Marley can read!

David Shannon is the author and illustrator of some of my favorite children's books: Duck on a Bike, A Bad Case of the Stripes, and Good Boy Fergus. Encounter, written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Shannon, is one of my all-time favorites. It's the story of the first meeting between Christopher Columbus and the indigenous people of San Salvador as seen through the eyes of a young native boy. (No, it's not what Marley can read.) I read it to my class every year - the illustrations are beautiful. Which is why I think Shannon's David! books are so strange. The illustrations are almost scary. I guess the childlike drawings are supposed to appeal to little kids. Well, I don't get it, but it works. Mars absolutely loves the David! board books!

The book reads, "David's first words were: Ball, Uh-Oh! Dog, Oops! Ride, Whee! Eat, Yum! Bath, Ahh! Mama, Zzzzz..." What sounds like "dada" is actually "doggie". This was not their first time through the book in this sitting and, as you can see, Mars was really excited for his favorite page!

Success!

We had a great day yesterday! We woke up bright and early to get ready for our walk. Nai Nai, Dustin, and Cecily met us at our house, and after chatting for a bit over coffee, we headed to Qwest Field.
It was a beautiful morning. The stadium was bustling with families. We met baby Annie and Kristie (who walked with us despite the fact that it was her 30th birthday!) at Qwest Field. Mars had a great time running around. In fact, I think he was a bit upset that we put him in the stroller and didn't let him walk the 3.5 miles. It was so inspiring to hear all the amazing stories and to see all the incredible kids! Thanks to everyone's generous donations, we were able to raise $415! Yay for babies! Visit Cecily's blog to see more photo's from our walk.
After that exciting morning, Marley crashed hard when we got home. He slept for over 3 hours, during which time I was able to get ALL my papers graded and do some cleaning! Since it was still such a nice day, we decided to go picnic at Lincoln Park. Marley was ecstatic running around on the rocky beach! What a great day!

Mixed Reviews

The new diapers and diaper covers came this week and Jeff has been trying them out. I washed and dried the diapers several times. After they'd shrunk up, I compared them to our old diapers and they look to be the same size. I haven't had time to investigate further, but I swear we ordered a bigger size. Maybe it's just because it's a different diaper? I don't know. Anyway, Jeff has been using the old diapers, since we know how absorbent they are.

I was really excited about the Thirsiesdiaper covers, and they are so cute, too. But, Jeff says that the velcro doesn't stay fastened so he stopped using them. Darn! We haven't tried out the fleece Bummis wrap that my mom got us. For now Jeff is sticking to the tried-and-true (and cheap) Prowraps. I'm glad I decided to get a few of those.

I'm getting really excited for Sunday's March for Babies. We will have 6-8 people joining us, which will make the walk so much more fun. AND we have raised $350 in just one week! Thank you so much to everyone who donated! The research funded by the March of Dimes really is worthwhile, and our healthy little boy has directly benefited from it.

One day...

...all babies will be born healthy. We have to walk to get there.

We've decided to do the March of Dimes, March for Babies again this year. Last year it was just the three of us, but this year we want all of YOU to join us! Yes, YOU! This is kind of short notice, so we will certainly understand if you can't make it. Here's the schedule of events for Sunday, May 3, 2009:

7:30 am Meet at the Franklin's for coffee and baked and/or fried treats
8:15 am Head downtown via bus or car (to be arranged)
9:00 am Register for the walk at Qwest Field
9:30 am Walk 3.5 miles on the Viaduct
11:00 am Eat free food at Qwest Field after the walk
12:00 pm Enjoy the rest of your day!

If you'd like to join our team please visit the team website, Marchin' for Mars, and click on join this team. You will be asked to fill out a profile and create a fundraising page. Don't worry about trying to raise lots of money. You can just make your goal whatever amount you'd like to donate ($5 is the minimum).

Feel free to bring along family and friends. The more the merrier! I hope to see you all there!

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

We began using cloth diapers about a month after Mars came home from the hospital. My parents bought us 6 months of diaper service as a shower gift. Diaper service is awesome! If it weren't outrageously expensive we would have continued it until Marley was potty trained. However, at the end of August we had a choice to make: do we try cloth diapering on our own, or do we go the disposable route?

Now, we are not completely anti-disposable. We use them at night, when we travel, and when we're going to be out all day. After all, who wants to have to rinse a poopy diaper at a restaurant? But, when our diaper service ran out, we decided to go for the cloth. I bought a set of unbleached Chinese prefolds (pictured above), borrowed and bought several diaper covers, and after a few initial hitches (mostly having to do with figuring out how to wash them), it's actually been surprisingly easy.

However, now that Mars is pushing 25 lbs, and rapidly growing out of the diapers that have cushioned his behind for the last seven months, we come to another fork in the road. And...we have decided to continue down this path of cloth diapering. I'm searching online this week to try and find a good deal. Toddler size diapers appear to be a bit more expensive than infant size, so if anyone has any hints on where to look, I'd love to hear them! Wish me luck!

Update

I won't be going to Michigan after all. The services where yesterday, so it would have been really difficult to make it out there in time. I wish I could be there, but I feel better knowing that I was able to be with my dad the day he got the news. My really big disappointment is that I won't be able to make the Memorial being planned for her this summer in the upper peninsula because we'll be in Europe.

Here's my grandma's obituary. She had a pretty amazing life!

Collins, Mary Elizabeth (nee: Rogan) - died April 11th, at the age of 85. Mary was born in Calumet, MI on June 19, 1923 the fourth of seven children born to Elizabeth (nee: Polvi) and Howard Rogan.

Mary lived in Michigan her entire life and was the mother of ten children. She graduated valedictorian from Calumet High School. During the Second World War she worked at a Ford Assembly Plant as a “Rosie the Riveter” building bomber planes.

Mary (aka “Bahama Mama” and “Mary Sunshine”) was a very caring and generous person. Her life was spent serving others and giving. She was well respected and liked and will be sadly missed by her many friends and family. She loved bowling, golf and especially casino stops on her way to and from the Keweenaw Peninsula. She cheered the Pistons and Tigers and Michigan State during the Final Four.

Mary is survived by her children, Polly (Chip Hartinger) Skolarus, Mary Beth Pettinato; Pat (Wanda) Collins, Kevin (Carol) Collins, Kim (Glenn) Martin, Shawn (Mary Burgner) Collins, Kerry (Tony Hammonds) Barton, Michele (Richard) Daniels, Kathy (Bill) Diggs; 17 grandchildren; 8 great grandchildren and her sister Rita “Deetz” Brulla;

She was preceded in death by her husband Henry Paul Collins; daughter, Candis Baggett; grandson, Patrick Pettinato; brothers, Paul, Norbert and Kevin Rogan; and sisters, Gertrude Miller and Ann Sturm.

Visitation will be Monday from 3-8pm with a 7 pm Rosary Recital at Temrowski Family Funeral Home, 500 Main St. Fenton. Mrs. Collins will lay in-state Tuesday 10:30 am until the time of her funeral Mass 11:00 am at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Fenton.

An additional memorial mass with be held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Calumet, MI on July 7, 2009 at 10:30AM.

Boulder, CO

For spring break this year, my family rented a mountain chalet in Boulder, CO. We had a fantastic time hiking, sightseeing, and visiting with one another. The chalet was perfect.

Downtown was fun with plenty of shopping, food, and clubs (Yes, Sarah and Alicia dragged me out dancing one night:)

The views were breathtaking. This is Chautauqua Park where we hiked, and later, where Marley played at the playground.


We had mixed weather, ranging from snow when we first arrived to 70+ degrees later in the week. We chose a nice day to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park.

We saw herds of elk all over the place there. Some even crossed the road right in front of our car!

We hiked on a path along the river in Boulder and couldn't resist climbing up these rocks.

We took a tour of the New Belgian Brewing Company and the Celestial Seasonings Tea Company (Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of CS) - both with plenty of free samples. Yum!


Mars loved the Butterfly Pavilion. He was a little young to fully appreciate the butterflies, but he sure enjoyed running around the play area.


Marley dyed his first egg. I think the whole thing was very confusing for him. You have to check out my mom's video of him "enjoying" his egg. Pay special attention towards the end after he's destroyed the egg, he does the sign for again.

The trip ended on a sad note when we got word that my grandma (my dad's mom) had passed away Saturday morning. I was glad that I was able to be with my dad as he got the news and that we were all together. I'll probably be traveling to Michigan later this week for the funeral. I'm not yet sure if Mars and Jeff will come along. Although I'm sure Marley would love to see his "Ba-Ma" and "Ba-Pa" again so soon!