Mommy...so glad you were born!

LOVE this day.

My mom has always been there for me. But not only that, I know she will always be there for me. My number one cheerleader. The things I am most proud of, the accomplishments in my life that mean the most to me, all of them, I know I could not have achieved without my mom. She is the most wonderful, selfless, amazing woman I know.

My mom is a mother. Sounds redundant, I know. But I think that if a stranger were to spend one minute talking with my mother this fact would be instantly clear. She is my mother, its true. But if you limited the number of children she has been a mother to simply by recognizing only those who she actually gave birth to, you would be leaving out countless individuals. People who were lost, and found their way because of her. People who needed love, and for whom she made room in her heart, so they would always have a place to call home. People who were scared, and she comforted. People who felt worthless, but because of her were able to see a small glimpse of what their Heavenly Father sees in them. People whose lives were changed because she was willing to give them a chance. 

My mom is also a grandmother. I am so grateful, and I know my siblings feel the same way, that my children have this incredible lady in their lives! 

My mom is smart. She loves reading and she loves writing. She loves learning and growing. She loves teaching. So much of what I know to be true, I have learned from my mother. 

My mom is funny. Seriously, this woman is a hoot. 

My mom is strong, and selfless. She is beautiful and humble. She is everything I want to be. 

Chris, Christine, Christy, Sister Clubb, Mom, Mother, Mama, Lady, Nanny, Nay-nay. 

Happy Happy Happy Happy Birthday. I love you so. 

My no shampoo do...

I didn't used to be this way. Honestly, I do not know what happened, but somewhere along the line I became a little bit hippy dippy. I think we can pretty effectively blame Pinterest...

I cloth diaper. I make my own laundry detergent. I have every intention of making Kylan's baby food. And now this. I no longer use shampoo. (For the record, this hippy dippy-ness... totally not a bad thing! I don't want anyone to think that I mean any disrespect. It's just that I have known me my whole life, and it is surprising to me how I am much more crafty, home made, natural this and that, and less processed than I ever really imagined I would be...)

I found this post on Pinterest, and decided "Eh, why not..."

For those of you who do not feel inclined to read the original post, although if you really want to know what this "no poo" business is all about I definitely would encourage you to, I will give you a little run down. Shampoo uses chemicals to strip your hair and remove the dirt and oil. In the process it also removes all of the good oils and nutrients that your hair needs. To compensate, your scalp then over-produces these oils, which means that you then need to wash it again, so it over-produces again and on and on... You get the picture. With this no shampoo system, you use baking soda and vinegar (two extremely cheap items, which you probably already have) to wash and condition your hair. This way you gets to keep all the good, happy junk, but your hair still gets nice and clean. The result is healthier, shinier, and in general, more awesome looking hair that you have to wash a lot less often. There are two different methods described in the post. If you are interested you can read about them. I am using method number 1. 

I am a weird kind of girl. I don't own a single item of make-up, and my clothing article of choice would most definitely have to be sweats, but I am not exactly a tom boy. Basically the point is, that is not changing! I am still going to spend less than 5 minutes doing my hair, but perhaps with this new plan, it will be healthier :)

I am going to do this first post about it as a kind of running report... After the first few weeks I shall post it and then I think I will keep you updated every now and then.

About half a week after starting: I am gonna go ahead and tell you, its a little strange. But thus far my hair feels clean and honestly I haven't really noticed any difference.

About a week of no shampoo: Ok, so I am gonna be honest. My hair is feeling not so great these past few days. I now understand what she meant by "cottony"... Its not so much that it feels dirty, because it's not, it just feels weird and I am leaning more towards the bad kind of weird. I still have a few days of the "adjustment phase so we shall see how things are lookin later this week!

Two Weeks: I hit the two week mark yesterday! Crazy, crazy. So far, I am still a big fan. In fact, in the past few weeks my love for baking soda and vinegar has exploded. These magical ingredients make delicious food, clean my hair, and my sink, and my garbage disposal, and my shower, and pretty much my whole house... Just sayin. But anyway, back to my hair. I should be through the transition phase and on to reaping the benefits of this no poo lifestyle! I will check soon and let you know what's up! (I would also like to point out that I got my mama and my sister to jump on this no poo bandwagon! Wooo baby. My mom started a few days after me, and my sister started yesterday... so far my mom loves it!)

Three weeks: My hair is feeling pretty good... most of the cottony feeling is gone, and after three weeks I still love this whole no shampoo business. Plus the other day I found a recipe for some shaving cream stuff and it uses shampoo and conditioner, which I happen to have and happen to not need!

