R & R (Routine and Relaxation... and much canning to do).

ahhhhh (big sigh) we are home. And we are going to stay here for a couple of weeks anyways. We had so much fun, and Charlie was actually able to stay on a pretty good schedule because of everyone's help, but it feels good just to be home. This morning Charlie crawled up into bed with Travis and would kiss him, and then say 'more' and kiss him again.Obviously somebody missed their daddy.

I got up this morning feeling like a lazy bum, but for some reason decided I needed to get out for that a.m. jog I've been neglecting, and it felt so good. The air was crisp, but not too cool. Just a perfect kind of day. Half way through Charlie signed potty, and was able to wait almost 10 minutes before we got to the Visitor's Center (Thank you for being open Winona Visitor's Center!). He had one wet diaper all day today, not counting one after his over 3 hour nap. He was such a honey all day, and played in his sand box for an hour while I read some more of my library book, Bringing Up Be'Be', which I am finding to be an easy read about French parenting.

I've got some fun things planned for Charlie when Trav goes back to school on Monday (and we will have lots of one on one time together). We're going to start working on some projects, artsy things, counting, listening to music, etc. Any ideas for a two-year old? Please share... we also accept substitute teachers and may go on a few field trips.
The first "unit" will be on Native American studies, due to the Great Dakota Gathering & Homecoming on September 14-16. So i.e. we will check out some related little kid's books at the library, listen to pertinent music, think up an art project, etc., etc. And I get that he is so little he might not get everything out of it I want him to, but I like the idea of exposing him to different things (he LOVES music and dancing, so why not try some different styles out and see what he likes). Plus it will be fun for me, too; and I hear they have delicious Indian tacos at the gathering.

~Becky

Enough.

Enough leaking diaper nonsense... this ends today! I'm replacing elastic and velcro. And stripping diaper pads. I'm going to make these work until we're ready for pull-ups/training pants. Yeah! I love Grovia diapers, but there is a limit to how many wears you can get per cover before you can expect to do some diaper upkeep.
~Becky

Update...

Charlie is sleeping-in this morning. I've heard him make noises a few times, but I never know what I should do with myself in situations like this, ha ha.

So I stripped the diaper pads and they came out looking SO clean. I guess it would make sense that I would need to do this more frequently as he is older/bigger/I've used quite a bit of diaper cream lately. I'm thinking I should just strip the diaper liners every time, keep them seperate and soak them prewash or something so they don't contaminate the diapers, which is sort of their role in the first place. Must start this now before his diaper pail is full and I have to sort through to find the liners I've already used, soak them and then wash diapers.

I had 2 plain jane diaper covers waiting to be re-velcroed for months. CHECK. But they won't last. I wonder where a person buys better quality velcro? Oh well, its not really that much work AND it got me back on my sewing machine (GOAL- to sew more things, preferably toddler boy clothing, sew cute, pun intended).

And I seam ripped out the velcro on the 4 grovia diaper covers that I had revelcroed a while back. Boy I sure sewed those suckers on there. Then I ran out of velcro. I'm considering not doing it and using baby safety pins, which is what I had been doing anyways, and Charlie likes the cute little animals on them.

Finally, I still need to re-elasticize them (just doing the 4, the snap one held up better, thinking I just didn't use it as frquently, but in retrospect I would purchase all snaps in the future). I will attempt to complete this tonight, as I need the diaper covers to use. I found this link- http://www.mamaslaundrytalk.com/2010/02/25/how-to-repair-the-elastic-in-a-cloth-diaper/
which states that I do not need to remove the old elastic.

And that's all I know about diapers right now. Your supposed to blog about things that are happening in your life, right? Lizzie might be interested anyways. And your probably thinking, sounds like a lot of work, right? But so worth it for Charlie's little bum, and I've actually saved like $2000- 3000 dollars on diapers (by the time I'm done anyways). So, actually not so much work. Although now thinking of the fairly minimal cost of purchasing a few new covers, I would still be saving thousands.
Oh well, now I've saved another $50. I'm already making money today.

"Maw-Mawwwwww!"

~Becky