so why cloth?

ok, in all honestly, I'm nesting. Except we're moving. And living, weekdays, in my parents' attic. So....no nursery for us and this is the best I can do.

But besides that, here's some reasons I am cloth obsessed:

1) Cost. Discussed previously. In short, I think we'll save upwards of $1500 (probably more like $2000+) with cloth diapers.
2) Waste.

getting ready...

I picked up a few weeks ago for a great deal - just a smidgen more than a 2011 single model on a clearance sale of last year's model at a small running store (thanks to a tip from an internetz friend).

have no fear, soon there will be a test run with stuffed animals.

My mamma-in-law came to visit last weekend and we made our first "real" purchases (e.g., for things we actually NEED).

infant seats, from C's grandfather. 

We also ordered our cribs - small footprint & small pricetag, but still convertibles (for the outside chance we get a house that can fit full sized beds in the kids' room) and super sturdy & pretty well reviewed. (We still need to get mattresses though, something I am trying not to obsess over)

And we got home (well, to our home-ish, at my parents) to this in the living room:

my mom found it at a consignment shop. aside from where you can see a piece is missing, it is IMMACULATE. like I don't think it was ever used.

It's now living on top of the massive car seat boxes in the living room. The stroller is next to our bed. Where the heck are you supposed to store this stuff (e.g. if you're living in an apartment or, say, your parents' attic?)?

diapers, part B

One day there will be a follow up to this post, but no time soon (seeing as its a couple of months till our babies arrive to begin with!).

stash to date (missing our 72 prefolds, 4 S workhorse fitteds, and 2 flip covers)....the bottom 4 rows are the One-Size diapers & covers waiting for 12 lb babies!

As I alluded to in my previous post, we plan to transition to One Size diapers one the babies are big enough. If we end up liking fitteds, we might get a couple of extra of those (likely Thirsties Duos or some GMD workhourse sized ones to make it more economical).  Since its going to be a while until we know what works for us, I've built us a pretty diverse One Size stash - pockets from various brands (still need to pick up some Kawaii and maybe Happy Heinys, and I'm torn about Fuzzibunz due to the elastic adjustments), a couple of all-in-ones (still need a couple of Bum Genius Elementals and I'm interested in Bright Star Baby even though they're not one size....the size range looks huge!).  I've also gotten a few one-size covers (GroVia and Flip) that we can use with our infant prefolds tri-folded, which sounds like a compact option for being out-and-about with the babies. I think I will pick up a couple of GroVia soakers to try those out too.

ok, this was kind of a splurge, but adorable - and minky soft...

Do I sound like a crazy person?
Yes.
Why am I diaper obsessed?
Because I can't build a nursery due to our living arrangement, and its all I can purchase/obsess over right now.

end of an era

I played my last rugby game ever this past Saturday (photo from two weeks ago, when it wasn't raining & we were playing in a questionable area of Baltimore).

For the record, my heart is in second row, even if I am a short-ish and thick-ish 4 better suited for 1. Too bad coach noticed this season and I got well acquainted prop.

10 years, 19 seasons (I missed Spring 2004), one dislocated thumb, one pulled back muscle & three stitches (a perk of being so-so and not particularly aggressive about contact

our first mother's day

(card made by one of our collegiate players, not weird trans-utero communication)

diapers.

In short, I'm a little obsessed.
We're having twins.
Babies are expensive. Well, not inherently, but when you factor in day care and swim lessons and our desire to not default on (mostly my) student loans, they are. So one of the ways we hope the save money (the the environment a little bit along the way) is with cloth diapers.

