The Brothers Family

We are loving our cloth diapers. It's so nice to have soft cloth next to Julian's skin and our washing routine is simple and going smoothly. And they couldn't be any cuter.

This sweet little one is celebrating today because he slept through the night last night! Yay Julian!

I've had a few people asking me about how well Julian (babies) can see and at what age he can see farther distances and various colors. It's been years since I've taken a child development class (probably not since my early college days 10 years ago!) so I looked it up and will share some of that info with you here. You can read the whole post here : How it develops At first your baby can't focus farther than 8 to 15 inches away — just far enough to make out the face of the person holding him. He can detect light, shapes, and movement beyond that, but it's all pretty blurry right now. Appropriately enough, your face is the most fascinating thing to your baby at this age (followed by high-contrast patterns such as a checkerboard), so be sure to give him plenty of up-close time. 1 month At birth your baby didn't know how to use his eyes in tandem, so they may have wandered randomly or even crossed now and then. This month or next, he'll be able to con...

Julian learned to smile this week. This photo was taken mid-smile (it's really hard to catch one on camera!). He has been working on it all week, and then yesterday Dustin came in to say good morning to him while I was feeding him, and he looked up at Dustin and smiled a huge smile. He spent the day yesterday practicing smiling at my aunt, my grandpa, and at us. It is the sweetest thing in the whole world. I love having a smiley, happy baby.

For those interested in hearing more details about Julian's entry into this world, this post is for you. It is full of the details of Julian's birth and the day he joined our family. Julian Reese Brothers June 23, 2011 at 6:36pm 7lbs 14oz 20.5inches long He's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. On Wednesday, June 22, I was busying myself and trying to distract myself from the fact that I was nearly a week past my due date and extremely uncomfortable. I spent the day cleaning, vacuuming couch cushions, pacing the house, and tidying. Dustin came home early from work, so we decided to take a nap late in the afternoon. We woke up around 6pm and within half an hour, I realized that my water was breaking/leaking. I was having mild contractions but I'd been having Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks, so while I knew labor was coming, they were completely manageable. We decided to go for a walk to try to get them really going, but we realized that there was meconium i...

Julian Reese Brothers was born on June 23rd at 6:36pm. He weighs 7lbs 14oz and was 20.5inches long. He is absolutely positively perfect in every possible way. I apologize for the delay in sharing the news. Julian was born via cesarian section after over 24 hours of very hard labor so we are resting up as much as possible and taking things incredibly easy. I promise to share more photos and a little more about his birth soon. For now, we are so thankful he's here and healthy and is such a good baby! Lots of love, XO Meg

I'm not going to lie, I sort of thought June would never get here - June felt like a lifetime away when I found out I was pregnant last fall. Yet time passes as usual and here we are - June 1st. The month we will meet our child. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to have fun. I spend much of my life talking about what is fun and doing things that feel fun. So when I found out that my baby would arrive in June, I started to think about what a fun month June is. School is out for the summer. It's finally warm and beautiful outside. There are trips to the pool, zoo, and parks to be had. And I'm excited that my baby will get to have a birthday this month. My brother-in-law sent me a link to a song this morning that is called June Hymn by the Decemberists. I'm sharing it here today as a June anthem and wishing you a happy and fun June. XO, Meg

I've gotten asked quite a few times why we have chosen cloth diapering for our new little one so I thought I would share with you some of the reasons here. For us it is a combo of economical, financial, and preference. However, after doing some research, the answer for us was clear. Here are some facts that helped us decide to become a cloth diaper family: - Disposables leave behind an average of 2.7 tons of non-biodegradable waste (not to mention the waste produced by manufacturing them alone) per child. -With disposables, some estimate you spend an average of $2000 per child. Cloth compares at only an average of $150-$350 per child (with the added but minimal cost of electricity and water to launder them). -It's a little-known fact that cloth diaper children potty train earlier, and with less effort on their parent's part. This has mostly to do with the fact that when a cloth diaper is wet, they can feel the sensation. -Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extr...

We got some really great shots of the baby today at our ultrasound. We had a very active and squirmy baby and I was really surprised to see just how much of my belly this baby is taking up. There are limbs everywhere! Everything looks perfect and baby had a very strong 154bpm heart beat today. Here are some photos to share with you: Baby's Profile: Baby's Face (front view): All the little bones in the hand: Hand and Foot: The photos are a little better in person - trying to get a copy of them online is not an easy thing. But I am so happy to finally have some good ultrasound photos of this little one. So very in love. XO, Meg

