Make your own baby legwarmers

If you'd like to try to make your own baby legwarmers, rather than buying, you can! You just need some tall socks, elastic and some very basic sewing skills.

First, cut the feet off your knee-highs. I left enough at the ankle to try to still use the socks as anklets. To the right, you see some sweater sleeves I cut off and will try to use as well. They are wool, so they'll be warm for winter!

Next, cut some elastic to about the same size as your raw sock edge, plus 1/2 inch seam allowance. I happened to use foldover elastic here because I had some extra scraps around and it's really soft.

Next I sewed my elastic into loops...

Then I turned my sock inside out and sewed the sock to the elastic, right sides together, pretty close to the edge. Make sure you give it a good stretch as you sew!!!

Here's a pic of the elastic sewn on. I usually just leave it like this, with the elastic flipped inside, as shown on the left. To finish further, you could topstitch after flipping the elastic inside the sock.

And here is my handsome little model!

(Sorry - this pic wouldn't turn for me!)

Please leave a comment or question if you have one!

Dairy-free, Soy-free, Peanut-free No-Bake Cookies!

So my little Peanut is allergic to peanuts. And dairy. And onions and potatoes and beans and ... Weird, I know. Well, poor kid - his mother is allergic to tartar control toothpaste and Neosporin. I guess we know where he gets it from!

Anyway, he loves to "help" me cook. I'm not sure I should if spilling flour and oats all over the floor and trying to pour water into the cookie mix is really helping, but we have a good time. I'm always looking for new baking recipes, well, any recipes that he can eat and enjoy. Since he loves (dairy-free, soy-free) chocolate, I thought we'd try making some no-bake cookies.

So, here we go:

2 C. sugar
3 T. cocoa powder
1/2 C. coconut oil
1/2 C. rice milk (or whatever variety you prefer!)

Put these in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once they come to a rolling boil, start timing for one minute. After one minute, remove from heat and add (in this order):

1 t. vanilla
1/2 C. Sunbutter (that's the only brand of sunflower butter I can find locally)
2 1/2 C. quick oats

Stir it all well and drop by the teaspoonful onto waxed paper. Let cool and enjoy! Now, don't expect them to taste the same as normal no-bakes because the Sunbutter definately has a distinctive flava. Next time I'm going to try almond butter - I bet it they would be heavenly!

For the first time ever, my little Salvador got to lick the spoon, and he was loving it. He devoured his cookie and shortly after I found him in the kitchen trying to sneak another. I think they were purty yummy, too!

If you try the recipe and like it, let me know!

Coming soon: Homemade (and dairy-free!) "Animal" Cracker recipe!

Finding peace in the craziness

It's been a long couple days. Both my boys have had a little cold this week. No biggie, but a bit more goopy and a bit less cheery than normal. My little Santiago is 6 months now and it's his first sickness. Poor baby. But he's so sweet; so smooshy and snuggly.

Salvador just turned three! He's certainly a big boy now, begging for crackers and fruit snacks and Dora, jumping off the furniture and driving his train and...me...pretty much crazy.

But at the end of the day, all he really wanted was to climb on my lap in the chair in his room and snuggle. Well, actually he really wanted a back scratch (he's a little back scratch addict like his mama). So we sat in his chair in the dark in his room. We didn't say anything, just sat. And he was calm and at peace.

And it reminded me that that is all I really need. To climb upon the lap of my heavenly Father and just sit. I don't need to say anything, and He doesn't either. I doubt He even minds if I fall asleep. I just need to sit, and know I am loved. To know that I am safe and all is well. I am not alone. I can feel loco all day and yet He still wants me to sit with Him. And that's all I really need.

Life is good. I am calm and at peace.

Potty Learning Victories!

So my big boy is moving beyond the set-backs caused by the flu and is doing pretty well with using the toilet. He had an accident in the night last night - poor guy was yelling for me from his room but I wash much too sleepy to hear right away and I arrived too late to get him to the toilet. But besides that he's had several dry days in a row. Almost no accidents! Yay!

He hasn't quite figured out that he can go without me, though. He always comes to me and waits for me to take him to the toilet. Sometimes he still waits for me to help with his pants and chones. Oh well, I'd rather do that than wash diapers!

And the smarty-pants. He's already figured out that these magic words: "My pee is going to come out!!!!!" will get him out of almost anything he doesn't want to do, like quiet time and bedtime.

Smart, smart, smart. That's my kid, alright!

Holy Bad Timing, Batman!!!

POTTY TRAINING.

They are words that strike fear and anxiety into the core of most parents. It was going pretty smoothly for my almost 3 year-old darling. Then, WHAM!!! We got the flu. Not a pretty combination.

A little about our journey: It all started this past summer when Salvador was 2 1/2. I bought him a potty and found that if I left him naked from the waist down, he would sometimes go in his potty. At first I had to suggest it, but later, he would stop playing and run to his potty if he felt he needed to go. Yay! I was pleased, thinking that our victory was close at hand.

