The holidays

Yay. It's the holidays now. It felt so good to only have to drop Jessica to kindy today. The state school had a student free day. The girls and I walked to kindy, we gave a train demonstration (the kids had been interested in trains and I offered to bring in some of Kevin's trains to show them. We played trains for about half and hour.), spent time with the girls at home doing puzzles, colouring in and playing dolls. It was a great way to start the holidays. Now if only Lisa would sleep through tonight I might be able to feel normal in the morning.

Here are a few photos of our week.

We went to the RM William's Muster on Sunday. Instead of watching the crazy men and women ride horses, Jessica and Hannah dug in the dirt.

After a terrible night awake with Lisa I found her like this under the coffee table. No wonder she was awake most of the night. Anyone want a kiss? I certainly didn't. She is such a mobile baby at the moment. I don't think it will be long before she crawls. There is a lot of scooting backwards which is why she was under the coffee table and a lot of rocking on all fours. She's cute just not in this picture.

Hollie's class had a picnic in the park with the other classes with year 1 students in it. They modeled their costumes and then had a variety of games. I love the look on Hollie's face here. It made me want to jump in a sack and have a race too.

After nights and nights of not sleep I thought I would give Lisa a formula bottle. I thought, like with the other 3, my milk was drying up or wasn't enough for her. She didn't sleep through so no more formula just yet. I look reasonable happy about it but I was crying on the inside. All I could think was, "If she's my last baby, it's too soon."

I think Daddy's going to have to buy a gun. They are just so beautiful. Daddy took these just before dinner yesterday. Hollie looks so tired but still so beautiful. Not that I'm biased or anything.

Hollie is such a helpful (most of the time) big sister. She cut up kiwi fruit for Hannah and herself and they enjoyed it on the veranda. I love the way she takes responsibility for her sisters and is usually willing to help them. You're growing up too fast missy. 

Another Longreach kindy kid

Here are some photos I meant to post back in term one. Jessica didn't get to start kindy until half way through the term because there weren't any places left. She had to wait until someone dropped out of kindy for her to get a place. We were delighted to recieve a phone call offering Jessica a spot at kindy. She didn't understand to start with because we'd spent close to 6 months telling her she wouldn't get to be a kindy kid this year but by the end of the day she understood that she would finally get to be a Longreach kindy kid and there would be no more hoping.
On her first day she didn't want her photo taken. I was a little sad. I wanted one of those posed kindy shots to put in her scrapbook. She wouldn't have a bar of it though. She was so excited to be a Longreach kindy kid, she barely said goodbye to us before taking part in the class. She didn't have any dramas and fitted in really well even though everyone else has been there for 6 weeks. She fitted in so well the teacher and the teacher aide had to keep reminding themselves that it was her first day/week and she didn't know all the rules and routines. It helps if your big sister was a kindy kid the year before.

Here are a few photos of her first day. First lot are her hiding from the camera. The second lot are her arriving at kindy.

MCN- Modern Cloth Nappies

I have bought two brands of MCNs and have been happy with both brands. I have bought Hippybottomus last year and used them with Hannah and now with Lisa. I recently purchased Spunky Bums. These have been fantastic so far. 

So just a little bit about my nappy habits before I begin.

I wash my nappies at night and hang them out to dry so they have all night drying time in case I need to use them early-ish in the morning. I usually wait until I have only a few nappies left before I wash that way if they don't dry overnight I still have a few to use until they dry. I have 12 pocket nappies. These dry really quickly. I have a huge supply of boosters that if I need a nappy that has been on the line over night and the boosters aren't dry (They take a while because they are 4 layers of cloth stitched together.) I have enough boosters to be able to get me through. I have all-in-ones and pocket nappies. The all-in-ones are pocket nappies too, they just have a booster sewn into them. I often add a booster too that why I don't get leaks. In the pocket nappies I generally put two boosters in. My girls have been big wee-ers during the day. I've only even had leaks when I have left it too long to change a nappy  and that can happen with disposables anyway. 

When I take them off the line I put the insert/s in because then when I'm trying to find a nappy I don't have to stress about the nappy being in pieces when what you really want is a quick change. When I get upstairs (if I have time and I'm not making dinner or dealing with a fight) I put the liners in otherwise the nappy would go on with no liner and result in more work for me. I then stack the folded nappy, complete with liner in the cupboard next to the change table.

I have recently started dry pailing my nappies. That is when you clean off the nappy of any soiled parts and give it a quick wash with pure soap if necessary, then dump the nappy into a bucket. I was a little unsure of this method when I first read about it. I thought it would result in really stinky nappies but it hasn't so far. I keep adding nappies to the bucket, with the booster taken out, until the bucket is full or I'm in desperate need of nappies. Then the whole process starts again. 

The following nappies are all-in-ones. These are from Spunky Bums. See link earlier in post. 

I have a selection of all-in-ones. I have velcro ones, 2 rows of clips and 1 row of clips. Probably my favourite is the nappies with the two rows of clips because they seem to be the most versatile. These would fit a baby from birth to toilet training. The  velcro ones go on just like a disposable. Just fasten the two flaps. These are fantastic for Dads because they just go on. No stress or worry about getting the clips right and they are time savers. Sorry Kevin. I know you hate it when women bag men. And the ladies know I have a wonderful husband. This is for the "other" Dads. 

This is one of the one row clip all-in-one nappies I have. I haven't had a leak from them yet but they seem to gap a little on the side which I can foresee problems in the future with a more active child.

This is an all-in-one nappy showing the pocket opening for the extra booster. You can't really see the sewn in booster and the booster.

You can kind of see the stitching in this nappy. This is the all-in-one.

The two clip all-in-one nappies. I think to start with people are a little unsure of the clips and where to clip the different parts for different sized babies.

The following nappies are pocket nappies from Hippybottomus. These have one row of clips all the way along the top and and second row on each side to about the half way point. The placement of these clips are excellent. I have been very happy with the clips and the elastic around the legs. I would suggest two boosters though.

Everyone should give MCN a go because they will save you heaps of money and save the environment too.