Day 5

Today was day 5 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge (details here)

Not a ton to write about today...I have been on my own all day, hubby had to work late...he is still working...

Nothing to spectacular today.  Just a normal day...I got diapers washed while the boys were up and they really liked helping...because we washed mid afternoon it was a pretty small load.  7 flats 1 Pul cover.

I am pretty tired, I cleaned almost the whole house today, need to mop floors, clean boys bathroom and finish laundry.   I have a lot of crocheting to work on...several custom orders-which I LOVE!!!  So I am going to go get busy!   Hope everyone had a great day.

*****

Todays Random Cuteness:

Found Levi playing in the baskets of clean clothes lol...

He was trying to put his big brother's underwear on his head lol

Ayden was literally working on the railroad today....he got all talented and decided to 'hammer' the pieces together :)

Flats and Handwashing Challenge Day 5, May 27

1. Dixie	2. Dirty Diaper Laundry Vlog: Day 5	3. Swaddlebees	4. The Happy Natural Baby
5. Random Mama Brain	6. Cotton Bottom Mama	7. Just Add Cloth	8. Central Ca. Diaper Parties by Jocelyn
9. No clean clothes and other Pooptastic Fun	10. Christy	11. Va de Tela	12. Adventures With My Monkeys
13. Goodbye Disposable, Hello Cloth: Day 5	14. Baby and the Chi's	15. Schulz Family Adventures	16. Mothering From The Maelstrom: TGIF!
17. The Good the bad and the fluffy	18. Little Tiny Love - wash easy!	19. Lynifer's Blog	20. Centsible Mommy of 2
21. Melissa at The Middle of Everything	22. The Natural Mamma	23. Tara	24. The Gnome's Mom - 2 MORE DAYS!
25. Mandarin Oranges!	26. Liz @ Pray for Wisdom	27. Amanda	28. My Moderate Family
29. Misadventures Of 8	30. Dee	31. DS Mama	32. Natural Momma's
33. Corn Poo & Travelling	34. Tara-Disaster Struck!	35. Milk Bubbles	36. Mistakes in Motherhood
37. Amanda @ Making Memories	38. Dawn	39. T Rex Mom	40. monica zion
41. Tara @ Padded Tush Stats	42. The Little Hedgehog	43. a little bit of everything	44. Becca
45. Naturalmente Mamá	46. DirtyHippyMama	47. A Toy Sword for Handwashing???	48. Slightly Off Balance
49. Noto-Orious	50. Footsteps...

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Day 4

It was day 4 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge (details here)

We had an interesting day.  We were out late last night and the boys didnt get to bed until 2 hours past normal bedtime, so I knew today would be fun. ;)  As always they were both up by 6am.  Shockingly they both took 2 naps today, one from around 10am-12 and another around 3-5:30pm...I was stunned that they took two naps, but even more stunned at how easy it was to get them to lay down.  Both times, they started to get a bit wild and I told them that they needed to lay in bed and calm down for 20 minutes, and they were both out within 10-15 minutes each time....

So while the extra napping was all fine and dandy, I had a lot more pee to clean up today than usual.  EVERY nap Levi peed out of his flat and woolie....oh, and of course he was sleeping in the playpen when it happened...anyone have tips for cleaning that thing :( ?????????


Because I am not sure if it was the diaper, or the wool, or the fact that he is a boy and was sleeping on his tummy;  I re-lanolized the 2 woolies that leaked.  I am hoping that they are dry by morning so I dont have to rely on my PUL cover although the pad fold works well in that when he decides he doesnt want to sit still for a change.

Since my PUL cover was in the wash pile along with the wool tonight, I pad folded 2 flats and inserted them into a pocket diaper.  Since we only have 4 of the limited 5 covers in a rotation this didnt break the rules, this will act as our 5th cover.

Todays wash contained 7 flats, 1 wool longie, 1 wool shortie and 1 Thirsties Duo Cover.  No dancing tonight :(  I just used the Camp Style Washer.

