Who Needs Baby Dolls?

Also known as, "Why Avila will never learn to walk"


At the ripe old age of 15 months, Avila is still very much a crawler.  Can anyone blame her for her lack of motivation?

While the baby dolls around here are a bit lonely, their stroller certainly isn't neglected.

Princess Avila and her entourage.  

Babies First Haircut

Avila's hair grows straight and long right over her eyes.  I am always sentimental about the first hair cut and tend to put it off for way long than needed.  This time was no exception.  But poor Avi's beautiful blue eyes were hidden and I am sure she was annoyed!

So, yesterday was the day.  You can see, she wasn't too thrilled!

Poor baby!  But look!  She aged about four months in about thirty seconds!

So pretty!

And here is the super-busy mom's solution to baby-book-blues.  Just tape that lock of hair into the planner!

Where'd All These Kids Come From??

Last night at Benediction, I had to take the three year old to the back because she was just not into being there.  After standing with her for a bit, I saw my seven year old walking up the aisle, carrying the one year old.  And my heart melted.

I have long watched the big families in our parish juggle there little ones, passing the smallest off the the biggest while mom or dad deal with a toddler.  I love to see the big kids carrying their smallest sibbling up to Communion or over the the Creche at Christmastime.  And all of a sudden, last night, I realized -- here we are.  A big(ish) family with big(ish) kids helping us with the little ones.

It's strange to me, too, because as of late, I have been approached multiple times with comments such as "Wow!  You have real kids!" (as opposed to just babies) or "What's it like to be out of the 'all toddlers and babies' stage?" and even "So, tell me what it's like to have a whole bunch of kids . . . I have always wanted a large family, but I get so over-whelmed with my three!"

Generally, what I want to say is "What?? I don't know what I am doing!  Maybe insanity has blinded me to reality?  Whose kids are these anyway??"

But  I don't.  'Cause then they'd just check me in.

What I do say is "It does get easier!"  Those wild toddlers get bigger and have moments of clarity in which they really do pitch in and lend a hand.  They learn to converse and discuss and truly bring a level of maturity into your days of diaper changing and toddler pacifying.  It's amazing, really, to watch those chubby toddlers grow into real little people.

I am not trying to imply that I have the slightest notion as to the how of raising real little people (because I don't.  I'm winging it here!).  But I do know that toddlers grow into "real" children and "real" children are great!  And "real children" love toddlers and babies.  They can learn a great deal from them, too.  So to those questioning, over-whelmed mamas, I say carry on.   In the throws of three-under-four days, it is tough, but the rewards of having more is worth every moment in the trenches.

And really, it does get easier.

A Baby of the Cloth Part II

If you missed Part I, you can read it here.

Once I decided to faze out my disposable, I started using a few cloth diapers while at home, but stuck to the disposable when out. It just seemed easier. But then I found myself addicted to the cloth! I enjoyed doing it and some of the covers were just so darn cute that I wanted Isabella to sport them outside the house as well as in. And once I went out with them, I realized that it was easier than I had expected! I just toss the wet/dirty in a grocery sack and put it straight into the laundry when I get home -- no problems!

Another thing that scared me was the way so many people talked about how hard it is to care for the cloth diapers. One day a friend stopped by -- she is a Mama to one and has cloth diapered from the get go. Admittedly, her little gal is still exclusively breastfed, so things might be a bit easier, but she told me she just tosses everything in together and doesn't do anything special. Hearing this was like a wall falling down. No special detergent? No special cycles? I can do that! So now I just wash everything on hot, with the same detergent I wash everything else (I make my own, so I know it is free of dyes, fragrance, etc.). *Total Disclaimer* My diapering is made infinitely easier because I have two washers and dryers! One is now my designated "diaper washer" BUT that doesn't mean it can't be done. It only means that you probably can't get away with slacking on the other laundry like I do. And that is probably a good thing!

One thing in the washing that has made a world of difference is sunning the diapers. Sometimes, in the dryer, they weren't getting completely dry. And I think that it was allowing bacteria to grow and therefore causing rash. Once I started sunning them, the rash disappeared. Since sun is antibacterial, this would support my little theory!

I have to say, while my promary reason for switching was to save money, if I hit the lottery tomorrow, I would still use cloth. But I would buy every cute cover I could get my hands on!!

One final tip . . . while the gender specific covers are unbelievably cute, if you plan to diaper more than one child, get some gender neutral covers. PeterXavier (now finally potty trained, thank heavens!) was in the cloth for a short time. One day, I only had a pink cover clean, so I tossed it on him and headed out to meet some friends. Somehow the poor guy was depants, and there he stood in his crowd of friends wearing a PINK diaper. It was hilarious and he cracked up along with everyone else. But it might be easier just to avoid the issue!

Questions? Comments? I am definetly a novice here, but maybe that makes me more sympathetic to any questions!

I will try to add some pictures later, but I don't have any on this computer. Cloth wins hands down with its cuteness factor!

A Baby of the Cloth

I have had this post brewing in my head for weeks now. And since it came up at Annie's place, I thought that now would be a good time to actually put to paper (screen) what has been floating in my brain.

About three months ago, my beloved Target diapers changed completely resulting in a higher price tag and way lower quality. This change spurred me to make a switch I never thought I would make -- I became a cloth convert. And now that I am here, I would never go back. But before my switch -- on my seven year stint with disposables -- I had a million and one questions that were easy to answer, but the answers weren't always easy to find. So I thought I would try to answer a few of my own questions here and maybe make the conversion experience a little easier for someone else.

*I also want to make it clear, that I am in no way a diaper snob. If you think I am crazy and you are in love with your disposables, more power to you! I just want to show that the option is out there and not nearly as daunting as it might seem at first!

Before I made the switch, one thing that held me back was the high price tag of starting out. While I could clearly see the long term savings, I couldn't stomach shelling out a couple hundred dollars to start something I wasn't even sure I would be able to handle! Once I decided that I really wanted to switch, I realized a few things. First, I didn't have to stop disposables cold turkey. I could easily faze them out as I gradually up my supply of cloth. The other thing I realized was that prefolds are EASY to make. I actually haven't purchased a single diaper -- I have only purchased the covers. So while I spent time sewing diapers, I gradually acquired covers and slowly fazed the disposables out over the course of a few weeks. In total, I have spent about $50 on diapers. When I started, I was diapering two and had been spending about $60-$80 a month on diapers. Not a bad savings!

The other thing that saved me a boat load was http://www.diaperswapper.com/ where I found a nice woman selling her homemade covers for next to nothing. I think I paid $20 for eight, shipping included! I didn't discover this site until after I had purchased a few other covers here (my favorite!) and here. What I got there was deeply discounted, but none the less, had I discovers Diaper Swappers earlier, I would have saved even more!

This is long . . . I will continue later!