EC Progress~!

Hey everybody!

So I thought I'd give you all an update as to how William's journey in elimination communication (EC) is going.

For a quick rundown of what EC is all about you can check out this post though obviously our strategy with William has been a little different.
Firstly, I started sooner (aka first week of life) and also we haven't rocked the floor-potty as much as the seat-insert because I was not looking forward to having to lug around one of those for outings again.

Every morning with William

Much like with Ella, we always start the day off with a trip to the bathroom so that he can relieve his bladder after a night of sleep. Truth be told, at least a couple of days a week he'll wake up in the same dry diaper we put him in the night before, so that's a good sign that his bladder continence is doing well.

During this time, we mainly read books or play "this little piggy" and other baby games to keep his experience pleasant and relaxed. And we always point out when he begins urinating with, "William's going pee-pee!" so that he gets the connection right away.

Aside from that, most of the day is pretty diaper-reliant unless we're outside and the weather's great, at which point he enjoys a lot of diaper-free time. And there's been a pretty cool development as of this week! When I'm outside and say "William let's go pee-pee on the grass", he's been responding quite well! I'll assume a squat and point to the grass, and he'll come over and squat too and pee if there's anything in his bladder! So that's been a pretty good milestone, in my opinion. :)

Maybe it's the very hot/dry weather we've been having, but it seems he's been able to go longer before eliminating so if I can just start making bathroom trips even more of a regular thing, that should cut down on diaper use even more~

A little dazed, but happy!

So yep!
That's all I have to say about that~
If you have little diaper-clad ones, are you trying any EC?
Like I say, just keeping the mind-bladder connection alive and well is going to help wonders with getting your kiddo out of diapers sooner than not~

Until next time, take care and Happy EC Progress!

A Lovely Sunday

Yo yo~!

How is everybody doing?
Enjoying this fine summer-like weather, I hope~
Today was a very productive day!

After a pancake breakfast made with love by Dash, the kiddos and I headed to yet another strawberry field -- this time at Rigor Farm -- to pick strawberries for eating fresh/frozen.

Small but sweet!!

I made a shout-out to some Peach Blossom mamas, and was joined by Miss Angelica and her sweet family. :) Miss Angelica was so sweet to help with a very tired/uncooperative William while her daughter entertained Ella Rose. I must remember to do that from now on to go berry-picking with other adults, because taking one both kids by myself is too tiring!! >_0;

Since I had given the morning to Dash to do his work, when I got back I got to do my work!
I will be blogging about the fruits of that work in the next day or two -- don't want to ruin the surprise or anything ;)

This is what Dash and the kids were up to while I was busy:

Chalk outlines with a mythical twist!

Fun a the fountains downtown!

When they got back, Dash gave them a bath (more water!), then we ordered dinner in because none of us were feeling like cooking -- plus the fridge was empty! Thank God for El Sol de Mexico!! :)

Anyway, just about wraps it up.
So much outside time and inside/focused time for both the little ones and the mamas/papas.
William was spent after his big day and went to sleep at 7:30.
Buyaaaa~

Now to watch another episode of Downton Abbey~ Weeeee~~
Until next time, take care and Happy Lovely Sunday!!

Get Outdoors Day!

Hey everyone!

Do you know what today is?
National Get Outdoors Day!!
Some local organizations put together an event at the Peavy Arboretum to celebrate the day. It included guided hikes, fishing, and other things.

When we got to the Arboretum, there were so many cars that we had to go to the overflow parking lot and wait for the shuttle to come by and get us. That gave us ample time to wander through the field by the lot, and even stumble upon the local "Society for Creative Anachronism" dueling with lances and shields and such!
What a treat!!

It was so beautiful -- not a cloud in the sky, wildflowers all over, and of course my children :)

The Dashiell Duo~

Bouquet of wildflowers, anybody? 

At the Arboretum, we took a long walk through the forest and it was just beautiful. William was a bit of a handful because he should've been asleep but wasn't, and he was determined to walk even though it meant off-path or super meandering. Oy ve, so we tried to hold him as much as we could.

