I gave birth to a monkey!!!

A couple of weeks ago Garrett figured out how to climb onto the couch and the dining room chairs. I figured this was typical almost 16 month old behavior. Well after getting out of the shower the other day I found him on my bed!! I have no idea how he gets up there, and I have caught him up there twice since then. Obviously he is proud of his new found talent ;)

Baby Girl Diaper Cake

I love making these. And they make great gifts. This one is for a lady in my Sunday School class who is due about 10 days before me. Her shower is this weekend and several of us chipped in so I could make a big one :).

There are many ways to make these but I think mine turn out pretty cute and are fairly easy. Here's what I do:

Cut a piece of cardboard into a circle shape for your cake platter then cover with tin foil (some actually buy real cake platters but this is much cheaper and it still turns out cute)

Next roll size 1 and 2 diapers (I only use size one for the top layer) from open end to closed and hold with a small rubber band (lil girl pony tail holders work well). You can roll the diapers with the design panel facing out or in just depends on how colorful you want your cake to be.

Using a large rubber band arrange rolled diapers into circular layers. Then use packing tape to stick them to the platter and in between layers.

Place outfits, toys, bath items, etc. around the cake.

Use colorful ribbon to hide runner bands. Wired ribbon makes really pretty bows (especially for left handers like me).

And you are done!! You can spend as much or as little as you want on these depending on the diaper brand and how large you want to make it. This one has about 110 diapers and cost about $115, but I used Pampers and have three outfits and the blanket made it spendy. Like i said if 6 or so people put in 20 bucks it turns into a really nice gift for the mama :)

Woohooo I can see the light!

I had my 30 week appt today for the pregnancy. Everything looks good with our lil one. Her heartbeat was great and she moves ALL of the time :). A couple of downers are I have been having some major contractions for about 5 weeks now. And I found out at my last appt that the baby is very very low. We have tried several things to "lift" her a bit, but it doesn't look like that will happen now. As long as the contractions don't turn into real labor within the next 5 weeks we should be. At least my doc said she wasn't going to worry about it after 35 weeks. The other thing is my weight. I don't gain a whole lot with my pregnancies (15lbs with Joe and 23 with Garrett). With the boys I just wasn't hungry and with this one I have never been sicker in my life. The first 15 weeks were awful and I had about 10-12 after that that were ok, but now I am back on prescription meds to keep my tummy happy. I have been joking with Big Joe that he better be glad I was this sick with the last one and not the first...because he may only have one kid. All in all things look fine though. I'm trying to soak in all the kicks and good things about pregnancy so I can treasure them. I won't think about the car sickness, all day sickness, and awkwardness of it all ;).

Moving on up...

Well my boys have had some major changes :). Joe is officially in kindergarten!!!!!! His schedule is kind of weird for the first couple of weeks because of testing but he is doing well so far!! Of course his favorite thing is riding the bus (as much as my nerves hate it ;)). His teacher is very nice and has already noticed Joe's humor, his love for purple, and elephants. Evidently he is pretty good in math too :).

Garrett also had a move up. In preparation for the new baby I am moving Garrett into Joe's room. Last night was my second attempt at getting him to sleep in there and it worked! Took me a while and a few falls from him out of the bed but he fell asleep and stayed there til 5am. Then I went in there, laid down with him for a little bit, and he slept til nearly 8am :). I hate moving him so young. Joe was 2 yrs old before I put him in a toddler bed (one reason for waiting was because of his feeding tube) but Garrett seems so very young. I just don't want him thinking the new baby is kicking him out of his room. Poor guy...I just feel like he had to grow up fast.

Anyway...adjustments all over the place!! But they are such good boys...they always take things in stride with cute smiles.

Cooling off

Well the dog days of summer are here and even though school starts this week (AAAHHHHHH!)it is still plenty hot. Joe begged for me to fill up our baby pool and let them swim so I did. I've starting putting it on the deck just because that is really the most level area and it doesn't get as much grass in it there :) It turned out to be a good idea. They played for an hour.