Some teeth!

You can kind of see Hannah's two bottom teeth. So cute!!!

If you're in the market for a high chair

The kind with a net at the bottom is very handy for little Chihuahuas who want to catch any dropped food before it even hits the floor!

Wow, a new catalog

So I'm basically putting together an online catalog for my sock store. For some reason I didn't think it would be this much work, but I don't know why I thought that! I actually have more varieties of socks than I thought I would at first, and I'm excited about that! I've been entering the descriptions of the socks and also retrieving info on each type of fiber, and learning more about designing websites than I ever imagined! Fortunately the template I'm using is awesome and there are great tutorials. (I'm using shop kit plus http://www.waterswebshops.com/ and I recommend them.) It's overwhelming at first, but I'm slowly but surely figuring out what I need to know. I was able to successfuly point my domain name to my shop kit plus store and also redirect the nameservers, when a week ago I didn't know what a nameserver was. (Oh, I still don't know, but I know how to redirect them!)

I bought a new camera today, too! I'm excited about that, my old was was getting kind of limited. I'll have even better pictures of Hannah! I took some sample photos of my mom's socks while we were in the store and I liked the way they came out. So the project this week will be photographing socks and uploading the photos. We'll be ready to go soon!

Bamboo-licious

I've been trying out new socks as they come in. The most recent pair was a pair of bamboo socks, and they are so nice! They are soft and obviously very durable and strong. They feel silky! Another nice quality is that they do not slip around on my feet! They are quite thin, and typically I don't care for thin socks, but even though they are thin they feel good with shoes! They come out looking nice after being washed also.

Bamboo is a great source for fiber for clothing. It requires very little, if any, watering; it mostly is watered by rain water. No pesticides are required, so bamboo is easily and naturally organic. Bamboo is a grass, so when it is harvested, it simply continues to grow, which improves soil stability. Bamboo also grows very quickly. Bamboo fabric is naturally bacteria-resistant, it also offers UV protection (not a big deal with socks, I suppose!) and also absorbs moisture. Compared to cotton, bamboo will feel dryer against the skin. (That is a good quality to have for socks!) The fabric is breathable. Bamboo fabric keeps you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

The main down side is that most if not all of the bamboo used for textiles is grown in China. I will have bamboo socks in my store and will look for companies that employ fair labor practices.

Bamboo is good stuff!!

My 16 year old poodle

This is Rudy. He turned 16 in August! He has slowed down quite a bit over the last few years, but he's doing pretty well for an old guy. When he was a puppy, I told him I wanted him to hang out with me at least until I was 40. I turned 40 this week, so he made it! Rudy came to live with me when he was four months old, the best Christmas present ever! His parents were my parents' dogs, Molly and Scooter. I was living in Sacramento at the time, in graduate school. I even moved into a different apartment so I could have Rudy! He was such a fun puppy! Such a little cutie! Since he was small, he didn't do a whole lot of damage, although he did tear up a stuffed fish. He's been on a lot of road trips with me, been camping, and been a good buddy all these years. At times, he was the only consistent thing in my life! Or so it seemed. When I found out I was pregnant, I was really hoping Rudy would still be around to meet my baby, and she's nine months old already! Yay, Rudy! Sometimes it seems like his last day will be soon, but for the most part he's doing really well and doesn't seem to be in pain. When I take him for a walk, though, the only thing that gets exercised is my patience! He is SO slow! He's had a good life, but I will be so sad when he does go.

I showed up on Google!

I just googled "the sox club" and my web page was first! That is the name of my new business, so how exciting to see that! The web page is still under construction, but hopefully will be up in a couple of weeks. I just signed up for my shopping cart, and I have to learn how to put all that together. Maybe I'll have it ready by the time the socks get here, we shall see. It'll be ready when it's ready. So the search engines have found me! This is a good thing!

We interrupt this blog with some grunting

Hannah was in her high chair playing with some cereal and pizza crust (yes, I let her eat pizza crust!) when I was typing in my last blog entry. I hadn't finished the first sentence when I heard her start grunting. This is a grunt that any parent of any baby would recognize- it's the grunt that means "I'm pooping" or "I'm about to poop." Since I was fortunate enough to learn about EC (elimination communication) before Hannah was born, what I did when I heard the grunting was pick her up and take her to a potty. She has a little potty that she sits on, and that's where she, well, goes potty. So instead of changing a poopy diaper, I clean out a little potty bowl. Much cleaner! Much less messy! Much preferred to poopy diapers! Oh, I haven't changed a poopy diaper in a month, and have only changed two since Thanksgiving. When she used to poop multiple times a day, we would still have days without a poopy diaper, or days with only one instead of five. Pretty cool, I think!

There's lots of information about EC on the internet, and it's not as weird as it sounds! I say that, because it sounded weird to me at first. In fact, I wasn't going to try it at first, but eventually I did decide to try it. Here's a website: http://www.diaperfreebaby.com/ Note: "diaper free" and "diaperless" are not the same thing. I use diapers with Hannah, it's just that diapers generally aren't our primary place for going potty. They are "back up" or like really thick underwear. Underwear that gets peed in from time to time!

The idea with EC is to learn when your baby needs to eliminate, and provide them with a place to do so. When Hannah was first born, her signals for potty were very strong, once I knew what I was looking for. Now they are more subtle, and what I try to do is offer her a chance to go potty when she wakes up from a nap, after nursing, and throughout the day when I think about it. Some days she is dry all day long, other days I have six or more "misses." It's pretty cool! At night, if she's squirmy, I take her potty. If she doesn't squirm, I don't take her. Some nights she wakes up dry in the same diaper she wore to bed. Other nights I change her diaper two or three times and she soaks her diaper. It's not a big deal, either way!

