Elimination Communication

Ok so this is SOOOOO EXCITING! I recently learned about this thing called ELIMINATION COMMUNICATION or EC for short, basically it's potty learning for your infant! I had heard of it before and blew off the idea as an unreasonable expectation and almost cruel for an infant UNTIL i saw a video on youtube that showed me all about it, is is such a gentle wonderful teaching experience and really WORKS! I began with Jeremiah today and not a minute too soon I might add, they say to begin with EC before 6 mo and he just turned 5 mo so we cut it pretty close but thus far it has been amazing!!!! Today i sat him on the potty well really held him over and made the little pss pss sound in his ear and he went pee! I was able to get some great help from someone who posted the video on youtube by emailing her and she gave me some pointers to start and will be giving me more later this week! This is such an exciting experience and I can not wait to tell you all about it as it unfolds! This womans baby is in underwear at age ONE! wow how great is that :) Well I will be away from my computer till Thursday so see ya then :)

Sleeping In....

WOW I think I am going into shock...for the last two mornings and for the third time in less than a month I was able to sleep till 8 am! I do not know about you but ever since becoming a mommy 4 years ago sleeping in is a rare experience in this home...So for a few glorious mornings I have experienced the bliss of sleeping uninterupted AND NOT waking up to emptied wipe containers and powder all over the room with eli sitting on the changing table rubbing soap/lotion head to toe (usually i get the latter if i try to sleep in) that or all the clothes emptied out of the dresser!...now I have energy to do all my chores today ...bleh :(

The Adventure Begins... Again!

So tomorrow I am going to start with the cloth diapers again...I have finished up with the disposables and am sooo excited to start with cloth again tomorrow :) I worked out a really nice new schedule for the upcoming school year (my baby girls first year!!! --well its PRE-K but still...)so with that i think the couple extra loads of laundry will be a cinch...Still waiting on some new product to come in for a review should be here in the next couple weeks, in the meantime please sign up as a follower if you have not already as i have talked to several friends who read this but do not show up as a follower Thanks :)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles-now we have done it all!

This summer the kids and i were able to experience all forms of travel starting with a car trip to Ft. Lauderdale FL and ending with a plane trip to West Virginia! Now i will say while traveling with the three kids was a challenge at times it was not as bad as everyone seemed to make it out to be....aside from dealing with a pukey little 2 year old ( 3 times driving from ft.lauderdale and 2 times on the return flight from w.v.! ) I am so glad i was able to gift my children with a broad spectrum of travel! My oldest got to go a couple of times just with my mom some places and was able to take a bus trip! we have crammed into sporty cars, stretched out in SUVs, burnt up in our minivan(AC broke ) jostled, and clacked down the tracks on the trains-complete with a one hour stop in the middle of nowhere-and finally flew up in the air - non stop thank goodness!- it was wonderful,exciting, and fun but we are soooo glad to be back home! and for those of you who are wondering im shamefully confessing we regressed to disposables during our travels-yes i was wasteful but I DID cringe at doing it , that and using disposable bibs, hey my grandma got them for the kids i couldn't be rude! :( but I am BACK HOME and ready to go with abundant energy into my beloved cloths! and by the way be on the look out for some up and coming reviews....

DIAPER STORE REVIEW and updates

So the cloth diapering is going really well especially now that i have more diapers! I said it before and I will say it again Ive gone cloth and I will never go back! I LOVE IT! my boys love it! Eli is already improved in potty training too! Also I would love to mention I got great product from The Natural Life Store and had the wonderful opportunity to "meet" (via email) Alica the owner who was extremely helpful and pleasant to work with :) THE NATURAL LIFE STORE has great product, very reasonable shipping (just 6 dollars for orders under 80 and 80 and up is FREE!) also her prices are competitive and there is a great diaper exchange program. I was also able to get lots of helpful information on cloth diapers ( her website was the MOST HELPFUL in helping me figure out what detergents to use and how to strip diapers should i need to. I for one will sure be giving all my business to the NATUAL LIFE STORE! I already know what my next order is going to be (hint-check out the SoftBums diapers -they are so cute- I am just waiting for the giraffe print to come in...of course i might just have to cave and get the robot print....it's all so cute i can not decide) SO as soon as you get a chance go on over to www.thenaturallifestore.com and check it out! Now just so everyone knows i will be out from sunday-next wednesday (21st) as i will be going to home sweet home West Virginia to visit my grandmother and let her have a chance to meet her precious little great grandbabies and also experience their abundant energy...please keep me in your prayers as I will be in a house full of breakable antiques with eli for 7 days...i can feel the tension in my neck just thinking of it! Well gotta go calm the storm raging through my house...bedtime has an ETA of 7:30 tonight!

GROCERY STORE/diaper update

so i went to the store with the kiddos yesterday ...it's been a while since i have gone alone with all three...what a nightmare. Hubby says its because i do not "tell and compel" i think they just listen to men better! although i could use some adjusting in my discipline. Geez its like going anywhere with them is an issue though! first eli of course had a poopy dipe that needed changing as soon as we walked in the doors and then i decided to get savy some silly bands and that was a 20 minute decision making ---she is her mothers daughter. then i realized i forgot my list in the car but i was NOT about to go back out to the car after 30 minutes it had taken me to start down aisle 1! so needless to say i did not get 1/2 the stuff i needed and did get a bunch of junk i did not need..oh then there was another 20 minute issue at the register and i had a bunch of people behind me getting all grumpy but whatever....well sorry this blog isnt too great today i actually forgot i had started a blog and i know i have not posted since saturday and since i will not be able to post later or tomorrow i thought i would waste some space now....i would not want to let down any of my "followers" if there is any.... oh well . OH AND BTW the cloth thing is going quite well still only part time though till i get all the dipes i need ...alright then post again tomorrow....

Is That Really NORMAL?!?

Ok so you know how little kids like to pretend like they are animals? Well my son Elijah, i swear has taken it to a whole new level that sometimes has me wondering if it is really normal...It started a few months ago when he saw big sister playing puppy/kitty, he would crawl around and pant and come up for "treats" , even do tricks like "roll over" . I know it sounds horrible but he WANTED to play it so we all went along tossing it to the side as a phase and it was. after a couple of weeks it wore off its novelty. Until recently...i went and nannied for a family part time for a couple weeks and they had two dogs, that is when it all started.... so we come home after my 3rd day on the job and Savannah wants to play puppy she did her little bossy thing and told him which dog he would be and what to do. Ever since then almost DAILY he wants to crawl on the floor and pant and--this is gross ok? --- put food on the floor and lick it off! he even came up to his baby brother on the floor and licked his hand! ok now here is the really bad part so we were back at that house watching their kids and i was busy with the other kids (theirs and mine) and he decides he wants a drink and i was not quick enough at meeting his demands so he took the thought and went with it to play " doggy" and went to the dog dish and actually drank the water! if my grandma had seen that- she would have flipped out! well i guess its not the WORST thing but still...it makes me wonder..IS THAT NORMAL?!?


im taking a break for the rest of the weekend look for a new post monday :)

cloth diapers 101

well here is my first blog....

Well last night was jeremiahs first night in a cloth diaper. He loved it. I loved it. the world was at peace...until 6:30 this morning, then i heard it:the inevitable was happening. Guess what...babies poop in cloth too. ---just be thankful i spared you all a pic of that!--those of you who really know me know it did cross my mind, just becuase you know i like to share ---well i KNEW it would come but why did it have to be his very first diaper?!? well IT happens ---hahaha*stupid joke* and like a trooper that i am I went in to the battle zone and below was my outcome...

Sooooo(drum roll please)... i present my first flat fold diaper!!!! TADAAAA!

OK OOK sooo not that impressive, but let me be the first to tell you all, this is MUCH harder than it looks! who would have thought that it would take someone with 13 years of diapering experience TWENTY ,yes folks thats right TWENTY, minutes to fold a piece of cloth and wrap it on my babies butt!all in all i think i did pretty good for a first timer now i will say this for my self: the 20 minutes INCLUDED me stopping to Google how to fold it. Then I discovered I apparently made a mistake in getting the flats from Wal Mart as they are (as everyone in the cloth diapering world seemed to say) a joke for a diaper. IT WAS TOO SMALL and pilled very badly in the pre-washes so here i was trying to make an absorbent fold and make the diaper fit his chubby sides! also i had a stuffer in the diaper that is not meant to rub against babies skin so i had to make sure that whatever fold i used was not exposing the diaper stuffer...but as you can see i did finally accomplish it. then all i had to do was dunk and rinse the other diaper...yuck i discovered i will need that 45 dollar little sprayer that attaches to the toilet because ...well i will just leave this part unsaid. anyways even with the nitty gritty work i would have to say SO FAR i really enjoy the cloth diapers and i can not believe i ever put my sweet little babies but in anything else! the extra work is worth it! he is comfortable and happy and I am happy! Hey i know its not everyone's cup of tea, i used to think it certainly wasn't mine , but my wallet is glad i proved myself wrong! as is our environment. not only are we saving approx. 1500 dollars by switching to cloth, i am saving our environment from 6-10,000 diapers sitting in a landfill for over 400 years!.....well that is really all i have to say about that for now! stay tuned for more adventures in diaperland!