Spring Clean

Now that the weather has warmed up I finally have a chance to start cleaning again. I live in Southern California which normally conjures images of movie stars, Disneyland, and all year perfect weather. Well I live in the High Desert, about an hour away from all those lovely places which is awesome, but our weather is very extreme in my hometown. Right now we have "spring" which it will be in the high 90's on average. Wow! What is summer like? You can probably guess unbearably hot! Now this warm weather has been giving me a chance to send the kidos outside and out of my hair to get a little work done. This week I tackled the floors. We are by no means rich people so our floors have scene a lot of wear and tear which just makes it more important to take good care of them. I'm still on this quest to become a more eco-friendly Mama, so I did a little research to find out some natural cleaners. What kept coming up over and over? Vinegar!!! I had to try it and lo and behold it works wonders; it is tried and true. Oh and I love how
 it's non-toxic for the kidos; mine just love eating anything off the floors! lol What other natural cleaners do you use? I would love new suggestions!

shiny. shiny floor

the tools

**I used 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water. Our floor is old linoleum, so I can use a little bit stronger of a mix. I read that if you have tile you need to be careful because the acidity of the vinegar can damage the grout. 

Cloth Diapering Top Fives

There is so much cloth diapering information out there that I thought I could break it down into a couple top five lists.

Five Myths About Cloth Diapering

1. It will make your baby bow legged. What? Definitely No
2. You can only cloth diaper at home, not out and about. Have a wet bag in your purse or diaper bag then when baby needs a change put the diaper and everything else in it. Then you can deal with it when you get home. Plus my diapers are so cute there is no way I'm not going to show them off! 
3. Cloth diapers are so messy. They are no more messy than disposables. And way less messy than potty training. lol
4. You have to be careful not stab the baby with the safety pin. The safety pin and prefold cloth diaper is not used very much anymore. Now you can use a snappi. There is also all-in-ones and pockets. They've come along way.
5. You'll spend all your time doing laundry. One load every two days isn't so bad. I really don't feel like I'm washing all the time.

Five Questions I get about Cloth Diapering

1. What do you do with the poop? I flush it down the toilet. Typically one shake and it falls right off. No biggie.
2. How many do I have to buy? For an older baby (6 months+) you need about 14. 7 each day and you do laundry every other day. There are lots of bundle options out there.You can find good deals on Glow Bug and Thirsties. Now are you going to stop at 14 most likely no way. Cloth diapers are so addictive. I always need one more! haha
3. Is it harder than disposables? Nope, one extra step when you changing and then the extra load of laundry.
4. Can hubby do it too? Of course! Hector said he prefers cloth diapers.
5. Does it stink? Not while you're changing but on day two if you open the diaper pail and put your face over it and smell...yea it stinks! lol Don't do that and you won't smell a thing. lol

Five Things To know About Cloth Diapering

1. You cannot use regular butt creams. Vaseline based creams will clog your fibers and then the diaper won't absorb the liquid. 
2. There are different kinds of cloth diapers and all have pros and cons that just depend on your preference. (all-in-one, pocket, hybrid, prefold, flat... more detail to come)
3. Hook and Loop means Velcro.
4. You cannot use regular detergent. You have to use one with no additives or dyes or perfumes.  The chemicals will clog your fibers and not absorb the liquid. It's really not a big deal anymore because Target carries plenty of choices like Seventh Generation. I've even heard Kirkland has a brand that is safe. Also no softener for the same reason.
5. You do have to change the baby more often than disposables. About every two hours.

Five (well six) Reasons to Cloth Diaper

1. You save a grip of money. One time I put in my information to a cloth diaper calculator and factoring in how I line dry and even with early potty training I will have saved over a 1,000 dollars. Wow!
2. You don't put all those nasty chemicals on your baby's bottom. I was changing Matt and his diaper had exploded (again) and there was these gel like beads all over him. That's when I made just made the change to cloth. 
3. No more diaper explosions. Poop running up your baby's back is one of the grosses things to clean. I have never had a leak or explosion.
4. So much better for the environment. Like no joke better for the environment. Disposables take between 200-500 years to break down. Plus all that untreated waste going into our soil. I'd like to have some usable space left on this planet for my children. 
5. Piece of mind. When I had Nic in disposables I was always worried we'd run out. It was irrational we never got close but how horrible would that be?! I've even heard horror stories about people reusing disposables or letting baby go for long times in them to save on money. Now if I start running low on clean diapes I just do laundry. One less mom thing to worry about.
6. They are so cute!!! There are so many prints and colors I never want to put pants on my little guy. It's summer now and you can believe he won't be wearing anything but his cloth diaper!!!

