Everybody who knows me well, knows that I am a little O.C.D. when it comes to my house. Everything has a place, and everything in it's place. (Thanks John E. for that genetic trait.) I can't sleep if things are out of order. Dishes need to be loaded, everything needs to be picked up and put away, bathroom needs to be picked up and everything wiped down, etc, etc, etc. Imagine my fear when I was pregnant with M.D. and looking around my organized home. Steven & I even had a conversation about the toys issue. We were both nervous about the idea of toys being all over our house. We were so used to this organized home we so much enjoyed. How could we make it work with toys everywhere!?

When M.D. was REALLY little it was easy to keep it up. Bottles would just be rinsed and loaded in the dishwasher every night, blankets and spit up rags were either folded or thrown in the laundry on a daily basis...easy.

Then, something switched. Both something in me, and something with M.D.
I put him to bed on Wednesday night after we had a major play-session in his bedroom. Blocks, board books, stuffed animals, etc. He was exhausted. I was too. I put him to bed and set out to pick up the kitchen/family room/dining room areas of the house. Once that was done, I decided to go check on M.D. I walked into his room...still light now that the sun doesn't go down till after his bedtime...there were toys EVERYWHERE. Blocks strewn about, board books half open across the length of the room, stuffed animals, his piano toy, even his clothes I had changed him out of mid-playing because I didn't want to interrupt his fun. Normally this kind of discovery would cause immediate stress. I would normally attempt to clean the entire room without making a sound to wake him. Instead, I felt an enourmous sense of comfort and peace. This room was not filled with a mess, it was filled with happiness, laughter, fun, memories. This was not a mess, but evidence of all of the fun and exploration we had experienced the hour before M.D. went to bed. This was awesome. This room was messy because M.D. has learned to crawl and now has the ability to move across the room, leaving toys and books in his wake. This mess is a blessing.
I have now decided I need to get this sign for M.D.'s room:

And this sign for my nightstand...so I remember EVERY DAY that there are more important things than an organized house (unless company is coming over...)

AND....
If you haven't seen this...Mackelmore "Same Love" Official Video....watch it.
If you haven't heard this (lately)...You are the Sunshine of my Life...listen to this.
*I sing this song to M.D. every day. He smiles so big every time!
If you haven't laughed at this...Mom's Helper...enjoy
And
If you haven't cried....well good...that means you're having a good day today :)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!! :)
-Laurel

I live for the weekends. I really do. It's probably not the most productive way to live life. You only get 2 days out of every week (if you're me) for the weekend, so why waste the other 5 just waiting for the 2 free-days to come? Well, I do. Because my weekends are the best. I get to spend them with M.D. & Steven. 24 hours a day for those 2 days. I love it. This week has been hard. It's been a hard week to leave for work. To leave M.D. there's good days and bad. Good weeks and bad. This is a bad week. Maybe it's because we had such an awesome weekend last weekend. M.D. started "crawling", exploring, etc. It was a milestone weekend. I didn't want it to end.
But it did. And now I'm back at work. But not for long! We have a 3-day-weekend coming up and I can't wait! We are filling it with fun family time and much-needed chores. The dogs need to be groomed, the gate needs to go up at the top of the stairs, the lawn needs to be mowed, etc, etc, etc. I can't wait :)

Also....
If you haven't seen this...My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech....watch it.
If you haven't heard this...Brave...listen to this.
If you haven't laughed at this...Dinner for Schmucks...enjoy
And
If you haven't cried at this...Woman Finds Dog...let it out.

And I'll leave you with this....HAPPY THURSDAY! :)

M.D. turned 8 months old yesterday. He's changing so much on a daily basis now, it is hard to keep up!

Name: M.D.

Age: 8 months

Weight: 18 lbs (est)

Length: 28.5: (est)

Eye Color: Bright Blue

Hair Color: Blonde

Favorite Food: Any kind of baby food, bananas, strawberries, Gerber "puffs". M.D. can now feed himself finger foods! :)

Favorite Toy: Anything that is NOT a toy (i.e. the remote control, cell phones, house vents, baby gate, etc.)

Favorite Game: Peek-A-Boo

Teeth?: 2 Bottom ones

Mobility: Army Crawls! (We are in trouble now...)


