A Little Man of the Cloth...

even though he's not really fully clothed in any of these pics. He's going through a streaker phase if you can't tell.

He's also still going through the 'funny face' phase too.

Last week my mom and granny came down to Houston to hang out with The McDs. This pregnant girl needed a break, and the Little Man needed some attention. On Sunday, Aaron and the Little Man went to church, while the girls headed to the Galleria for some Starbucks, shopping, and Cheesecake Factory fun. Do I even need to mention how much more relaxing shopping is when I'm not having to pacify a bored toddler in his stroller? (Especially when he HATES the close quarters of the Janie and Jack clearance section and will NOT sit long enough for me to make even one run-through!) I don't get the child-less opportunity very often, so I relished every second of it! We got back just in time for Camden to wake up and then my mom made Pioneer Woman's Strawberry Shortcake Cake, while my Granny made fried chicken. Needless to say, we are still mourning their absence a week later, and the Little Man keeps asking when they are coming back.

In other news, we are all melting here in South Texas. It's too hot to go outside longer than a few minutes, especially for this pregnant girl. I cannot get the A/C low enough to make me comfortable. The poor boys have to curl up in blankets in the evening, while I uncomfortably sprawl out on the couch and complain about how hot it is in the house. How is the Little Man staying cool these days?

Corvette Guy's new apprentice.
Ever since Corvette Guy told us that he charges his roommate $40 to wash his car every week, we thought Camden might be able to cash in as well.

Spraying Gracie Dog with the hose to keep cool.
Does anyone else have a little streaker? When Camden wants to play with the water in the backyard he automatically strips all of his clothes, tosses them on to the patio table, and goes after the sprayer. I keep telling him that we can't get our pants wet ( because of the whole potty training thing), but he has taken it a little too far. "NO WET!" he says. Yeah but sometimes clothes are a good thing, buddy.

Speaking of covering bare bums, some of you know that we have recently switched over to cloth diapers. There have been a lot of questions... and comments about it, so I thought I would show people what they actually are and why we are choosing to do this...

These Ain't Your Grandma's Diapers
Last Fall I overheard a couple of the bible study girls eagerly discussing the benefits of cloth diapers and how easy they were to use. I glanced over at the girls, Valerie and Misty, and told them they were nuts. In my mind I'm thinking of those prefold diapers with diaper pins awkwardly stuck in them, and I shuddered at the thought. What I didn't know (and what most people don't) is that cloth diapers have come a LONG way. These girls are also not the only ones around here who are CD'ers. I could name about ten people off the top of my head that do it and love it. Some of the families use them for environmental benefits, financial benefits, allergies to disposable diapers (sposies), hating the chemical smell in disposable diapers, and some just use cloth diapers because they are so darn cute. Personally, I was still happy with using my convenient smelly sposies.

Flash Forward to a few months later when I found out I was pregnant a little earlier than what we had originally planned.

One of the first things I thought of was, Oh man, two kids in diapers!?! I knew the possibility of the Little Man being fully potty-trained by the time Caroline arrived was slim to none. A few months ago I pulled Valerie and Misty aside and said,"Okay I'm not saying I'm going to do this, but I want you guys to show me everything about cloth diapers. I don't want to just see all of the benefits; I want to see all of the ugliness too!"

I met up with them at Misty's house, and they proceeded to give me a Cloth Diaper 101 class. It was a little overwhelming but after sorting through all of the different kinds (and there are a ton!), watching Misty change her baby's dirty diaper, and watching her do a load of laundry I admitted that it wasn't so different than using disposables. I went back home and mentioned the idea to Aaron, and he immediately responded with, "No way." I then told him that he should at least keep an open mind before he even knew what they actually were, and I should be able to test them out. He agreed that was fair.

After all of the research, I then bought a couple of diapers and tried them out on Camden still with low expectations. I was completely surprised that he loved them! (Honestly, I would probably rather have soft fleece on my bum then scratchy paper too.) I was even more surprised that I loved them too.

After lots of researching and advice, here are the diapers that fit our lifestyle...

