Curious George: Neighborhood Friends

This week's Fun Book Friday book choice is Curious George: Neighborhood Friends. John Warren and I both love this book! There is not a real plot, but on each page, you get to see a location and there is a pull out part that shows the people that you would find at the location. O.k. I see that this might sound confusing, so here is an example. The page reads, "George is always curious...at the fire station," and then on the side there is a pull out tab, and when you pull it, there is a picture of a firefighter!! It is really short, so my four month old son and I can finish it in one sitting. The illustrations are bright and colorful which keeps his attention. It is a fun book that teaches about locations and occupations at the same time! We love Curious George!

4 months

3 months

4 months

You are 4 months and 1 week old. I'm writing this one week after your turned 4 months because you are keeping me so busy these days! Even now I am having to write while you are playing on your Lamaze Space Symphony playmat!

--You don't sleep much during the day anymore. You will nap several times but for about 15-20 minutes each time.

--You like to sleep for about 10 hours each night but not without waking up a couple of times to nurse.

--You sit well with support and are starting to hold up your head and upper body by yourself when you are sitting upright.

--You have starting warming up to tummy time (thank goodness), and you can even scoot a little when on your tummy.

--You can easily roll from your back to your side, but you haven't rolled to your tummy yet. You've been rolling from your tummy to your back since June 1st, but you don't do it that often (just when you want to).

--You are very vocal now! You love to coo and make all kinds of sweet sounds. You especially love singing with mommy!

--You have just started grabbing your own toys. You pulled down on your birdie that hangs from your car seat just this past week!

--You love to touch mommy's face and especially her nose!

--You are chewing on everything (especially your thumb) and drooling up a storm. We are watching patiently for your first tooth to make an appearance.

--You are a nursing pro now, and you love to move your hand back and forth across my chest while you nurse hitting any necklaces that I'm wearing along the way.

--You watch us when we are eating and drinking pretty intently, but you won't have anything but mommy's milk for another two months.

--You love attention, especially mine, making it really hard for me to do anything that does not involve talking or playing with you!

--You love looking in the mirror and fall asleep in the car pretty regularly now.

--Your sweet smile, precious dimple, and beautiful voice melts my heart (and pretty much everyone else's)!

--You have to be the sweetest baby ever!

Trucktown--On the Move

This past week John Warren took his first trip to Oxford, MS where we visited Square Books Jr.--the cutest children's bookstore. I think John Warren was as mesmerized with all of the books and educational toys as I was! I found several great books on the sale rack. One of which was Jon Scieszka's Trucktown On the Move, and this is the book that we read today and chose for Fun Book Friday! What's it about? Scieszka has a serious of books about Trucktown, and this particular one focuses on trucks that have moving parts such as a wrecker, dump truck, monster truck...you get the picture. What made me love this book as soon as I picked it up was that it was interactive. Interactive books are wonderful because they move the child from an inactive observer to an active participant (when being read to). This eight page book about four different trucks has some interactive part for each truck; for example, the page about the monster truck has a wheel that you can spin! Seriously, reading this book is so much fun, and it teaches the reader about the functions of the different trucks! This book is short, so it can hold those little attention spans and has simple yet cute illustrations that make focusing easy! I am so looking forward to our next Jon Scieszka book, and I'm sure John Warren is also!

Fun Book Friday: ABC Animal Jamboree

Yay! It's another "Fun Book Friday!" Today, John Warren and I chose to read ABC Animal Jamboree. This is one of our favorite books for many reasons. The first reason we like this book is because of the beautiful illustrations. The pictures are large which makes it easy for John Warren to see, and the pages are filled with bright colors which grabs his attentions. A second reason we love this book is because it is educational. The book teaches the alphabet while at the same time teaching about various animals. I like that the book has strange animals like an umbrella bird and a quetzal. A third reason we like this book is because it is not too long for us (my 3 1/2 month old). It keeps his attention, but I would not want it to be any longer (26 letters). Each page has a little rhyme about each animal that contains some sort of description about the animal. It's not corny but cute!

I love the very end of the book where it simply lists the letters in both uppercase and lowercase form. This is perfect for us to sing our ABC's. John Warren loves to sing, so the end of the book is a special treat!

We love ABC Animal Jamboree!

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?

Every Friday John Warren and I will read a new children's book that we will review together. This week we have Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? This book was a gift from our good friend Connie Webb, and this was our first time to read it! Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? is an educational book that teaches animal sounds through the use of pictures and a simple plot. It is also quite fun because it gives the reader a chance to make the sound, hence the "Can You?" part of the title. This book is great for little ones; John Warren, at only three months, loved it! It is short, colorful, and in Dr. Seuss's tradition, rhymed wonderfully! Its use of onomatopoeia will entertain little ones especially ages under five. The book is short with only 16 pages and few words on each page making it perfect for young children with short attention spans. We LOVED Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?

Fluffy Bums

I often hear, "So, how are the cloth diapers going?" I get this a lot because when I was about two months pregnant, I decided that I wanted to use cloth diapers instead of disposable ones. Initially, I thought it would be real money saver, and that was the main reason I wanted to start using them. It can be as expensive or inexpensive as you make it, but most of the costs are before the baby is born, so you do have fewer expenses after the baby's birth. Good pocket diapers can run 17-27 dollars each. A pack of prefolds (6) might cost around 25 dollars (the larger the diaper, the more it costs). BUT you also have to have a cover for them. I prefer the Thirsties covers, and they cost about 12 dollars per cover. If you wash every other day, you would want to have about 24 diapers and about 6 or 7 covers.

Now that I'm actually changing JW's diapers, I feel that cloth was such a great choice because I actually feel good about what I'm putting on his bum. He came home with a diaper rash, and he would pee so much that the little crystals from the disposable would be all over his bottom, so at one week old, I started using cloth. It took a while to get rid of the rash, but it finally cleared up, and we haven't looked back since!

Here is where the cloth magic takes place!

Pocket diapers usually have a fleece lining and come with absorbent inserts. The lining keeps the wetness away from the baby's bum, so he/she feels dryer longer. You can add inserts to make it more absorbent, and many are one size fits all, so you can use from birth to potty training!

I prefer to use prefolds and covers. My favorite brand is Bummis Organic Cloth and Thirsties covers (but pictured is a Flip cover). You can simply fold the diaper into thirds and place it in the middle of the cover. Put the cover with diaper on the baby and you are done! If the baby doesn't get the cover dirty, you can reuse it several times before needing to wash it!

A snappi is the plastic thing you see on the diaper. You can use these if you want to use the cloth diaper in a more traditional way. The snappi works instead of diaper pins. You simply place it on the left and right side, like you would a pin, and then pull the middle down!

You don't need a lot of accessories, but you will need a pail, a pail liner, and a wet bag or wet/dry bag. The pail is where you will put the dirty diapers until you wash them. The wet/dry bag is what you will take with you when you are out of the house. The dry part will store the clean diapers while the wet part stores the dirty ones. Since John Warren is exclusively breastfed, there is not need to rinse his diapers before throwing them in the washer!

Because John Warren's bum is sensitive, I have chosen to also use cloth wipes. I simply fill the squirt bottle with a little warm water before changing him. I dampen the wipe and clean my baby!

Using cloth is super easy! I would not do it any other way. Not only is it better for my baby's bum, but it is also great for the environment. The following is taken from the Thirstie's website, and will help you see how using cloth diapers helps our planet, is good for baby, and saves you money.

"the savings Your baby will go through an astonishing 6000 diaper changes from birth to potty. Choosing disposable diapers and wipes will add up to an average of $2500. In contrast, by purchasing Thirsties Cloth Diapers and wipes, a family will actually save up to $2000! Translating this saving into earnings, one can assume you will spend a total of 115 hours laundering your reusable diapers. In this scenario, you will actually earn in savings an hourly wage of $15 an hour in the time spent laundering your baby's reusable diapers!

baby's 1st carbon footsteps Sixty times more solid waste and twenty times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp, are used in the manufacturing of disposable diapers. In fact, 25 million trees are consumed and manufactured into baby diapers each year! As the third largest contributor to our landfills, all the toss-away diapers of today will still remain in tact 500 years from now.

for the health of it Less than one half of 1% of people follow the fine print guidelines on their disposable diaper package: "IMPORTANT: Shake baby soil into toilet." Raw sewage that is tossed into our landfills contaminates our water supply and breeds viruses and bacteria that are then spread to humans by insects.

for the health of your baby Disposable diapers contain various toxins such as Tributyltin, Sodium Polyacrylate, and trace amounts of Dioxin. Your baby's delicate skin functions as a sponge and what we put on it goes in it. Harmful toxins can be avoided by choosing Thirsties Cloth Diapers and accessories. Disposables are also a strong contributor to baby diaper rash. Before the use of rubber pants and plastic diapers diaper rash was almost unheard of. Diaper rashes can be caused by many reasons, but the most common cause is excessive moisture against the skin. Many of Thirsties products are topped with a high tech sports fleece that actually wicks moisture away from your baby's bum and acts as a barrier to the wetness."

If you are interested in cloth diapers, there are so many website that can teach you all about it! Ordering online is so easy, and many chain retail stores like Babies R Us and Target are selling name brand cloth diapers on their websites! Here are a few great website for cloth diapering!

http://www.thirstiesbaby.com/

http://www.bumgenius.com/

http://www.softandcozybaby.com/

http://www.growinggreenbums.com/

Happy First Father's Day

Warren had a wonderful first Father's Day! It started with a pancake breakfast followed by his gifts. John Warren and I bought Warren his own personalized leather bound Bible and hymnal. We had a great Sunday school lesson taught by Warren and a great sermon on Abraham by Bro. Gary. After church we spent a little time with Warren's dad before we headed to Aunt Tammy's for burgers. We visited with everyone, and John Warren got lots of love! While momma and baby took a nice afternoon nap, Daddy played some tennis with Tyler. After tennis, we went to dinner at Logan's, and after a long day, we had a good night's sleep!