Cloth Diaper Update.

I've now been on this cloth diaper thing for a little over a week. I honestly don't know how others do it all the time! I find myself having a difficult time changing, cleaning, and washing the diapers. Part of the problem is that I'm still a newbie when it comes to putting the diapers on. It takes me forever to fold the diaper and put it in the diaper cover! I guess it doesn't help that Christian is wigglier than ever.

As for the cleaning and washing...it's not fun! I don't know whether to swish soiled diapers in the toilet or not. I read that you are supposed to dump the waste in the toilet; but the poop just doesn't come off!! It's all pressed up against the diapers. I'd have to scrape it off, and personally, I'm just not into doing that. That means that I have to pre-soak the diapers and then put them through 2 washes. Hmmm...sounds like lots of work to me!

Ok. So here I am wanting to make the world a better place and I'm complaining about it! I was so excited about this just a little bit ago and now I feel like I'm eating my words. I guess this post shows that we are definitely not all what we seem sometimes. For all I know, everyone who read my previous post thought that I had become the cloth diaper, baby changing champion of the world. But I'm not.

I'm actually at 50/50 with this whole cloth diaper thing. Disposables are just so darn convenient. I just have to ask myself if the extra effort is worth it and does it make a difference? I've decided to keep trying, but I not going to stop buying disposables yet!

Car Seats.

I've been putting off shopping for a new car seat for Isabella for the past 5 months. I finally decided that it is a chore that has to be done, since Christian has outgrown his infant carrier and he needs to move up to a front facing car seat.

After looking at all the available options for a booster seat, I came to the conclusion that I am a baby gear snob. Yup. It is a difficult thing to admit, but I think it's true. Go with Graco? No way. Evenflo? Not good enough. We all know that Britax is the BEST. Just ignore the hefty price tag. After much consideration, I finally made a decision based on what was going to work best. I wanted a booster that still used the 5 point harness, so that narrowed down my choices. In the end, I gave in and purchased the Britax Frontier in red.

Now I'll just shift Christian into Isabella's Roundabout. That, of course, requires searching for a whole new cover.

Making a Switch.

I have always been a fan of organic food. I have been one of those moms who has always made homemade baby food and bought as much organic as possible. In terms of anything else, I just purchase what I like. Lately, I've been really thinking about what kind of footprint I want to leave behind. The truth is, I want to be as kind to nature as I can. Perhaps going cold turkey with buying non-organic is not realistic for me. But I figure I need to start somewhere.

With all the late research about baby products containing harmful chemicals that are later found in infants' urine, I really started thinking about how harmful many products are. So little by little, I've decided to make the switch to natural, organic products. I'm starting with Christian. I am planning on slowly making a transitions to cloth diapers. Maybe I won't use cloth diapers ALL the time, but I am certainly going to cut back on the amount of disposables we use.

I actually have TONS of cloth diapers that I received as baby shower gifts ages ago. I just never used them as actual diapers. They were my handy burping cloths. Yesterday, I went and took out my cloth diaper stash. I can't believe how many I have...and most of them are new!

My next step was to purchase some diaper pins. I was a little weary about using pins due to the possibility of sticking the baby or myself. So I did a little shopping and found a great product.
Snappi Cloth Diaper Fasteners. I had actually seen a friend using them on her baby...so I knew what I was looking for!

Now that I had my fasteners, I needed some diaper covers. I visited a local organic baby store, O Baby Organics, and found some excellent diaper covers. You can find information for them at Bummis. They are really cute and I purchased a few to get me started. By the way, if you use Bummis, you don't need any fasteners. You just put your cloth diaper into the cover and it has it's own Velcro tabs.

I own a Diaper Genie diaper pail (not the kind you twist). Not at all convenient for cloth diapers, but I did find a really great product to help make cleaning up easier. It's a diaper pail liner specifically for cloth diapers! You can find more information at Wahmies. With this neat liner, once it's full, I can toss it into the wash along with the diapers! Seems very convenient. I'll probably just use my old Diaper Champ for cloth diapers and keep the Diaper Genie for disposables.

So now the next step? I guess just getting into the routine of actually using cloth diapers. I expect to continue to use disposables at night and when traveling. But with this change alone, I feel like I'm making my own contribution to keeping the earth a little cleaner. And every product I purchased is 100% organic!!

Of course, now I have to go and start buying organic baby products. All the research about baby lotions, shampoos, and baby powder has got me really worried!

Adding to our Preschool Activities.

I love Kaplan Early Learning Co. They have a giant selection of all things related to early childhood learning. From tables and chairs to books and curricula. They pretty much offer everything. Lucky for me, we have the Kaplan catalog showroom near our home. I go there every few months to check out their clearance section.

I have purchased our school furniture as well as a great alphabet rug from Kaplan. I also like to keep our preschool/toddler activities stocked with something new, and Kaplan is the perfect place to find those educational toys that keep the little ones busy. Here are some of my newest additions and favorite buys.

The Laurie Sorting Set is a favorite. I like that I can interchange the disks to create a new activity. The foam shapes are also fun to handle.

Wooden musical instruments. We have a small collection of instruments at our home and the wooden ones are my favorites. Every once in a while, I will take them out and do circle activities with the kids. Playing musical games teaches the kids to listen, follow directions, follow a beat, create a rhythm, and so much more! Exploring through music is just fun!

Lacing Shapes from EduShape. These are nice and flexible. They kind of look like the set to the right.

Activity Cube. We all know that toddlers and babies love those fun activity cubes. The one in our collection is like a soft shape sorter. It has extra tiles so that you can change the cube with different activities including a mirror, a felt tile, and a magnetic tile. The cube has interlocking pieces, so it's easy to take them apart and turn the cube into individual activities. I see this as a great toy for Anthony and Christian.

Junior Stilts. We still haven't tried these, but they look like so much fun! They are a great way for the kids to practice their balance and coordination.

Lego Dacta Duplo Numbers Package is our most recent buy (at the best deal imaginable). This is the educational division of Lego, by the way. This package came with tons of number and symbol tiles. Also included are double-sided activity cards, a storage tub, and large building plates. These are going to be great for all kinds of math activities and I'm excited to start using them!

You can certainly tell that I am a big fan of Kaplan. Actually, I really just like that I can purchase so many of their great resources as such low prices.

Do You Know Your Baltimore Catechism?

Woo-Hoo!! I'm pretty impressed by my score! So I really CAN teach my kids religion!

You are a 91% traditional Catholic!

Congratulations! You are more knowlegeable than most modern theologians! You have achieved mastery over the most important doctrines of the Catholic Faith! You should share your incredible understanding with others!

Do You Know Your Baltimore Catechism?
Make Your Own Quiz

Reviewing our Enrichment Literature.

The kids are almost done with all the Literature Pockets that I was wanting to do for enrichment. I decided to film them reciting their nursery rhymes in order to close the unit up. Leave it to Marco to turn it into something silly! I posted our first nursery rhyme recital.



It turns out that Isabella wants to do all the reciting and Marco wants to do all the acting.

We'll be finishing up our Nursery Rhyme Literature Pockets within the next couple of weeks. After that, we'll be moving on to the VP First Favorites, followed by more Folktales & Fairy Tales Literature Pockets. They are definitely a big hit around here!

Discovery Education. United Streaming.

After thinking about using United Streaming (and trying to ignore the price), I signed up for the 30 day free trial. It is awesome!! I am at the point right now that I am sure I'm going to sign up for it. My main reasons for acquiring this completely educational resource?

1. Time Warp Trio. This is a favorite around here! I am planning on incorporating it into our history studies. The problem is that when watching on Discovery Kids tv, you can't choose which episode they are going to air. With US, you can choose the episode that will go along with your studies (Gladiators, for example).
2. Spanish. we are doing Spanish this year with Espanol para chiquitos. US offers online Spanish classes that will greatly enforce all that we learn. It's like having them in a Spanish class where I don't have to teach!
3. Lesson plans. Enough said! You can pull up lesson plans on just about anything.
4. History. They have so many segments to go along with our study of the ancients this year.
5. Science. Ok...this is Discovery. Of course they are going to have GREAT science resources!!

So far, those are my top 5 reasons as to why US is going to be worth the $129. Just make sure that you go through Homeschool Buyers Co-op to get that wonderful price!!!