Peas please

So it's been about a month since we started ECing, and it's going quite well. I have changed 4 poopy diapers since we started...and she 'goes' about every day. This is quite nice since we are still doing the cloth diapers!!! I did decide to put her in disposables for the nighttime. To get enough absorbancy with cloth I had to use so many layers that it made her butt a small tower with the rest of her body draping down from the booty apex...uncool. Not to mention she still woke up soaked most mornings. I am on the lookout for a better absorbancy overnight cloth, but until then, one disposable diaper a day is better than 8! We still go through plenty of diapers (between 4 and 10 a day I would say) because if she gets even a little wet, she gets fussy and wants changed. With the disposables, she didn't feel when she was wet and could go three or more hours in one diaper. She pees about every hour, so we change often when I miss the timing for taking little tinklebelle to her teeteepot. Geese, I can't believe how different life is from 6 months ago...I never expected the bulk of my conversation to be about things like potty training, lol.

We still dry most of the laundry outside, and it's going well. There was about a week there that things came to a hault (and I dried about three loads inside) because of the torrential rains thanks to the hurricanes. It was nice and cool, however, and we didn't have to turn the AC back on until this weekend.



The (small) garden is growing well despite the cool weather, above you see the beginnings of a big boy tomato and a green bell pepper!!! We might just have some fruit before the frost sets in =)



Our neighbors (the Greggs) have some great morning glories that have snaked over our fence. There are definitely some forms of vegitation you don't want crawling over the property line, but this has been quite an enjoyable one. Brookelynn likes to grab the flowers when we are putting the laundry out. Speaking of our neighbors, Doug's father passed away this Saturday and the family is under a lot of stress planning two services (One in alabama, one back here). Remember them as they pass through this rough time. Lifepoint will be taking care of food for after the service in Tulsa on Friday, if you want to help let me know!




>>>The Brookelynn Update and brag book<<<


Brookelynn has been learning like crazy the past few weeks. She started getting up on all fours (literally, hands and toes) a few weeks ago...it's quite a sight.

She was getting up in the crawling position too, but all she could do was rock. She has finally discovered how to go forwards the past few days. Sometimes she'll move her knees forward (or walk her feet up under her) and basically fall forwards, other times she almost pulls herself with her hands. I guess it's time to get serious about the baby proofing =)

She LOVES her rocking horse that Grandma Antao got her, she goes crazy on it. We pretty much just hold her upright and she rocks like crazy. She likes to sit up and play now, and can even sit herself up from her belly. Once again, I missed seeing it for the first time (most of her discoveries happen when I'm looking the other way it seems...I glance back and all of the sudden she is upright or on her belley or something else new and exciting).

This is my little ballerina! You get to wear some pretty silly outfits when Chrystal is your mother!

She loves her toys, but the elephant is quickly becoming the front runner for favorite animal. She has a few other elephant things and she goes nuts when she sees them. I guess she's a Republican, like it or not ;-)

We tried peas last week for the first time. I am trying to stay away from all the processed baby foods, these were frozen peas boiled up and blended in the magic bullet. I LOVE my magic bullet, thanks M.I.L.!!! She loved them for about ten minutes, then she was done! Since then, she has learned to finish the whole bowl and she is actually getting most of it in her belly instead of ON it! She also LOVES to drink water from her little cup, sippy or otherwise. She typically drinks out of open top (regular) cups and it is quite a fun sight to see.

Pops (grandpa Bickford) had his 55th birthday this past Sept. 11th (yea, it can be hard to celebrate anything on that day I know) so we brought him dinner. Here he is with his two grandbabies, Sasha and Brookelynn. They are such a handfull =)

Welp, I better go do something productive. I've been trying to use this new card system to get my day organized...and I haven't even opened the box yet today...whoops!

PS- See pictures of Brookelynn and others here!