Cheerios Pics and Green Onion Update

Just a quick little post for those of you who can't get enough of cute messy baby pictures and video. Here ya go:

"Mmm, these things are tasty! What did you call them? Soggy Cheerios? Yum!"

What a sweet face. And look, he has one sock off for easier toe chewing.

Cheerios and strawberries for lunch; that is one messy, happy baby

Oh, and here's an update on those green onions, one month later:

Old green onions limpin' along

As you can see, they're not dead, but they're not doing so hot either. There's a newer bunch in the leftmost vase for comparison. Still, they lasted a month. We didn't exactly go easy on them, either. And they tasted just as nice at the end of the month as they did at the beginning. Actually, the new growth was tastier and more juicy.

Didn't seem to matter whether they were planted in dirt or just in water. They both fared about the same.

Tough Week, But Lookin' Up Now

Ugh. This last week with Jackson was haaaaaaaard. He was one seriously unhappy boy, to the point that I took him to see both his doctor and to the ER in one day (he was fine, it was probably just some really painful gas and intestinal cramps). Not much was impressing our poor little man. Chris and Mel were over, which cheered him up some (and of course Shawn and I were very happy to visit with them), but I think I was the worst hostess ever because I was just frazzled beyond my limit with my poor fussy baby. So I didn't get one picture of them while they were here. Oops. Oh well.

But the good news is that, not only is Jackson feeling better now, he is happier and more rambunctious than I've ever seen him. Yay! He is just a-bouncin' and a-squealin' away, and he gets that mischievous little munchkin look in his eye. He hasn't started trying to crawl or walk yet, but he's getting more opinionated about things, so I have a feeling that independent travel won't be too far away.

I dug out his playpen (excuse, me, play yard, that's what they're called now, although we usually call it baby jail) since now he's sitting up so well and he needs more changes of pace in the day to stay entertained. He likes it:

 Yay, happy lil' man!

 Oh hey Mom, just playin' with my new toy

 Now that babe can sit up so well, I can put him on my back in the pocket sling and wear him if he's fussy but I've got to get some stuff done. Sometimes it's the only thing that cheers him up:

 Pic from his miserable week. I think I'm making lunch.

 Trust me, this was cheerful for him that week

And, on a non-baby-related note, I've been saying to a couple of people that I was going to take pictures of me cutting my own hair, so here's a couple. You can see, I just comb it into a ponytail at the very top of my head, then snip across the top:

 Snipped-off ponytail end. What is with my Jack Nicholson eyebrow??

(almost) instant haircut

I love it. It takes less than five minutes, I don't have to drive to the mall, make awkward small talk with a hair stylist and fork over a bunch of money. And it's not a bad haircut. Admittedly, the hair near the bottom of my head isn't getting trimmed yet because it's not long enough, but if it starts to bug me I can just snip along the bottom to clean it up. Ha ha, I think I have the cheapest hair in the Okanagan. No, wait, I think Shawn's got me beat :D (he doesn't need to use vinegar on his head)

I'm pretty excited for the rest of the week. It's suppose to get above freezing during the day for most of the week (holy crap!), and the sidewalks around Armstrong are getting more clear, so it looks like babe, dog and I will be going on lots of adventures. Finally!

(Is it spring yet? Seriously, we just got snowed on again this weekend. It's knee-deep in our yard. Enough already.)

Cute Pics and Green Onions (wait, what?)

 First, pics of Jackson wearing Dada's toque:

 Aww

 Sometimes I really can't choose, there are so many cute pictures

Jackson's been cutting that second bottom tooth for the past three days. Boo. He tries to play and be happy, but then suddenly he'll cry, poor thing. But I definitely saw a little bit of white today, so hopefully we are close. Last time it took four days.

On a different note entirely, the internet told me that you can put your green onions in water on the windowsill and they'll regrow, so I tried it. It works pretty well, so I figured that if you planted it in a bit of dirt it would work even better. Here are the results:

You can see the lighter, dried out part where they were cut before

I imagine this doesn't work indefinitely, but I'll keep the experiment going and let you know how it goes. Those were just regular old green onions from the store. The pic was taken when they were I think 5 days old. We're at a week and a half now, and both plants have grown a ton of roots, especially the one in the pot (well, jar).

The things you find exciting when you're home all day, lol.

And in this last picture, no, Jackson's a little sleepy from a full tummy. I had to take a picture because this is the second time this has happened. No food anywhere except a little on his face. Clean hands, clean bib, clean everything else. Wow. I am a lucky mom!

Fully of yummies

(If you're wondering about the watery eye, he has a blocked tear duct. I remember Chris getting them all the time as a baby. You have to scrape the little drainage duct with your fingernail to open it. Yes it hurts, I had to do it to myself a couple of times in university when I got blocked ducts. Needless to say, he's not exactly keen on me sticking my finger in his eye. We'll get it.)

Ha ha, I just noticed that all the pics of babe this week are of him in his chair. He's actually doing some neat stuff, but I haven't managed to be sneaky enough with the camera. I've got lots of deleted videos of him staring at the camera. We'll keep at it.

Green Cleaning

Sorry guys, I know you want pictures. I've got a post all done up from last night, but Blogger is having trouble processing the video (this happens every now and then, it's probably my fault), so I will try and figure that out tonight and post it.

But, I've had a couple of people now ask me for recipes for some of my cleaning stuff. For those of you that don't know, I belong to a couple of mommy message boards, and one in particular (WTE Green Parenting) has been an absolute Tickle Trunk of green - and money saving - ideas and recipes. So, let me share one with you:

This is the recipe for laundry soap that I use. Originally, I was just using it for diapers, since you need to use a detergent that won't leave any buildup, or your diapers will start to repel water, or pee. It is super cheap to make and uses ingredients that have been around forever. Both Borax and Washing Soda can be bought at places like grocery stores, Superstore, London Drugs (didn't see any at our Walmart, but apparently lots of Walmarts have them), and you can get baking soda for cheap in the bulk section of grocery stores. Boxes of Borax and Washing Soda cost under $6 usually. Since you only use 1 tbsp per load, I figure I'll only have to buy ingredients about once a year (for laundry soap, I use the same stuff for other recipes too). So that's under $20 for A YEAR'S WORTH of laundry soap. And it kicks butt.

Laundry Soap

1 c washing soda
1 c baking soda
1/2 c Borax

Mix and use 1 tbsp per load. Yep, 1 tbsp. Ask my Mom, she saw me wash a load of poopy diapers with it.

 If you're wondering about some of the ingredients, here are some links:

What the heck is Borax?
What the heck is Washing Soda?

Basically, Borax is a naturally occurring mineral, though just because it's natural doesn't mean you can eat it. It's still a cleaner, so you still need to treat it like a soap and rinse things well, etc. But it's much greener than a lot of detergents because you only have to use a little bit. Washing Soda is chemically similar to baking soda, but it is much more alkali (it has a PH of 11), so it can really dissolve grease, fat and wax. Same deal, it's really strong, so you only have to use a little bit (and don't eat it).

Both of these ingredients take relatively little energy to produce and process, plus making your own detergent gives all the benefits of using simple, concentrated products, such as less plastic bottles getting recycled, fewer trucks driving around huge bottles or boxes of detergent, and way more money in your pocket.