Annabel Goes Green!

While we're not what you would call an "environmentalist" family, we try to do our part to be green. We're pretty good about recycling (Frisco is great about giving us recycling bins the same size as the trash bin). We've started buying those Clorox Green Works cleaners for the house (they clean GREAT and smell really good). We were even Green Mountain Energy customers for awhile, but then changed because they had terrible customer service. I mean, I'm all for using a renewable energy source, but I want to be able to talk to a competent person when there's a problem with my bill. Is that so much to ask?

When I was researching baby stuff during my pregnancy (because surfing the net was about the only thing that didn't wear me out), there were these articles about how diapers are filling up our landfills because they take 500 years to degrade. Still, cloth diapers seemed like a lot of work to me. I can't afford a diaper service, and most child care places won't use them anyways. Then I read about these gdiapers that are basically a happy medium between the two. There's a cloth diaper that has an insert that you can flush, compost or throw away (they decompose in a mere 150 days). So it's like baby Depends!

So I took my happy, green-minded pregnant butt down to Whole Foods in Plano and bought the starter kit in the small size. I figured that Annabel could wear the gdiapers while she's at home with me (including the days that I'll be working from home - fun job for the nanny!) and Pampers when she goes to day care. And I can feel good that I'm not adding too much to the great big stinky landfills that are killing our precious ozone layer bit by bit.

Then... Annabel was born... and chaos reigned the Faber household! Who could think about washing a cloth diaper and making sure that the liner was properly fitted so as not to cause leakage when you have a screaming baby on your hands? Frankly, we had completely forgotten that we even had the gdiapers and went straight to the many packages of Newborn Pampers that we were given at our showers. We were pretty much just taking it one day at a time... hell, one diaper at a time.

But now, things have settled (comparatively) and I opened Annabel's closet to put some things away and discovered the gdiapers starter kit amongst the piles of diaper packages. So I thought, "Hey! We should try that!" So last night, I put her in her gdiaper for the first time.

Annabel is eco-friendly! Well, for one evening. I had read some reviews that said that they were not that great for overnight pee and poo containage. So yesterday evening, she wore her gdiaper, and it actually did a great job. The caveat here is that she only made a pee pee -- albeit a significant amount of it -- while wearing her eco-diaper. I do think that you're kidding yourself if you think that the two cloth diapers that come with the starter kit will be enough. It truly is just a STARTER... as in two diapers and 10 liners. It's definitely more work than the Pampers (of course, since when has going green been EASIER than the usual super-convenient, chemical-laden, ozone-killing norm?). You have to make sure that the liner fits inside the diaper properly, and you probably want to have an extra cloth diaper handy in case of overflow. But, I think it may be worth it to invest in purchasing some extra cloth diapers. Besides, they're super cute and they just came out with this cute stripey version for girls (they have one for boys too). 

I think I'm going to do a full day test run with the two cloth diapers that came in the starter kit first, though, just to make sure. Stay tuned... I'll let you know how it goes!

Btw, apparently the FeedBlitz email subscription for my blog was not working previously. But I've re-uploaded the widget and tested it, and it works beautifully now! So if you want to get an email alert when I update my blog, feel free to subscribe via the box to the right. And according to FeedBlitz, they will NOT share your email address with anyone else (including me), so it's completely private.

And finally, I uploaded some more photos to Annabel's June/July album yesterday, so click the link on the right to check those out.

Cheers!

When to Pierce Annabel's Ears?

So I was watching the "Jon & Kate plus 8" marathon today (it aired Sunday, but I have them Tivo-ed), and they showed the episode, "Mady's Special Day" where she got her ears pierced. So that lead me to think... when should I pierce Annabel's ears?

My aunt has already given Annabel a pair of diamond earrings. I know, I know, but it's an Asian thing. I don't know if it matters, but they're not solitaires. They're pretty little hoops... and I do mean little. So cute!! And soooo beautiful. Now I, like Mady, got my ears pierced when I was seven years old (or was I six? I'm pretty sure I was seven... the summer after first grade). I honestly don't remember the experience, so I guess that's good. Mady was pretty upset when it happened. Of course, she's a drama queen, so I probably shouldn't use her as a model. 

I was planning on having Annabel's ears pierced when she turned one. However, someone (I can't remember who) told me I should do it at three months. Yikes! That seems so early! But on the plus side, she DEFINITELY won't remember it. So, what do you think? When should I get Annabel's ears pierced? Is three months too early? Maybe six months? Is even one year old too soon? Looking forward to your comments!

Cheers!

