Long overdue...

I guess you could say I've been a little slack with keeping up with the blog. My apologies! Life tends to get hectic with an almost 6 month old ( I can NOT believe I can say that now!). Sometimes showers are hard to come by (I've started just taking a bath with Liam and it kills two birds with one stone.) and sometimes I have to stuff whatever I can find in my mouth as I run out the door.  Ha! So, here goes a recap...

Last week Liam got his first ear infections...one in each ear. My poor baby was miserable. He cried and cried and could not be consoled. That's how I knew something was wrong. My normally perky, loving baby just wanted to be left to scream. The doctor says we caught them just as they were starting and after a day of antibiotics he was back to his old self. I'll be glad when he finishes the antibiotic on Sunday, because his diapers have been ridiculous! Use your imagination on this one, people!



Liam is now sitting up unsupported. He's been doing that since Mid-April! He has been hitting so many milestones earlier than expected. I hope he holds off on crawling until I can baby-proof the house.

I think that Liam can tell the difference between Spanish and English now. His expressions change and he babbles differently when we speak one language versus the other. I'm elated to see that he's actually catching on.  He seems to prefer Spanish right now. He smiles and laughs whenever we speak Spanish to him.  Yesterday, he got to hear Mama in Guatemala talk to him. He just sat there smiling and listening to her the whole time. Mi gordito is his favorite phrase. He belly laughs every time I call him that! It's adorable!


Liam is eating solids like it's nothing....We puree dinner and he gobbles it up. He has loved everything he's tried!  He has started to prefer what we puree over the baby food. He now makes a disgusted face when he eats baby food green beans, but if i puree them he's fine. Silly baby!

 We visited the Virginia Children's Museum for the first time. Liam enjoyed every minute of it! He especially like dancing to the live steel drum band! It was Day of the Child, so we also got to visit the Portsmouth Art and Cultural Center for free. There we saw live reptiles! I got to wear a snake! Liam was oblivious. He was more interested in the kids running around. Ha!

Well, I think that should have everyone caught up.  I am going to try to update more and I promise I will eventually finish the cloth diaper posts! <3

An Easter Baptism!

 This past weekend was special for two reasons. It was the celebration of Easter and Liam's Baptism! My Grandmother, Mother, Sister, Aunt, Uncle and Cousin all came up for the Baptism. We had a great weekend together and witnessed a beautiful service on Sunday.  Pablo and I even got to sneak away on Friday evening for a date night. The family didn't mind, because they really only came for Liam. ha! We also celebrated my Grandmother's birthday! What an eventful weekend!

Liam decided since Sunday was his day he'd do things his way. During the music portion of the service, right before his Baptism Liam projectile vomited all over his bib. Luckily my sister caught it and his Baptism Gown didn't get too wet! He continued to spit up (read not projectile) during the service and even while we were in front of the church! Then he fell asleep while the congregation was doing the readings. He slept right through getting water poured over his head and woke up just in time to spit up on the Pastor who gave him back in a hurry. Never a dull moment....

I was a little worried about him, so I took him to the Doctor today. She said he probably just got overheated and had over eaten since he had no fever and it only happened once. He's been fine ever since and has wolfed down apples and brown rice & veggie soup today. 

Now for the pictures and I promise I will be getting back to the cloth diaper posts as soon as all this excitement dies down!

Two Easter baskets!

Liam's Easter Basket from the Easter bunny.

Great Grandma and Liam

Happy Birthday, Great Grandma!

Easter Sunday.

Liam wearing my Christening gown for his Baptism.

Family waiting on Liam's Baptism.

Being Baptized

Family!

Liam in his Easter outfit

Easter outfit!

We're Back!

I know it's been 2 weeks since I've been home from my roadtrip, but I have been so busy! So much has happened in these two weeks.

Liam was an angel on the roadtrip. He slept most of the time or played with jirafa (his giraffe toy)! Our first stop was in NC to visit Ginger, Shane and Levi! Levi just loves Liam and wants to help with him all the time. They're adorable together.

Levi holding Liam's hand in the car!

 After a night in NC it was on to SC! Liam got to meet so many new friends and family members! It was a whirlwind trip, but I am so glad we went. I think it's important for Liam to know his extended family and all those that love him! Here's a few pictures of the trip. These are all from my phone, because somewhere along the way I lost the charger/usb cord to my camera. And of course, it's one of those odd shaped ones, so no other cord in the house fits it!

