Bun in the oven

So nobody likes facebook baby announcements on April Fool's Day? I figured as much but we were getting lazy about putting our news on the internet, although we had been telling people for weeks, its a little hard to hide a prego belly when you look like this (before eating or drinking anything or pushing out your stomach).

15 weeks

Anyhow as pathetic as it is I have been dying to announce our news on the blogosphere because I busted out my very own maternity skinny jeans. Oh man they are so cute. I combined two pinterest found blog tutorials and went at with my little too high waisted aeropastale skinny jeans. I figured I had nothing to lose cutting up a pair of jeans I paid 12 dollars for and could probably find again for the same price.  Once I get a picture of me wearing the finished product I will have that up and ready to go.

On a funnier note in teaching Mr. B where the baby is he pointed to my mom's stomach (a very flat stomach mind you) and said "baby" whilst sitting on her lap at church on Sunday.

Speaking of my mom, my siblings, father and mother came out to visit us and my darling sisters who are attending BYU. We had a wonderful time having them stay with us in our new home. Everyone finally had enough room to stretch out and we had a blast.

Because Mr. B is so super adorable whilst being given a bath he got one every night or more, he was the cleanest and cutest kid on the block while my parents were in town.

Okay so it is not just the picture, my son's noggin really is in the 98th percentile :)

Mr. B especially loved hanging out with his uncles.

Especially when it meant stealing their yummy treats. 

We look forward to having them visit again, sadly it probably won't happen again until my brothers move out here for school in August.

Cuteness :)

This is a pretty narcissistic post, its basically me just sharing the most recent pics of Mr. B, I kinda adore him.

(above)

Mr.  B rocking the side part looking very dashing.

Mr. B got to go on two dates this week, one with a cute little girl in West Jordan and another at our house, we decided to take a walk down to the park. They had a great time.

(below)

Mr. B is still adoring the bath, hates to have his hair washed, or be dried off or redressed, but oh well :) He is just cute.

(below)

Wherein I Almost Lost All My Phone Pictures

So yesterday I noticed my pictures in my phone gallery just stopped appearing, nothing between when I got the phone and two days ago, lameness.

I was heartbroken considering all the pictures and videos I might have lost. I regretted not backing all of them up, but what was there to do about it now anyways.

Well I guess it does not take a full on techy to fix it because as soon as my hubby began taking my phone apart to take out the memory phone he found out that it had merely been dislodged and was kind of floating crookedly in the slot. Anyhow a few hours later G. backed them up all onto my computer. So now I have all the memories I was terrified had disappeared into nothingness are all safe and sound on my picassa account. Google if you lose them I will strangle you. Anyhow . . . here is what I would have lost. Prepare to be photo bomed.

Yeah I would have been soooooooooooo sad to not have these.

Fluffy Butts

 Mr. B rockin a Bum Genius 4.0 (almost identical to the Fuzzi Bunz diaper I reviewed below).  

Today I mailed back my cloth diaper trial early, not because I gave up because it I had started to aquire enough diapers of my own and thought I may as well mail them back while they are all clean at once.

I had the option to keep and therefore purchase each diaper, I decided to mail them all back, each diaper for a different reason that I will explain. 

Fuzzibunz Perfect Size :

     Pros: Awesome soft inserts (minky instead of microfiber), no leaks at night when using both inserts it   comes with. Super well known easy to find used and at stores that sell cloth diapers.

    Cons: Not adjustable in the rise, meaning it has a small size window, Mr. B was already a little too big for this one. $19.95 a little too steep for me.

Bum Genius Freetime:

     Pros: easy easy easy, all one piece, velcro just like a disposable, these will covert anyone to cloth diapers. They also are adjustable in size fitting 10-30 pound kids. They dry fast (other one piece diapers don't but this one the inserts are sewn in like flaps instead of one on top of another).

     Cons: I sadly do not have $19.95 to spend on one diaper but when these babies go on sale I am buying a bunch, I love them.

Flips (they look just like a Bum Genius on the outside:

     Pros:This is a cover/insert system, so whats awesome if the kid only peed in it, you drop the insert in the pail, place a new one in and you are good to go, so you save money only owning a few covers and more inserts. You can also stuff this with anything, cheap old school prefolds (that most people use as burp cloths) or any insert made by any company. $16.95 for one cover and insert, you can buy extra inserts at 4-5 dollars a piece and they often go onsale.

     Cons:I have none, I love them. 

Hate to bore you any further, I will spread these out as I have a few more to go. Anyhow here is a parting picture of Mr. B rockin a Dr. Suess Bumkins diaper cover. I absolutely love it. 

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 :)