I am 6 months pregnant this week and it hardly seems real. It's hard for me to believe how fast this pregnancy is going. I'm so grateful to still be feeling well. This belly is definitely sticking out and the baby loves to kick and squirm at both 11pm and 5am. I had an older man at Home Depot trying to guess my due date this weekend which was both cute and funny. He's certainly hoping for a June 4th baby which is his birthday. We'll be lucky to see this baby before July 4th, really! Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of posting pregnant photos on here of myself, but I know there are a few of you who are out of state and wondering. We go back to the doctor on Friday and will have a chance to see this little one's face. If there's a great photo to share, I'll let you know. XO, Meg

I've put together a list of baby toys that I love. They are all found on Etsy because in our household, we really value things that are made by hand, with care, and not of plastic that require batteries. Yes, there is a time and place for those, but we truly love the basics and prefer toys like these rather than those filling the aisles of large chain stores. Here is a list of toys that I'd love to be able to buy or make for my baby! Dreaming of teethers and rattles like these . LOVE. A Waldorf inspired knot doll like this one . So cute. A sweet jingle ball like this one . Wooden blocks like these gorgeous ones. Stacking rings like these handmade ones. ( This is a pattern to make some by hand) And if it's a girl, I'd LOVE for her to have handmade dolls like this cutie.

Yesterday at 20 weeks pregnant. Baby is sticking out and kicking me a lot! We have our 20 week ultrasound tomorrow. No we are still not finding out the gender. Yes, we're sure we want to be surprised. Half way! XO, Meg

I thought I would share some images of baby rooms that are inspiring me these days. They are decorated in ways I would consider and have a lovely feel of not being out of a bag or from Walmart or any other "nursery in a bag" monstrosity. I've been painting some art work for the bare white walls and have been searching for some art online that I would LOVE to add to the room. I also plan to do some fun lighting in there since apparently in suburbia they do not believe in overhead lighting. Here are some links that are inspiring, followed by some items on our baby's room wish list: Inspiring Rooms: http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerjen/1209245752/ http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/inspiration/a-beautiful-nursery-made-up-of-ikea-etsy-and-thrifted-items-075649 http://www.shoppingfortwo.com/blog/nursery-inspiration-elsie/ http://lauragunn.typepad.com/paintinmyhair/2008/01/h-is-for-harris.html On our Wish List: this lovely art print by the lovely Mati found here . *love* thi...

All of that lovely yarn I bought a couple of weeks ago is getting put to use and this blanket is coming along nicely. I'm loving the colors together and really appreciating their brightness during these dreary winter days. Looking forward to a snuggly summer baby to wrap up in this blanket. I catch myself wondering what he/she will look like wrapped up in it! I'm nearly 1/3 of the way through it, in the end there will be 3 stripes of each color. Moving right along and dreaming up other possibilities for the baby's room. XO Meg

We chose colors for the baby's room this week. I started knitting a baby blanket this week that will be using this yarn. These will be the colors in the baby's room along with some chocolate brown. I love the names of the yarn colors: "Lemongrass and Aloe." In case it's hard to tell, its a very yellowy-lime green and an aqua blue. Many people have asked me about a "theme" for the baby's room. Well, to be honest, I'm not really the "theme" type. I don't really decorate that way. So there will be no theme to speak of but I will be collecting pieces of art for the room that I love. No animal or event or iconic themes for me. Nothing that looks straight off the shelves of a chain store. But I'm looking forward to maybe even making some art for the baby's room. I'm really enjoying this time post-holiday chaos to really start to think about the baby. Almost half way! XO Meg

Ok, so it takes some major guts for me to post this picture. But I'm doing it for you. Here is my belly - clearly starting to poke out. I'm 16 weeks, we go for my 16w doctor appointment tomorrow. This is a pre-pregnancy shirt and in my pre-pregnancy clothes I definitely look more pregnant than in any maternity tops. I probably just mostly look fat, but Dustin and I can definitely tell it's a round little baby bump. I've already been teased for "showing so early" although I'm not sure that 4 months pregnant is really early... but I am a Hale girl and it's no surprise that there's a bump already. How some women go 5-6 months without showing is beyond me! Anyway, all is well. We are hoping to get to hear the heartbeat again tomorrow. We had a nice Christmas and are looking forward to a nice Anniversary this week and a fun New Years as well. Hope you are all having a nice holiday week. XO Meg

This is our newest surprise. I took a test one morning to prove to myself that I was not pregnant and was shocked to see that I, in fact, was pregnant. I went out that day to get a little present for Dustin. I bought him a baby book, "Daddy Kisses," and a brown newborn hat. I wrapped them up with the positive pregnancy test and gave it to him that night. It was so fun to see his smile. We had our first ultrasound at 8 weeks and saw this beautiful sight and saw a strong, steady heartbeat. I go back tomorrow for my 12 week appointment and will get to hear the heartbeat. My official due date is June 16, 2011. I'm feeling well and am looking forward to this next year of our lives. Change is fun! XO, Meg