*******

Today's Random Cuteness

Levi said 'I love you' for the first time today.  (of course it sounded a bit different, but we totally understood what he meant)  Not only did he say it once, he said it 3 times!!!!  Twice for me and once for my husband when he got home.  Oh man I tell you what, that melted my heart!  I cryed for a while after....It makes me so proud that he is communicating and expressing himself!   OH, and he also stood for 5 seconds unassisted this evening.  He only fell because he tried to take a step <3

Ayden was pretty cuddly today which I always enjoy and soak up as much as I can.  Other than the snuggling he had a great day of ball pit play.  Most of the day he was in that pit, I forgot to pull out my camera so no pictures of him playing in it today, but I did manage to nab a couple of him putting the balls away for the night <3

Here is in flight to see dad who walked in the door from work as I snapped the picture! lol

There is his handsome smile :) 

Packing them away for the night, Levi behind in his walker...He is starting to figure it out. 

 I hope everyone else had a great day today and far less leaking than I.    <3

Flats Challenge Day 4, May 26

1. The Natural Mamma	2. DS Mama	3. Alicia from SquishyFace Baby	4. Adventures With My Monkeys
5. Dirty Diaper Laundry Vlog: Day 4	6. The Happy Natural Baby	7. Just Add Cloth	8. Goodbye Disposable, Hello Cloth: Day 4
9. Baby and the Chi's	10. Flats, Poop and Tornados- OH MY!	11. Melissa at The Middle of Everything	12. Summary of day 3
13. Sandbox Lane Guest blogger: Kendra	14. My This N That Life - I almost caved to the dryer.	15. The Good the bad and the fluffy	16. Random Mama Brain
17. Central Ca. Diaper Parties	18. Va de Tela	19. Liz @ Pray for Wisdom	20. The Gnome's Mom - Catastrophes!
21. Practically 100% Natural	22. Little Tiny Love	23. Naturalmente Mamá	24. Mothering From The Maelstrom
25. Misadventures Of 8	26. The Miama Thng: Flats Day 4	27. Centsible Mommy of 2	28. Cotton Bottom Mama
29. SAHMomologues	30. Shaky Mommy	31. pamela dayton time	32. Noto-Orious
33. Mistakes in Motherhood	34. Milk Bubbles	35. MFTM: The A-POO-calypse	36. Tara
37. Ramblings	38. According to Jenny	39. The Slacker Mom	40. monica
41. Cristy	42. Brandie	43. The Eco Chic talks Overnight Solutions	44. Amanda @ Making Memories: Flats Math
45. Diapers and Paranoia - Flats Challenge Day 3	46. The Little Hedgehog	47. Natural Momma's	48. Knocked Up and Nursing
49. importedmama	50. T Rex Mom	51. Slightly Off Balance	52. Schulz Family Adventures
53. Jeniffer @ My Hymn of Grateful Praise	54. Musings of a SAHM	55. Family Handshake	56. Crazy Side Of Motherhood
57. My Moderate Family

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Dancing My Way To Clean Diapers On Day 3

Today was day 3 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge.   We had an AWESOME day-find out why in Today's Random Cuteness at the end of this blog :)

So today I decided that I wanted to wash my 9 flats and 1 receiving blanket different than the past 2 days.  Considering the incredible amount of upper body strength {yeah right :) } I am gaining churning diaper butter I thought it would be nice to equal it out with lower body strength lol...so taking that into consideration along with my strange desire to dance tonight, I decided to dance my diapers clean.  Who said that washing the diapers cant be a party, right?  I have to entertain myself some how (haha)  I tossed the diapers in the bottom of the tub, ran some hot water and danced over each diaper.  Drained the tub and did it again to wash and then with 2 final rinses.  I really felt like I was blessing my diapers,  they got to watch me dance and get super clean in the process.  I know it probably sounds silly, but somedays I have to just sit back and laugh at myself....it really is a good thing I swear :D  Diapers are hanging happily on the rack drying now.

******

Todays Randome Cuteness:  Lets start todays cuteness off with a video....

That is right, you saw it!  Our precious little Levi took his first push walker assisted steps today.  This is a HUGE deal for us!  At just over 20 months he is figuring out that there is more to getting around than scooting on your butt <3  Oh it makes me want to cry.  I am so extremely proud of him, we have all fought to get him to this point, but he has fought the hardest....Those are the first steps toward his wonderful future!  I know he is going to touch so many hearts, more than he already has!

So after this eventful morning we realized that he was really ready for a walker, you know, the kind where he can strengthen his legs in confidence that he wont fall flat on his face.  So after spending some time looking on craigslist, we couldnt really find any used ones near us.  So we went and got him a new one, which his big brother is in love with.  Yes, Levi has a Lightning McQueen walker and Ayden wishes it was his lol...I am sorry but that just cracks me up!