Grandaddy and Liam

Auntie Eta and Liam at the Farmer's Market

Cousins Caleb and Celeste

Making funny faces with Grandmother

Kisses from cousin Chase

Rocking with Great Grandma

In the past two weeks since we've been back we've been going non-stop. During that time I've finished physical therapy, I helped paint the chapel at church, Liam has started rolling over, he's also laughing at everything and he started solids! My sister has also came and gone...that's how crazy the past two weeks have been.

Liam had his 4 month check-up and is a healthy baby boy! He weighs in at 13 lbs.15 oz and is 24.5 inches long! We got the go ahead from his doctor to start solids. She surprised me by telling me to just mash up whatever we're eating and feed it to him. Since he's been breastfed he's been exposed to everything I've eaten, so if he had any allergies they would have more than likely shown up already.  Liam loved to eat and now he loves it even more! Here is a great article on the new baby food revolution if you're interested in what's changed!

And this would probably sum up the last two weeks in pictures.

Passed out on St. Patrick's Day

Wrestling Mono at the Dr.'s

Spending time on his tummy

Carrots

I just have to add one more thing!  I bought tickets to see Wicked a while back and knew that my husband would go, but would not appreciate it as much as my music loving sister. So, my sister and I had a girl's day this past Saturday, while Liam spent the day with Daddy! He had his first trip out with Daddy!  I think Pablo appreciates what I go through on a day to day bases more now that he had Liam by himself for an entire day. He said he enjoyed it, but he realizes how much work it really is. It feels great to be appreciated. =)

My Aunt is Super Rad

Waiting to see Wicked

The Set!

Aleta with a cast member

Hanging out with Daddy!

I'd say that sums up the last two weeks. I should've titled this post PHOTO OVERLOAD! Ha!

I must be crazy...

I'm attempting to take a road trip with Liam. It's going to be just me and him. Granted, this will be our second road trip, but it's our first BIG trip. I'm lucky enough that my friend over at You Are My Sunshine lives exactly halfway between me and my destination. She has been kind enough to let us stay the night with her, so that we can break up the trip! Thank goodness. I don't think I could do 6 1/2 hours with a baby. It would turn into a 12 hour trip from all the stops! Plus, I get to spend time with my friend and her beautiful son. Win-win!

So, I'm going to visit family for a week... 8 days to be exact.  One glance at all the stuff I have to bring and it looks more like we're moving in! It's ridiculous how much stuff a tiny baby needs (or how much we THINK he needs).  There's the Bumbo and the activity gym, plus some toys and books....

Then there are all the tiny clothes! How am I supposed to know if it's going to be a one outfit day or a three outfit day? You never can tell, so you have to prepare. I'm just going to plan for everyday being a three outfit day...that means lots of clothes! There are also the bibs. Liam has started drooling constantly, therefore, he needs his bib changed out a minimum of 100 times a day. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but it sure feels like 100 times a day.

Notice the drop of drool and the soaked shirt.

Of course, I also need all my cloth diapers! I'm going to be able to use my sister's washer and dryer, so Liam doesn't have to spend the whole trip in disposables. Yay!

Organizing all of this chaos is no easy task. Liam's crib has become a giant laundry basket. At least I'm getting some use out of it until he moves into it.

Who knows what I'm going to look like on this trip. I'm putting too much effort into making sure I have everything for Liam that I'm just throwing stuff into a suitcase for me. Ha! 

That all said, I'm going to be MIA from here for a week or so. I'll be sure to update about how the road trip went when I return! I'll also try and get around to Part 3 of the cloth diapers post!

Diapers or as we say in the Rivas household, Pañales!

I promised a post on cloth diapers, so here we go. I do not claim to be an expert or a cloth diaper enthusiast. There are those that LOVE cloth diapers and there are those who hate them ( Ew! Why would you touch poop?!). I am in the camp of cloth diaper likers and I love the money they save me. Plus they are so darn cute on Liam's little toosh!

Liam's 1st time in a cloth diaper. It was way too big!

