Adalyn has been on the road to being diaper free for quite some time. She’s 2.5 years old now and is mostly dry and clean during the day. She’s only had a few accidents while out and about and those were mostly our fault :/

During the day here at home she has this bad habit of holding her pee till she can’t hold it anymore… then she has accidents on the sprint to the potty once she’s realized she CAN’T hold it anymore.

Everyone is always surprised when the topic of toilet training comes up. Everly was a diaper free, toilet expert at two years old. Adalyn is following the same trend but her nighttime toilet learning has been slightly less speedy. I’ve always thought their toilet readiness and the speed at which they were potty trained has TONS to do with how they were diapered. Back in April 2009 I began building my “fluffy stash” and the same batch of cloth diapers has remained in rotation since. Right now Grayson is rocking the cloth diapers like a champ!

So, is there really ruth to the idea that cloth diapered kids toilet train faster and easier? I’ve got no first hand knowledge since we’ve always used cloth but this infographic seems to tout the same thing:
Source: http://www.early-childhood-education-degrees.com/toilet-training/

Now, I’m interested to see if toilet training a boy is much different than how my girls have been. I already know that I’m not an expert at assisting a boy on the potty, heres hoping I master the skill in the future.

What are your toilet training musings or tips?

The post Infographic: The Straight Poop & Musings on toilet training appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Before Grayson was born we had talked to some mortgage companies about lending and we’d strategized our options for buying a larger homestead, it’s no surprise that all the options required the selling of our existing house but who in their right mind sells a house when they are about to have a new baby? We opted out of selling at that time and agreed to revisit the idea once Grayson was born.

Now that we’ve got some very exciting stuff in the works we are back to needing to sell this darn house… so we feverishly cleaned and decluttered and began packing stuff (to keep the house decluttered) and we had our agent out to list the house. It’s now officially on the market!

Once the inside of the house was finished we headed outside to tackle the yard. Remember, every year it becomes this giant mud bog as the snow/ ice melts and the grass hasn’t come in yet. We pruned blackberries and grapes like mad. You see, four years ago we had one scraggly, abandoned blackberry that we rescued and brought with us to our new house. That one bush, with a little pruning and compost has become over 14+ different blackberry plants around the property! We had about 22 pounds of harvested blackberries last year alone that became homemade pancake syrup and yummy wine.

Our four grape vines needed a good hacking back since we were lax on pruning last spring and we let them get quite carried away. So I was cutting and dividing plants while Nathan was tending a burn pile, scooping dog poop and moving the compost bin. Then we both disassembled a raised garden bed, disassembled a destroyed rabbit hutch and we moved the very heavy recycled pallet chicken coop with some tow straps and some muscle.

I’ve divided off the abundance of berry plants and some flag iris rhizomes for us to take with us when this house sells and we are positively giddy for the ground to warm and the grass to come in so prospective buyers can see all the amazing garden features of this little homestead.

Oh and did I mention we got more chicks? We got 12 new baby chicks several weeks back to add to our homestead. We’ll soon have more space for more chicken keeping (we really want to share the info but can’t divulge the details just yet so don’t ask ;P We will shout it from the rooftops just as soon as we can!). Plus, we got a screaming deal on the chicks, 10 chicks for free!

The girls are caring for the baby chicks pretty much by themselves. How is that for responsibility and hands on education?

In prep for our larger homestead, we also did some much needed maple sugaring hands on research by attending the a local event.

Exciting things are just beyond the horizon!

The post Big changes are in the works for this homestead! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

After a morning of laboring at home and carrying on about our day we thought it wise to head towards the hospital. Here is the rundown of how the day went…

Myself, Nathan, my girls, my doula and a lovely friend who was helping to look after the girls during labor all arrived at hospital registration at about 3:40/ 4 pm. I was found to be at 4 cm with fluids intact and debated weather or not to stay at the hospital or to head back home.

Since everyone deemed me a “wild card” in terms of birth predictability and also because I tend to quickly go from minor dilation to transition we thought it best to stay at the hospital and to get settled in a bit while things continued to progress. Everyone went to get a bite to eat just before 5pm leaving Nathan and I to rest and mentally get in the birthing zone a bit. I put my birthing tunes on and laid down to really relax and find my birthing peace. Contractions continued though my resting. My water broke spontaneously at 5:07 pm.

