My support system

To give you a peek into our lives and some background info on this story here is an outline of my class schedual this summer:

5 days after my last class of the spring semester I start my speech class. It's a 3 hour class every Wednesday night. It will go on until the end of August, and the instructor is a jerk. (Blech!) I have Math for Liberal Arts II from 11 a.m. until noon, Monday through Thursday. I thought I was done with math once I got my A.A. but my program requires 3 math courses instead of the normal 2. It's pretty easy, but the students are SO immature, and they expect to be spoonfed the tests. Our final is July 20th.

Those two aren't too crazy. Babyzilla goes with Mimi for a couple hours while I go to class and do homework. I'm home 6 nights a week, except for the occasional shift at work. Then June came. With June came my Educational Foundations class. It's Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for 4 weeks. This class is a sprint. I'm used to that. My entire program is based on 4 week courses (4, 4 week courses 3 nights a week is a semester). This is different. This time I have other classes. And not just another night class, a class durring the day, too!

My day starts at 7 with feeding Babyzilla. Between the time Hubby leaves for work and we go to Mimi's (about 2 hours) I feed the baby his morning bottle, change diapers, feed Babyzilla his oatmeal and apples, pump, start a load of laundry, wash dishes (sometimes), make bottles, pack the diaper bag, pack my school bag, play with Babyzilla, and get out the door. Maybe I'll eat breakfast. Most of the time I don't. And by "breakfast" I mean a banana and a glass of milk or juice. I walk Babyzilla to Mimi's (we live in the same apartment complex), give a run down on how the morning went, walk home, get in the car and drive to class. I come home, switch over the laundry, do my homework, try to beat the apartment back into submission for a bit, eat lunch (normally a fried egg sandwich), pump, pack Babyzilla's dinner stuff (jar of babyfood, bowl, spoon and another bottle) and head to Mimi's. I usually get there around 2:00 p.m. She's decided that she's going to cook the month of June on nights that I have class (AWESOME!), so I don't bother to schlep Babyzilla home just to come back in 2 hours. I eat, feed Babyzilla dinner, and get on the road by 5:15. Hubby and I exchange a quick "hi" and a kiss. I get home about 9 that night. <- That has been my life for the past month, except when Hubby was out of town for a week on a business trip. That was peachy.

The good part: This is the last week of the madness! Tonight I have a presentation and I'm DONE. (We're getting an "independant study" night on Thursday. Wooo!) After this week, I'll get to cook again. I'll get to have an actual conversation with my husband. I'll get to see my kid for more than 4 hours a day!

The bad part: This weekend I had a bunch of homework. A PowerPoint presentation worth 25% of my grade and online quizzes worth 10%. Not to mention, I have to write a speech for Wednesday and study for a math test on the same day. (I had nightmares about my homework load, if that says anything.) Lo and behold, our keyboard dies. I was not in a happy place, let me tell you.

Another good part: Without even being asked, Hubby went to Target and bought a new keyboard. I asked him why he went right then. You know what he said? "You have enough to worry about without dealing with a dumb keyboard." At which point he hooks up the keyboard (I don't do technology), and packs the diaper bag. He takes Babyzilla to Mimi's place so I have the apartment to myself. No distractions. 2 hours later, he calls and tells me to take a break and get some dinner. Mimi cooked. :)

People ask me how I do it all (school, work, family, home). The truth is, I don't do it all. I have an insane ammount of help and support. I have faith that life won't always be this nuts, but even if it is, we can handle it, because that's what families do.

Something new!

The Feminist Breeder has decided to do something called Family Food Fridays. Basically, it's posting our meal plans for the week in hopes that it will help us make sure our families are getting decent meals (not Ramen, take-out, etc.) MOST nights. Hallee the Homemaker does something similar, but she posts on Mondays and has her menu for breakfast and dinner. Either way, I see great resources for dinners. I've decided to TRY to get our meal planning on the blog once a week.

Cool things Babyzilla Does: Month 5

Dear Babyzilla,
Oh my goodness! My baby is growing up so fast! In some ways it's awesome, but in other ways is stinks worse than your poopy diapers.

