Standing corrected again

Okay, so this morning his name is EEeesh. Again. I guess this is why we don't let 3 year olds name real children. =)

A lotus bag for Nancy!!

My friend Nancy is considering having a lotus birth - which is a newer practice in the gentle birth movement in which parents choose not to cut the cord, rather to keep the placenta attached to the baby until the cord falls off. You can read more about lotus birth here at the Labor of Love site. So I spent a little time this morning making this placenta bag for her to use if she decides to do the lotus birth! The bag is a very soft merino wool that a dear friend gave me in the form of a sweater she had shrunk. It was rather small for me to make a diaper cover from but perfect for this project! The bag has an oval bottom and slightly angled sides to make it easy to get the placenta in and out when needed. Then I sewed a bias binding around the top which was leftover from a project I made in college and threaded burgundy ribbon through it for a drawstring.

I stand corrected

It seems this is happening more and more as time marches on... yesterday I wrote about Allegra's baby Eesh. Well, today the baby's name is Ish with a short I rather than a prolonged long E. Just so you know when you see him.

In other news, I am trying a cheese spread recipe made with kefir. I'll let you know if it is fabulous.

Smoothie Revisions!

I've made some updates to our smoothie regimen! In my quest for healthy stuff to feed my kids, I've stumbled upon Kefir, an ancient cultured milk beverage, similar to yogurt but with additional benefits AND easier to make, plus it's much, much cheaper than buying yogurt!!! A great blog on making kefir can be found here along with recipes and other fun stuff. My new smoothie contains all the ingredients in the above picture: A quart of kefir, two banans, a cup of orange juice, about 1/4 cup of raw honey, two heaping tablespoons of Green Magma powder, a handful of strawberries, and 6 or so ice cubes.

Here's the smoothie just before mixing - I guess you'd call it chunky at this point, not smoothie. It blends up to a nice even green and is a thinner consistency than my previous, yogurt-based recipe.

The taste testers agree: smoothies rock!

Fun with the SNAP PRESS!

Okay, so I got this cool snap press to make some diapers for Shiloh. I still have to make the diapers... got to get on that... but in the meantime, look at the cool stuff I can make for the kids! Allegra was playing with this Cabbage Patch doll today that was mine when I was little. The doll only has a couple of outfits and they are all pink. Allegra wanted the doll to be her baby boy, whose name is Eesh. (Yes, that's right, we say it, "EEEEEsh.") Anyway, in a matter of 20 minutes, I made Eesh two blue polar fleece diapers with purple snaps - two, of course, so she can change him and wash the other one up because he is a frequent pooper - and then I whipped up a little matching shirt. Then I made a diaper for Cymbre's very special monkey, Henry. Cymbre chose green snaps which also look nice on the blue fleece. This diaper is complete with tail vent. Then Eli wanted something for Pingu but a diaper just didn't seem like the thing for a penguin. So I made him a little vest to keep him warm.

Shiloh is 11 months!

Here's my sweet guy. 11 MONTHS! Now that's he's eating some table food every day, he's back in the habit of having a nice poo each morning. He loves to sit on his little toilet and play with a toy or look at a book. It's a nice time for us to be together before the other kids get up.

Shiloh has been such a wonderful little baby companion that I find I am dreading toddlerhood more than ever before. Perhaps it's just that I don't know if there will be more babies in my future. Perhaps it's the fact that toddlerhood is never my forte' as a mom. Or perhaps it's just that the fourth time around I really can see the bittersweet juxtoposition of baby morphing into big kid. The excitement of seeing him grow and develop is, as always, dizzying, but the plain and simple truth that this time will never come again brings me to tears.

Our dear friends from afar!!

We had a wonderful visit from some of our very dearest friends last week all the way from Wisconsin! Beth, Lily and Grayson stopped by for two fun-filled days and even attended our Grand Rapids Natural Parenting group with us. We haven't seen these guys much because they moved away and we just don't tracel much anymore! Shiloh and Grayson are just about 6 weeks apart and just seemed like two peas in a pod! Lily made herself right at home with our three big kids! We miss you guys already!!!

Allegra is 3!

For Allegra's birthday, she wanted to go to the Frederick Meijer Gardens.
It was a perfect day for it so off we went to play with everyone's favorite: the boats!

Here's Cymbre literally dripping wet and beaming with the joy of it! Our beautiful birthday girl truly had a blast as well!

Fun at the ZOO!

We spent a few hours at the zoo today. This has been a frequent destination for our family this spring and summer. Our favorite animals this year are the wallabies, the great northern pelicans, and the lions. I'm trying to give the kids the names of the animals in German and Spanish when I can, which adds a little dimension to our visits. We were also fascinated over the last two months by the dozen baby ducks growing up in the moat area around the spider monkey mountain, but I don't believe they are official zoo ducks.


Here you see Cymbre, Eli and Shiloh looking at the waterfowl with Daddy. Allegra was in the stroller but later we tied her on Daddy's back, where she fell blissfully asleep. Cute too, don't you think??


For the first time ever, we took the ubiquitous picture with Mr. John Ball that *everyone* takes when they first get to the John Ball Zoo. Now we have one too.