On Carseats

*pre-post disclaimer* I don't care what kind of carseat you have. All carseats are tested to be safe as long as they are being used properly. I tend to follow the higher "best practices" guidelines (referenced here along with other places I have seen them), which I will highlight, but this doesn't mean that you are being an unsafe parent if you don't use the same level of guidelines that I do. I put this information out there because it sure would have been nice to know when we were looking at carseats (infant and then convertible).

Carseats pretty much equal an overwhelming mass of information and choices and price factors as is the case with most baby gear. Not only do you have cute patterns to contend with, you also have various features that you never know will be practical or not until you actually have a kid and strap them into one and, in the case of an infant seat, carry one around with you in and out of the car day after day.

If you are looking at carseats, I would highly recommend looking at this chart for infant seats which fully breaks down all the information and stats of each kind of carseat. SO helpful! 

Let's start with infant carseats. Months before we ever had Alex, I bought a BabyTrend FlexLoc (22 lb weight limit, 28.5" height limit) in Galaxy. I liked the colors of it and that it would work for a boy or girl (see, I was totally being practical!). We read reviews and people said they liked the triangle shaped handle, so we went and looked at some at Babies R Us and decided it was a pretty good option for the price. We opted to go with a stand alone carseat instead of a travel system. The thought of pushing a big old stroller like that around was too much for me to bear. We opted for a "souped up" umbrella stoller with a full recline and still LOVE it to this day. 13 lbs, super easy to fold/unfold, and takes up almost no room when folded.
But back to the carseat.
Our favorite features are the push in/push button release (alligator) latch clips, the turn a dial harness height adjuster, the canopy, and the harness thightness adjuster.
Our less than ideal features are the crotch buckle, the triangle handle, the weight, and the low-ish height/weight limit.

*Latch Clips* I cannot tell you how important it is to have great latch clips. Our convertible that Kaitlyn is in now has very simple latch clips that are THE biggest pain in the butt to undo and pretty hard to put in as well.
Here is a picture of the LATCH clips on the BabyTrend:

and a more "standard" type clip would be similar to this:

Having great latch clips makes moving your carseat base really easy to move into another car so that you don't have to use the seatbelt to buckle the carseat into another car (and thus have to unbuckle and then rethread/buckle/pull to lock and get a GOOD tight fit every time you got out of/into the car). It doesn't sound like a big deal, but do it a few times and it is. This was really nice when I was doing stuff with my mom and it was easier for her to drive. It was also great when we were looking at houses with our realtor (my MIL) and were constantly taking out and putting the carseat back into the car.

*Turn knob harness height adjustment*
In the first 2 years of life your baby is growing REALLY fast. For most carseats, this means that you have to undo the harness in the back, pull out the straps and then re-thread them into the next highest slot. In the BabyTrend, there is a knob in the back that you turn and it raises the harness height for you. SO easy.
As a safety note, while rear facing, harness straps should always be slightly below the baby's shoulders.

*Canopy*
I liked that the canopy had to axises- one on the front and one on the back. It made it so the canopy could be pulled all the way down in front (would leave the back of the head exposed) for those times that the sun is coming right straight at your baby's face. I'm sure that most carseats have this feature, but we had borrowed a Graco Snugride 22 with Alex and the canopy did not have a formed back on it's own axis. It had an elastic that came down and hooked onto the back of the seat. If you wanted to move the canopy forward, you lost all tension and it was uneffective. I'm not sure if their newer ones have the same set up or not, but just know that being able to put the canopy where ever you want it and having it be LARGE is a good thing.

*Harness Tightener*
To tighten the harness in our BabyTrend, all that was required was pulling on a strap in the front. To loosen, you pushed on button by the strap and pulled the harness out. It was REALLY easy to use and makes it easy to make sure that you have a good tight fit when your baby may be wearing bulky clothing one day and less bulky the next. It is important that straps are tight on the harness. You should not be able to pinch any part of the harness strap. A loose harness will not hold a child in their carseat in an accident. Also, on the note of bulky clothing, kids should not wear coats in their carseat. If in an accident, the coat would compress and leave slack in the the harness, thus causing a potential for the child to come out of the harness. To deal with the cold, either put their coat on them backwards after buckling them or use blankets. We dress our kids in fleece jackets (which are fine for carseats) and then do blankets that we keep in the car. We also bring coats that we put on before we get out of the car if needed.


