh well, great minds think alike.

And then I made her a little bow to match! I used a fabric button cover kit from JoAnn Fabrics. Here is the tutorial for that.

Sugar Snap Peas Baby Food

These are some super DELICIOUS sugar snap peas, from Turkey Hill Farm, that I got at the Lake Ella Farmer's Market the other week.

They were picked at the peak of their sweetness and they are oh so yummy. I got enough for me to munch on and to make some for Penelope. I once read about a New York chef, who introduced her babies to solid foods by offering only what was in season.

She figured that by doing it that way, she would always offer a food at their best possible taste and have a better chance of her child liking what she offered. It's a theory I would like to try as well, especially after I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle last year.

















First, I de-vained the peas, and then I steamed them for just a couple of minutes, not very long at all. You could do this with raw peas too, you get more nutrition out the peas that way.  Next, I put them in my mini food processor and grinded them up good. I left lots of texture though.


















Then I added the secret ingredient...Breast Milk!! Mmm...look at all that yummy fat at the top! If you wondered why Penelope weighs 20 pounds at 5 months, this is why.

The finished product. I put one tablespoon into each ice cube section. My plan is to give these to her frozen in one of those mesh thingys. I thought it might be a soothing teething tool and great way for her to taste the food without choking. I am skipping the whole spoon-feed-pureed-baby-food and going straight to seeing what she can get in her mouth herself.

Mostly out of pure laziness, I do not want to spend lots of time making baby food and dealing with spoon feeding her. It's called Baby Led Weaning, because technically the moment you introduce solids you have begun the weaning process.

Flowers

This is a picture of the flowers Peter and Penelope got me for my first Mother's Day. I love that they had calla lilies in them, I have never had that kind of flower given to me before. I love regular lilies too. When Penelope was born, my Aunt sent a bouquet of lilies and now whenever I smell them I think of Penelope's first week.




















This is a little arrangement I came up with to elongate the life of some flowers I had bought for myself from New Leaf Market. The rest of the flowers had gone bad, but these mums were still kickin'. There wasn't enough of them to make a pretty bunch, so I decided to put them in three little vases and make a simple but lovely arrangement.

Handmade Crinkly Baby Toy

I recently made Penelope a cloth, crinkly, clutching toy (say that 3 times fast). I also made one for my friend Lia and her new baby Lucia. Penelope was given one, just like this, from a friend of mine and it was the first toy she showed any interest in. Because it was cloth, she was able to clutch much easier. And because it crinkled, it was endless entertainment. These days she is more into anything that is NOT a toy, but she still likes it.

Ok, so first cut two squares of fabric, any size will do. Then cut out pieces of ribbon. You can do a lot and space them close or farther apart, your call. Then pin them facing inwards like the picture. Then put the right sides of the fabric together and make a little sandwich with the ribbon inside and sew all the way around, but leave a space to turn your toy back inside out. I left a too small of a space and it took me FOREVER to turn in back inside out.


















Insert your crinkly object into the hole opening. I used the stuff you wrap gift baskets in, and I can't even think of the name right now. Penelope got up at 5am this morning ready to party, so who can blame me. But you could use anything else that crinkles.



















Once you turn it back inside out, do a top stitch all the way around. Where you left the hole open, turn the edges and fold them inside. Once you do the the top stitch, you wont be able to tell where your hole was. I did mine in purple thread, even though it didn't match because I was too lazy to change my thread. You could do a much cuter color combo.

Done! Time to play! See what I mean? Penelope is much more interested in Sky than her new handmade toy.

New Pregnancy Blog and other great links

A new blog just started up, called Delightful Pregnancy. I heard about it from one of my favorite parenting blogs, Peaceful Parenting. When I went to her site to check it out, I saw a post calling for birth stories and I immediately sent mine in. Turns out I was the very first person to respond and she posted my story this morning! She brought me to tears, reading how my story affected her, and it made me even more glad I submitted it-maybe other women will have the same reaction and find some inspiration by reading it.

I also just read some great news I wanted to share. The CDC just came out with new numbers today that show that home birth is on the rise! It's still only 1% of the population that chooses to give birth outside the hospital, but at least we are making progress!

And lastly, my dear friend Lindsey, just got back from her Introductory training to Birthing From Within (the type of childbirth classes I used to teach) and she has started to blog about her experience. I am so excited for her and so happy to have a resource like her in town. I finally have someone that I can refer people to for childbirth classes!

Why We Use Cloth Diapers

I got Penelope's size large cloth diapers this week and I thought I would take a moment to explain why we cloth diaper in the first place.

