Ginger looks good in black

So, Ginger was 4 months old on December 26th. She has become an even more entertaining/awesome creature than the 3 month old Ginger was.

--Two nights ago she grabbed her foot and sucked on it.

--She grabs her favorite toys (Thanks Auntie Tami and Nonna in Ohio!) with great intent and jams them in her mouth.

--Over the holidays she happily rolled over, both ways.

--She has a new noise that she yells whenever she sees Spider. And she's not so much kicking Spider now and making brave attempts at petting him.

--She likes to grab on to my clothes while nursing. Grab. Yank. Snap (as she lets go). If clothes are not available, the skin on my chest seems to be a find substitute. So lately, when she nurses, we do this funny hand dance of me trying to keep her razor sharp claws away from my skin, and she kicking her feet, wiggling her torso and windmilling her top arm. It seems to tire me out more than it does Ginger.

--We realize she is far from the delicate flower we thought she was. Ross cuts her nails when she is wide awake. He recently pointed out that he is stronger than she is, and if he wants to cut her nails, well, that's what he's gonna do.

--All her baby socks are too small (I mean the infant socks, her heel sticks out far beyond the totally useless tread or word like "little cutie" or "angel" that adorn the bottoms of the 0 to 3 month socks.

--She's wearing mostly 6 month clothes (Thanks Aunties Vanessa and Mary and GV!) with leg warmers, of course, and a few pair of bigger, longer socks.

--She wakes up in her crib in the morning and entertains herself for at least 15 minutes by chortling and cooing and giggling at the animals on her mobile (Thanks Mike and Carly and darling Charlotte!). After 15 minutes to 30 minutes her squawks get louder and louder until she's screaming to be picked up already, the mobile is immobile and therefore boring and the stuffed animals have nothing more to say.

--In the middle of the night she often scoots herself sideways in her crib, or kicks up enough to get a food stuck in the rails. Being sideways and stuck she doesn't seem to like (I wonder why?) but just being stuck seems to hold her interest for another 10 minutes.

Like the AMAZING black socks with bones on them. (Thanks Deanna! These are our new favorites!)

Also, as you can tell, Ginger looks good in black.

(Awesome boombox onesie from Natalie!)

Late December update

Ginger will be four months old this Saturday.

We're getting ready to drive to Southern California for a few days with the Loy clan. And we know it will be a very different trip from the last one.

In late September, we four (Ross, Ginger, Spider and I) drove to So.Cal for my sister's marriage celebration. It was a very long and strange drive. We wanted to drive when she was asleep, but after Bay Area traffic. We tried to leave at 7. We made it to the highway at 9.

The first time Ginger woke up I was driving. She cried. I floored it until we got to the next offramp and kept flooring it until Ross not-so-calmly told me to slow down for the light.

She screamed. We stopped. I fed her. We bought fast food. Spider Peed. Ross peed.

This must have happened again because we didn't arrive in Ojai until 3am. I was wired on crappy coffee. With the help of a beer, I slept sometime after 4am.

This time, we're getting up, getting things done and getting going. On the highway before 3pm, or else.

And this time the drive should be different.

Ginger is still not a huge fan of a pacifier, and she'll suck on one of our fingers if she has to, but she's become quite the self-soother. Her hands, her clothes, the blanket we give her, the toy she grabs, all end up in her mouth. Also, this week she likes to suck on her bottom lip.

Other month four/this week updates include:
--Spider is fascinating to her. She watches his every move, squawks at him, and she she can, hits and kicks him.

--She hits and kicks whatever she can get her tiny parts to. She does things now just to see how she is affecting the world around her.

--Call and response, but LOUD. She demands we mimic her and she changes the tones and volume of her squawking. I'm sure she thinks we're having quite a conversation.

--She is mobile. Mostly into scooting on her back by kicking her legs.

--She sucks in air to laugh/giggle/chortle.

How many hooded towels and washcloths can I possibly need?

My little sister Mary is pregnant and due in January. Being a good big sister, I love giving her advice. Especially when she asks for it!

Mary recently called me to ask: "How many wash cloths and hooded towels do I really need?"

Regarding hooded towels
My response: Four hooded towels are more than enough! Two are plenty.

Here's my thinking. They are adorable, and you might as well make bath time adorable with the cute animal and colors and designs on the thin towel/blanket/hoodies that folks love to get for baby.

But you prob'ly wont always use them.

An example from my personal experience
I am in the tub bathing. I call to Ross: "OK, clean her butt and bring her in," as I'm running cold water into the tub AND soaping up a brightly colored washcloth that I grabbed BEFORE I went into the bathroom.

Ross comes in with a naked, and wide-eyed Ginger.