My first look into cloth diapers had me so overwhelmed that I almost said forget it!  I liked the idea of less waste filling up our landfills and the fact that cloth diapers don't contain chemicals like disposables.  I also liked that in the long run we would save a lot of money, but when you first enter the cloth diaper world you feel like a foreigner.  When I first stared researching cloth diapers, I felt like I needed a dictionary! AOI. Fitted. Pocket. Stuffing. Isn't that what we have at Thanksgiving? What happened to just a diaper?! I went to an expert to find out.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who clothed diapered her daughter and she graciously showed me the ropes of cloth diapering.  She also had a stash of cloth diapers that she was trying to sell, so I took those off her hands for her. ;)  She had enough that all I had to buy was a few extra covers and prefolds! I really got lucky on that one. I tried to cloth diaper Liam for the cheapest price possible. Buying second hand and using prefolds and covers was the best way to do that. I have a very ecclectic collection of cloth diapers since I bought them second hand, but they work for us! I'll try and take you through what I have starting with prefolds and covers! 

The easiest and cheapest option for cloth diapering are prefolds or flats and covers.  I use Cloth-eez cotton prefolds from Green Mountain Diapers.  Liam is currently in the Yellow-small size and I also have the Red-Medium size. I have 12 in each size. The rule of thumb is 1 cover to 3 prefolds, because the covers can be wiped out and reused after you change out the prefold.

 I cover these with 4 Diaperaps small covers that I bought on a daily deal site called Eco Baby Buys. ( I love that site! Daily deals on Eco-friendly kid stuff!)  I also bought  four Econobum one size covers that came with 3 unbleached prefolds each. Besides the cloth diaper "accessories" that's all I had to buy new! 

Left: Econobum One Size, Right: Diaperaps Small

Econobum cover with Unbleached prefold.

Now, how do we put all this together to make a diaper? With a fold of the prefold and the greatest invention ever! The Snappi Diaper Fastener! There are quite a few folds out there, but my go to is the Angel Wing fold. It's quick and easy. What's even quicker is just trifolding the prefold and laying it in the cover. The latter is not good for Breastfed poops or messy poops, because the prefold can wiggle around and get the cover messy. This in turn means you have to use a new cover, but it is fast! 

Snappis!

 The Angel Fold

Add baby or Curious George.

 Pull over one side and hook with Snappi, then pull the other and hook.

 Pull the Snappi taught in the middle and add a cover!

Or you can trifold the prefold and lay it in the cover. 

That's how easy it is to use a cover and prefold!  I mentioned that I have an eclectic collection. I also have one random Grovia cover and a BumGenius Medium fitted diaper that I use together. A fitted diaper is basically a prefold that is sized and can be fastened with velcro or snaps. It doesn't need to be folded. They are nice to have, but they are a lot more expensive than prefolds. 

 Fitted BumGenius and my only Grovia cover.

Whew! I feel like that was a lot! I haven't even got started on All In Ones and Pocket diapers or the different diaper materials. Oh and the fun chore of washing all those little diapers! Those will have to wait for another day. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here! Again, I am no expert, but I am glad to share what I do know! 

Thank Goodness We Get An Extra Day!

Doctor appointments have gotten in the way of posting Part 2 of the Cloth Diaper series. I've been working on it, but I realize there is a LOT I want to say and share. It may turn into a 3 parter.

Yesterday, Liam had a last minute doctor appointment. He broke out in a rash on his neck and chest the day before. It's nothing serious.  He's just breaking out from all the drool that has erupted over the last few weeks. He actually enjoyed playing at the Dr.'s office.

I was surprised that he's an even 13 lbs. He's nearly doubled his birth  weight in 3 months!

From 6 lbs 6oz at birth 

to 13 lbs at 3 months! 

On our way home we stopped by one of my favorite places, Target, to pick up a few things. Baby boy got a new ball! I have been meaning to get him an Oball since he started grabbing and grasping things. We had Oballs of all sizes at the child development center that I use to work at. They are great for little hands and developing hand-eye coordination. As soon as Liam saw it he fell in love! He even fell asleep with it on our way home! He has been playing with it ever since. He gets so frustrated, because it won't fit in his mouth. 

He wore himself out playing with his ball in the car.  Notice he even wiggled his hat to the side! 

Yum!   

Now to do the laundry! I swear the laundry never ends, even before we started cloth diapering full time.  At least we get an extra day to to catch up on it! 

What are you doing with your extra day?