A few random things...

I just grabbed some pictures off the camera and thought I'd share a few with you...

Gigi got her first "owie" at Unc A's wedding (she skinned her knew on the bricks)-- here she is checking out her Hello Kitty Band-Aid.

My moms' Bible study is more of a play group now for the summer (and we are reading Anne Rice's book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt too). Here is Gigi with her friend Sophie (oh yeah, baby Jude's hiding in there too) at the Zoo.

We had a BBQ at our neighbors' house a last weekend. They have their own bounce house, and Gigi loved it!

This is what happens after a long morning of walking to the pool, swimming & watching all the other kids, and walking home.

Cloth diaper update: doesn't she look cute in her little BumGenius dipe? I need to get a shot of her in the gDiapers because they aren't quite as bulky (which is why I think I like them better, used with the flushable insert or a cloth insert). She doesn't seem to notice the difference between the different types (cloth or disp.). We've been using cloth at home and disposables when we go out & overnight. I even made a microfiber insert (I still need to make more) that can be used with either type of cloth dipe-- I'm learning it's good to have extra inserts. Clean-up's not too bad, although we did ditch the Diaper Champ because the nice, waterproof, washable bags I got didn't fit with it, but the li'l trash can we got is working fine and it's not even smelly in the bathroom because of it!

Nap Poll Results/Diaper Update!

Here are the results for my poll. Thanks for voting! That was kind of fun, & I'll have to do it more often. :)

2 naps (morning & afternoon):  7 (46%)

1 morning nap: 0 (0%)

1 afternoon nap: 5 (33%)

2 or more catnaps/short naps: 1 (6%)

I don't remember: 1 (6%)

Other: 1 (6%)

Gigi is now doing 1 long nap after lunch most days, although some days if she's particularly tired or crabby in the morning she'll do 2 naps. Thank you for your comments too (see them again HERE) ... Jenn's comment really inspired me to just go for the 1 nap and see how it goes. It turns out that Gigi also gets tired around 10ish but if I keep her occupied she'll usually make it to lunch, and then get a second wind to play for a little while longer before her nap. 

I got my Bum Genius cloth diapers in the mail and I really look forward to using the diaper alternatives when we get back from CA. Traveling doesn't seem like a good time to really try it out. :) I've used both the BG's and the G Diapers a few times though and I really like them so far. Stay tuned for a more detailed update on this in June! 

Going for it... we'll see what happens!

So after a bit of research and inspiration from my friend Melody who's also decided to go for it, I'm going to try out some diaper alternatives! 

My plan is to do disposables at night and when going out for relatively long periods of time (where I might expect to change one while out), and then around the house and for quick trips I'm going to try cloth diapers and hybrids.

I bought my gDiapers (a flushable hybrid) starter kit at Whole Foods today and I'm going to order some Bum Genius cloths online soon.  There are many other brands, but these are the ones I'm going to start with.

I estimated that on the low end (6 dipes a day which is a very low estimate), if we used Pampers (what I've been using) for the next year, it would cost around $430 or more. So I'll keep track of the alternative supplies I buy and see how much it saves me. I assume it would have saved more when Gigi was going thru more dipes in a day but I wasn't ready to brave something new & crazy until now. gDiapers aren't really cheaper than Pampers (more of an ecological benefit) but the cloth ones would be cheaper in the long run.

I'm excited about the money saving, and environment-friendly benefits of this new endeavor! 

I'll keep y'all updated on how it goes. David is being very supportive of this, although I think he's a little concerned that I'm getting too in touch with my "inner hippie." :)

Have any of my blog readers tried something along these lines? If so, how did it go for you?