Leg Warmers, Hair Cuts, and Baby Food

This post has been shortened for the sake of your attention span.

Let's start by saying that I have given up on sewing diapers. Yes, I am disappointed in myself.
While waiting on some covers I ordered from the wonderful Pinstripes and Polka Dots I decided to do something crafty and make Peanut some leg warmers.

The purple ones are actually out of an old shirt of mine that was too small for me. If you look above her you can see the black knee highs of mine, Cadence's old red shirt, and her blue and pink striped tights. They turned out pretty cute right!?! I figure any kind of knitted tube can be a leg warmer. I think I will need to put some elastic in the top of the ones that were sleeves to help keep them up over those thighs of hers, but other than that they work pretty well. Although I think the ones out of my old knee highs are too tight so I may just throw them out.

 

So after that whole week of waiting, when I should have been cleaning, I finally got my new covers. I also ordered a pail liner from kissaluvs, a planet wise wetbag, and some kissaluvs diaper lotion potion spray (which I saw recommended on a flat folding tutorial on youtube).

Now, looking back I regret getting the wetbag, because at the end of the day I could have just used a couple walmart bags, but what's done is done. I'm pretty excited about this lotion potion spray. I'm thinking I will take all that flannel from my diaper sewing days and just serge them into squares.

Anyways the Rumparooz cover was a bust, because Penelope's thighs are HUGE! She could wear it for maybe a week!

So I talked to the wonderful lady at Pinstripes and Polka Dots and she agreed to just credit it to my account if I return it. That store is simply amazing! They have an easy to navigate website and they are right here in Illinois, without being in Chicago. (Not that I don't love Chicago, but you guys have enough stuff already!) She also has a reward system. I'd love to buy from a WAHM, but I don't know of any that can beat her prices!

 

This is the new Thirsties cover. You can't really tell, but it's lavender with pink and black circles and birds. I put her leg warmers on her after she woke up, but totally forgot to take a picture! Don't worry though, because pinstripes has a TON of sales for Christmas so I will be making more purchases, which means more pictures!

 

This was my back yard the other day! Now I could tell you this horrible story about Nate getting stranded in the middle of that Draco blizzard and being in his car for over 10 hours and then spending the night in a shelter before the state police returned him to his vehicle the next afternoon. Well there, story told. Can you imagine how much I was freaking out the whole time?

The day he came home my dad had ridden the train down for a visit. So Nate finally got his hair cut (I can't cut hair and take care of a baby. I'm not wonderwoman!), and so did Cadence! My little girl is 6 yrs old and has never had more than a couple inches off at one time, but she's been begging for short hair for about two years now. So this time she got what she wanted!

She has always had super fine hair that won't do ANYTHING!

This is how she wanted it! Well maybe I cut it a bit too short. It's longer in the front, but since it's always behind her ears you can't really tell. You can see from her serious expression that she loves it!

Also this week we began our egg yolks and liver! She LOVES food. Tomorrow we will start organic veggies, which I'm also going to learn how to jar so I don't have to think about it during next semester. Today she had 2 yolks, one for breakfast and one at dinner time, after which she was STILL hungry.

Penelope also learned how to crawl backwards. This means I had to drop everything every fifteen minutes and pull a laughing baby girl out from under my couch. What a fun game she thought this was!

One last thing! These are the last couple things I made in ceramics last semester. I discovered the red glaze on the right by layering AA Green and Grey Green. Don't ask me the details, because I don't know a thing about glazes!

 

So I guess that's it for now. Next time I will post a picture of that entrelac scarf you saw me start. I don't have decent lighting after dark or else I'd show you now. Also I might let you know how those cloth wipes and my baby food jarring experience pan out. Oh! And Cadence's disaster of a room! I told her we are not getting out a single christmas present until her room is completely gone through and redone! Don't worry, there will be plenty of pictures.

 

Merry Christmas!

Baby. Baby. Baby.

Random Tip of the Day:
Bake your breakfast meats. Even the cheapest bacon is delicious after being cooked in the oven!

