Monday, June 25, 2012

Cloth Diaper Trial

A lot of people I know on Facebook cloth diaper. I've been kind of curious. But with working full time outside of the home and only getting to the laundry on the weekends, cloth diapers were not an option. But then when DS started day care and they would send his clothes that had poop in it just wrapped in a paper. I had to shout it and wash his clothes when I got home from work. I decided maybe I could do cloth diapers, but after we moved. I did not think the daycare did cloth diapers and I did not want to bother with that since they had other children to take care of.
I placed a query on facebook and a friend mentioned a website called Jillian's Drawers. This site offers a 21 day trial. You pay $150 up front, but if you decide you don't think cloth diapers are for you, you return everything and are reimbursed for the diapers, except for shipping and $10. Not a bad deal. The deal sends several brands of diapers along with kinds of diapers. They provide pre use instructions and the website has a lot of helpful information from how to clean the diapers to how many one would need. Shipping was very quick too.
I received the following items:
2 OsoCozy Indian Prefolds
2 OsoCozy Better Fit Unbleached Prefolds
Snappi Diaper Fastener
Kissaluvs Fitted Diaper
Thirsties Duo Wrap
bumGenius v4.0 One-Size Pocket Diaper w/ Inserts
Rumparooz One-Size Diaper w/Inserts
FuzziBunz Elite One-Size Pocket w/Inserts
Smartiepants One-Size Pocket Diaper
bumGenius! Freetime Diaper
5 Flushable liners


The first one we tried was the bumGenius! Freetime Diaper. The insert is actually attached to the diaper, so everything is just one piece. This diaper seemed to be pretty easy to use. It has velcro fasteners, which I've heard people say they don't like, but they seemed easy to use. I guess that after a while, the velcro loses its hold, but they make replacement velcro that you can purchase. I'm not a seamstress, so I don't know if I will buy velcro or just a new diaper.



The next diaper we tried and used through the night was the Rump-A-Rooz. It came with two inserts. I read that for sleeping, it is best to use two inserts. It made his diaper look bulky, but he was not bothered by it. He actually does not care what he's wearing... he'd probably prefer nothing, but that's not happening. This diaper has the snaps instead of the velcro. The snaps are easy to use, but take a little work than the velcro with a wriggly baby The diaper worked overnight, no leaks in our bed!



In the morning, I put the FuzziBunz on DS. I knew he was due for a poop, so I placed the flushable liner in the diaper as well. The flushable liner seemed a bit too big, but I folded it in a bit. I later found a YouTube video where a lady actually cuts one liner into thirds and they fit longer and her stash lasts longer.  He had his poopy and I was a bit worried because there was poop on the regular liner. I flushed the poop and soaked the diaper in the toilet to get the other cling ons. And then I rinsed the diaper in the sink and threw it in the wash. On another video, when the lady was showing how to dispose of the poop, there was poop on the reusuable liner, so I knew the flushable one worked.  Because DS is mostly breastfed, his poop is still runny instead of solid.


After his morning constitution, I put on the other bumGenius diaper, the bumGenius 4.0. This one was easy to use, just like the other one, except I had to place the liners inside. And because it has the velcro, it's like using a regular diaper.



Next up was the Smartipants. It too came with two liners. It has the snaps, but again, very easy to use.



For nighttime, I used the OsoCozy Better Fit prefold. These ones are a bit shorter than the other pre-folds and will fit the diaper better. I also had the Thirsties Duo Wrap on the outside. At first, the prefold bunched in the back, but I readjusted it because I did not want to wake up to a wet bed. The diaper lasted all night with no leaks. It was kind of hard to get the prefold to fit into the wrap, but it might have been because DS was uncooperative, but we got it to work. The Thristies has velcro so it was easy to put on.




In the morning, I tried the last sample, the Kissaluvs. It was just a cloth and so I placed the Thirsties Duo Wrap over it. DS had his morning poop. I decided not to use the flushable liner. I dumped the poop in the toilet (beans from the day before) and soaked the diaper in the toilet for a few minutes. I then rinsed the diaper and washed it.

As I am writing this blog entry, I notice the bumGenius FreeTime is coming off DS, I don't know if he pulled the velcro of I did not put the diaper on snug enough... oh well, he needed to be changed anyways.

I have placed an order for a few more diapers, since I only have enough to last a day, which means I have been doing a lot of washing! I like them all, but I did order more bumGenius since they were having a sale. I do like the kissaluvs, so I ordered some wraps. I will order more Kissaluvs when finances allow it.

So all in all, cloth diapering is not as difficult as I thought it would be. DS seems content. I think DH may have me change the poopy diapers until he feels comfortable... but it took a while for him to eat organic, and once he did, he liked it better!


