Great Cloth Diaper Change

This past Saturday, April 23rd we had the opportunity to participate in the Great Cloth Diaper Change. We were attempting to set a world record for the most cloth diapers changed simultaneously. At 10:00 am MST 39 babies in our local community were changed along with thousands of others around the world.

The quarters were a little tight but only because so many people were present along with their sweet babes in fluff. Our event was hosted by a local business owner who runs an online store - Mommy's Own - and our local baby wearing group. I did not even know we had a baby wearing group around here. So, it was wonderful connecting with other parents totting their tots.

Because our local event was pulled together so quickly it was lacking an official witness to make it valid for counting toward the Guinness Book of World Records. I guess one of the small perks of have a few extra initials after my name is that I qualified to act as that witness. Unfortunately, I was not able to change Bebe Sister's diaper for the counting. Thus, T Rex Dad was happy to perform the change. He is an expert diaper changer and also very passionate about the chemicals in many of the modern disposable diapers (more on this in a later posting).

We had a fun time. T Rex especially liked the jungle gym at the event. He enjoyed a snack while the diaper change occurred (can you find him above?). It was a bit chaotic and quite noisy but very successful. The host had many giveaways during the event. (Cloth diaper connoisseurs love to do fluffy giveaways.) I did not win anything but one of the funniest moments was a dad winning a nursing bra.

It was busy day. Later we enjoyed some Easter festivities but more on that later, too.

Have you ever been a part of a record setting event? Or set a record?

Easter Morning 2011

We had a very full and fun Saturday (more in a later posting) so we went to bed early. When we do that, it also means an early morning. With young kids, you can't get something for nothing!
The kids discovered what the Easter Bunny left. And Bebe Sister had her very first egg hunt. No one even had to tell her what to do! She was off and hunting.


After all this fun we sat down for some breakfast and revisited a topic from T Rex's allergy appointment. We like to keep this a fairly secular blog, but I will make an exception because of the Easter holiday.

While we were at the allergy appointment, we stopped to visit the office fish tank. They had recently restocked the tank and some of the fish did not fare well - meaning they died. I am honest with my kids about such things. I told T Rex those fish had died. One of the nurses interjected and stated, "Oh, it's alright, they just went to sleep." I was a little upset by this. I do not like telling children dead things are "just sleeping". Then they are terrified that when they go to sleep they won't wake up.

So, we walked away and I explained that the fish were not sleeping but had died. We chatted about death and what happens to people when they die. I left it at that. Then, we revisited the topic at morning breakfast on Easter. I thought the topic appropriate. We read the Biblical story of Jesus' Ressurection with age appropriate photos and used the story to tie everything together. It was a touching teaching moment. Then T Rex asked if we could read about Brother Noah again. (He's just a little obsessed with the Noah song by Raffi and the accompanying story about the ark.)

And that was our Easter morning.

What was yours like? How do you explain death to your child or how do you plan to explain it? Is there a particular age you think this topic is best received?

G and G's Celebration Photos...

It was a nice, causal celebration for T Rex Dad's folks - celebrating 60 years of marriage and Dad's 85th birthday. Here's are several photos to document the event.

En route - T Rex was just a little excited. Interesting that he wanted his stuffed Rudolph along for the ride, too.

Grandpa entertaining the kids while we waited for the pizza to arrive.

Mom and daughter photo.

T Rex wanted a photo on the golf course with his Cars.

Bebe Sister enjoying the lovely spring day.

Pointing at the aunties trying to make her smile.

Holding "Meow-ie" - a $1 purchase that has become the beloved luvie.

T Rex had a great time playing with Aunt J.T. She was kind to listen to his Cars tales.

Prepping the battlefield - getting ready to take a family photo. How we get Bebe Sister to smile.

The resulting photo. Turned out pretty nice.

My handsome guys.

G&G and their four children. Yes, T Rex Dad in the back is the youngest of 4 - all older sisters.

The happy couple. I hope T Rex Dad and I are as spry at our 60th anniversary celebration.

Three generations.

With my little guy - toward the end I lost the dress and opted for comfortable jeans. It was too late for T Rex's clothes - they already had grass stains. But he had the best time playing on the golf course. With it being a Saturday afternoon, the course was well traveled and we even dodged a few balls as well as threw some back.

I love happy and casual celebrations such as this one. I never get tired of smiling at these kinds of things.

What kinds of occasions make you smile? Alternatively, how do you get everyone to smile for family photos?

Cloth versus Disposable...Fashion and Comfort

I don't know about you but when I'm selecting something to wear there are usually two concepts I consider - comfort then fashion. So, when considering what to put on my little baby's soft derriere why not consider these two options. Especially with warm weather approaching and the opportunity for roaming free with only a diaper to keep the breeze away.

A week or so ago I found an old, yet un-used, disposable diaper in the house from baby T Rex days. I was actually quite excited because I had been thinking of trying the comparison on Bebe Sister but I did not want to purchase a package of diapers just to try make the comparison.

Here is our daughter photographed in each of the options. There's no question which she prefers in the comfort realm. And there also no question which she or I prefer in the fashion department.


First, the disposable diaper:

She tried successfully to take it off. As T Rex said, "Mama, she doesn't like paper pants. They're disgusting". Two things about this comment. One, anything that T Rex doesn't like is disgusting so I don't think he really thinks they are that bad. Secondly, Bebe Sister has not worn disposable diapers in over a year so it's no wonder she does not like the way they feel. How would you feel if you strapped on paper and plastic pants?

Now for the cloth diapers:

    

Serious cuteness. And with the option for snaps - she cannot take these off even if she wanted to.

Ironically, the five minutes that Bebe Sister wore the disposable diaper she actually did pee in it. Thus, I actually had a disposable diaper in the trash this week. A first in a very long time. In fact, with not having any diapers to throw away, we really don't make much trash.

There you have it - cloth wins out - comfortable AND fashionable with the bonus of no stinky trash.

When choosing clothes for yourself or your children, what is important to you - comfort, fashion, or something else?

These ARE the Days...

There might be crumbs on the floor,
Gouges in the walls,
Stains on the carpet,
Diapers in the laundry, 

Hand prints on nearly every low hanging window,
Toys scattered everywhere,
Sippy cups stashed in random corners,
Potty seats on all the toilets,
Locks on the cabinets,
Raffi on repeat in the car CD player,
Car seats crowding the back seat,
A tiny jungle gym leaving dead spaces on the grass,
A missing watch hidden by a certain 15 month-old,
And the absence of a vacation alone together in many years...


But we have kids. And we love it. And we are fine with all of these things. When the kids are grown and gone, we'll have plenty of time to fix all of these. And we'll probably be a little teary remembering these days because they truly are THE days.

Are there any signs around your house that kids are present or have recently been present? Or are you missing those signs around the house?

G&G are Back!!!

We are so excited that Grandma and Grandpa N are back from Arizona. We missed them so much. The kids did some major growing in their absence. But as you can see, it did not take long to become reaquainted again.

 

First a little play time before dinner.



 Photo of the guys.

  

Then a little more play time.



Photo of the ladies.



A spot of tea before dinner.

Then more play time after dinner.

Welcome back, G&G. You were greatly missed. We're looking forward to celebrating your 60th wedding anniversary and Grandpa's 85th birthday this weekend. How fortunate and blessed we are to have you in our lives.

 Have you ever been to a 60th wedding anniversary celebration? Do you have any stay young secrets so T Rex Dad and I can make it to our 60th anniversary?





Postmortem...

My very first blog event is complete. The giveaways are still open until April 15th at midnight MST. Thus, there is still time to leave some comments and enter if you'd like. Plus, I know a couple of readers would really appreciate your input on some of the topics.


I am not certain why I chose to run the event when I did as it was time intensive, not to mention my sister and I threw a baby shower in the mist of it. And not just a small one. And we were on quite the tight budget so we made everything. It was actually quite a lot of fun working on something with my sister - who is THE ultimate party planner. But I have to say, my decorations and cake turned out great, too.

