Cloth Diapers

Before Killian was born, we learned that the average baby goes through 7,000 diapers & disposable paper diapers were the third biggest contributor to landfills (and wastes who knows how much resources in paper, chemicals, and their physical creation, packaging & transportation to the factories and to the stores), and we knew we wanted no part of such extreme waste. Lucky for us, we discovered that the solution, cloth diapers (CDs or "fluff") are also the cost-effective & healthiest way to "keep poop off the carpet," as my husband says.

It took many months of my pregnancy to figure cloth diapers out. There were just so many kinds (prefolds, flats, fitteds, covers, AI2, AIOs, wool, fleece, etc) and so many different brands, that I just couldn't make heads or tails of it for a long time. That is a real shame, as many less-stubborn people are probably intimidated right out of interest when they first discover this fluffy world.

I would like to make it all a little easier for anyone out there who is interested, so I'm going to start sharing our experiences & some reviews here on Wonder & Wander.

The above picture was my diaper "stash" right before Killi was born. Much of it was gifted or won or bought used, so it made our savings even bigger than if we had been using disposables (also known as "sposies" in the CDing world.)

Here is the rundown of the pictured dipes.

Top Row: Green Mountain Diapers (GMD) Prefolds, Inserts for the SmartiPants, Snappis
Second Row: A Newborn SustainableBabyish Fitted, Two MotherEase One Sized Fitteds, and Nine Under The Nile Fitteds (discontinued, bought used)
Third Row: Six SmartiPants Pockets
Fourth Row: Two XS Thirsties covers, Three Kissaluv Hybrids
Fifth Row: Four Thirsties Duo covers (the colored ones,) Two Prowrap Covers
Bottom Row: Cloth Wipes, Two SustainableBabyish Wool Soakers (newborn & small), One Newborn Isme Vimse Cover

If you are interested in adding to or starting a stash, may I interest you in this wonderful affiliate link to KellysCloset? It's my go-to online CDing store.

So, there will be more fluff to come- but I'll try to space it out so as not to overwhelm the uninterested. ;)

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Month of Radical Self Love

So, I was checking out some of the other people doing the month of Radical Self Love, and I found Vanessa at Chicken Soup for the Dorky Soul doing Love 365 & I love it! Every Sunday this month, I'm going to take a page from her b...log and write some things that I love about myself.

It's funny, I'm all about self love & being the person you want to be, etc and so on.. and yet the idea of sitting here and trying to list things that I do actually love about myself nearly gives me the hives! What kind of sad conditioning have we been subjected to where we feel like we shouldn't talk about our positive traits, and yet bitching about the negatives is perfectly acceptable? >_< #societyfail

Well, here's to "Be the change..."!

• I love my intelligence. If I can say one thing about myself at all, it's that I'm quite smart. 
• Relatedly, I love that I love to learn. All my life I have had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Give me the chance to learn more about anything at all, and I will take it. All forms of science, History, & Anthropology are my favorites. 
• I love that I am silly. And I am very much so!
• I love that I am able to follow my heart and not feel stuck or frightened by shoulds and what-ifs.
• I love that I am stubborn. Especially around my ..very opinionated but not usually very knowledgeable.. family, this is very much a  good thing. I was never able to be swayed by others & I've always been able to stand my ground no matter what.

What about you guys? What are some of the top 5 things you love most about yourselves? I double dare you to answer! ;D

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Ohhhhh, Body...

So, I've gained weight.

How much, I have no idea, because HELLZ if I am stepping on that wii fit board and checking. But, I can tell, as I may have possibly gained it all (100lbs?) entirely in my face. Poor face. :( Poor people who look at my face. :(

loljksortabutnotreallyijustdon'twanttosoundasinsecureasireallyam.

*sigh*

Ironically, I have been doing well with my eating. Perhaps too well. I stopped eating chocolate for breakfast, as both coco puffs and fudge poptarts were hurting my belly. That's good, right? Negative. That's all that has changed (along with still only eating one chocolate thing a day and trying to keep my dairy intake minimal, as are my 2o1o rules) and now all the sudden I am up some amount of pounds. 

Really I think a big part of the problem is that I don't find the time to cook ( even instant =\ ) oatmeal in the morning (my only "safe" morning food) because Killian is a happy smiley cute baby when we first wake up, so I play with him and milk him for all the smiles I can get, but then he eventually gets grumpy and so I feed him... and then I let him sleep on me because he usually will wake up if I put him down, and I need some quiet time for my sanity. It's about lunchtime when I finally have the opportunity to go into the kitchen for more than .3 seconds. I am going to start trying harder to make the oatmeal in the morning. Hopefully that will jumpstart my metabolism, and take care of the gnawing hunger I feel all the time. I don't snack or anything, but I notice I am usually hungry at any given time, and then i feel like I can't eat enough at meal times. 

It seems so incredibly, painfully counter-intuitive to listen to people and try to eat more calories when looking in the mirror makes me want to cry. But, I'll start tracking my calories and do my best to force myself to eat ~2000 a day & see if that helps me not retain weight so easily. It's going to be weird though, I haven't tracked calories since I was dealing with eating issues back in the day.. and then my calorie counting was going 200% in the OPPOSITE direction. 

If you are participating in Body After Baby, I hope you are doing well! Wish me luck that my weight gain is something I can get under control soon!

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Excessively Excessive Pictures of My Spawn Pt. 3

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Month of Radical Self Love

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love & affection than you are yourself, & that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love & affection.”
(Buddha)

This month Gala of iCiNG is having a Radical Self Love challenge. One of the many things she mentioned, "manifesting your own dream girl persona," is just a neater way of saying one of my own goals for this year, so I'm excited to see what sort of "homework" & participation opportunities she comes up with for us this month!

If you are interested in a challenge of Self-Love (the BEST kind of love, and necessary for all other kinds,)  go check out the iCiNG Radical Self Love challenge!

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Excessively Excessive Pictures of My Spawn Pt. 2

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Dear Readers (again),

Okay, wonder & wander is back open! You are now allowed to visit again. :) I totally redid the layout and colors. It's not perfect but who cares? I like it. :)

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