Ethan Lukas- 3 & Lillian Dawn 1

Ethan Lukas

December 28, 2008

Ethan just hours old.

Loves to pretend and acts out every movie he watches.

Trains

Loves going to school.

Knows and can identify the alphabet.

Can trace around letters.

Can count to 15 and *almost* 20

Repeats everything we say and is starting to use 3 and 4 word sentences on his own (yea!!)

Loves playing outside. I see him out there telling stories to the yard and the birds and squirrels.

1 Year Old

Movies we are Watching:
Willy Wonka the original 

The Santa Clause

The Polar Express

Peanuts Charlie Brown Christmas

The Grinch
All Veggie Tales' Christmas
(We're really into Christmas movies!)
The Lion King
Cat in the Hat
Geo Track 

2 Years Old

Says "Merry Chris"!
Says "please", "thank you" and "bless you"

Will open the fridge or cabinet to get out something to eat. 

Loves all fruit and will eat a little of most veggies. 

Yogurt and cheese is a daily snack.

Is still not potty trained :( But is showing signs of readiness. 

Puts his socks in the dirty clothes basket 

(His future wife can thank me for that one.)

Likes to pick out his own clothes; matching is not required.

He will not wear pjs to sleep in.
Is wearing 3T.

Ht-36 1/2, 28%
Wt- 31 1/2, 50%

3 Years Old

Ethan's Birth Story

Lillian Dawn

January 11, 2011

Birth Day

Took her first steps at 10 1/2 Months

Waves and says Bye Bye to Daddy

Loves to play with Big Brother
Loves watching Brother play outside. She (and I) can't wait till she can go out there with him.

Tells "stories"- non stop babbling
Words I've heard her say:
Shoes
Fish
Bye Bye
Hi
Mama
Dada
Oh, Oh 

Points at things 

Loves to pull fabric/clothing out/off of anything:

boxes, hampers, drawers closets, 

Especially as Mom is folding laundry.
Love getting into exploring everything.
Like the Trash and Recycling cans.

Loves Shoes! 

Everywhere we go she is watching people's shoes as they walk by.

Loves to Eat and mostly enjoys self feeding

Loves all veggies especially Cauliflower
Loves tomatoes just like her big brother.

Eats Cheese and Crackers as an afternoon snack
In fact, she loves to eat so much that she puts everything in her mouth.
Everything.
Her favorite thing to eat:
my shoes.
(I feel like I'm describing a puppy dog. A very cute puppy dog :)

Knows her shoes and socks go on her feet. It is too cute to watch her try to get them on.

Stills sucks her thumb when she is tired or over stimulated.
Breastfeeding is still going strong. We nurse to sleep for naps and bedtime and sometimes when we just need a cuddle.

She has blond hair and Green Eyes.

1st Birthday!

Wt: 21lbs 1oz 50%
Ht: 28 1/2 in 29%
Head: 46cm 76%

Lillian's Birth Story

A Year of Cloth Diapering-Part 2 Plus a Giveaway on Thursday

Did I tell you how much I love my Tiny Tush Elite One Size diapers? Well, I do! They work just as well as those more popular brands but the company is family owned and operated. I Love supporting those types of businesses. It was our first pocket diaper with snaps and I love that they don't all stick together in the wash.

After reading many great reviews I finally bought Rockin Green Soap and fell in love!! Rockin Green just came out with their new "Hard Rock" version for hard water. I saved up my Pay Pal and bought a bag the day it went on sale. It's great! A must have for every Cloth Diapering Mama. In October we went on several long weekend trips and used Gdiapers loaned from a friend. We used disposable inserts on both trips and had a great experience. I have recently bought 4 to use on our trip to Folly Beach this summer.

I also had to have the new Flip diaper! The flip diapers are a cover and insert combo where you can just change the insert each time. I have 2 covers, blue and green, and 5 or 6 of the microfiber inserts. They are really trim but don't hold a lot. They tend to bunch up in the middle when he has them on for too long. If he poo's I have to change the whole set up so we only use these when we're hanging around the house.
I can keep him in only a diaper because he hasn't figured out how to un-snap them yet!

This was my second attempt to make recycled wool longies and I still haven't finished the waistband or lanalized them yet. Eli thinks they're too girly. My first attempt I fleted the sweater too long and had to make them into newborn longies because they shrunk so much!

