half a year????

I just plain cannot believe that Russell is 6 months old.  That means he is only 6 months away from his first birthday.  CRAZY!!!!!  He rolls over like a pro now and we can't hardly keep him on his back.  He would love to crawl and grab those awesome toys that are just out of reach, but I think it will still be a couple months :)  Ever since getting over his car-phobia he is just the happiest baby!  His brother demands quite a bit of attention so that's probably a good thing.  Russell loves nursing, biting fingers, and watching Palmer play.  He has had some baby oatmeal and a little bit of carrot puree, but I honestly haven't felt the urgency to start feeding him solids yet!  I want to do some more research on baby led weaning and will probably do a combo of that with standard homemade baby food.

My sweet baby! Stop growing!

Having fun as usual!

It has been so fun cloth diapering Russell from birth.  As you all know, I highly recommend it to anyone who asks!!  Less waste, more cute, plus a hobby for mommy :)  I read a quote once that said, "You don't wear paper underwear, why should your baby?".  That makes sense to me!  I have been slowly converting our mixed "stash" of pocket diapers/all-in-ones/prefolds/&covers, to all fitted diapers and wool.  That means mostly natural fibers, which is nice.  It's definitely an investment up front, but the resell value of high quality cloth diapering gear is really good.  My favorite brands are Little Fancy Pants, Bumstoppers, Pianissimo Cloth, and Sustainablebabyish.  If you see pics of the boys, it is highly likely they are wearing their wool shorties or longies from SBish (for short).  We <3 p="" woolies="">

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!!!