It was a Matter of Time

For about a month now we have known that Holden has figured out how to take his diaper off when he is down for a nap. Well, daycare has know this too. The caveat is that he only does it if he doesn't have pants on over the diaper. Daycare put him down today without his shorts and only a diaper. The story we were told was he got his shorts wet when they were playing outside, so they took them off to dry. Well, they had a very stinky surprise a bit later, when Holden decided he didn't want to wear his poopy diaper anymore. After laughing when Jeremy told me the story, I decided 1. Glad it was them and not us 2. I guess I'll send a few extra pairs of shorts to daycare tomorrow.

The Joys of Daycare

I had my first argument with daycare today, and I'm still not over it. Let me clarify a bit, I don't really argue, I'm a self professed conflict avoider. However, we have been having issues, minor issues, but I'm contemplating that maybe its time to put Holden in a more structured environment like a child care center. Here is the deal, maybe you can help me figure out if I'm being unreasonable.

We cloth diaper Holden as everyone knows. Daycare has been on board since we started there at age 8 weeks. I'm grateful for that and I have tried to do everything to make their job easier with the cloth diapers (people cloth diapers really aren't that big of a deal). So, first we have told them multiple times that if he poops and you don't want to do the "shake in the toilet" thing just close up the diaper like a disposable, put it in the wet bag and tell us when we pick him up. We will do the dirty work at home. NO BIG DEAL.

Second, Holden is a heavy wetter at nap time. So about 2 months ago, daycare requested that we bring disposables just for naps. I complied, even though we don't have problems at home. But I wasn't going to pick a fight. Yet.

Lastly, I purchased good wet bags with waterproof liners and zippers to tote his diapers back and forth in. They continue to "forget" to use them and his used diapers come back in plastic bags all the time. I don't get it.

So, the last few weeks we have been noticing that Holden is coming home in disposable diapers and with only 1 used cloth diaper a day. Hello people, he should be changed more than just the 1 cloth diaper I send him to daycare in. If he is only in a disposable at nap time, why the hell is he coming home in a disposable diaper. Does that mean he is in the 1 disposable diaper from 1-5?

So today I decided to ask. I'm not happy with my answer. I was told that he is changed but because he pooped yesterday before nap time they put him in disposables the rest of the day. Because they had to "shake out the diaper in the toilet". See above I have explained multiple times they don't need to do it if they don't want to. I know it can be gross, Jeremy gags all the time (which by the way is hysterical to me). And to top it all off, they are waiting on an inspection of the facility for re-certification and I was told on that day he is going to be in disposables all day. Which, fine I can deal with that, no big deal.

However, my explanation I got this morning doesn't explain all the other days that he has come home in a disposable. I only send 5 disposables a week to daycare, so the math isn't adding up.

I don't know what to do. I think we are going to tour 2 child care centers in our area that have stated that cloth diapers are not a problem, and there will be a bit more structure to his day. I like his current daycare but I know there are things we would like for him to have, and a structured center might be a better option. Our friends that were over Saturday both go to a Child care network center and they do a reading program and other activities to get ready for preschool. On the flip side, a center is going to be more expensive and the structure also applies to us parents, like rules for fevers and such.

Any advice or suggestions are welcomed. And I can handle it if you think I'm picking the wrong fight.

Happy Earth Day

Earth Day is 40 years old today. Created in 1970 to celebrate the earth, appreciate nature and to act as good stewards of what mother nature has provided. I thought I would take today to reflect on the many little changes we have made in our household to be more sustainable in our daily lives. Maybe you will get an idea or two that aren't that hard to adopt this year in celebration of Earth Day. And as a self professed tree-hugging, liberal geologist I couldn't not write about Earth Day, but you knew that already :)

After the birth of our son, we took a step back and reevaluated what we wanted to teach him about being a good steward of our planet. And we are hoping that our actions speak louder than our words and when he is all grown up its not a question what is the right thing to do.

In 2009 we made the following changes and some are still in progress. We are living greener and more sustainable that before, but we also have to keep in mind our family budget and make changes one step at a time.

• Changed light bulbs in the house to compact fluorescent
• Recycle everything we can and can't wait for the new expanded recycle program in Mecklenburg county to start in July. I'm still bad about batteries, but have a solution worked out to get us in the habit. Luckily many more retailers are recycling these items for us places like Target, Best Buy and Home Depot all have bins for batteries, small electronics like ipods, light bulbs and printer cartridges.
  