Then came little brother, born in August. Suddenly no more potty. No more nakey buns, either. He always wanted to be fully clothed. If asked, "Do you want to sit on your potty?" He'd respond,

"No. Diaper please." OK. Fine.

This was not a great surprise to me. I somewhat expected some regression once Santiago was born.

Finally, it's the new year. Salvador is almost 3. I know he's got all the skills he needs, just not much desire. So, I think - let's have a potty party! We'll make it fun!

So we planned a Super Hero Potty Party. After all, Salvador has been telling us for a few weeks "I a Super Hero!" and proudly flashing his muscles. I made him a cape and mask and appliqued a t-shirt with a Super Salvador 'S'. I bought stickers, balloons, games, a peeing boy doll, and even sewed little "chones" (undies in Spanish) for it. I bought big boy chones in an array of wonderful choices like Cars, Diego and Nemo. I bought a really nice toilet seat adapter by Baby Bjorn so Salvador would feel nice and secure on the toilet. We had charts, stickers and treats. I even bought a pinata and goodies for it. We were ready.

Party day came and went pretty well. We helped Salvador teach his doll, who he named "Goo Goo", to pee and poop on the toilet. By afternoon Salvador was making some attempts. He had a wonderful time flying around in his cape and hitting his pinata. We had about four victories and four misses during the day, but he stayed dry all night and peed in the toilet first thing in the morning, so we were happy as pigs in mud. Next day only one miss and lots of successes. Cruising right along.

Until 2:00 a.m. when the puking started. POW!!!

You know how it is when you're sick. Everything hurts. You feel terrible. You don't want to move. Not even to get up to go to the bathroom. Right? Yeah, well, Salvador certainly didn't feel like going to sit on the toilet. So he didn't. Plus he didn't have much urine to put in there anyway. What he did have was the runs. I'll save you the gory details, but lets just say it's a good thing I had put a towel on the floor just in case. AWKKKKK!!!!

Next day, Salvador is feeling somewhat better but he'd forgotten everything he'd learned on potty party day. ZAM!!! Not a single catch! My wash machine was filled to the rim (like Brim!).

HOLY SMOKES! It's been a long week. Today we've only had two accidents so far and one good catch. We'll still trying to get the poor kid rehydrated.

But I'm sure we'll get there. We'll keep plugging away. We will not go back to diapers, and I am certainly rejoicing about only having one kiddo in diapers, even if it means more pee laundry for a while. So for now, we'll just go with the flow.

Pun intended. KER-SPLOOSH!!!!!

Folding a prefold diaper: Jelly Roll Fold

Nobody likes a poosplosion. And little butterball breastfed babies can really erupt, let me tell ya. And it always happens in the most inopportune moments, like right before baby's baptism when you're rushing around trying to get ready, or sitting on your lap at the restaurant. Not nice.

For us sposies always leak the worst. When we are away for the weekend or grandma's babysitting and the boys are wearing sposies, I can almost guarantee we will need a couple changes of clothes (perhaps for mom, dad and grandma as well).

A well-folded prefold and a great cover can almost always prevent poosplosions - the jelly roll fold is my favorite defense. Here's how you do it (please excuse the blurry pics):


Lay your beautiful babe on the diaper. This is my youngest son at about 11 wks. Pardon the wipe in the middle - that's merely for discretion. If you have extra length you need to fold down, I prefer to do it in the back before I start so the little fold acts as an extra poo barrier.


Roll the edges in toward the middle.

You want to roll the edges in enough so you can bring the diaper up between the legs.

Then pin or Snappi in place! The last thing I would do, not shown here, would be to make sure baby's legwarmers and shirt are not tucked into the diaper, or they will get all wet! Then I either put on a diaper cover or wool pants and we are good to go!

Like the leg warmers? They are pretty easy to make yourself if you have a sewing machine. Stay tuned to future posts!

Easy, No Sew T-shirt Diaper!

A cheap, easy way to diaper: use a t-shirt! Whether you use "sposies" and forgot to buy them when you went to the store, or you use cloth and you didn't get your diaper load in soon enough, running out of diapers is not a pleasant event. But I know we sure have a lot of spare t-shirts sitting around our house. Alas, we have a use for them!


I actually really like the t-shirt diaper. No sewing, pretty easy to fold, quite absorbant, soft and comfy. And free. I think you could probably cloth diaper your child almost totally without cost if you simply used cloth t-shirts and bought some simple covers. (You could even make recycled wool covers for pretty cheap - but we'll save that for another day!). Anyhow, here's how I do it:

Lay your t-shirt out flat.




Fold it in thirds (the long way), so the arms are still sticking out on the sides.



Fold the top down so that the sleeves are folded to half width, and fold the bottom up to meet the top. You may have to adjust that part so it's the appropriate length for your baby.

Place your baby on the t-shirt and fold the bottom part up between his (or her) legs.


Bring the sleeves around to the front.


Pin or snappi in place! Easy peasy.


So dig out those old t-shirts and put them to good use! Your baby and your wallet will appreciate it.


Now, go enjoy those little ones while they're still little!