Update on Cloth Diapers

I love the cloth baby diapers I bought before we moved to Indonesia. They have worked out really well. I bought 12 of the regular diapers and 2 of the night time diapers. My daughter hasn't seemed to mind the transition from disposables to cloth diapers. Additionally, she tells me when she is wet or stinky because she can feel it. I think that will make potty training just a little bit easier.

So disposable diapers are available here in Jakarta as well as pull-ups. However, western brands such as Huggies and Pampers are not of the same quality as they are in the U.S. They contain more plastic. I have used a S.E. Asian brand called Mama Poko that is manufactured in Thailand I think. I use those just for when we are headed out of the house for an extended period of time.

I wish I would have used the fitted cloth diapers a long time ago. When my oldest was a baby, I tried the pre-folded kind using the safety pins and that just never worked all that well. I don't know why I never tried again. I guess the infant potty-training ended up working well so I didn't bother.

In retrospection, it would have worked really well to combine the infant potty-training with the cloth diapers. I think I would have saved a lot of money plus spared the landfill of some disposable diapers.

Cloth Baby Diapers

So I have been thinking about potty-training my youngest now for a couple of months since she turned 2. We are also moving to Indonesia in a few weeks so I thought it might be best to wait until we've moved to begin potty-training. I hate using disposable diapers and I think pull-ups are just as bad and more expensive than diapers. On recommendation from a friend, I ordered the Kawaii baby diapers from theluvyourbaby.com site. They are very reasonably priced, environmentally friendly, and received very positive reviews. The diapers are good for kids from newborn (8lbs. to 36 lbs.). My youngest currently weighs around 27 lbs. so I think these should be good for awhile.

I just didn't want to mess with disposable diapers anymore for a variety of reasons. When we went to Taiwan, I had a hard time finding diapers except at a few large grocery stores. They were also very expensive. I didn't even see training pants. I'm not sure diapers or training pants are readily available and I know that they would be expensive. Hopefully in the long term, the cloth diapers will be a good investment. I think DH is skeptical, but I will post again about this once I receive the diapers and start my baby on them. I have high hopes that this will be a good thing. I have a lot of friends that use cloth diapers and love them. If this works out and we end up having more kids, I think I may use the infant potty-training in conjunction with the cloth diapers. It seems like a good combination...both for financial reasons and for environmental reasons as well.

New Adventure

 I will soon be living in Jakarta, Indonesia. I am nervous about the upcoming move yet also curious as to what life will be like living outside of the U.S.

Back Again?

So I really wanted to start posting regularly to this blog. 2010 has been a very sad blogging year for me. I thought 2009 was bad, but I have barely posted anything this year. I have a head full of ideas, but unfortunately, that's where they are right now...still floating around in my head. I am going to make a more concerted effort to blog more regularly so here goes the next post.

My most recent thoughts have been about the current family vehicle. I love our Mazda 5! It has been a great car for us. However, as my brother was recently rear-ended in his car, it got me thinking about some safety issues regarding crossover vehicles with 3rd row seats. The 3rd row seat in the Mazda is literally about 6 inches away from the rear bumper. Because we have 3 kids, there is always at least one child in that 3rd row.

To ease my fears, DH looked up some crash safety ratings for the Mazda 5. It has some of the highest ratings for safety of any vehicle on the market today. I did some research myself and found that rear-end collisions occur much less frequently than front and side collisions. The Mazda 5 is equipped with both front and side air bags. I suppose that if we were hit seriously enough to injure or kill whoever might have been sitting in the 3rd row, it probably doesn't matter what kind of vehicle a person was driving.

My next concern beyond safety was vehicle capacity. We have been thinking about adding to our family. We can accomodate another child in terms of seating, but there would be no cargo room left over to carry anything else. Most of our travels are just short trips to the library, grocery store, parks, etc. We rarely take long trips. I think that for the occasions that we need more room, the roof rack should more than suffice.

The Mazda 5 is a great vehicle! It is well-equipped for the price. I love the sliding doors. Mostly I love how fuel-efficient it is. I consistently get at least 28 mpg even when I drive around the city. I generally get 30+ when driving on the highway. I have gotten as high as 35 mpg. There is one one concern that will need to be addressed when the kids are older. There is not a lot of leg room between the rows of seats. Especially in the 3rd row. Once the kids are older, I think that it will be a tight squeeze for them. Still, as our kids are all still very young, I think that it is an issue that we can address several years down the road.

When I went to visit Taiwan a few months ago, I noticed that the Mazda 5 was a popular vehicle. It was also one of the largest vehicles on the road. I think it's too bad that in the U.S., the Mazda 5 doesn't appear to be very popular. For me personally, I guess the bottom line is I don't know that I need or would want a larger vehicle at least for the time being. I really love my Mazda 5!

Back Again

I was going to give up this blog permanently, but I decided that blogging about living a more sustainable lifestyle is important to me. It's also something that I enjoy doing. So, I am going to make an effort to post more regularly.

I came across a tutorial the other day about repurposing a man's dress shirt into a girl's dress. The dresses are so cute! DH just recently retired several of his shirts. The edges of the shirts and the sleeves are worn out and frayed. I am going to see what I can do with the shirts. I followed the tutorial at http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-shirt-dress.html
and made a little dress for my 3-year old.

It took me one afternoon. I thought for my first try, it turned out okay. Here's how it turned out.

Cash for Clunkers Started Yesterday

If you have an old clunker that fits the bill for the Cash for Clunkers program, the vouchers may be used as of yesterday.  My in-laws are trading in their old Chevy truck for a Chevy Equinox.   The Equinox is definitely an improvement in fuel efficiency  The smaller of the two engines offered on the Chevy Equinox gets 22 mpg in the city and 32 mpg highway.  Only time will tell if the Cash for Clunkers program will make a difference for auto manufacturers and for the environment.  Check out this article about whether or not the cash for clunkers program will make a difference. 

Cash for Clunkers Bill Passed!

I meant to post this news when it happened, but I guess better late than never. The Cash for Clunkers bill passed. So if you have a clunker (vehicle no older than 25 years that gets less than 18 mpg), you can get a voucher towards the purchase of a new, more efficient vehicle. The window of opportunity is from July 1 to Nov 1 2009. For more information, check out this article from US News and World Report about the Cash for Clunkers program which includes a question and answer section (http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Cash-for-Clunkers/).