Catch the Moment: Week 15

A picture a day, for one year.

Again..life got the best of me and I am severely behind in posting my pictures. This week, for whatever reason, I am super mushy and reflective. Here's pictures of my life.

 This is another post in the making, which is regretfully also way behind schedule...but lately I've been partnering with my local women & children's consignment shop and I co-hosted our local Great Cloth Diaper Change event with Grow With Me Boutique. This year I've made it a goal to be present in my community; whether it's as a cloth diaper educator, proponent or encouragement to mothers.

This silly girl of mine. I thought that a 2 year old with a newborn was tough - but I've learned that 3 is even harder. Does it ever actually get "easy"? Probably not. But in the midst of the "no you're not"s and the bazillion questions, she sneaks in one of these silly little smiles and my heart just about bursts out of my heart.

 Lately we have been taking evening family walks, usually keeping the kids in our double stroller so that Adam and I can actually take a brisk walk and focus on conversation between each other rather than making sure that Penny stays safe from the quite steep drop into a creek that's next to the trail. On this evening, Penny gasps with wonder at the field of "bubble flowers," and wanted to pick some. These normally pesky weeds were seen as magical wonder in the eyes of a toddler, who picked each one delicately and presented me with a huge bouquet. She very quickly followed up with "ok, now let's blow them out!" and she blew with all her toddler might, pretending that it was nature's birthday cake. This memory I will treasure close to my heart, forever.

So this day was one where the trenches of motherhood were deep with sticky mud and I was just stuck. I try very hard not to complain about it ever, because in all reality it is such an amazing gift for me to get to spend this time with my children. It is a short season and one day I'll be an old woman who will look fondly back at it. But this day, I just had enough. Somehow my husband knew and he brought home an extremely special treat - a whole pie from our local boutique pie shop - Snohomish Pie Co. It reminded me that even though the days may be hard, my partner will always be at my side and will pull me out of the muck.  

 I guess this week is a very reflective week for me! We were hanging out in the backyard because again, it was an unseasonably warm April day and we had to take advantage of sprinkler time with popsicles. Miss Ruby had finally gotten over her aversion of grass so I was happy to watch her toddle around as she watched her older sister run and shriek through the sprinkler. Adam came home early that day and snapped this picture of Ruby and I. Sometimes it's so hard to come to terms that I am a mama of two, that I've been entrusted in the very important task in raising these girls.

While being a mom of a very opinionated, head and heart strong 3 year old can be hard, it has so many rewarding moments. Sometimes when I am upset with something silly, disobedient and ultimately not important, she stops me and holds my hands and just tells me how beautiful that I am. She compliments my long hair, or my pretty smile and great hugs. She thanks me for making a snack for her earlier that day, and strokes my cheek. Where did she learn this??? It stops me in my tracks and I take a breath to slow down my frustrated heart. On this day she had grabbed my camera and I was showing her how to use it and take pictures. She turns it over to me and says "now you take a picture of me. See how beautiful my shirt is?" This also stopped me and I tried to explain to her that it's not that shirt that makes her beautiful or worthy of a picture. Her sincere heart is just gorgeous to me, and I hope that it teaches me a lesson or two about what is important in life.

On the very rare occasion, Penny wakes up earlier than Ruby. Penny is so much like her dad, and their sleep habits are no exception. They could sleep in until noon if I (and Ruby) let them. This morning she creeped into my bed and whispered "can I give Wooby a kissy-kiss?" and ever so gently gave her little sister a kiss. She silently crept over to the other side of the bed and snuggled in on my other side.

Catch the moment archives

These aren't on Instagram, but most others are!

The Great Cloth Diaper Change 2015: Grow With Me Boutique

I am so excited to share this exciting event with my local ladies! If you are in the Seattle or North South area check this out!

Have you heard of the Great Cloth Diaper Change? It's an event curated by the Real Diaper Association and it is in it's 5th year! It is an annual Guinness World Record attempt (and broken each time!) where the goal is to get as many cloth diapers changed simultaneously Hosts have registered around the world provide a Guinness qualified location where participants can be a part of an amazing record breaking attempt. Penny and I have participated twice, in 2012 and 2013. In those years the records were 8,251 and 8,301 diapers changed (respectively). Last year there wasn't a location within driving distance to us, but this year I have partnered with Grow With Me Boutique in Monroe, WA to host for our local area families!

