Author: Amy

Fly on the Wall

Posted on by Amy

We had painters here on Thursday, and I became aware as I was going about my daily routine with Miss that these men were probably getting a good laugh at my expense. It made me think about what I, and other moms, would look like to the proverbial Fly on the wall while caring for our babies. I tend to talk to Miss, and often to myself, all day long. It’s a running commentary on what is happening, what I’m doing, what she’s doing, what should I do?, etc (it was as I was in the midst of some conversation with Miss, or rather with myself, that I heard one of the painters chuckle to himself and thus became self-conscious and the thought process that sparked this whole post began). I think probably most moms do this. It’s probably a very important part of language development for babies to hear their caregivers speak a great deal. However, I still probably sound kind of goofy to a stranger observing me while doing it – the noises and faces while trying to get her to eat, the funny voices while reading her a story, and any number of other goofy things I do all day long for the purpose of entertaining and teaching my daughter.

The other day I was in the grocery store and had two funny things happen. One thing is that I was walking round with Miss in her Ergo carrier and I heard another baby making some noises and his mom echoing those noises right back as she was browsing the grocery aisle. I smiled to myself because it was a sweet thing to see but also because I hadn’t noticed until that moment that I was doing the exact same thing with Miss. Different noises of course, but the same mimicking. A few moments later in a different aisle I was approached by a store employee who said something like, “When I first saw you there in the aisle out of the corner of my eye I didn’t realize you were holding a baby and I thought, ‘Wow, she must be really cheerful!'” She was referring to the fact that I was continuously bouncing up and down with Miss. She thought I was just bopping along to my own beat, until she realized that I was holding my baby. Then she understood, being a mom herself, and she reminisced to me for a moment about her own days of mothering when her children were babies. It’s amazing how strangers can connect briefly because of having mothering in common.
One other thing that I think would have the Fly laughing at me. Diaper changes in our house have come to resemble a WWF match. We went through a phase of wrestling to get a diaper on for a bit a few months ago, and then it seemed to stop. Miss had returned to just lying peacefully and looking up at me, chattering and smiling while I did the business of changing her drawers. I thought I had managed to breeze through the diapering struggles that I hear many other moms talk about. Don’t laugh at me. I now know that Miss was just faking me out. Giving me a temporary reprieve. Letting me get comfortable and complacent for a bit before unleashing again the fury of the baby who does not want to be still while her diaper is changed. No matter that she has poo smeared all over her rear and I am trying valiantly to hold her still while preventing it from getting all over her back, her changing table, her feet, the wall. I have found myself doing the most ridiculous things to try to entertain her and keep her attention long enough to make the fastest change on earth. I make crazy faces. I make stupid sounds. Recently I have begun singing in an operatic voice any tune I can think up (mostly just “las” for the words though). I have hit some crazy high notes doing this, which my voice really wasn’t made for! She stops moving for a few seconds though. Long enough to laugh at me and for me to get those snaps fastened. If there were a Fly, I’m sure he would be laughing and/or shaking his head in wonder at the crazy lady. But I’d do just about anything for a smile or giggle from my Miss 🙂

Customer Service

Posted on by Amy

Ben and I and Miss took a day trip to Madison to go furniture shopping yesterday. Working around Miss’s naps limited our trip to two furniture stores and a restaurant supply store that is open to the public. We went in one large chain furniture store and one smaller store with “Fine Furninure” in the title. I’ll just call this store “Pinkies Out.” I’m going to tell you a story of the “customer service” we received at the Pinkies Out establishment. I will preface the story by saying that I am the kind of person whom, when I walk into a store and am asked, “Is there anything I can help you with?” will say almost every time, “No thanks, I’m just looking.” And the response I like to hear to this statement is, “Okay, well my name is blah-di-blah, just let me know if you need help with anything.” That is very nice. Very professional. I do not ever want someone hovering over me when I’m trying to shop for something. Ever. So, keep that in mind as I tell you the following story.

