Look at my BUM!

Bum Genius that is!   We decided to take the plunge (hopefully no pun intended) to cloth diapers this time around.   We decided to do this for a couple of reasons:

1) Cost:  Adding kid #2 is costly and with little to no room in our budget we needed to make her work somehow : )  I did some research and discovered what a savings switching to cloth really was!  Here are some of the many helpful charts that I found online.

We have decided to go with the brand BUM GENIUS that was actually created by a local store here in St. Louis called Cotton Babies.  They have become so popular (and sooooooo easy to use!) that even Target sells them!   What is so great about these diapers is they grow with your child (these are referred to as "ONE SIZE" diapers).   They have snaps that adjust to the size that you need.   (So actually my savings are even better than what is listed above) We also are using "ALL IN ONE" diapers that come in small, medium and large and these diapers are JUST LIKE DISPOSABLE.   I don't need to do anything to them, I just throw them into the washing machine and voila...I'm done. 

2.) The environment:  (yes, this is after cost...) To be completely honest if it wasn't cost effective I probably wouldn't do it.  HOWEVER, it is and so this is just an added bonus : )   I can't imagine all the diaper trash we would be producing from both Eli and Anna.   However I do think it is mostly a toss up: wasting water (cloth) vs. filling up a landfill (disposable).   I am hoping that our High Efficiency washer does help make a difference.  

3.) The FUN colors and the super soft cotton!:  Now that I am using them, they actually brighten my day.  I get to pick from an array of fun colors and she just looks so cute in them.   I also love how soft they are!  (Why a lot of people use Pampers) We do put disposable on Anna at night (much more absorbent) and I always feel so bad because they feel so harsh against her skin compared to the cloth diapers. 

So to sum things up...I'm a CHEAPSKATE...that is why we chose cloth!  

Anna does have 1 big fear...."DOES THIS DIAPER MAKE MY BUTT LOOK BIG"?? 

What about from this angle?

 

I just tell her not to be so vain...it'll only make her grumpy.   

February Photos!

Visit our link to the right and enter password 'warren' to experience our fantastically fun month of February : ) 

Eli-isms

 

My sister, Rebecca, started doing "Roman-isms" with her son at about this age and I always find them hysterical.   Eli has begun not only the terrible part of the twos but most importantly (and the part I want to dwell on) the comedy of the twos.   We finally know what goes on in that head of his!   I was saving them to write down but now they just keep on rolling so I thought I would document them on our blog so you guys could get some laughs too!  Some of these things are stories I am sure we will repeat for years. 

This one is from a few weeks ago:  Eli was supposed to be taking a nap, when I hear "MOM!" Normally (I hate to say this to the public...) I would ignore it.   He loves finding new ways to get me up there.  This time however there was a strange tone to the way he said it, like he was in awe of something.   So I had to see what was going on (make sure there wasn't a bird flying around his room or something...yes that happened this past weekend).   When I got up there he started talking about Dinosaur bones.   In my head I was thinking "when did I talk about or see dinosaur bones?"   I asked him to show me what he was talking about.   He took me over to his window and pointed up to the roof line.   He again said "Dinosaur bones" and the lightbulb finally went off in my head...."Oh Eli...those are ICICLES".   

*the Clean up song:  For those of you that don't know Barney (the Dinosaur) has a great clean up song.  "Clean up, Clean up everybody everwhere. Clean up, Clean up everybody do your share. "   Eli has changed the words..."Clean up Clean up everybody needs to share.  Clean up clean up everybody's here. "   At least he still cleans up while he sings it.... (what's sad is he thinks putting toys away means people are coming over...) 

*Speaking of singing....:  We used to always laugh at Grandma Grete's story of her son Blake saying, "no sing mommy, no sing" when she sang him to sleep.   Well it has come back to bite us...any time I even tap my foot to the rhythm of a song I get an emphatic "NO mom don't sing."  

*Hey Party Peoples!: Taken after a famous rap song Eli now refers to more than one person as PEOPLES.  "Good night Peoples" "Let's dance Peoples".

*Time out: Eli has his daily share of these, but he has also started to put me in time out any time he sees me breaking the rules (throwing my keys on the table, tossing the remote to Todd...)  My response? "sure I would LOVE to go to time out...point me in the right direction!"  

*DVD Player: When I started to put in a DVD for him I hesitated because I wanted to catch the end of a news segment.  Well he must have thought I had a brain lapse and didn't know how to work it so he came over took the DVD out of my hand put it in the player and pressed PLAY and said "there mom thats how you do it..."  

*Babe: I don't know where he got this from but as soon as we buckled up in the car this morning Eli said, "Let's go Babe".   (I knew I looked good this morning, but...) 

*Jesus:  Last night we were driving by a church with a statue of Jesus in front if it.   Eli asked "Who is that?"  I said "Jesus".   A couple of minutes later he said, "Daddy, you didn't say 'hi' to Jesus".   

*Cardinals:  Todd's personal favorite.   Yesterday they were playing outside and saw a Cardinal.  Todd said "Look Eli, what is that?"   Eli said, "that's a baseball bird".   We train them young here...

Full of LOVE!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!    Here are some ways we have celebrated this LOVELY day : ) 

1. Arie's Valentines Party:  On Thursday we attended our first Valentines Party hosted by Eli's friend Arie.   As a token of our love we had a heart cookie cake and a Tinkerbell balloon that was a HIT with the ladies.  Anna dressed up in her "ridiculously cute" dress from my Aunt Donna, and shoes from her Papa.  They had fun making valentines, playing hide and seek and EATING CANDY.   Pretty much the only thing Eli remembered about the party (sorry Bailey) was the candy.   Don't worry, I remembered a great time with friends and cute kids : )  Thanks for a great time ladies!   