I hope you all had a great day, here is to another ROCKIN' day tomorrow <3

Good-night

Flats and Handwashing Challenge Day 3: May 25

1. Liz @ Pray for Wisdom	2. Dirty Diaper Laundry Day 3 Vlog	3. Crum's This N That Day 2 (a little late)	4. The Happy Natural Baby
5. Baby and the Chi's	6. Amanda L	7. Goodbye Disposable, Hello Cloth	8. Random Mama Brain
9. The Gnome's Mom - Flats & Tornadoes	10. Mothering From The Maelstrom	11. Day 2 Recap-Creative Drying	12. Adventures With My Monkeys
13. Tara	14. Melissa at The Middle of Everything	15. The Good the bad and the fluffy	16. SAHMomologues
17. Dee	18. Under the Apple Tree	19. Just Add Cloth	20. Slightly Off Balance
21. anna jo: in between the lines	22. Practically 100% Natural	23. Central Ca Diaper Parties	24. Diaper Junction (Becca)
25. My overflowing cup.	26. funkylindsay!	27. Knocked Up and Nursing	28. Jeniffer @ My Hymn of Grateful Praise
29. Allyson @ A Heart for Home (Giveaway)	30. The Mama Thing: Flats Day 3	31. The Little hedgehog	32. Misadventures Of 8
33. so many things to love...	34. silne	35. Little Tiny Love	36. One Heart One Mission
37. Cnetsible mommy of 2	38. singing praises of plastic pants :)	39. Mrs. Maelstrom on The ArtsyMama	40. Milk Bubbles
41. Ramblings	42. The Natural Mamma	43. The Up North Writer Mama	44. The Eco Chic
45. According to Jenny	46. Tara-Part 2	47. Krysta Bauer	48. Alicia
49. Amanda @ Making Memories	50. DS Mama	51. Sheryl @ Cloth diapered kiddos	52. Tara at Padded Tush Stats
53. Musings of a SAHM	54. Schulz Family Adventures	55. A Year With Mom and Dad	56. Brooke, Eden's Baby
57. Leza	58. crunchy monica	59. My Moderate Family	60. Natural Momma's
61. Footsteps...	62. Gotemcovered emilie s.

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Flats And Handwashing Challenge Day 2

The morning of day 2 started off with a VERY happy mommy!  There was a dry bed to be found :)  in fact levi could have pee'd quite a bit more and the triple layer origami fold flat would have been fine.  I was super thrilled to find out that there was a less expensive solution to night time cloth.  We have been using Bamboozle Fitted Diapers at night with a ton of success  but at $20.00 a pop it can get really costly.  We currently have 2 and I had to make sure I had at least one clean every night because he pees out of everything else we own at night.  I am super excited to know that we now have an alternative when I get lazy and skip diaper laundry for a couple days. 

We decided to try a couple new folds today, here is the diaper bag fold....(tutorial here)

It just doesnt work for me.  I ran into the same issue as I do with pre-folds.  Not quite enough material to reach around his belly, and it looks pinch-y to me. 

Woolie with Diaper Bag Fold 

We also tried the kite fold again today, but still have trouble getting it to fit right.

************

So the wash for the day consisted of 7 flats and 2 receiving blankets.  I washed in 2 separate loads because there were 2 poopy diapers among them and I wanted to make sure everything was spic-n-span :)

I have had a couple people ask how I managed to get 3 flats onto Levi at one time so I took some pictures as I folded his night time diaper today.  Here is how I got it to work for us....

 Lay 3 flats out stacked on top of each other....

Fold in half 

Then again... 

At the corner where all of the edges meet grab the top 3 layers and pull towards the opposite side.

once you pull it straight across it should look like a triangle on top... 

Now flip the entire thing over and start to fold in the edge that is still square... 

Keep folding until it is centered on the triangle... 

As you can see it is a pretty thick diaper, but almost all of the absorbency is located right where it is needed 

Here he is all diapered for the night in a Thirsties Duo Wrap Size 2 (our wool needed to air out tonight) 

I am ready for the coconut rub down mom....

*****

WARNING:  Today's Random Cuteness to follow!!!

Ayden needed to have a picture too (this was when I was taking pictures of Levis Diaper Bag folded flat)

Levi loves his brother!!!

CHEEEEEZZZZEEEE!!!!

