Nappies and Rat Tails

Charlie was basically daytime "potty" trained by the age two. Poop training was another larger hurdle as he seemed to only poop in his sleep and it was "too hard" (lots of tears, pushing, squats, books, videos, even child-friendly laxatives) to poop on the potty. One day he realized it wasn't that hard and around his third birthday he was poop trained. We are on the last hurdle - nighttime and napping potty training. We almost exclusively cloth diapered Charlie but I was so grossed out by his "big boy" poopy diapers (remember he ONLY pooped in his sleep) that I moved to disposables for sleeping. Now that he is "poop trained" I've wanted to move him back to cloth. I know he will very soon sleep in undies, but we ran out of disposables and I decided to get 2 cloth pull up nappies (diapers) instead of restocking as Liam can use them also when it's time. We bought the Bum Genius PottyTrainers and so far I really like them. Charlie can pull them on and off himself and remove the absorbent insert (he complains that it is wet and gross - yeah no kidding buddy). He really saturates the one insert - but it doesn't usually go through to his pjs. They aren't cheap at $37 for a liner and 5 inserts but it beats endless disposables. And I love to get his little tushie back into cloth - you just can't get cuter!!!



On an unrelated noted - thoughts on rat tails??? They are somewhat trendy here and I think it would be sort of cute on Charlie. We desperately miss Maria's haircuts and I am going to brave it with the scissors this weekend. If we are destined to have 6 sons, at $20 a cut, I need to learn how to cut boy's hair.

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Cloth Diapers and More Fun Stuff

I decided to cloth diaper when I was pregnant with Charlie and I'm so thankful I did. I started with over 30 BumGenius 3.0 velcro diapers when he was born. After 3 years, the velcro is starting to curl and lose its "stickiness". My sister Emily encouraged me to convert the diapers from velcro to snaps saying that it was a relatively easy process. My 3 goals for my past summer in Minnesota were 1.) Wedding Album 2.) Baby Book 3.) Cloth Diaper Conversion to Snaps. I successfully completed #1 and #2, but ran out of time for #3. I am happy to say that I have (pretty much) successfully conveted 24 diapers to snaps from velcro. I am one of the least crafty people I know (my sisters will attest to my Christmas tree ornaments made of walnuts on popsicle stick skiis - pretty lame gift for a 10-year old from her middle school sister). I've really improved my skills. At first each diaper would take about an hour and ended up looking like the first diaper below. Today I was able to finish each diaper in about 15 minutes and they really turned out nice.

The snaps are very unforgiving, in that it's very hard to remove them if you mess up.  I just kept adding a snap to try to remedy my bad snaps... it was a mess! 

All that being said, converting all of the diapers cost me about $50 and I'm sure they will last through Liam potty-training. I know I've saved a bunch of money by primarily using cloth, and they look so stinkin' cute in the colorful cloth diapers. It is also really fun to share cloth diapering with my sisters who are also doing it with their little guys. Speaking of potty training - Charlie went poopy on the potty twice today - making a point to do it "all by himself" (pooping, wiping, flushing, washing his hands). He was SO proud of himself!

Baby Judah - pic o' day:

It sounds like Baby Judah is extremely chill and peacefull (gets it from Maria for sure - ha, ha, just kidding Aaron!). I'm excited that I came up with his middle name "Aaron." I guess, Maria and Aaron would've eventually suggested it, but I would still like be able to claim it. Oh wow - I just want to hold that little guy so badly!!!

Health update - Liam and Charlie are finishing up their antibiotics and look MUCH better than last week. Charlie is itching to go to preschool - so I am hopeful he will be good to go tomorrow. Jason is still feeling a little residual cough/chest stuff - so please pray for him if you think of it.

Here is Liam and Jason skyping with Gran and Grandad: