Merry Christmas

We hope your Christmas is filled with joy and wonder. Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Traditions

This was originally posted last Christmas Eve day but it still holds true and I wanted to share it again. I edited it slightly so that it makes sense now that Little Sister is here and all. And I left the original time frame even though we were away and had to do things on different days this year. I hope you all enjoy it. :)

Simply put I love Christmas!!! It is my all time favorite time of the year. We do lots of things to make the season fun and exciting.

For us Christmas season begins on Thanksgiving night. We put on our Christmas pajamas. Well, I suppose for me the season really starts just after Halloween when I have to start making our pajamas. Every year I make the family matching Christmas pajamas (I usually only have to make Hubby's and mine every other year as I over buy fabric and then can just remake Big Brother's. I made ones for Big Brother and Big Sister last year and only had to remake for them this year - Little Sister was even able to wear Big Sister's from last year).

Then we move to my favorite day of the year. Seeing Santa, seeing Christmas windows, walking and enjoying the day as a family. Including the big Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center.

When we get home from our Thanksgiving trip we take out all of our Christmas decorations. We start putting them around the house. We have decorations for just about every room, although we could always use more. :) Little by little everything goes up during the week.

That Saturday we buy our tree. Always a real tree. I love having a real tree. I love having the pine needles all over the house for months after Christmas. I love the way the tree smells and I think it looks pretty. So, we put up the tree in the afternoon. Then we order dinner (pizza) and decorate the tree while we eat.

My favorite part of putting up the tree is looking through all of the ornaments. Every year we each get a new ornament (well, Hubby and I share one and Big Brother and Big Sister and Little Sister get one). We try to pick an ornament that tells us of the year. That reminds us of what we have been doing that year.

Of course, we have to put the decorations outside.

Sometime during the days that follow we make Christmas cookies. Just like everyone else. It is fun. Of course, then I eat too many of them and getting on the scale is not so much fun. But I digress.

The Sunday before Christmas we have a big breakfast that consists of peppermint pancakes (pancakes with crushed candy canes in them) and peppermint milk (milk with a candy cane melted in it).

Meanwhile, throughout the season Hubby and I have been watching Christmas movies at night. Someday the kids will join in on this tradition. Right now it is just Hubby and me. We watch the following: The Santa Clause, The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3, The Night The Saved Christmas, Muppets Family Christmas, Muppets Christmas Carol, One Upon A Christmas, Twice Upon A Christmas, Snow, Snow 2, Prancer, Prancer Returns, and Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas (That really is a lot of movies, we tend to put them on at night after the kids are in bed and we are trying to unwind - sometimes it takes more than one day to get through a movie).

Then on Christmas Eve we attend the pageant mass at church. I love the pageant mass. It is so beautiful. My favorite part is that at our church Santa brings the eucharist in at the end of the pageant. It reminds me of how Santa is very much a part of the spirit of Christmas.

Then we go out to dinner. Afterward we go home and bake chocolate chip cookies for Santa. We read The Night Before Christmas and the kids go to bed.

It is so much fun and I truly love it. So, I ask you..what are your Christmas traditions? Leave a comment or blog about it and leave a link. I would love to know how you celebrate. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Lights On The Lake

My family went to see our town's light display tonight. It is beautiful and I was just as mesmerized by it as I am every year. The kids were too. Big Brother pointed to just about everything in amazement and told us what he saw. Big Sister and Little Sister were unusually quiet - they were mesmerized too.

For more Wordless Wednesday see 5minutesformom, and for more Wordful Wednesday see Seven Clown Circus.

Bidazzled.com Online Auction Site

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Bidazzled. All opinions are 100% mine.

When we were first asked to take a look at Bidazzled, I thought, “Who needs another online auction site?” After all, we already have eBay, right? The thing is that, when it comes down to it, Bidazzled is quite different than eBay. Now, granted, eBay has a much, and I mean MUCH, wider selection. But, if you click through the available auctions and find something that you like on Bidazzled, why not use it? After all, a good chunk of their profits even goes to a lung cancer charity! But, how does it benefit you? Well, here is the official info. from the company: Auction winners usually save over 80% off retail. If you don't win, you receive up to 50 Bonus Bids as a thank you for participating, and you can purchase the auction item less the investment you had in the auction. Also, if you win, Bidazzled typically make an offer to buy the item back for either cash (paypal or check), cash and bids, or just bids. What is the deal with the bids? Well, on Bidazzled you pay $1 per big. Of course, when you sign up and use Promo Code BBP1202A you get 5 Bonus Bids for signing up and 15 for the code. And remember the 50 Bonus bids for losing an auction: 5 (the bonus bids) + 15 (the promo code bids) = 20 bids total, multiplied by 50 (if you lose all of the auctions you bid on. That means that you would earn 1000 bids. Man, I wrote that number and I don’t believe it. What is kind of cool, also, is that, as long as there are people bidding, the auction doesn’t end. That means that you won’t get “sniped” by someone waiting until the last second before submitting their final bid. So, I say, give it a shot. I did. I’ll let you know if I win something really cool for really cheap!

