Upside Down & Scribbles

Miss Mayhem loves to lay on her belly and "scribble". It's funny how on her belly is her "go to" position for anything that involves making marks. She also has better hand control than I have ever seen on one of my kids. It's amazing to me to watch her use a pen on such small pieces of paper. I keep a pen and paper pad in my purse for older kids, and now I let her play with it too.

Miss Mayhem also likes to be upside down more than any baby/toddler I have ever seen! Several times a day she comes up to me asking to be picked (while I'm sitting) and then throws herself backward so we can play the Upside Down Game. She does this anywhere, and anytime, and never seems to get tired of it! (Danger Boy took this pic so I could finally get a pic of her doing the Upside Down Game!)
Miss Mayhem was walking around with my soda cup (empty) and Kid Catastrophe's purse, and saying "bye! bye! bye!" over and over again. I guess she knows what Tired Mom takes with her before we leave the house ;)
All the Super Kids have been good in the stroller, but Miss Mayhem takes the cake! She does great in the double stroller, and the jogging stroller. She probably spends more time in a stroller than the other kids have (due to the addition last year of a jogging stroller to our arsenal of baby gear). She just needs some snacks and some toys and she is usually good to go!

SIX?????!!!!!!

Kid Catastrophe turned six. There I said it. It's a sad sad time for Tired Mom as her baby girl continues the nasty business of "growing up". Not that I won't enjoy six as much as five, but that just means we are one year more along in her sweet little life. I'll get over my little mope soon and get back to the enjoying every minute bit, but it just seems like there are less and less minutes. Some people consider sucking the marrow out of life to be making life one big party. I consider it to be watching my children grow up. There is no greater joy for me than this. I just wish they would grow up a little slower!

Highlights of the last year for Kid Catastrophe:


Losing her first tooth
Performing magic
Day at the park
Enjoying her Christmas present
About to go on a family trail hike
Dressed up as "Princess Lover" as her Indian name in Kindergarten
Another day at the park
One of my favorite kid pics EVER! This was right before the children's music program at church one Sunday.
During a visit from Grandpa Butch
Christmas dress
Kindergarten visit to the pumpkin farm
During a visit with Granny-Ma
Random silliness ;)
Taking a break during a trip to the Saint Louis Zoo
Halloween (dressed as Rapunzel from Tangled, after she got her hair cut)
At the library during the Summer Reading Program
Petting a pony in Minneapolis
On a big carousel at the Mall of America in Minneapolis
Mall of America in Minneapolis
July birthday party fun
Graduating from preschool last spring
Kid Catastrophe to the rescue!!!
Kid Catastrophe, SUPER STAR!
Cute pose
Another cute pose
Dressed up before the preschool transportation parade
In her "car" for the preschool transportation parade
Playing with Miss Mayhem during Danger Boy's first grade play
St. Patty's Day last year
Sticker face?
Who has the cutest just turned 6 year old ever?

The Flu Sucks

What's up with us lately? The flu took over a week to make it all the way through our family. Fevers, vomiting, horrible headaches, body aches, etc. Super fun for the whole family! Kid Catastrophe mostly slept it off.

On the other hand, it did give us a chance to catch up on some reading. Danger Boy got it the worst with a fever, vomiting, waking up at night, etc.

In other news, Miss Mayhem has been exercising her mad toddler climbing skills to climb on various pieces of furniture. She seems to especially like climbing on the couch. I even caught her climbing out of her crib, so now we have to keep the crib gate up ;)
She can't push the heavy metal kitchen chairs, but she can climb on them. We just have to be careful where we leave those chairs now!
Should I have let Miss Mayhem watch Saturday Night Fever? (stayin alive, stayin alive, stayin alive, oh oh oh oh...). If you look closely you can see she is wearing Paranoid Dad's giant clod hoppers. She seems to like his shoes the best!

That's our life lately!

Is There Anything More Super Cute Than....

A toddler?

What about a toddler and a Paranoid Dad looking the same direction while on a family hiking excursion?

Or a toddler and a Kid Catastrophe and a Danger Boy exploring in the woods all walking in a line?(check out the natural arch above the kids).
Or a toddler hiking in the woods with a silly look on her face while being closely followed by a Paranoid Dad?What about a toddler sitting on your lap eating a cracker and jabbering away in between bites?
Or a toddler in a head band with the sweetest expression in the world on her face?

