Ezro the golfer!

Meat-eating Vegans

Ryan's food allergies are in, and there are quite a few. Fortunately we only had to do the elimination diet for about 2 weeks before he was able to get allergy testing done and figure out exactly what he is allergic to.

The main culprits (which are hidden in EVERYTHING and he has to be certain to avoid) are:
soy
eggs
nuts (especially peanuts and almonds, but all nuts really)

Then the randoms are:
Peas
Squash
Carrots
Barley
Lima Beans
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Brewer's Yeast
(If he has these ones in small amounts, it's okay...except for Lima Beans and Brewer's Yeast because his reaction to those was quite high).

And with me not eating dairy right now, that pretty much makes us meat-eating vegans. :)

Truth

The truth is, now that Gray Beauty is no longer with us, we love driving our gas-guzzling full-size high-top conversion van around town.

*I can stand up in it. STAND UP. Seriously, can you do that in your car?
*I can walk in it. As in, I actually have to take several steps to get Ezra in his carseat.
*I can put Ezra in his carseat (he chose the wayy back where all the cool kids sit :) and then get in the driver's seat without ever exiting the van (there is plenty of room to walk right to the driver's seat without any crazy acrobatics).
*Ezra has 2 huge windows he can look out of as we drive around.
*If Ezra is crying, I can still talk on the phone because he is sooo far in the back that the person on the phone can't hear it. *guilty face*
*In reference to the above reasoning, Ezra actually doesn't cry too much in the van, which is miraculous because in his early days he didn't like the car so much.
*And, last but not least, I can always find where I parked in a crowded parking lot.

The only problem, is that being a gas-guzzling green machine, it takes a lot of green from our wallets, and isn't too friendly to the earth either. So we will have to get a new vehicle at some point, but for now I'm going to fully enjoy sportin' around in our bus.

Brown's Clearing Survivor Games!

Emma and Ezra...


Haleigh and Jacen...


Darts...


Cheerleaders...


Slingshot and BB Gun (this is Michigan afterall :)


Gunny Sack Races...


Pie Eating Contest...


Euchre tournament...


Lydia telling Ezra all about the history of Brown's Clearing. :)




Thanks Game Master!

The Eve of Brown's Clearing Survivor Games!

This was the 4th year of Brown's Clearing Survivor Games. Ryan and I love it. We envision it getting even more fun and competitive for the next generation of kids since they will have grown up doing it, and as parents we can help build the excitement as the weekend approaches. Already though, the kids come up to my dad (who organizes the event) and ask, "Are you the game master?" It's priceless, really.

About half of the family comes up early every year for dinner, camping out, and a bon fire, the night before the games.

My cousin Sharon with Ezra...


Ryan leading us in a Beetle's sing-a-long...


Hunter getting ready to take over for Ryan...


Ezra loving being apart of the late-night excitement (we kept him on AZ time, so he was up until about 11pm every night, and woke up around 10am...it was awesome to feel like we were staying up late and then sleeping in until 10am with him every morning).


Enjoying the bon fire...


Ezra resting up for the games...

Michigan!

We just got back from a great trip to the midwest to visit my family. No summer is complete without a visit to a body of water (read: other than a pool) and Brown's Clearing Survivor Games (our annual family reunion gone competitive).

Ryan and I took my sister's kids to Grose Park on Crockery Lake one afternoon for a picnic and swimming. Such a place to reminisce. As a kid, I spent sooo much time in this lake at my friend Kelly's cottage. We'd swim for hours on end, have "bobbing contests", windsurf, tube, waterski, etc. My sister's kids are a ton of fun...and much activity was had. Rog and I had running contests in waist deep water, Alyssa and I had "hold your breath" contests, Lydia and I had handstand contests, Emma and I made "cakes" in the sand, and Lizzy and I just cuddled in the water.

I often had my hands free while Lydia carried Ezra around.


Ryan and Ezra relaxing.


The gang...


Exhausted from swimming...


Making "sand cakes"...


Ryan, Roger, and Ezra (in the carrier) having some guy time...


Our sweet cuddlebug...

SOLD!

To all of you who wrote wanting to make Gray Beauty your next family vehicle, I'm sorry...your chance has passed...she is now in the hands of new owners who seem to love her almost as dearly as we did. :)

Hip hip hooray for cloth diapers!

If you haven't guessed already, I LOVE using cloth diapers. They are wayyy cheaper (on average you save about $2000 on the first kid, and the savings just goes up on additional kids since you can use the same diapers on them!). And, they are soft and made from natural materials...which is exactly what should be going on a baby's soft bum. Oh, and they are super duper cute! :)

When my mom was in town she helped me kick start my new diaper business! That's right...this mama is sewing diapers! (And selling them here.) I have many more to post on etsy, but I'm trying to hold back and only post one every day or so in order to broaden the number of views they receive.

I'm really excited about this. Largely because we've been using my handmade diapers on Ezra for 4 months now and find them to be our favorite diapers to use....so I feel good about them being a high quality/super functional product.

Mom busy sewing...


Diapers cut out and waiting to be sewn...


A few of the finished product...







I will also be making some front snapping, but for now I'm focusing on the side snapping since they are my favorite!

We'll Miss you GB!

The year was 2007. It was a brisk January day. Gray Beauty entered our lives, and forever changed them with her quirky, yet charming character. She was on oldie, as cars go. Born in 1987, and loved by just two rightful owners...she never did reach the 100,000 mile mark, but she lived a good life.

