Happy belated Valentine's Day

Not related to this post. He just hates snowsuits.

I disappeared for a while. I had a lot to say, but nothing really seemed appropriate to follow up my last post about Jack, and honestly I didn't feel like posting about the various things we've been doing to keep busy. But busy we have stayed. Elliott has mastered bye-bye, will give kisses when he feels like it, and is trying really hard to get the bravery up to take steps. I also figured out that he is signing "more", and has been for a while, but he does it a little differently than I do. Instead of putting his hands together, he hits one hand on the table, floor, or nearest surface. He hasn't figured out clapping yet, so this is his variation.

I've been sewing, knitting, and reading like a madwoman- losing myself in projects and getting through winter. And, since I am a little crazy, I've decided to make life a little more complicated in the name of getting "greener". I meant to start recycling when we moved to Ann Arbor, but it just never really happened. Then I read a post by a friend who told all about how she had to sort her recycling in the laundry room and then drive to the recycling center to give it to them, and I realized that I was being a total jerk not utilizing the curbside recycling service the city offers. It is a little more work, but we have a smaller amount of trashbags going into our bigger trash bin. This isn't the crazy part though. This is just not being so wasteful when it is really so easy to recycle.

The CRAZY part is that I somehow allowed myself to get curious/guilty enough about cloth diapering to try it. I intended to way back before we decided to have a kiddo, but then as part of the deal I struck with my boss that I would bring the baby to work with me and the longstanding policy against cloth diapering, I struck that idea and stocked up on Huggies. I love Huggies. They are wonderful. But then, you know the statistics on diapers in landfills, and I had fifty jillion cloth prefold diapers just lying around (because Elliott has spit up on something everyday since he was born). So today, I gave it a shot.

It wasn't that big a deal. I mean, I need to stay on top of laundry, because EW, but I figure while we're just kicking it at home it could be an option. I just stuck these waterproof little covers over them and it was easy peasy. We have rubber pants too, but Elliott seemed much more aware of those. Anyway, I'm not a convert yet, but I tried it. It was fine. I'll keep some huggies though just in case.

Finally, I'd like to show you a couple of videos. The first is Elliott doing what he does best, which is finding things he shouldn't really have and playing with them much longer than he would any of the jillion toys we have. I know you shouldn't let babies play with plastic sacks, but we never left him unattended.

Elliott discovers my junk drawer from Nicki Ingram on Vimeo.

Also, he got some cutie pie valentines from Memaw and Grandma and Grandpa Ingram today. One of them played music, so he really liked dancing to that. Fair warning, the song restarts if the card is moved, so you will hear the first line of the song thirty times. If you aren't a country fan, you might want to mute it and pretend he is dancing to something else. And please pretend I don't sing along. Thanks.

Valentines from Grandma and Grandpa from Nicki Ingram on Vimeo.