Update: Product Review - Cloth Diapers Eh

A while back I did a product review on the diapers I bought from the fine ladies at Cloth Diapers Eh and I wanted to touch base and give you all an update because although they look really nice, its “how do they stand up under performance” that matters to most people.

Seriously, I love these diapers.

I had a small fear in the back of my mind that was worrying me that I was going to find them to be a chore and not worth the hassle. I am happy to report that these diapers are actually getting better with continued use because the fleece gets more and more absorbent with each wash. I use a laundry soap that is actually recycled hotel room soaps called Buffalo Recycled. I’d link to their website but its been down for a few months. Its made in Victoria and the hotel soaps are from Victoria hotels. Because its not a “detergent” per se, but rather, a soap, it seems to be working really well. I was worried about residue buildup on the diapers but it works great and more importantly, doesn’t bother Kale’s skin.

I bought the original 12 diapers, each one coming with a liner, and then I elected to buy an additional 6 liners to get a bit more wear out of the diapers since the outside part isn’t always soiled. I also bought two wet bags and a swim diaper which will get used when Ross and Kale start Waterbabies in a few short months.

Kale’s legs are also finally getting a bit chubbier. As you may recall, I bought the medium size and he wasn’t yet 15 pounds (he still isn’t) and so we had the occasional leak or poo-splosion but now that his legs are getting chubbier that happens less and less. In fact, its getting harder to do up the snaps on the smallest setting these days as his tummy gets bigger too.

So I just wanted to update you all - these diapers are still considered “awesome”.

Toys

This post is especially for Melanie, who was bemoaning the fact that she hadn’t had time to research toys for her daughter and instead spent a lot of time singing and clapping and being silly instead.

I think that being silly, laughing, singing, and dancing about are the best toys for any child. Anything interactive with your kid is going to do so much for development, more than any toy that claims to do so. That said, however, there are times when you need to provide your baby with something to entertain them while you go to the bathroom, make a cup of tea, or have to have your attention away for a little while. 

Kale has a few toys that have become the favorites. I spent a great deal of time researching toys (I tend to get obsessive about this sort of thing) and I eventually bought three Lamaze toys for him from a very nice lady on eBay: Jacques the Peacock, Mortimer the Moose, and Sydney the Kangaroo with bonus baby Sandy. Kale really likes Mortimer (his uncle Jim would be so proud of Kale’s moose-y love), and thinks Jacques the Peacock is totally awesome too, but could care less about the Kangaroo. The three toys are supposed to help with all sorts of wonderful development -auditory and tactile and bla bla bla. He likes the sounds and the way it feels and I think gets a kick out of the fact that he can chew on them and hold them. I don’t care what the supposed skills are that he is developing - to me it’s “Is he having fun?” and if the answer is “yes” then good enough.  

He also has an Octoplush, which he was given as a gift. Its from the Baby Einstein people which I think is a bit of a crock but he enjoys it fair enough. Except for accidentally making it say “REDREDREDREDRED” once when he happened to get the red tentacle into his mouth, he doesn’t yet have the ability to actuate the Octoplush. Although, I like this toy because it cracks me up. The premise of the toy is that it has eight (duh, its an octopus) arms, each one with a colour and a picture of something that is that colour, on a pad that when you press it, it says the colour. Like, there is a green leaf. And when you press the leaf, it chirps “green!” and you can change it so its Spanish, English or French. But the brown one, which is a bear, cracks me up because the tone of the voice as she says “brown” is totally all bow-chika-wow-wow!. No exclamation mark on that one. When you squish the Octopus’ head, it plays one of three classical music songs. And seriously? Wow. Those get stuck in your head and I find myself humming them at various points of the day. 

But Kale’s absolute favorite toy, which we discovered quite by accident this weekend is a chip bag with some chip dust in the bottom of it. No kidding.

From Kale 3 to 6 months

I guess he really likes the crinkly noise it makes. Ross blew it up a bit and put a twist tie on it and WHOA. It was a whole new world of goodness.

From Kale 3 to 6 months

It kept him entertained for about 30 minutes. We actually had to take it away to repair the loosening twist tie because little red chip dust was getting everywhere. Mooki also likes this toy for that very reason. 

From Kale 3 to 6 months

And just for fun, here is a bonus shot of the Extra Cute™ that we also discovered this weekend:

From Kale 3 to 6 months

I decided that all clothes from now on will have ears because WOW, that’s freakin’ adorable.

Are You Serious?

I was out for a walk with Mooki and Kale yesterday, and took this photo:

From Miscellaneous

Do you see that? There, in the window of that ground floor apartment? 

Yeah, that’s a Christmas tree. 

Wow. And I thought I was gung ho for Christmas this year.

World’s Smallest Shampoo Mohawk

From Kale 3 to 6 months

Is it bad if I have been waiting for his hair to get long enough so that I could do this?

Local Politics and Pictures of the Boy

Ross and I (okay, well, mostly me) have this silly little addiction for watching the local public access channel’s coverage for the council meetings for our community. Seriously, its like a soap opera. I love it. Anyway, a few weeks ago, we were watching and things got heated because two councillors belong to a group called Voice, which they claim is NOT a political party, and apparently the group leaked some information to the media about some in camera information currently in discussion with the sitting council. Anyway, the group leaked to the media, the media called another councillor for confirmation, and he was misquoted, basically accused the councillors and not the group of leaking the info. So the two councillors tried to demand an apology from the misquoted councillor and the whole thing ended up with the mayor basically telling them to STFU and stormed out. It was, seriously, awesome.

Its civic election time here in BC, and of course I’m voting because I go off the theory that if you don’t vote you can’t whine. So all over the place, popping up like mushrooms, is political signs advertising candidates and what do I spy? Signs for Voice New Westminster. You know, the group that is ”not a political party”. I’m not linking to their site because I don’t think they deserve the traffic.

So here’s the deal. If you live in New West, cast your vote for Wayne Wright if only because he’s a no-bullshiter when it comes to what he stands for. Anyone who says that Voice New Westminster is not a political party and is “just an organization” (whose president HAPPENS TO BE RUNNING FOR MAYOR) is full of poopies.

And because politics isn’t really my normal discussion topics:

I look like an ad for a hat company:

From Kale 3 to 6 months

A boy and his dad:

From Kale 3 to 6 months

Demographically-correct family out for a walk in the rain:

From Kale 3 to 6 months

Making Holiday Plans

It is November 10th and I am SO EXCITED for Christmas this year. Not because I care about presents or anything, but because this is Kale’s first Christmas and Ross and I have elected to stay home as a family for the first time and really enjoy each other’s company. I have a huge 6 foot tree. Yes, its fake, and yes, its made out of plastic but the fake tree versus real tree argument is long and this fake plastic one was given to us used for free and would have gone in the landfill had we not taken it and I intend to use it for a number of years, so to me, that’s the eco-choice. Anyway, so I can’t wait to decorate this tree and make it all festive in here. I’m excited to see what Kale thinks of all the glitter.

Last year Ross and I challenged one another to try and give gifts that met two criteria: 1) handcrafted by someone, and 2) under $50. It was really hard, but we managed to find gifts for one another that we both really loved. This year, we are continuing that tradition but have changed a few of the conditions and are allowing a bit more dollars (it was really hard to stick to $50).

It’s hard not to shop like a fiend for Kale - but he’ll never actually remember it so its more about the experience of Christmas rather than the gifts.

# # # # #

As some of you know, Ross and I participated in a documentary during my pregnancy, and filming has wrapped on that. The producers have recently emailed asking for some family shots so I’ve been having fun taking lots of pictures. Here’s one from today that I really like:

From Kale 3 to 6 months

Grab Bag of Stuff

I’ve been so excited the last few days about all sorts of stuff, that I have hardly had time to sit down and write an entry.

First - yay that Obama has been elected. I’m not American, and while I can’t share the excitement of having voted for him, I CAN share the excitement that I think most of the world thinks right now - finally, here’s a guy that might make the US of A LIKABLE. Its funny that my fuddy-duddy stiff Canadian Prime Minister now seems like the lame one when you compare the two.

Second - Kale has now figured out the whole flipping over from his back to his tummy. Of course, once he gets there with his arms awkwardly underneath him, he gets rather irate and I have to rescue him from the WOE and MISERY that is his life. And he has not yet figured out how to put 2 (the flipping from front to back) and 2 (the flipping from back to front) together to equal 4 (a full roll). Either way, my life as I know it is freakin’ OVER.

Third, I was given a swing by a friend of mine (hi Terra!) and while we haven’t even put batteries in the thing, Kale likes it. Ross and I wondered if he would, since he seems to enjoy his bouncy chair based on what HE can do to make IT do something, and his Jolly Jumper, again, based on what HE does to affect movement. The swing is more of a sit and relax sort of ride, kinda like the ferris wheel, where you just take it all in and chill. Here is a movie of him in the swing for the first time ever - its really short.

Today Kale and I joined our friends Shauna (the mom) and Bonnie (the baby) and went for a walk to the health unit to weigh the kids. Why we elected to do that in the pouring piss I have no idea. But, for those of you following the boy’s weight progress, he is 14.1 pounds. Actually, he was 14.4 pounds, but they ask that you leave on the diaper and I also left on a shirt, so they tell you to take off 3 oz for a cloth diaper and a shirt. So 14.1 pounds he is. That means since September 29, Kale has gained 1.1 pounds, or (if my math is correct) about a 3.3 ounces a week in the last five weeks. Is that right? If that’s right, that’s dead on average for weight gain.

Finally, some Kale pictures because I know that’s all you really want. I was trying to get some pictures of Kale in his awesome diapers to send to the ladies at Cloth Diapers Eh for their brag page, but he’s so squirmy these days that I took seven photos trying to get a clear shot of him NOT squirming and then gave up. Here is a mosaic I made using the new version of Picasa (sweet!) with the best shot in the middle:

 
I decided to make bread from scratch the other day because I happened to read the actual ingredients list of the bread Ross brought home from the grocery and OMG - gross. So I made my own. Kale helped from the carrier. I am being told that he looks less like me these days as his face changes.

From Kale 3 to 6 months

Finally, here is a shot of him wearing one of his many, many cute outfits that was a gift. It says “what happens in my crib, stays in my crib” and its a rare photo of him SMILING:
 

From Kale 3 to 6 months

Recipes of Doom

So I’ve been typing out this random pile of recipes for my mom for the last little while, and I’ve come across two that need to be shared if only for their What. The. Hell. quotient. They are both written on a scrap of yellowed lined paper and I recognize my Nana’s totally obvious all-caps printing so the “mum’s” that is referred to below is my great-grandmother, for whom I have been bestowed a middle name. Anyway, I had a HUGE laugh researching these ingredients and thought I’d share.

Disclaimer: Don’t make these and if you do, its your own fault if you get sick or die. I present them for humor’s sake only, yadda yadda yadda.  

Recipe # 1:

Titled Canadian Lemon Syrop (sic) Cordial, this one is obviously “Canadian” because its made from special Canadian ingredients, of course. My guess is that Nana was given this recipe by one of her first Canadian friends, someone who had her convinced that only us crazy Canucks would ever make such a jaunty and thrilling drink such as this and who then had a great laugh at her expense when she served this to guests. The ingredients don’t frighten me much, only confuse me. Are we eating this or are we going to have a bath in it? The recipe calls for:

• 2 oz citric acid. Okay this one is fine. Citric acid is in about 90% of the citrus-y flavoured stuff we consume and one form of citric acid is actually vitamin C. Nowadays, citric acid is a common ingredient in homemade bath bombs and apparently you can still find it in canning sections for when you are canning things that may brown. And its cheap, too. One online store I found it at it was $2.25 a pound. Fair enough.
• 1 oz tartaric acid. This one was easy enough to figure out too. This is commonly found in wine and is the cause of “wine diamonds” which are the little crystals that occasionally form on the corks. Its also related to cream of tartar, which I have in my cupboard (not scary). However, there was one slightly alarming sentence in the Wikipedia entry: “Tartaric acid is a muscle toxin, which works by inhibiting the production of malic acid, and in high doses causes paralysis and death.” You know, because us Canadians LAUGH IN THE FACE OF DEATH SO LET’S PUT THIS SHIT IN A DRINK.
• 1/2 oz Epsom Salts. I know what these are. I have a great big huge jug of them beside my tub and use them when I have a bath. I like them, and they make the water soft amd I have scented them before with essential oils and wait… isn’t this supposed to be a drink? I’m confused.
• 3 lbs of lump sugar. Okay now we are talking! Anything with that much sugar is bound to be good.
• The juice and grated rind of 6 lemons. No more, no less. 6 lemons.
• 3 pints of boiling water. Because boiling water makes everything taste better.

The directions say: Mix all together and scald with boiling water. Cool and strain into a bottle. A really effing big bottle, I would suppose.  Use about 1 tablespoon per tumbler of water. This is when the word “tumbler” was new. And very, very exciting. Makes a lovely refreshing drink! THAT YOU COULD BATH IN.

Recipe # 2:

This one is titled “Mum’s Recipe for Cough Mixture” and contains 1 oz each of the following:

• oil of peppermint. That sounds safe and pleasant enough. I like peppermint. I have this ingredient in my baking stash.
• oil of aniseed. Okay, not my favorite, but again, safe enough, right? I don’t have this, but it is available and is commonly used for all sorts of liquorice tasting things, including absinthe. (Okay, maybe not so safe.)
• ladunum (sic). I had a hard time hunting this one down - it can be confused with labdanum, a common perfume ingredient derived from some shruberries. However, I think she was actually suggesting Oil of Laudanum, also known as TINCTURE OF OPIUM. Seriously? What. The. Hell?  This stuff actually contains about 10 mgs of morphine per millilitre of tincture. In the Victorian age, Laudanum was spoon fed to infants (no wonder they were so quiet and well mannered!)  and people DIED from overdosing on the stuff after becoming heavily addicted. Books were written under the influence and about laudanum. AWESOME idea, Great-Grandma - put this in COUGH MIXTURE! It’s only a Schedule III controlled substance for which you need to affix a BRIGHT RED STICKER with skull and crossbones on it! YUMMY!
• paregoric. If having 1 ounce of laudanum wasn’t good enough, we need to add some of this stuff to it. Known as laudanum’s weaker cousin, paregoric is another opium derivative, this one contains about 0.4 mgs of morphine per millilitre, and is better known for its antidiarrheal properties and its antitussive properties (So this is the only part of the cough mixture that actually is supposed to curb a cough). Or, you could just take some Immodium and Robitussin and oh, I don’t know, NOT DIE.
• “Spanish”. I have no idea what this ingredient refers to. Spanish coffee? Spanish onions? The Spanish River? Should you mix this while speaking Spanish? Was there some other mysterious Victoria ingredient calling Spanish? I can’t find it. She may have been referring to “Spanish Fly”, also known as Cantharidin, which athough supposedly an aphrodesiac, can cause urinary and genital irritation and / or permanent erections, and that’s IF YOU DON’T DIE RIGHT AWAY, because it is FATAL in as low as 10 mg. Judging from the rest of this list, I would not be shocked if this was the ingredient she was referring to.

To those lovely ingredients you are supposed to add 1/2 pound of Black Treacle. Treacle is one of those things that British people seem to know more about than us pioneering colonials, probably because it was used widely in days when Canada DIDN’T EVEN EXIST. Anyway, if I was going to try and reproduce “Mum’s Recipe for Cough Mixture” today, I would simply use molasses. Not 100% the same thing, but close enough. Black sugar that is sticky.

Finally, you add 1 pint of boiling water, (this is the catch-all ingredient of the day, apparently)  presumably to dilute and thin it down enough that you can actually swallow it.

No dose is given but then again, when you are combining ingredients that just MIGHT KILL YOU does it really matter?

Boo!

Today is Halloween and although we have no plans to go anywhere, I still decided to put on my glow in the dark spooky owl-on-a-fence undies I have been DYING to wear:

From Miscellaneous

 (And yes, Mom, I really did just post a picture of my underwear on the Internet. Aren’t you proud of me?)

Ross and I have gone to parties in the past, and we are actually known for our awesome duo costumes.

A friend routinely has a huge party on the Saturday before Halloween and goes all out and covers his walls in black plastic, has more decorations that I can count, and last time I went, had a BAND playing in his living room. Man, I would hate to be his neighbour.  I wish wish wish I had photos from the last year I went - I was a dead prom queen and man, it was GOOD.

We’ve been asked a few times if we were going to dress up Kale, and this year we have decided not to because we aren’t going anywhere. Two years ago, we went through the process of carving pumpkins and buying candy and waiting excitedly at home for children to come to our door on Halloween night (I think it was a Wednesday). We live in a townhouse complex, and we also happen to live at the very back, and I guess no one thought to come back here because not one single child knocked on our door. Disappointed with that, last year we elected to go to my friend’s house, and her and her hubby happen to live in a totally awesome fun neighbourhood that encourages the families to get involved in the spirit of Halloween and even closes off a road in the neighbourhood so the local firemen can blast off a bunch of fireworks that they buy using money they got from donated pop cans all year long. It was SO AWESOME and there was at least 100 kids. THAT is the type of Halloween I remember! None of this “let’s go to the mall and stand around” junk, it was “knock on your neighbour’s door and take a pillowcase!” type of stuff. I also remember a neighbour, who my brother identified as the Stewart’s, who used to have kids over to bob for apples both on strings and also in big buckets.

