Is "missrouted" just a fancy word for LOST?

After two days of school Lydia has reached the conclusion that "School is soooooo much fun! Way more fun than I even thought it would be!" So I'm feeling much better than I was the other evening just knowing she's excited about going each day. Jack, on the other hand, isn't so excited to see her go.

"I don't like when Lydia goes off to school," he complained today, going on to say he didn't know what to do. I suggested he color, play with his cars, pull out his farm set. But all of that held no great appeal without his constant playmate around and the little girls napping. Luckily, I remembered I had purchased a set of Lego Duplo blocks a long time ago from a garage sale and was able to unearth them fairly quickly from a corner of my room. That was all the entertainment he needed for the afternoon. 

In other events around here- I'm starting to get a bit concerned about a package that was supposed to be delivered several days ago. I caved in and ordered a couple more diapers when cotton babies had their seconds sale going on last week. Hannah's in no real danger of potty training any time soon and I was thinking this would make it easier to get by with both little girls in diapers. So. I've been tracking the package online, the free shipping was quick, it made it to the next door state... and then it stopped. And after about a day of nothing the new status that popped up yesterday morning was "missent", with the description reading something along the lines of "Your item was misrouted. Every effort is being made to correct the mistake. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later." And then, nothing. No further updates, no more info just, missent. Which, according to my spell check isn't even a real word and maybe, just maybe, the word they were really searching for here was "lost"?

Uh. Okay. So, I'm picturing this thing in some rural postage-stamp-sized post office on the other side of the US. Or maybe bouncing along in the back of a two-seater plane headed out to some desolate town in Alaska. Or perhaps it's in a jet- flying over the Atlantic ocean to an entirely different country. It could be weeks before this is resolved. But, not to worry. Remember- every effort is being made to correct the mistake so that makes it all better. In the meantime, I'll just keep refreshing my browser and looking at that daunting missent status while I drive myself crazy.

But I'm fine with that, really I am. Perfectly fine. Just in case you were wondering.

Anyways. Tomorrow is Thursday and Ryan is off for the next two days. And that, my friends, means projects are going to be happening around here. We're in the process of rearranging the kids bedrooms and I'm not sure anything we do is going to be ideal, but we'll go with it. We've got two kids rooms- one is extremely small and the other is moderately small. So with Adalie still occupying a pack-n-play in our bedroom at 7 months old, we're trying to figure out a good way to get her into one of the kid-rooms. The great plan involves building a loft in the extremely small room, putting new paint on the wall of both rooms, and shuffling kids around until something works.

If all else fails it should prove to be entertaining at least.

Cloth Diapering

A few years ago I heard of someone using cloth diapers and I'll sheepishly admit my first thought was somewhere right along the lines of: I would try them probably, oh, uh, never? In fact, I wondered why anyone would even want to with the convenience of disposables on the shelves of super centers everywhere. Yet, in the next breath- it sparked an interest. Especially when I witnessed a mom actually using them on her baby. It looked simple enough. And, so what usually happens when I have even the slightest interest in something- I just need to know more.

So, I began to research them while Hannah was a baby and my slight pebble of an interest began to snowball. The options, I discovered, were nearly endless when it came to cloth diapers. After months (seriously, yes, months) of research I knew I wanted to try them out and knew exactly which ones I'd purchase, but I couldn't really justify it as Hannah was already a year old by that time. Fast forward a few months to early last summer when I discovered I was again expecting and that interest was reopened.

Knowing I'd probably have to deal with some questions, some curious looks, and interesting remarks, I made the decision to cloth diaper this baby. This was, after all, my decision and I really wanted to try it out. So, I ordered them last summer to do a 'trial run' with Hannah. I decided to go with a one size pocket diaper (the brand I use is Fuzzi Bunz). These diapers have a fleece lining, a waterproof shell made of PUL and (yep, you guessed) a pocket in which a microfiber insert is stuffed into. And, they are adjustable which means they fit her from 3 weeks old and will fit her until she's out of diapers.

Well. My first experiences were rough. I used the wrong detergent (which resulted in build-up on the diapers), I used too much detergent, I didn't use any type of softener for our extremely hard water, and basically I became quite frustrated. The diapers were losing their absorbency, they had an odd smell to them, and I was annoyed at myself for jumping in feet first without doing enough research on how to properly care for the things. I kept using them sporadically- never quite able to get into a great routine with them for Hannah- until I finally put them away for a bit and came to the conclusion that I had some more learning to do.

So, after some more research, I learned how to 'strip' the diapers (kind of a whole other story- one I'll share if you're interested) and when Adalie was three weeks old I jumped back into using cloth- this time with a lot more knowledge on proper care. In addition to the fuzzi bunz, I added a couple of "Flip" diapers to my stash as well. I've been using both ever since. And I can honestly say once I got into a routine- they are so easy. I feel good using them on her because they are so soft (and chemical free) against her skin, I'm excited about the fact that I don't have to purchase diapers for her weekly, and I must admit: they're cute. {Yes, there are chaper options for cloth diapers than the ones I chose- but in the long run we'll still save a lot money by the time this baby is out of diapers!}

So what does cloth diapering involve? Well, for us it's simple. Every other day I wash the diapers and hang them out in the sun to dry (in the winter I hang them up indoors). After they're dry I stuff the inserts in the diapers and stash them in a drawer so they're ready for immediate use. At that point it's no different than disposables: they're ready use and ready to take along anywhere. The diapers we use all have snaps so there's no diaper pins to worry about. (Like I said, there are a lot of options out there- this is just the one that works best for us.)

Anyways. After the diaper is used, I simply shake the insert out of the pocket and drop both the diaper and the inert into the lined diaper pail (I made a waterproof bag out of PUL to help contain odors). It's not even necessary to rinse the diapers before they're tossed in the pail at this point as my baby is still mainly breastfed. In a few months when she's on solid foods they will need to be rinsed. Right now- sometimes I spray them off, sometimes I don't. It doesn't really matter. On wash day, I carry the bag of diapers to the washing machine, dump the diapers in as well as the bag they've been in, and set the washer going. It's that easy. (For the flip diapers it's basically the same with a few variations- they are not a pocket diaper. I like them both for different reasons- but this is getting lengthy, so I won't go into detail unless someone wants to know more.)

Cloth diapers are not for everyone, I'm sure of that. And if that is you, thanks for reading, and I completely respect that- I'm certainly not trying to push my ideas on anyone! But, I just thought I'd shed a tiny bit of light on them for those of you who might be interested but not really sure where to start or what they involve. There are some great sites online that go into much better detail about diapers than I have here. If anyone has any questions, I'd be glad to answer if I can!

Also, for more information here are some websites I find useful:

cottonbabies.com - This website offers free shipping all the time no matter what size order you have. I have ordered from here and the shipping is fast.

babyworks.com%2Fcloth-diapers-and-the-environment&h=3633flPWQDr3Xb4x2ZjovRBmctQ - this link provides some interesing information on costs of laundering cloth diapers

fuzzibunz.com -provides info on fuzzibunz diapers and lists retailers

ETA: Recenty I purchased some bumgenius 3.0 diapers from cottonbabies.com during their "seconds" sale. Not only was the price really decent, I would have never known these were "seconds". There's no tell-tale mstakes or anything like that. After using the bumgenius 3.0s, I'm hooked. I love these diapers!