Aaah, the holidays.

I feel like a massive scrooge, but I hate Christmas. I love Jesus. I love that he was born. I just hate CHRISTMAS. The endless shopping and family and food and EVERYTHING THAT IS CHRISTMAS makes me nuts. Probably partially because Christmas involves long series of surprises, and I have never liked surprises. Definitely partially because Emersen's absense is particularly poignant during the holidays. But you know, on the good side, I was happy that I had to go to work for the first time ever this evening, because it meant I get to escape for a little while. And the girls wore cute matching dresses today, which everybody complimented. Elspeth's is no longer white, but hey, maybe it will come out in the wash. Toddlers are the reason that Oxyclean was invented, I'm sure.

FREE MONEY, woo!

I just got a bunch of money back on my holiday shopping, yay! Ebates is a website where you sign up, click through their site to get to your favorite online stores, and then they give you money back... plus, you can get a five dollar sign up bonus (and I get a five dollar referal bonus) if you use this link:
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=Zisa046jjHB4QMc0VuPqJA%3D%3D

No joke! No hidden fees or anything, and they will either send you a check or drop the money right in your paypal account, easy peasy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bottle problems

Wena does not like bottles. She seems to think that they are some sort of torture device. Which is odd, because a couple of weeks ago I was relieved to see her take a bottle with no fight, just drank it down. I think the only reason she did so was because she was half asleep. These are even bottles of expressed breast milk, I have never even tried to give her formula. This is creating a problem because I work eight hour shifts! When I worked during the day, she would take MAYBE two ounces... and most of that probably really went down her shirt. Now that I am working nights, she WILL NOT SLEEP. Poor Mark! I am actually handling my first graveyard shift a lot better than he did, because I at least expected no sleep. So, tonight he is going to cuddle her up in the mei tai, and get the bottle nice and warm, and make sure the nipple is warm, and when she's all sleepy he's going to try and sneak it in there. But seriously, she is five months old, I SHOULD be able to feed her when I leave and feed her when I get back. We will figure something out.

Yup, don't post very often.

  Too busy.  Byron's birthday was on the sixth, I made a cake (from scratch even, so Elspeth can eat some) and I didn't bake it long enough, so it collapsed in the middle and had a gooey center.  But you know what, he asked for a lava cake in the first place, so there you go.  Baked the same recipe for Elspeth's birthday, and it turned out much better because, you know, it was all the way cooked.  I also discovered that you can't just substitute oil for the butter in my frosting recipe, as it screws with the texture.  So, it was tasty, but looked kind of rustic, I guess.  Then we had Halloween, for which Elspeth dressed up as a witch.  And amidst all of this I was looking for a job.  I even got an interview to be an editor for Multiling, but they decided to "keep looking."  Blarg.  BUT, as of today I have a job!  I am going to work graveyard shift at the front desk of the Fairfield Inn, and I start tomorrow!  (Somebody please help me be excited about this...)  This week I will be working days, so I can get trained, though, so we don't know how it's going to work out with the whole "somebody has to watch the girls."  But, that is why I took graveyard shift, because it means I don't have to put my girls in daycare, at which Wena would have to wear disposable diapers, which make her poor skin get all scaley and bumpy and peeley.  Blargyay. 

New pics on Flickr

Pengin bottom
Originally uploaded by Driggs family

Lots and lots of them. No titles, tags, or descriptions, but definitely pictures. I'll probably get them labeled over the next week or so, so watch this space, I guess.

I miss Emersen.

Her due date was a year ago last Thursday, and I'm lonely for her.  That's all, I guess.

Secrets of potty training...

So you remember how I was all confused about how to get Elspeth to night time potty train?  Well the answer it turned out was simple... cloth trainers.  I just left her cloth trainers on her and VOILA, clean and dry every morning for THREE DAYS!  I guess she just figured that she was wearing a diaper, and diapers are for peeing in, so she peed.  But trainers are for keeping dry, so now she goes potty.

As a side note on cloth trainers, we are liking the cheap Gerber ones we got at Walmart.  They feel more like underwear, we guess.  They are also cheap, which is a winning quality all on its own.  But we also have a couple of Imse Vimse cloth trainers, and if you have the money for them they are FANTASTIC.  They have a layer of waterproofing in the outside, so they have to be mightily full to leak, and the inside is terry cloth so they hold a goodly bit.

Maybe she's going to potty train after all...

Suddenly Elspeth is dry all day long.  O_O  And I didn't have to bribe her or anything!  We do still have occasional accidents (like yesterday on the tennis court), but mostly only when we're out and about and she's really distracted.  Now if only I could figure out what I'm supposed to do to get her to night-time train, we would be set.

