Analise is right on the edge of being able to walk. One of things she loves to do right now is grab onto either her rocking chair or the laundry basket and push whatever she is holding onto around the house with her. This can sometimes look a lot like Analise is bulldozin’ a trail through the toys. Analise bulldozes the house with the laundry basket, while giving her friend the cow a lift in the cute video below:

Watch Analise bulldoze our living room and hallway in this cute video.
Watch Analise crawl over and say “HI” to mommy in this cute video.
Watch Analise bulldoze with her rocking chair in this cute video.

Steve says “Go Analise” in the comments of the last blog, and so she goes!! She took her first baby steps tonight, in front of Grandma and Grandpa Toone, Uncle Matthew and both Brian and I. Our little girl prefers to perform in front of a crowd:) It was exciting, and of course, we’re so proud. No camera or video on hand, but I’m sure it will happen again soon. We’re heading to Iowa and Wisconsin later this month, and I’m sure she’ll be toddling all over just in time to celebrate her birthday with her northern family. I can’t believe how big my little girl is getting!!

I’m sorry I’ve not been around much! No excuses… I’ve had a cold and I’ve just been too lazy to sit down and organize a blog.

Differences Between Men and Women – #1 (this could be a long, ongoing list!)
Last night as we were lying in bed, Brian and I had a discussion about neatness. As usual, I felt the need to pick things up to leaving the family room in order before we came to bed. So as Brian and I supposedly headed for bed at the same time, I was slowed by picking things up to return them to their respective rooms. I came to the bedroom with 5 things in my arms. I asked Brian if maybe he could help me by trying to take something back where it belongs when he leaves the room. He pointed out that he would try, but in doing so, he loses focus on what he was leaving the room to do. Prime example: As we were leaving for dinner with friends that evening, I had sent him back upstairs from the garage to get the booster chair and my waterbottle. We realized when we got to our friend’s house that the booster chair never made… but the waterbottle did! So in essence, in asking him to do more than one thing, I’m compromising both things, and I risk neither thing being done right.
Ah, the amazing multi-tasking brain of a woman. Got any examples to share?

Our new Home Church and Analise
Our new church, Clearwater Community, is well underway, and we’re really enjoying getting to know our new “family”. We’ve even begun to meet with our new home church group on Wednesday nights for a potluck dinner and fellowship. Analise is the youngest of the 5 kids in our group, and she has been working her charm on all the young married couples. Last night, as we were gathering to begin our discussion time, she was standing in the middle of the room trying to walk. The whole room was begging her to take a step, Brian was keeping his pinky in her hand, and people were trying to entice her to come to them. It was very fun – a real bonding experience. She is SO CLOSE! Any day now, though it would be fun if she walked next Wednesday at our next gathering…

Diaper Confessions

Alright, it’s time I confessed. You may think I’m terribly weird, and that’s fine. But believe it or not, we’ve been using cloth diapers with Analise since she was about a month old. I’m sure you’re thinking any or all of these: “Cloth Diapers? Gross laundry! What a hassle with pins! Ug – disposables are so easy, what are they thinking?!?” I do understand, as I thought it was a bit too “green”-minded at first. But let me tell you our experience…

At our childbirth class in California, we practiced diapering dolls. The teacher only had a couple disposables, but she also had a couple cloth diapers and covers. She told us a bit about them, and Brian thought they were super easy to use. The thought of using cloth diapers had NEVER occurred to us, and it seemed so old-fashioned. But these diapers were NOT what we had imagined, and there were no pins. She shared with us many of the advantage: cotton – not chemicals – next to baby’s skin, many cloth diapered babies potty-train earlier, and others. She also told us about a diaper service that would drop off clean diapers each week, and pick up and pick up the dirty diapers. So no laundry! The diaper service provided prefold diapers, that you simply fold in thirds, and lay into a velcro diaper cover – no pins! It’s honestly about as easy as a disposable to put on, and it looks nearly identical. Cost-wise, it would be about equivalent to using disposables and maybe even a bit cheaper. To us, the thought of not creating hundreds of pounds of diaper waste to add to landfills was very positive. And, I love the feel of a super cushy cloth diaper butt:)

We found the diaper service to be great, and we used it until December. When we were moving to Alabama and there wasn’t a service available, we decided we’d try laundering on our own and continuing with Cloth diapering. Could we do it???

I had heard of some great diapers on the internet called FuzziBunz – www.fuzzibunz.com… DEFINITELY not the cloth diapers you imagine. There is an outer waterproof layer (with great color choices!), and an inner fleece layer. There’s a pocket to stuff an insert in between the two layers. The liquid goes right through the fleece, keeping the baby soft and dry, and the insert absorbs the liquid. Honestly, if you’d feel one of these versus a disposable diaper, you’d choose to put fleece against your butt – or your baby’s – too!

Ok, so that sounds easy enough… but you’re asking, “what about laundry? And poop? And what do you do when you’re not at home?” Well, I’ll spare too many details, but here’s the basics:

• After you take off the dirty diaper, you shake out the insert into the diaper pail (a waterproof bag with a zipper keeps any smell inside) and toss the diaper into the pail as well. To wash, dump the diapers and toss in the bag. We wash diapers about every other night, with a simple cold-hot-cold cycle with a little detergent (too much causes buildup and smell) and tea trea oil for disinfecting, and line dry the diapers overnight. SUPER easy! If I’m short on time and out of diapers, I can toss them in the dryer on air dry.
• I’ll admit, dealing with poop isn’t fun, but it’s not much different than with a disposable. Simply shake it off into the toilet, and put the diaper in the pail.
• When we go out, I simply make sure there’s an extra diaper or two and a plastic bag in the diaper bag. If Analise needs a change, I put the wet/dirty diaper in a little plastic bag and toss it in the diaper pail when we get home.


I have to say, we’ve loved this. Brian will go to any length to avoid using a disposable diaper. Analise tends to start looking rashy after even a couple hours in one. They’re very cute, they have several snaps so they can fit from 15-25pounds, and we honestly save money doing this. Though Fuzzi Bunz are about $13-14 each, and it costs a bit to start using them, in the long run, we’re not buying a package of diapers every couple weeks (or every week? I’m not sure even how long one would last!), AND there’s no last minute-middle of the night mad dashes to get more diapers. If I get lazy and haven’t washed diapers soon enough so that we’re out, we have a stash of prefolds and covers like we used in California. These are an even cheaper option, but we prefer the fleece of Fuzzi Bunz. You’d be amazed at how dry the fleece keeps a baby’s bum… sometimes when I change her, I can’t even tell Analise is wet! Above- Analise likes to help me take care of the clean diaper laundry.

Here’s a few of my favorite cloth diaper info sites (each link opens in a new window and I’ll add more when I find my links!):
• No Pins 4 Baby – Why Cloth Diaper
• Fuzzi What? What are Fuzzi Bunz anyway?

Ok, I’m a little behind! Sorry about that. I just reveled in a leisurely weekend, and this week has started out busy! Today was our first visit to the zoo. Unfortunately, we forgot the battery to the camera. Analise enjoyed the kids more than the animals:) We’ll be back – we bought a year membership.

Brian’s wrapped up the semester at Samford, so I’ll have him around here more often. He’s got a few committments at Samford, but he can set his own schedule and take time off as needed, since his faculty appointment is technically only Aug-May. It’s nice to have him around and have our life settled down a bit!

A few other random things from the past week…

The FLU
We all managed to get over our flu bug. Brian was VERY dehydrated, and he felt the effects of it all weekend. Unfortunately, after our home church gathering on Wednesday night just before we got sick, 4 other people got sick on Thursday and Friday! Those little bugs sure can travel…

You look beautiful tonight
The little things make me love my husband so much. After a long day of feeling tired and trying to get the house in order after being sick, Analise and I picked Brian up from Samford and went out for dinner. Over dinner, he said, “You really look beautiful tonight”. Aw. My heart just melted. My hair’s frizzy, I’m wearing the same unexciting clothes because nothing fits my soft little post-baby belly, and I’ve just felt so NOT beautiful lately. I love him:)

Splashing!
Analise had her first dip in the backyard baby pool this weekend (above). There was only a tiny bit of water, but she loved splashing. I think she was impressed with taking a bath in the backyard! (Ok, a moment of truth about this picture: Analise has quite a gap between her front teeth. I looked it up online, and it’s very normal – and good – at this age, as it means there’s plenty of room for her other teeth to come in. But it’s so noticable, especially in this picture. I feel terribly to think this, but she looks a bit like a little country bumpkin! I could use some comforting comments that she’s still just as cute as ever!)

