the haircut

So...I got my hair cut last Saturday.

It was kind of anticlimactic.

I'm not sure if it's the haircut or my hair. The latter having to recover from the mass exodus of hair that left my head postpartum.

Either way, I didn't like how she styled it. It was SUPER sleek and straight and it just made me feel like I had flat hair. I've never felt like that before because I usually have SO MUCH HAIR, but my hair has really thinned - especially in the front and she didn't want to give me side bangs as that would accentuate the thinness. But I think (6 days later) I actually need the side bangs.

Anyway, all that to say, I'm not pleased. I agree with her that it's likely to accentuate my thinness (of my hair - not my waist unfortunately) but I think I need it anyway.

Should I go back?

I don't know what to do.

I'm just not happy with my hair.

And I honestly don't think it's HER fault - or maybe it is? Should a hairdresser be able to work magic, no matter why kind of hair you have? Maybe she did the best with what I gave her and what I wanted...

I don't know.

By the way, I went with the angled bob. My hair's not long enough in the front for it to be dramatic enough and she kept it rather blunt at the back (not high like the picture of Posh spice I posted here.) which I thought I wanted at the time...but maybe not?

So yeah.

What to do?

Videos!

I've added a link to my Vimeo account where you can see all (or at least most) of the videos I publish to my blog - if not more. It's on the side bar beneath our pictures.

And for your viewing pleasure, enjoy this one of Noah washing up my dishes.

I swear he initiated this on his own.

Right.

More Water Fun from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

Baby Food in pictures

Earlier this week I made my own baby food! I always wanted to with Noah but never got around to it. By the time we were introducing solids to Noah we were in Africa with limited options and being a new Mom I had no idea what I could and couldn't give him. So we did the jarred food thing and then just kept at it once we got home.

But this time I decided I wanted to try my hand at home made baby food - and see if it would save money.

I tried pears, butternut squash and sweet potatoes.

First up were the pears.
I steamed them as they weren't super ripe.

Then I pureed them. I tried the potato ricer but it wasn't doing anything except squeezing out the juice. Then I tried my soup blender.

The chunks were too big and it wasn't working. So I stuck a bunch of slices into the Magic Bullet and voila! Pear puree! I didn't even have to add any liquid.

Next up were the butternut squash. I cut them in half and baked them in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Then I scooped out the flesh and pureed it in the magic bullet as well and ended up with a lot of puree.

Finally were the sweet potatoes. I baked them for over an hour and they easily slipped out of their skins. Pureed them in the magic bullet with a bit of water and got a nice, smooth puree.

I filled several ice cube trays with the puree and froze it all.

Today I took out a little ice cube (from my Ikea tray) of sweet potato.

Jude likes it just as much as rice cereal. I think I'll save the pears for a little later as I took a taste of it and it was SWEET!

Yum.

today

Today was a good day. Lately there have been more good days than hard days.

Sure, each day has bits of ick, wah, or blech...but the bits are so small that the day seems good overall.

Today was a good day.

Nothing unusual happened. But it was good. I worked out. I got a free cookie while waiting in the Starbucks drive thru. I loved and enjoyed my boys. I visited my friend in the hospital and held her tiny newborn baby girl.

Noah discovered the sink and had a blast "washing" dishes. He is growing up so fast and I am just loving this stage with him.

A friend of mine said that she loves every stage with her kids more than she loved the last one.

Perhaps it's because each stage is more fun, but it's probably because we're continuing to learn, love and get to know our babies - who aren't babies for long.

I love my boys. I can't imagine life without them. I have never known such purpose and joy while doing things that from the outside appear menial and boring.

There's nowhere else I'd rather be.

6 month letter to Jude

Dear Jude,

You are 6 months (1 week and 1 day) old!

Yeah, I'm a bit late. My bad.

But let me just say that you. are. adorable.

Seriously. I think you get cuter every day. Your little face is so cute. Your little ears that poke out a bit, your big eyes that droop slightly at the ends and your tiny mouth just absolutely erupt into a smile that can light up the room when you look at me or your Daddy - and especially your brother. He can always make you smile after a nap when you can sometimes be a bit cranky.

I'm not sure how much you weigh right now as at your 6 month check up I didn't get the stats from the nurse. You also didn't get your vaccinations because of a rash you had on your neck, cheeks, arms and legs. The doctor said it was viral and it would go away on its own. And it has - almost entirely.

You sleep through the night every now and then and it's lovely. Generally you're down by 7pm, have a dream feed at 10:30pm and then sometimes you eat at some point between 3 & 5am. Then you're back down 'til around 8! It's great. I really can't complain.

We introduced solids! You had rice cereal last week and were such a little pro eater - it was really cute. Then last night I made up some homemade pear, squash and sweet potato purees and you had the sweet potato today and didn't have any different reaction to them than you did to the rice cereal, so we'll see how it goes.

I also started putting you in cloth diapers this past week. I know.

But it's going pretty good. If I can stick it out, we'll save tons of money!

You can sit on your own now and you even reach for things while you're sitting and bring them to your mouth (because EVERYTHING goes in your mouth these days).

You easily laugh and smile and that just warms my heart. I love nursing you before I go to bed at night because you just curl right into me and it's so sweet. I don't think you are a very cuddly little guy, but you definitely like to be close to me and I'm liking being close to you too.

You are such a sweet boy and I have loved these last 6 months and can't imagine how much fun the next 6 months are going to be!

Love

Mama

Noah & Jamie

Tomorrow I'm going into Toronto with Jude for the day and I'll be leaving Jamie and Noah to themselves.

I fully expect lots of this to occur:

Danger! from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

Or this:

Probably shouldn't be encouraging this... from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

Or maybe this:

Dancing upside down from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

Ah, good times in the Strickland household.