We walked into Pinkies Out and were immediately approached by an older Man, who may have been the owner. He proceeded to tell Ben that he could not bring his coffee into the “showroom”, that there was a sign on the door (tiny, transparent, and placed in the corner of the window in the door), and all the reasons that beverages were not allowed. Really? No explanation needed. So, Ben went outside to finish his coffee and I began to look at the table that was right inside the entry, which I love. It is a table that we found in Florida in May, but didn’t purchase because of not wanting to pay for the shipping from there to here. So, I was quite excited to see the same table, at a discounted price, in this near-to-home store. However, as I was checking out the price of the table, the Man continued to hover over me and explain again why Ben couldn’t bring the coffee into the store, and then to gush over Miss (which of course I never mind really). I attempted to walk away from him and continue browsing in the store. I tried the “I’m just looking” line. He persisted in asking if there was anything in particular I was looking for. I made the mistake of admitting that we were interested in finding a leather recliner. So, the Man “offered” to show me where the recliners were, or said I could browse, and he would just be “in the shadows.” Trying to make things easier on my self, I said, “Sure, you can point them out to me.” Big mistake.

The Man took me over to one recliner, which I immediately didn’t like. It was what I call a “butt” chair. I have a weird aversion to any chair that has the layered pillow look on the back of it and once when explaining to Ben why he couldn’t have a recliner with that type of back, I said that it looked like a butt. Of course, it doesn’t really look like a butt. Well, it does a little, but either way, I just don’t like it. Anyway, by this time, Ben had come back in sans coffee, and as soon as he saw the chair the Man had pointed out to me, he said, “Nope, that breaks the rules.” I explained to the Man that I do not like the look of that type of chair back (I did not call it a “butt chair” though, maybe I should have??) and he proceeded to explain to me, in a very condescending way why the chair is constructed that way!!! As if I were obviously misguided and his explanation would change my mind? I stated to him again that I just don’t like it, and then moved on.

But again, he followed me. I walked over to a loveseat that I liked and sat on it. It was very comfortable and I was thinking it might be a good size for our family room. I asked the Man if he could show me some of the available fabrics for the loveseat. He began to gush about how everything in the store is custom and they have over 3000 fabrics and he couldn’t possibly show me that many (gag). He then instructed me that the clients of the store typically bring in fabric, rug, wood samples etc. and “trust” the designers in the store to select fabrics for them. WHAT? Okay, I am not someone who wants to have another person decorate my house for me. The Man was so condescending and snooty! If the store didn’t have such gorgeous furniture I would have left, he was so obnoxious. But as it was, I really wanted to see some other items. I explicitly told the Man that I just wanted to look and “sit” a bit more (of course I always sit in things to see how comfy they are). Well then he said, “You’re what, 5’3″, 5’4″?” I responded, “Something like that,” and he proceeded to say that not all of the pieces would be comfortable for someone of my height because they’re too deep. He then suggested that he show me which pieces would be comfortable for me! At this point I began to wonder if he really thought he was being helpful or if I just had some crazed look about me that made him afraid to allow me to wander the showroom on my own.
I managed to look at the few items I still wanted to see and then went to find my husband (who had already reached his limit of interaction with the Man and had taken Miss over to sit quietly in another leather recliner). I found him and asked him to let me see the recliner, which unfortunately was revealed to also be a butt chair when he stood up. I again commented “nope,” and turned to walk away, ready to leave the store. But of course, the Man was there hovering again and decided to try one last time to convince me that the butt chair was great! After I stated again and firmly that I absolutely do not like and will never buy that style of chair he finally said, “So you just have some aesthetic aversion to that look?” Duh. Then the following exchange took place:
Him: “Are you a designer?”
Me: “No.”
Him: “Have you ever worked in design?”
Me: “No.”
Him: “Were you trained in design?”
Me: “No. I’m a psychologist.”
As usual, that statement shut him up and we made our escape from the store. But really, why on earth did I need to be a designer or have some background in interior design to have an “aesthetic aversion” to the butt chair?? Can’t I just be a homeowner who loves to pore over fabrics, paint swatches, and furniture catalogs? Is it so strange to want to be involved in the decoration of my own home and to make the choices about such decoration myself? Perhaps the Man at Pinkies Out is used to working with people who just want to pay someone to make their house look like a showroom instead of a home. In that case, maybe I can’t blame him for his snooty attitude, stuffy posture, and smothering behavior. But I had to tell the story because it was truly one of the most bizarrely unpleasant shopping experiences I’ve ever had. But I’m still considering buying that table…

Fluff Talk Thursday

Posted on by Amy

The Fluff Talk topic for this Thursday is dealing with stink. When I started using cloth diapers, I had no idea that odor could “stay” in the diapers, so that even when they smelled clean out of the wash, they would stink to high heaven as soon as Miss peed on them. And I mean STINK. Much more than the little bit of urine she put on them would warrant. Ew. I have definitely had this problem. I’ve also had the problem of diapers not smelling clean out of the wash. I’ve tried lots of things to deal with it, some that have worked, and some that haven’t.

