You know you’re a mom when…
…you write about diapers on your blog. :-)

So on Savannah’s two month birthday, I decided to make the switch to cloth diapers. I always intended on doing cloth, but with the house and the move and then the trip to Indiana I decided it was better to stay with disposables for the time being. I’m glad I did, too – it would have been so tough because I only spent a few hours awake at my apartment (where the washer/dryer was) each day. It would have been so frustrating to try and make time to wash the diapers!

Before she was born, I polled a few friends who also cloth diaper, and decided to go with Baby Kangas. They are all-in-one pocket diapers. That means I don’t need a separate cover for them, and they have an insert that is washed along with the pocket. They also snap up and down so they should last throughout Savannah’s entire diaper stage.

My dear friend Susan also made some diapers for me as a gift! These snap down as well, but need a separate cover. She made me a cover, and I also bought two adorable Bummies Super Whisper Wrap covers.

So far, I’m a fan of cloth diapers! It took a day or two to get used to the extra bulk, but now I don’t notice it. The first thing I did notice was no more leaks! Savannah was dirtying at least one outfit a day with leaking disposables, even if I was buying name brand and being good about changing her frequently. I also noticed that I don’t have to wipe her as much with dirty diapers. I guess the cloth just absorbs that much better. I can only imagine that it’s better for her little tush – I haven’t had any problems with diaper rashes so far, but I certainly don’t want to start!

I still haven’t found a good washing routine – I am trying different ways to see what works the best. Anyone have a front-loading washer and a good routine you want to share with me?

I think my only annoyance with cloth is the diaper bag. I have a small bag that I use for when I’m not going to be out that long. It’s not as bulky as the big diaper bag, so I’m a fan. However, I can only fit one cloth diaper in it (as opposed to 3-4 disposables). But, not the end of the world!

If you’re reading this before Oct. 30th, then check out Sara’s post on diapers, and it includes a giveaway!

And, I highly recommend my friend Beth’s blog for lots of information about how to cloth diaper. I keep referring back to it – especially when I was trying prefolds! :-)

Was anyone else just SO excited about last night’s Castle?

Since I’m a huge fan of Firefly and Nathan Fillion (the leading actor of the TV series), I have enjoyed tuning into Castle every Monday at 10pm on ABC. If you don’t watch it, you should. :-) (It’s a crime drama mixed with the kind of humor only Nathan Fillion could give.)

Nathan often throws fellow Browncoats (Firefly fans) a bone, and in last night’s episode he did a major one! Check it out below. And, check out the whole episode on Hulu.

(Don’t worry; watching this clip won’t spoil any of the episode, and you don’t need to know the series to enjoy it – you just need to know Firefly.)

And if you aren’t familiar with Firefly, I am sorry for you! You can watch a few of the episodes on Hulu as well. I highly recommend starting with the first episode, “Serenity”.

Dear Savannah,

Today you are two months old. What a big girl you’re getting to be! You are such a part of my life now that I can hardly imagine the time you weren’t.

You’ve had a lot of firsts this month. Your first trip to Ikea, your first festival, and your first road trip! Earlier this month we took you to the Atlanta Greek Festival. You slept most of the time in the sling, proving what a good baby you are. You also went with us to a corn maze. We wandered around the corn field in the dark before we found our way out. We went with a lot of friends from church and they all wanted to hear your birth story again.

Also this month you had your first road trip! You have now visited Ohio and Indiana, and driven through Tennessee and Kentucky. You and I walked all around Taylor’s campus and I bought you a Taylor hat at the bookstore! You went to your first wedding, which you did very well and didn’t fuss at all. You did pretty well in the car – you got fussy after about 8 hours on the way up and after 9 hours on the way back. I hope you continue to travel well, because trips to Indiana will always be part of your life! You met a lot of our dear friends on this trip, and I enjoyed showing you off. I love that you will let anyone hold you.

