Goin' To Grandma's (& Grandpa's)

Friday night we packed most of Lukas' belongings and headed for Dallas. This suitcase contained only his clothes, bedding, shoes, and baby wipes. There was a load already in the van. We arrived in Dallas about 2am Saturday morning (yuck). We stayed with the Haddock's until Sunday, then we left our boy for his longest overnighter ever... a whole week!

He picked a good week to leave us - I was sick Monday and my internet connection was down so I had to do some of my work at the office. I talked to him on the phone yesterday and he's doing fine without us. We miss him, but we're enjoying the break! Grandma & Grandpa will bring him home on Sunday evening and stay with us most of the week.

*latest pix*

Welcome Kennedy!

Kennedy has arrived! Congratulations to proud parents Ashley & Tom - good job guys. Here are few photos from the magical day...

Daddy Tom making his announcement in the waiting room

Daddy Tom, Kennedy, Mommy Ashley

Kennedy

Kennedy

gDiapers Thoughts

I haven't blogged about the gDiapers lately, so here's how it's going... I'll start by saying that I still haven't ventured "out" with the gDiapers. We're just using them at home. I'm still having pretty good luck with overnighters; but we did have one this week that leaked REALLY bad overnight. I don't have any pictures, but it seems like they are really rubbing on this thighs on the front where the front of the diaper meets the back of the diaper. His skin is always red and yesterday it was really dry and flaky looking. Am I putting them on too tight? The gDiapers box really encourages you to call them with questions, so maybe I will. The last thing you need to know is - if you are squeamish about being up close and personal with poop, these may not be for you. Most poo diapers end with poo on the lining which you have to wash off and usually end up touching. Sometimes I'm getting poo on me from the flushing process. And about half the time, there is poo on the covers. I'm less discouraged by the poo than the skin irritation. I still feel good about not putting diapers in the landfill!

Lukas' First [real] Haircut

Before
(it was smoothed down pretty well here and you can't tell how long it is)

After
(looks like a little man)

Today my work partner, Jennifer, came over and gave Lukas his first real haircut. She moonlights as a barber and makes house calls! She brought her 21-month-old daughter, Katelyn, and her husband, Britt. Her daughter is super-cute. I tried to get her to model some hooded capes my Mom made for our Etsy store, but she wasn't too interested.

*click here for all the pictures*

My Talented Neighbor

I just took some pictures of stuff my next-door-neighbor, Pam Adam, has done for Lukas. She's a very talented (and nice) artist who paints and makes jewelry and sews and who knows what else. Oh, she's also a personal trainer and master gardener. I wanted to show some of her work here, and if you are in need of her services, let me know and I'll get you in touch with her.

Pre-V-Day

Lukas delivering a Valentine to Mommy

Lukas visited Nanna at work on Tuesday to share Valentine's greetings. He got some helium balloons including a frog balloon.

*See all the pictures here*

Mommy's Little Helper

Yesterday I asked Lukas to move his dirty clothes from his hamper to a laundry basket, and he did it - I didn't even have to demonstrate. Now if we could just get him to use the vacuum cleaner.

Thanks Jess & Ken

Lukas likes his new shades and he was wondering if Beckett got a pair too.

gDiapers Updates

Number 2
We had our second poop and it turned out about the same. I got the Velcro tab in the poo and poo was on the liner. It was slightly more gross this time, but I managed to not clog the toilet. The liner was extra gross, so I rinsed it a bit and put it and the cover in with the laundry.

Sizes
I may have been wrong about the sizes. I bought 2 more starter kits (one for Nanna's) in size Large. Nanna tried them first and it went well. I put one on him and thought it looked too big. They look about the same size, but they have different sized stretchy things in the middle (see pictures). I have used them without a leak, but I'll probably continue using Mediums as well. Now I just have more covers to work with.

Good Night
We had a dry gDiaper night last night. I went against the advice of their site, and used 2 flushables, but didn't fold the top one in half. I tried it folded in a Large cover and the front stuck way out away from his belly. So, I tried it folded in a Medium (the way it leaked before) and it did the same thing. So, I opted for Medium, double flushable, both flat. No leak!

