good book

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I just finished a really good book and this was the quote at the end of it. It's called, "The Shack" by William P. Young and I really enjoyed "escaping" into it. If you are up for a good novel and have a few minutes to spare in your day I would highly recommend it.

Learning to juggle

Yesterday was crazy . . . or perhaps it was just me that was crazy! After Ellie's nap in the afternoon Josiah decided to have a freak-out. He was screaming and I was trying to get them both out of the house so we could go to Trader Joes (grocery store). Finally I had things together. I headed out the door w/ Josiah in his infant carrier, Ellie in the ergo carrier on my back, my keys in my hand and grocery bags on one shoulder, diaper bag on another! As I locked the door I realized that I left the house key inside. Oh well, not a problem since we have an extra key in the back patio - I decided I'd get that when we got home. Made it to the car, put the bags in the front seat and Josiah in his seat. Somehow from his side over to the other side Ellie managed to grab hand sanitizer and was consuming it as fast as she could. I got that away from her, put her in her seat and realized I had only put one shoe on her.

The trip to Trader Joes was uneventful. Josiah fell asleep on the way there and slept the whole time we shopped. I left him in his carseat and put it in the cart, Ellie was on my back in the ergo (a lifesaver). Ellie was so happy, smiling and laughing, giving me "hugs" from behind. She is just like me - needs to get out every so often and when she does it just lifts her spirits! What a social creature she is!

Once we arrived home I loaded Ellie back into the ergo, picked up Josiah's infant carrier, put the diaper bag on one shoulder, one of the grocery bags in one hand and left the other grocery bag beside the truck. Dropped everything but Ellie at the front door and ran back for the last grocery bag. Now I had to get inside. . . Josiah had woken up at this point and was hungry, so I propped a bottle up for him as best I could & took Ellie over to the side of our condo. Placed her down, with her balloon, telling her that momma would be right back. Jumped over the wall, ran to get the key and found the sliding glass door unlocked (oops!), ran inside, opened the front door and ran around to the side to rescue my now screaming little girl (mommmmma)!!

Inside we went while I unpacked and rescued Josiah from his seat so I could change him. My mother-in-law arrived a few minutes later and off Josiah & I went to hang out w/ my ladies group for dinner where I was involved in grown up conversation for the first time that day!

toilet time

Ellie went poo in the toilet this evening. She only went a little bit and then when she saw what she had done she cried. She was very upset so we had to put her diaper back on so she could finish the job!

Now THAT's a good rest

Last night Josiah had his last feeding @ 9:30 and I was in bed and asleep by 11:30. He didn't wake up to eat again until 4:45!!! Then he slept again until 7:30. Most of the nights we were at my parents house (last week) he was going 5 - 6 hour stretches in the night.

Right now he's half awake lying on the couch next to me :)

"Popular to Contrary Belief"

This morning Chris asked me if I slept well. I said yes, Josiah woke up @ 2:30; 4:30 & 7:30 for feedings. He looked at me incredulously . . . but of course he forgot that the night before Josiah slept fitfully the whole night! I thought that I was doing well until I said "popular to contrary belief" and when Chris asked me if I knew what I said & I replied, "of course" and said it again. It took me a full 5 minutes before I realized that I had switched the words around!! Maybe I'm not getting as much sleep as I think I am!

Diaper Sprayer

I've been visiting my family up in Paradise, CA and I'm really missing my "Mini-Shower Diaper Sprayer". I use cloth diapers w/ both of my children. Ellie has a diaper service and I made hemp-fleece diapers for Josiah. I just do the old-fashioned pre-folds. I love cloth diapering and brought a combo of cloth and paper up to my parents house. I was planning on bringing my diaper sprayer from home, but the day before I left it stopped working. It is a great contraption because you just put the dirty diaper over the toilet and spray the nasties off w/o getting your hands dirty. The past 3 days I've been doing it the old fashioned way . . . dumping those nasties by hand and washing them in the toilet. Gross! I purchased a new diaper sprayer and can't wait to be using it again!!