My doctor arrived at the hospital to check in with me but had an errand to run, I seemed relaxed and in a good groove so he reported he’ll be back shortly. Everyone returned from eating to find me with my fluid rupture and back in the birthing swing of things.

The nurse wanted to check me and report back to my doctor about my progress. I was found to be 8 cm. Hubby says that the nurse went to find my cervix and basically just turned on her heels, removed her gloves and went to tell my doctor to get here ASAP.

I was unfazed and showered a bit, got to feeling pushy and kind of gently went with the sensation to push despite my doctor not being there. After my shower I got back to the bed, had another check where an anterior cervical lip was found that was still hanging on and preventing full dilation.

We played with some positions to open the pelvis and move past the lip. I tried to pee on the toilet but had no success. Additionally, I was practically unable to get of the toilet with how fast and hard the contractions were coming there. After help from Nathan and my doula, I was propelled back to the bed where I finally got to squatting on the bed with the squat bar. Then my pushing technique was critiqued and ramped up a bit in a rather memorable little chat with my doctor.

Nathan got some great pictures of my little heated chat with the doctor. When your doctor leads with the phrase “now you are probably going to want to punch me but…” you know it’s gonna get interesting right? Two insane pushes later …

Grayson Prescott is born

He was born at 7:03 pm on 12/4/13. Weighing in at 9lbs 1 oz (my biggest baby yet!) with a 14 inch head and a total of 21 inches long.

The post Grayson Prescott is born appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

We were lucky enough to have two different wedding photographers at the wedding, each with a varied style. They both did a great job as I’m sure you’ll agree.

In my previous wedding photos post I talked a bit about how lame I feel in posed photos and how lame I end up looking. I blame my general dislike for posed photos on my short preteen modeling career.

We never do the portrait studio family photo thing (well, last year was the exception), we much prefer to take our own photos as the “in the moment” shots are usually of the most value to us in the long run… but with a growing family of young, squirmy kids, letting someone else take the photos is honestly less stress and headache.

So, to make a long story short, we were open to formal photography for the wedding because it’s one of those things you just do right? We weren’t so sure about how well the photos would turn out, considering the subjects (LOL)… but MAN were we pleasantly surprised!

Eric Cook Photography seriously blew us away with their ability to take formal, staged photos of us where we didn’t look all awkward and overly staged. Even the unstaged photos (like the bathroom one you see to the left) look super fabulous.

Below is a summary video made for us of the low resolution images that will give you a nice glimpse of the wedding:

I am personally in love with this family photo…

The post A look at the wedding though another photographer’s eyes… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Now that it’s over, I can’t really detect any major difference between pre-wedding and post wedding life… but we did it and have the photos to prove it so I feel better having done it.

It was a intimate family affair on the San Francisco peaks, in Flagstaff, AZ, where we became engaged 5 years ago.

Our girls helped get us down the aisle as our family watched. I wore my wedding dress that has been sitting in a closet since Everly began growing inside me.

We had a nice plated meal, gluten free wedding cake, some dancing (though not as much as I’d imagined) and took LOTS of professional photos. I feel like all we did was take photos. LOL! But the photos seem like they will turn out gorgeous. See:

Everything went smoothly, despite having planned the wedding from afar. My bridesmaids were the lifesavers that picked up all the loose ends. It was so freaking nice to be with my girls again!

We actually did have some fun on the whirlwind adventure too. The first photo in this post is some of the evidence. Some people had a bit too much fun the night before the wedding apparently. LOL.

Some things were a disappointment to us, others were a let down but all in all we went forward knowing we were doing it for ourselves, not anyone else.

The girls could hardly handle having so many people ogling them and trying to engage them as all the family came together… So the girls pretty much never left our side.

Adalyn walked me down the aisle along with my oldest brother, Gary. Gary’s daughter and Everly sprinkled flowers ahead of me coming down the aisle.

Nathan’s good friend officiated the wedding. We involved our siblings and close friends in the wedding party and had a blast coming together with them to make the wedding happen.

I feel like I didn’t have time to chat with anyone or to really take in the event, so I am relying on photos to help me fill in the missing details of the day. I know Nathan did tear up when he first saw me. I also did at one point before the ceremony.

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