cloth love entry #1- blueberry cover

Since I've become a *little* cloth diaper obsessed over the past 15 months of using them, I have decided to start featuring some of our "fluff" on the blog.  Who knows, maybe I'll rope in a few of you who hadn't considered cloth diapering before ;)

My sister-in-law Lauren was so generous to host a cloth diaper shower for me where I got some awesome new things to add to the collection for new baby Russell on the way!  This is one of those items.  Sorry Russell. . . you're ALREADY having to share with your brother!

This is a Blueberry Coveralls Diaper Cover with snaps in Monkeys.  I love the print and how it's a whole different color scheme than a lot of our other diapers.

Palmer is modeling this cover over a Little Lions dyed premium sized prefold diaper in green.  You can see the prefold peeking up above the cover just a tad where I didn't get it tucked in- woopsies!  (Behind the scenes- this prefold is secured with a Snappi diaper fastener, a T shaped grippy apparatus of sorts).  We are loving the fit and function of this cover so far!

buy used!

Here is my haul from the 75% off sale at Divine Consign this morning.  It is a three day sale hosted twice a year in Plano where you can get kids clothes, toys, and gear for great deals!  The final day, items get discounted even more and although the selection isn't as good as the first couple of days, the prices are awesome!  I bought some clothes for Palmer in the next size up, as well as a couple shirts for Russell.

7 long sleeved shirts (Gymboree, Osh Kosh, Baby GAP, Old Navy, etc)
3 hoodies (Carter's, Gymboree, Children's Place)
1 long romper (Gymboree)
1 footie PJ (Carter's)
1 pair slippers

Not bad for $12.99, right??

Check it out in the spring where they'll have all the warm weather clothes out!!!  Or if you need winter stuff, they have the same sale in Grapevine a month from now!  I've been to both events and always find good deals.

crochet for cloth diapers!

I have crocheted a few things over the past 2 years or so, but kept it pretty simple with mostly blankets. Although, I did do some crocheted snowflake ornaments last year that were a little complex and I can't wait to make more this holiday season!  Anyway, most crochet patterns I've followed have been pretty simple so when I took on this project of crocheting a diaper cover I definitely referenced the internet quite a bit to decode the instructions.  Here is a picture of my progress before I added the leg cuffs, waistband, and tie.

If you aren't familiar with cloth diapering, some people use wool covers (either hand knit/crocheted or interlock wool) because they offer good moisture resistance while allowing baby's bottom to get some air.  This is great for preventing & curing diaper rash and keeping them from burning up in the summer.  Wool covers are worn over an absorbent diaper like a prefold or fitted that is not waterproof on its own.  I have several pieces of wool in my diaper stash right now, but decided since it is pricey that I would experiment with crocheting a cover (also called a soaker in the CD world) on my own!

I decided to make my first soaker for baby Russell since it would be smaller and take less time than one for Palmer.  I picked up some Paton's Classic Wool yarn from JoAnn's after figuring out that Hobby Lobby has a VERY limited selection of yarn that's 100% wool.  It took a few nights (and YouTube tutorials) to complete, but here is the finished product!

I'm happy with how it turned out, except I don't like how the variegated yarn clumped the colors together in a few certain sections.  This has to do with that part of the soaker being crocheted "in the round" instead of in zig zag rows like on the lower area of the soaker.  Oh well!  Live and learn.  It's also not as soft as some of the knit wool I have purchased since I used pretty cheap yarn.  Maybe I'll get some of the good hand dyed stuff off Etsy once my skills improve :)  Knit items also seem to be more supple and have more stretch than crocheted due to the shape & density of the stitches.  Too bad I prefer crochet!

Can't wait to put this on little Russell's bum in a few weeks!!!

unpleasant "firsts"

Palmer has had a few "firsts" of his life over the past few days.  Unfortunately they are things we would have been glad to skip altogether!  He had his first fever Friday night, along with his first (and second) puke, and his first sick visit to the doctor.  I knew something was wrong when he was cranky all day and felt a little warm, but it got really obvious when he was all of a sudden burning up, crying and shaking in a pretty scary way around 6:30.  We turned off the oven and the burners from all the food we had cooking and rushed him to the closest kids urgent care.  His fever was over 103 and he proceeded to throw up all over the exam room they put us in.  They graciously moved us one room over so they could clean it up, and of course he threw up again :(

I was a total mess crying right along with him!  It came on so fast I was worried it was something more serious than a typical virus, but we got sent home with some anti-nausea medicine, instructions for giving motrin, and their reassurance that it would probably pass within a day or so.  Here we are at 3 full days and our poor boy still runs a fever every time his ibuprofen or tylenol starts to wear off.  He's only thrown up 5 times, so at least he is able to keep water and some small snacks down throughout the day.  We've been watching a lot of free kids shows OnDemand and some new movies from Wal-Mart (Dumbo & Lion King today).

