Why I Cloth Diaper

I mean, really, could you not see this one coming? :) I figured I'd start the series with a pretty non-controversial topic, and by now you've probably learned how much I love to talk about fluff.
I actually wanted to cloth diaper my children before we even had kids. When Mike and I first got married, I worked in a daycare, taking care of infants. I changed more diapers than most people change in their entire lifetime. I figured cloth would be cheaper, and with breastfed babies, you might as well use cloth since their diapers are constantly leaking all over their clothes. But Mike told me I was crazy, and when Gehrig came along, he said no way to cloth.
So Gehrig was in disposables for the first year of his life (a fact that I hate now, thinking about all that wasted money). I had a friend who got into cloth diapers, and I once again brought it up to Mike, but we were on such a tight budget that we couldn't invest in a whole stash at the time. But I was still interested. Another friend recommended a bunch of good sites to me including diaperswappers. You can find some really good deals! And the mamas there are awesome--I wrote that I was really wanting to start using cloth, but we didn't have much money to start a stash. An awesome mama wrote me and told me that if I would just pay for the shipping, she would send me a box of diapers. I wasn't expecting too much since I didn't even know this lady, but when I got the box, I was ecstatic. She had sent me a whole stash--and they were good diapers too!
Mike still wasn't convinced about cloth, but he agreed to let me try it if he didn't have to change any. It was so much easier than I'd expected. And very addicting. The diapers are so cute, and every time you think of all those boxes of disposables you don't have to buy, you feel like a pretty awesome mom.
So the number one reason I cloth diaper is to save money. You can find really great deals, and cloth diapers have great resale value. You can sell them for almost as much as you paid for them. Mike, who, as you will remember, was so against them, now sings their praises to anyone who asks.
Another reason is our house no longer stinks since there are no dirty diapers sitting in the trash can. And they never leak--Logan has not gotten one stain on his clothes. So they're also helping save money on clothes too!
I have to admit that the fact that they're green is pretty low on my list of reasons, but it's still a good reason. We do need to take care of our planet!
And, of course, I use them because they're adorable. I absolutely love dressing Logan in just a t-shirt and a diaper (although those days are pretty much over since it's gotten cooler). I see pictures of babies in just disposable diapers and think, why even bother? Disposables aren't cute. Stick a cloth diaper on that baby--if only just for the picture--and it'll be ten times cuter.
So...does cloth diapering make me a better mother? Not necessarily--it makes me personally a better mother than I would be if I didn't cloth diaper since I feel that cloth is best for us. But it doesn't make me a better mother than another mother who doesn't use cloth. But it does make my babies cuter. :)

Why I Do What I Do

I know every mommy does things differently, and each one does what she does either because she feels it's best for her children (the vast majority, I believe) or because it's easy. Since Gehrig was born, I've made numerous decisions about the way I do things concerning him and our future children. Some of those decisions I've held fast to with Logan; other decisions I've changed either because I learned they just don't work in general or because Logan is a completely different baby than Gehrig was.
The blogs and forums I hang out on tend to be on the "crunchier" side of the spectrum of parenting--"crunchy" meaning different from the mainstream ideas of parenting--so quite often I'm made to feel like my parenting ideas aren't good enough or that I'm a cruel mother. I, obviously, feel that my parenting choices are the best, and I think some people might agree if they can hear (or rather read) the reasoning behind them. Thus this series begins.
I'm by no means telling you that you should share my philosophy. You do what's best for your children because I have definitely learned that every child is different. But researching different parenting ideas never hurt (or rather rarely hurts), and I hope this series will be a help rather than a stumbling block. Please feel free to comment and discuss why you agree/disagree with me, but remember, this is my blog so I'll always have the final word. :)

Until...
Liz

Diaper Lust...

Thirsties has just released their new print covers, and I'm lusting after the blue one. I ADORE Thirsties covers anyway--Logan has never had a leak in his Thirsties. I had decided we didn't need anymore diapers since I've started making my own, but...we could always use another cover. Right? :)

Logan's New Hat

I taught myself to knit a little over a year ago, and I'm pretty addicted. I haven't had a lot of time to knit since Logan came along, but I'm starting to be able to get back into it. I'm definitely still a novice. I have learned, however, that even if a pattern looks super complicated, if I'll just start doing it, I can usually figure it out. One of the best sites for learning how to knit is knittinghelp.com. They have videos and instructions for pretty much everything you would ever need to know.
I kind of made up this pattern because I couldn't find just a plain hat pattern for free. I think it turned out pretty well, although I did make it kinda long. The cutie wearing it makes it look good. :)






You can't see the hat too well in this one (our living room is super dark!), but his smile is so cute, I had to share it. :)












I love the colors! I ended up making it a little smaller than I intended so I'm not sure it'll still fit him this winter, but I do have enough yarn left to make him a larger one if I need to. Now I'm working on a pink one for my new niece due in November.







