B.F.F.

Ezekiel loves his froggy snuggy blanket. He gets so excited when he see it. It is also great for calming him down. Notice the boogers?...

He decided to help himself to the kleenex to get those boogers. What a sweet heart!

Adventure 365

So I have abandoned this blog. So sad! BUT I have returned with good intentions. Having two wonderful little guys running and moving all over the place keeps me really busy plus I have my other blog Cloth Diaper Addiction that keeps me very busy and on a schedule for posting. So anyways, I have a new goal for this blog. I will try to post at least one picture a day of the boys. This is a fun way to watch them grow physically, developmentally and emotionally. I will try to include a short caption with each photo as well as the date the picture was taken. I hope you enjoy! Also, I will be updating some things on the blog layout. You will soon have the option to subscribe to my blog which will allow you to get an email each time the blog is updated. You will be able to read the whole post right there in the email without actually having to visit the blog. However I would love for you to still visit the blog too!

So to start us off on our Adventure 365:

JAM PILE!
If you haven't guessed already we are all boy over here! Elijah came up with the wonderful idea to Jam Pile with Ezekiel. He will grab Ezekiel and pull him on him. Its now gotten to the point (when Zekey is in the mood) that when Elijah is laying on the floor Ezekiel will start laughing and charge on all fours over to where Elijah is and jumps on him. There is nothing better than the sound of your boys laughing and loving each other like this!

Neglected...opps

Hi to the few of you who actually read this blog. I have been super busy and often times forget to update this, especially since most of my stuff is on facebook.

Here is an update on our family and what we are up to:

David has been at ISD Corp. for 2 months now and is really enjoying it. He likes being able to leave for home at 5 and get home shortly after. Its a close job!

I have been keeping busy as a Stay at Home Mommy. It is a huge blessing for all of us that I am able to stay home and take care of the boys. I also watch Colton on Fridays while Katie is in class. I run a blog called Cloth Diaper Addiction and really enjoy it and I am learning quite a bit about cloth diapering. The blog is only 3 months old and I already have close to 300 followers. I also have a facebook page to go with my blog and we are almost to 600 followers on that. I am meeting some other great ladies who cloth diaper and love to share their stories. For the blog I do reviews on cloth diapers as well as other great parenting products. I contact companies with review requests and they will send me a product for free as also a second item for a giveaway. I love being able to try out things that we typically would not buy for ourselves. Having the blog does take some work though because you have companies that are rely on you to get word out about their product but its fun and I enjoy doing it.

Elijah just turned 2 on the second. So we celebrated his golden birthday with a tractor themed party. I think he now owns every tractor toy that is made. Grandpa C. also built him an awesome big barn for him to store all his tractors in. We are working with him on his sleep habits. He has a hard time going to bed and will wake up quite a bit during the night. He was 28 pounds and 36 inces at his 2 year check up.

Ezekiel is doing good too. He is rolling over both ways now and loves to grab and at his toys. We gave Zeke his first bottle at 4 months and he did really well taking it. After slowing introducing it we decided we were ready to wean him and switch him over to formula. This past week he broke out in a horrible rash and the doctor wasn't quite sure what it was. He also started projectile vomiting and so the doctor suggested we give him pedialite. His rash is now gone and he seems to be doing a little better with the vomiting. He was 6.4 ounces at his 4 month check up and was 17.2 a week and a half later when we went in for his rash! He is big growing boy!

12 weeks?

Tomorrow will be Ezekiel's 12 week birthday! My time truly has flown by during this maternity leave! Everyone is doing great over here in the Coffey house. Elijah is still loving on his little brother like crazy, he has his naughty moments to and we do time outs when that happens. He doesn't like that but it seems to work and calm him down. I'm waiting on a book to come into the library to read, "The Strong Willed Child" by James Dobson, I hope to get some insight on how to deal with Eli's strong willed nature. Ezekiel is doing great also. He sleeps about 6-8 hours a night usually from 11-6 or 7. Which is so wonderful! He is still eating like a pro and growing like crazy. I like the fact that he is 12 weeks old and has not had a single bottle yet! Makes me feel proud of myself for sticking to nursing when it was getting hard. It saves a lot of money too! Both boys are still in cloth diapers. I don't think I will ever go back to disposables. As a matter of fact I'm about ready to sell off the 2 packs of size one diapers and 3 packs of size 2 diapers I had gotten while still pregnant with Zeke! Make some money off them and buy some more cloth diapers. Eli seems to be really interested in the potty to lately. He always tells me as soon as he goes poopy because he wants to be changed (even though he fights the changing like crazy). He also loves to just sit on his little potty and tries to go on it as well. Its so funny to watch.

David and I also have some very exciting things going on in our lives. I was supposed to go back to work on Monday because my maternity leave would be over, however, David was offered a position at ISD Corp. as an Information Technology Engineer which will allow me to be a stay at home mom! This is truly a huge blessing that we have been praying about and are so excited for this opportunity that has been given to both of us.