In terms of the soap used, I have tried several different types to wash my dipes. I started with Seventh Generation Free and Clear, then quickly switched to Allen’s, then a mixture of half washing soda and half Oxy Clean, and now Rockin’ Green and/or soap nuts. I heard very mixed reviews about the use of SGF&C. some say it’s fine for cloth diapers, others say stay away from it. I switched to Allen’s just to be safe. Allen’s was a great soap, but didn’t seem to manage the stink build up issue very well. I didn’t really care for the washing soda/Oxy Clean mixture. It seemed hard to rinse clean and didn’t cut the stink either. Both Rockin’ Green and soap nuts seem to work really well to get the dipes clean without build up, and they really help with the stink. The soap nuts seem to rinse clean a bit more easily. I have tried using vinegar in the wash, but didn’t notice any difference, so I stopped. I have hard water, so I always add Calgon water softener. We have a water softening system in our home, which helps, so I only use half the recommended amount of Calgon.
Recently, I decided to soak my microfiber diaper inserts to really get the stink out of them once and for all. I have found that the inserts with microfiber are what tend to hold in the sneaky stink (the smell that comes back when peed on). So, prior to coming on this trip, when I had Miss temporarily in disposable diapers in order to get every single one of her diapers clean, I did the soak. I first washed all her diapers as normal. Then I took every one of her microfiber inserts and soaked it in hot water with Oxy Clean for two hours. Then I rinsed them several times until there were no more bubbles. It worked! The stink was gone completely and did not come back with a vengeance when Miss peed. I will be doing this again if the problem comes back.
The biggest thing I have done that has decreased the stink factor in my diaper pail is to switch to more natural fibers. I have been told, and have found through my own experience, that bamboo, hemp, and cotton do not hold stink the way synthetic fibers like microfiber do. I have heard from some friends that they have had stink problems with bamboo that was in need of stripping, but I never have stink issues with my inserts made of these materials. So, I have been gradually trying to switch my inserts to these natural fibers and hopefully will have less stink to deal with as I use less microfiber.

Have Cloth, Will Travel

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It’s been discussed on this blog at length how much we have traveled with Miss in her short little life so far. She has been in or through 11 different states, though MI probably doesn’t really count because we never left the airport. I am happy to say that I have kept her in cloth diapers through almost all of these travels since beginning my cloth adventure in June. Here’s what I have learned about using cloth while on the road:

1. If we’re driving somewhere, I do diaper laundry as close to the departure time as possible. I pack diapers, cloth wipes, and wipes solution to take and use just like I do at home. I also pack along whatever dirty diapers accumulate while I’m doing the diaper laundry. I use the bag of dirties to put more dirties in while on the road, and then I just wash them as usual at our destination. That way I don’t have a bag of dirty diapers sitting in a diaper pail until we get home. I cannot stand the thought of dirty diapers stinking and festering while we are away.
2. If I’m flying somewhere, I put Miss in disposables right before departure so that I can do diaper laundry and get every one of her diapers clean. This way I am not leaving dirty diapers to fester, but I also am not taking a bag of several dirty diapers on a plane with me (or trying to check them!). Typically I also use disposables while actually in the airport and on the plane. The reason for this is that I am usually packed to the gills and loaded up with so much stuff and disposables just take up less space and weigh less. However, on this last flight I took two carry ons, one my diaper bag and the other full of clean cloth diapers, so it probably wouldn’t have been difficult to use the cloth while in the airport and on the plane.
3. As for washing, one of the easiest ways I’ve found to take along detergent is to use soap nuts. They’re dry and compact. No mess!
4. I make sure to take flushable diaper liners. This is key for easy clean up of poopy diapers when a diaper sprayer isn’t available.
5. The trips we have taken when I have used cloth have either been short enough that I could make it through without doing laundry (i.e. a quick weekend trip for a wedding) or have been to the home of a family member who did not have a problem allowing me to use the laundry facilities. Of course I always try to rotate my dipes in and out of the washer and dryer as quickly as possible and do any hanging or sunning in a place that is out of the way.
6. The trips that I have not been able to use cloth have involved flying somewhere and staying exclusively in a hotel. I have used cloth in a hotel (for short periods) and have used cloth on trips when I flew to my destination. But the two times I did both for one trip, I used disposables. This is because of not having laundry facilities and not being able to take dirty diapers on a plane.
Overall, I have found that traveling with cloth is not all that difficult. It’s only slightly less convenient because of having to pack more stuff. And honestly I probably pack more than I really need, just because I have a hard time leaving any of my dipes at home!