*Crotch Buckle*
The crotch buckle on the BabyTrend is a little bit tricky. It's commonly referred to as a "puzzle" style, meaning that you have to interlock the 2 pieces from each side of the harness and then insert them as one unit into the buckle. After about 6 months this really didn't bug me that much, but it is a harder buckle to get the hang of.

*Triangle Handle*
This was a good idea I think in theory. In actual use, I found the handle on the Graco to be much easier to grip and carry on my arm. I thought that the triangle would give more surface area on my arm to disperse the weight, but it did not. If you don't know about the triangle handle, find someone with one and try it out or borrow a (larger) baby and try one out at a store. It's different once you are trying to carry about a baby in it.

*Weight*
This carseat is heavier than the Graco that we borrowed. This was another factor that made the Graco easier to carry around. I think though that the BabyTrend has more metal in the frame, which does make it a little safer. That said though, Graco seats are still safe.

*Lower Weight/Height Limit*
Many infant carseats now go up to 30 lbs and 30". To give you an idea, Kaitlyn is smaller for her age (20% for weight at almost 21 lbs at her 15 month appointment), but tall (31" 69%). If we had a higher weight limit infant seat with a 32 or 35" height limit, she could still  be riding in that.
That said, I'm not sure that I'd want to still be lugging that thing around with a 15 month in it and I'm not sure that she'd love it either. I can't imagine carrying a 30 pound child in an infant carseat!
Many times the higher weight/height limit seats cost more, so you do have to weigh whether spending that extra money is worth it. 
One thing that was annoying is that Alex outgrew the infant seat (I think by height first and weight shortly after) at 9 months. Our original plan was to put him in a cheaper forward facing harnessed seat when he turned one, but because he was not yet 1, we had to go with a convertible.

Moving to a convertible wasn't that big of a deal since he could already sit in grocery carts and such. We just lost some of the portability and ease of not having to buckle/unbuckle your child constantly that you get with an infant seat. In the end, I am glad that we went with a convertible instead of jumping right to a forward facing only booster seat because it allowed him to rear face for a longer amount of time and would allow for a child to ride harnessed until they were 40 lbs. (which he just barely hit at 4 years old).

Tomorrow when I talk about our convertible seats I'll elaborate more or rear facing and harnessing age/weight. :)

Overall, I would recommend our infant carseat. It was a reasonable price and the awesome features on it made the less than ideal features (mostly) non-issues.
My number one recommendation to people would be to borrow an infant carseat from someone you know. People usually only use them for about a year and then they go into storage until they have another baby.
Carseats only last for a certain amount of years before they have to be replaced, so many times people won't even be able to use their original carseat for their later babies. Someone you know may have a carseat that will expire in a year, but they know they won't be having another baby before it expires. You could even offer to buy it from them for pretty cheap since they would have gotten years of use out of it and will no longer be able to use it. (When buying a carseat always buy from someone you know so that you can be sure that the carseat was not involved in an accident).
On that note, wait until as close to your due date as possible to buy your carseat because whatever is on the sticker as the manufacture date is going to determine your expiration date. One day you may really wish that you had waited another month or 2 so that you had a couple extra months to use your seat before it expires.

No fooling him!

Yesterday for lunch, I made Alex a Totinos frozen pizza. I also made myself one remembering how many I devoured and enjoyed in my teenage and college years. This was the first time I have made him one in like 3 years. We have not bought them because they are generally unhealthy and have trans fat in them (really? They can't find a way to make a popular kids food without trans fat?), but I got a really good deal on them, so I thought, "what the heck. These will be okay for an occasional lunch or dinner when mama doesn't want to cook and daddy isn't around."

First of all, Totino's pizzas are not as good as I remember them. And I should have cooked it directly on the rack, but did not. I may not even be tempted to eat another one in my life.

