A room with a view

Here are some pictures of the room Ellie and I share. One half is my very messy study and the other half is Elena's changing table and rocker. When I work, Elena often sits on my lap or hangs out with her mobile.










She absolutely LOVES getting her diaper changed! Why, I wonder? Is it the fresh air on her bum? The refreshing squirt of the water bottle on her tiny heiny? The beautiful star light that makes everything look peaceful and warm? Or is it the smiling happy face of her mommy looking down on her that makes her so cheerful?

Look Ma-- My hands!

This week, Elena discovered her hands. She loves to eat them and drool all over them. She ever looks at them-- cross-eyed. We are also amazed at how BIG her eyes can get when she is interested in something. So far, her interests are few and far between... looking at the wall, looking at lights, looking at mom and dad, looking at her hands. That's about it.

Where do all those cute clothes come from? I just noticed that almost every outfit Elena features on the blog are hand-me-downs from Aunt/Cousin Molly and Cousin Adeline! We love them all! I remember when Molly and I used to share baths and have sleep-overs when we were little, and now look at us-- mommies sharing baby clothes! Amazing.

DIAPER MANIA. As you may know, I am a bit obsessed with cloth diapers. Well, after two months of intensive research, including encounters with pockets, fleece or cotton inners, snaps, velcro, wicking, stripping, and pilling,I finally committed to a primary diapering system: The Very Baby All-In-One cloth diaper. These are handmade diapers made by Tallulah Baby, a WAHM (work at home mom), using the Very Baby AIO pattern. It has a cotton inner and a colorful PUL outer and convenient velcro to wrap around the baby. It is simplicity at its best! It goes on as easily as a disposable, and doesn't need fancy detergents to wash. The biggest problem I had with the fancy fleece pocket diapers were that it took extra valuable time to stuff them every day, and most disspointingly, they constantly repelled Elena's pee and because the snaps do not ensure a perfect fit, we had constant leaking. With the Very Babies, we can go all night without a leak (usually)! And I don't have to worry about upkeep on the cotton-- cotton is as easy as it gets! And natually soft and thirsty. My sister Amy generously bought us a dozen Very Babies in many beauttiful colors (purple is featured above) and hopefully these will last us several months and several babies!!

(For those who are into this kind of thing-- my second favorite dipe so far is the Swaddlebee AIO, though it seems to sag a little in front and takes forever to dry!)

Easter egg hunt! Madison finds them all! Aidan enjoys his first oreo cookie. Happy Easter everyone!

Here we are hanging out on Jyl's dock fishing on Easter. An alligator tried to eat our bait-- but no fish!

Kevin absolutely loves deep sea fishing. He loves it so much that he will go even though he gets horribly sea sick every time he goes. What would Skinner say about this? Here he is showing off his catch: A lovely Bonito. You can also admire his Dad's wonderful new boat.

We took a lovely boat ride to the St. Lucie Nature preserve and state park. It was gorgeous! But we are too wimpy to actually swim...

Meet the cousins! This big guy is Aidan, 8 months, and this beautiful young lady is Madison, 2 and half years old. Aidan is exactly twice the size of Elena!

We are having a wonderful time in Florida! We are staying with Kevin's mom, Jyl in her lovely home on the canal. We are all enjoying the warm weather. Ellie got very excited the first morning here and told us in no uncertain terms that was weather is the way to go.

HAVE BABY, WILL TRAVEL.

Elena was a dream the entire 12 hour journey to Florida. She slept the entire time! I think she was lulled to sleep by the roaring plane engine. Here we are in line to get on the plane.