I’m back!

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We have been traveling again. We are still not at home, but I have at least arrived in a place where I have my computer and a good WiFi signal, so I’m thrilled to be back online. The start of this trip was a week and a half ago when Miss and I flew to sunny Florida for a family reunion. My hubby joined us the following day. The reunion was fun and I loved seeing so much family. Though the reunion was with my mom’s family, we also got to drive a few hours further south to visit with my dad’s side of the family. My hubby left Florida after the reunion to come to Missouri to hunt for deer, while Miss and I went to Kentucky to spend a week with my parents (who live in the boonies and are technologically challenged, hence the week of no internet). We had a great time in Kentucky. My mom and I had a surprise baby shower for my sister in law, which was so fun. She will be using cloth diapers for my niece, so I had a great time shopping for and giving her some fun cloth diapering stuff. Miss had a big week. She finally truly got the hang of crawling and pulling up, and now thinks she is ready to walk. She tries to push my hands off if I am holding her while she is standing up! She also got three more teeth, doubling the number of little munchers in her little mouth almost overnight.

Last night we were reunited with The Daddy and Miss was thrilled to see him. She was showing off all her new tricks and being extra adorable for him. Of course, I was happy to see him too and now we’re all in Missouri while he continues to sit in a tree and look for deer for the rest of this week. He has already shot a buck, and is now on a mission from me to shoot a doe so we can have some good venison to last us through the year. He will be butchering the deer himself this year, so I’m eager to see what adventures come from this experiment.
Overall it has been a great trip so far. Miss has been an absolute star. I guess traveling with her so much really has gotten her used to it, and she just takes it in stride. I wish I could say the same for the time change, but that’s a different story, and she seems to finally be adjusting. It’s saying something that I was thrilled that she slept until 6 am this morning! We will be heading home on Sunday, where we will be happy to stay for almost a whole month before the holiday travels begin!

Who Needs Toys??

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I am continuously amazed at the way Miss loves to play with things that are not her toys. In fact, she often seems to prefer these random non-toy things over her well-researched and carefully selected baby toys. What types of things? Oh, her socks, that she repeatedly pulls off her feet in some sort of private lets-see-how crazy-I-can-make-my-mommy game. It’s not a big deal of course, except that it’s cold here, and I don’t want her little tootsies to get cold. So she pulls them off, chews on them for a bit, and then I put them back on. Round and round we go. Why don’t I just give her an extra sock to play with, you ask? Tried it. No good. I think it’s the act of pulling it off her foot that is part of the fun!

Other items Miss loves to play with include the drawstring of my hubby’s old scrub pants that I typically wear when just around the house, her daddy’s feet (ewww!), her nail clippers, plastic bags (no, I don’t let her play with these!), junk mail (catalogs especially, so shiny!), the rug, the floor, and any random bit of grass/leaf/stick that she might find on the floor (I vacuum like mad, but cut me a break, we have two dogs!!). The other day she entertained herself for the longest time with a plastic cup and the metal lid to one of my small saucepans (video of this below, notice how she almost got distracted by the sock). And of course, the best part of anything, including her toys, is the tag.

