Some ramblings

MMMMMMmmmmmmm.....I belive my gyro just pulled into the driveway. The beginning of this will have to be postponed for a while while I fill my stomach with delicious hot meat and soft pita bread.

Ah, now my stomach is filled with the heavy meat of a gyro. The deliciousness flows through my blood. MMMmmm.

Somehow at this moment, both of my children are napping, have been napping for quite some time.

It is wonderful.

Not to say that my day with them has been trying, it really hasn't, but it could always be much worse. My headache is kind of going away on it's own, but it's taking a minute to die down.

I found this copy of "My neighbor Totorro" at the library (which in my personal opinion, is one of the greatest children's Japaname cartoons of all time, circa 1988) and today Marilyn finally grabbed it off of the stacks of movies and actually put it in the dvd player herself (I have hopes of a new dvd/vcr player for Christmas- hint hint) so I laid down with my girls and put it in. I noticed in the beginning credits a name I do not recall being around when I had watched the movie as a child. In fact, the particular name is question was of an actress who was not even BORN when I was a child. They replaced the little girls, Satsuki and Mai's, voices with none other than Dakota and Elle Fanning. WHAT????!!!! This is proposterous!!!! Where I had an idea to get the movie for Christmas (with it's 2 disk special release dvd) there was no way I was going to buy it without the original English tract. You can't just REPLACE the voices of the main characters and leave everything else the same! That doesn't even make any sense. It's proposterous! Outrageous! Completely dispicable.

So I'll just have to find the old tract version on dvd or maybe just buy the VHS. (Another reason why it would be beneficial for Michelle to own a new dvd/vhs player, maybe even one where you can burn vhs onto dvds and vice versa.... hint hint).

I accomplished a bit of sewing today which was nice. I needed to make Mallory some more diapers because the ones that I had made for her previously, are too small and give her a plumber's crack. My little baby isn't so little. She fits into Marilyn's diapers already!

I just have to say this, although it takes a little bit of time (around 45 minutes per diaper) sewing my own diapers is totally cost efficient. A yard of flannel from Walmart or maybe from JoAnn's if you can get it on sale is about $3. You can make two diapers from a yard and then have a bunch of scrap for other stuff you might need (breastpads, mamapads, washcloths, etc.). The velrco is about $7 a box from Walmart (that stuff is too expensive) but you will get atleast (this is just a guesstimate) 7-8 diapers from it, depending on how big you cut the velcro. You don't HAVE to put snaps on it, but since I recently invested in a snap press, I might as well reap in the benefits (it allows a one-size diaper to be an all-size diaper, because it can adjust). I do believe that I have become quite adept with a sewing machine and my stuff is getting better and better (and I also just found my other knitting needle which fell behind my nighstand amongst other hidden things I found.)

Here are some pictures, excuse the sizing and the placement, I have NO idea just yet how to manipulate pictures on this thing (my blog).

Since these are kind of my practice sewing diapers, and because I need them, and also because I reused materials (the velcro was recycled from the diapers I converted over to snaps) They are just fairly short of perfect. I also am pre-washing all of the microfiber inserts that I'm going to use because they are orange and sometimes leftover die taints the colors just a smidgen when I wash them. When we washed the brand new bright red bedsheets the die sometimes gets onto other stuff.

I have some other really cute plaid butterfly (it's a really preppy looking print, but it's cute) pattern and then this vivid stars pattern and of course, an apple pattern (which I may not make diapers, I'm thinking of using it for my own personal boppy cover- I make them and sell them, but I don't actually have one that is my own. :z )

So yeah, I didn't mean to totally just ramble on about my kid's diapers, but any other cloth diapering momma will tell you the same thing, diapers are addictive. And due to family needs, I get to make my own, which means I can be as creative as I want (as well as make as many as I want) so I get to explore the possibilities even more! Which kind of makes me feel like a nerd, but it works and my baby has the cutest looking bucket around (oh yeah, that's a brag) and everyone is always a little bit intrigued because people just don't do it anymore, and it's really not that difficult with all of the stuff they have around today.

I just discovered wetbags. I have been cloth diapering since Marilyn was 4 months old and I never even knew that wetbags existed. I suppose you could say it is just something people do without realizing it, and it kind of is, but a wetbag is a nicer, more permanant version of what you can put your dirty diapers or bathing suit in instead of using a plastic Walmart bag or something. I made one to carry diapers around in my bag (I however, used a metal zipper and it sticks sometimes.) and I made another one to hang on the bedroom door. It holds about 8-12 diapers depending and it goes right into the washer with all of the diapers. It's a bit more convient than using a plastic bucket, but I've learned to easily throw diapers across the room and get them into the bucket, that's a bit more difficult to do to a diaper bag hanging on a door (unless I made something with boning......?). Another 1 or 2 semi-medium sized wetbags would make me a lazy diaper washer but would be much appreciated. I also have a smaller wetbag for when I will carry around washcloths. It really isn't much different than carrying around disposable diapers and wipes, except that you have to make a little bit of effort to remember to take them inside and get them back to the rotation with everything else, because you feel kind of bad when you find a diaper that has been dirty and forgotten in the car for a bit of time. But if you are well enough stocked in the diaper department, you can afford to forget about a couple or take a day off from washing diapers (I don't mean to make it sound like I wash diapers every day, I don't, but mostly every 2 days and occasionally every 3 days).

That's a whole 'nother thing. Washing diapers. It's a lot easier than anyone thinks too. A 1-sized thing of Tide free and clear powdered detergent (I swear by that or Seventh Generation free and clear) with a hot wash and cold rinse with an extra rinse. And then I run another wash without any soap that is hot and then cold rinse (with or without the extra rinse) and then I throw all of my inserts and fitteds into the dryer on high for 60 minutes (or the VERY dry option) and I throw all of the covers and PUL things onto the drying rack and it takes about 2-3 hours for the plastic stuff to line dry (it is faster when it's on a line outside). Usually by the time I get around to even getting the diapers out of the dryer, everything on the drying rack is dry.

But yeah. Easy easy easy stuff.

I'm setting aside all of my diaper stuff, and someday when someone I know has a new baby and is all like "Michelle, I want to cloth diaper my baby, can you help me?" I will hook them up.

and I'll just leave it at that.