Cloth Diaper Update

I am planning on posting a huge review on our cloth diapering experience when Aliyah turns one, but we have made a few changes recently that have made things much easier and I wanted to share!

1. We Changed Detergents

we LOVE rockin green

Some serious rashes/burns started to pop up on my sweet baby's bottom. (one of the reasons we chose cloth diapers was because your baby doesn't get diaper rash) I was so confused and was sure I was doing something wrong. Am I not changing her often enough? Am I using the diaper wrong? We use baby washcloths and water for wipes, so I knew it wasn't the wipes.

I could not figure out for the life of me what we were doing wrong and almost threw in the towel all together.... until I read the cloth diaper detergent chart

Our detergent was almost out and we needed to order more. We had been using Charlie's Soap, but I was curious about the detergent chart. The section for Charlie's Soap warns that some parents have reported burns on their babies - ahhhhhhhhh!!! Aliyah has shown no other signs of having sensitive skin. I felt so terrible - why hadn't I thought about the detergent before?

I stripped the diapers (a deep clean with bleach and dawn dish soap - I will explain that in more detail later) - no burns - then I made sure I was using the correct measurements explained on the Charlie's Soap website for sensitive skin - but the burns came back. I threw all the diapers back in the wash for another deep clean and then used our new detergent: Rockin' Green: Bare Naked Babies (unscented). TIP: If your little one is really sensitive, try their Soft Rock. We threw Charlie's Soap away and now have a smooth baby bottom again - Thank goodness!!

2. We Added More Diapers

Aliyah in her new bumGenius diaper

we LOVE the bumGenius 4.0 one-size diapers (snaps) that we bought during a seconds sale - we wish we had more of these!! They did not come with an insert so we have been using the same inserts we bought for our gDiapers and they have been working wonderfully!

We still use our gDiapers but the bumGenius are definitely preferred. Having more diapers to choose from has made the life of cloth diapering that much easier.

3. We Went Back to Using Disposables at Night

the Inzers hanging out in our jammies

This happened when Aliyah was getting burns on her bum. We would use the disposables at night so that we could use a diaper rash cream (you cannot use any creams with cloth - but you really shouldn't have to). We have stuck with this routine, even though we don't need to use the cream anymore - it just works for us.

The Rundown. 9 months

Because this blog is the closest thing to a baby book you will probably ever have...

Tomorrow you will officially be 9 months old!

Stats: You’re such a beeferoni! This week at the pediatrician you weighed 20 pounds and measured 27 inches long (Which explains why all of your 9 month pants are a bit snug!) - You still have the most delicious chunky legs.

Teeth: You still have a sweet gummy baby mouth - no teeth poking through yet, but you are chewing on anything that gets anywhere close.

Feeding: We have stopped feeding you purees, and you love eating “real” food. Most days, you eat small bites right off our plates. You are learning to pick up small pieces and put them in your mouth (although a lot of them wind up in your lap) and you’ve gotten really good at putting a spoon full of food in your own mouth. You are already displaying a “let me do it myself” mentality. You love fish and chicken, all vegetables, fruits, cheese, soups, yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal and those little puff cereal pieces. You feed your noodles to your fur buddy, Zeus - he is happy to help!

Awesome stuff you’re doing now:

You’ve never been much of a crawler (only when you absolutely have to) but you love to stand. You pull up on everything and several times this week you’ve let go completely and stood unassisted for increasingly longer lengths, but our cheers startle you and you plopped to your bottom to cheer along.

You love your sippy cup and have never had any problems figuring out how to get a sip of water although, you much rather drink out of your mama or daddy's water in a big cup or through the straw. You have even tried using a cup (without a lid) yourself a few times! Even though you usually get a bit wet, you love it and are really learning how much to tip it to get enough water and not too much - such a smart girl.

When I give you my cell phone, you hold it to your ear or push your thumbs on it like you are texting (then you try to eat it). You can make a kissy sound (we’re trying to teach you to blow a kiss). You’ve started mimicking our mouths as we say "mamama dadadadada" over and over. You squeal and squeak so pleased with your sounds. You love to bounce on our knees and listen to your voice wobble as you bounce up and down.

You love music. When you hear it start to play, you like to bounce and dance to the music. You also love to hum along when I sing to you (at least I think it is humming). You love to shake your rattle, pound your palms on a tambourine, and strum your fingers across the strings of my guitar.

We are just so proud of you Aliyah. Watching you grow each day is the greatest delight of our lives.

Shoes

I don’t know why I’m so drawn to them - maybe because they represent the going of life - we wear them on the part of our bodies that carry us from one moment to the next.

So here’s a couple “shoe moments” for today:

Safety 102

Children in bubbles...

The strange, over-protective part of my brain that I constantly have to fend off actually got a little giddy to know such a contraption exists.

Some of you will be happy to know that I have fully and completely given up my fantasies of silly play helmets (and the bubble thing too, I promise). My friend Hillary made a great point about the helmet squashing all her pretty hair bows.

Although I’m still not ruling out putting Aliyah in a castle tower (rapunzel style) when she becomes a teenager.

