A Welcome Home

No Josh isn't back yet.  We still have a little while yet.  But this past weekend we had the privilege of welcoming home one of the soldiers from the unit along with other members of the battalion.  

Mara and I got there early and started the waiting process.  They never let you know exactly when they are coming home so you kind of have to come early and see.  Mara thoroughly enjoyed running around the PAX shed especially running under the velvet ropes that would eventually separate the soldiers from their families.

When the announcement came that the plane was landing we were able to head outside to welcome it back onto American soil.  The soldiers filed out and headed our way.  It was a little surreal to watch them just walk past us not able to hug or welcome them properly.  

Once inside they lined up and marched in.  After some brief words from the commander they were released to their families.  The tears started.  Every time I watch or hear about a homecoming I cry.  I can't even imagine what it will be like when it's our turn.  

I'll be honest.  It was hard.  I was so happy to be there to welcome our soldiers home because in the end we're all a big military family.  But I can't help but be a little jealous of those wives.  Of those kids.  I wanted my soldier to be in those lines.  

Our time will come though and it will be amazing.  I can't wait for that first hug...kiss.  The next time I meet a plane my soldier will be on it and that thought is so comforting.  

Thursday Randoms

Mara picked something up in the church nursery last Sunday and we're feeling the effects of it here at home.  She's been sleeping pretty poorly and despite not being sick myself I feel like I've been hit by a bus with the sleep deprivation.  Praying that we both feel better before traveling next week.

Speaking of traveling, we are headed down to Florida for Thanksgiving and I'm getting a little excited for warm weather and some time with family.  I love Thanksgiving and I'm hoping we get to indulge in some of the traditional favorites.

I'm already thinking about Christmas decorations.  This is so unlike me.  I'm a strict not till after Thanksgiving girl and I am itching to pull them out of the attic.  I may break open the boxes this weekend if it's not too busy with packing and such.  I think it's the cold weather and also trying to plan for Christmas this year.

I've been thinking about Christmas probably way too much this year.  I am excited to find special gifts for both Mara and Josh and am pretty excited with what I've come up with.  This year I am trying really hard to stray away from the typical gifts and I am pumped with what I've come up with.

Mara is becoming this little toddler.  I love it.  And I hate it at the same time.  Mostly I love the little girl she is becoming.  Her personality and how mobile it is.  The hate only comes into play when I think about how fast she's growing up.  I swear she was just this little baby a while ago.

We got the fireplace tank filled at the house and I have been seriously enjoying having a fire every night.  I get my mug of spiced cider and cuddle on the couch under a warm blanket.  It's pretty much perfect....except for the handsome hubby who's would be next to me.  And on that note...

I can't wait till Josh gets back home.  Yes this is obvious but I finally feel like we're getting closer to the end.  I just am so ready to have him here with us.

An Early Surprise Anniversary Present

Being apart on our anniversary is going to be hard but this past weekend Josh went above and beyond to make the day special for me all the way from Afghanistan.  A few days before he let me know that a friend would be knocking on my door and that's about it...Despite me asking a few questions he was adamant on not giving me anymore information than that.

So on Saturday morning at about 9 am our friends Joe and Alyssa knocked on my door with two dozen red roses.  The day had begun!  We were headed to Raleigh for the day.  I was told that Josh had planned a few surprises and the rest of the day was mine to enjoy.

Our first stop was at a local spa for a massage.  Alyssa had been trying to set it up for a few days and hadn't been able to get through to the office.  The plan was just to show up and see if we could set something up.  Needless to say the office was closed.  We tried to contact the spa again with no luck.  In the end we decided to try another day.

After the spa we headed to the second surprise.  I asked Alyssa and Joe not to tell me until we got there.  As we pulled into the parking lot I knew...we were at the cloth diaper store.  My husband knows me well :)  They told me that Josh had purchased something for me behind the counter and that I was at my leisure to look around.

From there we headed to lunch which ended up being a quick bite in the mall with delicious cheesecake from the cheesecake factory for dessert.  We then decided to do a quick look around the mall and then headed over to the Container store.

I love organization so this is my kind of store.  I proceeded to walk down every aisle and picked up a few things that I thought we could use in the store.  Mara was about done at that point so we called it a day and headed home.

