Freezing!

It is soooooo cold outside. I was planning on visiting my mom, but I am now rethinking that. This morning there was ice all over the rooftops and cars. I only stepped outside briefly yesterday to take out the trash (long overdue), and that was enough! My home is nice and cozy, so I think I will just stay in today. Unless Olan forgot to get the toilet paper at the store earlier, in that case I'll make the sacrifice. One cannot be without toilet paper! I have been in the crafty kind of mood as of late and have spent way too much time online hunting down free patterns and ideas. I have found some real jackpots! Check them out. Some are for baby items, but others are for clothing or good gift ideas. Very cool stuff!

Whats Up

Thanksgiving was fun. We went to visit Olan's family in Oklahoma. Went up on thanksgiving and came back home the next day. It was really nice to see everyone. We don't get to visit very often because it is so fa away . It's nice that gas prices have gone down. That makes it a little easier. Andrew was fairly well behaved. He had a little trouble with the stairs. He loves to go up stairs, but doesn't know how get down. The gate helped. After he woke up from his nap the gate didn't go back up and he did surpisingly well. He did go up about five steps without me knowing. I think he was there long enough for him to realize he couldn't get down before I found him, because he didn't really try to go up after that.

I am not very good at keeping up with this am I? I've just been doing the same old thing. I am getting into the Christmas mood early this year for some crazy reason. I've started listening to Christmas music already. I know, crazy for me. Whenever I saw Christmas decorations in the stores right after Halloween, I am the person that would quote Peanut's, "But it isn't even Thanksgiving yet". I don't know what it is exactly, but I just feel in the Christmas mood. Haven't hauled out the tree yet, but it may make it's way out before Thanksgiving. I am still not sure what we are doing about Thanksgiving. We want to do Thanksgiving with Olan's family, because we did it with mine last year. Olan still hasn't called them to find out their plans. I have kind of been wanting to be the hostess and do it here at home, but we don't really have room for a lot of people. I don't know, we'll see.

Halloween

I have been decorating for Halloween the past couple of days. Nothing extravagant, just some sparkly fall leaves, a fall harvest wreath, some old torn gauzy fabric, and a few paper bats. My mom will probably flip when she reads this, because she doesn't like Halloween. I think we only went trick or treating three times my entire life. We always had harvest parties instead, which was a great alternative. For some reason I have always been interested in Halloween. I think the part that I liked best was that you could dress up like anything you wanted, and walk around in public without getting strange looks. The candy was fun too. : ) Olan likes Halloween, so I'm sure we will be going trick or treating every year. As bad as Halloween began, it has become something fun for kids and families to do together. I think it gives us the opportunity to get to know your neighbors better too. I still remember having good memories at the harvest parties, though, so maybe we will switch off every other year. Or we might just start our own tradition! Who knows!

Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I made chocolate chip cookies today. They are so yummy! I may have to post the recipe. I was going to make the cookies last week, but somehow the chocolate chips disapeared....hmmm....Anyway, I made some today. I went to Old Navy today as well. They had a ton on baby stuff on clearance. It was all summer stuff though, so I didn't get much, just a cute shirt for my sister's baby shower. (Randi if you are reading this act surprised.) I was going to get another one, but I didn't think the color was right. I also stopped in at Marshalls because it was right next door. Nothing really jumped out at me, so I didn't get anything there.

Today

I have been busy most of the day today. Cleaning and such. I didn't get everything done on my to-do list though. I rarely do. I'll finish tomorrow. Maybe. I am going to my mom's house to sew a diaper cover and go swimming. I have been wanting to go swimming so badly! There is just something so wonderful about being surrounded by water. I love it. Maybe someday we will have a pool. Drew has been good today. We went on a nice long walk because it was a little cooler today than it has been. A nice breeze too. I had a little more time in my day because I could do my work-out with Andrew awake. It is hard to do that very often. I usually wait until he goes down for his nap and jog on the mini tramp or do an on demand show from Exercise TV. Then I can get ready for the day. Kind of a late start I guess, but I'm not willing to wake up at 6:30 to work-out. Maybe someday I'll be in that mode of an exercise fanatic.

Drew

Adventures in Diapering

Since I have begun using cloth diapers, it has been quite interesting. One point of interest would be the time I switched back temporarily to disposable diapers. I remember it well, poop on the floor, an unstoppable crawling baby, racing down the hall to make another deposit in my bedroom. Ah, the joys of motherhood.

The Biggest Loser, Not!

I am not the biggest loser. In pounds, that is. I wish I was. I haven't lost a thing since I started my "biggest loser" workouts by Jillian Michael's on Time Warner Cable's on demand. I have felt a huge change in how I feel and how well my muscles work. I definitely feel much stronger. I am very excited about that! I just wish I could lose some weight, inches, anything! I have been making honest efforts on eating healthy, but I do have a way to go on that one. I know it can be done! I have lost 15 lbs. with exercise alone in a three month period back before I was married and before I gave birth to my son. I really hope this is just a period where my muscles gain strength and are replacing the fat. Once I get past this phase, I am hoping to burn that baby fat off like crazy!

