washing your cloth diapers.

hello, people who are interested in diapers!

today was a diaper washing day at our house, and finn's cloth diapers are toasting happily in the sun right now getting all dry and white! :) so, i decided to post a little update on using cloth and specifically how i wash our diapers. 

first up, if you are interested, here are my previous blogs on getting started with cloth diapers and what we use:
cloth diapers- not just for hippies and mennonites.
and
the poo report- a cloth diaper update.

now that you're all caught up, i will move right along!

i'm happy to report that cloth diapering has actually become easier now that finn is on all solid foods.  (here's where i talk about poop).
his poo is now quite solid and very easy to dump straight into the toilet and flush without even leaving much of a trace on the diaper.  i don't need to use any sprayer or liner or anything like that to make removing the poo easier.  phew!  thank you, solid foods, for making diaper duty a breeze.

i store finn's used diapers in a large wet bag that hangs on the side of his changing table.  when it's time to wash them (usually every 3rd day), i toss everything into the washing machine, including the bag.

now, we don't have a fancy high efficiency washer and dryer.  we have your old standard run of the mill models.  so here is how dipe washing goes down at our place:

step 1: wash diapers on a full regular wash cycle on the temperature cold/cold
during this wash cycle i put nothing in the washing machine.  no detergent, no bleach, no nothing.
this cycle's purpose is to rinse the diapers of any debris that might be on them, and helps with stain fighting.

step 2: wash diapers on another full regular wash cycle on the temperature hot/cold
during this wash cycle i use one tablespoon of nellie's laundry soap.
once a month i also put in a 1/2 cup of bleach to sanitize the diapers.  it's not recommended to use bleach more than once a month.

(for a long time i did not use nellie's laundry soap, i used whatever free and clear detergent was on sale at target.  this included all, tide, and arm and hammer.  i can honestly tell you that i had problems with the diapers leaking when i used these detergents.  i didn't really believe that you had to use the recommended detergents, i thought that this was just a ploy for the cloth diaper companies to get you to buy their products or their friends products, but in fact, it is not.  definitely use the recommended detergent for your cloth diapers.  nellie's is really great, and i like it so much that i use it for all of our laundry now!


another side note, when i was having problems with my diapers leaking because of using the other detergents, i "stripped" my diapers to remove any residue or build up left over from the detergents before i started using the nellie's laundry soap.  stripping your diapers is very easy.  all you do is wash them on a hot cycle with a tablespoon of dawn blue dish soap.  then you keep rinsing them until the water runs clear and has no suds.  this will get your diapers back to where they need to be.)

step 3: run an extra rinse-only cycle on the temperature cold
this just rinses your diapers one extra time to make sure there is no remaining soap in them.

tada! now your diapers are nice and clean!  when your diapers come out of the wash they should smell like nothing.  if they smelly musty or still like pee or like detergent or anything else then retrace your steps because you might have goofed somewhere.

the next step is drying your diapers. 

i use the bumgenius 4.0 diapers which involve an outer cover and a fabric insert.  two pieces.
here are some pictures for you:

cover on the left, insert on the right.

the insert stuffed into the pocket of the cover.

tada! complete diaper.

the lovely folks at bumgenius will wisely instruct you to "tumble" dry the inserts and "line" dry the covers.
well of course i didn't listen to them.  i didn't have a drying rack, and i thought it would be much easier to just throw everything in the dryer.  this worked out fine for quite a while.  then after about ten months of putting my diaper covers in the dryer with the inserts, i noticed a problem.  the reason you aren't supposed to dry the covers is because the high heat does something to the waterproof interior of the diaper pocket.  it like melts it or wears it out or something.  so a couple of my diapers started leaking straight through the fabric.  i quickly realized that this was from the dryer, made changes, and luckily i haven't lost any more diapers.