Moving still blows

But it blows slightly less once you reach the point where the old place is completely empty and clean and ready for the inspection.  We are living in a box forest and I have no idea where Rouena's clothes are, but hey, at least we are OUT, even if we aren't in yet.

Moving BLOWS

We are packing up and getting ready to move into the new place, and it is not fun at all.  Especially the part where I just had a baby seven weeks ago, and only found out we had to move when she was two-three weeks old.  We get the keys on the twenty eighth!  We have to be out of the old place by the thirty first though, so we are packing as quickly as we can.  Or at least I am.  Mark is taking Calculus, so this move is kind of the Kim Show.

I just found the best charity EVER

Heifer International!  They don't just give food or whatever, they give livestock and training to care for them -- so your $120, say, doesn't just give a family food for a little while, but milk for the next ten years, PLUS income from selling extra PLUS the animal's offspring.  And, well, I'm broke, but I figured that they might like free publicity, so I'm telling everybody about them.  So there you go.

Ok, so I LIKE these internet contests...

And I just found another one.  So sue me, but I think they are fun and it's nice to share.

Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature's Child - Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies

Do you babywear?

I do! And I'm entereing a contest to maybe win some freaking awesome stuff. If you want to enter too, you can go to this website:
Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Cloth diapers = the AWESOME

I am just loving them on Rouena, they are so EASY.  I never run out of diapers!  They are so soft and fluffy!  Even the VELCRO is soft and fluffy!  The only problem is suddenly when we line dry them, it makes the lair smell like wet dog.  The diapers don't smell, just the air in which they dry.  I don't get it.

On a side note, we just found out we have to move, but we have a place to move to now unless they find toxic mold or something in the inspection tomorrow.  Everybody please pray that they don't find toxic mold.

Rouena is a pudge

At her two week check (a week and a half ago, I know, lemme alone), she was shown to have gained a pound and a half.  ALREADY.  She is getting to be quite the little butter ball.  On another note, I finally have all the new pics on flickr tagged and titled and everything, so you will know what you are looking at.  Also, Mark started his new term this last Monday, which is why I didn't post sooner... calculus sucks.

Baby and pictures

IMG_1062.JPG
Originally uploaded by Driggs family

Had the baby on June 3, she was 7 lbs, 4 oz, and her name is Rouena Mary Driggs. I have pictures up on Flickr. No titles or tags or anything, but the pictures are there so you can see them. Now I am going to go sleep while the sleeping is good, there will be more later.

Yes, I am still pregnant.

Three seperate people have IMed me today, certain that I must have had the baby by now.  So I'm just letting everybody know, the baby is still firmly inside me, doing well, and not even due until Saturday, gosh darn it, so please don't ask because I also have a toddler with a terrible cold that she so kindly shared with me and I'm a little cranky right now.  >.<  I think somebody has been spreading rumors that I'm due sooner than I am...

I like sardines.

We got some the other day at Walmart because, frankly, I was curious.  I wanted to know what the heck the difference between a sardine and an anchovy is, because as far as I could tell they are both just tiny fish in a can, except the anchovies cost about twice as much as the sardines.  So, I decided to crack open the sardines with lunch.  Nothing fancy, just put a bit in the sauce for my ravioli.  THERE WERE WHOLE FISH IN THERE.  No heads or tails, or I think I would have thrown them away immediately, but otherwise whole, intact little fish with bones and skin and everything.  I stared at them for a minute.  I put one on top of my ravioli, and stared at it some more.  Then I figured, if I put a little piece behind a ravioli, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

And you know what?  They are delicious.  Better than canned tuna.  I have two more from that can still in the fridge, and I think I'm going to try them as a sandwich later tonight.  Well, if I'm not too full from the anchovy pizza I'm making for dinner.

Hidden benefits of cloth diapers

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised at how well this is working out.  We even just got back from our mini vacation in Midway, and didn't use a single disposable diaper!  There are some things that never occured to me about cloth.

1.  Fewer leaks.  We have had exactly three leaky diapers since we started with cloth, and they have been caused by not putting the diaper on correctly, diarrhea, and forgetting to change Elspeth for way too long, respectively.  With the disposables, we had small leaks more mornings than not.

2.  Less smell.  We do not use the lid on our diaper bin.  Because it does not smell.  We aren't doing anything special either -- it's just a five gallon bucked, with a trash bag in it, and a little baking soda sprinkled in the bottom.  I guess if you stuck your face in it, it might be smelly, but just being in the room with it, you don't even notice.  Our disposable diaper trash, on the other hand, REEKED.  Even with the special sealing mechanism that was supposed to keep odors in, when that thing started to get full, you could tell by just smelling, and when you opened the lid, hoo boy!

