warning: lots of caps-usage.

so...after my long stint of posting pretty much every day (then setting the date stamps for later so that people wouldn't catch on to just HOW frequently i was blogging), i kind of dropped off the face of the earth. here's the 411 on all things van voorst:

..atticus and i had the flu at the beginning of this week. NOT. FUN.

..i felt the baby move for the first time this morning.

..todd and i carved pumpkins last night. i carved "tom brady" ish. todd carved a dashing tom sellack.

..atticus can clap, wave, high-five, and stick out his tongue, and has been experimenting with new dance moves (including one we like to call the 'magic man'). no words yet...:(

..atticus had to be woken up at 8:15 yesterday morning, and still took awesome naps. it was amazing.

..we're going to the cornerstone openhouse this afternoon, and atticus will be the stinkin' cutest tiger.

..in a week and a half, i'm going to start watching kaiden beukelman during the day.

..on thursday i got to hang out with my good friend megan for the first time in MONTHS!!

..everyone at todd's office dressed up for halloween yesterday, and todd went as his dad. hilarious.

..we attended a rock band party at andy's a couple weeks ago, and atticus really got into the spirit of things as well.

..last weekend, we got to see both todd's parents and my parents for the birthday hoopla weekend (our moms' birthdays are on the 23rd and todd's birthday is on the 24th - crazy). it was awesome!

..not to toot my own sewing machine or anything, but i made the CUTEST christmas stockings out of salvation army sweaters the other day.

i can't believe that tomorrow is NOVEMBER already! i'm SO SO SO excited for the holidays this year. i usually get excited, but this year it's different...i think it's because last year we didn't do much advanced planning for thanksgiving because atticus was due the 30th (so i didn't want to cook, and i didn't want to drive anywhere). and since he was born 3 weeks before christmas, we didn't do much there either - it was the first year ever i didn't have a christmas tree...:(.

so this year i'm prepared to go ALL OUT. the thanksgiving menu is already being fine-tuned, and i'm planning planning planning for christmas decorating. (we still can't have a tree this year, due to space issues and the fact that we realized that our lease doesn't allow us to have a real christmas tree and we don't own a fake one. plus, atticus would be all up in the tree's grill.) oh man, this year is going to ROCK!!!!!

however, as a welcome addition to the typical holidays, atticus also has a first birthday party in between to plan for! so i've also started thinking about that...oh man, so much to think about and i'm SO STINKING EXCITED. any bash ideas, pass them my way!

big kid foods

when atticus was four months, we got really excited about the prospect of introducing baby foods and started having him eat one or two meals a day in addition to nursing. but to be honest, the excitement kind of waned for both me and atticus, and it became more of a hassle than anything. between making the baby food and freezing it (which really was the easiest part of it all) then actually struggling through feeding him, it really didn't seem worth it considering atticus' lack of interest. so we kind of scrapped that and went back to nursing exclusively. not that we didn't give him crackers or bananas or something to keep him occupied at the table while we ate dinner, we just didn't do deliberate "meals" for him.

when my milk supply started to dwindle, i started feeding him a solid-foods breakfast so i could pump in the morning to supplement throughout the rest of the day. so he was eating cream of wheat and a banana, then nursing (or, recently, taking formula) the rest of the day.

so now that he's almost 11 months, he's able to eat some of what we eat for dinner, so i think it's time to transition him to table foods. this week he's eaten spaghetti, fried rice, and chicken with couscous and sauteed carrots. i think i'll probably start doing lunches for him as well, and maybe a snack or two.

i think with the next one i'll try to just skip the whole 'pureed veggie' stage. i feel like, in our personal situation, it was overrated and unnecessary. and a huge hassle for everyone involved. but i'm excited to move him to table foods! he's becoming a real little person! pretty soon he'll be asking for an after-dinner decaf while he watches the news.

my current babe faves.

as a baby, i have definite preferences.