I think the key is to not have any of the flushable sticking out of the liner - the liner edges need to all be touching baby.

Number 3
Poop number 3 in a gDiaper went pretty smoothly. As soon as I unVelcroed the cover, I twisted the tabs and stuck them to each other. Then, I pulled the whole mess out from under him and gently set it aside. The poop did get on the liner, but nowhere on the cover. I went ahead and washed the liner in the sink and hung it to dry. I think I'm getting the hang of this. I even gave Daddy a tutorial today.

*The Photos* no poop!

The Scoop on Poop & Overnites

First, I'll tell you that there are no poop pictures - so you can relax. Second, the overnite thing wasn't a complete success, nor was it a complete disaster. Lukas was in bed about 12 hours last night, and his gDiaper cover & jammies were wet this morning. The bed wasn't wet though. I've had much worse leakage with a disposable before. I'm not discouraged by this. I could tell that the diaper was kind of gaping at the top last night, so I wasn't surprised either.

So, the poop is in. I should point out that my son doesn't usually have nice, hard little clumps of poop. It's usually a sticky mess, and this morning was no different. Of course, everything went wrong. When I was taking off the whole thing, I got one of the Velcro straps in the poop, otherwise the cover was totally clean. The pad had done some bunching, so the poop got on the liner a bit. The poop wouldn't just fall off the pad into the toilet, because of the stickiness. So, I tried to tear off the sides and open the top without getting my hands in it. The inside part of the flushable where the poop was didn't want to come out of the outside part of the flushable, so I just dropped the whole mess in while flushing and I didn't have time to swish. So, the toilet clogged up. After plunging, I wiped the poop off the lining with toilet paper and then I hand washed the liner with hand soap and hung it up to dry. Since only a tiny bit-o-poo was on the cover, I just washed that part under the sink and hung it to dry also. All of this while Lukas looked on in wonder.

Lukas had to wear a disposable because both covers were incapacitated. By the time he soiled his disposable, the cover from the poopy diaper was dry (about 2 hours, but I had only washed a tiny part of it).

I'm not deterred. I shall go to Wild Oats today and buy 2 Large starter kits. One for here, and one for Nanna's. By the way, last night I did a bit of price shopping online for these, and the deal at Wild Oats right now is the best. I beleive it's a sale price, but I'll check for sure today. It's going to be so wonderful not to have to lug a bag of stinky diapers downstairs anymore!

In Other News

Believe it or not, things are going on in our house unrelated to gDiapers. Yesterday during my super-sicky-sleepy haze, I was half watching the boy while he played downstairs. At one point I saw him with Daddy's work keys and thought that I should get those from him. Then I promptly dozed off. So today, Daddy needs his keys to take to work with him. We search anywhere we think the boy can reach, and find nothing. Daddy goes to work grumbling and I take a shower and put in my contacts so that I can really search. I get the flashlight and ask Lukas to show me Daddy's keys. Right. After Lukas went down for his nap and I watched some TV, I thought of the place we hadn't looked... under the house. That's right, there's a hole in the living room floor under the fireplace gas insert. I thought we had covered it in insulation, but after another inspection, realized that it was gaping open. I shined the light in, and there were the keys - about a foot and a half down. I used a coat hanger to fish them out - a miracle. I wasn't sure if I could handle pulling the whole insert out by myself. Of course, Daddy needed his keys by 6pm.

gShy

I'd love to tell you about a poopy gDiaper, but Lukas is on a poop-strike. I do have more information for you though. I think I may need a bigger size. Lukas weighs 24 pounds, so I bought the Medium (13-26 pounds). I've seen the babies on the gDiapers web site and my diapers look the same on Lukas, with some of the Velcro visible on the back. But, he's getting "imprints" on his skin of the snaps and stuff. Maybe I'm crazy, because he gets "imprints" from wearing socks too. I think I'll go ahead and buy a Large (27-35 pounds) starter set and compare. The flushable pads I have are Medium/Large, and if the Large are too big, he'll grow into them in no time.

