win a grobaby shell set in mandarin!

If you haven't already heard there is a great new one size diaper on the market call Gro Baby. I have been super lucky to be a Gro Baby tester via a request on Facebook and I won a Gro Baby on Twitter. I liked them so much I emailed them and asked if they would send me a sample for my cloth diaper workshop to raffle off. They were doubly nice and sent me two, so I have an extra mandarin one to now giveaway here on GreenKiddos!

Gro Baby is a unique system. The outer shells of these diapers can be used numerous times in a day, while you just change out the snap in organic insert. I like this concept a lot and I really love the shells. They are waterproof yet breathable and have the best Velcro system I have ever seen! It is super easy to get a great fit with these diapers.

The shell set (which is what I am giving a way) comes with one shell, one organic soaker pad and one organic booster. I have been using these on Sass at night and have yet to have a leak. They really work great!

As with any product, I want to give you the pros and the cons. The are just a few downsides that I have found with this diaper. First off, I hope they will eventually come out with two sizes of snap in inserts. As much as I love this diaper on Sass, there is no way it will fit new baby for a while with the insert it comes with. Someone from Gro Baby suggested just using prefolds with the insert until baby gets bigger.

Secondly, remember how much I said I love the easy Velcro system on this diaper?? Well apparently so does Sass. Unfortunately a diaper can only catch what is deposited in it and when your two year old repeatedly removes it herself before nap or bedtime is over it can lead to a huge laundry load of sheets and blankets. I have to make sure to have pants on her or she will take this diaper off. (Gro Baby has come out with a snap version of this diaper though, we just don't own one!).

Lastly, maybe I am just doing something wrong, but it seems that sometimes the soaker pad is bunched in the middle when I take it off of her. Now this hasn't caused us any leaks or anything, just seems like it would be uncomfortable!

Gro Baby is a truly economical way to get started with cloth diapers. It's even more economical if you have two in diapers because you wouldn't need two sizes. If you are just starting to cloth diaper and wanted to make a one time investment, Gro Baby offers a package with everything you need for only $375 ( do you know how quickly you would reach that number in disposables?). This package includes 12 shells, 24 soakers and 16 boosters. That is plenty of diapers to get by washing only every other day to every two days depending on the age of your child.

Okay, so enough about the diaper. I love it. You want it. Here's how to get it!

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite color of Gro Baby
2. Follow me on twitter, leave a comment letting me know
3. Become a reader or already a reader, comment and let me know
4. Share this contest on your blog, leave me a comment with a link
5. Twitter this contest, comment w/ a link to your tweet
6. Post my button on your blog, comment with a link

Make sure you leave an individual comment for each thing you do, as I will use random.org to choose a number on Sunday to choose a comment to win. Each comment counts as an entry!

aap recommends rear facing until age 2

My friends will all probably tell you I'm a little crazy when it comes to car seat safety. ( For example, yes my almost 5 year old is still harnessed!) It completely amazes me that one of the most important pieces of baby gear you will purchase comes with such little direction and is often used so incorrectly. Sure all car seats come with a manual, but have you every really sat down and read all of it and if you have, did it really all make sense? If I had my way, all car seats would come with an instructional DVD showing proper installation and usage. But that is not the way it is, so I depend on the internet to keep me up to date with the latest in car seat safety as most pediatricians are not and those car seat people at the "baby" store (you know where I'm talking about) usually have very little knowledge of the product they are selling.

Therefore, I feel as a blog writer, when I learn something new about car seat safety I should share it with you! Most people know the basic rule that your baby should ride rearfacing until 1 year AND 20 lbs not either or, yet many turn their children before reaching this minimum. The AAP has now changed that due to research proving how much safer our children are rearfacing. The new minimum is a child should rearface for 2 years or until the weight limit of your seat has been reached. Even I, the car seat crazy one is breaking this rule right now. Sass' convertible seat can rear face up to 33lbs (or maybe 35). I will be lucky if she weighs that much by first grade, so at 20 months we did turn her. ( at 28 months she is still only 23 lbs).

The myth around town is that if your child's feet hit the back of the seat you need to turn them or they are at risk of leg/ankle injury. The opposite is actually true. If you were ever in an accident severe enough to break their legs rearfacing, it's also severe enough to break a neck foreward facing. That was about all I needed to hear to decide to extend my children's rear facing time.

The other myth I hear is that people turn their baby early because they are so big, they are ready ( Bubbie was big like this, 28lbs at a year, he rear faced until 18 months). This too is untrue. Being safe forward facing has very little to do with how big your child is. It actually has to do with the strength of their spinal cord. Until children are over two, their heads are still not proportinate to the rest of their body. Therefore if you are in an accident foreward facing that big ol' baby noggin can pull on the spinal cord and risk internal decapation. I know, not a pretty thought, but this is a serious serious risk to foreward facing too soon.

Here is an article stating the AAP's new stance on rear facing. I highly recommend you read it.

I also HIGHLY recommend you taking 3 minutes out of your day to watch this short clip (this clip was made before the AAP changed it's stance so it does say 1year and 20lbs which is no longer correct!):

breastfeeding is offensive

A friend of mine just shared this with me..... absolutely love it! What do you think??

This is not my original content, rather I found this and am sharing it from here. I could not find an original author to credit, but if you are the author contact me and I will credit you!

I'm thankful for not having ta tas thrown in my face all the time by offensive and indecent breastfeeding mothers like the ones below:

Wait...Well, this is a bad example. Let's try again.


