6.28.2008

Strawberry Jam

We eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It was time to make more jam this year.

I happened to pick the hottest day of the year. It was in the 90's today and felt like 120 in my kitchen. The jam turned out delicious and totally worth the effort.



The jars all lined up cooling on my table look so pretty, good enough to eat! My friend Jenny came over with her animals to help. Crystal and her dogs and my mom were there as well. We had 9 dogs, Jenny's chicken and one hot baby helping us with the jam. It was a great day!

6.26.2008

Our Dogs Love Our Baby!

Can I take a minute to express my gratitude?

When I first became pregnant, an acquaintance of mine said to me, "Well, I guess you'll just have to find new homes for your dogs now". Uh, do you even know me?! In my line of work, I see way too often animals that get shoved aside and dumped when a new baby comes along. My strong opinion is a pet is a lifetime commitment, part of the family.




Alex and I weren't quite sure how things with our animals were going to pan out with the arrival of a baby. I was mostly worried about how Chester was going to take to the baby. At first, he would run to his safe place (our bed) when Burl would cry. Now when the baby cries, he runs to sit next to him to make sure he's alright. He's my brave little boy! Brave like the Cowardly Lion! The arrival and presence of Burl has helped Chester overcome some of his fears and feel less scared of his surroundings. Whenever we have visitors, Chester is no longer terrified, he doesn't hide as much and even lets other people pet him now.




We often find all three dogs curled up with or sitting next to the baby. All three dogs absolutely love him. And he loves them in return! How thankful I am that my home is so peaceful!

6.25.2008

Knitting Like Crazy

Father's Day weekend was pretty hot. Up until then, I had been using waterproof polyester diaper covers. The hot weather combined with the lack of ventilation with the polyester covers caused Burl to have some urine burn on his poor little bottom.

Since then, I've been knitting him wool diaper covers. I LOVE THEM! I had to see it to believe it, but the wool diaper covers are wonderful. They wick the urine away from his skin, they don't leak or smell bad. He wore the first pair I knit for him for 5 days in a row. I use unbleached organic prefolds with organic hemp doublers held together with a snappy fastener and the wool shorties or longies over. I don't use any other pants over the shorties. They keep his cute bum cool, dry and comfortable.



6.21.2008

8 Hours Sleep!

Celebrate! We just had our first night of 8 hours of consecutive sleep, hooray! This was Burl's first ever, and my first for months. I'm sure it's fleeting and won't be every night, but boy was it nice.

6.09.2008

How Burl Rolls






Burl rolled over for the first time today.

6.02.2008

Unassisted Cuddling

This is how I found them together.