Static Cling, Be Gone!

Lei has a delicious, soft fluffy pile of fleece pajamas that I am jealous of. Some snap, some zip, but all are easy and comfy and warm. Her room gets chilly at night during the winter, and these are the obvious go-to for bed time, through the morning and nap... (Does that make me lazy?) Love them. But sometime around December, she started having problems. She would wake up crying every hour two days in a row and keep fussing until I had resorted to everything but changing her pjs. The second night, I noticed a bunch of little sparks of light and I felt the static myself. Once the cotton pajamas were on, she was fine. Thus began the epic battle against the static that was snapping at my baby in her sleep.

I tried the dryer sheets. Did you know that they work by melting their waxy coating onto your clothes as they tumble, thus reducing the static causing friction? Neither did I. Apparently, it wasnt working on a dryer full of fleecy pjs in the middle of dry? winter. I just said thus twice in two paragraphs and it is bothering me immensely, but naptime is short, so I will ignore my distress and move on quickly.

I tried the hang dry method, which felt like it worked, until she started rolling around at night. Then I gave up and let her wear her safe cotton pajamas, which are fine, but not as warm and not as snuggly. This week I decided enough was enough and that it was time to conquer this problem. I miss my fleecy covered baby, and winter is starting to melt. 

I decided to try every method I could find in 3 minutes of searching online. Committed eh? I lowered the heat setting on my dryer to "delicate" and put in 2 dryer sheets. When there was about 20 minutes left of the 50ish minute setting, I threw in a damp washcloth to help lessen the dry, hot air that helps static form. And since my dryer is awesome, when the cycle was over, sure enough, things were still damp and needed some more time. So I left in all the cotton, but pulled out the slightly dampish fleece, and air dried the rest of the way. After bathtime, I lotioned Leilani up, and then also made sure to pat down her pajamas with extra lotiony hands, to cut back on whatever was there, and hopefully prevent static from forming. 

No idea what of that was the key, but she slept warm, fuzzy, and static free! Whoohoo! 

So yes. The moral of this epistle: When static comes to play, dry your pajamas as damply as you can, air dry, and rub it down (with an amount that makes sense) with your baby lotion before sticking your lotioned baby in. Yes, it is worth it. 


Gosh. I am long winded. But this was an epic battle. And I won.

The Post in Which I Record a Pile of Leilani. Just So I Remember.

 

How does one baby-proof a book shelf? No clue. The number of times I have had to put our wall of books back together is climbing into the thousands, I am sure. It gets sloppier and sloppier every time.

 

This is the face of the cutest little person on the planet. Her name is Leilani, and she turned 11 months old two days ago.

 

She gets bored a lot. I am bad at entertainment for this age. The yelling and flying and hiding and carrying that it takes to get squeals is exhausting. I am blown away by the energy that little people have. 

 

Peekaboo is one of those things that never seems to get old. I love watching her get excited over and over at being discovered.

 

See? Like I said. Cutest little person ever. She gets her quirky and expressive eyebrows from her Daddy. I must say that I am jealous over the expressiveness that they can achieve.

 

The discovery of how to get naked. "I can take my diaper off myself!!" Oh. Dear. But oh my goshamolly. Look at those BUNS! Nothing is better than a set of wrinkly baby buns. It is the only age that being naked, wrinkly and jiggly is acceptable. But I can't encourage this behavior, as adorable as it is... Much anyways...

Ryan had Monday off for President's Day. The awesome thing about Ryan is that he is always up for an adventure. Like taking the baby on the metro for the first time and heading downtown to check out museums. In the rain. In February. There are so many things that I would not do or even consider without him. He is fantastic.

 

And it was Ryan who captured the srunchy smile that she does. I have been trying for weeks to get it, but Daddy got the shot! Love that face. When I am super happy and smiling my largest (like in my wedding pictures for example) my nose gets scrunchy. On an infant, charming and adorable. An adult? Not so much. But aww! She takes after me sometimes!

 

 

 

After the novelty wore off some, the fussing began. Perhaps from the pressure in the tunnels? She got to fly in and out of the car every stop the rest of the way there.

 

Somehow, this is the only picture I got of our whole trip to the American History Museum. Yes, we did let her go free and crawl around in some areas. *shudder* Bathing in hand sanitizer was such fun. I have discovered that infants and toddlers are pretty ok for museums. Crawlers? Not that ok. They are not interested or old enough for any of the fun displays, and they want to crawl on/eat everything in sight. We will be waiting a bit for the next museum trip I think. But it was an adventure! 