Cloth Diapering Journey Part One

So I bought 6 prefolds and 4 Bummis Super Whisper Wrap covers from Diaper Days a couple days ago.

Then I started scouring Kijiji and eBay for better deals because I felt like I should be able to find some.

And I did.

Wouldn't ya know in my wonderful wonderful hippie city (of course in the downtown core) I found several ads on Kijiji for cloth diapers. At less than 1/2 the price.

So I went to check one ad out yesterday. 6 barely used Happy Heiny pocket diapers plus 9 inserts, 5 more prefolds and 2 more covers for 2/3 of what I paid for the prefolds and wraps at Diaper Days.

Well, I put Jude in the prefolds yesterday and despite getting peed on because I wasn't ready with the diaper fast enough it went okay. I still used disposables at night because they just hold more than regular cloth diapers. I'll look into getting soaker inserts for nighttimes.

Today I put Noah in a cloth diaper after his nap and he was NOT happy about it. To be fair, the Pampers diapers with Elmo, Cookie Monster and Winnie the Pooh are a lot more exciting to a 2 year old. But I stuck with it, adjusted it because he said it was "hurt my bum" so I figured it maybe was a bit tight and then went on until I smelled poop.

It was a major blowout. From Noah. And surprisingly it all stayed in the diaper! It was disgusting as all get out because it was diarrhea (sorry, TMI) so I couldn't exactly just "dump" it in the toilet, so I had to spray it down in the laundry room first. But...he accepted the second cloth diaper much more willingly.

Jude's experience today was also filled with poop. But his didn't stay in the diaper. Not a lot got out, but still, if he had been wearing a disposable it wouldn't have leaked. So that was frustrating. he's on his third (fourth?) outfit today. Oh laundry.

As for fit - well, cloth diapers are WAY more bulky than disposables, but it's bearable.

I also went out and bought three garbage bins. 1 for Noah's room (because the one in there is cracked and broken), 1 for Jude's room and 1 for the downstairs bathroom (because I don't want to have to traipse upstairs with a dirty diaper every time I change one downstairs). So we'll see how it goes. Not sure of the best cleaning method for the bins yet...probably a wash out and then a wipe out with disinfecting wipe or something?

It seems like a lot and there's definitely a learning curve, but I do want to stick with it because I KNOW it will save us money down the road so I think that in and of itself is worth it.

Let's see...current $ spent on cloth diapering: ~$200

How quickly would I spend $200 on disposables with two in diapers? I'm guessing around 3 or 4 months.

More to come on my cloth diapering journey I'm sure...

Suit up!

Suit up!

Suit UP! from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

cloth head

My silly boy:

Noah's cloth on his head from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

Jude & Food

Jude & Food from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

Well, it's safe to say that Jude definitely likes rice cereal. He's really taken to it and it's so cute to see him open his mouth and lean forward in anticipation of the next bite!

How much fun is introducing solids! (So fun!)

Solids!

Today Jude is 6 months and 2 days old and he had his first taste of solid food.

Rice cereal.

I scooped about a tbsp of rice cereal into a small bowl and then hand expressed some breast milk into the bowl - it wasn't coming fast enough so I added a little bit of water.

And he ate the whole thing! It was quite cute. I didn't take any pictures or video, but I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities in the future for those.

I also pulled out the Potato Ricer my Mom gave me for Christmas that I'll be able to puree foods with. I'm excited to experiment and try giving Jude different foods that I didn't even think of with Noah.

And so begins Jude's introduction to the world of FOOD!

cloth

So I think I'm turning into that crazy home birth hippie I was so proud (why? Not sure. I just like bucking the trend I guess) not to be!

I'm thinking about switching to...

cloth diapers.

That's right. CLOTH.

Who am I? For reals.

Anyway, so my reasons are singular really.

Money.

I guess it's nice what they do for the environment, but really...I guess I'm just not that environmentally friendly. It's certainly not my motivating factor, that's for sure.

But all that to say, I am looking into and researching cloth diapers.

Um, slightly overwhelming!

Seriously. There's prefolds, pocket diapers, AIO (All In Ones - don't get me started on the acronyms!), liners, cotton, bamboo, wet bags, and oh my goodness it keeps ON GOING!

But I decided to do a tester. I was browsing around on eBay and found some AIOs and decided to purchase 2. They go from 16-35lbs so likely will fit both boys. They were only $7.50 each and there were no shipping costs (I'm all about free shipping when buying things on eBay).

Anyway, so we'll see. I should get the diapers next week sometime so I'll definitely update. Oh and they're called EcoBumz - a Canadian company makes them in Alberta. So we'll see.

I'm leaning towards prefolds for a more economical choice, but we'll see. I'm going to talk to the ladies at Diaper Daze here in Guelph (a baby boutique that sells cloth diapers) and see what info I can glean from them.

So...we'll see. I think especially with two in diapers it's worth the investment. And since we'll likely have more kids I think it would be wise to think about doing cloth.

Oh and I'm planning on making my own baby food too.

(Who AM I?)

just another morning

Just a video I took of our morning quiet time together.

It's almost 7 minutes long and will likely be boring to you, but if you want, here's a sample of all the words Noah is using these days.

Morning Quiet Time from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

beautiful (for the eyes and the ears)

I love this video.

I believe I first saw this through my friend Beth (you should check her out!) but more recently found it again on Facebook (oh Facebook. I both love and hate you.)

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

Now that I'm a Mom, I'm totally getting into all those Hallmark holidays. It's fun! I get to do all the kiddie stuff that I didn't before!

So now I want to share a fun site with you for free (adorable) Valentine's Day cards that you can customize and print off!

I'm all over this!

http://invys.com/valentines

Enjoy!