wood for good!

We just got our woodstove today! After waiting for three months and going through some minor inconveniences to get it, Joseph drove home with our pretty little stove in the back of his truck. It's SO nicely made! Now we just can't wait to get the 475 lb. unit into the house on the hearth pad in front of the fireplace and experience its warmth on these chilly November evenings.

The type of woodstove we settled on was a HearthStone Heritage. HearthStone handcrafts their stoves using cast iron and soapstone. Soapstone is excellent at radiating heat in a much softer way than cast iron. The stove is extremely clean burning, so much so that I won't have to clean the glass-- no soot buildup! We also were able to get the shiny black porcelain finish as opposed to the matte black cast iron... even easier to keep clean!

An here's an interesting green fact about our stove: "a tree decomposing in the forest emits more carbon dioxide into the air than burning that same tree in an efficient burning Hearthstone woodstove."

As soon as it's installed, I'll post pictures!

name that kid

Okay, we aren't decided yet on what we're going to name the second little guy, but we're leaning towards Gunnar. We don't want our first boy to have a strong name and then leave the second with a puny, weak name. Gunnar means "battle warrior". Since we're not so decided on middle names, I thought I would throw a poll out there with a few ideas:

ten guilty pleasures

Okay, so these aren't very guilty, but they definitely are my favoritest, bestest, most enjoyed things I don't always happen to mention...

1. Spending LOTS of time with the hubby
2. Eating dark chocolate (Ghiradelli's 60% Cacao, Trader Joe's 72%, etc.)
3. Tickling Magnus till he squeals!
4. Traipsing through autumn leaves and breathing in the damp, crisp air
5. Watching DVD rentals from the library
   
6. Daydreaming about life without eight beagles in a two house radius
7. Using recipes as inspiration for cooking, not necessarily following them to a "T"
8. Smelling fresh laundry, especially clean diapers!
9. Being a mother of boys and everything this entails (including catching bugs and frogs)
   
10. Taking time to blow dry and straighten my hair (which only happens a couple times a month)

happy morning dance

Nothing like a good cup of "cockee" (coffee), Raffi, and my cute boy in footie pajamas to get a weekday morning off to a great start!

Video editing currently in progress...

sneaker boy

Magnus just turned 21 months. I love this age, although it definitely has its more trying moments. The tantrums have begun, usually starting when he's tired and we tell him to stop doing something he really wants to do. We've been trying to instruct his little heart to obey, so there's nothing sweeter than when he responds with "Okie" after we've told him to do something. Just recently I've noticed that he'll use his cuteness factor to try to distract us when we discover him doing something naughty.

The other day I started to walk down the stairs, and before I knew it, I found my little boy trying to stop me, either by putting his hand out as if to tell me to stop, or later by telling me to keep playing the "tanno" (piano). I could hear him rattling around in the kitchen cupboards, so I tried to peek and see what he was doing. Every time I got near, he heard and got busy with something else. I didn't see a mess, so I wasn't too concerned. I then decided to play the game with him and pretended to go up the stairs. Comfortable in his solitude, I could hear him opening the cupboard doors again. I looked over the banister and caught him in the act of doing nothing more than staring at the staples. His shocked expression at my presence was hilarious! All that mischief and manipulation on his part just to look at bags of flour and sugar! This last spring the floor would have been coated in whiteness, Magnus looking like the abominable snowman!

cloth diaper product review

Since I'm on a roll with this daily posting thing, I thought I would delve into what will bore some of you readers to death: reviews of various cloth diapering products I've been using.

One of the most helpful and supportive online cloth diapering communities I have run across is called Diaper Swappers. Not only can you buy and sell like new diapers and accessories (which admittedly grossed me out at first), but you can get a wealth of information from other mamas. I highly recommend joining and searching the forums. Anyhow...

Detergent: Everyone has a differing opinion on what works to keep their dipes clean, absorbent, and stink-free. My first detergent was Charlie's Soap. It worked fine for a couple months, then the stink and rash issues started. I tried All Free & Clear. I tried making my own detergent (1 part borax + 1 part washing soda + 1 part Oxiclean Free). Still issues with both of these. I stripped and rinsed like crazy, so I know it wasn't too much detergent. After switching to regular liquid Tide and using a little Calgon water softener, my diapers couldn't smell better or be cleaner. Since I'd rather be using something a little moreI've been considering switching to Rockin' Green or Crunchy Clean, but since I've seen mixed reviews on both, I'm not quite sure. Maybe I should order samples... although it seems that it takes more than just a few washes to determine how well a detergent will wash diapers.

Pockets: I've used Thirsties and FuzziBunz. Thirsties are great, although I'm not too fond of the microfiber insert sewn in... That being said, I don't like microfiber in general. The huge plus with the Thirsties is that they are quick to use with velcro and they have gussets to hold in messes. FuzziBunz are nice, though the snap system is confusing for the hubby. I've had some blowouts in FuzziBunz, so I'm glad I don't have many of them. I think they might work better on a chunky-legged kiddo. Pockets in general are great for nighttime use.

Covers: Thirsties are my hands-down favorites. The velcro on a couple of them has gotten a little frayed after continuous use for the past year, and the white leg gussets tend to stain easily, but other than that, they are super workhorse covers. Thirsties just came out with a new diaper called Duo Wraps which allows mom to buy half as many diaper covers, since they have a snap adjustable rise (only two sizes instead of four). I'm currently testing out one of these on Magnus and love the trim fit with a prefold. I even bought some more for the next baby! A lot of people like Bummis covers. I don't like the fact they're gusset-less, unless you get the Super Brites (which don't wear very well). The only other cover I've used is the Bumkins which I highly dislike.

Prefolds: I bought diaper service quality Chinese prefolds brand new. With any new prefolds, you have to wash/boil to get them quilty, but then they're super absorbent. As I haven't purchased prefolds yet for the new baby, I'm considering going with either Little Lions or Clotheez, as both of these are supposed to be cut better and have several sizes. It just doesn't work to put a large prefold on a small baby. I definitely like the 4x8x4 prefolds the best... much more absorbent. Not to mention, prefolds are a lot easier than I thought to keep clean-- mine are still pretty much perfectly white, even though I haven't sunned them lately. Prefolds + Thirsties covers = leak free cloth diapering!

Accessories: I love hemp inserts/doublers (like Willow Sprouts) and the cotton Kissaluvs super inserts. I also found it handy to have a couple double layer flannel inserts (homemade) to add just the right amount of absorbency to nighttime diapers. I bought one Wahmies diaper pail liner which promptly fell apart. Oh, and if you use prefolds, Snappis are SO much better than pinning.

Where to buy? I had good service at Nicki's Diapers, found the reviews at The Diaper Pin helpful, loved the service at My Baby Pumpkin, and have found the mamas on Diaper Swappers to be great to deal with for sales.

Hope this is helpful!

quilted with love

I couldn't find a quilt for Magnus's bed that I liked, nor could I find the print fabric I wanted, so I took matters into my own hands. Mags and I went to the fabric store and he helped pick out several colors of cotton fabric. I was inspired by a Pottery Barn quilt I saw for the airplane and truck appliques, but the layout and the colors were my doing. The quilting was all done on machine and was relatively easy, even though I don't have a walking foot, probably due to the low-loft natural cotton batting I used. It's not perfect, but definitely a good first quilting project!