Cool things you do:

• Giggle. Oh, it's the best sound ever! Apparently you find Mama and Daddy very funny.
• You hang out in your crib in the morning until 7:30-8. Mama really appreciates the sleep!
• You love talking to that handsome baby that lives in your mirror.
• You get all excited when you see "Daaa-eeee" in the morning.
• When you're on your back, you try so hard to sit up. You've developed quite the baby six-pack from all of those crunches. Rolling over is of no interest to you. You proved that you can do it already, but you seem to feel that rolling over is below your level now, Mr. High and Mighty.
• Sometimes, when you're struggling to sit up, and you try SO hard, I hold out my hand. You grab my fingers and pull yourself into a sitting position. You are so pleased with yourself. I'm always amazed that your face can hold a smile that big.
• Scoot. Even though you're too cool for rolling over, Mama still insists you get tummy time just in case you decide to give it another go. Well, you're still not into rolling over, unless I flip you. You find that hilarious. When I flip you onto your belly, you get into a quasi-push up position and kick your legs. You've managed to move a few inches. Crawling is on the horizon!
• Eat! Oh how you enjoy eating! You love to take Mama's or Daddy's hand and feed yourself. It's all you kid. We just help with aim.
• Help Mama change your diaper and/or clothes. When I get your onsie over your head, you do a crunch so I can get to the onsie. You don't go down until I put the dirty onsie in the hamper and say, "Thank you." When I'm changing your diaper, you grab your feet and present your seat. You're very good at keeping your feet out of your poopie. When I get your diaper ready, you lift your tushie into the air back-bend style so I can slide the diaper under. Smarty pants!
• Bounce. Oh my goodness how you love to bounce. At home, you have a "Johnny jump up," as Grandma calls it, and at Mimi's you have a horse that is kind of the same thing but without being suspended from a door frame. You LOVE that horse! Sometimes we turn on the sounds. It plays "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" and "William Tell Overture" and says "Yeeee-haw!" You really like the "Yeeee-haw!" As a mater of fact, there's some debate as to whether or not "Yeeee-haw!" was your first word. When you're on some body's knee, you rock back and forth like you're riding your horse still. Too cute!
• Try to speak. You imitate sounds all the time. I'll say something like "hand" and you'll grab my hand and say "haaan." Once is a coincidence, Twice is cute, but you've done that 5 times in the past week. That's not normal for a baby your age. You're freaking me out, kid. (In a good way.)
• Ask for your favorite toys. Mr. Blue (your blue elephant) is your BPF (best pachyderm forever). You always want him by your side, especially if we're in the car. Mr. Blue (or "mmmmmmm buuuu" as you call him) chases away your grumpy side, so I'm all for him. You also love to hold your cloth diapers. Daddy and I thought we'd packed up your smaller ones, but apparently we missed one. You found it and now you take it everywhere. You don't have a name for it, but you reach for it all the time. Even though it's not a toy, per se, you do love your bottles (or "baaaaaaaAAAaaa" in Babyzilla-ese).

Well, little man, I'm sure I've forgotten some things, but that's a glimpse of how adorable you are right now.
Love,
Mama

Cloth on the Go

This past weekend Hubby, Mimi, Babyzilla and I went to a family reunion. It was our first time traveling with cloth diapers, and I was nervous to say the least. I packed some sposies "just in case," but we never used them. That's right. Our trip was 100% cloth! No leaks, no chaos, and, unlike previous road trips, no rash from waiting for the next rest stop to change a wet diaper. Even better, no need to stop at a rest stop just to change a diaper!

For travel we used a prefold with a hemp fleece insert. It works for overnight, why not in the car?  The drive to the reunion was about 3.5 hours, including a stop for feeding, and when we got there Babyzilla got passed around, so he was in the one diaper for about 4 hours. I changed him, and the pee hadn't made it to the outer part of the pre-fold. I swear, those inserts were the best $5 we have ever spent.

We stored the wet diapers in the normal wet bag, but ran out of room on the way home Sunday. Target bag to the rescue. Thank goodness it was only the one diaper.

I will say that the one down side to packing cloth was the room the prefolds took up, but it helped us organize everything. The black bag for clothes and toys, the brown bag for diapers, and the green bag for bottles/ feeding. Hubby and I could grab what we needed without rummaging through everything, so I guess it wasn't much of a down side.

Monday morning, I popped the diapers into the washer and washed them as usual. The ones from Saturday morning were a little strong, but nothing terrible. I sniffed them after they came out of the washer. No smell at all.

At first, I wanted to use all cloth just to see if we could do it. Maybe for a bit of shock value. Maybe to show how easy cloth diapers are for family members that think we're "crazy." Either way, I'm so glad we did it. Cloth diapers made the trip so much easier! And we're one step closer to being 100% cloth!