Taken!

I didn't realize that "My Sweet Baboo" was already taken. I knew it was too good to be true. Baby has taken his first steps recently. He hasn't branched out much though from the furniture. He will walk when he is ready. I met a baby the other day that had been walking since 9 months. what an overachiever! : ) I guess my sweet baboo figures he can travel faster by crawling, and hasn't really found the good in walking yet. He will soon. Hubbie is half way through his last class at school. He is soooo ready to be done. He is very tired of school. Can't say that I blame him. Baboo's 1st birthday is tomorrow! Already a year has gone by! Time must fly by jet plane. No big plans really for a party. I wanted to, but my family would be out of town. I didn't think hubbie's family would come down for it. I don't know, maybe they would. Anyway, I lost another 2 pounds this week! Yea me!!! That makes 8 pounds total! 30 more to go. Hopefully the next few pounds will fly off at a faster rate.

Father's Day

I decided to do something special for Olan's first father's day. I got him a tie (tradition!) and a card saying he could buy the motorcycle he had been dying to get. It is a beautiful bike really. White and shiny. I have not ridden on it yet. I think he had a good day.

I Got Mail!

I got my PUL on Friday! I was so excited, I was literally jumping up and down! No joke. I had one of those cheesy grins plastered on my face. I haven't decided exactly what I am doing with it. I need a couple more covers, a diaper pail liner or two, a wet bag for outings, and a couple pocket diapers. I highly doubt I can get all that out of two yards of material. First things first I guess. I will have to order more for sure. It will be more expensive this time though, because it won't be from a co-op.

Fleece

I recently got some fleece from Joanns when it was on sale. I bought two yards, one in lime green and the other in a lovely blue. I got a third yard of a fleece is supposed to be a non-pilling variety that is in a soft, light green. I had thought it was on sale, because the sign in front said it was, but when they rang it up at the cutting counter, it was $8.99! I have never paid that much for material in my life, and probably never will! I was quite put out about it. I was very grateful though, for a 40% off coupon a lady in line gave to me. There are so many nice people aout there. Anyway, I didn't end up using it because when I told the cashier what had happened, he took off 50% and I didn't have to use it. The coupon expires tomorrow, so I will probably go get some thread.

Baby Book Worm

My sweet baby boy has taken a liking to books! Yea! He has been looking at board books for the last ten minutes! No joke. He loves for me to read to him too. The only downside is that he never wants me to stop! I am glad though that he has a love of books.

Memorial Day

Today we went to a Memorial Day breakfast my family has every year with my mom's side of the family. My grandma started it years ago. There is something so wonderful about traditions. I love them! My mom got everyone matching tee shirts this year, but it ended up that they were all in women's sizes. I had y suspicions, but didn't tell my husband because I didn't think he would be as willing to wear it if he knew. Since an extra large in women's isn't the same as an extra large in men's, it didn't fit my dad or my brother-in-law. My hubbie was the lone cross-dresser. (He, he, he). : ) It was a fun outing.

Changes

I have made progress in my diaper making and am set as far as fitted pockets go. I am still waiting on my PUL to get here. I have to send the sewing machine back to my mom tomorrow too, so I am taking a break on the sewing for a while. I got lots of wipes made as well (badly needed). I have discovered I am down to 2 covers. I was sitting in church, and realized that my lap was wet. I thought at first it was from the bottle I had been giving my baby, but no. The cover had a hole in it. I blame the cat. If only it were still winter, then I could get a bunch of old wool sweaters at the thrift store to use. There's not a big demand for wool sweaters in Texas in May. I may ask if they have any in the back. I know there is some wool material at Joanns, but it's kind of expensive. Hmmm. Anyway, if you haven't already noticed, I changed the name of this blog. I realized that I am not as focused on saving money as a true tightwad would be. I do try my best to pinch those pennies as hard as I can, but hardcore tightwads can pinch them a lot harder. I figured that my using the word "tightwad" was not totally true to the meaning of it. I also wanted to branch off onto other subjects and make this blog more personal to myself. I didn't feel like the former title allowed me to write about anything that wan't related to saving money on baby stuff. So, I have reinvented this blog and am very excited to begin anew!

Microfiber Update

I love this stuff! Microfiber towels are so great. I have not had any leaks since I began using them. And they are cheap to boot!

I'm Free!

