All Nah-tur-al, Baby

My friends Hannah and Erin have had quite the influence on me lately.  I've always considered myself a somewhat natural person when it came to health.  I mean, I was all about natural childbirth, breastfeeding,  I don't like to take antibiotics/meds or even tylenol unless I absolutely have to, and I ate healthy overall.  Kind of a "let nature do it's thing" attitude.  But Hannah and Erin are a wealth of knowledge and have taught me stuff that has taken this natural thing to a whole new level.

David and I started eating healthier last year - less processed food and sugar were the main changes.  It seems when I got pregnant, we didn't do as well because I just had to cope with nausea and tiredness.   But we did enjoy the benefits of eating better - more energy and weight loss.  The things I've been trying lately have more of a focus on internal health - the stuff you can't always see or feel, but it'll make you healthier in the long-run.  Mainly, eating real food and eliminating yucky chemicals. 

Some new things I've tried lately-

• making my own cleaning products
• making my own deodorant - love it!  Better results than store-bought in my opinion.  No unpleasant odor so far.
• making my face cleanser - again, love this!
• making soap (I did it once with Hannah)
• drinking raw milk - yummy.  I think I'll do this more after baby comes.  I don't think it's risky, but I was extra careful with my eating when pregnant with Caleb, so I'm trying to do the same for this pregnancy because most "experts" advise against it. 
• making my own yogurt in the crockpot
• using raw honey
• eating organic raw cheese
• incorporating more organic produce
• less processed food (hard one!)
• along the same lines, cutting out as much high-fructose corn syrup and soybean oil as possible
• making my own chicken broth
• eating grass-fed beef
• eating pastured eggs
• using coconut oil and olive oil instead of vegetable and canola - I don't use much oil anyway in my cooking. 

We're not doing all of the above on a regular basis, we're just trying it out and incorporating it more.  There are like a million other things I'd like to go natural with from toothpaste, to detergent, to eliminating plastics.  We'll see how much of it sticks and how far we go.

David always teases me.  He thinks we're going to end up living like the Amish one day.  Ha!  Probably not.  There are some things I just can't do without right now - disposable diapers, a microwave and cereal are a few that come to mind.

Thanks Hannah and Erin for all your tips!

Here are some pictures just for fun.

pretty eggs

6lb jar of raw honey.  Yum!

soap

I used old baby food jars for my face cleanser and deodorant.  I found some cute labels online I'm going to use to eventually decorate the jars and make them look cute.  

Minivan momma, driving your way

Yes, it's true!  We bought a minivan!  It's a new-to-us 2008 Honda Odyssey, black interior/exterior, with all the bells and whistles.  It's by far the nicest, newest car we've ever had.

David had been researching minivans for about a year, and finally found the one he wanted....in Missouri!  He had a lot of different criteria for the one he wanted.  Fortunately, he was going there on a business trip, so he flew up there for work, and drove it home with a friend. 

I never pictured myself driving one, but I gotta tell ya, I love it!  It's so smooth, easy, convenient.  I'd recommend one to anyone with kids.  I only have one kid, but I know it's going to be so much more handy when the second one comes along.

We've come a long way in our vehicles.  Case in point - David and I drove his family's old station wagon the first few years of our marriage.  I think it had about 360,000 miles on it?  It doesn't show...

Yes, that two-toned beauty was ours.  The picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see the whole thing.  I even started dating David while he was driving it!  If that isn't true love, I don't know what is.  Hey, we never had to worry about getting our car broken into!  And just now are we getting rid of it and giving it to a family at David's old church who needs it.  It might not be pretty, but it still runs and the air conditioning works!

I don't have any great pics of the van yet, but here are some pictures of David and Caleb giving it it's first wash:

More Caleb stories and a belly shot

Cars, cars, cars.  It is all about cars.  Matchbox, HotWheels, Tonka, big, small, trucks, fire engines, anything.  I'd say 80% of Caleb's play time at home is with cars.  Like father, like son. 

 
He is such a good boy!  I saw him pooping, and I asked, "Did you go poopy in your diaper?  Do we need to change you?"  And he kind of nodded and then picked up some cars because he knew he wanted to hold them while I changed him.  Then he laid down on the ground for me.  After I changed him, I said, "I have to throw the dirty diaper away."  So he got up, ran to the kitchen and opened the trash can for me and then closed it after I threw it in!

