Cloth Diapering: The long overdue update

Well, I just checked and I have not done a cloth diapering update since Griff was 3 months old- oops! Sorry guys that actually care! I have been meaning to for months now, but obviously writing longer or more detailed posts hasnt happened much lately. So I will try to give a quick update now, and then give you some more detailed updates soon. A few things to share about cloth diapering thus far:

• I would never cloth diaper without a diaper sprayer (once my kid was on solids at least!). Griffin was exclusively breastfed until 6 months old, so his dirty diapers were no biggie. There was no need to rinse them out first, and he didnt have very many dirty diapers anyhow. Then we started solids and I realized I love my diaper sprayer! During our bathroom renovations, my diaper sprayer was not accessible and I was not a fan. Totally took a long break from cloth diapers, because trying the old "dunk and swoosh" method was gross and ineffective. **A diaper sprayer is a sprayer attached to your toilet that you can use to spray off the "dirty" parts of the diaper. It looks like the kitchen sink hose basically. 
• I definitely prefer bamboo inserts to microfiber, mainly because they are so much less bulky. I would recommend buying them from alvababy.com (even better, buy them from an alvababy co-op group on facebook for only $1.20 each). They hold a lot and are pretty thin. 
• I have yet to find a great nighttime solution for us. This is partially because my son still nurses at least once a night and takes in quite a bit. I will have to say that the disposable diapers seem to absorb way more at nighttime than my cloth diapers do (at least the pampers baby dry ones do). 
• I have used some of my pre-folds and covers recently, and they are much trimmer now that Griffin is bigger. They are trimmer than the pocket diapers are. 
• I use Tide Original powder laundry detergent on them now. The Rockin Green just did not get them clean enough I dont think. 

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head. I will try to do a post soon on the fit and specific brands I have. 

But for now, what questions do you have about cloth diapers?

Digging

Griffin loves this toy box at daycare, and I am always hearing stories about his short little legs dangling out of it while he true to get some toy from the very bottom! Too cute. Once he actually ended up with both little legs up in the air dangling! How precious?

Photos of late

Big Steps

My boy and I are taking big steps these days...

--- Griffin has been taking several steps this week, like actual steps people! He can stand alone pretty well, and if he has his balance he can take about four steps in a row by himself! What? Craziness!
--- Tonight I am spending my first night away from my boy since we brought him home from the nicu! I will actually be going 24 hrs without seeing him. Whew, pray for this mommy!
--- We have our youth DNOW this weekend (a youth discipleship retreat event), which is why I am away from my boy. Pray for patience and me to not be distracted but be focused on my youth girls. And for energy!!
--- Pretty sure I am getting a cold/sinus infection/ allergy attack of some sort. I woke up with a sore throat, then I started sneezing like crazy, and now I am having a runny/stuffed up nose. Fun times and great timing, right?
--- I have a giveaway in the works for ya! Woo hoo! Get excited :-) Details coming soon.
--- You doing anything fun this weekend?

Couldnt have said it better myself...

For weeks I have wanted to write a post on parenthood and how this new role has just down right shaken me to the core. I was trying to find the words to basically communicate how my world really is turned upside down, while still showing just how much I love being a mother.

Enter my dear friend Morgan...

Morgan's Mommmy Memoir: My Thoughts On Parenting: Before Eli, I had this vision of what I thought parenting looked like.  Of course this picture was influenced largely from what was modeled ...

Starting Now....

Some friends of ours are in the process of adopting an HIV+ child from Africa. I am so glad that not only are they open about this, but they are willing to educate us on the reality of living with HIV today and how far treatment has come. I mean, I knew that it had come a long way, but I had no idea that the drugs were so effective that HIV would be undetectable in blood tests after regular ongoing treatment! Can we pause and Praise the Lord for strides like this in modern medicine?!!!

I hope you will watch this short video and just learn a thing or two. Its a scary subject, mainly because of what we were taught as elementary school kids back in the day with no modern updates. To be honest, if my friends had not started sharing and educating me, I would probably have been scared to let Griffin play with a child who was HIV+. The only way to stop that, and allow these kids (and adults who suffer as well) to a better life without being ostracized is to speak out. Teach. Spread the word.... Starting now.

Thoughts to ponder from "one thousand gifts"

Some tidbits from the book "one thousand gifts" I am wanting to chew on...

"I speak it to God: I don't really want MORE time; I just want ENOUGH time. Time to breathe deep and time to see real and time to laugh long..."

