cloth diapering part one: why i use cloth diapers.

before Isla was born, I read an article in Mothering magazine all about cloth diapers.

some of the things that stood out to me were:

-diaper companies won't disclose all the ingredients in their diapers ... um, what?

"the customer service representative...will tell you that, among other things, the base ingredients in Pampers' Easy Ups, Baby Dry, Swaddlers and Cruisers, as well as all the Luvs product, include: petroleum, poyethylene, processed wood pulp, "absorbent gelling material", polypropylene and perfume" 

-disposable diapers are not environmentally friendly: 

"no one alive today has lived long enough to see a single disposable diaper completely decompose, because it is estimated that each disposable will take hundreds of years to do so"

-plastic on your privates:

"plastic diapers-especially when they're not changed often enough-keep the genital area hotter than nature designed it to be" this is even more important for boys than girls.

"Would you wear plastic underwear all day long?"-Lori Taylor, Real Diaper Association

there was also a 2 page spread called "a cloth diaper compendium" and was a really great visual guide to the what's what of cloth diapers.

the article didn't even really go into long term cost savings, which is another bonus.

But I was still concerned about the short term cost. 

Cloth diapers seem like a initially daunting and expensive investment. 

So, from the advice of my friend Beth, I started to by one or two things with each paycheck when I was about 4 months pregnant, this way it didn't seem like a huge one time money loss, and it allowed me time to look around at different options.

I was very excited to cloth diaper! 

I settled on the least expensive investment and stocked up on Bummis prefolds, and Thirsties size one duo-wraps.

In the end, before Isla was born I had 36 pre-folds and 8 covers.

If you are planning on cloth diapering, you can expect some amount of shock, well-meaning advice against it, or full out laughter and/or disgust.

Most people I told thought that I just didn't really know how much work a newborn would be, so it was a bit of a pipe dream to be adding the extra work of cloth diapering.

Thankfully, I did have a few friends who were already doing it, or planning to as well. I also read lots of online reviews, tips and advice as well as many blogs of people who were cloth diapering.

The plan was in place. I was set and ready to go. 

Or was I?

part 2 coming soon!

* The article I read and the quotations come from Mothering magazine issue #160, May-June 2010, pg: 50-69

small style #12

here is miss Isla on Sunday morning,

she was looking especially cute in her brown shorts.

Sunday mornings we spend with our lovely Church family, All Nations Church

We have an abundance of babies, there were 9 born last year! and so far 4 this year with 3 more due before Christmas!

Needless to say, Isla has lots of little friends around.

i'm told that she and sir Sam (son of miss Pintuck)

were pretty much in fighting mode over any and every toy in the nursery.

nice.

hey, do you think i could climb this?

diaper shirt: Hatley-loaned to us by a friend's neighbour who is now a friend too :)

shorts: H&M-thrifted

shoes: Joe

the other advantage of lots of babies is lots of hand me downs, advice, support and time with mommies!

we are linking up with Mama Loves Papa!

this cloth diapering moment...

matching shirts and diaper covers?

Yes please!

Small Style #11

yesterday we hung out with some lovely ladies, and a small wee lad.

Isla and I went for a little walk with Amanda and little Zachary,
we met auntie Beth at Starbucks.

walks and Starbucks makes for a good day :)

yay, Starbucks!


eating some chicken

Isla also learned to drink from a straw, quite randomly.

drinking with a straw with auntie Beth


drinking with a straw is serious business

romper: Old Navy-consigned

we refer to this Starbucks as the office, because we can almost always find someone we know
working away on a thesis, meeting with someone, or reading.

it was surprisingly quiet yesterday.

we are linking up here with Morgan, of Mama Loves Papa :)

I'm looking forward to some cooler weather and layers of clothes for small style.
i love the summer one piece looks, but it will be nice to have more than one item of clothing listed!

some thoughts...

miss Isla is now 9 and a half months old.

this means that my maternity leave is quickly coming to an end.
to give context to the rest of this post, i must say that i have been pretty much anticipating motherhood since i was 17 or 18 years old, and pretty much every thought that i've had over the 12 years since then about being a mother, included me staying at home with my children.

it has been my maybe plan all year long, but looking into it, in the real world, we cannot financially afford for me to stay home. i know that this is the case for a lot of families, and it feels so frustrating to have going back to work not be a choice, but necessary.

in our case, it's not even a matter of trimming the budget here, or shifting money there... we truly will not be able to pay our current required bills if i do not go back to work.