What about a toddler reading a book while having a silly belly laugh?
Or eating a giant sized piece of pizza? (she looks a little evil in this pic doesn't she? ;)
And last, but not least, what about a toddler sucking her thumb while cuddling up with her favorite lovie blankie?
I ask myself all day how Miss Mayhem can possibly get any cuter as she seems to try and "outcute" herself all day everyday. But, seriously, what could be cuter? ;)

Toothless and Tantrums

Miss Mayhem is entering the brave new world of toddler temper tantrums. Ah, the terrible twos, such a magical age. MM is not as bad about tantrums as Kid Catastrophe was, but still throws her tiny weight around when she wants to.

Of course I took pictures! Am I the only one who does that? Tantrums are hilarious (as long as they are NOT in a grocery store). I especially love the ones where she tries to throw herself backwards while I'm holding her. What does she hope to accomplish by throwing herself on the ground? I'm pretty sure that would hurt when I dropped you, I want to say.

In all actuality though, Tired Mom loves the toddler years, just not the tantrums. What could be cuter than a stuffed tiger in a stroller pushed by a toddler? Not very many things, methinks ;)

Kid Catastrophe has already started losing teeth! I don't remember it happening this early with Danger Boy. Unfortunately, she swallowed her first tooth! We think she swallowed it anyway. It was loose, and then she was sitting on the couch and noticed it was just gone! The Tooth Fairy made up for it by bringing her a big toy when she lost the second one.

Toothless five year olds are pretty cute too now that I think about it ;)

Cloth Diapering May Actually Be Easier?

There was a mom on "my" message mommy message board that commented on a thread about cloth diapers that she hated it when people said cloth diapering was easier. I nodded my head in agreement, until I took a moment to think about all the good and bad of cloth diapering. First the good:

1. Fewer poopie diaper blowouts: I'm not sure why this is the case, but before when Miss Mayhem would fill her drawers, the disposable diapers would leak 9 times out of 10. We were actually ruining several outfits a week this way because her poops seemed to be especially stain causing. With cloth diapers, 9 times out of 10, the diaper does NOT leak poop so her outfits are saved and we save money that way.

2. Once you get about 4-5 months into cloth diapering, the diapers have paid for themselves (based on my estimate of spending $30-40 dollars a month on disposables). It cost us about $150 to buy enough diapers to cloth diaper using pocket diapers we found for "cheap" on e-bay. So, while cloth diapers are a big expense right off the bat, they are cheaper in the long run. I was warned away from buying the e-bay diapers, but I just did not have $500 to spend on the fancy cloth diapers. The e-bay pocket diapers and inserts have lasted over a year with no problems, so I guess we were either lucky or the fancy diaper people just have better PR workers ;)

3. Not having to worry about if we were out of diapers when we were having a tight month is priceless. There was nothing I hated more than counting the disposable diapers to make sure we had enough to last until we could afford more, and then coming up short. We never come up short with cloth diapers, we just wash them again.

4. Although there are many many many fancy accessories you can buy to go with your cloth diaper stash, it was just as easy for us to use what we had around the house to manage our diaper washing rotation. I had a mesh bag I was using for swimming, and I instead hooked it behind our basement door to keep the smell of wet diapers from invading the house in between washings (about every three days). The mesh bag was important for the diapers to "breathe" between washings. We also did not buy a toilet sprayer since our bathroom sink has a strong spray to it that helped with spraying the sticky poop off the diapers. We also did not buy fancy detergents. We just used a teaspoon of free and clear laundry detergent and a cup of white vinegar. We've never had any problems.

5. Sorsha very rarely gets diaper rash now, which is why we started cloth diapering in the first place. Before, she pretty much had a rash ALL THE TIME, which was no fun.

6. Cloth diapers are almost impossible for Miss Mayhem to get off on her own. She can take off a disposable diaper in about 5 seconds.

7. Cloth diapers are super cute!

And now for the bad:

1. You have to wash the poop out of the diaper. Ew.

2. You have to wash diapers about every 3 days, if you are lucky and the baby does not poop 5 times in one day.

3. Cloth diapers have to be changed more often. I have to change her diaper every 1 1/2 to 2 hours or they leak urine. Poop still stays in even when I don't know she's poopy though.

4. It's harder to smell the poop when she has a poopy diaper for whatever reason. Sometimes she gets a rash because she is one of those babies who gets a rash at the drop of a hat. Poop left on her skin is one thing that triggers that.

5. Cloth diapers are bulkier, so they are harder to pack for a day away. It also makes it harder under some clothes because they bulge out more than a disposable diaper would.

6. We still have to buy disposable diapers for night time because cloth diapers just do not hold enough urine for MM to sleep her usual 11-12 hours at night. So, we still end up spending $8-9 a month for those.

That's the good and the bad from our experience for the 14-15 months with cloth diapering. I'll let you guys decided which is harder!