First Taste of Chocolate

It comes as no surprise that C's first taste of chocolate would be something fun. Both his Dad and Grandma have a sweet tooth for two things ice cream and chocolate. I was using almond bark for a dessert I made for a friend's baby shower and let C play with the spatula. When he discovered that there was chocolate on it he loved it! But he was very sad when the chocolate was gone and I took the spatula away. Here it is played out in pictures.

Scrunchy Face

Over the weekend C started making a new face that cracks Z and I up! He scrunches up his nose and breathes hard through it.


I tried capturing the expression with the camera, but really, nothing does it justice except video.

Almost Crawling and Playdate

C is getting so close to crawling! He can scoot very well on his belly and he has found that there are a wealth of things he can get to and put in his mouth. He can get up on his knees and he lunges for things in front of him, but so far is hasn't put all the actions together. But I suspect I'll be posting a crawling video here before to long.

Wednesday (16 April 2008) was a beautiful, windy day in the city. C and I met a few other moms at the Botanical Gardens for a play date. On Wednesday admission is free for city/county residents and the kids had a great time exploring the new exhibit and the recently completed children's playground. I have to admit that the longer I live in St Louis, the more it grows on me and I look forward to taking C to these places again and again.

Swimming

Cedric and I are taking swim classes together at the Clayton Center. We are just over the half-way mark in our 8 week session and so far it has been a great experience. The cost was very reasonable, a little more than $5 a session and there are a plethora of benefits;

• potential to increase intelligence, concentration, and alertness
• improved social, emotional, and physical development
• children with disabilities, in particular autism have shown remarkable benefits from a nurturing swimming experience.
• Parent/Infant-Toddler swim time can be an engaging, calming and positive tactile environment for developing, interacting and growing together.
• longer naps after swim class (we have definitely seen this in our house!)
• interact with other children their age.

Here are a few pictures that Cedric's Grandma took of us during their last visit.

Swish and Flick

My friends Rebecca, Elisa and Kassy are three moms whose opinions I trust and whose experiences I glean as much as I can from - especially about babies. And based off of their experiences I have decided to give cloth diapers a whirl. My own experiences have been mixed - but I think I'm going to stick with it. Now before you think that I do everything just because my friends are all doing it, I did my homework on cloth diapers and found out that it saves my household a bundle of money over time and the thought of those non-biodegradable diapers sitting in a landfill somewhere does make me feel guilty. I freely admit that doing things to lesson my carbon footprint makes me feel good.

I decided to try a sample pack from Cotton Babies - a local baby store and cloth diaper boutique, seriously half the store is dedicated to diapers. The diapers were beautiful! The feel of them compared to a disposable was amazing in the difference. I felt newly guilty for putting such cheap, scratchy material on my precious baby's body. What I was not prepared for was having to wash and dry them 5-6 times before I could even use them. Then there is the great detergent debate. Mercy! There are entire forums dedicated to educating you about the dangers and evils that some detergents can have on your diapers, and after paying between $10 and $17 a diaper I can understand why. But after some reading, I use either Tide Free or Planet. Though in my opinion having soft water makes a huge difference. All in all, not so bad at this point. Minimal leaks, poop was not really an issue (very easy to flick in the toilet), and they seemed much more comfortable than disposable. Plus I had a clear eco-conscience. I decided to get another couple days worth. I purchased a combination of BumGenius all in ones, BumGenius one-size, and Happy Heiny pocket diapers.

Then Cedric's front teeth starting growing again. This meant that he had poop that resembled melted peanut butter but sadly did not smell like it. It also meant that just flicking it into the toilet was not going to happen. It meant I had to "swish and flick." Swishing and flicking happens to combine all of my worst sanitary fears into one activity. Toilets, poop, and hands are not a good combination in any scenario. I thought this would be the end of my cloth diapering experience. But I mustered my strength by thinking of my friends and trying to push down the inventory of infectious diseases contracted by contact with feces. As far as I knew, they had not gotten sick from swishing and flicking. The first time though was rough - toilet water touched my hands and I felt like they would never be clean again. I wished I could scour a few layers of skin off of them. Thankfully its gotten better. There happens to be an art to the swish and flick and I really have not had to do it that often.

On the whole, I think cloth diapering is the way to go and I'm going to stick with it. I'm still experimenting with inserts and such to find the right combination to fit my needs, but I feel good about the situation. I'm still having to use disposables at night but I'm hoping to find a diaper that can handle a baby that nurses multiple times in the night and thus wets frequently. I think I have a good chance with these.
I'll close this quite candid post with a picture of Cedric sporting a cloth diaper while playing with an XBox controller, he wants to be just like his Daddy already.