Life Updates

I tend to leave our everyday updates for 7 Quick Takes, but by the time Friday rolls around, I always seem to forget the "little things" that have been going on.  I also feel like I usually write "themed" posts, so the daily stuff - you know, the stuff that actually makes up a life - those tend to get pushed off and I never end up writing about them.  So here's a recap of the "little" things.

David is an amazing gift giver.  I'm not quite sure why men get a bad rep regarding gift giving because I've known several women who have super thoughtful and creative significant others.  Anyway, for my birthday, he gave me the best gift: cheeses.  Nine different fancy & exotic cheeses from around the world.  He knows that I'm always checking out the cheese section of the grocery store and hoping to find something smelly and interesting on clearance. He had to drive a little ways away to get to a specialty cheese store, so his gift was particularly sweet.

This is what my breakfast looked like this morning.  I was hoping to taste more than three but Lucia was being high maintenance (yelling for more "baby", which in addition to the obvious also means banana) and it takes a lot longer than you would think to unwrap and slice cheeses.  I've decided to rate all the cheeses, so I've made up my own ratings:
1- Disgusting. Throw away immediately.
2- Probably won't eat again, but won't throw up either.
3- Would eat again if free, but wouldn't waste my money on it.
4- Yum!
5- My new favorite!

Here are the cheeses I had this morning:
Lou Bergier Pichin (Italy) - 3
Cana de Oveja (Spain) - 3
Pecorino Sardo (Italy) - 4

So far so good, but there is a particularly stinky one I haven't tried yet that I have a mixed attitude toward.  I'll give another update in my Quick Takes on Friday.  Maybe I will have found my one true (cheese) love by then!

Lucia got her first bee sting yesterday (inside the comforts of our own home, of course).  I was napping at the time, but David said she cried real briefly, then quickly forgot all about it.  It was a little red around the sting, but that was it.  At least we know she's not allergic to bee stings.

Potty training...we're at a bit of an impasse, Lulu and I.  As soon as she started walking, she lost all interest in sitting on the potty and I'm not going to force her.  She was peeing on the potty 2-4 times a day before she started walking, and now we can only get her to actually sit on the seat maybe 2-4 times a week (and she rarely goes then).  This morning, I was able to catch her straining a bit, so I ran upstairs with her and set her on the potty and she did her business there.  Which was nice, because her cloth diaper was dry, so I could put it back on.  And for you cloth diapering mamas, you now how nice it is to save one diaper and have just a little bit longer between cloth diapering loads.

Speaking of cloth diapering, now is as good of a time as any to give an update.  We still love cloth diapering!  It's not nearly as much work as it seemed before Lucia was born and much less than when she was small.  It has a lot of small conveniences (like never having to run out to the store because you ran out of diapers or wipes) and having to do one load of laundry every 2-3 days isn't a big deal.  We do use disposable diapers sometimes when out and about, on the rare occasion that we run out of cloth before a load of laundry is done, and with the babysitter, but all-in-all we've still come out financially ahead, even considering the cost of water and detergent.  I won't say that we've saved much money, but I'm convinced that the savings of cloth diapers is dependent on the number of children that use them.  The only thing we'll have to pay for with baby #2 is water & detergent, and that's way cheaper than another whole round of disposable.

I'm making good use of my spring break and bought supplies to complete two DIYs this week.  I finished this one last night in about 5 minutes (seriously):

If you read the 30 Before 30 list I posted on my birthday, you know that one of my goals was to complete 48 crafts (which equals one per month for the next four years).  I'm so excited to have one crossed off the list (and hopefully another by the end of the week). Tutorial will be up tomorrow.

And this:

This is the best part of my life lately.