Kaisa requested a Hello Kitty birthday party this year. At first I was a little worried, but I ended up really loving this party. It was fun to put together and easy to find Hello Kitty stuff. Target had a ton of stuff, as well as Zurcher’s. Here’s what we did:

I found a great deal on a Hello Kitty cake pan online, and this is how my cake turned out.

Cups, plates, and napkins to match from Zurcher's.

Goodie bags from Zurcher's, filled with Hello Kitty favors from Zurcher's and Target.

Streamers from Zurcher's, tablecloth from Target.

I made her birthday banner out of cute scrapbook paper I had lying around. I used my Cricut to cut out the triangles and letters.

I found a font with these little Hello Kitty images in it. It's called Mellow Fonts 1 on Dafont.com.

Balloons from Zurcher's.

As the girls were arriving, I had them put together their own Hello Kitty headbands.

I made these cute bows out of red felt and glued an alligator clip on the back. I cut out white kitty ears out of felt so that there were two layers folded in half. Then I glued the two layers together but left an opening at the fold so all they had to do was slide the ears onto the headband and add the clip.

Voila! Hello Kitty ears. We also drew whiskers on the girls' faces and colored their noses yellow.

Next, we put together this Hello Kitty puzzle I found at Target. It is actually three different puzzles. A couple of them were pretty tricky, but my sister and I helped and the girls did great!

Working hard....

All done!

Next, we played Hello Kitty Bingo. They had to yell "kitty" instead of "bingo." I made the cards using the same font from the banner, and it took a while since I colored the images by hand. But it was by far my favorite activity and the girls loved it! They got prizes for getting "kitty."

Playing Hello Kitty Bingo

Finally, we played "Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty." I cut these bows out of the leftover banner scraps using my Cricut. Each child got to choose their bow and I put their name on it. Then we blindfolded them, spun them around, and let them loose!

Finished product. That perfectly placed pink bow was done by miss Olivia J. Such talent!

Blowing out FIVE candles!

Enjoying cake and ice cream!

Opening presents!

And what could all of these party guests be looking at in our garage? Oh...a new bike for Kaisa! There is no picture of the bike, unfortunately.

All in all, the Hello Kitty party was a huge success! Thanks to those who helped and came to celebrate with us!

Back in March, I decided to take a trip down to Arizona for a little family reunion. Two of my cousins on my mom’s side were going to be visiting and I hadn’t seen them in ages. I also wanted to spend time with my girlfriends, especially one in particular who recently went through a divorce. So, I packed up the kids and drove down. My aunt Kerynne was nice enough to join us, so I had a lot of help! Thank goodness! Here are some highlights:

Playing at one of our favorite parks!

The Dolly Steamboat Ride on Canyon Lake!

Seeing Megan and Taylor...I think it had been around 10 years since I'd seen them!

Kaisa got to drive the steamboat! She did great!

Everett drove for a bit, but he was a little skeewampus...

The great-grandchildren: Everett, Kaisa holding Harrison, and Angelina holding Olivia

The grandkids: Fiona, Bonnie, Megan, (Angelina snuck in too!), Rachel, Taylor, and Corinna

And the Porters, minus Bret (RIP) and Wes: Sharon (Grandma), Laurelann, Kerynne, Cheryl, Wendy (my mom), and Harry (Grandpa)

I do want to share one quick story from this trip because I never want to forget this tender mercy from Heavenly Father. Megan and Taylor’s dad, my uncle Bret, passed away from a heart attack six years ago. I think he was around 46 or 47, so quite young. It was so tragic. This boat ride was the first time many of us had been together since the funeral. My uncle Bret was a great musician, and he used to do a great impression of Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World.” As soon as the steamboat finished its rounds and got back to the dock, that song came on the loudspeaker. It took me back at first, and I instantly had the thought that someone from my family must have requested it. Then I turned and saw that my cousins, aunts, and grandparents were hugging and crying. I realized that no one had requested the song, and we all knew at that moment that Bret was there with us. It was such a sweet moment that I will never forget.

We always love our visits to Arizona!

I don’t usually care much about celebrities. In fact, I think people who are obsessed with celebrities are just missing fulfillment in their own lives and are looking for a way to live through someone else. However, the more I learn about actress Mayim Bialik, the more obsessed I become! She is just amazing! Here are some of the reasons I love her:

• She stars in one of my favorite TV shows, “The Big Bang Theory.” In fact, I didn’t realize that she was also the childhood start of “Blossom” until Nathan pointed it out to me.
• She is married to a Mormon. Well, ex-Mormon. Still cool though.
• She is a devoted Jew. Her religion is a very important part of her life. I can really relate to her that way.
• She was accepted to both Harvard and Yale. She ended up turning them down to get her PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.
• She plays the piano, trumpet, and bass guitar. And if you watch “The Big Bang Theory,” she also plays the harp. ;)
• She is an accomplished dancer.
• She’s vegan. I really admire vegans. If I weren’t so in love with cheese and yogurt, I might go vegan, too. :)
• She writes for a Jewish mommy blog, kveller.com.
• She has adopted many attachment parenting habits, including child-led weaning. She pumped breastmilk for her 3 year old on the set of “The Big Bang Theory.” She’s even written a book about attachment parenting which comes out this month.
• She is a Certified Lactation Educator.
• I have since learned that she used HypnoBirthing to birth her babies! And her second was born at home! 

Yep, it’s true. My baby is one today! I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by. I think that the more kids I have, the faster the time goes. It’s probably because I’m so busy!

Harrison is now 21 lbs. and 31″ tall. He’s very close to walking. He can take two or three wobbly steps but then plops down to crawl because it’s so much faster. He often stands in place without holding on to anything for minutes, but as soon as he realizes he’s standing there, he sits down or grabs onto something. I’m perfectly happy for him to stay this way for a while. I don’t need a third kid running away from me at the store!

Harrison is still nursing. Kaisa weaned at 11 months. Everett wanted to nurse longer, but I was eager to wean and we quit at 13 months. I think if Harrison has his way, we’ll be nursing until 2. He just loves it. I am nursing him between 3 and 5 times per day, depending on the day. It’s our time to be together and bond. He doesn’t get much of that since I have to divide myself so many ways, so I think he’ll hold onto that as long as he can.

Harrison is a little behind on communication. I had a feeling he was since I can remember Kaisa saying words from like 9 months. But she and Everett have always been ahead of the curve, so I don’t know what is “normal.” I did a 12 month questionnaire for the doctor, and as I was reading the questions, I had to glance to make sure it wasn’t for 18 months because Harrison hadn’t really done anything on the list. Nope, 12 months. Darn. By now he should have 2-3 words, play nursery games, shake his head “yes” and “no,” point when he wants something, etc. He doesn’t do any of it. He doesn’t even say “mama” yet. I was really worried going into the doctor’s appointment, but the doctor said that he’s really not too far behind and that he’ll probably catch up by 18 months. I think he will…he’s just taking his time. It’s almost like he wants to stay a baby a little longer because he knows he’ll get more attention that way. It’s true that we dote on him a bit. Kaisa loves having a baby around, and so do I!

Some other things about Harrison:

• He eats more than Everett a lot of the time.
• He HATES diaper and clothing changes.
• He loves baths and water in general.
• He loves cars and trucks and pushes them around the house constantly.
• He often pretends that other things are cars and pushes them around as if they were.
• He loves to grab his high chair or a dining chair and push it around to help him walk.
• He is into EVERYTHING. Cabinets, drawers, bookshelves–Everything! He pulls everything out while I’m cooking in the kitchen and I usually have a huge mess to pick up afterwards.
• He sleeps through the night but still wakes around 5 or 6 in the morning to nurse about half of the nights.
• He likes to cuddle.
• He is a thumb sucker! Darn it! He reminds me a lot of Kaisa with how attached he is to his thumb.
• He is very blonde. I get comments on it all the time. He also has less hair growing where his hemangioma is, so it looks kinda funny in the back. His hair is fine like Kaisa’s. I have never cut it and probably won’t have to for a while.

