Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Bela Fleck, MckMama, cloth diapers, 6 month photos and chocolate cake

Wow, that's a lot for one post, huh? I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost a full week! I've got lots to catch up on. First, we went to The Sheldon tonight to see Bela Fleck and it was really fantastic! Apparently, Bela became curious about the origin of the banjo and started tracking it back to Africa. He wrote lots of songs and made a documentary and brought many of the incredible artists back to the states to perform and tour with him. 4 of them were with him tonight. They absolutely BLEW ME AWAY. These are not just musicians, they are artists. They are such masters at their instruments I cannot describe it. And, of course, Bela is in this category as well. Luckily, YESTERDAY we were able to talk our brother-in-law into sitting here while BBZ slept so we could go to the show at all. This was one small detail we did not plan until the very very last minute (aka last night). Give us a break, we are new to this whole babysitter thing! Next is MckMama. I have so much to say about this it really should be it's own blog. If you don't already know about her and her many small children, check out her blog and come back...this will make more sense if you do. It started for me when I was complaining about those cloth diapers in one of my blogs. Gina left a comment that one of her blog friends suggested I sign up for this cloth diaper give away that MckMama was hosting. I went over to her blog and signed up. This blog had thousands of followers and I was very intrigued. The next day I went on the blog to see who won the contest and she had posted the beginning of a sad story that is continuing as I type this. Her son is 5 months old and has a heart condition that was diagnosed when she was pregnant but showed no symptoms until that day. He is now in the children's hospital in Minneapolis and lots and lots of bloggers are following her story and hoping and praying for her son, Stellan. I am so moved by their story and check every day to see how little Stellan is doing. It makes me more grateful than I can express to have a health baby boy at home. Each time I read her blog I think of her baby, and what I would feel if it were BBZ in that hospital. I am so grateful for his health, and mine, and that of those we love. I think of her and her family everyday and hope that their story has a happy ending. Ok, so next we have an update on the cloth diaper situation. I am trying to sell the old ones on Craig's List with an honest description of their condition. One woman offered me half of what I paid, but to me it's almost worth holding onto them to see if they fit better when he is older rather than losing $100. I offered them for $150 but she said no thanks. Another lady emailed about them so we will see! I am pretty happy with the gdiapers so far. They have an optional disposable liner, but I have preferred the cloth liners we've tried. I bought some inexpensive material and plan to sew my little butt off this weekend and try to get enough liners done for him to start the cloth diapers full time at daycare on Monday. I have a crazy weekend, so who knows when I will have time, but I am hoping! Sunday we got BBZ's 6 month photos taken! He is able to sit up on his own (at least enough for photos), so we got some really cute poses! I'll be sure to post them when we get them. Hopefully we will get them in a week or 2. Check out Debbie DeClue's website...she's pretty good! Lastly, a few weeks ago in the midst of my cloth diaper saga, we were taking BBZ and Delilah for a walk and stopped to talk to our neighbor. I noticed she had a drying rack on her porch and we started to talk about diapers and babies (she has a 2 month old) and breastfeeding and all that fun new mom talk. I had lots of questions about the cloth diapers and she lent me a newborn insert, also used as a doubler, to see if BBZ's leaking problem was related to his being a heavy wetter. I week or so later we ran into she and her husby on a walk and chatted some more about babies and breastfeeding and Le Leche League and traded emails. So yesterday she emailed me and invited us over to share a delicious chocolate cake her husby baked! How wonderfully neighborly! It was so nice to walk domn the street and hang out with some fun and like-minded people. I haven't made new friends in a long time, so it was really nice! She is a photographer, so check out her website. Well, that was a lot for one post. Maybe I'll try to blog more often this weekend to spread out the topics. I have A LOT going on this weekend including a funeral for one of my participants, friends in from Chi-town, a fundraiser at work, BBQ at another friend's house, celebrating Melissa Rae and Penny Rae Vintage's fabulous talent for fashion designing and sewing a ton of cloth diaper liners. Where will I find the time?????