Burgers and Frozen Custard

One of the hard things when moving to an new area is finding new favorite places to eat.  Back in Virginia, we had our favorite Mexican,  Sushi, pizza, etc places.

So far, we enjoy the burgers and frozen custard from Culver's. Wish we could find a frozen yogurt place, but not a big deal right now.  The burgers are pretty good and we like the crinkle cut fries. They make fresh frozen custard in each of the stores.  They have the regular chocolate and vanilla and then a third Flavor of the Day. DD usually gets a free custard with her kid's meal and I usually get one to eat with her. I usually get the chocolate. I did try the orange creamsicle and liked that one.

For pizza, we got a flier in the mail for a place called Topper's. The pizza concoctions looked interesting like Mac and Cheese and Taco. They also have sweet chili hot wings which are pretty good. And they have the garlic butter dipping sauce that a certain chain that we have not been to in a long time carries. We boycott that particular chain.

As for Chinese... we found a place that we won't be going to again. It looked neat and had a fancy sign. But they prided themselves on serving all sorts of Asian cuisine, which can mean a mess. It's nice, we've found, when a place has a small menu because they then can put their time and heart into a meal. So, anyways, I got the fried duck and DH got the pepper steak. I'm not sure if the duck was cooked properly, since I've never really had it, but it was edible. But they butchered the pepper steak.



And we are on the quest for a Mexican place.  We've been told that although there are quite a few restaurants, the best ones are in an area referred to little Mexico or something like that.  We saw a place called Jalepeno Loco. We walked in an the host was a blonde white boy... that was our first sign to turn around... but we decided to stay since everyone needs a job. They bring us salsa and OMG (hello VA folks) there was no white stuff! The chips tasted kind of stale, at first I thought it was because DD was dipping her chips in the salsa, licking off the salsa, and placing the chip back in the bowl. I decided to get a chip from the bottom of the bowl... yeah, they were stale! I ordered nachos with pulled pork for myself and a side of rice for DD. DH tried some sort of sampler. While the pork was good, they sure were skimpy on the chips for the nachos and half of them were burnt. DH said the rice and his dish was not good at all. And since they don't do refills (who doesn't do refills?) we opted for water. This is a place we won't be returning to.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Day at the Improv

This week was somewhat the same as last week. Had our time in the pool and went to the library.

I ordered a balance bike for DD on Sunday and it arrived on Tuesday!  She was very excited. I got her the bubbilicious since she likes pink and it was cheaper than just getting a neutral one.  DS can get his own when the time comes.
Li'l Shark Boy 

Monday we ran a few errands and then went swimming.

Tuesday, we went to story time as usual. It was not as crowded as the first week.  But it was so hot! I decided that we would not go with the group to the park afterwards. So after the story was read, we went back inside so DD could turn in her reading log (200 hours), get her prizes, and check out a few more books. She checked out a book by the author of The Runaway Dinner called The Pencil. It had a lot of the same characters.



On Wednesday, we decided to get in the pool in the morning. We had an incident. DD wanted to wear a life vest and her tube. I said she could go to the steps as I was putting DS into his float... I look over and she is in the water and her face is in because the vest and tube are making her top half of her body go in the water. I had to run and get her.  There was a teenage boy setting up his towel and never offered help... I'll leave it as a teenager thing and not a rude neighbor thing.  So we took her vest off (it was the one causing her to go face forward) and she was happy again.  After the pool, we had lunch and took a nice long nap.




Thursday, we set out for the library. I get to the garage and put the library books in when a lady tells me that the garage door is broken (she had to take a cab to get where she was going). So I called the property management to fix it. There was a piece broken, I guess I could have lifted it, but it's heavy. So we went back upstairs. I let the kids play with finger paint instead. The kids had fun with that. We have a deck that I set up the easel and paper so the house did not get paint all over it.  We used the packing paper. When DH came home, we went out to dinner, because I did not want to be stuck in the house.





Friday, we made it to the library, to check out books. Of course, DD turned in her reading record (another 200 hours) and re-checked out The Runaway Dinner! She checked out 13 books this time. She loves story time.

So, although, the week did not go according to plan, we had a great time.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Boy and Girl

Are little boys more curious than little girls?  All I know is that DS seems to be into everything, where with DD we did not really have to baby proof the house.
DS will go face first off the couch!  The other day, I put the kids in their room so I could clean up the breakfast mess. As I am finishing, I hear DS screaming, after 3 times, I realize it does not sound normal, so I run to the room and he has his hand trapped between his baby laptop and kept shutting the lid on it. And then later that day he was playing in the game room and DH noticed his computer fan stopped working right before DS started crying... he stuck his finger in the fan and stopped the blades. He's ok, just took a little skin.  And now he's climbing the stairs! He is full of personality too. Just watching him play cracks me up.  He gets all rough with the stuffed animals.  And the other day, DD was sitting on the couch eating a cheese stick and DS wanted some. She was ignoring him and he was getting loud and started hitting her.  I wish I could have captured that on video.