Reshaping Daddy's face, heh :P

At Cronemiller Lake, they had poles and bait available for the kiddos so Ella got to have her second fishing experience ever! It was much more "real" than the Hatchery one, so even after casting and reeling and waiting for 20 minutes...we got no bites, so no fish.

She's becoming a natural~?

Still, it was a good time. Just walking together as a family and enjoying the rich forest all around us felt so good for the soul... It's kind of unsettling how few and far between such experiences can be. I mean, I get the kids "out" but that mainly means manicured parks or along the sidewalks and such...but I need to make a conscious effort to bring them into nature more. Hopefully it will be happening more this summer what with traveling to campsites in the camper. We're even thinking of buying a set of fishing rods/tackle for ourselves so we can catch more of our own meals while we're out and about. Mm-hm!

Anyway, after that, we returned home to welcome Ella's good friend Clara who'd be spending the rest of the day with us. We hit up this "Summer Celebration" event put on at the Osborn Aquatic Center -- it was a completely free event, that included food from local restaurants, caricatures, massages, pet adoption, and more!
We mainly stuck to the shallow water on behalf of the kids, and got to meet some friends there too :)

Happy children~

They had an intern going around taking high-quality photos - yay!

And that just about wraps up our day.
Lots of fun in the sun, for sure!
How did you spend National Get Outdoors Day?
I hope you had a good one and a good rest of the weekend in store as well.
Until next time, take care and Happy Get Outdoors Day!!

Regal Ella

Hi everybody!

Just thought I'd share this cute photo of Ella with you:

Maybe it's the Downton Abbey I just started watching, but doesn't she look so ridiculous in her attempt to be prim and proper? Just like the characters in the show! Ha!

Love that smile~~
And that flower on her head is one of the paper ones I made for her birthday. We still have them all...and are trying to figure out what to do with them/where to put them.
Any suggestions? Let me know!!

Well, until next time take care and Happy Regal Ellas!!

The She Project

Howdy ho!

Today was the reception to an "art" project I took part in nearly a month ago that I've been dying to share with you. :)

I was invited to partake in the annual She Project by a friend, and so spent the evening of May 10th among women of all ages and walks of life to respond to a phrase using whatever medium we liked as long as it fit within a 8 1/2" x 11" frame. Oh, and we only had two hours to do so.

The She Project's been going on for 9 years, but apparently this may be the last one for a while because the lady in charge of it wants to take a break. It's a lot of work organizing it and setting up all the pieces at the end. But I hope she knows what a wonderful exercise in creativity and spontaneity it is for so may ladies in the community!

Below if my piece:

"She found the courage to reach for it."

Each and every piece was something to behold. So many mediums, such varied phrases, and great interpretations. Here are some pieces I particularly enjoyed:

"She noticed that her scarf was way too long...
...and chose to share her strength."

You also had the option of "finishing" the rest of the quote. Like I could have transformed my quote into "She found the courage to reach for it...and realized she already had it." Or something like that :)

"She questioned whether to build walls or bridges."

"Her home was cool...
Almost as cool as her shoes."

Anyway, there are probably around 100 of these responses and they're going to be displayed in the Corvallis Public Library's main meeting room for the remainder of June.

If you don't have something like this in your community yet...go ahead and start it! It can be done individually at home, or in a group setting. The ladies who took part in this are not all necessarily artists, but they all definitely revealed a little of themselves in this project.

Until next time, take care and Happy She Project!!

Strawberries

Hola hola!

These past two days have been strawberry-filled days indeed!
Let me tell you about it~~

On Sunday, the whole family headed out to the Lebanon Strawberry Festival to watch Ella Rose perform in public for the first time! :)
Ever since April, Ella has been practicing with her "dance troupe" through the local Parks & Rec program to perform a cute little number for an audience at the Festival. The tiny troupe is only five girls, but the day of the performance...only three of them turned out!

The other girls are 7 and 8, so Ella is the youngest by 3 years!

So a little improvisation was called for, and below is the result!

