Summer Slings

Summer is right around the corner, if you are like me and love to take your kiddos to the pool, waterpark or beach you will want to have a carrier that can go in the water. This year I have white mesh (mesh is ordered in such large batches that I only buy one color at a time) that can be made into ring slings or "Moby Wraps" for the pool. The ring slings are great for small babies and quick carries but for wearing your baby for long periods you will want a wrap for better support.

Neither of these pictures are mine:

This is the Taylor Made Water Sling, if you order a sling it will look like this (you can add pretty ribbon though :)

The Water wraps are commonly sold on Etsy this is an example made by Watercarriers.com

Water Ring Slings: 

Start at $25 and you can can ribbon on the shoulder or hem for an additional $5 each (although I do not personally care for ribbon at the hem comfort wise on a pool sling).

Water Wraps:

You tie and use them just like a "Moby Wrap" they are $20 if made by me, $30 elsewhere

Shoot me an email if you are interested clfreestone@gmail.com

Cloth Diaper Update

My package came in the mail a speedy two days later. From freaking New York, I was impressed. One of the diapers was defective and they even overnighted me a replacement and a return envelope for it. I opened up the priority mail box like a little kid on Christmas. I was giddy. I layed them out and took a picture of them, I cannot get the picture to rotate for the royal life of me.  I got 5 diapers that are one use before wash (called pockets or all in ones, they look the most like a disposable. I also received 3 covers, you put an insert in them and just change the soiled insert (and wipe out the cover), very economical option. I tried the Thirsties, Flip and they came with 4 different inserts to test. Some are called prefolds that you prefold before putting them in the diaper and the kind that are all ready to go (they are rectangular) are called inserts.

Mr. B is looking pretty snazzy in his new fluffy diapers. I won't lie his butt it now pretty big (known as fluffy in the cloth diapering community), it is a little tricky with clothes and such, sometimes its fun to just have him run around in just a diaper. Some of the diapers were definitely not as bulky as others. I am now in search of more trim cloth diapers (I succeeded a week later see my newest cloth diaper post). I will let you know what I end of loving and buying more of.

I ventured to the cloth diaper booth at the local Craft Boutique called the Quilted Bear. It was nice to see more brands in person, online does not help you know what is thick and what is trim. I picked up some Econobum Covers and Prefolds, they look a lot like old school cloth diapers but dont require pins, you just fold the cloth set in inside the cover and snap it up. (The fit ended up being pretty crappy and I sold the cover, I kept the insert and use it in a better cover).

I also found some inexpensive pocket style diapers there called Tweedle bugs. They are cool in that they are 12 bucks for two inserts (that you slide in the pocket) but the unique feature is they have a pocket opening on the front and back so you can put the whole thing in the washer, no need to pull out a peed on insert. Awesome I tell you. I bought what G. calls the Tuxedo diaper. Its a shiny black and he looks so cute.

From the backside:

Ooh my third and final find there was a type of cloth diaper detergent that is normally only sold online, it is not expensive if you have a HE machine, because it only needs 2 tablespoons ( I was later told I could get away with only 1 tbs if I use the hard water formula, sweet). Ooh and the best part is it smells like Raspberry Pixie Sticks.

Diaper Madness

After Mr. B peed or pooped on his 8th diaper by 1 in the afternoon I officially feel very at peace with my most recent diapering decision . . . cloth diapers.

Once you pick your jaw up off the floor, let me mention that I am not talking about using classic old school cloth diapers. You know the kind most people use as burp cloths? I am talking kinds that are super awesome, adorable, cute easy to clean, modern style cloth diapers. Please compare the two for a moment.

Classic Gerber Cloth Diaper with pins- this gets covered by a pair of rubber panty things.

Vs. the cadilac of cloth diapers- Bum Genius- Freetime Diapers

Look a little different? I think so. A lot different. When I was a kid my mom mentioned how cloth diapers involved pins that you could accidently poke your baby with (they had a friend who stabbed their squirming child). She also talked to me about how they used ridiculous amounts of water to clean. She also mentioned having to dunk poopy diapers in the toilet to clean them.

All of these visuals were enough to scare me off, until a few of my friends started cloth diapering their kids and informed me of all the recent innovations in cloth diapering. Not only did they mention how totally different they now look, ie no more pins and multiple layers to deal with.  They also mentioned such awesome inventions as a cloth diaper sprayer. Basically you rinse the poopy diaper off with a handy attachment that connects to your toilet. It takes 30 second. The same amount of time it takes you to walk a poopy diaper out to your outside trash can (to avoid stink). Finally, it turns out that the idea of cloth diapers taking so much water to clean them that they were worse for the environment than disposables was in fact a rumor (and absolute myth) started by disposable diaper companies when they first hit the market.  So basically knowing all this, I think I can handle the modern cloth diaper thing.

