Clothe Diapering

I feel the need to write about clothe diapering today. It stems from the fact that I have never read an article that is pro clothe diapering in any of the magazines I read. Maybe that says something about the magazines I choose, but still. EAch time there is an article about diapering clothe is listed as an option, but it seems like disposables get more space and now the new G diaper. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the G diaper but I feel like clothe diapering has gotten a bad rap.
We have used clothe diapers since big rugrat was about 1 month old. We didn't start right away becuase someone had given me a box of newborn diapers, we got used to them at the hospital and our diapers were just too big and didn't fold over to leave the belly button uncovered. Those are all reasons. I wish we had started right away, but we followed the same routine with little rugrat as well for the first two weeks.
We clothe diaper about 97% of the time. We don't clothe diaper over night becuase I have heavy wetters and heavy sleepers. My diapers don't work for overnight, although little rugrat is not as heavy a wetter as he used to be so I am thinking of trying to overnight him soon. We also don't use clothe diapers when we travel. I don't want to worry about finding a laundromat wherever we are or carrying home a smelly bag of diapers.
However, when it comes to day to day life we clothe diaper. If we are out at playgroups or on errands we clothe diaper. We use Kushies which is the brand I started with and have come to love for their effectiveness as well as their cost. We have 25 and I wash them about 2 times a week unless someone is sick, then we tend to go through more.
It is not disgusting to wash the diapers.
My water bill did not increase much at all from pre to post diapers.
I do not have to sanitize the diapers.
And I line dry whenever possible to save on electricity.

Clothe diapering is not as bad as some make it seem. It is not complicated at all. It takes as much planning as disposables do when it comes to making sure you don't run out.

Clothe diapering has a bad reputation and I don't know why. I have never had trouble. I have many people give me funny looks when they find out I do (my mom and close friends included). Most people who are close to me now understand that it is pretty simple. But I still get questions from time to time.
Disposables are fine. But when you constantly hear about landfills and needing to recycle, disposables just don't fit into the grand scheme of things.

Sunday

Yesterday was big rugrats birthday party. She turned 3 (how did that happen?!?!) We had a lot of extra food becuase I overplanned, however better to much than too little. And it cuts back on our grocery bill this week. We had cold cut grinders which we will eat for lunch all week and I froze some for later down the road (and because we had THAT much left over!) At least most of the cake (made by yours truly with the help of good old Betty Crocker) was eaten.

Today we went to the grocery story and I spent $22. I will need to buy milk later this week, and a few produce items but I should be able to keep the next bill at or under $20 as well. That makes two weeks in a row of coming in under budget which will balance out what we spent on the b-day party.

Today we went and bought our parking pass to the city park. It is normally $2 or $3 to park depending on what day of the week you go, but if you buy a pass and are a city resident it is only $10 for the year. And we are at this park weekly! They have swings, a duck pond, a sprinkler park and pool (pool passes are available for city residents as well) fields to run in, tennis courts (not that we play, but a great contained place to ride a tricycle) and some great walking trails. Today we had a picnic and fed the ducks at big rugrats request. The birthday girl gets to plan the day!
I am off work this week (college spring break) so I will be working on our budget and cleaning out some closets to get ready for the spring weather that seems to be finally arriving. Now I live in New England so I am planning on at least one more blast of winter, but I can still enjoy the nice weather while we have it. I am working really hard to cut back our electric bill which is steadily climbing the past few months. We are turning off our pellet stove more and more during the day, being more careful to turn off lights and using the dryer less as the weather gets warmer. Our water bill is also getting higher, but we do give the kids baths daily and I do more laundry with two kids than I did with one. I am washing less diapers since little rugrat goes through them slower now and big rugrat is out of diapers (yeay!) except for bedtime and naptime.

Our budget is okay, but we have a weekend trip planned for June and a week long trip planned for this summer so if I can cut a little here and there now, we will have more for these times later. Plus with todays economy I just feel like I should spend less (although we are lucky that husband has a secure job right now, and mine is fairly secure as well).

Tomorrow we are going to make handprint leprechauns that I found at the Crafty Crow. Homemade crafts are a great way to entertain big rugrat inexpensively. And we will be learning how to use our easel correctly. She got an easel from her daddy and I and friends gave her paints, paintrbrushes, paper and other assorted goodies to use on it. We will be having some lessons on the correct way to use our easel tomorrow so we don't have too many incidents.

We will also make use of our museum pass this week, I am watching the weather for a rainy day to make the best use of it. Soon we will get our zoo pass (a little bit of extra money up front but sooooooo worth in the long run) which I have mentioend before and spend a LOT of time at the parks. Spring and summer are full of free things to do which is very nice for my budget!

Potty training

I hate potty training!
I know this has nothing to do with living on one and 1/4 incomes, but it kind of does. See we use clothe diapers. I LOVE my cloth diapers. Washing them isn't bad and I've used them since big rugrat was about 5 weeks old so I really don't know anything else. Anyway.. the diapers we use come in three sizes, premie, infant and toddler. Big rugrat is in toddler diapers. Little rugrat (who by the way is almost as big as big rugrat) is in infant diapers BUT it is a tight squeeze and he has about a month left in them. My plan was for big rugrat to be out of diapers (at least during the day) BEFORE little rugrat needed to bigger size. Two things are making this hard- 1 is that little rugrat is a lot bigger than big rugrat was at this age (she is 26 lbs at 3 years and he is 21 lbs at 9 months) and 2 big rugrat won't poop on the toilet. She will pee all day and stay dry (with the excetion of naps and the occasional accident) but she poops in her underwear or naptime diaper. Every. Day.
So, now what? We put her in underwear, she poops in them, we put her in a diaper and continue to use the toilet as normal. She stays dry. Next day we do the same thing. Sometimes she makes it until nap.
My problems- 1 I don't want big rugrat to have stomach issues due to holding
2 I don't want to buy another 20 toddler sizes diapers (which I will be doing in another month if she doesn't train soon!)

HELP!