EC can be practiced part time or full time, one time per day or all day long. Some moms who do it do choose not to use diapers. I think that's neat, but that's not what would work fo rus. Hannah has on a diaper or training pants most of the time. (Sometimes she doesn't, but I think most babies have some nakey bum time from time to time!)

We started doing this when Hannah was four or five days old. I was going to start at birth, but since I ended up having a c-section, I really wasn't able to hold her over a potty at first. (I couldn't even change her diaper myself at first.) When she was four or five days old, she pooped all over the wall near the changing table during a diaper change. I was so excited, because I figured she was telling me she didn't want to poop in her diaper! So shortly after that I held her over my bathroom sink, made a "s-s-" sound, and she peed! At home I use the little potty or my sink, when we're out and about we use a potty that I have in the car, or a toilet. Actually, from very early on, she began to "hold it" while we were out and about and wait until we got home to go potty.

The two obvious benefits are fewer poopy diapers and no diaper rash! It's a neat communication that we have, too. It's definitely an interesting journey! It's just part of how I take care of her.

An oatmeal tip

I eat oatmeal every day, sometimes twice a day. I read that it is good for breastmilk production, so I eat it. I'd be content to eat it with tons of sugar every day, but that just doesn't seem like a good idea! So instead, I put some cinnamon and some nutmeg in my oatmeal. It tastes like a warm little oatmeal cookie! Yum!

I just ordered a bunch of socks!

I've ordered socks from three different companies now. I have a selection of organic cotton, cotton and hemp blend, wool, and bamboo! I'm still waiting for a catalog and some samples from another manufacturer, and I plan to order from them as well. I also ordered sock monkeys from Maggie's organics, and I can't wait to see them in person! Now my job is to figure out how to do the web site thing. When the socks come in I'll take pictures of them and then get rolling. Paula says she'll subscribe to my sock club, she may be my first customer! My mom wants to buy some new socks, too!

I'm pretty excited!!

More thoughts on the nine month mark

I was just thinking about how very different the last nine months have been compared to the previous nine months! I thought that when I became pregnant, my entire world changed. In retrospect, it was just a minor shift compared to having a baby! I am really enjoying my nine month old baby.

A photo from New Year's Day

This is Hannah on New Year's Day. She's wearing a bamboo sweatshirt over her organic cotton t-shirt. She has organic cotton legwarmers, as well, and even a bamboo diaper! Not all of her clothes are made from these materials, but on New Year's Day I felt like dressing her that way! She's cute no matter what, that is for sure!

Christmas photo

A little late, but here's a picture of Hannah Christmas morning. It was fun watching her with the boxes, bows, paper, and new things with tags! Tags are a big favorite of hers. She got some new toys and clothes and books from some family members, not too much, just the right amount! We got to see lots of family members! It was a nice Christmas.

Ecological savings

I just found this link where you can enter a quantity of t-shirts and it will calculate the "ecological savings" of purchasing hemp t-shirts rather than a shirt made from cotton grown with pesticides. For 20 shirts, which most of us will use in the next 10 years, the savings in water is 14,900 gallons. The savings in terms of chemical fertilizer is 3.36 pounds. The savings in terms of pesticides is .02 pounds. That just for 20 shirts!! Here's the link, it's in about the middle of the page: http://www.threehighguys.com/theguys/Ecological.html

Nine in, Nine out

Hannah is nine months old today! When I was pregnant, I remember reading about the concept of "nine in, nine out" meaning that a baby gestates inside the womb for nine months, and should be held or carried for the nine months after birth. (And beyond, of course, but in particular for the first nine months.) I have made it a point to carry her or have her on me in a wrap, sling, or carrier since she was born. In the beginning I struggled with people wanting to hold her, then setting her down when they were done holding her. (Why didn't they just give her back to me??) I remember even at one potluck a friend was holding her, then put her down and said, "So and so told me to put her down." Well, that person is not her mother, I am! So I just held her myself, for the most part. My parents have held her a lot, too, but it's mostly just been me holding her. How lucky am I! The idea behind this, as I understand it, is to hold them close and give them all the security and touch they need, and when they are ready, they will be more independent.

Hannah must have known that the nine month mark was a time to become more independent, because JUST THIS WEEK she has shown many signs of being independent! She even crawls into another room, out of my line of vision! I mean, with me out of her line of vision. Up until this week, when I needed to go to the bathroom, typically I would plop her down on the floor while I went, then scoop her back up when I was done. Sometimes I would even hold her then, but mostly not after the first three months. She would frequently fuss when I set her down, and I would talk to her and pick her back up as soon as I could. Just the other day, she just crawled away! It was so funny to see! Later that day, she was playing not too far from the bathroom, and I just casually went to the bathroom without moving her. It was so nice! Honestly, for the first hour or so, it was so strange to have her be so independent. I didn't even recognize her. But then I embraced the transition and have been enjoying a little bit of time to get some things done. She still needs to be close, and spends a lot of time in the carrier, but she is definitely maturing in the area of being independent.

I feel so good about this! I am happy that her independence is something that she has matured into, and not something that I have forced onto her. I'm happy about how the last nine moths have gone!! And happy 9 month birthday, Hannah!

(photo taken back in August)