• I'm definitely a pocket diaper fan. These don't have pins or covers, and they work exactly like a disposable diaper. Some have snaps and others have Velcro. There are pockets where you can put inserts pending how much 'coverage' you need. For the Little Man who usually soaks through his night-time diapers, this is a huge plus. I could now control how much 'coverage' I want him to have by using more inserts.
• I'm also a One-Size diaper fan. These diapers will typically fit from 8 lbs-35 lbs. This way you can use the same diapers from infant to potty training, and you can use them for more than one kid. This is a huge money saver!

Here is the Little Man in his night-time diaper.

This particular one he is wearing is a Fuzzi Bunz One Size diaper.

He's wearing red which typically goes against our beliefs, but he also has other colors including a very OSU orange. His night time diaper is quite a bit more padded than a typical pocket diaper because instead of the usual one insert, I have three in it. Since using these we have only had one leak (due to mommy's error), and he would usually wake up with his pants soaked in a disposable. Now his bum is dry when I take it off in the morning and not stinky wet like a disposable.

We are now planning on cloth diapering Miss Caroline. During the first month, we will use disposables because that is what is recommended by other cloth diaperers, and I agree due to umbilical cord, size, and newborn chaos. After that we will switch her to cloth. Here is one of her cloth diapers...

BumGenius OS Pocket Diaper

This is the inside of it. The insert goes inside the pocket.

Now for some questions we've been getting about them...

How do you know what you need, and where do you buy your cloth diapers?
Right now we don't have nearly enough because I am building my cloth diaper stash slowly. It typically costs about $300 to have enough cloth diapers, and unlike disposables, you need to spend the money up front. I keep my wish list on a cloth diaper web site, Nicki's Diapers, to keep track of what I want and still need. There are many different brands, but I'm trying to stay practical. Some of them are so stinkin' cute though!

How much are you going to save?
In figuring out how much we have spent on diapers and wipes with Camden, we will save around $2,000.00 over the next three years.

What will you use for wipes?
They have cloth wipes that are really nice, but for right now we are choosing to use the baby wash cloths you can buy in packs of six or eight at Target, Wal-Mart, etc. It's cheap, and they work well. They'll still go in a wipe warmer with water, lavender oil, and a little bit of baby soap. It's actually easier to use cloth wipes, so you don't accidentally throw the disposable wipes in with the diapers and end up washng them together.

What does Aaron think now?
Unlike the chandelier issue, I wasn't going to push cloth diapering if he was completely against it. After a week or two of cloth diapering Camden, he agreed that it is way easier than he first thought, and he now 100% supports it. He can snap Camden in a cloth diaper better than I can.

What if the whole cloth diapering thing doesn't work out?
So far, we love it. If for some crazy reason they don't work with Caroline, we would only have to use them for four months and sell them to equal the amount of money we would have spent on disposables for that time. Cloth diapers have amazing re-sale value, and there are several cloth diaper boards to sell them on. I'm not worried about losing money in the slightest.

The BIG Question...
How do you wash them, and how gross is it???
It's not bad at all. I wash them every other day. I store them in a plain trash pail with no lid because the more ventilated they are, the less they smell. I don't touch any more yucky stuff than I would with a disposable. Wet and breastfeeding dirty diapers do not have to be rinsed, washed, emptied, etc. because it is water soluble and they come out squeaky clean. You just toss those straight in the pail like you would a disposable diaper. Camden's dirty diapers need to make a visit to the toilet to toss in whatever is in them and then go they go back into the pail with the others. When I wash them, I toss them all (without touching) into the washing machine, run through two cyles, rinse once, and they come out squeaky clean. If you're looking for full details and pics of washing and anything else that goes with cloth diapering, click here. Misty was nice enough to write a detailed cloth diaper post for friends trying it out.


Will we be called hippies or (my personal favorite) Mennonites? Probably. Yes, we are doing our part for the environment by not filling landfills with diapers that take twenty years to break down. I'll be honest though...I'm not too 'green' or 'crunchy' because one of my favorite things in the world is paper plates... and that won't be changing any time soon. I would rather wash a cloth diaper than a dirty dish any day of the week.