• 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.

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!

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!

Birth

1 Year

2 Years

3 Years

4 Years

5 Years

Kaisa, you are a bright ray of sunshine in my life. You constantly bring joy to those around you. You are intelligent, responsible, determined, talented, and kind. I love watching you play with and care for your little brothers. They look up to you and want to be like you.

Kaisa, you made me a mom. I have learned (and am still learning) how to be a mom because of you. Thanks for being patient with me. I make a lot of mistakes, and you are so sweet and forgiving.

Kaisa,  you always look for the good in others. You are constantly saying hello to everyone, even complete strangers at the store or the park. And you don’t stop at hello. You make sure to compliment them on their hair, earrings, outfit, or anything else you like about them. You tell them all about yourself, your brothers, and what you’re doing that day. You always bring a smile to their face. You have a talent for getting along well with others and make friends easily. I hope you will always use that talent to bring happiness to others.

Kaisa, you love learning and are full of questions! I am amazed at the things you think to ask me. I hope you will always want to learn more and more about the world around you. I can’t wait for you to start Kindergarten this fall and see you learn and grow even more!

Kaisa, I love you always and forever. Happy Birthday!

The cake and cake topper. I made a chocolate marble cake from a cake mix and baked it in one of my round sauce pots (they are oven safe). I mixed fondant and colored most of it black, but set aside a little and colored it yellow. I covered the cake in black fondant and used a bat-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the bats. I used a little bit of vanilla frosting to stick them on.

I made these masks using the Cricut. For anyone searching the Internet on how-to instructions for this cartridge, I cut these 6" for 3-5 year olds. Older kids would need 7", and adults 8".

For the capes, I bought like 2 yards of black felt. I used a cape pattern I already had and cut them out. I cut out two at a time to make it faster. I hot-glued velcro on to attach them around the neck. Then, using my Cricut, I cut the Batman symbol out of yellow vinyl and stuck it on. So easy, and the kids LOVED them!

The party favor buckets. I found these at Target in the dollar section up front. I filled them with candy, Batman yo-yos, and Batman sticker books (also found at Target).

I made a "pin the bat on Batman" game using the Cricut. The bats turned out really small, but it still worked and the kids had fun!

I added these little guys next to the cake as centerpieces. They were really fun to make, and they are so cute! This Cricut cartridge was so much fun!

Batman tablecloth: Zurcher's. I made the banner using the Cricut and threaded black ribbon through it.

Yellow-and-black streamers and balloons from Zurcher's.

We also found this one at Zurcher's. It matches the tablecloth, plates, cups, and napkins.

Entering the Bat Cave! I cannot take credit for the Bat Cave (other than the idea) because I put Nathan in charge of it. He did an amazing job!

Heading down into the Bat Cave (aka our unfinished basement).

The Bat Cave! Bats hanging everywhere, streamers everywhere, and Everett's name written on the wall! The balloons were for the "Stomp the Joker" game.

So cool!

I love the Cricut!

I cut out all these Joker faces for the "Stomp on Joker" game. It took forever. To play this game, just fill half of your balloons with candy and tape Joker to them. Then, let the kids loose stomping and popping balloons. They get candy if they pop one with Joker on it. This was the favorite game of the party for both kids and adults!

Here are some pictures of the party in action!

Getting Batman costumes on.

I used the Cricut to cut out these Batman door hangers. Then, we let the kids decorate them with sticky foam letters. Some put their name on them, some put "QUIET," and one even put "BAT CAVE."

Playing "Pin the bat on Batman."

Descending into the Bat Cave.

Stomping on Jokers!

Some Jokers didn't want to break...

We also played "Mr. Freeze" tag.

So excited for cake! He seriously kept asking me, "is it time for cake yet?" the entire day.

Blowing out THREE candles!

Opening presents...

...with an audience of "Batmen" watching!

It was a great party, but I’m so glad it’s finally OVER!!! :)

I just need to brag about him for one quick sec. He has been with Boostability for almost 2 years now. He started out as the director of fulfillment, and when he started, he was the only guy on his team. Soon, he had one employee, then several, and eventually his team grew to over 20 people in-house and over 100 stay-at-home writers (including myself). This week, on our Valentine’s date, Nathan told me that he was promoted to VP of Operations!! I am SO excited for him, mostly because he seems SO HAPPY. He LOVES his job, and that is all I guy can ask from his career, right? Plus, it came with a raise and a nice “pat on the back” that he is doing a great job and valued by his employer. That’s got to be a good feeling.

I’m so proud of you, babe! Keep up the good work!

My mom, dad, sister, and her fiancee (now ex-fiancee) were all able to come up from Arizona and visit us over Christmas weekend. And let me tell you, it was a PARTY! We had SO MUCH FUN! Here are some highlights from the weekend.

The kids asked Grandma Wendy to read to them up in the top bunk. And, being Grandma Wendy, she did! They loved every minute of it!

Santa came! We had a ridiculous amount of presents under the tree this year!

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we had to get the kids up before the sun in order to get everything opened and be ready for 10:00 church.

Everett opening his stocking. When he opened this lip balm, he excitedly exclaimed, "Look mom! Boy makeup!"

Kaisa opening her stocking.

Harrison opening his stocking. Actually, he just wanted to eat the presents. I had to help him open them.

These were their big presents from Santa. Everett got a workbench and Kaisa got a Barbie with a horse that really trots!

The rest of the morning was captured on the video camera…it was lots of fun! Nathan surprised me with an iPad that he bought with our credit card miles. We’ve been having a lot of fun with that! We also got an Xbox 360 with Kinect. I was so reluctant to let Nathan get one of these, but I’m so glad I finally gave in. It’s been so much fun, and the Kinect is great! It’s so much easier for the kids to learn and I can exercise with it. I got Dance Central II to go with it, and I love it! We also got Fruit Ninja and it makes my arms sore every time! The kids really like Fantastic Pets and Once Upon a Monster.

We went down to Payson after church and opened presents with Nathan’s family. We got to talk to Uncle Matthew who is on a mission in Chile! That was really fun because we did Skype. Then we came back to Orem, put the kids to bed, and played Dance Central with my family. It was so fun! My sister blessed her baby the next morning, and then my family had to leave. We are so glad they got to come!

On New Year’s Weekend, we got to go to a family reunion held by my great-aunt for the Utah Allens (my grandmother is an Allen). There were a lot of my dad’s cousins there with their kids. A lot of his cousins are my age, so I think of them as my cousins. The kids had so much fun playing on the bounce houses and eating treats!

It’s amazing. I want to do this to my piano, but it would have to be a different color that matches my house. The finish on my piano is in bad shape. The previous owner allowed their dogs to chew on the legs and the paint is missing in many places. There are a lot of blemishes. I think it would look fabulous with a fun, vibrant coat of paint.

This is a crazy idea, right? If I’m going to repaint something in my house, shouldn’t I start with a desk or table? You know, something simple? For some reason, I am drawn to this idea. I love the little appliques she added, too. I may not have room for that since I have a spinet. Anyway. Anyone want to help me with this project? Natalie? :)