More Pictures!!!

Finally, a few more pictures!

The one above is my current personal favorite. :-) I printed it up and it is so clear and crisp and also such a good shot of Poo Ba. He smiles all the time now and is growing and learning so much! He loves sitting on my lap leaning against my knees and watching me sing silly songs. When I do the motions his eyes get so big while he watches my hands.

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Well there is lots to write about. Greg's parents were here the weekend of April 12 and we really enjoyed our time with them. We went to the MCC sale together and worked outside on our yard quite a bit. They cleared out tons of weeds and brush and got all our gardens ready to grow things. Below are some pics from that time, for some reason I can't find the ones with Greg's Mom and Poo Ba. The garden in the pic below used to be a water feature with lots of rocks so that gives you some idea of the amount of work they accomplished. They also dug out two or three tree stumps!

We also enjoyed cooking together and watching the White Sox play using the internet since we don't have cable. Greg's mom took a couple of pics of all of us with our chairs pulled upclose to the computer. She also taught me how to make a few of Greg's favorites, Pizza Rice and Chicken Rice. So good!

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I went back to my job as a med/surg nurse this week and while it was hard to leave my baby that morning my first day back went really well. I am breastfeeding and cloth diapering... (aren't cloth diapers cute!) so I am very lucky to have family caring for PooBa who are willing to support me. My co-workers are also very supportive and I was able to pump whenever I needed to. It was good to see my friends at work again, and good to be doing what I love and feel called to again.





It is more than a little bitter sweet, both because when I am at work I miss my son, and because I will only be back at my old job for two weeks. This is because I just got a new job!!! I just got hired by the hospital closest to my home, so instead of a forty minute drive each way cutting into my time with my son and using up precious gas I now will drive to work only five minutes away! I might even ride my bike occasionally! The new job is also a big plus for me because it is on the kind of unit I have been wanting to work on since the beginning, Maternal/Child! In fact I think I got the job because my son was born there so I got to know a few of the nurses and they remembered me when there was a job opening and called me to let me know about it. They also talked to their manager about me and now I have a new job! Even better I found out yesterday that the nurse who helped deliver my son, a nurse I really loved during my stay, is going to orient me to the unit!



Well, since the garden was readied by my in-laws we have since planted lots of beautiful things! I will have to take pics to post soon. We got four rose bushes to put in the larger front garden and they are so beautiful and smell wonderful. I have always wanted roses! We also got a lot of plants from my grandparents on my Mom's side who can grow almost anything and whose gardens look amazing. From them we got purple cone flowers, coreopsis, blue salvia, a white daisy, some other yellow native plant, and lots of spiderwart!, my favorite wildflower. Oh, she also gave me a couple of columbine! To add to all that I bought a bunch of annuals to fill in until the plants she gave me get big and spread out and I got some herbs as well to enjoy all summer long. Greg also made a new small flower bed right next to the house which is where I'm putting most of the herbs and I might get a couple of tomato plants to put there as well as a few marigolds to keep the bugs away.

We also are planing a garden with my brother and sister-in-law at there house, all veggies with a few marigolds for the bugs. We are also sharing that garden with a cousin and two of his housemates who are good friends so it feels like a really good community thing. My brother and his wife are the only ones with a yard big enough to do this in and we are so grateful to them for letting us share their resources.

This last picture was taken last week. We weighed Poo Ba and he is already up to 13 lbs and wearing mostly 3-6 month onesies because his torso is so long, but still using the 0-3 month pants and overalls when it's cool enough to need them. I really do love both breastfeeding and cloth diapering, and having him in our ginormous king sized bed has made going back to work a lot easier for me as far as getting enough sleep is concerned. Breastfeeding and cloth diapering have turned out to be the easiest things in the world for me once we both got the hang of it. Greg is learning the cloth diaper routine as well though it is not as easy for him as it was for me, but I was 13 when my baby brother was born and I got used to using cloth diapers on him a long time ago. It doesn't take any more time for me to change him or to grab a few for the road and instead of having to go to the store I just throw them in the wash. I love that I spend less money and can cut down so much on my trash out-put by doing these two very simple things, and I know he is getting the best possible nutrition and getting really good quality time with me to boot.

I know not everyone feels like these things are practical for them, and not everyone has nearly as easy of a time doing these things as I have. I don't want to make anyone think that I believe they are any bit less of a good mother because they don't do everything I do. I just mean that for us these things are extremely practical and for me personally very enjoyable and rewarding and I wouldn't give them up for anything. Besides, there are a ton of good things that I think I should be doing and don't. I still love my clothes drier and I value the convenience of owning not one but two cars (even though I wish they were a little more gas efficient and that at least one had working air conditioning), and I watch way too much tv. Everyone has areas where they excel and areas where there is room for growth, and I like being surrounded by people who make me think about the areas where I can grow.

Well, I need to get off and get something ready for supper. Hope you enjoy the new pics and have a great day! I'll try to be a little more regularabout posting. (-: