Austin's Serious Lower Lip

People always comment "Austin's such a good baby. All he does is smile!" Well, that's not exactly true, and I finally have proof!

When Austin first starts crying, there is usually a display of a major pouty lower lip. Then he launches into tears and a frown and the whole works. I have yet to catch this on my camera, though, so I could never prove to people that he did in fact have meltdowns. And then, last week, my friend Christina was in town, and I challenged her to catch a picture of it with her super fancy camera. And she did! (Thanks Christina!)

Here's how he looks when he's in full meltdown mode. ... It's proof he's not always smiling. :-)

Spofford Bday Celebration, Austin presents #1

It's a good thing I married into the Spofford Family. Rather than some other family, I mean. 

I LOVE birthdays. They are my number one holiday! I don't mean my own birthday, but anyone's birthday! I love the decorations, the presents, the cake, the celebratory atmosphere, the everything. And, in the Spofford Family, we celebrate birthdays a lot. A lot, a lot. Here's the second Spofford Bday Celebration/Lake Day which was Austin's first birthday event. He loved opening presents, but he really loved the handles and tags on the bags!

chewing on a tag...

I love how he's looking so intently at the card!

All he wanted from this present was the green sticky note attached to the outside!

This picture captures his reaction perfectly. He was THRILLED with this gift.

Our official position on gifts for Austin is: "He can never have too many Books, Clothes, and Experiences. AND No John Deere. Ever." Some of Seth's family asked me for ideas just a few days before the event, so he got mostly books and clothes. YAY! And Gran didn't ask for ideas. So when he opened this toy, with its lights and sounds, he was ecstatic! Everyone pointed out his reaction as if to say that we shouldn't be so harsh on people giving him toys, but most of those people don't realize how much stuff he already owns that has lights and sounds. Most of which he rarely plays with (the above toy included). His current favorite toy is a wooden stirring spoon. So, we're sticking with the decision. (Thanks for your judgement, though.) I'm honestly really hoping that someone will be really creative and start a process of gifting experiences, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe it'll happen at one of his next several birthday celebrating events?

Austin's First Girlfriend ;-)

One of my friends/former coworkers from Georgia Tech, Christina, was in town last week for a conference her husband was attending. She and her daughter, Madison, were at our house several days last week, and I kept teasing Austin that he had his first girlfriend over to the house. (It's funny how the two babies he sees the most are both boys--Luke and Liam. And, having typed that, I now realize they both start with "L"!)

It was SO much fun to have them over, although I must admit that it was a bit exhausting at times! Having two babies hovering around the 10 month mark (crawling, cruising, and sometimes walking) is like having a room full of kittens or puppies! When one was into one thing, the other goes across the room to get into another thing! We had a blast; it was especially great to spend so much time with another SAHM--brainstorming all variety of issues we are each struggling with. It felt like I was able to push a reset button on myself. I was exhausted physically, but totally-blissed-out mentally.

We went to Susan's for lunch, and having three babies around was c-r-a-z-y!

It took three moms to get this picture: one on camera duty, one putting them in place, and one trying to direct their attention to the camera. Madison looks great, while the boys looks, well... something. From L-R, Luke, Madison, Austin

On the way home from Susan's, they both fell asleep. It was too cute not to take a picture!

They seemed to enjoy the changing table the best. They would spend all day pulling diapers out of the box if we let them! (And Georgia Mae would spend most of the day standing at the door --she's not allowed in--because she'd want to join us.)

I love this picture.

Naked babies = too cute! We did try to get a picture of them while wearing clothes, but Austin went into full meltdown mode, so nothing turned out well. I guess we have blackmail material now, though. ;-)

Thanks for coming to Dallas, Christina (and Tim and Madison), and thanks for spending so much time with us. It. Was. Awesome! Come back soon!!!

He walks!

Up until two days ago, all Austin could do was fall flat on his face if we let him try walking with this without our holding onto it to slow it down. I thought about how I could put tennis balls on the wheels to slow it. Today, though, he learned enough balance that he can do it on his own!

Domestic And Loving It!

I make my own laundry soap. I never thought I'd say that. The craziest part? I love doing it! I decided to document what the process looks like for me as a way of encouraging you to try it yourself. (Plus, I've wanted to do something with the blog in mind rather than the other way around, and this was my first chance to try out that thinking/process/way of doing things.)

the ingredients

The first part is really easy: I pour 1 cup of one powder and a 1/2 cup of the other powder into the container.

1 cup

1/2 cup

Here's where the real work begins. I open the bar, cut it into pieces and then stick the pieces in the Magic Bullet. It takes me 3 or 4 batches to get it all ground up.

1 bar

The Magic Bullet is wonderful for this project!

I combine the two powders from the first two steps with the powder from the Fels-Naptha bar, and this is what it looks like:

The finished product. (of a double batch)

The recipe is from The Dugger Family recipe. If you look at the recipe, you'll see their single batch recipe. I always make a double recipe. I feel like if I'm going to go through the hassle of getting out the ingredients and of grinding up the Fels-Naptha, then I'm going to make enough to last me quite awhile. 

The single batch is supposed to do 40 loads. I, however, because of the extra large capacity of my washer (perhaps I should do a whole post on why I love my washing machine....), almost always wash what would be considered an Extra Large load. Therefore, I use two scoops rather than one, and a double batch then lasts me about 40 loads. Which is about 3 months, give or take some spit up. 

Seth and I have calculated the cost to be less than 10% the cost of Tide, so even though I'd consider myself a sale and coupon shopper, we are certainly saving money on laundry these days. Which is an even bigger deal than normal when you have a Super Spitter Baby like we do! All told, I think the process of making a double batch takes me approximately 20 minutes. That's 20 minutes well spent given the cost savings! 

I use a plastic sherbert container to keep it in. It's a half gallon container and holds a double batch perfectly. I use a scoop that comes with baby formula which is a good tablespoon scoop, and as I regularly have these scoops in my house, I'd be happy to send you one if you'd like.

HUGE THANKS to Susan Windsor for getting me started down this path!