Kaitlyn blazed through the pieces that I gave her. It doesn't take much to keep her happy.

Alex got down to the last piece and then told me, "Mama, this doesn't really taste like pizza." No kidding. Nothing gets by that one!

Old man in a young man's body

The other day Alex got out of the tub and told me that he was an "old man boy". If you were thinking it was because he was all wrinkly, it wasn't. He said that it was because of a "movie" that he was playing in the tub.

Alex has been very into incorporating movie menus into his pretend play (like each different part of what he's playing is a different option on the menu). The other day we were playing and he'd go over and open the doors on his bookcase and touch one of the books and go "BING!" and then that would launch a bonus feature on a movie. Mostly it was songs and he would perform them and dance. It was highly entertaining.

Alex has also been loving the songs on movies. He knows "Once Upon a Dream" (the Emily Osment version on Sleeping Beauty) and a lot of the songs from Beauty and the Beast, which we borrowed from Grandma.

Not only does he love the songs, he just loves the bonus features in general. And watching them in Spanish. He's very much become a victim of Disney marketing and tells us all the time about "BLU-RAY!" and that we need "more Disney magic!". He said to Jon the other day, "Disney parks are the place where dreams come true, right?"


Here are a couple of random bits of entertainment from today.
Alex was laying on the couch on his belly with his legs hanging over the edge and Kaitlyn walks over and starts patting him on the bum and saying bum bum bum. Such a silly baby.

My mom had Alex and Aubrey over yesterday for Valentines stuff and Alex got to bring home a box of conversation hearts which he ate today. When they were almost gone he insisted that we needed to call Grandma to see if she had any more because we don't have any more treats at our house.

We are all currently sitting on the couch which is a boat that Kaitlyn and I are captaining. I am Captain and Kaitlyn is Baby Captain. We are all sailing (Alex is shouting out sail, sail, sail, sail, sail!) and Alexcjust called Kaitlyn "Pirate Baby". LOL and we just got another BING. I guess we're in a different section of the menu now.  He also just said, "tell me where we are on the map. Arr matey! (yes, he really just said that. I have no idea where he got that or the context of when to use it. Maybe Veggie Tales...).

 It's a good day.

Fab-ee-us

Alex just finished building a city for his cars to drive through with blocks and asked me, with much excitement, if it looked "FAB-EE-US!".
I told him it did.

I think he is fab-ee-us.

Cloth diaper trial and error

The world of cloth diapering is a huge daunting one. Not only do you have different ways of doing it (pockets, all-in-ones/2's, covers and prefolds, wool, hybrids), but you also have a million different brands with a lot of different features.

Honestly, I have only tried a few brands. I don't like to spend money on something and then lose a few dollars on it after only using it a few times.

Based on what I've tried, I think I've come up with what I want in a cloth diaper.

Here are what I've tried and what I like/don't like about each. (bonus, you get to see Kaitlyn in them when she was only a couple months old!)

Fuzzi Bunz Sized {old style} (like really old. They are smaller than the newer old style)

The one in the pictures is a newer old style just FYI.
I love that these started fitting really well at a younger age. I only have experience with Kaitlyn in the smalls since we started CDing her at about 2 weeks old. She was 8lbs at birth, so I imagine pretty close to 8lbs once we started with CDs. Even some of the newer old style that I had that were a little bigger still fit pretty well. (pst Jess I may be tempted to either borrow some of those older old style ones from you or something for the couple weeks you have to deal with a newborn not fitting into some diapers yet)
I love the snaps for the most part except that now that she's 15 months old she doesn't like to hold still for diaper changes sometimes and that makes getting the snaps done up hard. I end up with a crying baby many times and if I'm changing her on the floor she's endlessly rolling and crawling away. Changing her on the changing table (aka dresser) seems to solve this issue. (And if I mention cream she lays totally still. Love it.)

Bum Genius OS 3.0 (one size)

apologies for the small picture. I didn't have a big one in photobucket.