And a towel.

Yes, it's a clean, brightly colored towel. But it's NOT a hooded towel (which I store in a basket on top of the baby clothes etc. bin/shelf/baskets.) It's also not one of the yellow and white striped, ducky beach towels that Ross's dad and step mom sent us (which came with matching, bright yellow wash cloths. Ross has taken to using the beach towels, which I keep meaning to discourage... but maybe Ginger is OK with sharing already? She IS advanced for her age, after all.)

Now, if I had grabbed a yellow, ducky washcloth and had it soaped up, I would have turned him around and demanded that he return with a yellow and white striped, ducky beach towel.

But I had not.

"Wait, no. You have to get one of the hooded towels."

While holding the now squirming, still naked baby, and wondering just when she's going to pee on him (she pees on him much more than on me, by the way), Daddy Ross needs to be reminded about where the special towels are stored, etc.

The bath is now below the desired "lukewarm" temperature. My freshly shaved legs are covered in goosebumps. I try not to suggest that he hurry it up already.

He comes back with the least cute hooded towel. It says "got milk?" I make a note to donate it to someone who will appreciate it's utilitarian value so that we can focus on using the fish and duck and polka dots -- which are far superior because they are far cuter. (Yes, this is how my brain works when I am sitting in a bath tub full of cooler and cooler water.)

We bathe her. She either smiles or squawks depending on her mood. We wrap her up, likely take photos. We laugh about the hood hiding her face. She squawks some more.

We are only bathing Ginger, for reals about once a week. We do not need more than two hooded towels. Any more than that and Ross is confused and I approach being frustrated. Will I pass on the ones I think are cute? Nope! Silly? YES! The new norm? For a few more weeks at least, yes!

Regarding washcloths
I have a whole bin of brightly colored washcloths. Some match towels for baby. Many are in the pink family (which I love) and lately we only have 10 or less in the laundry at a time.


How we use our cloths

--meconium: for that special three-to-five day period of sticky poop, we used a cut up old towel to clean Ginger's butt. We simply threw away the stained and sticky pieces of cloth.
--bathing
--burp cloths. Ginger doesn't spit up very much. Much less than once a day. So we don't need a ton of these.
--diaper changing time. We alternate between home made wipes, wet paper towels, wet organic diapers and washcloths. It depends on the temperature, who is changing her, what is handy, the state of Ginger's butt and the mood of the diaper changer.


Folks should know, that right now we do laundry at least once a week, closer to once every five days, because we can. I expect to spread out laundry days (and need more stuff, not to worry we have more stuff)

I told Mary 20 washcloths are PLENTY.

What she's up to now

Holy crap! Ginger Crash Kennedy Loy is 3 months old!

On Aug 26th she came screaming on out of me. And on November 26th she squawked and boob-fed and napped, but not much, through her first Thanksgiving.

Like any advanced, totally adorable, ridiculously long 3-month-old girl, Ginger is:

--Talkative. She's got the coos down. And she has a new noise just about every day. If I leave her happily hanging out somewhere to, say, clean a diaper in the sink, make a cup of coffee, brush my teeth, or use two hands for anything, she lets me know she's DONE by squawking louder and louder and I swear it sounds like "DADDY." Now, we all know that she is NOT saying DADDY. But how rad (for me) would it be if her first demanding scream was for Ross?! 'Cause I'm off to school in January...

-- Grabbing things. More and more she means to. Sometime she is surprised by what she has in her hand. Sometimes she whacks herself on the head. Sometimes she focusses on something and aims and and and grabs it.

-- Turning over, kinda. She rolls from her back to her side and from her side in either direction. She is sometimes surprised by landing on her back. But quickly recovers and pretends that she TOTALLY meant to.

-- Squawking louder and louder, generally to herself. In the past few days, when we put her in the crib (small, European style, in our bedroom) in the morning so we two adults can be in bed a bit longer, she squawks loudly to the mobile jerking and wobbling above her head. (The mobile is on loan. I think we already broke it, hence the wonky movements.) She will squawk louder and louder until we realize she is saying she is done already. This is not a "DADDY" squawk. This is a more general gleeful shout out to the universe. Until it's a "hey you guys I'm done, really" noise.

-- Chewing on her hand/s. She does this for comfort. Out of boredom and to express glee!

-- Flirting. She'll look ya in the eye, smile and turn her head inward toward my chest and away. But she is not avoiding you, oh no! She is simply getting ready to look at you again.

-- Noticing her feet. With or without socks. This is fascinating. Especially if one foot has a sock on it and one does not. Ginger will slowly lift the right foot, gaze at it with a slightly furrowed brow. Lower it. Raise the left foot, gaze. And repeat. Then both feet are up. This can last (which she's in her bouncy chair and I am, maybe bathing with her in the bathroom) for as long as 5 minutes.