Annabel's Two Month Appointment

Annabel got A+'s from the doctor today! Here are the stats...

Weight: 10 lbs 9 oz (50th percentile)

Length: 23 inches (75th percentile)

Annabel gives us a smile before we leave for her doctor's appointment!

She's tracking normally, and as a matter of fact, the doctor even said that she's pushing her legs like a four-month old! Today was also the day that she received a battery of immunizations. I was quite the nervous Mommy, but Chris was there to provide support. She got one shot for her one month appointment, and that was stressful enough (more so for me than for Annabel). This time, she got FIVE shots!

She jumped a little and whined during the first two shots, the third one kind of made her mad, and the last two really got her going! Thankfully, the nurse was super quick and Chris picked her up and she stopped crying almost immediately. I gotta say, I love the staff at her pediatrician's office.

Annabel gets a kiss from Daddy after her shots.

She did pretty well for the rest of the day. I didn't end up giving her the infant Tylenol until later in the afternoon after tummy time when she had a tiny bit of fever. Plus, her crying was a little more intense than usual, so I could tell she was uncomfortable. One little dose of the Tylenol and she was out like a light. She woke up a little while later and was her usual cheery self. We even met up with some friends for dinner at Gordon Biersch! She was awake at first to say "hi" to everyone, and then fell asleep again.

Speaking of sleep, we've started a little bedtime routine... and it's aaaalllll Daddy. We figured since Mommy gets to spend all day with her, Daddy can do the bedtime routine. However, this will probably change when I go back to work, and we'll share the bedtime routine. So for now, it's bottle, then diaper change, then three books, then swaddle, then sleep! Last night she slept for TEN HOURS. It was about seven hours the night before that. Yaaay! I know it's only been two nights, but it looks like we have a pretty good sleeper on our hands!

OK seriously, I'll get around to the child care conversation one of these days... in the meantime, Annabel wants to say "Welcome Home!" to her twin friends, Emma and Chloe, from childbirthing class. She hopes that they are as good for her parents as she has been for us.

Annabel and The Fox and The Hound

No... sadly I'm not referring to the Disney film here. Yep, bad Mommy and Daddy took Annabel to a bar!

(Sweet Home Alabama, Touchstone Pictures/Pigeon Creek Films 2002)

Ok, so let me explain the sitch before you go all Pat Robertson on me. As you know, Chris and I are not big drinkers (not because we don't enjoy it... mostly because we're a couple of lightweights). But, every once in awhile, Chris's office will have a company happy hour to promote teamwork, good times and fun amongst the employees. So yesterday, they held one such happy hour (the first since Annabel was born) at The Fox and the Hound in Richardson in celebration of their upcoming move to a much larger office space. Annabel and I made an appearance, but since they allowed smoking in there, we didn't stay long. Just enough to be social! Everyone had a good time, though, as evidenced by these photos that Chris took...

That's Bobbie, me (with Annabel in her sling!) and Sue.

James, Chris, Nick, Jeff and Chris.

Some more of the guys... Ray, Sean, Mike, Don and Doyle.

Evidently there was a bachelorette party there (this happened after I left). Bobbing for apples... mmmmmm... humiliating...

Wait... how did this picture get on the camera? Ooooh... one of the other guys took it... thanks a lot, James! See what happens when I leave?? ;-)

I will say one thing for this place... even though there was some smoking in the place, when we left there, we didn't smell like a chimney. They must have some crazy ventilation going on in that bar! Usually I can't stand that about bars and often wish we would follow California's example and ban smoking inside all public facilities. But, since not all of Dallas has that policy, at least The Fox and the Hound in Richardson installed an excellent ventilation system that kept us from hacking our lungs out.

Afterwards, we took my cousin Kathryn to Brio in Allen for her birthday. We had been here once before (although Kathryn hadn't). And it was yummy as usual. I have to say that the staff there is unusually friendly and chatty. I mean, there's the typical comments, "Oh what a cute baby" or "Are you having a good birthday?" But these guys give you their life stories! Our hostess told us she wanted to go to school to be a neo-natal nurse, the manager was gushing about how he sampled some of the new items on the menu and our waiter would insert stories from his days in the Navy when he would catch snatches of our conversation. I'm not complaining... these were all really sweet people and we enjoyed chatting with them. We just thought it was funny how very friendly they were.

Annabel was great, both at the bar and at the restaurant. Noise doesn't faze her one bit, and she slept right through it all! Well, she did wake up once in awhile to check her environment, make sure Mommy and Daddy were still close by, and then went right back to sleep! Here are some more photos that Chris took.