Harmony of the Home

Look what I have been up to: Harmony of the Home

This is my awesome new blog I am excited about! I may not post on this new blog every day... or I may post several times a day - follow me to find out

Click on the link above to read the purpose of this new idea and then email me your crafty ideas, yummy recipes, good book reviews, and home projects  (marcieinzer at gmail dot com). I will share my ideas with you as well.

Turns out blogging is like getting a tattoo - once you get one, you want more!!! For my parents and grandparents: I don't have any tattoos... it's just what I've heard

Safety 101

Before this girl was mobile, Tyler and I had a good long laugh over this... and I quote "reeee diculous!" play helmet we saw online. "Seriously, what kind of crazy overprotective parent puts their kid in a helmet during play time?"

ha! ha! ha! we laughed, pointing at the photo and shaking our heads.

But then Aliyah started crawling, and now she has been wanting to pull up on everything. On top of that, she is now cruising around the living room. She’s letting go and wobbling and FALLING DOWN EVERYWHERE. Even with our newly improved super-speedy parent arms to try and catch her, sometimes we’re just not fast enough. As we speak, she’s sporting a bump on her head from a fall in the kitchen and another from hitting the side of a coffee table.

My nerves are shot.

I need some Inspector Gadget go-go gadget arms immediately.

and in my head, I keep picturing this ridiculous helmet. I keep saying " YOU CANNOT PUT YOUR CHILD IN THAT STUPID HELMET" and then she gets a bump and it’s all I can do not to race to the computer and put in my order.

I know this is something that all children go through. That falling down and bumps and bruises are a normal part of the process of learning balance and trying to walk... but how do I do it and still save my sanity? I’m hard wired to protect her from pain and injury and while we’re doing the best we can to prevent it, unless we pad our entire house, the bumps and falls are still happening.

I need someone to talk me down from the "click here to purchase" padded helmet ledge that I am now teetering on.

Aliyah Learns Sign Language

I am a little embarrassed at how ridiculous I sound in any video. To be honest, I try not to talk much when I am recording, but I couldn't contain my excitement when realizing that Aliyah actually understood and used the sign for "milk" (open & close fist)

She has understood this sign for a while now - as soon as she would see the sign for milk, she would smile, kick her legs and lean toward me. The other night, I thought that maaaaaaaybe I saw her little hand sign "milk" so I quickly grabbed the camera to record the moment.



So proud of this little lady!

My Sweet Little Monster

We’re about to kiss our days of leisurely entertaining our baby girl by plopping her on our laps with our feet up on the coffee table goodbye.

She’s learned to crawl in one weekend and instead of snuggling nicely with us like she used to, we’re now the proud parents of a bucking bronco/baby monster. She’s now pulling herself up on top of us - rubbing her face into our shoulders, patting (and sometimes smacking) our faces with her hands, and barrel rolling down the length of our bodies like we are her own personal amusement park.

In all honesty, we have no idea what we’re doing over here. Our child has acquired more hand-eye coordination than we are prepared for. Just yesterday, she swiped her hand across my dinner plate and proceeded to rub black beans into her onesie and thigh rolls before I’d even realized what happened.

And now that she’s decided to be a real life little person who moves places on her own and takes things she wants, she’s also decided to narrate her daily exploits complete with high pitch screeching noises. Then she looks at us proudly like “Do I gotta set of pipes or what?”

Our ears are definitely ringing, but we cannot stop laughing at her. No one told me about this crazy monster baby stage - and we’re in the thick of it over here. (Someone send reinforcements! Specifically: a stack of baby wipes, ear plugs and every baby gate you can get your hands on)

Our Little Valentine

We had a wonderfully quiet Valentine's Day! We exchanged gifts and smooches... cooked dinner together... and had some homemade strawberry ice cream to finish off our night. I couldn't have asked for two better valentines. A day filled with love indeed!!! My sugar foot had a costume change mid-day so that she could wear both of her sweetheart outfits:

You Are...

* * *

wiggly, smiley, busy,

lovely, happy, sleepy,

rascally, splashy, funny,

snuggly, messy, silly

* * *

Aliyah, you make every day full of fun...

and every day you completely steal my heart all over again

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Tyler and I don't go all out for Valentine's Day - I do love decorating the house and we love laying on the extra lovey dovey... simple and sweet seems to be our Valentine's motto.

Tyler usually writes me a poem and cooks up a delicious dinner at home. I usually buy a card and give him some type of homemade gift - something small to show that he is always in my thoughts and heart.

Here is what we picked out for our sweet baby love:

We found her on Etsy by Heart Felts

I am going to pick up an Almond Joy for Tyler today - I ate a mini one last week that I found on the kitchen counter... turns out Tyler had set it out... for himself - oops! He acted like it wan't a big deal, but I felt SO bad. I may pick up a whole bag he can take to work. I also just finished painting this and framed it for him:

I think it is good to show those we love that we appreciate them, their love, support and commitment to us - be it on Valentine's Day or any other day! Hope your day is filled with love and hearts!!

