Have Wet Bag. Will Travel.

My husband says we've become hippies. He's referring to this:


That's Aaron in a cloth diaper. Is it the cutest thing you've ever seen? I decided to buy a couple of cloth diapers and give it a trial run. I love it. I ordered 16 more. Want another peek?

Okay, that's some serious bedhead, but how cute is that bright red caboose?

The first time I changed a dirty diaper, I had a little panic. I was pretty sure this was all a big mistake. But now I've gotten the hang of it, and I am in love. It's easy. And they are SO cute.

So, the big question is WHY, OH WHY would you choose to do this when there are great disposables out there? Oh, thanks for asking. First, there are health benefits. Disposables contain Dioxin, Tributyl-tin, and sodium polyacrylate. These have been linked to cancer, hormonal problems, and toxicity (respectively). Also, boys who wear disposables are at risk for reproductive problems. Then there's the cost factor. Disposables save money, no doubt about it (although if you become a diaper addict, as I fear I might, the cost savings is harder to see!) And, of course, cloth diapering is much greener.

I had intended to ease into this. I would start putting Aaron in cloth while we were at home, but keep using disposables while we were out. But now that I'm spoiled to cloth, I just can't stand to put a rough, toxic disposable on him. He wore cloth to church on Sunday, and the nursery worker (bless her) didn't complain a bit.

Last week we made a trip to Chattanooga to visit Daddy. I packed a bag full of cloth diapers, a couple extra sets of clothes (I haven't quite figured out how to tell when the diapers are wet yet!), and my brand new (and very cute) wet bag. I really thought about packing a box of disposables, just in case, but I thought better of it. We did great. I considered our first road trip in cloth diapers to be our official crossover to a cloth diapering family.

...Or hippies, as Mike would say.

Wanna Know a Secret?

The baby in my tummy? He's a boy. His name is Nolan Maxwell Sharp.

That's a view of his underside. Leg on either side and, yup, boy parts in the middle.

Here he is rubbing his tiny eyes.

So, there you have it. Four sons. Wow. Jackson and Ei are very excited. We already went shopping and bought Baby Nolan (Baby Max? We're still deciding what we'll call him.) a lovey. Aaron sleeps with "Silkie Dog" every night, and Jackson and Ei really thought the new baby needed a silkie animal too. We bought an elephant and a bear (because they couldn't decide, and I was in the mood to buy baby stuff anyway so I said we could buy both), but Aaron immediately claimed the bear. He has been clinging it to it all day. Something tells me little Aaron isn't going to be quite as excited about sharing our lives with a new baby.

I know what's on all of your minds. You're thinking that we must be terribly disappointed that we aren't having a girl. I've actually heard several comments of the like just today. Well, stop worrying about it. We're very happy. The honest truth? I would very much like to buy some cute little girl dresses and Mary Jane shoes and ruffly bloomers. I pass by them in stores and swoon on a regular basis. But in all of my fantasies of having a girl, I was always focused on the shopping. When I fantasized about bringing home a little boy, however, I imagined reliving all the sweet moments that I cherish with my three sons. True, the clothes aren't as cute (and Mike will probably complain if I put Baby Nolan in lacy bloomers), but the babies are just as precious. I'm not disappointed. I'm thrilled. We make some pretty fantastic boys, and I'm so excited to see what this sweet little boy will be like.

There's this restaurant in Cozumel we have visited several times over the years. It's pretty far off the beaten path, and yet they manage to stay in business. It's right on the beach, and you can dig your toes in the sand while you wait for your meal. The first time we visited we were all a bit taken aback by the waiter who first offered us our choice of beverages (bottled water or beer) and then announced, "You have lobster." There was no menu, no daily specials list, no question about it. We were eating lobster. See, they caught several large lobsters that morning, and he knew they were fresh and delicious. He didn't give us the chance to mess up our order by thinking it over and weighing our options. The lobster was amazing. It's not what we would have ordered had we been given the choice (I'm not really a seafood fan, and I'm cheap to boot), so I'm glad that I wasn't offered a menu because I would never have known what I was missing.

If you had asked me when I was 20 to describe how my family would look in 10 years, I would probably have told you that I would be married and have three daughters. That always seemed like a perfect family to me. I never wanted sons. In fact, I used to say that I would absolutely refuse to have them. God laughed, I'm sure. Fortunately, He took away my menu. I wasn't offered the choice. I would have blindly picked daughters because, well, their clothes are cuter, I suppose. I would never have considered boys with their dirty faces, scraped-up knees, and rough play. And I would have missed out on their kind hearts, precious smiles, and that heart-melting way that they curl up in my lap and tell me that they love me. I would never have known what I was missing.

Today I was offered a peek at what God is in the process of creating, with a little help from my body, and I saw him. He's tiny and animated and HE'S REAL. God is growing a real-life person inside me. Do you know how honored I feel? He singled me out to be this baby's mama.

So, no, I'm not sorry at all.

16 weeks

The belly--16 weeks


The picture above makes me look a little bigger than I really am because of the shadow. By the time I figured it out, my camera battery had died.

How HOW did I manage to get something on my dress between picture 1 and picture 2 when they were taken only seconds apart? It's no wonder our family goes through so many loads of laundry. We can get our clothes dirty while standing still.

Better shots next time. This is the first time in my life I've ever set the camera timer, so it was a learning experience.