Updated Cloth Diaper Stash

Vinnie has no desire to use the toilet or even begin potty learning so we are still full-time in cloth diapers for him!  Luke has graduated to Pull-Ups overnight and regular big-boy undies all day long.

Here's Vinnie's current diaper stash!

12 Bum Genius 3.0 Diapers
5 Bum Genius 4.0 Diapers
6 Soggy Bottom Baby Fitted Diapers (3 small, 3 medium)
4 BSRB Fitteds
1 MamaGoetsch Creations Fitted Pocket
9 Alva Baby Diapers stuffed for day-times
7 Happy Flute OS AIOs (one not pictured) 
5 Alva Baby Diapers stuffed for night-times

I super-duper love the Happy Flute AIOs and want to add some more of them to the stash! 

Cloth Diaper Stash

Last week I decided to take a short break from cloth diapers, since I was feeling burnt out with all the housework and laundry.

As of tonight, Vinnie is back in cloth.  Here's our stash as it is today, minus the diaper (navy blue night-time alva) that he's sleeping in.

From top left-to right, to bottom left- to right

12 Bum Genius 3.0 Diapers
6 Bum Genius 4.0 Diapers
6 Soggy Bottom Baby Fitted Diapers (3 small, 3 medium)
12 Alva Baby Diapers stuffed for day-times
6 Alva Baby Diapers stuffed for night-times

---
42 Diapers

We also have 6 or 7 Happy Flute OS AIO diapers coming soon from a co-op, but I'm not sure how they're going to work out on my skinny guy.

Happy 4th Birthday Lucas Wayne!!

Friday was Luke's fourth birthday! It's crazy to think about four YEARS having passed!

We started celebrating his big day by making Iron Man cupcakes for his classmates at Churchland Baptist Preschool on Thursday.

That evening, I made rice & gravy for dinner, which used to be one of his favorites, but he wouldn't touch it.

Luke got to celebrate his 4th birthday from the time he woke up until bedtime!

First thing in the morning, Tim took him to I-Hop for a chocolate chip smiley face pancake breakfast.

Then we spent the day at home, hanging out & getting things done, before leaving around 2:30 to pick up Carolynn.

Both boys napped in the car & at 3:15 Carolynn joined us!

We headed to Sonic for a VERY late lunch &  then to my friend Sarah's house, for a playdate with her kids.

After the play-date, we headed to Norfolk to meet Tim for dinner.  We made a pit-stop at Heaven & Earth to look for a Bible for Luke (no luck) and then to the Dollar Deals Store for some birthday balloons and treat bag favors.

Finally, we met Tim at CiCi's for Luke's birthday dinner!

After dinner and dessert it was finally time for presents!

Luke got a Pirate whale & a pirate with a cannon Imaginext playsets. :) He's all about pirates, ever since Trevor's party back in May, so he was very happy.

He also got a set of PJs from me. I made the Spiderman pants that he has been requesting and managed to find a like-new PJ top at the thrift shop that matched the pants perfectly. :)

Happy 4th Birthday Lucas Wayne! 

Mommy & Daddy love you to pieces!

Potty Learning!

I feel like I've posted on this topic before, but this time it is REALLY real.

Luke is officially day-time potty trained.

He has been going pee on the potty (and poo too) since he was a tiny little guy, not even two years old.

But, he's always had the diapers to fall back on, and then when he broke his foot this summer, we went to Pull-Ups 100% of the time.

He does not do well, knowing that he has a "crutch", so trainers and Pull-Ups had to go.  

Now that Luke is in Pre-K 3, we needed to get him trained pretty quickly, since the school PREFERS that the kids are in underwear.

Last weekend, September 19-23, we headed to Emporia.  We left right from school (where he had a Pull-Up on) and drove out to Mom & Dad's.  As soon as we got there, we said goodbye to Pull-Ups.

