After another afternoon casting about the backyard, Jackson had pretty well mastered accomplished the necessary steps, and Jason took him to the pond. Here are the pictures of the day. I wasn't there, so I can't comment much.
Jason loaded Jackson's line up with some heavy fish lures. No hooks or sinkers in the interest of safety. His first day out on the water, Jackson could've sunk a hook into anything including his cheek. Turns out there wasn't much need to worry. The 2 practice days of casting in the yard were sufficient, and Jack was like an old pro.
Fish on! Jack didn't have a hook, so Jason really caught this one, but Jack did help real him in. It's a nice big Northern Pike for his first fish. Nice Job!
I had to add in this picture. It's the first time Jackson held Jonah. He had gotten bored of casting the line in the yard, and wanted to watch me. I was sitting in the canoe with Jonah, so Jackson offered to hold Jonah while I fished. By the time Jason got there with the camera, he had changed his mind, but we managed to get a shot. And yes, we noted the irony of doing two water activities, fishing and canoeing, in the dry yard.
Today is Jonah's One Month Day. Jonah celebrated by pooping through 3 outfits in between naps. The rest of us celebrated by grilling. The rest of the world celebrated with fajitas and tequila, it is Cinco de Mayo after all. The Earth celebrated by sending out the first of the season's fireflies.
I should've put my little boy on the scale yesterday when I had a chance to see just how much he's grown. Since I didn't, I just have the stats from last week. 9 lb 10 oz (Look how chubby he is already! That's up almost 2 lbs from birth) and 22 inches. Up a fabulous 2 3/4 inches (a reminder that the stretch the baby on a piece of paper method is very inaccurate).
Jonah is for the most part an easy baby. I take him to mom's group, and the other mothers of newborns marvel at how easy going he is. He sleeps for 3 hour stretches, is willing to sleep in his bed. Cries only to eat or burp. When he's awake, the eating and burping are constant--every 20-30 minutes for 2-3 hours in the morning and evening. This makes it difficult to get the rest of the household fed and dressed. Fortunately Jackson has been a good sport about it. At first he was very nervous about the crying and would get upset himself. Now he's taking it in stride. If I'm right there, he will ask "Mom, why is Jonah crying?" and if I've stepped away, he comes to find me and tell me "Mom, Jonah is crying!"
In some ways, he is also a difficult baby. The need to eat so frequently am and pm is hard to comply with. Jonah has also decided not to take artificial nipples--no pacifier, and no bottle. I'm somewhat envious of the people I know with toddlers who won't give up the binky, it sure would be nice to let the little guy suck himself to sleep. I don't know what he's going to do in 4 weeks when I have to go back to work. I got a couple of different types of bottles to try, and hopefully he'll accept one of them and not starve to death.
This picture is totally staged. Jack was coerced into letting Jonah lean against him, and coached into putting his arm around him and holding his head up. Jack is actually laughing at Sponge Bob on TV. It turned out to be a great picture, though.
We acquired a set of gDiapers, and today was the day to try them out. They bill themselves as a hybrid between cloth and disposables giving you the best of both worlds. They have cloth covers, and a nylon (waterproof) snap in piece that holds a cellulose based flushable liner (now available in reusable cloth). The idea is that you pull out the flushable liner, swish it in the toilet and flush, then wash the rest with your regular laundry. The liners are completely biodegradable, and they suggest composting wet ones instead of flushing. I wouldn't recommend that unless the compost is for flowers only, not for food.
In my test, the diapers worked well. I would say as effective as disposables. We had one minor leak out the leg, which might have been due to operator error since I intentionally put the diaper on backward (they velcro in back, and I thought it was inconvenient). There were some much juicier diaper changes later which didn't leak, and likely would have blown out the back with 'sposies.
The diapers look pretty comfy. The cloth is stretchy around the legs and waist. I don't think pooh could travel far up the back because of the nice waistband, even if it did try to escape. It velcros in back so baby fingers can't pull them off, but this isn't a problem until the baby becomes a toddler. The back velcro is somewhat awkward at first. The diaper in the photo is on backward quite by accident, but no leaks that time.
I also give the diapers points for cuteness.
I opted not to swish the liners since we have a septic system, so I just separated it into the trash. This is my complaint with the diapers. I think if I'm gonna go cloth, I should just do cloth and save myself the trouble of dismantling a gooey mess. I think the cloth inserts might make more sense for my application. Maybe I'll try putting a cloth doubler in instead of the disposable liner. If I do, I'll let you know how that goes.
If any of you are interested in trying the gdiapers yourself, I could pass them along. I have 7 covers, and 75 liners in size small (8-14 lbs).