I'm loving the fit of these on Kaitlyn right now. She's about 20 lbs, so she's on the 2nd row of snaps (middle row). These look really thin when they are on.
The things that drive me crazy on these are the velcro, the back flap part that comes over the pocket opening, and they don't fit well on smaller babies.
First, the velcro is always pulling up on the edge/curling, so it's super easy to catch on pants or for Kaitlyn to grab it and get it at least partially open (in both cases). Also the laundry tabs that hold the velcro in place eventually wear out to the point that they won't hold the velcro in place while washing. I have some BG all-in-ones (they don't have the pocket) that I bought used and the velcro on the front that the tabs stick to is worn and coming unstitched in places. I noticed some issues with stitching on some of my brand new ones after a few washes, so that was disappointing. To solve this issue, I'd just buy the snap version that they have now.
The issue I have with the flap on the back is that it's an extra step to get it to lay down flat under Kaitlyn instead of flapping up. Annoying.
As for fitting smaller babies, these didn't work at all around the legs for Kaitlyn until she was about 2 months old and I want to say somewhere around 11 or 12 lbs. I guess if your newborn has chunky legs you wouldn't have a problem, but my babies don't have that much chunk on their thighs at that point. I didn't really start liking these until she moved to the middle snap a few months ago.

Fuzzi Bunz OS (one size)

These look hugely fluffy in the pictures. This is because of the extra fabric kind of fluffing up. Once you put pants on, they were fairly trim.
Be careful if you are buying used because the first versions of these are not great. They only have a single row of snaps and I got a lot of leg leaks. I added a hip snap, but I still don't love how the old ones fit. They are bulky and I still get leg leaks even with the hip snap.
The newer version is more narrow in the crotch and is shorter when you have it fully stretched out. I find that this size works MUCH better. The more narrow and short diaper along with the customizable leg elastic (the legs have button hole elastic like you would find in adjustable waist pants) made it fit on Kaitlyn the BEST when she was tiny. Naturally there was some bulk but I didn't think it was excessive. Since the elastics gather the fabric, you just end up with a gathered looking diaper, so the excess fabric is spread over the whole diaper as opposed to just being folded up and under like it is in a snap down OS diaper.
One down side of the elastic leg sizing is that the fabric around the legs inside the diaper gets really scrunched up as well, which can sometimes make cleaning out poop harder since there are a lot more little crevices for it to get into.
Thank goodness for diaper sprayers!


Envibum
(sadly no pictures of them on Kaitlyn, but you can go here to see them.)

I absolutely love the look of these diapers. They look adorable on and the fit is great. The HUGEST problem for me was the BULK. These are FAT diapers. The combination of the minky and the inner cloth just make this diaper really big. I did just discover that I don't necessarily need to put the inner absorbancy pad in, so that may cut down on some bulk. The other thing I hated about this was stuffing/unstuffing the absorbency pad, but I also just discovered that it can be left in when you wash. It has velcro that helps them stay in place, which now makes much more sense (I wan annoyed by having the exposed velcro from the pad in the wash with my diapers).
So I need to give these another try to see how they perform and how much more trim they are without the absorbency pad in.
Knowing that I can wash them to unswith the pad in makes me like them much more though! I'm a fan of not having to stuff/unstuff, but I do have the option to unstuff  if I want to if I notice stink issues and would like those pads to get more exposure to water/detergent.
My favorite feature of this diaper by FAR is the elastic in front that adjusts the size. I think it is genius. No snaps, no leg adjusters. It just sizes for the baby as you put it on. AWESOME. This makes diapering SUPER easy if you have an older child and baby both in diapers.
Oh and when I got my diaper (used. Always the best way to go to try things out), I noticed 2 immediate issues 1-one of the diapers didn't have laundry tabs (grr) and 2-the red minky had bled into the white velcro.