 2. Valentines Breakfast: While Eli opened his cousin Roman's Valentine and Anna looked cute, we made breakfast.  I had visions of a Gourmet magazine entry in my head of heart shaped raspberry pancakes topped with a raspberry sauce drizzle and snow capped with a dusting of powdered sugar.   What did it really look like?  Open heart surgery outside on a snowy day.   They tasted really good and that is all that counts.  Eli even called them doughnuts, and that is the best compliment he could give me!

3. Present Opening:  Ever since Christmas Eli is all about presents.   I had to tell him 100 times that at Arie's party he was not receiving presents, but that there would be crafts, food, ect.   He either didn't believe me or he didn't hear me because he kept on practicing his "present opening" lines in the car.... "Thank you" and "Oh my goodness" and "What else is in there?".   So I bought the lil' guy something as one of the many ways I wanted to show him (them) how much I love them.   (yes I did get his "present opening" lines... I also got a "COOL" thrown in there!) 

4. Eli and Mommy Shopping Trip:  Eli opened his Valentine from his Grandparents and immediately was on board with the idea to spend his "money's".   So I packed him up and we went to the Dollar Tree and had a blast spending his mini fortune.   I did have to steer him away from a few things (a glass cat, a ginormous spelling poster, and a package of easter eggs) but ultimately he made his own decisions for what he wanted to spend his money on.   What did he end up with?   1) Astro boy (once we opened him he looked kinda freaky because of the paint job...hence the $1 store...and eli wanted me to take the "stickers" off his face. )  2) "THE HULK" race car (I think another kid had played with it...it was out of it's package and I couldn't find anymore, but he REALLY wanted it) 3) Diego stickers (already used up and in his sticker book).    Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!  


5.  Anna's Photo Shoot: Of course my personal favorite : )  She is just so friggin' cute!  

 

Hope everyone feels loved today!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to...ME!!

I have to hurry up and do this blog post before my Dad's Birthday on Saturday!  I don't want to steal his thunder : )   I DID want to explain what we did to celebrate the big 3-0!  

On the big day, Phil DID see his shadow and I don't think he was lying...6 more weeks of winter!  We went over to my parents house for fun times (and lunch!).   Then we rushed home to meet my girlfriends from college (and HS) who were coming over to wine and dine me!   Despite having 2 kids to get off to bed (Todd had class) we were able to celebrate in style complete with a birthday cake and a glass of wine after the kids were safely in their beds : )   Oh and I can't forget the POP ROCKS that helped me remember my youth.   (If the picture looks like it was taken by someone under 5 ft...it was...Jessica's niece Tori took it for us and did a great job!)

The birthday fun didn't end on Tuesday!   Thanks to a wonderful husband I was able to take the day on Saturday and go on a shopping spree.   He was so thoughtful to ask his Dad to come and help out and he brought Anna to the mall so I could feed her.   (she has yet to take a bottle...that is one of our goals in month 3!)  We had a fun lunch at the food court and then I was able to shop some more!   

 

That night we got all dressed up (Ok, Anna did..) and went out for a Birthday Dinner!   We went to Uno's which haves my absolute, #1 fave dessert.   Todd bought it for me for our wedding night and it is what I want whenever I "deserve" something special.   It is a taste of heaven here on earth.   What is it?  A massive peanut butter cup with a chocolate cookie crust, creamy peanut butter and chocolate chip inside, capped with a crown of chocolate.  Is that not enough?  Well it has a peanut butter and fudge drizzle to put on top : )   

*Anna all dressed up (hey it's MY party she can cry if she wants to!   She's my girl though and loved the shoes...)  

When we arrived home Eli was really upset and we finally realized (through his hiccups) it was because he never was able to sing Happy Birthday to me : (  What a sweet little guy.  So we had birthday chocolate and sang!

Thanks to everyone for making this such a fun birthday!!!   Todd and I hope to take a trip once Anna gets a little bit older this summer to celebrate both of our birthdays in style.    I definitely feel blessed to have great friends and family, 2 beautiful children, and a rock star husband.  Love you all!!!   

We're 2...

We are all celebrating the #2 today!!   Anna is 2 months old today and is more "cute as a button" than ever!!!  She is quite the sleeper and eater (except from a bottle...) and is becoming quite the chatterbox (esp. at night when she is supposed to be getting ready for bed). 

Eli also still reminds me that he is 2...not only did he tell me that BUT it wouldn't take a brain surgeon to figure it out!   Off the top of my head, today he said he went to the "window bank" when telling his Dad about his day.   What does that mean?   Well...exactly what he said!   We went to the ATM...he just used the words he knew for it : )   (Grandma you wouldn't know anything about that either...)  He also enjoys doing 4 car pile ups in the hallway with all of his ride on toys while on his way to pick us up donuts from church...(confused?  Well welcome to our world of trying to figure out just WHAT goes on in that head of his.)  

Todd and I?  We're not only JUST getting used to having 2 kids around (our NEW normal) but we still love when they are both in bed and it is just the 2 of us : )   

January Pictures

To view the January album click on the Shutterfly link to the right and type the password "warren" ... I do realize there are TONS of pictures but, hey, that's life with a newborn : )