Tobias-isms

As Tobias learns new words and phrases every day, we find ourselves having plenty to laugh about every day. Here are some of my favorites from the past few weeks.

Turning onto our street for the first time when coming back from Italy: "Our room!". He had forgotten the word "home" but he knew where we were!

First manly sentence (while grocery shopping): "All done. Shopping. Back home!"

For awhile he would come to us with a banana or orange and say "Zip, zip!". I was almost sad when he learned the word "peel", because "zip" was so cute!

Me: "What does mommy have in her tummy?". Tobias: "Cereal." Well, the answer we were going for was "baby" but I guess cereal was also correct. On another occasion he answered "airplane" (which is not correct at all, for the record).

Cloth Diapers in Italy

I know, I know. I need to be writing posts for my own blog. Don't worry, I have some in the works.

But, hoping that others could get ideas from my experience taking the cloth diapers along to Italy, I wrote up a guest post on what I took along and how the washing went, etc. for a cloth diapering blog. Washing the diapers was a little harder than at home, just because I had to haul the wet laundry out of our basement and through the other apartment to get to the drying racks and sunny terraces. But the view while doing so was gorgeous so I shouldn't complain!

Ups and Downs of Being a Toddler

Ups: Playing with friends at church, getting cool packages in the mail, wearing cute hats

Downs: Falling on head and visiting emergency room

Ups: Being silly while eating peas

Guest Post at Happymoneysaver.com

Recently I enjoyed getting to write a guest post for a favorite blog of mine, Happy Money Saver. It is a blog that helps people get good deals on groceries, online purchases, and fun freebies and samples. After seeing several posts with excellent tips on how to combine coupons/sales to get good deals on disposable diapers, I asked Karrie if I could write a post for her on saving money with cloth diapers. Some of the tips I learned from experience, and some I had heard from friends. I had a lot of fun writing it up and I hope it was helpful to lots of readers!

Knows letters, prefers trucks

Don't worry, we don't have him doing "big kid" schoolwork all day, but he likes guessing the letters I draw on the Magna Doodle or iPod. T is his favorite letter so far and he likes to find all the capital Ts in his books.

Books!

Next Up: Brain Surgery

These toys are meant to blink, spin, or ding when you connect the matching colored other half. For a new challenge, Nate taught him to push the tiny buttons directly with a chopstick.

Somersaults and Spins

The things we do to wear him out before bedtime...

Silly Dance

(17 months old)

Drummer Boys

Saver

Cloth Diapers: Part 1

Over the past couple months I've had 3 people ask me "I know you use cloth diapers. We are thinking of using them with our baby. Do you like them? What kind do you use?" and other questions. I thought it would be helpful to write up a little information about it so that I can include some pictures for those people, and perhaps it will prove helpful to others as well.

Why?

We have saved a lot of money compared to full-time disposable diaper use. I've spent about $250 on diapers. That includes having a small set at both sets of grandparents' houses. Even if I add in detergent and water/electric costs, I am coming out ahead. They work better; I have never had poop leak out onto his clothing, and only rarely a pee leak. I also keep the environmental and health costs of disposable diapers in mind. It just makes sense that re-useable diapers use less resources (money and natural resources), just like re-useable clothing, dishes, and towels do. We line-dry when possible and plan to save the diapers for future children, which increases our cost savings and lowers the amount of energy and resources used.

What kind(s)?

We use mostly prefolds and covers. Everyone has different preferences on what type or brand of cloth diaper works best. There are lots of amazing new types of diapers out there, many of which go on like a disposable. These pocket diapers and all-in-ones are great for on the go changes, wiggly babies, or caregivers who may not be familiar or comfortable with cloth diapers. Many people have a whole stash of these types of diapers. However, they are a bit pricey for me and I actually prefer being able to use the outer waterproof cover for several changes. You only need 4-8 covers (and 2-3 dozen diapers to put in them), whereas with pocket diapers or all-in-ones you can be spending $15+ per diaper because the waterproof outer layer is part of each diaper. The prefolds aren't as picky about what kind of detergent they're washed in (wrong detergent + synthetic fabric pocket diaper = rash for Tobias), and there is no elastic or velcro in the diaper to wear out so they are supposed to last through several kids. Another benefit of prefolds is that you can use them for other purposes in a pinch, such as a changing pad, towel, or burp cloth. There are many occasions that I have been glad to have an extra in my diaper bag.

