Baby Arrangments

We moved around furniture today so there would be room in the master bedroom for the crib and baby dressers and all that. Dallas is still using the crib to this day, but we are planning on getting him a "big boy bed" sometime in the next month so he has time to transition before the baby comes.

I guess I haven't said already, "It's a girl!" There seemed to be no sign of baby boy parts in the ultrasound. We are planning on naming her Chelane (sha-lane), Cam loves the name and suggested it for Dallas before we knew the gender. I already bought a bunch of fabric and made the top of a baby quilt for her (it is reminiscent of Dallas' for those who have seen his - but with purple, green, and pink). I just need to put the border on, tie it and hem it up (of course I have to go buy the fabric to do that with still...).

I actually have had a bit of fun sewing last month. I was making that baby quilt and then I decided to make some wipes. They are two sided flannel, about 7"x 4" and fit in a regular wipes box just perfectly. Of course no Kassie project would be a Kassie project if I had finished it all at one time... I still haven't bought the essential oils and other things to use as the wipe "juice", so we are wetting down the wipes as we need them. This is something else that will have changed before the baby comes as well (I hope!).

I bet now you are wondering, "Wait, why is she making her own wipes?" Well Dallas is in cloth diapers now. It works great and isn't a huge change from disposables. Even Cam changes his cloth diapers (as long as it isn't pooey, lol but then he was the same way before...). I just use a prefold that you pin down and a synthetic cover. I haven't had a leak outside the cover yet (and the covers are so easy and quick to hand wash if there is a leak outside the prefold). I really feel like I am doing a bit to help the environment and I haven't had problems with Dallas having diaper rash at all since I switched. I am excited to see how they work with a newborn. We do still keep some disposables around, but those are reserved for day trips (if we take any) and babysitters (if we have any). The "sposies" are a brand called Tushies and are made with cotton and wood pulp innards rather than all the weird chemicals and non-biodegradable stuff most diapers have in them. They are a bit more bulky than other brands but again, I feel better using them (yeah I know, I am going granola over here).

I will get a pic of the quilt up here some (mostly so I can get compliments for it, lol).

Bandaids are for Wussies

Dallas likes to play in bathrooms. Lots of the time we just let him play with whatever he finds unless it is dangerous, fragile, etc. We try to keep doors shut, but that doesn't always work either.

He found some razor head refills in a drawer once - probably early April. The razors are in individual plastic containers with a plastic pull off lid. The lids require fine motor skills and finger strength, but Dallas still got it off. It wasn't long before he cut himself on the razor. My sister, Karma, was over that weekend and she noticed he had the razor first and took it from him. She also noticed the blood first. He had just done a few little cuts on the tip of a finger but, as razor cuts do, they were bleeding a lot.

Dallas wouldn't keep a bandaid on, or a bandaid reinforced with packing tape, or a wad of toilet paper plastered to his hand with packing tape. So we pulled out the big guns.

Yes that is right: a wad of toliet paper, held down by packing tape, wrapped in an ace bandage with his sleeve pulled up over most of his hand. Good luck with THAT one Dallas.

I know this second pictue doesn't show anything new but I LOVE this kid's smile (his bottom canine teeth have grown in since this too).

He had it off when he walked back into the room less than 5 minutes later.

We finally did childproof our cabinets about a month ago.

I'm Blue

Since Cam is in charge of cleaning the toilets he invested in some of those blue toilet bowl tabs that slowly dissolve in the tank and keep the toilet clean between scrubbings. We decided to keep the blue toilet tabs in the dowstairs bathroom since Dallas was hardly ever downstairs. Back in late March, after Dallas had mastered going down the stairs by himself, the bathroom door was apparently left open...

I am sure it took me a while to decide Dallas shouldn't be downstairs unsupervised that day when he let himself down. I had heard him crashing around in the kitchen - there wasn't anything in his reach that he could hurt in there - but then it got quiet. When I went downstairs to see what was happening, this sight met me


You can't quite appreciate it until you see his hands too, which are a little more visible in this next picture. He kept trying to grab at the camera and, since I didn't want to leave him with with remnants of the toilet tab in his mouth and on his hands, I stopped trying with the camera and cleaned him up.

There were also some blue smears and hand prints on the walls and in the carpet. Luckily that stuff is very water soluble. I was a bit worried about Dallas too. He had gnawed some of the tab off completely, but he seemed absolutely fine, no blue poo either.

I am a great mom aren't I?

Stair Master

Just wanted to document this as the first day Dallas went down the stairs by himself. Normally he avoids the stairs and we haven't even had to worry about gating them; but today he turned himself around and started on down, once Cam saw what he was doing he following him just to make sure he didn't hurt himself, and he made it down all 14 or so stair without incident. It looks like we will have to start gating the stair off to keep him out of the kitchen now.

Fashion and Music

Hey! Sorry it has been a while.

Dallas is making leaps and bounds in many skills such as dressing and grooming and making music. Last night Dallas had been running around with only a diaper for an hour when he walked up to Cam with a shirt around his shoulders. This was a In-and-Out Burger T-shirt my younger sister had left at our house, it fits Dallas like a floor length dress. Cam took the shirt off Dallas' shoulders and put it on Dallas. Dallas walked away looking at the big sleeves and in awe of how the lower part of the shirt moved when he walked. A half an hour or so later, Dallas returned to our room with one of Cam's T-shirts put on PERFECTLY (well, it was backwards - but the arms were in the right holes and it was over his head) over top of the In-and-Out shirt. I think we both wished we could have been watching out little man manipulate that larger shirt over his head.

This morning after breakfast I let Dallas out of his high chair and free to roam around the kitchen and living room while I did some dishes. It wasn't long before he went for the cabinets on the island that contain some pots, plastic bowls, the egg beater, and a stand-up cheese grater. Dallas is free to play in those cabinets, there isn't much that he can hurt or can hurt him and he can't make too big a mess with the contents. His items of choice were the cheese grater and a metal pot lid. He carried them to a spot of open kitchen floor, set the pot lid down and laid the cheese grater of its side. With one had on the lid and the other on the grater he moved them back and forth on the tile making some horrible screeching sounds and it wasn't long before he joined in the chorus with his own yelling and whooping. I guess things like that can only be music to Mommy ears.