All Things Supercinski

Annalise is 7 Months Old

Rachel — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:12:48 +0000

Time sure is flying with our busy little girl! Annalise is showing more of her playful and easy-going personality these days. She isn’t easily startled and doesn’t cry much unless she is sleepy or hungry. Her favorite things include her exersaucer, bathtime, non-baby toys, and Josiah, who she thinks is the most entertaining person around. Oh the joys of a big brother! Her nickname is “sweet girl” which Josiah has picked up on as well. I love hearing things like, “Oh no, Sweet Girl! You can NOT eat your hair bow!”

She started rolling this month and rolls across the room to get to things, often getting stuck at a couch or table. We are working on teaching Josiah to keep toys with little pieces up high or in his room. One day, while I was on the phone, Annalise managed to roll across the living room, knock the lid off of Josiah’s matchbox car box and chew on a few cars.

We attempted solids a few times this month, with bananas, sweet potatoes and avocado, but each time, she didn’t really swallow anything. She let it sit in her open mouth with a shocked look on her face until she managed to spit it out. All the while, Josiah is saying that she doesn’t like it and needs a drink to clean her mouth out. It’s pretty comical. She nurses seven or eight times a day most days. She got two bottom teeth within the past ten days.

She sleeps well during the day, still taking three naps and still sleeping swaddled. I attempted to have her sleep unswaddled for a day, and it was not a success. She only slept an hour that day and was grumpy. We’ll try again in a week or so. She wakes up at night at least once or twice (more when those teeth were coming in), and sleeps with us after her first night waking and until the morning. She is up to a size medium in cloth diapers and I am really loving some the used Thirsties fitteds and covers I got for her.

We sure are enjoying our sweet girl!

“Mich Cheek”

Rachel — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:13:49 +0000

This is the way that Josiah says the name of one of our favorite parks in College Station. If you live around here, you can probably guess which one it is by the pictures.

We headed out there during the insanely warm weather and enjoyed frolicking around. Josiah took his new little digital camera to take pictures of the wildlife. Here he is taking a picture of a bird.

He walked for a long time, but we made him ride in the backpack toward the end since it was getting dark. Annalise was content to ride in the Beco and gnaw on the straps.

I sure love Daddy Stay-Home-Days!

Christmas with the Supers

Rachel — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:07:13 +0000

One of the highlights of this Christmas season for us was doing an advent reading every night after dinner. Josiah absorbed so much of the Christmas story, and it helped keep the perspective on our “birthday party celebrating Jesus.” We used the readings from Noel Piper’s advent calendar (thanks to Christine and Megan) and used this calendar to build on the Christmas story.

We had a wonderful Christmas, and have loved all the time together as a family. We have not gotten to see Thomas’ parents yet, but we will soon. My mom, Woody, brother, sister-in-law, sister and sister’s boyfriend all came to our house for Christmas day. I was happy to host everyone, and even happier that we didn’t have to travel.

Josiah and His Merry Band play some music while we wait for my sister to arrive.

Josiah modeling his firefighter costume his great-grandparents sent him.

Somehow Aunt Amanda’s jewelry went unscathed by Annalise’s death grip.

Remember how we said we were making most of our Christmas gifts this year? I made these cute (if I can say so myself) aprons being modeled by my super cute mother and sister-in-law. I can’t wait to make one for myself! I used the halter top apron from Sew, Mama, Sew.

Speaking of homemade gifts, Josiah is really enjoying all of that felt food that I made. Thank goodness! He likes it so much, I’m thinking we should get him some sort of kitchen for his birthday.

It was the year of the costume–here he models his train conductor costume from my mom and Woody. He loves the tickets, watch and walkie talkie that came with it.

And Dr. Josiah examines his first patient with his little doctor kit. He pretends to be Dr. L, my chiropractor, all the time using his toolset (screwdriver and hammer), so now he has more tools in his bag of tricks.

And the winner is…

Rachel — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:15:56 +0000

Kim at Homemaking 4 Jesus!

Thanks to everyone who entered our December contest. Kim will be receiving a copy of the Omnivore’s Dilemma shortly. This book changed our views on food, and we hope you find it to be a great read.

Recipe of the Week: Homemade Deodorant

Rachel — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:51:14 +0000

After reading that title, some of you may be ready to send me off to the crazy house, while others of you will be happy that your search for effective deodorant has ended. I’ll let you in on a little secret–Thomas and I haven’t used antiperspirants for over a year and half. We stopped in our quest to use cleaner household cleaners and personal care products. After reading the label on our antiperspirants, and considering how it seeks to stop a natural process (sweating), we stopped using it.

We have tried crystal deodorants, ultra-perfumey deodorants, homemade body splash + a dab of baking soda and cornstarch, but all left us either stinky or chaffing. About a month ago, I discovered this recipe and we have not gone back.

First, find an empty deodorant/antiperspirant stick, or buy a cheap one (solid, unscented) at the store. Twist all the existing stuff out into the trash and wash the container thoroughly, reassemble and dry. Wear gloves. This stuff makes your hands nasty. I bought four travel-sized containers to give as gifts.

Assemble your ingredients:
1 large or a few travel-sized solid stick holders
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch
~3 tablespoons coconut oil
optional: essential oils for fragrance

Mix baking soda and cornstarch in bowl. In separate microwave safe bowl, microwave your coconut oil. Pour a little coconut oil at a time into your baking soda mix and stir until the mixture is no longer crumbly, adding more coconut oil as needed. Add essential oils and stir well. Mine looks like this when it is done:

Fill your containers up and let it sit to harden. You can put it in the fridge for a bit and it will harden more rapidly. Now you are ready to go!

