Happy Thanksgiving!

Going into Thanksgiving, I want to list the things I am thankful for:
1. My healthy baby boy. Every single child brought into this world is a miracle and I am so thankful that my little man is healthy (though his skin rash is annoying me, maybe he's teething, or maybe the poor kid just got stuck with his mommy's skin problems).
2. My wonderful husband. He is so supportive and loves me and his son so much. When I'm in another room, I love listening to the two of them play. Adam has figured out how to tickle Dylan and Dylan has the best laugh in the universe. Listening to Adam play with our son just makes me love him more.
3. My parents. They are so ready to help with anything we need and I don't know what we'd do without them. Especially when we ask my mom to come stay to babysit, she doesn't hesitate.
4. Our babysitter. She is a friend of ours and is saving us so much money by being willing to take care of our little man while I work in the morning. She works second shift, which means she gets home around midnight, and is up for me to drop off the little man at 7:20 every morning. Luckily come January my schedule will change and it will only be two days a week instead of four.
5. My job. I've asked for a year now to be made full time and that still hasn't happened. I am frustrated at times, but I am still grateful to have a job at all. And I won't say yes to a schedule like the awful one I have right now ever again.
6. My car. The silver bullet has over 183,000 miles on it and it's still kicking. Really well. Knock on wood. I won't lie, I cheated on my car driving my parents 2006 Chevy Impala SS and I enjoyed it tremendously, but I love my car. The Impala was a LOT of fun though (sshhhh, don't tell the silver bullet).
7. Our new furnace. Over the summer, our air conditioner died, and due to the tax credit, we got a new a/c and furnace. And our new furnace is amazing when compared with the old one. The old one didn't regulate heat well and the downstairs was always freezing. The new furnace keeps the downstairs warm and the upstairs is the same temperature as downstairs. The old furnace kept the upstairs at least 10 degrees warmer than the downstairs and made it so difficult to sleep.

I'm sure there are many more things I'm thankful for, especially all my wonderful family and friends.

I love PBS

So, in the mornings, I watch PBS kids. Dinosaur Train, Sesame Street, Sid the Science Kid, Word World. Dylan may watch a little, but mostly he's eating or playing on the floor and PBS Kids is the background. I know he doesn't really know what he's watching, but I love it! I did not think that I would be watching PBS Kids so soon, but it really is my favorite. I have watched some Nickelodeon and Disney and they suck in comparison.

And, because I love PBS so much, this weekend when I was up for a feeding at 1 am (when is that going to stop, I wonder), I turned on the TV and it was on PBS. It just so happened that it was an episode of NOVA about Dogs. How dogs are descended from wolves, how dogs are so in tune with human emotions, and how the silver fox breeding program in Russia shows how it was possible for wolves to become docile. It was so super interesting that I had to show it to my biotechnology class today.
It's 53 minutes long, but if you have 53 minutes to spare, I highly recommend Dogs Decoded.

what i have learned about diapers

Of course, everyone has a different opinion about diapers, but I thought I would share mine (that's what blogs are for anyway, right?).

Of course, now that there is a little one in our midst, we are constantly trying to save money. I have found that using store brand diapers is a great way to save. All diapers leak every once in a while. I have found no diaper that leaks more or less than any other - expensive brand or store brand. When Dylan was a week old, every diaper leaked because of having to put vaseline in the diaper. Once the vaseline stopped, the leaking decreased a lot, and once we moved out of the newborn size diaper the leaking decreased even more. So, now, number two diapers leak every once in a while but number ones I think have only leaked twice in the past two months. No matter what brand. So, now for how I feel about those brands:
1. Pampers - are great but expensive. 40 diapers is $10 not on sale (of course, they do go on sale and it is usually pretty easy to find coupons - including in every package) They even make a cheaper diaper and a more expensive diaper. There is a difference, but not really worth the price in my opinion.
2. Huggies - suck. (and are expensive, same price as Pampers) They're thick, they fold back on themselves so they're not nice and easy to wrap up before throwing in the garbage, and I all in all do not like them.
3. Luvs - are comparable to the Pampers cheaper diaper. They're alright but still on the expensive side (a little cheaper than Pampers and Huggies, but not enough).
3. Up and Up (Target brand) - are awesome. They are thin like Pampers but $6 for 40 diapers (I'm still talking size 2s, Little man is still skinny!)
4. Comforts (Kroger brand) - are alright. They are a little bit thicker (not as thick as Huggies though), and they are cheaper than Target brand.

All in all, I think I will probably mostly use Target brand (plus they are polka dot diapers, you can't go wrong with polka dots). The name brand diapers also have characters that you have to pay for (Sesame Street, Winnie the Pooh, and Blue's Clues). Seriously, your little one's excrement is being collected in these things, why do you need to decorate them with fancy logos. Polka dots are awesome and apparently save me $4 a package.

As for wipes, I really like Comforts (Kroger brand). They're thicker than Pampers but they pop out of the container like Pampers (they're folded like Kleenex tissues). Huggies are scored and so you often pull out more than one wipe (annoying). BUT, the Huggies wipes container is the best.

Long story short: Buy Target Diapers, a container of Huggies wipes, and then Kroger wipes refills.