The goal of the GCDC is to raise awareness of cloth diapering in our local communities. Cloth diapers has certainly become a buzz word and may be viewed as "the cool thing to do." While cloth diapering certainly has created it's own community of parents, there is a vast price range of cloth diapers that can make diapering affordable for every family. I had two children in diapers for a 10 month period, and my oldest officially potty trained at 31 months. I can't imagine the cost that many families pay to diaper their children for that period of time. I was so thankful to have learned about cloth diapering, find resources and grow a stash that fits my budget and comfort level. Read more about all my cloth diapering tips and journey.

Cloth diapering is cool, but the biggest perk is truly the cost savings. A standard cloth diaper stash that will last from birth to potty training and washing every 3 days is typically in the $250-300 range. But cloth diapering doesn't have to be an all or nothing change. It can be a diaper a day or only at home. Any amount of cloth diapering that you do will save you money, all that changes is how quickly you will break that initial investment cost. 

So if you're in my neck of the woods, head out to Monroe and change your baby's diaper at Grow With Me Boutique on April 18, 2015 at 10:30a.

Grow With Me Boutique and I have already gotten a ton of fluffy prizes for those who attend!  Keep up with all the details by joining the facebook event:

GCDC @ Grow With Me Boutique

and most importantly reserve your free ticket now! Space is limited and you will need to pre-register in order to participate in the event. We will be doing a prize drawing before the actual change so be sure that you are there at 10:30a! But don't worry, there will be special sales and other goodies following the event!

Have you participated in the Great Cloth Diaper Change?

These are the rules laid down by the GCDC for all eligible participants and locations:

• Each location must have a minimum of 25 participants (each participant must be 18 years of age, or older). You must bring a partner to help witness your changing buy taking photographic evidence.

• Baby being diapered must be 39” tall or shorter.

• The clean diaper must be 100% reusable and commercially available.

• The event location must be accessible to the public.

• The diaper change must take place in an area that is only accessible to the participants, the babies being diapered and the witnesses. This area must have a closely monitored, and clearly defined, entrance and exit.

• The The Great Cloth Diaper Change must take place promptly at 11:00am, local time. 

• Photographic documentation of the event is required, and all photographs submitted as evidence become the property of Guinness. 

Teaching Cloth Diaper 101

This past weekend I taught my first cloth diapering class at my local children's consignment store, Grow With Me Boutique!

Grow With Me Boutique is very quickly becoming the go-to location for anything cloth diaper related - she's stocking up on multiple different brands and accessories so it seemed appropriate to help educate our community about the benefits of cloth diapering as well as show parents how easy it is to cloth diaper.

When I was initially looking into cloth diapering I was so overwhelmed with all the different options and didn't have a location close to me where I could actual hold a diaper to see how they worked exactly. We bloggers try our best to show off the features of each diaper we review, but sometimes you just gotta hold it in your hands and have a person talk to you face to face about what it is. With this in mind, I created my "lesson plan" and Grow With Me set up the event!

I was thinking that a group of 6-8 would be perfect; more than I could ask for. As the date to the class grew closer the attendance count kept ticking up and soon over two dozen were signed up to come!

My goal of the class was to introduce the different styles of cloth and to show everyone that every family is unique so there is no "right" way to cloth diaper. I started by giving a brief overview of the different styles of cloth as well as their pros/cons:

• prefolds and flats with covers
• all in ones
• all in twos
• pockets
• fitteds

I also covered accessories, wash basics and a little bit of trouble shooting. Some of the attendees were already experienced in cloth diapering so it was great to have them share their experiences, such as while I use the dry pail method, two other moms shared that they use wet pails and why it works for them. It was a great open discussion with tons of questions and it made the time just fly by. I was also able to give out samples of Rockin Green, Country Save, Motherlove Herbals, Earth Angel Mama Baby and Planet Wise even sponsored two prizes!

We also had a special guest appearance; my own "cloth diaper community star," Amy the owner of Buttons Diapers. Amy and I have worked together several times, through my own Buttons Diapers reviews and at the Mommie Mixer in 2013. She's somewhat local to me so it was fun to have her come visit and for a couple customers get to meet her.

It had been several years since I've taught a class so it was fun and refreshing to jump in again. I hope I'll get to do it another time soon!

Connect with Grow With Me Boutique 

to find more cloth diapering resources for Snohomish County!