Lemon Meringue Pie

Last night I made a lemon meringue pie with this recipe, and it might possibly be the best lemon meringue pie I've ever had.  I left the meringue going in the mixer the entire time I was making the lemon part - having a "real" mixer instead of my old hand mixer makes a world of difference!

I have no idea why this picture rotated on me, but oh well.

Reason #127 why cloth diapers rock:

After 22 months of use, I was able to sell Eleanor's diapers for just over 40% of what I originally paid for them!    In the end, I spent as much on diapers for 22 months as most parents spend on about 6 months of disposable diapers.  Yes I had to wash them, but I even went back and compared my gas/water/electric bills from her first year to the year before, and I really couldn't tell a difference.  Plus, NO diaper rashes (besides food related ones...watch out for those pickles!) - even my pediatrician noticed this and commented on it in surprise at Eleanor's one year checkup.  And of course, NO filling up landfills with human waste and diapers that take 500 years to decompose.  Also, did you know it takes 2/3 cup of crude oil to make ONE disposable diaper? Okay, so maybe that was several reasons to add to the list right there.  ;)

Now I have a new stash with lots of cute colors for Arthur!  We have three each of these colors:

These are BumGenius 4.0 diapers (I had 3.0's) with snaps - I definitely prefer them to the velcro closures I had before. (A. Toddlers can't take them off very easily, B. Snaps don't get ratty over time like vecro does.)  Eleanor's breaking them in for Arthur right now...we've got to work on this whole potty training thing.  However, I am happy to say that she LOVES the orange diapers and always asks to wear them.  She makes her Clemson mama proud.  ;)

FYI - if you are interested in these diapers, CottonBabies.com has a great sale on them for buy 5, get 1 free, with free shipping.  The sale ends on May 31st.

Eleanor spells her name

I recently started spelling Eleanor's name to music, and she LOVES for me to sing it to her! The music helped her catch on VERY quickly.

He has a name!

Arthur Stephenson!

I've always loved the name Arthur since I read the King Arthur stories as a kid.  Yes, I know there is a cartoon aardvark named Arthur, but I don't care.  It's a great name!  I've been telling Hunter it's the name I wanted ever since I found out I was pregnant this time around.  The other day I was looking at a book with my mom's family tree, and I found something pretty cool - my great-grandmother had siblings named Ada, Arthur, and Elizabeth (both Eleanor and Ada's middle name)!  That made it perfect for me.  :)  Stephenson is a family name, and I've always thought it would be a great middle name for a boy.

Our other top contender was Alexander, but it was the #6 most popular boy name in 2010 while Arthur was #389, so that made the decision pretty easy.  Plus, we don't like nicknames and of course Alexander would end up going by Alex.  Hunter has liked Arthur all along, but he wouldn't agree until we sat down and looked through a list of over 1000 boy names.  I guess it's good to be thorough though.  ;)

A not-so-great profile shot at 18 weeks

18 weeks

Not a good picture of me, but I think it's hilarious of Eleanor!  I was trying to take pictures with the timer, and she jumped in and said, "cheese!"

Old MacDonald's Farm and other happenings

Eleanor loves music, and sometimes she tells me what to sing.  Lately we've been singing "Old MacDonald" a lot, and I sing "On that farm he had a ..." and let her fill in the blank with an animal.  Here are some of the interesting animals that Old MacDonald now has living on his farm:

• Insect
• Monkey
• Platypus
• Penguin
• Osito (meaning little bear...specifically her stuffed bear that she sleeps with)
• Raccoon
• Caterpillar

Coming up with a sound to make was a bit challenging for some of these!

Hunter also started singing "Pop goes Osito" instead of "Pop goes the Weasel" to her.  Well, the other night I asked her what song she wanted me to sing, and she said "The Penguin Song."  (She'll say this about random things and then I have to make up songs about them.  We have a special song about the ceiling fan, for example.)  Anyway, she said something along the lines of, "The penguin.... umm... the monkey...  and... the monkey chase...  the...  The monkey chase the penguin!"  So I sang "Pop goes the Penguin" and that seemed to be what she was after.  ("All around the cobbler's bench, the monkey chased the penguin...")

Tonight Hunter gave her a bath (he does this every night now, since it's a little hard for me to lean over the tall side of the tub) and she wanted to stay and play in the water.  He said, "Okay, one more minute."  Her response:  "Two minutes!  Two minutes!"  She's already been bargaining with books - sometimes I'll say, "I'll read you two books" and she'll say "five books!"  "No, Eleanor, just two books."  "Three books!"  She would do well shopping in Latin America, I think.

Reading a magazine
(This local interior design magazine that came in the newspaper was a hit - she's even taken it in the car with her.)

Who needs fancy toys?

 

Ahh, covered in dirt.

We have a big pile of dirt in our yard from where Hunter dug up holes for our new hammock posts.  She loves to sit and dig and lie down in the dirt.

Another day, another dirt-covered face

(She's sad because she wants to hold the camera.)

Finally, in baby news - Hunter got to feel the baby kick the other day!  He (I'm going with "he" although I'm still not totally convinced) has been moving a lot lately.  More than I remember Eleanor or certainly Ada moving at this point.  It's making me nervous that he's going to be a wild one!  ;)  Also, I still don't have my big ultrasound scheduled!  And I'm 18 1/2 weeks!  My OB told me on Wednesday that they would schedule one for me, and I've already called and left a message once about it, but I will be calling again tomorrow.  This is a little crazy and I'm starting to feel anxious about it!

Wekiwa Springs State Park

We decided to go exploring, so we visited Wekiwa Springs State Park in Apopka today for the first time.  It was really beautiful!  (But a little crowded by the time we left at 1:00)  The main attraction is definitely the swimming area at the springs.  The water is 72 degrees year round, which is pretty cool.

We got Eleanor this new life jacket from Target, and it's pretty awesome.  She can almost be completely independent in the water.  She really enjoyed the water experience, except that it was so cold.  After a few minutes in the water she said, "Too much cold!"  We tried to keep her in the sunny area, but after about 20 minutes her teeth were chattering so we decided that was enough.  It didn't feel too bad to us by then though.

After drying off, we took a little walk.

Eleanor liked the fish.

We decided not to attempt canoeing yet, but I think this would be a great place to try it out.

Lunchtime!  I got this little chair for $1 at a yard sale, thinking that Eleanor probably wouldn't sit in it much but it was just $1 so why not.  She LOVES this chair!  We now take it on all trips to the beach, camping, etc.  (And yes, that is a boiled egg she's eating...  Kind of random, but I just grabbed some stuff out of the fridge this morning and threw it in the cooler.  She doesn't seem to mind random though - this is the same kid who asked for and ate 1 1/2 entire pieces of whole wheat bread, completely plain, as an afternoon snack today.)

Watching other people swim

Trying to "catch fish" with a stick.

Eleanor's first driving lesson

We took Eleanor to a nature preserve and let her ride in the front with us so we could point things out to her. (Please don't think we're horrible parents - we were going pretty much 5 mph the whole time with practically no cars around.) Eleanor loves it, but I think she enjoys being up front with us and the buttons and steering wheel far more than the animals themselves. We saw 4 alligators but all she could talk about was the steering wheel! Anyway, she sat in Hunter's lap for a minute and he let her try out the whole driving thing. If there had been a test, I don't think she would have passed!