Down dog

I've been hearing such positive things about yoga lately that I decided I'd ease my way back into being active with some prenatal yoga.



One library stop later and I was armed for the task. This morning I stuck in the dvd and was doing my best to keep my shaky legs rooted and my chest lifted. My mind was relaxed, my breathing slow and steady, and my eyes closed.....when the corner of a dvd case came slamming down onto my skull!! My eyes flew open to meet a guilty pair of baby blues about 2 inches from my face and a relaxed yoga session quickly turned into a contortionist dance as I stormed around trying to ease the throbbing cranium!

So my word of advice is this: no matter how much you love your toddler, even if you'd give your life for theirs in a heartbeat, NEVER do the down dog with your eyes closed if this toddler is awake and on the loose! It is a lose lose situation in every way!

Testing....testing....1...2....3...

Hello? Is this thing on?

Soooo.....um....Happy Thanksgiving? Merry Christmas and a Happy New year? Where do you start when it's been so long?

I ask myself what on earth I've been doing every day that I can't fit the odd update or picture into my schedule and I'm not really sure of the answer. I'm tempted to think I'm a professional time "mismanager" but I'll just brush past that thought as quickly as possible.

Phewf. Close one.

To be honest, I sat on the couch for a large portion of December and am truly very behind in pretty much everything. Christmas Eve came and not only was there no baking or goodies, there were no groceries and no presents. Surprisingly we found a bag of chips which we never have on hand (I think an angel dropped them off) and made some killer nachos for our Christmas Eve dinner. And for our Christmas breakfast we turned our last pieces of stale bread into french toast. I can't pretend it was "killer" as we realized we had about 1 TB of syrup between the three of us and as it turns out, dry bread kinda makes dry french toast....but I have the privilege of being married to the finest man I know and he was so grateful and encouraging that I dare say we enjoyed our dry, syrup-less, french toast!

And despite having not bought a single gift for any of us, even Christmas morning was a pleasure. Evanie had a new baby doll given to her by a friend and between this and having both parents to play with and a pajama dance party, her Christmas was a smash hit!

Now as to WHY I sat on the couch all of Dec. 2010....this is the best of all. I was sick. But not just any sickness, morning sickness!! YAY for a new little baby! And like a good little baby it stopped making me sick on Christmas Eve! So although the material items were a bit lacking on Christmas day, the excitement and delight of feeling healthy and carrying a little bitty baby were all the Christmas spirit needed!

I am currently 11 weeks along, feeling much much better, due on July 24, and on Wednesday we heard a healthy little heartbeat for the first time! We're very excited! I think even Evanie is excited; every time she notices the little bump (code for: my stomach sagging over my waistband!) she pats it and says, "hi baby!" So cute!!

So happy new year to all and here is to a wonderful 2011!

Some decorating fun for you. Sorry about the poor lighting in our living room! Password as always is > evanie <

Untitled from Carolyn Wiebe on Vimeo.

RB- Arbie- R'bee

Evanie has developed a few intense loves lately and while some of them make sense, others are a little....unique. Like RB. She loves/delights in/is obsessed with the little character on all the Royal Bank ads and promotions.


This little guy right here makes her all shriek-y and jittery! Every time she sees him on a poster, brochure, website, or bill her whole body lights up and she shrieks "RB!!" as if she was greeting a long lost friend! So the other morning I pulled up a picture of him online and used our web-cam to snap a few pictures of her expression every time I flipped to the picture of him.


What better way to start your day off on the right foot than with some quality time with RB!


What? Where did he go?


THERE he is!!!


And again!


And again!!

Please don't be afraid of the scary eyeball peeking out from behind Evanie's bed head! It's just me. I was using Evanie to screen my own bed head and forgot to duck behind on one picture!

On Pooping...

Yes that's right- a post about pooping. Don't worry...this has nothing to do with adult excreta.

We are nearing the one year anniversary of successful cloth diapering. I know, yay!- right? And guess how many loads of reeking diapers I have washed in the past 12 months - A MILLION! Not a word of a lie. One freaking million diapers. (To my sisters, shush, I am NOT a drama queen!)

To hear hard core cloth diapering advocates describe it- cloth diapering consists of snuggling your darling baby's precious skin in the incredible softness of organic, unbleached, triple spun, hand woven, elf stitched, thirsty layers of hemp fibers which wick away unwanted wetness, smell like lavender, and never leak on mom, the bed, clothes, the special blankie, on floor model playpens in a department store.... (What? Who said that?) And if there are any deposits of solids, simply flip the flushable liner into your shiny porcelain toilet, and flush away. And if there are ever times that mom forgets to put in the flushable liner, cheerily lift the solids out of the layers of unbleached hemp, and flush as usual.

Well perhaps I missed some sort of baby poop memo but as it turns out, my darling daughter (and she is darling- I'm not being sarcastic about this!) does not so much "deposit solids" as she does "sh** with reckless abandon!" The said "lifting of the solids" looks a lot more like holding your breath for 15 minutes while scraping poop and violated green peppers from a desperately-needs-to-be-bleached hemp diaper!

Sigh. For those of you who are cloth diapering and loving it, I apologize for being a downer. And for those who are thinking about it, don't let me discourage you. It's totally do-able. But when someone says, "Oh it's every bit as easy as disposables once you're used to it,"-kick them in the shins for lying! How can it be just as easy as wrapping it up and throwing it in the garbage!? The only diapering option as easy as disposable is- DISPOSABLES!

That being said, it's not nearly as disgusting or difficult as our mother's generation. I know this because I clearly remember the old style of cloth diapering. Having 8 younger siblings (for those of you who did not know this, quick, sit down. ....oh and I also have 2 older siblings...) has given me plenty of diaper changing opportunities. The last few babies were in disposables but my mom, bless her wonderful heart, went the cloth option for most of us. Here's a fun fact for you: did you know that the old style cloth diapers (5x2 feet of fabric) are actually not bulky enough to be wrung out in an old fashioned wringer washer. True story. There's a bunching technique that has to be applied in order to wring water out of the fabric. See, my generation doesn't know essentials like this!

Where was I?.....Oh yes, it's not as hard as it used to be. 80% of the time it's just a basic flip it into the washer procedure. 20% of the time, it inspires all manner of profanities. The smell alone is almost enough to make me throw up my hands. It makes my eyes water even if I'm plugging my nose! But it is true that they can be quite simple, very cute, and of course- wait for it- good for the environment! It's just that, on any given day the diapers either need to be washed, need to be hung up to dry, or need to be folded and put away. (Or need to be thrown, kit and caboodle, into the nearest I QUIT garbage can!) A solid year of thinking about dirty diapers every day is a lot of thinking about dirty diapers. Think of all the brain space and to do list slots that will open up when she's potty trained!! I'll be able to solve crimes, unlock medical mysteries, and spell words without spell check!

I'm sure I could rant on for many more paragraphs but as it turns out, I have a load of clean diapers waiting to be hung up. This is not a lie. It is in fact, this load that inspired me to quickly sit and spew this into cyber space!

How about something happier...like this sweet picture:


This is one of the many beautiful pictures the wonderful Heidi took of my sweet little girl/pooper. If you want to see all of them you can go to Evanie's site for the rest. (Her name is the password.)

Also, Steph, if you read this blog and you're still planning on cloth diapering, all of what I just wrote is a funny joke. It's actually easy and fun and smells like lavender. :)

There Was Screaming...

* Braids were made possible by my baby girl's amazing amounts of GLORIOUS hair!!