I do know that once we pay off our debt (or more of it anyway) we will more than likely be able to live on one income, but for now this is not the case.

this has been feeling like a big let down over the past few days.
whenever i get Isla after a nap, or pick her up after a fall, or tell her no thank you; i think to myself, who can possibly do this for her like i can?

i wasn't even going to worry about it or figure it out until september, but my work has inquired into when i may be returning ( i kind of forgot that i went off early on sick leave, so they probably are a little confused)

needless to say, lots of budget finagling and doodling and jigging and it looks like i'm headed back.

the nice thing is that i have a lot of ladies around me who have been there.
so i know that i will have lots of support when i do go back, and also i sure am thankful that i got to have a full year off, i know my mom didn't with me, and i know that you momma's in the States don't have that luxury either.

i imagine that the sad feelings won't completely disappear,
but i am certainly going to make the most of these remaining months

and more (MOST!) importantly,
i know that God will work all this out,
i know that he knows my heart and that he loves me and my Isla and my little family,

Small Style #10

wow! 10 weeks of small style already!

i am pretty happy about this way to document Isla, i was even thinking that it would be pretty cool to put all the weeks together in an iphoto or shutterfly book of some sort.

this past weekend we, the Geranium family, were off camping in Bon Echo Provincial Park.
Thom and I knew that Isla would do well with camping, because she usually adapts quite well to anything, but what we weren't expecting was how much she would LOVE camping!
Because of all the people around Isla was laughing and completely entertained the entire time.
We went with a group of people from our lovely Church, and we shared a site with our friends Robyn and Noah and our friend Emma.
We are the only ones with a baby, so we weren't exactly sure how that would go either. But we were able to hang out on our friends' site, Mike and Kristen, who have 3 little ones, Meika, Sophie and Joshua. since we were all up at 6:30, we hung out together drank much needed coffee and watched the girls play together.
small style this week comes from those early morning playdates.

isla in love with pushing Sophie's "bike" around


yup. those are some filthy hands!


reading.


more "bike" pushing

shirt: Old Navy (pj set, consigned)
splash pants: Please Mum (consigned, the morning we left, for $3)
shoes: Robeez (consigned)
push car: Little Tikes (borrowed from Sophie)

I'm linking up here with Mama Loves Papa.

***just a little note to say that the splash pants was the brilliant idea of Kristen. Her daughter Sophie was only crawling last summer and she said this was a morning/clothes life saver. Isla's hands and splash pants got filthy, but not her real clothes!

oh, and i am proud to say that we pretty much cloth diapered the whole camping trip :)
more on that challenge and accomplishment later.

Small Style #9

so, as I said in this post, we had a little sojourn to Montreal last week for my sister’s wedding.

Isla got to spend a few days with her Gramma Kiki and her Auntie Roslyn.

Auntie Ros hadn’t seen Isla since she was 2 months old, so there was quite a change indeed!!

Here is Isla showing off her crawling skills to Auntie.Notice Gramma poking her head out in the background?

I love my wee crawling gal.

I’m not sure what is up with my camera. It seems to behave some days and then get all grainy and weird another. hmm.

shirt: Roots (I love Roots, they always have sales and most of their baby clothes are organic cotton)

pants: made by me!

and we are linking up a day early as Morgan is off to BlogHer tomorrow.

and she is rooming with a Peterborough-ite, Desiree (aka the Fawn)

wedding bells

My lovely and beautiful sister Danielle was married to the man of her dreams on Saturday.

We had the most lovely day, with great weather, lots of friends and family.

It truly was a spectacular wedding. Thom commented that it will probably be the fanciest and swankiest wedding that we will ever attend.

Here is my sister and her husband Alex.

My family and I can often be heard saying: “we love Alex!”

He is the perfect match for my sister, it is so lovely to see her so happy and so confident and so in love.

3 years ago, Danielle and Alex met at the bachelor party of Alex’s twin brother Antoine.

It was fate as Alex rarely goes out to the bar and Danielle was pretty much forced to go out that evening with a friend. Sigh, the plans that God has for us!!

Danielle had to move to Calgary 2 months later for her first year of teaching, thus beginning what my dad called a truly modern romance. They dated via Skype, movie dates, dinner dates, tv show watchings, and my dad even met Alex over Skype. I first met Alex that Christmas as we all convened at my mom’s house in Hamilton. He was funny and charming and was thrown into Van Impe craziness right away, just as Thom was 3 years prior

I remarked to Thom last night about what a good match Alex is for Danielle and into our family, and to Thom as a brother-in-law. We are super blessed to have them only 2 hours away in Montreal.

Here are a good chunk of the Van Impe cousins (my mom’s side of the family)

From left to right behind the couch: Mary, Jen, Steve, Tom, Mike, Carly, Lauren, Amy

Sistas on the couch: Roslyn, Danielle and Me

Since I was in the wedding party and I forgot to give Thom my camera, there aren’t really any pictures of me or Isla who was so so cute and the best wedding baby that you ever saw!!

Here is the only photo I could find so far on Facebook of my little family.

In the foreground are my cousins Lauren and Mike.

Funny huh?

Once I get some more photos I’ll post some more.

Just wanted to say how much fun we had and how much we love my sister and her husband.

All photos are courtesy of my cousin Tom Van Impe.