3, 29, 150

Today Orson turned 3 months! I can't believe how fast/slow time is going...time just seems to warp and run without me being able to keep up with it. His 12th week of life was truly an adventure for all three of us and I'm just not sure where to start. The weather in Sacramento has been just wonderful so Orson and I have started spending more time outside. The swing that the previous owners of our house left is quickly becoming a favorite spot especially since you can currently smell the jasmine out front even in the back yard!

We didn't have a lot of time to enjoy the weather here though, since we left for Texas on Thursday to meet up with my brother Matt J, my Dad and Anne. Dad, Anne and my Matt were joining up to ride the largest MS150 in the country from Houston to Austin and Orson and I were tagging along as their support. The Friday before the ride we got together with many members of our church in Spring as well as with lots of my mom's family....Below is Orson with my Godmother and Aunt, Orson with my sister and Orson meeting his Uncle Matt for the first time.


Unfortunately (well actually I was very happy to see a real rain storm again) it started raining on Friday and dumped over 10 inches in just a few hours, canceling for the first time in its 25 year history the first day of the MS 150. We went to sleep Friday night thinking that there would be no way to ride on Saturday. But we still woke up early and decided to drive west towards Austin to see if we could get past the rain and still put the bikes down on the MS 150 route for at least part of the day. Orson (wearing the most awesome hat that our friend Theresa made and the coolest biking onsie ever, made by his Aunt Anne) was excited to see the bikes get loaded up!


We made it out to Bellville (it was still raining) and managed to meet up with more of my mom's brothers and their families to celebrate Orson and a surpise for me, my birthday. I turned 29 and I think its been over 15 years since I celebrated my birhtday in a Mexican resturant. The cream in the face was unexpected as was the yummy sophapia!


Orson enjoyed being passed around and playing with Grandpa as always.


A little while outside of Bellville we started to see bikers on the road and Matt and my Dad started iching to ride. As you can see the weather was still pretty volitile but Matt, Dad and Mr. Berson decided to put the pettal to the metal and out-ride the storm.


When they road into Fayettvile, the town was out in force to support them, as were Orson and I and my Aunt Irene and Uncle Dick. Anne decided that the rain had let up enough that she would aslo start riding....

...so we met all three of them in La Grange (the midway point between Houston and Austin) the starting point for Sunday's ride.


We were invited to eat with the Anadarco team, so Orson and I spent some time in the rain :)


The next morning, Dad and Matt decided to take the hard route and ride the hills in Bastrop State Park. Matt looked like a super hero as he started out the morning.


When the crew met up for lunch in Bastrop they all were super heros in my eyes....the flag sure made for a great picture (you can see how much wind there was....of course it was a head wind).


My single goal was to keep Orson from getting a sunburn, I'm happy to report that I suceeded!


Late Sunday afternoon, Matt, Anne, Dad and Mr. Berson rounded the corner of the finish line in Austin riding a total of 120 miles. I am so proud of all of them.



Monday we spent time relaxing and enjoying time with each other.


We also took a trip out to see mom's grave and pay our respects. For me this trip was pretty dificult, for some reason it felt like my first trip home that in my heart I felt like mom would be there even though I knew in my mind that she wouldn't. I guess I just really wanted to introduce Orson to his Grandmother.


We all headed to the airport at the same time and Orson finally gave into sleep...not even waking up to tell his Grandpa and Aunt good bye.

Oh by the way...Orson has decided that he has more control over his limbs then I am truly ready for....here are his first steps (all-be-it with his Dad's help :)

11 weeks and a Happy Easter!

Wow its been a big week in Orson's life...this Friday he suddenly and truly discovered his vocal cords, started rolling from his back onto his side and belly in pursuit of toys, really laughed out-loud for the first time and celebrated Easter! We on the other hand had a somewhat dificult week in general, Snuggles got into something in the yard and had a major allergic reaction (we had to rush her to the doggie ER), Matt's back gave out for a few days and I had an inflamation in my left breast that hurt like the dickens as well as a sore throat....the good news is that we have all recovered in time to leave for TEXAS next Thursday! Below are the pictures and movies to prove it all.