..i do not like yogurt. at all.
..i do like trying to play in the toilet.
..i do not like getting out of the bathtub.
..i do like sticking out my tongue.
..i do not like being left out of dinnertime.
..i do like dancing like a maniac.
..i do not like having my diaper changed.
..i do like any and all strangers.
..i do not like it when people take away my cell phone. it's mine.
..i do like clapping my hands.
..i do not like my sippy cup. because i can't figure it out.

other things i like:
..fish hooking people in the lip.
..chicken pot pie.
..any and all things nuk.
..being naked. and peeing on the floor.
..fake chuckling.
..going grocery shopping, or on any kind of special trip.
..walking around like a pro.
..reading books about babies.
..other babies. preferably little ones that can't run away when i fish hook them.

maybe i'll learn to like being a big brother. i don't really know what "big brother" means, except that i have to play by myself all day while mommy lays on the couch like a bump on a log. so...not panning out for me so far, but we'll see.

stinky head.

in the name of safer cosmetics, i found myself buying bulk organic shampoo and conditioner at wheatsfield. (it's actually comparable in price to the normal shampoo i buy, which is great.) it's ingredients are all recognizable, and most even edible, which is a good sign.

so i got it home, used it once...and found myself stepping out of the shower smelling like a really clean hippie. seriously, people. i love patchouli as much as the next sensitive-to-smells preggo, but just because it's organic doesn't mean it has to smell like the inside of an opium den.

10 weeks

when we were pregnant with atticus, i called him reptar until his human parts were confirmed by ultrasound. with this one, i'm not sure what i will be calling him/her...
(in case you were wondering, no that is not an actual photo of my personal uterus.)

so i googled alien names...i'm deciding between gog, phim, and zhom. any thoughts?

according to babycenter.com, the landmarkers of this week are a grapefruit-sized uterus, noticeable-to-me weight gain, and the a-ok from doctors to continue swimming. according to van voorst family life, the landmarkers of this week include:

*an insatiable love for the couch, sweet pickles, cream cheese, hot chocolate, and CSI:NY.
*a repulsion to most smells, including shampoos and detergents (especially "baby"-scented ones), dirty diapers (go figure), onions, canteloupe, cooked meat, and...ahem, the after affects of todd eating tacos.
*no motivation (and an exuse not) to clean the bathrooms - plus, poor me, the smell of cleaner grosses me out...too bad.
*a lovely gut of what i fondly refer to as pldgne (yep, you read it right) around my middle, and (on the rare occasion that i'm not still in my pajamas) the high-style fashion statement of unzipped pants.
*nearly constant nausea (but very little puking, praise the lord!)
*and of course, the too-long-missed restless legs of pregnancy.

oh, how i miss the days when i thought pregnancy was cute.

really, though, it's all still sinking in. i can't believe i have two kids. we're currently living the american dream...although i'll have to get permission from the landlords to put up a picket fence...maybe i'll just buy some picket fence window decals. no, the new baby will probably eat them... i don't know what i'm talking about.

i'm really excited, and really overwhelmed, thinking about the fact that we will have two babies soon...they'll only be 17 months apart! which is good on the one hand - we want a big family, and i don't want to have infants (and later, teenagers) in my house for 20 years straight because we decided to put 3 or 4 years between each one. but the thought of two tiny kiddos...oh my. (then jacqui suggested the possibility of twins...um, scary?)

anyway, this post was pointless. so: votes for fetus nicknames, and predictions of gender? help a girl out.

the name of the game: survival.

who knew that being pregnant with a 10-month-old would be hard work? (not that i'm pregnant with a 10-month-old; how gross and engorged would i look?! i'm just pregnant while also taking care of a 10-month-old, for clarification.)

now that i'm 10 weeks pregnant, most of what i do is lie on the couch all day in my pajamas, while atticus crawls around in his pajamas. it's been a "pajama" kind of month. yes, until yesterday there were 6 loads' worth of unfolded laundry on my couch. yes, there are tons of dirty dishes in the sink because the dishwasher hasn't been unloaded yet. yes, there is (a disgusting amount of) toothpaste splatter on my bathroom mirrors. yes, there are baby handprints all over my coffee table glass (and my glasses lenses). and no, i don't do much about it.

atticus' favorite game lately is to walk up to me (since i'm usually laying on the couch, we're at eye-level) and smack me in the face over and over before he steals my glasses. then he fish-hooks me and goes about his merry way. hmm...perhaps latently angry at me for not playing with him? or...just likes to hit stuff? probably the second, but my pregnancy hormones make me worry for the first.

luckily, he doesn't seem to notice that we're working our way away from nursing. i had really wanted to continue nursing so i really did try to keep going (shh, don't tell the doctors), but atticus was crying as soon as i'd set him down after feeding him. he was super clingy and whiny, and i noticed that the more i pumped, the less i made (as in, down from 13 ounces in the morning to 5).

