letters to julia: month five

dear julia,

it's true. you are five months old.

i can't believe it, either

this month you started to suck your thumb.
it's probably the cutest thing i've ever seen.
you are getting to be quite the expert at it.
you'll realize you're getting upset and stick your thumb in your mouth,
sometimes even before you start to cry!

 

you have chubby little kissable cheeks and the cutest little mohawk.

 

you LOVE bathtime. you love splashing in the water.

we are excited to take you swimming this summer!

 

you smile at everyone and everything.

you sing along to the radio in the car.

you crack yourself up.

 

look at those cheeks!

 

we got you a jenny jump up and you love it. you don't jump yet,

but you like to hang out and get a new perspective of the world.

 

you and i took our first trip to the zoo this year.

you loved the polar bears the most.

 

you play with henry's tail.

 

and you chew on your toes.

 

julia, you are so much fun. 

you sleep anywhere from 10-14 hours per night.

you nap like a champion.

you behave in church.

you love to read books.

you memorize my face with your hands while nursing.

you love to look at other children.

you sit forward in your stroller now,

and you love to examine the world around you.

you are THISCLOSE to sitting on your own.

you do it for several seconds at a time

until your big head makes you topple over.

(psst, if you do it, you get to eat rice cereal.) 

we adore you, julia droolia. 

you are so special to us.

love you so much.

 

love,

mama

cloth wipes

before my daughter was born, i decided that i would cloth diaper her. i had heard about cloth wipes as well, but i didn't really research them or know much about them. i figured we'd start with the cloth diapers and see where we would go from there.

when julia was about a month old, i had used all the disposable wipes in the house and was fed up with them. they stuck together, so when i tried to pull out one wipe, five of its buddies would come out with it. they were either too thick and not moist enough, or too thin and too moist. they'd rip and i'd end up with poop on my finger. not worth it. we had an entire trash can full of poopy wipes. i would put the wipes in one can and the diapers in a pail to be washed. it just didn't make sense. 

i looked online for different kinds of wipes, read reviews, etc. i was about to buy a box of 700-some wipes for $14. i told my husband, "wipes are so expensive!" "are they really?" he asked. "no," i said, "but any amount of money we spend, i think is a lot." so we didn't buy the wipes. i went to wal-mart and got a yard of white fleece for $8 and a spray bottle.

some babies have a sensitivity to fleece, so make sure your child doesn't before trying this. you can also buy cotton and cut it up, but because it frays, you would need to serge the edges. many cloth diaper websites also sell wipes. some people like to use washcloths, but i have found that they are too flimsy. i prefer those for wiping hands and faces.

i brought the fleece home and cut it into strips.   i filled the spray bottle with water and a squirt of baby soap. now, we spray a wipe, clean up the mess, throw it in the dirty diaper, and throw it all in the dirty diaper pail. we wash the wipes with the dipes, and they come out clean and fresh, and we use them again. this works very well for us, and is definitely the most inexpensive option.