A Year's Worth of Blogging in One Post

It's been a while, blog friends! Over a year in fact....But with another kiddo on the way (It's a GIRL!!) I decided to resurrect the ol' blog. I looked at all my past posts last night and its remarkable how much you forget. I started this blog as, not only a way to share with other cloth diapering mamas, but to journal my life with little man as well. Now, with soon to be two babes, I feel like I need to blog so that  I don't forget a single memory. Here's what I have missed blogging about this past year.

• Logan got ear tubes last January. (See...it really has been a LONG time). While it was traumatic for me, it was no big deal for him. 12 minutes, in and out. 
• Logan is suffering from some serious stomach problems/allergies. We have been waiting to get in to our local Pediatric GI doctor for over 3 months. Our appointment is finally almost here (on Valentine's day) We suspect lactose intolerance and possible Celiac. Praying that Celiac is not on the list. 
• We found out we were expecting number two in early September. It was a surprise, but a welcomed one. We tried for a while to get pregnant with Logan, so it is crazy that number two was unplanned. 
• We celebrated Logan's second birthday in September with a Mickey Mouse birthday party! More on that in a future post :) 
• We found out we were having a GIRL in early December! We secretly hoped she was a girl so we are very excited! Still trying to come up with names. We are leaning towards Everly or Aria. 
• In early December we spent a long weekend in New York city with the family. 
• Christmas was more fun than ever. Logan had a blast opening up all of his gifts on Christmas morning. I can't wait until next year! 
• The Etsy shop is growing! I am coming up on 200 sales, which is far beyond what I ever expected to sell. And I sell quite a bit not on Etsy as well! 

Fast forward and I can not believe it's already February. Logan is growing up too fast, and the new baby will be here before we know it (I am 24 weeks pregnant as of yesterday). And YES, we plan to cloth diaper this one as well! From the day we get out of the hospital, actually. Logan still isn't potty trained, so I will be washing his diapers anyway. That's it for now... but I'll see you soon. I promise :) 

Logan's Dr. Seuss First Birthday Party

My little man's first birthday has come and gone....It makes me a little sad to know he only has a little while left to be a baby. I procrastinated a little in planning his party. I should have started a couple of months beforehand, but I only had a few weeks to get everything together. We threw him a Dr. Suess themed birthday party at our house with 60(!) of our closet friends and family. I found a lot of inspiration from other bloggers, so I thought I would share a few of the details. 

The Food:

We originally were only going to serve snacks, but we ended up doing a whole meal. Everything served had a Seuss inspired name. We served "Thing 1 and Thing 2 BBQ" (BBQ sandwiches), "Poodles with Noodles" (Mac and Cheese), "Yot in a Pot" (Baked Beans), "Praries of Prax"(Coleslaw), "Green Eggs and Ham" (Rolled deli ham and deviled eggs, dyed green), "Truffula Fruits" (fruit skewers), "Cheese Trees"(Cheese cubes served on styrofoam trees), "Diffendoofer Salad" (Potato Salad), and "One Fish Two Fish, Goldfish" (Goldfish crackers served in a fish bowl.  We also served "Pink Ink Yink Drink" (Pink Lemonade) and "Beezlenut Splash" (Sweet Tea) for beverages. I had custom water bottle wrappers made for the bottled water.

Cake and Sweets Table:

The cake was a three tiered cake made to look like one I saw online. I loved all of the colors and patterns. I also had a little "Cat in the Hat" smash cake for Logan to eat all by himself. We had a variety of other sweet treats on the sweets table with the cake. I made marshmallow pops dipped in chocolate, "Hop on Popcorn" (Paper cones filled with sweet popcorn), "Who Pudding", "Star Bellied Sneetch Treats" (Rice Krispie Treats) and "Horton's Fluff" (cupcake liners filled with cotton candy).

Table Decor: 

For the tables, I alternated red and turquoise tablecloths and paper goods. I placed all of the plates, utensils, cups, and napkins on the tables. I wrapped the utensils in matching napkins tied with bakers twine. I Dr. Seuss coloring pages were placed on all of the tables for the kiddos to color while the parents were fixing their plates. Two of the tables had a Dum Dum sucker tree centerpiece, two had hand painted pots with pinwheels, and one table had a centerpiece made from Dr. Seuss books and a "Sam I Am" stuffed animal. Dr. Seuss silly bands, books, and candy bars with custom wrappers were scattered on the tables. For the sucker tree centerpieces, I used plaster of paris to hold a painted dowel rod in a painted pot. I stuck a styrofoam ball on the top of the dowel rod and covered in suckers. If you attempt to make these, please note that it takes a lot of suckers. There are over 400 in the 2 centerpieces I made. For the pinwheel centerpieces, I filled painted pots with play sand. I made pinwheels from old Dr. Seuss book pages and attached them to dowel rods and placed them in the sand. I covered the sand with paper shred. 

Other Decorations: 

To place over the food tables, I made a photo banner with pictures from Logan's first year of life. There is one from each month from birth to 12 months. I attached them to a ribbon using smaller ribbon and a hole punch. We had this sign (and one that was at the driveway) made. I made the tissue poms from tissue paper using a Martha Stewart tutorial. It is a lot harder than it looks. I had originally planned on making 6-8 to hang from the ceiling, but I ran out of time. 

We had a welcome table and a table for gifts at the entryway to the house. The welcome table had a copy of Dr. Seuss's "Happy Birthday to You!" that we used as a guestbook. We also had a guessing game and a framed copy of the invitation on this table. 

I made this "One" banner for his high chair using old book pages and my Cricut machine. There was also another banner like this with his name in the dining room, but we didn't get a picture of it. I also made his party hat :)

For the entryway: I printed some of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes and attached them to colorful cardstock. I used tulle to hang them from the ceiling. 

Activities: 

Since most of the kids we know are pretty young, we didn't do any games. But we did have a giant inflatable slide and two little bouncy houses! And since it was during the beginning of the fall season, we decided to do a little hayride for the kiddos. They had a blast! 

We had such a great turn out! All of our family and friends were here to celebrate our little man's big day! I can't believe he is growing up so fast! He is learning new things every day and has such a big personality! 

We love you, mister! 

We've Got Some Catching Up To Do...

 

I have obviously been slacking on the blog front. These past few months have been insanely busy. I thought life would get easier and slow down a little as Logan got older, but I was mistaken :) Now that he is mobile, I am constantly chasing him around and he keeps me pretty busy. Nap time is spent trying to catch up on housework and sewing, so I haven't really had the time to blog.

Logan has had so many milestones this summer...He can now say "bye-bye", "ball", "da-da", occasionally "ma-ma" and most recently "ach-oo." He is so funny. He can walk pushing a walker, he can stand up and walk around the table. He climbs everything. He can clap. He can high-five. He can comb his hair. He is like a little sponge, learning new things every day. Every day is an adventure and he makes me laugh a million times a day.

On the down side, he has also had ear infections and we have had several sleepless nights. Most recently, he has been on an antibiotic for a bad infection and has been acting like a little monster. Throwing fits and screaming. I think its the medicine (Bactrim), but the pediatrician says he might just be coming into his own personality. Lord help me if thats true.

I can not believe that he will be ONE in 2 weeks! I have been busy planning a big Dr. Seuss party for him. Here is a little bit of my inspiration:

There are so many adorable Dr. Seuss parties out there in blog land and I have got a ton of great ideas. I cant wait to share ours!

Logan's First Beach Trip

Last week we took Logan to the beach for the first time. We decided to drive for the first time in years because airline tickets are so expensive right now. It was a 12 hour drive, both ways, and he was an angel. We stopped in Alabama on the way down, and since he had slept most of the car ride, he didn't sleep much at all that night. Maybe an hour. It was miserable but he slept the rest of the car ride the next day. I would rather get no sleep than deal with a screaming child in the car for 12 hours. 

We stayed at the beach all day every day. He loved playing in the sand and kept trying to eat it. My mother in law got him a little blow up pool that we took down every day and he would sit underneath the umbrella and play in the water. He even liked the ocean and wasn't scared of the waves at all. 

I couldn't have asked for him to be any better. He was so good the entire time. He even took his naps on the beach most days. We took him with us to play putt-putt golf one evening and took him on his first carousel and train rides. 

He also cut a second tooth while we were there and learned how to clap. He seems to learn a new trick every week. This week he has learned to shake his head "no" (even though he doesn't know what he is doing) and he has finally started crawling up on his knees! I can't believe that he will be one in just two short months! 

A Drugstore Couponing Tutorial

I started couponing a couple of months ago and I have had a ton of people curious about how I do it. I post pictures of my goods on Facebook and every time, I get at least one person asking me to teach them. So, I decided to put together a little how-to using this weeks sales.

I go to Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid on a weekly basis. I use a mixture of printable and paper coupons. I usually go to the Krazy Couponing Lady site to match my coupons with the sales. I also can find some good deals at Kroger and Target, but the best freebies I have found are at the drugstores.

These three drugstores all have some sort of money back rewards program. Each week they run specials on certain products where you get a gift certificate type coupon to use during your next visit.

Walgreens- The trickiest drugstore to coupon at- but they have some great sales. Walgreens is the only drugstore where you can get rewards back and not have to have a membership card. This means that even though they limit the number of rewards per person, you can come back the next day if you want and get a repeat deal. Walgreens also prints a coupon book that you can pick up in store. You can combine 1 Manufacturer coupon with 1 store coupon on each item.

Heres what I got at Walgreens this week:

Mitchum Deodorant (2) on sale for $3 and when you buy 2, you get $4 register rewards. I had a bunch of 75cents off 1 Mitchum Deodorant coupons so I combined them with the sale.
I paid $6- 1.50 (2 coupons)-4.00 Register rewards good off my next purchase= .50 for 2, or .25 each

Dove Men+care soap 6 pack (2) on sale for $6 and when you buy 2, you get a $4 register reward. We got a $4 off MF coupon in the paper a couple of weeks ago, so when I combined the coupon with the rewards, I got 2 6 packs for free. $12-$8 (2 coupons)-$4 register rewards= $0 for 2

Chex mix (2) on sale for $1. We got a .50 cents off 1 coupon in last weeks paper. So I got 2 of them for 50cents each.

Schick Slim twin disposable razors (12 pk) on sale for $5.99. When you buy 1 you get a $2 register reward. You can also print a 3.00 off 1 coupon from the Schick facebook page. Combine these 2 things and pick up a package for 99 cents (12 razors!)
5.99-3.00 coupon from facebook- $2 register reward= .99cents for a 12 pack

Milka Chocolate bars on sale for $1.50. The walgreens booklet has a coupon for $1 off 2 bars and you can print 2 1.00 off coupons from bricks.coupons.com to get these for free!
I paid 3 - 2.00 (2 online coupons) - $1 walgreens coupon= free

This week they also have some great deals on school supplies... .19cent mechanical and regular pencils. .9cent folders and .9cent highlighters :)


CVS- There are a couple incentives to couponing at CVS. First of all, if they are having a really good sale, but are out of stock on the item you want to purchase, you can get a raincheck for that item to purchase it at a later date for the same price (including Register Rewards). Another great thing about CVS is the coupon machine. Scan your CVS card and get additional in store coupons that you can combine with MF coupons.

This is what I got this week at CVS:

Oral B indicator toothbrushes (2) On sale for 1.99. We got
a 2.00/2 indicator toothbrushes coupon a few weeks back in the paper. You also get a 1.00 register rewards when you buy 1 (limit 2). SO, I paid:
3.98-2.00 coupon - 2.00 register rewards = -.2cents for 2 toothbrushes!

Crest toothpaste- 1.99. We got a 75 cents off 1 crest toothpaste last week in the paper. You also get 1.00 rewards when you buy 1 (limit 2) This would make them 24 cents a tube.