here's a photo example so you can see the inside part i'm talking about:

you can see the pocket where you "stuff" in the insert.  the top part is nice and soft and fleecy against your baby's butt.  but the inside part under the fleece should feel almost waxy.  it's waterproof.  well, after putting mine through the dryer so much, a few started to feel just like soft fabric.  problemo.

so, i bought a drying rack.  everything online said "oh your diaper covers will dry in no time if you just lay them out on a drying rack!" and i kind of thought, pshht, yeah right.  our house is pretty cold in the winter, and i thought for sure those suckers would have to be laying out on the drying rack for days.  but nope, it's true, they dry really really fast.  no time at all.  i promise.  definitely worth it to buy a ten dollar drying rack and lay your covers out to dry instead of putting them in your dryer.  they will last much longer that way.  also, if your baby has a massive blow out and you notice a bit of a stain on the nice white fleecy part of the inside of your diaper even after you've washed it, putting them outside to dry really works wonders.  the sun will bleach the stain right out. seriously!  even laying them in front of a sunny window does the trick too.

so, in summary,

step 4: air dry/ line dry diaper covers and put the inserts in the dryer.
one full regular heat drying cycle will dry all of your inserts.  i also put finn's cloth wipes and his wetbag in the dryer with the inserts and they all are dry after one run.  if it's nice outside, i will hang everything outside and they dry great outside too.  but the morale of the story is, don't get lazy and throw your diaper covers in the dryer.

that's it! four easy steps to clean and dry cloth diapers.  not to mention super cute, super earth and cost friendly, and super absorbent! 

now that i have worked out all of the kinks and learned a lot of good solutions in my cloth diapering journey, we really rarely use disposables.  i don't put him in a disposable to run errands anymore.  he is in cloth all of the time because i find they are much more absorbent and leakless.  we are still using the same cloth diapers that we've been using since finn was born, too!  i only lost two due to my dryer indiscretion, and the rest are doing great now that i'm using the correct routine.  i am certain these diapers will last finn through until he is potty training, and i really think they could go another round after that, too!

happy cloth diapering, folks! :)

a back porch in progress.

i know what you're thinking... what about the kitchen? what about painting the kitchen floors? what about that project? i didn't forget.  we're just always juggling ten different projects around here, and let me tell you that it is really difficult to figure out when you're not going to use your kitchen for two days.  but i promise, it's happening! 

in the meantime, since the weather has been so killer awesome, we decided to hunt for some new-to-us patio furniture and work on sprucing up the back porch. 

the back porch used to be screened in, but the screens were really ghetto and scary, so billy ripped them out.  now it's a nice covered stone patio area that feels a lot more open. (i should also mention that the super ghetto screens he ripped out are now just leaning up against the pool fence behind a huge shrub, which is successfully even more ghetto. yes!)

billy's sister-in-law handed us down an awesome pottery barn table and chairs, so we spruced that up a bit and pushed it against one side of the patio that has a partial stone wall.  the wall is the perfect height to be used as a long bench for one side of the table, and it works great because it saves a lot of space!

so this weekend on our hunt, we found an awesome old wicker patio furniture set at a local antique place for a really good deal.  i normally kind of hate wicker.  but i liked this set because it's big.  the couch is full size.  most wicker looks like it belongs in a dollhouse or a little girl's room, but this wicker is really functional.  i think we might paint it a different color, but that's for another day.  the cushions need to be recovered so i covered them up with some fav old vintage sheets and pillowcases for the time being, and it did the trick.

it's actually super comfy out here.  we had dinner out here last night.  finn seemed to really enjoy the space.

and the mushroom ravioli.

we have plans to get an outdoor area rug and small coffee table to make it feel a little more together.  we also plan to hang some of those super cheap and super versatile ikea sheers (love them!) around the sides to make it feel whimsical and airy.  billy promises to put up a real clothesline for me so that i can stop hanging my laundry on a string around patio :).

i'm really enjoying it out here today though, that's for sure! 

