First Cloth Diaper Thoughts

Today is the first day of my daughter wearing cloth diapers. Well, she's wearing her very first one right now and I have yet to change it, but I just had to share my first thoughts. Already, I love them! With the cloth diaper on, her little tush is so soft! Unlike the annoying crinkly paperness of the disposables. It's something so small, but it's amazing what a difference it makes. Just holding her wearing the cloth diaper makes me 10x happier. Who knew?! Maybe it's the cloth fiber vibes whispering "No more disposables in the landfill. Hooray!" haha!

It's taken me awhile to get our little girl into cloth diapers. I've been buying a small batch every paycheck until I've been able to build up enough to hopefully have some for a few days. Then I had to find the right detergent (unfortunately, my homemade stuff won't work). And finally, I had to wash and dry them 3 times to get them absorbent - just like you have to wash new towels a few times. I was a little nervous putting on the very first cloth diaper. Was I ready? Was I going to have a headache scrubbing the first messy diaper? Where am I going to put the soiled diapers? (Our apartment is much smaller than our last place...) Are they going to stink up my house? Was her diaper going to be completely huge and bulky? Questions to be answered shortly, I'm sure.

Well, I started to put the cloth diaper on - backwards. I laughed at myself and started over and even though my little girl was fussing and squirming I got it on and... it was beautiful! Hooray! Now maybe I'll get my husband to do the first cloth diaper change. Heh heh heh.

Cool Knitting/Crocheting Website

I found this great kitting and crocheting website that has free downloadable patterns! It also has some great features like links to different types of yarns and a "My Notebook" tab where you can save favorite patterns you find, the status of projects you're working on which you can share with others, stashed yarn, a queue for future projects, and a whole lot more. If' you're into knitting or crocheting, this is a really fun website to explore! I've been knitting for 7 years, but I am still stuck on scarves and wash clothes and have no idea how to read knitting patterns. It is definitely time to expand my horizons!

Here's the site:
http://www.ravelry.com/

Goodbye, Plastic!

I am really excited about these thrift store finds of glass baby bowls (a.k.a. reclaimed ramekins. haha!) I've been contemplating my use of plastic and the recent BPA scare and I've realized that I rely on plastic a lot in my food storage and kid-dishes -- a lot more than I'd like to. So, I've decided that I'm going to slowly replace the plastic kids dishes with glass (for me to feed the baby from, not for her to eat out of on her own) and also to replace our plethora of plastic storage containers with as much glass and other safer alternatives than the cheapo Gladware stuff I've been using. I've really disliked how those plastic containers discolor and warp and get ugly from being microwaved. I really don't like to microwave in plastic containers. I just looked at what the food did to my containers and then I wondered what the containers were doing to my food. And then I thought, Yeah, it's time to switch over. I'm excited to start buying glass containers with lids for food storage in the fridge. And I already use canning jars to store bulk food items like couscous, rice, sugar, and my cornbread mix.

I've also read about a lot of fun products like stainless steel flatware for kids, cute wood and stainless steel baby dishes, and even stainless steel sippy cups! And at the store the other day I saw a cool, if rather heavy, glass water bottle with a silicone cover. It looked pretty cool. Not to mention there are those stainless steel water bottles that you see everywhere now. I'm glad I'm not the only one on this line of thinking! It sure makes it easier to find better alternatives.

Now I just need to be weaned off plastic bags and paper towels. I'm switching to cloth diapers, I might as well analyze the other "disposables" in my life, right. Do I need more cloth rags maybe to replace paper towel dependence? Can I use rags in the microwave? (We put a paper towel over food so it doesn't spatter everywhere.) Paper towels are great for cleaning up greasy stuff, but I suppose cloth could do the same.

I could see us coming off paper towels, but plastic bags? They're great for freezing stuff like meat, storing my bread, and for keeping food in the fridge fairly fresh. I do throw away any plastic bags I keep raw meat in. I used to wash my plastic bags, but it's such a hassle. I guess I just hate the idea of how much I'm throwing away, but I just can't think of any other realistic alternative for plastic bags. Any non-plastic suggestions out there?

Disposables = money + convenience - TRASH

It's FRYday! - Indian Fry Bread

Indian Fry Bread

Aaah, it's that wonderful time of the month - FRYday! Woo! Now that we're all settled into our new place I was able to have FRYday on its normal day.

