mei tai and am I crunchy???

My very sweet neighbor is having her first child this summer. She's so giddy with excitement and that makes me so very happy for her. Well, silly me decided I'd make her a mei tai baby carrier for her baby shower gift. Umm.. yeah... I don't sew. I suck at it. But I somehow managed to get it done after a lot of cussing and screaming. The stitching doesn't look all that great, but it's made. I even tested it out by carrying a nearly 40lb Natalie in it so I know it will be fine for an infant.

If you don't know what a mei tai is-google it. It's seriously the best baby item out there. I carried Natalie in mine almost everyday for a year and carried in it regularly up until age 2.

Here's the one I made. It's reversible with polka dots on one side and stripes on the other.

I am disappointed. As much as I carried Natalie in it I only have 1 picture of me carrying her-at least only 1 that I found. Here she is happy as can be while riding on my back. Her little face was covered in eczema.

So while at the baby shower this afternoon someone brought up cloth diapers. I mentioned that I tried them and used them with Natalie and suddenly I looked like the freak in the room. Which leads me to my question--am I bit crunchy? Crunchy as in hippi, natural, organic, etc.

Let's see:

I have cloth diapered.

I wore my baby in a baby carrier.

I homemade her babyfood.

I use mostly vinegar when I clean.

I make homemade laundry detergent.

I make our pasta sauces and breads from scratch.

I try to buy foods without high frutose corn syrups.

I recycle on a regular basis.

I no longer use paper plates and paper napkins.

I try not to use as many paper towels.

Yep, I think I am towards the crunchy side. Yikes!

Touch a Truck

Every year the Mom's Club of Norman hosts Touch a Truck. It's where all sorts of trucks/buses/and even a helicopter comes together in one area. The kids get to climb in and honk the horns. They love it. The best part is all the proceeds go to the children's area at the Norman library. Natalie and I visit that library on a weekly basis for storytime so I love that we get to help out the library while having lots of fun.

Natalie hanging out in the police car.

Bryce also in the police car.

Natalie getting a hug from the Braum's cow. We got to ride a tiny elevator to get into the truck. Once inside we quickly wanted to leave--It was cold! Actually it was colder in the front and back of the truck. It has three different temperature ranges so that the different dairy products stay at the right temperature.
They gave us free ice cream coupons! Woot!

Natalie and Bryce got to hang out in a hummer.

Bryce pulling the cord to honk the horn on the big semi. It was super loud!

Bully?

Natalie to Bryce while holding a fist up: You had better knock it off!

The next day

Natalie to Bryce in the car: Be Quiet or I'm going to hit you in the face!


Nice, she's a bully at 3 years old.

Orange bathroom and Easter

I thought I had some more pictures on my camera, but evidently I haven't been taking as many pictures as I used to take. I had better change that.

Anyway, here's my great orange bathroom adventure. I was sick of blah and boring. I bought the bright flowered shower curtain at Target and it helped to brighten it up, but the room needed something.... ORANGE!

Here's the before:

And the after although the pictures aren't as good as I would have liked. It looks much better in person.

I still need to hang my curtain. I have a lime green one, but I am not sure if I like it. I guess I need to get a curtain rod and at least hang it up to see.

We went to Norman's Easter Egg hunt. The kids loved this Easter Bunny. =)

Natalie won a chocolate bunny which she promptly ate in the car on the way home. We didn't realize she had eaten the entire thing until we got home and asked where the bunny went. She showed us her hands which were a chocolate mess. She was covered in chocolate from the top of her head to all down her dress.

One of these days

I'll actually post something new. I need to get my camera out of my purse which is in my car in the garage and upload some pictures. I am too lazy to do it tonight.

In other news Natalie tested into speech and tomorrow I'll go to her IEP meeting and she should start speech on Tuesday. My other child is also being seen by the school's speech pathologist. They are doing a 14 day intervention in hopes that they can help him with his "th" problem. If it doesn't work he'll go to speech starting in 2nd grade.

