Absence...

I am house sitting for my parents again. woot! It's wonderful to be here with my kids... we get to play in the forest all day, go in the hot tub when we feel overwhelmed, and watch movies on a real tv instead of my lap top. The three crazy dogs are always running around and barking at nothing. I have day dreams of filling the yard with goats and chickens and planting the best garden! But it is hard to get online out here, they only have satellite internet which is about as quick as dial-up. But I have been working out and taking pictures... just not posting about them.

Which brings me to the reason for this post:

Because we have not been at home (house sitting... and our gas was turned off and i'm waiting for huz to get up all the $$$ to get it back on) I have put aside my cloth diapers, temporarily... The man child has had one hell of a rash and Bean is still needing a night time diaper, so I bought 4 packs of the 7th generation paper diapers and some wipes. It was 10% day at harvest so i stocked up. This is actually a great thing for my cloth diaper adventure because it is giving me a chance to wash and strip all my diapers and look at them all in one place, sort out the ones that we can still use and demote to rags the ones that are torn or too small... Plus my beautiful land lady pays the water and since the Man Child started eating real food, the diaper routine has needed more and more water. I still do my best to dump the poop into the the toilet because a) the fecal matter that goes into the trash dump via disposable diapers ends up in our water systems... so essentially we drink each other's babies' shit and b) putting human fecal waste into the municipal trash system is illegal. But few people care or know. We successfully cloth diapered our son for a year and a half. I'm not done with my cloth, but it is time to reevaluate the system to make it work for a big kid instead of a baby. Cloth diapering the new born was the easy part...

Day 11, or Clean Porch

There are no befores, just imagine this same porch covered in bags of stuff for goodwill, bags of recycling, a stroller and other random crap, all covered in a layer of dead rose bush stuff... Ok, it wasn't that bad but it would have been soon if I hadn't been inspired to clean it.

ps- The BEST possible thing you can do to your cloth diapers is to hang them in the sun. Even if they won't dry because it is cold and damp, as long as they are wet and in the sun they are being cleaned. We're talking smell- gone, germs- gone, diaper rash- gone. and it is super free. Well, I guess it cost me as much as the rack I use... The one in these picks was like a bajillion dollars new, lame. and the thing I use to dry my covers is just the side of my old drop side crib. works.

posted from Bloggeroid

Let's Write About Diapers... Cloth Diapers!

My toddler has stinky pee. yes she does. I don't know if other toddlers have stinky pee. People don't really talk about it I guess. It's ok for her to have stinky pee if I remember to put a diaper on her at night, right now she uses the Thirsties covers and either a flip instert or a BumGenius bamboo fitted and that works great. Unnnnnnnnfortunately, I often forget (I stay up too late knitting or spinning) and so she has a big night time accident. right next to me. at night. like last night. And maybe tonight... I forgot again. oh Duh- I will jump up and put one on her.

HA! Done.

Anyway, to the point. I have finally built up a stash that allows me to go every other day for laundry. Which is rad. The problem is that leaving KaBean's overnight diapers sit overnight builds up a great amount of stink. Like ammonia. gross i know. After scouring the internet for ideas on how to get rid of the stink I have found that ~a cold wash with Thirsties Pre-Wash ~a hot soak with 2 tbs of Rockin'Green for a few hours, the you know, just close the lid and let the wash cycle run ~one last hot wash every 3 or 4 wash days, but usually just a cold full wash or a hot rinse~ works the best! For about 2 weeks there has been no stink when I pull the dipes from the dryer or the kids wear them. score one for the mom team.

On these cloth diaper pages I see a lot of people asking how others travel with CDs. There is always a long list of suggestions about how to organize 78 different bags for different travel scenarios... but here is my cents: JUST DO IT. Take those bad boys out. Show off those awesome prints and that unnecessary collection of Baby Legs. Bring enough for the trip X 2 or call ahead and ask about laundry. Bring your wet bags and your butt spray. Make sure to bring plenty of wipes (I just bring all my wipes because you never know...). Check that you have your trustiest diapers, or the ones you don't mind losing, depending on how you roll I guess. Toss them all into your suitcase pack the diaper bag for just travel time and off you go! Easy. I've made 2 week long trips and many many day or overnight trips and every time it gets easier. I love my diapers, even if they start to smell. Every problem has a solution. love it!

now i will go cut up my spinning video to share with you...

