Cookie Monster

We have a family chocolate chip cookie recipe. It makes a ton of cookies, I'm talking 5.5-7 dozen, depending on how much dough we eat while baking. Needless to say, you need a ginormous bowl to make these cookies. (I tried once making them in my largest glass bowl & didn't get the brown sugar creamed well enough, they were awfully sugary, and not in a good way.) Growing up, my mom has this green tupperware bowl that we pulled out every time we made the recipe, so I was stoked when my friend Tina invited me to a tupperware party, I needed a big bowl!

Sadly, tupperware doesn't sell the same bowls I grew up with anymore, so I had to settle for the biggest bowl they sold. I was a little weary because its a pretty deep bowl, and I wasn't sure if I could beat the dough in it well enough, so we tried a family experiment tonight for FHE.Sariah has been a really big helper today, from helping me with the laundry and dish washing, to finding me my orange shoes. So it wasn't a suprise that she's such a good cookie making helper!
Thankfully, the bowl works great for cookies! Yay! I'm really happy with the results! And we've made 7.5 doz cookies tonight. (I think because the dough didnt' sound great to me and I didn't eat any.) So now you're asking, yes, but are the cookies good?
Yup! They're Sariah tested and approved! I imagine a bunch of these will end up frozen in our chest freezer. Or if we get ambitious, I'll pull out the ice cream sandwich press & make some yummy frozen treats!

Cloth Diapers!

Sometimes, I think I many be crazy. This is one of these times. I mean, really, who thinks, "I know, lets start cloth diapering when I'm 11 weeks pregnant, so I can spend more time around poop!" Well, I do and here's why:

First off, they're just stinkin' cute! I'm serious! Look... Okay, so some of that maybe my beautiful child but still... So let's run through some pros/cons.

Pros:
~I don't have to buy disposables. Seriously, after 2.5 years of that, I'd so tired of running to the store and agonizing if I should really spend that much for diapers because I'm a diaper snob and will only buy pampers. We're already saving tons of money.

~They are really REALLY easy! I bought two different brands of cloth diapers and they are both known as pocket diapers. Both diapers are also a "one size fits all" and "grow" to fit a growing baby. I'll explain more about that later. With pocket diapers, they go on just like a disposable would, only both the brands we own use snaps instead of velcro. They're called pocket diapers because they have a lining that you stuff inside the diaper to make it more absorbent. If you're worried that the child will pee through the diaper (like overnight or on a long car trip), you can just add another lining and boom, problem solved.

~They are really easy to wash. One of the "scary factors" for me was trying to get diapers washed every 2 or 3 days, depending. I'm awful at laundry (which I won't elaborate on, so as not to embarrass myself.) Honestly, its not that big of a deal. The diapers use the same laundry soap our clothes do, and it uses WAY less than a normal load of laundry. Plus it really doesn't take that much time to stuff the diapers again and put them up, so the burden isn't as bad as it would seem.

Cons:
~And this I feel, so far, has been the only con. Its dumping the poop into the toilet. Really, it only happens once or twice a day, and its not so bad. Sometimes though, poop is really stinky or sticky. Most of this problem is because Sariah is older. I've heard that with little breastfed babies, you don't even have to worry about the poop. But, as every parent knows, once they start eating solids, poop get stinky!

So like I said earlier, we own two differnt brands of diapers (I had orginally bought 3 kinds, but I didn't like the bumgenius ones & sold them to a friend.) In the picture below, Sariah is modeling a Fuzzibunz.
Fuzzibunz adjust for size by using adjustable elastic around the legs. (Think of those adjustable waist pants you can buy now days.) The lining is a soft microfleece. (The only downside to that is sometimes I've seen a bit of a heat rash if we've been outside playing for awhile.) Sariah really likes this red diaper, and she'll often ask to wear it if its clean. After the diaper is used, you just shake out the lining, which is really easy.

The other brand we bought on my Sis-in-law, Jodi's, recommendation is Smartipants. They're a pretty new diaper on the market, but I love them. First off, you don't have to worry about shaking out the liners, they come out in the wash. They adjust with snaps on the front of the diaper to make it smaller or bigger. The lining isn't as soft, but poop comes off WAY easier. Another big plus is they are cheaper than most other diapers on the market.

So in conclusion, we really like cloth diapering. It was just a small experiment to try it out before the next baby arrives, but I doubt we'll stop doing it with Sariah until she potty trains. I say this mostly because she throws a huge tantrum if we try to put a disposable diaper on her. So I guess they're here to stay!

A Snapshot into the Future

I think I mentioned that I was getting an ultrasound today so they could check on the cyst in my left ovary. That means we got another good look at baby 2, or as I like to say, Baby Swarley. So here's baby at 13 weeks!
If you're looking for some comparison, here's Sariah at 14 weeks & some odd days...

We won't really hear anything on the cyst until later, but my OB didn't seem worried about it, so I'm not. Basically he was just giving us a freebie look at Swarley. Thanks Doc!

I'm alive!

I know what you're thinking, what's up with Marin's lack of blogging? Well its been a rough couple of weeks, pregnancy wise, and I figured you didn't want to hear about the colorful ways & times I've vomited, so I've kinda been quiet. I will say that even though morning sickness with this pregnancy has seemed shorter and "easier", I've thrown up way more than with my first pregnancy, and that's not really cool. But now that's I'm feeling (relatively) better, I'll leave you with some "exciting" info about our lives.

1. The weekend after our camping trip, Doug and I headed over to Summerfest, a large, outdoor music festival in Milwalkee. Normally I would avoid such things, but my favorite band ever, Barenaked Ladies, was playing. Its been years since I've seen BNL because they'd always seem to stop in my town when I'm not there, or the day after I've had a baby, and a lot has changed for them & me. Doug snagged us row 4 seats, stage right, so we were awesomally close! I wish I had brought my camera, but the website said that was a no, no, so I didn't. I tried to take a picture w/ my phone, but it didn't really turn out. Sad. There was a guy in front of me though, that looked like he was getting some awesome pics.

The music was fantastic, probably the best concert I've been to (and I've been to 6 of them, including 2 in one weekend!) They've got a new cd coming out in the fall and I highly recommend it. They played 3 new songs, and they were all amazing!

2. Since then, nothing much has been going on. We skipped the fireworks for the 4th this year, but did attend the neighborhood bike parade. Sariah still hadn't figured out her tricycle by then, so Doug helped her around the block. Since then she's finally figured out how to stear, and she's getting much better. The rest of the 4th was spent hiding in our house and relaxing.

3. We've started cloth diapering! More on this later, but I will say, I like it more than I thought I would!

4. I had my 12 week drs. appointment today. It took a bit, but the nurse found the heartbeat, right under mine. It was 160 and strong, so yay! It was the first time I met my O.B., Dr. Bills (the OB I had with Sariah doesn't do pregnancies anymore), and I really like him. He's really nice and we had a pretty open conversation about several things. We're getting another ultrasound tomorrow, not because we really need one, but they did find a slightly large cyst in my left ovary that they'll re-check. He's not worried, but hey I won't say no to another ultrasound!

So that's kind of it for now. I should get around to taking more pictures of Sariah and stuff, hopefully as I enter the 2nd trimester I won't feel so tired & yucky, and I'll post more. :)

A funny thing happened on the way to the BNL concert...

That's right, you gotta be careful at those music fests, you could take one wrong turn & end up on the Congress Ave. Bridge in Austin!