Jack O'Lanterns in California

Can you guess whose is whose?

I grew up carving pumpkins in Utah, not knowing that the cold weather keeps them thriving through the weeks. Here is what happened within six days of carving in California. Apparently most Californians carve their Jack O'Lanterns on the eve of Halloween. I did feel bad that we had to throw these out because they really are much scarier, don't you think?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Cloth Diapering!

Lately I've started to have a pit in my stomach thinking about the H E A P of trash that Samuel has created on the Earth already. We've thought about cloth diapering before but my recent musings on the unnecessary and abiding waste we've contributed to the world in only 14 months tipped the scale. The other advantages that persuaded me were the obvious benefits for our baby and our pocket book! So I did a lot of research and price-comparing online and found the right gear for us:

My unbleached flannel wipes, to be washed right along with the dipes.

One of my Snappis, for fastening the diapers (no pins!)

My 24 unbleached premium prefold diapers ($2 each!)

My wonderful Thirsties diaper covers

My diaper sprayer (for the more unpleasant ones)
Purchased on eBay

My clothesline dryer (64 feet of line)

My happy boy and supportive husband
(was this his idea to begin with?)

If you clicked on the links, you saw that I ordered my cloth products from the Utah-based company, clothdiaper.com. I didn't know it was based in UT when I first found the site, but was glad to support a local company, even from California! The customer service is excellent, the prices consistently beat those of their competitors (even including shipping!), and we are loving their products.

I don't know why I didn't do this sooner, as it's really going to save us money! It's not nearly as hard or as gross as I imagined it to be. Last night was the first night Sammy slept in cloth, and when we changed him around 6:45 AM this morning, the cloth diaper was completely soaked! We couldn't believe it, and were amazed to think how much those disposables really do hold! We changed him well before we normally would have (sometimes more like 9:00 AM), so I bet the disposables will hold at least double what we found in the diaper. (Amazing... we'll be sure to have some around for airplane flights or other instances when we want to go longer without a change.) Anyway, thanks to our awesome waterproof diaper covers, there was not a leak to be seen, though Samuel was clearly more aware of the wet feeling, which may not be such a bad thing. They say cloth-diapered babies potty-train quicker because they can feel the wet better. We'll see. The downside was that after the rousing early diaper change, he didn't want to go back to sleep as he normally does, so I may need to get some doublers or something to absorb more of the night-time wet.

Anyone else cloth diaper? If so, what do you like?

If you don't cloth diaper and you've been thinking about trying it out, go for it! Get the right stuff and it's a cinch (there are a lot of options out there...). Good Luck!