• Use reusable totes for shopping or ask for paper if we forget. We are still trying to consistently remember our totes, but I do not let the grocery store use plastic bags on our groceries. And why do the baggers insist on putting my milk in a bag, I don't get it, the milk has a handle for goodness sake.
• Changed our cleaning and laundry supplies to plant based, green and/or natural products. I love the Method and Mrs. Meyers brands. We are still on the lookout for an affordable dishwasher liquid in this category. Any suggestions are welcome.
• Changing our herbicides and pesticides for the lawn and garden to eco-friendly options. Home Depot is carrying a new line of eco pesticides. We are trying out the ant killer on those pesky sugar ants we can't get rid of since redoing the kitchen. Makes the house smell very minty.
• Cloth Diaper Holden. This was a big one, and we love them (well I do, not sure if Jeremy has the same opinion). I wouldn't go back to disposables for multiple reasons and I'm like a walking commercial for cloth diapers. And cloth wipes too, they are great for cleaning up more than a dirty bum. I have to give credit to my mother-in-law for these, she made us a ton of cloth wipes when Holden was still itty bitty.
  
• Got rid of paper napkins (thanks to my mom for helping finish sewing the cloth napkins). We still have to phase out the paper towels. But like I said one thing at a time.
  
• Try to use less plastic containers and buy dry goods in bulk and store in glass jars. We use glass tupperware when we can but we don't have very many so I can't phase out the plastic stuff quite yet.
  
• Buy local sustainable food. I would say about 60% of our food is local, meat, eggs and produce mostly. Dairy when we can afford it. About another 30% is unprocessed, natural ingredients. We have rid our house of high fructose corn syrup, growth hormone in milk and many other hard to pronounce ingredients in packaged foods. I'm really liking this change even though it is sometimes more work for me. The farmers markets here are awesome, and our local farm co-op allows us to get our meat, eggs and dairy from within 200 miles of Charlotte. We have also stuck to our meatless suppers at least one night a week which helps offset some of the cost of the local meats which are totally worth it.
  
• We have recycled our e-waste this year (well we are going to, the old computer is still sitting by the front door waiting for its trip to the recycle center). This is a first for me.

I'm sure there are some other little things we are doing that would count, like consignment shopping for Holden's clothes and toys. But we do that mostly for the savings.

Some big things we want to do this year

• Start a compost pile. I'm just waiting for the compost bins to clearance out at the end of the season
• Get a rain barrel. Jeremy thinks he can build us one, so this is on his honey do list.
• I'm hoping to can veggies and fruits this year as things are local and in season so we have preserved local foods during the winter months.

I'd love to hear what you have done to be a good steward of the Earth in the last year. And I hope we have inspired someone to make one of the changes we made. Every little bit helps.

Happy Earth Day!

I did not get any endorsement from the retail outlets or products mentioned above, just sharing our knowledge with the internets

Obsessed

I have a slight obsession to cloth diapers. There I said it. Now maybe I can start the recovery process. I have a hard time staying off diaper websites and out of the two boutiques here in Charlotte. Holden has more than enough size 1/smalls, so I need to tame my obsession until he is ready for stage 2. Does anyone suffer from this obsession or is it just me?

2 Months in the life of Holden

Some of you might not know, but Holden was born 4 weeks early and spent a week in the NICU when he was born. The doctors weren't sure if he was going to have to be admitted to the NICU, but when I was in the hospital with preterm labor I was told that little white boys are the wimpiest. So, when we found out we had a boy, we weren't too surprised that he had to go to the NICU for a few days. At least it wasn't a few weeks like we had prepared ourselves back when I went into preterm labor at 32 weeks.

So, even though he is 10 weeks old on Monday, his gestational age is 6 weeks. But, he is catching up developmentally very quickly. He has basically doubled his birth weight, 10 lb 5 oz at his 2 month check-up. He is smiling now, has found his thumb to suck on (I'm not sure if I like that but it is sure cute right now), recognizes mom and dad and is looking around all the time. He can hold his head up quite a bit and is starting to push up with his legs.

Playing at 3 weeks

Playing at 8 weeks

Holden was christened in the Nazarene church this month, we joined a mommy group which has been great, and started daycare (more on that later). Holden met his grandmothers and his papa also.

Grandma Hassler's Visit

Grandma and Papa Farrell's VisitBaptism-April 24th, 2009

We now have a regular play group and there are more working moms in our group so we are meeting on Saturday mornings which is great because most of the playgroups are during the week when I'm at work. I have already made some good friends through the mommy group and its nice to have other new moms to swap stories with. This way I don't bore all of my non-parent friends with mommy things.

Playgroup

In honor of earth day, we switched Holden to cloth wipes and diapers. There are so many more options out there than when I was a baby. Jeremy isn't 100% on board yet but I'm sure he will come around (when the disposables run out). I have a childhood friend that has a 4 month old son and she was a big help in deciphering the options, how to properly wash them, etc. We are also lucky because my mother-in-law is awesome with a sewing machine and is going to make us a bunch of wipes and a handful of fitted diapers for daycare. I use my washing machine a lot more but figure we will be saving a ton of money by the time he is potty trained, saving 6000 disposable diapers from the landfill and they look so dare cute!
I think that is it for a recap of our last 2 months in a nut shell. Now enjoy some video.

Tummy Time

Hanging out with Mom