The Great Cloth Diaper Change

This past Saturday was the much talked about event, The Great Cloth Diaper Change. I haven't spent a lot of time talking about it on my blog because it seemed like every natural parenting blog was "covering" it. But I do feel that I ought to at least mention our experience with it.

We made arrangements to stop at the East Cleveland location on our way to visit Daryl's family for the Easter holiday. It was hosted by Ecoroots and held at the Woodmere Whole Foods Market on Chagrin Blvd.

The event, for those who aren't up to date with the fluffy-butt scene, was an attempt to raise awareness about the ease and benefits of modern cloth diapering.Many communities, including the Whole Foods market, incorporated the event into their "earth week" celebrations. The goal was to have as many cloth diapers changed simultaneously around the globe, to claim a world breaking title. Most locations included information about cloth diapers and other natural parenting methods and products.

At our location, there were raffles for free cloth diapers, a photography session with a professional photographer, and free herbal supplements for nursing and expecting mothers. I won a bottle of Motherlove More Milk Plus!

There was also a folk singer to entertain the children as we waited, free samples of healthy and organic snacks, as well as coupons and samples of natural products. Evie really enjoyed the musician and dancing with the other children. She even tried to stand up and dance! When she lost her balance, she decided it was better to sit up on her knees.

 At 12:24, we all began preparing for the change. Shoes, sox, and pants were removed and wipes were at the ready!

We had a few moments to glance around and take a peek at what other babies were donning on their derrière. There was a good turn out, but I was surprised that there weren't more babies and parents there. I had expected 50+ participants, but it seems like we just barely made the 25 minimum. Evie was intent on not being contained!

Then the countdown, and a mad frenzy of snaps and hook and loop (ie velcro!) could be heard as parents snappied, buttoned, and pinned. Finally, voila, we all had freshly changed babies, and a whole new set of diapers to check out!

We are still waiting to hear the final results of the record making event. At the time of this post, 4,928 participants have been reported at 157 locations, across six different countries! That is pretty impressive to me. I believe the local event was a great success as well, even if we may not be able to be included in the official record setting. I saw a community coming together, meeting new friends, and shoppers from the store were stopping to ask about cloth diapering. I do not believe that the whole world should cloth diaper, it is not for everyone. But, some people don't even know that it is still an option, or a convenient option. Some people who may choose to cloth diaper might not even know what resources there are to help make the decision that is right for their child. I think that because we brought attention to this choice, it made the event a success. Not to mention, it was just plain fun!!!

Mom's Dairy Co.

Jonah was watching a show where the characters were visiting a dairy farm and exploring how dairy products are made. In the beginning of the show, one character looked into the camera and asked "Where DOES milk come from??" And then paused for the children viewers to reply.

Jonah jumped off the couch in excitement and shouted "Mama's boobies"

Maybe we need to work on talking about where the milk in the white jugs comes from.

Weekend Reuse It: Coffee Grounds

Do you drink coffee? Do you have a garden?


Don't throw those grounds in the trash or garbage disposal! Coffee grounds are wonderful, and often overlooked, compost material. If you don't drink a lot of coffee, you might be able to get some from your local coffee shop. "Certain" big name coffee shop chains will charge you for their grounds, which I completely don't understand. But, most locally owned coffee shops will gladly surrender their used coffee grounds. If you've picked up one of the frosting buckets mentioned earlier, these are great for transporting soggy grounds between store and home.

If you're interested in composting, here is a great article about why coffee is so good for your compost, followed by a link  to a howto website about composting
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080707171641.htm

http://www.howtocompost.org/

Fantastic Foto Friday

 Rarely do I get photos of me with the kids! Thanks to my sister who was thoughtful enough to hijack my camera for this one!

When Daddy comes home is her favorite time of day. These two are so cute together, and I can't express how much greater my love for my husband grows when I see him with our children!

When Life Gives you Mudpuddles...

...you make a big splash!

As is typical of this time of year, the weather here has been miserable lately. I have always found early spring to be very difficult. Winter cabin fever only gives way to spring cabin fever. Slush, snow, ice, rain, freezing rain, sleet, and a combination of all of these (which the meteorologists call "a wintery mix," but I call it "Ohio nasty sludge from the sky") are included in our weekly forcasts. We don't get flowers, we don't get sunshine.So on Monday when the temperature reached 60 degrees, I said to Jonah "Let's go outside!" Nevermind that it's pouring rain, we needed fresh air.

I was unsure how Jonah would react to the pouring rain, but he loved it! We talked about what we wear in rainy weather- a raincoat, a hood, rainboots, an umbrella. He wouldn't wear his rain coat, I think because it made funny sounds and is very stiff.But once we took that off of him, he was splashing and running through puddles, catching raindrops on his tongue, and enjoying the feeling of raindrops on his head.

It was some of the most fun we've had in a long time! And I'm glad that we enjoyed what we could of the warm weather, because of course the next day it was below freezing with flurries again. Forget "waiting for spring" I'm holding out for summer...

Grey Skies are Gonna Clear Up

I wouldn't have been able to understand the word that he said if it hadn't been for the ASL sign he used with it. We've been talking about feelings, reading books about emotions and looking at pictures of people who are feeling different things. I've also been teaching him the ASL signs for each emotion.

We were playing in his room. Nothing extraordinary, just blocks and toy cars. The usual games. All of the sudden he stood up and flung himself onto me with a big bear hug. As he left the embrace, he made two quick upward motions on his chest with the palm of his hand. "Happy!" he said in his unintelligible toddler voice.

"Bugs, who's happy?" I asked

He smiled from ear to ear and said "Jonah essss HAAAAPPPYYYY!"

Me too, Bugsy. Me too.

A Lesson For the Birds

This week, we've been talking about the winter birds that we see in our yard. These are mostly cardinals, the official bird of Ohio, but every once in a while we see other song birds and last week we even saw an owl in the trees above our driveway! The birds are something that Jonah really notices, so I decided to do some small activities and lessons related to birds.

We've been reading Lewis Cardinal's First Winter, by Amy Crane Johnson. It is a cute book about a cardinal who is a bit nervous about staying in the woods during  winter. I chose this book because not only did our local library have it, but it is also a Tumblebook, animated and read online at tumblebooks.com.  For older kids, there is also a word search and puzzle based on this book at tumblebooks. (I am not affiliated with this website other than I find it a really useful tool)

To see some of our own cardinal friends, we hung two store bought feeders and one home made feeder in the trees outside of our kitchen window. One was a suet feeder, another was a netted feeder, and then we made our own out of a toilet paper roll. Here's how we did it:

First I punched two holes into opposite sides of the roll. Jonah used a dull toddler knife to spread peanut butter all over the roll. I have been trying to find an alternate material for the peanut butter as some kids are allergic, but the only thing I can find is Sunbutter. It is sunflower seed butter, but it is expensive. If anyone knows of something else that can be used, please let me know!

Then, he rolled the feeder in bird seed. I found some that was especially for cardinals, since that is what we mostly have in our yard.

I helped Jonah thread a pipe cleaner through both of the punched holes, and secured both ends together in a loop, for a hanger. You could use yarn or string for this step, but a pipe cleaner is easier for Jonah to manipulate through the holes.

Finally, we went outside and Jonah chose a tree branch to hang it on.

And now, we wait and watch for the birds to come....