i think we'll spend a lot of time out here this summer.  i'll be sure to post pictures as we spruce it up.
hope everyone's loving the weather as much as we are!

bringing up bebe.

forgive me, i wrote this post over a month ago and never posted it.  instead of going through and changing all the tenses and times, i'm just gonna post it as is. enjoy :)

i just finished reading the recently en vogue parenting book, "bringing up bebe".  the book talks about the differences between parenting in the u.s. and in france.  she specifically compares the stark differences between parenting in brooklyn, and parenting in paris.  it was an interesting perspective, and i'm glad i read it.

i won't go through an entire book review (it's an easy read if you're interested), but there are a couple of key things that i took with me after reading, and decided to try and adopt in our home.  one being that i was going to give finn a wider variety of foods, and two that i was going to give finn the opportunity to be more autonomous, and give him more freedom to play and explore on his own, without my constant intervention.

first up- the foods. 

after reading about the way the french feed their children, and seeing the health statistics in the u.s. vs. france, i decided that they're clearly doing it right.  why do we feed our toddlers nothing but apple juice and goldfish crackers if we want them to grow up to be healthy diverse adults who eat a wide variety of whole foods, fruits and vegetables?  i don't know.  but i do know that i am extremely guilty of serving finn fistfuls of cheerios.

i decided to immediately squelch the idea that finn needed to eat "kid-friendly" foods, like applesauce and macaroni and cheese, and instead decided that i was going to give him all of the foods that we eat.  all of them.  two of the things i was most impressed with about french kid feeding is a rule that the child must simply try everything that they are offered (not eat everything on their plate), and that sweets are given daily, but in moderation.  the french apparently encourage repeatedly offering foods that the child refuses, claiming that eventually the child will most likely start enjoying it.  and by giving them sweets (these sweets include pieces of chocolate or chocolate croissants, mind you, not overprocessed crap like oreos or pop tarts), the child is capable of eating sugar in moderation without freaking out and binging on an entire trick or treat bag of halloween candy because they are most often denied it.

yesterday, for lunch, i made spaghetti with elbow noodles, tomato basil sauce, and turkey meatballs.  finn ate a large portion, quite energetically.  at breakfast, however, i tried to give him some cut up honeydew melon.  he did not like it.  i put a spoonful of chopped melon in his mouth twice, and he spit it out each time.  after his morning nap, i gave him a little snack and tried the melon again.  he spit it out again, but seemed to tongue it around a bit more.  at lunch time, i tried giving him the melon once more.  this time he ate the entire portion i had cut up for him.  (about two tablespoons).  i was impressed.  the french may be on to something!  he spit out his eggs yesterday morning as well, but i plan to try those again too and experiment with different styles of cooking them.  ever since i have started offering him the foods that we eat, i have been very impressed with what he actually enjoys.  in the past couple of days he has eaten everything from broccoli to balsamic glazed chicken.  he loves mushrooms, fish, and anything with tomato sauce.  even if he is only trying a small bite of something i offer him, i feel like it's a success.  he is learning what real food tastes like, not the bland baby food basics like rice cereal and ritz crackers. 

secondly, the autonomy.

the book spoke a lot about how important the french view autonomy.  they expect their children to be able to have self control and be self governing, without constant reminders or parental intervention. i feel like in the u.s., we try to be constantly interactive and involved with our kids because we want them to be happy and to have self-confidence.  but according to some research, this seems to be backfiring on us.  the french children, who are given more opportunities to learn to be confident and self disciplined, are just that.