At 10-12 diapers/day for newborns, that's (using 12 diapers per day, since I'm sure we'll have our share of insta-soil issues) 168 diapers/week. Let's assume they fit into Newborn diapers for a month (4 weeks; we'll live in pregnancy counting for the sake of this argument). That's 672 diapers. I have heard Amazon is the queen of cheap diapers, especially under Subscribe & Save, but for this I'm going to use non-S&S figures as a way of averaging diapers bought online and in store.  So, a quick peek on Amazon at Pampers Swaddlers (I'll talk about our non-financial reasons for cloth another day) says that is $129 (really a little more, since you'll have part of a bag left). Now obviously, I have no idea how big our babies will be, but let's assume they move into size 1 around 4 week and wear those for 2 months (they're marked 8-15lbs) and spend weeks 12-16 in size 2.  I'll assume we've gotten better at poo catching and are down to 10 diapers/day/baby. So that's another 1680 diapers at about $0.21 each on Amazon, for $353 (ish). I'm not really sure how many diapers fit into a trash can, but I'm going to guess, given the size of a bag of dry, un-expanded-by-pee diapers, its a full 50 (40?) gallon can a week of plastic wrapped poop.

So for 4 months, that's (at least) $482 in disposable diapers for 16 weeks.

its been a while

since I've aw-ed our dog.

Isn't he a cutie?

do-over

Its been two years since I had my melanoma removed. I kind of regret not taking a photo of the mole (though who does that?) or a photo of the scar when it was fresh. Its kind of skin colored now and no longer raised, albeit still long and pretty huge.

Since then, I've had 2 more suspicious moles removed (neither of the sharpie-marker variety, and both the derm took off only because of my history and their slight odd-ness).  I had a mole removed at my last appointment

Broad Street 10 Miler

On Sunday, I did the Broad Street Run. I did this race in 2007, on 4 hours sleep following a graduation event, and finished in just over 90 minutes. Of course, I was 15 lbs lighter and in a whole lot better shape...So, while I planned to aim for 90 minutes when I registered, after my performance at the MORE Half Marathon, I decided to take it easy and have fun and not be more or less in tears at the finish line.

So, the race report...

I can't comment on the expo, as I had a friend get my packet for me since I couldn't be in Philly Friday or Saturday. She didn't mention issues, so I assume all was good. My lovely wife did get me an upgraded tee when she registered me, and that's awesome because a) it is blue, not school bus yellow like the cotton ones and b) it is super silky soft and I sort of love it. I got a L (I wear a medium in most tees, but tech tees run small), and its big in the body but fits well in the arms and shoulders and I liked it a ton wearing it yesterday afternoon!

Onto the race...I got up at 4:30 am. Ughhh. I was not pleased when my alarm went off. Anyway, I got up so early since its a 40 minute or so drive to the parking area, and the race packet sufficiently scared me into arriving early. I also took the subway from Center City (rather than the finish) to the start in 2007, and it took me like 20 minutes to get on and I barely got my bag checked in time that year...and the race has DOUBLED in size since then, so I was concerned.  All that worry for naught though. I was in the third row of the parking lot. I was on a half full subway. I got to the race start at 6:30 am. For an 8:30 am race. Yawn. And thank goodness for smartphones to amuse me!  So I bummed around, ate breakfast, etc until 7:30, when I used the potra-potty again (minimal lines) and checked my bag. I admit I was worried about bag check as well, since the race literature said to put your address in it just in case there was an issue returning it (as a result, I opted to carry my phone & keys in my belt, something I normally don't do for races, but I didn't want to be stranded).

MOST ORGANIZED BAG CHECK EVER. After my shade bag check experience at More, I was more than pleased with this. There were volunteers on the buses - same guy both ways - tagging the bags with a wristband with the bus number & your bag's number. You got a wristband to wear AND a sticker for your bib (they were heavy plastic too, not the weird paper ones that get all sweaty and gross). The only downside was bag check closed at 8 am, so I had a while to chill, literally.

around where I eventually lined up, mid-commoner land, at 6:30 am. See that white thing in the distance?? that is the start.

So bagless, I wandered over to the start. Since I'm not as fast as I think I am, I decided to set up at the front of my corral even though I planned to finish around the end of its "time" (1:30-1:40). I didn't want to move back a whole corral since people less self aware (teehee) than me tend to start out too far up and I don't like dodging walkers.