PBM Wins Lawsuit

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

You all know that I have worked very hard to provide breast milk for Little Sister. You all know how strongly I believe in breastfeeding. You all know how angry I am with Nestle for what they are doing in Ethiopia. You are probably also aware that Big Brother drank formula when he was a baby. When we picked him up from Guatemala he was drinking Similac so that is what we used. And now I think I can feel confident that they were the company I used. Because it turns out that Mead Johnson (the makers of Enfamil) are underhanded and deceiving as well.

In case you have not heard PBM Products (the company who makes generic brand formula found in Walmart, Target, and many other stores) has won a lawsuit against Mead Johnson because of a commercial they ran. The commercial insuiated that Enfamil LIPIL is healthier than generic brands. The plain and simple fact about formula is that it is regulated by the FDA, which means that ALL brands are the same nutritional value. So, the lawsuit was basically a false advertising suit and it is accurate. PBM won $13.5 million dollars. And personally, I am glad. I am glad that Mead Johnson will be paying for that one.

I only wish they could have to pay back all the families who paid extra money for Enfamil. Over time it will cost a family extra hundreds of dollars. And personally I could use that hundreds of dollars. So, I am very frustrated with Mead Johnson for kicking people while they are down. Because in truth most moms who have made the decision to feed their babies formula are already cautious and feeling a little guilty.

We all know that breast milk is best. And the truth is that all moms (even those of us who have given our babies' formula) want our babies' to be getting the best thing they possibly can. I know I was desperate for my baby to get the best thing out there. And so when someone suggests that one formula is better than another we moms are ready, willing and able to jump through whatever hoops we have to get what is best for our baby. So, Mead Johnson I say Shame on you as well.

Ethiopia - Day One

At the airport I was a ball of emotion. I was scared out of my mind. Not about the trip, not about being by myself in Ethiopia for two weeks (as that was the plan, remember?), not about the plane ride. All of those things I was feeling confident about. It was getting from the airport to the hotel and then to the orphanage that scared the beegeebees out of me. See, when we went to Guatemala the agency was supposed to pick us up at the airport but no one was there. But that was not a big deal because we stayed at the Marriot. So, we just went to the Marriot kiosk and got a shuttle. This time a kiosk would not be there if no one was there for me I would have to try calling them. I was so nervous.

And then we said goodbye to Hubby and Big Sister and Big Brother burst into tears. And my fear escalated about a thousand times. Now I was slightly panicked. Could I do this? Would we make it? Would it be okay? What if something went wrong? How would I deal all alone? What were we thinking when we decided that I should go by myself? Oh, right we were thinking we have a seven month old daughter half way around the world who has been in an orphanage her whole life and needs her family. I tried to calm down. I tried to be a source of peace for the kids. It was hard. I felt lonely. Twitter was turned off on my phone so I had no one to talk to and I was scared.

The nice thing about the incredibly LONG flight is that once you get on you are stuck. You are on that flight until you land in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. No matter how nervous you are and how scared you are and how much you think you were crazy to get on you are there and you have no choice. You are now going to Ethiopia. At least that was comforting to me. And what, you ask, do the Upstate kids do on a 15 hour flight to Ethiopia? They play hockey, of course. I mean really what else did you think they would be doing? What else are they ever doing? :)

We arrived and the agency representative was there. I swear to you I almost cried when I saw her. So there we were, Big Sister, Big Brother and I, sitting in the taxi on our way to pick Little Sister up at the orphanage. We were beyond tired. I am pretty sure I was more tired than I was after an hour of pushing at 2 in the morning. More tired than I was on any given day during Big Sister's first few months of life when I was ALWAYS tired. More tired than I have ever been. EVER. We had left home at 4:30 in the morning on Monday and it was now a little before noon on Tuesday and we had not slept well on the flight. But it did not matter. We were going forward on pure adrenaline.