so i crossed my fingers and tried formula, knowing that he had always refused it before. i think he was so hungry that he would've taken pickle juice if i put it in his bottle - i felt so bad. apparently, i'm not even making 1.5 ounces at a normal feeding, so he sucked down a ton of formula even right after i had nursed him.

so now, i'm giving him formula twice a day and nursing him once if i've made enough. pretty soon i'm sure i won't be making anything, but for the time being it's making the transition easier for everyone. i don't have to quit cold-turkey (which has both emotional and, ahem, physical implications) and we both have time to adjust to the idea of formula (taste being the issue for one of us, cost being the issue for the other - i'll leave you to figure out whose problem is whose).

on top of all this, atticus has a cold and we're teaching him to cry it out at night instead of needing to have us find his nuk for him 2-3 times a night. (yes, if you're wondering, we did this once before, then somehow found ourselves back in the habit of getting up with him.) so it's been rough on him, poor kid. not to mention that in 30 weeks he will no longer be the tiniest van voorst... but we don't have to worry him with that now :)

so i've prioritized. is it essential that he not have his nuk during the day? nope - most of the time when he wants it, i let him have it. is it essential that he have four baths a week? nope - unless he's gelled his hair with bananas, i do it once or twice a week. is it crucial that the house be pristine? nope - we have connection group here on sunday, so the public areas will be clean, but my own bathroom mirror will continue being gunky. and i'm so okay with this.

whew. blogging wore me out. i think it's time to go lay back down.

what we've been up to

lots going on lately!

-at atticus' 9 month appointment, he had gained 3 inches but only 1 ounce since his six month appointment! he's tall and skinny - who'd have thought? :)

-dr. paschen said he couldn't hear the hole in atticus' heart!! i'm still waiting for the next visit to really believe that it's been healed, but i think it's definitely a possibility!

-i bought 10 pounds of local honey and i seriously can't get enough of it. honey is like a miracle food: it's great for your hair and skin, it can help alleviate outdoor allergies (as long as it's local), it's the only food that never goes bad (they found some in the egyptian tombs that was still good), and it's naturally antibiotic- you can use it in place of neosporin! however, i think its main purpose here will be in recipes and in tea!

-we all spent this week out of town: todd went to a work training in columbus, OH, and atticus and i drove down to my parents'. atticus was super enthralled with the cats!

-todd's really enjoying his new job, and even gets to lead a bible study over lunch once a week.

-atticus learned to dance, hold his own bottle, and wave. he also discovered that he loves apple juice.

-atticus has 8 teeth now.

-i think i'm about 9 weeks pregnant! only five more weeks to go until the "smooth sailing" part of pregnancy!

-i am POOPED. i'm not as sick as i was with atticus (thank the lord), but i'm still queasy most of the time. being pregnant and continuing to nurse has been really difficult - i'm not hungry, so i feel like i'm not taking in enough calories for me, atticus and the new baby, and i know atticus isn't getting as much as he used to. we're having to do a lot more with solids to avoid having to switch over to formula.

-atticus still isn't WALKING-walking, but he's getting a lot braver and taking more steps without holding on to things. oh my - i'm not sure if i'll be able to keep up once he gets going!

-atticus' new favorite thing is to crawl inside the end table and hang out until he gets stuck and starts to cry. once i get him out, his favorite thing to do is repeat the whole process.

thoughts on the toy collection

"the most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things." - plato

since simplifying atticus' toy collection, i've been thinking a lot about toys. what purpose do i want them to serve? what kind of boundaries, if any, are appropriate? i had been thinking a lot about my desire to see atticus play with a few, higher-quality, natural-material toys, which in part motivated the toy purge of last week (or whenever it was).

then, when reading a book that i thought was totally unrelated to the topic, i came across some great guidelines that seemed to articulate what i had already been thinking about.

1. is it beautiful? does it encourage kids to value good design and craftsmanship, and to prioritize human work and experience over consumption?

2. is it simple? can it be used in a variety of ways across a variety of ages? does it evoke creativity and imagination?

3. what is it made of? does the toy collection show an adequate representation of materials that occur in nature? not only are these toys appealing to the senses and long-lasting, they can be talked about in terms similar to those regarding whole foods: the closer to the original source, the better.

4. what senses does it use? is it beautiful to more than one sense? children are particularly sensitive to sensory stimulation, so the more it engages their senses, the better!

5. how is it organized? i loved this guideline - adults feel more comfortable and productive with organized materials in an organized environment. it only makes sense that children would feel the same way about their things! are toys easy to find and accessible?

