I'd rather die than not get an iPad for Christmas.

Yes, this was a statement that I actually heard in Target a few days ago.

Disclaimer: if your 6-8 year old throws temper tantrums in public and you ignore it and continue shopping for 45 minutes then you probably don't want to read my post.

That being said, here goes nothing.

Ok. Seriously? This kid was no older than 8 and no younger than 5. I had him pinned for a first grader. So this kid was screaming at his mother all through Target about getting a stupid iPad for Christmas and why he NEEDED one. Yes, needed one. Why the heck would a first grader NEED an iPad? Do adults even NEED them. I'm 27 and do not have an iPad or a tablet. At least as adults we know the difference between want and need. So anyway, I heard this boy screaming when I went in to the store. His mom continued to do her shopping and spent a LONG time in the electronics area. Ok, WHY would you hover over there where the iPads are? Clearly your son cannot handle life at the moment and you are just baiting him.

Anyway, no matter where I was in the store I could hear this boy screaming about an iPad. It really did bother me and got me thinking about kids and TV and me limiting what my kids watch. I didn't think I'd be that type of parent but seriously? I'd rather my kids not watch TV and not know what kind of products are out there instead of having the kid throwing a temper tantrum in Target.

Of course at checkout this family would be behind me. I did a great job and ignored it. Yep. go me! No dirty looks, I didn't laugh to myself, instead I thought, "thank God this isn't me right now." So in the checkout line was when the real breakdown happened. I heard things like:

"There's no iPad in the cart, we can't check out."

"Why do you hate me?"

"Go back and get me my iPad NOW!"

"You're a mean mother."

and the best of them all

"I'd rather die than not get an iPad for Christmas."

Sheesh. I didn't realize that life as a first grader was so rough. Please tell me I'm not the only one completely bothered by this. I feel bad for judging, but come on. Kids that age shouldn't be throwing tantrums, right? And for that long? I was in the store for almost an hour and he would not calm down. Personally, if I were in that mother's shoes, I'd of picked him up, left my cart full of stuff where it was, got in the car, and gotten the hell out of Dodge. But that's just me.

The sad part is, I bet that kid is getting an iPad for Christmas.

5 things I don't really mind about motherhood.

1. Kendall doesn't sleep through the night. I may like to complain about my lack of sleep but I really enjoy those moments at 3:30 in the morning in the quiet dark house with her. Strange I know.

2. Cloth diaper laundry. Yes, it's an extra chore and I do a diaper load every 3 days but it really isn't that bad! Stuffing the dipes takes about 15 minutes but I enjoy it. Eric doesn't mind it either.

3. Being a slave to Kendall's schedule. Sometimes I feel trapped at home and Kendall really isn't an ideal sleeper but then again, it's really cold outside and I really don't have anything better to do than hang out with my daughter.

4. Making my own baby food. I was so scared to take this on. This was yet another one of Eric's genius ideas that I am executing. It actually doesn't take too much time and I feel good about knowing exactly what I am putting into Kendall's body.

5. I have no idea about what movies are in theaters and what's going on in my favorite TV shows. In an attempt to save some money, we ditched cable. I'm talking no cable at all, not even basic. We get what's in the air. We decided we didn't want the TV to be Kendall's babysitter and she really doesn't need it anyway. Also, our TV is in the living room down in the basement. As a result of all this, we are hardly down there watching any TV. So really, I haven't seen movie trailers and I have NO idea about what's on TV. I hear New Girl is good!

I survived the weekend

Before the sun came up on Thursday morning, Eric was on his way to Atlanta. He was only gone for 4 days, but really it could have been 4 months. Yes, it was that rough. Usually I enjoy my time alone. I am able to eat the foods I like that Eric doesn't, watch my shows, and basically do what I want when I want. However things have changed. Eric left me alone with Kendall and our dog and man oh man was it a long weekend. By Thursday night I was already wondering how single parents did this.

First of all, we do not have a fenced in yard. I love not having a fence. Being from California, this is not something I am used to and I love it. I also love it because how house backs up to a park so without the fence, our backyard looks huge! This weekend I wanted the fence. Taking Cody out to do his business is a whole event when you're by yourself. I either had to put Kendall in the baby carrier or in her stroller and then leash up the dog, and we would go out to let him do his thing. This really wasn't too annoying until the weather turned icky. It isn't fun at all trying to take a dog pee with a baby in the rain.

Secondly, I didn't get any schoolwork done this weekend. I tried and I failed. It's like Kendall knew that I had stuff to do and Eric was gone so she was super fussy the whole time. When she did nap, it was only for an hour at a time. During her naps, I decided to do other things besides my homework, so I guess that's my fault. It's hard enough going to school with a baby and a husband who works weird hours, but that being said, I'd rather have him home with the weird hours than away.