Also, it snowed. Again. After being in the upper 60s to low 70s twice last week. Winter, can you be done already?

Leilani after last night's dinner.

The Beauty of Cardboard Boxes

Calvin and Hobbes was my favorite comic. Probably still is if I had to pick a favorite. They always had the best box, and they knew how to use it. Calvin knew how to play. He knew what dirt and sticks and boxes were for. He knew how to imagine entire worlds within the space of his backyard and he was never lacking something to do. (We will ignore all of the trouble he got into and his disregard for manners and authority.)

When I was younger, I loved boxes. The siblings and neighbors did too, and we were always on the lookout for the right one. (We were also always on the lookout for the best sticks too, but that is another story.) There is so much that you can do with a box. They can be houses, time machines, secret caves, clubs, hideouts... The possibilities were endless. But the problem was getting a box big enough to fit inside. It wasn't every day that someone got a new fridge or something. So mostly we would lament the lack of big boxes and look for clubhouses in barns, sheds or in the woods. 

I want to make sure that Leilani learns how to play. In a day where kids spend most of their time staring at a glowing screen with only their fingers moving, I want her to know how to imagine. I want her to be thrilled with how great her latest stick/box is. I want her to spend hours outside chasing leaves and squirrels and playing in the dirt. I want her to revel in being little. Innocence and childhood fade all too quickly. I want to make sure that she has lots of exciting afternoons and long, fun summers to look back on.

 Her diapers came today in a huge box. Well, huge in comparison with her.

Let the fun times begin!

She thought it was pretty cool, but I am not sure that she appreciated it enough.

One day these will be awesome.

A Stream of Leilani

Leilani, you are just 4 days from turning 11 months. Eleven. ELEVEN months. How on earth is this possible? You are a rambunctious speed crawling little lady who rarely seems to slow down. As your Dada and I like to frequently remind you, we remember when you couldn't track things with your eyes like it was yesterday. I am so worried that I am going to miss something as you race onwards to independence. I don't want to forget any of your little details that make being your Mama a delight.

I love how you have an obsession with putting lids on things. I was so proud of you the first time you leaned over and tried to stick the top on your bottle. Where did you learn that? Amazing.

I love how you get all tangled up in your pajamas, but still try to determinedly crawl through the house even with both legs stuffed down one side or with one foot poking out through the snaps. 

I am so excited that you finally learned how to say Mama! You learned how to say Dada first, and then Thatha, but it was worth the wait. It makes me get all teary that you greet me in the mornings with a huge smile and an enthusiastic "Mamamama!" Oh man. You know who I am. 

I love how excited you get to see your aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents. I can't get over how you learned how to wave and say "HI!" and this week, you even are working on "Byebyebye!" You are communicating with words. Incredible.

I love how you growl at random things for random reasons. How sometimes when you get frusterated you will growl and whatever you are playing with, or when you see a stuffed animal that you like, you growl as you chew on their face. So funny.

Your fascination with anything electronic is at once funny, and really frustrating. Laptops, remotes, cameras, anything with cords or plugs, you love it all. Cell phones are your favorite and you can't handle it if I won't share. Its amazing how whatever the device is, you can manage to find the power/clear/delete button without even looking.

Why I don't blog that often. 

 Laundry is your version of playing in the leaves. You delight in pulling piece by piece out of the dryer or basket, or scattering freshly folded piles all over the floor.

I love your camera face too!

I love your excited giggle-chuckle that you do right before you nurse. Cuddling with you is one of my favorite things.

When you go to sleep, you tuck your arms and legs underneath you with your ankles crossed. I love it how when you are really tired, you snuggle this way too.

You have started doing this crawl/fall over on the first soft object you see thing when you are sleepy. You also often get really drowsy when Dada gives you your bath, and stare at your bubbles as your head lolls around. Your happy, sleepy self is the coziest thing ever.

There are so many things that make you you, and I love them all.

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All Mushed Up. Like Succotach.

I have been pondering many things lately. Some deep, some not so deep. Some things savory, some things more bland. Sometimes there is a jolt of inspiration that adds colour (I always think that colour and favourite and grey somehow look more sincere or legitimate when spelled in English instead of American... but that would be a tangent.) to my thoughts. All and all, there is not a lot of sense to be made from it, but there remains a healthy bit of Things That Really Need to Be Pondered. Its like succotash in there.

