Random Ramblings

I'm in a silly mood this morning I think. I attribute this to the lack of sleep. As wonderful as my DH is about keeping the kids under control when I need a nap, It is just simply impossible to get more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. Apparently little 4 week old baby tummies aren't meant to hold that much milk all at once. Then the milk gets quickly digested into what babies digest it into and the diaper needs to be changed, and the tummy filled again. True, I suppose that I could pump and DH could feed the baby for a feeding, but then my breasts would feel uncomfortably full and I wouldn't really be able to sleep anyway. Isn't nature wonderful? Just in case we mothers missed the switch that turns on when you have a child that now makes you the lightest sleeper on the planet (or you are just sooo exhausted that you end up in a coma like state), you've got that breastfeeding thing. In the middle of the night, you have that little dilemma. You REALLY want sleep, but your tender breasts tell you that the baby hasn't eaten in a while. Do you try to find a semi comfortable position and let the baby sleep? Or do you wake him up so you can be a bit more comfortable. Note, this hasn't happened to me yet. Brendan likes to eat often at night, or gets gas and is uncomfortable and needs me to make him feel better. Amazingly this morning, he was the first one up, not the other 2 kiddos running around the house. Breastfeeding really is a symbiotic (oo, big word!) relationship, though. It makes the baby happy (filling the tiny tummy, and that wonderful sucking thing. Not sure why that makes them happy, but it does) and it makes the mama happy because if he doesn't eat her breasts hurt. That's nature saying "Oops! Time to feed the baby! You didn't forget that you had one did you? If you did, here's a little reminder" At this point your milk lets down, and you have nice big wet spots on your shirt. Thanks so much mother nature *wink*

As usual this morning, I sat down to eat breakfast while I read my email this morning. At the bottom of one of the emails, I noticed Nick from my Knitting parent's group has a business listed in her signature line. It's for wool soakers. Now, I've heard all you knitting moms talk about finding patterns for wool soakers and stuff, but I really honestly had no idea what they are. After all, I don't use cloth diapers, nor do I plan to. I know if I did, I would never be able to get DH to change a diaper again. He has icky issues. He can't even wash the dishes if he has to get his hands wet or dirty in any way. I suppose we would have to give him rubber gloves, but I know that at that point it would be too much like work and I would just end up doing all the diaper changing. Back to wool soakers. These are little wool pants, or diaper covers that you use instead of the plastic covers that you buy at the store. Why use wool? Well, apparently it's antimicrobial, highly absorbent, and if it contains lanolin it is virtually waterproof. They're also much better looking. I'm a little disturbed by the fact Nick says they don't need to be washed after each use, though. That just sounds icky to me, but I don't really want to be hand washing soakers after each use either... I am intrigued, though, I might have to make some up for my DD who has decided that she wants to start potty training. At this point, she doesn't have much advanced warning before she has to go, and most of the time she happily sits on the potty after she has in fact gone in her diaper.

The Knitting Parents were also talking about the fact that our wonderful listmom Christine has a Roomba. This is a fantastic little robot vacuum machine. It'll run around your living room cleaning up, then go back to it's base and charge it's self. What a nice, well behaved little guy! I actually don't mind vacuuming. It's the obligatory picking up of all objects on the floor that bothers me. Every morning I get up and think "Hmm I haven't vacuumed in a while. Yep, there are cheereos under the table, and yarn scraps on the floor. I should vacuum this morning before all the toys come out. I'll do that right after breakfast." Inevitably, I'll sit down to eat my cereal while I read my email and when I'm done the floor will be covered with various "Kid" objects. This morning, this isn't so bad, but includes, 2 packages of wipes, a green beaded necklace, 4 or 5 videos and their cases, diapers, jammies, blankets, and a disassembled swiffer that Shaya was "cleaning" with. Sometimes, I really do think that when I turn my back objects silently fall from the ceiling. This does not include the usual computer paper with crayon scrawled on it. My kids like to draw, but they will draw just a few things on one sheet of paper, bring it to me all folded up "I have a present for you mommy!" and then dump it on the floor after I look at it to get a new one. Every day I throw away at least a dozen of these presents. It's amazing how trashed a room can look with 12 pieces of colored on paper on the floor.

My least favorite jobs around the house used to be laundry and dishes. This was probably due to my incredible procrastination abilities. As we speak, I am sitting here typing instead of moving the laundry over to the dryer. I blame this once again on the poor defenseless 4 week old baby who is sitting in my lap. He had a rough night and apparently can't sleep in his bassinet, he needs mommy's lap. Amazing that the twitching of my left arm under his head as I type doesn't seem to bother him. Anyway, I hated dishes and laundry. I would wait to do laundry until I completely ran out of underwear, or the kids did, or something, then I would only do 1 or 2 loads of laundry that were the most necessary, and of course they would never get folded. Since they weren't folded, I didn't have any baskets free for more clean laundry... It was a vicious cycle. I am really fond of Flylady's 1 load of laundry a day, though. I feel so accomplished when I have done a load and folded and put it away. Folding laundry doesn't seem so daunting when it's only 1 load. After all, that's what 3 pairs of pants and like 5 shirts. The procrastination also translated into the dishes. It was truly disgusting which definitely makes you hate it even more. Now, as long as I rinse things and put them in the dishwasher at least every night, my kitchen is shining. True, I have a load of dishes that need to be unloaded, but hey! I have a baby that needs holding right?! I also have a mother's day scarf that needs 4 1/2 more repeats of lace on it, but we won't talk about that right now.

Someone also asked what we all do with those little short scraps of yarn left over from projects. You know, the ones too small to constitute a ball, but seem like they might actually be useful? Apparently some people have difficulty throwing them away. I hate to be wasteful, but I KNOW that I won't actually drag them out to do craft projects with the kids. Heck, I don't even pull out the craft supplies that we do have! I'm too lazy to pick up the mess afterwards. So, if I kept the scraps, they would just be additional clutter, so they go into the trash. I suppose I could be keeping them and donate to our little stash raffle that we have going on. Somehow, I don't think that anyone wants MORE scraps of yarn though. Someone said you could put them out for the birds to make nests from. Hey, you out there in blog land could have lots of pretty scraps of yarn for your birds to make colorful nests out of! And since some of them are wool, it would work as "wool soakers" for all those little bird babies, and those poor over worked bird mommies wouldn't have to clean their nests except every few weeks!

Hmm, I think I should step away from the keyboard and do some laundry. I'll post pictures of the aforementioned mother's day scarf once the rampant silliness has worn off.