Sew your own baby bibs

These are my two favorite kinds of bibs to sew and I have never seen them in stores so they make great baby shower gifts.

The first are made of fleece and simply serged around the edges (which isn't even needed because fleece doesn't ravel) and then sew some velcro for fastener. I just traced a bib I had bought for the shape. The fleece bibs work great for drooly babies because they last longer than a cotton bib and keep the baby's clothes drier.


The second is a sleeved bib, which is really nice for when your little one is feeding themselves and they are really messy. This will keep their sleeves clean as well as their front. Here is a link to the free long sleeved bib pattern.



These aren't homemade, but I think they are the greatest bibs. They catch all the food your child drops, and you just rinse them off in the sink. I was washing tons of cloth bibs, plus Selena's clothes because they didn't really keep her very clean. The Bibbity bib is excellent for going out because you can roll it up and it doesn't take up much space. The Baby Bjorn one is a little more structured so it catches food a bit better and is easier to wash, but doesn't fold up. I use the Baby Bjorn bib at home and the Bibbity one stays in the diaper bag or purse.

21 Weeks Pregnant - Halfway Done

I can't believe it is already half way over. I feel great, pretty much like normal except for the big belly. I am just now starting to have trouble bending over. I have also been getting quite a bit of Braxton Hicks contractions in the evening which makes it even harder to bend over.

We had the big ultrasound last week and everything looked great. We didn't find out the sex so it will be a big surprise when the baby is born. I think it makes it a bit more exciting. :) The only downside is we have to think of two names -- which is really hard.

I quit work at the end of the month will probably be right in time for me wanting/needing to take a nap at the same time as Selena.

The very particular 22 month old

Selena is doing wonderful and is getting very close to being 2 years old. Which is really crazy for me, but every day she learns more new things and can do more things for herself, so it is becoming more and more obvious that she is not a baby anymore.

But with this new found autonomy I am starting to notice that she is a lot less flexible. She will get something in her head and she becomes very insistent that it be done her way, and no other. We also have to give her more warning when we are changing activities or are doing something new. She became very unhappy when we "all of a sudden" took the Christmas tree down, but I think if we had warned her she wouldn't have been so upset. But even when she throws her little tantrums, it is still really cute.

She loves to read and most of our day is spent reading books. She has pretty much mastered all her letters and colors and is increasing the adjectives in her vocabulary every day. She still loves to draw, and have other people draw for her, and her drawing abilities are becoming increasingly impressive each day. Honestly I am in awe of her. It is so crazy to think that a little less than 2 years ago she could was completely dependent for everything.

And now that she is becoming a jabber box she says lots of funny things. When we run out of something (usually food) and tell her it is all gone she states, "buy more." She is constantly bossing Dyna around--telling her to come sit next to her, or go there. Unfortunately for her Dyna isn't as good as mom or dad at listening to her.

Christmas was a lot of fun, but she wasn't too interested in opening presents. She pretty much wanted to play with or put on the first present she opened, and could care less about the rest. She is a huge fan of Elmo and Abby (Sesame Street) and got some dolls, books and posters that she was very excited about.

She also has stopped using a binky. We lost it one day, searched for it for about 15-20 minutes before bedtime but couldn't find it (and still haven't found it). But she didn't seem too upset about not being able to find "blue binky," and has been fine (well at least no more difficult than normal) with going to bed and going down for naps. So that was easy. It is such a relief when things you think might be hard don't end up being so hard. The only thing is, now she tends to stick her hands in her mouth a lot more than she did before.

She is also very excited about the baby and she is constantly talking to, reading to, snuggling with, and giving kisses to my tummy. It is really adorable, and I know she is going to be a great big sister. When she sees other babies, she gets really excited. We were at the YMCA and a mom was there with a newborn, and she had set the newborn on the floor while she pushed her toddler in the swing and Selena saw the baby on the floor by itself and said. "Mama, baby, baby, help, help." It was really cute. She is constantly making me carry her baby doll around the house.

Selena's drawing of Dad

She loves to play dress up and wanted to immediately wear all the new clothes she got

She snuggled herself up on the chair to read

Sledding with dad

Taking care of her baby. She is very concerned that a baby must always be held.

I read 42 books in 2008

I love to read and I love the site librarything.com. So this year I did a good job of keeping track of all the books I read for 2008. 42 books for the year--almost a book a week. Pretty good since I pretty much only get to read when I sneak it in while I am eating breakfast or lunch, when Selena is adequately distracted (usually not very long), and before I go to bed. Luckily I am a fast reader.

My favorite book of the year was The Mists of Avalon. My mother had recommended this book to me many times when I was younger, and I tried to read it, but could never get into it. Well I am glad I tried again, because I really liked it.

I also got curious about the Twilight series after hearing so much about it and that really sucked me in. While I really enjoyed it and it pretty much consumed me for a day or two for each book, it was really quite silly. Definitely targeted towards teenage girls. I was glad to get my life back when I was done.

I also got to quickly read through The Great Cholesterol Con which was very interesting. I don't know if I am sucker for conspiracy theories, or if it is an open mind and willingness to not accept everything I am told (I hope it is the latter). But the author very persuasively argues that even though there have been many studies done, there are very few that actually indicate that high cholesterol causes heart disease (and the few that do are very poorly designed), or that eating saturated fat increases your risk of heart disease, or that LDL cholesterol is "bad" (it only becomes "bad" when it has been destroyed by excessive free radicals which come from air pollution, smoking, radiation, etc, and ironically when you consume vegetable oil that has been heated). But the studies do show that higher levels of cholesterol (but not excessively high) do correspond with decreased overall mortality, while very low levels correspond with higher overall mortality. In general his point is that if you really wish to fight heart disease you should decrease your stress, watch your blood sugar levels, eat more whole foods, and ignore your cholesterol levels as they aren't indicative of anything and trying to control them is many times anti-productive. The book is very well researched and annotated. I didn't find any glaring holes in his logic, and overall I thought it was very interesting.