Should you live in Tucson and want a car that stalls when it's warm out, has no hubcaps (because according to Costco's employee who put air in our tires...they all fell off at once...still not sure how that happened), needs the A/C turned off before the car is turned on...oh, and the lights need to be off too, has a pimped out stereo/cd player that looks totally out of place in her 23 year old self, has no heat but who really needs heat in Tucson anyway?, Prefers to be put in neutral at stop lights to keep from shaking, and totally rocks the manual locks and windows. If so, just look for our Craigslist ad and give Ryan a call. :)

I joke about all of her quirks, but in reality...I totally miss driving Gray Beauty already! Ryan and I were so sure when we bought her that our kids would get it as their first car someday. She has so much character...and in the years in which we drove her...never once did we see another one in Tucson...a total gem she was indeed!

Eggs Man!

The other day I got home from work to Ryan and Ezra watching Spider Man. I teased Ryan that it was a little early to be exposing Ez to TV...Ryan insisted that Ezra had just woken up and was just watching the tale end of it with him. Then he tried telling me how it was important for Ezra to watch super hero movies so that he can act them out while playing dress up, etc when he's older. I didn't buy it. I said that Ezra can make up something to be, he doesn't have to go with a pre-characterized super hero...he can be whatever kind of super hero he wants to be!

The next morning while I was in the shower, Ezra transformed into his own super hero...drum roll please....Eggs Man!



(Megan and Nat...your burp cloths make very cute diapers when all others are in the wash! :)

5 Years!

This past weekend Ryan and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary! It's amazing that it has gone by so quickly, and at the same time it's hard to remember life before we were married. It's been a fabulous 5 years...now for 75 more! :)



Noel and Jessica's anniversary is the same weekend as ours, so we took turns babysitting for each other so we could both go on anniversary dinner dates! Its funny to me how Eleanor is such a peaceful little player, while Ezra is a total rough house man. Thanks for babysitting Noel and Jessica!

Elimination Communication 101

I first heard about Elimination Communication (EC) a few years ago. With no knowledge really about it, I thought it was totally absurd and crazy.

Fast forward now to May 2010 when Ezra is 6 weeks old. I read an article in Mothering Magazine on Elimination Communication and all of a sudden I got it! It wasn't about potty training your infant, it was about recognizing and meeting your infant's needs, just as we do with feeding them and putting them to sleep. I was hooked! I went on Craigslist and there was a recent posting for an infant baby bjorn potty chair and book called Diaper Free by Ingrid Bauer. A sign? I choose to think so. I read Diaper Free and LOVED it...I highly recommend it to anyone who is even the slightest bit interested in EC. It gives a great description of the philosophy behind EC as well as the practical how-to's. After I finished that book, I found and read The Diaper Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh at the library.

Finally, I decided to stop with all of the reading, and just go for it and start trying to see if I could read Ezra's signs of when he had to go the bathroom. At first I was not too sure of myself, so I would always have him in a diaper (without a cover) and about 4 prefolds on my lap in case he peed. The first evening I tried reading his cues, he was 7 weeks old and went in the potty 6 or 7 times in a 5 hour period! He's a pretty easy guy to read when looking for his signs. Before reading these books though, I never would've caught on that he was trying to communicate his need to go to the bathroom. For Ezra, he gets squirmy and fussy, but doesn't cry. Or, if he's nursing, he won't stay latched on...he'll repeatedly go on and off, on and off for several short bursts in a row. When we first started putting him on the potty to go to the bathroom we would make a "zzzzz" sound whenever he started going. Now, when we put him on, we start making the "zzzz" sound and he goes almost immediately.

At home, he is a diaper boy. No cover, just a diaper so that we can quickly take it off to put him on the potty. We've decided though to only do EC when we are home and awake. I know some people do it at night as well, but for now...sleep is too important for us. We have found though that he doesn't go that much at night anymore, but rather he takes a loong potty time in the morning. Although we did let him go out in the woods while we were camping, for the most part we save EC for when we are home.

On an average day he will go to the bathroom on the potty between 5-7 times. There are days though when we are totally off and it's 1-2 times...and other days when it's 10-12 times. This means some days we go through as little as 2 diapers! I've gone from doing diaper laundry every 1-2 days to every 3-4 days.

The beauty of EC is that its not an all or nothing deal. You can do it as little as once a week, and it will still teach your baby the connection between what muscles need to be relaxed/held for going to the bathroom. I also personally feel it makes for happier babies and happier parents: a.) baby's needs are responded to when they are communicating they need to go to the bathroom, and b.)mom and dad know why baby is fussing and they are able to respond appropriately.

At first I mainly was the one to read/respond to Ezra's cues. But now Ryan is able to do it with ease. And when my mom was here the other week she was able to pick up on his cues right away. I love it!

Here he is at 7 weeks, using the lil' potty like a pro!


10 weeks...note he likes to have reading material in front of him. :)


At first I was a total "closet EC'r" and would hide the potty whenever anyone came over. I have recently had a change of heart though. I think EC is soo great and would want for others to have told me about it if I didn't know...so now I'm telling the whole world! :)

Oh rats! (part 2)

After the first rat got away, we declared war. I cannot think of a more annoying sound than a rat running around on the ceiling above my head. In the kitchen. In the living room. Everywhere. Drives me crazy! We decided to get serious. We called Truly Nolen (a rat exterminator), but they wanted to charge us $400(!!), and that seemed like way to shiny of a penny to throw down on rat catching in our opinion. So, we borrowed yet another trap so that we could have two trapping stations set up. And, just like magic, we caught two rats...one in each trap! The one on the roof died of natural causes (honest Barnes, Ryan wasn't about to go through trying to drown one again...it was a bit too emotional)...and the other one now resides somewhere far far away in the desert.

The rat on his roadtrip to his new home...