Surprisingly, cloth diapering has actually been a very pleasant experience. I thought it was going to be much more work. It is more laundry, but other than that, its pretty convenient. I do a load of diapers about every two days. About once a month, I hang the stained diapers outside on a clothes line to dry and it magically gets all the stains out. I have about twenty diapers in my stash. I do a dry pail system where I just throw the dirty diaper into a trashcan with a pail liner. When its time to wash them, I put everything in the wash, liner included and do one rinse cycle on cold and then a wash cycle with detergent on hot. I have to do two cycles in the dryer to fully dry them. We use a diaper called Dream Eze by the Natural Baby Company and they are a type of diaper that are called an All In One or an AIO. That means I don't have to stuff any additional inserts to use the diaper. These types of diapers are most like disposables in that way, but they are also some of the more expensive cloth diapers on the market. I just put them on, snap her up and Penelope is ready to go. Even Peter is a pro at putting them on her. I used a Pocket diaper when she was a newborn, until she was about three months old. It was a diaper called Pocket Change by the same company, but they don't make them anymore. I really liked those diapers, even though I had to spend extra time stuffing the inserts, because they were so trim. But I have really grown to love the Dream Eze diapers, and even though they are a bit bulkier than the Pocket Change, it's not that bad, the only thing that she has a hard time fitting into are jeans. The company has discontinued the Dream Eze style as well, but has come out with a similar style and it's a one size fits all. That means you have snaps in the front and the diaper "grows" as your baby grows. The concept seems great, especially considering you save lots of money by buying only one size diaper. But I am glad I have three different sizes. I hate big bulky cloth diapers and the one size diapers seem like they would be pretty bulky, especially on a newborn, but I don't speak from experience. I also use cloth wipes and make my own wipe spray, which is a piece of cake to make. I spray the solution on a cloth wipe and wipe her like normal. We bought all our diapers locally from a business called Ecological Babies. The owner, Jen, was super helpful and helped me picked out the diaper that was right for me. I never once felt overwhelmed.

Ok, so back to what I was originally wanting to write about: why we cloth diaper. My biggest reason is not because of the environment or to save money, I am most concerned about what touches my daughter's skin. I have done no real research at all, but to me, the chemicals that a disposable diaper has in them to make them so absorbent just can't be any good. Now, those chemicals may or may not give her cervical cancer or exzema, but they sure aren't doing any good to her skin, so I want to avoid it. I like knowing that what is touching her skin all day and all night is organic cotton. Makes me sleep better. Well, not really, since Penelope gets up every hour but you know what I mean. And she has never had a diaper rash in her life and that is always great.

The next biggest reason we cloth diaper is for the environment. We are greatly reducing our carbon footprint by choosing to cloth diaper. Even when you calculate in the washing and drying of the diapers (this is not the case if you use a diaper service). I saw a great article the other day that said it takes nearly 3.5 billion gallons of oil to produce the 18 billion throwaway diapers that Americans toss each year. To put that in perspective, that's more than the amount of crude we import annually from Kuwait. The article went on to say that it takes 2/3 cup of petroleum to make just one disposable diaper. Pretty nutty, huh? To that, I say NO Thank You, this is not OK and I will not participate in that much petroleum consumption.

The third reason we cloth diaper is to save money. Now, we have already spent almost a grand on about 64 diapers, two pail liners, 36 cloth wipes and a shower sprayer that connects to our toilet (this is for later when her poo is solid and I have to dump it in the toilet before putting it in the pail). So we are not seeing any savings this first year, as that is about the amount that we would have spent on disposables her first year, but next year we will see some ROI. And when we use all the same diapers again for baby number two, that's when the savings will really add up!

I will use a disposable here and there, I am not a Nazi about it. If all my diapers are in the wash, on goes a disposable. If I am running a bunch of errands, then I will take one cloth diaper and a couple of disposables because the cloth diapers take up so much room in my diaper bag. I also never use cloth wipes when I am out, I don't want to deal with the hassle of pre-soaking my wipes then forgetting about them and having a mold issue. The wipes and disposables that we do use in a pinch are from Seventh Generation have the least amount of chemicals possible.

Has anyone wanted to try cloth diapers but felt overwhelmed? The Natural Baby Company has recently come out with a really great product that has flushable liners that would be a great cloth diaper with training wheels that you can check them out here (but if you actually buy them be sure to do so locally from Ecological Babies!)

42 Days of Pumping

That's how much time I have spent pumping, cleaning and sterilizing pump parts and putting extra milk away in the last 6 months. Yes, that's right folks, in the last 6 months, I have spent a month and half-straight- JUST PUMPING. This does not include how many times I have washed cloth diapers, changed diapers, put Penelope to sleep, played with her, fed her, etc. This is the time I spend just being able to feed my child my breast milk.

I got to that number by stopping to think today, that not only is Penelope six months old, but I have been pumping for 6 months. I am very proud to say that I have made it this far. I am now apart of the 12% of mothers who breastfeed longer than 6 months.