Now, I know this is not unusual. Miss is not the first baby to love to play with all-things-not-a-toy. I have just thoroughly enjoyed watching her do this. It’s as though the most mundane things that we don’t even notice in every day are so fascinating to her. She can become so focused on something so small. I love watching her and trying to make myself see the world through her eyes. The joy and wonder of looking at things in that way is so simple and pure, as babies are of course. Maybe Santa should bring her the boxes for the toys at Christmas time. I’m sure she’d love that!

The Plague has Descended upon our Home

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Okay, obviously not really the Plague. It’s not the dreaded H1N1 either. All right, it’s not even the good old seasonal flu (formerly known as just the plain old flu). Really it’s just your garden variety cold. And it hasn’t really descended upon our whole house. Just me. Well, that’s anticlimactic, eh? I have had the sneezing and stuffy/runny nose. I haven’t been able to sleep because my nose is stuffed up, always at least on one side. And I haven’t taken any cold medications because I’m breast feeding and don’t want 1. Any medications to pass to Miss and 2. My milk supply to decrease (apparently some of the decongestants can cause this). Feeling sorry for me yet??

A couple of days ago I shifted to the coughing mode of the cold. This started to really irritate my throat. Then I was making animal sounds with Miss, and the next thing I knew, my voice was gone. I think it was the lion that did me in. Rrraaaawwrrr! So now I have had laryngitis for two days. Miss seems to think this is funny. She has started making whispering sounds at me in response to my whispers, and she gives me some pretty funny looks when my voice cracks/croaks/squeaks. I have barely been able to get out the reading of “I Love You Stinky Face” and other books before nap time. And the final nap time ritual before I put her down? I sing “You Are My Sunshine.” The past two days I have whispered the song to her, and only the first verse instead of the whole song. There is no way anything resembling a tune is coming out of this mouth right now!
On a positive note, my hubby hasn’t gotten sick and neither has Miss. I attribute this to my heroic hand-washing efforts and the fantastic immunity boost breast milk provides. Um, that last part is just for Miss, of course. So my hands are dry and cracked, my voice is gone, and my supply of tissue and hand sanitizer are out and nearly out, respectively, but life is still good in our humble home. I just can’t wait to smother my Miss with kisses again!!!

My Cloth Story, Part 3

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So, I’ve told you how I came to love cloth (see My Cloth Story, Part 1 and My Cloth Story, Part 2). How I overcame my fear of things fluffy and jumped in with both feet to cover my Miss’s cheeks in nothing but snuggly softness. Well, I thought I’d round out the story by telling you where I am now in my cloth journey.

I currently love my “stash”. For those of you not familiar with cloth diapering lingo, this is what we cloth-diapering-mommas call our stock of diapers. It sounds illicit and edgy. It’s just diapers. In my stash, I have mostly pocket diapers, including HuggaBuns, FuzziBuns perfect fit, Bum Genius, Green Acres Designs, Blueberry (minky and non-minky), Diaper Change, Tiny Tush, Rump-a-Rooz, and Tweedlebugs. I also have three sets of SoftBums All-in-twos and two All-in-ones (a Drybees and a Monkeez, which is locally made by a WAHM). I have recently acquired, but not yet tried a FuzziBuns One-Size, a Rocky Mountain Diaper, and two Wild Child for Babies custom diapers in the most adorable prints. I actually have a diaper for Miss with “Chillin’ with my Gnomies” fabric!! I love it. I have a few fitteds that I use occasionally, BumGenius bamboo and GoodMamas. I don’t use prefolds at all anymore, but I’m keeping them for potential use later.
My latest thing is getting pocket diapers with cute prints on them. I have gotten rid of or am getting rid of some of my solid-color diapers that weren’t favorites. I am also moving more and more toward natural-fiber diapers with cotton, hemp, and bamboo, rather than microfiber and other synthetic fabrics. I have also really started to get into looking for more obscure diaper brands. Many of these are found on Etsy and/or are made by WAHMs, like the Wild Child for Babies diapers that I bought recently. Some are larger companies, but just not ones that are really prominent in the CD world as BumGenius, Happy Heinys, and FuzziBunz are for example. Some other brands I’ve become interested in but have not yet purchased are Prairie Tales, Blue Penguin, and Nifty Nappy. I have actually found out about these diaper brands by reading the blog Happily Domestic and entering giveaways on the blog for each of these items (the giveaways are still gong on so I’m hoping I’ll win!!).
The other way in which my cloth diapering has evolved is in the way I do my laundry. I started doing just a cold rinse/full hot wash cycle/cold rinse. I used Seventh Generation Free and Clear at first, but quickly switched to Allen’s Naturally. I learned that I need to use Calgon water softener because we have hard water. Then I experimented with a mixture of washing soda and OxyClean that I read some moms said worked wonders for their stink issues. I didn’t really care for that though and decided to try Rockin’ Green instead. This is a laundry detergent specially made for use with cloth diapers that comes in several amazing scents. So I tried some of that, and it’s what I’m currently using, occasionally using the soap nuts I just got instead. I’ve also been experimenting with different wash cycles also. Right now I’m doing a short cycle cold wash with detergent/long cycle hot wash with detergent/extra cold rinse. I’m having lots of success with my current wash routine. I have always enjoyed washing my cloth diapers. Now that there are different detergents to experiment with, it’s even more fun. And I know I’m not crazy, because I’m not the only momma who enjoys washing cloth diapers. I’m friends with a mom who raised her kids back when cloth diapers were the only option and weren’t nearly as cute and fun as they are today, and she confessed that she used to love washing her kids’ cloth diapers too! There’s just something satisfying about getting them clean, stuffed, folded, and back in the stash for the next use. I will post some photos of Miss in her newest diaper couture as soon as I get them dried, stuffed, and into the rotation!

