My dear sweet Matthew:

Two years ago today, you joined the world, unhappily I might add, and joined your baba and me together biologically. It was the hardest day of my life but also, in retrospect, the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

One year ago today, you celebrated your first birthday. You weren’t quite walking yet, but we’d already gotten to know so much about you and we were excited about how you’d grown so far and what was yet to come.

And this year, you are two. Two years old. You are such a vibrant little boy and you amaze your mama and baba every day. You love to tease people - running up to them to tickle their belly buttons, or even tease the dog (by taunting her with a tortilla chip and then snatching it back and eating it at the last minute).

Slowly but surely you are talking with us. Here are the things you say on a regular basis:
- I want
- baby
- dog
- poo
- butt
- thank you!
- please
- what’s that
- baba
- mama
- great grandma
- grandma

You understand EVERYTHING, though, and sometimes that’s a little scary. Dr. Gena asked you where her stethoscope was and you turned right around, found it, grabbed it, and handed it back to her. You know many of your body parts - eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, feet, toes, butt (we taught you how to slap your butt when you were naked for a bath - it is a laugh riot). You nod yes and no and sometimes you get really pissed off at us (where you got your anger and rage from we’ll have no idea…) and stomp your little feet madly while shouting at the top of your indignant lungs. You like going into timeout sometimes - I think it gives you a chance to calm down and give you a fresh start, and you certainly like coming out for hugs afterward (and we like giving them too!). You know how to boo baseball teams other than the Giants, and just yesterday when I asked you how old you were you held up two fingers, mimicking mama, and were so thrilled with yourself you started squealing and clapping. Too funny!

You are so curious about everything and sometimes it’s like you can actually see into your brain and watch the gears turn. We’re starting to talk about using the toilet (dear god please let’s be out of diapers) and you are fascinated with the toilet flushing and saying bye-bye to its contents and then crouching down and looking for where the goods were flushed.

These last two years have been long and short at once. I am continually amazed by your growth and your kindness and your laughter and joy. I look forward to many more years of watching you grow into a confident and sparkling boy and wow, am I jazzed that I am your mama and get to have that privilege. I love you.

Mama

We’ve been watching season 5 of 24 via Netflix at home lately - I disagree with the politics but I love the action of the show, while Josh cringes and shouts obscenities when Jack Bauer tortures someone or slices an eyelid. Anyway, I’ve had a lot of 24 on the brain lately.

And I’ve also been sick, and sick means diabetes goes berserk. My sugars and appetites are off, and I’m just trying to keep up. It’s a self-pitying mess, really.

So what happens when those two things collide? I end up dreaming about eating a giant bowl of chocolate Rice Krispies with milk and rice (yuck!) while there’s a sting operation going down and Jack leading a tac team in with guns and everything, and his rough and gruff voice telling me to drop my weapon. The spoon goes clatter.

These pregnancy hormones are something else.

I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but this is how I did it. Last weekend I tie-dyed 24 new infant prefold diapers I got for our impending arrival. Yes, I know #2 isn’t slated to make an arrival until December, but I wanted to start getting ready.

Materials:
- 24 (2 dozen) infant Indian prefold diapers, purchased on ebay from granitesmith. Cost $37.98 (not including shipping).
- 1 “serious starter” tie-dye kit from Dharma Trading. $23.95 (not including shipping).

Reasons for choosing what I did:
- I chose the diapers I did because we like prefolds for babies. Babies are constantly doing their, uh, thing, and this is an economical and easy way to get started on cloth until they slow down in growth and can have some serious use out of other fancier schmancier diapers (goodmama, I’m looking at you!). Plus, they’re durable and can take a beating, and can be used for years after the diapers are done with their intended purpose. Score.

- Procion dyes - I was looking for something with a good reputation and that would be good for cotton. And they were fairly cheap in price. I can dig it.

Preparing the diapers
Before I started the dying process, I prepped the diapers by washing them in hot with a bit of detergent, and drying them on hot as well - I did this a few times until they were fluffy. The washing releases the oils that are a natural part of cotton. Here is a picture showing prepped and unprepped diapers. The unprepped are the ones completely flat.

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