Typically I stay up with him for an hour or two after he gets his medicine in the middle of the night to make sure his fever starts to go down and keep him from throwing up in his crib.  Last night we watching Tangled that I had DVR'd and got some good snuggle time in.  Even though the circumstances are less than ideal, it's special to have some quiet time with my big boy before the new baby arrives!

Here's sweet Palmer in his towels/boppy/pillow setup on the couch that has been his main hangout lately.  Again, I'll say what I've said for the past couple of nights, fingers crossed that tomorrow he wakes up fever-free.  In the meantime, he's still darn cute!

a year and a half!

Palmer is now 1 1/2!  Since July 26th. . . but I'm a little behind :)  We found out at his well visit that he is now between the 90th & 95th percentile in height- very tall!  Only the 50th percentile in weight though, which isn't surprising since it seems like I've been fastening his snap diapers on the same snaps for months and months now.  He did great with the move and didn't take hardly any time to adjust!  He is doing great sleeping 12 hours a night and taking one nap in the middle of the day.  Palmer is full of energy and busy busy busy getting into everything he can reach.  This pregnant mommy is getting tired at 34 weeks and counting!  I'm always relieved to have help wrangling the little booger.

It has been far too long since I've posted about our little guy, so here's an update with some random pictures!





Palmer loves his raccoon who he sleeps with and drags out of his crib a few times a day.  I usually bargain to trade him a sippy of milk or a snack for the raccoon (which I then hide) so he doesn't have it with him ALL day long.  He has the run of the house, constantly venturing between his bedroom, the front "study" (playroom) with tons of toys, and the living room to watch a cartoon. . . or two. . . I'm getting more lazy the more pregnant I get.  He can often be found sitting with a puzzle at his toddler table in his playroom, climbing in and out of his new "cozy truck", playing on the piano, or digging in his shoe drawer.





I think there are probably a hundred other things that he loves to do too!  Hmm. . . what does he not like?  Diaper changes!  Teeth brushing (although daddy has been working on this with him and progress has been made).  Vegetables.  The absence of daddy.  Coming inside the house after playing outdoors or going to get the mail.  Otherwise, most of his meltdowns are from the normal toddler angst that comes from not getting what he wants, or having to give up something you don't want him to have.



I love all the sweet moments that come with his new "mature" age!  He will give kisses on request (of a variety of styles), snuggle next to his big bellied mama to read a book, and pretend to count objects (all his numbers sound like two, or doo).  He likes to fix things with daddy, help put clothes in the dryer, and play with dollhouse people and all their paraphernalia like cars, furniture, and slides.  Vrrooom (or an approximation of that) is his best noise imitation that he performs while playing with anything with wheels!  It is so cute to watch him put a Little People person to sleep under a blanket in their tiny plastic bed.





I guess it's time to wrap this up!  Hope he sleeps through the night tonight.  Last night he was up three times crying- I think the poor baby is getting his 2 yr molars early.  It was kind of nice to go snuggle with him for a while at 2 am though, especially when he sweetly offered me his paci :)

wild child

Here are some recent pics of Palmer!  Tyler did this to him. . . and it was pretty funny :)

I wish this was video instead of still photos!  He was so goofy.

Time to attack Daddy!  He's asking for it laying down like that.

even better than they sound

I think I've found the best 100% whole grain cookie out there!  I wanted to make a healthy-ish dessert type snack for the babies to eat the other day at my house while the adults had fudge and other goodies.  Oatmeal cookies came to mind, but the recipe I had called for all purpose flour.  I've had some wheat flour in the pantry for a while now and decided to go to the Gold Medal website to find something to make with it.  Lucky me- they had an oatmeal cookie recipe!  (With raisins, actually, but I ignored that.)  Usually when I bake things with wheat flour they taste, well, too wheaty.  These were AWESOME!  You get the whole grains from the oatmeal and the wheat- a double whammy!  Please make these- you won't have to feel so guilty for having cookies with your coffee for breakfast :)

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3 C oatmeal
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir together sugars, butter, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, and eggs one at a time, mixing well.  Stir in oats and flour.


Bake on ungreased cookie sheets 9-11 minutes (tablespoonful size cookies) or until light brown around lower edges.  Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets, remove to wire racks to cool completely.