Beckys Blog

Yeah! I'm so excited! We are moving back to Salem! We will either be moving the 17th or the 24th of November, so if you are local, let us know if you can help. Also, if you want to help pack, or watch kids so I can pack, let me know! I can't wait to be back up in Salem and in a house instead of an apartment! Yeah!

Raquelle's new favorite word. Wednesday night, I had some baking to do. I got started and I hear from the other room "NO NO!" followed by laughing and then "NO NO" followed by more laughing over and over. I finished with the ingredients I was on and went to see what Raquelle was doing (Thad wasn't home). I found her sitting on the floor with a box of tissues. She was laughing as she pulled out hand fulls, ripped them to pieces and threw them up in the air. Then she would stop point at them and say "NO NO!" Then start over. She had emptied the entire box by the time I stopped her. It was one of those times when you know the child needs disciplined, but it's really hard to not laugh at them while you are doing it! For the remainder of my baking, I resorted to the TV to entertain my children. I turned off all the lights in the living room (you can't tell it's dark thanks to the flash on the camera), I filled the laundry basket ...

Day 2 of our trip to the pumpkin patch. I suppose it's probably a good thing that we did this in two days. Small children with short attention spans do much better for an hour at a time then they do for several hours! Here are several pictures of all the fun we had when we went back on Sunday afternoon. Raquelle digging in the corn box. Like a sand box, only filled with corn instead. She played in this thing for a long time and cried when we got her out. Titus got to go in it too, but he had to be watched very closely as corn is a choking hazard. Both kids in the corn box. Raquelle really liked the roosters. I kept pulling her back from the fence. She wanted to touch them and I was worried they would peck at her. We fed them some of the corn from the corn box. Me and Titus lost in the corn maze. Ok, so we weren't too far lost, but we did go in a couple circles and hit a couple dead ends. We let Raquelle loose in the hay maze and she had a blast! Here she is exploring....

Friday, as it is pouring down buckets of rain, Thad calls from work and tells me to have the kids bundled up and ready to go when he gets home. Our destination? The pumpkin patch! Thad got off work a little later then he had expected to, so we ended up going back again on Sunday. Here are some pictures from Friday. Yeah! A family picture! This is on the hay ride going out to the pumpkin patch. The mud was so thick it was a pretty adventurous ride! I was sure we were going to slide off the road at any minute! Raquelle was excited to get to explore. Raquelle picking our pumpkin. Titus riding a pumpkin. Three little pigs.

I weighed and measured the kids today...here are their stats. Titus Weight - 21 lbs even Height - 29" Raquelle Weight 24.8 lbs Height - 32.25" (2 inches shorter then her 18 month check up!) I was pretty sure Raquelle was mis-measured at her last check up. They measured her by laying her on the exam table and stretching the tape measure out. Didn't look very accurate to me. If she was as tall as they said she was, she would be taller then the other kids in the nursery, when in reality, she's pretty average compared to other kids her age...maybe even a little on the small side. When I measured Raquelle at home before her dr apt, she was 31" (Standing against the wall and marking the top of her head, then measuring from the floor) then they measured her at 34.5. Now a month later, I have her at 32.25. Hmmm. Titus is now about the same size Raquelle was when she turned 1. My guess is by Christmas he will pass her up.

We set up a toddler bed for Raquelle last night (again). We tried sleeping her on a single bed mattress on the floor and could not get her to stay in bed. So, we put her in the play pen. That worked for about the last month or so. Now she is climbing in and out of the play pen too. So, we tried setting up the toddler bed. Unfortunately, we were missing a piece and couldn't put both rails on. So, this was our solution. If she does fall out of bed, at least she won't get hurt! We had to put her back in bed 3 times last night and then she stayed down for the night. When I went to get her up this morning, she was over in the play pen. She had tossed her sippy cup in there and climbed in after it. The play pen was left up in case we wanted to do a trial run with Titus sleeping in there too. I don't know if I can put him in it though knowing that Raquelle can climb in and out of it with him. That just doesn't seem safe for him. Anyway, so last night went well. ...

Just had to share a picture of my favorite diaper that I have made so far. It's mickey mouse!

I found a way to cloth diaper for free! Raquelle is modeling a wonderful fitted diaper made of an old WBC T-shirt. Titus is modeling another of the same fitted diapers that I made, only this one was made from fabric. I can now make a diaper start to finish in about 30 min. I'm using some old receiving blankets tonight to make a few more. After tonight, I'll be up to 10 diapers without spending a single penny! Fitted diapers new start cost about $10 each! I love that I can make them for almost nothing!

Check out my kids butts! Aren't they cute! Yes, those are cloth diapers you are seeing. We decided a while ago to make the change. We are making a gradual change though due to the start up cost. One of the ladies at our church has a baby the same age as Titus (1 day younger) and she uses cloth, so she was kind enough to let us borrow "samples" of several different types of diapers. We had been planning on going with the old prefolds (the type our parents probably used), but now after using these, we've changed our minds. It looks like we will most likely be going with pocket diapers. Why change to cloth? Well, I kept running into this article all over the web. If you click the link, check out the part about male infertility and disposable diapers! Also, Raquelle has had chronic yeast diaper rashes since she was about 6 months old. She gets one at least once a month, they are incredibly painful for her, and usually take 3 to 5 days to clear up. It was sugge...

I officially packed up Titus's 6-9 month clothes today, and unpacked the 18 month. That's right...he has basically skipped size 12 month. I put him in his first winter 12 month outfit for church yesterday, and it was too small for him. The 2nd half of yesterday, he wore an 18 month outfit, and it fit him. Today, he is wearing an 18 month onsie and overalls, and they fit him too. So much for size 12 month! Technically, he can wear his 12 month pants and T-shirts, just not the one piece outfits or onsies. Here is Titus wearing his 18 month clothes. Thanks Grandma for these overalls! I didn't expect them to fit so soon! And Here are both kids playing together. By the way, Raquelle is wearing Titus's pants in this picture. She had a few too many blow outs this weekend, So Titus is being so kind as to share his clothes until I do laundry.