You’re doing awesome at holding up your head all the time now. It makes being able to carry you into the store a lot easier. I love it when you put one arm over my shoulder! You are awake more often now, and you aren’t sleeping as heavy as you used to. You hate it when it’s quiet and the phone rings, and often cry loudly as I’m trying to answer it. You still are sleeping about 5 hours solid at night, and waking up every two hours after that. I am so glad to get that much sleep.

You are full of smiles and grins! It completely melts my heart. I love it when you just look at me and burst into a huge smile. Your eyes are my favorite part – they still look very blue, and I hope that color is here to stay. You haven’t lost all of your thick dark hair but you’ve lost some of it from where your head touches when you lay down. You have discovered your fist and LOVE putting it in your mouth! At first it was just when you were hungry but now it’s more when you are just sitting there idly. I hope you don’t become a thumb sucker!!

You continue to amaze us and make us very happy! We look forward to getting to know you better!

Love, Mommy

I got an email this morning from our Sunday School class… apparently one of the members has gotten H1N1 (the swine flu) and wanted to warn everyone who might have been exposed. Since we were in Indiana last weekend, we don’t have to worry, but it got me thinking.

I’ve been noticing a lot of people on Facebook whose family members also have gotten the swine flu. Normally, I’m not concerned but now with Savannah I wonder if I should be concerned.

I like to get out with Savannah (stores, church, etc.), so I don’t want to stay home all the time. How can I best protect her without going overboard? I know new infants are the most at-risk for the swine flu.

Also, there’s the question of the vaccine… I wasn’t considering getting it, but maybe I should? How does all that work? Anyone done research about this?

I don’t want to freak out, but I don’t want my baby to get sick or die because of my lack of action either.

I finally took pictures of the kitchen! Here are the before pictures, what it looked like when we closed on the house:

After spending a lot of time scraping wallpaper (two layers!) and painting, here is what it looks like today:

Our intention is to redo the kitchen when we get the money – new cabinets, new appliances, etc. Something that will make better use of the space without pricing ourselves out of our neighborhood. In the meantime, we wanted to make the kitchen a little pleasanter and less smelling like curry. What we did:

- Ripped down all the paneling and wallpaper which took FOREVER. They have special wallpaper removal stuff but we found that hot water worked better. There were two layers of wallpaper! We didn’t bother with the paper over the cabinets; we’ll get that whenever we redo the kitchen.
- Painted all the walls a sage green color.
- Replaced the curtains with new ones. The curtains that were there were stiff, stained, and greasy. They were probably pretty at one point, but not anymore. New curtains mad such a difference!
- The house didn’t come with a fridge so we hopped over to the Sears scratch & dent store in Tucker to buy a new one. I spent a long time debating about what color fridge to get, and I finally decided on white. (I wanted black, but I was afraid it would be too dark for the room.)
- Because of the height of the fridge, we had to take down the shelves and cabinet that were on that wall. We were going to reuse the shelves, but they fell apart in the process of taking them down. We moved the cabinet over near the sink. It looks a little funny, but it’s usable and that’s the important part.
- Added knobs to all the cabinets. Even after a heavy-duty cleaning, they were still sticky and made me want to wash my hands after touching them. So, we added knobs which not only make them look nicer but enable me to open them without getting my hands sticky. :-) I was going to replace all the drawer knobs too, but I decided against it because of our intentions to redo the kitchen.

So the kitchen is really functional now, and I think will be fine for the next few years. When we redo it, we’ll go ahead and get a new oven/stove and exhaust fan to match the fridge. We’ll also get a built-in dishwasher and extend the counter from the sink all the way to the wall. I’d also like to replace all the cabinets – my biggest complaint with these is that the shelves are rather low and so a lot of space is wasted due to not being able to stack things (like, for example, cups).

I put all the dishes out in the dining room so that we could use the cabinets for our small appliances. I think I’m happy with how it turned out, and until we have the money to redo it, I’m going to be brainstorming ideas for how to make better use of the space.