You know you are a boy mom when...

you allow your son to bring in his dirty "bike" to ride on a Winter evening. I mean who cares? Floors can be vaccummed and cleaned. This is just one of the many things I never expected I'd let go before having children. Having a child, especially a boy, has taught me more about letting go and enjoying the moment than I ever expected. It is way important to my husband and I that our son have fun experiencing life than keeping him clean or having a perfect house. I am not sure if the next baby will be a boy or girl but he/she will have a great time following the path their older brother has made. (Wow, did I really just say older brother? )

Missing Cloth

I never thought I'd really say this but both my husband and I were missing our cloth diapers this week. We live in a home with a well which every now and then again revolts against us, spewing out rust colored water. Luckily we do have a water treatment system but after a couple of years, it is still learning process for us. The original company who installed the system was awful but luckily last spring we found a great guy who we love and has taught as all the details of how to work our system. In any case, the rust colored water left me with a problem. Once we used all of our clean cloth, we could not wash them in fear of staining them all. So we had to wait it out and use disposables.

At first, it seems great. Disposables are easy, right? Just wipe and toss. But after a few days, the novelty wore off particularly when I had to go by more at the store. Even my husband made a comment last night that he would feel more urgency to enforce potty training if we were paying for disposables. Who knew anothe benefit of cloth was to allow us to do potty learning at our own pace?

Our diapers made it back into rotation yesterday and while I think we did get some staining, I think it will fade in time and honestly I could care less. My goal is to get the most out of these diapers while I have them for both kiddos. If I am able to resale or pass them down after we are down in another few years then great, if not oh well!

This has also made me even more convinced that I will work cloth into our routine early with baby number two. I have already have a small stash that is just for this baby that includes 2 small BumGenuis 3.0s, 2 medium Bum Genius 3.0s. 3 BumGenuis 4.0 Artist Series, and 1 Econobum Cover. I have my hot little hands on an Amazon Gift card that my husband generously offered up for the baby. I am waiting until we find out the gender in two weeks before I make any purchases.

JAVA UPDATE

I figured it only right to provide an update on my status of giving up coffee. I could get to the point and say, I failed but that isn't how I truly feel. I did make a conscious decision to give up coffee for the week and made it Thursday before I cracked. However, although I did cave into my addiction, I also had a wonderfully productive day. I did a great morning work out, accomplished tons of stuff and was able to make it through my evening with my family with a pleasant attitude. Is that really failing? And yesterday I went back to being java free. I certainly plan to continue to restrict my intake and will not drink coffee everyday but instead I am going to plan out my coffee endeavors. I will not just drink "any old coffee" but rather will reserve my planned coffee days for something I really enjoy like Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts and maybe a home brewed cup on a weekend day. I may also limit myself to half caffeinated on those days. I will also be sure to drink tons of water on those days and everyday to keep my system well hydrated. So there it is, my confession. I am willing addict to the dark stuff. Now I am going to going to go back to sipping my one cup of the day before we have swim lessons....BRRR.

For the love of Joe...

I love coffee, like really love coffee. Oddly enough, I made it through college and well into my adult life before I picked up the habit. I thought it was horrible and could not understand how anyone could drink the stuff. I was not stranger to caffeine but I preferred Pepsi or tea, especially iced tea. A couple of years after college, my cousin introduced to the Toffee Nut Latte at Starbucks and I began to consider it much less repulsive but I stuck to that drink and that drink only. Then I discovered a Spice Pumpkin Latte and was in love but still a fancy foo foo drink at Starbucks is a far cry from drinking the "real stuff". A few more years passed and while my husband I were on a trip to the mountains together I decided to drink the brew with breakfast, not too bad with the right about of creamer and/sugar. So I tiptoed into the java world ever so slowly, it was s special treat on a cold day. I was really gaining steam in my addiction when I discovered I was pregnant with my first son and immediately put on the breaks. I limited myself to decaf (GAG) and non-java caffeinated beverages. Throughout my pregnancy and after giving birth I remained keenly aware of my intake until...I returned to work. How in the world was I ever going to make it through 2 hours of commuting and a 9.5 hour day without something? I was still up nursing E at night and working full time. I knew it wasn't the best for a nursing mother to be drinking coffee but this nursing mother had to survive. So I tried to be reasonable with my intake and let it roll. After my nursing days ended and the exhaustion of being a mother continued, the java addiction grew until. So what is the point of all this you ask? Well, here I am 14 weeks pregnant and I am in need of an intervention. Sure, I have cut back my daily caffeine amounts and even skip days but the addiction is still there. I know that there is information out there saying some coffee is OK in moderation but let's be honest none is better. So like any junkie, I have to make a choice to give it up. I can't toe the line with the stuff. So in the hopes that this public statement will help me stay accountable, here it goes....I am giving up coffee. After this post is written, I am going to be a big girl, go the fridge and dump out my creamers and flavored coffee. Goodbye sweet friends, I will see you again once this baby is born and my nursing days are again over. (Well maybe once I go back to work again...hey I am only human!