Earth Friendly Baby Stuff

A week ago was Earth Day. In honor of that I decided to do a few posts about what J, B and I do to help the environment. Yes I know I'm starting this way late but I have a teething daughter and I'm working from home. That makes it difficult to blog.  :) What we do may not be much to some people but every little bit helps.

First and foremost we Cloth Diaper. I have mentioned it a few times but never really our reasons for doing so.

1. CDs are soooooo much better for my girls little tushie. CDs cut down on diaper rash like crazy!

2. The price! Holy Savings!!! Did you know that the average cost for 1 child in diapers until 2.5 years old is approx. $3-4,000! Yes that's right THOUSAND! To CD Brynn with our 24 diapers it has cost us Less than $500! And these diapers will be used for any future children as well. So lets say we have 3 kids (not that I am planning on 3 it just gives good numbers) Disposable diapers on the cheap end of things $9,000! Cloth Diapers $500! Now yes you will add in detergent cost but that is so minimal that I don't take it much into consideration.

3. Sooooo much better for the environment! They say that every.single.diaper that has EVER(!!!) been used is still in a landfill somewhere. It takes over 100 years for a diaper to decompose. That is sick!  

4. They are sooooo cute. Here is a pic of B's cute little tushie while she was doing the "mowgli" as a good friend calls it.


And a flashback to her newborn photoshoot. Soooo teeny!


We get our cloth diapers from our local store Cutie Poops and Bottoms. There are several (hundred) places you can get diapers from online but we like to support local small businesses plus if we only go to the store when we are in the area it saves on fuel cost for shipping. It also saves on packaging.

I'm going to go off on a little tangent quickly because it was so cool. In honor of Earth Day there was a World Wide Great Cloth Diaper Change last Saturday. Cutie Poops hosted one of these events and world wide there were 10,000 people changing a cloth diaper all at the same time. This was done to raise awareness about the awesomeness of CDs. And to hopefully teach people about what a long way they have come since my generation (and before) were CDd. It also was done to set a Guinness World Record. Cutie Poops put on an awesome event with tons of raffles (sadly we didn't win anything. haha). They also had the Easter bunny for photos. Their was a fire truck and someone doing car seat inspections. They go all out when they host events.
It was so cool to be a part of something bigger than us and to see all these people who do similar things that we do as parents.

Oh and since I know you will be wondering where it is ... ;) B's pictures with the bunny! (And from the event all together)




Me & my girl by the firetruck.

Waiting for the whistle to blow to start the diaper change.

Waiting for her diaper change. :)




Next up: Making your own baby food (and following baby led weaning.)

xoxo... P

Toys Toys Toys

Boy oh boy does Brynn know how to have a good time! And holy cow does she have the toys to help her with it!

One of her favorites from the time she was itty bitty is ... wait for it, wait for it...."holey" cow. Soooo cheesy I know! (I love it)


(Look at how little she was! This picture is from our vacation to FL. She was almost 3 months old.)

She also LOVES Sophie the Giraffe. Girl grins from ear to ear when she first hears that squeak.


(She now gives Sophie necklaces. haha. This was from ... St Patricks Day! I bet you couldn't guess based on her outfit!)


(She was a little over 3 months in this picture)

One of my favorites (and just because of what it is...) her first camera! Yay!

(From Christmas - almost 6 months)

One of her very favorites that she spends a ton of time with (especially on days I work from home) is her exersaucer! I got an amazing deal on it at Cutie Poops when the owner was selling it because her twins outgrew it.



For Christmas her Auntie Jessy and Uncle Scotty got her her very first kitchen. I stink'n love this toy. It gets old don't get me wrong but watching her play with it makes hearing "Put some water in the sink, if you're thirsty pour a drink, clean the dishes, fill the pans and don't forget to wash your hands." about 50 times in a 10 minute period not so terrible. She shrieks and screams at it the second that song starts. She has also started "dancing" along bouncing up and down. It is adorable!




(These were from just a couple weeks ago.)

Oh and her puppy. She has had a love affair with the puppy from about 1 month old. It is so funny and she laughs hysterically when I sing along with The Itsy Bitsy Spider or Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. And to watch her do "SO BIG" when the puppy says it is pretty darn entertaining I'm not going to lie.




(This is also from a couple weeks ago.)

Baby Einstein's Take Along Tunes may be one of the best inventions ever. She lights up when she hears it. She will climb over anything in her way to get to it when it is playing. (Ours is an older version it looks pretty different but I'm willing to bet this would get the same joyous reaction!)


There you have it B's favorite toys! Maybe it will help one of you with gift selections or buying for your own little one.

xoxo...P

B's 9 Month DR

Well little miss had her appointment yesterday and it went really well!

She is a little bitty thing! 17lbs 1oz and 26" long.

The Dr said she is doing great and is on track if not ahead of some developmental milestones. That made me quite the proud mama!

There were no shots this time but some blood work and along with that blood work a test for lead poisoning since our house was built (oh about 100 years) before the 1970s. She did fine with the heel prick but when they were squeezing her foot to get the blood out she wasn't a happy girl.

Here are just a few of her 9 month pictures.





She LOVES her bear.



And she LOVES to give kisses to anyone that wants them! Stuffed animals included!



Standing in the chair.







She hasn't quite realized that you aren't supposed to eat books yet. ...



Much better... learning from mommy. :)



blowing bubbles...



BIG bubbles!



Until next time...
xoxo... P

Blackhawks & Brynnie

This past weekend was incredible! I loved it.

Saturday night we had a wedding to go to for one of my brother's very good friends. It is so weird to me that Alex has friends that are getting married. I don't know why. They are only 2 years younger than me. But I have known these boys since they were Freshmen in HS! HS!!! They were so little!!!

Anyway, the wedding was so fun and we had a great time.

Sunday though... Sunday was Amazing!

We went to the Blackhawks/RedWings game. Sadly we lost. :( But.... thanks to the Dallas Stars we are in the playoffs!

So what was so great about the day you ask. Besides the 85* temps (WAHOO!) there were many high points in our day.

1. J & B got their picture taken (by me of course) with .... BOBBY HULL!!!!!!!!


2. Brynnie was on the big screen at the game! (I'm sooooo mad I didn't have J take a picture of the screen!)

3. I had 4 women come up to me while I was changing her diaper and comment that she was so cute on the screen - she was drinking a bottle and bouncing up and down "dancing" to the music. A couple also commented on her cloth diapers! :)

4. We took her to the park for the first time. It was wonderful. I LOVE the park. She screamed when we took her out of the swing. She had the best time.

















xoxo... P

PS. Brynnie is a Sox fan!

S'08 GTG Weekend

**Disclaimer** I could have sworn I hit "Publish" about a week and a half ago until I came on to start another post today. Apparently I didn't. Oops!

I had an AMAZING weekend with my friends! It was incredible to FINALLY meet these women. I picked a few of them up from the airport and when I got there it was so cool to know exactly who was who. There was no need for introductions! It was kind of a sureal feeling. 


The girls I picked up were incredibly nice and went with me to drop off Chance after babysitting for a few days. (Talk about exhausting.) We then took the EL to our hotel and after getting settled (and finding a nice surprise of wine in our rooms) we met at the hotel bar for drinks and appetizers. As more and more people arrived they joined the group before we all got ready for dinner. 




There were 11 of us for dinner that night and the company and the food were both great. Everyone pretty much went straight to bed that night since we were either tired from travel or running after a 12 month old and a 9 month old. ;)







The next morning we got up early to go to breakfast. It was a pretty cool breakfast joint that when you walked in you got a donut hole, you sat down and got a box of Milk Duds and then after you had your meal you got a little scoop of ice cream. Ice cream at 8AM? YES PLEASE! ;) 







After we all got ready for the day and one of the other ladies arrived most of us went on a Trolley tour of Chicago. (The other ladies did a food tour) We met the Trolley at Millenium Park and before we did that we took a bunch of pictures by the bean.





One of the stops on the tour was Water Tower Place where we got off to grab a quick lunch. (And stop at the Hershey's Store for our free chocolate bar!)


(Can we talk about the size of that Hersheys Syrup?! YUM!)

For the next leg of our journey we had to ride on the top of the bus! HOLY COLD!



Our next stop was the Sears Tower... ok it is now called the Willis Tower but not in my mind.
We all had tickets to go up and J was going to be bringing B down to meet all the ladies so they were going to join us there. Sadly he was running late and the line was supposed to be 2 hours long and he wouldn't have been able to meet up with us. So I decided to save my ticket since it is good for a year and went back to the hotel to wait for them.

It worked out ok in the end since all of the ladies got to meet them.






I put Brynnie in the window for a photo shoot after I fed her. :) She LOVED it!







That night we had dinner at the hotel - China Grill. So yummy.








Thanks for the bracelet Amy! I wear it all the time!

We also had plans to go out dancing but since it was so cold we ended up staying at the hotel and going to the bar there.




































2 of our lovely ladies that couldn't make it were there in spirit. :)

Several of the ladies had to leave early to catch their flights but those of us that didn't met for a quick breakfast.



After we all went our own way I took the EL back to my sissy's picked up my car and headed home. It was much too short of a visit but I was so happy to meet them. We are already talking about our next GTG. We are thinking a beach somewhere... :)

Hopefully even more of us will be able to make it to that one.


xoxo... P