There were good things that happened while Eric was gone, a few people from church helped watch Kendall while I was in class. The college student who watches her during the week can't be my full time nanny since she is a student too. I also got a TON of laundry done, kept the house somewhat clean, went to bed early every night to try and catch up on sleep, and I did not turn on the TV once the entire weekend! That's pretty awesome.

Needless to say, I really do not know how single parents do it. I survived the weekend and am not looking forward to Eric's next trip to Atlanta in October, but like last weekend, we will survive.

10 years ago I was a senior in high school

It isn't too often that I take time to reflect on the past. Since it is the ten year anniversary of 9-11, I guess it is appropriate.

10 years ago I was a senior in high school, I remember that morning vividly. I was seventeen years old, in fact, I hadn't even been 17 for a full month yet. My alarm went off, my mom came into my room and told me a plane flew into one of the twin towers in New York City. The first thing that went through my mind wasn't that it was a terrorist attack, I thought of other, more innocent things as I starred at the smoking tower on TV. Was is a mistake made by a pilot? Maybe. Then it happened. I watched the second plane fly into the other tower and it hit me. America was being attacked.

I remember going to school, a little shaky, not knowing exactly what was going to happen. It was game day, so I was in my team t-shirt. (I do remember that) In class, some teachers had the TV footage on, and other teachers just treated it like any other day. Teachers are humans too and they were also dealing with what had happened. The last time the TV was on so much during my classes was after the Columbine shooting my freshman year. On 9-11-2011, school was different. All a sudden my 17 year old drama didn't seem to matter.

There wasn't much I could wrap my 17 year old mind around. I knew the world was going to be different from that point on. There was a lot I didn't understand too. I had never been to NYC, didn't know anyone on the East coast and lets face it, I was young.

So ten years later, here we are. I have been to NY several times, lived on the East coast for three years, met people and made friends with some awesome people. In church this morning, Shelly talked about her oldest daughter asking her what the twin towers were last week. She wasn't even born when it happened. It got me thinking, how will I react when Kendall or my future children ask me about 9-11. They will for sure learn about it in class and after some simple math they will figure out mom and dad were alive when it happened. Wow.

I guess I could just start from the beginning. When I woke up that morning my senior year of high school.

The Truth About Cloth Diapers...

http://sweetpeascloth.com

From a skeptic...

Okay, I'll admit it. When we first found out we were pregnant, Eric suggested the idea of cloth diapering. I wanted nothing to do with it. I completely shut him down, I didn't want to research it, didn't want to talk about it, end of discussion. In my mind, cloth diapering was some hippie-mom trend and I did not want to join the ranks.

So fast forward to September, 2011 and we are using cloth diapers. Why the change of heart? I don't like the idea of paying for things on a regular basis. Okay, well we pay our mortgage, phone bill, utilities so don't worry! But baby stuff ranks up their on things I don't like paying for with pedicures, make up, and getting a tan. So there I was at Target, looking at diapers and the cost. "Wow, $20?" I thought to myself, "How long is this box even going to last me?" So I'm cheap, forgive me I come by it naturally. I have no problem spending $150+ on a good pair of jeans, but diapers? No way.

This is when I starting thinking about switching to cloth. I knew it would be a big investment on the front end, but once you've paid, you're done. So I started researching. In typical Jessica fashion, instead of compiling my own research on the forefront, I let others do the research for me by sharing their cloth diapering knowledge. To be honest, it was Heather and Katie who completely sold me on the idea. They had great pitches, and made it seem not so difficult. Great job friends!

After that, I had the big decision of choosing a brand. and HOLY COW! There are so many brands out there and types of diapers. I didn't want to commit to a brand only to find out it wasn't going to work for us. I'm cheap, remember? So we ordered, several brands, and several types. I'm sure I made a bigger deal about choosing a brand than I really needed to, but hey, at least I was making the switch.

During my "research phase" I discovered a lot of things.

1. Cloth Diapering is no more disgusting than regular diapering. Poop is poop. Either way, you have to wipe it of their little bums. There are ways to make it a little less disgusting like buying a diaper sprayer (which we do not have) or buying liners that catch the poopies.

2. Seriously, it's easy. It is a little extra laundry a week but if you have your own laundry room and are not paying for laundry it's really no big deal at all.

Here is a quick summary of what we tried:

1. I do not like Flips diapers. The idea of flips is cool: no stuffing, the ability to buy disposable inserts, and they're pretty trim. However, on Kendall, they just didn't work. She moves around too much and there is really nothing holding the insert in place. So nix on the Flips for us.