Here's the breakdown of how I got my number. I was actually pretty conservative. Sometimes my pump sessions can be as long as an hour, especially in the morning. And in the first few months, I would "power pump" sessions in the early evening hours to simulate a "cluster feed" like a newborn would do.

month 1: 12 times a day for 25 minutes: 300 minutes (5 hours)=9,000 minutes (150 hours) a month
month 2:10 times a day for 30 minutes: 300 minutes (5 hours)=9,000 minutes (150 hours) a month
month 3: 8 times a day for 35 minutes: 280 minutes (4.6 hours)=8, 400 minutes (140 hours) a month
month 4: 6 times a day for 40 minutes: 240 minutes (4 hours)= 7,200 minutes (120 hours) a month
month 5: 4 times a day for 45 minutes: 180 minutes (3 hours)=5,400 minutes (90 hours) a month
month 6: 4 times a day for 45 minutes: 180 minutes (3 hours)=5,400 minutes (90 hours) a month

740 hours. 31 straight days of pumping. 44,400 minutes

all 6 months: 1.5 hours a day cleaning/sterilizing pump parts and putting milk away: 270 hours.

Total: 1,010 hours. 42 days.

Having a fat and healthy baby who has never had a drop of formula: PRICELESS!


oh and all that pumping yielded an average of 35 ounces a day, so total in the last 6 months, I made 6,300 ounces of milk!!

Homemade Baby Legs Part 2

 
 

Here is Miss P modeling them. It's getting too hot around here to wear them for warmth, but the plan is pop them on her when she starts to crawl and protect her little knees from rug burn or bruises as she learns.

Homemade Baby Legs Part 1

On my week off from school, I got a bit crafty and made these super cute baby legs. I got the idea, where I get all my recent crafty ideas from, Prudent Baby
I did mine a tad differently, one, because I don't have a serger and two, because I couldn't figure out to sew the knit fabric without my stitches coming out like I was sewing drunk.
I ended up hand sewing the other three and they came out much cleaner. It took longer, but hand sewing ended up being an easy and relaxing thing to do while I pump.
I got knee high women's socks from Target for a whopping $2 each! A new pair of baby legs would cost you about $12, not including tax or shipping, so it turned out to be a pretty awesome steal. You could do a toddler version of this by buying thigh high socks.

Here's the lowdown:

First cut off the foot of the socks, right where the heal ends.



















Then turn the socks inside out and take in the bottom sides a bit, where your baby's ankles will be. You can skip this part if you want, but when I did on the first one they were too loose, and Penelope is not lacking in meat-on-her-ankles department.




















Then turn the edges over and hem. You can serge the raw edges or use a zig zag, or so the website says. I have never done either. I had read that using pinking sheers will have the same effect, so that it what I am going to try next after my trip to Joanne Fabrics on Tuesday.

Turn back inside out and...

Ta Da! Cutest baby legs ever for $2!

Pregnancy Blog Posts from MomsLikeMe.com Uploaded

In case anyone is interested, I uploaded all my pregnancy blog posts from when I wrote for MomsLikeMe.com, back when I was working for the United Way of the Big Bend/Whole Child Leon.

Enjoy!

Eight is Great!

Happy 8th Birthday Sky! It's been a rough 6 months for poor Sky, Penelope came into the world and dethroned him. He got kicked out his bed, I don't take him on walks anymore because I can't handle the stroller and him, we don't make his food as much anymore and in general he gets less love and hugs from me. But that said, he is still our baby and we love him to pieces, we are just too tired these days to show him!
 
This is a picture of Sky as he was watching Penelope be born.
 
Checking out the new baby, he has been uber protective ever since.
 
The faces begin. After the first 12 hours of Penelope's life had passed, the realization had sunk in that he was no longer numero uno.
 

Just one of our favorite pics of Mr. Sky. Happy Birthday! We love you and look forward to at least 8 more birthdays!

Let's just call this a learning experience

So, I bought a pattern for the first time in my life. The bottom picture is what the dress was supposed to look like.

As you can see, I stopped following the pattern after I cut out the dress pieces. I couldn't understand it. Not sure if its because I am just so exhausted that my brain functions as if I am drunk or if I am a visual learner and need someone to show me how to do it. I am just glad the damn thing is done. I think I will stick to pillow case dresses after this. But then again I just found this site: www.littlebeanshop.com and was lusting over all the little dresses and have already decided to try a halter dress next for Miss P.

During this project, I did manage to learn how to do a few new sewing skills: a French seam, and then was told that since I fully lined it and the fabric was thick, I didn't need to do it (thanks, Julie!), so the second side didn't get one. A basting stitch, which really pissed me off. Apparently, my machine only goes to a 4 as its longest stitch, so it made the ruffle super tight. I also think that because it was fully lined and a thick fabric it made it more difficult as well. I ended up doing a hand basting stitch for the front and it worked much better. For the third thing I learned, I am not even sure what its called. I think its called bias tape? Anyone know?

I really enjoyed making the little bow for the front, and have visions of many different fabrics I can make them in, I think I will make a few for myself next time too! I got the free tutorial here, from my favorite new website: http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/02/diy-fabric-flower-hair-clip.html

Oh, and the purple fabric is organic! I found it at Joanne Fabrics a couple of months ago. They have all of four bolts, white, black, brown and this purple.

As long as you don't look at my stitches real close, its not half bad. Especially, considering the only sewing skills I am going off are from a 7th grade Home Ec class.