We stuck around to enjoy the other performances -- all of which were put on by the Cascade Performing Arts Center where Ella's teacher, Lisa Russell, works.
After that, we scadaddled home to host some company -- Sophie and the gang once again! -- and had a grand old time with homemade Shirley Temples, Ella's fresh-caught fish, and The Little Mermaid at the end. Ha! :D

Then, today I took the kids strawberry-picking for the first time ever! It was also my first time in the States (somehow I recall going いちご-picking in Japan...go figure!)

We went to Fairfield Farm where it's $1/lb for spray-free strawberries - yay!
We were the only ones in the field, so that was nice, but between trying to keep William from eating the dirt, and keeping Ella focused on the task, it was a not exactly a walk in the park.
Nah, I shouldn't say that -- Ella Rose really was very patient to crouch among the vines with me for as long as she did, and poor William had fallen asleep on the way only to be prematurely awoken upon our arrival, so I can't blame him.

Nevertheless, this is how I felt when we finally got home and had a a whopping 5 pounds to show for it:

Blisssssss~!

We promptly, washed, hulled, and then boiled four of the five pounds to make homemade jam!

Our little army of jams~!

I am a fan of the freezer-jam route, because you can get away with less sugar and no pectin even. Ha!
The big jar on the left was the least officially canned (because we have no lid for it!) so it will be our go-to jam for the week. I look forward to putting it on biscuits, pancakes, and toast. We already enjoyed it with our brinner tonight too. Yum!!

Well!
That's all for now.
I foresee many more strawberry-picking adventures, especially when my mom comes into town in a couple of weeks. She loves to participate in things that get your hands dirty, that might make you sweat a bit, but ultimately feel so rewarding at the end -- plus, she can entertain the kids when they've reached their capacity for picking in the fields ;)

Until next time, take care everyone and Happy Strawberries!!

Great Start to June! :)

Hey all!

Yesterday was such a big, glorious day that I plum fell right asleep with the kiddos at an early 9pm from sheer exhaustion.

So here is what we all did!

Firstly, Dash and I split up kiddo duty with him taking Ella Rose and me taking William.
While I headed down to the Farmers Market to pick up an order of honey, Ella and Dash went...fishing!!

That's right! A fish hatchery nearby was allowing free fishing in their waters for the day and they even supplied poles and other gear, with a limit of two fish for kids 5 and under. Another friend and her daughter joined them and together they had a great time.
Just look at the fish Ella caught!!!

A 1.5 lb Rainbow Trout~ We ate him for dinner tonight...

Meanwhile, I followed my Farmers Market errand with a trip to the Women's Health Day event, that was also a fundraiser for the upcoming Heart of the Valley Birthing Center. It was full of familiar faces, great info, and intriguing workshops -- William was a little tornado of trouble, to the degree that I had to chase after him rather than receive a free massage/reflexology session/any number of other awesome services the booths were offering.
Oh! Except I did get to have my nails done -- and in the style/colors of the new Birthing Center's logo. Check it out:

The logo of HVBC

The ring finger is painted with the "heart in belly" motif ;)

 
On the walk home, William fell asleep, I chatted with Kathy on the phone for an hour, and then I took a peek on our garden.
It felt like I'd been neglecting it a bit, on account of the rainy weather.
But looks what's transpired during my absence!!

Baby zucchini! Looking like sprouts from Totoro!

Don't you love when the garden moves on ahead without you even having to think about it? I guess that constant rain was just what these little seeds needed. I'm going to wait until they acquire another set of leaves before I transplant them to give them some more room for major growth. Yummy summer zucchini -- what could be better? :)

The evening then rounded off with Ella and I attending the recital of the students from Corvallis Academy of Ballet. She stayed awake for the entire thing and it was beautiful getting to see what these young women (and men!) can do!! Then at home, we just listened to a Sparkle Stories and all fell asleep. As I said...at 9pm! :D

Well, that was our day.
Can't wait to recap for tomorrow too. ;)
Until then, take care and Happy Great Starts!!