Before we moved, we had to get rid of a lot of stuff... mainly because we were moving into a place without a  yard or storage.  DD had to say goodbye to a lot of her good toys such as a water table, her little car and her trike.  We told her we would get a bike after we moved.  One day while checking my facebook newsfeed, I noticed a few contacts had posted photos of their kids on wooden bikes. They were called balance bikes. I decided a balance bike would be a good choice for DD to help build confidence and coordination.  We were at Toys R Us and they had one on clearance (at least that was what the sign next to the box said). It rang up 30 dollars more than I expected, so while we were waiting for the price confirmation, DH noticed the box was all taped up. The last item we purchased from Toys R Us came in a box that was taped up. It was a baby gate, a broken, dirty, used baby gate. I was able to get a brand new one. But we decided not to try our luck. So I went online and found one much cheaper from Amazon and it came in two days.  The assembly was pretty easy.

She wanted to hold him
New Bike

Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Zoo

We took the kids to the zoo. We got an annual pass with parking. The zoo charges right at the gate for parking and admission.  At first, we were kind of confused, but then I actually think it's a pretty good concept. There were picnic tables in different areas, so patrons could come and go from the zoo and eat at the tables if they did not want to eat in the park and they did not have to worry about getting a handstamp for reentry.
The zoo kind of reminded of an amusement park when we walked in. There were photographers who wanted to take patron pictures in front of a green screen and there were tons of souvenir shops. The zoo had plenty of buildings to duck into in case of inclement weather, which was good because it started to rain. Thank goodness it did not last too long. For the summer, there is a dinosaur exhibit. We were not sure what to expect, I was thinking just statues or something. However, while waiting in line, we could hear loud rumbling noise (think Jurassic Park) and they had some cool dinosaurs. DD decided after seeing the first one, she did not like dinosaurs anymore, LOL.  The displays were awesome, they were animatronic! There was a huge T-Rex and some spitting dinos too.
We saw some animals that they do not have at the VA zoo, which was neat. Some of the animals included were bears (including polar bears), moose, camels, tigers,  and seals. There was also a play area for the kids.  Like the VA zoo, there was a farm section, however this zoo actually milked the cows and showed a display. The zoo also had a sky ride, train ride, pony rides, camel rides, and a zipline. We did not do any of those on our first trip, but we plan on checking them out later. Well, except maybe the camel ride. We ended the day with some yummy ice cream.
Since we got the annual pass, we plan on going a lot. I think it will be neat in the winter.

T Rex

Tiger


At the playground
Polar Bear


Saturday, June 16, 2012

I survived!

I survived my first week in my new position.  Yes, I got a new job, sort of... After doing the budget, we realized that my paycheck went towards daycare expenses and fuel to get to work.  I am on a break until DS is old enough for school (or until I get bored).  My last day of work was the 18th of May and then we moved from the land of peanuts and ham to the land of beer and cheese.  This past week was my first week as a Stay at Home Mom.

So far, so good... I have not gone crazy yet.  I am trying to limit tv time to when DH is home. DD is having a hard time understanding, since she's so used to having the tv on all the time.

 

Monday we ran a few errands, went to the park, and then to the mall for lunch.  DD asked for "buh donals", and they have one in the mall.  We got home and had quiet time and read. We then went for a walk to get the mail and then DH came home from work.




Tuesday we went to the library for story time. The librarian, Ms Debbie is very animated and gets the kids going.  There were a lot of kids at story time since it was the first one of the summer.  I also enrolled DD into the summer reading program, so we checked out a few library books.  We ate lunch at home and read her books and had quiet time and again walked to the mailbox.



Wednesday we stayed home waiting for furniture delivery. I let the kids watch a Baby Einstein dvd while we waited.  After the delivery, we had a quick lunch at home and then headed out to get DH's Father's day gift (Nook Tablet). I told DD it was a surprise for DH. When DH came home, she got all excited and told him she had a surprise, LOL.



Thursday we went to the library again... they had a magician and boy were there tons of kids. There were several day cares there.  We returned the library books we checked out on Tuesday and got a few more.  Her favorite out of that bunch is The Runaway Dinner.  I guess she read that one with her Mimi.  After the library, we checked out an indoor playground called The Big Backyard.  It is a warehouse with playground equipment. I think its a neat concept for inclement weather.   It even had a section for babies.  The kids had fun playing.



Friday we had a Mom's group playgroup at one of the local parks.  It was good to meet some people and DD had fun playing.  It was so hot and we were so tired, so we ate lunch at home and laid down for a bit.