And while I had the camera out, I had to snap a picture of my handsome (big) little guy. I bought this shirt for him when he was about six months old and couldn't wait until he was big enough to wear it (it's a 3T). Unfortunately he's already almost in 4T so it's just about too small. :( Perhaps it'll be cool enough now for him to wear it a few times before he outgrows it completely.
By the way, he gets the whole not smiling for pictures thing from his daddy. :-/

Yard Sale Finds

Last night was a rough one, but when Logan woke me up at seven, I couldn't resist hitting some yard sales instead of going back to bed like I usually would. It was pretty slim pickin's today, and every yard sale I found was amazingly crowded no matter how dinky it was (where were all these people when I had my yard sale??).
I did manage to find Mike some shirts though. He is so picky about his clothes, but he hates to go shopping. Nearly every time I've bought him new shirts or pants, he's hated them and ends up not wearing them. The result is that the shirts he does wear are completely worn out. So I figured I'd stop buying him new stuff and just see what I could find at yard sales. That way if he doesn't like them, we're only out a couple bucks. So here's what I found:

I got a wool sweater to make a soaker and some longies for Logan, a Chaps polo shirt, a Quest polo shirt, and a Dockers dress shirt all for $4.

I also found a Children's Place sweater for Logan, but I'm not sure if he'll be big enough to wear it before winter's over. If he's not, I can always take it to Once Upon a Child. :) And I found this Leapfrog phonics train set for Gehrig for $4.


It was a pretty successful day, and if Mike likes the shirts, I saved us about $40. And that's what I'm all about! Poor Logan got worn out from everyone exclaiming how cute he was. :)

Gehrig snippets v.3

Gehrig: I want somethin' eat.
Me: What do you want?
Gehrig: I a'know (apparently I don't enunciate very well because this is how he says "I don't know")
Me: Do you want pretzels?
Gehrig: No...
Me: Do you want cheerios?
Gehrig: No...
Me: Well, what do you want?
Gehrig: I a'know
Me: You can have pretzels or cheerios--which one?
Gehrig: Animal cookies!

My little two-year-old was just sitting on the couch, and all of a sudden he said, "I want a real gun, Mommy, please?"

I hate those sinks with the automatic water because I can never seem to put my hands in the right place to keep it on long enough to rinse. Apparently I voice my hatred because when we visited a family restroom and they had one of those sinks for kids, Gehrig couldn't get it to work either, and he kept exclaiming, "Oh, c'mon stupid wa-wer!"

Just You Wait

I'll admit it; before I had Logan, I would look at moms with two or more kids who never seemed to have it together and think, wow, they're disorganized. I was sure I would have no problem adjusting to having two kids. A few people tried to warn me about how hard it was going to be, but I just brushed off their warnings thinking I had things completely under control. I'd been babysitting my whole life, and had taken care of tons of babies and kids in six years of working in daycare. Two kids was gonna be a breeze.
Wow, was I wrong.
I think my first inkling of my wrongness was when Gehrig first visited me and Logan in the hospital. The numbness from the spinal for my c-section was still wearing off so I couldn't move, and I watched helplessly as Gehrig tore around the room being his normal, hyper two-year-old self. He made me exhausted just watching him, and I wondered how I would have time to just enjoy and cuddle Logan like I wanted to.
I spent the first month feeling torn and guilty. I felt like neither of my boys was getting enough of my love or attention, and I didn't have any time to myself. I was exhausted with nighttime feedings for Logan and chasing Gehrig during the day. Logan was nothing like the sweet, calm baby Gehrig had been and spent most of the day screaming. If I was going to get anything around the house done, I had to do it during nap time which meant no nap for me. Mike was working all the time so I felt completely alone.
It seemed like my life of screaming newborns and terrible twos would never end, but at some point it did. I'm not even sure when--and some days it does come back, but thankfully it's not every day now. However, getting out the door is nearly impossible. I, who have been perpetually early my whole life, now run late nearly all the time. I try to only go one place when we go out so that I don't have to keep hefting my huge boys in and out of their carseats. And I have learned NOT to take Logan into any store in his carseat--it's a pain to put him in the sling just to run into Bi-Lo to get bread, but it's worth the hassle to avoid the screaming as I try to check out.
So you may look at me and think I'm completely disorganized and have no clue what I'm doing; that you'd do a much better job than I. That's okay. Just you wait.