Showering a Baby

When you have no bathtub there's a few choices for cleaning your baby. Eventually they outgrow the infant tub and do you either go to a toddler size tub (usually big enough till they get to 12 or 18 months old) or do you try to shower your infant?

We decided Baby Muddy gets the shower :). 

First few times I sat on the floor with Baby Muddy in my lap. Not fun. He's slippery when wet. 

So, I remembered when my teen was an infant we had a bath chair (similar to the one pictured). Only bad part, you can't purchase them anymore from stores because they've been recalled. Some parents somewhere decided to leave their children unattended in these or similar wonderful helpful tools and bad things happen when infants are left unattended with water. So, watch your kids please :). 

Since I couldn't get a bath seat, I ordered one from another country. It came in the mail and we set it up right away. When not in use, we suction it to the wall under the thing for the shampoo's and soaps so it's nicely out of the way for adult showering. 

Then the shower head, we have already purchased one that comes down on the hose for washing our dog. But holding it while cleaning our baby isn't as easy as letting it go with a dog. Mudpuppy doesn't care nearly as much about water on his face as Baby Muddy. So, back to Amazon.com I went. And I found a suction cup holder for the spray nozzle. It holds it well. 

Baby Muddy gets clean and likes to play with the spray and I get to shower him without worrying about him falling or slipping while I try to clean him. Plus, in a house without a bathtub, this will ease his transition to showering later in life (or earlier in our case). Teen Muddy HATED to shower when we transitioned her to it. Baby Muddy already loves his shower time :).  

August Goals

There are 5 weekends in August.

For my Fitness it is my goal to do a 10 mile run each of those weekends. The first weekend I also have BabyMuddy's 1st birthday party but Sunday, I'm out there :). Hopefully my back will co-operate with that plan!

As well as the 10 mile runs it's my goal to walk and take pictures at 3 new trails in the area. Sunset Park in Kimberly, The Upper Woods of 1000 Islands in Kaukauna, and a yet to be determined location for the third.

Next goal, these wimpy arms need some work... before pic...

So this month my goal is to move my pull-up bar to the mudroom/laundry room and do a pull up every time I walk past without a baby in my arms. Which is actually ridiculously often. As well as doing the "Amazing Arms" routine. It's 30 pushups (I use a counter at work) followed by 30 tricep dips, then 20 of each, then 10 of each.

Nutrition goal is 811 raw vegan M-F for just this month for the full weeks (this Friday doesn't count and the next four weeks are full weeks).

My house goal, I'd like to get the last part of the carpet done this month. I keep putting it off. It would take a whole day basically and I'm burned out from doing 2 bedrooms and the family room. Just need to get this hallway done!

As for family, the most important part of my life, is to spend time driving with my teen and spending a night out with Mr. Muddy.

Thousand Islands in Kaukauna

This is a nice little environmental reserve with some paths to follow. I was with Grandpa Muddy so we did a short path. Next time I'll head into the "upper woods" path and see what the trails are like. However, starting at the nature reserve, the paths really are not good for strollers. Or really for baby carriers either. The wooden path (shown above) has lots of overgrowth and no railings. It's difficult to cross paths with another stroller going the opposite direction since the wooden paths are off the ground and are not very wide. 

I could have worn the carrier (and should have but my back hurt) but if you go off this path and onto the next path it is wood chips and very uneven. It does go along the water and is pretty, however strollers can't be rolled easily though the wood chips and tree roots that make this path difficult to traverse. Wearing baby in a carrier would definitely have increased the risk of me falling and hurting one or both of us since it would have limited the visibility of the path (I front wear still). Tripping over a root would not have been ideal. There are also some steps along the path (not marked on the map) along the water to the observation deck. These steps are not something I would have wanted to do with the carrier and were difficult with the stroller (but Grandpa helped carry the stroller up/down them :) ). 

The water level is low this year and looking through the nature is really beautiful. We saw a deer though I didn't get a picture. There were some deer tracks along and across the low water areas. 

I'll be heading back to the "upper woods" area in a couple weeks and we'll see if that area is better for strollers or carriers. The "upper outer" loop runs along the Valley Trail (trail that runs through multiple cities) so I'm sure the Valley Trail will be paved even if the upper outer loop is not. 

So, my recommendation if you start from the nature reserve itself is to take kids that can walk steadily on their own and are not so young that they will run off on the paths. 

UWGB Trail

Google made this picture prettier than my phone did, but it is a good representation of how pretty this trail is! This is about a four mile loop on mostly gravel. It's a walking stroller friendly path. Fairly level and doesn't bind up the stroller wheels. It's also wide enough to walk with two people and the stroller, probably not for two strollers side by side though. It's mostly forest and fields but there is a nice area along the lake as well. 

This area along the water has a nice place to park and set up a picnic and maybe do a body weight exercise or yoga routine. I'm hoping to take Teen Muddy this weekend with the baby. She's awesome with picnics :). If anyone wants to join me, let me know now!!! We'll pack extra food. 

This trail also has a nice patch of clovers growing! I'll save that pic for another post about the wonderful joys of edible flowers/weeds. I have never actually eaten a clover. Baby Muddy ate his first clover this past weekend at the park. He's played with them before and put them in his mouth. This weekend though, he just popped off the flower part and ate it. 

So, this trail is in Wisconsin of course and I haven't ventured far out of Green Bay yet. There are just so many trails and path's near me. This area is just opposite the main entrance to the UWGB campus. 

Another Trail!

I walked this path first with my Amazing Sister :). Then with a new friend. When I first went with my sis, we went with the kids in the jogging strollers and her older daughter riding bike along with us. I had never been down this way before and was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. The other end of the trail is much more narrow and that's the part I've explored before. This is the East River trail and it runs along side a small slow flowing river. In this picture you can see the river and the bridge going over it to get back to the park. This is, I think, the prettiest part of any trail in Green Bay. This photo and the one below. 

And here is through the marshy area, also what I would consider just beautiful. Going over the bridge and down the path this way is a nice little trek of maybe a mile before you get to a major road and then the path goes along the road instead. Until then, it's just beautiful and relaxing. It's not as wide as some of the other trails I go on but the beauty makes up for it. I hadn't known this end was so nice until a couple weeks ago and since I've been there three times. Now that Teen Muddy has finished the classroom portion of drivers ed, this will likely be my main trail for when I'm walking. It's a bit tough to run with the stroller over the wooden path but well worth walking :). 

Baby Loving the Flowers on Our Walk

Little guy had lots of clovers during this run/walk. We walked 0.6 miles to our path. The path is 1.2 miles long. We ran the first mile in 12:09!!! Awesome record for me with the jogging stroller! Then we walked the 0.2 and did a mile back. Then repeated the process. The last mile I timed it again and we got it done in 12:23! I was amazed! I thought my fourth mile would have been slower than that especially with a slight upgrade going back and with the first mile heading out having a slight downgrade. With the walking and jogging we had a total of 6 miles. Pretty good morning!

Clovers are entirely edible. Though Baby Muddy hasn't actually eaten any, I don't want him poisoned if he does put one in his mouth. 

And Catsear, though they look like dandelions and are edible as well, they grow quite tall. These are about 4 feet high and have multiple flowers. There weren't any dandelions along this trail that were suitable for picking for little guy since the path had just been mowed. These looked pretty trying to sneak through the fence but we left them where they were. He had to stick with the clover :).