I dress my child like a crazy person..I mean, she picked out her own clothes, yeah.

Cloth diaper trial and errors

Ah, cloth diapers, good ol’ cloth diapers.
It has been two years now since I started my adventure in cloth, and boy, have I ever learned a ton!

It all started with a Craigslist ad, “free cloth diaper stash” what? You mean I could diaper my child for free? And it’s only a block away!?(I was 8 months pregnant, lol, good thing it was close)

So I picked them up, checked them out, got very excited, and started researching, and researching and reading and googling and researching.
These diapers were Kushies brand, a Walmart available diaper, plain flannel insides, Velcro tabs, nothing special.

And then I realize that these diapers had horrid reviews, and that ‘gasp’ they won’t fit from newborn! So obviously I had to look for more suitable ones.

Back to Craigslist, I found a bummis diaper set, a lot of pre folds in newborn and infant size, and some bummis covers size small to large! I was set!
And then I found some cute thirsties covers.

So Olive was born, was LOVING my pre fold system, until at about 5 months she became a wriggley moving protesting rolling baby.
I decided I must try pocket diapers.

So I sold off all my pre folds, and found a set of “comfy rump pocket diapers”
It took me two days to realize these would not work because my child’s legs were chunky and the aplix would rub on them every time she moved. Off those went.

Next up I bought a bunch of used fuzzibunz, that I didn’t realize until they got home but were potent, like, horrid ammonia buildup, 10(not exaggerated) boilings, covers too, bleaching, vinegar, dawn, hand washing, nothing got rid of it, got my money back, donated them to cloth for a cause, and went hunting again.

Then came kawaii, and sun baby diapers. They were awesome! I used them for a good six months, before a friend sent me three bum genius freetimes to try.

At that point I decided I must slowly but surly make my entire stash bumgenius diapers.
But then I came across a flip diaper, and built up and sold off, built up, and sold off until I had a stash(which is what I have now) of bumgenius freetimes, 4.0 and flip diapers!

Want to know what I found sucked huge and what I loved?
That comes in tomorrow’s post!

Being crafty

Since moving back to Victoria, I have purchased a quality sewing machine!
It has proven to be useful time and again, fixing diaper elastic, altering clothing, making clothing and more, but of all things I have been proud of for making, a “puddle jumper” takes the cake! I had found a good condition vintage life jacket on the side of the road and thought it was awesome and I should hold onto it.

After a hunt to get an idea of what kind of floatie I wanted for Olive, I found the puddle jumper.

Being broke as fuck, and impatient as hell, I went looking for a way to make one, and there it was, the foam filled great condition life jacket.

A bunch of chopping, sewing and winging it later and we have an amazing character face free floatie!

It fits and works fantastically, makes swimming more enjoyable, and I didn’t pay a dime for it. 🙂

Been a while

Oh boy, forgot all about this blog.
Well what can I say, a lot has happened.

First off, Olive is 22 months old, almost 23(I know right, ahh almost two!) we are currently in Victoria BC (dream come true right!) and Scott and I are still happily together (9 years strong).

Since my last blog entry, I had filed a complaint with the Ontario board of midwives that went no where, figures, olive started crawling at 6? Months, walking about a week after her first birthday, and started saying words regularly after her first birthday.
We moved quite a bit in Toronto, from my mothers to our one bedroom, to a two bedroom and then Scott went to Calgary and later Victoria, and Olive and I stayed at my mothers waiting for him to set us up out there!

A month and a half after staying with my mother (and two months in our apt for a total of 3.5 freaking months apart) Scott arranged a job and apt, and paid for a train ride for Ollie and I to come out here! My mama even came too.

I know what you’re thinking, “train for 3.5 days with a toddler!?! Wtf, why didn’t you fly?!” Well, I am terrified of flying, and was terrified of restraining a very mobile 18 month old on my lap for 6 plus hours. She could at least walk around the train, watch out the window, talk to people and sleep in a bed at night. I must say, it was a fantastic experience with only one small meltdown at the end. It was fun, she was awesome, and we made it! I would do it again!(although hope to not have to)

The look on Scott and Ollie’s face when they saw each other for the first time in 3.5 months was priceless and I will never forget it.

So, here we are in Vic, we got bikes and a bike trailer for Olive and we go out regularly on rides hikes and swims, trying to never forget to never take this beautiful place and all it has to offer for granted.

I’m sure something else will come to mind soon enough, later.