6. is there too much? the author stressed that this might be the most important guideline. are we teaching our children to overconsume, or to appreciate what they have? do they KNOW what all they have? if not, there's probably too much - or it's probably not organized well.

(guidelines are from 'the creative family' by amanda blake soule)

a few more that came to mind as i was reading:
*do you know where it comes from? who made it and why?
*is it repurposed/could it later be repurposed?

just some things that have been on my mind lately - definitely not saying that it should be a hard and fast rule for every family, i just think it's the direction i'd like to go.

fortunately i don't have swine flu.

so, while feeling nauseous and tired could be attributed to H1N1 or any number of other bugs, the only bug i have is a fetus.

that's right. you heard it from the fetus-grower's mouth: i'm super fertile. we think this little bugger is going to pop its way out around april 30.

i'm going to go lay down and pray that god drops some KFC on my doorstep.

homegrown hygiene.

um, yucky title. kind of yucky results.

okay, so it all started with a piece of garlic. if you rub a crushed clove of garlic on the bottom of your foot, in a few seconds you can taste it in your mouth. not only is this gross because you now have foot food in your mouth, but it's also gross because it shows that what goes on your skin ends up in your bloodstream and then elsewhere in your body.

well, it makes sense then that if you're concerned with what you put in your body, hygiene products should make the list as well.

so i went to http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ to research the products we were using on our skin, and i found that most of the products we use rate between a 5 and a 6 on a hazard scale of 0-10. not horrible, but really not great.

on a hazard scale of 0-10 of things you should eat, i would say filtered water is a 0, pure iocaine powder is a 10 (princess bride, anyone?) and a toaster is probably a 5-6. so while it's not eating iocaine powder, it's still like eating a toaster. or something.

whatever. moving on.

so i've been trying to find recipes for homemade health and beauty products. our first experimenting has been with bath products: shampoo, conditioner, and soap.

day 1: dr. bronner's peppermint castile soap (0) - um, so gross. apparently this soap is vegetable oil based, which left my hair SO greasy. i tried rinsing it with apple cider vinegar (ACV) (0) and conditioning with coconut oil (0). WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS METHOD TO MY LOVELY-LOCKED ENEMY.

day 2: baking soda (0) and ACV (0) to rinse. still sticky and gross.

day 3: ivory soap (3) and ACV to rinse....same results.

i was starting to get really discouraged and decided to just look up on the website what shampoos had a rating of 2 or lower (0-2 is low hazard). but i'm going to guess that since most of them were organic brands, they'd be WAY more expensive than my huge 78-cent box of baking soda. i did read that after transitioning away from commercial detergent (shampoo) products, your hair kind of does a purge before it normalizes. after that it's actually less greasy than it would be if using shampoo regularly, since shampoos contain waxes and mineral oil (a petroleum byproduct) that builds up on your hair.

so i decided to stick with the baking soda a little longer.

day 5: baking soda and lemon juice (0) to rinse - WAY BETTER RESULTS!!! i think i may stick with this.

baking soda has done great on atticus' hair all along (baby shampoo has a rating of 5). we've been continuing to use our regular dove soap, since it's only a 3 and the castile soap was making me break out. (and the honey/salt/cinnamon mixture, while it made me smell like a fresh-baked cookie, kept getting stuck all over the inside of the tub and i'd find rogue bits of cinnamon in my pants at the end of the day. not super thrilling.)

for baby lotion, i just add a tiny bit of coconut oil to his bath water after i've washed him and kind of rinse him with it. he doesn't feel greasy (although, a LITTLE DAB'LL DO YA with the coconut oil) and he feels soooooo soft!! i like it even better than baby lotion.

i'm liking experimenting with new things, but i'm giving my shampoo situation a month to iron itself out. if it's still "purging" then, i'll be buying something commercial and calling it a day.

***UPDATE: screw the baking soda. today i used what little is left of my herbal essences shampoo and garnier fructis conditioner and my hair smelled like a high-hazard heaven. WILL be switching to a lower-hazard albeit still REAL shampoo product. (you know it's bad when you keep trying to blow-dry the water out of your hair and then realize it's HEAD GREASE, not water, that is already on your head immediately after stepping out of the shower. and, shudder.)

i like to call the look 'homeless chic' and it's just not cutting it in the van voorst house. while we are on the crazy side, our standards are not that low. 78 cents a box for baking soda or not.