2 Months Alreay!

We went in on Friday for Ezekiels 2 month check up (9 weeks old) and he is a growing boy! He weighed in at 12 pounds, 14 ounces and was 23 inches long. The doctor was very pleased, especially since it took him 3 weeks to get back to his birth weight. We asked about him spitting up and she said not to worry about that either since he was gaining weight so well. Elijah is doing well also. He still loves to hold Zekey when ever we let him. He always checks on him and asks where he is first thing in the morning when he wakes up. We have both boys in cloth diapers full time and that is going great. It has helped with Elijah's scratching on his bottom. Only 3 weeks until I have to go back to work...bummer!

New Blog

Hey everyone, I started up a new blog...dont worry I will try and keep this one up and running with the family items. My new blog is about cloth diapering. I hope to get a lot of followers and be able to get some items from companies to do reviews on. A lot of times they also give an extra item for me to give away to a lucky reader! Head on over to Cloth Diaper Addiction and become a follower. Even if you don't cloth diaper yourself it will be a fun site to follow. I hope to include lots of other items about parenting and motherhood and the joys of having children. You can also 'like' me on facebook under cloth diaper addiction. The more the merrier! I hope you 'like' and 'follow' me!

Here we go...

Things are going great over here in the Coffey house hold. David had been doing a lot of work in various gardens around the county...Dale and Joys, My Mom and Dads, and our own (we just have a few buckets of strawberries and raspberries). The gardens are looking great and I can't wait until we have fresh produce to munch on.

Im still doing good. Im enjoying the summer off with my two little guys. There is never a dull moment! I signed Elijah and I up for a laptime session at the library once a weeks. We have only had it once so far but it seemed to go well. Zeke slept through the whole thing thankfully. I also got both boys signed up for the summer reading program and we are reading away. It will only be week two when we go back this week and Im pretty sure Elijah has read enough books to finish level one! (There are only two levels) He loves to read and have us read to him. Tonight he actually fell asleep in his bed while reading his book. It was too cute! Elijah is also learning his ABC's and numbers. We usually do them both a couple of times a day and I will find him counting his cars and tractors randomly while playing...not always in the correct order but with numbers non the less! Its so cute to see him growing and learning more and more each day. We have decided to offically switch Elijah over cloth diapers full time. Im hoping to go this week to ecobuns to pick his out. The ones Im getting for him are nice because they can fit newborn up to toddler so they fit both Zeke and Elijah so that when we get Eli potty trained we can use the diapers on Zeke! Eli seems to have a big interest in the potty lately. Whenever we do a diaper change he wants to sit on his potty. I hope that he potty trains early then we will only have one in diapers. I have heard that putting kids in cloth helps them to potty train fast so we shall see.

Ezekiel is doing really good as well. He is growing like crazy and is getting so long! We haven't had a weight cheek for a few weeks so we don't have an official weight to share. He is still nursing really well but he seems to have a problem with spit up. We can sometimes get him to burp but not to often. He spits up quite a bit like Elijah did. Elijah had reflux and Im wondering if Zeke has it to. With Eli we put a little bit of cereal in his bottle to help keep it in and that worked but with nursing you can't really add cereal to thicken it up. We have his 2 month check up next week and we will find out what his weight is, length is, and what we can do for his spitting up. Zeke can often times be found laughing and smiling in his sleep and its to precious. He is sleeping well through the night...about 6-7 hours before waking up to eat. He is still cloth diapered full time for the most part. We occasionally will use disposables mainly because we have a lot to use up. I will probably just sell what we dont use.

Picture time:
Elijah had to try out our new double stroller as soon as daddy finished putting it together. He claimed the front seat and started reading his books!

Ezekiel loves to sleep on his belly...back to sleep i know... I only put him on his tummy during the day when I am awake and right there by him to keep an eye on him. I do love the little butt in the air though!
Ezekiel and Elijah have matching diapers. They are the Thirsties duo diaper cover in blackbird print. I love this cover a lot however you have to use a prefold with it which isn't hard...unless you are trying to put it on a very squirmy wiggly 1 1/2 year old who hates being changes. But i do manage to get it on him somehow. lol

Elijah caught reading Daddys 'funnies' as we call them. He loves the comics just like his daddy. He usually will pick out and name all the trucks, tractors, cars, and fire trucks that he sees in them.

Free Coupons

I have the following coupons available. If you are interested please email me at kristina(at)thecoffeycan(dot)com NO SPAM! Please be willing to send a SASE or arrange a local pick up

$1.00 off any Gentle Naturals Product ex 6-30-10
$5.00 off any Gerber GoodStart 2 Formula ex 11-10-10
.55 cents off any two boxes Gerber infant cereal
(2) .75 cents off 3 4-pcaks or 3 32ounce bottles of Gerber Juice ex 8-15-10
$3.00 off any Huggies Pure and Natural diapers ex 6-30-10
$1.00 off Huggies little swimmers sun care product ex 6-30-10
(3) $2.00 off Huggies Pull Ups ex 6-30-10
$1.00 off pull ups wipes ex 6-30-10
(4) .75 cents off Gerber ultra-thin nursing pads ex 6-15-10
(2) $5.00 off any Enfagrow Premium or next step formula ex 6-30-10
(2) $1.00 off any pampers cruisers ex 8-31-10