Here are some costumes I have had a hand in over the years:

Ross-a and Jen, the twins (Ross is going to kill me):

From Awesome Costumes From My Past

Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy:

From Awesome Costumes From My Past

Lindsay, as cactus (I helped come up with the idea for this one, but Lindsay made it):

From Awesome Costumes From My Past

Ross, as a mummy:

From Awesome Costumes From My Past

And me, as an 80’s rock skank, who also happens to be walking her dog (funny, those boots are cool again, WTF?):

From Awesome Costumes From My Past

Happy Halloween!

Stuff I Do When He’s Not Awake

Today Kale and I are having one of those days where basically he sleeps and I sit around waiting for him to wake up so that I can feed him and we can PLAY PLAY PLAY and then he starts yawning and rubbing his face and I am like “Really? Already? Are you serious? Okay then!”. Gillian told me that kids only grow when they sleep and so all I have to say is that Kale is going to be, like, 5 inches taller tomorrow because holy sleepyhead, Batman.

I almost managed to get my sewing machine out of the closet today, but then I got sidetracked and the Internet was calling. I did some laundry, and typed some recipes out for Mom (I’ve offered to take all her little scraps of paper and put them on cute little 3.5 X 5 recipe cards, thereby letting the OCD in me feel better knowing the paper? It’s ALIGNED. Phew!), and I have to admit I spent about 30 minutes trying to find the darn latch on the umbrella stroller I bought off Craigslist so that I could fold the thing down and tidy up. I have become the MASTER of tidy-up - its the first thing I do when Kale is napping because I can’t stand clutter and a messy house (why on earth did I have a child, then? I don’t know!) - and so I did some speed tidying today. I’m going to sweep and mop this afternoon as well. Aren’t I the party animal?

The days of me believing that a Swiffer Wet was sufficient to clean the floors are OVER. I don’t know what changed - suddenly I started actually seeing the residue that the Swiffer Wet left behind (we are talking about the ghetto Swiffer Wet - not the fancy one that sprays, we are talking about the regular Swiffer that you put a pre-moistened towelette onto and end up using like, 5 of the things to get your floors clean) and it started to bug me. And I also realized that the broom I use in the house is about 15 years old, so I got all fancy pants last week and I bought a NEW MOP and a NEW BROOM and I am so so so so sad that the purchase of those two household items absolutely THRILLS me. Seriously. I can’t wait to use them for the first time.

I also did some online comparison shopping - I am not happy with the el-cheapo used umbrella stroller I bought off Craigslist (Imagine that!) so I was doing research into yet another new stroller. Here are all the things I want a stroller to be:

• small and portable
• able to be steered with one hand
• fold-down-able
• have a basket
• have wheels that are pretty decent and can turn well
• have a safety harness
• have a rain/sun cover

And of course, I don’t want to spend more than $125 on it. Because I am cheap!

I figured the Combi one I bought did all that and on paper it did. But alas, I boguht it, brought it home, spent three hours cleaning and scrubbing it, and popped Kale into it, and discovered it sucks donkey butt when you try and steer it with one hand. So for now, I am using my Peg Perego big huge space sucking one.

Sorry, I got sidetracked there - this is not yet another post ranting about my stupid stroller that I hate.

I also made a dentist appointment, and I think I am the only person in the world who actually LIKES going to the dentist. I wasn’t able to go the entire time I was pregnant (not because my midwife said no, but because my dentist didn’t want me there) and it’s just one of those things that gets forgotten about in the hustle and bustle of my normal day, so I actually wrote a post-it note and stuck it to the computer so that I sat down and made an appointment before checking all my favorite blogs and forums.

Oh! Finally, the boy wakes! YAY! Who knew I’d be sitting around waiting for him to wake up. I need to get some more hobbies.

Also? Shhhh….. we have been two-sided breastfeeding for a WHOLE WEEK!