Luke didn't have any accidents on Thursday.  On Friday he pee'ed on the couch while playing on the i-Pad.  So, he lost the i-Pad for the day.  Saturday he had an accident early in the morning, but stayed dry all day, even through playing outside.  Sunday he stayed dry.  And ever since he has pretty much been dry. :) He's had one or two accidents, but they were true accidents and not just laziness.  (at the play-place--too distracted)

We aren't concerned with night-time potty training right now.  When he has day-times down and we don't have to remind him or keep after him, then we'll start to think about night-time training.

Quick Craft!

Tomorrow night is "Crazy Hat Night" at Awanas, at Central Baptist Church.

Vinnie will wear his Woody hat, simply because its his favorite hat right now.  BUT, Luke didn't have a hat to wear.

So, I searched the web for about 30 minutes and came across this free tutorial package, from FleeceFun.Com.

I quickly printed out the pieces & dug into my big bag o' fleece (a King size quilt bag).  I found enough scraps to make the dino hat & got to work.

It is an easy pattern to follow with clear instructions but also features a video tutorial (I didn't watch).
I made the Child Large.

So, without further ado, here's Luke "crazy" dino hat!

Modeled by Luke

Modeled by Carolynn

3 Year Old Preschool!

Tim and I have talked quite a bit about whether or not to send Luke to preschool.  Ultimately we decided that if we could afford it and found a school that would be a good fit for him and us, that we would go for it.

We didn't think we were going to be able to make it happen, until the Friday before Labor Day, so we got a very late start, but fortunately I was already pretty sure I knew where I wanted to send him.  This school came recommended by several friends and  has been in existence (and operating) for over 60 years.  It was also very affordable.

So, Tuesday morning Sept. 3, I made the arrangements for Luke to start Pre-K 3 on Thursday, September 5, 2013 at Churchland Baptist Church's Weekday Preschool.  We had MOPS on Tuesday & Vinnie stayed home with Tim.  Luke had a good time in the nursery care, but they are no longer sending our Moppets to the Central Christian Academy, so I'm glad we're putting him in preschool.

Click for Photo Source

After MOPS we had a ton of errands to run in Virginia Beach and ended up being gone until the early evening.

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to the school at dismissal time and met with his teacher, Mrs. Ratcliff and the director Mrs.Smith.  The boys and I got a tour of the school and all of the admissions paperwork.  Mrs. Ratcliff went over their class size, schedule, goals, and made the boys both feel welcome.

That evening I filled everything out and got Luke prepared for the big  day!  We also went to Awanas Family Fun Night at Central, where hopefully both boys will be doing Cubbies and Puggles.  They had jump-jumps and other fun stuff for the kids & I got to visit with some friends.

We had to head home early, before the informational meetings, so that I could babysit.

We had a bit of a rough time getting the kids to bed, since they were so excited by little Miss A, the 9 month old I was babysitting, but eventually all of the children were asleep.  Miss A kept me up quite a bit during the night, but we did manage to get some sleep early in the morning.

Tim worked from home and so at about 8:30 we set off to take Luke in for his first day of school.  Luke was very excited and ran right into his classroom.

After we dropped him off, we headed home to let Tim do some work.  Vinnie, Miss A, and her big brother T all fell asleep in the car so I road around and waited for them to wake up.  It ended up that they slept ALL THE WAY THROUGH Luke's preschool!  So, we picked Luke up and then headed to Miss A & T's house in Virginia Beach.

After we dropped them off, we had Chic Fil A for lunch and went to Luke's physical appointment.

Diaper Stash Evolution

So, over time our stash has changed and changed again.  Yesterday I let Vinnie wear undies all day, (he never made it to the potty) so I could get ALL of the diapers clean and inventory what we are using.

Luke is full-time in Pull-Ups right now.  I was buying him cloth trainers but found that he either outgrows them or the PUL doesn't last, so they weren't worth the investment.  They also don't hold resale value like the diapers can.

He has had times where we thought he was *almost there* with potty learning....and full set-backs (like a leg cast!) that have him barely even attempting to use the potty.