Ms Independent

Aliyah LOVES drinking water from our cups, glasses, mugs, etc. When she knows a drink is coming her way she gets so excited kicking her legs and letting out a little giggle. We were watching her (very carefully as I am sure straw usage is not all that safe with an 8 month) and started taking pictures as she laughed and picked up my giant mug to get a drink through the straw.

After awhile, I thought I should try and capture her independence on video. She was doing such a good job but when I started the video, naturally things stopped working the way they had been...

Ms Cheevious

Super Bowl Sunday: The Highlights

Christina Aguilera's rendition of The National Anthem may have been a little off, but those over at the Inzer house were busy filling their bellies full of chili dogs and spicy white chicken chili.

Tyler, Aliyah and I held our 2nd annual family super bowl party on Sunday and I am proud to say that the teams we have cheered for the past two years are 2 and 0 (New Orleans & Green Bay)

A shout out to the Packer's head coach and BAKER UNIVERSITY alum. Woot Woot!

Here are some highlights of the night:

 Game Table: commercial bingo, football tattoos, trivia, charades and prizes

 Connie's Cookies: football cookie prizes (everyone's a winner)

 Cupcakes: referee black & white cupcakes along with your own whistle to help officiate the game if necessary

Football Tattoos: TOUCH DOWN!!!

On the Move

Here is a quick 10 second peek of Miss Aliyah on the move! I better get to some serious baby-proofing

Weekend Recap

It has been a busy, but fun and fulfilling weekend. The three of us spent a lot of time together just laying low letting Aliyah try and fully recover from her cold that has been hanging around.

Tyler was able to reconnect with some good friends from high school and on Sunday we had the whole gang over for our second annual family super bowl party. I had a lot of fun decorating, finding games, and getting snacks together for the party. I will post pictures soon, but right now I am going to snuggle up with Handsome and get some rest!

Aliyah Update: SHE CRAWLS!!! (video coming soon)

Right now she is tuckered out from all the jumping & crawling that has been going on over here

even picking her up and moving her to her crib
could not wake up this sleeping beauty 

Sophie Lives a Precarious Life

Aliyah loves Sophie. Sophie is the best toy for gnawing on when you’re sprouting new teeth. Sophie is good for banging on tables and squeaking and staring at for long periods of time. And Aliyah has just figured out the perfect way to wring Sophie's neck to make a real good, loud squeak.

But I’m fearful that Sophie may not last long too long in this house. Her squeaky noise and general dog-toy rubberyness is tempting Zeus on a daily basis. Sophie stayed in the car for a long time, but being one of Aliyah's favorites, she keeps finding herself in the house.  Zeus stares longingly at Sophie through the mesh of Aliyah’s pack-n-play and has tried to quietly slip out of the room with Sophie when he thinks no one is looking. Zeus wants to eat Sophie real, real bad.

"No Zeus - you cannot haz my Sophie!"

We’ve been diligent, but the minute we let our guard down, I’m afraid this loveable little over-priced giraffe is going to be a gonner. Anyone care to place bets on how long she makes it?

Silly Sneezes

Well... this is what you get when you are stuck inside for THREE days because of Snowmageddon 2011. This is us. being silly.

Cloth Diaper Givaway

I stumbled across this giveaway on facebook and wanted to share! Doodle Dypes is giving away a custom made cloth diaper on the Granola Mommy of 2 blog - you can click on the button I added on the right to check it out. A winner will be drawn 2/11/11.

This is the fabric we would pick if Aliyah won... go figure!

Six Years Ago...

DDD Sisters!!! This is me and my Emily Trimmelly

Dear 22 year old Marcie,

There are some things you should know.

1. You won’t be this poor forever.

2. That boy you love right now. yeah, turns out he’s the one.
crazy huh?

3. Stop wearing so much eyeliner. You look like a raccoon.

4. Enjoy this time you’ve got, with this amazing group of girls you live with. Soak it up. Tell them all you love them. Remember it all. Everything about living with them will be a favorite memory for years to come.

5. Remember when you were lying on your bed, watching the ceiling fan and thinking “This is the best time of my life. How can things be any better than this?” Well, guess what - they do. If you can believe it. They get even better.

Hold on to your boots little girl. There’s a lot in store for you.

Love, yourself in 6 years

XOXOXOXO

In our house, we feel really strongly that love should be celebrated every day (and not just on Valentine’s day) but we’re always up for any celebration that involves red hearts, chocolate, and extra excuses to lay on the kisses.

Here are some sweet finds for your February 14th:

Felt Garland Hearts by BigBrownHouse

Love Print by vol25

Vintage Red Anchors Away Coat by BlueBirdLucys

LuvBot by SnowMachine

Recycled Cupcake Crayons by RedElmDesigns

Bundle Baby by littleAshop

Dictionary Art Print by RococcoCo

Valentine Owl by BWinks

Vintage Love Locket by birdsoforegone

Polka Dot Tie w/Heart Onesie by MySerayaSunshine

Heart Felt Doll by Secelie

Wooden Sailboat by willowbaus

Ruffler Dress by LittleBoats

Heart Felt Booties by SunflowerExpress

Heart Skirt and Top by LittleBoats

Mom Tattoo Onesie by GlitzNGiggles