Although we ran into a few hic-ups with the spa it was a great day.  Of course I would have loved to have Josh there with me but I love him for putting this day together for me.  I know how difficult it must have been setting it up from over there.  This is one of the first times he's done a big surprise day like this for me and it was a blast.   I came out of it feeling so loved and appreciated.

Happy Anniversary Babe!  I can't wait to celebrate in person!

Cloth Diapering-Stripping

Even with a good laundry routine, cloth diapers are bound to build up residue (mainly detergent) and will thus not be able to absorb liquids as well anymore.  Read: pee will leak out everywhere.  

I had my first experience with this when Mara was about six months old.  At first I thought that we were just going through a phase where we were struggling with fit.  With one size diapers, there are some points where you will struggle to get the area around legs tight as your child grows.  I played around with the snaps and still had a ton of leaks (something I had never had before).  After a quick google search I realized that it was time to strip!

You can strip diapers SO MANY ways.  I think I read something about Dawn blue soap and of course there is also specific products on the market just for stripping diapers.  I decided to go with RLR, a product originally on the market to get out dinge on white clothing.  Surprisingly it also works great for removing build up on diapers!

Getting ready to strip was a bit daunting.  I wanted to make the process simple yet I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible.  Basically I made sure all my diapers, wipes and inserts were clean before throwing them in my soaker tub.  You can do it in your washer if you have one of the old fashioned top loading agitator.  I do not so I did it in my bathtub.  

I filled the tub with extremely hot water and threw in two packets of RLR.  I'm not sure the exact ratio of RLR to diapers but I have a lot of diapers and insert and two packets just seemed right.  I then let the mixture soak, coming back to stir it around every couple of hours or so.  

After half a day I threw all the diapers into the washer and did my typical wash routine.  (hot soak, hot wash, rinse x 2).  Dry and voila stripped diapers!  

I just had to revisit this process a few weeks ago which isn't as bad as I originally thought.  I think I can definitely handle twice a year.  AND if I can get Mara potty trained by 2 that's only four times lol.  

Cloth diaper mamas.  How do you strip your diapers?

Cloth Diapering-Laundry and Solids

I was rereading some of my previous posts about cloth diapering and thinking to myself that some things have changed as of late, specifically my laundry routine.

As Mara has started solids, our laundry routine has changed a bit.  When she was exclusively breastfed everything was water soluble and easy to wash out.  Now not so much....

I think in the cloth diaper world you can go about this one of two ways.  The first is to buy those disposable inserts that you can lay in the diapers and lift out when your child poops.  This never made sense to me as it's just another disposable thing to buy and throw away.

The second option is to purchase a diaper sprayer and attach it to your toilet.  We found a sprayer on clearance at a local cloth diaper store before Mara was born and Josh hooked it up in the bathroom adjacent to Mara's room.  It worked really good at getting all the poop off of the diaper and when you were done you just flushed it away.  No bad smells lingering afterwards!

My only issue with the sprayer was the water splatter.  At first I would get water everywhere in the bathroom.  I felt like I had to clean the bathroom every time I dealt with a dirty diaper. As time went on I got better with my aim but still wasn't completely satisfied.  Enter the diaper dawg spray cover.  Totally awesome.  It looks like those dog collars that your animal gets when they have stitches from the vet.  It slips over the sprayer head and voila no splatter!!!

So after a quick rinse our routine hasn't changed much.  I still spray the diapers down with BioKleen bac out and throw them in the diaper pail.  I now rarely rub them down with the diaper soap as I usually get all of the poop off with the sprayer.

On wash day I throw everything into the washer turning the pail liner inside out and using it as a hand cover to arrange the diapers.  I now don't do an initial rinse but do a hot soak on my diapers.  I do this to get them nice and wet.  I am still using Charlie soap but now use probably close to 3 tbsps per load.  I run a hot wash cycle followed by a rinse cycle.  After this initial rinse I usually do one more to make sure I get all the soap out.  I've found that over time this really helps on build up on the diapers.

Then I throw the inserts into the dryer with three wool dryer balls on high for about an hour.  I found that the dryer balls help a ton with static cling and dry time.  I still hang all my covers for about a half a day and then stuff them all when everything is dry!

