Boys

We have boys amongst us.

Suttons Bay

Growing up, Boones was the iconic restaurant in Suttons Bay. It's known for it's Boone burger, and greasy food choices. As you made the bend into town it greeted you with a look of history. It's log cabin style and warm fireplace was cozy in the cold winter months (which in Northern Michigan has for about six months of the year), and sounds of laughter (usually alcohol induced) surrounded you as soon as you walked in. It's a cozy space, yet somehow holds quite a few people when busy. Some of my friends worked there, and we all ate there.

Saturday my family and I went to Suttons Bay, the town I grew up in. It's a postcard town and I loved growing up there. The school was small (I had 83 people in my class) and everyone seemed to know everyone else. We went to Boone's to eat lunch but also walked around town stopping in stores that we loved. My mother recently left a position which allowed her to work with some of the stores in Suttons Bay, and so she grew to know the owners and merchandise. We stopped into Lima Bean, a great shop that my friends and i frequented, and was subsequently purchased by a childhood friend of mine.

It was a nice visit, but shorter than I would have preferred.

Showering With A Baby

Yup, for those of you who read that title and said, "What?!" I shall explain.

Glenn and Genny needed baths yesterday but didn't get them. No specific reason, I just forgot and then my mom came over for dinner, so I wanted to spend time with her and A instead of breaking away to take baths.

A friend of mine always took showers with her babies. She claimed it was wonderful- they would play in the tub while she was showering, then when she was done she would wash them and they would get out together. She loved how it was a surefire way to keep an eye on the baby while she was in the shower, and then they'd both be clean.

None of what happened this morning happened in the wonderful fashion it did for her. It was terrible. I initially put him on the drain end of the shower, but the faucet was right there for him to bump his head. Plus he was getting soapy water splashed down on him. He kept looking up at me with his little eyes trying to blink away the water, a look on his face like why are you doing this to me? I moved him to the other end of the shower but the splashing water seemed worse. I ended up leaving him there, but pointing the shower head towards the wall and hurriedly showering so I could pick him up and wash him. Which leads me to my final point: a wet baby and a wet mommy equals a slippery holding situation. I was scared I was going to drop him, especially when I was rinsing him off.
My advice: Don't shower with your baby!

If you have a better way of showering with a baby, please post in the comments. It's something I would try again if given a better idea of how to do it. Until then, he gets his own bath!

Baby Glenn after his shower this morning.

My sister's eldest brought home his class pet for Christmas break. Darwin is a cute Ginny Pig and has created quite a stir in this house- everyone is acutely aware of his presence even though he doesn't do much. I must say though, he is quite adorable.

Wet, er, Slightly Moist Bag

One day my neighbor told me about her wet/dry diaper bag. A bag that has two zippered compartments, one for the wet diapers, and one for the dry. My jaw dropped. Genius!! I wanted to make myself one right away. Trouble is, I have several perfectly good wet bags that I can use while out and about. Then I started thinking about different uses for wet bags. There are so many reasons to have a wet bag. Soiled clothes while out and about (who hasn't been there, parents??), toys that are wet from playing at the beach, dirty diapers, moist snacks, the list goes on. Then I saw some bags for sale at Babies In Bloom that were exactly that. They even had a catchy title, Wet Happened. But they were expensive. So I started marinating a wet bag in my head. What material to use on the inside was a concern for me. I had asked my local JoAnn Fabric's store for a waterproof fabric before, and had sent them in a tizzy, trying to figure out what material may be waterproof. So I knew I was on my own. I did the only thing a girl like me does, I forwent any research and guessed. Yup, that's just me. I almost forgot to get the waterproof fabric when I was at the store. My number was called right when I realized I hadn't picked anything out, so I grabbed the first thing I saw that matched my clearance material for the outside.

I finished the bag today, and was trying to figure out how to test it out. I was talking to my sister and verbalizing different wet food I could use, when the idea dawned on me to just saturate a washcloth with water (silly me thought it needed to be something sticky or messy or colored) and set it on the counter. I did. It leaked. So I guess it will be a moist bag, and I'll have to make sure to wring out any wet clothing I put in it. For it's size it's meant for food, so I'm not sure how often I will put clothes in it, but we'll just see.

Stockings

This year I decided to make stockings for us. I thought it would be nice to have matching stockings, and I thought, how hard could that be? It wasn't that hard, but as it turns out, I am not good at making the exact same thing more than once. I'm not surprised, I had a feeling that they would all be different. But what takes the cake is the super fat girl stocking that will most likely go to Genny (because why would I need a super fat stocking?). Poor Glenn will most likely make a fuss every year about how Genny's stocking is bigger, and why is his so small. But that's in the future, and until he realizes that his is smaller, I will smile when I look at our hearth -wait, we don't have a hearth... Um... Our bookcases?- and see our matching stockings hanging together. I did make sure to get enough fabric in the event that we have another little one pitter-pattering around, but we have yet to seriously discuss that.

Edit note: My sister started laughing pretty hard when she read, 'super fat girl stocking'. But then I said, "No, super fat stocking for a girl." So we laughed together as I quickly logged onto blogger and wrote this edit note. So now we're clear. :>

Sledding

This is how deep the snow is in the front yard- it goes up to my knee!

Eating snow




Ok, Thomas. Here are some pictures of the kids playing outside. :) Genny had a blast sledding and Glenn pretty much just sat there in the sturdy sled watching everyone and everything. Even though Genny was super tired and cranky today, she had fun for a little while outside. :)

SNOW

Thomas told me that I hadn't posted any pictures of the outside with the snow. So here you go, babe! I had planned on taking the kids outside to play, but today is my laundry day and I'm washing Glenn's snowsuit, so I wasn't able to. Hopefully tomorrow we will all go outside and play so I can get some pictures of how much snow we have compared to how tall Genny is. :)