Diaper Swap

Posted on by Amy
Recently, I participated in a diaper swap. Megan, who has the blog Newly Wed, Newly Bred, came up with the fun idea to get some cloth diapering mommas together to do a diaper swap. Mommas who signed up were assigned someone to buy for, with a spending limit, and got to shop and pick fluff for her and her baby. The momma you bought diapers for and the momma you received diapers from were not the same person, and the swap partners were kept secret. So, not only would we get to shop for a fun gift for another mom, but we got to receive surprise fluff mail. I love fluff mail, and I love surprises, so what could be better?? I received my swap fluff about a week ago. The momma who bought for me in the swap is Kelli. Her blog is called Betters Days Ahead. She has a sweet little baby named Landyn and is expecting baby #2 (jealous!!), which is a baby girl! She sent me such a fun package. It came from RG Natural Babies. including a One-size Tweedle Bugs Diaper in yellow, some matching Leg Huggers baby leg warmers in the Butterfly Dance pattern, some soap nuts, and a cube of wipes solution. I was really hoping to receive some items I had never tried before, since that seems to be part of the fun of doing a swap (to me anyway). It turns out all the things Kelli sent me are new to me! I immediately got to washing the diaper and the leg warmers so Miss could try them out. Below is a picture of her in them. I love how they match!!


Here’s what I love about the stuff I got: The Tweedle Bugs is an OS diaper, so it will grow with Miss. I love the color and that it matches her new Leg Huggers. And, as you know if you’ve read any of my CD posts on here, I love pocket diapers!! They are absolutely my favorite. Miss seemed to like the diaper too. She at least felt comfortable in it. After she posed for the cute pic, she promptly proceeded to poo in it 🙂 So she didn’t get to wear it for long, but for the time she did have it on it fit great and didn’t leak. It is now clean again and waiting it’s turn in my stash to be worn again. The Leg Huggers are wonderful for several reasons. First of all, take a look at the photo, and you’ll see that they come all the way up to the bottom of the diaper. My Miss has super chunky thighs, and some other brands of baby leg warmers are too tight to fit all the way up her leg. That’s not a big deal during the summer, but it’s getting quite cold here, so I don’t want her to have half of her thigh hanging out when I put her in warmers. Plus I love the warmers because I’m getting more and more cute printed diapers, and I like to be able to show them off. And finally, the Leg Huggers are made from bamboo!! As I have mentioned on here before, I love me some bamboo. I haven’t yet tried the soap nuts (I got a bag of Rockin’ Green that I ordered right at the same time that this package came), but I’m quite intrigued by them and will be trying them with the next load of diaper wash (going in tonight). Also haven’t yet mixed up the wipes solution. Kelli sent me enough for two batches, but I still have some that I need to finish up before I mix more. Overall, I love the package. Thanks Kelli! Also thanks to Megan for organizing the whole thing. It was fun!