Life Lately

We've been keeping busy and also enjoying the slowness of life here lately.  Some days I feel like all we do is run around and others, like today, are nice because we don't leave the house.  Our weeks are typically filled with a few play dates and lunches with friends.  On Tuesdays we have bible study at church and most days we try to connect with Josh over skype.

Last week I had a blast exploring the Holly Day Fair.  It's a craft fair that has become a holiday tradition here in Fayetteville.  I didn't go last year but was encouraged by Josh to get out and check it out.  Mara fell asleep in the car and stayed that way as I loaded her into the stroller.  This was nice for me as I felt I had more time to just stroll through the booths.

My shopping buddy

There were a lot of crafts, clothes and other home decor.  I got a Christmas shirt for Mara and a few shirts for myself.  I also bought some fun treats most of which I shipped off to Josh to enjoy.  I didn't get any Christmas decorations as I frankly like to make my own but I did get some good ideas.  After a few hours we were craft faired out and headed home.

She now loves to sit on anything that resembles a big girl chair

We got some new books!

At the end of the week we celebrated the first birthday of one of Mara's little friends.  He was having a Halloween themed party so that gave us an excuse to bring out Mara's strawberry costume again.  I decided to get dressed up as well and went as grapes.  We were fruit!  My costume lasted all of ten minutes as I found out pretty quickly it was really hard to pick her up with all the balloons taped to my shirt.  Mara had a blast.  She ran around outside and was quick to help Benjamin open up his presents.

Grapes and strawberry

This week is another slow one which is nice in some ways.  We'll get to hang out at home, sleep in and take naps.  We may have to venture out for that signature grocery store run and possibly a target trip.  Before we know it the holiday season will be here!  I'm feeling completely unready but at the same time I'm not too worried about it.  The main goal will be to make sure Josh's present gets to him well before the end of next month.

Yes let me play with this tractor

Let me help

We are also looking forward to visiting with family in the next couple of weeks and can't wait till others come see us.  I think and hope the first of the year will be upon us soon and you know what that means.....were just that much closer to having my favorite man home again!!!

Potty Training

So I wouldn't say we've started potty training by any means.  Mara is still a little young to fully grasp the concept yet.  I have however, bought her a potty and have started to put her on it.  I don't want her to be scared of the potty and she seems to enjoy sitting on it and indulging in a good book. hahaha.

Just chilling

Already knows you need a book while on the potty!

Kills me

Halloween x 3

This year Mara got to dress up three separate times to celebrate Halloween.  She was the cutest Strawberry and honestly loved her costume so we were more than happy to put it on again and again.

The sweetest little strawberry

The batallion had a small fall festival on the 30th with trunk-or-treating, a costume contest and fun events for the kids.  Mara was still a bit young for most of the festivities but she did really enjoy checking out all the costumes.  We stopped by one trunk and she came home with a stuff animal. (Mama's favorite kind of treat aka not candy) Later that night I entered her in the costume contest.  The clapping scared her a bit but she came away with one of the top prizes anyways!

She never let go of her pumpkin

On Halloween we went downtown to do some trick-or-treating with some friends.  Again Mara wasn't too interested the activities but really enjoyed being pulled in the wagon with her friend, Benjamin.  She never let go of her pumpkin and even ended up with some candy.  All of which she proceeded to try to eat.  After a stroll downtown, we were going to do some more serious trick-or-treating near our church but Mara was beat so we headed home.

Happy Halloween

Our last Halloween activity was hosted by our church.  We had a huge bonfire, chili contest and of course more trunk-or-treating.  It was a bit cold but we bundled up and enjoyed every minute.  Mara and I shared a bowl of delicious chili and then headed to the cars.

Downtown trick-or-treating

I had helped a couple of friends with decorating their car and was excited to show it off.  The church had asked that we keep to a story book theme and we went with "I Spy."  We filled their trunk with Mara's toys and came up with a few rhymes.  It was a huge hit!  Even the adults kept coming back to search for the items and collect their candy.

Yes she managed to break into that butterfinger

Sharing with Buddy and admiring her stash

Mara also made out like a bandit at the trunk-or-treat as she and her buddy Mr. Bill went around and filled up her pumpkin!

Halloween was a tad bitter sweet this year without Josh here to celebrate it with us.  We tried to keep busy and make memories regardless.  I am already looking forward to next year where all three of us will undoubtedly be rocking a family costume!