where the dirty diapers go......

So one of the things people are always intrigued about when they find out I use cloth diapers, is what I do with the dirty diapers when we are out and about. There is a very simple solution to this and its called a wet bag (not the best name, but a great product!). Anyway, a wet bag essentially is a small bag you stick inside your diaper bag to put dirty diapers in and it has a waterproof lining. They come in different sizes, so depending on how long you would be out, you would choose your bag accordingly. Once I discovered these, I knew only a cute one would do, so I was on a hunt. I discovered this awesome girl named Sam, from My Beautiful Girl,who makes cloth wipes and wet bags on hyena cart. Her bags are the best! Great fabric, wash awesome, super cute! I have three bags by her now, small, medium and large. These have come in great use to me for things other than cloth diapers too. I use our large one when we travel to put all of our shampoos, lotions etc in. I like to keep one in my diaper bag for wet clothes in case of a potty accident. I love having one in our swimming lesson bag for the wet suit! So even if you don't cloth diaper, there are great uses for her bags. I have nothing but raves for My Beautiful Girl and for Sam! She is super sweet to work with and I will definitely order from her again (her wipes deserve a post of their own!).

diapers go green

Time magazine has a great write up on cloth diapers. Enjoy!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1702357,00.html

a little sneaky, a little deceptive

I received two copies of Deceptively Delicious for Christmas and my birthday. If you haven't heard of this book yet, it was written by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife). She basically purees veggies and sneaks them into popular kid foods to help get more healthy veggies into her kids. I have made several things from there and so far am impressed, so I returned my extra copy and got a copy of The Sneaky Chef. The Sneaky Chef claims to be the originator of this puree idea and I guess its kind of a bad situation between the two authors. Regardless of the legal drama, I really like both books for different reasons. One of the things I really like about The Sneaky Chef is there is an abundance of information on feeding children, getting children to eat, pros to going organic, etc.

So here is a tidbit that I thought was facinating from The Sneaky Chef:

"An Emory University study asked twenty three children to go organic, and after only three days, the kids' bodies no longer showed traces of two common pesticides: malathion and chlopyrifos. Once the kids went back to their usual diet, the chemicals returned."

We have slowly made the change to eat more and more organic. The more I learn, the more organic we seem to be going!!

I highly recommend both books to encourage your little ones to eat more veggies (and maybe the big people in your house too!).

today I am lime green.....

Well my new grocery bags from Publix are anyway! Publix is now offering reusable grocery bags for only 99 cents a bag! I picked up three but as I got to the check out thought I might need one more. I mentioned it to the cashier and he looked at my stuff and said, "no, you can probably get all this in just two bags". REALLY?! Publix claims their Green Bags can hold three to four times what one plastic bag. Not only does this help the environment ....but it also saves me trips to the car! They seem really durable with a reinforced bottom. They come in three colors, bright green, black and one other, maybe the green pictured below, but I don't remember. I am super excited about my new bags and hope you will pick some up
soon!

going green one month at a time

I found this great website that has one thing you can do a month to go a little greener. This months "challenge": Lower your thermostat by two degrees. By doing this you save 318lbs of CO2. Pretty cool huh?! Check out thegreenguide.com for more great ideas to do each month!

let's talk about "fluff"

When Sass was around four months olds, I starting exploring the world of cloth diapering. I was curious about it with Bubbie too, but being a first time mom, too scared to jump out of my comfort zone.

So away I went researching cloth diapers. I discovered this great intro to cloth diapering trial kit at a website called Jillan's Drawers. They have an awesome trial program that lets you try all the different cloth diapers. Cloth, otherwise known as "fluff" has come a long way since folding and pins! This great service Jillan's Drawers offers allows you to put down a $100 deposit and then try everything for three weeks. If you don't like it return it all and lose just $10. If you do you can keep everything or just return the things you aren't fond of for credit towards other new diapers.

So here is the breakdown. There are basically three types of diapers (well four I guess) available now.

AIO's- These are all in ones. The most like your disposable diaper. They either snap or velcro. Use it once and then throw it into your diaper pail. The downside to these is they take longer to dry. To not defeat my enviromental causes, I dry them one cycle and then hang them in my laundry room.
Pockets These are the second easiest. They are just like an AIO except instead of the stuffing being sewed in, there is a pocket opening and you put your own insert in which is usually made of microfiber, hemp or a combo of both. Because you can pull the insert out these dry quicker. Also, people like them because you can stuff them as much as your baby needs to stay dry. (ie. I use more stuffings at night then in the day).
Fitted and Covers A fitted is a very trim diaper that is not water proof, so it needs a cover. The main reason I like these is because I have some very cute covers. You can use the same cover all day long and just change the fitted diaper underneath.
Prefolds and Covers This is the most economical way to cloth diaper but also my least favorite. Fitteds are more like your traditional cloth diaper that requires a water proof cover. The main reason I don't like these is that they are very trim for under clothes. They do hold newborn poop really well though! And the great thing is there is no need for pins now that there is a new invention called the Snappi!

I will do some individual posts on what my favorites brands are of each type of diaper another day, but for now here are a few fluffy photos of my sweetest girl! Seriously, did you think cloth could be so cute!!

oprah's all about going green!

Now that Christmas has past I am back! Today's Oprah was all about going green. Here are three easy things you can do for 08 to start going green and check out Oprah.com for many more great ideas!!

1. Use one less napkin a day (or go to cloth, even better!)
From Oprah:
"One of those simple things you can do is to reduce your use of paper napkins…by just one a day! "Napkins make a huge difference," Elizabeth says. "We use 2,200 of them a year, per person on average. Six a day. So if we all gave up one napkin a day, we could save a billion pounds of paper waste … from going to landfills a year."

One thing I have done is made a basket full of all the left over party napkins we have. Charlie loves getting to pick out a different napkin at each meal and all these random napkins are now getting used!

2. Use cloth bags for shopping. We throw away more than 380 BILLION plastic bags a year!!
Here's what Oprah has to say:
"It's a question you're asked all the time, "Paper or plastic?" What's the environmentally correct answer? Simran says it's really, "Neither." More than 380 million plastic bags are thrown away in the United States every year, and those plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills. And while paper bags do eventually biodegrade, an estimated 14 million trees a year have to be cut down to make 10 billion paper bags."

3. Change your lightbulbs!
This is from Oprah:
If every family replaced one bulb with a CFL, Simran says it would be like reducing carbon emissions from 800,000 cars. "I'm asking [America] to have a lightbulb moment and change out one lightbulb!" she says.