I hope everyone else had an awesome second day! <3

Flats and Handwashing Challenge Day 2, May 24 

1. Dirty Diaper Laundry Day 2 Vlog	2. Mothering From The Maelstrom	3. The Happy Natural Baby	4. Baby and the Chi's
5. Melissa at The Middle of Everything	6. AiM:Mommy Outnumbered-Day 1 Recap	7. Adventures With My Monkeys	8. Lori - The Gnome's Mom
9. One Mama * Two Souls	10. Goodbye Disposable, Hello Cloth	11. The Good the bad and the fluffy	12. Sandbox Lane Guest blogger: Kendra
13. Becca	14. Becca	15. Milk Bubbles	16. Practically 100% Natural
17. anna jo: in between the lines	18. Random Mama Brain	19. Knocked Up and Nursing	20. Lynifer's Blog
21. The Slacker Mom	22. Heather - Modern Cloth	23. Tara	24. What Mama Wants
25. Stacy	26. Lynn Wilson	27. Misadventures Of 8	28. SAHMomologues
29. Naturalmente Mamá	30. The Little Hedgehog	31. The Mama Thing: Flats Day 2	32. Just Add Cloth
33. Slightly Off Balance	34. Shaky Mommy	35. Little Tiny Love	36. Cristy
37. Centsible Mommy of 2	38. Heather R	39. so many things to love...	40. Ramblings
41. Liz @ Pray for Wisdom	42. Marishannon @ Green & Thrifty	43. According to Jenny	44. Musings of a SAHM
45. Swaddlebees	46. The Natural Mamma	47. Family Handshae	48. DS Mama
49. Noto-Orious	50. Alicia	51. Amanda @ Making Memories	52. Schulz Family Adventures
53. Central Ca Diaper Parties	54. Monica Zion	55. Brandie	56. Tara at Padd
57. Sheryl @ Cloth diapered kiddos	58. Brooke, Eden's Baby	59. monica	60. Va de tela
61. My Moderate Family	62. Footsteps...	63. GotEmCovered emilie s.

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

 

Day 1 draws to a close...

So day one has officially ended for us.  The boys are in bed, and our flats are washed and hanging to dry.  Our total # of diapers used today was 10. Levi rocked 2 at nap and is rocking 3 in bed for the night now.  

I would say the first day was a success.  We only had 1 leak and I am pretty sure it was a malfunction of the cover that caused it.  

Here he is in a single layer flat, oragami fold:

Look mom I can do the splits:

awe he is just so cute! <3 

'Yup its comfy mom' 

We had to get some big brother shots too, he sat down and told me that he was going to 'cheeeeeesssseee tooo" lol

upside down shot :) 

So far I really like the origami fold.  I havent gotten the other folds to fit him nearly as well.  So I think we are going to stick with this one.

Here he is rocking a triple flat origami fold....I just layed all 3 out flat completly unfolded and did my fold with all 3 peices, the fit was great and not any bulkier than our bamboozles that we usually use for night time...infact I actually think it fits trimmer....now, we will see if his bed stays dry. 

This silly boy always has his piggies in the air <3

 All woolied up for night time!

LOVE chunky diaper bottoms

(silly lil nut is after the coconut oil)

From behind....oooo I could just bite him ;)

Here is what our days worth of diapers amounted to:

6 flats and 1 receiving blanket

I am sure we have less diaper laundry than some will especially since we only have 1 PUL cover in our rotation, and it will be the last one I ever pick up...it is the backup in case all our wool is wet-another thing I love about wool-dont have to wash it everytime we use it!

I have mixed feelings about the close of day one, oddly I am mostly sad....wish there were more hours in the day.  Today was great!  1 day down 6 to go.

Your Mountains Are So Far From Mine.

I was just thinking of how much I miss all my family and friends.  I really took for granted just how close an hour away was...

My bestie moved to Tennessee in December 2010, and then we moved out here to Colorado in March 2011....I often think of how strange it is that we both moved to mountains, but that they are on opposite ends of the country...When we were younger we were pretty much inseparable, but as we grew older we spent less and less time together, and less and less time chatting as we grew into our new roles as wives and mothers. We had in some ways lost touch until moving so far apart as life had taken us both down similar but different paths, and we saw each other face to face around ever 4-6 months.  We now talk (all be it primarily online) nearly every day.  It feels great to have her back in my life more.  I have missed her.  I just wish I could hug her from way over her lol.