Ethan got some money for his birthday so I bought him two diapers that I really wanted to try out. This one is a Happy Heinys One Size with Snaps. I can't wait for their new "Beta" Organic One Size to come out!

I have also recently won a yellow Happy Heiny's from Mama Dweeb! I don't have any pics of it, though.

This is a Rump-a-Rooz in Whales Tale, also a One Size Pocket. This diaper can go super small and starts to fit around 6lbs and fits up to 35lbs. I will be investing in a few of these for the next baby. I can't get away without mentioning my favorite place to buy Cloth Diapers: Abby's Lane. They have almost everything you could ask for to cloth diaper your baby. They have awesome customer service ( I really think Stephanie, the owner, is online all the time!) and FREE Shipping! If you sign up for their mailing list you get an email about once a week telling you all the great specials and new items. They even have a code to get 5% off just for getting the newsletter!

On April 2 I will be writing as part of the Cloth Diaper Carnival VII: Newborn Cloth Diapering. I didn't cloth diaper Ethan until he was two months old but I look forward to starting a birth the next time around!

Now for the good stuff: I will be doing my first official Review and Giveaway on Thursday April 1!!!! This little fitted number Ethan is modeling is a dream come true:) I can't wait to tell you all about it and one lucky winner will get one all their own!

A Year of Cloth Diapering-Part 1

We have been Cloth Diapering Ethan for one year this month! I must say I have learned LOTS of things about the different types of cloth diapers and the care of cloth diapers in the last year. There is more information out there about CD then you could ever learn! And just when you think you know everything, WHAM! Something happens and your back on your favorite sites trying to find an answer. The world of CDing mothers is so great and supportive. I have learn so much from other mothers experience and have made many new online friends.

Here is my first post after we started CDing. We didn't start CD until Ethan was 2 months old. The only CD's we had were 15 BG 3.0 one size in white and they were way too big for his little 6lb 13oz! The next time around we will start from the beginning because I already know what I'm doing and I will be better prepared with newborn fluff. I've already started my stash!

I love that the first photo I have of Ethan in a CD is one where Eli is changing him! A lot of mothers complain that their husbands don't like to change their CD but Eli has always been on board. He hasn't ever washed them but I don't think I want him too! I'm happy to keep that responsibility. He does spray them down with the poop sprayer and put them into the diaper can:)I love the pear shape it gave him at first. He was so skinny!

I saw this photo and thought how funny it was that he was wearing his BG's on the second setting back in April 09 because he is still on that same setting! The "One Size" really will last until potty training.
Then I saw this and thought maybe they should have been a little tighter! This was defiantly mommy error.

Ahhh... I love CD laundry....all white BG 3.0.Getting chunkier and still on the same setting!





My great garage sale find! Infant prefolds and Bummis covers. I still have the covers and they could use some new velcro but I've sold all the prefolds and the no name covers. We just don't have the prefold love. I kept the other covers to use over fitteds.





Our first new Thirstie's cover in Med. It still fits today!


Used Thirsties cover in Small. Love these but the elastic around the leg is shot. As soon as I come across some Fold Over Elastic I'm going to fix them.
Mudshrimp cover.



Used Thirsties cover Small.







Super Froggy Baby!


Sunning my now colorful stash in July! Don't you love all that Texas dead grass? I added 3 yellow Tiny Tush, 2 Sassy Cloth fitteds and a Sassy Cloth cover that I love!

I'm sad to say this is the best pic I have of Ethan in his Winkydinks fleece cover. Because it is sized he won't ever get to wear it again. But who knows? Our next may be a boy!This is the second time I bought used diapers on line. I had good luck the first time but this time I got a BG 3.0 in lime and the velcro was shot. We used it once and it came apart and it fell off. Arggg! I just replaced the velcro tabs with a kit from Cotton Babies ($1) and it works like new! The others are a Goodmamma fitted and a lt blue Fuzzy Buzz. The FB is not my favorite diaper but it's good.

In his Smartipants. I really wanted to love this diaper but the leg holes were just too big even though Ethan's thighs are chunky. I sold it to buy something different.









Here are all of my post about our Cloth Diaper adventures.

A Year in the Life of Ethan-Photos