homemade cloth diaper wipes

         When I started cloth diapering I was told that eventually I would want to switch to cloth wipes also. I really didn't believe it. I was so grossed out by the thought of throwing a poop filled piece of cloth into a diaper pail then into the washing machine. During the next three months I kept going back and forth on the idea. Finally I thought I'm going to make my own that way if I don't like it then I'm out no money and I don't feel obligated to use them. So while at my Dad's house for Christmas my Step-mom, Susan pulled out her serger and we got to work.  

         To make it even more cost efficient I used my old flannel receiving blankets for material. I simply cut the material into 8x8 squares the night before. The next day while the kid-o's played with Grandpa, Susan and I took two squares right sides out and serged up each side. It was so much fun and surprisingly rewarding to make them myself. 

           I love using my homemade wipes. And there is no poop filled cloth; that was very dramatic thinking! lol In fact I find them to be less messy than disposable wipes because cloth wipes don't smear the poop around my little guy's bum. I have a diaper wipes warmer so I just roll each wipe up and put them in there. I've been buying California baby wipes solution but my local Target just stopped carrying it . I going to have to find a replacement for that. I still keep some disposable wipes around for outings and faces. But all in all love my cloth wipes. Now the hubby on the other hand still does not like using them. Oh well I do most the changes anyways!

Eco-friendly Easter

Happy Easter everyone! This year we're keeping it crunchy. The Easter Bunny has been hard at work trying to find healthy and fun basket fillings. Traditionally my family has always done fairly small baskets; for us the holiday is a simple one. The first thing I ordered was a little something for the bath from LUSH. And who doesn't love LUSH!  LUSH is an eco-friendly company that never tests on animals. Many of their products are fair trade and sustainable. I found this adorable bath bomb in the shape of a robot, and a plus for me these cutie bots have a calming effect to help my kidos sleep better.

Ickle-Baby-Bot

As a super bonus I'm going to use the  packaging from my LUSH order to fill the bottom of the basket. When Easter is over this awesome little piece of potato starch will become food for my house plants.

The next thing that will adore the baskets this year is a set of wonderful paints by glob colors. I got really lucky with a nu and nugs adventures contest and won 50% off at glob colors! Glob has paints made entirely out of fruits, vegetables and herbs. The paints are non-toxic and have no artificial dyes. I can't wait to open them up and get to painting. They are supposed to smell incredible. 

glob Paint Kit

My boys love puzzles! Nic will work on a 50 piece puzzle for an hour. So keeping in my better for the earth theme I went straight to Melissa and Doug. Melissa and Doug make handcrafted wooden toys. You can find the online, at Toys R Us and Target. The hubby got our puzzles at Toys R Us.

Melissa and Doug

Now here is my big find... books made out of 98% recycled paper. How amazing is that? The book series is called Green Start and it's by Innovation Kid. Nic gets In the Rain forest and it includes a puzzle. I picked Matt up a match up called Mamas and Babies.

Innovative Kids

What Easter Basket wouldn't be complete without a little something sweet, so I got Happy Tot  fruit and veggie pouches. They are delicious and nutritious! Annie's Organic Fruit Snack will also go in the baskets this year. I love Annie's! Annie's is quality food for kids. The bonus is they are fruit snacks shaped like....Bunnies! lol

annies

I am very excited this year. It feels really good to know that my kids will have a great Easter and we are doing are part to be able to enjoy a less polluted Easter today and in the future.

Happy Easter!

Sun Power

 So when I was just starting with cloth diapers I asked  Melissa, my sister, why she hadn't cloth diapered her kids. She said she would put her oldest in pre-folds when he would get bad diaper rashes, but it had always kind of grossed her out a little when the diapers would get stained. I had only line dried my dipes at the time (my dryer was on hiatus boo!) and never had any staining. So when  little man had some tummy issues this week that left some pretty bad stains on the inserts from my pocket diapers I took some pictures to demonstrate the Power of the Sun. The sun has amazing bleaching power. (natural bleaching power) A few hours in the sun and voila good as new. Check it out.

Poor kid-o you can see all the stains the diarrhea left.

  

      a couple hours later inserts are as good as new.