Vinnie knows when he is stinky and needs changed and doesn't like the feeling when he wets a diaper, but doesn't seem ready to go on the potty just yet, so we'll be doing diapers for at least a little while longer.

So, I've got the stash broken up this way:

Day-Time Use at home: (stuffed with microfiber car wash towels)
12 BG 3.0s
6 BG 4.0s

Day-Time Use on the go: (stuffed with various hemp inserts)
13 Alva Baby Pockets

Night Time Diapers: (stuffed with Thirsties Duo Sz. 2 Hemp Prefolds)
6 Alva Baby Pockets

Bamboo Fitteds: 
(Vinnie is technically allergic to these, but I use them with a liner on wash day or as back-ups)
2 Soggy Bottom Baby
4 Bagshot Row Bamboo
1 MamaGoetsch Creations Pocket Fitted


We have a total of thirty one day-time diapers and six night time diapers in our regular rotation and I wash every 3-4 days.

I use Ecos laundry detergent, "home-made booster", apple cider vinegar, and dish soap. (I don't buy Dawn so I use whatever we have, normally Palmolive.)  The home-made booster is equal parts of oxyclean free, washing powder, borax, and baking soda.

I start with a cold rinse of all the dirty diapers.  I follow that with a hot wash including 1-2 scoops (from the Oxyclean container) of the home-made booster, Ecos up to the 2 line and a healthy splash of apple cider vinegar (probably 1/2-1 cup).  If there is any odor left in the washer, then I will run another hot cycle with a squirt of dish soap, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar.  I use the "heavy duty" cycle on my machine which includes stain clean, an extra rinse, and an extended soaking time.  After the diapers are clean, I rinse them on a rinse only cycle with cold water.  It doesn't normally take more than 1 cycle to get rid of the vinegar smell and any suds.

I dry all of our diapers in the dryer, since line-drying is not an option for our allergic boy.

Ear Tube Surgery & A Broken Foot

So, after my last update, both boys were sick with double ear infections.  We also found out Luke had a perforated ear drum.

That week, we went to the ENT and he confirmed that Luke's ear tubes were still in his ears but weren't in place, which was causing the recurrent ear infections.  Dr. Keyes scheduled Luke's ear surgery for July 16, first thing in the morning.

Dr. K also checked out Vinnie's ears and said that he looked like a candidate for tubes as well & that if he were to get one more ear infection he'd qualify, since the insurance requires 4 or more infections in a "season".

Luke's surgery went well, they didn't let me go back with him, but he was okay with Dr. K & the anesthesiologist.  They played Batman and Dr. Doom!

About 9 minutes after he went in Dr. K came out & told me he was done and about 3-4 minutes later a nurse came to get me because he was waking up.

We stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way home & got a treat for the boy!

Luke had a fever and was slightly dehydrated on the 17th, so we had to go to the ER to get him checked out & make sure he didn't have an infection.

On the 18th, two days post-op, Luke was feeling fine and like his normal self.  He and Aaron were playing a game where Luke "superman jumped" from the arm of the couch & Aaron caught him.  For some reason Aaron decided NOT to catch him and Luke took a hard tumble.

He wouldn't walk for about 2 hours and just sat with ice on his foot until Tim got home and we could go to Patient First (urgent care).

After a LONG wait the doctors there (several) decided it wasn't broken and sent us home with a useless ace bandage.

Over the next couple of days Luke still wouldn't walk normally or bear any weight on the big toe part of his foot.

On Monday, the 22nd I called and got him an appointment to the CHKD orthopedic doctors.  They saw him on the 24th and just based on the x-rays Patient First sent over, determined that he had in fact broken his foot.

So, Luke got his first cast.  They couldn't do red/black stripes so he opted for a blue cast instead.

That evening I sewed up some "socks" to cover and protect his cast from getting grimy.  So far they are doing their job, since he's had it on almost 2 weeks and it doesn't have a foul odor & isn't black with filth.

National Root Beer Float Day!