Diaper Giveaways

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately about cloth diapering because that is what is on my mind. A lot of blogs have give aways and will pick a person to win a cloth diaper. Here is one blog I found that is giving away the Thristies diaper cover (duo wrap) which is what I am using and LOVE! So I wanted to share the blog with those of you who actually read this blog. Check it out!

www.thebudgetmommy.com

they also have lots of other neat deals and reviews of lots of great products.


here is the direct link:

http://www.thebudgetmommy.com/home/2010/5/17/thirsties-duo-wrap-insert-tiny-bubbles-giveaway.html

Cloth Diapering and Nursing

After much researching and debate David and I decided to give cloth diapering a try. This was a hard decision to make because I didn't want to have a baby wearing a huge bulky diaper and honestly, shaking a poopy diaper above a toilet does not seem that appealing to me. (and it still doesn't) We are hoping this will get us one step closer to allowing me to be a stay at home mom by helping us save some money. I have been keeping track of the amount of diapers used since Ezekiel was born. We used around 190 newborn diapers and around 100 size one diapers in a mere 4 and a half weeks! Now granted I did get great deals on those diapers and didn't pay full price for any of them, but I don't know if I will always be able to get the good deals in the future. So anyways we are taking the great adventure and are trying out cloth diapers. There is a local company in town called ecobuns (ecobuns.com). It is ran out of a ladys home and she has great insight on all the items she sells. Dana (SIL) and I went over to her house one day and she gave us a mini diapering class and explained all the in's and out's of cloth diapering. She showed us all the different types of diapers and how they worked and shared the pros and cons of each kind. We ended up being there for almost two hours going over things and trying to decide what way we wanted to go with for our diapers. I ended up buying prefolds and covers and Dana got AIO (all in one) diapers. So far we both love our diapers and have purchased more. I will still be using disposables for long days away from home and when we go camping just because we don't have the supply needed to make it through the longer periods. Here is a picture of my covers I purchased:
There is a new way of cleaning off poopy diapers too, Its a sprayer that hooks to your toilet. It is kind of like the sprayer that is in your sink but it is hooked to the water behind your toilet and you can spray off the poo into the toilet rather than having to shake it out and worry about dropping the diaper into the toilet. However they run kind of high as far as price goes so Willy (BIL) is making a home made one for about half the price for Dana and I to have on our toilets.

Zeke looks great in his diapers by the way...okay he doesn't like to get his diaper changes that much so that is why he is mad in the picture with the blue diaper cover on.


Elijah is still using disposable diapers at this point. We wanted to see how it goes first with Zeke and then make the decision to switch over with Eli or not. I might buy a couple of nice AIO's for him at night though instead of buying overnight diapers. Here is a picture of Eli because he is a cutie pie too! Did I mention he loves his fruit!
Switching topics now...

While browsing blogs today I came across one that I was able to relate to as a nursing mom. After I had Elijah I tried nursing and it didn't work out. He lost weight and didn't gain it back the way he should have so we had to start supplementing and it just kind of went down the drain from there. He ended up completely on formula. This time around with Zeke nursing is going really well, even though it took him 3 weeks to get back up to his birth weight. He latches on well and eats for a long period of time. I have to admit there are times when I just wish he was formula fed, it gets tricky when you have a 20 month old getting jealous and decides to jump, bite, kick etc, while you are nursing and knows you can't put him in time out or give him vinegar for biting because you are in the middle of a feeding. Hopefully this will calm down after a while. So back to the blog I had mentioned. The lady wrote about nursing in public and overcoming her fears of doing so. The article can be found at: http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/2010/05/overcoming-fears-of-nursing-in-public.html This really hit home for me because I am just like she was. It is uncomfortable going out in public and having to nurse the baby. But I find myself gradually working up my nerves and becoming more comfortable with it. At first I was locking myself away from family and friends to go and feed Zeke, and I would miss out on 20-30 minutes of conversation and time with them. I enjoy spending time with people...I don't enjoy spending time alone by myself, locked away in a room. So I am gradually overcoming my fears and am starting to nurse more in 'public' I should say more around family while using a nursing cover. It is hard though to make sure Zeke is latched on and keeps latched on while hidden under the cover but eventually over time as he gets old he will hopefully start to get the hang of latching himself on with out a bunch of help from me and this will become even more enjoyable.
I do have to say that I am proud of the fact that Ezekiel has never had a bottle at one month old and Im pretty sure he won't get one for a while because things are going really good for us. I have pumped once, more to help ease some pain, and that milk is probably going to need to get tossed out.

And to end the post...Elijah is such a great big brother to Ezekiel. He always asks " Hold me?" when he wants to hold Zekey. He will sit so good on the couch and hold him, he will look at him and talk to him and give him so many kisses. Its the most precious thing in the world.