We were so excited. Big Brother snapped pictures of everything he saw out the window - he was especially thrilled by the sheep, goats and donkeys. Although, I have to admit I was a little sad that Hubby was not there. I did not feel like the moment would be complete without him. I felt a little sad and a little lonely without him there. But none of that, not the sadness, not the exhaustion, not the slightly sick feeling, or the dehydration that comes along with a flight like that, mattered at all. We were on our way to get Little Sister. We would pick her up and take her back with us. We would FINALLY have her in our arms and we would be complete - even if Hubby was still in America we would be complete.

And then we pull up at the orphanage. We sit for a few minutes while the driver honks the horn waiting for the gate to be opened (most places in Ethiopia are sort of compounds and therefor have gates just to get in). I am sure it was less than two minutes but I swear to you it felt like an hour. I was sure that they were going to tell me we had to come back tomorrow. I was so anxious. I knew if I got in there I would be okay but they were not letting me. And MY BABY WAS IN THERE. I needed to get in. But no one is coming. They aren't going to give her to me.... I was on the verge of tears sitting there waiting.


And then the gate opened. And they let us in. We walk into a room that is a bustle of three caretakers (the two that work there and the one other mom who is there early to spend time with her baby girl) and fifteen babies. The woman who is in charge points to a crib to my right and says, "Your baby is over there." I look over the crib rail and there she is. The baby girl who we have waited months for. And she is beautiful. Even more beautiful than her pictures and even more amazing than I imagined. I am almost afraid to pick her up. Afraid that the minute she is in my arms I will wake up and it will all have been a dream. But I cannot help myself and I scoop her up. I am amazed at how small she is. At how delicate and dainty she is (Big Sister is NOT delicate and dainty).

The lady in charge brings chairs over and insists that the big kids sit down. The other mom is snapping pictures of us. Big Brother jumps up and sticks his face right in Little Sister's face and she gives him the biggest smile. He is encouraged and he keeps doing it. And she is instantly in love with him. She lets him make her smile and laugh until the lady decides we need to come with her and eat. But we had just gotten there and teh kids were not ready to try injera and filling. And I was too dehydrated to eat. So, we sat there, drinking some water waiting to be allowed to go back to Little Sister.

When we get back to her she has just finished a bottle. I pick her up and she immediately spits up all over me. I mean as in the entire bottle she just ate is all over me. I am wearing my nursing tank top so when they demand to clean my shirt I agree (on that note have I mentioned it is now about 2pm and I have not seen a pump since before nine am - OUCH!!). Then it is bath time for everyone (which surprised me that they bathe the children daily considering how few people do that). So, they take Little Sister and give her a bath. I try telling them that is not necessary, that I will bathe her at the hotel but they do not seem to understand. So, I watch them bathe her, get her dressed and prop another bottle in her mouth as they lay her in her crib. I hold Big Sister and rock her until she is asleep. As soon as she is asleep in my arms the lady insists that I put her down. She pulls out a cot and is very insistent that I put Big Sister on it. So, I do. And then I realize that she was covering up the fact that I was in desperate need of nursing pads.

Finally, just a little while after Big Sister has passed out on the cot they come back to pick us up. And even though the lady at the orphanage tries very hard to convince us to stay. Or better yet, to leave Little Sister. I take all three of my children and we head out to the hotel. And then I find out that my phone does not work. The internet is not working (pretty much the only time this happened the whole trip). I cannot get in touch with Hubby at all. I am so frustrated. The very nice and very helpful staff at the guest house helps me. They let me use their phone to call Hubby, who is able to call me on my phone. We talk for a little while. He is in tears at hearing Little Sister's sweet voice for the first time. Big Brother talks to him. And when we realize just how expensive it will be for us to talk for only 20 minutes per day for the next 16 days until he is due to arrive we decide that he needs to call the travel agent and come as soon as he can.

In the next few hours I feed the kids dinner, give everyone baths, get them into jammies and put them to bed. I try to sleep and find it very difficult. Hubby, on the other hand makes arrangements that will have him arriving in Ethiopia on Saturday morning. It is already Tuesday night and I go to bed knowing that in only three days he will be with us. I am thrilled. And that is the end of day one in Ethiopia. This is obviously not the whole trip. I have so much more to talk about but this is the day. The only one that really mattered. The day that we were there for. And it is oddly appropriate that I tell you all about it today because five years ago today Big Brother legally became ours.

Cloth Diapering During (International) Travel

Well, we are home now. Have been for about two weeks and I finally have enough time to write about cloth diapers during international travel, etc. If you remember, I used the new Flip Diapers from the makers of Bum Genius (for anyone who forgot, head on over here and find out how it all began). Regardless, we used the Flip System and here is how it went:

You already know that my first impressions of the Flip were overall favorable. Right off the bat, I found that they worked as well, if not better, than any other diapers. They do get mixed reviews from my family though, because Hubby was not thrilled with them, complaining that they were not easy to use. He said that they lacked the ease of the diapers we have at home. And I suppose they do - we use mostly Pockets or All-In-Ones (AIO) at home, so they are always ready to go. The Flips are an All-In-Two system and, therefore, are not just ready to go at all times.