Does that make sense? Hurrah.

I am trying to figure out what this blog is. I aspire to formulate words that help me process the mush of my brain, that could cause someone else to think a little too. I am inspired by the colorful (colorful does not fall into the same category as colour. it is fine the way it is.) creativity of the blogs that I follow, and wish that I was a flipping amazing mom blogger had consistent colour to share back. I lack the consistency and diligence that it takes to create a space that would benefit/interest others. So mostly I think that this blog is just a spot for me to ramble, and hopefully to record the spice in every day moments. But I wish I was able to do more than just drivel. I need to learn how to apply my mind more thoroughly , think things through more completely, and formulate my opinions more distinctly. I think I need to relearn how to think.

A Documentary of some snow, some throwup and some blackbeans.

Ryan did make it home. At 1 a.m. after 9 hours on a bus. That amazing driver got everyone home. Needless to say, after the horrors of the commute the day before, Dada stayed home on Thursday. This picture from the next morning really does not capture the weird surreal feeling of the neighborhood. It looked like a giant octopus had landed over everything with its tentacles dangling creepily close to the windows. This makes it look normal and not that dire. It was dire. Also, Thursday had the nerve to be utterly anticlimactic. People spent upwards of 12 hours stuck out on the roads the night before and the next day, the world spun on. It felt like The Day After Tomorrow movie where everyone is trying to survive the next ice age. But apparently people still went to work, some never actually got stuck, and had normal commutes AND the roads were fine by 1 p.m.  

I got to sleep in. It was great. And Lei got to hang out with Dada, which was also great. I can not get over how amazing her scruffy little fresh-out-of-bed-head is. Totally edible. Mmm.

She was totally fascinated by the snow. I don't think the little we got before had that much of an impact, but this time, she was quite impressed.

 

She also somehow noticed how cold the windows were for the first time. Not sure how she missed that before. But that was apparently exciting too. 

Later that evening we took a short drive over to my moms. Outside was seriously cool. I have never seen snow cover the entire trunks of trees all down one side like they did with this wet stuff. The woods looked amazing. And I almost crashed 10 times trying to take pictures of it, but I never managed to quite get one. But I did get the sky. Oh the winter sky. The one part of winter that I have a hard time going without in the summer. Nothing is as clean and fresh. Crisp.

 

See? No? Well we all tried. (We being Ryan or Abi who I had gotten to try and grab the shot as I drove. I was practicing being a responsible driver.) Every time the super straight part of the woods appeared where everything looked like it had been painted with a ruler, we blurred or missed it. It was gorgeous and this is scraggly. But its still a bit nice looking I suppose. 

Saturday afternoon we went to Ryan's parents for lunch, and spent a great afternoon with about 30 of our friends/family from church. It was great, but by 7, the baby was ready to head home and I was feeling sliiiightly queasy. Thought I must have had something slightly off to eat, or that I was tired, so I went to bed. I slept an hour. Then I was up for the next 8 getting up close and personal with the pohtay and the trashcan. Every. 15. Minutes. Yep. 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Totally horrible. I was sure every time that "ok, that was the one. I am better now." But nope. I will spare you the details, but lets say that I deserve an "I am a survivor" sticker, or button, or like an award. Leilani woke up at about 1 and was not happy that Ryan was not bringing her to me. Screeeeeaming, gagging wails. So in between trips to the bathroom, I doused myself in hand sanitizer, prayed for mercy, and tried to nurse. Rough night. But we lived. Ryan left at 5 to find an open grocery, and returned with Pepto, gingerale, saltines, and a fruit smoothie. He was a hero. And I was struck with how familiar the whole sick on the couch with gingerale and saltines thing was. Pregnancy and the flu... Delightfully similar. 

Spent all of Sunday in bed, while Leilani had a lot of quality father daughter time. Discovered that my sister was having a grand time as well, and we spent the afternoon texting our grisly details and updates back and forth. Misery loves company. Ryan was great. He deserves a button/pin/award/sticker too. The next couple of days were long feeling, I was dizzy and bleh for a lot of them, but I am so thankful for the 24 hour flu as opposed to the regular one. Today I am mostly back to normal and happily eating again and watching the snow melt. And that Leilani and Ryan are healthy which is great. God is good. 

I will conclude with some pictures of Leilani's dinner on Sunday. Chipotle black beans are the best, especially when Daddy lets her eat them as recklessly as she wants. 

So. Cute.