Hello to my Battelle friends!

I've been meaning to post for a while now to say hello to my Battelle comrades that check in here. If you don't know already, Battelle will NOT let my emails through (though I am able to receive emails from Battelle staff). So, if you've emailed me and not heard back, please don't think I'm being rude (speaking of which...I did email you back Rona, though I'm pretty confident that I was just "talking" to myself since it probably didn't get through).

Anyway...I'm glad you've found your way here!

I did something unusual this week.

I bought make-up. Well, I routinely wear foundation and powder (I love the Bare Escentuals mineral make-up line, by the way) and sometimes I throw on some lip gloss, too. But earlier this week I went out and actually bought mascara, lipstick (yes, real lipstick, not just tinted lip gloss), lip liner and eye shadow. Now, I'm positive that I haven't bought mascara since we lived in Toledo, so it has been about 7 years. The 1/2 dozen times I've worn mascara since then have been from the little sample tubes I got for "free" with my Clinique face soap. As for lipstick and lip liner? Heavens -- I probably bought those last in Toledo, too, though there is a possibility that I bought lipstick in Columbus. And I'll fess up to one eye shadow purchase in Columbus (which I still have by the way -- does anyone follow the tossing guidelines for make-up?).

All this is to say...I'm tired of looking like a stay at home mom all the time. Don't get me wrong -- I really do like being home. I just don't think my outside reflects my inside. I feel energetic, edgy, and powerful (I am woman, hear me roar!) on the inside. And on the outside I look like a pile of middle aged tiredness covered in toddler snot and baby spit and topped off with a pile of limp "hasn't seen hair product in months and has been styled by my 3 year old" hair. What a lovely picture I paint...

So, this is, hopefully, a step in the right direction towards feeling happy and confident about my appearance again. And hopefully all this stuff I bought is snot and spit proof...

Lucy's new tricks.

Lucy has been rolling from her stomach to her back for a while now. In the last week, however, she has started going from her back to her front. On Monday (I believe) she started rolling over to get places. I'm not sure she is doing it deliberately, but she'll roll until she runs into something (and then, of course, gets mad). I'm sure it won't be long, though, until she starts moving with a purpose. Of course, just a short trip totally exhausts her now...

She's had a love affair with her fingers for sometime now, too. She'll suck/chew on whichever ones are handy. However, earlier this week she discovered her thumb. She doesn't seem to be able to locate it at will, but when she does find it, watch out -- she loves it!

Thoughts on being green.

As most of you know, I've cloth diapered since Reid was born. As I was doing laundry this week, I had to laugh at my stash. here is a sample of some of my inserts:


Pretty pathetic, aren't they? The funny thing is that I threw the worst of my inserts out a few months ago, though these are getting close to being sent to the trash. I get a warm fuzzy feeling, though, every time I fold my diapers, because I know I'm doing something good for the environment. Do you know how many times those inserts have been used? I'd guess close to 500. Wow -- imagine how many disposable diapers I saved from going into landfills! And, yes, I know I used water and energy to wash my diapers -- which is why we have a high efficiency washer and I line dry whenever possible (which was almost 100% of the time when Reid was little, not so much now that I have an unmanageable amount of laundry to deal with on top of diapers).


So, I pose this question to you (and to myself) -- what (more) can you do to make your home more environmentally friendly? I can think of one big one for me, which involves a bit of a confession -- switch Ross back to cloth diapers (at least part time). Lucy is in cloth full time, but Ross has been in sposies for a month or so now -- not because I don't want him in cloth, but because I'm having trouble finding cloth diapers that fit him properly. I hate the idea of dropping a large chunk of cash on any more diapers, only to find out that they don't fit him properly.

I'm a firm believer that even little changes can have a big impact. So, I challenge you to find something (buy reusable shopping bags, switch to energy efficient light bulbs, buy cloth napkins instead of paper...anything!) to make your life a little more green!

Why buy toys?

Yesterday morning the boys were in a pretty good mood. They were playing nicely together in their room making "beds" on the floor with every blanket they could find in the house. This made me think of when we used to make tents at one of our friends house when I was a kid -- something that was always a blast. So, I pulled out the card table and piled all the blankets on top of it. This, easily, kept the boys occupied for a good three hours. Every once in a while they would remove the blankets, drag the table across the room and then ask me to rebuild it...easy enough deal on my end. And I had to promise to leave it up last night, so it is still sitting out in my living room. Wonder if I'll get another three hours of use out of it today...

Sleep, or more accurately, no sleep.

Ross turned two this week and he is STILL a terrible sleeper. I'm sure many of you will remember my complaints of his constant night waking, which peaked between 10 and 12 months, or as I prefer to call them, the "zombie months", as I was essentially a zombie 100% of the time due to the frequent night wakings.

He now will sleep longer stretches at night fine, though he routinely (maybe 3 nights a week), will wake up repeatedly with, what I believe to be, nightmares. When he wakes like this he is loud, belligerent and mad. He'll swing his head, scream, thrash his body around...all while still asleep. IF I can wake him up, he'll let me calm him. Often, though, he won't wake up and will continue with this nonsense for a long time.

His latest antics, though, are a nightly battle to get him to sleep. We've had nights in the past month where it has taken up to 1 1/2 hours to get him to sleep. Rarely is he down in less than a half an hour. I've tried various techniques. Sometimes I'll have success, but after a week or two he is back to his old tricks. I'm starting to wonder if he will EVER sleep well at night.

All this is to say that I am tired. Just really really tired -- both physically and emotionally. I dread bedtime. DREAD it, I tell you. And I'm loosing my patience, something I have precious little of as it is. Will I ever feel rested again?

The days are long, but the years are short, right? He is just lucky he is cute.

Happy Birthday, Ross!

So, we celebrated Ross' birthday on Saturday (even though his birthday is on Tuesday), while Hannah & Aunt Johnna were in town to join us for the party. It was nothing fancy, but he had a good time. We made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting (we = me, plus one big helper and two little "helpers" who made a big mess). The cake was really good (thanks, Paula Deen!), but neither of the boys seemed too impressed with it.

Jeremy & I got him a few train sets when we were at IKEA this fall. Both of the boys LOVE these. I wish we would have purchased a few more sets, because we're having sharing issues. Besides, this is one of those things, much like legos, that is just more fun when you have more pieces.

Here are a few pictures from our festivities: