Painted Toes, and Mama Woes....

I've always painted Carson's toes if he asked. Its never been something I've questioned. I paint mine and he wants to be like me because he spends a lot (all) his time with me. But then I began to question it when I posted a picture of Facebook, not even of his painted toes but just a picture that you could plainly tell his toes were painted (Green and yellow from the Civil War) and I got some comments being all "ZOMG are those painted toes"

Its always been just normal for me to paint his tootsies when I paint mine. Usually I use it as a way to get him to let me clip his dragon toes.

So what says the blogosphere ? Little boys with painted toes (BTW his are TEAL right now.) Is it Okay? Not Okay? Age to stop? I just can't seem to get my panties in a twist over a 3 year old having painted toes.

Playgroups

I went to a play group today, you know that weird feeling when you sit around with a group of people for the first time and things just kind of click? I never feel that normally. But today as crazy toddlers and young children ran around and we sat, drank coffee and talking about Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, and Walking Dead (Oh yeah and football love!) I felt for the first time that I found a tribe to belong to.

It doesn't hurt that tomorrow night is Moms Night out, we're going to a ladies night shooting range followed by line dancing. I will update on how badass of a time we have tomorrow night! Booyah!

Currently I am....

I'm totally snagging this idea from some lovely PNW bloggers I've seen it pop up and I love the idea of stopping to think about whats going on in different aspects of your life. 

Working on the blog, trying to decide what I want to do with it. Should it be more "Me" or more "lifestyle" or leave it where its at with the family blog. 

Drinking Nothing but water, I had put a bottle of wine in the fridge and I'm sad I forgot about it until after I brushed my teeth. 

Enjoying Some snuggles with my big baby. Sort of. This will be like night 4 of him being a bedtime squatter. He hasn't felt great but this is getting ridiculous.

Considering if its worth the fight to put Carson in his room tonight or if I should waive the white flag and just let him and his farty booty stay 

Noticing  How much I enjoy listening to the classical music that plays as background to his shows. Its nice. 

"Oh your baby is almost 1, Another one?"

Anyone else get this question when baby starts approaching one year? We have 2 kids already and we are getting the "Oh its time for another baby!!" questions and "pressure".

I have been trying to work out a response that not only say's "We're currently placing any more family planning on hold" with "My kids sleep like newborns so maybe someday we'll have enough energy to have sex on the regular again"

Usually I just smile and shake my head "no"

Its not that we don't want another baby, I'd love to have another squishy newborn. But the idea of being outnumbered scares the shit out of me. For what ever reason my heart breaks that Oliver won't get 1on1 time with us until Carson is in school. Another baby would rob him of the little time he would get. Carson is such a great big brother and for the most part they get along amazingly. Why fix what isn't broken?

I just need a nice way to telling people to butt out, we aren't ruling more kids out, but we are on the side of the 2 and done fence. I'm happy on this side of the fence.

"Perfection"

Lately I've been spending more time on Pinterest (I totally got out of habit for a long time) and I've really started to notice all the "Pinter-perfect" houses and yards and kids and family and everything. I sometimes get all down on myself because we aren't Pinterest perfect.
Thursday I was taking pictures of the set up I've got going with Olivers cloth diapers and I actually thought to myself "Self, these pictures aren't good enough for the blog. They are on your iPhone and there are toys on the floor the changing cover is askew and the walls are white still"

Seriously. Also yeah I talk to myself at home.  So I didn't end up actually taking any pictures. Maybe I'll paint the walls and clean up the toys and then take some pictures. No I'm kidding. No I'm not, Sherwin Williams is running 25% off right now, I probably will end up painting at some point!

I really hate how everything has become a "contest" Mommy wars are strong. Everything breeds the "You're not good enough" and I don't know about you, but my inner voice does that enough.

I didn't make many NYE resolutions this year, mostly because I never follow through and mostly because I hate the whole new year new you thing. But in a way we are doing some major life changes. Going greener, living more simply, eating healthier and running more (500 miles!)  I am also going to start being a better blogger and writer. I'd like to get over 500 posts by next year (total not 500 more! I'm at 289)

Cloth Diapering

I'm going to write a series of blog posts over the next month or so as I get the rest of our cloth diapers in the mail. I'm going to be writing about how to do it on the cheap, because lets face it. Besides saving the earth, and creating less waste, and keeping a cute booty in something not toxic or harmful.  Its about savings. I'm not going to pull out the you will save THOUSANDS.

Because, well everyone knows that if you spend the money upfront to cloth diaper, and are smart about finding good deals, and buying lesser known brands, or second hand diapers you will actually save a lot of money.

What are types are we using? 

- Mostly pocket diapers
-Covers and prefolds
-GDiapers

What Brands? 

- GDiapers (Purchased used from a friend)
-Kawaii 
-Alva Baby 
-BumGenius
-Smush Tush
-Sunbaby

How Many do you really need?

Right now I am unsure how many we actually will need. Right now, we are only using Gdiapers I got these from a friend for really cheap, I was so grateful because we were down to 7 disposables and I really didn't want to buy more just because I was waiting for diapers in the mail! We have 10 G covers and 14 cloth liners, right now. Thats enough to get us till our packages come in, but thats laundry every day.

We also have a handful of pockets right now, 2 Kawaii and 1 BumGenius and 1 Smush Tush. I am liking these at night because they are seriously crazy stuff-able for night time use.


Affordability? 

I'm trying to keep the start up costs as low as possible so we actually DO end up saving money. Currently (On my spreadsheet) I've spent 211$. At 60$ a month for disposable diapers I will break even in 3.5 months. Once I break even I think I will splurge on some etsy print diapers that are super cute. Especially for summer when he can just run around in his fluffy booty!  We aren't planning anymore children right now so I want to keep costs lower in case we don't use them again.

Will This become and Eco Family Blog?

Probably for a while, I am going to try to feature a different cloth diaper week by week, do pros and cons of each and of course loads of pictures. I will also post about different things we do to make cloth diapering easier on us. I have some projects already in the works. Like a drop down drying rack over my dryer that I can put up when not in use (I have cabinets that I still need to open!)  Putting a line outside for this summer for sunning and drying.


All in all we are super excited to get really into this. Its crazy how silly things like what to put on your kids booty gets you all excited!

So I'll probably be obsessive for a moment

After making the decision to switch to cloth diapers, I've gotten so excited and borderline obsessive on what I want,  how many I want, and all the colors and prints!

We've decided to stick with one style for now. Pockets. I can stuff them at night after washing them and just put them on like disposables.

My first few orders will be rolling in soon! I've decided to go with a mix of Alva Baby and Kawaii for now, they are a pretty reasonably priced. Have good reviews, and I can order both from the same website.


These are the ones coming in the mail in the next week or so

Alva baby Bird House

Oh Baby Ka 

Light blue in the background (Kawaii)

Kawaii