3.  Have I mentioned the incredible amount of money we're saving?  We're talking, like, thirty dollars a month, and I was buying the cheapest diapers I could find.  The initial investment seems like a lot of money, but seriously, by this time next month the things will have paid for themselves.  And I never run out of diapers.  Goodbye emergency Sam's runs!

4.  Fewer rashes.  Aside from the hives Elspeth was getting because of her allergy, she is getting a lot less of the regular kind of diaper rashes too.  I've come to discover this is pretty usual... more than half of babies in disposables have chronic rashes, while only about 10% of babies in cloth do.

5.  The laundry is oddly satisfying.  I have been line drying, and it feels really useful to put those diapers up there.  Maybe I am the only person on the planet who feels this way, but that big fluffy stack of freshly washed prefolds just says "good job mom!" to me.

So seriously, I think that everybody should consider cloth diapers.  Of course they aren't right for every situation (disposables are wonderfully convenient things), but if more people knew how easy cloth is, I think a lot more babies would wear cloth diapers, at least some of the time.

Allergists are nice, but you never want to need one.

Elspeth is officially allergic to soy now.  And milk.  And eggs.  And we have an epipen in case she accidentally eats some peanuts, so she doesn't die.  T_T  Fortunately, since we have a letter from a real allergist, the WIC program will give us goat milk for Elspeth, which she should tollerate much better.  Which is weird, because I had actually not noticed any allergic symptoms when she has milk or milk products.  But hey, live and learn I suppose.  The big problem of course being that grocery store goat milk is not so great... any milk you buy is a MINIMUM of two weeks old, and goat milk doesn't have as long a shelf life as cow milk, it starts to taste goaty at about the week and a half point.  We are going to have to get some goats some day.

New Flickr pics

Climbing Stove
Originally uploaded by Driggs family

More pictures on Flickr. Not tons, but some. Also, I finally aquired a carseat! Yay! It is on the floor in Elspeth's room because Mark wants to clean out the car a little before we put it in. I just hope I don't lose the seatbelt clip before that happens.

The adventure never ends

So, we have decided to do cloth diapers on the new baby, because it only costs about 20% as much as it would to use disposables.  Well and good.  But the stuff was already here, so I decided to try out my diaper-fu on Elspeth.  That is when I discovered the cause of the perpetual rash around her waist and legs -- she is allergic to something in the disposables.  We have also proved pretty conclusively that she is allergic to soy.  Now the diapers aren't that big a deal (the new one was going to be cloth buns anyway), but the soy, oddly enough, is.  Can't use cooking spray.  Can't use shortening.  No Oreos.  Most brands of granola are out too.  SOY IS IN EVERYTHING!!!  I swear, every time I think I have everything under control, she breaks out again, and yep... soy.  The good news about this is it may explain her egg "allergy" -- sometimes they bother her and sometimes they don't, and it's pretty much random.  Which means it's POSSIBLE that she isn't reacting to the eggs, she's reacting to the soy that they fed the chickens who laid the eggs.  Fortunately, my plans involved raising my own laying flock as soon as I have room anyway.  And soy isn't really good for chickens, so hey... healthy soy free chooks, healthy soy free Elspeth.  But in the mean time, I am getting VERY tired of reading labels.

Well, I didn't get the carseat.

I did, however, order the cloth diapering stuff.  It seems really expensive up front, but when I keep in mind that this is ALL I WILL HAVE TO SPEND ON DIAPERS FOR THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS, it doesn't seem so bad.  Also, the subsequent four months will only cost about a third as much.  I have however found another eBay carseat.  This time, I swear I'm waiting to the LAST second and I'm going to POACH IT!  Less than two days to go tho, and nobody has bid yet, so things are looking a lot more promising than last time.

I freaking hate eBay.

I am trying to get a carseat on eBay, and it makes me angry.  We do need a carseat, and this one IS a good deal (assuming bidding doesn't go too high), but really, I can't stand the suspence!  It makes me grouchy and obsessive.  So, if any of you are bidding on a plaid rear facing carseat that started at .99, CUT IT OUT!  IT'S MY FREAKING CARSEAT!  >.<

I don't post very often, do I?

But then, I question whether anyone reads this blog very often anyway, so there you go. Not much is new in any case... I am officially thirty weeks pregnant with a still-alive baby, my birthday is tomorrow, and my pepper seeds are (finally!) sprouting, and that is about it.  Also, Elspeth is trying to wrap my head in a towel, so I have to stop typing now.

It's a...

GIRL!  She is just the right size, has all the right parts, and fought the ultrasound tech every inch of the way.  Definitely a fiesty one.  I guess I only know how to grow them one way.  We even got a free 3D ultrasound (they were trying out some new equipment), and she didn't cooperate for that either!  By the end, even the tech thought she was getting mad.  Cute little chicky.