Kushies

(images from here)



I got a whole set of Kushies used for Alex for pretty dang cheap. I'm thinking I paid $2-3/diaper shipped. They were older and by the time we were done with them (after using them for about a year), some of them were getting cracks around the leg elastic outer fabric and the inner cotton was wearing out and getting holey. But they worked. I did get more blowouts with these than other diapers. I also found the inner flap to be highly annoying when it came to poop. They were also incredibly bulky. We used these around the house and they got a lot of use in the summer when he would run around in just a diaper and shirt.
I have a sole medium left that I just threw in the stash for Kaitlyn. I'll have to use it more to decide if I still have the same issues.
I do think that the cotton inner helped Alex to feel/recognize being wet and thus, he potty trained pretty early (started around 18 months, totally trained shortly after 2), so I think that could be a potential advantage to them.
The biggest advantage of Kushies is that they are really inexpensive new, so it's an easy way to get into cloth diapering.


Right now I am contemplating making a diaper with all of my favorite features.

• It would have the same elastic sizing system as Envibum, but with cute cotton outer fabric instead of the minky so it's not as bulky. 
• I would put stretchy tabs with snaps on it like the BumGenius.
• It would have a pocket that I could stuff and leave stuffed like Envibum.
• Another alternate there is a pocket with an opening on both ends so the diaper comes unstuffed in the wash.
• A third alternate is doing a sewn in loop so that it's an all in one, but still dries quickly.\
• All inner fabric would be the trimmest and most absorbent fabric possible (pretty sure that would be bamboo...)
• I also really like the idea of gussets to hold poo in. Both in the legs and in the back. (honestly though, I've had maybe ONE poo blowout in the back, so it may not even be worth it)
• I would like the option of being able to resize the elastic around the legs for a better fit on tiny babies. I'm not exactly sure of the best method of doing so though cause the buttonhole thing is kind of annoying.
  

Now it would be great if someone would just make a diaper like that for me so that I don't have to figure it out myself. :)

How to save money and not get tickets

Just let your 14 month old rummage through your wallet and run off with your credit card and driver's license for a week!

Well I guess that's at least the case if you didn't have your CC number memorized, because I somehow still managed to make a purchase on babysteals.com.

Really though, I didn't go out pretty much all week. If I did it was after Jon got home just to run to the grocery store. So I saved money by not going to any stores and not using any gas and when I did drive I kept every law so as to not give a cop any reason to pull me over. Apparently I should go CC and DL-less more often.

And where do you think I found Kaitlyn's hidden treasures? I was fearing the worst and that they went down the cold air intake, but amusingly, they were in the toy basket. Apparently Kaitlyn thought it was VERY important to stake her claim on these as HERS.
Nice try Missy.

Alex funnies today

Today I was telling Alex something (probably telling him he needed to do something) and he told me, "Mama, don't tell me things. You just know the things you knew. Like doing the dishes."

Later he was wanting me to play with him and I was agreeing to on certain conditions and he laid his head down and said, "Mama, I am listening to you, but you are not listening to me!"

He also told me that something I was saying to him was "making him upset". I think it was that I couldn't play with him right then.

I'm just glad that he's attempting to communicate and can voice his feelings. It's a welcome change from Kaitlyn who whines and grunts at me all day.

Project List

Jon and I have a never-ending little project list for our house. There are plenty of small simple things to do (that yet somehow still take months to get done) and then bigger projects that we have to work toward and plan for. We email it back and forth and pull it out when we need something to do. It feels great that it's out there for both of us and that at any time we could happily surprise the other person by doing something on the "To Do" list.

I like having a personal project list of my own that is more about me and what I want to work on. Most of my goals are ongoing things that I like to consistently work on (and always feel like I need to be better about), so they are pretty similar year to year. But that's okay.
I feel like moving has really gotten me out of my groove and I am ready to get that groove back.

So here it is folks!

2011

• Read at least one book
• Do fun things out of the house with the kids weekly
• more special one on one time with the kids
• bake more
• go on walks/bike ride/to the park more
• organize problem areas
• decorate and hang things on the walls!
• learn to build something myself
• set a regular preschool time schedule for Alex
• pick up toys very night
• find a cleaning schedule that works for me and stick to it
• get more exercise (lol- harder than it sounds)
• budget more consistently
• go on a vacation
• do more crafty and sewing things for myself/family
  

Now to figure out the plan of action for each of them. It's just nice to have some direction and idea of what you need to improve on. Good luck to me!