She smiles!

Smiling is something every mommy and daddy look forward to when they have a newborn. She started smiling around 6 weeks old. And I guess she's not a newborn anymore. She's just a regular baby now. I now notice other newborns that are smaller and younger than Anna (like at Target yesterday). Ack. They grow so fast.

Cloth Diapering

I've been meaning to write a post on how the cloth diapering is going. I remember back to when I was tossing around the idea of cloth diapering. I was traveling a lot back then so I spent hours and hours in my hotel room researching the benefits and different ways of cloth diapering. When I made the decision that I wanted to cloth diaper, it was February and I was in Nashville. I came home and I told Greg all about what I wanted to do. I hadn't mentioned anything to him prior to that.

Cloth diapering has come a long way in the last 10 years. There are so many options and different types of cloth diapers out there to choose from. The diapers I decided to use are called Best Bottom diapers. It's a diapering system that consists of using a waterproof shell with snap-in soaker pads. The waterproof shell is one-size. It has snaps that adjust the length of it so it can fit your baby from birth to potty training. The shells can be reused before washing as long as they haven't been soiled. When I change Anna, I just unsnap the soaker pad and snap a new one in and put it on her. Dirty diapers get stored in a waterproof/leakproof zippered wet bag that gets tossed in the wash on laundry day. I usually wash diapers every third day.

I never knew this until I started researching cloth diapers but cloth diapers rarely leak! They contain even the runniest newborn poops. Anna is almost 8 weeks old and I have yet to have a pee leak and I have had just one small poop leak out the leg thus far. When we used disposables on Meredith, we were constantly battling blowouts up the back and out the legs and having to change her cloths almost on a daily basis. Honestly, it's a night and day difference.

I've had a few challenges with learning how to properly clean them. There are so many factors that play into cleaning diapers such as the kind of water you have, the kind of washing machine you have, and the kind of detergent you use. I battled some ammonia smell issues recently so I have really gotten to know our washer in the last two weeks (which is good because we paid a lot of money for a nice machine so it's best I know how to use it). I've had to do a lot of experimenting with different cycles, rinses, detergents, etc. I think I've got it perfected though and we aren't having any more stinky issues. Her diapers smell clean and fresh all the time.

It was an investment up front (but not as much as I would pay for disposables for 2.5 - 3 years) and assuming they are in good condition when we potty train, I can resell these for 40-60% of what I paid for them new. There is a good resale market for cloth diapers.

I am so happy with my decision to cloth diaper this time around. It really is easy and I enjoy it too. I love that I am not clogging landfills with diapers. Knowing the benefits of cloth, it makes me feel so good to put cloth on Anna's bum instead of disposables. Plus, they come in all sorts of fun colors and prints and they are oh-so-cute! I am happy with how the Best Bottom brand of diapers are working for us so far.

This is the outside of the waterproof shell. You can see all the snaps to customize the fit.

This is the inside of the shell and a soaker pad.

This is the inside of the waterproof shell with a soaker pad attached.

Here is a close up of the waterproof lining.

And here is the cute model. Cloth diapers are sooooo cute!

Chuck E. Cheese

This year with a brand new baby, a small house that isn't condusive to entertaining, and not wanting to plan for a party, we looked for options that required minimal thought to have a party. That's where we came up with Chuck E. Cheese. It was perfect. Kids love it! And to be honest, it didn't cost us much more than it would have to just have the party at a park and buy all of our own food.

Mer really had a good time. I'm glad it worked out so well. We may have to consider doing it there again in the future!

This was my big 'Mom Fail' moment. What kind of mother only puts three birthday candles on the cake when their child is turning four???

She got a lot of Hello Kitty which was good. She loves Hello Kitty. And I love it too. My influence might have slightly rubbed off on her. I love how the things I loved as a child are still around.

4!

Meredith turned 4 on September 2. 4 years has sure gone by fast. Here are two quick pictures from her actual birthday. We got her a bike. It's a bit big but I'm hoping she will grow into it by next spring.

State Fair

I can't believe summer has already come and gone. The first half went soooooo slow waiting on the arrival of Anna. And the last six weeks have just whizzed by. But end of summer means State Fair time - something I look forward to all year. In fact, I'm looking forward to next year's fair already.

We decided to go twice this year since we only went once last year with the child and we didn't get a chance to see and do the stuff that WE (adults) wanted to do. The first time we took Meredith and Anna. The second time was just me and Greg.

I wanted to document the food we got, but I totally forgot! Between our two trips, we had mini doughnuts, cheese curds, fresh french fries, fried pickles, fudge puppies, more cheese curds, apple dumpling, turkey sandwich, corn on the cob, fried ravioli, a rice kristie treat, and sweet martha's cookies. Hmmm...I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff too.

We started off the day with some mini doughnuts and went to the kidway. We made sure to get the state fair bargain book in advance because there is a $6 coupon off a 20 ride tickets and we knew we had to take Meredith on some rides.

I can't get blogger to rotate this photo but it's cute. She loves the swings.

And then the fake Blue's Clues ride with the hydraulics.

Anna didn't go on any rides. She slept.
Another one I can't get blogger to rotate.

She wanted to go down the big slide. And being the cheapskate I am, I told her that this slide at the kidway WAS the big slide because I was about ready to be done with our ride tickets and I didn't want to shell out another $4 on the real big slide. I can't wait until I can't fool her like that anymore.

We are klassy. She went on the NASCAR ride with the Budweiser advertisements all over the place. And if it weren't klassy enough, it had Hooker advertisiments all over the place too (I have no idea what Hooker is, but it's a bit disturbing on a kids ride). All the while, the Kidz Bop version of Kesha's song Tic Tock was playing while the ride was going.

A picture of me. Poor Anna gets gypped. She doesn't get to partake in the gluttony that goes on at the fair. She only gets a bottle.