Me and Kathryn! Isn't she a cutie?

Annabel, hangin' out in her Hippo outfit!

One of her waking moments... just checkin' to make sure Daddy's still there!

Sleeping through all the Brio racket like an angel... and Daddy messing with the Sepia setting on his camera.

Cheers!

To Swaddle or Not to Swaddle?

So Annabel is approaching her 2 month birthday (on Sunday!!), and Chris and I are starting to discuss the looming "sleep" situation. Here are the questions which we are discussing:

- when should we start enforcing a schedule for bed time? Currently, we're going with the flow. Honestly, we're not really tight scheduling type people, but we know that it's probably what's best for a healthy, happy Annabel, so we've got to figure that out.

- what "sleep method" should we use to get her to start sleeping through the night? Our Baby 411 book recommends the Ferber method (what some Mommy Message Boarders call the "CIO" or "Cry It Out" method -- but if you read that link, it's not really as bad as that sounds). Other friends have recommended "The Happiest Baby on the Block." Sound off in the comments section! What worked for you?

- when should we move her out of our room into her room? We're dreading this, as we LOVE having her sleep in her bassinet in our room. We did get a video monitor, but you know... it's not the same.

- and finally... when do we stop swaddling her? She's finally just now actually fitting into the swaddling blankets that we were given. So, if we wrap her in those pretty snugly, she doesn't really struggle or kick out of them. And for the past few nights, she's slept 6 hours!! We are loving that! But if we swaddle her in regular receiving blankets like we did in the hospital, by morning, she's pretty much kicked her way out of those. We know she looooves being warm (the only way she would sleep before is if we swaddled her in TWO receiving blankets!) so we're worried that just putting her down in her PJs won't be enough.

Here's how we used to swaddle her. She looks like a little egg roll! You probably can't tell from the picture, but she's wrapped in 2 blankets here.

And here's how she was swaddled last night. She slept soundly for a good 6 hours, so at this point, I guess we're not going to change it yet.

Well, I guess we have some sleepless nights ahead of us as we play this by ear and transition Annabel to the next sleeping phase of her life! Again, any tips from you experienced mommies and daddies would be appreciated :-)

Also, I've updated Annabel's July/August photo album with some photos I took of her this past weekend! I love all the faces she makes, so I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did taking them. The links to her albums are always on the right column of this blog, so you can check those out anytime. I'll try to remember to post a blog when I update it though.

Coming up... the child care search continues! I'll fill you in on the latest in that saga the next time Annabel gives me a break :-)

Our First Father's Day

Our first Father's Day was a mixture of fun and stress in the Faber house. For his Father's Day gift, Chris got a new radio controlled helicopter. Mind you, this is Chris we're talking about, so this is no rinky dink helicopter! This is a bad mamma jamma, folks, with a radio controller that has more switches, buttons and joysticks than three or four xbox controllers put together. Naturally, something this complicated is bound to be pretty sensitive and prone to breakage. Here's the irony, though... he didn't break the HELICOPTER on his maiden voyage (he did really well, as a matter of fact!). No, he broke the CONTROLLER! He actually only broke a couple of switches on it, but he was still pretty mad at himself for it. Hence... the stress...In the end, he was able to get a part from Radio Shack and fix it, but he was a bit of an irritated Daddy until he did. 

Otherwise, we met some friends out for Father's Day lunch at Gordon Biersch (brewery... man drink) and Father's Day dinner at Texas Land & Cattle (steak... man food). Fun!

In honor of Father's Day, here are some Daddy/Annabel photos for your viewing pleasure.

Daddy wears Annabel in her fabulous sling for the first time! This was taken in the family restroom at Willow Bend Mall. It was actually clean!

Daddy burping Annabel during a visit to his office. Look at those chipmunk cheeks!

A Father's Day photo. Chris loves his little Annabel!

Picture-perfect Daddy and Daughter.

Ok, ok... I just had to stick Mommy and Annabel in here too! There's no Mother's Day post, so I just wanted join in the photo fun :-)

I'm baaaaack!

I know, can you believe it? I'm back! And I promise to be better about providing updates this time around. Between the pregnancy, the holidays, and wrapping things up at work to prepare for maternity leave, I just neglected my blog.

But, now, I have this beautiful baby girl to motivate me to provide updates, and this beautiful new MacBook laptop too! So keep on the lookout, and I'll give you the latest on what's happening with the Fabers in Frisco!

Also, thanks to fellow blogger and childbirth class goer for this photo of the Fabers. It was taken at our childbirth class reunion dinner at La Hacienda earlier this month.