Seven Years!

The picture was taken last Friday at St. Patrick's County Park.

(I'd say one of those numbers from last year can be changed. :D )

It's About Time...

...that summer's finally here! ;) Now we can:

Eat strawberry shortcake (yummy!):


Sun diapers:


Make sweetened sun tea:


Romp in the kiddie pool:

Babywearing Stash

Well, I don't know if you can call it a stash, really, since I only have two carriers. But I'm gonna show 'em off anyway (I'm linking this post up to a bunch of other stash pictures here on this blog.).

I wish I'd had both of these with Nathan, but I'm loving using them with Haleigh. She falls right to sleep while being carried and they help when she's having a fussy evening. I've also worn Haleigh to the grocery store, my sister's softball games, a wedding, for walks, and at the doctor's office today where I got lots of compliments. And I'm sure this summer, Nathan will get his turn in the mei tai (pronounced "may tie") when we go on short vacation (hopefully to the Indianapolis Zoo and then some hiking).

Here is Tim with Little Miss in the mei tai.

Here's me and the Little Miss in the ring sling that a gal at church made. I love it.

:D

Recent Reads

The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson.

This book is the story of Isaacson and his son Rowen who has autism. Isaacson discovers his son opening up and speaking more when around and riding a certain horse, Betsy. Isaacson decides to take his son to Mongolia to ride horses and to seek a healing by shamans. Very, very interesting (at least for me) and very very unconventional. I'd also like to see the documentary.



Where Am I Wearing: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes by Kelsey Timmerman.

This was a pretty light read (at least compared to Friedman's The World Is Flat), but it was entertaining. Timmerman visits the countries in which some of his favorite clothes are made (a t-shirt, boxers, jeans, and flip flops) and tries to enter the garment factories and talk to the workers. It was an eye opening experience for him and caused him to change the way he thought about and purchased clothing. When I reflect on the book, I keep remembering the workers asking us (the consumer) to not boycott their country or employer because then they are out of a job and that would stink for them (If I recall correctly, I don't think Timmerman talked with any child laborers).

Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys by Stephen James and David Thomas.

I am a female (obviously). I don't have brothers. What in the world do I do with a little boy? (Ok, the situation is not that desperate. ;) ) I thought this book was wonderful. It appealed to my sensibilities and my desire to raise Nathan to be a strong, godly man. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a son.

Birth Day: A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History, and the Wonder of Childbirth by Mark Sloan, M.D.

Well, the subtitle of the book is a good summary. This was a good book; I laughed out loud repeatedly. It's not a how-to book (I've read enough of those in the past 9 months!) but a book about birth. If you're interested in birth at all, I'd read this. It's very entertaining.

Happy Father's Day

Three generations of Ritter (Nathan, Tim, and Tim's dad) men took to the St. Joseph river today in a canoe. A good time was had by all. Nathan even feel asleep in Grandpa's lap in the boat.



Nathan looks tiny! :D

Puddle Jumping

So... Facebook... *sigh*

It seems I am the only person on the face of the planet to not have a Facebook account. I shall resist as long as humanly possible. (Does anyone even blog anymore? Well, they must, I usually get 30+ new posts in my google reader per day.)

But I'm feeling the pressure. Do I cave? It's like our proverbial mother told us growing up, "If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?" And that's how I'm feeling about Facebook right now.

I have serious reasons for not signing up, though:

1. I have philosophical differences with some of Facebook's policies. For example, I don't like how they remove pictures of mothers nursing their babies. And I realize that this is more of a cultural problem, but HELLO! there is nothing even remotely crude or inappropriate about feeding one's child. As a society, we need to GET OVER nursing in public and the like. I also don't like some of the ads that are displayed on the page.

2. I spend enough time on the computer as it is. Do I really want to add another thing? I'm active on this forum and that takes up much of my computer time. (Oh, and for you ladies, here's my birth story - Jen, don't read it! I'm writing it in your letter right now! lol)

3. There are some people in this world that I DO NOT want to find me! I know that I can just decline friend requests and all that jazz, but it's just not something I want to deal with right now.

4. I'm not sure I'm interested in hearing/reading about all the minute details of people's lives. Really. I don't need to know what you had for dinner or where you're going or who you're doing something with. *sigh* As much as I want to keep up to date on people's lives, I don't think I need to know every last detail.

Ok. Rant over.

So there you have it. (Tim wanted to know if I was going to mention how much Facebook sucked when I started this post - ha!)

*sigh* I'll probably have a Facebook account by the end of the month. *winks*

Pictures From the Last Couple of Weeks

We've had a pretty busy couple of weeks!

My Dad and step-mom Cindy were out to visit. My Dad planted petunias for us in one of our front flower beds, which was awesome of him. :)


Nathan supervised, of course.


On Friday (the 22nd), our little girl turned one month old. She'll be six weeks this Wednesday. I can hardly believe it.


Between familial visits, we dog-sitted for Tim's younger brother and his wife. Their dog's name is Hagrid. We couldn't decide on name for this picture; either City Dog Meets Country Dog or Racial Reconciliation. :D


My Aunt Peggy sent me this awesome gift. It's a diaper cake! It's made out of disposable dipes (Yes, we're using paper dipes at night. I hope to go full time cloth with Haleigh sometime within the next month.) with baby washes, onesies, clothes, and a tide to-go pen in the middle! This is one of the neatest baby gifts I've seen.


My Mom and Grandma came to visit. Here are four generations of women from my mom's side of the family. :D


I guess that's all for now. :)

Breakfast Conversations with Nathan

Heard at our breakfast table as Nathan and I were eating muffins for breakfast and Amanda was nursing Haleigh.

Amanda: Please put your knee under the table.

Nathan: Foots?

Amanda: (Not hearing Nathan correctly) What does Poots mean?

Nathan: When you jump.

Amanda: Oh, foots! (to Tim) He just defined foot for me!

Tim: Nathan, you are one smart cookie.

Nathan: I no want a cookie.

Tim: You don't want a cookie?!?

Nathan: I no want a cookie, I'm a muffin man.

For the Parents