Normal Snuggles:


Swollen (this is post shot once the swelling had gone down!) Snuggles:

Orson reaching for his toys:

He looks more and more like Smetek on some days (he was watching the races with his Dad and I couldn't resist taking this pictures):

He is loving belly time now that I prop him up on the boppy pillow sometimes:

For Easter we went to the early mass and then "participated" in the Easter egg hunt afterwards. Actually Orson feel asleep at communion but we still wanted him to get his first Easter egg:

After mass we came home, took a family picture and then opened the Easter basket:

(Orson is actually sitting on his own in the picture and not proped up against the couch!)

Later that day Dan and Theresa came over and we made a deliciouse cake to share:



And last but best...Orson laughing out loud!

Bath Time

Orson took his first bath in the big tub yesterday with me....we had a blast and he seems to be a natural swimmer. He even did the frog kick on his back! He floated along and was only upset when it was time to get out. The pictures turned out great, so I thought I would post one.


By the way, Matt dressed Orson over the weekend (he thinks I am trying to force Orson to stay in the size 3-6 month clothes so he wanted to prove his point) and put him in some of the 6 month outfits that people have been sending (thank you very very much). Unfortunately, I have to admit that the 6 month onesies and jumpers do fit better then the 3 month ones (the bottoms are coming unsnapped again)...I guess its time to pack up the 3 months and start in on the 6 before he out grows those too. The good news is that he still fits in the 3-6 month separates, so all is not lost :)

Diapers cloth vs paper, bumgenius vs happy heinies

As many of you know, Matt and I decided to go the cloth diapering route with Orson and I thought I would fill everyone in on how it is going (some were very skeptical).

When Orson was first came home we tried the cloth diapers out right away but because his legs were so thin, we ended up using the swaddlers instead (he kept blowing the cloth diapers out). This made us worry that we had made the wrong decision, but once he put on a little weight, the cloth diapers began to work wonderfully.

There are now so many options out there for cloth diapers that I was a little overwhelmed trying to decide on one kind, so in the end I gave multiple kinds a try. The normal prefold diapers worked great and I would recommend then to anyone. But Matt had a harder time with them since you have to put them on and then a cover over them. If you do go this route (it is the cheapest and the diaper services use these) make sure to always get covers with gussets on them That extra bit of fabric really keeps everything in with only the occasional leak.

I also found some bumgenius (BGs) 2nds online and decided to but a few and give them a try (since they were discounted). BGs are one-size fits all (they have multple snaps that make the diaper bigger or smaller depending on the baby) insert diapers. Matt always does the night time diapers for me, so I would reserve these for him to use since they are as easy as paper diapers and pretty soon he had me convinced that the all-in-one/one-size fits all was the way to go. So we decided to make a large perchuse to bring our diaper count up to 18 total.

Before I completly commited (all-in-ones are expensive) I decided to do some more online research and found out that there were multiple one-size fits all options out there (from our baby classes I thought that bumgenius was the only option in this catagori). After doing a lot of reading I narrowed the field down to BGs and happy heinies (HHs) (this was based on price, reviews and yes I will admit it, color choices). I knew that the BGs worked but I loved the colors and print available with Happy Heinys. I scoured that web but I could find no deffinate answer on which kind was better, so I decided to order 9 of each kind. After using them for about a month I can honestly say that I like each kind equally. The BGs have a great flap in the back that holds the insert in better but the HHs have better velco to fasten the diaper on with....the BGs tabs to fasten the velcro to in the wash work better but the HHs prints and colors are more fun. Both wash easily and well and both are just plain easy to use since they work pretty much like paper diapers. So for all of you out there trying to make a decision between the two, go with the ones you like the look of best, I think you will be happy.

As a side note we also are using cloth wipes instead of throw away ones. We keep a thermos of warm water and a spray bottle of bum cleaner at our changing station and just throw them in the pail with the diapers...if you use disposable wipes with cloth diapers you have to keep a diaper pail and a trash can in the nursery and you have to be awake enough to remember which one goes in which pail :)

I know that paper diapers seem super easy and cheaper (if you are thinking short term) but I definately recommend going the route of cloth diapers and cloth wipes if you can, sure I do luandry every other day (if you don't want to do this there are multiple diaper services out there) but Orson has never had diaper rash, except for our long weekend in Denver when he wore paper diapers (we had multiple blow outs and he ended up with a rash....he actually smiled when we took off the papers and replaced them with the cloth ones when we got home) and we have saved a ton of money (we aren't spending $50 a week in diapers which means our big upfront spending has paid for itself in 2 months).