And the best news of all:

The kids are spending the night with Papa and Gramma tomorrow night. I love them bunches, but I've been needing a break for a while. My parents have lots of fun Easter activities planned for them so they'll have a grand time. We are going to my friend's wedding reception. I am excited.

Fun in Dallas/Ft. Worth

Last weekend we went to Dallas/Ft. Worth for a little spring break getaway. We started our trip off at the Ft. Worth Zoo. It was a tad bit expensive, but worth every penny. It was so much better than our zoo here. There was one bit of a problem. Everyone in the Ft. Worth area also thought Saturday would be a great day to go to the zoo. Well, not everyone, but at least 45,000 people. It was so crazy busy, but we still managed to have a great time. Well, until the kids got hungry. We tried to get them to eat before we went into the zoo, but of course they weren't hungry. About an hour in they were suddenly starving. Poor Nate had to wait in line at Burger King for 45 minutes as I tried to entertained the kids at a picnic table.

The Primate section was first on our list. We love the primates the best, but unfortunately it was so busy with people we didn't get to look long. We did see this guy hanging up on his fort.

This is the start of our long lunch wait. They were being silly and acting like they actually love each other. Okay, they do, but I hardly get pictures like this.

She was excited to find a penny!

Nate is in the red hat. He had already been waiting in line for about 20 minutes.

Natalie is still in a good mood!

Bryce is not so much in a good mood.

Yay, we ate lunch and got to move on.

This Rhino was super funny. He was running all over his yard and then laid down and rolled in the mud. He even scratched himself on that little tree stump that's in front of him.

These little guys are so cute.

This is what happens after a long day at the zoo.

When we left the zoo we went to my friend, Jennifer's house. She used to live here, but moved down to the Ft. Worth area almost a year ago. She invited us over for a very tasty dinner. The kids got to play with each other again and we got to visit for a while. It was nice.

But our fun little trip came to a rapid halt after we left her house. She lives about 35 minutes from where we were staying in Frisco, TX. That 35 minute trip became a 2 hour trip. Our car kept randomly dying while we were driving on the highway, at stop lights, or really wherever. I was nervous wreck and so was Nate. We missed exits because of it and got lost.

At one point we needed to take a potty break and ended up at a really cool McDonalds. It happened to be next to the Dallas Zoo so it was all decked out in wild animals. Quite appropriate since we were just at the zoo. That was a small highlight in our otherwise scary trip.

Finally we made it to Frisco and our really cool hotel. It was modeled after a New York loft. Everything was super modern inside it. Unfortunately, we were too upset about our car to really enjoy it. The kids loved this cool bench, though.

The next day we went to Ikea since it was just down the road from the hotel and the mall to shop. I love Ikea. They should really build one here. The best part is they have a childcare watch so we got a whole hour of shopping kid free!

Then we started on our scary trip home since our car was still dying. Everytime we passed a mile marker I said a silent prayer of thanks.

We took our car to the Honda dealership but they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. But just last night Nate thinks he figured it out! He's going to buy the part right now so cross your fingers that it works.

He escaped!

Our leprechaun came last night, but he escaped with a grappling hook. He left behind some surprises!

If you look closely you can see the green string hanging from the door. He used hook and string to climb out of the trap when he fell inside.

Our leprechaun had very dirty feet. Do you see all his little black footprints?

He left shamrocks on the floor near the trap.

The leprechaun turned our couch cushions over! He's small but strong.

He tied two of our chairs together with the dog's leash and blocked the way into the kitchen.

He put a green tablecloth on our table and left green plates and green plasticware and also left more shamrocks. He even turned our chairs over and wound a green ribbon through them.

He left us a note!

Turned our milk green.

And our juice green!

He also peed into our toilet and it was green! He was a sneaky guy again this year, too. He put the Rice Crispies cereal into the Lucky Charms box and put the Lucky Charms cereal into the Rice Crispies box.

Disclaimer: Yes, my house is a bit of a mess. I was too tired last night to pick it up.