For those of you who know me, you know that I am ridiculously frugal. Even buying diapers at Costco, with a coupon. The 34 bucks a month is still hard to swallow for something you essentially throw in a dumpster, and goes on to sit in a landfill. If you have two kids in diapers that can be somewhere around 60 bucks a month. Yikes! Literally throwing money away, not something that sits well with me at all. I am all for disposables on the go and plan on doing that for awhile, or maybe using the disposable cloth diaper liners (what an equally cool innovation). Let the money saving begin.


Now it is true that cloth diapers are an upfront cost based thing. It really can cost you between 150-400 dollars to buy enough to last you two days. This of course varies based on the brand you buy, how often many diapers you go through per day and such. But if you figure that babies are in diapers for at least two years, and a second kid can use the same diapers that amount will pay for itself quickly. You can also buy cloth diapers used or diapers called "seconds" where they have a slight flaw that makes them unable to sell for full price.

My last and final hangup has been that there are currently 100s of brands that now sell awesome cloth diapers. They also sell at least 6 different overall types, a variety of sizes, and colors and patterns. How on earth is someone suppose to decide, or know where to start?  Well you search the internet and find a company that lets you do the trial run of course. I found jillians drawers  for a deposit of 165 dollars you get to try cloth diapers (9 kinds) for 21 days (they do not count the time it takes for them to ship to you or you to ship them back). 10 of the dollars plus the cost of you shipping them back is non refundable. Not too shabby. It costs me 20 bucks in disposables for 3 weeks so I figure I am not really out anything if I hate them altogether, or simply decide I want to buy different diapers from the kinds I tried.

So yeah, I figure I have nothing to lose. Hopefully they arrive soon. I will update you on how I like each brand, and how cute Mr. B looks in them :)

Sling Things

After a long hiatus from sewing I returned with abandon on Friday sewing three slings over the course of naptime and bedtime. Two are for a family friend's daughter in laws and the other for a friend and former neighbor. I am so stoked about the one for my friend. So freaking cute :) I just wish the picture wasn't so bleached out, because their is nothing dull about this fabric and ribbon combo.

My practice sling is wrinkled to high heaven (that's 100% linen for you) but once its on it looks a whole lot better. Mr. B thought that while G. was taking a picture of Mr. B and I that he would take a picture of himself, hence the "cheese" pose. This sling needs a good home so if you are interested let me know.

Sick Days

Last week Mr. B woke up not feeling very well, so we treated him to his favorite show, binky (normally reserved for bedtime only) and snuggle time in our big fleece blanket.

By the next morning he was good as new.

He still suffers from his toddler tantrums, he just can't seem to figure out why he is not the center of the universe. Poor little guy he was so sad when I took this picture, pretty sure it was because he was told he could not play with something that is unsafe.

This week it was mom's turn to be sick. I spent Saturday morning feeling like I had a head cold, but thankfully it got better as the day went on. Monday was spent in bed or on the couch with a stomach bug. Guess all those super bowl treats were not such a good idea after all. So we set up camp and watched Megamind which Mr. B was pretty thrilled about as you can see. Gotta love the hair.

I am already feeling WAY better!!!! Hopefully this week gets better and better.

Winter Blues and Mr. B

Mr. B and I have felt a little couped up lately, but we feel very blessed that it has been within the walls of our beautiful new home.  Each morning Mr. B starts off the day with a bowl of oatmeal sometimes I feed it to him, other days I let him go to town.

Yesterday Mr. B had to have his 18 month shots, he was not thrilled that the nice nursing he was trying to make friends with reciprocated by poking him in the legs. The poor boy was pretty beat up about it and feel asleep in the car, sadly he did not take another nap and so this picture is what happened at 6:30pm.

Last week we had to run to the mall and Mr. B got to have an ice cream cone from Chick Fillet. He loved it. In case you missed the facebook video. Ever since this video was taken Mr. B says "cheese" when I pull out my phone. 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100306752113279]

We also got to make a carseat cover for G's cousin, I am just in love with the fabric, it is so stinking cute.

Hopefully June comes quickly, because if there is one thing Mr. B and I love its water and sunshine :)

Christmas-ness

This year we stayed in Sandy for Christmas. Sadly all of G's siblings could not be there like originally planned, but we still had a great Christmas. Mr. B found his present from Santa to be loads of fun. He spent an hour making baskets. He was quite the Jimmer in training. (He was totally like this :)

Tuesday we road tripped to Denver. Mr. B did fantastic. He enjoyed his very first happy meal, and actually finished the whole thing. We stayed a week and got to spend lots of time relaxing and hanging out with family and friends.