Cotton Love: Cloth Wipes

It's been awhile since I've posted on one of my favorite topics! You all know that one of the biggest things I do to save money is cloth diaper, but on a smaller scale, I have recently switched to cloth wipes as well. I don't think of wipes as a huge expense, but when you consider that a case of them costs around $15, and Hubs goes through them like water when he's on diaper duty, it certainly does add up. Quite honestly, when you cloth diaper, it just makes sense to go the cloth route for wipes as well. Because what do you do when you're done using a wipe? You stick it in the dirty diaper and wrap the whole thing up. Well since you don't toss a cloth diaper in the garbage can, you find yourself having to dispose of a bunch of poopy wipes and I just couldn't find a great solution for that. The little scented diaper disposal bags actually do a pretty good job of masking the smell, however they also cost money and are bad for the environment. Toss 'em in your garbage without one, however, and all you get is a stinky garbage can. So now, at least the whole dirty diaper package goes into my diaper pail  - no more stinky trash!

I did a little internet research on cloth wipes, and you have two options: make them or buy them. Making them looked easy enough, so I decided to give it a go. And it was SO simple! I simply cut 3 of Sweetie Pea's flannel receiving blankets up into 7x7 inch squares (and for the record, cutting up those blankets I wrapped my newborn baby in was the hardest part, emotionally speaking. But let's be honest, we have like 373849597 receiving blankets ;). Then I zigzag stitched around the outside edges to prevent fraying (that part took me for.ever because I am an idiot with a sewing machine), and voila - 3 dozen cloth wipes!

I keep them in a recycled Pampers wipes container, folded pop-up style.

Here they are, folded and ready to go!

In order to get them wet enough to do the job, I now keep a squirt bottle (the peri-bottle I got from the hospital after giving birth, if you must know) of water in the wipes warmer, and wet the wipe with nice warm water before, ahem...wiping. I also have California Baby's Calming Diaper Area Spray for those super messy diaper changes. A few squirts of that directly on the bum and he's clean and sweet again!

Childlike Fascination

                      

I wish I could recapture some of the innocent fascination Sweets has with the world. It just delights me to watch him get a huge kick out of tossing stones in the creek, or picking dandelions, or walking through "tickle grass" (tall grass that makes him giggle). The world is definitely his canvas, and this boy intends to leave his mark!

Big News!

No, I'm not pregnant, like the rest of the blogosphere. Still too traumatized from not sleeping for a year, and just plain enjoying Sweets too much :) This may not be as exciting for you, dear reader, as it is for me, but..........................

WE'RE TAKING SWEETS TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!

Since my first trip to Disney at the age of 8, I have been hooked on Disney magic. It is definitely my happy place. I remember seeing people with very young babies or children there (you know, the ones that look like they're not feeling the magic somuch) and thinking they were nuts. Hubs and I said we wouldn't take our kids until they were plenty old enough to remember it, but then I found out that I'm being sent to the Advanced Placement conference in Orlando in July, and well, that changed the game a bit. We could never afford to take a Disney vacation if we had to foot the entire bill right now. But my airfare, meals, and room at the Disney Dolphin are all covered, plus the park tickets are discounted as well. We'll never be able to do Disney any cheaper, ever again. Sweets will fly for free (barely - he'll turn two like a week after we get back) and kids under three eat and get into the parks free at Disney. And we're totally not going to be those parents that drag their overwhelmed and under-napped toddler to 4 parks in a row. We're planning to go down a couple of days early and do Magic Kingdom only. Then, while I'm at the conference during the day, Hubs and Sweets can take advantage of the amazing hotel amenities (the grotto pool and white sand beach anyone?) and we can all do the Boardwalk and Downtown Disney in the late afternoon/early evening. I'm crossing my fingers we'll be able to see my brother and SIL while we're there too - a trip to Florida would not be complete without them.

 I'm totally psyched. I can't wait to see Disney through my son's eyes. He is going to have such an amazing time! But I'm nervous too. The last time we traveled with Sweets he was like two months old and so very portable. Now? Constant motion. How is that plane ride going to go? If you have tips, I need them!