So it has now been about a month since I last used shampoo! Honestly, my hair doesn't really feel that different then it did when I used shampoo. It took a while for me to get the hang of using the baking soda and vinegar. But I think that between my mom, Katie, and me we have figured out a pretty good system! The other day I noticed that there were parts of my hair that felt dirty. For the most part my hair was past the adjustment phase and felt normal, but there were sections that were pretty much just yucky. I was getting discouraged, but then I talked to my sister about it. She suggested using the baking soda before I wet my hair, that way I can tell where I have missed and none of my hair gets left out. She also told me that mom had suggested doing the baking soda twice. I tried it this way and success! My hair felt much better. Four and a half weeks of no shampoo and I am still a fan! 

Seven Months!!!

This month has been such an exciting one! I am so grateful that I am able to stay home with my little man. I love seeing each tiny little thing he learns, and he learns something new every single day!

If we were rounding, we are definitely closer to one year than we are to birth. Oh man, now that is a crazy thought! My little niece, Claire, just turned one and I tell you what I do not think I am ready for Kylan to be so grown up!

Kylan is almost 29 inches and weighs 18 pounds and 9 ounces. Oh how I love this skinny little giant of mine.

He is now fitting in 12 month clothing, and has pretty much out grown all things 6 months. He is most definitely ready for his new carseat, and really the only reason he isn't already using it is.... a big fat lot of procrastination on my part. But those days are done. Kiddo just doesn't want to be in his little bitty seat anymore.

About a week after Kylan turned six months old, he joined the army... crawlers that is! So the beginning of this new year also marked the beginning of chasing him around, babyproofing, and vacuuming like mad (Like all the way down the hallway. This is serious business! I am not generally an everyday kind of vacuumer, but Kylan has taken it upon himself to help me become one)... I love watching him use his little arms and legs. He gets up on his hands and knees really well too. Used to be that he would just hang out on all fours, but then when he wanted to move he would drop to his tummy. Here lately he is able to move his legs forward, and he is even getting the hang of moving his hands forward. He just needs to put it all together and we will be in full-blown crawling mode!

*Update!!! I wrote most of this post last week and have just been waiting to publish it till I got a new memory card to take Kylan's seven month pictures.... point being: He crawled!!! This morning (1/30/13) he crawled. Seriously. We are talkin hands and knees people! So exciting :) I can't even believe how big this kid is!

The middle of January (Monday the 14th, not that we really need to be that specific) Kylan began making consonant sounds and babbling. I love everything he does, but this. Oh dear, this is just so cute. Mostly he says "ba ba ba" --- My family likes to make fun of me, because I make the distinction... its not so much a baw; it is a short 'a' kind of ba... but they can ba-ba-ba-bite me. Yeah, Mom and Katie I am talking to you! :) My kid says ba! Bahaha alright, stepping off my babbling soapbox--- He has also been know to stick his tongue out while talking (which is my favorite!) so it sounds more like "blab blab blab". And just the other day he discovered how to make the /m/ sound so we heard a little bit of "ma ma ma" action. I love his little voice. I really don't care what he is saying, it is music to my ears!

He loves seeing his daddy (daddy equals instant smile!), reading stories, taking baths, listening to music, watching his mama dance like a crazy lady, playing with his toys, eating everything he can get his hands on, looking out the window, and rolling all over the place.... but I think I must say, his favorite pastime is getting into anything and everything that he is not supposed to! Somehow all babies seem to be programmed to instantly find all of the "not for babies" objects within a 10 foot radius.

Still no food going on here, I kept thinking "Oh, seven months sounds like a good time to start food..." but then out of no where seven months was like a week away, and now that it is here I am still not sure I want to go down that road yet! Maybe seven and a half months? :) Although we have made some progress! I unwrapped my Baby Bullet, continued falling madly in love with it, and poured over the little recipe book! While I may not be super enthusiastic about the actual feeding him real food business, I am ecstatic about the prospect of making his baby food. Strange, I know. But I haven't been the most logical lady my entire life, why start now! :)

Kylan sleeps 10-12 hours straight pretty much every night. And he is a pro at putting himself to sleep for his naps nowadays. There are still days, more often than I would like, where he is convinced that 5:30 is a good time to wake up in the morning, but hey there are worse things!

Kylan still loves being held. I was afraid that as he became more and more mobile that he would like being held less, but so far that is not the case! He especially loves to snuggle when he wakes up from his nap. In fact, if you even try putting him down, he let's you know, quite loudly, that he is just not okay with that plan! Ryan and I both love to take advantage of this time. There is just nothing better than a snuggly baby.

Behind the scenes of a squirmy worm photo shoot!