Ford Life

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Boots & Smiles

Cade is hilarious with my boots. He honestly wears these boots more than I do. But this captures his enjoyment! Cute kid.

Home Depot does this great monthly workshop for kids ages 3 and up for FREE. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the hands on aspect as well as their cool aprons. We went for Brinly's preschool field trip, but Cade got to join in the fun as well. They made easels. We'll definately do it again. Each time they participate they get a pin with a picture of that day's project to put on their apron. Fun.

Cade with a hammer- ahh! He was in heaven.

To say it was a little noisey with all those preschoolers hammering is an understatement:)

Painting the assembled item.

The finished product- oh the pride!

Pregnant Privleges

I thought this was too good to pass up! I just happened to be next to a Baby's R Us and thought it would be fun to browse with the kids in anticipation of our upcoming arrival and they had upfront parking just for ME! It made my day:) There is only one other place I have seen this before and I believe it was on a military base commissary. Such thoughtfulness (or is it a retail scheme?).

And here, just for documentation purposes is my prego self. Only 8 weeks left! I deserved that parking spot, eh?!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Job and Behavior Charts

I have felt like I need to be a little more prepared for this baby's arrival, so I am trying to re-establish a job chart and a new behavior/incentive chart. I finished the job charts yesterday (well not quite- I still need to get all the jobs in order and find a pocket to store them in of some sort). I have yet to do the incentive chart, but have an idea in place- I'll post that when I have a chance. Pretty simple, but that is what we are going for! We used them this morning- it definitely helped...hopefully it will continue- we just need to make it a consistent routine to check the chart.

Cloth Diapers

So, this is what I've been spending all my extra time on the last few months (well, not entirely). Cloth diapers- I know, most of you think this is madness. I'll explain a few things. One, this is so much cheaper than disposables! Seriously, in 2 years the average child has close to $1500-$2000 spent on his/her diapers! And most kids aren't out of diapers in two years (at least mine aren't). This was an expensive project, and a time consuming one, but will have cost

a fraction of the two year disposable expense...and will be utilized for more than one child. AND it really is easier than it seems. Cade actually prefers them b/c they are cotton soft...though with the cover he does have a bubble bum:) It's pretty funny. Honestly, the reason I began this adventure is b/c of my desire to "BE PREPARED" and not rely on the commercial world as much as possible.

I made 26 one-size diapers and 6 large covers, 1 extra large, and am working on making covers for newborn, small, medium, and more extra large.

This is a cover and the diaper.

This just shows the size range of these diapers. They are patterned after a commercially produced cloth diaper (http://www.motherease.com/ for anyone interested- and no, I'm not selling these) but are a little different due to my own preferences and materials. They have multiple poly-resin snaps to adjust the size by folding and snapping. They've worked well for Cade. We still use disposables at night b/c he's a heavy wetter (though he leaks though most ANY diaper at night)...we are still working on a solution for that.

My next feat is making the AIO (All-in-One) diapers that are the cover and diaper in one piece. As well as some small size diapers b/c I'm afraid these one size diapers won't fit for a few months. I'm using the http://www.verybaby.com/ pattern for both of those and the smaller covers. I'll post the results. Here is a pic of the AIO diapers- I think they are pretty cute (mine will have snaps instead of Velcro though).