Circa 2006

It's the little things

I think Sweets had the thrill of his young life yesterday at the supermarket. Our store has a limited number of these race car shopping carts, and every time I take him with me, I look eagerly for one, but they're always in use. Yesterday, we finally hit the shopping cart jackpot:

To say he was excited was an understatement. And yes, he insisted on bringing his new duck and his lovie in with him, which made me disinfect the entire cart with a sanitizing wipe :::shudder::: Anyway, all through the store, Sweets was full of "bbbbbbbs!" and directives of "more driving!" For the first time ever, he did not want to leave!

Dear Wegmans,

More race car carts please.

Love,
Sweets

Hoppy Easter!

Like Christmas, I am looking forward to celebrating Easter with Sweetie Pea this year, because unlike last year, I'm not half dead really overwhelmed. I didn't do an Easter basket for him last year because he was too little to get it, but I had a blast putting together his basket this year! I filled it with things he's really into right now:

a. (for Abby Cadabby, Sweets' new love ;) - Abby and Elmo notepads for doodling, and Sesame Street and Thomas stickers. Oh, how Sweets adores stickers! He calls them "sticters" and if you give him one, expect total obsession with it until it's no longer sticky and in a million pieces.

b. (for books) - Two Easter books, Ed's Egg and The Bunny Hop. Hoping these give us some respite from Go Dog, Go! 

c. (for coloring) - Sweets is really getting into coloring, but there are a couple of problems with this: he likes to color on everything, toddler-style, and he eats crayons like French fries. Enter the Crayola Color Wonder markers that ONLY color on the Crayola Color Wonder paper. Too bad it won't stop him from tasting them...

d. (for duck) - no Easter basket is complete without an Easter friend!

e. (for edibles) - Sweets' beloved Fruit and Veggie melts (aka "dots") and Reese's pieces. Now, I am admittedly super anal about what I feed my kid, but what's Easter without a little candy?

f. (for fun!) - Sweets is obsessed with yellow construction machines at the moment. He knows them pretty much by name - digger, roller, crane, dump truck, etc. I know he'll love these!

And now, allow me to be "that" mom who does embarassing things to her kid to entertain others. While at Target the other day, I spotted these adorable bunny ears and tried to take a picture of Sweets wearing them. He was NOT having it!

Notice, if you will, that in one picture the ears are pink. That's because I didn't know there were any green ones until a kind Target employee spotted me and said "he's going to hate you forever if you make him wear pink ears," and handed me a green pair. Nice, but I think he might hate me anyway ;) Also notice that the shape of his mouth is pretty much the same in all the pictures. That's because he was saying "nooooo!" while ripping the offensive ears off his head. Needless to say, we didn't purchase them.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Just when I thought he couldn't get any more irresistible...

...my sweet little boy learned the word snuggle. And now he is 100% impossible to resist! Since Sweets is such an early riser I've gotten into the habit of bringing him into our bed on weekend mornings. It usually buys us another half hour or so before we have to drag our tired butts out of bed. Mind you, nobody's sleeping in our bed after Sweets joins us. There's alot of babbling, face-touching, and lovie-throwing going on, but at least I'm not actually up and about in the pitch dark on a Saturday morning. I greet him in his crib on these mornings by saying "do you want to come snuggle with mommy and daddy?" This morning I lifted him out of his crib all warm and smelling like last night's bath and he said in his tiny voice "snuggle?" and I about melted into a puddle on the floor. So we snuggled awake in his rocking chair and every time I asked him if he wanted some milk, or a diaper, or to see DaDa he said "no...snuggle." I would've given just about anything to stay there with him all day.

Tonight as we were finishing up his bedtime routine, he requested snuggles again, and within minutes he was a heavy, warm, sleeping bundle in my arms. And I just rocked with him and smelled his sweet baby lotion smell and listened to him breathing and wished for all the world that time would slow down and give me a million more of these moments.