Pantene Prov- on sale for 3.49. Get $2 register rewards when you buy 2. We also got a 3.00/2 coupon in the paper a while back. Combine these to get 2 bottles for 99 cents each. I just so happened to have another CVS coupon for 2.00/2 that printed at the register a while back, so I got mine completely FREE!

Cottonelle Fresh Wipes 1.99- you can print a coupon from Cottonelle  for 1.00 off and get these for .99 cents!

Rite Aid- My favorite thing about couponing at Rite Aid is the surveys. With every purchase, you get a code to fill out a survey online. For every survey you fill out (max 3 per month) you can print a coupon for $3 off a $15 purchase. Rite Aid gives "UP" rewards to use towards your next purchase just like the other drugstores.

What I purchased at Rite Aid this week:

U by Kotex liners- .99cents. You can print a 1.00 coupon from Kotex and get these for FREE!

Oral B CrossAction toothbrushes 2.99. You get a 1.50 Up Reward when you buy 1. Combine this with the 2.00/crossaction toothbrush coupon we got in the paper a while back, and MAKE .50cents on these!

Excedrin 20 ct (including Migraine) 1.99- use the .75cent coupon we got a while back in the paper and pick these up for 1.24 each.

WELL, thats it! Sounds complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it doesn't take long at all. If your just starting out, you will want to get a couple copies of the paper every week to build your coupons up. I put mine in a binder with trading card inserts.

Yeah, yeah..I know. I AM one of those crazy coupon ladies with their binders in the drugstore :/ I get a lot of free stuff though! If you all want me to keep passing along the weekly coupon deals, let me know and I will. Or you can visit the Krazy Coupon Lady website for the weekly deals.

Used Cloth Diapers: $2 Econobum's on Craigslist!

Occasionally I look on Craigslist to see if anyone locally has any diapers for sale. Not like we need any more..just curious really. A couple of weeks ago, I found a sweet deal on Econobum's. They were barely used and a lady sold me 4 of them for $10! They are the new ones with colored trim, too. Plus she gave me 5 old Bumgenius OS diapers for free! Yeah, thats right...FREE! She said that the BG's had been through 3 kids, but still had a lot of wear left in them. Perfect to use as backup diapers. I gave some to a friend who had just started cloth diapering, and kept a couple for myself.

Now, I have never used prefolds before, but I just couldn't pass up $2 diapers. And they were in perfect condition. Barely used, really. They aren't that much different to use than pockets or all in ones. You just have to fold the diaper and lay it inside the cover. I did find that it was a little difficult getting it folded right, but I think I just about have it figured out. They are very absorbent and even work well at night.

I realize that buying used cloth diapers sounds really gross, but you can clean them really well. I let mine soak overnight in Rockin Green. Then, I washed them in hot water several times without any soap. After I washed them I let them dry out in the sun for a couple of hours. If they have any stains, this will get rid of them. Then you are good to go! Buying used is a very economical way to get started cloth diapering or to help build your stash. The more diapers you have in rotation, the longer they will last.

A couple of great websites for purchasing used cloth diapers:
- Craigslist 
- Diaper Swappers 
- Ebay
- The Diaper Jungle Forum 

9 Month Check Up: Conjunctivitus and Logan's First Tooth!

We had Logan's 9 month well visit today. He has had a blocked tear duct since he was born, but this past week it has been particularly bad. His left eye has been stuck shut every morning and his lid is red and swollen. Turns out, he has Conjunctivitus (Kind of the same thing as pink eye, but not contagious). The doctor is also concerned that his tear duct has not opened up by now, so she wants us to see a specialist to talk about surgery! We couldn't get in to the Opthamologist until October, so hopefully it will heal up by then. 

As the doctor was checking his mouth, she spied his first tooth coming through. It must have come through during the night because I didn't notice it yesterday. His bottom left. We all thought he would cut his top teeth first, even the doctor. And he is almost 20 pounds! He is growing up so fast! 

We took Logan on his first boating adventure at the lake this weekend..He loved it! We will be going to the beach in the next month or so and I am looking forward to letting him splash in the ocean for the first time.