I am finally out of school! Yea! My stress has decreased immensely. I haven't really been focused on saving money and making diapers and such. I think I was just surviving. Now I can hone my diaper making skills. This evening, after putting baby to bed, I cut out some more diapers. Six I think. I had made some out of flannel that had gone on sale at Joanns, but they didn't turn out the right size because I forgot to add the seam allowence. Always remember that on most of the free diaper patterns you have to add your own seam allowence. I had made three before I realized this. Oh well. I have learned, and that's the improtant thing.

My Weekend Nightmare

My weekend was pretty much a mother's nightmare. We got a new dog on Thursday. She is a really sweet Yorkie, but is having a little trouble in the potty training area. Well, after having day full of accidents, I stepped out for a moment to give the dog a chance to use the yard, and I locked myself out. It wasn't so worried about the being locked out part, it's that my baby was still inside sitting in the highchair. On any normal weekend my husband would have been there and it would have been no big deal, but he was in helping with a construction project in Oklahoma. I didn't have any key hidden outside(I've learned my lesson). I cannot tell you how horrible I felt. I had an emotional meltdown when it was all over. My friend's down the street helped me to break the window in our bedroom so we could get in. I could tell he didn't want to break it, and he kept trying to shimmy it out of the frame. I wasn't really concerned about the window, because we were going to replace it anyway, I just wanted to get in to my crying baby. When we finally got him, you could just tell he had been crying buckets! I felt so bad. It is Sunday today, and since then he gets a little upset when I go to put him in the highchair.

CVS

I went to CVS to try out their "bucks" program last week. I bought all the stuff and when I looked at the reciept, I saw that I hadn't recieved the $10 in bucks that I should have gotten. I had bought the wrong diapers. I thought they were too cheap to be true. It ended up being a smaller package. So I returned the larger package and bought the smaller one that counted toward the $10. So now I have $15 in bucks! yea! I've got my foot in! It's been a nice break from cloth diapers, but I am ready to go back (which is good because I am almost out of disposables). I think I wasn't very well prepared to go full time with the cloth diapers. To all beginners: be prepared!!!

What a Deal!

Wednesday I found an awesome deal. I was at CVS because I wanted try out the savings you can get from the "bucks" they give you with some purchases. There was a buy $25 of selected baby stuff and get $10 in "bucks" that you can spend at their store. I also needed a new razor, and they had the new Venus 5 blade razor for $9.99 with $5 in "bucks". I actually bought a pack of Huggies diapers for $8.99 to go towards my baby items! Ouch! A little expensive to start out, but it should save some money in the long run. Anyway, while at CVS, I happened upon a 75% off rack! And lo and behold, there were some dryer balls sitting there! I had heard so many good things about those things. I snatched thos bad boys up for $0.49!!! I have only done small loads so far, but having the balls in there cut the drying time in half! Yea!

Hemp

Thanks for the input Laura! I have heard really good things about hemp from others too. Especially at nighttime and nap time. Very absorbant stuff. I really need to get some. I have been pricing some different online stores for various diapering materials, but I haven't settled on one yet because I just joined a coop that sells that kind of stuff. Whenever I do finally order, I am definitely getting some hemp!

Round 2

Alright, so yesterday I was going to pick up some microfibertowels because I have heard from just about everyone that they are really absorbant and so people tend to use them at night. Well the hubbie went to mow the lawn in the morning, and by the end of the day we had a brand new lawnmower. He tried and tried to get the old one to work, but it was a no go. It's kind of been smoking for some time but it chose yesterday to go kaput. He looked on Craig's List, but they all wanted too much. I was going to ask around on Freecycle, but we had to have it by that day because our city is basically a home owners association as far as lawns are concerned. We got fined twice last year, so we figured we would rather pay for a new(very cheap) lawnmower, than get fined again. So there wasn't a lot of money left in the budget and I didn't get the towels. Well, I thought I would get creative so I did some thinking, and poof! It came to me! I already had some microfiber towels in my kitchen. It actually worked quite well. He went to bed about 7ish and woke up around 5 (he usually gets up about 6). He was very soggy when he woke up and he woke up early, but he didn't have any leaks that I can remember. The only problem was that I didn't realize when I went to bed that there were no clean diapers left. (Turns out I there were 2 disposables but I didn't know where they were at the time.) So once again I had to use the ol' noggin. I ended using an old hand towel. It was very absorbant, but somehow it slid down and got twisted and was a little tricky to get off him. Tonight I put him in a disposable because he leaked twice today (through to his clothes) so I needed a break. Every once and a while sometimes ya just need a break, ya know? Tomorrow's a new day.

