Receiving Blanket Flats

Yes, Emily can stand up by herself! She can even take 1 step at a time!

Annddd...so can Catherine! Yikes!

If you're like me, you got 150 receiving blankets as shower gifts, baby gifts, etc. They were GREAT when your baby (or babies!) were just that...newborn babies. But what the heck do you do with them after your babies are past the newborn stage?! Turn them into DIAPERS! You all know I'm a cloth diaper fanatic, but I recently discovered that you can use receiving blankets as "flats". All you do is fold them up a few times and you have an awesome, lightweight, breathable diaper! I put these on the girls in the mornings after they have been sleeping all night, to sort of let their bums breathe a little! I also like putting them in these on hot days and just let them run around in this diaper and nothing else. Keep in mind that there's no waterproof outer layer with these diapers, so if you're going to put these under clothes or if you're going out, you will need to put a cover over it. But if you're just hanging out around the house, skip the cover and just let baby go au naturale! It will let their bums breathe and catch any accidents that might happen!

So do you want to learn how to do this?! It's super easy. Just get a receiving blanket, any kind will do. (I like fun prints myself!) Then watch this video!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8vo-u5rl1M It's called the "origami fold" and this video is very well done and easy to follow. It takes some practice to get really good at folding the diaper and getting it on baby, but once you get the hang of it, it's SO easy! After mine come out of the laundry, I just fold them all up and put them in a drawer so they are ready to go when I'm ready to use them. Good luck and happy diapering!

4th of July Hat

Isn't this hat adorable?! Would you like to win it? Come 'like' Catily Crochet (my crochet shop!) on Facebook and enter the giveaway! The drawing ends Sunday at Midnight!

11 Months

 

 
 
 


 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



Ok let's try this again. Last night I wrote this whole post up, pressed the back button by accident and lost the entire thing! agh!

I cannot believe my little girls are 11 months. Every month I cannot believe how fast the past month has gone...which means their 1 year birthday will be here in a blink of an eye. I am so excited for all their new milestones and watching them grow, but am sad for the fact that my little babies are quickly leaving "babyhood" and approaching "toddlerhood." But to me, they will always be my little babies. :)

They are doing so much and learning new things every day. They love running around with their walkers! No independent steps yet, but I don't think they are very far off! They can both stand alone, without holding anything. They crawl everywhere and climb up on everything. They "talk" to each other all day. They love saying dada and baba and variations on these things. Yesterday Emily said "muhhh muh" so hopefully mama is coming soon! They clap and wave. Catherine loves to point. They can climb up an entire flight of stairs. They love pulling things out of drawers. We got them a play kitchen and play "doorway" and they love to play with those!

Since the weather is becoming much nicer, we have been going out a lot! We have gone to 2 horse shows, the farmers market, the park, lots of shopping, the lake at Grandma's house, etc. They are getting a lot better around people too, thank goodness. They LOVE the horse show - like mother like daughters! They watch the horses go round and round and have a great time seeing all the people and animals. At the park they LOVE the swings and meeting up with my friend's twin boys for some serious twin time! Lots of people think they are quads, haha! Brian and I take them outside a lot to play. They love crawling around in the grass and dirt! They "helped" us plant our garden this year, so I'm sure it'll be a good one! 

In terms of eating, we just dropped down from 5 bottles to 4. They did great with the transition. It took them a little while to realize they had to drink a bit more, but now they finish their whole bottle. One of these days I need to start the transition from the bottle to the sippy......but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it! They are still drinking breastmilk, I don't have any plans on weaning soon. I only have to pump 4 times a day to give them all the milk they need which is easy! In terms of solids, they eat 3 solid meals a day and lots of snacks! Some of their favorite foods include: yogurt, cheese, cheerios, blueberries, sweet potato fries, goldfish, mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. Catherine is good about trying new things, although she is over bananas. Emily is a bit pickier and takes a while to warm up to a new food.

So far, Catherine has 8 teeth and Emily has 5. Although it's getting harder to see in their mouth as the teeth travel back, so for all I know they could have more!

Well, I think that's it for this month! A mere month to go until their BIG 1st birthday!!!

Mother's Day Recap

Emily napping on Mother's Day! She loves her Lambie

Catherine checking out Grandma's herb garden

Me and my wonderful mom!

Grandma got them Adirondack chairs :)

Daddy & Catherine

Family Picture

The girls helping me celebrate my 27th birthday (waaaa!!!! I'm getting old!)

Their first taste of cake and icing...umm...they loved it. They have a sweet tooth like mama.

A picture of me and my girls on Mother's Day!

What a wonderful 1st Mother's Day I had! Truth be told, Mother's Day was a depressing holiday for me while I was struggling through infertility, I would dread it. But this year, this year was very different! The girls just brightened my day and I was so blessed to be able to spend the whole day with them and my wonderful husband! 

We started off the weekend by going to my mom's house on Saturday to celebrate Mother's Day and my birthday (which is tomorrow!) It was warm and sunny out, and my parents live on a lake so it was a beautiful day to spend by the water! The girls were fantastic, not a peep out of them the entire time until the end, when they started to get tired. I was going to wait until their 1st birthday to give them cake, but I couldn't help but share my birthday cake with them! They absolutely loved it!

Then the next day, Mother's Day, Brian let me sleep in and got the girls up and fed them! He was super helpful all day and did a lot of stuff around the house. He also made us all a big breakfast which was delicious! He got me 2 wisteria vines which I asked for, and a new strap for my camera which I also wanted! My mom got me a huge bag of brand new clothes which was so thoughtful, I really needed them and she knows my style SO well! I loved everything! She also got me a beautiful card. My very best friend also called me to wish me a happy 1st mother's day which was so sweet of her!

Overall my 1st Mother's Day was just wonderful! I really enjoyed spending the time with my family and appreciated the thoughtfulness!!!

Gone Fishin'

What a great weekend we had. 70's, sunny, light breeze. A perfect weekend to spend lots of time outside, which is exactly what we did! We have a big fish pond on our property, so while Brian went fishing, the girls and I sat under a shade tree and enjoyed the weather (aka Emily freaked out about touching grass while Catherine had fun eating leaves.....). And daddy caught a fish! He brought it over and showed the girls. Catherine was fascinated....she even touched it! Emily started at it for a few minutes then freaked out and started crying. Ahhhh my crazy little girls.....