Birth

One month

Three months

Six months

Nine months

One year. Happy Birthday Harrison!

Harrison was diagnosed with an ear infection back in February. I filled the prescription and gave him the antibiotic for 10 days. Several days after we finished the antibiotic, I noticed that his diaper area (especially the scrotum and penis) was bright red. At first I thought it was a normal diaper rash, so I started treating with regular diaper ointment. Then I noticed some little white spots. I figured it was yeast, so I called my mom to see what essential oils to try. I started putting tea tree oil (melaleuca) and lavender diluted in coconut oil on his bum. The next morning when I changed him I saw that his penis was covered in huge blisters. It was SO SAD. I could tell he was in pain before I even changed him. I freaked out and called the pediatrician.  The pediatrician confirmed what I was afraid of…it was most likely yeast. She recommended a probiotic, some naked time, and a monistat cream to treat.

Phase I

I purchased a generic vaginal yeast infection kit at Target and just used the cream. I also bought some Culturelle probiotic packets for kids. I added a probiotic packet to either yogurt or juice twice per day. I was headed out of town in a few days so I had some disposable diapers ready to go. I put him in those and by the next day the blisters were gone and things were looking much better. When I got back in town, I washed all of his cloth diapers with tea tree oil. We went back to cloth, but within a few days the blisters were back.

Phase II

I figured the yeast had re-infected him from the cloth diapers. I decided I had better strip them (something I had been wanting to avoid). I boiled my cloth inserts in a huge stock pot in three different batches for 30 minutes each. Then I washed them without detergent, adding a little vinegar and some more tea tree oil to the rinse. I also purchased some grapefruit seed extract from Sunflower Market and added that to the rinse as well. Both tea tree oil and grapefruit seed extract are supposed to kill yeast and yeast spores. After stripping the diapers, we put them back on him again. This time he lasted about a week before the blisters were back.

Phase III

Time to get mean. This yeast needed to go. I realized that while I had treated the cloth inserts, I had not treated the other parts of my gDiaper cloth system–the gPouches and gPants. I figured that’s why he was again re-infected. This time I washed all of the inserts again in a very hot wash (turned up the water heater almost to full heat) and then added tea tree oil, vinegar, and GSE to the rinse. gDiapers are not supposed to be boiled or washed in hot water, so I washed those (and all of my other miscellaneous cloth diaper parts) in a warm wash with GSE and tea tree oil in the rinse. Then, I sunned everything for at least an hour. I also sunned Harrison’s poor blistered diaper area for about 15 minutes. I laid all of my inserts, pouches, pants, and liners out in full sun on my back porch. Thank goodness for a few sunny days! As an extra precaution, once I had sunned everything, I purchased a small glass spray bottle for essential oils and made a mixture of water, GSE, and tea tree oil. I then misted everything front and back with this mixture and allowed it to dry. All the while, I kept Harrison in disposables and continued with the monistat and probiotics. I waited a full week after Harrison’s yeast symptoms had disappeared, and we put the cloth diapers on him again. It’s been 4 days and I haven’t seen any yeast problems yet. Keeping fingers crossed!!!

One other thing I did was to purchase some Grovia stay-dry disposable cloth diaper liners from Amazon. These seem to help keep him drier in-between changes. They also protect my cloth from creams and ointments. Love them!

Hopefully we’ve won the battle of the yeast. I would hate for any other cloth diaper users out there to experience this, so I would highly recommend avoiding antibiotics at all costs. Tea tree oil and lavender can be used to cure ear infections. I wish that I had just done that instead of using the antibiotic because we would have avoided this whole problem. If an antibiotic is absolutely necessary, make sure to give baby probiotics at the same time. If you are nursing, you can also take them yourself and it will transfer into the breastmilk. I’m really glad we didn’t also end up with thrush during this whole process!