-- Kicking her feet which being changed. And smiling. Raising up her feet while being changed and smiling. Kicking her feet and kicking off her socks. Pretty much always.

In developmental terms, she's right on track with head and neck, back and arm strength. Likewise with verbal and eye tracking markers. But she's totally cuter than most babies!

More, more, more advice from moms and dads

Apparently, people are reading this blog. This is a good thing (mostly for my ego, but maybe for entertainment and/or educational value. Maybe.)

As well, people post things in response to my posting things about my blog on Facebook. I shall now attempt combine a few tips below (some of mine are here, and a friend's amazing post about "stuff" you need for baby is here), for you's all to see.

Natasha had this to say:
"I am doing cloth diapers too! And I made my own wipes.. We borrowed everything from the swing to the crib. Btw have you tried bum genius 3.0 AIOs? They are my fave but still like prefolds when home."
That's the All In One diaper for those of you less-schooled in the world of cloth diapers than I (I Googled it. Now I know). Yes, I am using these very items! Er, or Ginger is.

Geoff said:
"One word. Costco."

I said: "What am I missing?" For I no longer have a Costco membership.

Dianna filled me in:
"Costco has a bunch of baby stuff, diapers, formula, wipes, motrin, cought supressent. Clothes are cheap to buy there. Toys, books,v juice.If you have not tried the Crisco, you can buy it there. It sounds nuts but it is the best diaper ointment ever. Ginger will never have diaper rash and you will not go broke!!!! Those are some of the things at Costco. Sometimes you can find baby blankets there."

I have to admit I'm steering clear of the Crisco thing. I do have Coconut Oil that I used for sore nipples (worked!) and would be happy to spread it all over Ginger's nether regions. But any redness she gets has gone away quickly.

I do have a tiny tube of Desitin that I've used a few times. Not exactly natural, but it sure does the job. More recently a friend gave us Bum Bum Balm. We use this as well. Ginger's butt seems to love it.

Kate, mom of Ivy, has found the time (and the use of two hands, it looks like) to share some advice and observations inspired by her four-month old role a mommy. The highlights include but are not limited to:

--the importance of nipple pads
--leaking and spraying breasts (refer to above)
--the importance of a supportive partner
--how you wanna be friends with new parents you'd be friends with anyway, 'cause you can only talk about diapers and nipple pads (BOOBS!) for so long before real life comes screaming back in
--the impossibility of organizing a new-mommy mind
--tips how to organize the new mommy mind (think to-do lists and fancy phones)

Kate's blog is called Experimental Soup Making. It's pretty awesome. Go there.

But come back here sometime soon.

Ginger is due to make a bigger appearance here soon.

My take on a frugal mom's advice

Go Cloth!
By going with cloth, a family can save thousands of dollars over the un-potty trained year(sss). There's an investment upfront, and you have get into the groove of cleaning diapers regularly (before the new human poop turns into real human poop with the introduction of not-breast milk foods) but it pays off! Also, nice to the environment.

Ross's take: "Screw the environment." Or maybe it was "The environment can wait." Yeah, that was it.
My take: I have been both practical and self-indulgent about the whole diaper deal. I have been obsessed. I have emailed and texted friends (well, mostly Kate) about what kind if cloth insert diapers they are using, I have bought newish and used diapers from new mama friends and strangers on craigslist. Truly, diapering deserves it's own post (there are entire web communities dedicated to cloth diapers, or so I'm told). I'll try to keep this brief

Week 1 to 2: We used Pampers Swaddlers. I thought I'd have a tiny baby, I had heard these were tiny, virtually leak proof. I bought some. I ended up with twice the amount I thought I would because Ginger arrived at hospital and I ransacked the room's contents (I figured I'd be charged for everything in the room, so why not? And I was: board for one night = about $6,000!)

Starting week 2 and now occasionally: Nature's Babycare. They are damn near 100% biodegradable, no icky plastics on Ginger's skin, they are good stuff, really! etc. They only leak after Ginger has pooped for about an hour (really, she does this at 6 am, daily. It's noisy and cute. I'm sure it will be gross someday, but not yet.) Of course, I was informed by well-meaning moms that although they are mostly biodegradable, I am not yet paying for the service that takes them away and decomposes them for me (and I doubt I ever will). Ross prefers them over our other options: it's remove, wipe, drop in our borrowed Diaper Genie and occasionally take out the trash!

But Nature's Babycare diapers are not cheap: $11.99 for 30 to 40, depending on the size -- and that's ordering from Diapers.com which is much cheaper than buying them at a fancy, organic super market.

G-diapers suck, I think. OK, that's not fair. But they didn't work for me.

And now I'm using a mix of Bum Genius, FuzziBunz and pre-folds -- one's that friggin' snap closed. (There are way too many cloth options for me to be an expert. Check out this site for a sense of what is out there.) I need to do diaper-related laundry every three days. But considering that everything Ginger wears and much of what I wear need cleaning immediately, well, yes, I hardly notice the extra load.

And I experience a strange sense of pride every darn time I Velcro or snap Ginger into a cloth or cloth insert diaper. Yup, I do.

Do your own wipes!
Buy some shop rags or used diapers. Again, the savings adds up, and you won't notice the extra laundry.
Awesome idea.

Ross prefers paper towels, wet under the faucet. Biggest problem with this (to me) is that as the weather gets colder, the faucet runs longer. I can't handle the guilt of washing diapers AND running water 'til it's hot.

I prefer a make-my-own wipe recipe, but mostly I use cut-up towels and old washcloths. I don't run the water nearly as long as Ross does. I want Ginger, and her tush, to be tough!

Buy used baby and kid clothes
Leave the fancy new duds to family and friends. Your newbie will grow out of things faster than you can use them. So it makes sense that even already-worn stuff at kids boutiques will be very gentle used.
I have to admit that I did infact buy one pair of new brown pants. But everything else (and there is a lot, plus two large bins of stuff that is too big for Ginger) was gifted or thrifted.

Dress up your lil' one for fancy occasions -- but not for everyday life!
Babies and kids can be grungy and comfortable at home. Clothing can be worn multiple times in a week. But if you and yours are heading out to brunch or want to otherwise show off, break out the fancy party dress/pants that Auntie X FedExed.
So far, we could dress Ginger in two or three adorable onsies a day and not run out. I don't put her in the frilly dresses and such unless we're gonna be surrounded by at least a handful of ladies who can properly "oh" and "aw" about it.

Get a car seat she can grow into
Don't fall for the gimmick of needing a new car seat every time the kid grows. There are safe and legal seats that last for more than a few months. Do your research ahead of time and save money.
We scored a free infant car seat. Yes, it was used. No, I wasn't worried that a friend of a friend had given an unsafe car seat to a new-mom friend. Frankly, I think a lot of the "oh, no, you need this new! To be safe!" campaigns are put out into the new parent ethers to ensure maximum consumption of new items.

Of course, because it was a car seat for a tiny new person, and Ginger is by far not a tiny person, although relatively new, it's already time to move up to another (hand-me-down) car seat.

Be practical when it comes to your stroller
You don't need three different strollers. You need one.
We have four.

I'm not sure how this happened.

We started off with what was a fancy, light weight stroller four years ago (thanks Tracy and Goran!). My mom gave us a simple umbrella style stroller (it's what we four Loys grew up in). Nicole left her umbrella stroller here (that I should sell or donate) and now we get to absorb Nicole and Piper's buggy!

I have a feeling we'll have two strollers again soon. Umbrella for simplicity and buggy for long walks to the Farmer's Market!

OK. Then. What are your frugal new parent tips???

Some advice from a frugal mom

An old friend who's child is in his mid-to-late teens sent me some awesome advice via Facebook. Being a new mom, doing her best to appear (to herself at least) productive, I quickly thanked her for it, asked permission to post it here -- and immediately deleted it.

I not only deleted the message. I deleted the whole thread.

So did she.

Now I will do my best to duplicate it.

Go Cloth!
By going with cloth, a family can save thousands of dollars over the un-potty trained year(sss). There's an investment upfront, and you have get into the gro0ve of cleaning diapers regularly (before the new human poop turns into real human poop with the introduction of non-breast milk foods) but it pays off! Also, nice to the environment.

Do your own wipes!
Buy some shop rags or used diapers. Again, the savings adds up, and you won't notice the extra laundry.

Buy used baby and kid clothes
Leave the fancy new duds to family and friends. Your newbie will grow out of things faster than you can use them. So it makes sense that even already-worn stuff at kids boutiques will be very gentle used.

Dress up your lil' one for fancy occasions -- but not for everyday life!
Babies and kids can be grungy and comfortable at home. Clothing can be worn multiple times in a week. But if you and yours are heading out to brunch or want to otherwise show off, break out the fancy party dress/pants that Auntie X FedExed.

Get a car seat she can grow into
Don't fall for the gimmick of needing a new car seat every time the kid grows. There are safe and legal seats that last for more than a few months. Do your research ahead of time and save money.

Be practical when it comes to your stroller
You don't need three different strollers. You need one.

Thanks, Sarah!