The Challenge Begins! Day 1!

So today is the day.  Today we start the Flats and Handwashing Challenge...Just so happens that the hubby got to kick it off with the first diaper change of the day.  :)  He did a pretty good job too.

Last Friday I started prepping my flats, I couldn't bring myself to put them into the washing machine due to the nature of the challenge so I boiled them in 2 batches of 6 on the stove with a small squirt of dawn.



Then I used rinsed them until there were no more sudsy bubbles.




I gave the my Camp Style Washer a go with a couple dirty flats from trying different fits and folds, as well as to wash a pair of undies from my older son.

Here is our Camp Style Washer all ready to go...

Filling with water for our initial rinse:

Close the lid:

And start washing...Think churning butter :)

After draining the rinse water:

 Filling with HOT water for the wash cycle:

I added 1 tsp of Rockin Green Diaper Detergent:

Here is what our water looked like...pretty murky, these were pretty clean diapers tho, only a little pee :) 

 The water after the final rinse-no sudsy bubbles, and clear water:

 Then we wrung them out well and hung to dry on our drying rack:

Ayden decided to help and also though he should 'dry' his snuggle blanket <3

 3 Clean diapers (receiving blankets) and 1 pair of clean Lighting McQueen undies lol

They came out nice and clean, no issues.  It was not at all hard either, the whole process took me around 10-15 minutes to complete




Saturday and Sunday we separated our stash and parted with our 'luxury diapers'

The new stash on the left and luxury dipes/pail liners/boosters ect on the right.

Our stash for this week consists of the following:

12 Swaddlebee's flats
10 Old receiving blankets as emergency back up or doublers for outings/bed time
3 Wool Covers (1 Longie, 1 Shortie, and 1 wrap)
1 PUL cover (Thirsties Duo Wrap Size 2)
Cloth wipes
Wipe spray-we make our own with some water, a squirt of baby soap and a couple drops of essential oil
Coconut oil-for sore/red bottom

So far we are doing well...We have 3 dirty flats in the bucket.  Levi has on a doubled flat since it is nap time, and Ayden has had no accidents lol.

I promise to have pictures of Levi in the flats tonight or tommorrow...lol...he NEVER sits still long when its changing time, but I WILL get at least 1.

There are lots of families that are taking this challenge, and lots of them are bloggers, I look forward to reading everyone's experience.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge Linky for Monday, May 23

1. SAPsMaMa Natural Parenting and Green LIving	2. Tara	3. Dirty Diaper Laundry Vlog: Day 1	4. Central Ca. Diaper Parties by Jocelyn
5. Adventures With My Monkeys	6. Slightly Off Balance	7. Adventures in Mommyhood: Mommy Outnumbered	8. Baby and the Chi's: It's Here I'ts Here IT'S HERE
9. Centsible Mommy of 2	10. The Gnome's Mom	11. The Mama Thing: Flats Day 1	12. Random Mama Brain
13. DS Mama	14. Melissa at The Middle of Everything	15. The Good the bad and the fluffy	16. My This N That Life
17. SAHMomologues	18. The Happy Natural Baby	19. T Rex Mom	20. The Natural Mamma
21. Misadventures Of 8	22. silne	23. Mothering From The Maelstrom	24. liz @ Pray for Wisdom
25. Naomi	26. Amy	27. Marishannon @ Green & Thrifty	28. Mandy
29. Milk Bubbles	30. Knocked Up and Nursing	31. Ramblings	32. Mommy and Me Giveaways
33. Comfy Cozy Diapers	34. The Diaper Genie	35. Just Add Cloth	36. Heather R
37. Swaddlebees	38. The Up North Writer Mama	39. A Year With Mom and Dad	40. According to Jenny
41. Schulz Family Adventures	42. The Little Hedgehog	43. Brandie	44. Claren Purser
45. Under the Apple Tree	46. Claren Purser	47. Anne E. Perry	48. Little Tiny Love
49. Clare	50. Amanda @ Making Memories	51. Musings of a SAHM	52. Naturalmente Mamá
53. monica	54. the dayton time	55. Shaky Mommy	56. Tara at Padded Tush Stats
57. Va de tela	58. Alicia	59. Noto-Orious	60. My Moderate Family
61. Natural Momma's	62. Footsteps...	63. GotEmCovered - emilie s

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)