Keep in mind that although baking soda has wonderful deodorizing properties, it is also abrasive, making it an excellent household cleaner, but chaffing for the skin. You don’t need to slather this stuff on like your old stick antiperspirant. Don’t press it hard into your freshly shaven pits, but apply lightly. If you experience raw skin or chaffing, give it a break for awhile and try to use a little less next time.

If this is your first time to go antiperspirant free, you may notice that you sweat buckets and buckets for a while. Don’t worry, that doesn’t last forever. In my experience, it took a few weeks for my sweat glands to regulate. I still sweat, but not inordinate amounts like I did those first weeks.

Winter Fun

Rachel — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:11:49 +0000

This post will have a lot of pictures, so enjoy, or scroll through really fast.

Last Friday, we went to the city’s Christmas light celebration at one of the parks. It was freezing cold, but fun. Josiah had a blast, and we enjoyed bumping into several friends.

Thomas wore Annalise in the Beco under his coat. This is what she did almost the entire time we were there:

Saturday night was Thomas’ company’s Christmas party. It was fun and cold. A huge thanks to my mom for coming to town to care for the little ones so we could go out.

And yesterday, we woke up to SNOW! It melted during the day, but started back up in the late afternoon. I don’t know if I can remember seeing this much snow at once in Texas–maybe sometime in Dallas, but this seems like a lot to me.

Josiah and Thomas had a great time, though Josiah came in after 15 minutes because he was too cold. Thomas stayed out for at least an hour, pelting the neighbor boy with snowballs and perfecting his snowman.

December Contest

Thomas — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:54:56 +0000

It has been quite some time since we have had a contest here at All Things Supercinski. This one will be easy. All you have to do is comment on this post and include your favorite Christmas-time family tradition from your childhood. So, if you’ve been lurking around here and/or interacting regularly, let us know your favorite tradition and you will be entered in a drawing to win a brand new copy of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It’s a great read for yourself or someone you love. Be sure to comment before 8am on this Thursday, December 11th.

Annalise is 6 Months Old

Rachel — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:41:25 +0000

Time sure flies the second time around! We are enjoying our laid-back and happy baby girl. Annalise is very different from Josiah at this age. She is so much more flexible and content. She loves being out and about, but appreciates regular naps in her bed. While loud noises upset Josiah easily, Annalise rarely flinches. Perhaps because she has heard lots of loud sounds from the beginning.

Annalise spends most of her awake time flopping onto her belly and “airplaning.” She puts her arms to the side and kicks her feet. I’m sure it is a great core-muscle exercise. She rolls onto her belly all the time, and sometimes flops back onto her back. This skill seems to come and go. A few days ago she was rolling across the room, but today she is content to stay on her belly for longer periods.

She takes three naps a day, varying in length from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours. Her naps are predictable–she goes to sleep easily two hours after she last woke up. She is still sleeping swaddled–I am really working on trying to wean her off, but she just doesn’t sleep without it the times I have tried. Any tips for this? She sleeps a 6-8 hour stretch at night and wakes twice a night. She sleeps about half the night in our bed–I’m not ready to cut out the baby snuggles completely.

Annalise hasn’t started solids yet. I have been waiting for the bananas to ripen, but now there is only one banana left. Perhaps next week will be the week?

Annalise is quite the talker, just like her brother. She babbles constantly and when she is sleepy or hungry, her babble turns into a whiny “mmmmaaa! mmmmmaaa!” I think she is trying to say “momma” or “milk” (more likely), but time will tell.

Homestead Craft Fair

Rachel — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:14:15 +0000

We had a busy Thanksgiving weekend this year. We spent most of Thursday at home packing before heading to Waco to visit our friends, Jacob and Corrie. Their oldest boy is a year and a half older than Josiah, and Josiah enjoyed every minute they were together. On Friday morning, we headed to Homestead for their annual children’s craft fair. We all had a wonderful time.

Josiah (or the lady working the booth and I) built a little wooden boat.

We saw a lot of farm animals in the petting zoo.

Josiah painted a watercolor fish, though he was too short to reach the table, so I gave him a boost.

We ate some delicious food, the highlights for me being the warm apple cider donuts and kettle corn.

And we drove to Hamilton to see Thomas’ parents for a couple of days. Josiah crashed in the car. We thought it was the magic of his new car seat. Or it could have been the beginning of the stomach bug that manifested itself the next day.

Crafting

Rachel — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:46:46 +0000

I haven’t blogged in some time because I have been very busy making Christmas gifts. Since some of the people I am making gifts for don’t read our blog, I can share a few with you. Shhh.

For Josiah, I have been making him a batch of felt food. Play food is one of my favorite toys. I have had to restrain myself from buying a bunch of the plastic stuff. He has a really cool set of wooden food, but I thought it would be fun to make some of his favorite foods. Here is a sampling:

I have made a little pizza and a tote bag since taking this photo. I need to make a banana and a cupcake and I will be done with felt food FOREVER. Maybe not, but for awhile. I’m feeling a bit burned out.

I made Annalise some cute little booties since she loves to pull her socks off. These should keep her tootsies toasty this winter.

And since my sister doesn’t read our blog, I can post her gift as well. She is really into yoga, so this might help her tote her yoga bag around on her scooter. The free pattern is available here. (If you use the pattern, I highly suggest adding at least 4 inches to the length of the bag.)