Whenever Caleb hears the oven beep, he gets a surprised look on his face and rushes over to see what is in the oven.  He loves to watch me cook.

When boredom sets in, we raid the kitchen cabinets for fun things to play with:

This morning I told him it was time to eat breakfast, and he thoughtfully picked out 3 cars to take with him over to his high chair.  He sweetly held my hand as we gave thanks for the food.  Then after saying our prayers, he said, "amen."  It sounded more like "ah meh."  -sigh-  It melts my heart.

And lest you think he is such a sweetie all the time, he threw a minor fit at the library today.  And he is upstairs yelling and jumping around in his crib right now instead of napping.  :)  Definitely looking forward to a date night with David tonight!


Here is baby #2 at about 27 weeks:

Yes, I know gaucho pants may not be in style anymore (or maybe they are, I'm not really sure what is in style anyways), but that is what I'll be wearing the rest of this pregnancy because they are so comfy.

Name suggestions are still welcome.  I'm getting desperate, and panic is starting to set in.  Well, not really, but I'd like to have a name picked before he comes!

Where do we begin?

Man, I guess I didn't keep up too well with our blogging during July.  Where did the month go?

Caleb keeps cracking us up.  He is so funny.  But we think he saves it just for us.  When we're at play groups, he is usually pretty quiet and reserved.  Kind of like us!  My parents always said I have an alter-ego that is meant to be on stage because I loved to entertain them growing up - showtunes / Saturday Night Live comedy / bootyshakin'.  But my silliness is usually only reserved for a few special, close people.  So it seems like Caleb is showing those tendencies too. 

He learned how to snap his fingers last night.  I was singing a song from "Singing in the Rain" while opening mail, and I was snapping my fingers.  Then I looked over, and he was swaying back and forth humming along and snapping his fingers.  hehe.  He's copying a lot of things we do.  It's funny to see his interpretation of what we do.

He was reading his book "Goodnight Gorilla" to himself the other day.  The book hardly has any words, so you have to elaborate when you're reading it.  When it gets to a page in the dark where the lady opens her eyes, I always say "Blink, blink."  And I noticed him saying it too while he was reading it to himself. 

When playing with other kids his age, we notice he tends to get beat up on and pushed around a bit.  He never fusses or complains.  He's kind of just like, "What are you doing to me?"  Then he'll just try to move on and do his own thing.  We think he's a lover, not a fighter.

He's a pretty compliant kid.  He listens well most of the time and doesn't give us much trouble.  I'd say our biggest struggle would be high chair manners.  He'll still throw things off the tray or smash food if he doesn't want to eat it.  He's not very patient waiting for his food.  Many times I'll let him play with a car or book while I feed him to keep him busy.

He's still a slightly picky eater.  He'll eat sandwiches, soups, most dinners; he still won't eat fruits or veggies by themselves.  I did a happy dance when he ate 4 small bites of strawberry and some grapes the other day.  He'll eat anything pureed, so that's how we're still getting the fruits and veggies in him.  Another problem is that when he feeds himself something, I can only put like 1 or 2 pieces on his tray at a time.  Otherwise he'll stuff too much in his mouth without swallowing, and then he'll spit it all out.  So I have to help him pace himself.  He's also very picky about temperature.  If something that is hot gets cool, he won't eat it.  All of this makes packing a meal to take to church very challenging...which is why we usually stick with purees for church.

He chipped a tiny piece off of his front tooth after a little fall on the kitchen tile.  Poor guy.  You can't tell unless you look closely.  Luckily these aren't the permanent ones!

He's saying lots of words now...probably that only I can understand.  But he says "tea" very clearly when he tries to steal my green tea every morning.

I think that's all for now.  Here are some recent pics:

Caleb playing on his playset.

I love that smashed face!

Caleb reading Sunday comics on his stoop - a weekly tradition.

Caleb was helping me pick out new glasses.  This might be a peek into

the future since both David and I had glasses at a young age.

How we found him sleeping one night.  Comfy, huh?