Signs
Since Analise was about 6 months old, we’ve been talking about using sign language. It’s been shown recently that children as young as 6 months can communicate with signs before they have the capacity for spoken language. Because she’s always interested in ceiling fans, we’ve only been diligent enough to use the sign for “fan” – which involves pointing upward, and moving your finger in a circle, like the ceiling fan. Sunday she put her hand up and moved it in a definite circle while looking at the fan! We were very impressed:) We’ve been motivated to use more signs in our communication with her. If you’re interested, here’s a great link to an online sign language dictionary that includes video clips of each sign: Born 2 Sign

Not Quite a Step…
She’s so close… She wants us to let her walk (while holding her hands) EVERYWHERE we go, and she’ll barely hold on at times. You can even see her thinking about taking a step as she stands. Any day now… I promise, you’ll hear about it!

I wish…
…my daughter knew how to put herself to sleep like she did in the early days before she learned how to roll over, sit up, stand up and wait for me at the side of the crib. She fights sleep so hard these days, and yet she’s so tired (which makes ME so tired!). *SIGH*

…my daughter knew how look at books one at a time, and put them back before getting out a new one:). She’s quite the little bookworm, but she likes to take all the books off the shelf and sit among them while picking them out from around her on the floor.

This is the blog Brian started last night:

“Let me preface this blog by saying that right now Kristine and I are competing to see who has the highest temperature and worst feeling tummy. Kristine’s temp is 100.6, but mine is at least 106. I’m sure Kristine will end up finishing this blog, since I feel far worse than she does.”

Well, I – Kristine – am finishing the blog a day later. Analise’s stomach bug found Brian and I both early Thursday morning. I got sick first, and as he was taking care of me, I was thinking, “I’m so glad Brian’s not sick…” Three hours later, he ran for the bathroom, and it was my turn to shakily wipe his brow and clean up. What a pair we were. Ag. I’ll spare you the details, except to say that it’s REALLY hard to both be sick and have a baby to take care of. Analise was a trooper, though, and she played by herself while Brian and I slept on the couch most of the day. Unfortunately for Brian, in the midst of his worst feeling moments, the secretary from the CS department at Samford called to tell him that the grades for the seniors in his class absolutely had to be submitted ASAP so that they could graduate this Saturday. So I got him settled in bed with a bucket, some juice, the laptop and a pile of pillows, and he managed to get it done.

Ok, I’m wiped out from just trying to get the house picked up and the huge pile of laundry… gonna go rest.

Well, after a rough start to the day (see previous blog), we came away from the family photo looking pretty good. Here we are!

Exasperations
It’s just been one of those days…
Last night, Analise fell asleep in my arms at 7:30. So I put her to bed, and didn’t go check on her until about 10:30 (we’ve stopped using the baby monitor). I found her half-sititng up, asleep, bed and pajamas soaking wet. The smell of sour milk gave it away… my poor baby had thrown up and I hadn’t even noticed. I feel like a lousy mom. I got her up and onto the changing table, and she unloaded all over me. Poor girl. Got her set up in bed on a mound of towels with Brian while I cleaned things up and started THE LAUNDRY PILE (including sheets, mattress pad, towels, crib bumpers and crib sheet – at 11pm at night, you realize how silly those pretty crib things are!). So the night was very restless, and poor Analise tried to throw up about every 3 hours. I gave her sips of water, but in the morning she awoke in a bright and cheerful mood, so I thought I’d nurse her for a minute or two. Bad idea… she fell asleep next to me, but threw it all up again 10 minutes later. Too much for her tummy. So now THE LAUNDRY PILE includes sheets, towels and pillowcases from our bed, as well as the featherbed cover. *sigh*
So the day has been spent snuggling a sleepy baby who doesn’t want to sleep by herself (which does mean I’ve gotten several little naps with her) and doing THE LAUNDRY PILE (that was supplemented by the laundry of the past week). Analise is in quite a good mood and hasn’t thrown up since this morning, thankfully.
To add to all this, I haven’t had time for a shower until just now (2:30pm), the toilet is leaking (adding numerous soaking wet towels to tHE LAUNDRY PILE), and we have a family picture tonight at 6pm. *sigh* All in all, though, it could be worse: Analise could still be throwing up, the toilet could have over flowed, my washer could be broken… the list goes on:) Counting my blessings!

Observations
I had a whole bunch of random thoughts this past weekend I thought I’d share – some funny, some sweet, some intriguing. Feel free to post your comments!

