It's finally white outside!

 It's funny to think that my first non-white Minnesota Christmas was Helena's first Minnesota Christmas.  But it snowed today and all the fun Helena had this morning made up for it. Papa & Nani had bought a little sled just for Helena, and it worked great for her. 

She seemed to not really know what to think until the sled started moving.  Then it was smiles from there on out.  

It was fun as she even started body bobbing - you know, the action we all do when we're trying to get a sled to go just a little bit farther and faster! 

Perhaps it's too early to say definitively, but if today is any indication, she's going to be a real snow enthusiast.

Merry Christmas!

The lights have definitely been Helena's favorite part of Christmas.  It seems like every new place we go she's immediately pointing to the lights in the windows, on the tree, in the garlands, and more.

She's quite the reader.

 But I guess she was having a hard time picking which book to read this morning.

Helena's Latest

A few days ago I got to hold a newborn while the baby's dad held Helena.  Helena looked HUGE, but it was only 10 1/2 months since she was the newborn.  They really do change a lot in the first year.

Here's what Helena has been up to:

Eating pizza.  She loves the stuff.  It doesn't matter I make the pizza on pizza dough, on naan, or on an English muffin.  If it's got pizza sauce and cheese on it, she's leaning out of her chair trying to get more off my plate!

Playing with her nativity scene.  Actually, it's a bit more accurate to say throwing the nativity pieces on the floor and then putting them back up on her Rubbermaid table.

Helena likes to be in on the cooking action.  Thus, she's either in my arms or at my feet in the kitchen!

She's learned to point at things she wants to touch, her favorite being the lanterns in her bedroom as they move.








Helena gave her dad Squealers the Pig Puppet for Christmas.  He loves to tickle her and she doesn't seem to mind.

Fantastic Finger Foods

Helena loves to eat.  She's over and done with purees and wants flavor all the time!  Helena also likes to feed herself most everything now.  (Pushing our hands away or picking food off of the spoon in order to put it in her mouth independently happens regularly.)  So Helena wants flavor, she wants finger food, and the doctor wants fatty foods in order to bulk her up a bit.  And her mom wouldn't mind foods that don't make too huge of a mess :)

She usually eats what we eat but I do make special simple things for just her too.  So after scouring the internet for flavorful, simple, fatty, non-messy finger food for Helena.  Here are the three best foods I've found:
1) Hardboiled egg yolk mashed up with avocado and spread on bread, pita, tortilla, naan, etc.   Yum.

2) Meatballs.  It's so easy to mix up a batch of meatballs, freeze them, and then cook one for Helena or a bunch for all three of us!

3) Banana Custard - A banana, two eggs, and blueberries, steamed for 30 minutes.  Easy, flavorful, full of protein, only makes 3 dirty dishes, and Helena loves this.  John & I think it tastes pretty good too!

 

Do you have any other ideas for me?  

La Cucaracha

My uncle & aunt gave us this picture as a wedding gift, and we love it.  

But three nights ago the picture became a little bit less wonderful.

John walked into the kitchen and saw a cockroach peeking out from behind it.  After killing the bug, he took the picture off and found another one. 

Yuck.  I know that cockroaches and old apartment buildings in Toronto go together like black and white, but still.  Yuck.

Cloth Diapers

We use cloth diapers around this place, and believe it or not, we love them.  A few friends have asked me for details about our experience so here they are.

After much searching and researching, we chose to use prefolds from Green Mountain Diapers. While some might say prefolds are old-school, they are the best to use when washing in a laundromat as they are easier to clean and faster to dry.  Diaper pins are no longer necessary, as there are now Snappis.  We also purchased a few workhorse cloth diapers, and I love those.  If I could go back in time, I'd buy a few less prefolds and a few more workhorse,because I've found Helena isn't as patient when we're out and about, and the workhorse diapers require a little bit less time.  

For covers, we've tried Bummis, Bummis Original, Kissaluvs, and Thirsties, and have found Thirsties to be our favorite.  Thirsties doesn't have a cover that fits from newborn to potty-training, but that's okay with us.  (A friend bought all-in-one diapers for her first child and then found out all the leg grommets were too stretched out to use with her second child!)

We dunk and rinse used diapers in the toilet.  I think this is the part that perhaps turns people away from using cloth diapers but it's really not that bad.  Even John would say so.  He does it every day without complaining!  Rather than using a pail (pails are considered dangerous once a child is walking), we have a large wet-dry bag from Planetwise.  There's never been a smell coming from it, and we wash diapers every 4-5 days. Our travel wet-dry bag is a KangaSac.

While cloth diapering does require a little more time than disposables, we're glad we use cloth.  For one thing, we don't have to go buy disposables, which not only saves money but also saves the hassle of watching for sales, getting to the store before the on-sale diapers are gone (everything goes fast around here!), and having to transport them without a car.  Another reason is it feels like we're being more environmentally friendly.  It's been said that disposables and cloth diapers are pretty even when it comes to the environment, but with cloth I'm not taking a bag full of diapers down to the garbage each day, and that feels good.  Last but not least, Helena has only had one diaper rash (and that was my fault because I used too much detergent).

All that to say, cloth diapering is not as scary as it seems.