" I'd never considered those two words, the bridge words there in the middle, the crossing over that took the not enough and made it enough. Gave Thanks."

"Jesus embraces His not enough... He gives thanks... And there is more than enough."

"Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing... Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away."
-------------------------------------
I know these things are True for me. I am so longing for ENOUGH time to drink in this season of my life so deeply.

I want to always remember the cute face that will stop nursing, look up at me and just smile a smile of pure joy. To remember that face he makes when blowing air because he thinks it's the neatest thing to just blow air. To always hear the squeal that lingers at the end of Griffins laugh. It's infectious.

But the hurry, the rush, the long to do list, they take over and crowd my thoughts. How do we make time stand still?

The forgotten photo shoot

I did take 8 month photos- I just never uploaded them! It was quite the photoshoot... Griffin was very over it.

9 Months Old!

9 Months Old

Griffin is 9 Months Old! I think we are pretty much done with the laying on the floor thing for our monthly pictures, he is just too busy for that. So I am going to try the chair and see how it goes. Today I kept tickling him to get him to stay in the chair (hence the absolutely adorable laughter!).

9 Month Stats:

• Griffin weighs 17 lbs 13oz and is 27" long (He is in the 10% percentile for both). He was 15lbs 8oz and 26" long at 6 months, so he gained 2 lbs since the last well visit and grew one inch. Looks like he is already taken after his momma and staying on the petite side, lol! 
• He is mainly wearing 9 month clothing, and some 12 month if he has his cloth diapers on (they take up some space!). 
• We are still breastfeeding and going strong. Griffin does great when nursing, but he doesnt like to finish his bottles at daycare. So we are now giving him 4 smaller bottles while there (we have gone from 3, to 2, to 3 and now to 4! ha) and so far he is finishing them- I hope it keeps up! 
• He is eating solids and loving them. He has started eating "table foods" this last month and does ok. He has eaten the following table/finger foods: bananas, carrots, green beans, peas, bread, pears, peaches, and sweet potato fries. Right now his favorite foods are oatmeal, rice cereal, and yogurt. We are going to start introducing meat this week. 
• Naps: He is usually taking 2 or 3 naps a day. His first two are usually 1 & 1/2 or 2 hrs and if he does a 3rd its a short cat nap. He goes down for naps pretty well now and just fusses for maybe a minute or two and then lays down and sleeps. 
• Nighttime sleep: Griffin still doesnt sleep thru the night, but he is getting better. We had a crazy month with being out of our house, 2 ear infections, and other random junk, so sleep has been all over the place. But he is settling in and usually he is up only once or twice a night to eat. At this point our dr wants me to keep doing night feedings since he is smaller and doesnt take his bottles well during the day. Maybe we will sleep one day! 
• He will now respond to "No" and you can tell he understands it now (even though sometimes he just decides to ignore it!ha). 
• He had his first ear infection this month! Boo! Followed by his second! Ugh. Hopefully he is on the mend now. 
• Griffin is pulling up like a pro now, cruising so quickly and almost walking. He loves to walk around just holding on to our fingers and is pretty good. He has a walker he pushes around really well. He loves riding on his daddy's shoulders too! He is so fun to listen to as he babbles away ("RaRaRa" is my fav) and when you ask him to say "Mama" right now he smiles and says "Dada"! Little stinker! He has gotten back into clapping again and is doing it all the time. 

Have I mentioned how much I love being this kids mom? He is sooooo cute and I love him so much! 

** See Griffin Grow Here**

Our Bathroom Transformation- Quite Amazing!

Here is our bathroom before (pictures actually taken in 2009 so it was a little worse and definitely had more mold now):

 The tile floor was coming up, literally. A tile would stick to your foot as you tried to leave!

 The guy before us decided to add storage by inserting two medicine cabinets. But he didnt finish off the holes he knocked into the wall....

 so you saw into our walls when you opened them! 

 Doesnt everyone want some pink tile? And it wrapped the entire bathroom, not just in the shower!

Demo:

 And the amazing After!!!::::

How blessed are we? Thank you a million times over to the Porter's, Broady's and Dustin for their hardwork! Especially Jeff! It is such a wonderful blessing.

Attitude

"Your inner attitudes do not have to reflect your outward circumstances!"

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4 ESV)

Sneak Peek

The bathroom is almost done! Until a more detailed post, we basically went from this:



To this:



- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone