Cloth Diapers

BumGenius - our current diaper!

When I was pregnant with Mason I did lots of research on cloth diapers and hybrids. I even bought G diapers. But as a first time mom just leaving the house and diapering my kid in general seemed like a large task. So the environment had to suffer - because the thought of poop that I couldn't throw away was just too much.

When Wyatt was born I reconsidered my options. I realized that I was more organized and could handle the cloth. So we bought Bum Genius diapers. I have two different styles. One is called an all in one - it is sized to fit and has the cloth insert sewn in. It is very easy to use I never have to touch the wet cloth. However I have to buy specific diapers for both boys as they are not in the same size range. The second is one size fits all. This works well because it can go on both kids - but the inserts must be inserted by hand and pulled out when they are "ucky" as Mason says. So my current stash in 6 Large diapers for Mason 6 small diapers for Wyatt and 6 one sizes. Wyatt goes through the supply of his and the one sizes. I could probably use another set of 6 one size diapers. THat will have to wait until I go back to work.

Washing them is pretty easy, but to be fair I have an HE washer that is all high tech. I just push buttons and it will run 3 cycles for me. You need to pre-wash in cold to remove the solids, then you wash in Hot water with 1/3 as much detergent as suggested by manufacturer, and then you do an extra wash. Why you ask? because detergent build up will decrease absorbency of diapers. With my current supply of 18 diapers for two boys i need to wash them about every other day. If i bought more diapers then this would obviously decrease.

I am not full time cloth diapering. When we go out often I put the boys in disposables (we use Seventh Generation). Honestly it is because i haven't bought a wet bag for my diaper bag yet. Also it is because cloth diapers do need to be changed more often. And when Mason is at day care twice a week he uses disposables too. I also use disposables at night, to avoid leaks and waking kids.

Have you all caught on to Diapers.com? For my seventh generation they are about 30% off and I get free 2 day shipping. Can't beat that.

Wyatt smiles

He started smiling at 6 weeks, and it took me two weeks to capture it on camera:

Rush Creek Tot Hike

This morning was a fun story time at the library today. Mason's attention at these things is hit or miss. Some days he is into it, and some days he has a 15 minute attention span (the program is 30 minutes) . Today was the latter. Thank goodness he loves the hand stamps and can be cajoled along to get those.

This afternoon we needed to get out of the house, and I thought I would try out a pretty flat walk that I use to do with my dogs all the time Rush Creek. We left the stroller behind because a tired toddler is a good toddler, and Wyatt and I rocked the MOBY WRAP.

It was so fun walking at Mason's speed and seeing what he sees, and learns. He was actually looking for butterflies today- and he told me so by saying and signing! We learned our sign at Kindermusik, and it is so awesome to see him still use it to communicate. He also is talking in 3 word sentences very often - on this walk he was telling me "I threw rocks" - and it was into the tall grasses which is an approved activity in our family. He also now tells me "I got _____". Him using "I" is an accomplishment as he has been talking in the third person for quite some time referring to himself as "MayMace". Just this week we have been working on asking nicely "May i please ________", he needs to be fed about half of the words..but is getting it!

It looked like someone had just been around clearing the trail, and Mason enjoyed playing with the cleared branches:

We gathered rocks and put them into our pockets:

Mason LOVEs to spit. So we have decided that outside it is OK to do so. He takes advantage of this!

Mason telling me "I got rocks" I replied "Yes, you HAVE rocks"

Playing with the long grasses - he wanted to eat them so bad!

Not too far into our walk we found this blackberry bush with tons of ripe berries on it! We stopped and had a snack on the way out and the way in. Mason is a HUGE fan of this activity. Unfortunately with my iPhone you can't see the berries - but be assured they are right behind where Mason is proudly posed.

And here is the resultant berry mustache:

All in all a great day! We will repeat this walk again, probably quite often!

Guess Who!

Guess which one is Mason and which is Wyatt:

Pizza Night

I have wanted to be one of those families with game and movie nights. So we have started doing homemade pizza and movie night..once so far. Mason is a great helper at eating ingredients faster than they can be put on the pizza, and the movie lasted about 20 minutes before he lost interest....but it was fun. I don't know that we will do it every Friday - but maybe once a month or so!


Adding the cheese:

Adding the toppings:

The finished product:

We got into jammies before the movie just in case Mason fell asleep during the movie. He got bored before that happened...but he did insist on his rain boots being a part of his movie watching attire. Quite a nice look I think:

Snuggling with Dad while watching Cars:

How does Mason get along with Wyatt?

I keep getting asked how the boys get along, and how Mason feels about his brother. Here is a photo answer to that question.

More Tahoe

In our family both Kurt and I have a camera, and both go along and shoot the same series of events...i don't like this system but it is a battle i have not yet won. So here are some of the Tahoe highlights that came from his camera.

Our second night in Tahoe we all went out to the toll house store to get some fresh baked cookies. Mason said he wanted to walk, and Wyatt had been asleep in his car seat. However things change quick when you are parents to an almost 2 year old and a 6 week old! Wyatt woke up and wanted to be held...Mason was walking a but slowly while eating his cookie and it started to rain....so into the infant seat he went. He never seemed to notice that he was about a year and a half too big for this seat.

On our way to get cookies we found this hand chair sitting outside a spa. What almost two year old boy could resist sitting in it? Well, certainly not this one! What a cutie!