August 6 is apparently National Root Beer Float day! I only found out, today, but amazingly enough we actually have A&W Root Beer and vanilla ice cream in the house!

So, after dinner, while watching "Escape from Planet Earth", my boys are all celebrating this fun holiday!

Luke enjoyed his first ever root beer float, until the ice cream melted, and then he just wanted plain ice cream.

Vinnie had his "chocolate" coconut "icecream".  When you weigh only 19 lbs at 2 years old, you're allowed to have seconds on anything you ask for...so he ate TWO bowls of ice cream!

Even Daddy enjoyed a root beer float!

Mommy doesn't drink root beer and can't have ice cream, so I didn't partake in the holiday.

Let's Do Summer: July Update!

So far we've had a pretty good summer, in my opinion!

New PJ Footie Pants I made Vinnie

May 31 we went to the Virginia Beach Public Library tour & playdate with our home-school group.  Luke & Vinnie got to play with some friends & Mommy got to hear all about the library.  You can get a non-resident pass for $10 for 3 months! :)

That evening the boys stayed with Tim, while I went to Carolynn's recital.

On June 1, we went swimming at Mandy's pool!

June 2 We went to Busch Gardens.  Tim took Luke and had a guys' day and Amanda and I took Vinnie to the outlet mall.  Then we met up at Busch Gardens for a couple rides before dinner time.

June 3 We went to our friend Liz's house for a play-date & picnic lunch.

(On June 5th I made Vin some new clothes.)

June 8 We went to Lowe's Build and Grow to make Monster's University Scarers with Grayson and Spencer.  Then we went to the park to play.  After that, Luke & I went to Logan's 3rd birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese's. It was Luke's first time (since infancy) and he had a blast.  That afternoon we drove to Emporia.

On June 10 we went to Busch Gardens, just the three of us.

June 11th I picked up a huge lot of Geotrax for $50 for Vinnie's birthday!

On June 12 we went to the zoo with Liz & Hilary & all the kids.  The boys got to play in the water fountains twice!

June 15 we had Tim's birthday party which was completed with a HUGE Nerf Super Soaker water gun fight.

June 16, we spent Father's Day going out to lunch at Firehouse and then Tim & Luke went to see The Croods while Vinnie & I grocery shopped!

June 17-21 was VBS at Deep Creek Baptist church.

June 19th was haircut day for Luke--he decided to keep it long. :)

June 20th we went for a walk/bike ride as a family!

On June 22 we had a 25th Anniversary Celebration lunch with the Corbin family, after Tim & Luke did another Lowe's Build & Grow event.

June 23 we went to Busch Gardens.

(June 24-Vinnie went to the ER after this Busch Gardens trip for a suspected milk reaction.)

Tuesday June 25 was the Gatherings' movie night and we saw Monster's University, then we picked Ashley up!

Then the boys got sick. :(  It started with an allergic reaction for Vinnie on June 20, which 2 weeks later had morphed into an eye, sinus, and ear infection for him and an eye, sinus, and double ear infection (with perforation of his left ear drum) for Luke.

Vinnie's swollen eye on 6/21/13

Sick kids eat grilled cheese. :) 

Sweet sick napping baby

On Saturday June 29, we took Ashley back to John and then headed to Mandy's house for dinner.

Monday July 1 is when we found out how sick the boys were and then Luke had to go back to the doctor on Friday the 5th.  

So sick he asked to nurse (he's mostly weaned) on 7/2 and 7/3/13.

On July 3, Amanda took us to Chic Fil A so the boys could all play together!

We spent the 4th in Emporia.

July 6th was spent at Busch Gardens with Tom, Peggy, Mandy, Grayson, and Spencer. :)

Vinnie started the day with everything free cereal & coconut milk--his first bowl of cereal with milk!

And yesterday, July 7th was Carolynn's 6th birthday & we partied at their house, before heading to the beach for an hour! :)

This afternoon, July 8, our cousins Betti & Aaron will arrive in town after living in Texas for the last year! We can't wait to see them!

So, how's your summer been?