With Christmas break approaching, I told myself "No more posts! You will focus on school and blog only after finals are said and done!" I believe I have been pretty faithful in this practice, but you see, now it is the day before finals, and I have a million things I should be doing to wrap things up.
So naturally I'm researching and preparing to spend break with the baby.
I feel as if I have been ignoring her all semester. I am at school all day about 3-4 days a week and as much as I love it, I hate it. We have totally reverted back to disposable diapers and I daresay she's had half a can on sensitive tummy formula. Awful, right?!?
Now let's be optimistic.
Peanut is 5 months old and has been exclusively breastfed with the exception of when I'm on my monthly, at which point my production is cut in half! If I had been better prepared for this we would have been fine but you live and learn.

Warning: The next section is about cloth diapers. Therefore you will either totally appreciate the insight or feel completely lost. Feel free to skip!

Also, I made about a dozen cloth diapers. In my stash there are about 6+ flannel RRPs with a hidden layer of PUL. There are 2 or 3 flannel RRPs with a hidden layer of Fleece and velcro to secure. There are maybe 3 or 4 of the flannel RRPs with PUL that I attached cords to for tie securing. I have homemade inserts of old towels and flannel and some microtowels from the automotive section. This week I got my first pack of Snappis and splurged on a Thirsties cover and a pack of cheap flat diapers.
Can you tell I've been doing my research? Basically, I have a bunch of cloth diapers. ;-p
So far everything works, but I am a bit tired of folding these flats just because of the fact that she can't stand the moment they get even a little wet. I even added a towel insert to hold her over. Also these cheap cloth flats are SO thin! I feel like the claws on the Snappi is hurting her. So I plan on serging a layer of flannel onto each one for cushion. Maybe then I won't need the insert, but we'll see. I'm going to try to exclusivley use cloth over break, which means I may need another cover.
Did you know you can get a Thirsties cover from Target for like $13? I was pretty excited.

Where do you get your cloth diapering needs?

 

Now today is all about baby food. My original plan was to get some teether bisquits and do cereal soon etc. But I know better and eventually I beat myself up mentally enough to really work for a healthy baby. So we're going grain free with this one! I'm going to start her on egg yolk and maybe some liver at the end of this week. She has almost no more thrust reflex and has been trying to grab any food in sight.

If you would like to do some reading check out:

foodrenegade.com

thehealthyhomeeconomist.com

babyfooddoctor.com

traditionalfoodadventure.com

Also I recently added nourished and nurtured to my circle, and plan on reading up on her posts on a regular basis!

So I guess we will wait on the teether bisquits. I was most excited about them, but I'm sure it will happen eventually.

 

How are you introducing solids?

Do you have any cheerio/teether bisquit alternatives?

 

More importantly,

How are you going to handle proposing this kind of eating to your daycare?

 

This is something that I find to be the biggest problem with raising my Peanut. I want to use only cloth diapers and I want her to eat super healthy with no grains! But how do I enforce all of this while going to school full time? The daycares around here are horrified enough about her having no vaccines, which is something I am fighting with my doctor over, because all doctors in our area follow traditional practices, which includes every newfangle vaccine on the market!

*sigh*

Is it so bad for us to care for our babies, and research what is best for them? When my older daughter was born I was 17 and completely ignorant. I had to fight just to keep her, let alone give her what's best, and now she is living with the consequences. Thankfully I have my dad and Penelope's father, who are both incredibly supportive of every new article on parenting methods and all that "stuff".

 

Who do you talk to about what's right for your baby?

Am I really the only mom in my area that wants to go this route with my child?

 

When I was pregnant I got addicted to the forums on mothering.com, but since then they have reformatted, and now I have no clue how to find anything. They had a section on finding your tribe. I love the idea of finding moms like me in my area, but noone ever stepped forward. So I have pretty much abandoned that forum, and I continue on this mothering treck on my own. (Is that right? treck?) Although I appreciate the help and support of the 2 males in my family, it would be so nice to have a peer in the mothering world.

 

It's too bad my voice is so small and the internet world is so big.

 

With school approaching it's end, I am preparing for the ceramics sale we always have during finals. Check it out!

 

And since you've been such a patient and awesome reader, here is an adorable picture of an adorable, cloth diapered, breastfed, vaccine free, grain free diet baby.

Notice we're still using disposable wipes. Possible tutorial post on cloth wipes?!? Maybe, dear readers, just maybe..