2 Best Bottoms Diapers are similar to Flips and Eric's favorite of all the brands we tried. These are pretty cool, I'll admit it. The diaper shell is waterproof and the inserts actually snap in. So while there is no pocket to hold the insert (and no stuffing), the snaps hold it in. Another cool thing about Best Bottoms is that you can change the insert, but keep the shell on. This works fairly well until the baby poops. If it's a big poop, it gets on the shell and I am not about wiping the shell clean. I'd rather just change the shell and start over.

3. All-in-ones. Sounds pretty neat, right? Basically, there is no stuffing, it's a diaper with no insert. Not for us.

4. We did not try the "pre-fold" diapers. Mainly it is because I am lazy and do not want to deal with all that.

5. Fuzzi Bunz are great. They have perfect size and one size. One size fits from birth to potty training and perfect size comes in small, medium and large so as your baby grows, you need to buy more. The mediums are pretty good though, they fit 15lbs to 30lbs. Anyway, what I really like about the Fuzzis are just how trim they are! All other one size diapers adjust with snaps all over the diaper. With Fuzzis, you adjust the elastic around the legs and waist as they grow.

6. Bum Genius 4.0- this was my other favorite. These are also one size diapers and like the fuzzis, you place the insert in a pocket. The Bum Genius has snaps to adjust the size and are a little more bulkier than the fuzzis but I like them equally as much.

So what did we end up going with?

Fuzzis and Bum Genius! We also have 3 Best Bottomss diapers with three inserts per diaper because they were Eric's favorite and this whole diapering thing was his idea anyway, so he got some that he liked to use.

Getting Started:

Heather offered some great advise about getting 2 diaper pails. I took that into consideration and kept my diaper champ and then bought a hanging diaper bin for the cloth diapers. This hangs from the door knob and I just throw the diapers in there and come wash time everything goes in the wash, including the bag thingy. Planet Wise makes some great ones with cute patterns!

Going out was a big concern of mine. Where will I put the dirty diapers when we are out and about for the day? Planet Wise also makes little wet diaper bags for your diaper bag! So all we do is put the icky diapers in the waterproof bag, zip it up, and we are done. This bag is also washable.

So as you can see, cloth diapering is quite simple. We are not cloth diapering at night yet. I am planning on buying some hemp inserts for night time. These absorb more than the fleece so will be better for night. I have also heard that bamboo inserts work great too, but I don't know whether or not they are compatible if the brands I chose.

So there we have it. The Sunderland family made the cloth diaper switch. Cloth diapering hippies? Not so much.

Here are some great sites to compile your own research:

Cotton Babies

Kelly's Closet

Nicki's Diapers

Planet Wise

Have Fun!

No Pictures Until I am Ready!

The above statement can mean so many things right now.

1. I have no idea how to upload multiple images on this blog. I would love for it to go: picture, statement, picture, statement and so forth. Sadly, I have not figured this out yet so there will be "no pictures until I am ready."

2. Kendall's ultrasound pictures. We had 3 ultrasounds with Kendall. One at 20 weeks where we found out the gender, size, and more accurate due date. On this day we also got one of those fancy 3D ones too. When trying to see her face, her lovely hand was covering it. Later, we had to go down to Iowa City for some metabolic testing and we were lucky enough to get a level 2 ultrasound. I was 31 weeks pregnant and really looking forward to seeing my baby girl. We found out several things: Kendall was still a girl, she was measuring "big" at 3 lbs 4oz, and once again her hand was covering her face. Moving on to me at 41 weeks pregnant. I got another ultrasound and once again, she was covering her face. I believe this was Kendall saying, "no pictures until I am ready!"

3. Now to me. So it's no secret that I gained a ton of weight over this pregnancy. It was a combination of a ton of things. I was pregnant, it was an excuse to eat and eat like crap. It was also my first winter in Iowa and I am sorry, when it's -10 outside, no I do not want a salad and chicken breast for dinner. I want a nice heavy pot roast or another lovely crock pot treat. I also worked at an elementary school last year. Holy cow do those people eat. I'm talking good food here. "Oh, someone brought brownies? Don't mind if I do!" On top of all that, working out really wasn't happening. I was tired, anemic, and it was too damn cold outside to really go on a significant power walk. Needless to say, now after Kendall's arrival, I am trying hard to get this baby weight off! I am eating crazy healthy and trying to work out. Sadly, I am a victim to Eric's schedule. Curses for not having a normal job! Add me being back in school, the gym closing at like 8, and the fact that Kendall won't even be old enough for child care there until she's 6 months... it's just one big headache. We need to suck it up and buy a jogger. So this all explains the lack of pictures of me. I don't like my picture being taken right now because I feel awkward and fat. So once again, "no pictures until I am ready."

let's see how i do at this

ok friends, i have decided to start a blog...

more as a form of updating you all on life and parenthood, studenthood, and yeah... living in IOWA.

Hopefully I'll be a good blogger and post fairly often!

much love.