i decided that in order to put this french parenting philosophy to the test, that i was merely going to give finn the opportunity to play more on his own, and then just see how he did.  so yesterday, when we went to visit mumpeg, i did.  it was a beautiful day outside, so we decided to have our visit on the front lawn.  instead of helping finn walk around the yard and playing with him through the entire visit, i decided i was going to set him up on a blanket on the grass with a couple of toys, and that i was going to sit down on the lawn chair next to mumpeg and have a chat.  to my complete shock, finn sat on the blanket and played with his toys for close to 45 minutes.  he crawled around, flicked the grass on the edges, but stayed on his blanket.  he took turns playing with different toys, and paused frequently to talk to a tree or look at the sky, or babble at tucker.  don't get me wrong, i absolutely love playing with finn, and watching him learn while we play together.  but yesterday afternoon watching him learn to completely entertain himself and be happy and comfortable in his own skin (without my constant touch, affirmations and encouragement) was really magical.  i was so impressed with him.  and with me!  he was as pleased as punch to soak up the afternoon sun and be in our company.  he actually seemed more relaxed and at ease than he does when i'm letting him crawl all over me and pull me around by the fingers.

in conclusion,

parenting is so interesting to me.  billy and i started out thinking that we were going to be a certain kind of parent.  namely, strict parents.  and then finn was born and we ended up being these incredibly wimpy parents.  with all of the baby wearing and co-sleeping we did with finn until he was almost ten months old, we were attachment parenting poster children.  but then things morphed again.  we did a little sleep coaching, and after seeing how great finn responded to some scheduling and routine that we established, we saw how great regular naps and full nights of sleep were for him (and for us!).  i don't know what kind of parents we are now, but i love learning as we go.  we will always treasure the days he snuggled up close to us at night (and let's face it, all day long), but we treasure these moments of watching him become more independent just as much.  i have found that as finn grows, it's billy and i who struggle the most with the milestones, not finn.  he seems to be ready for what's around every corner, as long as we're okay with it.  and even though the teeny tiny snuggly baby days are hard to beat, it really does just keep getting better! :)

outgrown toys.

remember when you were little and your mom was all "girls, you need to go through your old toys and give some away, you have too many toys!" and you were all "moommmmmm" and she was all "you can't get any more new toys until you give away some of your old ones!" and so you pouted all the way to the dark dusty corner of the basement to rummage through your creepy old unplayed with stuff?

and then you were all...
"OMG! MY MOST FAVORITE HALF DOG EATEN TEDDY BEAR!!!!"
"OMG! THIS IS WHERE MY HEADLESS BARBIE DOLL WAS?!!?! I'VE MISSED HER SO MUCH!"
and
"MOM!!! THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE! I CAN'T GIVE THIS ONE AWAY!"
that's a half eaten candy necklace, meg.
"OMG IT'S DELICIOUS!!!!!"

and then you played with all of your beloved reject toys for ten full minutes, refused to give any up, and then forgot about them again?

well apparently this old toy separation anxiety starts at an age i can't even remember.
because finn's got it.
bad.

i pulled his old bouncy seat out yesterday to pack up and bring to north carolina for his soon-to-be best bud weston, and let me tell you, he fell in love with the thing.  he literally played with it all day.

omg don't ever take this from me!

i finally figured out after some incredibly awkward finn moves that he was trying to get in it. 
so i humored him.

and his chunk butt was all full-recline in there but he was like "whatever mom this is how i play, pssht."

it was highly entertaining for me.  and apparently for him as well.
but, i am still giving the bouncy seat to weston.
i'm sure finn will get over it.  however, i anticipate a long road ahead when it comes to giving up old things.
i'm also sure that it has nothing to do with the fact that i may or may not still sleep with my old stuffed bunny, and billy still uses his berenstein bears pillow case. 
oops.

good luck, kid. ;)

pretty little pictures, volume 3.

hi there, april!

things have been a bit busy in these parts.  good busy.  fun busy!

i have a post in the works about how much fun it has been feeding finn lately (seriously!).  he is quite the adventurous little eater.  but in the meantime, here are some pretty little pictures.

handmade christmas gift courtesy of kev 'by.

new old bench in the kitchen.

playing with sticks and shadows.

vintage bedding.

chasing a ping pong ball. hours of fun.

wash.

soaking up some sun at the dog park.