Today I handwashed liners, put him in an overnight version of gDiaper, and laundered a cover. Click here for the complete photo story. The story doesn't cover the laundering of the cover, which I just threw in with the wash and dried on medium heat. It came out a bit damp, so I'm hanging it to dry. I've already got liners prepped with pads to snap in for the morning. Tomorrow I get to teach Daddy how to use these!

gDiapers: First Impressions

First, let me say I am sick. I feel terrible. So, the thought of trying new experimental diapers today was not too exciting. But, after we got home from work & the Playroom, and took a 3 hour nap, I decided to do it. I had my gDiaper preloaded, I had watched all the videos, and it went on just like any other diaper. After about 2 hours, I figured it was time for a diaper check. With disposables, I just poke his crotch and see if it feels "full". I haven't figured out what a "full" gDiaper feels like yet, so I just opened him up and checked. It was wet, but it had not leaked. I took gDiaper's advice and just threw on a whole new setup that I already had fixed up. Then, I took the wet one and did as instructed and it took me 2 flushes because I'm a newbie. I'm sure I can get it down to 1 flush. I checked out the used liner, and it didn't smell like pee, so I'm just using it again.

On my second diaper tonight, I decided to take some pictures to walk you through the process. It was a bit difficult because I was the photographer, baby wrangler, and diaper changer. *Watch the fun here*

All in all, I'd say these are not much more trouble than disposables. Since I'm feeling ill, I decided to just use the regular Huggies Overnights for tonight. Since my guy stays in bed 12 hours a night (or more), I've been using those so we don't have leakage. Some mornings the diaper weighs about 5 pounds - it's crazy. I'm sure that when I run out of the Overnights, I'll start using gDiapers. I'll probably be comfortable enough with the gDiapers by this weekend to take them out and about. I don't know how the folks at the Playroom (drop-in child care) will feel about them, but I might ask. I hope Nanna will give them a try too!

I'll keep you posted on the poopsie gDiaper. The website assured me that the liners would get poopy. Also I'm wondering how long it will take for Lukas to find the Swish Stick and start putting it in his mouth.

gDiapers

I was at Wild Oats tonight and came across a big display of gDiapers. They were having a drawing for a gift basket with gDiapers and other handy baby stuff, so I signed up. Then, I started perusing gDiapers and they seem pretty nifty. They are a flushable diaper system. Youc an flush them or compost the wet-only diapers. You should check out the videos on their site. I was intrigued, and I bought a starter set and a refill. They are about the same price as regular disposables. I'll probably just use them at home, but maybe they'll work out well enough to wear all the time. They'll be great for Nanna because she doesn't have trash pick-up and I have to bring home the bag of stinky diapers.

I'll keep you posted on these - wish me luck on the drawing!

Some Stuff

Lukas & Grandma 1/31/07

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but you can see the most recent by clicking *here*.

February 3, 2007

Today was a whirlwind of activity. I went to a Body Shop at Home party at the home of Jen R. It was cohosted by Jess. I'm a sucker for these home parties. I even went so far as to become a Pampered Chef "Kitchen Consultant" back in the day. So, it was all I could do not to sign up to be a Body Shop salesperson. I resisted. It was a good choice I'm sure. Of course, I'll be having one of the parties after JJ has hers.

After the party around 1pm, Sonja called to see if we'd like to go see the Lipizzaner Stallions with her & her Mom at 2pm. Short notice, but we pulled it off. Lukas & Nanna went with us and Lukas was quite a good boy. He watched most of the show and ate a few french fries. The stallions were beautiful and quite well trained. One of the horses could hop up in the air with no "feet" touching the ground. Even when there was a rider on him. They gave a lot of the history, which was interesting, but I was busy chatting and didn't catch it all. I'll have to check out their web site. There was something about the US Army saving them back in the 40s. I think.

After the show, we came home and Lukas did a little house work and some multitasking (see the pictures).

Tomorrow it's off to DeWitt to visit with the family.