Kate vs. Cloth; Cloth wins. : (

Well, I resisted temptation today. I finally ran out of disposable diapers and was faced with going full time with the cloth. (I have been doing cheapo disposables at night and on outings.) I was at Walmart in the baby section staring up at the array of diaper packages before me. It was tempting to grab one and run, but I just couldn't seem to justify spending the $6 to buy a pack of them knowing I had cloth diapers at home.
Nighttime was quickly approaching and the dreaded nighttime cloth diapering dilemma was going through my mind. What exactly do I use to last my super soaker through the night? Well, I haven't come to the answer to that yet and wasn't really prepared for my first nighttime cloth diapering experience, but I risked it, and a few minutes ago I changed the drenched diaper of a sleepy nine month old who usually sleeps through the night. I had used a fitted pocket stuffed with a prefold and then another prefold laid on top. All of this was encompassed by a cover that has proven itself too lightweight for nighttime use. Oh well. I think I am going to get some mirofiber towels as Sam's tomorrow. I've heard you can get a great deal on them there. I saw some when I was walking through Walmart today, but I didn't get them because I knew I'd probably get a better deal to buy in bulk at Sam's. Microfiber towels are supposed to be really absorbent. Stay tuned for Kate vs. Cloth round 2!

Yucky Vinyl Pants!

My new diaper covers are in the mail this very moment! I am so excited! I wish they were here now. I am so done with the vinyl pants. They may work for some people, but not for me. They are hard to put on a squirming baby. They are also made of vinyl, which isn't breathable. I would want something breathable if I had to wear it. I want to buy some PUL (polyurathane laminate) to make some pocket dippies, but it's over $8 a yard. (And then there is shipping, of course, because you can only get it online.) I think I may try finding some wool sweaters to make a cover with. You can sometimes find a them at Goodwill or a thrift store. That would be pretty cheap. I wonder if you can make a pocket diaper with wool? I'll have to ask my diaper sewing yahoo group that I'm on. I'm sure someone there would know. I've learned a ton already, and I've only been a member a short time. hmmm... I'll report back my findings.

My Second Try

Cute fabric, but I think this try didn't turn out as well. I put the elastic in the wrong spot so the inside peeks out. The white material is an old t-shirt and the blue was some thing I had bought at Walmart ($1 rack) to make something for myself (never ended up happening, of course). Most materials are fine for the outside part of the diaper, but Just make sure it can stand the heat in the washing process. The inside material needs to be soft, because it touches baby's skin. I've heard suedecloth, alova, and and microfleece are all good at wicking moisture away from baby's bum. If you have a hard time deciding, just ask yourself if you would want to wear it yourself.

My First Fitted Pocket Diaper!

I made my first fitted pocket cloth diaper! I am so excited! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I think I sewed it up within an hour maybe less. It was only my first time, so it will get faster too. I got the denim material from a huge skirt I got off of freecycle. The orange material was an old t-shirt I wasn't ever going to wear again. (It was totally the wrong color for me. Honestly, I don't know how I left the house in that thing. Cute for a diaper though!) I already had the thread and the pattern (Rita's Rump Pocket) was free (sweet!). I used my handy dandy printer and and the world wide web, and poof! A diaper pattern. I bought the elastic at Walmart for less than a dollar. I still have a lot left for other diapers.I haven't put any velcro on it yet, but plan to whenever I can get my hands on some. So basically, the diaper was almost free! Yes! You do have to use a cover over this perticular diaper, but this kind of diaper is still a little faster and easier than a prefold. I tried making a prefold out of a t-shirt but it took forever to dry, so I won't be doing that again. Even if the diaper is free, if it has to spend all day in the dryer it doesn't do you much good.

Yea Me!

I had a "yea me" moment twice this week I just had to share. I happened to find a couple of coupons that saved me $2 on three 2 packs of the gerber baby food and 8oz box of baby oatmeal. Then I happened to drive by a garage sale and hit the jackpot! I got 2 sets of pjs, a blanket sleeper, 6 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, and 2 onesies all for $3.50! All the right sizes too! Yea me!!!

Homemade Baby Food

Okay, so I've made homemade baby food and it isn't hard at all. In fact, I made probably a 2 week supply of veggies in an hour or two while sweetie pie was napping. There are benefits to making baby food yourself. First of all, it's a ton cheaper than storebought. Secondly, you know excactly what is going in your baby's mouth. You can choose to make it organic, which is ideal of course, but not always wallet friendly. There are some things that I don't make myself because is either cheaper or takes less time (time=money in some cases). I buy applesauce, but not on the baby food isle. I buy the natural applesauce that everyone else eats in the canned fruit section. Just make sure there is no added sugar and as little extra ingredients as possible. I also tend to buy baby food jars of other fruits and any combos I can't make myself. More on this later.

Hello all you tightwads out there! Welcome to The Tightwad Baby. I am very excited about this blog. I am a new mom of Andrew who is 8 1/2 mo.. He is the sweetest boy and always makes me smile! My baby is my life pretty much (as I am sure yours is too) and I want the best for him, but at the same time, babies are expensive! There are ways, however, you can save some serious cash. Bear with me as I struggle through being a new mommy and we can learn together how to meet our baby's wants and needs and at the same time save some cash!