Nancy's getting baptized!

So last night I had a dream that I was haning out with my extended family. Nancy was there too. At one point in the dream I was suddenly a missionary. And Nancy was not a member of the church. But I knew that she and Andrew had been going to church together for a long time. We started talking about the gospel, and Nancy said that she believed everything she learned. So we commited her to baptism. We came into the room where everyone else was and told them. Everyone was so surprised that the baptism was so soon (I was trained on the mission to encourage people to be baptuzed as soon as possible) and excited for Nancy. We decided that she should be baptized in Mesa which was really convenient because I have two friends who are marrying each other down there next month. So I thought I could go to the baptism and the wedding reception in the same trip. Funny dream.

Mini Foods

Being the mother of a three year old who apparently gets most of caloric needs from the sun I find dinner time is often a battle of wills. While I want my son to eat the delicious and nutritious meal I prepared he is more interested in trying to get down and playing with his napkin. One thing I've found that helps is mini foods. First off I try to only give him small servings of what we are eating but if it can be a mini he is even more interested. Take for instance mini hamburgers. I make little guys that fit nicely on rolls (they are about a third to a fourth of the size of a normal hamburger). They are still delicious and he is much more likely to finish one. They also cook much faster. He also is a fan of mini pancakes and mini pizzas. Also you can make little mini individual meatloaf in cupcake holders. If you have any other fun minis let me know.

Tooth doctor?

Now that my girls' pearly whites are finally making their appearance, I think it's time that I take them to see the tooth doctor. Soooo, I am looking for any recommendations for pediatric dentists in the Orem/Provo area. Thanks!

Wassail Recipe

Hey, here is my mom's (and grandma and great-grandma, etc.) recipe for wassail.

1 Gal apple cider/juice
1 pt. orange juice
1 c. lemon juice
4 c. water
2 c. sugar

in 'spice bag': (or any semi-porous cloth wrapping; I've even used an old t-shirt)
24 whole cloves
12 allspice berries
6 sticks cinnamon
2 small-ish pieces whole ginger

Mix all the juice stuff together, drop in spice bag, simmer at least 1 hour. (I usually let it simmer for more like 4-6 hours, but sometimes this leads to a very strong concentration. If this happens to you, just add a little water).

More on Elimination Communication

It's funny to me how much Rachel understands about going on the potty. She actually looks proud of her self every time she goes--she looks up and grins at me. We've been making a lot of headway communicating with each other. I'm starting to understand Rachel's cues and she's starting to understand mine. She's been staying dry all through the night. I've done a lot of research on the internet today and it seems that most babies don't pee themselves in their sleep--they wake up to do it, then fall back asleep. It's only when they're used to sitting in it all the time that they turn off their "censors" so to speak.

We've only had one accident so far. I was holding her over the bowl and her stream went up instead of down. I didn't think that girls did that. Pee got all over the floor but it wasn't a problem. We just used our handy dandy Clorox wipes.

Our potty station: clorox wipes, baby wipes, a bowl, and a mat for Rachel to lay on

One of the dilemmas we've faced has been getting her clothes off in time. She makes plenty of grunts and groans before relieving herself, but getting off her pants and a onesie and a diaper can be tricky in that short of a time frame. I now understand why they have t-shirts for infants--they really bothered me before because they just don't stay down, but they're great for using the potty. You just keep your baby in a t-shirt and a diaper.

Skirts work well because then you just have to worry about the onesie and diaper. We don't have many skirts and it's a little too cold to go with bare legs so I looked at getting her some baby leg warmers. They are $12 a pair though!

I decided to make her some instead. At first I tried my knifty knitters, but they were too big. Then I remembered that I know how to crochet--I always forget that. This is the first thing I've attempted to crochet that hasn't been flat and rectangular. Don't knock them.

Here she is, my super star!

Now Rachel stays toasty warm and we don't even have to take them off to go potty. Somehow it throws me back to another decade. Viva scrunch socks! (We're still working on the design).

I haven't been brave enough to attempt going diaper-free yet, but we'll get there. For now I'm just happy that I've only had to change two poopy diapers today. For anyone who knows how often my baby goes, that's a real treat for me!

Does anyone know where to get inexpensive cloth diapers?

How I fold my onesies

Before Rachel was born, I washed a lot of her clothes. Most of her clothes are hand-me-downs from my sister's twins, bestowed upon me in giant garbage bags. They were mixed and mingled with little fistfuls of grass and cookies, courtesy of the twins, I'm sure. They needed to be washed.

So I washed all the itty bitty items, all billion and one socks, every little onesie. When they came out of the dryer, I was in ecstasy folding baby clothes and imagining what our little baby was going to be like.

The million and one socks got stuck inside bigger items I had in the wash and I was picking them out of my t-shirts for weeks. I learned quickly and bought a mesh bag with a zipper. We wash and dry her socks in that now. None get lost in my pant legs anymore.

What I couldn't figure out, for the life of me, was how to fold a onesie. For months I experimented with different techniques, none of which seemed to work. I folded them, I rolled them, but mostly I ended up just shoving them in her drawers. It was rather frustrating for me.

Then Rachel got to a very awkward stage in her growth where she was either too big or too small for all of her clothes. I was forcing her just-born onesies to stretch over her not-so-just-born self in order to keep her from tumbling right out of her clothes. I had 3 0-3 month onesies and it took Rachel about 2 hours to go through that many onesies back in the day.

And so I borrowed some onesies from Kim, which I do need to round up and return. When Kim gave them to me they looked pristine--not a wrinkle in sight! They were folded simply in half at the tummy and stacked on top of each other. I was amazed!

That's what I do now--I fold them in half and stack them in Rachel's dresser. It makes them easy to riffle through, although I'm not sure that they look quite as elegant as Kim's folding job. (I may just have to bust out my iron before returning those onesies, Kim!)

Did anyone else have that same problem, or I am the only onesie-folding challenged among us?

35,000 lights and 4,500 feet of extension cords

Last night, Taber and I loaded up the girls when we should have been putting them to bed and went to look at Christmas lights. I just wanted to get out and do something fun. These weren't your everyday string-a-light here, string-a-light there Christmas lights - these had become a life's purpose. If you want something to do that will put you in the Christmas spirit at once, you have to go check this house out in Pleasant Grove that has a computerized, veritable light show. They broadcast songs on 99.9 FM and the music and lights are synchronized. You can find more details at this website, like directions and hours. http://www.holdman.com/christmas/ You won't be disappointed! Except if you go when it's raining, like we did. Then only about half the lights work.

There is a similar thing going on in Murray. http://www.christmasutah.com/ His display, it appears, is a bit more...extravagant. 100,000 lights, and almost 2 miles of extension cords could do that. The director of the power company stops by every year. They're probably on a first-name basis. I'm excited to go see it soon!