Today I really wanted to make Indian Fry Bread. I was introduced to this when I lived in Utah - it seems to be a very popular local food out there. I've seen it at the county fair, festivals, and other community events. To specify, "Indian" refers to Native American. I've also heard it called Navajo Fry Bead. It's eaten as the base for "Indian Tacos" or slathered in honey and butter. Yum! Unfortunately, I never got around to trying it until a short time ago during an internship at the American West Heritage Center. A Native American woman (I don't remember the tribe) showed me how her mother taught her to make it and described how they made it on the reservation. That was a pretty cool folkloric experience. But then I got to taste it. WOW! So, so mouth-wateringly good! It just melted in my mouth. This recipe brings back that wonderful tasty memory.

Indian Fry Bread
Yield: 6

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. shortening
3/4 cup warm water

Mix dry ingredients and shortening together in a medium-sized bowl. Rub mixture with fingers until coarse crumbs form. Push mixture to one side of the bowl and add the water. Mix in a circular motion with your fingers, then knead in an upward motion, stretching it upward with one hand. This should make a soft dough. (Or just stir it with a spoon until the water is absorbed. The other method is just really messy.)

Knead on a floured board for 2 minutes. (You might need to add a little extra flour.) Divide into 6 portions and shape into balls. Flatten one ball of dough with your fingers from the center outward until it's 6-7 inches around. Pat it firmly back and forth with your hands to help make it smooth and even. Thin out the edges so it's all the same thickness. Do the same with the rest of the dough balls.

Fry in hot oil until the edges are golden brown. Turn over and continue frying until a deep golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Serve hot, slathered with butter and drenched in honey. Oooooooh, yeaaaaaahhhh......

1st Baby Food

Pea, Green Bean & Zucchini Puree

I am so proud of myself! Today I made my first baby food for my little 5-month old girl. She's been eating stuff out of a jar for a few weeks, but I have wanted to make my own baby food. So, I bought a hand-crank baby food mill and an electric baby food blender. It came in the mail today! So, with the blenders an hour fresh out of the box, washed and dried, I cooked and blended a yummy mixture of peas, and organic green beans and zucchini. I think it took me about an hour to prep, cook and puree everything. I was lucky in that I got almost all of it done between my daughter's naps. Yippee! I tested some of the cooled stuff on her right then and there. Success! She loved it. (She's definitely a veggie girl - hasn't liked bananas, and apples were okay, but were a bit sour for her.) I tasted the green stuff myself and I must say - way better than the jar stuff!

Anyway, I can't believe how empowered I feel! I know that probably sounds silly. But I did entirely jarred food for my 1st baby because my husband and I were full-time students and were both working. It was hard to be restricted on what I could feed him at the beginning. But I had to be realistic. Now, my cooking soul is super thrilled to try out new combos of veggies and fruits and grains that you can't get in a jar - especially organic stuff. My next idea is to cook some oatmeal with apples and raisins and puree that. Yum!

Some Helpful Information

I'm not assuming any of you out there reading my blog actually need cloth diaper information, but I was just thinking if you know someone considering cloth diapers or you yourself in the future might consider cloth diapers, I thought this information would be helpful. So here are the sites/products that I have found useful:

Cotton Babies
DIY Diaper Sprayer video
Snappies

Going Cloth

I did it! Yesterday I made my first official purchase of cloth diapers. That's right. We're switching over from disposables to cloth.

What made me change my mind? Well, a big part of it was my sister-in-law, Amber, who recently switched over and loves it. She did a lot of research and was really enthusiastic to share it all with me.

In my mind, I thought cloth diapers were like what I remember back in 1990. I remember changing my little brother's cloth diaper - pins and icky white plastic pants and all. I wasn't going to go through with that with my children! But after going over Amber's research I was surprised to find that things have changed a lot since then. And I only had to think about it for a few minutes to realize that the switch totally made sense to me and was in line with the way I feel and think. Cloth diapers are totally do-it-yourself and once I buy them I don't have to depend on the store anymore to make sure my daughter has a clean bum. Yay! And laundry is one of those things that I don't mind doing, so... cloth diapers here I come!

What you need for cloth diapers:
* Diaper covers
* liners or tri-fold cloth diapers
* diaper sprayer that attaches to your toilet!
* diaper pail with PUL liner
* a couple of PUL wet bags for soiled diapers when we're out and about

* plenty of homemade wipes made from scraps of flannel (who knew?! Now I know what to do with all the old flannel clothes I was saving.)

(Image from Nature Moms Blog)