I cannot post photos of the actual shower for privacy purposes. However, I will show photos of the decor so you can get an idea of some of the time that went into the affair. It was definitely a huge success. Our friend loved everything which is the whole point but it does help when folks stop everyone at the party to announce what an incredible looking and tasting cake I made or multiple attendees say it was the best shower they had ever attended.

We went with a homemade theme so lots of clothes pins, baby pins, and ducks mixed in, too. The expectant mom has a couple of ducks who live in the back yard utilizing the pool. Thus, ducks were also a dominant theme. We hung a clothes line across the back windows. Everything on the clothes line was made by me with the exception of a tiny blue cloth diaper. From left to right in the below photo - breastfeeding cover, diaper, bib, onesie with car, polka dot pants, hat, booties/mittens.

A few other decorations. The cupcakes were a big hit. I made them from onesies and some washcloths and burp cloths I had sewed. The remaining cloths were bundled into lollipops. I love that nearly all the decorations were things we could leave for the expectant mom to use for the baby. Very little to throw away.



The handle is a baby spoon.

Here is the diaper cake I made. It actually caused me visceral pain to purchase diapers. I haven't bought disposable diapers in over a year but I did make sure I used chlorine free. I did give the expectant mom a couple of BumGenius Deluxe diapers. Her husband is greatly opposed to using cloth (maybe from the perceived ick factor) but I told her to give them a try and at least she would have them for photos. Nothing stands out to me more in a cute baby photo than a paper/plastic diaper. (Post about this coming soon!)

You cannot really see the favors inside the duck, which were also handmade but here they are displayed in the blow up duck. T Rex made me promise to bring his duck tub home. I used to bathe him in it when he was a baby.



Games...what to do with such a large crowd? Well, we gave out safety pins with numbers. During the shower we would draw numbers and who ever had the corresponding numbered pin would win a prize. We also did the clothes pin game where everyone gets a clothes pin and if you catch someone saying "baby" you get their clothes pin. The winner is the one with the most at the end.

And for prizes? I filled some breastmilk storage bags with candy. I was really trying to promote breastfeeding as much as possible. Hence, no baby bottles as decor.

And last but most certainly not least - the cake. I needed a cake that would feed 50 people. What to do??? Sheet cake! But a regular sheet cake would not be enough. Instead I used one of my cookie sheets as the cake pan since it is much bigger than a standard sheet cake pan. Then I made it two layers. I used this incredible chocolate marble sheet cake recipe from Southern Living. Each sheet was one and a half of the recipe. So, in the end it was 3 full recipes. Then I used a dark chocolate filling (I did not want to use the mocha as suggested on the website) and a buttercreaming frosting. For each of the frostings, I had to quadruple the recipe. This might give you a better idea of how large the cake was.

Some of the words are whited out to ensure privacy.

And I was terrified of transporting the cake but I drove slow, took back roads, and made the 40 minute drive in about an hour. A funny story about the cake. Someone at the party asked me how many cake mixes it took. I chuckled and said, "I don't know but I can tell you how much flour, sugar, vanilla, cream, and eggs I used." I made three versions of the cake, two the week prior as trial runs. Needless to say, I know the recipe by heart and T Rex and I ate a ton of cake.

Another story about the cake. T Rex was with me when we purchased the ducks for the top of the cake. After that, he would repeat multiple times a day pointing to the ducks, "These are for Baby T". The evening prior to the shower I went over and set up all the decorations and then came home to frost the cake. I arrived home late, but T Rex was still awake in his bed waiting for me. As I sneaked into his room and snuggled next to him he whispered into my ear, "Have you put Baby T's ducks on the cake yet?". It was the sweetest thing.

Now to take a big deep breath or sigh of relief since the shower was hugely successful and the blog event is complete. Time to work on a couple more papers before I wrap up this semester of school and have a nice long vacation.

I do have to give a great big thank you to my heart song, T Rex Dad. He held down the fort while I sewed, decorated, baked, cooked, and suffered a melt down or two. I could not have done it without you.

Have you ever had a large event to pull off on a shoestring budget? How did it go? Alternatively, do you find you sometimes schedule everything at once leaving for a period of stress?