Likes: Singing, exploring, watching his puppies play, eating, breaking things, musical toys


Dislikes: When we won't let him play wi

I am on an island. Alone. Nobody else is on my island. Damnit.
I'm on diaper island. More specifically: Cloth Diaper Island.
I love this island.
It's inexpensive....looks great....not too hard to maintain...
But nobody is on my island with me.
So, with great disappointment, I have to admit, I think I have to jump off of the island.

It's not working. Well, I shouldn't be that general. It's not working for all of the crucial people that it's supposed to work for in order for this to be successful. It's working for me. It's not working for others. And that's OK. But it's not going to work if it's only working for me.
I am the only person who regularly change's M.D.'s diaper who has decided that cloth diapering is a great idea. The Only Person. Steven has never been a big fan. He liked the idea of the cost savings, but when it came down to changing a wet and/or poop filled cloth diaper....he wasn't thrilled. M.D.'s daycare doesn't do cloth diapering..so that put another wrench in the plans. So that leaves me. I really do like them. A Lot. But what's the point of filling a diaper pail 1X a  month because he only gets put in a cloth diaper when I change him? That is silly. Especially considering there are multiple websites where people want to BUY your cloth diapers. This makes me feel at least somewhat better. People will make this so it wasn't a waste of time or money.

We will have almost made it 3 months. Doesn't seem like long...but in the world of purchasing disposable diapers, we probably broke even already. I'm on the fence about giving up. Because I don't want to give up. But I also don't want to keep this routine up. It might be time to throw in the towel.

For the record...I think everyone should try it at least. If you can get your daycare/family/spouse/etc to like cloth diapers as well then I'm so happy for you! Like I've said 100 times...I LOVE CLOTH DIAPERS!! But that top drawer of M.D.'s changing table could be put to a lot more use if it's not filled with cloth diapers that are only being put on him 1-2 times daily.

In other news...here's a photo gallery of our past week :)

Happy Monday!
-Laurel

M.D. and I had one of those great mother-son bonding moments yesterday. It was another BEAUTIFUL day in the neighborhood so as soon as we got home from Miss Michele's house we headed out into the yard to play in the grass. We brought the two dogs out as well..it's always good for them to get some fresh air. M.D. was doing his best attempt to crawl off of his blanket. He always wants to pull the grass out of the lawn. Ironically enough, Steven and I just planted a bunch of grass seed in the yard due to the fact that it's looking a little patchy. I guess if it continues to look patchy...we know who to blame.
M.D. was JUST ABOUT to lunge himself forward into his "crawling" motion when he pushed a little too hard with one arm and flipped himself over. Onto his back. In the grass. No big deal. I rolled him back over...no tears...and he continued to play. Until I noticed it. The brown spot on the back of his head. Was it...?? Oh boy.
Steven and I did a pretty good job of cleaning up the front yard post-winter. The dog's don't actually go out in the front yard when the snow is really deep..so we weren't left with a ton of doo-doo this spring. Whatever was there, however, we did pretty good job of cleaning it up!
So here we were...in the yard, on a beautiful day, and I had to ask the age-old question. Is it dirt? Or is it poop? Okay...usually the question is, Poop or Chocolate, but in this case we had the Dirt or Poop decision to make. There's only one way to definitely decifer between the two. I had to do the smell test.

You know you're a mother when you don't even hesitate to think before smelling a giant brown spot on the back of your child's head. I honestly didn't even think it was gross until I realized it was dirt. Then I had the Baby Mama movie moment where I thought, Oh my god. What if it had been POOP?! I did have my nose essentially buried in the potential poop-spot.

The things you do for your children :) If it's not smelling potential dog poop on their heads, it's cleaning their snotty nose with your shirt sleeve (yeah...there wasn't a tissue or burp rag in sight...), or having them throw up on your head (yes, all over my hair, back of my neck...don't play "airplane" after dinner...). When it doesn't become gross anymore...you know you're a mom.

Happy Tuesday :)
-Laurel

Everything I've read about blogs says that the more pictures you include, the better. People get bored just reading a blog, they want to SEE the blog.
So, to give an update of what M.D.'s weekend looked like...I'm going to use pictures. One happy occasion that I missed a photo-memory of was when Nana came to visit! I didn't get a photo, because she was gracious enough to drive up and babysit M.D. so Steven & I could go to lunch and run some errands sans baby. Needless to say, I wasn't at home to take pictures of them playing together.

Here's the rest of M.D's weekend through photos...