Diaper Inventory... or I Will Never Have Too Much Fluff!

2 bumGenius! Elemental Organic All-in-One One Size Diaper

6 FuzziBunz(R) One Size Cloth Diaper, for some reason 3 of them have 6 snaps on the front and 3 of them have an extra snap to fit to very small babies...

3 Rumparooz G2 One Size Diapers with 6-r Soaker

7 bumGenius! Organic Bamboo Fitted's

12 Econobums Hemp Prefolds

1 Mother-ease One Size fitted Diaper
1 Kissaluvs Fitted Cloth Diaper
3 Econobums White Covers

2 Thirsties Duo Wrap Diaper Cover with snaps 

And laundry soaps we have tried-

Thirsties Pre-Wash

Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper Laundry Detergent

 Thirsties Super Wash

The go-to night time diaper that I love LOVE is the BG bamboo fitted's and yay, way to go bum Genius! but they are no longer made. yay. The bamboo fitted's paired the Thirsties are the best. I still change the Man Child when he wakes up to eat but the Bean can go all night and she is a heavy wetter. I think it all comes down to the cover for her. I found that for K Bean, the Econobum covers don't hold diddley squat. I hope to try wool soakers for the Bean, those sound pretty good. 
If anyone who reads this has a line on the BG Bamboo Fitted's let me know. I love those things!

Whats With Today, Today?

Hells yeah, I got a ton of shit done today. Yeah I did!
1. Got Kaya off to school with breakfast in her tummy before she left house, lunch made, teeth brushed, Zen dressed and changed and Isis fed. Score!
2. Went to Mom's to drop off her tomatoes from Lorrie's garden (delish!) and pick up the cookware I needed to make my day super productive.
3. Got home and finished the dishes. That alone is a major accomplishment. I was very proud of that because I just got a new 38 piece set of Snapware (like Tupperware only cooler) that all needed to be washed and put away.
4. I gave Zen a bath. Yay. My little water baby loves his bath days! He was all pissed off, like majorly pissed, and I got him naked and put him in the tub and presto, he was super chill. Got him all cleaned and put him down for his nap. I sooo wish I could have joined him. Early bed time tonight!
5. I made tamales. That's right bitches, TAMALES! AND they were vegan! hells yeah! score 5 for the home team! Vegan potato curry tamales. I soooo made the masa from scratch too. I didn't grind the corn or anything, but I did have to blend it with the Earth Balance for like 3 hours just to get it to the right consistency (no, not really 3 hours, but hella forever). AND guess what? They turned out pretty great. I mistook my cayenne pepper for chile powder and added a whole tablespoon of cayenne to the curry so they were suuuuuper spicy but after some tweaking they came out pretty good! yay.

Now all I have to do before bed is get the diapers into the dryer, fold the laundry and make the bed. Then I can sleep in it! YAY!!!!!

Cloth Diapers and More Practice Frogs

I love my cloth diapers because it makes me know for certain that I am doing at least one thing everyday that is really truly good for my son. I'm one of those people who who really hates to do laundry but every morning the first thing I think about and maybe the 10th thing I get around to doing is washing last nights and yesterdays diapers. I love dumping them into the wash all nasty smelling and gross and pulling them out again all shiny and white. I love putting them out on my porch on my clothes rack all "white trash style" as my mom (sort of) jokingly calls it. The amazing side effect of all this washing is that I get other laundry done too! Because my almost 3 year old is night time potty training and refuses to wear the MotherEase fitted I got her, morning laundry often smells like toddler pee so it's good I have Zen's diapers to encourage me.

Also, here is Practice Frog and Mrs. Practice Frog. Not the best pic, I know, but it was late and I was going to bed. Practice Frog's construction did not stand up to the almost 3 year old so hopefully Mrs. PF works out better. I'm working on PF 3 now and if he works out really well then it'll be onto Real Frog so I can finish this darn binky strap.