Hmm...Just a minute. I'm sure I can find better ones than these...

Eh, still not offensive enough. I'll check one more time.

That is better. LOOK AT THAT! I see about a half inch. DISGUSTING.

UGH. Look at that indecency! She must be from some third world country to be exposed like that!

Now that's just...There are no words to descripe how inappropriate that is. Something needs to be done!


But why stop at breasfeeding women? There are ta tas everywhere. Beware! If you thought the above photos were offensive, you WILL DEFINITELY be offended by the photos below.

Not this one, though. This one was in plain view on news stands and in mail boxes in 19 countries world wide!

Not this one, either. This one actually won an award!

Oh, and I guess this one is fine too. Everyone knows you can't sell jeans without someone being topless.

Or beer, for that matter.

Or sunglasses.

Or movie tickets.

Or CDs...

You know what? Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that someone mixed up some photos here. The first batch are offensive, but the second batch are just fine and dandy???

People who live in glass bras:


Shouldn't throw stones:


If you think women have the right to breastfeed their children no matter where they are, please repost this...comment vote it popular whatever . Support breastfed babies and their right to eat in public!

and soon there will be three

We have officially hit the count down. I'm down to five weeks and can't believe I will have three babies under 5 in my home before you know it. I am so stinkin' anxious to have this baby. I am officially dying to know who he or she is! I don't know that my tummy can physically get any larger with out popping. And these little guys above are so ready to meet their brother or sister.

Faith and trust have been the lessons that I have learned this pregnancy. With Sass, I learned a lot about faith and trust do to my blood clot and the chance of her not making it for so long. Also, when your are flat on your back for weeks on end, God has time to teach you a lot! But I also had earthly comfort in having a million dr's visits and ultrasounds through out her pregnancy. So while I had to trust God like I never did before, He sent me constant reassurance through these visits.

This pregnancy has been fairly uneventful. Sure I puked on a regular basis for the first 20 some odd weeks, I have horrible heartburn now and am fairly uncomfortable in the dead heat of summer here in the hot south, but those are normal pregnancy discomforts. I don't see my OB weekly (well, I'm starting to, but again, under normal circumstances). I haven't rushed to the Women's Center numerous times thinking for sure I finally lost the baby. No hospital admittances. It's been fairly easy, yet I have had to trust more than ever because the earthly comforts of extra dr. attention isn't there.

Over the past year I know of/ am friends with three people who have lost babies at term for no reason. This is a HUGE fear for me. Another lost their two year old. Totally out of their control, everything was fine and then it wasn't. WOW. God if I could ask you to explain something to me, that would be high up on the list.

I am not a good scripture memorizer. It's not my gift, but song sticks with me. I can hear a praise song once or twice and then be in a situation at a totally different time and verses from a song will flood me. I figure if the song is full of scripture than surely that's a close second best to memorizing the actual scripture. I actually want to go get a c.d. my friend Alison told me about called Songs for Saplings, because I can already see that Sass learns through music like I do, so instead of her memorizing the wheels on the bus, why not have her singing truth!

The Lord has sent me songs as comfort this time. Casting Crown's Praise You in this Storm is one I find myself singing often. The chorus is Psalm 121:1,2:

I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

I also find myself singing a good ole praise song we sang in college ministry all the time:

My Life is in You Lord
My Strength is in You Lord
My Hope Is in You Lord
It's in You, It's in You

So 5 more weeks of trusting and hoping and having faith until our newest little one has arrived and then there will be three. And who am I kidding..... that's when trust and faith will have to kick in like never before.

supper planning sunday

I have totally slacked in the meal planning area these last two weeks which has lead to a lot of nights eating out! We are getting back on track this week, even though it's a short week for us meal wise....

Sunday- Dinner at a friend's house

Monday- Homemade mac and cheese, green beans, apple sauce

Tuesday- Grilled hot dogs, baked sweet potato fries and baked beans

Wednesday- Baked pasta ( ground beef, mozzarella cheese, veggies pureed into the sauce, this makes a ton so I will probably freeze some into small trays for after baby comes)

Thursday- Bubbie is in a wedding so we have the rehearsal dinner

Friday- Wedding

Saturday- Super Dad's birthday at the pool, BBQ for dinner!


What are you chowing on this week? Use MckLinky below to link to your meal plan for the week! Just click on "you are next" to enter your blog info!

Kelly's Kids... order today TAX FREE!

One of my friends and I have started hosting a Kelly's Kids show twice a year this past year. Their clothes are super cute. They fit really well, wash incredibly and hold great value if you resell your children's clothing. Plus it gives the kids something cute to wear that not everyone else in town has seen! I have posted pics of them in coordinating outfits from Kelly's Kids over the summer.



This weekend we have hosted our fall show. The fall stuff is super cute and I have picked out several fun outfits for preschool this year. I can't wait for it to all come in and for it to cool down enough for us to use them!

This weekend is Tax Free here and if you want to place an order (even if you don't live here) you still reap those benefits, so leave me a comment or email me if you are interested by this evening and I will get your order in! Check out their cute cloths here!

tiny but mighty

Do you think I will be able to get this off of her before her first gymnastics class on Wednesday? She went from " I no do nymnastics" to "put my "shirt" on mommy, I do nymnastics"! And no matter how many times I tell her it's called a leotard, she insists it's a "shirt".

Oh and sorry for the fuzzy pic... it was taken with my phone!