Monday, November 23, 2009

Touching the Lion

Evaleigh is learning to reach out and touch things. Most of the time she still has her hand in a fist but she gets excited when she touches things! Last night she kept concentrating really hard and reaching out and touching the lion, then she'd get so excited and kick a whole lot, then stop and reach out and touch the lion again, over and over. It was so cute!



This morning she was concentrating really hard to open her fingers to hold onto Joel's finger. It was so cute. She's growing so much every day!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Oli

Here is Evaleigh playing with her good friend Oli the Oliphaunt.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Evaleigh Talking

Here is Evaleigh talking to her favorite friend, the Raccoon.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Cloth Diaper Adventures

I thought it was about time to write about cloth diapering now that I have the experience. I used disposables for the first couple weeks (and went through over 4 packs of newborn diapers!) After Evaleigh's cord fell off then we started using cloth diapers. I love it! I would not want to use disposables instead!

I use mostly Bummis prefolds and covers. I fold a diaper in thirds and put it in the cover and put it on the baby. It's that simple!


At night I add a stay dry liner so it lasts longer.


There aren't many in this picture but I also use cloth wipes in the wipes warmer. I feel like these do a better job of cleaning than the disposable wipes, but I have to mix the solution every couple of days. They are also easier because I just throw them in the wash with the diapers.


When the diapers are dirty, I put them in the diaper pail. It's small, but just the right size. When it's full, it's time to wash the diapers.

I use Charlie's Soap and I think it works well. When it's time to wash, I just take the bag out of the pail, turn it inside out and dump all the dirty diapers into the washing machine. I first do a prewash, then add soap and do a normal wash with hot water. I always line dry my diapers because it not only saves energy and money, but it helps the diapers last longer, and when they dry in the sun the stains get bleached away. However, we've been having a lot rainy days lately and they've been drying in the nursery for a long time.. when it is sunny, they dry pretty fast outside!


Here is a picture of Evaleigh with a clean diaper. There's a dirty diaper in the background...

When the diapers are dry, I fold them in thirds and put them in the drawer. I also make solution for the wipes and add them to the warmer.

The covers can usually be used more than once so we have less of those. We have 19 prefolds and do laundry about every other day. The recommended amount is about 24 for newborns but we are doing ok with only 19. We have 5 covers and 4 gdiaper covers. I use the prefold diapers in the gdiaper covers which doesn't work as well but it still works. We also have one all-in-one diaper I use at night. I still need to sit down and figure out how much we spent on cloth diapers to see when we start saving money. Every time I hang the diapers up to dry, I count them and add them to the tally count. As of right now, we used 269 cloth diapers, and that doesn't count the load in the washer that just finished that I am going to hang as soon as I finish this post.. And that doesn't count the wipes either. We went through 5(?) boxes of wipes the first few weeks. So I know we are saving by using cloth wipes too! Also, we pretty much got all the cloth diapers and supplies from showers or shower money, but we are still going to see when we start saving money...

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Dancing Evaleigh

Evaleigh was 8 weeks old on Friday. This past week she grew so much! She now smiles and coos. She is also bigger and more active and alert. And in this video she is moving so much! Joel was singing to her and she was going crazy! I took several videos but I had to post a shorter one. That same night, she slept for the longest stretch so far- 6 hours! I guess she was really worn out. She is growing so fast!