When Toby was little, we would use a snappi fastener to hold the diaper closed, and then velcro the cover on over top. This held in the poop better. Now we just fold the diaper in thirds and lay it in the cover and velcro (or snap) it on.

For overnight I use some longer prefolds. I fold them to make them fit into the cover, and to put the extra absorbency in the front. There are other folds but I like this one because I can do it ahead of time and it stays folded up well (when I fold the second side in, I tuck it into the slot made by the first side, so it can't unfold itself).

Here (click to see it) is a picture of my changing table and the diapers on it.

In Part II, I plan to talk about wipes, washing, and short and long trips out of the house with cloth diapers. If you have other questions or things I forgot, please post and I will try to answer your questions in part II.

He's still so little

Tobias at Grove of the Patriarchs in Mt. Rainier National Park

A "From the Wild" Road Trip

Tobias loved having a few days with his Grandpa VW at home, "helping" with oil changes and other outdoor chores. We really liked seeing DadVW too, and appreciated the help he gave us towards being ready to move. For the weekend we packed up and headed to Lynden to meet Jenna and celebrate her baptism! On Saturday we went to Semiahmoo beach at low tide. In the video you can't see it so well but Tobias and his Grandpa made it a long ways out! Tobias spontaneously fell asleep while sitting up on Grandpa's shoulders, so it must have been pretty peaceful out there. Later the kids (maybe the adults too) had lots of fun with streamers. We were blessed to be reminded through baptism of God's love for us, and also blessed to spend time relaxing and enjoying family!

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. -1 John 4:10

Fork lifter

We didn't deliberately teach Tobias to use a fork (although I believe he got a short tutorial from some of Rebecca's friends?). One evening he swiped one off the table and proceeded to stab his food with it. I guess it is one of those examples of how much kids absorb just from watching! It is fun and pretty amazing to see him learn so many new things.

The Great Outdoors....and Associated Equipment

1st year by the numbers

To Tobias:

In the past year,

you have slept all the way through the night, bedtime until morning, 0 times

you have overrode 1 anniversary supper

you have gained 2 uncles

you have summited 2 mountains

I have spent $7 on disposable diapers and wipes

you have sprouted 8 teeth

you have stayed fairly calm through 9 airplane takeoffs

we have traveled to or through 10 states (IA, NE, SD, WA, WY, ID, MT, CO, OR, UT)

you have starred in 11 videos

you have charmed 65 ladies of varying ages (Ok, that one's an estimate)

You have caused 146 laundry loads worth of cloth diapers

I have spent $250 on cloth diapers
I have put 1296 miles on the car coming home on my lunch breaks to feed you

It would be difficult to measure or even estimate other things, such as the number of times you spit up, the number of Cheerios you've eaten, the number of times you've fallen down while learning to walk, the number of times we've said "No, Tobias", or the number of times I've thought "for not liking babies, Nate makes a pretty good dad". It has been a great year and we can't wait to see you grow and learn more in the coming years! Love you!

Happy Birthday-(coming)-(up)-(yet)-(this)-(Friday) Tobias!

Toddling

Buddies

At times I suspected that Tobias's Grandma VW had gone overboard when she bought so many baby items, but I wanted to post this picture so she could see we're putting stuff to good use. This picture is from a few weeks back (April Fool's Day, I believe) when we took one of our first walks of spring (Jayna and her mom came along!).

Strolling Musician

OK, so he's not quite a strolling musician yet, but he's improving on both fronts! I did include some video of him trying to play the wrong end of the recorder, and falling over, just so you all know that he's only a little bit of a genius baby. He's 9 months old in a few days!