What a man I have…
Last thursday evening, Brian was at a computer science department bbq. Analise was out with Grandma Beverly, and I was at a sewing class. He shared with me later that as with most coversations, the topic turned to parenting, etc. Brian and the other two professors shared anecdotal stories about diapers, babies and kids. Brian rode home with two students, and on the way home, one of them said, “you just bubble over with love for your wife and daughter.” What a sweet compliment to know my husband’s love for Analise and I shows so much!

A little recognition goes a long way
This weekend Brian was home both days! WOOHOO! It was just wonderful to have someone share in the busyness of Analise. So as he was working on the laptop (see previous blog!), I put him in charge of Analise while I did things around the house that I’ve not been able to do all week. I got loads done! But after about 45 minutes, Brian came to find me with a slightly exasperated look on his face and a smiley Analise in his arms. “I don’t know how you get anything done all week!” he said! Ah, validation. I kissed him:) I finally feel like someone realizes that though I have a super good baby, she’s just busy enough to keep you from being able to get anything accomplished for more than about 10 minutes.

Later in the day, Brian changed a poopy diaper. (A little background: Brian changed the majority of the “blowout” poopy diapers until Analise was 6 months old, while I was working. While babies are breastfed, their poo hardly smells, and just looks like mustard. Since then, though, the job has been 95% mine. And in that time, Analise has started eating real food, which has made the poo quite a bit worse.) So after finding such a terrible, foul mess in the diaper, Brian kept repeating over and over how amazing I was for having to deal with them on a daily basis. All in the day’s work of a mom…

God loves a cheerful giver
In general, Brian and I are pretty diligent about tithing to God’s work, both through church and various ministries. Last fall, Brian made an online one-time donation to a ministry he’s been impressed with. Last month, we noticed a charge on our credit card statement to this ministry. Interesting, since we hadn’t given to them in several months. We looked at previous statements to find in amazement we’ve been giving to them monthly since last fall! Interesting! That has brought us to a minor dilemma. Shall we call them to cancel the monthly gift or not? It’s not exactly in our budget… though it appears that God has placed it in our budget. Brian’s a little confused as to how this fits into the “cheerful giver” category. Does “absent-minded giver” fit into that category? What would you do?

You may remember I started to post a few days ago some pictures of beautiful Alabama from my bike rides. Well, I finished that one up so you can see those pictures here:

Beautiful Alabama – Cycling Viewpoint.

And here are some more pictures from my bike. These are pictures from my commute up and over Shades Mountain every day. I am so fortunate to have such a cool commute! Before I show you the pictures, click on the link below for a larger version of a relief map showing my commute to work. Our house is at the very bottom of the map. Samford is at the very top. The mountain near the top is Shades Mountain. Sometimes I detour to the high point near the top on my way to or from work.

Click on map for larger version.

First, here’s a view of Samford University from atop Shades Mountain. The circled building,
Russell Hall, is where I work.

The Vulcan with downtown Birmingham just visible in the gap in Red Mountain.

The Vulcan is a statue in Birmingham that is the largest cast iron statue in the world … and the second largest statue of any kind in America — second only to the Statue of Liberty.

Looking off Shades Mountain down into Shades Valley. Montclair, the hospital
where I was born, is visible prominently on Red Mountain in the distance.

The Cahaba Valley with Double Oak mountain in the distance looking southward
off Shades Mountain

Here’s a good view of Mount Royal Towers where my grandma lives.

Here’s a view on top of Shades Mountain looking just up the road at the highest point.

Smyre Road is a beautiful descent off Shades Mountain towards Samford.
Here’s one of the many s-curves on the descent.

Another s-curve on Smyre Road.

Looking down at the top of the descent.

Do you remember the craziness of the night before finals in college? You were up late, reading/studying/memorizing/trying to catch up on what you hadn’t learned thus far, frantically trying to prepare for THE BIG TEST the next day(s). And remember the sigh of relief after the last final of your last semester of college? *sigh*, I do.

Tonight’s the night before finals at Samford University. Who of you had ever imagined that professors might be up late (or all night) creating the final? Such is the life of Professor Toone:) He’s been super busy this past week wrapping up assignments, helping students with projects, preparing last classes and catching up on grading. So here we are the night before finals, he’s hard at work getting ready for them. I hope his students put in as much time preparing for them as he has! Just 8 days til the end of our first semester – woohoo!