Alright, let's start at the beginning. The first thing you have to think about when you are going anywhere is how much room are you going to have and how much room will you need. For international travel, MOST airlines allow you two 50lbs suitcases per person - including your children who have their own seats. So, for my family that meant I could take 4 suitcases (remember, Hubby did not come with me and Big Sister sat on my lap). But, of course, being allowed them on the plane does not necessarily mean I would be able to carry them all. I wound up taking two suitcases (plus carry-ons) and Hubby brought another two, though he really could not bring the diapers - I needed those the whole time. :)

The thing that is really nice about the Flip Diapers is that all three types of inserts take up very little space. They are extremely compact and you can get an awful lot of them in a very small space. The disposable and the stay dry insert take up the smallest amount of space, but even the organic (which is the largest of the three) is quite easy to pack. I brought 12 covers and 30 cloth inserts as well as 36 disposable inserts. They easily fit into the suitcase with our clothes. If I had brought 30 Pocket or AIO diapers and 36 Disposable Diapers, they would have needed their own suitcase. So, in terms of space, they were definitely a win!!

Now we are packed - all the diapers except for 18 disposable inserts and 6 covers in the suitcase, the rest in the diaper bag. I figured using the disposable inserts on the plane would be the most convenient. Plus, some of you had suggested that customs might have issues with the cloth diapers and I figured that having them clean and in the suitcase would not be a problem. The disposable inserts worked very well - even held for the ten hours she was (more or less) sleeping. The only down side to the disposable inserts is that they are more narrow than the covers and, so, whenever Big Sister had a poopy diaper, it got all over the cover. Fortunately though, the covers were PUL and, so, in a pinch I was able to rinse them off and reuse (yes, that is a little gross but what was I supposed to do 30 minutes before we landed from a 17-hour flight). The issue with the disposable inserts (aside from the environmental issue - because even though they are compostable I was certainly not trying to figure out how to compost them while in Ethiopia) is that they are not something you can get while traveling internationally. You would need to bring as many as you will need for the entire trip. Now, the inserts are tiny and maybe it would be doable to bring enough, but if you underestimate how many you need, you are out of luck.

Once we were actually overseas and started using the diapers, I fell into a pretty good routine with them. I pretty much exclusively used the organic inserts for nighttime. I could use them on either girl and they lasted all night long - without even doubling it. During the day, I mostly used the stay dry insert on Little Sister, while I mostly used the organic one on Big Sister. The organic one is rather large and, therefore, did feel very big on Little Sister and so I only used it on her overnight and prefered the stay dry inserts on her during the day. For Big Sister, I actually did not care which insert we used, but since I wanted the stay dry ones for Little Sister, I usually used the organic on Big Sister.

Of the two cloth inserts, I pretty much found them to be a wash. They both work very well - I actually had no issues with either one. As I said before, I found the organic one a little large for Little Sister. However, I liked the organic one a lot because it worked best overnight and it dried faster than the stay dry one. The stay dry one I liked a lot because it is trim and takes up very little space. But they did take ALL day to dry (we had no access to a dryer so everything had to dry in the sun). So, I think I would take both kinds with me again if I were doing it over. If I were going to pick just one, I would probably go with the organic insert. This is because if I used the stay dry one overnight, I needed two of them to prevent leaks and that would mean needing to bring extras. Plus, if I ONLY had the stay dry insert, it would have been difficult to deal with how long they took to dry. So, I suppose (now that I have written it all out) I would say I liked the organic one best, the only issue being that it is a little on the big side but you get used to it. :)

When all is said and done, I really did like the Flip diapers. We used them A LOT- 30 diapers, two kids, for a month - and they cleaned well, they did not leak, they held plenty, etc. As I said before, Hubby prefers the easier options, but I feel like the easier options would have made the actual travel part more difficult. Plus, these cleaned really well - and they were hand washed, so cleaning easily and well is a big deal. If you are going to be traveling - especially in an area where people commonly use cloth diapers - I strongly encourage you to try cloth diapering during travel. And if you are trying to decide what will be the easiest diapers to use, I say consider using the Flip Diapers while you are there. I think they may be the perfect diaper for travel. They are small, they clean easily, they even work overnight. What more can a traveling mom ask for?